AN: Thank you guys for liking this AU! XOXO to the guests who left me a comment to encourage me as well. I can't thank you personally!
John, the homeless man, if that was his name, had used the money he stole to go on a shopping spree, and to get them a motel room for the night where no one asked any questions when you paid in cash. During his impromptu shopping spree he had purchased a variety of things like new clothes, a razor, a comb, some deodorant for them both because she forgot to pack some, and some new shoes for them both. The wad of cash John stole quickly dwindled and it left them enough for the motel room for the night and some food from the closest fast food chain around. The motel was in the rough section of town, hopefully not on Elias's radar, and Joss wouldn't admit aloud that she was thankful John was with her in this area.
He had let her use the bathroom first which she gratefully accepted. After relieving her tortured bladder and taking a long shower she actually felt human again. It was only hours of going on the run but it felt like a lifetime already. She hid her gun in her jacket by her so her suicidal companion couldn't find a use for it. Since exiting the bathroom John had been in it. He took a longer shower than her and she could understand why, he was a homeless man after all.
Joss put the old tube TV on just wanting the white noise to distract her from her worry over her situation. She had always wished to be pregnant but she never thought she would be while on the run from people who wanted to use her as a pawn in a deadly game of cat and mouse. She ate her generic burger and fries, starving, and the high fat content was ignored for once. She sat on her bed knowing that John would be taking the floor, which she felt bad for, but she wasn't sharing this bed with him.
As minutes ticked by and still no reappearance by her mysterious savior Joss moved to stand and threw away her trash in the basket under the little table near the equally small entertainment center that held the TV. All in all the motel room wasn't all that bad. It was a little dingy but nothing she couldn't handle, it even had a tiny kitchenette. And she'd seen worse. The sheets and comforter was washed and the towels in the bathroom were clean and fresh. There weren't any creepy crawlies in sight, and even the shower stall didn't have soap scum or mildew.
Joss sat back down on the edge of the bed, with frayed nerves, and waited for her homeless man to exit the motel room's bathroom. This was utterly crazy that she was relying on a perfect stranger to help her and her unborn son. Joss smiled as she looked down at her belly and rubbed it.
"I love you baby boy, we will be fine." she whispered sweetly to him. Joss hadn't wanted to learn the sex of the baby, wanted to be surprised, but her curiosity was too great to ignore and she finally broke down and learned the gender. She had been ecstatic to learn it was a boy and knew she'd name him Taylor. She always wanted a boy named Taylor, ever since she was old enough to know she wanted children.
The bathroom door opened, ceasing her thoughts and she gaped at her homeless man, John, as he came out. His dark hair that had a healthy sprinkling of silver in it was wet still but combed back away from his face, resting at his base of his neck, and in desperate need of a cut. But gone completely was the shaggy beard. They'd need to get him a haircut but with just cleaning up a bit, the people after them looking for a scraggly looking man with her were going to look past them because John looked like a damned model that just walked off a shoot rather than a hobo.
With the beard gone and his longish hair combed back John's bluest blue eyes with full thick lashes were on full display. Not to mention his sex appeal that had been hidden beneath the hair because he was damned good looking. He had strong facial features with high cheekbones, nice pink lips, long eyelashes, and an intensity to him that was quite sexy. Joss finally managed to stop staring at his gorgeous face to move down to his athletic body under jeans and a tee shirt which looked a little too lean. Muscle tone was evident still with the biceps bulging beneath the white shirt he was wearing, so he wasn't homeless for too long to lose muscle mass.
"You're staring," he remarked bluntly.
She couldn't help it. She worked her mouth before finally saying; "Can you blame me?—my frog became a prince in a span of a half hour." Probably the longest to take was shaving off that godforsaken woodsman beard he had.
His lips twisted up in a parody of a smile. "I suppose not," he admitted.
Joss decided to not become preoccupied with his good looks or the sheer torment that seemed to radiate off him. It seemed pain and despair just ebbed out of him, making her wonder if there was any way she could truly help him. "May I ask where you learned how to pick pocket like that?" she asked for a neutral topic to converse about.
"You tell me; you seem to know everything," he commented dryly.
Joss frowned. "I'm sorry I compared you to my ex. I don't know your story and I shouldn't jump to conclusions," she apologized softly. John shrugged as he sat down at the small table to eat his cold food. The silence that filled the room was unwanted. "So, where did you learn how to pick pocket like that?" she questioned again.
"The Army," he stated shortly.
She thinned her lips as getting answers from John was like pulling teeth. He seemed uncomfortable with conversation but she decided it was because of not being social in a while.
"Not from the regular Army," she said to further their conversation herself. He looked at her as he took a bite of his burger. "Is it still warm? There's a small microwave." she offered as she pointed to the small little kitchenette off just from the bathroom.
"It's fine; used to it."
So much for getting more of a response, but Joss wasn't giving up. "But as I was saying you weren't in the regular Army, you have to be Special Forces or Delta with the way you fought with ease. It was if you anticipated their moves before they did," she spoke her suspicions aloud to him.
John seemed to be interested in his food rather than answering her so she waited and waited until he was finished. When he was he looked at her and she eyed him expectantly he sighed. "I was Special Forces," he relented, but didn't offer anything further than that.
They lapsed into silence and she quietly observed him. "I'm sorry," she offered, knowing the words were hollow but she needed to offer him some solace. Whatever happened, whoever he had lost to make him feel as though his connection to the world was gone it was even more evident that it was slowly eating away at him, now seeing him fresh faced and clean.
"For what?"
"For whoever you lost, I'm sorry you did," she said softly.
A look of anguish flashed across his face before it was gone replaced with a cool mask of indifference. "And what makes you think I lost anyone?" he demanded with bite to his voice.
It was a question that didn't want to be answered, not with the way he asked it. Clearly he was telling her to back off now, but she felt that if she did she was only delaying him from his plans. "You lost your connection to the world, right? I'm assuming it's a woman that you loved," she murmured, taking note the way his jaw ticked. Yep, she got it on the first try. "But you should be asking yourself this: would she want you like this?"
"It's none of your concern…."
Joss sighed as he basically told her to cease and desist. Can't save someone who didn't want to be saved; she tried to with Paul and got egg on her face, did she really want to try again with a complete stranger? As she stared at John the answer was an emphatic yes.
"Now that we have eaten and cleaned up, care to explain to me what the hell is going on?" John asked.
She eyed him steadily. "So what's going on with me is your business but I can't know anything about you," she surmised testily.
He shrugged. "I'm not the one about to pop and have people after me," he remarked crudely.
Joss felt annoyed because he was right. "You make a valid point. Seeing as you're my only hope at escaping with my lack of speed I guess you deserve to know what you're up against."
"Look Joss, I'm not a knight in shining armor. To be perfectly honest I'm the complete opposite, and there's a part of me that doesn't want to get involved because I just want to drink and I really don't give a damn," he stated bluntly.
Joss stared at him. He wasn't a very good liar. Everything he said she believed up to the end; because his voice changed. Being an interrogator in the Army she had excelled at spotting lies and twisting people's words against them, until they told the truth one way or another. John's 'tell' wasn't huge, just slight, and someone less astute in the art of sniffing out a lie would have missed it, but he was lying through his teeth about not giving a damn. His voice lacked conviction towards the end of his statement; his voice started off strong and cold, but ended quiet and held a hint of confusion as if he didn't understand why he did care. He didn't want to give a damn, that she believed, but he did.
"I don't need anyone to slay my dragons for me, John, I do my own slaying," she assured coolly, not about to let him know she was onto him. She begun to strategize on how to save John and realized quickly you couldn't let him know he was being saved, which was going to be damned tricky. John was intelligent and sharp so she'd just have to be more clever and sneakier. He arched a brow and she saw a flicker of interest slip in his cool blue eyes. And she inwardly smiled as she hooked him.
"No?"
"No," she agreed. "If I wasn't almost nine months pregnant I wouldn't need your damn help. I've spent years relying on myself. I've trusted someone before and got slapped in the face for it. I was done with it so I turned to the only person that couldn't hurt me: myself. But I know I can't go it alone especially now, being super pregnant, I'm so big I can be seen from space, and because I don't know where I can turn too without Elias finding me," she stated tersely, speaking facts about herself to him. "But I can guarantee you this: that relying on your help is taking every single ounce of my willpower to suppress my pride. So this is me, swallowing my pride and asking you the unthinkable in helping me because I need it," she said through gritted teeth.
John recognized brutal honesty when he heard it and that was nothing short but the truth. And he begrudgingly admired her for it. "So what are we up against?" he asked quietly.
Joss didn't outwardly show a sign of relief that he was going to help her. She didn't want him to know how worried she was that she had nowhere to go especially not after just telling him how much she relied on herself.
"Paul," she began, and she realized she had called him her ex to John earlier. Well as soon as she could make it happen, he would be. "My ex-husband Paul was in the Army on the front lines so he saw a lot of action."
"…and came back a different man," John supplied.
"How did you know?"
A faint smile flickered on his lips. "What did you say?—oh, it was you likened me to your ex-husband after you told me that I came back a different man who couldn't find my place in society," he answered.
"I apologized didn't I?" she reminded with a heavy sigh. Well, so far, at least, John was nothing like Paul. "But yes, Paul came back a different man. I loved who he had been and couldn't come to love who he became," she admitted with sorrow.
"I'm sorry," he offered.
She shrugged. "I tried to help him but he didn't want it. I filed for separation and then suddenly he changed his mind and got help. Stupid me thought we turned a corner and could work things out," she spoke as if it happened to someone else. "Then I got my promotion."
"And he got jealous."
Joss nodded. "Yea, I found a life after the military and he couldn't so…"
John interrupted; "You're former military too?" he asked, suddenly alert.
She smiled at how interested he became. Before he was listening but the moment she said she was former military it seemed it had piqued his interest. "Yes. I was a Warrant Officer, first in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan before relocating to Iraq. I was at Camp Liberty in Baghdad until 04' as a Human Intelligence Collector and interrogator," she explained fondly. He nodded his head at the information. "I was medically discharged."
"Why?" he cut in again.
"A Marine that was escorting me stepped on a land mine turning himself into dust, but his body protected me mostly from the blast. My side got mangled by some shrapnel." she replied, noting his eyes softened as she relayed her story.
"You were lucky…."
Joss nodded her head in agreement. "I know. It was my closest call," she agreed. She conveniently left off about her night terrors. Survivor's guilt wasn't easy to live with but she had found healing and strength from within which had been a source of conflict between her and Paul. "But anyway, once I was promoted to homicide detective I—"
John once more cut in. "You're a cop now?" he questioned in surprise.
She laughed gently at the way he said it, like he was appalled. "Yea, I was going to be a lawyer but I found I loved solving crimes. But studying law certainly helps on cases," she admitted.
If only she knew the things he'd done then she wouldn't want his help. He was sure she would want to lock him up.
Joss felt the moment he learned she was a cop an insurmountable distance between them opened up, even though they sat in the same room. And she had a feeling she knew why. Most Special Forces men she knew were recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, if that was the case with John, who knew what division he worked in there. Joss heard rumors that certain divisions within the agency did things that weren't legal or moral for their country, but the government wouldn't take responsibility for. If they were caught doing it then all knowledge from the U.S. government would be denied, and the men would go down as the scapegoat. The government loved their plausible deniability.
"Anyway, Paul grew jealous that I created a life after being discharged while he struggled to hold onto a job longer than a month. We were separate people. I looked inward for peace and strength after my ordeal but Paul needed some help. He just needed someone to talk to but he wouldn't go seek that," she relayed, getting back to the topic at hand. She didn't want John to focus on her being a cop.
"What happened after that?"
"My stupidity did," she acknowledged. "Paul started coming home with an abundance of money. He'd buy these frivolous things and wouldn't tell me where he was getting the money or how. He just said he found a job he was good at. I tried to ask for more but he was secretive. But I told myself to be patient and he would talk to me. So I focused on trying to fix my broken marriage by making a date night."
"That led to your pregnancy…."
She nodded as her shoulders slumped. "We had a falling out." she admitted softly.
"Let me guess; bad sex," he guessed.
Joss laughed softly. "You could say that again. I realized as I lied with my husband as intimate as can be that I wasn't in love with him anymore. It was all gone, and Paul flipped out, called me a bunch of names, and left. I haven't seen him since."
John cursed. No man should treat any woman like that, especially a woman he supposedly loved. "I take it where he was getting the money was from less than scrupulous means."
Joss snorted derisively. "My partner and I were working a new homicide case of a prominent doctor when there were cameras that caught the act, and the culprit, and it was none other than Paul. He was selling his services to the highest bidder and became a hitman," she said with disgust. "My problem comes from the fact that Paul began hanging out with Carl Elias, a known mobster, and criminal mastermind, and double crossed him, which led to one of Elias's friend's death. One thing known about Elias is that he holds those close to him in the highest esteem. Well, Elias is looking for retribution but Paul went into hiding, like the coward he is, and look who they are after to lure him out."
"His pregnant ex-wife," John muttered, though the promise of danger thrilled him. He still hungered for the peace that the grave would give him but maybe before he gave into that desperate need he could do something good. He eyed her quietly. "You're in some big trouble, Joss."
She made a sound of agreement. "Don't I know it, wait until Elias realizes Paul doesn't care about me…I'll serve no use and he'll kill me and my unborn child," she said.
"Assuming that this Elias doesn't cut your baby out to lure Paul to him with it," John admitted, though immediately wishing he hadn't because pain exploded on Joss's delicate features before white hot rage.
"No one is touching my son," she declared fiercely. "I don't care about me but I'll do whatever I have to do to protect him."
"Son?—you know the gender?" he questioned. Though judging from the fact that she hounded him with questions, and she was a former interrogator, coupled with the fact that she was a detective, surely the curiosity was killing her. John watched as Joss lit up like a Christmas tree at the mention of her unborn child. Her hands instantly lovingly rubbed her belly.
"Yes, it's a boy." she acknowledged still rubbing her stomach before jumping, and holding her hands still making him watch her in concern.
"Are you and the baby okay?"
She smiled as she nodded. "Yes, he's just kicking…hard." she spoke softly as she felt her stomach. Joss looked up. "You want to feel?" she offered.
She nearly laughed aloud at the panic that crossed his handsome face as he shook his head in refusal. Yea, why feel an innocent life kicking against his mother's womb. Not when he wanted to remain unfeeling and keep detached from the world. But as John was going to save her, she was going to save him. It was an equal trade off so that way her pride could handle asking for this help.
AN: Thank you for reading!