VII. Stoking the Fire

Manhattan, New York, January 15th 9:45AM

Joss sat at her desk watching the steam slowly rise from her coffee mug her thoughts drifting to the uninvited guests who had visited her home last night.

x-x-x-xx-x-x-x

"NYPD!, FBI!"

John stiffened as he heard the visitors identify themselves. The dread he felt when Donnelly had apprehended them, started to seep into his conscious. Bringing back to the surface all his fears and apprehensions about their advancing relationship. His mind retracing his steps, analyzing his every move and realizing that he had become too complacent and unguarded.

"John you need to go. Joss replied quietly and quickly as she headed to the door only to feel a hand encircle her bicep.

"No"

Joss stared at him confused only for her irritation to break the surface as she saw the stubborn look in his eyes that said, he wasn't going anywhere. "John it's a fellow cop and a federal agent they aren't going to hurt me."

"And if they're not." John replied as he let her arm go.

Joss frowned as she thought of the possibility that the people at her door were imposters. Hearing them knock again she decided now wasn't the time for a debate "Stay quiet and out of sight"

John watched her walk towards the door before he fell back into the kitchen grabbing a steak knife from the counter, readying himself for when he needed to intervene.

Joss opened her door staring with a confused look on her face as she immediately recognized two out of the three people at her door.

"Ms. Carter I'd like to have a word w…." Vivian began before she was cut off by the brooding G-man beside her.

"Detective Carter I have some question for you" Moss dictated as he stepped forward.

Joss clenched her jaw as Moss stepped half way into her home without being invited. Deciding it was best to not cause a fuss she stepped aside "Detective Brooks. Agent Moss. Please come in."

As soon as she closed the door she moved them towards the sitting room and gesturing for them to sit down.

"Given what time it is, I have to assume this is an urgent matter." Joss stated she sat down watching as Moss choice to stand in the corner by her fire place as Brooks and her partner sat on her love seat.

"Yes it is." Vivian began to explain. Glaring at Moss daring him to interrupt her again. "Do you know an Officer Blake Reynolds?"

Joss thought about it before shaking her head "No I don't. Should I?"

Vivian monitored her response before continuing "Can you account for your whereabouts on January 13th between 12:30 PM and 2:00 PM"

"On duty.." Joss sat forward "Why?"

Vivian continued ignoring her question "Can anyone vouch for your whereabouts."

Joss narrowed her eyes as brooks ignored her question. "Yes my partner and about 9 different uniforms and 12 crime scene technicians. Again why do I need an alibi?"

Vivian stared at her "Officer Reynolds was found murdered, stripped of his uniform and stuffed in a trash can a few blocks from your precinct."

Joss sat back slightly confused "That's tragic, but what's that have to do with me?"

Brooks continued to gauge her response. "The medical examiner found your contact card stuffed in his mouth."

Joss felt the wheels turning in her head. "That's…odd. I've never met him before I don't know why he would have my card on in his possession."

"My thoughts exactly. Do you have any open cases or cons holding a grudge? Perhaps someone could be sending you a message."

"I'm a homicide detective. I always have pissed off people threatening me." Joss stated like it was an already know fact.

"I understand." Vivian nodded, she had had her fair share of psychos tell her they were going to kill her and everyone she loved to try and intimidate her into dropping charges. "…but does anyone stand out particularly. I know recently you had an incident involving the crime boss Elias."

Joss clenched her teeth rubbing her forehead knowing that John was listening and she had never told her friends about Elias's intimidation stunt. "Yes but he never directly threaten me. He sent me flowers."

Richards snorted "Flowers? You sure he doesn't have a crush on you?"

Joss smirked "Last time I checked you don't send a funeral arrangement to somebody your fond of."

"Are you finished chatting Detective?" Moss was getting inpatient with the Detectives line of questioning.

Brooks looked at the impatient suit standing in front of the fireplace. As much as she would have loved to sock the rude son of a bitch in the face she decided against it. As she stood up she pulled out her own contact card. "In fact I am Agent Grass."

"Moss." He corrected sharply

"Right." Vivian replied turning back to Carter. "If you think of anything else or if you stumble upon anything please give me a call. In the meantime I'll let you know if any other developments in the case present themselves."

"Thank you." Joss stood up taking Brooks card and shaking her hand before following them to the door and seeing them out. As she closed the door and turn back around she caught the almost smug look on Moss's face.

"I'm not going to waste any time all I want to know is where he is?" Moss demanded scrutinizing her.

"Where who is?" Joss asked confused.

"The man in the suit." Moss demanded.

"How should I know? It's not my case anymore. I thought the FBI was handling it." Joss announced.

"I doubt that," Moss snorted.

Joss crossed her arms "Why's that Agent Moss."

"I've been following arrest reports around the city it seems that he's still around. Assaulting people." Moss began "In about 74% of your non-violent cases, the suspect reported that a man in suit was involved somehow leading to their arrests. Some of the reports now even indicate he might have a female partner."

"That's news to me I haven't been keeping track of whether or not he's still active in the city." Joss recited.

Moss looked at her, he knew she was hiding something and her baby face and doe eyes weren't going to fool him like they did Donnelly "We got a tip at the office."

Joss raised an eyebrow, controlling her emotions "Oh, from who and about what?"

"Anonymous" Moss replied moving closer to her, trying to intimidate her with his height. "It hinted that you know who murdered Donnelly."

"I don't know who your source is Moss but you might want to do a fact check on them before you start slinging mud." Joss retorted as her mind drifted back to the accident that claimed Donnelly's life. She hadn't been conscious when it happened but she knew that Kara Stanton had murdered him. And to her knowledge only John, Harold, Fusco, and herself knew who the real culprit was. Making it rather alarming that someone else knew their secrets.

Moss took the faded look in her eyes as a sign of guilt. "I've gone through your background Carter. On paper you look clean but I know your hiding something. I can only think of two reasons someone like you would be protecting a man like this."

Joss narrowed her eyes "And what are those reasons?"

"Either he's threating you and your family or…" Moss smirked as he looked her up and down "…You're lying on your back for him."

"Get out!" Joss snapped as Moss's crude comment.

"Touch a nerve?" Moss mocked.

"You barge into my home and start laying down baseless accusations you damn right you're touching a nerve." Joss glared as she marched towards her front door yanking it open "Now get out."

Moss made his way toward the door stopping at the thresh hole, turning to look at her. "You have had my former partner fooled Detective but not me. I am going to solve this case even if I have to turn your life upside down to do it."

Moss backed out of her door way. "Fair waring Detective the man you're protecting is a parasite. He'll take and take from you till nothings left and when you need him the most he'll be nowhere in sight."

Joss glared as she watched him walk down her stoop, sighing after she shut the door. She slowly made her way back to the kitchen the uncontrollable urge to ask John to hug her peaking its head out. Sadness washed over her as she realized he had left and she was alone.

She quietly went back to cleaning the kitchen up.

…..and when you need him the most he'll be nowhere in sight.

She scrubbed the already clean plate harder as she tried to block out Moss's words. Knowing that he was wrong. John would always be there for her? She paused as she realized her last thought sounded more like a question instead of a statement.

x-x-x-xx-x-x-x

"Hey…hey"

Joss blinked coming out of her thoughts. To see Fusco's face and hand entirely too close to her face. She leaned back for space. "To close partner."

"Sorry but you were spaced out. You okay?" Fusco asked concerned.

"I'm sure you already know about last night?" Joss asked

"Didn't know the Feds were going to show up but I did know about Brooks and her investigation. Sue said that Reynolds had your contact card stuffed in his mouth. So I heard she thinks it might be Elias trying to make you squirm."

"Yeah but I told her that he wasn't a problem for me anymore." Joss replied moving her coffee cup out the way getting ready to crack open some of her files.

"What did Wonderboy have to say about it?" Fusco asked.

"Not much." Joss replied trying to hide the fact that she was both sad and pissed off that John was ducking her. She had tried to talk to him last night but he ignored all three of her calls. She had even tried four more times to call him in the morning with the same result. Harold had called her earlier to assure her they were looking into the matter and for her not to worry.

"Yeah I figured as much beside I don't think Elias is that stupid to try and come at you again." Fusco sipped his coffee. "Cause I'm pretty sure your boy would break into his prison just to beat the hell out of him to prove a point if he was behind this. Fusco finished his coffee. "The last thing I need is Wonderboy backlogging the morgue with dead henchmen for Sue to sort through."

Joss looked up at Fusco catching the name "Sue? Since when did you start calling the medical examiner you can't stand by a nickname?"

Fusco cleared his throat at the inquiry. Not ready to reveal he was dating Susan yet. "Ughhhh… I got to go to the head."

Joss laughed as he walked off ignoring her question. She turned her attention back to her work reaching for a black pen. As she began to fill out paper work she stopped noticing the ink was blue. She frowned looking back up at her pen canister. She hated when people used her stuff and didn't put the pens back where they belonged. As corrected her other pens her eye caught sight of the un-alphabetized folders and her crooked desk photo of herself and her son. She glanced over the rest of her desk realizing someone had moved things around. Her eyes widening slightly at the almost empty card holder where she keep her contact cards. Someone clearly had been messing around her desk.

Like an epiphany, an idea struck her. She stood up and headed for the security office that monitored the entire building.

Midtown, New York City, January 15th 11:12AM

John frowned at his phone seeing the seven missed calls he had yet to return. He sighed and put his phone away he wasn't ready to talk to her yet, he didn't have enough information or maybe he was just afraid of the outcome of the conversation.

He looked up, seeing Shaw frowning at him looking slightly more angry than usual. He knew why she was agitated but he just didn't feel like talking about it. He was still trying to process the previous night.

x-x-x-xx-x-x-x

John finished hearing Moss lecture Joss. It took all his self-control not to storm out the kitchen and dismember the bastard. As soon as he heard her order Moss out the door, he sat the knife on the counter. He contemplated staying but the FBI was actively looking for him again and they had somehow linked him to Joss. Staying in the house would put her and son in a comprising position if the FBI decided to pay her another visit. He needed to figure out what was going on first and then he'd talk to her.

He quickly marched out the back door. In a matter of seconds he was across her yard and over the neighbor's fence. As he made his way across the neighbor's yard he paused as a figure dressed in black jumped over the fence in front of him. He relaxed when he realized the short figure walking with a slight hunch was Shaw. "What are you doing here?"

Shaw stopped in front of him "Fusco and Harold flashed the bat signal."

"The FBI and NYPD just paid Joss a visit." John explained.

Shaw pointed to her ear "I know Harold and I heard what that douche bag said to Carter."

John nodded as he continued to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Shaw asked confused. Wondering why he wasn't still with Carter.

"To figure out what's going on." John replied as he hopped over the fence.

Shaw watched as he disappeared over the fence. She knew she wasn't all touchy feely or up to date on relationship etiquette but she was pretty sure Reese was supposed to be consoling Carter. Especially after some cheap government suit basically called her a corrupt cop and Reese's personal fuck toy.

x-x-x-xx-x-x-x

"You can stop glaring Shaw I'm handling it." John ordered.

"Really?" Shaw retorted "…cause it looks like your ignoring it."

Harold's eyes darted between his colleagues not oblivious to the tension. He cleared his throat trying to defuse the situation. "In order to keep up to date on this occurrence, I have begun to monitor Detective Brooks and Agent Moss's open investigations. Hopefully we can shed some light on the circumstance of Officer Reynolds death and the mysterious tip that has Agent Moss investigating Detective Carter."

Noticing the tension still wasn't diffused he continued "Until we have another lead I think its best we keep an eye on the Detective and her family as a precautionary measure."

Shaw snorted "We could just grab Moss and 'ask' him what he knows."

"Considering we don't know what Agent Moss knows. Assaulting him would only validate his claims against Jocelyn and cause further repercussions. We will handle this situation without reverting to violence…or kidnapping." Ms. Shaw Harold chastised.

Sameen looked between Harold and John before grabbing her jacket and heading for the door.

"Ms. Shaw where are you going?" Harold asked concerned.

"To get something to eat. You know how to find me if there's a number." Shaw answered waving them off.

Manhattan, New York City, January 15th 12:15PM

Kate sat back and watched as their Duvall chastised someone over the phone. Yelling at them to figure out why and FBI and NYPD stumbled into their operation last night. The unexpected presence of law enforcement officials forced them to abort their mission.

As she sat at her desk she tried to make the pieces of the puzzle fit. She had collected and reviewed all the provided evidence she could on John Reese. Her eyes narrowing as the director of operations waltz into Duvall's office closing the door behind her. She wasn't completely sure why but she had a feeling that they weren't getting all the details about the situation. Even if Reese killed the agent who recommended him to special operations it shouldn't have warranted this type of reaction. Let alone having the director of operations personally showing up to oversee their progress. She stood up grabbing her purse purposely leaving her phone at her desk, excusing herself for lunch and made her way to the elevator.

She may have been a paper pusher but she wasn't naïve, nothing in Reese's past with the agency called for this type of advanced response. She was going to contact one of her sources to get some more information to help fill in the blanks that her superiors might have been intentionally leaving out.

Matthew leaned back in his chair with his feet on his desk watching the elevator doors closed as Barns left the building. He picked his nails with the tip of his blade stopping when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Ma'am." He replied not even needing to look up to know that the director stood behind him.

"Give me an update." Bates ordered as she looked at Kate's empty desk.

"She left for 'lunch' and 'forget' her phone." Matthew answered.

"What does she know so far?" Dian asked.

Matthew put his knife back in his boot "What she needs too, though she is a smart woman."

"I know, that's why I put her on this team." Dian explained.

"Hmm….and if she finds out more then she needs to know?" Matthew asked.

"I haven't decided yet…"Dian looked down at Matthew "keep an eye on her and let me know if she stumbles onto something she shouldn't"

"Will do." Matthew replied sensing the Bates walk away. He looked at Kate's desk and frowned. He really hopped she didn't do anything stupid. He didn't think he would enjoy making her disappeared.

Brooklyn, New York City, January 15th 3:45PM

Maya looked at Taylor he had been suspiciously quiet "You want to talk about it?"

"Huh?" Taylor asked as he looked up.

"I asked if you wanted to talk about whatever as you practicing to become a silent monk over there."

Taylor shook his head "It's nothing."

Maya looked at him "You're a terrible liar."

"Most people would consider that a good thing." Taylor tried to joke.

"Yep well I'm not most people." Maya snapped her fingers "I'm extra fabulous."

Taylor smirked and mumbled under his breath "You're extra something alright."

"What was that?"

Taylor smiled at her "Nothing."

Maya rolled her eyes "Fine if you don't want to tell your best friend in the whole wide world what's going on…then I guess I'll just have to post that picture of us when we were little with our diapers on our heads on Facebook.

"You wouldn't dare." Taylor glared then furrowed his eyebrow in confusion "Since when did you get the title of best friend in the whole wide world."

"Because." Maya replied in a country accent liked it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"I guess I get no say in this matter."

"Exactly this isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship and stop trying to change the subject." Maya re affirmed "what's wrong?"

Taylor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck "I met my Moms boyfriend last night."

"Ohhhh gossip. So what's he like. Is he lame? Do we need to run him out of Dodge?" Maya asked moving over to the bed.

Taylor looked at Maya "You remember what I told happened that day I got pulled out of school."

Mayas eyes widened as she remembered Taylor telling her he was kidnapped by a mob boss and then saved by one of his Moms friends. Remembering the way Taylor had described the man. "Yeah."

"We'll…" Taylor continued "the guy I told you about, the one who saved me…. is my Mom's new boyfriend."

"Seriously?" Maya exclaimed loudly before Taylor shushed her.

"Yeah. Rambo's my Moms boyfriend." Taylor re-stated.

Maya smiled "Well look at your Mom…all on her Olivia Pope shit."

Taylor rolled his eyes "I don't think he's the president of anything and my Mom would never date a married man."

"Don't roll your eyes at me." Maya smacked him in the arm "Besides I thought you said he was cool."

Taylor sighed as he took out his phone and pulled up one of the articles had been reading ever since he overheard the police and the FBI agent talking to his Mom. "I did and then the police and the FBI came to our door last night."

"What! Why?" Maya asked confused.

"The FBI thinks my Mom's…involved with this guy." Taylor gritted out as he remembered hearing the man how the agent commented about his Mom's personal life.

Maya took the phone out of his hand, her eyes reading the article.

'New York City's Urban Legend Strikes Again?'

She scrolled down the article till she got to a video of an eye witness account dated 7 months ago. She clicked on it.

'Can your recount to us what you saw here tonight sir? The reporter asked in front of a band of police tape.

'Yeah like this crazy ass dude in a suit wearing a mask rolled up in this GTO. Got out the car as these escalades came down the street. Then the guy pulled out this grenade launcher. You know like the one in Call of Duty Modern Warfare,…Then he opened fire on the escalades. They swerved and then all these dudes got out, like ten of them, they all had guns. Then all of the sudden this little short little mama rode up on a motorcycle and started popping caps in the dudes knees… I even think she shot one of them in the dick man the shit was crazy. Then they took off before the cops got here.'

Maya looked up when the video stopped. "The Feds think your Mom knows who the man in the suit is?"

Taylor took his phone back "Maya I think her new boyfriend is this guy in the suit."

Maya shook her head "Taylor that's crazy. Your moms a cop why would she date some crazy ass dude running around the city with a grenade launcher and a knee capping sidekick."

Taylor shrugged not sure himself but John had been very vague about his so called 'banker job' "He did fit all the descriptions of the vigilante."

Maya laughed "Crazy ass white guy with a gun….that sounds like half of America…But if it really bothers you so much, why don't you ask her?"

Taylor snorted "…and say what? Hey Mom nice day oh and by the way is John the guy who's running around the city shooting people with grenade launchers."

"Well I was going suggest asking if he was a vigilante but your sarcastic approach would work too." Maya replied.

"Funny Maya…" Taylor put his phone away and picked his text book back up.

Before she could open her mouth again they were interrupted by a knock at her bedroom door.

"Come in!" Maya spoke loudly.

"Hey Maya can I use your art set?"

Taylor looked at the younger kid offering him a slight wave and smile.

"Oh yeah uh… Taylor this is my foster brother Darren. Darren this is my friend Taylor." Maya introduced as she pulled her art kit out from under her bed.

"Sup." Darren greeted with a nod at the boy sitting on Maya's bed.

"Nice to meet you Darren." Taylor replied.

"You to." Darren replied as Maya handed him the art kit.

Taylor watched the young boy walk away "So Maya how do you like being a big sister?"

Maya scoffed then shrugged "It's whatever. Still trying to get to know him."

"What's he like?" Taylor asked

Maya smiled "Clearly thinks he's older than he is and talks like he's auditioning for a rap video."

Taylor laughed "Does he have any hobbies?"

"I think he plays an instrument, the trumpet or clarinet or something like that. But he spends most of his time drawing. He's totally into superhero comics. I think he's making his own or something."

"Really? That's impressive. What's it about?" Taylor asked.

Maya shrugged "Something about a lost samurai ninja dude,... I don't know. He said I can look at it when he's done with the first book."

"Issue." Taylor corrected.

"What?" Maya asked confused.

"Comic books are called issues unless it's a graphic novel then it's a volume." Taylor explained.

"Whatever nerd." Maya replied as she sat back at her desk.

"Says the person who has those on her walls." Taylor point at her posters of Captain America, Wolverine, Batman, and Thor.

Maya grinned "Please I'm just in it for the oiled up muscular men in spandex."

Taylor rolled his eyes as he went back to his textbook.

AN: Thanks for reading. Next time; Damien "bumps" into Joss. Shaw eats. John broods and Harold lets himself into some government databases. Also Kate starts nosing around where she shouldn't.