Part Three.

Jacob woke the next morning to find Liz curled up at his side, latched onto the sleeve of his t-shirt like that grip was the only thing keeping her from drowning. He knew the feeling.

She stirred and he couldn't help the smile that tugged at him. Thirty- six hours before she hadn't been sure if she was going to finish him off after he'd served his purpose or let him live, but now she was sleeping by his side. Not that he would want her to be in the kind of danger she was in there, of course, but he couldn't help the momentary feeling of contentment.

Blue eyes blinked open and looked up at him. "'Morning."

"Morning."

"How are you feeling?"

"It's amazing what having your system flushed with all the right medications will do," he chuckled and winced as he did. "I think I'll live."

"Good."

"I promised to keep you safe. Have to stay alive to do that."

She sat up slowly, her hair falling everywhere and Jacob swallowed hard. He shouldn't have, but he had missed her. The woman that had held him captive hadn't been the same one he had married. No, that had been one that had emerged out of the broken pieces of a wife determined her husband had never existed. Not really. The funny thing was that Jacob had felt very at home in the role of Tom Keen, like it was the life he might have had if he'd been handed a different set of circumstances early on. This woman with him now was Lizzy. She was the sharp and determined woman he had fallen for. He loved her. He didn't care anymore how insane that was.

"You have a really funny look on your face," she laughed. "You okay?"

"Just thinking," he admitted softly. He had made a choice to keep his feelings to himself after he was sure she knew. He had clamped down and refused to say anything. What was the point? She wouldn't have believed him anyway, but maybe now he had a chance. She had seen that, after everything, he was willing to go to great lengths to protect her.

"About how we're going to get out of this?" she asked, shifting to look at him.

He shrugged and slowly sat up. Everything hurt and he still felt sluggish and ill, but he didn't think that he was about to slip off the edge any time soon. Carefully he reached around and pulled open the drawer next to the bed, finding the old pair of glasses tucked away there. He set them on his nose and started reading the instructions on the pill bottle when he felt Liz move behind him. Her hands went to his shoulders and he froze, uncertain.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?" he managed.

"What I asked last night. Why you're doing this."

"I think you know," Jacob answered softly. He knew she did. Her touch said she did.

"I want to hear it from you."

He turned so that he was facing her, his comment dying before it left his mouth. She was staring at him as if her next move depended on him right then and there. It was the same desperation he had felt rolling off of her their dining room the day he'd lied through his teeth and told her all he felt was pity. He could do the same, but all that would do was hurt both of them. If he vocalised what they both knew now was true - because, really, why would someone risk their life for the person that had tortured them for the last month without feelings for them that could override the hate? - he was opening himself up to more pain than he was already in, but if he remained silent, if he gave into his uncertainty about her true feelings, he'd pull them both down with it.

"Tom?" she prompted quietly.

Jacob didn't give himself a chance to second guess. He leaned towards her, his lips pressed against hers and she didn't pull back. Instead she leaned into it, her hand coming up to the side of his face and snaking around to the back of his neck. It had been some time since they'd kissed like that. It was as if nothing sat between them.

Finally they broke, Jacob reluctantly, and he let his eyes slip open and found her staring at him. "I love you, Liz. I have since... I chose to be with you. I wasn't supposed to be that close."

"You can't just tell me half of it," his wife said roughly and he could see the conflict. "Berlin wanted you to use me to-"

"Berlin hired me because I was already in your life. The guy that put me there... He fired me when we got engaged. I couldn't let Berlin put someone in there that would hurt you,"

She sat there for a moment, soaking in the information. Jacob reached back around and popped two of the pills Gina had left him into his mouth, following them down with water.

"Who hired you first?"

"You don't want to know that," he said quickly.

"No, you don't want to tell me. Tom-"

"Jacob." She stopped, looking at him, and a small smile tipped his lips up. "My name."

"I heard Gina call you that, but I didn't know if it was real or not."

"Yeah, that's it." He could feel her studying him. "Thought you should know."

"If I'd just asked nicely, huh?"

"Would have made things a lot easier."

"You were kind of an ass. It's not like you gave me any indication."

"I was scared," he said very quietly. He'd barely admitted that to himself. "I just fell back on my training."

Liz pulled her knees up to her chest and put her chin on them. "This is so weird."

"Hmm?"

"You. This. It's... It seemed like the only options were either Red was lying to me or you were exactly what he said you were. Not somewhere in between."

"I wouldn't discount him lying to you yet," Jacob grumbled, feeling the medication start to kick in. He probably should have eaten with it.

She must have heard the drugs working in his voice. "Who hired you before Berlin?"

Jacob slumped back against his pillows. He had forgotten how comfortable they were. It was dangerous how easily she was able to pull the truth from him once it had begun. That, though, was crossing the line. "Ask me later? When I'm not sick on medication?"

She winced and he knew he had bought time. Liz reached forward a pressed a cool hand against his forehead. "Your fever is still down. That's good."

"Yeah, I'm on the mend."

She bit her lip. "I really am sorry."

"About what? Aleko shot me."

She nodded and leaned in. "Not finding you soon enough," she whispered and he knew it was the best compromise she could make in her own mind.

He wrapped an arm around her, and while she stiffened at first, she relaxed into him. "I forgive you, Liz," he breathed. "You had to protect your team, and I should have done a better job of protecting you."

"You will," she said. "And when we get out, I'll protect you."

Jacob blinked, and after a second he realized that she expected him to walk away from all of this when they left. The real surprise that took him was that the idea wasn't as terrifying as it should have been. He'd never know another life... not before her. She had shown him what it could be. He had given Bud twenty years of his life. Maybe it was time to walk away. "Lizzy?"

"Hmm?" she answered drowsily.

"Are we going to make this work? Us, I mean?"

She shifted so she could look at him. "I'd like to get to know you, Jacob."

He grinned at that and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "That's more than fair." He waited a moment and kissed her again. "I'm sorry too."

"Just don't lie to me, okay?"

"I can do that." He hoped so, because a second chance together might have been more than he had risked a hope for.


Liz wasn't sure when she fell back to sleep, but she woke before Tom did. He was still buried beneath the blankets, face pressed deep into the pillow, and he gave a short cough in his sleep. She felt her lips tug down a little and reached over, pushing back dark hair and checking for a fever. He was much cooler now. He stirred a little, but didn't actually wake, and she eased herself up and off the bed as carefully as she could.

She had been out of touch with the Post Office for over twenty-four hours by this point, and people were likely starting to question her disappearance. She had left for lunch and simply hadn't come back, as far as they would know. Gina had taken her phone and tossed it out of the car window on the way to the plane the day before and she hadn't had a chance to call since.

There was a bag sitting by the door with clothes for both she and Tom, as well as plastic bag with a few food items. She set it on the counter and changed, checking on him one more time to make sure he was sleeping soundly before she ducked out of the little apartment and into the hallway.

As best as she could tell, his living space was part of a collection of dorms. There had to be a phone of some kind, somewhere, and it was a matter of finding it. She took careful note of each turn that she made so that she could find her way back, hopefully before he ever woke up. All she needed to do was talk to Ressler, let him know she was okay, and that she was on a lead. The lie could be explained - or at least expanded on - once she got back. Right then she just needed to make sure that they didn't take resources away from the hunt for Berlin to come looking for her.

She found the exit before she found a phone, and it emptied her out into a courtyard. She had about decided that she was going in the wrong direction when she turned to find she needed a key card to get back into the dorms. Liz frowned. Well, that wasn't helpful.

"You are more trouble than you're worth."

Liz turned, startled by the voice, and found Gina Zanetakos standing there with her arms crossed and a glare on her pretty face. "I was-"

"I don't care. Jacob was supposed to keep you in his rooms. That was the deal. You don't get to wander around looking for secrets."

"I wasn't."

Gina snorted, tossing her head back a little. "Yes, because little miss FBI is just going to let this all go. Jacob may be fool enough to believe you, but I'm not."

Liz bristled at the remark. "What is your problem, anyway?"

"My problem is that you have him so turned around he doesn't know which way is up," Gina snapped, grabbing her by the arm and leading her to the side of the building as several teenagers - students? - passed by. "I've never seen a shrink that could get into that man's head the way you have. I don't know how you did it, but it needs to stop. You're going to get him killed."

"We told you that I didn't-"

"You didn't shoot him.I know what you both keep saying. If you did or didn't isn't the problem. The problem is that you're a fed and he is an operative. Bill won't just let you go, and what's Jacob going to do? Keep you like a pet? No, Bill will make him choose and you've done enough damage to him that it might be too much to come back from."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Gina snorted. "You've made him believe he loves you."

"You don't think he does?" Liz asked quietly, and she wasn't quite sure why the answer terrified her. This woman was a worse liar than Tom. All she had proven was that she wasn't ready to kill her. Yet.

"I know that he thinks he does, but I've known him a long time."

Liz's lips twitched downward. "You may have known him, but you don't know a damn thing about us." She wasn't sure why she was so determined that Gina should be certain that Tom loved her, but there was something about the way the woman treated her, almost like a scorned former lover. "What's with the two of you anyway?"

"You keep asking me. If you think he loves you so much, ask him. See if you believe him."

The door to the dorms opened and both women looked over to see a very unsteady Tom there. Gina turned a glare that could kill on Liz before moving immediately over to him, growling something to him in Russian.

"Liz," he breathed, all but ignoring the blonde, and moved slowly past her. "I woke up and you were gone."

"I need to call my people, Tom. They're going to-"

"Not out here," he hissed and motioned for her to follow him. Gina buzzed them back in and they were back in his apartment before he turned, looking exhausted and upset. "What were you thinking, Liz? I can't protect you if you go wandering off. Were you seriously looking to call the FBI?"

Liz blinked, a little surprised at the outburst. He'd been so careful with her since they'd gotten there, like he was afraid of stepping in the wrong place and undoing everything he'd proven so far. This, though, was a part of his temper that she knew well. She leveled a glare at him. "Of course I was. They're my team, Tom, and I've been gone for over a day now. No warning, just gone. We just lost Meera, Cooper's still recovering, and you know what they're going to think when one more of their own just drops off the map? It's not like I was going to tell them where I am. I don't even know where we are!"

"Idiot, they'd track your call," Gina growled.

"I've got this," Tom said instantly, his tone cold and he straightened his back.

"Jacob-"

"I've got this, Gina. Let me handle it."

"I wish you would," she snapped. "This is going too far. Give her to me, I'll take her to Berlin, and this whole mess is done."

"No."

"So what then?"

"I'll handle Berlin."

"That was the plan all along, wasn't it?" she murmured and Tom glared.

"Let me handle this." He turned to her and spoke to her lowly in Russian. Liz didn't recognize the phrase, but Gina's expression softened and she spoke in the same language. The exchange seemed to do it, because her shoulders slumped, she nodded, and then turned to leave.

"What was that?" Liz asked quietly, catching Tom's attention from where he was staring at the door.

"We were fourteen when we met," he answered, his voice tight. "Gina didn't speak a word of English. She'd gotten into some trouble at home and was on the streets. Bud caught wind and took me with him to recruit her. I was supposed to be working on my Russian. I was the one she trusted first, not Bud. I just reminded her of that."

Liz felt her anger dissipate a little. "You have a lot of history with these people, don't you?"

"I grew up with them."

"They're your family," she acknowledged, her voice barely a whisper.

His jaw clenched a little and she reached up, her palm against his cheek. He relaxed a little at the touch, leaning into it. "It's complicated. We're not... Most of us don't see the world like you do."

"How's that?"

He shrugged and Liz could almost feel him closing down. "It doesn't matter. I'm going to get you out of here and you... I need you to never think about this place again."

"There are a lot of bad people here, Tom," she said softly.

"We don't just do bad things, you know. We're no worse than your buddy Reddington."

Liz snorted. "He's not my buddy."

"Could have fooled me," he murmured.

"So what happens? Can you just walk away?"

He shrugged, looking down at his feet. They were bare. He hadn't even bothered to put shoes on when he'd taken off to go look for her. "No one really does, but if Bud would let someone, it'd be me."

Bud had raised him, and everything that he and Gina had said told the profiler that the relationship he had with the man was more than just a working relationship. He was probably the closest thing to a father that Tom had ever had. Asking him to betray that would be cruel. "Maybe he will," she whispered. "I won't tell anyone, Tom. Jacob," she corrected herself with a small laugh. "That's taking some getting used to."

He chuckled and reached out to her. "Thank you, Liz."

"What happens if he doesn't let you go?" she asked quietly.

"He will."

She nodded, letting him pull her into a hug and carefully returning it. She hoped he was right.

"You can call them as soon as we get out, Liz. We just can't risk them finding this place."

"I know."

"I'll help you get Berlin. We'll fix this."

She nodded, leaning into him. "I trust you," she whispered the promise and willed herself to believe it.


TBC

Next time: Bud comes back to the campus a few days early and Jacob has to find a way to keep them both alive.