Belongs to you

Outside of TJY, Carson numbly watches Misty go inside, the locket in his hand. What on earth…

Why did he feel so guilty?! Why must he be run through the mill like this?! It wasn’t fair!

Groaning to himself, he rolls his eyes and reenters the building, his original intentions of leaving gone for the moment.

He sees Misty go towards Rick, but doesn’t follow. Instead, he heads straight for Reese’s office.

Minutes later, he’s in the middle of a heated exchange.

“Can’t we keep our eyes off of you for ten minutes?!” Reese stares at Carson, displeased to hear the whole story. “Apparently you’re still not sure where your loyalty lies. What am I supposed to do with you?”

“I was bored, alright?!” Carson defends. “You got me caged in here, I can’t go anywhere, I don’t have my own place, I can’t even go out and get my own food! You can’t expect me just to sit around and do nothing!”

“I CAN expect you not to deal with the Agency!” Reese flings back. “You know good and well that it was wrong, and I’m extremely disappointed in you.”

Carson’s jaw tightens as he lowers his gaze to the floor. He wasn’t used to someone being disappointed in him…mad at him, yes…wanting to kill him, yes… but disappointed? It meant they had expectations of him to begin with, and even that was new. “Look, just get someone down to Arizona next week to stop that killing from happening.”

“That’s the easy part.” Reese crosses his arms. “The hard part is figuring out what to do with you. What do you want, Carson? Do you want to leave? I know you don’t want to go back to the Agency. Do you want a ticket out of the state? Out of the country? Help me out here.”

Carson doesn’t even know how to reply. How can he, when he doesn’t even know what he wants anymore? He rubs his knuckles where the blood has now dried. “Just lock me up,” he relents. “Just keep me in the holing cell so I don’t ruin anything else.”

Reese lets out a sigh, calming himself down. “How about we don’t go down that route again?” he suggests. “How about instead, I give you the corner desk on the main floor, I give you a stack of work to do, I put you on the payroll, and we find you an apartment?”

Carson looks up quickly, royally confused. “What?”

“Not good enough?”

“Well, no, I mean, yes, I mean…” Carson looks at Reese as though he were crazy. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s called grace.”

“But I was going to go out and kill two innocent people for the Agency. And you don’t care?”

“I care,” Reese replies evenly. “But everyone makes mistakes, and you didn’t do it, now did you?”

“I would have, if Misty hadn’t interfered.”

“Well, then I guess we can be glad she did.”

Carson shakes his head, bewildered. “I…”

Reese interrupts him. “So? You’ve heard my offer. I want an answer.”

Carson’s mind races. “I don’t know…how can you…I mean…I’m a crook, Reese! And you expect me to be honest enough to actually work here?”

“Yes.” Reese looks him in the eye. “I do. Because I know you want to do what’s right, and I know you have the willpower to do it. I have no doubt that whether Misty would have interfered today or not, you wouldn’t have shot those people, and I’ll stick by that belief. Now…I’ll tell Susanne to prepare that cubicle for you, and tomorrow I want you there to start working.”

“But I…”

Reese waves him toward the door. “You’re dismissed.”

Carson furrows his brow, confused…bewildered…totally out of his element. Not able to argue though, he finally backs away, turning to leave.

Reese watches him go, then sinks down in his chair with a weary sigh. He hoped he’d just done the right thing. He’d wanted to wring Carson’s neck, but past experience proved that wasn’t the way to handle Carson. Would giving him something to do help? Reese could only hope and pray it would. For now, he needed to call several people in Arizona.


Rick finishes up on Misty’s neck, looking at her with a gentle sternness. “Now, take care of that. I don’t want those stitches ripping out, so take it easy.” He rinses off his hands in the sink, then wipes them on a towel. “I’ve got to run some reports to Reese, I’ll be back. In the meantime, get the rest of yourself cleaned up, and don’t worry about work the rest of the afternoon.” He picks up some files and heads out of the infirmary.


Carson pulls on a shirt and tosses his duffel bag in the corner of the spare room, opting not to go back to the holding cell this time.

Looking down at his hand, he notices that he split his cuts back open again. Sighing, he knows he should go clean them off and get some bandages on them.

He glances to the bedside table, and thinks for a moment, though he can’t even sort through anything he’s thinking anymore. He was mad, he wasn’t, he was angry, he was hurt, he was confused…nothing made sense, and he was now acting purely on instinct, of which he didn’t even trust. But he had nothing else to go on.

Reaching down to the table, he snatches up the object and heads out and down the hall.

Arriving at the infirmary, Carson pauses a moment before entering. Rick wasn’t there…good or bad? He wasn’t sure. Spotting Misty, he hesitates, but finally approaches her.

He holds out his hand, palm-side up with her locket. “This belongs to you,” he informs gruffly. “All I need is to know where the bandages are so I can clean myself up and get back out of your way.”


Wyatt gives Katie a little smile. “No need to thank me, you know that. Come on. I’ll take you home.”

He helps Katie up, and stretches his legs out, getting the circulation flowing again. He makes sure she has everything she needs before leaving TJY, and it’s not long before he’s pulled up to the curb in front of the apartment. “You be alright? You need me to come in and do anything for you?”


Clint takes a mouthful of rice, followed by a chuckle. “Yeah, I’ve already dropped two pants sizes since I got here – if I didn’t have you around, one day Wes would come looking for me under a car and I would have simply vanished into thin air.”

He starts to shake his head at her suggestion to go for a ride, but then changes his mind. “I’d love to go for a ride, as long as you can convince Wes it was a mandatory break.” He winks at her. “But I think he’ll understand.”