Title: It Doesn't Change Anything

Author: Jedi Buttercup

Disclaimer: The words are mine; the world is not. I claim nothing but the plot.

Rating: PG.

Summary: Why'd he really do it? No one that deadly and that well informed is that altruistic, in Carter's experience. 500 words.

Spoilers: Person of Interest 1.9 "Get Carter"

It had been smart of him to ditch the suit and cut the hair, Carter reflects as she watches the motorcycle zip away. A really distinctive, established image is its own sort of invisibility; people start looking for the uniform, not the face, and skip right over you when you change it. One more piece of evidence, not that she needs it, to point to a background in government service.

Of course, that kind of misdirection works a lot better if you don't immediately show off your new style to the opposition. And don't have other, equally distinctive signatures to follow. Why'd he really do it? No one that deadly and that well informed is that altruistic, in her experience.

But at least she's learned one thing from all this: 'employee of Elias' is off the list of possibilities. Unless Elias is playing a lot deeper game than anyone knows... but, no. She may be no Sherlock Holmes, but Elias is no Moriarty, either. He's not even his father. He's reaching for it, maybe, but she's making it her job to see that his reach exceeds his grasp, and his choice of response is affirmation enough that she's affecting his operations. Maybe she doesn't have as much backup as she should have. But--

"You're not alone."

He'd made the statement sound like a promise-- and what was more, he'd sounded like he meant it.

Carter's been an interrogator; she passed the bar; she's a detective first grade. She knows people. And if maybe her commitment to legal means of making the world safer rubs a few the wrong way-- that doesn't affect her perceptions, just how she acts on them. She'd believed the guy enough about the threat to wear a vest. And she can't help but believe the rest of it now, even though she doesn't dare rely on it.

He may call himself a vigilante or a protector, but he's broken-- she can't even count how many laws off-hand, now. He hasn't killed many, but he has killed, and dozens more have been wounded. Destruction of property. Possession of illegal firearms. Armed robbery. Criminal trespass. And so on and so forth. He's playing god, and she despises that in a man; had even before her naiveté cost the life of a man she'd negotiated with in good faith.

Everyone should be equal under the law: she really believes that, despite the imperfections of the system. It leaves a bad taste in her mouth that this guy, in all his earnest violence, is making her feel grateful to him for breaking it.

"Someone out there, Mom?" Taylor asks, and her attention pulls back inside the diner swift enough to give her whiplash. Never mind Mr. Motorcycle Jacket; this is what's important, this right here.

But he did make it possible for her to come back to her son. And for that... well. She'll give him a free pass, just this once.

"Just thinking. C'mon, let's get you to school."

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