The Long Game

Part 5

Author's Note: I realized in this chapter I need to play with time a little. The way they show cases on The Blacklist, it literally looks like no one sleeps for days while they run the case. But, that's not how it is in real life, because people need to sleep, agents switch off, and time passes in between the action. So, I know he was in the ground with his oxygen running out, but go with the fact that everyone needs a break and some sleep to function at their best. This is a look at a break. Please review.

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Liz sat in the living room of their apartment looking at the information she had about the Courier. There was something she was missing and she couldn't figure it out. Thoughts of Tom still sat in the back of her head, his need to speak with her and her utter avoidance of him.

The door opened just before one am and she rose from her seat on the sofa.

"What are you doing here?" She asked Don as he walked inside looking surprised to find her.

"It's my night," he said as he dropped the keys on the counter. He still had his hair all club-y and was wearing casual clothes, his arm bandaged up.

"No, I texted you," Liz said. "Saying I'd switch. After the night you had, I figured you wouldn't want the drive."

Don looked at her confused and then looked down at his phone.

"No text," he said holding it up for her to see.

She looked down at her phone and saw that the message had failed to send, she did it while leaving the city and must have been in a dead zone.

"Shit," she said as she threw down her phone onto the sofa.

"Why'd you switch?" Don asked her as he walked toward her.

"I just needed some space," Liz said. "And I figured you needed the rest."

"Oh," Don said, realizing he was invading it. "I'd leave but it would look weird."

Liz nodded. "And you're probably exhausted."

"How about I just go hang out in my room and give you that space," Don said as he took off his coat and hung it up. "It's late anyways and we have to be back first thing. Maybe I'll watch some Asian porn."

"I was trying to get a reaction," she said with a small smile. "I'm just doing some research, I can go to the bedroom and you can have the rest of the place."

Don then realized that the windows were wide open, and they were on display. He walked toward her and kissed the top of her head and smiled at her.

"The case getting to you?" he asked, his eyes shifting quickly to the window.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and smiled at him.

"Did you hear his brother describe how he used to pit his son against dogs for money?" Liz asked him.

"I did," Don said, their faces not far from each other and his hands on her hips. "Some parents are seriously fucked up."

Liz frowned. "I can't imagine a parent doing that to a child. Well, I can, but I hate that I know that some are monsters."

Don nodded and pulled away. "It's late, we've been going strong all day. I'm going to head to bed."

Liz nodded. "How's your arm?"

"I'll live," Don said.

Liz nodded. "Meera has a thing for you."

"Meera is a divorcee with two kids," Don said with a chuckle. "She hasn't had sex in a very long time and pretty much anything any man does is pretty hot to her."

Liz chuckled.

"Are you here tomorrow night too?" Don asked.

"Probably," Liz said.

"Okay, then I guess we can't drive in together."

"No, let's drive in together," she said. "I can drive my car out and then the fake is parked for a couple of days."

Don nodded. "Okay, goodnight then."

She watched him go into the master bedroom and heard the curtains close and a light turn on. Drawers opened, a toilet flush, and then she heard him turn off the light and pad into his room and shut the door. Liz closed the laptop and the case file and checked the door was locked and turned off the lights. She went into the master and without turning on a light, pulled on a t-shirt and got into bed; sleep taking longer than she wanted as she thought about the man running out of oxygen in the ground. Meera was doing the night shift and she and Ressler were back on at 8 am.

When she walked back into the apartment it wasn't until two days later and it was dinner time. She was still avoiding Tom but the case had been resolved and the kid found. She should have went home to Tom right away but she called and left a message saying she would still be working until morning. She needed to get her ducks in line before she spoke with him about the box. It was ridiculous that she hadn't and really, they needed to figure this out together. She knew Tom. She knew him.

Liz made herself from dinner, went for a walk to clear her head, and stripped both their beds and threw the sheets in the washer and dryer. While re-making Don's bed she found a bunch of fake insurance claim files on his desk. She looked through them and noted that whoever had created them for the FBI had done a very thorough job, either that or they had hacked into an actual insurance adjuster's files and just copied them with Don Hughes as the case manager.

She straightened them on his desk and then saw one that had the name Tom K on it. Liz flipped it open and saw a picture of their home, information about his work, his work history, his previous addresses dating back to 2008 and then nothing before that with a big red question mark written on the page. Liz furrowed her brow. Had Ressler been investigating her husband? She flipped more pages and saw information about a car accident she and Tom had been in a year ago and her previous places of residence, employment, and school history. Liz closed the file and looked through the others. Nothing else that stood out about anyone they worked with or knew. As far as she could tell the file about Tom was just mixed in with the fake insurance claim files, meant to not stand out, but obviously something he had been looking at.

She walked out into the living room and picked up her phone.

"Why do you have a file about Tom and me?" She asked, no greeting.

He sighed on the other side. "Let me explain."

"Why?" She demanded.

She heard him walking and then the door to a room close.

"When you got assigned here with Reddington I did a background check on you," he said. "And Tom came up as part of that. Then when I couldn't find anything on him prior to 2008 I got suspicious."

"What do you mean prior to 2008?" Liz asked him.

"I mean…nothing, Liz," Don said. "I think it's just a hole in records, it happens. I have someone from records looking into it. Keen is a more common name than you think, and some of his records may have got put in with another Keen by accident, explain the hole in the archive."

Liz looked at the pictures she took of the strange box in their floor.

"How long have they been looking?" Liz asked.

"Since you started, I made it low priority a few weeks ago so I'm not sure much time has been spent on it," Don admitted. "Why?"

Liz cleared her throat. "I don't appreciate you…"

"Think about it from my perspective, you come in, Reddington only wants to use you…there's gotta be something there."

"And is there?" Liz asked.

"Nothing that can be found," Don said.

"You still don't trust me?" Liz asked.

"I trust that you don't know the connection," Don hedged. "I don't trust that there isn't one."

Liz shook her head disbelieving. She had literally been living with the man, eating with him, drinking with him, sleeping in the same god damned bed as him, giving up time with her husband to spend time with him on this undercover operation and he was still thinking she was connected to Reddington.

"Did you agree to this so you could keep an eye on me? Investigate me more?" Liz asked him.

"No," he said honestly. "I wanted Meera on this, but Cooper insisted on you."

It stung to know that she was not the person he wanted to work with, the one he'd been forced to work with instead.

"Glad to know where I stand," Liz said, thinking what a fool she had been.

"Liz, I didn't mean for it to sound harsh like that," Don said, trying to back track. "I meant that I didn't take this assignment to spy on you."

"Right," Liz nodded.

She heard him exhale loudly on the other side of the line.

"Liz…"

"No, it's fine," Liz said as she straightened her back. "It's work, I get it."

"Come on, don't…" Don started.

"I gotta go," she said before she disconnected the phone.

"Fuck!" Don yelled in his office and ten agents looked toward the shut door.

To be continued…