Envelope 40

Author's Note: So, we find out what the task force has been up to since Red's death and get to see Don taking some steps forward. Some of you have PM'd me asking for more details about Linnea. When I think of her physically, I think about Shohreh Aghdashloo around the time she was on the TV show 24 if that helps give everyone a visual. Linnea is a non-practicing Muslim who was born in Sweden, raised around the world, and lived in Sweden all of her adult life. She became a high ranking judge and is now the Ambassador. Her first name is very Swedish and her last name is not, which, I think, speaks to her family embracing a lot of the Swedish culture when she was growing up. Ultimately, she identifies as a Swede. Let me know what you think with a review.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

"I'm thinking it's that new terrorist group RSS," Senator Craig said as they stood around an art garden that had just opened in DC. "Don?"

Don Ressler knew it wasn't the RSS but he was not allowed to say what information his clearance allowed and the Senator's didn't.

"I'm thinking the incident is being investigated fully and we'll find who did it," Don said with a smile. "How's the campaign going?"

"I see you doing that," Senator Craig said with a smirk.

Don just smiled at him.

"I know you are working with Homeland on Terrorism," The Senator said. "So, it's not the RSS?"

"Phil, you know I can't say," Don said with a tight smile. "Just know we're doing everything in our power to stop the attacks."

Phil Craig nodded and took a drink of his wine.

The Task Force he had run for it's final years had cleaned up the last of Reddington's Blacklister's after he died, it was a lot harder without his involvement, but they had accomplished the capture of 7 more people before they were reassigned to assist Homeland with their Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Unit. He'd managed to keep Aram, Valentino and Ozturk but had taken on twelve new agents, some of whom he liked better than others.

Their task was to investigate and assess homeland security threats with a specific eye toward weapons of mass destruction, in conjunction with the Homeland Security office. His counterpart there, AD Knowles was a hard ass that liked to lord over Don that Homeland technically had more authority than the FBI. Don liked to lord over Knowles that the FBI had access to more intelligence information than Homeland. It was a give and take relationship that mainly worked well. The recent attacks around the USA by a group known as RSS were getting headlines. Many attacks not related to them were being tied to them incorrectly in the media. In reality, the RSS had only launched 3 successful attacks but had taken responsibility for 9, six of which they had nothing to do with.

"So, how is the campaign?" Don asked again.

"Donors are up," Phil said as he looked around for a waiter to get a refill. "I need to get back to my Nebraska constituents, so they remember who I am."

"Always a good thing," Don smiled.

"Is it me or do all these sculptures not look like forest animals?" Ari Patel, the husband of the Canadian Ambassador, said as he joined their group.

"It's called Woodland Creatures," Don offered. "But yeah, maybe I'm too simple…I don't see one woodland creature in all the glass and metal and…are those fake cabbages on the ends?"

The men laughed at his joke.

"It's an artists interpretation," the Senator huffed. "Three million for this."

Don whistled. That was a lot for 10 sculptures that didn't really look like much of anything.

"In Canada we'd do plaques in French and English to explain the work," Ari said as he reached for another appetizer as the platter was placed down near them. "I miss not having plaques."

The men laughed at his joke.

Don saw Linnea at the edge of his view and excused himself from the men he was talking with to approach her as she stood alone looking at one of the statues. It was the fourth event he'd attended with her in a month and he, weirdly, was quite liking this. He got to dress up, talk with some pretty important people, got into nice places, ate good food, and chatted with Linnea. It was refreshing and a great way to spend some summer evenings.

Her staff had still not backed off in their level of interest surrounding him, he felt like they were taking turns asking him one question at a time to compile a file on him. They were genuine in their concern for her and were obviously quite devoted and protective of their boss, but it was getting a little annoying. He and Linnea were just friends, friends who attended events together, so she had a date, and he had an outing the didn't involve two children. It worked for both of them.

In truth, he found her hard to read. She was funny at times, serious at others. Beautiful, but older than any woman he'd ever went out with. Intimidating in her demeanor but approachable. He enjoyed her company a lot, and she kept asking him to attend functions with her so she must have enjoyed his as well. What he thought was interesting was he would spend some time with her at these events but not like you would if you went out to dinner or on a date. He felt like after four outings he knew less about her than he would have known by the dessert course if they'd had dinner, yet he felt incredibly comfortable with her in a way that felt safe. She was very European, so her humor was dry and her appreciation for arts and culture huge. She was well educated and had lived in multiple countries and spoke 3 languages. She was incredibly different from him in every way that mattered, but that didn't seem to matter to either of them.

"Is this the woodchuck?" Don asked as he sauntered up next to her.

"Deer," Linnea said with a smile. Then she looked sideways at him. "You baited me with the woodchuck."

"Kinda looks like a woodchuck to me," he chuckled next to her.

"It's a white-tailed deer," she said as she pointed to what must have been the tail. "See how the glass depicts his grassy meal?"

"That's the stomach?" Don asked, leaning in fascinated. "I thought that was a piece of wood it was chewing on."

She snickered with him and then nodded for him to come with her to the next sculpture.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Linnea asked.

"It's a great afternoon," Don said as he walked next to her. "Nice to see this garden, I didn't even know it existed."

"You seem to have found a group of merry men," Linnea said as she looked sideways at him.

"I really like Ari Patel," Don said. "The Senator is always trying to get information out of me, he's a nice guy, but I've got to be careful around him."

She stopped walking and looked at him seriously. "Don are these events putting you in an uncomfortable position with…?"

"No," Don said. "Most people don't care who I am or what I know, but a couple of Senators like to think they're part of a secret spy club with me. They aren't."

She nodded as they approached another statue.

"Thoughts?" She asked.

"A beaver attacking a vole," Don said, he knew it would make her laugh. "Or a wild hog giving a piggy back ride to a mouse?"

She raised an eyebrow and smiled broadly.

"Your staff is still trying to figure me out," Don said.

"Yes, yes, they are," Linnea sighed.

"They requested file information from the Bureau on me," Don said, not sure if she was aware the extent of their investigation.

She stopped again and looked at him. "They did?"

Don nodded.

"I'll speak with them and put a stop to this," she said firmly. "I'm sorry if this has raised issues at work."

"It hasn't," Don said with a shake of his head. "The information the bureau would share would be a one-pager, nothing of real substance. I approved the request."

"They seem to forget that my life does allow for a certain amount of privacy," Linnea said annoyed.

They walked to the next statue, it was in a garden off to the side and they found themselves alone.

"The great rabbit rebellion of 1982," Don said boisterously, and she laughed. It exploded from her like a cannon and caused his smile to grow. Her face lit up when she laughed, and her normal Swedish stoicism disappeared and that made Don's heart leap a little.

And then, without any warning, she leaned in and kissed him. Caught off guard at first, he didn't respond, but as he felt her starting to pull back, his lips finally came to life and he placed his hands on her waist and pulled her against him, deepening the kiss. When they pulled apart, they just stood staring at each other and breathing heavily until they heard voices coming. Don took his hands off her waist and stepped back, looking over her shoulder at the people walking into the garden.

"Linnea!" The Ambassador of Russia said as he approached the pair of them.

"Maxim," she said as she stepped toward him and greeted him with a kiss on each cheek.

"Donald Ressler, might I introduce Maxim Vogel, the Ambassador to Russia, his daughter Petra and his attache Igor" Linnea said with a smile. "Maxim, Petra, and Igor this is Donald."

Don shook hands with all of them.

"Ambassador Bakir, you have been avoiding me," Maxim said with a smile that didn't quite reach the edges of his face. "I need your assistance with Finland sooner rather than later."

"Maxim, we're at an event," she said with a smile, avoiding his question. "Make an appointment with my office and we can chat then. We don't need to bore everyone with our work."

Maxim cleared his throat, obviously not used to being put off.

Don sensed the tension and gestured toward the statue. "What are your thoughts on the Great Rabbit Rebellion of 1982?"

The Russians looked at the statue and clearly saw a common turkey and weren't sure what the American was talking about.

"How long are you on break from university Petra?" Linnea asked his daughter.

"For two more weeks," she said. "Then I go back to California."

"California, nice," Don said with a smile. "Better weather in the winter."

"I like the sunshine," she smiled at them.

"But Russians are not intimidated by cold," Igor said. "Your winters here are our spring."

"Wow," Don said. "That's pretty cold."

"What do you do Mr. Ressler?" Maxim asked, interested in the man.

"I am an assistant director for the FBI," Don said with authority.

Their faces changed and Don could see the surprise followed quickly by a masking of that surprise.

"And you are attending with your wife?" Maxim asked, noting his wedding ring.

"No, with Linnea," Don said, annoyed that at every turn someone seemed to be investigating him.

"And we should get going," Linnea said as she looped her arm through his. "I have to get back."

"I look forward to our meeting Ambassador Bakir," Maxim said tersely. "And nice meeting you Assistant Director Ressler."

Don smiled and escorted Linnea out of the garden.

"What the hell was that about?" Don asked her once they got far enough away. "It sounds like he's trying to intimidate you."

"Russia is always trying to intimidate someone," Linnea said, but he could tell she was bothered by the interaction.

Once they got outside by the car Don turned and placed his hands on her arms. "Are you okay?"

She smiled at him and tried to make light of the situation, but he could tell from her expression her mind was working.

"The Russians like their way," she said. "It'll be fine."

Don nodded, allowing her to not explain. There was a lot about his job he couldn't explain to others and he was very accepting that the same was true for other people's jobs.

He opened the car door and she got inside and he drove her home. They didn't talk about the kiss, but rather her upcoming trip home to Sweden for a week. She was looking forward to seeing her sister, and harvesting a berry on her farm that, apparently, made the best jam.

When Don pulled up in front of her place, he shut off the engine.

"Don," she said as she shifted to face him a little more. "I'm not a mom."

"Okay," Don said, not sure where this was going.

"I mean, there's nothing about me that is a mom," she said, stumbling over her words for the first time since he'd ever known her. "I…you…if you are looking for someone to be that for your children, I'm not her."

"I didn't say I wanted that," Don said, still a little confused.

She looked out her window and then back at him.

"I quite like you," she said honestly. "More than I thought I would."

"I like you too," Don said with a smile.

"And today, I shouldn't…I shouldn't have kissed you," she said apologetically.

"I kissed back," Don offered.

"You did," she smiled at him.

"I'm horrible at relationships," she admitted. "And I don't even know if you want one, or…or if I'm seeing things that aren't real…I don't…"

She then started muttering in Swedish and reached for the door handle.

Don, without thinking, reached over and took her chin in his hand and kissed her softly on the lips. Her hand dropped from the door handle and it came up to the side of his face.

"I don't know what exactly I want," Don said. "But I like this."

She smiled at him.

"I know I don't want a mother for my children," Don said as he met her eyes. "They have a mother."

She nodded.

"Linnea you are…interesting, beautiful, and smart," Don said with a shy smirk. "I don't know what will come of this or…well, anything, but I know I like this, I like you. And I also know I suck at relationships too, so we're kinda fucked."

She laughed at his analogy of the situation and they pulled apart.

"Have a nice trip home and I'll see you when you get back," Don said as he pulled back into his seat.

She nodded and got out of his car, walking inside the gate without looking back.

To be continued…