AN: Once again, many thanks to SWWoman for all her help. I do not own anything of Person of Interest that may be referenced here. Please enjoy and remember to R&R...

A More Conventional Life 14

After receiving the intel from Fusco things fell into place. It turned out that Hannah Frey had been abducted by Trent Russell, who happened to be married to the librarian, Barb. While Joss interrogated Barb further, John did his own investigating; tracking down the books that were anonymously sent to Barb every year on the anniversary of Hannah's kidnapping. He tracked the credit card usage to a location in Relton, Maryland and he was headed out to catch a jet to Maryland when Carter came back to the room.

"Why is there a crossbow on the bed?" Joss asked with some trepidation as she looked back and forth from the weapon to John, but he was wired for sound. He sped talked his way through his explanation then mapped out the trail of the credit card receipts that led him to Relton.

"It's Hannah. Hannah's Root and she's got Finch." John said breathlessly as he was almost out the door.

"She's not Hannah," Joss said with a heavy sigh, stopping John in his tracks. She sat heavily on the end of the bed and turned her head toward him. "Hannah's dead, John. She's in the ground. She's never got away from Russell," she finished sadly. She hated seeing the devastated disbelief on John's face, but it was the truth. Russell had buried Hannah under his patio that he redid two weeks after he took her.

"Then who did this?" he asked in disbelief. "The books, the bank account in Russell's name…"

Joss held up a picture and John walked over to her, sinking slowly onto the end of the bed beside her. The two girls in the picture couldn't look more different. One, who was Hannah Frey, was tall, had wavy brown hair with soft brown eyes. The other girl was much smaller, with short blonde hair and she looked at Hannah with adoring dark eyes that bordered on obsession.

"Who is she?" John asked without taking the picture.

"Hannah's father gave this to me. Her name is Samantha Groves. She saw Hannah get in the car with Russell. Called 911, told Barb, but nobody would listen. Her mother died about ten years ago. She left town and nobody's heard from her since," Joss relayed the information concisely. "If anybody's Root, it's her."

"And she has Finch, and I'm going after him," John replied softly, still in that breathless voice. "I'll meet you back in New York," he added as he turned to her and gave her a lingering kiss. Then he was up and gone.

She watched the door close behind him with a soft smile. They were getting their friend back.

They did get their friend back. John rescued Finch just as Root was trying to force him on a train… just as she was about to shoot an innocent bystander.

Once they got back to the Library and Reese introduced Finch to Bear, things settled back into the usual routine of numbers, and everything involved in solving those cases. Bear was not the only thing Finch had to become accustomed to, however.

Along with dealing with a case of PTSD, Finch was not very happy when John told him that Joss now knew about the Machine. But after John told Finch all she had done to help rescue him from Root, he was less inclined to be angry about her having the knowledge. In fact, during a phone call when he acknowledged her role in helping with his rescue, he broached the subject with her. After the case was wrapped up, Finch and John were going out for a beer and Finch suggested that Joss should join them so he could answer any questions she may have. They talked about telling Fusco, but all agreed to wait a little while longer, for a reason no one could quite give.

Things between John and Joss seemed to level out somewhat, although he was still hyper-aware that people were looking for him. He had an uneasy feeling that tickled his sub-conscious every now and then. Donnelly was still out there and, although Joss had told him that Snow had been "reassigned, that was something he was having a hard time accepting, the CIA was still looking for him… as far as he knew. There was also a shadow hovering over his mind, one he couldn't identify, and one that gave him a chill up his spine. Joss said he was just paranoid, but even then, he couldn't shake the feeling.

When they told Taylor, together, that they were officially a couple, he wasn't surprised at all, in fact, he was delighted. As he said, "You guys have been into each other for as long as I've known John. The fact that you guys are dating only helps nix my worries about Mom. I'm happy for you," and he hugged his mother then surprised John by hugging him too. After a second, John returned the hug then the boy went up to his room. Soon after that, John began spending more nights at their place than at his own but was always discreet so no one would catch on… especially Donnelly.

The numbers kept coming and John was kept busy. He did have a sticky situation when he had to protect an investigative journalist who was hell bent on putting The Man in The Suit on the front page. Joss was not happy when Finch set John up to date Maxine Angelis to get close enough to protect her. She was even less thrilled when John had to take Maxine to his loft to hide her away from a couple of ex FBI agents who were trying to kill her. They were both never happier when that case was over, and he could come back home to the brownstone. The first night he was back in their bed she attacked him as if she were re-staking her claim and he loved every minute of it.

While John was working on the number of a doctor at a hospital, Joss got a call from Fusco to go out to a robbery scene. She tried to get him to handle it alone, but he insisted. When she asked him why all he would say was "that this one has your name all over it". When she got there, he handed her one of her blood splattered business cards with 66/11th written on the back. The victim was a recent immigrant who worked for a janitorial service that serviced many tech companies in the city. She noticed that one of the tech companies' addresses had the same numbers as the ones on the back of the card. When she went to check out the address, she found that they were evacuating the building because of gunshots being fired. As she was talking to the building manager, she saw Snow sneaking out of the front door. He quickly caught her eye then turned to go to the building's basement maintenance area. When she finally caught up to him, they were deep underground beneath the building. She was stunned and alarmed to see him strapped with a bomb vest! He kept saying to "tell our friend that She has something big planned. I don't know what it is, but he's got to stop it". When Joss asked who "She" was, Joss was fired at by an unknown shooter, then Snow and the shooter disappeared.

Joss told John all this over coffee at the Lyric dinner. He suddenly felt that shadow that never seemed to leave his mind hover over their table. Could this be that uneasy feeling that would tickle his subconscious every now and then?

"He said to tell you that She has something planned," Joss said in hushed tones.

"Who?" John asked genuinely perplexed.

"He didn't say who, just She," Joss said agitatedly. "He looked like someone had him on a string, John. Do you know what this is all about?" she inhaled deeply then blew it out. "And if you did, would you tell me?" she asked, looking him directly in the eye.

John took a moment before he answered her in the same hushed tones. "You're a damn good detective, Carter, and I can't stop you from looking. But I told you from the start the risks in getting involved with me. You still have your son to protect, so ask yourself…. How much do you really want to know? In this case, I can't tell you anything because I don't know anything…. Yet." He reached over, took her hand, and linked their fingers. She didn't pull away. "I will protect you and Taylor with my dying breath."

Her breath caught at the intensity in his bright blue eyes. Joss always knew that John would protect her, but what he was saying, she didn't know, gave her a strange feeling that she didn't like. What could she say, though? She knew in her heart she felt the same way about him. Finally, she simply looked away, for there was nothing else to say.

John was happy. He had a purpose, a good woman who had a son that John felt was his own and good friends. He was beginning to believe that Joss was right; he was being paranoid, and he needed to relax a little bit.

Then it happened. John took one too many risks and now he was caught in a bombed-out basement by Special Agent Donnelly. He came sweeping around the corner with a smug smile on his face and gloated over catching The Man in The Suit. John watched the smile light up Joss's face as they turned the man around and she saw it wasn't him. Then he sadly saw her face fall, and, with some satisfaction, Donnelly's smug smile disappear as the S.W.A.T. leader showed him he had three other men…. and one of them was John.

"Cuff 'em all," Donnelly said in frustration then spun on his heel and left.

Her eyes never left John's as they roughly pulled his arms behind him. He didn't want Joss to see this. He wished she would leave. John felt the cold steel of the handcuffs as they wrapped around his wrists and heard the deafening click as they were secured.

It felt like cold steel had wrapped around his heart, causing it to beat much too fast as he watched the tears that would not fall here in front of everyone pool in her eyes….

Thanks for reading. See you soon...