Chapter 6: Playing with Fire

He snarled menacingly. Who was that man going into her house? Acting as if he owned the place? The man knew the area around her house as well as he did. He'd never seen him there before. The man was tall, and built solid. He had dark hair peppered with gray.

He was watching from afar, through the window, having to suffer watching this stranger taking care of his woman.

Who was he? Where did he come from and what was he doing in her house?!

John stepped into Zoe's home office and found her leaning back in her chair with her eyes closed. He noticed her shoes were off, leaving her feet bare. She was wearing one of her "get out of my way, I have things to do" shift dresses, but instead of powerful and tough, she looked exhausted and defenseless.

"Hey…" He called softly and she opened her eyes, lifting her head from the back of her chair.

"Hi . . ." she said and reached her hand out. John grabbed it and kissed her knuckles, then pulled her out of the chair so he could sit on it with her on his lap.

"Whoa," she laughed, "easy there cowboy . . ."

"Are you okay?" he asked, wondering how she fared at home by herself. A day and a half and they had no clue where their daughters were or who took them. "Tell me about the call you received this morning."

"Like I told you, they didn't say anything . . . but I could tell there was someone there. . ." she said, furrowing her brow with worry. "Did you have any luck at all finding anything?"

"Carter and Fusco went back into the City to see if any of their friends knew who hired them . . ."

Her shoulders sank as she laid her head on his shoulder. "John, where are our girls?"

John started rubbing her back, "Zoe, we went over this last night, I know this is driving you crazy, but we are doing everything we can to find them."

Thinking about the night before, Zoe focused on the bruise on John's cheek. Rubbing her thumb gently over it, she said, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me . . ."

John grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles again. "I know what came over you . . ." he said smiling as he laid his hand on her belly.

Laying her forehead on his shoulder, she huffed. "I can't believe you did this to me again. What? Do you have like superman sperm? What are the odds of this happening twice in our lifetimes. Able to cause geriatric pregnancies in a single bound?"

"I think we're lucky that it did happen to us again, at least, I'm not sorry. . ." he said as he began to rub circles around her still flat belly. When Zoe was pregnant with the twins, John hadn't been prepared for the sheer emotion of watching her normally trim and taut body round out; feeling every little kick and flutter of the babies.

And if the abundance of emotion had blindsided him, how had it affected Zoe? He remembered that even during the physical misery of the last month of her pregnancy, he would often times catch her with a small smile on her lips and a look of pure joy as she unconsciously stroked her belly. It told him she was lost in a world that was made up of just her and the girls.

So he considered them lucky that at their age that they would be blessed with another child. Considering they never thought it was possible for them to have a family in the normal sense. They were making it work. Completely lost in his thoughts, John hadn't realized that his gentle tummy rub had progressed in a direction that he hadn't planned.

John leaned his head up a little brushing their lips together. His hand moved up to her hair, tangling gently, but his lips remained soft against hers. She brought her hands up to cup his cheeks and pressed her lips harder against his. John's free hand ran down her back, then up to her shoulders and back again, moving his lips to the corners of her mouth, then back again. Her mouth opened a little against his and she ran her tongue over his lower lip lightly. John opened his mouth, kissing her a little harder and thrusting his own tongue against her lips. She ran her tongue over the inside of his mouth and her hands down his arms, to his waist and back up his sides.

A soft cough cut through the passion and lust that had built up. Smiling against his lips, she pulled away and gently wiped the lipstick off. "I forgot we weren't going to be alone," she said trying to hide her smile. Getting off of John's lap, not the least bit embarrassed, Zoe turned to address their visitor.

"I'm sorry Miss Morgan, I didn't realize you had company," Kyle Winters said as he politely tried to look anywhere but at the previously amorous couple. He was the general contractor that was taking care of the renovations they had had done in the past several months. The renovation had finally been completed just the past week.

"Oh, it's quite alright Kyle. I don't think you've met have you?" she asked looking at both John and Kyle.

"I'm John," John said as he stood up and offered his hand.

"My husband," Zoe offered.

"Good to meet you, I'm Kyle . . . " Kyle replied as he shook John's hand.

"The contractor," Zoe added again, hoping to quickly end the awkwardness of the moment. Kyle had always seemed a little out of sorts, as if he wasn't quite sure how to act in public and certainly with new people. And, John, with his closed expression, could be a tad intimidating.

"The contractor . . . Zoe's mentioned that you've done a wonderful job with the addition and that you completed it in record time. . . "

Kyle smiled politely and nodded, then turned to Zoe. "Miss Morgan, I just stopped by to drop of those samples you wanted. And also, Rosa told me what happened to the girls. Is there anything I can do?"

"Thank you Kyle for your concern. We're doing what we can to find them . . ."

"Well, if there is anything, anything at all, Miss Morgan, please let me know . . ." Kyle said standing next to the door, looking down at his shoes.

Smiling at him, she thanked him again and watched him leave.

"What's with him?" John asked curious.

"He's just a little awkward. Not everyone can have your social skills, John."

Although things were going as planned, there was one hitch; the presence of that man. It's a good thing he planned well. When she came to him, no one will know where they were. They won't know where she was because where he was going to take her, no one knew about.

His hands clenched tightly as he had observed her, sitting on the man's lap, appearing to feel completely safe in his arms. He watched them kissing each other, how could she do that? How could she betray him? Didn't she know that he was waiting for her? Damn it, she was his! He would make her see; she would come to him.

She's mine, he thought as he watched the man give her a kiss and leave. And soon, she'll be all mine.

Every time she was alone, the restless feeling came back as well as the feeling of being watched. Zoe stared at the files on her desk, thinking that she wanted, no needed to do something. Certainly not wanting a repeat of the other night, she took a calming breath. John had been right; she was too emotionally involved to be a fixer. Her girls needed her to be strong but not hard. They needed her to focus on determining who would want to hurt her so much by taking the ones she valued more than her life?

The soft knock at her office door, pulled her out of her deep thoughts. Her features that had been schooled into an emotionless mask, softened as she caught sight of her guest. "Joss . . ."

"Hey, girl, I didn't have a chance to see you earlier today. How are you doing?" the dark-haired, brown-eyed NYPD detective asked, worry written on her face.

"Let me guess, John asked you to check on me didn't he? I can't believe him, you have better things to do than act as my shrink," Zoe said through gritted teeth with a harsher tone than necessary.

"Uh-uh girl, don't you take that tone of voice with me," Joss said quirking her brow, with a hand at her waist. "Your husband is worried about you. And he should be," she continued.

"He needs to mind his own damn business, I'm fine. . . " Zoe shot back, not willing to admit that she was actually relieved to see Joss. Their friendship had started out tentatively with the only thing in common was that they both worked with John, on occasion. But since the birth of the twins, it had certainly blossomed into a close friendship bonded by motherhood. Joss was the doting, cool, auntie that every little girl wanted to have. She knew when to spoil them rotten and she knew when to be tough.

"Honey, let's be objective. You punched your husband . . . that is in no way fine." Joss' look was one of true concern and worry. "You know that I know what you're going through right?"

"I do, and I appreciate you and Lionel and Harold being here helping us . . . " Zoe wasn't quite ready to let it all out yet. Though she knew that there were only two people that she would let see her pain. Joss was one of them.

"Okay, then tell me what I can do to help you not bottle up your feelings," Joss said as she walked across the office to her friend. She watched as the fear, grief, and pain momentarily flashed into Zoe's eyes. But in an instant, the emotionless mask was back.

"It is okay for you to hurt, Zoe. It's okay for people to see that you're scared shitless that you'll never see your girls again," Joss sat on the edge of the desk and grabbed her friend's hand.

Zoe sighed, Joss was right. Joss had always been there for her family. Joss, who knew just which buttons to push to get the girls to do their chores; Joss, who had been Auntie Joss since before the girls were born. It was time to open up to her friend as she had opened up to her husband in the years since the children were born. She told her of her fears that she will never see her girls again and that it was her fault, for pissing off someone unbalanced enough to take her girls from her. Zoe was able to let go of some of the fear, anger, and guilt that had been building up.

"You know that none of this is your fault. None of it, girl, do you hear me? You were doing your job. You can't worry about every asshole that gets his feelings hurt or that probably deserved to be in jail in the first place. And it definitely isn't your fault that those jack-asses drugged you up and took your girls."

Zoe watched as Joss' eyes filled with worry and concern. "And, I'll let you in on a little secret. The world doesn't revolve around you girl. It isn't all about you, but about those two little muchkins," Joss quipped, an easy grin on her face.

AN: So J/J shippers, am I doing right by Joss? Am I capturing her character? I hope so. If something is off about her, please let me know. I feel that she's just as spunky as I've written her with just the right amount of motherly tenderness even a seasoned NYPD detective would have.