2 – Tell

A/N: This drabble was written in January 2015:

It was just for the faintest, briefest moment, but Sameen Shaw had been trained to observe the slightest tell, and when John Reese stepped behind Jocelyn Carter to wrap his jacket around her shoulders, as they stood on a long dock in the cool evening air waiting for a boat to take them back to the city, Shaw saw it, naked, pure and blazing with such intensity, that she blinked twice with the force of it.

Reese stepped next to Carter, and then there was the smiling glare and the smug, responding smirk, and then an exasperated chuckle as the two settled into their usual back and forth, their low, murmuring voices twining together, rising and disappearing into the swirling fog as they walked away towards the end of the dock.

"He…loves...her," Shaw said softly.

Lionel Fusco turned in surprise and looked at her. "You just figurin' that out?" he chuckled, then his smile faded. "She's good for him, not so sure if he's good for her. Carter's…special. Me, Mr. Happy, Four Eyes, you," he leaned down and scratched Bear behind the ears, "hell, I bet even the pooch here – we all got somethin' to answer for. Not Carter."

"Maybe…she's," Shaw paused, the words forming so slowly in her mind, that she thought there was something wrong with her, "supposed…to help…us…be able to…find…those answers."

"Yeah…maybe." Fusco nodded, then he let out a long, slow breath. "I'm a better person because of Carter…I just don't..." he looked away, "want her to be a worse person because of us."

"You ever talk about it?"

Fusco turned back, and this time he laughed out loud, causing Reese and Carter to look at them for a moment before they resumed their conversation. "With HIM– you think I got a death wish? And no, not with Glasses either."

"You think she knows?"

"Yeah," Fusco's smile was soft and knowing, "all women do."

"And…" Shaw raised an eyebrow.

"When she's ready," he gave her a wry glance. "And you'd better be ready, too, 'Frosty Mini Wheat', 'cause when it happens, those two are gonna disappear for at least a month, and you're gonna hafta pick up the slack for Wonderboy."

Shaw gave him a raptor like smile. "I'm always ready, Fusco."

The burly detective snorted. "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." He squinted into the darkness. "Boat's comin'. About time, I'm freezin' my nuts off here."

They joined their two friends at the end of the dock.

A/N: The title of this drabble has more than one meaning – there's the 'tell' that Shaw observed when she saw how John is in love with Joss, the tells that Fusco noted, including his noting that Joss knows that John cares for her, and perhaps even for Shaw, a tell about herself.

The next drabble, Lipstick, will be posted on January 16.