Reddington strode through the warehouse, moving at twice the pace he generally preferred. He'd found the casual amble created a far better impression on adversaries and would-be business associates. A smile and stroll while brandishing a gun was apparently incredibly off-putting to some. Reddington had no time for pretenses at the moment. He needed to find his young, fool-hardy associate and ascertain the extent of his injuries. Then perhaps he would ring his neck. Reddington spotted Dembe outside the curtain of plastic the medical team had erected.
"How is he?"
"He took a bullet in the shoulder, but the doctor claims it missed anything vital. He'll need to rest, but he'll be fine." Relief flooded through him. He'd been negotiating an arms deal with a particularly unstable seller. Reddington's flight had been delayed do to inclement weather, and it had seemed both he and the payment wouldn't be able to make the exchange. He had ordered Jacob and Dembe to attempt, via phone, to postpone the sale. When the negotiations fell through, Jacob had elected to attempt alternative means of securing the merchandise.
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that." The boy was cocky and pig-headed and it would get him killed one day if he wasn't careful. Reddington didn't know what he'd have to do to beat that into Jacob's skull, but he would find a way.
"Raymond, he only meant to-" Reddington cut him off mid-sentence.
"I am well aware of what he meant to do. He was reckless. Foolish." Dembe sighed, too honest to argue the point.
"He was trying to please you." Reddington felt a familiar stab of conscience. He had stressed to Jacob the importance of securing the arms for the client. Still that didn't excuse his behavior.
"He nearly got himself killed." Jacob either believed in his own invulnerability or didn't place a high premium on his personal safety. Reddington wasn't sure which explanation he liked least.
"You would have lost the weapons." This was true. Despite the injury Jacob had sustained, he had been successful acquiring the merchandise. This no doubt would be the first sentence out of Jacob's mouth when he awoke from surgery.
"I nearly lost him." There were worse things in life than losing clients. Jacob had been with him for seven years. He was one of the few individuals Reddington allowed himself to care about these days. He'd buried too many people already. Jacob would not become another. The trouble was Raymond had no idea how to combat the threat that came from Jacob himself.
Jacob had always pushed himself to the limit trying to demonstrate his value. It was a defense mechanism triggered by a deep rooted fear of abandonment. Somewhere in Jacob's mind he felt he needed to be constantly of use, or else he would be left by the wayside. Reddington had understood it in the beginning, but seven years had past and the compulsion was still there.
"I don't know what to do with him. What else I can say, what else I can do to…" Reddington ran a hand through his hair as his voice trailed off. Any attempt he'd made to reassure the boy had failed miserably. Gestures and words of affection seemed to make Jacob uncomfortable. The boy was profoundly loyal and yet there was a distance there that did not exist between Reddington and Dembe.
"Give him time Raymond." Reddington would have smiled if he wasn't so frustrated. Dembe had grown so much from the boy he'd found chained to that pipe. He seemed to possess wisdom and patience far beyond his twenty-two years.
"It's been nearly a decade."
"You must remember he was not a fortunate I was." Reddington looked up at Dembe sharply.
"Fortunate?" Orphaned at six, and eight years as an underage sex slave was far from a charmed childhood.
"I had eight years of darkness, but I also had six years of light. I had the memory of what it was to be loved. To be whole. Jacob does not." Reddington reluctantly nodded. He'd had investigated Jacob's background after picking him up, just to be sure he didn't have a family anxiously awaiting his return.
The boy was removed from his biological mother's negligent care at five years old, and from there was tossed around the system like an unwanted football. Things had gotten especially rough towards the end, prompting the boy to flee to New York. There Jacob have managed to lift a briefcase containing sensitive materials belonging to an incompetent Russian diplomat. The diplomat had hired Reddington to locate the missing case and avoid Moscow finding out.
Something about the boy's brashness and obvious intelligence drew Reddington to him. Leaving him there seemed like such a waste of potential. Dembe had been struggling at the time and he'd wondered if a boy of similar age might be helpful to his recovery. He'd been right…eventually, after several brawls and a few broken bones.
Still, as much of a handful they had been, Dembe and Jacob had helped ease the ache of Reddington's loneliness. Having them to love and protect had saved him from his own despair. These days he often thought if he owed them far more than they ever did him.
They'd both grown into strong, and capable young men. Reddington couldn't deny they'd been valuable to his growing organization in recent years. Jacob aptitude in particular was astonishing. He was a sponge, absorbing every lesson and skill. He was a savant when it came to strategy and subterfuge. The boy had all the makings of a major player in the criminal underworld, which was why Reddington should probably have sent him away from it years ago.
"I should never have allowed either of you to be a part of this." Reddington knew only too well that having an aptitude for something, didn't mean it was healthy for you.
"We must all find our own paths, Raymond. Jacob is no exception." Reddington snorted. Dembe had recently become desirous to return to his homeland and join with the freedom fighters there. Reddington had been able to stall him over the past few months by telling Dembe he needed him at his side, but he doubted that would hold much longer.
"He never gave college a chance. I have yet to see the environment he was not capable of making himself at home in." Upon Reddington's urging Jacob had remained enrolled at a prestigious university for precisely one semester. He attended all of his classes, achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average, and at the end of it told Reddington he would swallow bullet before spending one more minute with the "naive, useless, brain-dead" occupants of the school, more commonly known as the faculty.
"No, you've never seen the environment he couldn't APPEAR at home in. He wishes to remain with you. He admires you. He trusts you in so much as he's able. If you wish to help him, then let help you. Let him feel he is proving his worth to you."
"He doesn't need to prove his worth to me." Stubborn, frustrating, brilliant, funny boy. Jacob was one of the few things that brought color to Reddington's bleak and unbearable world. If only Jacob could see himself through Reddington's eyes. Dembe reached out and rested a hand on Reddington's shoulder.
"I know. But hopefully along the way, he will proof his worth to himself."