"Lizzie. Lizzie." Lizzie groans, briefly opening her eyes. She goes to bring a hand up to her head, but realizes she can't. "Lizzie!" she hears Red yell.
"What?" she asks, turning her head to observe the room they were in. The only window was high above them, the walls were a dark wood, and the ground was hard dirt. There were two steps against the door. It was almost as if they were in a basement of some sort, but maybe not a basement. Lizzie shakes her head again, trying to clear her mind. "Why can't I move my hands?"
"We are tied together sweetheart," Red explains. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a mac truck. My head is pounding. Son of a…"
"Language!"
"I don't know how you get me into these things," Lizzie complains. She could feel that her back was against his. "What happened?"
"We were supposed to be meeting with my contact. Our blacklister got to him first," Red sighs. "They were waiting for us."
"We were ambushed," Lizzie joins in. It was starting to come back to her now. She hoped to god she didn't have another concussion. It seemed like just yesterday she was getting over her last one, but it had been just over 6 months since that attack.
Six glorious months of being with Red, or Ray, as she likes to call him in the privacy of whatever bedroom they happened to be in. Whether it be hers, or whatever safe house he occupied.
Red take her hand into his as best as he can, seeing at how their hands were tied behind their backs. She leans her head back and rests it on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry Lizzie," Red apologizes.
Lizzie starts shaking her head against his shoulder, "Don't be. Don't ever apologize about this. About any of this. This is my job. It has been my job since before you walked into my life. Yeah, it's much different than what I expected, but I wouldn't trade anything in the world for this. It brought you into my life and I wouldn't change that." Red doesn't respond and Lizzie sighs. "Look at me." Red turns his head to stare at Lizzie. She could see the sorrow in his eyes. "None of this is your fault. I love you. I know I don't say it enough, but I do. I love you. And if they are going to kill us, then I want that to be the last thing that you hear, that I love you."
Red leans toward her and takes her lips with his own. "I love you too."
"After this we are going to have a lie in."
"A lie in?" Red questions.
"We are going to get out of here. We are going to lie to Cooper and the rest of the team, and then we are going somewhere warm, a beach, and we will do nothing for the rest of the weekend. I will take time if I have to. But I deserve a vacation. I'm sure you have a house on a beach somewhere."
The door to the room swings open before Red has a chance to respond, guards with masks come in, carrying guns. They force the two apart and slice through the rope dragging Red to his feet. "Stop! Stop!" Lizzie cries as they march Red out of the room. Lizzie tries to run after Red, but the guy holding the gun shoves it in her face. She stops, holding up her hands. "Okay, okay," she backs away from the door. He holds a piece of rope and Lizzie raises her hands with a sigh. She was sick and tired of this treatment. "Are they going to kill him?"
The guard shrugs his shoulders. "They can't kill him. They need him for information."
She watches as the guard disappears out the door. The lock clicks a second later. She looks around the room, trying to find some sort of weakness. Maybe someplace she could use to escape. There was a window but it was too high up, so that wouldn't do her any good.
She whirls around as the lock clicks on the door and it swings open. She gasps when she sees the man standing in the doorway. "No! No!" she shakes her head and starts walking backwards.
"Oh yes, Lizzie," her former husband proclaims, stepping into the room, dragging a chair in behind him. The guard from earlier also comes in carrying another chair. Tom places the chair down, roughly grabbing Lizzie and shoves her into the chair. He quickly ties her hands to the chair. The guard positions the chair across from Lizzie and leaves the room, uttering not a single word. Lizzie stares at Tom, a shiver running down her back. She was half certain she would not be walking out that door, alive anyway. At least she told Red that she loved him. "So, Lizzie…" Tom starts, frowning when he notices her attention was elsewhere. "Hey!" he yells. Lizzie turns to look at him. "He's gonna die, you know. Reddington. My employer wants information. Information that only Reddington has."
"Good luck with that," Lizzie says emotionlessly.
Tom stands, walking toward Liz slowly, a hard look in his eyes, and brings his hand down onto Lizzie's cheek hard. A sinister smile spreads across his face as her head snaps back. "Now, back to what I was saying."
"You get your rocks off by doing this? Hurting an unarmed woman?" Lizzie pauses for a moment, a smile spreads across her face. "Oh, wait, I forgot. That was the whole purpose of our marriage wasn't it? You pretending to play house with me before you had to hand me off to whoever it was. How much were they paying you, Tom?" she spits his name, venom clear in her tone. "If that is even your real name."
Tom smirks. "You don't get to know my real name Lizzie."
"And you don't get to call me Lizzie."
Tom walks towards the door, knocking on it once. The guard opens the door and hands an object to Tom, one that Lizzie couldn't see. "But you let Reddington call you Lizzie. Does he call that to you in bed?" Lizzie stares at him, not giving him the satisfaction of an answer. "Oh, I know you guys have been screwing. It's not hard to figure out. I wonder, does the FBI know you are screwing #4? What would I get if I let that bit of news slip to them? Would I get a nice little immunity package like your boyfriend?" Lizzie knew he was baiting her. He was just waiting for her to fly off the handle, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. She zeros in on the object that was in Tom's hand and her blood runs cold. Pliers. Of all the things, pliers. She knew was what coming next as Tom starts walking towards her. He swings himself around her, while she was trying desperately to ball up her hands into fists.
"No, no, no!" she tries to fight back, but considering she was tied to the chair, she couldn't go anywhere. He grabs her hand and pulls her fingers. Tom manages to get the pliers around her thumb and yanks. She screams out as the pain becomes unbearable. Lizzie tries desperately to keep the tears at bay, failing as a few leak out.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did that hurt?" Tom asks with a smirk. He walks around to her other side. "Can't fire a gun if both of your hands are broken. And that's what I'm going to do. Break every single bone in your hands." He grabs her other hand, twisting her thumb with a deafening crack. She couldn't help but cry out, tears now falling freely. "Which one next? Huh Lizzie? Trigger finger? Or maybe your middle finger?" he slides the pliers over the two fingers and before Lizzie could brace herself for the next onslaught of pain, he pulls on her index finger. Screams of pain fill the air again as she struggles against the restraints, sagging in her chair.
"Just finish it!" she yells. "If you are going to kill me, then kill me."
"What fun would that be? Ending it this early? I want Reddington to see me take your life. I want him to suffer."
The door swings open and before she could look up, there was a gunshot. She turns as Tom crumbles to the ground a bullet in his head. She turns to the door and fresh tears fall from her eyes as she sees Red standing there, before he runs toward her, Dembe following close behind.
"Ray," she cries. "Help me," she was starting to lose her composure. "Get these off of me."
"Alright, Lizzie, alright. Calm down. I'm here. And that vacation, we are definitely going." Red finally unties Lizzie and she gets up walking around the room, cradling her hands. Red knew she had to work through whatever had happened in this room. Suddenly, he found himself being pushed back a step as Lizzie throws her arms around Red. He wraps his own around her and rubs Lizzie's back soothingly.
"I love you so much," Lizzie says burying her face into his neck.
"FBI is here," Dembe tells them. Red pulls her hands from around his neck and she cries out. Red stops and very slowly grabs her arms, bringing her hands to his face.
"Sweetheart," a look of sadness crosses his face. "What did he do to you?"
Lizzie shakes her head as Ressler and Samar come running into the room, guns drawn. "Well, you're a little late to the party," Red quips. He wraps his arm around Lizzie's waist and guides her out of the room, not caring who was there. "Donald, do take care of the mess," he waves his hand at Tom's body on the floor. "Please tell me you brought an ambulance. Agent Scott is in need of one."
Red helps her out of the room, down a hallway and outside where there is an ambulance waiting. Red brings her over to the paramedic who takes a look at her hands and tells her she needs to go to the ER. She will need to have x-rays.
Lizzie sighs as Red guides her out of the ambulance and over to an awaiting Mercedes, Dembe at the wheel. She lays her head on Red's shoulder. "I thought he was going to kill me Ray. I just told him if he was going to kill me, then he should kill me. But, he told me he wanted to make you watch as he killed me."
Red turns to look at Lizzie, astonished. "Sweetheart." His heart was breaking for his girl. She should never have had to withstand so much, especially from the likes of Tom Keen.
The trip to the ER was long. It seemed like today everyone had some sort of ailment. Due to the immense pain Lizzie was in, they were able to see a doctor sooner as her hands started swelling. The diagnosis was what they had suspected. Both thumbs were broken as was her finger. She would need casts on both hands. "Lizzie, Dembe is gonna stay here while they fit you with a cast. I am going to call Harrold. I will be back in a few minutes."
Lizzie nods her head, watching as Dembe hands Red a phone. She watches as Red walks out the door and into the bustling hallway. He stops and turns to Lizzie, still staring his way. "Staring Lizzie," he says with a smile.
"Damn right I am," she laughs. "It's a nice view." Red shakes his head and continues out into the hall.
Half an hour later, Lizzie and Dembe walk out of the room. Lizzie had a sullen look on her face while Dembe had a bright smile on his. Red looks between the two.
"What's going on?" he asks wrapping his arm around Lizzie's waist.
"Doctor said my casts are waterproof but I still shouldn't get them wet," she pouts. "He also said about 6 weeks till they can come off. I can't write. I can't hold a gun. I am going to be useless at work."
"Well, to brighten your spirits, Harrold has told me to tell you that your request for time off has been granted. The jet is waiting for us. Where I am going to take you has the bluest ocean you have ever seen," Red says, kissing her cheek.
"That sounds amazing," Lizzie sighs.
~*~ TBL ~*~
"Oh my God. This is heaven," Lizzie lays back against Red. He rubs his hands up and down her arms. Cuba, that's where Red has whisked her off to, and she was so glad that he did. He was right, it was the bluest ocean she had ever seen.
"Have I told you how much I love red on you?" he asks, running a finger under her red bikini bottom.
"Have I told you how much I love you?" she asks leaning up and giving him a kiss. He lets out a soft moan, Lizzie smiles breaking the kiss.
"Have I told you how much I love our hotel room?"
Lizzie laughs. "Have I told you how much I love the ocean?"
Red smiles. "Have I told you how much I love you?"
Lizzie turns her body and wraps her arms around Red's neck. The casts on her hands bulky, but she didn't care, and neither did Red. "Every day, Ray, every day." Red leans over and captures her lips with his.
"Best lie in," Red says pulling away with a smile.