Carla Reddington

Elizabeth Scott stood uncomfortably in the living room of a small house. It was musty, like no one had been there in some time. That was where Christopher had sent word to meet him though, so she found herself pacing and pausing, looking at the sparse furniture of what she could only assume was a safe house.

"He has it under control."

Liz glanced over to where Nez Rowan was lounging back on the couch like she didn't have a care in the world. She straightened when Liz's gaze shifted, though, and leaned forward on her knees. "Hargrave has it under control," she clarified. "He's really good at what he does. You should trust him."

"I do," Liz answered immediately and Rowan smirked a little.

"Then don't look so nervous. You're not betraying anyone by being here. This won't bother with the FBI and your precious CI will be handled."

Liz snorted. "You must not have met Reddington."

"I have. If it were someone besides Hargrave you might need to worry, but he's got this."

Any response Liz might have given was cut short as the front door opened. A woman was led in with a bag over her head and into a back room. Chris looked stressed as Rowan moved to speak to him quietly. Liz strained but couldn't hear the specifics of what was being discussed. Finally Rowan gave a nod and followed the other Grey Matters operatives into the back.

Dark blue eyes finally met Liz's and he offered her a strained smile. "Carla Reddington. This is a mess."

"Please tell me you have a plan."

"Well, I'm not planning to hand her over to Berlin."

"That's good to hear." Liz paused, glancing back towards the room. "Chris, what am I doing here? I'm a federal agent… I can't-"

"I know. I'm sorry. I just…" He swallowed hard, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. "I needed you."

There was a sharp yell from the back room and Chris shot off without pause, Liz on his heels. Carla Reddington was fighting hard against her captors and had actually managed to give Burks what would likely be a black eye. Her gaze was fiery when she turned towards them, but she froze instantly, dark eyes flickering between Christopher and Liz, shock echoing in her gaze.

Slowly, the former Mrs Reddington blinked, squaring her shoulders where she stood.

"Ms Hyland, I'm-" Chris began, but she immediately held up a hand.

"Christopher Hargrave. You're…. taller than when I saw you last time."

Liz saw the signs of Chris carefully controlling his expression. It made sense. He'd said that he had known Red since he was small, so of course he would have met Reddington's wife.

Carla Reddington's gaze shifted ever so slightly. "Elizabeth," she breathed. "Some things never change."

Liz stiffened. "You know me?"

The older woman snorted. "Does Raymond know you're here?"

"Hey," Nez called and motioned to the hall. Liz frowned, finally pulling her gaze away from Carla to follow them. She was here. The least she could do was remain in the loop, and from what she could tell, Nez wasn't happy with the news she was sharing.

"Make it quick," Chris told her tightly. "We're working on a clock here."

"One of the extras snitched."

Christopher frowned deeply. "We knew it was possible. Please tell me she's not coming here."

"Oh she is," Nez grumbled, but then turned her pale gaze on Liz. "And she's bringing Reddington."

Chris blinked hard, a flash of surprise flirting across his face. "That's unexpected."

Liz frowned deeply. "I need a minute with her."

He gave a sharp nod and Liz didn't wait. She motioned to the two remaining operatives in the room and they glanced out to receive the okay from their superior. She waited until they were gone to pull a chair up so she was seated across from Carla.

The older woman was studying her carefully and Liz steeled herself. "You know me."

There was something in her expression, the way she didn't quite meet Liz's gaze, that struck her, and when Carla spoke, her voice was quiet. "You think I can help you with questions about your past." It was a statement, not a question, as if she already knew why the federal agent was sitting there.

Liz shifted, and steeled her expression. "Reddington has… everything's up in the air with him. Chris… Reddington nearly killed him, and he thinks it was to protect me. I need to know what his connection is to me. Without that…" She wanted to trust him, and she hated that about herself. Even with everything he'd done, even with all the distance she had tried to put between them, she kept letting him ease his way closer and closer again, as if she couldn't stop it. She had done her best to downplay it with Chris, but it didn't make it any less real. The truth was that she was looking for that missing piece - that connection that Reddington seemed to think they had - to decide if she could break from him or not. There was that fear, that small question in her mind. Your father was a career criminal. Your mother died of weakness and shame. This might be the one chance she had for a break in her search for answers.

"He wants something from you," Carla said slowly, her gaze finally flickering to meet Liz's, but it immediately moved behind her at the sound of voices outside of the room. Susan Hargrave and Red were already there. Dark eyes flickered back to Liz though for just a moment before they were interrupted. "He's not who you think he is."

"You know Chris too."

Carla smirked just a little. "I've known the Hargraves as long as I've known you, Elizabeth. Longer. I was Christopher's godmother." She swallowed hard. "What they did to you two in the name of protecting you, I-"

The door opened and it took all of Liz's self control not to jump. Chris was speaking in low, frustrated tones with his mother outside as Reddington entered, his eyes on Carla first. Liz could see him just out of the corner of her eye and saw how he paused, frozen, and his eyes were fixed on her. After a moment of silence he cleared his threat. "My people are transporting Frank to a secured location. We'll be meeting him there to secure documentation for-"

"I am not disrupting my life again," Carla growled.

"Elizabeth, if you'll give us a moment?"

She nodded numbly and left the room, the door closing behind her. Susan Hargrave looked up from her very irritable conversation with Chris just long enough to glare dangerously. He didn't look over to her, but seemed laser focused on the conversation.

Elizabeth Scott found a corner to stand in out of the way, feeling very out of place in that moment. She wasn't sure what she was doing there to begin with. She was a federal agent, not a covert operative. Not a criminal. She had come when Chris asked her to, but now, with everything unfolding around them, where did that leave her?

"That might work," Christopher said, catching Liz's attention, "but we need time."

"Let me take care of that," Susan Hargrave answered and turned her sharp gaze on Liz. "Agent Scott. Good. I'd like to leave what I hope can be an anonymous tip with the FBI."

Liz blinked, her gaze shifting back to her boyfriend.

"Monarch Douglas Bank in Warsaw was robbed this morning. It's American owned, which makes it your jurisdiction."

"It's also where Berlin keeps his money," Chris offered evenly.

"I might be able to convince the task force to take a look," Liz said slowly and caught and held the older woman's gaze. "But I won't be a pawn here. I need to know why. What's the play?"

Susan Hargrave snorted, but Liz saw a knowing smile curl slightly at the corners of Christopher's lips. "Berlin gave me a time limit to being Carla Reddington to him. We need a distraction to buy time until our people confirm my father's location."

Blue eyes widened. "You found him?"

"We found him."

Notes: So, tonight's the night. I'm pretty giddy about it. I've been all over the board when it comes to a Blacklist spinoff that stars Tom, but they've just set it up so perfectly. I was reading an article last night that had Bokenkamp saying that there Tom's not abandoning his family, he's just taking a mission. It'll take about 2 months, but he's not leaving his wife and child. It's something that I've been pretty confident of, but it's always nice to have the EP say it.

Anyway, currently there are 47 drabbles posted to Tumblr. My brain's sort of taken a slowdown on this, because I'm starting to get into the why's, which may be turned upside down with Redemption. I do plan to keep going with this, don't worry, but Redemption's about to make it a lot more fun because I'll have canon information to weave in :D