With a sudden anxious feeling John rushed to the hospital as fast as the always busy streets of New York allowed him. In between Finch has given him an update, which made him worry no less. Hitting a speed dial button on his phone it was Fuscos typical bugged "what do you want me to do this time that gets me in trouble?", that reached his ear.

"Who did that to Carter?", he asked. Contrary to their typical verbal exchange of blows he wasn´t up for games this time.

"A robber", Fusco thankfully answered straight ahead. "Carter must have come across a street robbery by accident. Instead of waiting for reinforcement she tried to handle the situation on her own as a witness told. At some point the situation got out of hand and one of the two crooks smacked her down with whatever. The testifies about that are getting a bit unclear.

"Are they arrested?"

"One of them. This smarty pants thought it would´ve been a clever idea to hide in a nearby pub."

"What about the other?"

"Don´t worry, I´ll hunt his ass down."

The serious tone in the Detectives voice made him understand that he wouldn´t give up before realizing his intention. Even though Fusco came off a bit clumsy at times, he knew that he nonetheless was a capable policeman.

"Let me know if you need help", John ended the call.

A few minutes later he found himself in front of the hospital room, which regarding to the receptionist, was Carters.
Forcing himself to knock instead of entering the room without a warning, he took a deep breath. While it came easy to him to handle situations like these in the past, everything was different now that Carter wasn´t just a friend anymore. As they had only been a couple for two weeks, they´ve decided to keep their relationship a secret just a little longer. During that time they´ve explored and learned about each other's worlds in all the new ways. It was something neither of them was ready to share just yet. They had been happy – he had been happy in ways he never thought to experience again. Looking into a pair of questioning eyes as he entered the room, he felt a cold hand clenching around his heart.

"Joss", he said.

For a moment she just stared at him with an unreadable glance before she pulled herself together.

"John?", she asked.

"That´s my name."

Coming closer, he wanted to kiss her forehead but stopped himself as she obviously had no clue who he was.

"Heard what happened", he tried to set foot onto safer territory.

"Have you also heard that you will get me out of here - immediately?"

John frowned.

"Listen", she spoke up. "I won´t stay here a minute longer. These surroundings give me more headache than I already have."

Getting out of bed she added: "And before you waste your words trying to make me stay, I signed the papers already."

Despite his mixed feelings about her leaving the hospital, John couldn´t help but smile. Even under the current circumstances he knew that he wouldn´t be able to stop her. In the end it was this kind of signature personality besides her righteousness, he eventually fell in love with.

"Where do you want me to take you."

"Home. I forgot a lot, but I still know that I am a mother. All I want to do is to hug my son."

"A shuttle ride home it is", he confirmed.

In the hallway they met the responsible doctor, who obviously wasn´t pleased to see Joss leave.

"If the headache or nauseous get stronger, or if you start to see double images you need to come back immediately", he introduced her.

When John asked about how long her memory loss could persevere, the white gowned man shrugged shoulders.

"Most patients start to remember within hours, others within days. There are only a handful of cases I know about when it took longer than that."

"You´re talking about weeks or months?", Joss asked.

"Like I said, it´s seldom."

"What about cases where people lost their memory for good?"

The doctor smiled.

"Don´t worry too much. Personally, I only know about these kinds of complications if the brain was exposed to severe trauma or when there had been psychiatric issues beforehand. Since neither of that applies to you, you shouldn´t be concerned."

Calmed about the doctor´s words, John brought Joss to his car."

Seeing a slide hesitation in her eyes as she opened the door to the passenger seat, she smiled a helpless smile.

"Probably it´s not the smartest move for someone with memory loss to get into a car of a person she can´t even remember", she stated, entering nonetheless.

"Thought that rather I should be the worried one to receive a speeding ticket, Detective."

His intention went to plan as Joss began to chuckle.

"You better keep the speed limit then."

On the way she had asked about Finch and how they were related. Since John wasn´t up to stress her more, he decided to go with that they became friends through their jobs.

"And I thought private investigators only hunt after disloyal spouses", she concluded with a raised eyebrow when he chose for a cover story that wouldn´t bring up more questions.

"Sometimes we do and sometimes we do a little extra", he stated.

Seeing a smirk appear on her face from the corner of his eye, he lay his glance on her.

"What´s so funny?", he asked.

"Nothing much. I´m just afraid to be in trouble when your girlfriend finds out that you drive me through the city while you should be at work."

Seriously confused about her assumption, John frowned.

"What did I miss?"

"Little advice: maybe you should look out for lipstick marks after being romantic", she twirled the neck of his shirt teasingly. "Nice color by the way. Makes me want to get some cherries."

John swallowed.

While she seemed to have no clue that it actually was her lipstick marks since he hadn´t had the time to change yet, he felt a stitch in his heart.

"So, who is she?", Joss asked conspicuously.

"It´s complicated."

For a moment a strange silence filled the air as she eventually shrugged her shoulders.

"Isn´t it always like that?"

With a sudden tiredness in her expression, she leaned her head back onto the rest.

Arriving at her place shortly after she thanked him before heading to her apartment. Later the day he would have a look for her. For now, however, he had to take a step back to give her the rest she needed.