Stay

Use Somebody by Scala and Kolacny Brothers

You know that I could use somebody
You know that I could use somebody

Someone like you

His heart is pounding in his ears. His hand begins to tremble with the vice like grip he has on the gun. There is a grey tint to the room around him, and he tilts his head at the sight before him. His lays wife on the floor with blood pooling beneath her.

The pounding in his head makes him dizzy. He feels himself collapse against the wall, and out of the corner of her eye sees his little girl with blood surrounding her small body; killed by his own hand.

It's his fault. He wants to die. He killed them. He was too late.

"Red?"

He snaps his head towards the voice. Lizzie. Blood. Blood on her face.

Blood everywhere.

Her mouth moves. "Why, Red?"

He shakes his head firmly. His mouth moves but no sound comes out.

"No."

R. R. R. R. R.

"No!" He roared as he thrashed around with soaked bed sheets wrapped around his waist.

She rushed over to the bedside and tried to pry his arm away from under the tangled bed sheet. Liz could hear pleas interspersed amongst his shouts and mutterings.

"God-please-." His mutterings were frantic as he begged some invisible being to bestow some semblance of mercy onto him. "Kill me!"

She was afraid that he would injure himself with the amount of force that he was thrashing about the bed with. Without further thought, Liz grabbed his shoulder gently and tried to shake him awake.

"Red!" She said in a calm but wavering voice in the hopes that it would at the very least soothe him.

However, this only served to drive him further into the nightmare. He grabbed her wrists in a painful grip and she nearly fell on top of his chest as he knocked her off balance.

"Red! You need to wake up!" She said in alarm.

"Liz-Lizzie!"

"Red!"

Green eyes met blue ones as his eyes snapped wide open. Red nearly pushed her off of the bed as he tried to sit up without warning, but held her tightly by her arms as he pulled her towards a cascading strip of moonlight. He breathed in heavily as tried to get his bearings.

"Lizzie?"

She watched as recognition dawned on his face.

"It's me, Red," she replied, feeling slightly unsettled at seeing him in this state. The usually neutral and stoic man now sat before her peering blearily at her with sweat soaking through his wrinkled and unbuttoned dress shirt.

With shaking hands, he reached up towards her face running his fingertips down her cheeks. He sighed in relief when he saw that she was not another part of his frenzy-fueled nightmare.

"Red, are you all right?"

Red shook his head slightly in response and clenched his eyes shut, then took another shuddering breath before enveloping her in his arms.

"No...No I'm not," he said against the nape of her neck. He felt a wave of calm come over him when he inhaled her sweet raspberry scent.

Liz was taken aback by his sudden display of emotion. Raymond Reddington did not seem to be a man who had trouble sleeping at night. For all his airs and graces, he appeared to be the most nonchalant man in the world, completely unaffected by the atrocities that he witnessed during his business interactions.

She was his life raft amongst the raging storm around them. The light at the end of the dark tunnel.

A knock at the door made Liz reluctantly pull away from him. She gave him a wary once over before getting up and going to the door.

Red fell against the pillow and ran a hand down the front of his dress shirt. He groaned in annoyance when he felt the damp material against his hand. He unbuttoned a few of the buttons, and peeled the material off his chest. He listened as Lizzie opened the door and Dembe's smooth voice quietly filled the room. "Miss Keen is everything all right? I heard screaming from my apartment."

"Everything's fine Dembe," she gazed at him over her shoulder where he lay. "We were just having a bit of a disagreement."

"If you need anything-"

"-I'll call don't worry. Thanks."

"Good night, Miss Keen."

"Night, Dembe."

Red heard the door shut and he watched as her silhouette came into view amongst the moonlight once more. She watched him with an uncertain expression, as if waiting for him to burst into tears at any moment's notice.

He sat up and leaned against the headboard trying to slow his racing heart, keeping his eyes on her the whole time.

"Do you want some water?" She asked.

He laughed lightly and grabbed the glass of scotch on his nightstand. "No thank you Lizzie. I've an excellent remedy for night terrors right here." She rolled her eyes, but then studied him closer when she noticed his hand trembling, causing the amber liquid to slosh around in the glass. He didn't seem to notice her gaze as he downed half of the glass in one swallow.

Liz noticed that the thin sheen of sweat lining his forehead was slowly trickling down the side of his temple. She looked around the room, straining her eyes against the darkness in search of a towel. When she didn't see one, she made her way through the darkness into the bathroom. She grabbed hold of one of the handy towels and ran it under the faucet of cool water, then made her way back out. She stood in the doorway for a moment and watched him as he laid in the bed with a glazed look in his eyes as he stared out of the large window that took up the whole wall. The moonlight cast a soft glow over his features, making him look all the more vulnerable in her eyes.

She went to him and sat on the bed beside him. He looked at her with heavy eyelids and gave her a faint smile. She shook her head at him with a small smile of her own and pressed to cool towel against his forehead wiping at the perspiration there. He stilled her movements with his hand and grabbed her gently by the wrist, then took the towel from her fingers and set it aside on the nightstand.

Was she really here? How many times had he fantasized of having her in his room? In his bed? Countless times he had longed for the warmth of another human being to hold him after the nightmares; after the memories that came back to haunt him in the night. The sins he had committed in his life as The Concierge of Crime visited him in the shape of those monsters that stalked him in his sleep. Red could count on one hand how many times Luli had witnessed this part of him. He would sometimes wake up screaming at ghosts that were not there after one of their nights spent getting drunk and playing strip chess; and once or twice, he had let her in.

But she was here. Right here in front of him. Safe and sound. God how he wanted to show her exactly how much he cared for her. She had chased the demons away. Red felt as if his spirit had been cleansed of his sin. His light….

"I thought I'd lost you Lizzie," he said. His voice rumbled through his chest as he let out a shuddering breath and ran his trembling hands through her hair.

Liz felt overwhelmed by the affection he was showing for her. The mask was finally breaking, and the real man was being unveiled. She laid her head on the pillow next to his head and faced him. His gray eyes were illuminated by the moonlight and he watched her in an almost pleading way. As if he was begging her not to leave him like so many others had in the past. Liz ran her hand down the side of his face, running her fingers through his short cropped hair and feeling his smooth warm skin. He shut his eyes, overwhelmed by her touch.

"Don't," he whispered in a hoarse voice.

Liz began pulling her hand away, confused, before he grabbed her hand in a firm grip keeping it on his face. "Don't what?" She asked softly.

He shook his head and clenched his eyes shut. "Don't go...," he said in a stronger tone.

Liz felt her heart drop at his words. No amount of profiling or intel from the F.B.I would have revealed the most obvious fact about Raymond Reddington. Above everything, he was nothing but a man. A human being capable of love, compassion, and pain.

Red buried his face in her neck breathing her in, allowing her to fill his senses and make the hurt leave his body like a breath of fresh air. He felt her hands run soothing circles across his back. He sighed in pleasure. She was here. She was real. He wrapped his arms around her tighter and pressed his lips against the nape of her neck, letting them linger there for a moment.

She ran her hands up his back and held his head there against her. "Don't worry Raymond," she sighed against his ear, "Don't worry…I'll stay…."

Thanks to all of you lovely people who read and reviewed, you guys are the best! I ope you guy enjoyed it!