A/N: I'm so glad that so many people took the time to read Missing Red, and even happier that others took the time to review and favorite it! Hope those of you who are read Missing Red and are now about to read Protecting Lizzie like it just as much. Protecting Lizzie is my way of getting inside of Red's mind, and trying to explain why I believe Red would care so much for Lizzie. Please review so that I can decide whether or not to continue Red and Lizzie stories!

I don't own The Blacklist, I just enjoying writing about the characters in it, all credit goes to the creators and writers of the show.

Enjoy!

Snow crunched under the lone man's feet as he walked, the wind whipping at his faced went unnoticed as he continued on, lost in thought. Just what did he think of? The only thing that had been on his mind since he had held it in his arms; so soft and sweet as it smiled up at him. It was Lizzie that Raymond Reddington thought of, it was Lizzie that he always remembered when he was left alone with his thoughts. But why should the Concierge of Crime remember holding a FBI agent in his arms when she was a baby? The answer was a complicated one, one that sent Red back into long past (and repressed) memories.

His best friend had invited him over for Thanksgiving dinner, to join him and his family - instead of spending it home alone again. What Josh his wife Susan didn't know (and could NEVER know) for their own safety was that Red had been building up a network of criminal clients with certain…demands for almost 10 years now, that he helped America's most wanted - most dangerous - criminals commit crimes and later escape the country under new identities. He was as different from FBI Special Agent Joshua Greene as one could be.

Red had originally set out to befriend Josh to discover what the FBI had on a particular client he had worked for at the time, but as time had passed, Red had come to respect Josh's determination and commitment to trying to make America a safer place for his wife, and eventually for their daughter, Elizabeth.

"Here she comes, hold out your arms Ray," Josh said to Red, using the nickname he had given him years before.

Red eagerly accepted the smiling bundle that was Elizabeth Greene, and began to play with her tiny fingers. "She's getting so big Josh, I swear she's nearly doubled in size since I last saw her," Red gushed. Oh how he adored the sweet little thing he held in his arms. "And it's easy to see that she has her mom's eyes," he said looking over at Susan.

"Yes, but she seems to be her daddy's girl, with all that brown hair, and just look at her smile! She's got Josh's smile too."

"Now honey don't pout, we both know where Lizzie gets her strength from, she has an incredibly strong mother." Josh patted his wife's hand as they shared an adoring smile, one that showed just how much they loved one another. Elizabeth Michelle Greene was one lucky baby, and couldn't have done any better than by having the two lovebirds as her parents, and one day she would be even luckier when she was able to comprehend just how good she had it. The thought made Red's small grin blossom into a rare full smile.

Even though the nickname wasn't terrible (in fact, he thought it kind of sweet), Red stuck to calling his god-daughter her by her full name, and left the special privilege of calling her Lizzie to her parents. He had to admit, when Josh had asked him to be her god-father, Red had been pleased and just a little reluctant, but now as he sat holding her in his arms, he had no idea what his life would be like without her.

"Isn't this cozy now? A loving couple and a sweet little bundle of joy too Red? I have to say that I'm shocked, I never expected you to be so…domestic." The sneering jibe came from the doorway where Clyde Barker - an ex-client of Red's - stood pointing a gun straight at Susan.

"Surprised to see me after all this time huh, didn't expect to see me again after everything that happened all those years ago, did you? Well Red, I managed to escape that prison after you BETRAYED me to the Feds and left me waiting for your private jet at that abandoned airport." Barker's glare held all the hate that had built up inside of him over the past 5 years. "I escaped," he repeated, "and now you have to pay for what you've done." He once again leveled the gun at Susan, who was paralyzed with fear.

"Clyde, after everything you did to those children, did you really think that I wouldn't find out? You knew my rules, I don't help those who abuse children, and I especially don't help anyone who KILLS children!" Red was trying to stay calm, to keep himself from begging for mercy from Barker, but seeing a gun pointed between Susan Greene's lovely blue eyes was beginning to make him all too desperate.

"I paid you for a service, you shouldn't have allowed your personal beliefs cloud your judgment Red, you should have just done as I had paid you to do and kept your mouth shut like you did for the rest of your clients. Needless to say, the man who recommended you to me will not be enjoying this special holiday ever again once I'm done here; I just can't abide by service that is lacking or bad recommendations." Barker's voice got cooler and more distant by the moment, which could only one thing, he was going to pull that trigger any moment.

Just then, Josh jumped Barker and punched him in the face, as the men struggled for the gun, Red raced over to Susan with the now screaming Lizzie in his arms.

"Take her and keep her somewhere safe, when all is alright I will come and get the two of you."

"Who are you?" Her voice was calm, though her eyes were panicked and filled with hurt at Red's betrayal.

"Not now Susan, I swear I'll explain everything once this is over, but now just please get Lizzie and yourself to safety!"

At the mention of her child, Susan snatched Lizzie away from him and ran from the room. Red set to the task of getting the gun out of Barker's hands, he had almost succeeded in getting the gun out of Barker's grasp when it went off.

Things after that moment seemed to move as if it was all happening in slow motion. Josh put a hand to his chest, and Red could see the blood on his friend's hand as he pulled it away, could swear that he could actually almost smell the blood from where he was.

"Josh, no!" Susan's agonized wail sounded, pulling her husband's shooter's attention toward her. Now Susan Greene had never fired a gun in her life, but in that moment that she saw her husband dying before her, she knew what she had to do, and she fired Josh's service weapon at Barker's head at the exact moment that he aimed his gun at her heart and fired.

Barker death was instantaneous.

Red then stood staring at his best friend and his wife slowly bleeding out on their own living room carpet. He knew from his years of experience with death that they both had only seconds left to live, and tears formed in his eyes as he watched them say goodbye to one another for the last time.

"Ray," Josh's voice was weak, but he heard it anyway, and rushed to his friend's side.

"Josh I-"

"It doesn't matter, nothing matters now, except a promise that I need you to make me and Susan, right here and right now, before it's too late."

"Of course, anything, I swear I'll keep my promise to you." And Red discovered he truly would keep his word to Josh.

"We need you to look after Lizzie for us, after we're gone." This came from Susan, who took her husband's hand. "Obviously you can't adopt her, and she can't know who you are, knowing you is too dangerous for her now, but make sure she is always loved and cared for. Watch her grow up, protect her, and love her - but from afar. When she's ready, come back into her life and tell her about us, tell her that we love her." A single tear fell from her eye as she said this, sliding down her cheek until Josh, using the last of his strength wiped it away, and kissed her hand that was linked with his.

"I promise, she will want for nothing, that she will be safe, and will have only the most deserving of people to care for her. I will keep her safe to my dying breath, even if it means dying for her."

Satisfied with Red's promise, Joshua and Susan Greene breathed their last breaths, and died in the same moment.

Red mentally shook himself back into the present, and sat down on a nearby bench, scrubbing his hands over his face. If anyone who passed by had time to notice, they would have seen his eyes fill with tears at the memory of losing those he loved most.

And to think, Lizzie had almost gotten it right when she had asked him if he was her father on the phone after Anslo Garrick had nearly ended both of their lives. She had no idea though why he was so obsessed with her, and she wouldn't know for years to come, not until he was sure that he had tied up all of his lose ends in the criminal world. He couldn't have what happened to her parents happen to her as well, couldn't have another situation like Garrick had caused be caused again by another angered ex-client.

He told himself that it was just for her safety that he continued to lie to her, even though she was a competent enough agent (so much like her father in that respect) to handle her own safety, but it was a lie. Red continued to lie to Lizzie for another, much more selfish, reason - one that he rarely ever admit even to himself. He didn't tell her about her parents because he was afraid she would look at him the same way that Susan had before running with Lizzie in her arms out of the living room, that she would look at him like a monster.

Lizzie had looked at him that way only once before, it had been after he had killed the Stewmaker after he had kidnapped, hurt, and attempted to kill her via a chemical bath that would burn through her flesh and bone like it wasn't even there.

After the Blacklist team had finally gotten to the cabin in the woods, after the remnants of the drug the Stewmaker had injected her with wore off and Lizzie sat on the back end of the ambulance that was on site, she had looked up at him and said something that had broken his heart.

"You're no better than him."

She compared him to the Stewmaker, a man (if someone like him could be called such a thing) who took pleasure in making people suffer, who thrived on being able to make other human beings disappear from existence!

Not wanting to let her see how she had wounded him, Red had sarcastically asked her if she was going to tattle on him to her superiors.

"You're a monster."

If he hadn't already been hurting from her earlier accusation, Red's heart would have broken then, those were the last words he wanted to hear from his Lizzie. He knew he couldn't argue with her, after all, he had told himself the same thing time and again since the death of the Greene's. So Red said the only thing that he could say, he had agreed with her.

"Yes."

The ringing of his burner phone pulled Red out of his painful trip down memory lane. Only one person had this number, he only trusted one person with it.

"Yes, hello Dembe." Red answered, with no trace of the grief that he had just been experiencing leaking through his voice.

"Sir, there is an issue with the girl."

Red's heart stopped, automatically expecting the worst, he tempered the emotion in his voice; there was no need to let Dembe know that he was worried over Elizabeth Keen. "What sort of issue Dembe, I'm afraid you need to be more specific than that."

"Her husband left their residence earlier this evening, clearly angry, and made his way to a local bar where he got quite drunk. He is now on his way back to his house, even angrier than he was when he left, he's been muttering about 'teaching the bitch a lesson' when he got back." Dembe paused, "I'm on my way there now sir, but I'm afraid I won't get there in time to help her."

"I'm on my way now," Red said, making his way through the park just a few blocks away from Lizzie and Tom's house. "Dembe, you wait outside the house when you get there, if you hear shots fired, you come in immediately and help Elizabeth no matter what physical condition I'm in, got it? Just get her to safety. Should I die, you are to give her my journal that contains the record of what happened to her parents, and all the names left on the Blacklist. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir, I understand that I am to protect the girl at all costs. Should something happen to you, she is to have the Blacklist names and the record of her biological parents' deaths."

"If however, you see Thomas Keen leaving the premises alone, you are to follow him; if he heads back home, you are to stop him in whatever way you believe necessary."

"Yes sir."

"Goodbye Dembe."

"Goodbye sir."

Red hung up the phone, crashing through Lizzie's back door. Drawing out his gun, Raymond Reddington, the Concierge of Crime, prepared himself to make good on the promise he had made to Joshua and Susan Greene as they lay dying that Thanksgiving night so long ago.