Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team for these lovely characters (though Elena is mine). Any bolded sections come straight from the episodes.

THE DETECTIVE AND MRS. RILEY

Detective Cassidy

Timeline
• Queensbridge Park
• Elena Cassidy's Home for Retired Assassins (ch 3)
• Fusco Meets the Rileys (ch 4)
• Little Mistress Normal (ch 5)
• Drinks (ch 10)
• Detective Darkness and Little Miss Sunshine (ch 12)
• Bear's Collection (ch 2)
• Home Safe Home (ch 9)
• Hell in the Hamptons (ch 13-16)
• Risque Business (ch 20)
• DETECTIVE CASSIDY
• Bets on Broadway (ch 11)
• Toast (ch 19)
• Swingers Cruise (ch 6)
• Knockout (ch 8)
• Ellie with the Pink Hair (ch 18)
• Queen E (ch 1)
• Toxic (ch 17)
• Get to the Chopper! (ch 7)
• Queensbridge Park epilogue

"Pixie. Hey. Pixie."

"El. Elena."

Elena blinks and notices the two ex-assassins she lives with are looking at her in confusion (Sameen) and concern (John).

"Sorry, did you say something?" she asks.

"Yeah, your name. Like ten times."

"Sorry, I was … thinking of the grocery list."

"We just went yesterday, remember? Shaw cleaned out the bodega's shelves."

"Oh. Right." She goes back to stirring her already well-stirred coffee.

"Hey, Eeyore, where's the perky housewife? [1] Kidding, kidding," Shaw adds at the sharp look from Elena. "We all know John's the real housewife here."

"He does look good in an apron," Elena says listlessly.

"Hey." Shaw shoves her shoulder, a bit harder than necessary. She nearly slides off the kitchen stool, but Reese reaches out and keeps her in place. "Seriously, what's wrong?"

"I'm just ... tired."

"Are you coming down with something?" Reese frets, putting a hand on her forehead. "You got caught in the rain the other day. Maybe you should call in sick —"

"Does the Machine give us PTO?"

"Why don't you go back up to bed and I'll make you some soup —"

Both his and Shaw's phones beep simultaneously. Elena gives him a small smile.

"Looks like that's a no on the PTO." She squeezes Reese's arm. "Go save or scare your Number. I'm perfectly fine."

As Reese and Shaw gather their things (weapons), Elena Googles what she can about the Number to send them on their way.

She also makes a show of getting ready to go to work. She pours a fresh pot of coffee into the three matching, color-coded travel mugs she got them all, and hands one each to John and Sameen as they go out the door. She even pretends to struggle putting on a pair of heels as they back out of the narrow driveway and zip off down the street.

As soon as she's sure they're gone, she kicks off the one shoe she has on, and drops her purse and keys back on the table by the door.

Bear pads over, curious when Pretty Lady doesn't go out the door like Tall Man and Hammer Lady. Elena retakes her seat at the kitchen counter and sips her coffee.

"I'm not going to work today, Bear," she tells him, reaching over to scratch his ears. "Not today."

A few hours later, Elena has built up the courage to do what she needs to do today.

She heads out of the house and nearly runs straight into Lionel, good old Lionel, standing on her doorstep and holding the ugliest combination of flowers she's ever seen.

Her dad would have loved it.

"You think I forgot what today is?" Lionel asks, just a tad disappointed.

"No, but I thought you were busy."

He looks past her into the house. "Where's Wonderboy and Wonderwitch?"

She shrugs. "Busy."

"They left you alone today, of all days?"

"They ... don't know what today is." She shrugs again. "I didn't tell them."

Fusco gives her a hard look. "All right," he finally says. "Come on, let's go see your dad."

Shaw and Reese have been crisscrossing Manhattan all day trying to get ahead of the threat on their Number.

"Ow," Reese complains as Shaw hits a bump, jostling him as he ties a makeshift bandage over the bleeding bullet graze across his forearm.

"Baby," she snaps back. [2] "If you weren't so distracted worrying about Cassidy, you wouldn't have gotten shot." And if she hadn't been so distracted worrying about Cassidy, she would've shot the bad guy first, but she doesn't say that aloud. "Let's just finish this, then we can call it a day and you can pop some vicodin."

"There are no painkillers in the house," Reese says automatically. He meets Shaw's questioning look. "Elena's got a history. I've never really been worried, but ... I don't want to take the chance."

There are several beats of silence.

"What are you saying? Cassidy has suicidal tendencies?" Shaw asks, incredulous. "That doesn't make sense. She doesn't even have a shadow. You know what Silva calls her? Little Miss Sunshine."

"She wouldn't get along so well with us if she didn't have a little bit of darkness in her." His mouth is a thin line. "I think she's just better at hiding it than both of us."

They continue driving for several more moments in silence. Then Shaw jerks the wheel, swerving the car around into a U-turn.

"Ow! What are you doing, Shaw? The Number —"

Shaw continues driving back toward Queens. "We protect her first. Even if it risks a Number. That's non-negotiable," she reminds him.

He'd mandated that when Elena had joined Team Machine. He nods.

He subtly checks his seatbelt. "Take us home, Shaw."

They can't find Elena.

Not that Reese needs to know where she is every second of every day. He only checks her phone's GPS when she's on a temp job for the Machine and playing the straight-haired Ms. Clark. Her hair had been decidedly wavy this morning.

But he's already called her three times, texted her five, and even checked with Casey, who told them Elena hadn't come in to work that day.

To say he's worried would be an understatement.

"Okay, this is Cassidy," Shaw stresses. They're standing in the middle of his and Elena's bedroom. Her phone's on her bedside table, but she's nowhere in the house. "There's no way she can evade us."

"Well, clearly she has," Reese snaps back. In addition to her phone, the bugged gun Shaw had given her is also on the bedside table.

"Damn. How'd she know?"

"Elena always knows. She just ... indulges us." He strides out of the room and jerks his head for Shaw to follow. "Come on, maybe we can shake something out of the Police Academy Rejects."

"We won't have to shake very hard," Shaw says derisively as she follows in his wake. "So what is this darkness of Cassidy's all about?"

"When her dad died, she ..."

She runs straight into him when he stops short on the way past the living room.

"What the —?"

He steps toward the mantle and takes a closer look at the dates on Elena's father's framed memorial.

"Oh, El ..."

"That's today," Shaw realizes. "Why didn't she tell us?"

"Maybe because it was right in front of our faces this entire time. Come on. I think I know where she'll be."

"What do you think Dad would've thought about it all? The Machine and the Numbers?" Elena asks Lionel.

Fusco looks down at her and feels something tug at his heartstrings. She's sitting at the foot of her father's grave, where they've been drinking for a good part of the day. (Well, she's been drinking.) She's drowning in the folds of his coat that he'd put on her when the sun had gone down.

"Your dad was hopeless with computers. He wouldn't have understood any of it."

"I don't mean the tech," she shakes her head, slightly out of control. "I mean the whole saving people thing."

"He would have hated that you're involved," Fusco says bluntly. "He also would have hated that you married a pretty boy who wears too much hair gel, and a homicide detective to boot," he adds savagely. "But … he also would have been so damn proud of you, Ellie."

She gives him a wobbly smile and raises the bottle of bourbon she'd swiped from Shaw's stash before they left. When she tips her head back to take a swig, she nearly tips over completely.

"Whoa there." Fusco reaches out to keep her upright.

"Good thing you stopped drinking, Lionel, otherwise I'd have to plan out the lol — lolgist — lolgistics of this better —"

"Come on, Ellie," Fusco sighs as he lifts her to her feet and begins half carrying her to the car. "Gotta get you home before your old man gets me."

"Nah, if Dad was going to haunt you, he'd have started ages ago."

"Wasn't talking about that old man," Fusco mutters, stopping short when Reese and Shaw materialize before them.

"Wha-? Oh, Johnny!" Elena exclaims at the sight of him. She trips over to him, unwittingly interrupting whatever he had been about to say or do to Fusco when she nearly falls and he's forced to catch her. "You found me!"

All the worry of the day begins to dissipate at the sight of her safe and sound ... though far from sober.

Her eyes begin to glisten in the moonlight as she takes in his stern expression. "Oh ... I'm sorry." She looks around with wide eyes as if she's just noticed it's dark out. "I didn't realize it was so late."

"Or cold." He forces his hat on her and pops the collar of Fusco's coat around her neck. "Why didn't you tell us, El?" he asks softly.

"I just ... I don't know," she says honestly. "I should have. I just didn't want to bother you about it, I guess."

Shaw snorts. "Yeah, it was much less bother tracking you down to a cemetery in the dark and nearly giving old Reese here a heart attack."

Reese glares at Shaw, but his tone continues to be gentle. "Wouldn't have been a bother. We're in all the way, remember? But you gotta let us in, too."

She nods, chastened.

"Get in the car, El."

She's still looking up at him with those sad eyes, so he sneaks a wink at her. She smiles slightly and lets Shaw drag her to the car.

Reese looks down at Detective Cassidy's grave, paying his respects to the man who had raised Elena.

"Rest easy, sir," he says quietly, touching the edge of his headstone. "I'm watching over her now."

He turns and stops short at the sight of Fusco watching him a few yards away.

"He would've liked you," Fusco says as they walk back toward their cars. "He always had a thing for misfits, took them under his wing. And you watch over Ellie almost as closely as he did, which is saying something."

"Lionel."

Fusco pauses as he opens his car door.

"Thank you for taking care of her."

Fusco smiles. "Been doing it a long time before you burst onto the scene, Wonderboy. Couldn't stop if I tried."

Reese slides behind the wheel and looks into the backseat, where he can see a now sleeping Elena has pinned a reluctant Shaw in underneath her. Shaw tries to slide out but can't manage it, and gives up after a couple more tries.

"Just get us home, Reese," Shaw grumbles. "And if your wife throws up all over me, there will be hell to pay."

It's just the second time Shaw has referred to the little blue house in Queens as 'home'. But Reese keeps the observation to himself as he drives them all home.

[1] Hey, Eeyore
SHAW: Why are you here?
ROOT [morosely]: The Machine wanted me here.
SHAW: Hey, Eeyore. Where's the perky psycho? You're creeping me out.

— Prophets (s4e05)

[2] The "Ow/Baby" exchange is from Pretenders (s04e06), when Reese gets shot while protecting their Number, Walter Deng (aka Man in the Suit fanboy). Fusco is driving, hits a bump, Reese says "Ow" and Shaw snaps back with "baby."