This is taken from The Cyprus Agency, and it's a scene I tagged onto the end of the episode. It starts after we see Liz crying at home because she knows her and Tom are 'broken' and she's said no to adopting the baby. So it's completely outside the episode, but refers to events in The Cyprus Agency, and The Alchemist. (And though it starts with Keen, of course, it's more about Ressler!)


If Keen had to pick the exact moment her life started to unravel, she'd be hard pressed. Was it the moment the helicopter flew overhead on her first day of work? Or when Ressler showed his badge to her at the foot of their front steps? Or when she walked down the ramp to meet a criminal in chains, telling her how special she was? Or when Tom was stabbed in their living room?

All of the above. And so much more.

The baby carriage, baby shower gifts and 3D image of 'their' baby on the computer screen in front of her were the final straw. Everything she had thought she wanted was now lying in ruins around her. Unsure where Tom was, and if he would even be home tonight after he had left, she suddenly couldn't face being at home a second longer. Grabbing her car keys and jacket she fled the house, even if to just drive aimlessly for a while. After a few minutes though, it was clear she wasn't driving aimlessly.

Stepping out of the yellow elevator, the Post Office was quiet, semi dark, and felt more like home than home did right now. Keen walked quietly down the hallway from the elevator, and then noticed there was a light on in her and Ressler's shared office. Approaching it she could see Ressler sitting silhouetted in the glow of the lamp. There was no mistaking that haircut. Surprised to see him still here, she faltered, and almost headed back to the elevator to just go back home. That was what her mind suggested. However, her feet kept on walking toward him. Toward him? Walking toward her office, she told herself.

He looked up as she walked through the door, startled out of his thoughts. Keen? She took in the scene immediately. Him sitting alone at his desk with an empty shot glass of whiskey in front of him, shirt sleeves rolled up, his tie loosened, and the top button of his shirt undone. She stood in front of him, looking down at him as he leaned back in his chair. He spoke first.

"Keen, what are you doing here? You went home hours ago."

"I could ask you the same thing." She dropped her purse in the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet, studying him.

"I was just going through some files here…" And then stopped when he realized she could clearly see there were no files on his desk or open on his computer. He shrugged and looked up at her, looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Don't guess you're falling for that one though, huh?" He looked at the empty glass, and back up at her.

"Nope, don't guess I am. What's going on…?" She sat at her desk now, across from him. She had been so focused on her and Tom and the baby she needed to think about something else for a bit. And something was clearly bothering her partner. He wasn't a great one for talking things out – understatement of the year – but he had got better at opening up to her now. Ever since he had returned to work after the Anslo Garrick incursion, he had been more open. More accessible. More…relaxed?

He swung around, straightening up more in his chair now to look at her head on.

"You first," he told her. Something was on her mind, that much was obvious. And he might just be a grunt guy but he knew when a woman had been crying - and when they'd been crying a lot. And Liz Keen had been crying a lot.

She sighed, leaned back in her chair and then looked at him. "You going to offer me a shot?" indicating the whiskey.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He leaned down and opened his filing cabinet, and produced the bottle and another glass. Pouring her one, he got up, wincing a little at his leg she noticed, and took it to her. Her fingers reached up to the glass, and for a moment, they both held the glass, their eyes drifting off it to look at each other silently.

He smiled at her then, releasing the glass to her. "Not exactly Cheers, but it'll do."

"Thank you," she said as she sipped her drink, resisting the urge to gulp it down.

"Your leg bothering you after you got hit today?" she asked, seeing him gingerly sit down at his desk again.

"Oh, it's not too bad, though I could definitely have done without that run in with the van," he replied, unconsciously rubbing his left thigh. The momentary fear when the van backed into him came back to him. For just an instant, it seemed like it was going to keep backing up, with him on the ground behind it. His life didn't exactly flash before his eyes – but another extended hospital stay did. That was NOT something he wanted to repeat for some time to come. Ever, actually.

He poured himself another whiskey, waiting for her to start talking.

"I'm not sure why I came here. I just needed to clear my head and get out of the house. Somehow, my car seems to head here when I leave the house…"

He nodded, downing his glass of whiskey before putting the glass back on his desk. I know how that goes. He let her talk.

"The case today…" she started, then hesitated.

Today's case had bothered her. It had bothered him, seeing those sweet little kids. But when they were talking to the Lassiters, he had seen something in her eyes. She had discovered something in herself while listening to the older couple.

"Tom and I…we are…were…so close to adopting a baby. But…" she stopped, looking down at her desk.

He finished the sentence for her. "But now you're not…" he said gently.

She shook her head, blinking back tears that she refused to let fall. She had cried enough tonight. "Tom and I are the Lassiters. Forty years earlier but it's the same story." He knew exactly what she meant.

"We're not ready. We are SO not ready. He thinks we are though."

"You both need to be ready Keen. It's a huge commitment, having a child," he said, and he surprised her with how gentle he sounded. Like this wasn't the first time he'd thought seriously about having a child.

She unconsciously rubbed the scar on her wrist. "It's more than not being ready though. There's something wrong…something not right with Tom and I, and I can't put my finger on it. And while I don't know how to fix it, I do know a baby won't fix it…"

He nodded to her again. "Not fair on the child either," he added, and she looked up at him. One day, Donald Ressler was going to make a wonderful dad. He would likely be a better dad than I would be a mom, she also thought. The tears were threatening to fall again and she shook her head, exhaled, and looked him square in the eyes. She couldn't think about this any more without turning into a wreck in front of him. And she had no intention of doing that.

"Your turn," she told him a little shakily now.

Oh, great. "Oh, you don't want to hear…" He waved his hand, dismissing the subject. She had far more things on her mind than he did.

"Spill it, Ressler," she said, her voice more even now. Concentrating on him was getting her mind off Tom and the baby, and she was fine with that.

Well, perhaps a different perspective wouldn't hurt...

He picked up his empty glass, looking at it as he twirled it in his fingers.

"It's Audrey," he said, as if that explained everything, looking at her and then glancing away.

She nodded knowingly. "Still having a problem giving her and Tassles your blessing?" she asked him. Texts came in regularly on his phone from Audrey, she knew that. Which always struck her as amusing, because Ressler had never been that big on texting. Now he was a pro with it.

He looked at her again, putting the glass back down on his desk. His tidy desk, she noted. His desk was always impeccable, while hers; well, it wasn't impeccable.

"Remember the other night when Audrey and I went to dinner and I was going to give her my blessing and move on?"

Keen nodded. It wasn't like she could miss that. He'd talked of very little else the whole time they were working the Alchemist case. When they were undercover sitting at the bar waiting on their suspect, she had seen how conflicted he was with Audrey re-entering his life, yet not really being in his life.

"Well, I started to tell her she was doing the right thing, but then she told me she called off her engagement," he said, stopping to let her take that in.

She looked up at him, a smile forming on her lips. That news was unexpected – but nice.

"She said she can't stop thinking about me, since she saw me in the hospital…" He suddenly blushed at that, and tried to shrug it off. She was watching him, realizing how adorably cute that looked on him. Ressler? Adorably cute? Hardly, she told herself.

He continued, hoping the redness in his face would drop soon. "So she wants us to try again… and I want that too," he added quickly. It wasn't all Audrey's idea.

She looked at him and grinned. "And this is making you…what…sit here and drink alone? Isn't this good news for the two of you…?"

"Yeah, it is. I mean, it's great," he said, struggling with what to say now. I'm no good talking about stuff like this. Relationships were what women discussed. Guys just showed up and went along with everything and said 'yes sweetie' when asked to move furniture.

Keen lifted her eyebrows at him, prompting him to explain. "But...?"

He leaned forward in his chair then, resting on his elbows on the desk, looking at her. "Here's the deal. We were engaged, right? Yeah, you know we were. Anyway, I had accepted that we weren't engaged anymore. It's been over a year and it's in the past. And now…"

She smiled, watching him struggle over his words. Men were hopeless at this!

"And now she's back and it feels good, but then it felt good before and she still left. What if it feels good now and she leaves again," Keen finished for him, understanding completely now what he was struggling with.

Sometimes it was really handy having a profiler for a partner. It helped cut to the chase. "Exactly. That's the thing. We were doing great. Well, I thought we were… And she still left. But then, I do know why she left, it's not like I was completely in the dark…" He stood up then, taking a few steps to stretch out his stiff leg.

She was looking at him, knowing he had to have a king size bruise and welt on his leg from where the van had backed into him in the parking lot today. He continued.

"I spent so much time leading the task force to get Reddington, that in the end I had to choose between my job and spending time with Audrey. So, Red or Audrey… And guess who won," he looked down and sighed.

Just like her and Tom… "Red does have a way of complicating lives, doesn't he…?" She said quietly.

He glanced sideways at her. It took Red years to ruin his life. It had only taken a few months to undermine Keens.

"Welcome to the club, Keen," he said quietly. It wasn't a good 'club' to be in, he knew full well.

She got back on track with him and Audrey again. "But do you want it to work out this time?" she asked him.

He glanced away then, standing with his hands in his pockets. Picturing her walking into his hospital room, he recalled how his heart had leapt at seeing her. Of course, that could have been all the meds in my system. But he had felt …happy… to see her. And he hadn't felt happy for a long time.

"Yeah, I do. But then I did last time too, only this time…" This time I'm not chasing Reddington.

"This time there's no hunting for Red," she finished. She had a habit of finishing his sentences and completing his thoughts. Is she even aware she does that? He was apparently oblivious to the fact he also did that to her at times.

"Oh yeah, because what we have with him now is SO much better," he said dryly.

He looked across at her and suddenly grinned, shaking his head at the way his life was so intertwined with Reddington. Okay, maybe enough whiskey for the night.

She smiled broadly at him now, loving seeing him grin. That didn't happen too often and his face had lit up when he did that. She thought again how much better the new Ressler was than the old frowning version.

"Then make it work Ressler. For starters, why are you here and not with her?" She looked at him, almost for the first time from a woman's point of view. He deserved to be happy with Audrey. Like she was…had thought she was…with Tom.

"Oh, she's out of town tonight and tomorrow at her folks. Some pre-arranged event," he said, taking a few more steps to ease the stiffness. That jolt from the van in the parking structure today had hurt his leg more than he'd let on.

"You know I'm happy for you, right? You're a good guy. You deserve a good woman like Audrey."

"You don't know she's a good woman. You've never met her," he told her, smiling.

"Don't need to. I can see how she makes you feel, and you're happier and calmer than I've ever known you, Ressler."

"I guess that's what happens when you get some again," he said, and then suddenly wished he hadn't. Okay, too much information.

She grinned at him though. She really was happy for him that he had Audrey back in his life.

He looked serious again. "Kinda scary, though right? Happiness always seems so fleeting…you can lose it at any moment with one wrong move…" He didn't finish the sentence. Didn't need to. He'd seen it happen too many times.

When he and Audrey had walked from the restaurant arm in arm, it felt wonderful. The year or more they'd been apart just seemed to drop away and they were right back to where they had been when it was all good before. Part of him was determined to hang onto that feeling. The other part of him was terrified to try.

She was watching the conflict in his face. "Then don't make a wrong move," she smiled.

He looked up at her, nodding. "Right. No wrong moves." Sure, I can do that. I hope.

He looked at his watch then, surprised to see how late…early… it had got. She did the same, seeing it was 1:30am.

"You heading home?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "Maybe had a few too many whiskeys to drive home without risking a ticket. I think I might just go through some files here then clean up in the locker room a bit later."

She didn't want to go home either. Not because she had drank too much – she'd only had one – but she couldn't face Tom right now.

"Need a hand with those files?" she asked him, and he nodded.

"Sure, I'll go grab them." He left their office now, stopping off at the bathroom before going to grab some case files. The office was all but deserted now. The overhead screens were off and the bullpen was silent. It made a pleasant change to the bustle it became during the day. He stopped off at the lunch room and grabbed them a couple of bottles of water. Yes, it was time to put the whiskey away.

Walking back into their office he dumped the files on his desk and then put a bottle of water on each side of their desks.

"I see Cheers is closed for the night," she smiled, reaching for the water as he sat down across from her. His desk wasn't so impeccable now, she noticed with an inward smile. His shirt sleeves were still rolled up, his tie still loose. His 'working mans look', she noted to herself.

She looked at him as he opened up files, his eyes down as he scanned through them. You're a good man Donald Ressler. And a good friend. She found herself really hoping he wouldn't make a wrong move with Audrey.