Timeline: About a week after "Mako Tanida"

What Partners Do

The first week he took off willingly. Donald Ressler had been an agent long enough to know there would be an investigation regarding his actions. People stopped by his place to offer their condolences, but he hadn't been too willing to talk about what happened. He had a funeral to coordinate and everyone understood that Ressler wanted nothing more than to put the whole thing behind him.

That didn't stop everyone on the task force from attending the funeral yesterday, albeit well back from the people that actually knew Audrey. Meera, Aram, Red, even Dembe showed his respects instead of waiting by the car. Cooper was the exception, as he was able to tell Ressler that he had been cleared with the recommendation of taking some time off.

However, the moment he was cleared, everyone knew that Ressler wouldn't listen, and sure enough, he showed up that night after mostly everyone went home. It didn't matter that his gun and badge would remain in Cooper's office for the next week or two. To him, this was something he could lose himself in, help bury the guilt that was eating away at him.

He wanted to be alone, Liz got that, but she couldn't give him that satisfaction. When paperwork was a more attractive prospect than time away, she knew she had to intervene. For two nights, she had watched him burn the midnight oil, barely looking up to acknowledge anyone else. On the surface, this behavior fit the character of the man she had first met, but she knew that he wasn't the workaholic he claimed to be.

Besides, it wasn't as if she had anything super productive to do tonight, as Tom was out with friends, and with his car in the shop, he was borrowing hers. That meant her night would end in a cab ride home anyway, so she decided to make the most of the inconvenience.

It probably wasn't protocol to keep a bottle of scotch in her desk, but Liz was pretty sure it was standard for most agents to have a little something stronger to help them get through the long nights. She had already grabbed two glasses, so she walked over to him, waiting for Ressler to acknowledge her as she stood on the other side of his desk.

Unsurprisingly, he barely stopped doing his work when he saw her stop walking. "I'm not in the mood," he muttered, in a tone that basically told her to get lost.

"Too bad," Liz replied before slamming a glass down on his desk.

His eyes had popped up momentarily, but it didn't last as he continued to work. Not fazed in the slightest, Liz put her glass down, a little quieter this time, before opening the bottle. Red had actually given her this scotch, and she had a feeling it cost more than her salary, but in the end, she knew that if today wasn't a reason to enjoy it... nothing was. Sure, it was also for the wrong reasons, but she knew he wasn't going anywhere tonight. That was the problem.

"Drink," she said, as he had done a decent job of attempting to ignore her, but she had long learned how to deal with stubborn men. She wouldn't have survived Quantico if she hadn't. Pouring a couple finger's worth in each, Liz pushed one of the glasses towards him, glad to see Ressler take it.

He sipped it once, as if it was supposed to satisfy her, but it didn't. Taking the seat across from him, Liz pursed her lips, silently telling Ressler that he was stuck with her now. "Talk," was her word of choice this time as she leaned back in her chair and took a sip.

"Why?"

"Because this is what partners do... and I want to make sure that my partner still exists somewhere in there." Whatever facade he was playing, Liz wanted to make sure that it was gone by the time he got fully re-instated.

That didn't stop Don from scoffing as he place the glass back down. "And you think alcohol's the solution?"

"No." Liz smirked as she watched his head jerked back. "But I figure if I'm going to get anywhere, there better be something in the deal for you."

Don smirked, as it wasn't as bad of a strategy as he first thought. However, that didn't change the fact that he didn't want to talk about it. "What do you want to know?"

He had hoped that he could give Keen some canned response, but Don should have known better. "That isn't how this works. I'm just here to listen."

"Shouldn't you be at home with Tom?" Don knew that Keen would call him on his deflection technique, but he had to try.

"He'll be there tomorrow," Liz said, not wanting to tell Ressler about how she had come home to an empty house the last three nights and that she was getting tired of eating frozen dinners in front of the television.

"You shouldn't take that fact for granted," she heard him say, as Liz had been caught staring at her glass.

Liz cleared her throat as she met his eyes. "I don't." While the concern was comforting, encouraging even, tonight, for once, wasn't about her problems. "But you and I both know that if the roles were reversed, you'd be here. If the roles were reversed that day, it would be you talking me down, me handing you the gun."

Ressler didn't confirm or deny anything, but they both knew it was the truth. Leaning forward, Liz asked, "Why didn't you kill him?"

"Which one?"

Liz swallowed hard before answering, "Red said that all you felt was hate. If that was the case, then Tanida would have been dead… you wouldn't have found out about Jonica. If that was true, then I wouldn't have watched you shoot bullets into empty space."

That point got Ressler to nod. Despite the anger he had felt last week, it had been subsiding slowly, brewing inside instead, and knowing the profiler that Keen was, there wasn't much point hiding that from her. "What are trying to accomplish here Keen? You think I should go home?"

"I think you need to go anywhere that isn't here," Liz took another sip of her scotch before placing the glass back down on the desk. "I think you need to stop blaming yourself and I think you need to realize why Audrey came back into your life." Liz shook her head before gesturing her hand towards him. "It wasn't because you excel at being glued to your desk at late hours."

That aspect of his life was none of her damn business, but Don knew that having an argument with Keen would give her exactly what she wanted. Then again, so did telling the truth. The difference was that one option had much better consequences for him. "Home just brings back bad memories."

Liz got that, but she knew that if Ressler got lost in his job, he would never have a chance to truly face what happened and move on. "They might become better memories one day if you let them."

"Including the pregnancy test I found among her stuff?" Don ensured he looked up when he saw Keen's eyes widen, causing him to smirk. It wasn't as if he was happy about the fact that he had found that test, he was just glad that he caught her off-guard. That way, she knew it wasn't as easy as just losing Audrey. "I actually only found the box... I don't know the results or if she ever took it. Doesn't exactly matter anymore, does it?"

Closing her eyes, Liz hadn't anticipated that particular admission. Before Audrey, she never expected Ressler to be so open to the idea of having a family, but what he didn't realize was that his final question had been contradicted by his earlier words. He was a responsible man, one who would do the right thing if Audrey was pregnant. No matter how much he said that it didn't matter, Liz knew that wasn't true.

That's what made her next question even harder to ask, but she had to. Before opening her mouth, she considered taking his hand in hers, but based on his previous reaction to contact, Liz decided it was best to rip off the band-aid off. "She died in your arms, right?" His eyes told his answer, making her regret the question momentarily, but she pressed on. "Describe the moment. What did she do?"

A few nights ago, he would have blown up at her for asking such a question. But Don knew that Keen was smarter than that, that there was a purpose behind this question. That didn't stop him from glaring at her once their eyes met, but after a few seconds, it allowed Don to see what Keen was trying to accomplish.

It was hard to admit initially, but Keen knew how he felt right now, He didn't want pity, he didn't want someone asking him how he was doing, he didn't want someone to tell him that they understood. Her unorthodox approach didn't seem welcome initially, but that was probably why Don would genuinely answer her question.

The scene was hard for him to remember because it was one he had tried to repress, but he closed his eyes, visualizing the look on her face as he held her in his arms, his neutral expression slowly turning to a small grin. "She didn't say anything, she just..." He laughed dryly as he remembered something. "She smiled at me… right before."

He didn't understand it at the time, how someone could be dying before their time and find the ability to smile, especially considering that they had just reconciled. Especially if that test was positive. It could have been the result of the head injury she sustained when the vehicles initially hit, but deep down, Don knew it was genuine. That was just the way that Audrey was.

"Audrey doesn't blame you, Ressler," he heard Keen say, leading to him scoffing before he opened his eyes.

"Trust me, the blame is well-spread," he said, as that was far from the reason he felt like this. Don had been grieving long enough to point fingers in so many directions that it washed out. "That doesn't matter to me."

Liz nodded, as she could tell that Ressler was being honest with her. But that didn't fix the fact that the moment he got cleared for desk work, he got behind his desk like his life depended on it. "Remember what you said when you were undercover as the Courier... about this job being the only thing you had."

"I told you, Keen that was –"

"Try telling that to someone else," Liz interjected, her eyes harsh as she didn't want to hear the end of that sentence. "Because you didn't convince me then and you're not helping your case now."

She could see that her tone had surprised him, but Liz knew to not handle this with kid gloves. They may be partners, but Ressler had been an agent a lot longer than her and he had probably heard all of the grief clichés. He also probably expected a little more respect, but in Liz's mind, this was giving him more respect.

"What difference does it make if it's true or not?"

"It makes every difference, because it was never true." Liz shook her head as she tried to convince him that, "Audrey coming to the hospital was proof of that."

Maybe that was true, but that didn't stop Don from pointing out the obvious. "And she's gone."

"So start over, try again." It seemed like ignorant advice for right now, as Audrey had only been dead for a week, but Don was a good person, and he deserved more than to wallow in the job forever. "But you don't have nothing."

Don scoffed again, as he had heard a similar speech to this one before. "Because I've got you, right?"

It wasn't what she was going for, but it didn't shock Liz that he made that particular comment. "I'm your partner Ressler, and you know I'm not going anywhere. But life is what you make it." Despite all of her hardships, Liz had managed to at least have a life outside of this job. "You opened yourself up to the possibility of reconciliation with Audrey; you opened yourself up to have a relationship when you first met her."

"It was different then." He hadn't been thinking clearly that night, as he was supposed to stick to his guns and end it. But seeing Audrey smile had immediately changed his mind. For those three months, Don had been happy, but he should have known better. He had made enough enemies to know that this would happen.

That's what Keen didn't understand, she was too green. Her marriage had already suffered, as no matter how much she said that things were better, Don knew her well enough to read the tell-tale expression on her face.

Yet no matter how many times she had been knocked down, her naivety continued to shine through, clinched by what she said next. "You deserve more than letting yourself be the only obstacle from having a life. Someone could change your life in a month, yet you'd miss it because you're holding into something that you couldn't prevent."

Don gave her the smallest of grins, staring down at his glass that was just about empty. Picking up the glass, he held it in front of his face. "Red give you this?"

Liz nodded. "After my dad passed."

Tilting his glass, watching the liquid slide up towards the edge of the glass, Don pursed his lips before taking another sip. "He gave me Tanida's head."

"Well, that answers one question." It also assured Liz that the revenge mission was over, that Ressler had no one else to target when it came to this case. It probably wasn't the most ideal result, but she still made a mental note to thank Red for that later.

Don, meanwhile, was tempted to ask what the question was, but he had a feeling that he could fill in the blanks. That led to the reminder of the last time he held a gun in his hand. "I worked with Bobby Jonica for years on that task force." All that time, Don thought Jonica had his back, he was supposedly his best friend. But the look on his face when Don pointed his gun at him was all Don needed to know that he had been wrong. "He didn't regret taking over Tanida's business. He couldn't come clean and face the consequences, even though it resulted in the death of everyone on the task force, even though it could have saved his life."

"He fooled a lot of people," he heard Keen say, but he never looked up from his glass. "But you did the right thing."

Don downed the rest of the scotch, welcoming the burn of the alcohol as he swallowed. As he placed the glass down, he finally looked up at her and said, "Amazing how the world changes around you."

Liz nodded, grinning before she dared to ask, "Am I allowed to say that I understand that feeling?"

"Sure… because you do," Don replied, knowing that her life had been turned completely upside down in the last year. As he continued to stare at her, he realized that maybe the naivety he had blamed her for earlier was merely optimism for the world that he had lost ago.

There was still a reason that he fought for his country, as he saw something that was worth saving. He saw innocent people that had families, loves, and lives outside of their jobs. All Liz wanted was for him to realize that wasn't out of reach for him too. Could Don really blame her for still seeing the world as a decent place when they worked to keep it that way?

Swallowing hard, he asked, "Are things with Tom at least a little easier?" This time, this question wasn't meant as a deflection, but he couldn't help but feel a little guilty when her immediate reaction had been to grab her glass and finish its contents.

Despite all that, Liz still replied, "I like to think so." While Red hadn't quit warning her about Tom, until Red decided to finally fill in a few blanks, Liz knew that she couldn't live her life suspecting her husband with no evidence or proof.

Not wanting to dwell on that topic, Liz wanted to get the conversation back on track, only when she glanced up at the time, she realized that her taxi would be here any minute. That's why she ended up saying, "One day at a time, right?"

When Ressler nodded at her, Liz knew that she couldn't expect to accomplish more than that tonight, so she got up from her chair before grabbing her glass and the bottle. "Well, I'm going to head out now," she said, "and I'm taking this so you don't get any ideas." He didn't seem too fazed by her taking his glass, which was promising, but Liz knew that Ressler wasn't the type who would go off the deep end that way. "Just... get some sleep somewhere that's not your desk or the gutter."

Managing the tiniest of grins, Don nodded. "Night Liz."

Liz blinked once, as she knew it wasn't the first time he had referred to her by her first name, but considering the first time was when he was pointing a gun at Jonica, she wasn't sure how to interpret that slip.

Don had caught her staring, so he looked up at the confused look on her face, oblivious as to why. "Are you going to escort me out of the building if I don't go?"

Shaking from her trance, Liz shook her head. "I trust that you'll make the right decision. That's what partners do." She grinned at him before turning, but before her back faced him, she added, "Night Don."

~0~

The rest of the night had gone pretty much as planned as far as Liz was concerned, an empty house with Tom coming home late. He always had a reason, he always said the right things, but lately, there had been way too many question marks. She had hoped they were finally on the same page after the teacher's conference debacle, heck, after Jolene left, as Liz was convinced that there was more to that story.

Maybe Red was just getting to her, but lately Liz knew that she was starting to feel more suspicious of Tom without Red's help. Regardless of the cause, Liz knew that she had to push that aside once she got in the elevator, surprised to see who was already inside.

"Morning," Don said before pressing the close door button. He should have known that he'd run into her this morning. "I'm just picking up my keys."

"Okay," Liz replied with a nod, comforted by the fact that if something had to go right last night, she was glad it was that Ressler had listened to her and gone home.

The rest of the elevator ride had been silent, as enough words were shared last night, but when the elevator stopped at its destination, Don said, "Hey Keen."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." With that, he left the elevator, glancing towards where the debrief was about to begin. Don wanted to participate, but he knew he was still on desk duty, or in today's case, it was probably a well-needed day off. But when he caught a glimpse of Tom's face on the big screen, he stopped.

As much as he had gone through, there was the tiniest sense of relief that for once, it wasn't his partner's life being messed with. Don wasn't close enough to hear what was going on, but the photos that had followed Tom's were of two dead bodies, which didn't inspire confidence.

Don took a deep breath before looking towards Keen, who was barely holding onto her poker face. She glanced once in his direction, so he wasted little time giving her a nod, the unspoken message of his willingness to return the favour.

He didn't think he would have to do so this quickly, and she would probably tell him to go home, but Liz had been right last night, this was what partners did. They put their problems aside for each other, kept each other from going over the edge. That's why he had to stay, even if it was against protocol.

Last week, he had picked the wrong person to have his back, so he would ensure that Liz would have the right one protecting hers. He owed her that much.

~End~

Sera's Scribbles: More than willing to admit there are probably holes in this. I blame Tom (not really, but his actions last episode did make this a bit tougher to pull off). I know Lizicia basically nailed the aftermath of "Mako Tanida" earlier this week (if you haven't read "Boy with a broken soul," change that), but I'm hoping you don't mind a different take. I wanted to play with Liz's tougher side, as this whole thing exists because of the vision of her telling him to drink… for some reason.

Long story short…I'm hoping you enjoyed this. I invite all feedback.