AN: Okay today is a BMTL chapter and tomorrow is a Love's in the Water chapter.


Kara smiled. "You have good taste in pizza. Though I prefer Italian sausage on mine instead of ham," she said casually, as if they were longtime friends and that she wasn't holding her at gunpoint. Kara motioned at her to move back to let her enter. Joss stepped back and allowed her in. Her eyes darted to her gun. "Pick it up and I paint your walls with your blood. We both know John won't survive losing you," Kara instructed and Joss was forced to be docile, because Kara was right. "Speaking of the Boy Scout, where is he?"

"Not here," Joss answered shortly as Kara looked around her place as if he was lurking in the shadows.

Kara grinned. "You're not going to forgive me over that whole: I'm going to blow you up thing?" she said with a motion of the gun for her to enter the living room.

Joss backpedaled but kept her eyes steadily on the brunette. "Yea, I sort of hold a grudge on the person that straps me with a bomb vest and arms it, leaving me only minutes to live. Call me crazy," she sneered in response.

Kara eyed her. "I guess I should apologize. I figured it was tragically romantic for you and John. I mean there John was watching as your life ticked down to seconds before his very eyes with the question of if you'd survive or not…I will take credit for the sex you two had afterwards. He was always good in bed," she rambled with a sick look that made Joss close to ramming her fist into her face, regardless of the fact that she would shoot her. But before long the look was gone and replaced with utter emptiness, and Kara plopped the box of pizza down on the coffee-table. "Go ahead and eat it, Joss, before it grows too cold."

"I'm not that hungry anymore," Joss said coldly.

Kara smirked at her as she opened the box and grabbed a slice, taking a large bite. "Mmm…see, no poison. If I was going to kill you, I'd do in a very theatrical way for John's benefit. So eat if you want."

"I'm just not hungry anymore, but I guess being held at gunpoint by a deranged psycho just does that to you," Joss sniped, making no move to grab the food. "What are you doing here?"

The brunette shrugged after she polished off more pizza, rivaling Shaw's quickness. "Well since I seemingly can't find the man in the suit by putting people's lives in danger because the machine is breaking, I had to come find his cute and spunky girlfriend instead," Kara murmured and Joss tried hard to fight the surprise that statement filled her with. Kara Stanton knew about the machine, the artificial intelligence? And her theory had been correct, Kara was placing people in danger just to look for John. John's mental state near Kara was shaky at best; Stanton was like a parasite and would inflict invisible wounds that could devastate John. John's 'break me and destroy me, just don't leave me,' from last night seared her mind and she trembled with barely suppressed anger. "John would throw himself in front of a moving bus to save you, but lucky for you, I don't want to hurt you or him unless you do something stupid. And you don't look stupid to me, Joss."

"What do you want?" Joss snapped, getting annoyed with the roundabout answers.

"I need his help."

"What do you need help with from John?" Joss wondered.

"Sorry, Joss, dear, but that's between John and me. I need to meet with him alone since we have some catching up to do. So if anyone else comes with him, people will die. Believe me when I say I will have a contingency plan set up. Give this to him," Kara said as she handed her a burner phone. "Tell him to answer it on the first ring or they'll be consequences."

"We're going to stop you, Kara, know that," Joss stated as she clutched the burner phone tight in her fist.

Kara leaned forward, their faces only inches apart. "I look forward to it. Now I must bid you a fond farewell, Joss. Remember, try anything and you die," she said before straightening and sauntering back, eyes and gun on her as she maneuvered for the door. Joss had to stand there and let her leave because if there was one thing she knew: Kara Stanton would kill her just to hurt John. The moment the brunette was gone, Joss grabbed her cell phone and tapped John's name.

He answered distractedly after a couple rings. "John, we need to meet. Kara just paid me a visit, posing as a pizza delivery man," she said quickly before he could utter a single word.

There was a noticeable pause. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"She didn't hurt you?" he asked fiercely.

"No, as I said I'm fine. But she wants me to give you something and we need to talk in private," she said.

"I'll be there in minutes," he said and with that he hung up on her.

Joss paced the length of the floor, eyes falling on the pizza box and then the burner phone in her hand. Who wanted to bet that Kara killed the poor delivery person just to be the one to deliver the pizza to her? They needed to catch Kara sooner than later. She had been ignorant. She had figured that Kara Stanton wouldn't ever brazenly come to her door such as she had. She had a son to think about. Maybe she would ask her mother to keep him for a while so that he was safe.

Her door opened and she froze but when John, Finch, and Shaw appeared in her line of vision she relaxed. "John, I'm okay," she reaffirmed as she saw the dark and stormy look that resided on his handsome face. He made short work of the gap between them and he was in front of her touching her as if he didn't fully believe her. "I'm fine," she reassured him as she reached up to trail soft fingers on his that were cupped to her face trying to calm him.

Shaw cleared her throat. "What happened?"

John stepped back with professionalism slipping back into place, as did the coldness in him, and Joss eyed all her friends. "John dropped me off here and I ordered pizza because I was hungry. When I opened the door there she stood," she explained.

Finch looked upset. "Tomorrow I will install a home security network on your home for your front and back entrance, Jocelyn, that way you can see who is at your door."

She smiled as she nodded tightly. "If that's what you want."

"It's happening," John said with a tone harsh from worry coming out abrasive, daring her to argue with him. She didn't. If this made John and Finch happy, she'd do it. Besides it protected her son while he was here until she sent him to his grandmother's.

"What did Ms. Stanton want?" Finch asked, getting them back at the topic at hand.

"Kara wants to meet with John. Alone."

"Fuck that," Shaw piped up, having mostly listened. Reese looked ready to crawl out of his skin with the thought of this Stanton broad showing up at Joss's sanctuary that housed a kid too. Shaw didn't do emotions but she recognized the look in Reese's eyes whenever he looked at Carter, it was the same look her dad used to give her mom. "Last time she was here, she strapped you with a bomb vest from my understanding. That broad isn't getting anywhere near Reese." Shaw knew one thing, it was that she liked working the numbers and she liked being around these people.

"It's fine," John countered, superseding Shaw and no one else argued. Joss learned a long time ago when to choose a battle with John and this was not one of those times. If he didn't go alone someone was going to get hurt and that was going to weigh on John's conscience. "What else did she say, Joss?" he asked.

Joss held out a burner phone. "She said to give this to you. I'm sure she's giving me a time limit. You have to answer on the first ring or there will be consequences. She wants to meet with you alone and if any of us go with you, she'll kill people."

Finch eyed John. "You can't possibly meet with her, Mr. Reese. There is no telling what she might do to you. I'm in agreement with Ms. Shaw, last time she strapped Jocelyn with a bomb vest. There is no telling what she has planned now," he said with worry for his friend. Kara Stanton was capable of heinous crimes.

"I have to Harold, innocent lives are at stake," he murmured as he held the burner phone tightly. "Knowing Kara, there is no time limit. She is doing something to someone to use as leverage to make sure I don't kill her when we meet up."

"John…"

"Joss, I'd kill her in a heartbeat," he said steadily. "She strapped you with a bomb, killed innocent people just for fun. I let her live in Ordos when I could have easily shot her in the back but I couldn't do it because I didn't believe Snow when he said she turned on us. Had I just followed orders and killed her when I had the chance all those people would be alive right now."

"No, that isn't fair. That's not fair to put everything on your shoulders, John! How the hell are you supposed to know she'd survive that missile strike and then try to take revenge on everyone while putting innocent people at risk?!" Joss demanded as she got in his face. "How John, how are you supposed to play God?"

Shaw eyed Carter, than Reese. "This Stanton doesn't know about me. I can give you backup." Shaw said. "I'll just stick in the shadows, so she doesn't know I'm there."

"You can't, Shaw, you don't understand. If Kara even gets suspicious that I'm not alone whoever she is using to keep me from killing her, is dead. I can't risk it. Too many people have already died because of me. You're good, but so is Kara," he said and stiffened as the burner phone rang. He immediately answered. "Hello," he said gruffly.

"Ah, it's so good to hear your voice again, John," Kara answered.

"Kara, where are you?"

"Answer me this: did your little girlfriend tell you everything?"

"She told me to come alone and if I don't you'll kill people," he responded forcefully.

"Such a good little girl, I didn't know you got all hot and bothered for the goody two shoes type, but it's a good thing she excels at following directions. It makes it so I don't have to rip her throat out," Kara said conversationally and John tightened his hold on the phone. "Come alone, John, we need to talk and unfortunately I just can't seem to get the man in the suit to show up for me. I have dropped body after body and still nothing. What does a girl have to do to get noticed by you John?—be mocha?"

"Where?"

"Goodwin's, you know the place where there were almost pieces of your girlfriend's body everywhere. Be here in ten minutes. They should really tighten up security, you just never know who is lurking around the corner, see you soon, John," Kara said with a smile twinging her voice.

John hung up the phone and pocketed it. He turned around and started for the door. Joss followed him and wisely Shaw and Finch left them alone. "Can't I at least know where you're going?" she asked.

"It's best that you don't know." he said as he grabbed the doorknob. "I'll be back when I can." he added as an after though and then left.

Joss swallowed hard as she watched him walk away until he disappeared from view before she closed the door and turned to go talk to Finch and Shaw. They needed to come up with a plan to get Kara Stanton.


John entered Goodwin's with a few minutes to spare. He looked around the empty factory where not long ago Joss was nearly blown up in. He hated this place seeing it in his nightmares when Finch failed to save Joss. John's eyes slid around and glanced to the back and found Kara. Every fiber in his body froze as his eyes collided with a young girl that was no more than ten years old.

"Hello lover," Kara murmured as she leaned against the back of the chair, holding the gun to the child's temple. "John this is Ashley. Ashley, this is the guy I told you that wouldn't let you down," Kara said as she patted the trembling child's shoulder.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" John asked, ignoring Kara and focused on the little girl with big brown eyes with matching hair.

"Y-Y-Yea," her voice came out weak and petrified.

He nodded before lifting his gaze from the little girl and settled his furious gaze on Kara. "Let her go. She has nothing to do with this, Kara," he commanded.

Kara grinned as John approached them. "S-S-She can't do that," Ashley whispered around a wobbly voice. "I'm her insurance."

"See, this ankle-biter here is my parrot. I've always thought kids were better seen than heard but I couldn't resist having her tell you that." Kara snickered as she petted the young girl's tear streaked cheek. "I chose a child just for you, John. We both know you are a sucker for them. But if you don't do anything stupid and do as I say, John, Ashley here can grow up into the whore she will certainly become. You have my word."

"And your word is supposed to mean anything to me?" he wondered, truly wishing he could snap Kara's neck right at the moment.

Kara looked up and eyed him. "Have I ever lied to you?—everyone I promised to kill because you didn't listen to me is dead. When you listened to what I wanted, they were saved. I never lied."

"What do you want?" he demanded, not interested in hearing about their past or her lack of accountability. Reasoning with a woman that had lost her soul long ago wasn't happening. But to save this little girl he would try anything.

"First thing, don't lose that phone I gave you. I don't want to have to go through this inconvenience again to get a hold of you. Secondly, John, I need your help."

He eyed the young girl, comfortingly giving her a smile before lifting a hard gaze onto Kara. "You killed people, came after Joss and kidnapped a child to find me to ask me for my help?" he listed her indiscretions incredulously.

Kara shrugged. "I never got your phone number. I was busy trying to blow up your girlfriend, so excuse me for letting the simple things slip my mind," she muttered before getting eye level with Ashley. "I'm sorry, this is really my fault for having to grab you, but you should tell your deadbeat parents to not let you walk home alone this late from a friend's house next time. I mean seriously you're 12 years old, any pedofile could be lurking in the shadows!"

"Let her go," he repeated. "Try to be the woman you used to be Kara, the one that used to risk her life for her country every day when you were a Marine." He tried to appeal to the Kara that used to be there at some time.

"That woman died when the agency got a hold of her, and even the woman they turned me into is dead when they tried to kill me in a missile attack!" she sneered. "The same missile attack that was going to kill you, this country doesn't give a shit about us. We fought for people like this Ashley and what did we get out of it, John: a death sentence."

"Of no fault of this young girl's, Ashley didn't do anything to us, Kara," John tried to reason with her. Kara was so angry for what happened, so was he, but he had let it go during his time in the encampment after he murdered Peter for taking Jessica away from him. Drinking himself to death had been his preference until Joss Carter stormed into his life.

"No, she didn't, she's just an unfortunate victim in this because the moment I let her go: you'll kill me for nearly blowing your girlfriend up into millions of pieces. I can't die until everyone that burned me dies first. Snow met his explosive end, next is the man that sold the laptop in the first place, which is why I need you."

"You can't find him can you?" John murmured, wondering if he could grab his gun quick enough before Kara had a chance to shoot the child. He didn't think he could, Kara had quick reflexes, but maybe he could get a jump on Kara instead.

She made a face. "It's like the bastard doesn't exist. But then I realized something: you pose as the boring do-gooder which needs a bankroller, so you must be working for someone that has unlimited resources and knowledge," she acknowledged.

"Who is it that you're looking for?" he asked as he tried to slowly approach Ashley without Kara noticing.

"Stop moving, John, or the girl dies with a bullet in the back of the head," Kara snapped and John immediately froze. Kara rested the barrel of the gun on the little girl's shoulder. "His name is Harold Finch."

John kept a blank face, not betraying the fact that he was surprised to hear Harold's name. "Who gave you that name?"

"The irritating know-it-all, Greer, that runs Decima Technologies that saved me in Ordos. Which reminds me, when I see him again I'm killing him too. He held me against my will for months until he offered me the name of the man that sold the laptop if I helped him upload the virus into the machine," Kara growled out with a hateful look. "An eye for an eye, now that our business together is finished I can kill him. But he's last on my list. I have bigger fish to fry and that's where you come in."

He shook his head. "You want me to help get you revenge on people that tried to kill us? We were dead before this Finch man ever sold the laptop, Kara. That laptop was the same laptop we were supposed to retrieve during the Daniel Casey fiasco. Do you really think they'll allow us to make mistakes without a steep penalty." he pressed.

"It wasn't our fault!" Kara roared bitterly, pushing the barrel of her gun deep into the little girl's shoulder. John watched helplessly as she cried out in pain but quieted immediately out of fear.

"No it wasn't. That mysterious security detail was at fault, but it doesn't change the outcome. We were burned Kara, getting revenge won't change that fact," John said. He had a feeling since working with Harold that he knew exactly who the security detail worked for. Most likely Harold had tried to use someone else before he looked for a morally friendly cop and it hadn't gone on the way Harold had wanted.

"So you're telling me, no, you won't ask your bankroller to help a friend?"

John eyed her. "No, you strapped Joss with a bomb vest, killed innocent people, and kidnapped an innocent child."

"John, telling me 'no' isn't in your best interests," Kara suggested.

"I won't help you hurt anyone ever again."

Kara stared at him. "Okay I get it: you need some time to think it over. I won't pressure you but we both know you'll be helping me, because the Boy Scout inside you will do anything to protect people."

"Let the child go, kill me instead."

Kara shook her head. "Noble as always but I can't do that, John. You're a means to an end, but I'll give you the first one free for old time's sake, next one won't be, so I suggest you change your mind the next time I come calling!" Kara promised raising her gun, leveling it on him, and firing. John jerked as the bullet hit him in his left arm and he grunted in pain.

The little girl shrieked, terrified, and he tore off running to protect the little girl, who was shaking like a leaf, from any possible gunfire as Kara turned and ran for the exit.

John got behind the child, noting with relief she wasn't strapped with a bomb anywhere, before squatting down with his knife tugged out, and cut the binds on her hands. The little girl shot out of the chair turned and hugged him. His ears listened for any additional gunshots but didn't hear any. He was torn between running after Kara and remaining here to soothe the sobbing child. Ultimately his need to care for the child overrode anything else.

John held her as she sobbed into his neck. "It's going to be okay, Ashley, I'm going to call someone that you can trust to take you home to your parents."

"Okay," was the tiny muffled answer he received in response, John tugged his phone out and found Fusco's name.

"What do you want wonder-boy? I don't have time to clean up your mess tonight, there's an Amber Alert for an Ashley Sutton because we have some nut-job that abducted the little girl by gunpoint in front of witnesses! And from the sound of it, it's the nutty bar that strapped my partner with a bomb vest that did it!" Fusco griped in agitation.

"I found the girl. Hurry to Goodwin's to pick her up, you're the only cop I'd trust besides Joss to pick her up to take her home," he said softly ignoring the throbbing pain in his arm as he tried to rub the little girl's back to comfort her.

"I'll be there in a jiff to get the little one."

John hung up. "Someone is on his way to take you to your parents, Ashley," he promised. Once Lionel got here to take care of little Ashley, he was going to go talk with Finch because he had some explaining to do.


"I'm alright," John whispered as Joss fussed with him while Shaw sutured his arm. "And knowing that Fusco took Ashley home safely to her parents, I feel better."

"John you need stitches!" Joss snapped in concerned relief as she motioned to Shaw who was seated beside him on her couch, focused on her work. When John walked back into her place, bleeding from a gunshot wound, her heart had been in her throat. And then when he told her about the little girl, she was blind with rage with Kara Stanton.

"Reese will be okay Carter. He'll be sore and it will hurt like a bitch, but it didn't hit anything serious," Shaw muttered as she was finishing up her stitch job. "As long as he doesn't fuck my stitches up and lets it heal, he'll be good as new. You're ambidextrous, aren't you," Shaw demanded and when John nodded she continued. "Use your other hand then."

"What did Ms. Stanton want?" Harold asked.

John glanced at Finch. "She wants my help to find the man that sold the laptop that got us burned, she wants my help to find you, Finch." John said and silence filled her place. Joss and Shaw shared a look before Shaw got to her feet.

"Well, I'm finished. I think I'll leave you two to talk and go see if I can get any leads on where Kara might be lurking," Shaw muttered.

Joss felt the tension in the air. She didn't want to leave, wanted to support both these men but felt that this needed to be a private conversation. "I need to head to the grocery store and pick up a few things for our dinner tomorrow night. I'll be back," Joss said.

John grabbed her hand with his good one. "Don't go alone. Take Shaw with you."

"Are you out of your mind?" Shaw demanded.

"I don't need a babysitter, John. I can go to the store by myself," she stated firmly, not about to budge on this. She wasn't letting that crazy woman take away her independence. "I'll be back and maybe then we can order some new pizza," she said gently. The door to her place opened and Taylor walked in.

"Hey…what happened?" Taylor asked as he eyed the full room before his eyes fell on John who was busy tugging his shirt on. Taylor didn't miss the bandaged arm. "You're hurt, John!"

"I'm fine, Taylor," John said. Joss thinned her lips from pointing out that he was shot which suggested he was not fine.

"Taylor, we need to go to the store. I'll explain everything on the way," Joss suggested. Her boy nodded and gave John one last worried glance before dropping his book bag down and they filed out of her home to give John and Finch privacy with Shaw leading the way.

Finch watched as the two women and Taylor beat a hasty retreat to try to give them some privacy. John sat and grimaced in pain but his eyes were on him and waiting for an explanation. "I'm sorry, John. It's true the laptop being in Ordos is my fault. Before Jocelyn found you and before I found a morally conscious detective I had a previous employee, much like what you and Ms. Shaw do now for me. However he was not as morally conscious, he was more interested in the paycheck I supplied him with," Finch started his explanation.

"That laptop was the Daniel Casey case isn't it?—Kara and I lost a laptop, the higher-ups were pissed but we ran into a private security detail, that man was employed by you, wasn't he?" John said.

"Yes, the machine gave us Mr. Casey's number. I recognized you, you were CIA. I didn't realize the scope of Casey's problems until I saw the laptop and what was on it."

"So you knew me even before then?"

"Yes."

"Will you ever tell me when I came on your radar?" John demanded.

"It's irrelevant," Finch said succinctly.

"Maybe to you," John said bitterly. "But it isn't to me. Damn it Finch, just level with me."

"Mr. Reese, you know I'm a private man."

John shook his head. "You always say that when you don't wish to answer a question. Are you going to tell me selling the laptop is your privacy too?" he snapped. He just wanted to understand and Finch held all the answers and didn't seem to want to share.

Harold swallowed hard. "No, of course not, John, I know that you being sent to Ordos changed your life irrevocably. It led to you not being able to reach Jessica in time."

John stared at him. "Finch let me clear something up for you up. My life changed irrevocably when I didn't open my mouth in an airport when I ran into Jessica in 2006. My life changed then. You had nothing to do with that or with her marrying Arndt," he said softly. That was most certainly was his fault, not Finch's.

"While I appreciate your attempt at relieving me of my guilt for causing you pain, John, it doesn't change the simple fact that had I not interfered with the Casey case, you wouldn't have been burned. You wouldn't have been sent to Ordos while the woman you loved was going to be murdered by her abusive husband," Finch persisted. "I had no way of knowing that you had already realized that Daniel Casey was not a traitor and you weren't going to kill him. I didn't realize the enormity of my blunder until I received your number a couple of weeks later."

"You received my number?"

Harold nodded. "I received yours and Stanton's first, then Jessica's, and then the machine reissued your number along with Peter Arndt's. I tracked you down in New Rochelle but lost you again as you left the hospital after finding out about Jessica. I knew I couldn't keep up with you or stop you."

"Did you try to save her?" he asked gently. Finch hadn't told him if Jessica's number was one of the ones that were repeats. He wondered if he would answer this.

Harold looked John in the eyes. "Yes, John, I tried to save her. Nathan tried to save her too. You once asked me if her number was one that came up again and again. When you asked me the first time I didn't believe you were in the right place emotionally to hear the answer but now it seems different. You deserve to know the answer: Jessica Arndt's number came up more than a few times whenever Peter got upset or plotted new ways of paying back his loan sharks. He took out his frustrations on her."

John swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you for telling me."

"Of course, John, you deserve to know the truth of what happened during that time. So I am going to tell you everything," Harold agreed.

"Alright,"

"You always knew Daniel Casey wasn't who you thought he was, which is why you let him escape. Daniel Casey was on a tiger team which companies use to test their security systems for weaknesses, which the teams can find hacking in themselves," Finch began.

"So Daniel Casey was a hacker like you?" John murmured.

"Yes, Casey infiltrated numerous companies over the years and that was what we, Mr. Dillinger and I, first thought were the reason for why his number was up. That Mr. Casey saw something that a company didn't want him to see and that they were going to kill him to keep him quiet. Until Dillinger made you and Kara, along with that mysterious group that we now know was Decima Technologies, then I knew it was something far worse than we first imagined. When Mr. Dillinger was able to bring him to me in the library was when I learned just how bad off Mr. Casey was," Finch explained the twisted tale.

"Why?"

"Mr. Casey had received a call from someone in the government that wanted him and a few select others to test a secret system of theirs for weaknesses," he murmured.

John blinked in surprise. "The Machine…"

"Yes, however the government wanted Casey to show them how to break into the machine not to just merely test it for weaknesses, and Mr. Casey found a backdoor in the machine."

"The same backdoor you built to access the irrelevant numbers?" John asked as he began relaxing now that Harold was finally telling him the truth.

Finch noticed John's relaxing features and wished he had just found the nerve to do this sooner. Jocelyn was correct, John just wanted the truth. "Yes. Mr. Casey managed to get a few bits of code before the machine realized he was in the system and locked him out. He put those bits of code onto the laptop, the very laptop you were to retrieve. Mr. Casey began to doubt the government's reasons and asked to be finished with the assignment," Finch explained.

John shook his head. "From the numbers we have worked that have come into contact with the machine, the government wasn't just going to let him walk away from it," John supplied softly.

"No they don't. Casey was going to be killed and only managed to barely escape with the laptop after a car accident occurred."

"And that's when he was given to Kara and me, guilty of treason," John murmured.

"Precisely Mr. Reese, while Mr. Casey was with me I took the liberty to tweak the code," Finch went on.

John furrowed his brows. "Tweak the code?"

"I adapted the code of the machine to include a virus. I designed the machine to accept alterations to its programming only in a response to an attack. I knew sooner or later that someone would try to take it over, but I didn't know who so I made sure that when they did they'd do it with my code."

John stared at Harold. "So when you had that laptop you hid a virus within the code?"

Finch shrugged. "I realized that the people Nathan and I had entrusted the machine to were the wrong people, that the only way to protect the machine was teach it to protect itself. I had arranged for a sale of the laptop with the adapted code on the dark net knowing that the people after Casey, were more after the laptop. Then I was going to get him a different name and hide him from the CIA until Mr. Dillinger betrayed me. He was the man that sold it to the Chinese, under my name," he said, finishing the tale that John deserved to know much sooner than now.

John sat there silently, digesting everything Finch told him. "Thank you Harold for finally telling me everything," he said gruffly.

Finch nodded. "I'm sorry it took me this long to tell you, John. I should have told you sooner," he admitted and John merely nodded his head in agreement.

"We need to figure out what to do with Kara because she wants to find you Harold. And she won't stop. And she won't care about anything you have to say."

"Maybe you should give me to her. This needs to end, John. We need to only concentrate on this Decima Technologies who Jocelyn said she worked for, who wants to get full administrational access. We can't let that happen but I doubt we'll be able to focus on them if Kara Stanton is running loose," Finch said resolutely.

John shook his head. "No, she'll kill you after she tortures you. Giving you to her is out of the question. Just because I understand what happened doesn't mean she will care. Even if she believes you about Dillinger being the one to sell it to the Chinese, she'll still want to kill you for getting in the way of that case which was why we were burned. I won't let that happen." That wasn't an option. Kara would take great delight in killing you, Finch.

"John…"

"No, there has to be another way and we'll find it, Finch," he said with a light touch to the elder man's arm. "I won't let Kara get a hold of you, she needs my help to find you so we just need a plan before she calls again."


"Taylor was worried about you," Joss murmured as they laid on her couch, snuggled into each other, his injured arm on the opposite side of where she was curled. Taylor had gone upstairs to bed after they ate some of the new pizza they ordered. She'd thrown away the other pizza. Tomorrow at some time she was going to call morgues in the city to see if a deceased pizza delivery man or woman was brought in.

John looked down at her. "I'm fine."

"Tell that to a teenage boy who has never seen you hurt before. He has a lot of questions," she said.

"I'm sure he does, he wouldn't be your son if he didn't want answers to his questions," John muttered.

Joss leaned up to look down at him. "Maybe you should tell him what it is you do."

"Joss, I can't."

"Why not?—just give him the short version without the particulars," she coaxed. Her kid wasn't stupid and he was going to seek answers one way or another.

"He knows enough."

"No I don't." John turned at the sound of Taylor's voice. He was eavesdropping on them.

Joss scrambled up in surprise having thought her boy was asleep since it was rather late. "Taylor, it's impolite to listen in on people talking!" she chided as she got to her feet, with hands on hips.

"I'm glad I did. I deserve to know, John. I'm a big boy, I can handle it. I don't need to be treated like a little kid." he stated as he rushed down the stairs and sidestepped his mom. John sat up on the couch and didn't seem surprised by the fact that he was confronting him.

"Taylor, it's better if you don't know everything."

"For you or me?" he argued.

Taylor was surprised by the half smile he got from John. "You are your mother's son."

Taylor lifted his chin. "I take that as a compliment."

"As you should," John murmured.

Taylor sat down beside him and he could see the wary look John was giving him. "John, I want to understand, please."

"I help people out of bad situations. I circumvent the traditional avenues that your mom uses to do that. What I do isn't exactly legal," he answered.

Taylor knew that was just scratching the surface of whatever it was that John truly did. But John was trying to give him some answers and, as his mom pointed out, he truly didn't need the particulars. "Is it going to kill you?"

"Taylor…" his mom started.

"It might," John answered over Joss's warning.

Taylor felt panicked. He didn't want to lose John. "Why does everyone else care more about your well-being than you do?" he demanded and Joss winced. Her boy was hitting John with the tough questions.

"Because my life is expendable and there are others such as your mom and Finch that the world needs. The world doesn't need people like me," he answered simply.

"Well you might think the world doesn't need you, but I do. My mom does too," he stated as he got to his feet. "Think about that the next time you rush head long into a fire fight!" Taylor snapped as turned and walked to the stairs and took them two at a time.

Joss watched as Taylor hurried up the stairs and closed her eyes as the door to his bedroom slammed shut. "I'll go talk to him," she murmured.

"No, it's okay Joss. He has the right to say what he feels." John said. She turned seeing John getting to his feet. "I think I should go," he said softly. He needed to go take a walk and clear his head. Taylor was attached to him and he was afraid of how attached he was to Joss and her boy.

"Why? Because my son made you face some tough questions?" she wondered. She was going to have to talk to her son about going at John's pace, not theirs, but since her kid brought it up she was going to finish it. "John your life isn't expendable," she said before she kissed him. She poured all of what she couldn't say into it because she knew he wasn't ready to hear it. She pushed back after a good few minutes of just kissing him. "It's not, now I want you to stay." she said as she let him go.

"I need to go."

"No you don't, you need to stay and be with us. Now stay," Joss countered.

John was helpless to refuse her.


AN: I do so love wacky Kara Stanton. The next few chapters, aside for one, deals with her because things are about to get crazy XD

Thanks for reading!