Part Four

"So, what is your plan, exactly? There is a dead man in Mikey's office and another in my dinning room. Oh, and don't forget about the guy with a broken nose tied up in my garage," Mary questioned. Jacob could tell she was rattled but doing her best to hide it.

"Tommy Markin sent them here to send a message to me." Ressler leaned up against the wall in the living room. "He called our bluff."

"Dammit, Donnie," Mary snapped. "You were supposed to back off all that. You promised me."

Jacob sat back, watching the exchange. He never had a mother who cared like Mary did and it was interesting to watch them. Mikey leaned against the opposite wall with his hands jammed in his pocket watching as well. That man, he had been a surprise. Jacob assumed he would be a by the books kind of cop until he told them to get the garage. It was then he knew Mikey Finnegan was the kind of guy willing the bend the rules to get the results he needed. But, he didn't for a second think he had anything to do with Ressler's father's death.

"I'm not just going to let him get away with killing dad." Ressler looked over at Mikey. "And this one, he knows something. You know something."

Jacob looked over to Mike who met his step-son's gaze steadily. There was indecision in his eyes for just a moment before he loosed a long breath. "I'll make you a deal, Don," he said seriously. "You call for backup and I've got something that might help."

"What backup?" Jacob said from his place. "There's no telling which cops are dirty and which are just incompetent."

Mikey shot him a glare at the jab that he really hadn't meant as one. It was just true in his own mind. "Then call the feds. Your buddies in DC or the ones here, I don't care. Just as long as it's not the two of you running in to get yourselves killed. You've got the resources, Donnie. Use 'em."

"Yeah." Ressler nodded. "I can get assistance from the Detroit Field Office. I have wiggle room with the unit I work on." He looked at Jacob. "We may get an earful from Cooper when he finds out."

"I still haven't heard what you are doing about the dead bodies." Mary looked to Jacob. "You got any ideas?"

"Deep body of water with weights or remote areas where no one will notice dirt turned over are usually the best options," Jacob mused and blinked hard at the look he received for the casual answer. "What? She asked."

Mikey stared at him. "Who the hell are you? And don't give me that bullshit about a school teacher."

Jacob flashed an innocent grin. "Actually was, but yeah, I have a bit more varied resume than that. You said something about something that might help?"

"I didn't give it to you sooner because it's our insurance policy, Don. I've kept in hopes if you ever went poking your nose it would be enough to keep Markin from killing you. I don't think it's enough to take him down but coupled with other evidence," Mikey offered. He ignored Mary when she asked what he was talking about and wandered away. He came back with a leather journal and handed it to Ressler. "I'm not a perfect guy Donnie. I wasn't the kind of cop your dad was. He was lived and breathed the badge. He was the real deal. Me, I was a cheap imitation. I did things he wasn't happy about. But, I wasn't dirty like Markin. I roughed perps up more than necessary to get a confession. But, I wasn't like Markin."

"I know." Ressler took the book from Mikey. "And I'm sorry."

"Donnie, you're a grown man. You don't need me telling you how to live, but I'm asking you, because whatever you believe I do love you like my own… I just need you to remember that killing this man won't bring your dad back. You're looking for justice, Don, not vengeance."

"I know nothing will bring him back. But how many others have lost someone because of Markin? I'm not setting out to kill him. I want to stop him. It's up to him how it ends." Ressler took a step to his mom and gave her a hug. "I am sorry I brought this to you. I have to end it though."

Mary kissed her son on the head. "Be safe? Don't get yourself killed." She moved to Jacob and sat next to him. "And you. Thank you for backing up my son. Don't be stupid though. You have a wife and a child at home. Don't leave them like David left us." She patted Jacob on the arm. "You boys be safe and come back when it's over."

Jacob blinked in surprise. "Yeah," he said tightly, surprised that his own voice was a little unsteady. He tried for a cheeky smile. "I'll get him home by dinner." He turned his gaze over towards Ressler. "Let's figure out what your dad left us and get this son of a bitch."

Ressler nodded but before he could say anything Mikey spoke up. "Yeah, don't worry about the dead bodies or the guy we have tied up," sarcasm was dripping off him. "No worries, I'm sure your mom is OK with being an accessory." He turned to Mary. "Mare, grab the chainsaw and some plastic tarps. We have work to do."

"Mikey…," Ressler began.

"I know what needs done." He looked his step son on the guy. "We have this covered. You and him, go finish this."

Jacob kept his mouth shut as he watched Ressler stare at his step father for a long moment before turning towards the door. He followed him out and waited until they were at the car before he cleared his throat, trying to find the right words and coming up short. He was so used to working with people who were accustomed to this life. He'd grown up with people that could hide a body in their sleep, and the task force worked with the likes of Reddington, so it wasn't like there weren't a few bodies buried here and there that linked to various cases. It was a little strange to see what seemed like a very normal couple dragged into the mess though, and even stranger that it was causing him to pause. "Do I, uh, need to go back and help while you set things up with the feds?" he offered awkwardly.

"That's up to you, but, uh...Mikey was a special operator with the military. He's done some things that make hiding a body look like child's play."

The dark haired man chuckled and paused at the passenger door, Ressler circling around with keys in hand. "As long as he doesn't have to hide mine because you kill me with your driving," he said with a smirk.

"Very funny," Ressler groaned yet wore a slight smile. "I'm usually one for going off without a plan. Might not to the best for this situation."

Jacob slipped into the passenger's seat. "Your dad left you that book for a reason, I'm guessing," he said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "He probably put a lot into the investigation before it got him killed. If we don't want to end up the same way. You trust the feds here?"

Ressler sighed."I don't know who I can trust to be honest. They are our best chance though. Too many locals were dirty back when my dad was here. I'm doubting much has changed. It's the bureau or nothing." He pointed to his dad's book in Jacob's lap. "Take a look and see what he has."

Jacob swallowed hard and looked to the leatherbound book in his lap. There was something strange about it, like it was sacred. He couldn't help but think about Ressler's face as they had hunkered down in the cabin in the middle of the woods, Solomon's men ready to put a round of bullets through them and lay them out. He had told him the secret that had started this fiasco and damn it all if he probably didn't regret it to at least some degree now. Slowly, carefully, he pried the book open, seeing scrawled handwriting. He felt like he was reading something personal. Like a diary or something. It was something someone like him shouldn't have had. If it had belonged to someone else, to a mark, he might not have had a problem with it, but somehow Ressler had inched closer and closer to the category of friend. He didn't know exactly how that had happened and he wouldn't dare admit it - not sober, anyway - but the man was working his way through his guards without Jacob consciously wanting him to. He was just supposed to be Liz's partner. Liz's friend. She was always supposed to be between them. He could always keep him at a distance that way. He worked better when people were at a distance.

"I...I can't look at it yet," Ressler admitted. "Crazy right? After all this time you'd like I'd be itching to see what it's in there. But..," he paused. "I can't." He laughed bitterly. "How messed up is that."

"I've heard worse," Jacob murmured, his voice a little softer than it usually was. He pulled in a breath and forced himself to focus in, shutting out the emotional response and approaching the situation like a job. Funny, it used to be so much easier for him to do that. His fingers felt stiff as he flipped through the pages, his own voice a little distant to his ears. "This thing's pretty old, but criminals form up habits. If they find someone they trust, they'll use them again and again. " He ignored the look Ressler shot him, as if he were about to remind him that he was a criminal too, no matter how hard he was trying to stay on the right path lately. Instead he kept talking. "Take the Major for example. He's used the same set of forgers for the last decade or more. Why? He knew them. He trusts them. They weren't going to snitch on him, and he worked in a much larger arena than Markin does. Detroit's big, but I bet you that he has a few people in here that he'd go to when things get tough. People to fall back on if he gets caught."

"Makes sense," Ressler said as he raised his eyebrow. "I don't want to but I really should give Cooper a heads up before calling the Detroit field office. They may contact him to confirm what I'm up to." He paused. "We use that book if things go south at the meet."

Jacob nodded. "Full disclaimer, Liz is going to kill us both when she finds out exactly what we're up to."

He watched the other man give a mirthless smirk and pull his phone out to dial. They were in for a hell of a run.

Ressler surveyed the abandoned location. They'd gotten a warning to them somehow. Markin was gone. He felt the frustration take hold, boiling up inside of him to the point that he was nearly shaking. He didn't even hear Tom approach from behind.

"Hey, your local guys say they're long gone. My guess is they spooked them or there was someone on the inside. I know we told your step-dad we'd work with them to get Markin, but Ressler…." He breathed out a long breath. "We can't trust them. I've narrowed it down to who I'd reach out to if I were this dirtbag. I have a couple of different people that he's probably more likely to go to, but you know these guys. This is your city. If you want him…. I think it needs to be just us. Otherwise someone'll just tip him off again."

Ressler hated to admit it but Tom was right. Damn. He was right. He tried doing it the right way by talking to Cooper then the local field office. And still, that rat slipped away. It wasn't the first time the system failed him. But, if Tom thought he knew where Markin would go then he was willing to trust him. To trust him to lead him to his father's killer. To trust him to cover his ass. The act of trusting Tom was not something he would have imagined doing before but now...now Tom was the only person he'd want by his side. That scared him.

"You lead the way," Ressler said as he tossed Tom the keys.

The other man caught them, but the hesitation came after. He watched him, as if studying and trying to decide something. Whatever it was, he seemed to make his decision and nodded, handing over the book. "This is the most likely go-to. If I were him, this would be the one I'd go to." He paused, a strange and serious look flashing across his expression. "You ready to get the guy that killed your dad?"

Ressler just gave him a look. There were no words for how ready he was to give his dad justice. Instead he took his eye off the book and turned to Tom. "This goes south, I can't guarantee I can get you out of any trouble we may run into. I don't care what happens to me but you have a wife and kid. So, before we do this...are you sure?"

Tom offered a small smile that Ressler was fairly certain was real. "Liz cares about you a lot, you know that? You are her… you're her partner. Her best friend. I can't go home and look her in the eye if I walk away now." He shook his head, chuckling to himself as he started to undo the velcro on his vest the FBI had forced him into when they had stormed the abandoned warehouse looking for Markin, grumbling under his breath about hating the thing before looking up at Ressler. "Man, there was a day I could have walked right now. I miss those days." He ran a hand through his short, dark hair. "Somehow you've managed to mean something. I swear though, man, if I die helping you, I'm coming back to haunt you."

Ressler wanted to comment about the vest but kept it to himself. Tom was a grown man who could make his choices. However stupid not wearing the Kevlar while going after a ruthless, cold blooded maniac. No, instead he chuckled. "Wouldn't need to. I'll be dead with you by Liz's hands if you don't come home in one piece. I think we've had enough Oprah moments, don't you? Let's roll."

The drive was silent between them, Tom's eyes focused on the road. They pulled up to an old office building that, if it were still in use, didn't look like it had anyone reputable inside of it. Tom killed the engine and reached for his gun, checking it, and turning a studying gaze up to it. "Any preference on how you want to go at him?"

Ressler had a feeling deep in his gut that this would end with blood spilt. He prayed it wasn't theirs but he knew Markin would not be taken in willingly. He would fight. So, Ressler looked forward. Having an internal battle with himself. Should he lie and tell Tom he felt the best course of action was to go and try to reason with Markin. Convince him to come willing? Or should he tell Tom what he truly wanted to do was to just go in guns blazing and take out that murderous bastard. There were days he really hated having a conscious. Today was one of them.

"A bullet between the eyes?" he finally offered before turning to Tom. Then he chuckled bitterly. "We take him down and that's a win for my dad. But...I have to try the way he'd want me to. I have to try to take Marlin in and take his whole little organization down too. How do I do that when all I want to do is kill him on sight?"

Tom's lips thinned out and he offered a very small smile. "I'm not the guy to ask that," he murmured. "I'm the guy that puts the bullet between the other guy's eyes when it comes to it. Less so, these days, but…"

Ressler snorted, not sure if the dark haired man was offering to do the deed for him or what.

"We try to get evidence to take them all down. If that doesn't work," Ressler paused as he checked his own weapon. "I won't hesitate to take him down myself."

Tom gave a short nod. "My guess, from everything I've seen with this guy, is that he'll have a small group with him. Hired thugs, but small enough that they won't talk and spread his name around. He'll hope to get out of this somehow. If it were me-" his gaze drifted over the facade of the building - "I'd take an internal room, second floor, close to the stairwell. That way no one could get a sniper shot in at me, I'd have time to see and hear where anyone was coming from, and get to an escape before they got there. We can go at it together or we can split and make sure he doesn't get down whatever stairwell is opposite. Your call."

"We split. He's not getting away." Ressler took a deep breath. "You find him first...just try not to kill him until I get to talk to him?"

"Do my best," the other man promised. "See you in the middle. Try not to get yourself killed, huh?" And then he was gone, disappearing into the southern stairwell.

The building was silent and Jacob watched the walls carefully to see cameras that would never have been installed in a place like this. They had the right place.

He slipped through the hall and into the stairwell, taking full advantage of every blind spot that he could. He barely breathed for a moment as one camera swiveled left to right and back left again, as if waiting for him to make one wrong move. Carefully he screwed the suppressor onto the end of his gun. Stealth was more important than absolute accuracy at this point.

A sound caught his attention up above and he ducked down, waiting. Voices could be heard above and he strained his hearing. He recognized one. Markin. They were on the move. Jacob pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket and texted the update to Ressler as quickly as he could. They would have the advantage of shooting from above, but he'd have surprise, and, if he were lucky, Ressler as quick backup.

The first of Markin's bodyguards came into view and Jacob took the shot, sending the man falling down the stairs as he slipped back around, pressing his back against the wall as a shot pinged close to where he'd been. He blinked hard, pulled a deep breath in, and exhaled as he swiveled around to take another shot.

He only clipped the second one, but he could hear Markin starting up the stairs. "Dammit," he swore, hoping that Ressler would hear the commotion. The shots stopped and he took that to mean that the anyone left standing with Markin had started their retreat upward. They were likely going to try to outrun them to another level and take another stairwell down.

Jacob cursed again, halfway wishing he'd kept the damn vest that the FBI had forced on him. He hated those things. They limited his movement and he always felt slower in them. A little slower might be preferable now.

The bullets didn't fly like he expected them to as he started up the stairs, boots hitting the metal without care for the noise they made. A door slammed up above hard, signalling at least one of them had gone through it. Jacob didn't have time to check his phone to see if Ressler had gotten the message, but he did pause on the second floor landing. The stairwell had gone silent and he grit his teeth. Well, Ressler would have to figure it out. Contrary to what he'd originally thought about the man, he was pretty bright. It wouldn't take much.

He got three steps up towards the next floor when the shot rang out from above and he heard a sharp yell bounce off of the walls. It took half a moment and the fact that he had stumbled back against the wall to realize it had been him. His gun clattered to the floor and his footing slipped, sending him crashing hard to the stairs and down until he was laid out against them. His world pulsed dangerously, the pain spreading from his right shoulder and his left hand came away sticky and wet with blood. Great. He'd have matching bullet holes for each shoulder now. Just what he needed.

"Donnie should have left you out of this."

Jacob forced himself to look up, finding Markin on the next set of stairs up with his gun aimed directly at him. He shoved the palm of his hand hard against the stair, forcing himself up as the bullet dug into the wall next to where he'd been, but he found himself stumbling onto the landing and hitting hard. He wasn't getting back up right away.

He looked back, blinking hard at the shadows hedging his vision and saw Markin making his way down the stairs towards him.

Ressler made his way slowly and quietly up the stairwell. He never liked going into these things blind and with limited back up but it was what is was. He did his best to avoid the cameras in the stairwell and when he reached the second floor to clear it that's when he heard the shots. Not caring one bit about the cameras now he swiftly cleared his way through the hallway on his way to Tom's stairwell when he heard a door open and heavy steps above him. That person was not getting away.

He moved back towards the stairwell he just came from and went up to the third floor. He opened the door only to come face to face with what he could only assume was one of Markin's bodyguards. He felt the man's fist connect with his face and he reeled back for a moment. Then he heard the shot and the yell. He recognized that sound. Tom had been hit. And that stupid SOB didn't have a vest on. He lashed out and flung the the bodyguard, the two of them slamming to the ground. Ressler landed a few swift punched to the man's head when another bodyguard came rushing towards them. Lifting his gun he ordered the man to stop so when he continued Ressler fired two shots. One the chest and one to the head.

"How many more?" he hissed to the man he had pinned. Gun pointed to his temple.

"Just Markin. It was only the three of us."

"Don't lie to me!" He screamed.

"You'll find one more not far from Markin. Got your pal pinned in the hall."

Ressler didn't speak another word. He knocked the man out cold and raced down the hall. When he reached the door he slowly opened it just an inch and found the final bodyguard. He slipped back out and made a noise to draw the man out. When the door opened he waited in room across the hall for him to enter. Two bullets later and the man was down.

"Give it up, Markin!" Ressler screamed as he moved towards the doorway. "You're all alone now!"

"I have your friend, Donnie! I'll put another hole in him if you make one more move down here!"

Ressler shook his head. "I just want to talk. I'm coming down!"

Markin had his gun aimed at Tom who was slumped up against the wall, his left hand pressed just under his collar bone to try to stem the bleeding. His right arm hung useless next to him and he was doing his best to glare dangerously at the man that was threatening to kill him. In that moment he didn't look like he could make good on any of his threats. His gaze shifted past Markin and towards Ressler as he descended the stairs, as if waiting to see what he'd do.

"So, what's the plan Tommy? You kill him thinking it's going to make me what? Give up? Let you live?" Ressler hated saying this considering everything Tom had done for him but Markin couldn't know Ressler's weakness. "You think I care about him? He's an asset. That's all. He led me to you and now I want answers. What you do to him is of no consequence to me."

There was the briefest flash of pain through Tom's eyes, but that could have been from the bullet lodged in his shoulder. He snorted and it was gone in an instant. "Dumb move, Markin. If you could have picked the one person the Boy Scout here would find expendable, it's me. Well done."

"Shut up," Marking growled, waving the gun at the dark haired man. "You think I believe this shit, Donnie? I'll put a bullet in his head, then-"

"Then he'll shoot you," Tom cut him off.

"I want answers Markin. All these years I've wondered. Just tell me. I'll let you leave just tell me. Why?" Ressler was struggling to keep calm. He wanted his answers but he wanted Markin dead now. One false move and Tom would pay for a fight that was never his.

"Your old man was an idiot, Donnie Boy," Markin chuckled. "He didn't get how this world worked. He was convinced things were black and white. Funny thing is that I don't think you learned a damn thing from life, have you? You're not going to risk me killing this guy, if he's your buddy or an asset, but you ain't going to kill me either, kid. You don't have it in you. You'll take me in, because that's what your personal code tells you to do. Thing is, you and I don't run by the same code and I'm not going to jail. So while your buddy bleeds out here, I bet you'll choose to try to help him rather than catch me."

Tom's eyes widened a little and Ressler saw him tense as Markin shifted his weight ever so slightly to take the shot.

The sound of a gun firing echoed through the stairwell and Markin let out a sharp cry, dropping his weapon. It'd barely clipped him, but the right cross to his jaw that Ressler gave him next snapped his head around, sending him stumbling. The younger man holstered his weapon and covered the space between them, grabbing him by the front of his tailored shirt. He'd been waiting for this moment for years and as he laid into the man, punch after punch, slamming into him and almost taking him down another flight of stairs at one point, he felt all of that rage come to a point.

Markin didn't just take the beating. He blocked several of the harder punches, swinging back around and knocking Ressler into the wall hard. The federal agent saw stars as his head collided with the concrete wall and the hard punch to the gut drove the breath out of him. He sagged for a brief moment, trying to gather himself, and just barely missed the next blow.

Ressler stepped around, Markin's punch finding the wall instead of him, but he didn't have time to relish the idea of how much that must have hurt the son of a bitch. Instead he found himself being driven to the floor by the larger man, hands around his neck and cutting his air off. He clawed at him, struggling to get up or to get a blow in that would drive the man back, but something else caught Markin's attention.

"Hey!" Tom's voice rang out and the pressure on Ressler's throat eased enough so that he could follow the sound. His partner's husband was bracing himself against the wall, Markin's dropped gun held unsteadily in his left hand. "Let him up or I'll put you down," he growled, the words coming out on shaky, pained breaths. Ressler wasn't sure he could shoot straight if he took the shot.

Markin snorted, giving Ressler a hard shove against the ground. "Looks like I'm killing your partner first."

Ressler knew that Markin had to assume he was out or close to it. Sure, the lack of oxygen had been an issue and his vision was slightly blurred but once he was on the ground and his airway free he was able to concentrate and focus. Markin thought he had the upper hand as he made a move to pick up Tom's discarded gun. Ressler tried to pull himself up but that wasn't happening. He could take the shot from there if needed. If Markin was stupid enough to try it. And he was.

"I bet you thought Donnie Boy here could save you. He's weak. Like his old man. And once I finish you off, I'll do to him what I had done to his old man," Markin taunted..

"Underestimating us is going to suck for you," Tom managed to chuckle. He took the shot and it fell wide, his arm trembling too bad to keep it steady.

Markin scooped up the discarded gun and turned it on him. "You won't be around to see it."

Ressler tried to steady his breathing so he wouldn't miss. He would have gone for the head shot but didn't want to risk missing. He wasn't going to let him fire off a shot at Tom. So, he steadied his aim and unloaded the remainder of his magazine into Markin's back. He watched as Markin dropped the gun then fell to his knees in front of Tom.

A smirk tilted Tom's lips up. "And that's why," he snarked, leaning heavily against the wall. He seemed to wait until Markin fell fully to the ground and stayed there before letting the gun drop from his bloody fingers and sliding back down to take a hard seat. He glanced up at Ressler. "You okay?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Ressler managed. He replaced his empty magazine with a full one, not positive they were out of the woods yet and made his way to Tom.

The other man gave a short chuckle, letting his head thump back against the wall behind him. "Well, I have a new hole in me, you nearly had your neck snapped in half, but Markin is dead. You feel better now?"

Ressler slumped down next to Tom. Did he feel better? His father's killer was dead. He could no longer hurt anyone. But, did he feel better? "Ask me later when I've had time to process," he offered instead of the truth. He didn't regret killing Markin if it meant saving both of their lives but taking a life never sat well with him, regardless of who it was. "I gotta call this in. You need medical attention."

Tom gave a loud sigh. "Liz is going to kill me. Maybe you too, but definitely me."

"Or she could see it as us bonding and be glad we didn't kill each other?" Ressler chuckled before pulling his phone out and making a call.

Jacob came around slowly, his eyes sliding open and the room coming into focus around him. Hospitals. He hated hospitals. More than that, he hated the reasons he landed in them. He tried to shift, feeling the pain dulled by medication, but his shoulder was immobilized as best as it could be, and he felt a hand against his forehead. He blinked up to find Liz shaking her head at him. "You just can't resist getting yourself into trouble, can you?" she grumbled softly.

He snorted a laugh before the realization struck. He'd seen her partner nearly choked to death by Markin before he'd gotten the gun up and killed the man that had murdered his father. There were blank spots before he'd finally passed out, but he remembered that much. He wasn't sure if the other man was injured badly or not. "Ressler okay?"

Liz glanced back towards the door. "I hope so," she said softly. "He's… We'll see. I should give you two a minute."

Jacob opened his mouth, but she was already gone, changing places with a certain ginger fed that was starting to show signs of the fight he'd been in. Bruising was starting to show around his eye and down his cheekbone, as well as around his neck where Markin had gotten ahold of him. He walked a little stiffly in, cup of coffee in his hand, and Jacob offered him a smirk. "You bring me one?"

"Liz would kill me, man," he joked. Ressler set the coffee down on the hospital tray. "How you doing?"

"I got shot. It hurts. Never doesn't hurt," he grumbled, sinking back into his pillows a little more and trying to focus through the fog of the painkillers. Bits and pieces of what had happened flickered through his mind and he focused in on the man that he'd fought along side of not once, but twice now. A couple years ago he never would have thought it was possible that the man that he'd gotten into a shoving match with outside of Liz's car, the man that she'd pulled a gun on him to protect, would be someone he would have trusted, much less someone that he would have risked his own life to help find some peace. Things had changed so much - he had changed so much - that sometimes it felt like two entirely different lifetimes. It had been a hell of a lot easier to hate Ressler, but he wasn't sure he'd choose to go back to that point even if he could. "I guess I owe you a thank you," he managed.

"No. I owe you one. You could have died just so I got my damn revenge. Because of me Hope and Liz almost lost you." Ressler jammed his hands in his pockets. "I'm terrible with this...but thank you. You had my back and for that...just...thank you."

The words sunk in slowly and Jacob shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, well…. You saved my ass at the end of it, so let's call it even, huh? It all worked out in the end. You get what you need out of him?"

"Not exactly." He took a seat in Liz's vacated chair. "I mean I don't know what I really expected. Maybe some drawn out reason for it all? Not just my dad wouldn't play ball. The Bureau is currently searching his home and office along with the places and people listed in my dad's journal. The security cameras in the building were helpful for that but I'm in some hot water."

Jacob cringed. "How pissed is Cooper?" Ressler had done what he was supposed to, hadn't he? He'd called the FBI in on the first raid. So maybe he'd been a little slower to call on the second, but hey, Cooper knew that sometimes the rules needed to be bent a little. It wasn't like he'd called it in when Jacob had brought Karakurt to his house or when the Cabal had chased them all the way to the cabin. Surely he would have understood that if Ressler of all people thought the corruption was deep enough that it'd put an op in jeopardy there had to be something to it.

"He's pissed but he gets it. Problem is the head of the Detroit office isn't fond of someone coming into town and leaving bodies for him to clean up. I should have told him what we were up to. And…," Ressler sighed. "Someone high up really wants me to take a hit. Cooper assured me I'll be cleared and can get back to work but uh, if anyone comes talking to you I forced you in to this. You did not come along willing. Again, it's not exactly procedure to give an asset a weapon. This wasn't a Task Force investigation. Things would have been a bit neater if it were."

"Yeah, but something tells me Cooper would never have let you near it if you'd asked permission." Jacob shifted a little, weighing his next words. Ressler was giving him an easy out to keep himself out of any trouble and he should just take it, but there was something gnawing at him that he really didn't like. "Listen, man, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but if I go telling these people you forced me into it they'll rip you to shreds, won't they? It's not like Cooper has any misconceptions over if I carry or not. Just have him classify the situation and we're all in the clear. That's kind of what you people do, isn't it?"

"He's trying but I've already made a mess of things here. My mom and Mikey are actually getting death threats over this and it hasn't even been 24 hours. I don't want my blind need for truth and justice to prevail to mess up what you and Liz have going on. I care too much for her and Hope to let my selfishness mess that up." Ressler took a deep breath. "I wish I could blame pain meds for my openness with you but that's not the case. It was easier when I hated you."

Jacob blinked, his mind working just a little slower than usual and finally piecing together what the other man was saying. He snorted and quirked a smile. "Careful, Ressler, or I'll get the impression you're actually starting to like me. Wouldn't want that spreading."

"God no. I've worked hard to maintain my reputation. Can't have you muddying it up."

The laugh that left him was real. "I think that you managed to muddy up the Boy Scout reputation pretty well this time. Look at what happens when you bend the rules a little. Things actually get done."

"I think we did a bit more than bend the rules," Ressler sighed. "My mother insisted Liz and Hope stay at the house. There are men vetted by Cooper watching the house so they will be safe. She's taken a liking to you three. And a heads up, she's persistent. I think she is unofficially adopting you." Ressler tapped the coffee cup. "And this may or may not be made to how you like it. I'm just gonna leave it right here." He stood up from his seat.

"Hey, Ress?" Jacob called, the nickname he'd heard Liz call him slipping off his tongue, causing the other man to turn back towards him. He swallowed hard. "Listen, I'm on a lot of medication and I swear if you repeat this to another soul outside of Liz I'll deny it completely, but… It was good working with you."

"Back at you," Ressler laughed.

Jacob reached carefully for the coffee cup with his left hand and brought it to his lips. "Better watch out or Cooper will figure out that we can actually work together and put me on more assignments with you. If you've been going around and calling me your asset on this whole thing and all." He smirked around the coffee lid and took a sip. Well, Ressler hadn't been lying. He really had gotten it how he liked his coffee. That was a little impressive.

"Oh, you thought I said asset? I was calling you an asshat all this time." Ressler smiled and tapped at his ear. "Might want a hearing test before you leave."

"Jackass," Jacob grumbled and tried for a glare that he was pretty sure didn't come across nearly as intimidating as he would have liked. It might have been easier to hate Donald Ressler and a hell of a lot smarter to keep distance between them, but he was starting to think he didn't want that. Liz had jokingly told him that he needed to find some friends that weren't going to take a shot at him the first time his back was turned and Ressler had certainly proved to be the opposite of the usual types he surrounded himself with. Jacob's back had been turned and Ressler had been there to watch it. The former operative wasn't sure he was used to that, but the thought he'd be okay with it being the new normal.

End.

Notes: Sorry it took me so long to get this last part edited and up. Life's been a little crazy lately. It was interesting, because SaraBeth1 and I wrote this during the mini hiatus, so before the Solomon episodes. There were pieces I was able to tweak just a little so that they make more sense along with canon, but others (like Liz and Tom's kiddo's name) that had already been up in previous chapters and I kept wanting to change Hope to Agnes lol

Thank so much for your awesome reviews! We had a blast with this premise and pushing the boys to work together. Hopefully we'll see more of that in canon before the season's end.