Chapter Fifty-One
Liz was silent during the debrief, speaking only when she had to. She could feel the weight of the choice her husband made as he explained that Natasha had slipped away after killing Klerken, but left out the part about Liz letting her escape. He wasn't happy, she knew, but at least he had her back.
They were in the car and on their way home before he loosed a breath and she saw his hands tighten just a little against the steering wheel.
"Just say it," she huffed, ready to get the fight over and done with. She hated fighting with him. She hated the words that were said and the tempers that flared, always regretted afterwards. At this point, though, she would take cutting words over crushing silence.
"You don't want to hear it," he warned as he took a turn towards their home.
"You're pissed."
"Of course I'm pissed, Liz. You let a woman go that killed two people in front-"
"She's my mother, Jacob," she snapped. "Just because you have no interest in looking for your biological parents doesn't mean I feel the same way."
"You let a woman we know is a part of this go because you think she might be Katarina Rostova," Jacob answered as he pulled in along the street next to their town house. He turned, his expression a mixture of exhaustion and something she couldn't quite place. "Lizzie, I know you're scared of bringing a kid into our lives. I am too, and I know you feel like you need to find her to answer questions, but you can't jump at every shadow."
Jacob slipped out of the jeep and Liz followed, her temper beginning to flair. How stupid did he think she was? "Is that what you think this is? Some desperate reach?"
Her husband snorted as he fished his keys out of his pocket. "What did you recognize her from, Liz? A picture you told me completely washed out her face?"
"I could see her smile. This is not me blindly hoping."
Jacob sighed heavily as he pushed the door open, but neither of them missed the unusual quiet that met them. It was late, but Hudson always greeted them. Liz saw him reach for his gun and her fingers wrapped around her own. The argument was put immediately aside as the two moved into their home, guns drawn and ready for whatever waited for them. They moved through, Jacob taking a left through the living room while Liz inched her way down the hallway to clear the bottom floor before they risked the upstairs.
The back door opened through the kitchen and Liz's gun jerked up, ready to shoot, as Raymond Reddington raised his hands as if he were surrendering. At his side trotted a very happy looking Hudson, having apparently spent time out in the side yard. "What has Jacob told you about breaking into our home, Red? I could have shot you," she grumbled, putting the gun away. "It's just Red."
Jacob cursed down the hall, moving into the kitchen through the dining room. "Seriously? How many times?"
"Perhaps if your wife would answer the phone…" Reddington murmured, waving the threats off.
Liz bristled a little at that. "We were on assignment. It happens. What do you need?"
Her husband circled around, bending down to scratch Hudson behind the ears, and never took his eye off of Red. Reddington, for his part, didn't switch his gaze from Liz. "Have you been contacted by anyone out of the normal recently?"
"Why?"
"This is important, Elizabeth."
"Like who? We've been on assignment. We talked to a bunch of people we wouldn't have normally."
"We?" Reddington echoed, swiveling to look at Jacob like he'd forgotten that he was there at all.
"Tell us who we're looking for and we can give you more information, Reddington," Jacob offered, but for the look Red gave him someone would have thought that he'd told him to get out again.
"Trust, Red. Give it to get it," Liz reminded.
The Concierge of Crime frowned deeply, looking as if he were weighing his options. "When your name became public - when Masha Rostova became public - certain people would have heard."
"The Cabal has gone to ground," Jacob said as he moved over to the fridge, pulling three beers from it.
Red turned his nose up and waved it off. "It's weakened, not gone."
"So who?" Liz pressed. If she had learned anything since Raymond Reddington had come into her life, it was that he liked to lead people in a direction and let them come to conclusions that suited his needs, even if those conclusions weren't entirely true. It wasn't that he necessarily lied to her, but the truth was fluid with him. Blind trust was a fool's errand.
He looked at her for a long moment before sighing. "I told you that if you wanted this family that you are both so desperate for to stay away from the search for Katarina. You may no longer have a choice."
"She's contacted you," Liz murmured. Interesting.
"And she's looking for you."
"You have to give us more to work from than that," Jacob said from his place.
"For Elizabeth's safety-"
"You don't get to decide what keeps me safe, Red. I do," Liz snapped. "Until you get that, until you understand that this thing you and I have needs to be a partnership or nothing at all, you need to stop giving me half truths and partial explanations. You want me to believe my mother is dangerous. Fine. You tell me what I don't know, but if you're not going to tell me all of it, don't bother." Her voice was controlled, but she felt all the frustration boiling up under it. How was she supposed to trust him if she constantly felt like a marionette being yanked around on a set of strings of his choosing?
"I might put more weight in that if you were to give me the same," Reddington responded.
"That's the thing, Red, if you'd be straight with me from the beginning then I'd be able to be honest with you. You first, and I'd be more than happy to tell you what I know."
He watched her carefully for a long moment before loosing a long breath. "There may be a day, Elizabeth, that you understand that there are simply some things better left in the dark."
"I've lived in the dark too long," she answered. "It's time to put everything on the table, but you have to take that first step, Red."
He frowned a little at her. "I'll be in touch if you need me. Please don't do anything foolish."
"You either."
She watched him turn with a sinking feeling deep within her. She had promised to forgive him, but she couldn't do that until he was honest with her. She had done enough things to know that just because Katarina was involved in a heist didn't make her a threat to her family. The lies were a bigger threat now, and even worse, the burying of knowledge. She wasn't a woman that could let herself be protected. Not blindly.
"What do you need?"
Liz turned, finding her husband standing quietly, the fight that had been boiling earlier set aside. "I need you to trust me," she managed. She needed him, above anyone else, to have faith in her.
Jacob stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her and Liz leaned in, feeling him press a kiss to the side of her head. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yep," he answered.
"Even with the assignment?"
"They don't need to know everything," Jacob murmured. "We'll figure it out. I just know that you're more important than any job."
She turned and wrapped her arms around him, feeling him hold her close. "Thank you."
"Let's get some sleep, huh? We'll figure it out in the morning."
Liz nodded and he released her long enough to allow his hand to slip down into hers, wrapping around it and she felt a steadiness take hold. In her life she had trusted the wrong people, distrusted the wrong people, and everything in between, but Jacob had always been the right choice. With him she felt steady and loved, even if they were frustrated with each other. She followed her husband up the stairs, her hand warm in his, and she knew if nothing else remained, they would. The world could crash down around them, but they would stand together through it all.
His patience had paid off. Finally. The call that Red received after leaving the Phelps home late that night was one that he had been waiting on for months. He had been slowly gathering people to his side after his initial chat with Laurel Hitchin. She was his first, of course, as he had already proven that he could take her organization to its knees. If he chose, at any time, he could deal the finishing blow.
"You'll forgive the late call," Hitchin said as she entered the space Reddington had chosen for them to meet. "His people contacted me and I reached out to you."
"It's good you did," Reddington answered, leaning back in his chair and placing the book he had been flipping through on his knee. Reading it might have been a stretch, but there was no reason for her to know that. "Tell me, what did Mr DuPont wish to speak about?"
"He wouldn't say, only that he wanted to set a meet." Hitchin moved to take a seat with the Concierge of Crime and immediately went for the scotch in the decanter and the empty glass waiting. It had become something of a ritual when they met. One called, the other set the place and provided a bit of something to take the edge off. He would have much rathered had these meetings with Alan Fitch, but if they must be had, he supposed they could have been worse than all of this.
"Well, isn't he presumptuous," Reddington chuckled, "to think that I want to meet with him."
"Don't you?" Hitchin asked a little hesitantly.
"My business is information, Ms Hitchin. Surely you know that by now. I want every ounce of information on this man before I set a meeting point and time."
"Our people have been trying, but-"
"But you don't want to push too hard because you're still trying to straddle a line and look for a winner," Reddington said pointedly, and held a hand up when she started to argue. "No, no, Laurel. Don't insult my intelligence. You've been in survival mode for quite a while now, though it's past time for you to pick a side."
"I have."
"Have you? Then prove it. My people are closing in on his financial information, his business partners, and every minute detail on how he conducts his business. He's a truly fascinating man, Laurel, but I suggest that you get me something that my own people can't before I meet with him or you will cease to be useful to me. Heaven knows I can find much better company to set my meetings and drink my scotch."
She stared at him, the meaning behind his words abundantly clear. He watched her weigh them for a moment before pulling in a deep breath, nodding, and reaching into her bag to pull out a tablet. It read her thumb print and flickered to life. "The one thing you can't get is his face," she said, her voice steadier than he would have expected. "His business is one thing. I've known for some time that your people were looking into that. There's no reason to double up the efforts and waste time, so my focus has been a bit more personal."
Reddington snorted and reached over. "You think a man's face will-" His breath caught dangerously the the blurred figure looking back at him. He knew it. It had been many, many years, but it was a face he would never forget. That he could never forget.
"It's not common knowledge," Hitchin huffed. "The fact that he wants to meet with you at all is rare. He doesn't show his face to anyone."
He gave a small sound of affirmation. "There's a pier just off of the Gaylord National Resort. Find a time and clear it with me, though I want it during the day. Have our side ready."
"Reddington-"
"If you want to survive this, Laurel, I suggest you choose the right side. This will only end with this man or myself dead, and if there's one thing that I have proven it's that I'm a survivor. Set the damn meet."
Steam poured out of the shower as Katarina Rostova opened the door, a towel wrapped around her body and she stepped out onto the mat on the tile. She grabbed for a smaller towel, running it across her newly dark hair and offered a smile as she moved into the bedroom. "Hello, Raymond." It wasn't a social visit, but at least the pistol on his knee wasn't aimed. It was a show. It was always a show with him.
"I always preferred you blonde," her former lover murmured thoughtfully.
"It's not always about what you prefer," she answered as she moved to her suitcase, pulling an oversized shirt from it and letting the towel drop so that she could slip it around her shoulders.
"You made it quite clear that it was never about what I preferred."
"Don't be sour, Ray. Someone had to make sure your ego didn't go entirely unchecked." She turned, nimble fingers working on the buttons as she watched him watching her. It was strange. She hadn't spoken to Raymond Reddington for years before that call. She'd been so angry at him when she had made it, but now, as he sat in her hotel room with a gun balanced with one hand and his fedora held loosely in the other, it was like no time had passed at all. They were a little older, but that did tend to happen. She offered him a small, genuine smile. "I told you those hats were going to cause you more trouble than they were worth," she teased lightly.
He tilted his head a little and she could see him trying to keep his composure. After a moment he began to chuckle. "You're not going to make me shoot you, are you, Kat?"
"I suppose that depends on what you're here for."
"A little honesty. I think we owe one another that, don't we?"
She watched him carefully, noting the tiredness that has worked its way in, and nodded very slowly. "You told me she was dead, Ray," Katarina managed.
Reddington frowned. "When I told you that, I wasn't sure. She was gone, Kat. After everything, I couldn't protect her."
Katarina felt her temper flare. "And you took her."
He laid his gun to the side on the table, covering it with his hat. The look he wore was one that she knew well. "You and I both know that it had turned too dangerous to keep her in Moscow. The Soviet Union was collapsing and Erik was on edge. He's dangerous on a good day, Kat, but the Russian government was imploding around him and the Cabal was pressuring him from the other end."
"So you thought it would be a good idea to take Masha, the Fulcrum, and run? Without telling me?" she growled at him, moving over to a table across the room to pour two drinks.
Reddington stood. "You wouldn't have come with me and-"
"You never asked!" she snapped and whirled at him. "You want honesty, Raymond? Why don't you try a bit? Do you really expect me not to believe that you didn't even suspect that she was yours when you took her?"
"Don't play games with me now, Katarina," he hissed and she saw that calm cracking. "You know how I feel about Lizzie. I was the one that convinced you to keep her. I was the one that treated her as my own, but you made no qualms over the fact that she was very much Erik's child-"
"I never said so!"
"And you never said differently!"
"Because what good would it have done? Would you have loved her more? Could you have? You're right, Ray. You were there for her, you loved her in ways Erik never could, but would you have left your family for us or would you have simply taken my child from me?" Her calm was completely broken now and Reddington, for all of his own composure, stared at her. He had loved that child, Katarina had never questioned it, but he had loved Carla and Jennifer as well. If she had told him, if she had ever admitted it, she would have needed to leave with him. She was good at what she did, but Erik would have killed Masha. She would have had to go with him and he would have had to give up his family. That, or she would have had to give up Masha. "You did take my child from me, Ray, and then you lost her."
His gaze hardened. "You brought Erik and the rest of the Cabal to my doorstep. Don't you dare try to tell me he followed you, Kat. No one finds you without you wanting them to. The last twenty-five years have proven that. She was lost in a fire that maniac you love-"
"I loved you! She was yours and I would have chosen you if you gave me half the chance!"
Reddington sat back down hard as if she had physically struck him, the truth hanging between them after so long. She shoved it aside as best as she could. "You and I can save her now, Ray, but we both know the Cabal isn't finished. I've done some digging."
"Then you know he didn't die that night," her former lover breathed.
"He'll want her back now that he knows where she is. He was always possessive that way."
Reddington swallowed hard. "Does he know?" he asked, his voice still cracking a little.
"He will as soon as he sees her, Ray. You're right. There's nothing of him in her."
"She won't leave. She thinks she can live a normal life here. A husband, a child. I've tried to warn her away, but…" He offered her a weak smile. "I couldn't tell her."
"You thought Erik was dead and she had killed him. You were protecting her," Katarina murmured, moving to perch on the arm of his chair. "Now we can protect her."
He looked up at her and she could tell that's not what he had come there for. Likely he hadn't even known. They had always had a terrible blind spot with each other.
"If this can be done without her knowledge, that would be best. I've done what I can to explain the dangers, but she's determined."
"That husband of hers doesn't help matters," Katarina huffed. "A fed, Raymond. Our daughter married a fed."
He chuckled. "He is… a bit unconventional, which sometimes works for us, sometimes against."
"We'll see," she murmured softly. He had been quick and clever in the heist, but she had spotted him. He may have passed Reddington's tests, but he hadn't quite finished with her own. She needed to be sure. Nothing could be left to chance.
Blue eyes caught hers. "She does love him, Kat. You know how that goes."
She offered him a sad smile before standing from her perch, circling around the chair, and leaning down, pressing her lips against his. His kiss was familiar, even after so long. There was something comforting in the way he pulled her closer, his hands never allowing her to lose balance as they moved. Finally they broke, both a little breathless, and she lingered there, inches away from him. "When you love someone, there's no control."
TBC
Notes: I weighed this arc back and forth so much when I was coming close to it, but I'm glad that I decided to go with it. I have no idea if we'll get any real answers about Katarina this season, but this is an AU, so even if the show completely blows a few theories of mine out of the water, at least I will have been able to indulge them here.
If you haven't checked it out yet SaraBeth1's and my Tessler storry Unlikely Allies, please do over on my page. I have it up there and on Tumblr. We had a lot of fun with it and there's some great bromance moments!
Next time - Jacob and Liz meet the friend of Aram's that may be willing to let them adopt her child, the Ressler family gets some downtime with the Phelps', and Katarina tests her daughter's husband in a dangerous way.
