Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team. Bolded sections are straight from the episodes.


QUEENSBRIDGE PARK

Chapter 25: inter mission


A/N: RAM (s3e16) is the flashback episode when we learn that Finch (gasp!) hired someone else before Reese to help with the Numbers, so here's a John/Elena vignette not tied to any scene in particular.


"Elena." Reese answers on the first ring.

"John!" she trills brightly. "Hi! Oops. Sorry, mi scusi."

Reese frowns. There's confused movement on the other end of the line, as well as some irritated swearing in Italian in the noisy background.

The noise fades as she continues to move, and he can hear her heels hitting cobblestones. She's out on a street, then.

"Elena, is everything okay?" he asks. She's never been the one to call him before.

"Yup!" she says. "Just heading home, thought we could do a walk and talk."

He glances at the time. It's 8 p.m. in New York, which means it's 2 a.m. in Rome.

"A bit late there. Are you all right?"

"Three limoncellos all right," she giggles. "I think I have a new favorite drink. You can keep your Manhattans, New York!"

"El —"

"You know, I was thinking, we never went and got a drink together. Isn't that strange? Well, maybe not so strange considering how strange whatever this is ... is."

"Elena —"

"What's your favorite drink, John? I'm thinking you're a whiskey kind of guy? Scotch rocks?"

"Elena —"

"Me? I'm a G&T girl, but really anything with gin —"

"Elena Marie Cassidy."

Elena falls silent at the use of her full name.

"Are you listening?"

"Yes," she answers meekly.

"Do you know where you are?'

"... I think so."

"Good. Head straight to your apartment now. Stay on the line with me, but watch out for —"

"Buona sera, bella signorina."

"Buona sera," Elena returns, but Reese can hear her continuing to walk, steps moving faster now.

"Perdoname, signorina —"

There's a scuffle on the other end of the line, some sort of struggle. In New York, Reese jumps to his feet, even though that's all he can do.

"Elena? Elena!"

He hears a groan, but it sounds male. He can hear hurrying footsteps and Elena's quickened breath as she runs.

"El! Is everything all right?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she breathes into the phone. "He's not," she adds a bit smugly. "And he probably won't be anytime soon."

"Where are you now?" he demands, seating himself at Finch's computer and pulling up their global mapping software.

"Um ..."

She finally finds a street sign and tells him, and he begins routing her back to her apartment.

"Just stay on the line, look around you," he instructs. "I'll get you home."

"You're like my own personal Siri, John," she muses. "Johnny!"

Despite his dismay at the situation, Reese feels the corner of his mouth twitch upward.

She gets back to the apartment without further incident. He makes sure she locks the door behind her, and only then does he start to relax.

"Thanks, Johnny," she says as she drops her purse with a thunk and kicks off her shoes. "Not quite the walk and talk I thought we were gonna have, but it worked out."

He's fairly certain he can hear her undressing, albeit clumsily, and he's glad Finch isn't around to see him blush.

He settles back in Finch's chair as he listens to her chatter as she goes about her nighttime routine. And he can't help but think how in another world, in another life, he might have been listening to her in person, just from the other room, the bedroom probably.

He hears her fall onto her bed next to her phone.

"Are you still there, John?" she asks, sounding sleepy now.

"Always," he answers automatically. "Did you drink some water?"

"... Yes."

She really is a terrible liar.

"Go drink some water, El."

"I'm tired."

"You'll thank me in the morning."

Grumbling, she does as she asks. He prods her into drinking a full glass, then makes her refill it and place it on her bedside table.

"John?" she asks with a yawn once she's lying back on her bed.

"Yes, El."

"Will you stay with me?" she whispers into the phone.

He listens to her breathing evening out and slowing down. And when he's fairly certain she's asleep, he answers.

"Always."