I'm really sorry of letting you wait this long. Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews.

I realized it's much more difficult to me to write action than to write romance or humor. But I hope you enjoy it anyway :-)

5 - Trouble

Everything was happening like in slow-motion. He was moving only driven by his instincts. While pushing Joss down to get her and himself safe behind the car, he was grabbing for his gun which was securely hidden, as always, at his lower back.

Not a second too soon — the black SUV was close enough for the car passengers to start shooting at them with automatic weapons. Both of them heard the bullets crashing into the front and side of John's car, a dark grey five-door Mercedes coupe.

"Finch is going to kill me for crashing one of his cars — again." John said grimly.

Carter stared at him completely aghast. "Are you kidding me? We're under fire and you're worried about the damn car?"

"You don't know how Finch's personality can change if one of his precious cars is hurt." Joss was still shaking her head as she grabbed her weapon, too. They started defending themselves by shooting back at their attackers and trying to be covered by the car as much as possible. But they realized soon that they were outnumbered and had to save their ammo for more precise shots.

The SUV was now standing crossways on the street and the assailants were hiding behind it.

"They are professional assassins." John stated after he peered across the street. "But I can't make out if they belong to anyone we know." He got out his phone to call Finch. "Finch? Yeah, we got into some trouble here… Yes, we, she kinda found me." Joss rose her eyebrows at him but he gave her a short smile. "Those guys in the black SUV don't want to talk, they're more into shoot first, ask later. We need a safe house out of town. Send me over the address. Thanks."

"Why do we need to get out of town?" Carter asked after firing a single shot to keep the attackers from getting closer.

After he checked the message from Finch, John changed his magazine. "It's too dangerous within the city, there are too many places to hide for them. I would feel better with an open area around us." John explained to her and looked at her. His eyes grew big and a shout escaped him. "JOSS!"

One of their attackers sneaked past some of the parking cars and was now standing only a few feet away from them with a raised gun. His heart missed a few beats while he throw himself over to protect Joss with his own body, his life was nothing compared to hers. He heard the bullet starting its way towards them and felt the burning pain as it found a target. John couldn't suppress a gasp as he landed hard but his protective instinct kicked in and he managed to fire a shot at the other man.

He quickly glanced over Joss to make sure she was okay. She was lying flat with her head down so he took the chance and looked at his left shoulder grimacing. The bullet went right through next to his shoulder joint so at least he didn't have to get it out. But he couldn't really move his left arm anymore without feeling intense pain. It would start bleeding heavily in near future, so they better got out of there as soon as possible.

Carter was beginning to stand up and he put his good hand at her shoulder. "Get into the car at the passenger seat while I'm distracting them." He commanded while trying not to let her know he was hurt. 'Thank god I chose an automatic car this time.' He thought by himself.

Standing up he fired a few shots at the attackers to get into the car without being killed. To open the car door he had to stop shooting but no one showed up to fire back at him. He almost fell into the driving seat, his shoulder was aching really badly by now — even with a pain tolerance level as high as his.

"Keep your head down!" Carter checked him as he started the car, she definitely knew something was up. Worry filled her eyes as she realized he didn't use his left arm. John tried not to look at her directly, no need to burden her with his condition, otherwise she wouldn't stop blaming herself for this. She didn't say anything at the moment but he knew, as soon as they were out of immediate danger there was no way he could stop her from examining his injury.

Apparently the bad guys were waking up by the sound of the engine. The glass of the rear window shattered as the bullets flew towards them. John stepped on the gas and the tires were squealing as they started driving down the street. Checking the rearview mirror, John saw that the SUV was starting to catch up. "Damn, they're really attached to you." He murmured. The adrenaline was pumping through his veins and helped him to concentrate on getting them safe without focusing too much on his throbbing shoulder.

Their pursuers obviously didn't care on doing this the silent way. They were shooting at them while both cars drove rapidly through the city, John always trying to get rid of them and not letting them get too close.

"What's our destination?" Carter asked after shooting a few shots herself at the attackers. They just drove over the George Washington Bridge and were heading north.

"Finch owns a cabin near to the Harriman State Park. We equipped it to be a safe house in case of an emergency — for example being chased by a bunch of men with automatic weapons. Argh!" The car jumped over a ground wave and his injury clearly didn't like the vibrations.

"John! How bad is it? Tell me the truth." Carter was really worried about him and he felt kinda funny about this, because this proved he meant something to her. Something he thought was never going to happen.

"Just a scratch, Carter, I'm fine. Can we talk about this later? I'd like to get us safe first." He breathed heavily by now and sweat formed on his forehead. He better shook them off fast.

They took a few sharp bends and almost crashed into a truck as they ran a red light. But apparently that did the trick. A few streets later he couldn't spot them anymore. He speeded up to increase the distance between them.

"Are they gone? I can't see them anymore." Carter turned around to check if they were safe.

John drove a little bit slower as he realized somebody was calling him. He managed to take his hands off the steering wheel to tap his earpiece. "Finch?"

"Mr. Reese! Are you all right? There were reports about a car chase throughout the city. Am I correct to assume you're a part of this?"

"Kind of, but unfortunately we're at the wrong end. I think I was able too shook them off but I don't know for how long, they looked like professionals."

They were still driving awfully fast through the streets to not give their attackers any chance to catch up to them.

"Everything should be prepared at your destination. I will send you backup there as soon as possible. Ms. Shaw is alarmingly happy to gather her arsenal of weapons. Please contact me If you need any further assistance."

"Thanks, Finch." John disconnected the call just to see Carter glancing at him.

"Why didn't you tell him you are hurt? We could use some medical supplies the way you look." She was angry with him but they had to discuss this later. Driving took a lot of his concentration and he wouldn't be able to hide his pain if they were having a long talk.

"Shaw will be meeting us at the safe house, she can take a look at it, if it makes you feel better." John told her. After this little banter she chose to not discuss this anymore but he could almost feel her watching over him and constantly checking his reactions. The worry in her face increased as she realized he was getting worse.

Fifteen minutes later they were on a small street and trees were surrounding them. Slowly, they began to relax, they didn't notice anyone following them since they left town.

John was driving slower now, because it was getting darker each minute and he didn't want to risk an accident by crashing into a wild animal. What he didn't want to admit to himself was the fact his reactions were getting a lot worse, the wound was bleeding freely now.

He checked the rearview mirror, as it happened so often in the last minutes, but this time he wasn't sure of what he saw. Some shadows were evolving out of the dark, less than half a mile behind them.

"Carter…" Reese had to concentrate on driving. "I hate to say this, but… we're not alone anymore."

Joss had been lost in thought for a while now and winced at his low voice. "What do you…?" Just then the front lights of the other car went bright and someone started shooting at them.

"Ah… Damn." John stated. "I was really hoping to hallucinate."

The black SUV sped up and was getting dangerously close to them. A game of cat and mouse began, both cars driving at high speed now. John knew they had no chance to shake them off this time. He wondered how they were able to track him and Carter. There was no was they were followed while driving out of the city. At the lonesome streets they were taking he would have definitely noticed them.

A bad assumption formed within his mind. "Carter! Throw away your phone! They must have tracked you down using the GPS signal. Get it out, now!"

She didn't question him but did immediately as he said. Carter knew, they had to stop their attackers otherwise they would be dead soon. Leaning out of the window she pointed her gun at the other car, but the magazine was empty after a two shots.

"Take mine." John said and leaned forward as much as possible. What he didn't think of was the amount of blood now visible for Joss, who gasped at the sight of the seat.

"Oh my god…" Glass shattered, a side window. She tolerated it for now, knowing she couldn't do anything about it right now, grabbed his weapon and shot a few times into the direction of the driver. The last one didn't miss. She smiled as the other car swerved and the shooting stopped. Unfortunately, both cars were at the same height. Her smile faded fast as she realized what was going to happen.

John tried to avoid the unavoidable but had no chance. The front of the black SUV bumped into the left back of the Mercedes and therefore caused it to flip over.

Terrible sounds of metal parts tearing apart and colliding with the street multiple times filled the air.

The SUV left the street towards some trees and crashed against one which caused an immediate stop, only a mass of black metal remained.

The car of John and Joss turned over a few times, landing hard on the street in process, and then slid totally bent a few hundred feet at the car roof. Finally it stopped and it was totally silent.

Yep, I know, this one didn't end much better than the last, but I wanted to keep up the tension.