4 – Changes

A/N: This 2020 drabble was inspired by a promotional photo for TPH's series Peace of Mind, where she gazes wistfully off in the distance, her face framed by long, dark red, wavy hair:

It was a beautiful summer evening, but since John Reese had disappeared all those months ago, all Jocelyn Carter saw was that cold, dark winter day when he had gone underground to fight Samaritan.

He said that he had to leave to protect her and Taylor, and while she understood, looking for him every time Joss turned a corner became unbearable.

And so while John had said in the morgue that meeting Joss had changed him, his leaving had changed her.

Joss changed everything: her city, her profession, the way she dressed – a soft smile stole across her lips – even her hair, which now hung loose in soft, rich dark red waves.

"Great work, Counselor," Councilman Avery Braxton smiled at her as they stood up from the conference table. "I'm glad you're on our side. You sliced and diced those corporate lawyers," he tilted his head toward the video screen, "like the chefs in those old Benihana videos."

Joss laughed. "Not if you tasted my cooking. My son used to say, before he went off to college, that my cooking should have gotten me arrested for homicide back when I was on the force."

"Ouch, but at least you tried. My daughter brought in all the takeout menus I had stuck on the frig for Show and Tell one week when she was in second grade. Said that all of the delivery men were her 'uncles.' It made for a rather interesting," he smiled ruefully at the memory, "parent-teacher conference."

"Single parents," Joss nodded.

"Single parents," he nodded back. "Well," he stepped a little closer to her, "they both survived and we're empty nesters now. How 'bout we celebrate our victory here with dinner? We could go to that little restaurant by the harbor. Watch the sun set."

Joss knew that he wanted more than dinner. They'd had coffee several times and lunch last week. He was intelligent, honest, handsome, hardworking and dedicated to his daughter.

He was everything a woman would want.

He just wasn't John.

"I'm sorry, Avery, I can't," she said softly. "There's someone else."

Braxton let out a long, slow breath. "I've…sensed…that there was someone else, but he's hasn't been here in all of the time that I've known you." He tilted his head at her. "How long are you going to wait, Joss?"

Joss smiled sadly as she picked up her briefcase. "Forever."

As she stepped out of the conference room, a feeling came over her.

For a moment, Joss was afraid to turn around, afraid that she would be bitterly disappointed like she had been so many times before.

But as she knew she would, Joss slowly turned around.

And her cold, dark world was suddenly filled with every color of the rainbow.

She stepped outside.

"Hello, Detective, or I guess I should call you Counselor, now," John smirked at her.

She drank in the sight of the man who filled her dreams every night, the man she reached for every morning when she reluctantly opened her eyes and faced that cold, dark world again. "How long you been out here, watchin' me?"

"A while. You're slipping, Carter. You should have already made me."

"Well, I'm not on the force anymore, John. I'm usin'," She patted her briefcase, "some other things in my bag of tricks."

"I can see that," he smiled as he stepped closer to her. "But you're still trying to save the world, Counselor."

"You should talk, John," she smiled back.

Their smiles faded as they stared at each other. Joss took a step closer. "Are you okay?"

"Well, I'm 'dead', Finch is in Italy with Grace and I may have to stage a rescue operation to save Bear from Shaw, but, yes," John nodded, "we're okay. Even," he shrugged, then his lips quirked, "Fusco."

He stepped even closer to her. "I'm okay, Joss."

Their eyes met and held again, then Joss nodded slowly. "Well, I was gonna head home, kick off these damn cockroach killers," she glanced at her shoes, whose pointed toes somehow seemed even longer and thinner than her four inch heels, "and try to rustle up some dinner. Wanna join me?"

"Are you sure, Joss?" She saw love, hope, and for the first time since she'd met him, fear in his eyes. "You've…changed…" he whispered, "a lot."

Joss knew John well enough to know that he'd been watching her for a while, knew that he knew there was another man interested in her.

"Some things, John," she reached out and touched his hand and their fingers slowly intertwined, "will never change."

And her briefcase clattered to the sidewalk as John swept Joss into his arms and kissed her.

When they finally came up for air, John bent down and picked up her briefcase. "I'd better make dinner, Carter - your cooking would succeed where the CIA, MI6, FSB, Mossad and a couple of cruise missiles failed to kill me."

joss gave him that look. "Why do you think I invited you home? I might even," she smirked at him, "let you come in the front door."

"I guess some things really have changed," John grinned as they headed off, hand in hand, to a new life together.

A/N: We know that no matter the time, place or circumstances, John and Joss would always have that connection, would always find each other. That will never change.

The next drabble, Big John, will be posted on January 30th.