On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…

Eight Ugly Sweaters

When Shaw asked her to go lend John some assistance, she hadn't known what to expect. But she hadn't expected to find John in the worst's ugliest Christmas sweater, pulling an unconscious man under the arms to his car, and decidedly handsome all the while doing so.

"What in the world are you wearing?" she asked, earning John's gaze as he looked up.

"Carter, what are you doing here?" he asked instead of answering her.

She shrugged. "Shaw said you could use some help, so I'm here," she said as she hurried over to John. "Who is this guy?"

"Our new number…"

She cocked a brow up as John dropped the man down rather abruptly. "Is he a perp?" she wondered as she eyed the unconscious man. He looked rather familiar.

"No. He was the victim. I stopped someone from trying to kill him at his office Christmas Party. I was going to stash him in my trunk and take him home." John stated darkly.

She stared at him. Stash the victim in the trunk? "Okay who is this guy?" she demanded.

"His name is Leon Tao. And he keeps finding himself in trouble that requires Shaw, Finch, and I to always bail him out of his jams. One of these days I'm not answering the call."

Joss nodded. "You wouldn't do that. But since you're tired of seeing Leon; how about I take him?—I have the perfect place for him to wake up at to maybe knock a little sense into him." she offered which seemed to placate John. But John didn't seem to require any assistance as Shaw insisted which meant she wasn't here to help John at all but rather get a laugh as he looked absurd. Shaw had that kind of humor but she found John quite sexy even in an ugly Christmas sweater. Her gaze slid down to his pants and frowned when he was wearing dress slacks and not jeans. She had two weaknesses: chocolate chip mint ice cream and John in jeans…especially John in jeans.

She eyed his shirt, on the front was a rather large depiction of Rudolf's face with a large 3D nose poking out near John's naval. It even blinked red! Joss took a gander at the back of the shirt which had the back half of the reindeer with his back legs and a 3D tail that she grabbed and wagged it.

"Stop playing with my tail," he grumbled.

Joss laughed softly. "Those are words I never thought to ever hear you say," she replied as she continued to play with it. "So if you hate this sweater so much then why did you pick it?"

John dragged Leon towards her car. "This was the sweater Finch found for me to get into the party unnoticed. How can you go anywhere unnoticed in this hideous thing is anyone's guess? But Shaw was conveniently unavailable to help until after I already got here. And her idea of helping is laughing," he explained lowly. John planned retribution. It would be easy too; he'd slip her some tofu steak and see who was the last one laughing.

She enjoyed seeing John's grumpiness. "Well she did play Santa's little helper while you were out sick with the flu," she reminded him as she reluctantly let go of the tail to open the back door of her car so John could pick Leon up and deposit him in it.

"How's that my fault?" he wondered as he pushed Leon's legs to the side and slammed the door shut. "And the fact that she pretended to be an elf wasn't that far-fetched."

"I'm sorry, John, but I can't take you seriously right now," she admitted as she couldn't stop smiling at how impossibly cute John was right now. He was so disgruntled with a deadly look on his sexy face but was overshadowed by the reindeer on his shirt with the nose blinking red. His looked soured and she couldn't resist teasing him more. "Is that nose lighting up because you're happy to see me?" she teased.

His lips twitched before he forcefully scowled. "I'm glad you find this funny, Carter."

She nodded. "Maybe you should wear this when I come over for Christmas," she said just to poke her grumpy bear further as she walked around the car because she needed to take sleeping beauty to the morgue. Maybe she could scare Leon into taking less chances with his life by letting himself see where he could end up because he couldn't bank on John or Shaw always being able to bail him out of the scrape he found himself in.

"There are many things I'd do for you, Carter; I'd die for you but wearing this Christmas shirt is a line I won't cross even for you," he murmured. He heard her audible gasp and as she turned to look at him.

Joss swallowed hard at how easily he said he would die for her. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if that meant he was ready to acknowledge his feelings for her; the feelings that simmered underneath the façade of just being friends. The ones that lead to him opening up to her and the same ones that led to his kissing her at the morgue.

But instead of asking the question she so desperately wanted she said; "Well, if I can't get your blinking nose shirt than I'll settle on seeing you in jeans again because the backside view is stellar" she flirted openly. She was used to his low key flirtation, especially during tense moments trying to diffuse the situation, but she wasn't one to do low key not after what he just admitted. She was through not showing her hand at what she wanted.

"Uh, well, if you like them…"

Joss grinned at how flustered he got. "I do," she said with a wink before climbing into her car with the unconscious man leaving John to watch her as his shirt's nose continued to blink red as she pulled away.

AN: Joss openly flirting and John openly being flustered by her flirting just makes me warm inside.

Thank you for reading!