A/N: This is my 1st time trying a Tom and Lizzie fanfiction, the writers of the show did a great job of turning Tom Keen into a bad guy, and I'm not going to make him a good one, just slightly more understandable and maybe even likable as the story progresses. This is my way of getting into Tom Keen's head while he woos Lizzie. If you've read and enjoyed my other Blacklist fanfics, I'm sorry but this one is not connected to either Protecting Lizzie or Missing Red. Please leave a review if you enjoy it, and let me know how I can improve future chapters/stories. Oh and Tom and Lizzie may be out of character.

I own nothing, all credit goes to the show's writers and the actors.

Enjoy!

"You're never to see her again."

"Yeah, I got it."

"I don't think you so, you are never to see her again."

"You know for what it's worth, I spent four months on that ship chained up, and I never told her about us, not one word."

It would have made no difference if he had, Lizzie would still hate him and would never trust him again enough to believe what he told her. The woman he had grown to like, respect, and eventually love hated him more than she distrusted the man whose fault it was that they had been thrown together in the first place. Tom would never be given the chance to explain, to hold her one last time and tell her that he loved her. Even though their lives together had been a complete lie, Tom's feelings for Lizzie had grown real during the time he had spent wooing her. Time he had only spent with her in the first place because of Raymond Reddington.

"Your old name, birthday, even your personality are no longer relevant. You are now Thomas Keen, though you prefer to go by Tom, your objective is to gain the trust and eventually the love of your target, Elizabeth Scott." All of this was being explained to him as all of his personal belongings, things that identified him for who he really was (or had been) were either sent through the paper shredder or set on fire by Reddington's muscle, Dembe.

He hated her - his target - Elizabeth, she was the reason that his life as he had known it was now over, because Raymond Reddington was obsessed with keeping tabs on her and knowing as much as he could about her. Okay, so his life had been going nowhere and he was nobody of any repute, and MAYBE he had a drinking problem and a gambling problem and a slight drug problem, MAYBE he had made several bad choices in his life, but they had been his bad choices to make. Now all of his choices were gone and his life belonged to Reddington because his gambling and drug problems and finally caught up with him in the form of an excruciatingly unaffordable debt. So rather than lose limbs in lieu of payment, he had gambled and offered Red his services as a spy, wherever and whenever Red needed him, and now he was being called to court his debtor's obsession.

Sometimes life just sucked.

So he hated the pretty face captured in a black and white snapshot taken when Elizabeth hadn't been looking, hated that she existed, because if she didn't he could just go back to screwing up his life with his own terrible decisions.

"Thomas are you listening to me? I won't be repeating myself, it's tedious, and you have to know everything I'm telling you now." Reddington watched the hatred come over and leave Keen's face, allowed it for now because he knew Tom would come to terms with his…situation.

"Yes, yes my life's focus is now wooing and marrying the irresistible Elizabeth Scott, making sure she feels secure in that love and always catering to her every whim and wish."

"Thomas you will stop that condescending behavior, your life is now mine and you will live it as I command you to, you will not have an opinion about what you are about to begin doing. If Lizzie ever suspects for even a moment that you don't adore her and have her in the forefront of your mind at all hours of the day and night, I will kill you." Dembe had finished burning and shredding all evidence of a previous life at this point, and at hearing Red's tone came to stand next to his boss, making it clear argument was not an option when it came to dealing with Raymond Reddington. "You will call the number Dembe is about to give you ONLY to report if your mission is failing, so help me Thomas, if you fail, you will never be able to unbury yourself from your debt to me. Have I made myself clear?"

As he watched the remains of his life literally go up in smoke, he knew he had no choice but to comply, no choice but to put his every effort into convincing this woman, this stranger that he hated, to love him. So when he looked back at Raymond Reddington - the Concierge of Crime - he was no longer the man he once had been, he was now Thomas Keen, a man about to run into the love of his life for the first time.

"Perfectly clear, Dembe, could you hand me my glasses?"