As passengers disembarked off the plane, Agent Park stood straight, hands in her pockets, surveying the line of people coming through Gate 32. Eventually, she spotted an older woman, alone, with red hair and approached her.
"Excuse me, are you Mrs. Ressler?" she asked. The woman looked surprised, but answered politely.
"Yes, I am." She gave no further information.
Park produced her badge. I'm Agent Park. I work with your son, Agent, uh I mean, Donald Ressler. I'm to escort you to his apartment."
"Oh well, thank you. It's been a long time since I've visited Don, I'll take the help, um, I'm sorry, what was your name again?"
"Park," she said, "Alina Park." And she smiled, Ressler's mother was quite lovely.
"Alina," she said smiling, "thank you." They began to walk toward baggage claim when Mrs. Ressler broached the elephant in the room. "How much has my son told you, as to why I am here?" The woman was quite good at prying, and poor Alina was going to be no match for this midwestern mama.
"He wants to explain things himself," she said quickly. There was a silence. "But, I know enough to say that…" she decided to choose her words carefully here, "that your son cares very much for his partner, and would do anything for her little girl." With that, Mrs. Ressler nodded. She could see that there was more to the story, but this tough agent wasn't going to be too forthcoming with what now seemed like sensitive information. If she knew her son, he was likely keeping most of his thoughts and feelings from the others he was around, so her best bet was straight from the source. They gathered her suitcase and headed to the parking garage in silence. They reached the car and stowed her suitcase in the trunk. Before stepping into the car, Park hesitated, "Mrs. Ressler? Mind if we make a stop first?"
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, Aram and Ressler were in the car headed to a location to meet Agnes, per Keen's instructions. Ressler was nervous; he was always concerned when it came to clandestine exchanges in abandoned buildings, but this time it involved little Agnes Keen. He could tell Aram was nervous too. So nervous in fact, he was not rambling or chatting at all. Too tense for Aram to talk? That is tense. Once they arrived to the designated location and found the right entry point, the two agents entered without guns drawn, but with heightened senses. They quickly spotted Agnes, with her shiny coat on and an overstuffed backpack, accompanied by a man they did not know.
"Agent Ressler?" the man said.
"Yes," Ressler replied, and showed him his badge identifying him as such. "Who are you?" he said squinting at the beanpole with tassels on his leather loafers.
"I'm Skip Hadley, Liz's lawyer," he said proudly.
"Oh, so you're the guy who betrayed Reddington for a big pay day," Ressler didn't like that Liz had been spending time with this guy. Skip looked smug, but said nothing.
Aram, sensing a standoff that was unnecessary, decided to focus on the scared little girl in the room. He knelt down to her level and smiled at her.
"Are you Agnes Keen, champion paper airplane flyer?" He asked with quizzical look on his face. This made Agnes smile and deflated some of the tension in the room.
"I'm to release Agnes Keen into your custody," Skip said blandly, he nudged her shoulder so she would leave his side. He seemed happy to offload her. Aram looked at him coldly and held out his hand to her, which she quickly accepted. Ressler was still staring down Skip.
"I know what your thinking, Agent Ressler," Skip said as he turned to go. "What can I arrest this guy for, right now? And the answer is nothing. You have nothing on me. Take the kid and leave." And with that he confidently walked away. Ressler let him go, because he didn't know to what extent this tool was part of what Keen had been up to, but he knew that if the opportunity presented itself to knock this guy down a peg in the future, he would thoroughly enjoy it.
They quickly headed to the car and got out of there. Aram sat in the back with Agnes as Ressler drove. Ressler looked back through the rear-view mirror at Aram quietly talking with Agnes and was thankful Aram asked to come along. He suddenly felt overwhelmed with the plan he was putting into place.