A/N - after a lot of emotions, let's calm down, okay? I just couldn't keep these two apart for long. Let me know what you think! thanks for the reviews!
"Harold Cooper"
"I've found Masha Rostova" Donald said it bluntly, and Cooper took a few seconds to understand who it was and what was going on.
"Ressler? What do you mean? Where are you?"
"I've found her. Meet me at the hospital, I'll explain"
"Hospital? Donald, what's going on?"
An extreme urge to cry took over Donald again, so he quickly turned off his phone before he ended up crying to his boss. He rested the box on the bed and took a deep breath when a soft voice called his attention.
"Daddy?"
With all that happened, he actually forgot about Maya. Maybe he didn't want to deal with the fact that he will have to explain what he doesn't understand to a 6 year-old. He tried poorly to dry the tears that were still falling and turned to her with a smile that was meant to seem comforting, but also came out painful.
"Daddy, where's mommy? What happened?" the girl looked confused and scared, and he had no idea how to start explaining all of this to her.
"Is it because I told her?" the girl came with this puzzling statement, and Donald stopped for a minute.
"What do you mean, kiddo?" He sat on the bed, pushing the box aside and opening space for the girl to sit beside him. She immediately started to cry.
"The man at the park. He told me not to tell. I told her, and now she's dead! It's my fault"
Donald didn't know what terrified him the most – the idea that a strange man threatened his little girl at her place of fun, or that this meeting now made her think she was responsible for anything. He put his arms around his daughter and brought her closer.
"Honey, you're not guilty of anything, ok? Mom and dad had a fight, and she felt indisposed. She just went to the hospital. We're going there to check up on her. All will be ok. Now." And he turned her to face him, making sure the girl saw that there was no reason to be afraid. "Tell me what happened at the park."
"No!" the girl screamed, and then covered her face with her tiny hands "They will hurt you too!"
"Maya, sweetie, listen to me. Nothing bad will happen to us, but I need you to tell me what happened. Whoever this man was, he's dangerous. Daddy is in the FBI, remember? I'll ask my friends to protect us."
"You promise?" and the girl offered her pinky finger, something she always did when there was a promise involved. Donald smiled within his sadness and envolved the girl's finger with his own. "yes, I promise."
The girl then told him all that happened, from the moment they encountered this man at the supermarket to the strange way he approached her at the park, saying that he had talked to Liz before. Donald wondered if it was a lie or if this man was part of her cover. No! he dreaded the fact that for a few seconds he considers Liz is actually an assassin undercover. She would never do anything to hurt Maya. This man were trying to reach them. What made him think.
He opened his phone and searched for a moment, and then turned the screen to the girl. "Maya, was it this man that talked to you?"
"Yes! That's him!" Maya pointed to the face coming from her father's phone, a snapshot of Tom Keen. This hit Donald's stomach hard, but it made sense. They knew Tom Keen and Berlin were looking for Masha Rostova, and they had reached her. He wondered what could've happened if he hadn't found the box. They would come even closer to his family and he wouldn't even know until it was too late, probably. So now he was determined to understand why Liz had lied to him, and what was the bloody truth, once and for all.
He took Maya to the neighbour's and had to struggle the girl's urge to go with him, crying and refusing to let him go. After a few minutes, he convinced her that it was best if she went to visit her mother the next day, when she would be feeling better. He just hoped it was true.
On the way to the hospital, he pondered all the things that could've caused Liz to faint at that moment. She was too nervous, too desperate because he found out about her; she realized her cover had been blown and this was a way to be extracted. He would only know when he got to the hospital.
He parked in front of the building and entered, going straight to the reception desk. "Elizabeth Ressler? I'm her husband." and the nurse pointed to a room on the second floor. He turned to the elevators and found Harold cooper sitting at the waiting room.
"Ressler, what's going on?" the man asked, and he immediately gave him the box. Harold opened and couldn't believe what he saw. He opened the birth certificate and understood.
"Masha Rostova. Is she…?"
"Yes, she is." They understood that they were both talking about Liz. "and why are we in a hospital?"
"She came into the room and saw that I had found the photos, and then fainted. I don't know what happened yet. I'm a bit scared, Cooper." He confessed to his boss, who put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him.
"Give her the benefit of the doubt, Donald. For 8 years you were the happiest a man can be. We all see that, it's clear. There's no reason to go straight to the bad conclusions. And we both know there's a lot to this story that is unclear. Go upstairs, see to your wife. And then give her time and a chance to explain. You both deserve this."
Cooper actually said what Donald wanted to hear. He wanted so much to give Liz a chance to explain, and deep in his heart he believed she had a good explanation for all this, and nothing would have to change. All he wanted was someone to agree with him, and he feared most of all that people would consider him naïve to want to believe in her innocence. He thanked the Assistant Director and went to the elevators. A second later, he went back to his boss.
"Wait, there's more. Tom Keen has approached Liz. And Maya. That son of a bitch threatened my daughter. He manipulated her to make me find the box. I don't know what else he knows, but he's lurking around my house."
Howard looked concerned, and pulled his cellphone from his pocket. "Don't worry, I'll send a unit to watch over Maya and investigate the neighborhood. Now go see your wife."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
He entered the room and Liz was already woken up. She froze when she saw him, and their eyes met in what was the most painful moment of their lives. On one hand, he wanted to rush to her, console her and be the one to ease the pain, but on the other hand, he was the cause of that pain, as she was the cause of his, and that was the most confusing part. The doctor greeted him into the room and asked to talk to him outside.
"Hello, Mr. Ressler. I'm Doctor Antony Maldonado, I examined your wife when she arrived."
"Is everything okay, Doctor?"
"yes, she had an episode, her blood pressure dropped. She told me she was in a bit of stress because of work, and got scared when an accident in the kitchen happened. Is that right?"
Donald nodded, not really knowing whatever story she had created. He decided to let the doctor continue, and would just agree with everything. "The fire came out of the oven and the scare was too much for her."
"yes, the oven. It's all controlled now, but she fainted. It was the scare, then?" it was him finding the pictures, not a way to get extracted. It was real.
"Yes, high levels of stress, specially in her conditions, will cause unconsciousness.
"I'm sorry. Condition?"
The doctor gave a silly smirk, believing himself to be the bearer of good news. "Your wife is pregnant, Mr. Ressler, congratulations."
That hit Donald hard in the gut. He didn't know if he was happy or terrified at the idea of a baby coming into their lives at this moment. He couldn't hold a smile, though. Under normal circumstances, that would be the happiest of news.
"Thanks a lot, Doctor. Can I be with her now?"
"Sure! I'll come back later in my rounds." And the doctor left him behind. Donald took a few seconds holding the door handle, thinking about this situation. He turned it and opened the door to find Liz looking calm, probably an effect of the medication she was taking. She smiled at him, and reached out. He wanted to hold her hand, but kept himself far, which she understood by lowering her hand.
"Did the doctor tell you?" she asked, looking at him.
"Yes," he said.
"so what now?"
"Now you tell me everything."
She took a deep breath, relieved. For a moment she thought she would never see him again. When the doctor told her she was pregnant, she felt a mix of happiness and extreme sadness, believing that she would have to deal with that alone, running away from the father of her child. She thought he would follow protocol and the first person she would see when she left the hospital would be a police officer to take her in. She knew that would happen, eventually, but the fact that he was there, sitting on the chair next to her bed, willing to listen to her, was a relief.
"My name is Masha Rostova, I was born in Moscow, Russia, to Ivan and Katerina Rostova. My father was a criminal, my mother was killed. When I turned 16, I learned the true nature of my father's business, and I was devastated. He had been a good father to me, and I never imagined he was a ruthless lord of crime. I went to university in St. Petersburg and when I turned 21, I decided to join the secret service of Russia to help my country fight criminals like my father. I was set up. My mother always told me that I should just go away, come to the United States or the United Kingdom, and be as far away as possible from my father. But I went against her and joined the SVR, or what I thought was the SVR. A man approached me while I was in college, promising me that the government was interested in minds like mine. I called him, and in a matter of weeks I was working as an analyst. The tests were easy, and I learned how to handle a gun really fast. After 2 years working in the office, I was promoted to field work. I was really excited to finally do something. It was 6 years of great experiences, when in a mission, I was hurt and locked away and I finally found out that the black site I was working, the one I thought was SVR, was actually my father's organization. I had been working for him for 6 years, fighting for the enemy I was trying to fight against. Eliminating his competition, dealing illegal partnerships for him, all of it. That was too much for me to handle. The end of it all was when, while still imprisioned, I learned that one of his associates had killed my mother."
"Associates? Do you know who it was?" Donald was paying close attention, and she felt glad for that.
"Raymond Reddington. That man took everything from me." There it is, her connection to Reddington. So she does have a different story. Now they only had to learn which one was correct. "He was the man that involved my father into crime when I was just a baby. My father was a KGB operative, not a criminal. Reddington involved him in this, and then got my mother killed. After I escaped, I tried to find him, but my father told me to stay away, or he would kill me. One day I received an anonymous help. Passport and money to start a life here in the USA. I took it."
"Anonymous? Did you ever find out who sent you this?"
"No. I always thought it had been my father, in a last action of mercy and love for me."
"When you came to the USA, you went to live in Queens, correct? What happened?"
"I entered the USA as Elizabeth Morgan, and decided to live in NY, as it had always been my dream. But 4 months after I was living there, and even had found a job waiting at a café, I had to leave."
"Why?"
"Reddington. He was following me, or at least one of his men. I kept seeing this strong black man everywhere I went. One day, he approached me and told me Mr. Reddington wanted to talk to me, set things straight. I ran the other way, and left NY."
"Where did you go? Was it then that you moved to DC?"
"No. I went to Nebraska, where I met a nice old man named Sam. He gave me a job taking care of him, but really I just kept his house clean, and he paid me too much for that. He was like a father to me, and we had a lot of fun. For 6 months he was my home."
"What changed?" Donald was really interested, and he was leaning forward in the chair, approaching her.
"You." She said, and he understood. When they met at the supermarket, she was visiting DC from Nebraska. When they had coffee that afternoon, she told him all of that. She was in DC with her father visiting the Museums and monuments. He said it was a pity that she didn't live there, and then after 2 weeks she moved to DC and they met again.
"I told Sam about you over and over the following week when we went back to Nebraska, and then one day he told me he had found me a job here in DC. 'Stop wasting your time with an old man and go after your life' he told me. I knew he meant you. I took the job and came to live here, and the rest of the story you know, you were there." their eyes met, and he saw that she was making a strong effort not to cry. He brought the chair closer to her bed and held her hand, what actually was the trigger for the tears to start falling. "When we got married, I called and found out Sam was dead. I wanted so much for him to be there. It was a bit of my life that I didn't have to hide from you. I'm so sorry, Donald, I never meant to lie to you, or deceive you. It's just that all that life ended, and was deemed to that box. It doesn't mean anything."
"It means something when your name comes as a suspect assassin on the FBI." He revealed. Inside his heart, there was nothing more to add to this story. He believed her, but he knew that they had to follow protocol if they wanted everybody else to believe her as well. "You'll have to go to the FBI, be questioned, it will take time, you will be arrested for a while."
"I know." She said. "But do you believe me?" he stood up from the chair and sat next to her on the bed, and then kissed her knuckles.
"Yes, I do." He meant it. and then he leaned forward and gave her a kiss.
"Thank you" she whispered, and kissed him again.
After a while they just stood there, lying on the bed together. She had her head resting on his chest, while he brushed his fingers around the bandage that covered the needle in her hand. She was about to sleep when someone entered the room, startling her. It was Harold Cooper, together with Samar Navabi and Aram Mojtabai. Donald stood up as Samar came closer and put a handcuff around Liz's free arm, connecting her to the side of the bed.
"I'm sorry, but we have to" said the woman, and Liz just nodded in understanding.
"We're sorry, Liz. But it's protocol." Said Aram, and she gave him a smile. "It's okay, Aram."
"We thought it would be best to start everything while she was in the hospital, even to protect her." Cooper said, and Donald noticed his boss seemed nervous.
"What happened, sir?" he asked, nervous. He reached for Liz's hand and came closer to the bed again, while she rested her head on his arm. Harold Cooper took a moment before saying anything.
"Meera Malik is dead" he said, to Donald's surprise. The others didn't seem surprised, which meant they already knew.
"We found the mole, as you said it." Samar was explaining. It was Diane Fowler, head of the department. Meera found out and received a shot in the head."
"which means that now Liz is in danger?" Donald asked, but Aram denied.
"technically, they don't know we've found Masha Rostova. We found out about Meera's death before Cooper came in with the information on Liz. We kept it quiet."
"What about Tom Keen? He's been in contact with her, he threatened my daughter!"
"We know that, Donald, but we don't know if Tom Keen is really working for Berlin."
"what do you mean?"
"Diane knows nothing of Tom Keen. If she is the mole working for Berlin, that says a lot."
"We believe Tom Keen is working for Reddington." Donald knocked over a cup of water from the table in front of him, startling everyone. A few seconds of awkwardness followed, and he apologized.
"Reddington?" Liz interfered, not knowing really if she could give her opinion, as these people were both protecting her and arresting her. "Are you looking for him too?"
"Reddington is actually working for us" said Samar, to Liz's bewilderment. "He surrendered himself to us and was helping us with intel, until he gave us your name. What happened is that he gave different information to us and to Cooper's team, probably because of Fowler's connection to Berlin. But apparently there is a lot more that he forgot to mention. He said Tom Keen was Berlin's man."
"wait." Liz moved to find a better position on her bed. "who is Berlin?"
