Disclaimer: I don't own the Blacklist. I just thought moody Lizzie needed an attitude adjustment.
A/N This story started out as a simple Lizzie needed a good spanking. It morphed into this and took on a life of its own.
Red was a man endowed with an almost unlimited amount of patience. The only people that have pushed him past the limit of his patience in the past twenty years are dead. It wasn't wise to poke the bear past a certain point. Lizzie should have realized this, but she was now going to be honored with the distinction of being the only living person to push his vaunted patience too far.
For the past two months Lizzie has been alternatively angry and so hyper she couldn't be still. He would have suspected drugs, but it appeared that Agent Ressler had that covered already. Ressler had better be keeping up with his drug rehab. If he doesn't he's going to get treated to rehab at Red's hands. He wouldn't like it very much, but his addiction would be over forever.
After Lizzie and Agent Navabi returned from Alaska a new tail was assigned to follow Lizzie everywhere outside of the black site. He was told if she tumbled to him there wouldn't be enough of him left for a funeral. The operative called him almost immediately to tell him Lizzie had gone to the harbor and boarded an old freighter that was in dry dock. Red told him to wait there until Lizzie left and then call him immediately.
About fifteen minutes after Lizzie boarded the ship Red's phone rang. After a brief conversation Red hung up.
"Dembe grab the car. We have some investigating to do. We may know where Lizzie is getting her information." Red said while he shrugged into his suit jacket again.
It was only a short drive from his latest safe house to the docks. Using the directions that the tail had relayed to him they quickly found the old ship. It was more rust than metal now. Red always felt depressed to see any ship so poorly treated. It seemed it was impossible to get the sailor out of the man in Red's case. Dembe led the way down the stairs to a lower level. It took longer than Red would have liked finding the right door that led to a room where a rather large gentleman sat alone.
Dembe had entered the room gun first and this is probably what saved them both from being shot as soon as they took a step into the room. Red followed immediately on his heels with his own gun pointing towards the guard.
"Drop your gun. This is the only warning you are going to receive." Red warned the guard as he and Dembe reached the room at the bottom of the stairs.
The guard who'd never left the chair simply toss his gun to the floor.
"A wise choice. Now I suggest you keep showing how intelligent you are by answering my questions honestly. Where is who or what Agent Keen is keeping here located?"
After a brief moment of thought the guard nodded his head at a door to one side of his chair. "It's through that door. You'll need the code, 42236. Don't go past the steps."
"Thank you. Dembe will stay here to make sure you don't wonder off until we are ready to leave. I would suggest you just stay seated and relax."
Red nodded to Dembe as he opened the door the guard had indicated. He knew that if he didn't come back within a reasonable amount of time the guard wouldn't be happy or alive for very long.
He walked down a short corridor to a locked door with a number pad next to it. Red quickly typed in the code the guard had given him and heard the sound of the lock disengaging. Keeping his gun at the ready he slowly pushed the door open. The sight of the man chained inside the room didn't surprise Red very much.
"Tom. Not the last place I would expect to see you, but I did have some hope that you'd died." Red said while enjoying the surprise written across Tom's face.
"So you finally caught on to the fact that Lizzie had me hidden away. You really are losing your touch Reddington. I've been feeding her information for weeks." Tom sneered.
Red stood at the top of the steps looking down at Tom sprawled across a dirty mattress on the floor. He suspected the chains fastened around Tom's ankles would keep him from being able to step up, but that he could reach Red if lunged for his legs. He decided to goad Tom a bit to see what buttons he could push.
"Actually I've known for awhile that Lizzie has had a source. It's been great fun trying to get anything out of her about it. She is remarkably able to sidetrack me into forgetting about my questions. She has proven insatiable. I suspect she was unsatisfied for a very long time, but didn't know it. I'm disappointed in you Tom, with a beautiful woman like Lizzie in your bed and you force her to fake it to keep from bruising your delicate ego." Red shook his head with a mocking smile.
Tom launched himself at Red with a snarl. He'd completely forgotten about the chains around both ankles until he reached the end of the chain on his right leg. He found himself falling face first against the top step at Red's feet. He tried his best to grab Red's leg to bring him down to the ground with him, but he was dazed from his head hitting the wooden step. Red easily evaded Tom's hands and kicked him back into the room with a foot to the face.
Red waited until he was sure Tom was still conscious before speaking again. "Now, here is the only deal you are going to get from me Tom. You will tell me everything you've told Lizzie about her past and anything you may have told her about my involvement. For every answer you give me that I think is a lie I will put a bullet in you. Do you understand me?"
Tom glared at him from where he landed after Red's kick to the face had obviously broken his nose. "I'm not telling you anything Reddington. We both know you are going to kill me no matter what. It's better that you don't know what Lizzie knows now. I will tell you that she knows her father is still alive and you lied to her about the fire. Other than that I'm not telling you anything else, so you might as well just kill me."
"To be honest Tom I didn't expect you to answer me about Lizzie. Thank you for telling me what you did, at least it's a starting point. What I really want to know is who pulled you out of that warehouse and nursed you back to health. Tell me that and I'll leave you here for Lizzie to deal with on her own."
Tom simply shook his head in disbelief. "I don't believe you will leave me here no matter what I tell you. Why would you leave me here alive?"
"That's easy Tom, Lizzie needs to learn that you sometimes need to put down a rabid dog. You can't keep it chained up forever. Now if she finds her dog here in one piece or not will be up to you. I doubt you feel much loyalty to the person that delivered you into your prison here. Just give me their name and I'll walk out the door."
Tom sat looking at Reddington. He was right that he didn't feel any loyalty to the person that gave him to Lizzie. At first he was sure he'd be able to talk her into letting him go, he even gave her pieces of her past as an enticement. He was surprised when weeks went by and he was still locked up in this tiny room.
"I would tell you, but I didn't recognize the man. He did mention a name that I did recognize, but I don't know if he's the one that saved me or not." Tom said deciding to try the truth with Reddington.
"What was the name?"
"Fitch. I don't know if it's a first or last name, but as soon as the man saw I heard the name he left the room."
"Thank you Tom. I didn't know you had any truth in you." Red said with a slight smirk on his face.
Red turned away from Tom and pulled the door open. After walking through the door he turned to pull the door closed behind him. He saw Tom staring at him in shock and he gave him a brief smile before closing the door. He quickly returned to the other room where Dembe continued to hold the guard prisoner.
"We are going to restrain you for a while. Don't worry someone will be back in the morning to release you." Red said to the guard.
"Dembe handcuff him where he will be comfortable for the night. We have someone we need to see tonight."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Lizzie was unhappy about being called to Red's latest safe house so late, but she had to concede that it was her fault since it wasn't safe for Red to wander the streets after her little trick of arresting her shadow.
"Red what do you want now. I'd like to get a decent night sleep now that the case is over." Lizzie started ranting as soon as she entered the great room she'd seen Red in earlier that day. She came up short when she realized the room was empty. She didn't look forward trying to track him down in the large house.
"Lizzie, I've given you many opportunities to tell me what secrets you've been keeping. Now I'm going to demand you tell me." Red said from behind her, stepping from the shadow along the wall.
Liz spun to face him giving a little gasp of surprise, her hand raising to her chest unconsciously. Her surprise passed quickly and changed into anger. Who did he think he was to demand answers from her?
"Red, I'm tired and you can go to hell. I'm leaving and don't call me again tonight." Lizzie said as she started storming by Red.
Red reached out and grabbed her arm roughly. He pulled her towards him with one arm as he used the other one to pull her weapon out of her holster. He tossed the gun into one of the chairs sitting around the room behind him. Lizzie angrily wrestled her arm loose and put some space between them.
"What the hell is wrong with you Red!"
Red slowly stalked towards her with a look of anger on his face that she'd never seen directed at her. She didn't realize that she'd been giving ground to him until she found herself blocked by the back of the couch.
"I want to know what is going on with you lately Lizzie. You are keeping a secret that is causing friction between us and I need to know what it is. I thought we'd developed some trust between us during our private hunt for Berlin, but now you don't trust me and I want to know why. " Red told Lizzie as he invaded her personal space once again.
Lizzie tried to shove her way past Red, but he quickly pulled her back.
"Red let me go. You don't have any right to complain about me keeping secrets when you won't tell me anything I want to know about my past. I found someone that is willing to tell me what you won't. If you don't like that too bad. You have no one to blame but yourself."
"Fine. I'm going to revert back about 25 years to what I would do when my daughter disobeyed me and not the fun version of this activity. " Red said as he lifted Lizzie in a fireman's carry over his shoulder.
He quickly moved around the end of the couch and sat down pulling a struggling Lizzie down over his knees. Once Lizzie realized her position she froze, before she started fighting to get away from Red even more. Having some experience on both sides of this position Red knew that Lizzie wouldn't have enough leverage to escape his hold. He brought his had down sharply down against her right buttock, not hard enough to bruise yet, but hard enough to get her attention.
"Lizzie quit fighting. Answer my questions and this will be a lot less painful for you. Either way I'm going to find out what you are hiding. Now, who is your Secret Santa?" Red asked keeping a firm grip on Lizzie's upper body.
Lizzie struggled a bit more before realizing that she wasn't going to be able to get away. She tried letting herself go limp in hopes that his grip would slacken in response. The only reaction that Red gave her was to chuckle at her obvious ploy.
"Trust me Lizzie I'm aware of all the tactics to get away and you won't succeed. Now, who is whispering in your ear?"
"You're just angry that I've been able to keep something from you. You don't really care who it is that is telling me your secrets. You are just mad that you don't have the upper hand in our relationship any longer." Lizzie said angrily as she gave one last move to roll off of his lap.
Slap!
Lizzie gave a surprised yelp in response to Red's quick slap against her buttock again. The first slap was quickly followed by four more slaps moving to a different spot each time.
"Who Lizzie?"
"Go to hell Reddington!" Lizzie snarled.
"Language Lizzie." Red said calmly as he swatted her ten more times without a break.
Lizzie was barely able to suppress the sob that wanted to break out after he finished. She didn't know why she was going through this since she'd already determined she was going to tell Red about Tom. She'd reconsidered her decision after she'd left Tom locked up in his cell. It was one thing to keep him locked up while questioning him, it was another to keep him locked up after his usefulness was over.
"Alright, alright, it was Tom! I thought he was dead when I left him, but he's not." Lizzie blurted out.
"How did you get your hands on him if you thought he was dead when you left him?" Red asked still not letting her up.
"I got a call from someone saying they had some information for me on you. They gave me the name of a ship that was in dry dock. When I got there a guard let me into a locked room and Tom was in there chained up. I've questioned him for information on both you and Berlin. He's the one that told me about Berlin's money probably being in the Monarch Douglas Bank. He didn't know for sure and I only confirmed it after talking to Kaja."
"What else has dear old Tom told you? I'm sure you had questions for him about your past. I know you don't believe me when I say I'm protecting you by keeping certain things from you."
This was the question really, what did she tell Red about the answers Tom gave to her questions regarding her parents. All Tom ever told her was that her father was still alive. He didn't know anything about her mother, but there wasn't any reason to think what Red said about her wasn't true.
"He said my father is still alive, but he said he doesn't know any more than that. He also said he didn't know anything about my mother. Why are you so insistent that my father is dead? Why should I believe you over Tom."
Red decided this was a conversation to have face to face, but Lizzie had still earned a bigger punishment than she'd received so far. She'd had one of his assets arrested and put Red's freedom in danger, all to get away to meet with Tom unobserved. These type of threats to his survival needed to be dealt with severely.
Red raised his hand again and brought it down harder than he had in any of his previous strokes. He quickly gave her an additional twenty-five swats before allowing her to push herself off of his lap.
"What the hell was that for? I answered your questions and I answered honestly." Lizzie said with tears standing out clearly in her eyes.
Red quickly glanced to the chair where he'd tossed Lizzie's gun. He was glad to see Dembe had retrieved it. He didn't want to end up at the wrong end of Lizzie's gun at the moment.
"Those were for arresting my asset. I expect him to be released immediately. You put my life and freedom at risk in a fit of pique. You need to stop abusing your authority when you can't find a different way to meet your objective. You are smarter than that Lizzie, act it!" Red replied as he straightened up his clothes that had become twisted during her attempts to escape.
"Now, if you are ready to listen I'll tell you why you should believe me and not Tom. It's very simple Lizzie, I've never lied to you. Can you say the same about Tom? I may not tell you everything, but what I do tell you will always be the truth." Red said staring directly into Lizzie's eyes.
Lizzie broke their gaze when she looked away in embarrassment. She had to admit that he'd withheld information from her, but as far as she knew he'd never outright lied to her. While her entire marriage to Tom was a lie. Was she so desperate for answers that she was willing to believe Tom over Red? Red told her many times to be careful of Tom, but he knew that she needed time to see that there was more to him than the gentle school teacher persona he put on each morning. While what did Red do, he protected her every time she was in danger. He killed to protect her and willingly gave himself up to torture to save her life. There was no other word for her right now, she was a bitch.
"How do you put up with me Red? I've been treating you horribly the past few months. I almost let your wife die because I was angry. What type of person am I turning into?" Lizzie asked with her eyes filling with tears again.
Red leaned back in the corner of the couch and turned himself towards her. He hated making her cry, but he couldn't let her continue on so out of control.
"Your life has been turned upside down and you are angry. I understand what you are going through better than most. It's almost like someone died. You haven't had the time to mourn the loss of the life you had and you are angry because you want to know more about your past. I will give you this as the only consolation that I can, you can ask me five questions and I will give you as much information that I can without endangering your life. As always my answers will be truthful. You can ask me now or you can ask them later."
Lizzie wiped away the tears that had fallen down on her cheeks. Giving a dainty sniff she gave Red a teary smile.
"Okay, it's a deal. I'm only going to ask you one question now and save the rest for later. I don't want to waste any of them."
"What's your first question Lizzie?"
"How do you know my father died in the fire?"
Red gave her a little chuckle. She surprised him with her question. He had expected her to confirm again that her father was dead, not how he knew it for fact. He really needed to quit underestimating her.
"That wasn't exactly the question I was expecting, but I knew he died in that fire because I was there that night. The house collapsed around him and there was no way he could have escaped the flames. The fire department reported that a body was discovered in the remains of the house. They ran a DNA match against his military records. It was your father Lizzie."
"Wait, how could he get caught in the fire when I remember him saving me from the fire? Why would he go back into the house?" Lizzie asked the questions rapid fire.
"Are you using two additional questions now Lizzie?" Red asked hoping to somehow get out of shattering her last memory of her father.
Lizzie was angry that he was going to force her to use an additional question to get a complete answer to her first.
"I'll only use one more. How did he get caught in the fire when I remember him carrying me out of the fire and into the yard?"
Red closed his eyes in resignation. He was going to be forced by his own rules to answer her question truthfully.
"He didn't carry you out of the house. I'm sorry Lizzie. I carried you, still clutching your toy bunny, out of your bedroom and into the back yard just before the roof caved in."
Lizzie could read the truth of his statement on Red's face. All these years she'd treasured that one last memory of her biological father. Did she dare use another question tonight? Did it truly matter how the fire started?
"Lizzie I'll give you this last answer even before you ask the question. Your father started the fire to hide evidence of his crimes that he didn't have time to remove before I got there. I was supposed to arrest him for crimes against the state. The fire had just started when I got there and I managed to knock your father out. I was just getting ready to put cuffs on him and I'd planned on dragging him out of the house when I heard you crying from the bedroom. I don't know if he'd planned on grabbing you before he escaped or not. I'm guess I'm responsible for both your biological father and adoptive father's deaths. I admit I only regret Sam's death. Your father ultimately caused his own death by started the fire."
Lizzie sat there literally overwhelmed by everything that had happened that night, starting with being spanked like a child to finally learning something about the fire she still had nightmares about on a regular basis. She wondered if she somehow remembered that night and that is why she trusted Red so quickly. She had trusted him a lot faster than she'd liked anything about him. Now she realized that Red had saved her yet again. Not only by saving her life that night, but giving her a loving home with Sam. She didn't need him to confirm that he was the friend in the story he had told her months ago about the night Sam took her into his home.
"This isn't a question Red, but you gave me to Sam that night. You were the friend who showed up on his doorstep scared with a little girl. I may hate that I didn't get to say goodbye to him, but I have to say thank you for giving me such a loving home to grow up in. I can't believe you kept from slapping me when I said you'd never done a single unselfish thing in your life. You may have a reason for coming into my life now and turning it upside down, but you didn't need to take care of that scared little girl all those years ago." Lizzie paused before continuing, "I may not agree with the way you made your point tonight, but I do think I may have deserved some kind of wake up call."
"Thank you Lizzie. Sam was the best man I've ever known. He proved that by taking you in without a word and raising you as his own. He changed his life dramatically to keep you safe. He lived in Chicago when I took you to him. We both decided that it would be too hard to keep you safe in such a big city. We decided some Podunk town in North Dakota should be safe enough. You almost still became a criminal. Some day I'd love to hear the story how you went from robbing pharmacies with Frank to deciding to leave the state for college."
Lizzie realized something she'd never given a thought about until now. "You paid for my tuition and all the other costs of college for me. My dad would never have been able to pay for it all on his own. How much money did you give my dad over the years? That question is rhetorical if you are going to count it as one of my five questions." she finished with a smile.
Red returned her smile. He was hoping that tonight would prove to be a turning point in their relationship. He understood her anger and why she'd listened to Tom even when she didn't really trust him. Tom was at least talking to her. Red realized he would need to be a lot more open with her to prevent a repeat of the last few months.
"I gave him enough to make sure you didn't want for anything. The house you lived in we purchased outright so Sam didn't need a lot of money each month to support both of you. I just made sure there was an account setup for him to draw from whenever he needed to. He almost never withdrew any money from the account until your teenage years. Then of course your college years were a drain on the account, but if I was unable to do anything else for you, at least I could pay for your education."
Lizzie realized now just how exhausted she felt now that the weight of her secret had been removed from her shoulders. She really didn't want to drive back to her hotel, but poor Hudson was there and she didn't want to leave him there alone over night.
Red could see Lizzie relax more and more during their discussion. She looked tired, too tired to be driving anywhere that night.
"Lizzie why don't you stay here tonight. I'll send Dembe to the motel to pick up Hudson. There are plenty of bedrooms here you can have your pick."
Lizzie was too tired to come up with a reason this wouldn't be a good idea. Climbing into a bed that hadn't been used by who knows how many other people sounded wonderful. It was only for the night.
"That sounds great Red, but do you really want Hudson in here. I'd hate for him to ruin something."
Red stood up and helped Lizzie rise as well. As they started walking towards the main staircase Red said, "Lizzie this isn't my house and the owner won't mind a gnawed table leg or a spot on the carpet. I'm sure much worse has happened here before."
Red opened the first door on the right at the top of the stairs. It was a beautifully decorated room, in differing shades of teal and beige. Lizzie saw the ensuite door in the far corner of the room, but her main focus was on the queen size bed. Red helped her pull back the duvet and sheets. She only took a moment to remove her shoes before sliding under the covers that Red continued to hold up for her. She squirmed a bit trying to find a position that didn't cause her to put any weight on her sore ass. She only hoped she'd be able to sit down tomorrow. Red gently tucked the covers around her before leaning down and placing a gentle goodnight kiss on her forehead.
"Hudson will be here when you wake up in the morning. Sleep well."
Lizzie was sound asleep before Red even left the room. She knew now that Red would always keep her safe.