AN: This is for the anonymous user on tumblr that sent me this prompt. Thanks nonnie. :) This is set during this coming Monday's episode.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Blacklist.
Shock. That's what it was supposedly called, but was something that she hadn't ever experienced until now; her chest hurt, her pulse was racing and she felt cold. Finding out that her husband was someone completely different that who she thought he was, was the trigger. She leaned her head against the steering wheel of her car and closed her eyes, too devastated to cry or feel anything else besides numbness. Red had tried to warn her over the last few months, but she hadn't believed him. Why would she trust a notorious criminal who she didn't know, over her husband of two years? Now she wished she would have listened.
When Red had given her information on the location of another blacklister, she'd jumped at the chance to catch him, not knowing that he was sending her to her husband. When she had come face to face with Tom in that warehouse, her whole world fell apart. He'd given her a look that she could only describe as menacing, then backed slowly out of the room and left without a word. She hadn't been able to do anything but stand and watch him with her gun hanging limply in her hand at her side.
Her head shot up from the steering wheel; she had to find Red. It was his fault that this happened.
Some of the numbness changed into anger, and she was glad she could feel something...anything really.
Liz pulled her phone out and quickly dialed his number, then put it up to her ear. Each ring caused her anger intensify until he finally picked up on the fifth ring. "Lizzie, I'm kind of in the middle of-"
"I don't get a damn what you're in the middle of, where are you?" She said in a quiet, deadly voice.
He must have picked up the anger in her voice, because he didn't try to argue with her further. "I'm in a shop down on Tenth Street. Text me when you get here and I'll have Dembe meet you outside."
"Fine", she said shortly, then hung up before he could reply. She pulled away from the curb quickly and drove down the street as fast as possible. She needed answers now, and each second in the car was a moment where she wasn't getting those answers.
Ten minutes later found her in front of what looked to be an abandoned store front. She pulled her phone out and texted Red, and Dembe came out within seconds. Liz didn't greet him, or acknowledge him in any way as she walked past him and inside the shop the way he had come out. She found Red quickly and shut the door behind her quietly; leaving her alone with him. She wondered briefly if Dembe would come in if he heard her yelling at Red, but then found she didn't care if he did.
Red stood with his back to her in front of a workbench with his sleeves rolled up and his suit coat off, with parts of something she couldn't identify spread out in front of him. The room was dark, with the only light coming from a lamp on the workbench. Without turning around he said, "I'm assuming you're here because you found out the truth about your husband."
She clenched her jaw, trying not to being the conversation by yelling at him, but she felt like it was going to burst out of her uncontrollably at any moment. She took a deep breath, "Why didn't you tell me the truth? All of this could have been avoided if you would have just told me everything you knew from the beginning."
He turned around and she noticed absentmindedly that he had a black apron on. Red huffed an unamused laugh, his face in the shadows as he said, "And you believe that things would have turned out any differently? Lizzie, you wouldn't have believed me even if I had told you what I knew. You had to find out for yourself."
Liz had approached him slowly as he'd been talking, and when he finished, she was standing inches from him. He was right of course, but at this point she didn't give a shit. She poked a finger into his chest, too angry to form a coherent sentence. He took a step back to relieve the pain of her finger digging into his chest until he felt the table pressing into his lower back. "Lizzie, you have to know that I-"
She slapped him, hard, "You son of a bitch. Who are you to decide what information I should get? He could have killed me back in that warehouse, and it would have been your fault. When you sent me after number three on your list, you didn't tell me that it was TOM!" She took another step and pressed her body into Red's, feeling more powerful and angry than she could ever remember.
He hadn't done anything but stare at her with an unreadable expression, even after she'd slapped him, and it only served to piss her off even more. She brought her fists up and started hitting him on the chest, with the tears that had been threatening the entire time, finally running down her cheeks. He allowed it for a few moments, then quickly wrapped his arms around her and spun them around and sat her on the table with him between her thighs. He was pressed so close that she couldn't break her arms free to continue hitting him, so she went limp and laid her head on his chest, listening to the slightly erratic sound of his heartbeat. He ran a hand through her hair softly, then whispered in her ear, "If I had known that Tom was at that warehouse, I would not have sent you. Your safety is the most important thing to me; you must know that, Lizzie." She did, but she wasn't thinking clearly enough to understand that at the moment.
He didn't loosen his arms, and just held her until her breathing became normal and her sniffling stopped. He began to pull away, but she wrapped her arms around his lower back and hugged him to her tighter as she whispered, "No." She sounded heartbroken, and it took everything in him to stay there and not go hunt down Thomas Keen and kill him with his bare hands. She put her face in his neck and said quietly, "We're going to hunt him down together and take that bastard down. I'm not resting until he's either dead or in jail." That was his Lizzie. The strong-willed, independent, brilliant woman that he was secretly falling in love with.
He kissed her temple, and with his lips against her skin said, "I'll be there with you every step of the way."
AN: I was prompted again by an anonymous user: "Liz coming to Red, following the "you were right" that we will hopefully get next episode. Liz is angry, because none of this would have happened if it weren't for Red." This was written quickly, but I hope I did it justice because this is something that I would love to see in the next episode (even though we won't). At least it looks like we're going to get more Lizzington in the next episode. I would love to hear what you guys think. Thanks for reading. :)