Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team. Bolded sections are straight from the episodes.
QUEENSBRIDGE PARK
Chapter 16: after The Perfect Mark
"I stuck to the guy like glue," Laskey tells Carter proudly as they meet in the lobby of his apartment building. "This is everyone Simmons met with." He shows her a stack of photos.
"Thanks, kid. You did all right," Carter commends. "But you should know, it'll get harder out there. After these last few days, things are going to heat up. So you need to be prepared."
"When I got involved with HR, I thought it was about loyalty. I was wrong. It's about murder and greed."
"Well." Detective Terney walks into the lobby, gun drawn on them. Carter whips around, drawing her own weapon.
"Ain't that cozy?" Terney says as he slowly walks closer. "I should've known she'd turn you, rookie. The first time I saw you, I knew you were weak. So let me tell you how the world works now, kid. We kill her, or they kill us."
"That decision is going to be your last, Terney," Carter says.
Laskey goes for his gun, and Terney fires, striking the rookie in the chest.
"No!" Carter cries, firing and hitting Terney in his chest.
The photos Laskey was holding go flying as his body falls lifeless to the ground.
"Laskey?!" Carter says, keeping her gun and eyes on Terney, who had collapsed against the wall, gasping for breath.
When she gets no answer, she reaches down and puts two fingers on her partner's neck. No pulse. She shakes her head in dismay.
She stalks over to Terney and kicks his gun out of reach before crouching down in front of him.
"That much blood and you'll be dead in a minute, maybe two. Make 'em count? Who do you and Simmons report to? Who calls the shots?" She looks down at the scattered photos. "Is the answer in these pictures?" she asks. "Last chance, Terney! Be a cop!"
And as Terney takes his last breath, he places a bloody fingerprint over the photo of Alonzo Quinn, the mayor's chief of staff.
Three days later
Elena stands in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge. A minute later, a car drives up. After surveying their surroundings, Joss Carter exits the vehicle and walks over.
"Elena ..." she begins, taking in the younger woman's appearance. She's pale and wearing a rain-soaked black dress without a jacket despite the steady drizzle. "I'm so sorry about Laskey. Mike."
"Me, too," Elena whispers.
"It's my fault," Carter says regretfully. "I got him to turn on HR. He was helping me, but they found out. He tried to be a hero —"
"He was a hero," Elena corrects.
"He was," Carter agrees. "I'm sorry, Elena. I got you into this to save Mike, and now ..."
"And now you have to avenge him," Elena says, meeting Joss' eyes for the first time. "Along with Detective Beecher, and Lionel, and everyone HR has ever hurt or killed."
Carter nods resolutely. "Yes, I will." She sizes up Elena. She doesn't want to add to her troubles, but she needs to be told. "There's another reason I asked to meet. I know who the head of HR is."
Elena's eyes show some sign of life as they focus on Carter.
"It's your boss. Alonzo Quinn."
Elena's glad she already feels numb, otherwise she doesn't know how she would have reacted to that revelation.
"So you have to be extra careful, Elena," Carter stresses. "We're so close, but the stakes are so high. You have to keep going to work and acting like nothing has changed. Do you understand?"
Elena nods.
Carter glances around them again. They can't risk being spotted together. "I should go. Do you have a way home?"
"Yes," Elena says vaguely. She blinks when she realizes Carter is leaving. "And it wasn't your fault, Joss. It was already destroying Mike, what they made him do. You did save him."
Carter shakes her head. "Not enough."
Reese parks on the street by Queensbridge Park. The moment he opens the passenger side door, Bear is just a dark streak of fur headed straight for a bench overlooking the East River.
Or, more specifically, the lone figure sitting on the bench.
Reese follows at just a slightly slower pace.
She's been out there for at least twenty minutes, which was when he — well, her fiance — had realized she'd disappeared from the Laskey household, leaving her phone behind. While Parker had wasted time trying to find her whereabouts from the others at the Lesnichys' home, Reese had headed straight to the park.
Black doesn't suit her, Reese finds. It makes her look fragile and saps all the life from her.
Bear jumps up on the bench beside Elena, practically laying across her lap — trying to keep her warm, Reese realizes, even though she doesn't seem to realize she's soaking wet and cold. Elena strokes Bear's head absently as she stares blankly out at the river.
"Elena ..."
He doesn't know what to say. He's not yet supposed to know that her childhood friend is dead.
"What's wrong?" he finally asks, the words nearly sticking in his throat.
Elena nearly laughs at the sheer normalcy of the question. No, wait, she is laughing. The kind of crazy, hysterical laughter that deserves a good slap or shake to jolt her out of it.
A warm hand wrapping around her ice cold ones proves just as effective, an anchor in the hurricane that's threatening to tear her apart.
"I'm sorry," she gasps, locking eyes with the man now kneeling concernedly beside her. "I ... It's been a really long day."
It has. From the movements of her phone, she'd been up since 5 a.m. preparing for Laskey's funeral. She'd gone to the funeral home, then the church, the cemetery, the Lesnichy home, quietly helping anywhere and everywhere until she finally couldn't take it anymore and escaped.
She's trembling from cold, shock, and sheer exhaustion, and Reese has an overwhelming urge to bundle her up and hide her away in the safe house while he takes care of all her problems.
Instead, he bundles her up in his coat and sits down on her other side, shielding her from the wind coming off the river.
"My best friend's dead," she finally says, looking blankly out at the river again. "His funeral was this morning."
"I'm so sorry."
And he is. She can hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. The words are simple, but they sound more sincere than anything she's heard that day.
"He was a cop. I didn't talk to him for nearly a year after he entered the Academy. A whole year, just because I was angry. All that time wasted. Gone forever."
A shudder runs through her violent enough that he feels it. He looks at her. Tears are now running silently but unchecked down her cheeks, blending with the rain.
He doesn't know if he pulls her to him, or if she leans into him, or if it's a little bit of both. But the next thing he knows, she's curled into his side, and his arm is around her, holding her tight.
Holding her together.
"You can't stay out here, El," he says after a moment, feeling her shaking in his arms. "You're going to get sick."
"I don't care."
"I do."
Something in his tone pierces the haze surrounding her. It's that sincerity again. He means it.
She finds herself nodding, and then he's helping her stand, keeping his coat and his arm around her shoulders as he leads her out of the park.
Parker pulls up just as they reach the sidewalk.
"Lenie! Elena, thank God, I've been looking everywhere for you."
Reese feels a flash of irritation that Elena's fiance wouldn't think of checking the park first. She must catch something of what he's thinking in his expression, because she squeezes his arm placatingly as she removes it from her shoulders.
"I just needed some space," Elena explains to Ken. "I didn't expect it to start raining so hard. John happened to come by with Bear and lend me his coat."
Parker gives Reese a guarded look as he brings Elena her own jacket from the car.
"Thank you for looking out for my fiancee," he says stiffly, handing Reese's coat back to him. "It's been a hard day. Her friend —"
"I know," Reese cuts him off. "My condolences." His eyes soften as they meet Elena's one last time. "Take care of yourself, El."
With a whistle to Bear, he turns toward his car.
"Who is that guy?" Ken asks as he and Elena get into his silver Audi.
Elena leans her head on the window as she watches the suited figure walking away from them. "He's just ... John from the park. Our dogs are friends."
"Seems like he wants to be more than just friends with you."
"Can we ... not do this right now?" she requests tiredly.
Ken's expression softens as he looks at her exhausted, bedraggled form. He reaches over and takes her hand, raising it to his lips for a quick kiss. "Sure, Lane. Let's go home."
As Reese watches the silver coupe zip away, he suddenly remembers something the girlfriend of their latest Number had said. He doesn't know why he thinks of it now, but he ponders on the words as he starts his own car and drives away.
If you love something, set it free.
