Chapter 7

"I am sick and damn tired of these wild goose chases we've been on." growled Reese. "We're being led around by our nose like rats in a maze."

"We WILL find Harold tonight! This is the best intel we've had since he was taken." said Elise. They had been searching for Harold for several days now. A few times, they had come close but each time they were just a little too late.

Elise and Reese were methodically checking their equipment, hand guns, machine guns (need some technical names here), teargas grenades, all the tools of their respective 'trades'. Since joining John in his search for Finch, the two of them had maintained a respectful working relationship. Any outside thoughts were quickly squashed because of the seriousness of their endeavor. They were all feeling the loss of Harold Finch.

Reese was consumed with the need to save the man who had saved him. He owed Finch so much that he could never repay. Their relationship had progressed to the point of almost, but not quite, complete trust. It was that lack of COMPLETE trust that was preventing him from having total access to the Machine and its ability to decipher probabilities of where Root may have taken Finch. Over and over in his mind, Reese replayed moments where Finch had been there, with the right answer, at the right time when helping him and their POI. Now Finch needed him and he was feeling blind and helpless. At least he had Zoe and her contacts and Elise with her abilities to alleviate some of his angst. Harold was the first person in a very long time that he actually felt close to. He had not confided everything to Harold but he knew Harold probably already knew everything. It was Harold's reticence to use that information against him that brought Reese to the understanding of just what a true friend meant. A true friend saw you with all your failings and ugliness but still called you friend. After all he had done in his life, John Reese didn't believe in himself but Harold Finch believed in him and that was enough reason to move Heaven and Earth to find the man.

Kicking himself over and over for falling for Root's tricks that LET Harold get taken he was getting angrier by the minute...yet again. As he was checking the chambers of his guns, the magazines of the automatics, the number of grenades, each motion was getting more and more violent until he was slamming the grenades into the backpack. Elise reached over and laid her hand on his arm to try and calm him. He snatched his arm away and glared at her, causing her to step back. Immediately he felt contrite, seeing the pain in her eyes.

He knew that Elise was also feeling the pain of missing Harold. He'd noticed they had gotten quite close before he was taken. His pride never allowed him to ask Finch about their relationship.

"Sorry." He muttered. It was the best response he could give her at the moment. Turning away he walked over to Zoe to check out the final plan for tonight's rescue...attempt. Reese hated thinking like that but after two failed attempts he didn't want to jinx their chances of success tonight.

Watching Reese walk away, Elise was torn between being angry and empathetic, two very different feelings. But John Reese tended to illicit that type of response from her all the time. And it was wearing on her nerves which were frayed almost to breaking. She missed Harold so much. She needed him. She needed his warmth, his sweetness, his wide range of interests, his intuitive nature that made talking to him so easy. She realized that he had become a very important part of her life and now there was a gaping hole where there had been love, friendship and respect.

Keeping herself apart from others had become second nature in the last couple of years. Part of her had been taken with the loss of Patrick, another part had been taken with the loss of Tim. What was left of her was carefully guarded and kept hidden. She hadn't even opened up to Zoe until the night of the gala, and they had known each other and worked together for two years. But being able to actually talk about Patrick to Zoe had felt so right. Maybe that was the beginning of her being able to respond to Harold's overtures of friendship. Normally she would have kept him at arms' length with no personal conversations. But he'd seen her pain, never said a word but gave her strength with his unspoken compassion. The worlds he had opened up were a new beginning for her. There was life going on around her and she was finally feeling a part of it. He helped her stretch her mind and listened intently when she voiced an opinion. Her respect and admiration for him grew with every encounter but she hadn't realized that love for this special man was the reward for being his friend until he was gone. They just HAD to get him back tonight!

Walking Reese through the steps they'd decided on for tonight's endeavor, Zoe was again reminded how important one man had become to three, very different people. Her admiration for Finch had grown each time she worked with him. He was wealthy, she knew that, he was intelligent, she knew that too, but it was his natural shyness that drew her to him. At times he seemed like more of a spectator than a participant in their dealings together but he had proven more than once that he was quick on his feet and more than willing to get physically involved, even with his limitations. Zoe also recalled noticing that his paranoia was barely held in check at times. She couldn't quite tell what set off warning bells for him, just that they were there. He'd get very agitated and panicky and his movements became even more stilted when trying to move quickly. But he also seemed very confident in John's ability to get the job done no matter what. Zoe knew that there was a lot to John Reese that Harold knew and she had always hoped she'd be able to pry some information out of Harold that she had not been able to get from John himself. But Harold had always been so close mouthed about John and his past.

It was very important to all of them to get Harold back and their very best chance was going to be tonight. Root had finally made a mistake...

Arriving at the warehouse, Zoe coasted into the shadows with the headlights off. Elise reached up and turned off the overhead light before opening the door. Walking around to the back of the car she found Reese already pulling their gear out of the trunk. Quietly checking their weapons one more time, they both bucked up the holsters and snapped on the Kevlar vests. Elise was amazed at Harold's ability to buy top of the line, military grade equipment. Thoughts of Harold started coming to mind and they made Elise almost moan out loud with grief. Reese looked at her sharply so she knew she hadn't completely suppressed the sound. She had to keep the mission ahead in focus and not let anything distract her! With a slight shake of her head, she pushed any thoughts not related to the job ahead, into the back of her mind.

Both Elise and Reese were dressed from head to toe in black with ski-masks pulled up over their faces so that all that could be seen was their eyes. Slipping out of the front seat, Zoe met them at the back of the car. At her approach, they both turned toward her with guns drawn. Holding her hands up, Zoe spoke quickly, "Hey, I'm a friendly!" She was struck by two pairs of very blue eyes coldly staring out at her. With her hair hidden in the cap, Elise was like a miniature version of Reese.

"Sorry Zoe, we're all a little edgy" Elise said quietly. Reese and Elise finished checking their weapons and shouldered their respective backpacks. Once done, the three of them did a check of the ear buds for their 3-way communications. Everything was set. They stood there facing each other, three very different people drawn together by one man whose life was in their hands.

Senses on high alert, Reese and Elise entered the warehouse. Reese swept to the left and Elise swept to the right. "Clear." Elise heard the whispered word in her ear. "Clear." Reese heard the word in his ear. The two advanced in tandem, automatically covering each other. Their similar backgrounds allowed them to work in perfect rhythm with little or no talking. Elise didn't even realize it at the time, but she began trusting Reese at that moment, trusting him to have her back, just as she had trusted her teammates on HRT. When she looked back on it later, it was the one moment that allowed the rest to follow…

They had almost swept all the small rooms on their side of the warehouse when all hell suddenly broke loose. Elise had only a split second to note the red laser beam targeting Reese before gunshots rang out. Everything moved in slow motion from then on. Reese took a shot in the chest but the Kevlar vest obviously stopped the bullet because he dropped down behind a column and returned fire. Elise had no more free time to spare as she returned fire in the direction that the shots had originally come from. As she did, the muzzle flash from her rifle drew answering fire from two new locations in the warehouse in front of them. She felt the burn on her arm indicating that a bullet had connected but as she retained use of the arm, she knew it wasn't bad. She continued to duck and cover, never shooting from the same position but it seemed to her that there were many, many more shooters on the other side of the warehouse than she and Reese would be able to handle. She tried to count the different muzzle flashes, but knew that her count of twelve could be inaccurate if the shooters were moving around just as she and Reese were. Where had all these men come from? This MUST have been an ambush, Elise just prayed that Harold was not here and caught in the crossfire. To be so close only to have him perish would kill her!

"Reese! We're really outnumbered here!" Elise shouted into the radio, not sure if he could hear her over the gunfire.

"Fall back, Elise. I'll cover you." Was his reply. "Harold can't….."

Elise's radio went suddenly silent and she stopped hearing the sound of Reese's rifle shots behind her.

"Reese!" She shouted. "Zoe! Get in here now! I need help!"

Elise backtracked to where she had last seen Reese and found him lying on the floor, blood covering his face. "NO!" She screamed and checked for a pulse. More shots rang out from across the warehouse but they were sporadic now with no one returning fire. "Zoe! Reese has been shot!" Elise shouted into the radio, only to feel Zoe appear at her side moments later.

"Oh my God, Elise! Is he dead?" Zoe whispered in a broken voice.

"No, but I can't tell how badly he's shot. We need to get him out of here so I can examine him but I can't move him myself, he's too heavy!"

She and Zoe grabbed ahold of Reese's vest around the shoulders and hauled him over behind some crates. Both of them were panting with the effort of pulling Reese's dead weight around and both of them were silently praying that he was not going to die.

With Reese safely behind the crates in the warehouse, Zoe and Elise took a second to check out their tactical situation. There seemed to be fewer spots were gunfire was coming from due to Elise's expert marksmanship, but still too many to drag Reese any further. Elise asked Zoe to continue to return fire so that the other shooters would stay back while she examined Reese.

Kneeling down, Elise began a very thorough but quick examination of Reese, checking for any wounds other than the bad one she could see on his shoulder and the scary one on the right side of his head. Gently feeling along his hairline she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was a graze. It caused a lot of bleeding all over his face but was not fatal by any means. Methodically working her way down his body she found that there were only those two wounds. But his blood loss and unconscious state had her worried. Her first aid training kicked into high gear and she was able to stop most of the bleeding for the time being. Field dressing the wounds allowed her mind to check off what they needed to do and what they needed to do fast. An unconscious Reese was going to be a major problem when trying to get out of this hellhole they'd found themselves in.

Zoe was not a lot of help but she held her own. The guns and the blood and the noise were far away from the boardrooms, restaurants and bars where she normally did her job. She'd kept her head and came running when she heard Elise call for help, never stopping to think about how SHE could help Elise. It took everything she had to not scream when she saw John bleeding and unconscious. Elise made it clear that she was calling the shots and that they needed to get him to safety immediately. Forgetting that there were people actually trying to kill her and Elise, she and Elise grabbed Reese and pulled him fifteen feet to safety. Once there she sat back on her heels and watched as Elise took control of the situation. No emotion showed on her face while she checked John's injuries. The only sound she made was when the head wound turned out not to be as serious as it appeared. Zoe was amazed at how calm and cool and detached Elise seemed to be. Here was someone they both knew, badly injured and yet Elise looked like she was caring for a stranger. She supposed Elise really didn't care for John after all.

The gun shots were getting fewer and fewer as the shooters ran out of ammo. Elise used Reese's gun to fire off a couple more rounds and took two more down. The others kept up a half-hearted volley of bullets keeping them boxed in.

"We're going to need some help to get out of here. We can't drag him half way back through this warehouse to the car. He's too heavy and I don't think our friends over there really want to let us leave. Any suggestions about what we should do?" Elise asked over her shoulder between shots.

Zoe looked around and knew Elise was right. They needed some help and they needed it quickly. "What about those cops John said they were working with? Maybe we can call them for help." Zoe mused.

Elise sat back down for a moment and looked at Zoe. Getting help was going to be mandatory but using the police? But Reese appeared to trust at least two of them. Reaching over she pulled his phone out of his pocket. She'd felt it when she'd checked him for more injuries. Turning it on, she checked the address book. There were only had 5 entries: ET, ZM, DC and DF and one that read BIRD. She knew ET was her, and ZM was Zoe but DC and DF? Perhaps Finch was BIRD? But why not just call him HF? Elise was puzzled but set aside the question as she didn't have time for it.

Elise blushed when she remembered the cop's name. Detective Carter was the one who had seen her in the back of Reese's car that time...naked. And then she remembered Detective Fusco who caught them when she had her legs wrapped around Reese's...head. Taking a deep breath and pushing those memories back down as far as she could, she dialed Detective Carter.

"What is it this time John? You know I'm still cleaning up your…. WAS THAT A GUNSHOT I JUST HEARD?" Detective Carter spoke so quickly and so fiercely, that it was a second before Elise could get tell her the reason she was calling.

"Detective Carter, this is Elise Tate. John and I need your help. We were ambushed by a group of perps in a warehouse in the Bronx. John is down and my partner and I are pinned down here. Please, we need your help."

"I'm on my way. Where are you? How bad is John hurt?"

Elise gave her the address and told her she didn't know about John. He'd lost a lot of blood but his pulse seemed strong.

"Ok, hold on. Fusco and I are close. We'll be there in ten minutes." Carter disconnected the call and in between returning the sporadic fire, Elise told Zoe that the two cops were on their way.

Paul Gardner couldn't believe he had come to this. Here we was, taking fire from an unexpected source and his group was quickly running out of ammo. Back in his FBI days, he could have called for back-up but those days were long gone and most of the men he had hired were down. It was supposed to be a simple task of taking out one solitary guy. Ok, so the guy had military training he'd been told. But still, a quick in and out, not this long, drawn out gun battle.

"Report." He barked into his radio.

"I'm out."

"Four rounds left."

"Out."

"Out."

"Five rounds left."

"Out."

The news wasn't good. He needed to extract himself and the others NOW! He'd heard that they had accomplished their goal when some female voice had shouted that John had been shot. So, how to get out? He knew he'd lose more men but frankly, he didn't care as much about them as himself. They were just men he'd hired and they'd known the risks.

He was just about to order them to fall back as best they could when a new round of gunfire erupted from the other side of the warehouse. 'What the hell!' He thought. 'Fuck this, I'm outta here.' He slowly backed up and headed towards a door he'd noticed almost hidden by boxes and crates. 'Always have an exit.' He'd reminded himself. Nearby, another of the men went down and Paul hurried to reach the door.

The outline of light from the door was almost his undoing. Bullets ripped through the area around the door as the light alerted someone inside that someone was trying to exit the building. He ducked and dove out the door, then got up and ran. He thought he heard other footsteps following him, but he didn't turn to look.

Once he reached the van, he started the vehicle up and roared out of the area. He was ten miles away before the adrenaline left his body and he suddenly felt exhausted. It was time to collect the rest of his pay and get out of this job. He drove down to a nearby marina where he had a small boat stashed. He'd been told he needed to report in person and the boss had been adamant about not using the phone. Whatever. The money was good and he knew how to follow orders.

He reached the yacht twenty minutes later and cut the engine on his boat. He hailed the yacht and a dark haired woman emerged from the cabin and threw him a line.

Once on board, he addressed her. "It's done Boss. We encountered more resistance than we thought though. He must have had a partner."

The woman scowled at that. "Who was it?"

"No idea. I think it was a woman. Whomever she was, she handled an assault weapon with ease."

"Well is this mystery woman dead now I hope?"

"I have no idea Boss. We were out of ammo and had to get out of there. I suspect the other guys took her out."

"But you don't KNOW?" The woman narrowed her eyes. "Do you mean you left before it was over? You just left your men behind? Tsk, tsk, Mr. Gardner, that's becoming a habit for you…. I'm surprised after what you lost the last time, your position with the FBI and all, that you did it again."

"Shut up." He growled. "Just pay me the rest of my money and I'm out of here. Your target has been taken down. Now I want my money."

"Oh, you'll get what's due to you." She said, raised a Smith and Wesson she had hidden behind her back and shot Paul Gardner right between the eyes. As the body fell overboard, she turned to go back into the cabin saying, "Now, where were we Harold?"