Your Scar
Disclaimer: I do not own The Blacklist characters, and I don't make any money off of this.
Chapter 2
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Reddington unlocked the door to his suite, and held it open for Liz. She walked past him, into the main room, and stood, the handkerchief he'd given her pressed firmly against her right wrist.
"Sit, Lizzie. Rosa will be here shortly. Can I get you something to drink…?" he offered as he laid his hat on the console table near the door, and shrugged off his coat.
"No, thank you." Liz sat on one end of the large couch, her elbows leaned forward on her knees to avoid accidentally touching the light upholstery. She let out a breath as her eyes followed Reddington's progress as he walked across to the bedroom, loosening his tie and pulling it off as he went. "You said in the car we needed to talk. Talk about what?"
A knock at the door saved Red from answering. "That will be Rosa," he said, disappearing around the corner into the bedroom. "Do me a favor and get the door, would you?" he called from somewhere out of sight. Liz heard water begin to run in a sink.
With a tired groan, Liz rose and glanced through the peephole before opening the door and ushering Red's personal, on-call medical professional into the suite. Setting a small duffel bag down on the formal dining table, Rosa waved Liz into a chair, and set to work.
In the bathroom, Red stood, leaning over the running water, his hands flat on the vanity on either side of the sink. His eyes were closed in frustration, and with a huffed breath, he shook his head as if answering a question that hadn't been posed out loud. He opened his eyes, cupped his hands, and splashed the cold water over his face, not caring that some ran down inside the collar of his shirt. He wet his hands again and straightened up, running his palms back over his short hair, from his brow to the base of the back of his head, where he knitted his fingers together as if he were kneeling in surrender. He stayed like this, bathed in the soft light of the single fixture over the mirror, standing still as a statue, his head bowed forward, chin on his chest, hands behind his head, eyes closed, the water still running uselessly in the sink.
In the main room, after a quick injection that Liz hadn't cared for (she wrinkled her nose and looked away as the local anesthetic needle was placed), Rosa had set Liz's injured hand in a large plastic tub, and began cleaning the area, her green-gloved hands moving quickly from hemostat, to saline flush, to what looked to Liz like very small and precise tweezers.
"I really don't think you have to be this meticulous," Liz finally said, after watching Rosa inspect the laceration for several minutes. "I don't think I got any debris in there, if that's what you're looking for."
Red reappeared in the doorway, his shirt sleeves rolled up and top button undone. "She's not looking for debris, Lizzie," he said, leaning against the door frame. Liz noted the drying, but still visible wet spots on Red's unbuttoned shirt collar, and a few on his vest.
At that moment, Rosa gave a satisfied smile and withdrew her hemostat, a small, dark object held aloft between its jaws. She grabbed a plastic specimen bag and dropped the item into it, pressing the mouth closed to seal it. She twisted around and offered it to Red, who took it and held it up to the light, examining it.
"What is that?" Liz asked, confused, wishing she wasn't anchored to her position at the table.
"Foreign body removals can be so satisfying," Rosa commented, "or horribly frustrating. They either take five minutes, or you're in there searching for two hours."
"Well, I'm glad this one wasn't the latter," Red said, still squinting at the object in the bag. Finally he set the specimen down on the table and smiled at Rosa as he took a seat across from Liz. "Thank you, my dear. I appreciate that this was short notice tonight."
"As always, it's my pleasure, Raymond. Give me two more minutes, I'll have these stitches finished up, and I'll be on my way." Rosa was already working with a small, curved needle, leaning intently over Liz's arm.
"Red? What is that?" Liz repeated firmly, staring at the specimen bag on the table, more than an arm's length away from her, out of reach.
"As I told you on the way here, Lizzie, Rosa is going to clean you up, and then we are going to have a discussion. And hold still. Though I suppose her fine suture skills are lost on your wrist, considering the existing scar."
"You just took something out of my wrist," Liz's voice took on a dangerous edge. "Something you knew was there. Something I did not know was there."
Rosa clipped the end of the suture off with a small set of scissors and began wrapping a roll of white gauze around Liz's hand and wrist. She scooped her dirty instruments into the plastic tub and removed her gloves.
"Reddington," Liz threatened, "What. Is. That."
"Rosa, Dembe is waiting for you downstairs. Would you mind showing yourself out?" Red held Liz's angry gaze while Rosa collected her things into her duffel. She touched Red's shoulder briefly as a goodbye as she left.
Once the door clicked closed, Red looked down at his hands, spread out on the table in front of him, and sighed. "I've always said you would be in great danger if I told you everything I knew about your past."
Liz kept her face hard and still, waiting for Red to continue. He tapped a finger absently on the smooth surface of the table, and frowned, shaking his head as if he were at a loss for words. Finally, he took a deep breath, and raised his eyes to Liz's.
"The chip removed from your wrist tonight is simultaneously the most dangerous and the most valuable object I own."
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I know, this was super short, but the next chapter should be coming out quickly, because it's already written. I'm just beta-ing it at this point. :) Soon! Maybe even tomorrow night! But a word of forewarning: it got SUPER dense with Reddington and Liz backstory that I didn't realize I could flesh out this much. There's probably going to be four chapters, not the original two I predicted. This beast has a life of its own at this point.
To the readers with a medical background: I know I glossed over the foreign body removal and suture closure. The details weren't important, and I didn't have enough filler dialogue to cover how long that stuff would realistically take. I'm fully embracing my right to write fake medicine stuff, because this is a fanfic, and not an op report. (It felt delightfully naughty to consciously get it wrong!)
Please leave reviews and comments before you move on, and thank you for reading! :)