The Meeting Place by ReeseisLAVAhot

AN: Well my dear readers, I have never been a Carter/Reese shipper but my close friend Maddsgirl75 is an avid one and she was bound to rub off on me SOME time. So, if you hate this fict, blame her and if you like it, well you have her to thank for it too. Her "cars" fict inspired this little plot bunny and I highly recommend it if you haven't already read it.

Staring down the barrel of the gun Snow was pointing directly at her, Joss KNEW she should have listened to HIM. HE was always right, damn him and that damn smirk of his that always made her so hot; made her WANT to provoke him, made her WANT to make him angry, angry enough to perhaps slip his leash, if just a little. For what reason she wanted him this way, she would barely admit to herself, much less to him. Still, she should have known better than to ignore his warning but instead she had just pushed on, like she always did; convinced that, as always, she would come through this just fine. That Good would always triumph over Evil. Now, seeing her death coming, she just wished to see HIM once more before she died. She wanted to tell him he was right. He'd always been right, even when she didn't want to hear it. She wanted to beg him to promise to take care of Taylor. To help guide her son to become a good man, the kind of man HE was. But the bullet left the gun and suddenly, she had no time. It hit her in the chest and her knees buckled, the floor rushing to meet her all too quickly. Her thoughts as she fell were ones of HIM and the first time she'd met him in that diner.

She sat there, sipping her coffee and for the billionth time, wondered what the hell she was doing here. What the hell had made her make that call? She was a GOOD Detective. She solved her cases most of the time, was proud of the fact that very few of hers ended up in the Cold Case Unit. So why was she here, waiting on a man she'd never actually met, had only seen once and who was as far outside the law as she was in it?

She knew why. The rush of helping someone BEFORE they were killed had been a heady feeling. She was shocked at how the man in the glasses had known that Derrick Watson was going to go after that banker. She wanted answers and more importantly, she wanted to see if she could do it again, make such a difference in someone's life. She wanted to save them BEFORE any of the bad things she saw day in and day out could happen to them.

A tall man in a suit walked in and she craned her neck to see if it was him, the 'Man in the Suit' as she'd first started calling him. He turned around and Carter saw that it was not HIM, this man was too thin and certainly not good looking enough….now where the hell had THAT thought come from?

'This is ridiculous!' She thought to herself. She would get up and leave and forget she'd ever called him, ever asked him to meet with her.

"Your coffee's getting cold, Detective." She heard a deep, low voice say from behind her. She looked up and watched in amazement as a man in a black suit and lilac shirt gaping open at the neck took the seat in front of her. Damn but he was even better looking than she remembered. Then suddenly, a ghost of a smirk came to his lips, almost as if he could see inside her head, as if he knew what she was thinking right then.

"Nice suit." She said with a smile of her own, trying to play down her first reaction to him and his appearance.

Grinning he spoke again. "Well, you finally found me. But I don't hear any sirens or see you reaching for your gun." The way he spoke, that voice… She had to look away, if just for a second.

"I looked for a 'sorry I got ya shot' card, but they were all out." She hung her head, not proud of the role she'd played in almost ending this man's life. Then she had to look up at him, so that he'd know she was sincere. "I had no idea what Snow was capable of…. that he'd actually try to KILL you….."

"Why DID you contact me, Carter?" He asked in that husky whisper of a voice.

"I've got a lot of questions."

"Well you managed to lose your tail. That's quite a feat. Those CIA boys spend a lot of time learning how to be invisible." He spoke as if he was not one of them, as if he had never been one of them. It puzzled her.

"You think Snow is my only problem?" She continued.

"Is there another agency following you that I'm not aware of?" He questioned, as if he knew exactly who was following her and where and when, she quickly thought.

She needed him to know, to understand the danger that they were both in… "You've got an entire NYPD task force looking for you. Had to run two lights just to get here, to make sure my own people weren't trailing me. I'm a cop, which means I've got rules. Rules that can't be broken. But, um, I want to know more."

He leaned in closer and she got a whiff of his scent. A bit of gunpowder, a bit of open air, a bit of manly aftershave and another scent she didn't recognize, one that must be uniquely his own. It was a heady combination. He fixed her with an intense stare and said, "Once you go down that road, there's no looking back." He paused and gave her a smirk, his eyes seeming to get more intense as he looked at her and she felt a delicious shiver run from her spine to the tips of her breasts and down below.

It took her a second, but she remembered her most burning question. "How are you getting your information?"

"All I can tell you is that we hear about people in danger or people who are causing it."

She couldn't think when he was focusing all his attention on her like this and she looked down and asked, "Why me?"

His voice seemed to take on a more serious note for a brief second as he said, "Because your moral compass is pointed in the right direction."

What? She thought. HE cared if she had morals? After what Snow had said that he did, the crimes he had committed? She looked up to see if he was serious. Perhaps he realized she didn't completely believe him because the next words out of his mouth were said with more levity.

"Because I'm tired of you chasing me."

She nodded her head at that. It made much more sense than to think that he actually cared what her morals were and what she might think of him.

"How does this work?" She asked.

He reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She opened it and saw there was a name on it. "Andrea Guiterrez?" She asked in a puzzled tone.

"A civil litigation attorney with a sealed juvie record. I need it unsealed Carter."

"What did I just say about rules?" Was this what they were going to do, ask her to break the law with them?

"You have your rules AND you have a chance to save a life."

She was suddenly taken aback, her heart leaping into her throat. How the hell had he done that? How did he know her weak spot? Who WAS this man? This John Reese as Snow had named him. And what if she didn't do this? Would she ever see him again? The thought pulled at her insides. He'd saved her life. Asked nothing in return and she'd gone and gotten him brutally shot.

"It's your choice."

She lowered her eyes and he got up. He knew he'd gotten to her. He handed her a cell phone and his fingers lingered on hers for just a split second as he handed it over. The touch sent electric shockwaves throughout her body.

"We'll be in touch." She looked at the phone and then up at him, wondering if he'd felt it too. He smirked down at her and then walked out and disappeared down the street.

Over the course of the next day or so, Carter had several phone conversations with him regarding the case. She became frustrated with his methods several times and his blatant disregard for the law. The same laws it was her job to uphold, but she had to admit she was looking forward to meeting him in the diner once more when he called and asked her to bring the file on Galuska. She even dressed with more care, wearing a black, form-fitting sweater, with a low V in the front and a white shirt underneath for proprieties' sake rather than the vest and pant suit she normally wore.

She sat at the counter, sipping her coffee and wondered if those same strange feelings would be there again this time. Every time she saw him, her stomach did flip-flops like when she used to ride the tilt-a-whirl when she was a kid. She just didn't understand it, she hadn't felt this way in a long time, a VERY long time, and she didn't like it. She was a strong, professional woman after all! She snorted to herself. 'Yeah, a professional who was feeding information illegally to a vigilante!'

She began looking once more through the case file she'd brought and wondered how she'd come to this. Still, if she didn't actually physically GIVE him the file… there was no law about speculating aloud to one's self about a case, even if there was someone sitting next to her while she did it.

"You're getting better at ditching your tail." He spoke as he appeared, seeming to want to remind her that he was aware of where she was and what she was doing at all times.

The thought made her smile and she took another sip of her coffee.

He leaned in closer to her and teased her in that whispery voice of his, "Maybe you've got a knack for breaking the law." Considering her recent thoughts, that was SO not what she wanted to hear from him! She gave him a disgusted look and put down her coffee.

"I've been going back through Galuska's files and found a pattern. In the past year, all the parolees he's busted were single parents."

"Which means their kids end up in foster care." She was surprised at how quickly he made that connection. "Galuska wasn't getting paid for the parolees, he was getting paid for their kids."

"Each child was worth about $800 a month. Galuska's gotta be working with someone at DFS." She was getting excited just thinking about the crime she was uncovering. A crime involving the exploitation of children no less! The thought of putting a stop to this gave her an exciting thrill.

"DFS is a big agency." He reminded her.

"I'm gonna have a talk with Mary and Paul Kensey, the foster parents looking after Terrance King's kid."

He leveled her with an impressed look and a smirk and said, "You're good at this Carter."

"It's my job. AND I didn't have to shoot anyone to do it." She couldn't resist teasing him after all he'd said and done over the past few days. His look of disbelief had her smiling into her coffee cup. 'Take that Mr. Man in a Suit!' She thought to herself, already looking forward to the next time they'd meet in a diner….

Or maybe someplace less… public?