A/N Liz has made a serious mistake and suffers the consequences. Will Red be able to help her this time? As ever, not mine. I love reviews – they keep me going!

He was already dressed, if hastily, and she wondered how long he could have been there, if he knew what Ressler had said. She braced herself, expecting him to shout, but instead he seemed to focus his anger on tearing the battery from the phone. When he spoke he sounded clipped and business-like.

"Our friends at the FBI."

She licked her lips. Her mouth was so dry. "Ressler."

"Have you spoken with him before tonight? While we've been here?"

Still calm and detached. How could he ask her that? She frowned but he wasn't looking at her. He tossed the dismantled phone on the bed and walked to the drawers, removing his Glock and shoving in a clip.

"Of course I haven't! I would have told you! What are you doing?"

He nodded silently, tucking the weapon behind him into his waistband before approaching her. He rolled his tongue for a moment before meeting her eye. "Elizabeth, we need to go. It's no longer safe here. There's an emergency drop point about eighty miles east of here, we can pick up the travel documents we'll need and go from there."

As he spoke she began to feel sick to her stomach. What had she done?

"I'm so sorry" she whispered. "I don't know what I was thinking."

He sighed. "I know exactly what you were thinking, Lizzie – you saw an opportunity to avail yourself of information and you couldn't resist it, whatever the consequences. That intractable inquisitiveness of yours is going to get you into serious trouble if it hasn't already." He paused, shaking his head.

Liz's cheeks were flaming with a combination of anger and shame. He was right; she was so eager to see if Dembe or Mr Kaplan would shed some light on Red's activities that she hadn't checked the call's provenance. When she realised it was Ressler, she should have hung up immediately, but she didn't. She hated having been caught, she hated that she'd make a mistake of this magnitude, and yet she was now more convinced than ever that he was hiding something big from her. What did Ressler know that she didn't? Her head throbbed with the remnants of wine and sleep. She opened her mouth to respond but he placed his hand gently on her arm, silencing her.

"Go and pack your things. There's a weapon for you in the kit in the hall."

"Now?"

"Right now. We're leaving in fifteen minutes."

She paled as the seriousness of the situation sank in, and stood silently for a second before walking to the door. As she grasped the handle she paused, biting back tears as she whispered "I'm sorry" before leaving to pack.

~BL~BL~BL~BL~BL~BL~BL~BL~BL~BL~

Sixteen minutes later he locked the front door of the lake house for the last time. She watched as he turned and walked towards the garage, with nothing but a small suitcase in hand. He didn't look back. He made it look easy, she thought; they were leaving a place they'd lived together, where they'd made love for the first time. She paused, her eye drifting down the path to the lake, glittering as the moonlight caught the surface.

"Elizabeth."

"I'm coming." She wished she could make out his expression in the dark.

They drove in silence for a while, his eyes fixed on the road and her staring numbly out of the window. She snuck a look at him. This was only the second time she had ever seen him drive and the first time she had been too shell-shocked to take it in. His expression remained inscrutable as he navigated the twisty roads of the western province, his hands gripping the steering wheel. He looked so tired. She'd ruined everything, and he hadn't yelled at her, or even told her he was disappointed.

"You're angry with me" she said finally.

She watched the corner of his mouth twitch.

"No."

"How can you not be?"

His face was illuminated for a moment by the headlights of a passing car; he looked pained, his expression reminding her of the moment she'd told him she remembered shooting her father before he vanished back into shadows.

"When I took you away from DC I did so because I had failed to protect you from your past, and the future it created for you. It seems I am continuing to fail. I assure you the anger I feel is for myself alone." He shook his head and added emphatically "I never wanted this for you."

His voice seemed to catch in his throat at those last words, and he coughed hard for a moment. She stared at him in silence. Whatever Ressler thought he knew about Red, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he loved her. Her stomach churned with grief on his behalf. She reached out and placed a reassuring hand tentatively on his thigh. He said nothing further for the duration of their journey, only clearing his throat occasionally, but she thought she saw some of the tension leave his face. She would have to be content with that.

The drop point turned out to be a draughty old church, which was made all the more imposing in the darkness of the early morning. They entered quietly through a side door. It was dark and still inside but Red paused after a few paces, suddenly tense, and drew his weapon. Liz followed suit; she looked around for the threat but could hear and see nothing, only rows of hulking pews and the font, looming in front of them like a beast ready to spring.

"Show yourself." Red's voice echoed through the church.

There was nothing for a moment, and Liz thought that perhaps tiredness and experience had made him paranoid. But then sure enough, a figure emerged from the vestibule, gun drawn. It was Ressler.

She couldn't help a gasp escaping as she saw him. She raised her weapon and inched away from Red, flanking round Ressler to ensure their tactical advantage. He couldn't shoot them both at once.

Ressler watched her move out of the corner of his eye but kept his gun trained on Reddington. "Liz, I'm here alone. Just hear me out."

"Hand me your weapon, then we'll talk" she said, eyeing him carefully.

"Lizzie there's no time for this." Red's voice was like flint as it rumbled around the church.

"Hand me your weapon!"

"I can't do that, Liz." Ressler backed slowly around away from her. "I gave you a chance, remember? Now you do the same for me. Reddington's playing you. He planned the take down of critical government figures long before the virus. There's evidence he was working with Fitch. His people are already moving into key positions – not just Washington, Keen, he's got people in China, India, Ukraine – why do you think we were in the Ukraine? He didn't care about contaminated water. He was putting Denisov in play, setting up his own pipeline. Yabaari's successor is one of his too. This cabal you and Cooper talked about? He's in it up to his neck."

Liz's hand began to tremble as she listened to him. She put her other hand up to steady her weapon, her mind swirling. She glanced at Red. He seemed calm, his gun still aimed at Ressler. When he spoke his voice was dripping with menace.

"That's an interesting story Donald. You've come a long way – alone- to tell it."

Keeping his gun on Red, Ressler shot a look at Liz. "You know I'm right, Liz. Whatever you have to face, if you come in with me we can deal with it. If you stay with him he is going to hurt you."

She shook her head, her voice trembling slightly. "You're wrong. He wouldn't do that."

Ressler's face clouded. "You're in love with him!" he spat accusingly. "My God Keen, what has he done to you?" He turned back to Red. "What have you done to her?

Red advanced on him slowly. "I can assure you the threat to her is very real, but it's not coming from me. Right now I'm the best chance she has."

Ressler looked at him warily down the barrel of his gun. "If there really is a threat as you say, then I can protect her. She'll be safe in my custody, you have my word."

Red laughed harshly. "While that's very gallant of you Donald, you can't protect her from your own people. There's a rot at the very heart of your government Agent Ressler, it's time you opened your eyes. Those mighty principles of truth and justice you swore to uphold have become the very apparatus of cruelty and injustice you purport to fight. You're a rare commodity Donald, a good man, but the world has moved on - the days of black and white, good and evil are over."

"What about you, Reddington?" he shot back. "If our government is as corrupt as you say, would the world be safer with you pulling the strings? Would she be safer? You may have her fooled but I've followed you for years, and I've followed your activities since the fulcrum was released. I know what you're doing, and I know about Katerina Rostova."

Liz tensed. Keeping her gun trained on Ressler, she turned her head slightly towards Red.

"What's he talking about? Tell me!"

"Forget it Lizzie, there's no time. We need to get out of here. Now."

Ressler smirked. "You haven't told her any of it, have you? Ask him, Liz. Ask him what happened to your mother."

Liz's stomach was in knots. She felt sick to her core. "My mother? What's she got to do with this? Red!"

"Lizzie please, we have to leave. You need to trust me now."

Red's voice was urgent. He sounded frightened and that terrified her in turn. She felt dizzy. She could also hear what Red could, multiple footsteps approaching, entering the building from the back. But if what Ressler had said was true, then her suspicions were correct all along – he had taken down the cabal in order to replace them with his own interests. What about her mother? He'd never told her what happened to her. She couldn't trust him.

"LIZZIE!"

Red was shouting now, and she didn't understand why until she felt a searing pain in her right shoulder. The force of the bullet's impact sent her to the ground, noises and colours and lights all floating around her. There was a torrent of gun fire from behind her, and then so much smoke, as snipers in gas masks poured into church, surrounding them. All she could see was boots on the ground and then nothing as everything faded to black. She closed her eyes.

Ressler was on alert the moment the snipers entered – they weren't FBI. "Federal agent, stand down! Stand down!" he yelled at them, raising his arm to his face to shield himself from the smoke. He watched as Reddington fired at the assailants like a demon, before eventually being surrounded and hit on the back of the head with the butt of one of their rifles.

Ressler ran to Liz's side, but was stopped by one of the snipers. "We'll take it from here Agent Ressler."

"What is this? On whose authority?!"

"Homeland Security. This woman is wanted for treason and terrorism, we've orders to bring her in."

Ressler looked around for Reddington but he was out cold. He turned back to the man in charge. "She needs a medic now!"

The sniper nodded and spoke into his radio. "The target is secure, repeat, the target is secure, requesting immediate medevac." Then he turned to Ressler. "Thank you for your assistance Agent Ressler, it will be noted in our report."

"Assistance? You followed me! This was a set-up!" The man remained impassive. "What about him?" Ressler nodded towards where Reddington lay on the ground.

"Our orders were to bring in the wanted fugitive Elizabeth Keen. We have no other targets."

Ressler's face paled. There was something very wrong about this, but he was far outmatched, even if he had decided to take on Homeland Security. He watched helplessly as an oxygen mask was placed over Liz's nose and mouth and she was loaded into an armoured ambulance. "At least tell me where she's being taken!"

"That's need to know, Agent. Thank you again for your assistance." And with that, they departed as briskly as they had arrived, leaving Ressler and Reddington alone in the church.

Ressler stood there reeling for a moment before marching to where Reddington lay on the ground, a sticky pool of blood gathering under his head. He thought about kicking him but remembered the effort he had taken to save his life in the box. He settled for slapping him hard in the face a couple of times.

"Reddington! Reddington, wake the hell up!"

Red opened his eyes, a sickening ache raging in the back of his skull. He sat up sharply, coughing hard. "Where is she? Lizzie-"

"Gone. They took her" Ressler spat. "What I want to know is why didn't they take you? What the hell is going on here?"

Red got to his feet, his features hardened. He looked at Ressler. "Perhaps now you'll finally accept the truth, Donald. Whatever agency took her did so on the orders of the Cabal."

"They'll have to give her a trial-"

Red's eyes flamed. "There will be no trial, no representation, no chance. They'll bury her in the deepest hole they can find. She'll be tortured and eventually killed when she's no more use to them." He paused and ran a hand over his bloodied face. "She was hit. Tell me what happened."

"I told you - she's alive, they took her."

"Tell me again Donald, exactly what happened." His voice was almost a growl.

Ressler blinked at him for a moment, realization dawning on his face. "She was hit in the shoulder and conscious for maybe a minute after. They said they were Homeland Security. They radioed for a medevac, gave her oxygen and took her away in an armored ambulance. They wouldn't tell me where." He paused. "You really are in love with her."

He would never forget the look Reddington gave him then, his eyes flashing and face caked in his own blood.

"Donald, you have a choice. You can try and take me in yourself – right now you'd have a fighting chance. Stay a pawn for the evil and corrupt. Or you can accept the truth of what your government has become and help me" he breathed. "Help me get her back."

TBC