Envelope 26

Author's Note: I am playing with he timeline here a little so have some patience with that, and remember this is an AU story so I can invent some more history here that wasn't on screen. I hope you like where I am taking this story, please let me know with a review.

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"We're not going to wait around for them to figure this out, we will," Cooper said as he sat in his office with Aram, Park & Valentino.

"Covertly?" Aram asked, knowing that Agnes' paternity was not something Ressler would want everyone in the Post Office digging into.

"Just us," Cooper said.

"Does Ressler know?" Valentino asked.

"He will when he's done dropping Christopher off at daycare," Cooper said. "But I want to know who is in and who isn't before he arrives."

All parties in the room nodded.

"Good," he said. "He's not going to jump on this, but the paternity test was just done this morning and we have about 3-5 days before the results are back. Let's see if we can look into that week a little more. We were investigating he Cabal."

"And I remember Hitchin had it out for Ressler and Liz in a big way," Aram added. "But in July, she hadn't been in the picture yet."

"She did," Cooper explained. "And she may have been working in the background, but we weren't involved with her directly at that point."

"One of their main purposes at that time was to re-ignite tensions between Russia and the US," Aram explained. "Liz knew she was Masha then…"

"Could their angle have been to ignite tensions through Liz's involvement with a boy scout FBI agent working on a task force that…" Valentino started.

"Wait, aren't we ignoring human biology here?" Park asked. "He said on the stand, under oath, that they didn't sleep together."

Cooper exchanged a look with Aram.

"What?" Park asked.

"Ressler has lied under oath before to protect Liz," Aram said.

"Yes, but I was there," Valentino said. "He was baffled by their blood type questions and adamant they had not had sex. I don't think he was lying."

"And what would be the point of lying?" Park asked. "She's dead, Agnes is his daughter, adopted, but…"

"Maybe there's something we're missing," Cooper said. "Can someone start with Mrs. Heigl's statement?"

"On it," Park said.

"And Aram, can you speak with Liz's doctor at the time and find out if there were any anomalies about her pregnancy or the conception of Agnes or…"

"Genetics, DNA, all over it," Aram said.

"I'm going to…"

"Sorry," Don said as he stepped into the office. In all of their planning, everyone had failed to notice him come in, and walk up he stairs to Cooper's office.

Everyone turned and looked at him surprised.

Don looked at everyone's shocked faces.

"Am I interrupting something?" Don asked, his brow furrowing.

"Agent Ressler, we were just discussing what we can do to help you," Cooper explained.

"Look, I saw all of your texts last night, and the phone calls that went to voice mail," Don said as he shut the door behind him and leaned against it. "I'm fine. We went to the lab today and did the test."

"How many days until the result?" Aram asked.

"The official legal results will be in probably Tuesday," Don said. "And I've just returned to work after being off for months, and already you have taken turns for four days in court. I feel like I've taken enough focus away from…"

"Reddington said he won't have another case for us until the middle of next week," Cooper said.

Don furrowed his brow. It had happened before, of course, days even weeks between cases when they had some down time to follow up on past cases, do paperwork, take a couple of days off, but this delay seemed…timed.

"I'm sure there are other investigations…" Don started.

"With your permission," Cooper said. "We'd like to take a few days, now that we have another break, to look into this, set your mind at ease."

Don shifted uncomfortably and crossed his arms over his chest.

"We know that this is not the most comfortable investigation," Cooper hedged. "But don't you want the answers we can help find?"

Don took a deep breath. "Okay, but I am not laying out my entire history with Liz for everyone out…"

He was pointing to the larger room below.

"How about just me?" Cooper asked him.

Don looked at the others.

"I will share with them only what is relevant or may lead to some more information," Cooper said.

Don swallowed hard and nodded.

"Okay, Park is re-investigating Mrs. Heigl…" Cooper explained.

"She hated me," Don chuckled darkly. "How am I not surprised she was watching my every move."

"Aram is going to speak with Liz's doctor when she was pregnant with Agnes, see if there's anything odd or different in her records, the DNA, genetics…"

Don nodded.

"I was going to look into the Cabal, but maybe Aram, yourself and I can provide Valentino with the names? Some fresh eyes on it may be a better option," Cooper said.

Valentino nodded in agreement.

"And that leaves the two of us," Cooper said as he looked at Don.

Don nodded.

"Okay, everyone, let's see what we can unearth," Cooper said as he stood from his seat.

Don didn't move from the door as everyone stood and they all stood in silence looking at him.

He shifted and stood up a little straighter before he spoke.

"I just want to say, thank you," Don started. "Agnes is my little girl, but what I said on the stand was true. I don't know if this blood type information is just smoke and mirrors or…anyways, thank for coming to court, and thank you for sticking your necks out for me with this and helping."

Don reached for the door handle and opened the door for them all to exit. They smiled at him or patted his shoulder as they did and then he shut the door and looked at Cooper.

"Ressler, we've known each other a long time," Cooper said as he gestured toward a chair. "You know more about my personal life than most people I have ever worked with. I feel the same about you."

Don nodded.

"I know this is not going to be comfortable, discussing this aspect of your life with Liz that long ago," Cooper said. "But I hope, as a trusted friend…"

"Is it wrong that I am wishing this conversation was at the end of the day so we could both have a scotch in our hand?" Don chuckled.

"No, it's not," Cooper chuckled with him. "So, those days?"

Don swallowed and sat back.

"Tom was back, trying to get back into her life and she had told him they were done," Don explained. "On the Thursday night she showed up at my door with a bottle of wine and I let her inside. She was…upset about the state of her life. Neither of us had had dinner, so I ordered pizza and she walked with me to the pizza place a couple blocks away to pick it up. Georgio's. We got a Kitchen Sink which has basically every ingredient you can think of on it."

"You ordered from them regularly?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah," Don nodded.

"Did she often show up at your door with a bottle of tine?" Cooper asked.

"A few times before that," Don said. "Sometimes without the wine."

Cooper nodded.

"And had anything sexual ever happened between you two prior to July 2015?"

Don sat forward in his seat and cupped his hands together, rubbing them nervously.

"There'd been a few things," Don said as he met his boss' eyes and looked away.

"Romantic? Sexual?" Cooper asked.

Don took a deep breath. "There were a few times."

Cooper sat forward.

"You and Liz were sexually involved in the past?" Cooper asked.

"We hadn't had actual sex until Christopher," Don explained. "But had there been sexual involvement of some kind? Yes. Sexual tension? In spades. Romance? Sometimes. Look, we didn't have sex, but Liz and I have walked a line with each other for most of our relationship. Never when she was with Tom, but there were sometimes, that weekend included, when things happened."

Cooper closed his eyes. He knew they were close, protective of each other, had lied and done things for each other, but they'd hidden this side of their relationship behind friendship.

"Who else knew about this…complicated involvement?" Cooper asked.

"No one," Don said. "Well, actually…Reddington."

"I'm sorry?" Cooper asked.

"In Uzbekistan," Don offered. "I didn't know it at the time, but he saw a moment between us. He just told me when Townsend was being taken down and everyone was at my house. Neither Liz nor I knew he had…witnessed anything."

"What did he witness?" Cooper asked.

"Uh, some dancing at a smoky jazz club that should not have been happening between two FBI partners," Don offered.

"Oh," Cooper said as he swallowed hard. He had not expected this from Don Ressler. "So, the Thursday night, pizza, wine, talking?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah," Don said. "Just friends that night. She stayed over, slept in my bed and I took the couch."

"Did she stay over often?" Cooper asked.

"She'd stayed over a few times before that, yes," Don said.

"Always as friends?" Cooper asked.

"Not always," Don said.

"You two seem to shift easily between involvement that is sexual and romantic and friendship, then co-workers quite…seamlessly?"

"There was nothing seamless about it," Don said with a huff. "Liz has been the most complicated relationship of my life."

Cooper nodded.

"The next day you came to work together?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah, that was a paperwork week," Don smiled. "Catching up on old files, cases, setting dates for follow-up interviews. Reddington had gone quiet for a bit and we had a few weeks then when things were about tidying up more than investigating."

"I remember," Cooper said. "And the Friday?"

"She drove home with me, I wasn't sure if it was to pick up her car or stay, and she stayed," Don said.

"And that night?" Cooper asked.

"We went out for burgers and a movie," Don said.

"What movie?" Cooper asked.

Don thought back. "It was independent…I remember Nicole Kidman, I think? It was Australian…. Luckily, I go to so few movies they are somewhat memorable. We argued about the believability of something, I can't remember the details."

"Argued?"

"Playfully," Don conceded.

"And friends that night?" Cooper asked.

"No so much," Don said. "We fell asleep on my couch."

Cooper nodded.

"Anything unusual about that night or Thursday night that you can recall?"

Don shook his head in the negative.

"And Saturday morning?" Cooper asked.

"I went out for coffees and pastries," Don said. "I left her asleep on the couch."

"And that day?" Cooper asked.

"We went for a run," Don said. "Had a very late lunch at this dive restaurant called Patsy's. The weather was good, so we went to a park and that night went out to a nice restaurant for dinner, we got out of there late, not midnight, but not much before that."

"What restaurant?" Cooper asked.

"This one she wanted to go to that she saw in my neighborhood or had heard about…I can't remember," Don said. "It had just opened recently. It was…Lebanese. The name was a dish that's big there…I can't remember."

"Anything notable there?" Cooper asked.

"No, the owner was really nice, it was a small place, he brought us dessert that was some special Lebanese cake, and then gave us shots of this moonshine before we left. It burned and tasted like salty licorice. The place was great though, we went back there the next night too."

"You ate at the same place 2 nights in a row?" Cooper asked.

"We liked it," Don explained. "There was music, happy people, good food, and the alcohol put hair on your chest."

Cooper furrowed his brow. "And you don't remember the name of this restaurant?"

"It's not there anymore, I'm not sure when it closed, but I was thinking of getting takeout from them a couple months later and it was gone. Are you thinking…?"

"I'm exploring all possibilities," Cooper said. "And that night, friends or…?"

"Not friends," Don said. Not divulging any details. The only thing Cooper needed to know was they had not had sex. The other details were his and Liz's.

"Ressler, I find it hard to…I don't want to say believe, because I do believe you, but two healthy, mostly single, obviously attracted to each other adults get sexually and romantically involved but don't actually have intercourse?" Cooper addressed the elephant in the room.

Don sighed. "I don't know how to explain it except this; I think we both knew there was a line. A line that if we crossed would change everything. Liz was, has always been, that person in my life who I knew I could never recover from if I went there. And that, has proven to be true. And, as much as other things happened between us, there was a line that we both wanted to cross, but didn't because of the consequences. I know it sounds like I was being sort of honourable, or she was scared, but it was…it's hard to explain."

Cooper nodded.

"She was still in love with Tom, sometimes back with him. Hell, she married him, or almost did, again." Don explained. "I was with others over the years. It was us. I've never had a relationship like the one I had with Liz. I loved her, and she loved me, but things weren't straight forward for us, it wasn't a fairy tale. We broke each other's hearts a few times. And yet, there was this draw…this, I don't know what it was. I have never been able to explain it to myself, so I'm not sure I can explain it to you."

Cooper nodded.

"I'm sorry that things weren't easy or less complicated," Cooper offered. "I honestly had no idea."

Don chuckled. "Sadly, I don't know, maybe the two of us were masochists, I wouldn't trade what we had for easy or uncomplicated. It was Liz. Me and Liz. And that's just what it was."

Cooper nodded.

"So, Sunday morning?"

"We got up late, I think it was the moonshine, I had a wicked hangover and so did she. My whole body ached." Don explained. "We went for breakfast, she wanted to go into this book shop so we did, nothing much happened. We went back to my place and read, napped, sat outside on the balcony…we were both really tired."

"Strangely tired?" Cooper asked.

"I don't know, maybe? We'd been working pretty hard, her life had literally fallen apart…not surprising that a little alcohol had done us in."

"And Sunday night you went back to the Lebanese place?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah, there was a flyer under my door at some point Sunday and when I saw it, I suggested we go back," Don said. "So, we did."

"And same hospitality?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah, we had a great night," Don smiled, thinking of Liz joking with the waiter. "But when the moonshine came out, we refused, citing work in the morning. Liz joked that another night of moonshine she'd have to take half the week off work to recover."

"So, no moonshine that night?"

"No," Don said his brow furrowing.

"What?" Cooper asked.

"His wife came out once I'd paid, with these fizzy drinks that were in to-go cups," Don said thinking back. "We drank them on the walk home. I can't remember what she called them, her accent was thick. It tasted like berries and maybe mango? It was good."

"So, when you refused the alcohol, they brought out another drink?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah," Don said his mind working overtime to remember that night.

"And friends or not friends?" Cooper asked.

Don was too busy concentrating to hear the question. He remembered them starting to kiss in the elevator, which was weird because they never did anything in public. Then her snuggling into him as they walked toward his door. He remembered kissing as the door opened and her purse getting thrown on his counter and him kicking the door shut. There was the time on the couch, when hands were everywhere, and some clothing was removed. There was…

"Ressler?" Cooper asked.

"Huh?" Don asked.

"My question?" Cooper asked.

"Just a second," Don said as he rose from his chair and, placing his hands on his hips paced in front of Cooper's desk.

He remembered them on the couch hot and heavy and then…nothing. Like his mind went completely blank all of a sudden like a curtain had been pulled down. No matter how hard he tried, there was literally nothing he could remember. The next thing he remembered was waking up in his bed in only his boxers. Not strange, he had woken up this way before after a night with Liz.

But his boxers were sort of pulled down. He assumed it was while he was sleeping that they had just shifted. His muscles were sore. He got up and wandered into the living room to hear Liz in his shower.

He started the coffee, his head was aching, and he felt spacey. He remembered thinking that they had to get to work before it was noticeable, they were already going to be late.

When Liz came out of the shower she acted strangely, she kissed him long and slow in his kitchen and he had enjoyed that, although usually when things happened between them, they pretended like they hadn't the next day. It was their thing. She had a headache, and they joked that maybe in the woman's broken English she had indicated there was the moonshine in their fizzy drinks. They ate toast, drank strong coffee, and left for work, she cuddled against him in the elevator, which again, was odd.

He was focused on getting them into work as quickly as possible and was paying more attention to maneuvering through the city to avoid any traffic. She was really quiet on the drive in to work and had asked if he wanted to talk about what happened. He had looked at her strangely and said something to the effect of 'come on Liz, we both know you are still in love with Tom.' She seemed upset after that and, if he remembered correctly, she had left work early that day citing her headache.

She'd been short with him after that day and distant. They were working new cases, so he hadn't paid much attention. For weeks they only saw each other at work, then she dropped the bomb on him that she had been meeting with Tom. He had not taken it well; they had argued. She had told him off. Then, she was on the run with Reddington, and he was hunting her down. He had guarded her in jail after her arrest, but their relationship was he most strained it had been in a long time.

And, when she told everyone she was pregnant, he knew it was Tom's and things between them were done. He had retreated then, going back to being her supportive friend and trying, trying with everything he had, to not be an asshole. It was hard. She spoke about adoption, then decided to marry Tom, her actions were all over the map and confusing, and he was less than supportive, less than kind. He had started to sleep with others again, Samar being one. He hated to admit it to himself, but he wanted Liz to learn about Samar, he wanted to hurt her like she'd hurt him with Tom. Then she died, she died, and his heart closed, and Agnes was there with Tom. Don held her a couple of times in the hospital and at the christening, but it hurt too much.

"Ressler?" Cooper asked.

Don looked at him his face pale and his knees weak. He reached forward and held onto the chair in front of him and Cooper rose quickly and went to his friend.

"Ressler," he said worried as he grabbed onto Don's frame. "What is it?"

"I think we were drugged," Don said as he met Cooper's eyes and his stomach suddenly rolled.

To be continued…..