AN: This chapter contains Carter-related spoilers for Ep. 17, Baby Blue.

Chapter 5

In the library, Finch is crawling through more than a dozen unmarked white vans on the DMV's web site, all of them carrying plates beginning with "DHZ". Still, Reese thinks, walking in and taking a place behind Finch, it's a manageable number. He'll check on all dozen if he has to.

Finch pulls up the next one, mid-way down the list, and all he can manage to say is, "oh." Where the address should be printed, there is a message:

"John: We have Jessica. 0600 tomorrow at the navy yard. Come alone or we kill her."

Below the message, a bitly URL that Finch pulls up in his browser. It's a cell phone photo of her, looking startled and scared, but otherwise unharmed.

"It's Snow," Reese says. "No one else would have the resources to find her, much less turn something like this around in such a short amount of time."

"He would seem to be the most likely candidate."

"I'm going to need new equipment," Reese says, and turns for the hallway.

"John, wait," Finch says, and Reese does stop. "I know this is typically your forte, but I would like to note that if it is Snow, and you go in with guns blazing, you'll give him exactly what he wants, and he'll probably kill both of you."

"You might be right, but I don't have a choice, Finch. I have to try to save her."

"I know Fusco's tied up with H.R. right now, but what about Carter?"

"Carter's made it clear she's done with us." Reese doesn't entirely believe this. Most good, long-term assets, when you take the time to cultivate them, still go through a period of doubt. His plan has been to find the right case that will help them bring Carter back into the fold. But he's fairly sure this isn't the one — it's too messy, too intertwined with his own life.

"You don't really have anything to lose by asking," Finch says.

"Carter could arrest me."

"I doubt she'll do that. And even if she did, she'd still be able to marshal more resources to try to save Jessica tomorrow than we can."

Finch has a point, Reese thinks. And Carter does owe him, when it comes to Snow.

"All right, I'll set up a meet with Carter. But I'm still going to need equipment."

It's 10 p.m. when he meets Carter at the diner, but Reese orders a coffee. He knows he won't sleep tonight, and he doesn't need the sleep. He's spent years testing his body, and he's still a steady shot after 36 hours awake. Beyond that, he can compensate and get by, but the sharpness is gone.

"I thought I told you not to contact me." Carter slides into the booth.

"And yet you're still here, Detective."

"Whatever you tell me," Carter says, "whatever one of your people you want to tell me about, I'm keeping it on the books. I'll say you're a C.I., so no one will know who told me, but anything you say gets known on the Task Force. Immediately. So you better think about that before you say anything else."

Reese doesn't say anything else, not right away. He slides a print of the cell phone photo across the table.

"Her name is Jessica Arndt," he says. For a moment, he freezes, unable to go on. "And Carter, you need to know that she's not just another one of my 'people.' She's —we had a past."

For a moment, Carter looks like she's going to make a comment, her mouth open and her eyes skeptical; he knows what she must be thinking. But she says nothing.

"Until today, I thought she was dead. But she's not. She's been in hiding since 2007 — she threatened to blow the whistle on her company and she must have thought her life was in danger. This afternoon she was taken in broad daylight by men in a white van. We got a partial license plate off of the van, and when we started looking at possibles at the DMV, we found this. We think it's Snow."

The registration, too, goes across the table. He hopes it fills her with as much rage as it has him.

"If you decide to keep this on the books, you need to understand you'll get her killed, one way or another. So if you want to walk away right now, I'll understand. But you need to know that she did nothing to deserve this. She's a completely normal woman who happened to date the wrong person and work for the wrong company."

Reese does not tell her that if she decides to walk away, but still wants to run this by the book, the way the NYPD would any other missing person, he will pull his gun on her, and threaten her to stay away. He would never hurt her, but he's not above threatening, not in these circumstances.

"I still can't figure out whether trouble follows you, or you follow trouble," Carter says, shaking her head and looking at the cell phone photo again. "But if you're telling me this woman didn't do anything to deserve this, I don't have a whole lot of choice, do I? I'll do whatever I can to help you get her back. But then we're done."

"She didn't. They're just using her to get to me. I'm going in tomorrow — I could really use the backup. That's all I need, just backup, as much as you're willing to provide. Wear your vest, don't get too close. When it's all done, you walk away, whatever happens."

"I saw what they did to you last time. They'll shoot you like a dog if you show up there, and then they'll kill her, too. Won't matter if you have backup."

"You're not the first person to tell me that," he says. "But there's nothing else I can do."

"No, you know what, I think you didn't listen to me, the last time I saw you. I think I've got a better idea."