December, 2014

Monday

Oh my God, Red thought when he spotted Don. How the hell does he know I'm in Munich? Oh, yeah, the damn chip, he remembered. He got up. "Donald, there you are!" he exclaimed in delight.

Don could tell that Red wasn't happy to see him here. The people he was with were probably "associates", and he didn't want to be exposed. So he decided to play along, and smiled when Red embraced him.

"I told you I'd pick you up at the airport. The cab ride must have cost you a fortune."

"Oh, it's okay," Don assured him, trying to ignore the fact that Red was pretty drunk.

"Who's this?" Maxwell Rüdiger asked.

"Donald is my man at the state department," Red explained, and Don had to force himself to keep on smiling. What?! Red is selling me as an asset?

When they were alone, Don lied to him, told him that Liz needed his help and that he had come back to D.C. with him immediately.

This guy really has his own jet. Don could hardly believe it. It explained a thing or two. Red was able to fly everywhere, using forged passports and fake flight numbers, could land on any little airfield. He really was able to disappear within an hour.

"Why the hell did you blow up that house in Takoma Park?" he asked after a while.

"Why the hell did I have the idea with that damn chip?" Red retorted. He really should be more careful. Again and again he forgot about the chip and kept doing his business as if he was still moving freely.

Don hadn't expected any answer, so he went on reading his book.

Tuesday

When they arrived at the Post Office, Cooper, Don and Meera explained to Red that they had brought him back because they had received word of a threat against him. Red, however, explained to them that the message was canned and that they were supposed to bring him back so Anslo Garrick could attack this facility. While they were still debating the building was breached.

Following that, Cooper teamed up with Meera who kept asking herself whether this attack had anything to do with the papers she had been asked to release.

Liz, who was late for work and got stuck in the elevator, later teamed up with Aram who kept asking himself whether this attack had anything to do with the information.

It so happened that Don, when he tried to bring Red to the box, got shot. Instead of leaving him in the hallway, Red dragged him into the box.

The first thing Red did, after he had helped Don lie down on the bench in the box, was apply a tourniquet above the wound. It stopped the heavy bleeding.*)

"What are you feeling?" Red asked afterwards. "In your lower extremities. What do you feel?"

"Not much," Don replied, heavily breathing, still under the impression of the terrible pain he had felt when Red had stanched the wound. "My fingers are numb, my face is getting cold..."

"Shock is setting in." Red put his hand at Don's cheek and felt the cold sweat. He took off his jacket and put it over Don to keep him warm. He knew that the shock and the massive blood loss was the main problem now. "What blood type are you?"

"B-negative."

"And you thought we had nothing in common." Red laughed and had a look into the emergency bag, found a set for a field transfusion and took it out. "There's only two percent of us, you know?"

"What are you doing?" Don tried to stay conscious, but he could hardly see straight. The walls of the box seemed to move, Red's voice sounded as if it was coming from far away, and he had never been so scared in his life. It felt as if the fear would choke him.

"A blood transfusion would help."

Don stared at him, speechless. Red didn't notice it because he was busy with first aid and listening to Anslo Garrick who had begun his speech about vengeance. Doing something useful helped him stay calm.

Red put Don's head on a small leather bag, opened the first buttons of Don's shirt and loosened his tie so he could breathe. Next, he cut open the pants below the tourniquet with a pair of scissors and cleaned the wounds with some water from the built-in sink, using a little cup he had found. He also gave Don some water to drink and checked his pulse which was irregular, typical for someone in shock.

"Breathe, Donald," he told him when Garrick had a little break, "try to breathe deeply and regularly." His voice was gentle and calm.

Now, Garrick sat down next to the box. "Don. We never met in person, Don, but if you'd done your job back in Brussels in '09, I wouldn't be here now."

Oh God, no! Don thought and closed his eyes in despair. He's going to let me die!

Meanwhile, Red had dressed the wounds. Now, he gave Garrick a cheeky reply. They discussed their former partnership, before Red returned to Don and began to prepare the field transfusion.

"You really gonna do a field transfusion?" Don asked. Maybe Red knew a thing or two about first aid, but if something went wrong during this field transfusion, he would really die.

"Oh, come on, Donald, think how much smarter you'll be afterwards," Red joked, trying to cheer the younger man up. He wasn't really successful, though.

"Why the hell are you doing this? It's pretty obvious that I hate your guts, and I can't imagine you hold a whole lot of warmth for me, especially after hearing that I was about to kill you in Brussels."

"I knew that."

"Then why save me?"

"First, this is what you do when someone is dying in front of you. Second, it would be pretty boring to spend some time in this box with someone who can't answer. Third, it's not your fault."

"Not my fault?" Don looked at him in confusion.

"It's your job hunting me," Red explained calmly. "I never took it personally."

But he took it pretty personally, Don thought, now completely confused. "We're not gonna live through this," he said in despair. "You don't need to bother."

Red sighed when he saw how scared the young agent was. It was more dangerous than the wound at his leg. He had to do something to calm him down. "We will."

"How?"

"Have you ever sailed across an ocean, Donald?" Red asked while he started the blood transfusion. Following that, he told him what he would like to do one last time before he died.

Don realized once more how little time he had for his daughter, for himself. He had been hurrying through his life for years without a break, without any time for something beautiful. He had followed Red to several places all around the world, but he had never seen more of them than just airports, hotels, police stations, and possible safe houses.

"Most of all, I wanna sleep," Red said, "I wanna sleep like I slept when I was a boy. Give me that. Just one time."

Don hadn't slept well in years. Always too short, too light, too little. He couldn't help but start crying. He was ashamed of it, was angry at himself, but Red just smiled fatherly at him and wiped the tears away.

"Do you remember that Road Runner cartoon?" Garrick asked from outside the box, destroying the moment of hope. When Red didn't react, as he wished he said, "I'd give up the leg up as a lost cause by now, wouldn't you? If the sepsis hadn't set in by now, Donnie, it will. And then your body will slowly poison its own blood supply."

Red noticed Don's fearful look and threw an angry look at Garrick. He knew exactly what Garrick was trying to do, and in his weak condition Don wasn't able to see it.

"Don't listen to him, Donald. Look, it's not bleeding anymore." He helped him have a look at the clean dressed wound. "As long as the tourniquet is there nothing can happen. It can stay there for hours without any consequences. Of course, the massive blood loss was a grave danger, but we stopped it. The next grave danger was the shock, the weakness because of the blood loss, and your fear of dying. Now that we compensated the blood loss we can hold out for hours because it also takes hours for an infection to set in. You just have to calm down. You are NOT going to die."

Don felt ashamed of being so scared. "Hold out for hours?"

"We've only been here for a little more than half an hour." Red smiled, encouraging. "And I'm sure, someone out there will notice pretty soon that something is wrong and will call the cavalry."

Don tried to breathe deeply and to calm himself down. He still felt weak, but no longer close to fainting.

Red ended the transfusion and gave Don some more water to drink. "May I ask you something with the hope that you won't take offense?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Don laughed. "You already know it's gonna offend me. Ask anyway."

"What happened to Audrey Bidwell?"

Don turned his head and looked at him in surprise, but Red seemed absolutely serious. Something was wrong. "You wouldn't ask if you knew," he said more to himself than to Red. "How do you know about her?" he tried to find out what was going on.

Red shrugged. "When you turned up as the new case agent I ran a background check on you. I heard you were engaged. But now you are not married."

It really seemed as if he had no idea what had happened. Don could hardly believe it. Had he been wrong for five years? "Do you know Endrizzo Palmer?"

"Terrible loser," Red said. "But yes, I brokered a few jobs for him. Why?"

"He shot Audrey. There was evidence that lead to him. He was dead when we arrived, had been shot and killed by a still unknown person, but we found an order and some money that we traced to one of your offshore accounts."

"That's why you hate me," Red understood. "You think I had your fiancé killed, or hurt. Was she killed?"

"Yes." Don looked at him carefully. But it really seemed as if this was absolutely new to Red.

"I assure you, Donald, I didn't hire Palmer or anyone else to kill your girlfriend. Why would I do that? Because of you were doing your job?" He gave a little shrug. "If you didn't do it, someone else would. If I killed you, someone else would take your place. And killing your loved ones just makes you a dangerous enemy. It doesn't make any sense to do that."

"But who would want me to kill you?" Don asked thoughtfully. "It... Do you know why I screwed up Brussels? I... I simply couldn't pull the trigger." It was the first time ever he admitted it to someone. "When I was assigned to the case I had a secret dead-or-alive-order," he explained. "I wanted to get you alive because taking you down could mean putting away hundreds of others as well. But Brussels was only a dead option. But it felt like cold-blooded murder. You didn't notice me, you had no chance at all. That's why I hesitated. Then, you noticed that something was up, and the opportunity was gone. Two months later, Audrey got shot and died a little later at the hospital."

"I guess, the same people who assigned you to the case are responsible for her death," Red said grimly. He felt filled with warmth, however. It had been Donald's decency and sense for humanity that had saved his life back then. "Do you know who made the decision?"

Don shook his head. "No. Someone at the Justice Department."

Red had always been careful about him because he knew who the young agent was connected to, but now it seemed as if Don himself wasn't aware of it at all. "There are many people who want me dead. I guess, one of them tried to use you as a weapon against me."

There was a moment of silence, before Don suddenly asked, "Do you think Tom used the same trick?"

"What trick?"

"The money," Don said, "the money in the box. I can't believe that you would try to set someone up by using money that is traceable to you. Someone used money traceable to you to make it look like as if you had hired Palmer to kill Audrey. Tom could get some of your money somehow, put it into the box to make it look like as if you had placed it there."

"So, you don't believe he's innocent?" Red was pleased that there was at least someone else who was not convinced of Tom's innocence.

"We were never sure. But it's impossible to prove that he placed the money there himself."

They were interrupted by the events outside the box. Garrick brought all hostages into the hall and tried to make Cooper give him the code, but Cooper refused.

At first, Red was fine with it, but when Garrick threatened to kill Luli, he begged, "Harold, open the box now. Give him the code!"

"No!" Cooper was determined not to give in.

"Anslo, my people can help you. Cooper can get you in here. Put that gun to his head." But Garrick was still counting backwards.

"Shall I give you the code?" Don asked softly.

Of course, Donald opened the box! "Wait! Ressler knows the code."

Garrick stopped the countdown and then, pointed the gun to Cooper, when he yelled, "Don't give him the code, Agent Ressler! That's an order!"

Sensing the conflict Don was in Red took a gun from the tactical belt he had taken from Garrick's man and loaded it. "Well, then I have to make you give me the code."

"Are you going to kill me now?" Don asked confused.

Unseen from Garrick Red took a small gun from a holster at his ankle and slipped it into Don's right hand under the jacket that was still covering him, before he put the other gun to Don's head. "At least, we have to make it look like that," he whispered.

At that moment, they all heard a shot in the distance. Don was under the impression that his heart skipped a beat before he realized that the shot had nothing to do with him.

They all waited and watched until Garrick's men came back with Liz and Aram.

Red turned to Don and leaned over him, placing the gun at his temple. "Now I really need the code, Donald."

"He's gonna kill you." Don was really worried about him. The short time they had spent together had changed his mind about Red rootedly.

"That's the risk I have to take," Red replied. "Better me than my people or Agent Keen. Tell me the code now."

"Romeo," Don said without hesitation. "The access code is Romeo."

The box was opened and Garrick took Red and Liz with him. One of his men stayed behind, and now Don understood why Red had given him the small gun. He had known that Garrick wouldn't leave anyone behind. Don shot the man to save the team.

Cooper entered the box. "Where did you get that gun?"

"He gave it to me."

"Before or after he threatened you?" But then, Cooper changed his mind, "You know what? I don't want to know."

In the end, Garrick had to do without Liz, although he had been told to bring her, too. Red was brought to an old warehouse and tortured before he had a "conversation" with Alan Fitch who had orchestrated the attack. Fitch asked Red about the "alleged evidence", and Red assured him that he had it. He told him, however, that his reason to surrender to the FBI had nothing to do with Fitch's group or the "evidence".

"What about Agent Keen?" Fitch asked. "Why is she so important to you?"

"She has nothing to do with you, either," Red replied.

"That wasn't what I asked," Fitch insisted, but Red didn't give him a satisfying answer.

In the meantime, Liz discovered that she had been watched by the man with the apple. Together with Mr. Kaplan, Dembe and Red's mercenaries she discovered the facility where the Post Office had been watched from.

Meera was able to find a few locations of interest, and Liz recognized one of the locations as one that had been in the GPS of the car of the man with the apple.

But when they arrived there, Red was already gone. Only Garrick's body was still there.

Wednesday

While the cameras were removed from their house, Tom and Liz had the next argument about her job.

In her office at the Justice Department Diane Fowler had a meeting with Alan Fitch.

"Are you mad?" she asked him furiously. "When you said you wanted surveillance and that you wanted to make a point, you didn't mention that you would gun down a black site of the U.S. government, kill ten of our own people who were serving this country, and that you would watch everyone, including me!"

Fitch's pale blue eyes were cold. As if it was a reply he said, "That's the price you have to pay when you're dealing with Raymond Reddington."

"The people who worked there and were killed yesterday didn't choose to work with him," Diane retorted. "Most of the guards were not even briefed about what is really going on in this building."

But he wasn't impressed at all.

In the afternoon, Madita and Alice paid Don a visit at the hospital. Alice was happy to have her dad back and didn't listen to Madita when the young Swedish girl tried to hold her from climbing the bed.

"It's okay," Don told her and took Alice in his arms. "I'm fine." He kissed Alice on the forehead, and she cuddled up with him.

To his relief Red had been right. By applying a tourniquet and undertaking the field transfusion the danger had been eliminated. It had been a long surgery, though, to remove the bullets and to repair the vascular, but the doctors were optimistic that the leg would heal fine.

Raymond Reddington had really saved his life. Don was uncertain how to deal with it. He had hated him for years because he had to believe that he had killed the mother of his child. Now, it had turned out that Red had nothing to do with it. In addition, he had been fatherly to him, something Don was receptive to. Had Red done this on purpose to manipulate him, or did he really like him?

In the evening, Red called Liz from a phone box and told her that he would be gone for a while.

To her surprise Liz felt relieved. She couldn't deny that she somehow liked him. At least, she didn't want him to die, and it wasn't just because she wanted answers about her past.

"One question, please," she stopped him from hanging up. "About my parents. Are they still alive?"

"I don't think so," Red replied. "Lizzie... be careful of your husband."

Thursday

"Hey," Liz said when she entered Don's hospital room. She smiled at him and put a bunch of things on his bed. "I didn't know what you like so I brought you different magazines, different sweets..."

It made Don laugh. "I guess, now I won't be bored anymore and I'm gonna get fat."

Liz noticed that he had his own clothes meanwhile, a bunch of other magazines and books at his bedside, an MP3-player, and more sweets. She laughed. "I guess, I'm not the first visitor."

She was about to ask whether he had a girlfriend, but then she decided against it. Somehow she didn't want to know. She didn't want to know it because it would make her jealous if the answer was yes. A second later she was appalled at herself. What the hell is wrong with me?

She overcame the temptation to sit down at the edge of the bed. Instead, she sat down on a chair and told him what had happened after he had been rushed to the hospital. She also told him that Red had called her, and that she had asked him whether her parents were still alive.

"I can't tell you that, either," said Don who was relieved to hear that Red was alive. "In the meantime, we ran a search with your DNA-profile through all kinds of databases to find relatives, but there wasn't a single hit. Either they were never in the system, or you are an alien."

Liz laughed although it made her sad that she, obviously, didn't have any relatives, not even a cousin or an aunt. "Sometimes I feel like an alien. You know, I wanted to be a profiler, but now I think I'm a complete failure."

"Nah, I don't think you're a complete failure." He smiled at her. It was nice of her to pay him a visit. In the meantime, he had learned that it was difficult for her to establish relationships and to show that she cared. Consequently, this was an important gesture.

"I'll never be able to understand Reddington."

"Maybe it's difficult because he's an alien," Don joked.

"Maybe he really is." Liz paused before she said, "Around this time of the year it must have happened. 24 years ago. Maybe that's why I've never liked Christmas."

"If you're really going to adopt a child, you have to like it," Don said. "Then you have to decorate your home, bake cookies, make handicrafts..."

"Oh my God." Liz laughed. "I can't bake, I can't even cook noodles, and I hate making crafts. But you are right. If I'm a mother, I will have to learn all these things."

*) I'm so sorry for the writers, but my sources - a paramedic and a nurse - say that he could stop the bleeding entirely by applying a tourniquet. Cauterizing and all that stuff wouldn't have been necessary.

And yes, I kept Luli. I need her for a special scene. ;)

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