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


QUEENSBRIDGE PARK

Chapter 62: after A More Perfect Union


Root and Finch move off the dance floor of the wedding they're crashing at an estate a couple of hours outside the city and join Reese at Table 7.

"Mr. Reese, where's Karen?" Finch asks about the bride's sister, who had hired killers to take out their Number, the photographer.

"She and her hired guns will be spending the night in the wine cellar," Reese explains before pulling an expensive-looking bottle from under the table and pouring generously into three tumblers.

"Where did you get that?" Finch inquires.

"Turns out the Turners have some top-shelf bourbon crashing their wine cellar."

"I'll drink to that," Root says.

They clink glasses and sip as they watch the unknowing family continuing to celebrate on the dance floor.

"Tomorrow their world crashes," Reese says. He shrugs. "We can give them tonight."

They smile as they watch Reese's date, the bride's other sister, take a shot with her mom, before her dad whisks his wife away for a last dance. The bride and groom are dancing in the middle of the floor, surrounded by friends and family but in a world all their own.

Reese, Finch, and Root's smiles slowly fade as they take in the sheer happiness and normalcy going on around them.

It's almost a relief when Finch's phone rings.

"Finch," Fusco's voice comes through on the call. "I found something."

Finch shares a look for foreboding with Reese and Root. "Oh, really, Detective?"

"Yeah, that new game in town? I think they're responsible for all those missing persons. If this is what you've been warning me about, you need to tell me what we're dealing with now!"

"Detective, please —"

"The demolition! Come on, we gotta go!"

"Demolition ...?" Finch stands abruptly as they hear loud explosions before the audio cuts out entirely. "We need to go. Now."

Reese strides out of the room to have the valet fetch his car — or fetch it himself if necessary. They leave Finch's, aka Uncle Ralph's, rented stationwagon behind, and no one is quite sure how Root got there in the first place anyway.

In a few minutes they're speeding down the interstate, headed back to the city.

"The detective isn't answering his phone," Finch frets, as his call goes to voicemail for the fourth time.

"He was with someone," Reese says as he accelerates around a truck. "He said 'we'. 'We gotta go'."

"Who would he have taken with him?" Finch demands. "We're all here. Who else would he have ...? Oh my." He takes in Reese's tense jawline as the speedometer inches closer to 100 mph. "Miss Cassidy," he realizes, dialing her number.


It's nearly midnight by the time Elena Cassidy and her crew finish their latest round of ultimate paintball. She and Adam had been paired up, and honestly it hadn't been at all awkward, as she had feared it might be.

"You look happy, Ellie," he says as they change out of their paint-spattered gear near the trunks of their cars.

"I am," she admits.

"Rooney?"

"Riley."

"Right."

She gives him a knowing smile. "And what's her name?"

"Marisa. And don't worry, she's not an old classmate that wants to kill you." He considers. "Not sure John doesn't want to kill me, though."

"He saved your life. He's not about to end it."

"Ah, but that was before I tried to steal his girl."

"No, that was before he made up his mind about a girl who was silly enough to wait around for him."

"Well, it all worked out in the end."

Elena's smile falters. "Adam, I really did enjoy our time together. And I hope you don't think I was just stringing you along —"

"I know, Ellie. And I don't blame you or him. It's not like I didn't know there was something between you two. The way you looked at each other sometimes ... that's what I want. Maybe with Marisa." He grins. "Maybe with the next girl."

"Whoever she is, she's going to be really lucky."

"And even though John can probably kill me a thousand different ways, that won't stop me from trying to kill him if he ever hurts you."

She smiles. "Thank you, Adam."

"See you next week, LE?"

"See you, Ace."

He's zipping away before she's even shifted her car into drive. Before she can follow suit, her phone beeps.

Elena frowns at the new app that had been downloaded to her homescreen. Dogtracker. A notification pops up.

Bear is nearby.

"Bear?"

She looks around the industrial park. She hears a very familiar bark, one she would know anywhere.

"Bear?!"

With another volley of barks, the canine comes racing straight out of a dilapidated building. She runs forward to meet him.

"What on earth are you doing here, boy?"

She is peering down the dark corridor he'd emerged from when a series of loud explosions sound from within, and a flying brick hits the side of her head before everything turns black.


She comes to about two minutes later. Bear is frantically licking her face.

"Bear, stop, I'm okay. Stil. Stil," she mutters, forcing herself into a sitting position. The world only swims for a minute. She wipes at her face, and her hand comes away with a little blood from near a tender spot at her temple.

Bear latches onto her sleeve and tugs her toward the collapsed tunnel.

"What's in there? We can't ..." Her eyes land on his leash, trailing in the dirt. Her mind's having a little trouble catching up. "Who's in there, Bear?"

A ringing sound reaches her ear, and it takes a few seconds for her to realize it's her phone. She feels around in the dirt and finds it, screen cracked but still working.

"H-Hello?"

"Oh, Miss Cassidy, thank goodness."

"H-Harold?"

"Are you all right? Is Detective Fusco —?"

"Lionel?" she repeats blankly. "Oh God, he's in there?" she realizes, trying to get to her feet. "Oh …" The world swims for a moment, and she sinks back to the ground.

"El." Only one person could say so much with a single syllable. It steadies her like nothing else could.

"John."

"Are you all right?"

"Y-yes, I think so," she says. "This — this building exploded, and I think Lionel's inside. Bear came running out ..."

"Where are you?"

"In Queens, at an industrial park. This app showed up on my phone — Dogtracker, I thought you added it — and it said Bear was nearby. He came running out of this tunnel in this abandoned warehouse-looking place, and it exploded, and I think Lionel's inside, and I've got to go make sure —"

"Elena."

She takes a deep breath to cut off her increasingly hysterical storytelling.

Come on, Cassidy, pull yourself together, says the voice in her head that sounds like Sameen.

"Are you carrying?" Reese asks.

"Yeah, my paintball gun, John! I'm not you!"

"There's a Glock under the passenger seat of your car. Go get it."

If she wasn't panicking and didn't have a throbbing headache, Elena would have had another snarky comment for that, but as it is, she simply runs over to her car and retrieves the gun.

"Okay, I've got it."

"Approach the entrance from an angle, as quietly as you can," John advises. "Pause for a moment once inside so your eyes can adjust to the darkness. Keep Bear with you. If anyone's there, he'll smell them before you can see them."

"I really don't think you can tell me how to do this over the phone," she whispers. "I'm going to have to put it down anyway."

"Don't hang up, just put it in your pocket."

Of course she wore clothes without pockets that day, so Elena sticks the phone in her bra and does as John instructed.

On the other end of the line, all they can hear are the muffled sounds of her moving and —

"What is that?" Root asks, as a rapid pounding rhythm comes across the phone's speaker.

Reese accelerates a little bit more, pushing the car past 100.

"Her heartbeat."


Bear gallantly takes the lead as he and Pretty Lady enter the half-collapsed tunnel. Elena follows as cautiously as possible, struggling to get firm footing amid all the debris. Though she'd done as John had said and given her eyes time to adjust, it's still nearly pitch black.

Somehow, she sees something moving up ahead.

A sharp, startled gasp escapes her, and on the other end of the line, something cracks in the vicinity of Reese's hand and the steering wheel.

"Freeze!" Elena yells in her best imitation of a bad cop show as she takes aim at the shadowy form.

"What the fuck? Ellie?"

"Lionel!"

Fusco groans as he half limps, half crawls a few more steps toward her as she rushes to make up the rest of the distance.

"Finch sent you?" he manages to say.

Despite her sheer relief at seeing Lionel alive and (somewhat) upright, she feels a bit of irritation at his surprise and tone. "Gee, thanks."

"You shouldn't be here!" Fusco exclaims, though his outburst seems to cost him, as he doubles up and wheezes. Some dust and dirt fall down from overhead.

"We've got to get out of here before the rest of this comes down," Elena says. "Come on, lean on me —"

"On you? I'll crush you!"

"So I guess I'll just leave you here then, huh?" Elena snaps. "You're the damsel in distress here, Lionel Patrick Fusco, so shut the fuck up, lean on me, and let me get you out of here!"

There's a moment of stunned silence, both from Fusco and the three listening on the other end of the line.

The corner of Reese's mouth twitches upward.

"You know," Root muses, "Little Miss Normal is really starting to grow on me."

They listen to the movements of Fusco presumably accepting Elena's help. After a few minutes of slow going, Elena, Fusco, and Bear finally emerge from the building.

"Okay, I'm calling an amb—"

"No! People are gonna ask questions."

"You need to go to a hospital, Lionel," Elena insists. "You're bleeding, you can barely move, you're having trouble breathing — this can't be fixed with a first-aid kit!"

Catching a glimpse of himself in the reflection of her car's window, Fusco has to agree with her. "All right, but we don't say anything about how this happened. I — I'm confused, and I called you, and you came to get me. End of story."

She doesn't think that's really going to work, but she merely helps him into her car and heads for the nearest hospital.

"Wonderboy let you come out here all alone?" Fusco asks.

"Wonderboy didn't let me come here at all," Elena replies tersely. "Oh, John!" she exclaims, remembering her phone. She fumbles for it. "Are you still there?"

"Always. Elena, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Fusco mutters.

"Lionel's conscious," she tells John. "And only bleeding all over my car a little bit. I'm taking him to St. Mary's."

"We'll meet you there."

After hanging up, Elena glances at Fusco, who looks to be on the verge of nodding off.

"Hey!" she says sharply. "Stay awake, Lionel. We're almost there."

"I'm awake, I'm awake," he insists, forcing his eyes open. "Where is your Wonderboyfriend anyway?"

"I don't know," she answers truthfully.

Fusco scoffs. "Figures."

On the interstate about 45 miles from the city, Reese's car continues to speed in the fast lane.

"Mr. Reese, perhaps you could ease off the gas, just a slight bit?" Finch suggests.

Reese looks down and sees the speedometer had moved well past 100. As he drops down to a more acceptable 90, Finch's fingers unclench from the door handle.


It's after official visiting hours, but that doesn't stop Root, Finch, and Reese from slipping into the hospital wing. They see Elena slumped on a chair outside of Lionel's room, Bear sitting at her feet, though he perks up as soon as he catches a whiff of the newcomers.

Elena blinks at their attire, from Reese's rumpled tuxedo, Finch's tweed suit, and Root's floor-length black dress, but sets aside her questions for the time being.

"Lionel's okay, or at least he's going to be. He has a concussion, a few cuts that needed stitches, a couple of cracked ribs, and bruises all over, but nothing terribly serious. Which is a miracle considering a tunnel basically collapsed on top of him. The doctors want to keep him here for a few days."

"Are you all right?" Reese asks, crossing to Elena's side and pushing aside her hair to better see the bandage at her temple.

She gives him a tired smile. "Yeah. Just a few bumps. Bear's fine, too," she says, reaching down to pat the canine.

"What happened, Miss Cassidy?"

She gives a calmer retelling of all that had happened since the Dogtracker app popped up on her phone.

"He wouldn't tell me more, but I think Lionel was investigating something that he shouldn't have in that tunnel." Elena frowns. "I'd never heard him talk like that before ... like he was scared. He wouldn't let me call an ambulance."

Reese and Finch glance at each other.

"May I see your phone, Miss Cassidy?" Finch asks, changing the subject. "I'd like to take a closer look at that app."

Elena reaches into her bra and pulls it out. To his credit, Finch only blushes a slight bit as he takes the phone from her. He retreats to one of the seats and begins tinkering with it, Root looking on curiously.

"So how exactly did you get these, Elena?" Reese asks, lifting her hand to inspect the bandage wrapped around her palm.

"Some debris — a brick, I think — got me here," she points at her forehead. "I dropped my phone and cut my hand when I was looking for it when you called."

He gives her a focused look. "Is that all?"

"I'm slightly deaf in my left ear right now, and the right one won't stop ringing."

Reese frowns. Two steps closer to the building, and she could have been back in a hospital bed like Fusco.

"Let me take you home, El. You should rest. I'll come back and watch over Lionel —"

Elena just gives him a look as she eases herself down into one of the chairs that line the hospital's hallway. Her slightly stiff movements tell him there are other bruises and aches making themselves known. The determined look in her eyes tells him it's no use insisting she leave.

He sits down beside her.

She rests her slightly throbbing head on his shoulder and exhales as she feels herself start to relax.

"You did good, El," he murmurs. "You saved Lionel."

She shivers, but it has nothing to do with the cold. "I don't think this is going to put him off whatever he was investigating, John. Lionel can be stubborn like that."

"I know. A stay in the hospital will keep him out of trouble for a day or two."

"And after that?"

"I'll think of something."

She looks disapproving and seems to want to pursue the subject further, so he changes it.

"How was paintball?"

Elena sighs. "Paintball was good, John," she answers evenly.

"Saunders there?"

"Yah." Elena winces at the forced nonchalance of her tone. "We ... were paired up tonight. We won."

"Hm," John grunts.

"Are you mad about me going to paintball or being paired up with Adam?"

"Both," he says truthfully.

"Well then, I suppose it's fair that he thinks you want to kill him." She rolls her eyes when he doesn't dispute it. "He's dating someone new."

"Hopefully she doesn't want to kill you."

"Funny, he made the same joke." She sits up straight so she can look at him. "And I'm not ... going to stop playing paintball or seeing Adam just because we're ..." she waves vaguely at the space between them, "whatever we are. They're my friends, and I think Adam and I can be pretty good friends, too, once this awkward breakup stage is over."

Reese isn't thrilled about it, but he nods. "Okay."

"So how was ... the event, James Bond?" she asks, reaching out to flick at his bowtie. "Well, if you can ask about my evening, surely I can ask about yours?" she argues, when he simply gives her a Look. "Gala?"

He shakes his head.

"Wedding?"

He nods.

"A wedding that you crashed?"

"No, I was invited." He loosens the bowtie and unbuttons the top button of his shirt.

"It wasn't your wedding, was it, John?" she teases.

He gives her an affronted look. "Of course not. I'm already married."

Elena freezes. "What?"

"We're married, El. Remember?"

She rolls her eyes, but she still doesn't have a good enough poker face to hide her relief that he doesn't have a secret wife stashed somewhere. "Oh, yeah."

She knows he's just teasing her to distract them from worrying about Lionel, and she thinks she just might love him for it.


A few minutes later, Elena's fallen asleep, wrapped up in Reese's dinner jacket and using his leg as a pillow. Finch quietly crosses the hallway and sits down on Reese's other side. Root has disappeared.

"The app Miss Cassidy found on her phone?" he says in a low voice. "I believe I know who put it there."

He holds up the shattered screen, where despite the cracks they can see the Dogtracker app right next to Elena's Thornhill Services app.

"The Machine."