Ressler, Listen to Me

Part 15

Author's Note: Progress is slow with a mental break but there are moments…

For Liz's arc here I have been really thinking a lot about Alanis Morissette's Losing the Plot song. Although it doesn't specifically fit with this chapter, it fits with the journey she's on. Give it a listen—very Liz.

Please leave a review.

OOOOOOO

Her laugh sounded more like an explosion to his ears than something as simple as a laugh. Don turned on the trail to see Liz behind him doubled over laughing.

He jogged back to her smiling at her joy.

"You think this is funny, do you?" He said with a chuckle.

She stood up and nodded, the first real smile he had seen in almost 2 weeks breaking out across her face and it warmed his heart in immeasurable ways.

"Then you figure out how to move the fucking donkeys," Don smiled at her as he pointed to the herd blocking the trail in front of them.

Tears streamed down her face as she laughed, as if all the joy in her body had been kept under lock and key for weeks and she was letting it loose.

"Because donkeys sure as hell are not covered in the FBI training manual," Don said, trying to keep her joy going.

She shook her head in the negative and wiped at her eyes.

"Any ideas, Liz?" Don asked her honestly as he wiped some sweat from his brow and looked back at the donkeys who seemed unbothered by the fact that they were standing all over a trail next to a ridge.

She walked toward the gathering of animals and started to gently push on them to coax them off the trail, but where one donkey created space, another filled. It was just the scene that had caused her to burst out laughing when she watched Don try and do this the first time and she was overcome by a fit of the giggles and ran down the trail slightly and into some foliage.

"Liz?" Don asked, suddenly worried as he followed her.

"Stay there!" She called to him, and he stopped his forward motion.

It was then that he heard water hitting the ground and knew she was relieving herself. All of the laughter had got to her bladder.

She emerged, fixing the waistband of her shorts, and looking sheepish.

"When you have a child, and laugh that hard, it's inevitable," she said as she walked past him and toward the donkeys again.

Don chuckled and followed her back to the donkeys and they both tried to gently get the donkeys to move with no breaks that stayed for long that they could go through.

"It's like a jig saw puzzle that keeps reassembling itself," Don said as he stood back and tried to figure out a better solution.

"Maybe we just go back?" Liz said as she wiped some sweat from her forehead and looked back down the mountain they had been steadily running up.

Don shook his head, there was a swimming hole somewhere close by and they both would appreciate cooling off before running back through the jungle-like trail again.

Just then, a man appeared on a bicycle coming along the trail, his bike wide and packed with items all tied to the back in a wide and high pile. Don was constantly amazed by the people of the Azores; what he and Liz considered a vigorous uphill run, the people who lived her considered their commute to the market. The bike didn't slow and the donkeys, sensing it's approach, ran off the trail. Don grabbed Liz's arm and ran with her behind the bike, fearing the donkeys would close in again. But when they got through he looked back and saw the donkeys had moved on to the hillside.

"So, we were too nice?" Liz asked as she looked back as well.

"Apparently," Don shrugged. "Come on, there's someplace to swim nearby."

She nodded and they started to run again.

Running had truly been the thing that was bringing Liz back to herself again. After the doctor had left, Don had taken his instructions to heart, ordered daily massages for her, got a yoga instructor to run meditation sessions with her, and they had gone for a daily run, exploring the many trails on the island. Liz's strength had started to return, her mood had started to lighten, and she started to look forward to the runs each day with him. And the trails were beautiful, soaring cliffs, jungle alcoves, geothermal ponds, waterfalls, waves crashing, and small swimming spots where they sometimes encountered kids swinging from vines and jumping into the water. She had started to eat more, and on her own, have conversations with him about a variety of subjects, and do short video calls with Agnes. There were still moments of sadness that washed over her like a black cloud, nightmares, fits of crying, whole hours of blank stares, but they were all lessening as the days passed.

They rounded a corner on a swimming spot and saw a mother with her two toddlers playing in the water on it's edge, smiling at them.

Don peeled off his shirt and laid it on a rock and Liz pulled off her shirt, revealing a bikini top underneath and they both waded into the water. On their first runs, he had carried bathing suits for them that they changed into in some bushes, but they had soon realized that running back in damp shorts was a relief from the heat. Soon their swimming apparel had changed to Liz just needing a bikini top under her tank top.

"It's a hot one," Don said as he walked in up to his chest.

"Oh my god, so good," Liz sighed as she closed her eyes.

Don looked at her peaceful face, standing there up to her breasts in geothermal water and his entire body relaxed. She was there, his Liz, there were still moments when she wasn't, but most of the time she was now.

"What would you think about Reddington bringing Agnes in a few days?" Don asked her and he eyes flew open and she smiled.

"I take it that's a yes?" Don asked her with a snicker.

She walked toward him and kissed him soundly on his lips, her body gliding up against his. When their faces pulled apart, he smiled and so did she.

"I'll tell Reddington to come with her at the start of next week," Don said as he felt her wrap her arms around his shoulders.

"Yes, next week," Liz said quietly. "I'm feeling better."

"You are doing a lot better," Don said. "And if you want to ever talk about…"

"Not yet," Liz said as she placed a hand on his chest. "I still need time for that."

Don nodded and didn't push.

They waded toward the side where some rocks were and sat on them, allowing the warm water to stop at their chest and their heads to fall back and rest on the rocks behind them.

Don may have fallen asleep, he wasn't sure, because when he realized what was happening, Liz Keen was pulling down his shorts.

"Liz?" He asked, his vision fuzzy and his voice caked with sleep.

"I want you," Liz said as she achieved her goal and had his shorts down his legs, slapping them up on a rock near his head.

"Where's the mother and her kids?" Don asked sitting up slightly and looking around.

"She left ten minutes ago," Liz said as her shorts joined his on the rock next to his head.

"Is there anyone…" Don asked.

"Shhh," Liz said as she climbed on his lap and kissed him.

Don's eyes darted around and saw no one so he relinquished himself to her kiss, his hands coming up and under her bikini top where he relished in her breasts. They had not been physical this entire time, and as much as Liz had tried to persuade him, he had known, up until this point, that it was not right. He would not make love to her when it was only in body; when his Liz was not part of the equation. He would not use her, or take advantage of her. But today, she was Liz. In this moment, she was his Liz. And there was no denying that they wanted each other in a very real, very visceral way.

The act was over, sadly, much too soon, and Don was overcome with a sense of sadness. After all this waiting, it was not what he had hoped for, not what he could have achieved for her in a bed, with more space and time. He felt he had let her down. And she seemed to know that as well. The initial heat of doing this in a geothermal pool, outdoors, with the possibility of getting caught, had not transferred to heated lovemaking. The heat of the water had been their enemy, forcing his body into quick completion before she had achieved anything. The rocks had dug into her knees and his back, and the splashing had just been more of an annoyance than a turn on. She sat on the rock next to him with her eyes closed and he felt his heart sink; he had not been able to make what needed to happen, happen.

"I'm…." Don started.

"No, it's…" Liz started.

He needed to do something, show her that you just didn't cave when faced with an obstacle. His Liz had never done that, but this Liz had fallen into a pattern of giving up some days.

Don got up and stood between her legs and looked down at her face and frowned. The day had gone so well, he needed to figure out a way to salvage it.

He leaned forward and kissed her passionately. His one hand going to her breast and his other dipping under the water and finding her. At first, she seemed immune to his touch, but then he felt her responding and looked at her eyes starting to glow and knew he needed to not give up. And when she moaned a short while later while his mouth was on her breast and his hands were working her over, he smiled. That was, until the cat calls came from a group of prepubescent boys across the geothermal bath, and he looked at Liz to see her in a state of ecstasy with her bikini top up around her neck and her head resting back on the rocks behind them. Don quickly pulled down her bathing suit top to cover her and marched toward the kids in a threatening way, causing them to scramble away from the private scene they had just walked in on. He shook his head and turned to walk back toward Liz who was still sitting, somewhat oblivious, it seemed, to the yelling and his threatening.

"You liked that?" Don asked her as he reached for his shorts and pulled them on under the water.

She nodded her head languidly.

He smiled at the image of a very satisfied Liz and reached for her shorts.

"We better start back for the hotel," Don said as he tried to find her feet under the water so he could pull her shorts up her legs. "Before those fucking kids come back."

"Kids?" Liz asked as she opened one eye.

Don snickered, she had been so into the moment she hadn't even noticed.

"Never mind," Don said with a smirk as he scooted her shorts up over her bare ass.

Liz nodded and got up off the rock she had been sitting on and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Thank you," she sighed as she looked into his eyes.

Don smiled down at her and softly kissed her lips. He was hoping to have a second act when they got back, in a bed, where he wasn't rushed.

"I mean it," Liz said as she met his eyes with a clearness Don had only seen glimpses of recently. "For everything you do for me. Everything Ressler, I mean it. You are amazing."

Don swallowed hard, not feeling as bad about the quickened act as he previously had, and touched his forehead to hers.

"You would do the same for me," he said and felt her nod against him. "I just want you back, Liz. I love you."

She nodded against his forehead again and they waded out of the geothermal pool and, instead of running back to the hotel, walked back with their hands joined talking about innocuous subjects like their childhood, joking about the yoga instructor who couldn't seem to talk to anyone without touching them, and spoke about what they wanted for dinner that night. It felt ridiculously normal, and Don's heart felt like it was going to burst with joy; his Liz was back.

To be continued….