October, 2014

Monday

"You're gonna share an office with me," Don told Liz after he had shown her the rest of the Post Office. He opened the door to a small, dark office with two desks and many filing cabinets.

When she had applied for the job as a profiler at the Washington field office, Liz had pictured a nice, warm, friendly office at headquarters. The Post Office was the complete opposite of it, but she nodded and put her things on the empty desk.

"You know, this is only temporary," Don added and gave her a severe look. "You're still under official review because of attacking Reddington. But we have to wait and see what will happen whether he gets a deal or disappears in a black site forever."

"Does this deal include that he only speaks with me?" she asked, unsure if she really wanted it. Most of all, she wanted her life back as it had been before Reddington had turned up and before she had found the box.

"Yeah. That's why you're here." Don pointed at the filing cabinets. "This is everything we have on Reddington. Or, at least, everything you need to know at your level. Read it."

Again she nodded, feeling numb and as if she was right in the middle of a nightmare.

Tuesday

When Liz got a call from the hospital that Tom had woken up from the coma, Don allowed her to go there.

She was glad that Tom was awake and seemed fine. But she couldn't stop thinking of the box under the floor. She planned to ask Tom about it, but instead kept her mouth shut. He was still so weak, and she was almost sure that Reddington somehow put the box there to set Tom up.

On the other hand, how much did she really know about Tom? They hadn't known each other for a long time before they got married. They had spent some time apart while she was at Quantico. Of course, he had told her about his parents who had died in a car crash some years ago, and she knew his brother Craig and his cousin Nicki.

Liz didn't like them. Craig was a strange guy, somehow sleazy and devious. Nicki, on the other hand, behaved more like an ex-girlfriend than a cousin.

Did Tom really work as a teacher when he left the house? What did he do when she wasn't home? Why did he suddenly want to move to Nebraska with her? Wasn't her marriage too perfect although she had the sudden feeling that something was missing? Trust, knowing each other deeply, a deep bond, friendship?

Liz was aware it was difficult for her to develop a deep bond to someone because of that missing piece in her life. She never had a mother or had known a woman she would have had a motherly relationship to. She spent her life avoiding people, afraid of their dislike and disapproval. She was withdrawn, distrustful, sometimes displayed narcissistic behaviour, although her deepest wish was to have a family, a home, friends.

Until the moment she had found the box, she had thought that she could have all this with Tom. Now, she wasn't sure anymore. And it wasn't all because of the box.

"He wants immunity. He's willing to cooperate, give us names," Cooper tried to convince the "authorities" to grant Reddington a deal. But neither the director of the FBI nor the representatives of the Justice Department, with Diane Fowler in the lead, seemed interested.

"What about this Elizabeth Keen?" Diane asked. "He said her parents were criminals?"

"Yes, but she probably doesn't know anything about them. She was a foundling," Cooper explained to her. "If she has a history with Reddington, she won't be aware of it."

The discussion went on, and Cooper repeated, "I don't think you understand how the situation needs to be handled. Reddington has brokered some of the most comprehensive international criminal activities in the past 20 years. He has access to targets we don't know even exist. He's worth more as an informant than as a prisoner. He told us about an unknown mass murderer, but he won't tell us more until..."

"I don't think you understand," Diane cut him short, "you don't run criminal division of Main Justice. I do. The Attorney General is not going to accept a deal."

"I hope you understand," Cooper tried it again, "that..."

But Diane had made up her mind. "There is no deal. Am I clear?"

"I thought you should know that Reddington is back in town," Diane told Alan Fitch when they met in her office at the Justice Department later that day.

Fitch raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How is that?"

She explained the situation to him and ended with, "I turned the deal down."

Fitch pondered for a moment. "I think you should accept the deal. We need to know what he's up to, and we won't find out when he's at some black site from which he will simply disappear one day. His people will get him out sooner or later. And don't think he won't be able to escape. That would be a mistake."

"He will infiltrate the FBI, try to get at our intelligence, use our resources to wipe out his competition! Maybe he'll even attack us," Diane objected.

"Well, we'll have to monitor him closely," Fitch said. He got up. "Arrange to investigate him and this," he contemplated, "Elizabeth Keen and then jump at the chance to accept the deal."

"The DNA-results are in," Don said when he entered Cooper's office and closed the door behind him.

Cooper looked up curiously. "Are they related?"

"No, sir. Reddington's not Agent Keen's father or is related to her in any way. It was difficult to get Mays's DNA. We had to reopen old evidence boxes, but we finally managed to get a result. She isn't related to him, either."

Cooper closed the file in front of him and put it away, deep in thoughts. "Reddington said Keen's parents were criminals. Is it possible that they are in the system?"

"I can have a wider DNA-search ran and try to find relatives," Don said, "but, to be honest, I don't think it would be successful. Most DNA-databases were established after the time Keen was found and Reddington disappeared. If her parents are dead or never committed a crime they could be tied to, they are probably not in the system."

"Try it," Cooper decided. "Maybe we'll get that deal if we are able to find out what connects them."

Next week, Monday

After spending some days in a cell on a Navy ship, Red was brought back to D.C.

Subjecting Reddington to a lie detector test turned out to be a waste of time because he never answered any of the questions with a clear yes or no.

"Have you ever been convicted of a crime?"

"Convicted? Not yet."

"Does Elizabeth Keen know why you surrendered yourself?"

"You are wasting valuable time."

Don, who stood in the observer room, shook his head. To his surprise he shared Red's opinion. They were just wasting time with discussions about deals, how Liz Keen might be connected to Red, or trying to make Red talk without granting him immunity. He wouldn't like to see Red walk, but he also knew that working with him was a chance to put away many bad guys, and it was a chance to learn something about Red and his empire.

"Before you surrendered to the FBI, did you have, or have you ever had personal contact with Elizabeth Keen?"

"You're asking the wrong questions." Red turned his head to the mirror, pretty sure that someone was watching them. "I'm trying to help you with a matter of urgency. It's your choice whether you listen or not, but there'll be an incident at 11 a.m. at the Decatur Industrial Park. I would send ambulances."

Don sighed. No one, who could authorize it, was here. "Then I'll authorize it myself," he said to himself and reached for his cell phone.

Of course, there was an incident at the Decatur Industrial Park, but when Cooper tried again to make Red tell them more about the train accident, Red, again, insisted on a deal.

Next week, Monday

"We have a chance to catch a mass murderer," Cooper insisted in his next meeting with the "authorities". "We have to move now!"

"His lawyers drafted this?" Diane had read the terms of the deal in the meantime.

"No, he did," Cooper said. "Reddington represents himself in legal matters."

Diane guessed that this was a "good opportunity" to give in. She put on some show, acted as if she was concerned about Reddington's private security, Dembe and Luli Zeng, as well as about some other things.

"Elizabeth Keen is under official review because of attacking Reddington?" she asked.

"She believes it was him who sent Zamani into her house," Cooper explained to her.

"What if she is going to kill him one day?"

"I don't think there will be another incident," Cooper said, but they both knew that they were thinking the same: if she killed him, it would be one problem less.

"One condition," Diane said, "you bring in somebody I know and trust. Meera Malik, CIA. She can help navigate international waters."

"Fine." Cooper wasn't fine with this decision. It felt like having a spy in the task force, but it was better than wasting any more time.

Tuesday

Finally, they were allowed to get Red out of the box, and he briefed them on The Freelancer.

"And how do we find him?" Cooper finally asked.

"You don't find him," Red replied, "I do."

"What? Are you two pen pals? You guys send each other coded e-mails?" By sounding naïve Don tried to find out more about how Red's business worked, and to his surprise Red even gave him an answer, "I don't have an e-mail or a phone or an address. I prefer to handle my businesses face to face."

"You met him," Liz understood.

"Once. I brokered a few jobs. He works through an intermediary. He might be for sale. Perhaps I should set a meeting." Red smiled. "But in this case, I'll have to make an exception and make a phone call."

"Then do that," Cooper said.

About ten minutes later, the meeting was set for the evening in Montreal. Red persuaded Liz to go with him, and a few organization details were discussed.

While Liz was trying to find out whether Red placed the box in her house, Cooper told Don to shadow Red to Montreal.

"I want complete surveillance," Cooper said. "That damn chip isn't implanted until tomorrow. We can't risk losing him. If you are under the impression that he's about to disappear, I want you to take him down!"

Liz and Red flew to Montreal together and took a cab to the restaurant where Red arranged to meet his contact.

Liz tried to avoid a conversation, feeling uncomfortable to be alone with him, although she had to admit that Reddington was a real gentleman and an interesting conversational partner. She came to the conclusion that he wasn't a psychopath. Somehow Reddington was still connected to his former life as a Naval Intelligence Officer. He wasn't faking emotions, like a psychopath would do, they were real. And he was completely aware of what he was doing, so he wasn't a sociopath, either.

"Tell me about your husband," Red suddenly said. "Does he know you as well as you know him?"

She didn't want to talk about Tom with him, but she tried not to show her anger. Instead, she tried to distract him from the question. "Your contact is late."

"Does he know about you as a child?"

"It's been 35 minutes."

"Does he know about the fire?"

Liz stared at him in surprise. "How do you know that there was a fire?" Aside from her name, the only thing she could remember about her early childhood was that there had been a fire somewhere, somehow. She had never told anyone about it other than Sam and Tom.

Outside, in the surveillance van, Don pricked his ears. The scars on Red's back were burning marks. Was it possible that he had saved Liz from a fire years ago? Was that the connection they were looking for? But why would he run when he saved a child from a fire? It would make him a hero, not a villain. And the murder of Gordon Mays hadn't been connected to a fire. Or were these two completely different events?

"Did you know my parents?" Liz tried to find out more when Red didn't answer her question about the incident.

But Red didn't answer that question, either. Instead, he called a waiter, had a short conversation in French, gave him something, and then got up. "Excuse me for a moment."

It was the alarm bell for Don because Liz simply stayed at the table instead of following Red downstairs. Together with the RCMP he went in the restaurant, tried to find Reddington, but he could only get hold of the waiter.

"Que vous a-t-il donné?" he asked him.

The waiter took a dollar bill out of his pocket. "Pourboire."

Beta readers / support / bothered with questions about grammar: Ana, Chase (from AWWC), Umber (from AWWC), Melissa, and theblacklister23. Many thanks to them. :)