Hello :) I just did this really quickly when i should be studying for exams but...owell! This is basically set after the latest episode which you can probably tell as you read it anyway! Thanks!
Lizzie walked through Red's front door not bothering to knock, and not bothering to greet Dembe, who sat on the couch reading the paper. She had business to attend to. Private business. And Red just so happened to message her, demanding her to come over. She backtracked her steps, it wasn't Dembe's fault.
"Hi Dembe."
He looked up from his paper, not alarmed by her sudden intrusion in the slightest. He had good ears. She could have been anyone. He gave her a small nod and a polite smile.
She continued on her way, walking down the hall and into another room where Red sat at his desk. The same desk he had sat at yesterday as he worked away at something she didn't know what. She asked him what it was and of course, he didn't answer. His sleeves were rolled up and his face scrunched into a calm sort of concentration.
She grew even more frustrated than she was before when he didn't acknowledge her presence, and she was tempted to turn around and walk straight back out. He must have sensed her thoughts because he stopped what he was doing, looked up at her and crossed his arms over his chest. He was mad. Or impressed...or she couldn't tell what he was but she instantly felt like a schoolgirl, who had just been sent to the principals office.
"Is there a case?" She asked impatiently.
"You'll never guess what happened today, Lizzie."
She sighed. "Are you going to tell me? Or is it just another one of the many things you can't or won't tell me." Her fidgety hands landed on her hips and she walked the small distance to the chair, which sat in the corner of the room. She sat down in a huff.
"I went to your place today." He shifted in his own seat, resting back against it, and crossing his legs. "What a lovely hotel, nicer than your last one."
Lizzie didn't move, her body froze at his words. He had been at her hotel. She should have been at her hotel. She glanced at him from across the room.
"You must imagine the surprise when I went inside-"
"You can't just barge into my house!" She gasped out abruptly, standing up from her seat, and clenching her hands into fists at her sides. Damn him! "You can't do that!"
Red ignored her little spit and acted oblivious to the whitening of her knuckles. "It was quite uncanny really. There was a woman, very beautiful, inside your apartment"
Lizzie chewed the inside of her lip, as her heart thumped angrily against her chest.
"She looked just like you."
"What a coincidence. Are you sure it wasn't me?" She asked flatly.
"Angela, that was it." He stood from his chair calmly, rounding his desk and leaning against it at the other side. "That was her name. Her eyes weren't as electric, as yours Lizzie. But from a distance, I can see where our friend was mistaken."
"You had no right." She replied evenly.
"What are you hiding, Lizzie?"
She smiled, slightly, because she had something over him and she wasn't about to tell. "I don't know what you're talking about."
It annoyed him, she knew it did and it made her feel good. "Why do you feel the need to hide it from me?"
"I could ask you the same thing." She responded. "For many things."
"To protect you," He replied simply.
"Well, maybe I'm protecting you." She joked, sort of, she mostly wanted to grind his gears like he always did to her.
"That's sweet of you, Lizzie." He smiled, and his eyebrows raised in amusement. "But I assure you I can keep myself perfectly safe with the help of Dembe of course."
"I want him gone."
He gave her an incredulous look. "You think I'd keep him on when he hasn't been watching you properly?"
"No one else." She said carefully. "So help me god if you have anyone else following-"
"Protecting," he corrected. "Lizzie, i'm protecting you."
"You have a funny way of protecting people, Red. Trying to find your daughter? Now? After everything that you've done. You're willing to put her life at risk by finding her? What-what happens when you find her?"
"What happens when I find her?" He looked confused for a second and she cursed inwardly at her slip up.
Lizzie's gaze adverted from his and she stared at the carpet. "Do you have a case or not?"
"No." He eyed her suspiciously as she stepped towards the door, preparing to leave. "What is bothering you, Lizzie?"
"I wouldn't know where to start."
He didn't want her to leave. She was emotional, frustrated, agitated, a mess of emotions and he didn't enjoy knowing he was the cause. That he would always be the cause.
"Lets start with our relationship, and the reasons why you think me finding a woman, who is vital to Berlin, will hurt it."
Lizzie turned at the doorway, her face frustrated but flushed with unwelcome heat. Again with the relationship thing. "We don't have a relationship."
"Oh? We don't?" He smiled, his teeth showing as he grinned. "Well I happen to care a great deal about you, Lizzie, so it can be a one-sided relationship if you'd prefer."
She stared at him.
"Tell me." He probed.
"You're going to leave when you find her." Lizzie said quickly, but so quietly that she thought he'd ask her to repeat herself. "Is that your end game? To find your daughter? Then leave? I don't see why you need me at all."
Red took a step towards her, his gaze softer now, more concerned. "What would you do then? Once I go across the world, to some exotic location and disappear?"
That thought was one she had pondered over a lot. Numerous times. It made her eyes brimmed with silly tears that she didn't want to deal with now.
"I don't know," She answered truthfully, her eyes shifting towards the hallway when the sound of a tap started running.
"I think you'd like it? No?"
She knew what he was doing. She knew he knew that she wouldn't like it and he wanted to know why. Well, she wasn't going to fool for it. Not today, not ever.
"I'm not playing this game with you." She answered firmly, exiting the room. She always walked away from him, she thought to herself. When he annoyed her she walked away. When he questioned her she walked away. When he hurt her she walked away, and now, when he had her on edge, she walked away. And quite a bit quicker than normal. This time though, he followed.
"I never said she was my daughter."
She swung around quickly, and jabbed her finger into his chest. "What the hell do you think I would do? " Her blue eyes burned directly into his. "Would you expect me to carry on like nothing happened? Like I didn't know you? Because that would be easy." She shouted at him. "Because I know nothing about you!"
Dembe was standing behind her now, and she would have laughed if she wasn't crying because surely he didn't think she would actually hurt Red. The pen in the neck was a one time thing.
Her feelings boiled up inside her and she choked on her own tears. "You said I was special," she swallowed. "And you made me feel special, and if you find her. This girl. Will she be what? Special to you too? Do you say that to every woman you use?"
She could see him swallow slowly. Was this hurting him? She hoped so.
"Will you make her feel like the center of your universe?"
He set his jaw and glared at her.
"Yeah. Your wife said that, and you know what? I think she's right." She breathed out. "You're manipulating me."
"She was my wife Lizzie," He replied calmly, but she could just make out the waver in his voice. "Of course I'd want her to feel that way."
"Then what about me?" Lizzie asked. Her fingers on his chest clenched into a fist and she thumped it lightly against his shirt before she pulled it away. "You're not allowed to make me feel like that."
Red's stare lifted to just over her shoulder and his head tilted ever so slightly at Dembe. The next thing she heard was the front door shut, and the next thing she felt was Red's arms around her. He wrapped her up in his arms, and pulled her tight against his chest. Her body suddenly felt weak and she let him hold her. Just for a while. Just until she found enough courage to wrap her own arms around his back and bury her face into his chest.