After roughly two weeks Harold had managed to settle the determined panic and concern which had lingered in the back of his mind when it came to being in a real relationship with Harbor Caldwell. Finch had even gone so far as to create her six separate fake identities just in case the day ever did come and he had to send her away for her own safety; Samaritan being their main threat. One of those fake names just so happened to be Nikola Kruspe, simply because he knew she'd approve of the references to two of her favorite people. Harold was paranoid, not lacking a sense of humor. If the bespectacled man was going to truly be with her then he'd give her all the bug out measures he'd provided Reese, Shaw, Fusco and even Root with.
Speaking of Shaw, she'd waited for Harold to send John off to a Number with a classic 'go here, do this and try not to shoot anyone' task then completely blind-sided him that morning. Questions, intentions and demands which had all been quick and to the point mixed in with the odd threat every few sentences just in case Finch had somehow managed to forget Sameen killed people on an almost daily basis. It would have taken one hell of a blow to the head for hm to forget Miss Shaw's day job. While he'd not been overly pleased with Shaw sticking her nose into his and Harbor's relationship, Harold had been grateful Harbor had someone to watch her back in ways he couldn't. Shaw would keep Harbor safe, teach her to protect herself, and Harbor had really brought Shaw out of her shell; hell, she was damn right personable compared to before she'd met the escort. Sameen had needed a real friend that wasn't just a colleague or Bear.
Harbor had done more good than she realized. Finch had also learned not to underestimate her ability to strut into a bar and get a man to spill his secrets just by fluttering her eyes and giggling in the right place. Then again Harold could speak from experience, those polished emeralds could be very hypnotic.
After Sameen had taken her own Number and finally left him alone in the Library with Bear snoring in his bed – still with that elephant – Finch had gotten back to work only to hit by a realization like a brick wall not fifteen minutes later. It should have been so obvious but Harold had completely missed it. He was happy. Not just they'd managed to save a Number happy or John hadn't had to shoot anyone happy, no this was in his heart, in his blood, in his soul happy. When he'd faked his death and left Grace something inside him had died but Harbor had brought it back to life with that big smile and caring heart of hers.
"I'm a genius and I didn't even notice." He huffed out a laugh.
By the end of the month Finch felt as though he and his girl had been together for years, Harbor just anticipated things so perfectly even when Finch himself wasn't sure what he needed. She never demanded to know why he'd gone radio silent for forty-eight hours straight, never got angry when he'd had to cancel dinner because Reese and Shaw had gotten into a shoot out and needed someone on surveillance. He had things he just couldn't tell her … she never hated him for it. John had taken to referring to Harbor as 'Harold's perfect woman' at every available opportunity just to amuse himself and truthfully Harold couldn't argue at all. She was perfect.
Then it happened, the tiny thought he'd not invited, the one that had only existed for a split second but had crushed him and left a cataclysm in its wake. You love her more than you loved Grace. That thought had hurt, not because it had once again pitted the two women against one another but because that little whispered voice was right, he did love her more than Grace and it had somehow made him feel guilty. There Harold was happy with this young, beautiful and outrageously intelligent woman while he'd left Grace thinking the man she loved had died in a bombing. Did he even deserved to be loved and happy? Harbor kept saying yes, Reese kept saying yes, Shaw kept saying yes, hell, even Fusco had agreed, but still the voice at the back of his head persisted.
~X~
The day eventually came when Team Machine required Harbor's unique assistance once again and, of course, she'd readily agreed to help. Charles Jones-Price or Charlie to his friends, an ivy league asshole who thought he owned everything and that everyone else was beneath him. Classic narcissist, classic Mommy never hugged me enough. He'd come from old money and been raised by nannies, while that didn't necessarily mean a child would grow up to be a prick it often did. The man had gone through three butlers in less than a year, an opening John had quickly filled as butler number four; a job he'd hated in fifteen seconds flat.
It hadn't taken Finch long to spot Charlie's preference for young prostitutes what with his unmatched computer skills, and it just so happened that Finch knew two such women, on of witch happened to be a very good escort. As soon as Jones-Price had called his preferred escort agency and ordered 'two of your finest whore' Harold had jumped into action moving orders around so he could send Harbor and Sameen in their place. After that, it was up to the girls while John roamed the house and Harold kept watch from the home security cameras.
In all honestly Finch hadn't been able to fault their Number's want for the girls, both looked equally stunning as he watched them walk up the path on the door camera.
Finch might have been a fan of Harbor's dark purple bodycon dress and her fuck-me heels but the freezing night air had gotten Harbor second guessing her choices.
"You okay?" She asked Shaw as they paused on the path.
"Yeah." Grumbled the older woman. "Just, this bloody dress is too tight. How am I supposed to kill anyone in this?"
She gestured to the short, red dress Harbor had chosen for her friend to bring out the richness of her brown eyes.
Harbor chuckled softly. "I think Hank would rather you didn't kill anyone, Nikita."
Sameen just grumbled and the pair carried on to the door where Harbor rang the bell and they waited patiently.
Shaw's brow furrowed. "Wait, why Nikita?"
The raven-haired beauty raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You're hot and you kill people for a living what escort name was I going to give you other than Nikita?"
When Sameen only continued with that blank expression Harbor sighed and gave up; she wouldn't be having the Luc Besson movie conversation with her friend.
They waited a moment for John to come to the door and welcome them in, frankly he looked adorable in his butler uniform but Harbor knew far better than to say that to his face. She'd tell Shaw later when they were alone and could laugh about it.
"Ladies, if you'd like to follow me I'll take you through to Mister Jones-Price." Said Reese in a rather bored tone.
"Of course, Jeeves." Harbor's teasing really knew no bounds.
Harold had sat back at the Library with a cup of tea and Bear as he watched the whole thing through the cameras. While the girls had been distracting Charles, Reese had taken the opportunity to rush upstairs into the master bedroom and start work on opening the safe to see what he could find. Finch and Reese had been almost certain that he was a victim but they'd been wrong before.
"He still distracted Finch?" Reese asked as he slipped his gloves on and set to work on the old fashioned wall safe.
Harold flashed his blue eyes over to the camera just outside the living room which he'd had Reese turn ever so slightly to give him a view straight into the room. There he saw Harbor and Sameen sat on either side of Jones-Price.
"From the grin on his face I'd say he's well and truly distracted, Mister Reese."
John chuckled. "Don't go getting jealous, Harold. How is that working anyway?"
Finch's brow furrowed in confusion. Bear chose that moment to leave his bed and search out Harold's hand for tickles which were quickly granted.
"How is what working, Mister Reese? I don't understand."
"You understand exactly and you know it. You're girlfriend is n escort, Finch, you seriously just okay with that?"
Finch heard the telltale sound of a safe clicking open, looked like Reese was getting slow.
"... Yes, I'm fine with it." No! No, I'm note fucking 'fine' with it. The woman I love spends all day being salivated over like she's meat by Christ knows who, all of which get to have sex with her. "Perfectly fine."
Harold wasn't fine, of course he wasn't. There was something deep down inside him that longed to put his foot down and say she was his and only his. Be possessive. Have her all to himself. Finch knew he couldn't do that though. He'd known from the very beginning what her job was, literally the very beginning. Harbor wasn't cheating on Finch he knew that, he had no right to ask her to stop just for his own inner possessive streak.
"Yeah, that's the most blatant lie you've ever told, Harold. You want her to stop then tell her." Said Reese as he rummaged around in the safe. "You are a billionaire remember."
"Mister Reese, I don't think it's a good idea to sit a woman like Harbor down and tell her she is no longer going to work as an escort because her boyfriend is rich and plans to make her a kept woman."
"When you say it like that it does sound like a dick move. Maybe- hang on, I found some letters between him and a prostitute."
"How can you be certain this woman is a prostitute?" Asked Harold, pleased to have a new subject.
"Well, her name is sinnamon, with an S. Seems prostitute-y to me." With a 'fair assessment, please continue' styled hum Harold let his friend carry on. "She claims he got her pregnant and if he doesn't pay for the baby then … yep, she'll report him for raping her."
"Is there anything to suggest this allegation is true?"
"Doesn't look like it. I wouldn't be sure she's even pregnant, looks like Lord Asshole didn't believe her either."
"I'll look into it see if I can find any escorts from the agency named Sinnamon."
Harold made quick work of tracking down the escorts and their real names looking for anything even remotely helpful but couldn't find a single girl with that name. That sparked him to go through Jones-Price's phone records but still to no avail. Something caught his attention then, a tiny blur just over the top of his glasses, when he peered up to the cameras that faced the expansive back yard he realized they were in for a fight and opened up comms to all three of his people in that house.
"Mister Reese, Miss Shaw, Harbor, there are five- no six men attempting to break into the house. There is a seventh cutting the power so be prepared for the lights to go out."
"Pick a number, Harold." Grumbled John and he slammed the safe shut and rushed downstairs, weapon drawn.
"The cameras have their own power supply so I'll be able to give you warning of where these men are."
The power shut off then and the house found itself in darkness. Though he still had a visual that blackness did make certain cameras useless to him.
"Shaw, Harbor, keep Jones-Price safe, I'll deal with the hostiles."
"Will do." Came Shaw's quick response as their Number demanded to know what was happening and who they were in the background.
"Hank, any idea who these people are?"
"No, darling, I'm afraid not." Finch sighed as he peered back to the camera showing Reese heading down a hallway. "Mister Reese, you have two men coming at you on your right, roughly ten seconds to intercept."
Harold could only watch as John continued down the hall and promptly – for a lack of a better term – beat the ever loving shit out of them. Reese didn't even seem to break a sweat, Finch had always known just how heavily trained his friend was but this seemed easier than usual.
Once the two men were down Reese ripped their masks off Harold heard the taller man breathe out a laugh.
"Alright, I've got good news and bad news."
"Bad news." Shaw demanded quickly.
"Bad news is these idiots are seriously over-confident and probably trigger happy."
"And the good news, Mister Reese?"
"That would be that they're gangbangers, not trained, don't know what they're doing and have bitten of way more than they can chew. Won't even need to kill them, just knock the idiots out and leave them for Fusco to deal with."
That was exactly what they did. Harbor got Shaw to go help Reese since she was more use while Harbor stayed to watch a rather confused and rude Charles Jones-Price. Hadn't taken more than ten minutes for Sameen and Reese to deal with their would be attackers and save the prick's life – not that he'd been overly grateful. Harold had put in a call to Fusco and then made sure to have bourbon waiting for everyone when they got back to the Library. Another job well done.
As soon as Harbor entered the abandoned library just after the clock had struck midnight, she slipped straight into his lap and kissed him while John got glasses and drinks out. Didn't take long for Shaw to find herself throwing Bear's tennis ball back and forth for him so he could get rid of some of that energy.
"So," began Harbor once everyone was settled "what the hell was going on with that gang and the rich dick?"
"Ah, yes. I did some more research while I was waiting for you all to get back. As it turns out there was one young woman who worked for the escort agency using the name Sunny, she was fired about two months ago as her clients had started getting robbed in the days after she'd met with them and her boss had figured out she'd gotten involved with a gang. She started going by Sinnamon when she got a new job at a strip club just down the street from Jones-Prices office. I suspect that she'd known he was on their list of clients and had hoped to be able to swindle him, somehow managed to get into his life and have sex with him. However, he didn't believe her when she said she was pregnant and started demanding money so instead of hoping for a payout that would never come she decided to get her friends to simply rob the place. If she'd been in the house then she'd know the layout."
Harbor just stared at him open-mouthed. "That's both smart and stupid."
"It seems a lot of people are."
Harbor found herself drawn into playing fetch with Bear when the animal marched straight passed Shaw and dropped his ball at Harbor's feet instead. Sameen hadn't seemed insulted just shrugged it off and went to get another drink. The three dealt with a little bit of new information on Samaritan that Finch had managed to gather, he didn't want Harbor to know, didn't want her to worry, didn't want her to know how easily things could fall apart.
Twenty minutes or so later he found his beautiful girl at the end of the hall still playing with Bear, she was beyond smart, he knew she'd given them some privacy. Another reason he adored her, she could have so easily eavesdropped but she hadn't. When she saw him she flashed Harold that bright smile and let him slip an arm around her waist so he could kiss her softly.
"What will you do now?" Harold asked with a slight tease. "Back to your client list?"
Harold totally hadn't kept the list of her clients from back when they'd saved her life. Totally hadn't looked into them and made sure they weren't hiding anything nefarious that could have gotten her killed.
The green-eyed girl remained quiet a time as she stood there with her head rested on his shoulder and fiddled with his tie. Harold had actually started to worry but then she spoke, somehow quiet and determined all at the same time.
"No." She shook her head. "I'm sick of lying to please men. I thought I was helping them, easing worries and making them feel safe. I act brave but it's a lie. I don't want it to be a lie anymore, Hank, I want to actually be brave and do something to really help. I want to work for you."
Finch's eyes went wide. "What?!"
She sighed and clung to him tighter. "You've seen me, I can talk my way into anywhere. I memorizes things on the drop of a hat, I've stolen stuff for you that you couldn't even figure out how to get. I can already fire a weapon and moderately defend myself. I suspect it won't take long for Smiles and Badass to train me up. I want to work for you, Harold Finch, I want to really help people."
For a moment his mouth open and closed lamely unsure of what to say or how to dissuade her from this. Having her in his life was one thing but putting her directly in the line of fire was quite another; you've already done that, you did it not an hour ago.
"I can't ask you to do that." Harold breathed. "You are young, have your whole life ahead of you. You could do anything you want with that life."
Harbor nodded. "You're right, I could. I want to help you. I don't want to act brave anymore, Hank, I want to be brave."
Neither the suit clad man nor his mysterious lover noticed Shaw and John had quietly gathered at the other end of the hall near Finch's desk, two sets of eyes firmly locked on the their friends.
"The girl makes a good point, Harold." Both Harbor and Finch snapped their attention to Reese. "It would be good to have her on hand. She was a lot of help with Boucheron and tonight with Jones-Price."
"Please, Hank?" The look on her face was so sincere.
He wanted to say no, oh how he wanted to say no.
"Shaw and I will train her."
"I already am." Added Sameen before she downed what was left of her drink.
Harold deflated, and let out a long sigh. "Are you sure?"
He didn't want her to be in yet more danger. That was the very last thing Finch wanted. Still, if she worked for him she'd not be sleeping with other men. That is not a pro, he chastised himself.
Harbor nodded and Harold knew he'd caved, he'd stood up to torture and yet those big green eyes could always make him cave.
"Okay," He relented, "but only if Mister Reese and I think you're ready for any given situation and Miss Shaw continues to train you."
Sameen snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "She's your girlfriend not your kid, Finch."
The comment went ignored though thanks to Harbor suddenly throwing her arms around with the biggest grin he'd ever seen form her.
"Yes! I love you, Hank."
His arms instinctively went to her slender waist to keep her close. She did love him, didn't she. Finch still couldn't quiet understand why but she did love him and Harold would treasure every moment of it. That voice could carry on screaming he didn't deserve her all it liked because as long as she was wiling to let him he'd love her. Even though he'd left Grace for good reason he had squandered his relationship with her, Harold wouldn't squander his love with Harbor. Connections to people weren't curses or weaknesses, they were a blessing and strengths.
"I love you too."
THE END.
