Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team. Bolded sections are straight from the episodes.
QUEENSBRIDGE PARK
Chapter 21: end of Aletheia
As he parks his cruiser on Elena Cassidy's street, Lionel Fusco glances down one more time at the key Carter had given him before she went to arrest the head of HR. He hadn't known it then, but it was the last time he saw his partner alive.
He'd forgotten all about the key until he noticed it lying on the top of his dresser that morning, when he'd finally gotten home after chasing Wonderboy across the country and then racing back to New York with him to save Finch and Shaw.
Walking up to the Cassidy residence, Fusco catches sight of a dark car parked across the street. And a familiar profile sitting in the driver's seat. He rolls his eyes as he raps on the house's front door. It had taken him days to find Reese out West. Now he couldn't be rid of him, it seems.
Lee opens the door. "Dad!"
Lionel can't remember the last time his 11-year-old greeted him with a hug, but he's not complaining. Lee had bounced back admirably after an HR hitman had almost killed him, but things like this show the incident isn't yet completely forgotten.
The weeks after Carter's death and the fall of HR had been a whirlwind of questioning, making statements, being hounded by the press, and then tracking down Reese to Colorado. But now that they're all back in the city, maybe he can enjoy some time with his son.
"Hi, Li — oh my God, what happened to you?" Elena asks, taking in the bruises across his face, courtesy of a fistfight he and Reese had behind the backwoods bar in Colorado.
"Why don't you go wait in the car?" Lionel suggests to Lee. "I want to talk to Ellie for a minute."
"Okay," Lee says slowly, gathering up his schoolbag. Elena gives him an encouraging smile when he looks questioningly at them, but it disappears as soon as Lee is out the door.
"Lionel ..." Elena begins.
"He'll be fine. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Fearsome is outside haunting your street."
Elena resists the urge to look out her window, but her heart beats a little quicker at the knowledge. "What's this about, then?"
"So you know who I'm talking about, then," Lionel says grimly.
Elena blinks. It had slipped her mind completely that Lionel isn't supposed to know that she knows John. Or Harold. Or Sameen. Though Lionel had been vague about his reasons for leaving Lee with her for the past few days, Harold had told her Lionel was searching for John. She thinks maybe she's not cut out for all this subterfuge.
"You were always a better detective than you let on, Lionel," Elena sighs. "John's a ... friend."
"Yeah? Well, you're going to explain exactly how you became friends in a minute. Something else I want to know first." Lionel removes a chain from around his neck. "Do you know what this is?" he demands, holding up the key attached to it. "My partner Carter gave it to me. A key to a safe deposit box in Hoboken, where she'd stashed all her evidence against a dangerous criminal organization. I went there just for kicks today. To pay my respects or something. And guess what I found?"
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a slip of paper. He shows her the letters printed on the Post-It in Joss' neat handwriting.
"EMC," he reads aloud. "I must've sat there for twenty minutes trying to figure out what the hell that could mean. A password? A code of some sort? And then you texted, asking what time I'd be by to pick up Lee."
Elena doesn't say anything, but she meets his gaze steadily.
"Elena Marie Cassidy, why were your initials in that safe deposit box?"
She forces herself to remain calm. "Joss was very clever. It was an extra layer of protection. If you were forced to give up the box, only you could've figured out that I actually had all the evidence."
"And why the hell did you have it?"
"I helped get a few files from City Hall. I helped sort and organize everything she collected."
"And all that bullshit Glasses fed me about Parker being the one who helped Carter?"
"Exactly what you called it: bullshit. But it saved Ken's reputation. And his family from humiliation."
"And how do you know who Wonderboy is out there? And Glasses? And —?"
"And Sameen?" Elena supplies. "Simmons figured out what I'd done. They said I was in trouble and kept me safe. But before all that? I just knew John and Harold from walking Bailey in the park."
Fusco scoffs. "Yeah, I bet it was as innocent as that."
She looks at him thoughtfully. "It only took you twenty minutes to figure out it was my initials? That's much quicker than I would've thought —"
"Are you fucking crazy, Ellie?!" Lionel explodes. Shocked, Elena inadvertently takes a step back. She can't remember Lionel ever swearing at her. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? HR killed people. I know, I worked for them. They killed Laskey, Carter. They nearly killed me. They nearly killed my son!"
"I understood the risk!" Elena exclaims. "Joss didn't hide that from me. She made it very clear from the start what was at stake! She gave me a lot of chances to walk away —"
"And you were stupid enough not to take them!"
"Fuck you, Lionel! I know I'm just a secretary, that I'm not a cop or some sort of vigilante, but you don't get to talk to me like that!"
"You are so fucking lucky you aren't dead!"
"You're the one who was fucking tortured by HR!"
"I'm a cop! I know what the job is!"
"You have an 11-year-old son! He had nightmares every night he was here! So don't give me this Lone Ranger bullshit, Lionel! You have others to think about. I don't have kids, I don't have a family. I don't —"
"Now you don't have a fiance!"
They stare at each other in shock. Elena feels like his words have driven all the air from her lungs.
"Oh God, Ellie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean —"
"Get out!" Elena yells. Well, she wants to yell. There's not enough air in her lungs, in the room, so it comes out like a gasp. "Get ... out."
She wants to throw something at him, but there's nothing at hand, so she just shoves him, pushing him toward the door.
"Ellie, please, I'm sorry," Lionel says helplessly, allowing her to hit him. "I didn't mean — It's not your fault —"
"Get out, just go," she says, shoving at him blindly since she's sobbing now. "Go!"
"Ellie —"
Lionel falls against what he thinks is the front door, until it moves and throws him out onto Elena's doorstep.
When he regains his balance, he sees Reese standing in the doorway, seeming to take up the entire space.
"Go, before I finish what you started in Colorado."
Fusco tries to look around him. "Ellie, I didn't ... c'mon, just let me —"
Reese takes a step toward him, but stops when Elena grabs the back of his jacket.
"Okay, okay, I'm going," Fusco says in defeat. "I'm sorry, Ellie. God, I'm sorry."
Reese watches him walk to his car and Lee start peppering his dad with questions while looking back at Ellie's house in concern. He can feel Elena shaking with near-silent sobs behind him, her forehead resting against his back.
He starts to turn, but she tightens her hold on his jacket.
"No, just ... stay there for a minute," she begs, because she doesn't think she can stand it if he sees her like this.
"Elena ..." He reaches back and covers her hand with his, but does as she asks.
Elena takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. She thought she'd cried all the tears she could possibly cry in the past few weeks.
"Okay, I'm fine now," she says in a surprisingly steady voice as she slips her hand from his and turns away.
Reese turns around, but he only sees her back as she walks farther into the house. He closes the front door behind him.
"Make yourself comfortable, I'll just be a minute," she calls out, disappearing into the bathroom.
He wanders aimlessly around her small living room, surveying the photos on the mantlepiece of her grandmother, the framed memorial of her father, a large portrait of a woman who could only be her mother since the resemblance is striking ... and Fusco, helping her blow out candles on a birthday cake.
"That was my twelfth birthday," Elena says, seeing which photo he is looking at.
He looks up and is startled by the transformation. Aside from a slight redness around her eyes, it doesn't look like she'd been sobbing just a few moments ago. And he wonders how much practice she's had hiding her tears.
"Fusco shouldn't have spoken to you like that."
She gives him an appraising look. "But you agree with him, don't you?"
"That was extremely dangerous, Elena." It still hurts to say Joss' name, but he says it anyway. "Carter shouldn't have involved you."
"She didn't want to at first, but I convinced her." There's just a hint of smugness in her tone.
"Very few people could convince Carter to do something she didn't already want to do."
"Well, it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"
"Not for everyone," he says darkly.
"No," she agrees. "Not for Joss. Or Mikey. Or Ken."
He feels a surge guilt. "Elena ..."
"But it worked out for Lionel. He just won't ever talk to me again."
"He'll be back tomorrow begging for forgiveness. Just don't make it too easy for him."
She looks at him thoughtfully. "I suppose you won't be around to throw him out then?" She smiles tightly. "Your wardrobe makes it too easy to guess your plans, John," she chides, glancing at his leather jacket and jeans. "Where are you off to this time, Man Not in a Suit?"
"I haven't decided yet," he admits.
She nods. "That sounds about right."
"Why don't you come with me?"
The offer is a surprise to both of them. But Reese doesn't take it back.
Oh, the places he could show her.
And Elena lets herself dream about it for a minute. But that's all it is, a dream.
"I don't think that's what we need right now," she says carefully.
The instant she says it, he knows it's true. That doesn't stop him from feeling a twinge of disappointment. Well, what's one more in a life full of them?
"And what do we need, Elena?" he asks.
"I think ..." she takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I think if you're going to walk away from saving people," she says in that same careful tone, "you need to stop trying to save people. And you should start now. Clean break."
"I'm not trying to save you."
"Aren't you?" She looks at him wistfully. "If you've got a hero complex, then I'm a textbook damsel in distress. But you're hanging up your suit and I ... I need to save myself, I think. We can't do that if we're together, John."
John takes a few steps forward, erasing the space between them, and Elena Cassidy forgets how to breathe. He brings his hand to rest on the side of her neck, and she feels herself melt a little at the heat radiating from his touch.
They look into each other's eyes for a long time.
"Take care of yourself, El," he finally says.
"You too, John," she whispers.
And then he's gone, and if Elena spent the rest of the night crying, well, no one would have known.
Finch looks up as Reese walks into the Library.
"Ms. Groves picked the locks on the gate and disabled the ankle-bracelet sensors," he says, revealing what happened to their recent 'guest' at the Library. "I suppose the Machine told her where I'd hidden them." He stands up and moves around his table. "Welcome home."
Reese makes a revelation of his own. "I'm not staying."
Finch stops.
"I came back to protect you. You're someone the world can't afford to lose. But I lost a friend because of your Machine. We trust it blindly, but I'm not so sure he cares who matters and who doesn't. I came back to say goodbye, Finch."
"John, you can't go," Finch insists.
"I can't stay here," Reese responds, already walking away.
Finch limps after him, but by the time he gets to the hall, Reese is already gone.
