Lizzie didn't know who to believe. She had a DNA report that said Kirk was her father, but Red has told her for years that her father was dead. He told her repeatedly that he didn't lie to her. She'd walked away again without giving him a chance to explain. She needed to stop doing that, but she was so angry at him and at Kirk. She was so tired of never getting an answer about her past.
Red pushed the remains of his meal away. He took his glass of wine with him to where Dembe sat quietly. He sat next to him on the pew with a little tired sigh "What happened to Kate was not your fault Dembe . . I bear all the blame for what happened to her. I'm so sorry for what I
did to you and her. You should go find her. Give her the burial that I denied her by just leaving her there. I've had to stop myself a dozen times from telling you to take me back there. I look at myself in the mirror Dembe and more and more often I don't recognize the bitter man staring back at me. Anyway, go get Kate. I'll be fine with the team here until you get back," he told the man he considered both a son and brother with a pat on his shoulder before wandering to back towards the bed setup behind the plastic sheeting in the corner.
Dembe watched him wander to his bed knowing he wouldn't get any sleep tonight He was torn between looking for Kate, a woman that had become a surrogate mother to him after Red rescued him from that brothel and staying here to watch over Red as he dealt with Lizzie's latest accusation. In the end he decided Baz and his men could and would provide Red with all the protection he would need tonight. He needed to bring Kate home.
The last thing Dembe expected when he walked to Red's heavenly acre in the middle of a national forest was nothing but a small pool of blood. If this had been anyone else he would have thought Kate cleaned the scene. But, then again, if she'd cleaned the scene the pool of blood would not be there. As he looked closer he noticed what looked like drag marks, was Kate still alive and did she manage to drag herself to safety? He started to slowly follow the
marks.
The marks lead him to a small stream. Based on the blood he saw on the rocks it appeared that Kate had laid there for a time. It was what he saw next to where she'd been laying that worried him. He saw paw prints of what he assumed was a large dog. Then he saw large footprints. Prints much larger than Kaplan's, size 7 's. As he searched further he saw drag marks again, but
these were different than what he'd followed earlier. Someone, some man, found Kate and had
dragged her off. He needed to find her!
Dembe pulled out his phone. Red needed to know that Kate might need help. He knew in his heart that the man he called brother regretted what he did here. The phone only had one bar. He didn't want to go back to the car in hopes of finding a better connection or the satellite phone. He took a chance that the call would go through.
"Dembe?" he heard through the static.
"Kate might still be alive. I've found tracks of someone that may have her," he said a tone a little louder than normal as he tried to be heard.
"What do you mean someone might have her. She didn't have a phone or anyway to
contact anyone," he heard confusion in Red's voice.
"I know that is why I'm concerned. Who knows who has her. I need a team to recover
her, " Dembe told him.
Red didn't say anything. He knew how Dembe felt about Kate and what it had cost him to stand by and do nothing to stop Red. The question now was did Red feel Kate had paid enough for her betrayal. He knew her actions had hurt him more than anything had in nearly twenty-five years,
"Stay where you are Dembe,. I'll be there shortly with Baz's team," he said quietly.
The advantage to always having a team guarding you is that it doesn't take long to
gather an invasion force. Red and the team arrived at the dirt road with the black Mercedes parked at the dead end. Red lead the way to the large meadow where he'd last seen Kate. He clearly saw the blood and drag marks. He grimaced at the thought of a wounded Kate dragging herself off to lick her wounds like an animal. He continued to lead the team along the tracks until he saw Dembe sitting on a rock while he waited for them.
"Spread out. We are going to follow the trail until we find, if possible, where this man took
our target. Stay alert," he told the team.
Red and Dembe walked side by side as they followed the tracks deeper into the woods. After
about thirty minutes Red waved a halt to the team. Ahead of them was a small, rustic cabin. Red was surprised. As far as he'd known no one lived anywhere in this large forest
''Well, this is a surprise. I wonder what kind of man we'll find living out here in the middle of nowhere? One thing I'm going to guess is that he's likely to be the shoot first and ask questions later type. Baz tell your men I want him alive if at all possible," he told him before turning to the man at his side. "Shall we go see if Kate is up for visitors Dembe?"
Red decided to approach the door without his weapon drawn. He was willing to give this man the benefit of the doubt. He may just be a man that found a wounded woman and wanted to help. He knocked on the cabin door. From inside he heard something that sounded like someone scurrying to locate something on the way to the door. He prepared himself to meet whatever awaited behind the door.
Just as Red expected the first thing out of the door to great them was the barrel of a shotgun.
"Who are you? What do you want?" the older disheveled man asked quickly.
Being at the business end of a double barrel shotgun might frighten most men, but most men haven't had a gun pointed at them as much as Red has.
"My name is Raymond Reddington and this is my companion Dembe. And you are?" he asked him calmly.
"You can call me Hunter, everyone else does. Now what do you want? It's not likely you
stumbled over my place by accident," he said never moving the shotgun from Red's direction.
''Hunter. I knew someone by that name, but that is a story for another time. My friend and I realize we hadn't heard from our other dear friend for a few days. She liked to come out here and hike through the woods to clear her head. We were wondering if you have seen her. We are very worried about her," Red asked with his usual lilt.
"No, I haven't seen anyone out here. You can leave now," Hunter said and turned to go back into the house.
Hunter stopped suddenly when he saw Baz standing in the doorway behind him
with his automatic weapon pointed at his chest. "She's inside, chained to a bed," Baz
said to Red.
Hunter turned to Red to see that both Red and Dembe had pulled their guns and both had him in their sights.
"Hunter I'm going to need to talk to you for a bit. But, first you should drop your gun unless you want this to be short conversation."
Hunter looked around and saw more of Red's team appear out of the trees. He knew he had no choices left to him and toss the gun to the ground.
"Good choice. Why don't you stay here with Baz. I'm sure he'll love to keep you company while I check on our friend," he said before holstering his gun and with a deep breath
to steady himself he stepped inside to face the results of his action.
At the rear of the cabin was a small bed. Red could see the tiny woman lying there with a makeshift bandage on her face and a heavy chain running from her leg to the bedpost at the foot of the bed. He walked slowly toward the bed. He sat down slowly, careful not to jar the injured woman.
"Kate can you hear me?" Red asked tentatively.
Kaplan's eyes opened slightly. Her vision without her glasses was poor, but she would always
recognize his voice. She nodded her head slightly in response to his question. She had no way of knowing if he'd come to finish the job he started. The way she felt right now she wasn't sure she cared.
"Kate we are going to get you out of here. Can you speak at all?" Red said trying to reassure her.
Kate tried to answer him, but the pain she felt stopped her. All she could do was shake her
head.
"The man that brought you here, has he done anything to harm you? I ask because he has you
chained up, "he asked her quietly.
Kate looked up at Red and past him to Dembe standing quietly behind Raymond. While she couldn't know what might have happened if they hadn't shown up, he'd done nothing but treat her wound and feed her. She shook her head slightly again.
Red nodded his head.
"Dembe tell Baz to arrange a way for us to get Kate out of here. Have the medical team set up in the church. We'll be there as soon as we can get her out of here," he told Dembe.
Dembe hesitated. He wanted to believe that Raymond wouldn't lie about this, but still he hesitated.
Red saw him unmoving behind him.
"OK, you stay here with Kate and I'll make the arrangements," he stood up and put a hand on
Dembe's shoulder. "You can stop praying for forgiveness."
Red moved off to talk with Baz and arrange to get them back to civilization. After Red moved
away Dembe took his place next to Kate. He reached out and carefully placed his large hand over her much smaller one.
"We will get you well Kate. I won't let you be hurt again," Dembe said in a near whisper
Baz arranged for a helicopter to be waiting for them in Red's meadow. It took only a short amount of time and effort for the team to carry the injured woman back to where the helicopter waited. Red and Dembe climbed in and they were all soon airborne.
The transfer from the helicopter to the waiting private ambulance and then on to the church was accomplished with little effort. Kate endured the slight jostling stoically. Nick was at the church waiting for their arrival. When he saw the patient he gave Red a shocked look.
"What happened to her,?" he ask nervously.
"I shot her. Now you are going to make her well again. And, if you fail to do so it will be the last
time you fail me. Do we understand each other?" Red asked dangerously.
"I understand you perfectly. The operating room is ready and I'll be out to tell you her condition once I finish her treatment. Excuse me, "Nick said as he rushed by him on the way to Kaplan's bedside.
Red remained outside the plastic walls of the makeshift operating room. As angry as he'd been with Kate, angry enough to shoot her, he now wanted nothing more for her than her complete recovery.
In what seemed like forever to Red Nick left the operating room to speak to him.
"I've closed the wound as best as I could. The bullet went through her right cheek, fracturing
the cheek bone as it exited. I've got her on the strongest broad spectrum antibiotics she can
handle. She's going to be fine as long as the drugs do their job. She's going to continue having trouble speaking until the pain and swelling abate. Also, I'd recommend a consult with a plastic surgeon. The scar is going to be extensive. It looks like the wound went without proper care for a long period. That made closing the wound a challenge. Do you have any questions?"
he ask a bit timidly.
Nick had already experienced near execution at this man's hand. He didn't care for a return engagement.
Red found himself feeling something he'd fooled himself into think no longer existed within him
after her betrayal, love and concern for the woman he'd tried and failed to kill.
"How long until we can move, her somewhere more comfortable?" was Red's only question.
"I want to monitor for a few more hours. It's a tricky thing putting someone her age under general anesthesia. Once I know she's stable you can move her. I want her to rest for a couple
of days. she lost a lot of blood. I gave her a unit during surgery. She'll need to be monitored for a few days to make sure she doesn't have a reaction to that. I'd recommend whenever you move her you have nurse with her for the next 48 hours. I'll come back after I monitor her to let you know when you can take her home," said Nick before returning to what was now a recovery room.
"Dembe get the Hampstead location cleaned and ready for us to take Kate there. Ask Margarite if she'd be able to watch over her for the next week," Red instructed Dembe never taking his eyes off of Kaplan.
"Right away Raymond," Dembe said obviously relieved that Kate was going to be okay.
Red waited until Dembe had retreated to make the calls to get everything in order before
he walked up to Kate's bedside. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be much more comfortable than when they'd arrived.
"Is she awake?" he asked Nick who was standing
on the other side of the bed noting down his
treatment notes.
Red had tried to keep his alternative treatment locations as close to an actual hospital as possible. There were procedures all hospitals followed and they were ingrained in those that worked in them. By maintaining those same procedures the doctors and nurses could concentrate on saving their patients instead of how things are different.
"Yes, she's awake," Nick answered not looking up from the chart
"Excuse of if you don't mind," Red said to the room in general.
Everyone left without a word. They'd all learned his requests were actually orders no matter how politely they were phrased. Once he was alone with Kate he pulled a stool up to her bedside.
''Kate I'd like to talk to you. Are you up to talking to me now?" he asked the injured woman quietly.
Kate opened her eyes. She was so very tired, but she wanted to hear what Raymond had to say. She nodded her head slightly.
"I know you did what you did because you thought it was best for Elizabeth and Agnes. I couldn't separate my grief over losing Elizabeth and by extension Agnes in such a way. I came within inches of giving up completely and walking into the ocean at Cape May just like Katarina did so long ago. What I never told you is that I had very vivid hallucinations about Katarina due to an opium binge. I didn't realize who she was at the time. I saw her walk into the ocean and I managed to save her. As the drugs cleared my system I understood I'd been there all alone with my grief. I met an old beach comber on the beach with a metal detector. Would you believe that he with his detector found Katarina's locket buried there in the sand all these years. At first with that unlikely find I thought I was still seeing things, but he proved all to real. As soon as I held that locket I realized I couldn't end my life until I told Dom what happened to his granddaughter and returned the locket to him. That locket and Aram bravely coming to Dom's and telling me he was calling in the favor I owed him, are the only reasons that I'm still here," he paused a moment to let this sink in before continuing. "I was furious that in the face of my grief you still kept her secret. That you felt the secret was worth more than my life. You knew how I would react in the face of such a betrayal. I have killed associates for less. That day in the meadow I was again faced with your bravery in what you fully expected to be your last moments. I think I was more conflicted by my feelings for you than I realized and that is why my aim was off. I knew immediately that I didn't kill you. That is little consolation I realize. I forgive you and understand your reasons for the deceit. I don't expect you to forgive me, I will pay for whatever surgery you need to erase the scars that I've inflicted."
Kaplan was frustrated by her in inability to speak. She made a writing motion with her hand.
Dembe grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from where Nick had been working. Red had jumped a bit when he did so, he'd failed notice when Dembe had joined them.
She wrote a few sentences before tiredly pushing them in Red's direction. Red picked the paper up and read the following: 'I understand you had to do what you did. I forgive you and I'm sorry I thought I knew what was best for you and Elizabeth.'
Red looked up with a surprisingly vulnerable look. He'd always known she was a better person than he was, but he was still amazed by how forgiving she could be with him.
''Thank you Kate. We will be moving you to the Hampstead house in a little while. Dembe and I
have to fly to Switzerland tonight to follow up on a lead to Kirk and Agnes. You'll have a full-time nurse for a few days until you regain some of your strength," he told her.
Kate gave slight nod in understanding. Lizzie and Agnes would always come first. While she
would have preferred to not experience the painful shot to the face to pay for Raymond's perceived betrayal, but she knew that in the end she'd escaped the permanent payment that Newton and Mr. Vargas had received at his hands. She knew that forgiving her and bringing her back into the fold might give others the impression that he would tolerate disloyalty. She feared for the next person that tested him. This person would not receive the mercy that she had.
Kate closed her eyes and slept a deep, restful sleep she'd missed since the night of Lizzie's
'death'.