Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team. Bolded sections are straight from the episodes.
QUEENSBRIDGE PARK
Chapter 18: end of, after The Crossing
When Elena Cassidy arrives at work the next morning, all of City Hall is in turmoil. News trucks line the street. Reporters crowd around a bouquet of microphones set up on the steps. Inside, staffers mill frantically in the hallways.
"Didn't you hear? It's all over the news."
"Alonzo Quinn's been arrested."
"They're saying he's the head of HR!"
"Oh my God, do you think the FBI will question all of us?"
Elena's growing elation at realizing Joss had succeeded is beaten back by a wave of anxiety. She'd never thought to ask what would happen after.
She and most of the other employees in the chief of staff's office are sent to sit in a conference room. But though some of her co-workers are taken out for questioning by official-looking people, Elena's isn't. The only person who talks to her all day is a harried-looking assistant who takes down her name, her position, and her cellphone number.
Finally, they're all sent home and told they would get a call if they're wanted for further questioning. On her way out, she catches sight of Ken amid a knot of other aides. She can see how worried he looks, his usually perfectly coiffed hair sticking up in all directions from all the times he's run his hands through it.
"Ken!" she calls out, ducking out of the stream of people to reach his side. "Aren't you being sent home, too?"
Ken looks up, but he's already being pulled into another meeting. "Sorry, Lane," he says, stopping in the doorway. "I think I'm going to be stuck here for a while."
"But you're just an aide," she says, confused. "Why —?"
"I think the mayor needs everyone he can trust right now. Coming, sir!" he calls over his shoulder as the mayor barks his name. He gives Elena a weak smile. "I'll see you later, okay? Don't worry."
And he's gone before she can reply.
Elena races home, or as quickly as she can in the middle of rush hour. During the agonizingly slow train ride, she scrolls through the news reports, which are updating every minute with new names of people being arrested for working with HR. They're all names she's seen before, in the mountain of evidence Joss had collected.
The instant she steps foot in her house, Bailey comes running to greet her, but for the first time in his memory, his mistress doesn't pay any attention to him. She goes straight up to her bedroom, and nearly has a heart attack when she sees the basket of evidence is gone.
She panics for a full minute before the burner phone Joss had given her beeps with a text.
Took the dirty laundry off your hands.
"Oh my God, oh my God, thank God," Elena breathes, sinking weakly to the floor of her closet.
And she thinks maybe she's not cut out for this kind of excitement.
Elena doesn't hear from anyone for the next 36 hours. Not Joss. Not the FBI. Not even Ken. She imagines he's hunkered down in the mayor's office as they try to weather the media and PR firestorm.
Her only companions are Bailey, a perpetually brewing pot of coffee, and the news.
Then, as the sun is setting the day after Quinn's arrest, she gets another text on her burner phone.
Want to meet your superheroes?
9:30 p.m.
Outside 3rd precinct.
"Got your man locked up, Carter," Reese says as he follows her out of the 3rd Precinct, where she had just sprung him from jail. He'd gotten arrested while helping Carter bring Quinn to the feds. "Must feel good."
"Not all of them. Still haven't been able to locate our pal Simmons."
"Can't hide forever. We'll get him." Reese takes the evidence bag of his effects from Carter, but it's a little light. "All right, where's my weapon?" he demands.
"John Doe didn't have a permit," Carter says almost gleefully. "Your gun's property of the NYPD now."
"Time I got some new hardware," Reese smirks.
As they stand on the corner outside the precinct, a black sedan parks at the curb across the street.
"Looks like your ride is here," Carter says, as Finch gets out of the car. "Guess we were all worried about you."
"If my Number was up, I'm just glad I was with you," Reese says honestly.
A ringing sound from across the street catches their attention, and they both look over as Finch pauses near a payphone.
"No one I'd rather be with at the end," Reese adds, giving Carter a rare smile. Even rarer, she smiles back.
"Your time's up," an all-too-familiar voice calls out from the shadows. "Told you I'd end you!" Simmons declares before shooting Reese twice, once in the shoulder and once in the side.
"No, not today!" Carter yells, managing to shoot Simmons in the shoulder before one of his bullets catches her right in the middle of the chest.
Clutching his shoulder, Simmons retreats back into the shadows and staggers away.
A block away, he pushes past Elena Cassidy as she's coming out of the train station.
She gasps in recognition before she can stop herself, and despite his haste to get away, he pauses, too, unable to place the girl's face but knowing he's seen it before. Then he's gone, pushing through a cluster of other commuters and disappearing.
Elena looks in the direction he'd come from, and then her footsteps are pounding on the sidewalk as she runs to the two figures lying on the street corner.
She stops short just behind them. John doesn't even react to her arrival as he cradles Joss, his shoulders shaking with near-silent sobs.
The world tilts, and Elena catches herself on the sidewalk as she falls to her knees next to them.
"Jo ... Jo ..." she doesn't know if she's trying to say John's name or Joss'. "W-We have to ... oh God ..."
John looks at her blankly. Her gaze is fixated on the too-still form of Joss Carter.
"Help ... we need to get help," Elena says in a strangled voice since all the air has disappeared from her lungs. She looks around wildly and forces herself to take in big gulp of air. "Hel—!"
"Miss Cassidy!" Harold's urgent voice is accompanied by a hurried, uneven gait. "Please don't!"
"Harold! But we have to — Joss —" she looks up at him helplessly.
His eyes widen at her use of Carter's first name, but he pushes it aside. "I know this makes no sense, Miss Cassidy, but we have to go now. Please help me get John to the car. John? John, look at me." John's blank gaze shifts to Harold, and Elena is struck by the completely lost, untethered look in his eyes. "You have to let her go," Harold says firmly. "We have to leave before they catch us."
John's arms tighten around Joss. "I can't ... I can't ..."
"You have to, John! They can't find us here!" Harold insists, more sharply. He reaches out to take John's arm, and such breathtaking fury flashes in John's eyes that Elena is sure he's about to strike Harold.
Elena reaches out as a reflex, though she knows she's physically no match for John, even injured as he is. He freezes at her touch.
"John." She doesn't know what else she is going to say, but his name, coming from her, in that moment, seems to be enough.
He allows them to move Joss from his arms and lay her on the sidewalk. Holding John up on either side, they make it to Harold's car and are pulling away just as police officers begin to flood out of the 3rd Precinct. Kneeling on the backseat next to John, holding him in place as he slumps unconscious, Elena can't tear her eyes away from the scene as they speed away.
"We need to bring him to a hospital," she says, her voice seeming to come from far away. The entire right side of John's shirt is slick with blood.
"No hospitals," Harold says tersely, dialing a number on his phone. "We need to avoid all official venues. Dr. Tillman, can you meet us at the safehouse right now? John's been injured."
Shaw jerks open the door of the safehouse. She stops short at the sight of a nearly unconscious Reese propped up between Finch and the woman from the park.
"What the hell is she doing here?" she demands.
"Miss Shaw, please. Help us get John inside."
Sam, as Elena knows her, is way stronger than she looks. Despite standing a foot shorter than John, she more or less maneuvers him single-handedly toward a hospital bed that's been set up at the far end of what's otherwise a stylish loft.
She expertly cuts open John's shirt, exposing his wounds, while Harold begins hooking John up to various monitors.
Elena stares. "Shouldn't a doctor —?"
"I know things are terribly confusing, Miss Cassidy," Harold says distractedly. "I will try to explain once John is stable. Miss Shaw used to be a doctor, but another doctor is on her way."
"The wound on his shoulder is fine, but this one's bad," Shaw mutters as she looks at John's side. "Tillman will have to deal with this. What the hell happened, Harold?"
Finch's face is ashen as he finally meets Shaw's eyes. "Simmons ambushed John and Detective Carter outside the 3rd Precinct." His voice has a hollow tone to it. "Detective Carter is dead."
"What?" Shaw says in disbelief, her movements stilling. "Why didn't the Ma— why didn't we know?" she demands in a low voice.
"I don't know."
Elena retreats to a far corner of the loft while the doctor, Harold, and Sam are busy with John. There's an odd numbness surrounding her, keeping all other feelings and thoughts at bay.
"Are you all right?"
Elena blinks. The doctor is standing in front of her, looking at her in concern.
"J-John ... is he ...?"
"He's stable for now," the doctor says. "I'm a little worried about you, though."
Elena looks down and sees her hands are still covered in blood. John's, and probably Joss' as well.
"Oh, yes, I'm ... it's not mine. I should probably ... go wash up."
"The bathroom is through there," Finch intervenes, pointing her in the right direction. He looks exhausted.
"Shaw should be able to handle things now that he's stable," Tillman tells Finch. "Just keep him under and resting as long as you can. And make sure you get her something to drink or eat." She gives him a critical look. "You as well, Harold."
Elena stares at the pale face in the mirror as she stands at the sink, letting the warm water run over her cold hands. She'd scrubbed the skin clean and nearly raw in some places.
What is she still doing here? She suddenly has an overwhelming desire to run, to get as far away as possible from this place. She's just started looking for a window (there's none) when a loud pounding rattles the door.
"Hey, you drown in there?"
"C-coming."
When she steps out of the bathroom, the doctor is gone, and Harold is sitting expectantly at the dining table while Sam stands like a guard between him and John's bed. There's a fresh pot of tea on the table and an unopened package of cookies.
"I want to thank you for your patience and resilience through all this, Miss Cassidy," Harold begins. "I imagine you have some questions. I have some of those for you as well." He gestures to the chair to his left. "If you would."
As Elena lowers herself into the chair, Bear finally takes a break from his vigil at Tall Man's side to nudge Pretty Lady and see if she's hiding Bailey somewhere.
"Hi, Bear," she whispers, running a hand through his fur, which feels so warm compared to the cold she feels. "Sorry, boy. Bailey's not here." With a low whine, Bear quickly returns to Tall Man's side. Hammer Lady glares at him.
"Damn," Shaw mutters, disappointed the doggie playdate story Finch had told her was true.
"This is Miss Shaw," Harold introduces. "She's ... an associate of mine and John's."
"Sam, right?" Elena asks.
"Sameen, actually," she corrects, ignoring the look Finch is giving her. "I prefer just 'Shaw', though."
"And I prefer Elena, though Mr. Wren seems to prefer 'Miss Cassidy'."
"Mr. Wren," Shaw repeats dryly. "Right."
"And ... Detective Carter?" Finch spreads his hands out on the table, steadying himself as he forces himself to say her name. "Why do — Why did you know her as 'Joss'?"
Elena stares at Harold, trying to decide what to tell him. She feels so out of her depth here. But Joss had said she could trust them.
Oh God, Joss ...
"She told me you and John help people in trouble, and that I should go to you for help if I ever needed it." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the card Joss had given her with the safehouse address on it. "This is the place, isn't it?"
Finch hides his surprise as he takes the card and recognizes Carter's handwriting. If Joss Carter had trusted Elena Cassidy, he reasons, he's inclined to trust her, too. He considers briefly what John would say, and knows that John would trust her in a heartbeat. He'd always had a strange ... affinity for Miss Cassidy.
"We — that is, John, Miss Shaw and I — try to help people who are in trouble," he corrects. "We don't always succeed," he adds quietly.
"But you're not police? Or ... some other authority? FBI?"
Shaw snorts.
"No," Finch admits. "But we have friends on the police force. Detective Carter. And your own friend, Detective Fusco."
"You know Lionel?"
"Yeah, he loves doughnuts, falafel, the sound of his own voice." Shaw steps up to the table and looms intimidatingly. "Now Mr. Wren has answered your questions. Time to answer his. How did you know Carter?"
"I helped her collect some evidence against HR."
"What? Come on," Shaw scoffs.
"I find it difficult to believe that Detective Carter would involve you in something that dangerous," Finch says more diplomatically. "She was very adamant about doing it all on her own."
"And she did. All I did was take some files from City Hall, where I work, and help her organize what she'd collected."
"Why you?" Shaw demands.
Funny, she'd asked Joss the same thing when they'd first met. So Elena tells them what Joss had told her about Lionel and Mike, about the rumors about her dad's death, about spying on Mike for Joss, and the night he came to her and confessed everything, about the last time she'd seen Joss when she'd dropped off the evidence for safekeeping.
"I just ... wanted to help," she says in conclusion. "Do something important for once." She makes a hopeless gesture. "But I don't think it helped in the end."
Finch sits back, digesting the deluge of information. Friendly, normal, non-anomalous Elena Cassidy caught up in all of this? Reese had been correct in his suspicions that she was mixed up in something dangerous. But Carter had managed to shield her from HR, so the Machine had never given them her Number.
He removes his glasses. "One final question, Miss Cassidy. Why were you outside the 3rd Precinct this evening?"
Was it only earlier that evening that she'd been on the train, nearly giddy with excitement, looking forward to congratulating Joss on her takedown of HR? And possibly just a little more excited at the prospect of surprising John and Harold with how mysterious and sophisticated she could be, too?
"Joss was going to introduce me to a couple of her friends," Elena says. "I only knew them as John and Harold from the park, but turns out they're some sort of superheroes." She takes out the burner phone from her pocket and opens the last text Joss had sent her before sliding it over to Harold.
"'Superhero' is not the term we use," Finch begins, but Shaw snorts again. "It's not the term I use," he amends.
"I prefer the term 'vigilante'," Shaw says, pulling out a gun from ... somewhere, and cocking it. "And it's time for me to go after Simmons."
"Miss Shaw —"
"I saw him," Elena remembers. "He bumped into me when he was running from the precinct."
Harold looks at her in dismay. "Does he know you? Would he recognize you?"
"No! I ..." She reconsiders. "I don't know. Maybe. He was at City Hall sometimes when the mayor needed a security detail. But no one ever pays attention to me, I'm just a receptionist."
Finch looks at Shaw, who's rolling her eyes in disbelief at Elena's naïveté.
"I ... I need to take Bear for a walk," Finch decides, calling the dog to him.
"And I need to go find Simmons," Shaw reiterates.
"No, Miss Shaw!" Finch says sharply. "You need to stay here with John."
"John's fine, Harold. But Carter's killer is running free out there —"
As if on cue, one of the monitors Reese is hooked up to begins to beep alarmingly. With a growl of frustration, Shaw puts the safety back on her gun and tucks it into the waistband of her pants as she goes to Reese's side. After a tense moment, during which Shaw mutters curses under her breath while injecting something into his IV, the monitor quiets once more.
"You've got shit timing, John," she tells the unconscious man before turning to face Finch. "Fine, Harold, but I'm not going to play nursemaid forever. Go walk Bear, I'll stay. For now," she adds, stalking over to the table and ripping open the package of cookies.
"I can walk Bear," Elena volunteers. "And then, I really need to go home. Bailey —"
"No, Miss Cassidy!" Harold says sharply. "You must stay here a little while longer," he adds in a more gentle but firm tone.
She looks at him in confusion. "Are you ... keeping me here?" she asks, trying and failing to keep her voice steady.
"Oh boy," Shaw mutters. If Finch leaves her here with a hysterical woman, she's going to have to take drastic action.
"As Detective Carter told you, we help people who are in trouble. I want to make sure you're not in trouble before you leave. If Officer Simmons did recognize you ..." he trails off. "He's a desperate man. He could do desperate things."
"More desperate than killing an NYPD detective in front of a police station?" Shaw questions skeptically.
"And what if he did recognize me?" Elena asks, and even she thinks she sounds a tad hysterical. "You're going to, what? Keep me locked up here? I ... I have a life —"
"Yeah, we're trying to make sure you don't lose that life, Cassidy," Shaw says bluntly.
"If you are in danger, then ... you will have to stay here until we neutralize the threat," Finch decides. "And I'll fetch Bailey from your house myself, Miss Cassidy." Bear barks in agreement.
"How will you know whether or not I'm in danger?" Elena asks desperately. "You didn't know about Joss!"
Harold pauses for a moment before he opens the door and walks out, without answering.
Elena turns to look at Shaw. "So what happens if I try to leave?"
Shaw takes out her gun again and points it at her. "You wanna try?"
"Parker."
"Sir!" The mayor's aide sounds surprised as he opens the door of his penthouse condo — and not a little fearful, Simmons notes in satisfaction as he shoulders his way in without invitation. "I thought you'd be out of the city by now."
"I got Carter and the Suit. I'm gonna need money and help getting out of the country, Parker." He sits at the sprawling kitchen counter.
"I don't think that will be possible, boss. They're watching all of us like hawks." Parker clears his throat. "With all due respect, sir, the game is up. There is no more HR."
"HR exists as long as its members are loyal to each other." Simmons narrows his eyes. "Are you still loyal, Parker?"
"I don't know what you think I can do."
"You're going to give me enough cash to get everything I need to get out of the country, and then you're gonna get me out of the country on your family's plane, just like we've always agreed on. Otherwise, your little snitch of a girlfriend is going to get the same as Carter."
"What?"
"You heard me."
"What the hell are you talking about, Simmons?" Parker looks angry, almost like he's finally grown a spine. He takes a step toward HR's second-in-command. "Lenie has nothing to do with any of this. She never has."
"Lenie. That's right," Simmons muses. "Elena Cassidy, Tommy Cassidy's daughter. Her old man was a snitch, too."
"Simmons, you're way out of line —"
"Then what was she doing meeting Carter and the Suit outside the 3rd Precinct tonight?"
Elena starts as her other phone, her real phone, vibrates. She pulls it out, and sees Ken's name and a silly picture of him she'd taken years ago pop up on her screen.
She looks at Shaw. "Can I answer this? It's my fiance."
Shaw shrugs. "Harold didn't say you couldn't. Just be careful what you say or ..." She pats her gun.
"Ken." She says his name as soon as she accepts the call, and finds she's scarily close to crying. "I'm so glad you called. How is everything? How's the mayor? Have you been working all this time?"
"Yeah, it's a shitstorm, Lane. The feds have been hammering everyone in the office for two days straight. This is going to ruin so many lives, so many careers."
Elena blinks. "Careers?" she repeats. "Ken, surely there are more important things at stake here? HR wasn't just ruining lives, they were taking them."
There's a moment of silence on the other end of the line. "You know, some of the evidence the feds have on Quinn only could have come from someone in his office. And I have this really wild theory that you had something to do with it, Elena. But that'd be crazy, right?"
Elena's mind goes blank. She doesn't know what on earth to say.
"K-Ken ..."
"Oh, God, Lenie, what have you done?"
"What I thought was the right thing to do."
"What about my career? You ever think of that?"
"What about your career?" she demands. "You don't even work in Quinn's office, Ken! This is so much more important than our jobs, but if anyone should be worried about their career, I'm —"
"You're just a receptionist! You can be a receptionist anywhere!"
"And you're just an aide! You can be anyone else's aide!"
"Not when it comes out that I work for HR!"
The world grinds to a halt. Elena can't seem to catch her breath.
"Wh-what? Ken, no. You can't ... You're just an aide to the mayor ... a 'glorified chauffeur', you've said it yourself —"
"And just like no one ever suspects the pretty secretary, no one ever suspects the good-looking aide."
"Ken ... what ..."
She can't breathe ... can't think ...
She hears him take a deep breath. "It's okay, babe. I'm going to make it right, okay?" He sounds like he's trying to convince himself. "I'm going to fix this. I love you, Lenie."
"Ken? What do you mean by that? Ken!"
Ken Parker presses the 'end call' button on his phone, which is laying on the counter between him and Simmons, who had heard every word since the call had been on speaker.
"What'd I tell you?" Simmons says smugly. "Now, are you going to help me end this?"
Ken stares at his phone for a long moment before he finally looks up and meets Simmons' hard eyes.
"Okay. You've got a deal."
And as Finch and Bear walk back toward the safehouse, the payphone nearest to them begins to ring.
A/Ns:
Dr. Tilmman is the person of interest in Cura Te Ipsum (s1e04).
"Hammer Lady" comes from Bear's ( BeardeHond) tweets, though technically Shaw's hammer quote doesn't happen for a few more episodes (Lethe, s3e12).
Finch: We need an escape route, but you have to be careful. I urge you to consider what Mr. Reese would do.
Shaw: Brood?
Finch: As you've said, you're a hammer. Mr. Reese is a scalpel. This requires a bit more finesse.
Shaw: Well, I got finesse coming out of my ass, Harold.
Then, later:
Finch: This plan feels rather reckless.
Shaw: There's a time for a scalpel and a time for a hammer. It's hammer time.
