The balancing of the car was hypnotic, and she realized how tired she was. She was fighting the urge to sleep when Red put a hand on her knee and squeezed it, lightly.
"You can sleep, Lizzie. I'll wake you up when we get there. We got a lot of road ahead of us."
"I'm fine" she said, the sleepiness in her voice betraying her. He laughed.
"Ok then, Lizzie. You're fine" he said in a mockery tone, and she scoffed him by turning to the other side and resting her head on the window. The cold glass surprisingly calmed her, and she gave in to sleep a few minutes later.
The street lights passing by faster and faster gave room to a small room. She felt the ruffles of a nightgown on her legs, and looked down to find the tiny legs and feet of a four year old. When she looked up, the place around her was on fire.
She ran around and found no way out, her cries coming out of her mouth in the high pitched voice of a scared child. She felt tears coming from her cheeks when she found her white stuffed bunny, and hugged it tightly, sitting on the floor and rocking back and forth.
That's when a boy opens the door and comes to her, his face black with the smoke she can't really see it. She sees that his eyes are blue, and soothing. She doesn't know him, but trusts him.
He reaches out a hand to her, and she grabs it as he helps her up.
"C'mon. We have to get out of here" his childish voice tells her, and she figures he's not that much older than her.
She nods and uses the hand holding her bunny to wipe the tears of her face. As they turn towards the door, it swings open and her wrist gets caught on the door handle, which is burning hot. She screams in pain and he screams too, scared. Her bunny falls to the floor as she holds the burnt wrist with the other hand, and it catches on fire as she drops it.
Suddenly a man shows up at the door, and she can't see his face but she know who he is. The adult Liz having the dream knows, at least. Red picks her up from the floor and then gets her wrist, examining it carefully, and then kissing her hand very near the burn.
"It will be ok, sweetheart. Outside there are people who can take care of you" he said, and his eyes are calming. She nods and then rests her tiny head on his shoulder. He turns around, probably looking for the boy, and founds him stepping on the bunny, trying to put out the fire.
"Let's go, son." He says, and adult Lizzie shakes in her sleep. Why is Red calling that boy son?
The boys picks up the burnt and battered bunny from the floor when Red calls again.
"C'mon, Donnie, it's dangerous in here."
As the boy follows, the dream begins to fade and Liz opens her eyes, taking a few seconds to recognize the road through the foggy and cold window. She turns around to find Red, whistling together with the song coming from the radio. She touches his arm slightly, and he greets her.
"Oh, hello there, sleepyhead. Were you able to rest?"
"I... I had a weird dream." She shakes her head and puts a hand on her forehead, trying to understand what happened.
"Clowns or midgets?" He asked, and chuckled, still looking at the road.
"I dreamt about the fire" she said, and his face turned grim immediately.
"What did you see, Lizzie? Did you remember something?"
"I guess, I don't know. It can't be. I guess my mind is mixing things up."
"What do you mean?" He was about to pull over, turning his head frantically to look at her and the road at the same time.
"I saw a boy there. I don't know who he is, I couldn't see his face. But he helped me. He caused my scar, I hit a door handle" she touched her scar, confused as she heard Red take a deep breath. She turned to see him gripping the wheel, his fingers whitened with the strength.
"But then you showed up, or I guess it was you. You picked me up and took me out of there, and then called the boy. You called him son."
"Son? That's strange" he said, but she could notice his voice sounded nervous. She continued, looking at him.
"And then you said his name. You called him Donnie" Red sighed, upset, and she knew that meant her dream wasn't just a dream.
"Oh my God, Red! Are you? Is... Is it Ressler? Is Ressler your son?"
Red pulled over and then turned towards her, trying to hold her hands, but she took them away from him.
Her eyes showed hurt and perplexity.
"It's a long story, Lizzie"
"We're not going anywhere." She said, her voice rough because of the tears that were coming from her eyes. She couldn't believe it.
"I met Donnie's mother, and she was having problems in her marriage. So was I, for that matter, and we met, connected, and one thing led to another. For all she knew she had had an irresponsible night with a stranger, and I kept it this way. But when she found out she was pregnant, she though it was at least fair to let me know.
For the first years in Donnie's life, I hardly had news. I was on the run, and it was hard to reach me, and I don't think Irene wanted to, deep inside. Donald was her husband's son, and that was final.
When I came back to the US, because of your mother, if you need to know, I ran into them in the supermarket. He was 6. I remember him hiding between her legs as I approached, as an old family friend. A little after that, she called me and decided she wanted to tell the boy, and her husband. It was a terrible week, and I don't think Little Donald quite understood what was going on. That day, I took him out for ice cream, in an attempt to get to know him, get closer. But then the fire happened, and he was there with me.
Me and Irene both agreed that it was too much for him to handle, so the procedure I put you through to forget that night, he went through that as well."
Liz looked at him with a mix of fear and disgust, covering her mouth with her hand as she tried to understand everything.

"So... All of this, the blacksite, the list. Was it to get closer to him? Why involve me?" She asked, and he shifted his position on the seat, putting a leg up to turn completely towards her.

"When I found out Agent Donald Ressler was the one responsible for my case, I thought it could only be a joke from destiny. I feared his mother told him something after he grew up, or that he remembered something, but as I could observe he was just a determined new agent with a lot on his plate. He didn't get the case to come after me. He doesn't know."

"What about me?"

"The reasons I asked for you when I surrendered are exclusive and have nothing to do with this, Lizzie. One day I'll tell you. But it's not the case now."

"The hell it isn't. What? Are you my father too? Have you had an affair with my mom like you had with his mom? Am I Ressler's sister?" Red put a hand up to silence her, and then touched her hand slightly, feeling it flinch a little before accepting his touch.

"You are not Ressler's sister. God, no. If one thing in my reasons to demand you in the task force is connected to this, is the fact that yes, I wanted you to meet him."

She frowned, confused. He shook his head and tried to explain himself better.

"One of my biggest regrets was bringing Tom into your life. I shouldn't have done that, and when you fell in love with him and you two got married even after I fired him I should have done something to remove him. But I didn't. So I think about it now and if I had, instead of hiring Tom, found a way for you and Don to meet, I could've saved a lot of time surveilling you two separately. And you would have been protected as well."

She chuckled, baffled. "So you want to hook me up with Ressler, is that it?"

"Lizzie, this term is by far despicable. I saw a connection between you two, I don't think you saw that in your dream did you? But when we left the house and the paramedics examined your wrist, he went to you in the ambulance and gave you your bunny. He nearly burnt himself trying to save it, and you felt really glad when he gave it to you. You even gave him a kiss on the cheek." Red smiled at the memory, but Liz still looked stern, shocked. She didn't remember that. "and I remember the look on his face as he pranced back to me after that, grinning from cheek to cheek even after beeing involved in a fire. When I asked him about it, he said - the pretty girl gave me a kiss because I saved her bunny." Red's eyes were filled with sweetness as he told her that case, and she felt her heart skip. So she and Ressler had had a moment when they were kids? She thought about her partner, always serious, always by the book, but she could break him sometimes, make him laugh. She missed that, more than she had realized before.

"You need to tell him" she said, a little calmer after getting everything from Red.

"No. He doesn't need to know. Promise me you'll never tell him." he looked at her, eyes deep inside hers, and she could only nod, reluctantly.

"It's not fair, you know? To him. I mean, how are you going to explain that you are trying to put us together because of what happened when we were kids, and then not tell him how he was there in the first place?"

"Well, Lizzie, that's not really my business. I don't even know if you two can get along this way, maybe that was only children's infatuation, specially because you seem to not even want to try to get over Tom." he said in an ironic way, and she shrugged him. She knew she had to forget about Tom, but it was very hard. But now, knowing what she knew, her old partner started creeping inside her thoughts, in a way she never thought before.

- / -

She was bored. She had been locked inside that cage for 4 days, and had nothing to do but look outside to the guards stiff like statues around her. No one had came to see her since she got there. Not even Ressler, and she didn't want to admit it hurt her a little.

He promised he would keep her safe. She doubted it was possible, but wanted to believe it. Specially knowing that he saved her, once. She was rubbing her scar lightly with her thumb as she heard someone coming, and then his voice ordering the guards to stand down and leave.

She looked up to see him, and got surprised by seeing that he was not his impecable suited self she was used to. Instead, he had his sleeves rolled up and wasn't wearing a tie. She wondered why he looked like that.

"Hi" he said, and she raised an eyebrow, and then slapping herself mentally for being sarcastic. She didn't mean that, it just happened.

"What's wrong with you?" she said, and pointed out his clothes.

"I've been working late. It's a little past midnight." she had no idea what day it was, or what time it was. Inside that cage she couldn't really feel time passing, and she had nothing that told her that it was. It might as well be 5 minutes after she first got there.

"what do you want here? I told you everything I know" She had told another agent, because he didn't come to brief her. He was too busy being the boss, she thought.

"I know. I'm not here in official business" he said, and she looked at him curiously. He approached the glass, and then showed what he had been hiding behind him. It was her old burnt stuffed bunny. The same bunny he had saved for her. She felt her heart flutter.

"How did you get it?" she asked, as he moved backwards and touched the panel to open the cage. She stood still as the alarms went off indicating that it was opening up. He came inside as it stopped, and handed her the toy. She took it from him and hugged it.

"When you ran, we got your stuff from the motel room you had been staying. I found it in the evidence room." he looked at her, and she felt her arms shiver as he approached her, and then grabbed her arm, taking them both to sit on the metal table she was using as a bed.

"It is from that day, isn't it? The fire that killed your parents?" he asked, and she took a deep breath before nodding.

"Do you remember anything else from that day?" she whispered no, and tears filled her eyes with the lie. He clicked his tongue, maybe a bit disappointed.

"Well, anyway. I thought maybe it could bring you some solace, or keep you company in here." his eyes were nice and sweet, just as she remembered. He smiled faintly at her, and she responded with a smile of her own.

"Thanks a lot, Ress" she said, putting the bunny next to her heart.

His eyes lingered on hers for a minute before he stood up. "Well, I gotta go. I'm sorry. he said, as he left the cage. She looked down as he walked away but something made her stand up and ran to him.

She got to him and placed a kiss on his cheek, just as she had done that night. He held his breath and closed his eyes, and she observed him leaning forward in search of her lips as she stepped back. She thought for a minute, but then chose not to.

"Thank you, again." she said, breaking the spell and he opened his eyes. She then looked around to see that she was outside the cage. They both noted that together, and she moved awkwardly back inside it, and he looked down as he put his hand on the palm reader, closing it again. His eyes showed pain and she knew that was as hard for him as it was for her. She mouthed a "it's okay" as the doors opened with the loud alarm, and he stayed there looking at her for a few more minutes before the guards came back from the break he had ordered them to take.

As he walked away, she lay down on the table and hugged her bunny, thinking of what she knew, and what had happened now. Her heart was beating fast for Ressler and she wanted more than anything that all that situation was over, and she could talk to him, tell him about her feelings, and tell him about that night.

He got to his office and had to hold the table to avoid falling down, his heart pounding in his chest, the memory of her lips on his face still fresh. The minute he saw her outside the cage, his instinct wasn't to take her back, as if she was going to escape, as a fugitive. It was to put his arms around her, hold her tight and tell her it was over, as he has fantasized ever since he locked her there. He turned to see her old desk, now empty, and thought of better days. He didn't know exactly what had made him take her the bunny. He just felt like he had to. He remembers finding it on her motel room, and holding it up as if he knew it from somewhere. Everyday after trying to find her he would go to the evidence locker and look at it, as if it was a piece of her he could hold on to. and now, he felt she should have it.

Something told him he had seen that bunny before. Something told him it was important. But he just didn't know what.