Informed Consent - PoI fanfic

[jennyaxe]

Title: Informed Consent
Author: Jenny Dybedahl
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: John Reese/Harold Finch
Code: Gen/pre-slash
Comment: After 1x18, "Identity Crisis"

Informed Consent

For a long time, Finch will wonder why Reese didn't take the opportunity offered him. After all, he'd spent months painstakingly ferret out the smallest details, trying to figure out what and who Finch really was - surely he should have taken advantage of the situation?
When he does figure it out, standing by the window in one of his safe houses, he feels deeply stupid. He nearly stumbles, catching himself against a chair, sitting down heavily. He really should have known. While Reese has spent considerable effort in following him, asking small seemingly innocuous questions, bringing him food or beverages, studying his reactions... he has never done so in secret. He would have been able to, if he'd wanted; he has the skills to evade Finch, possibly even the Machine, should he want to. That he hasn't is in itself a clear message. Every tiny inquisitive act has been a polite knock on the door, as it were; never has Reese forced his way through a locked door. And he never will. He will not breach the defenses, nor will he take advantage of a breach created by someone else.
He will not take what is not offered, nor tread in where he is not both wanted and invited. He will have full and informed consent, a free choice, for both of them, or he will have nothing.

Finch rises, perhaps slightly more stiffly than usual. He walks back to the window. Through a small gap in the branches of a tree, he sees a tall man leaning against the railing. The man, of course, lookes a as though he is not at all interested in what may be happening in that one apartment. Finch takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly, coming to a decision.

As the man touches his right ear, his lips curl in a smile so faint as to be all but invisible to a casual observer.

"Mr. Reese. You must be getting cold."
A slight hesitation, so short that Reese almost believes he imagines it.
"Would you like come in?"