Ressler, Listen to Me
Author's Note: Just a one shot—predicting the next episode based on the trailer, promo pics, and my imagination.
I am not good at writing action sequences, so hopefully I did an okay job here.
I sometimes expand my one-shots. For now I have no plans to.
Please leave a review.
OOOOOO
Don was driving down the street thinking all of this was surreal. Liz was handcuffed in the back seat with an armed FBI Agent, Park was sitting next and kept on darting looks between him and Liz. The tension in the car was thick and even the agent in the back sensed there was more at play here then Elizabeth Keen being Ressler's former partner.
"This is all a mistake," Liz said absently, trying to catch his eye in the rear-view mirror.
He kept looking at the road, never even hedging to glimpse at her. He wanted to wring her neck for the shit-storm that she had caused. What she had done to her life, her daughter's life, his life…
Park looked at the man driving the car gritting his teeth and white knuckling the wheel and held her breath. She sensed that Ressler may pull over the car at any moment and explode reigning down expletives and accusations on his former partner and sometimes lover. Either that, or that vein pulsing in his neck was going to give him a heart attack.
"Ressler, listen to me," Liz said again.
Park watched as his grip got even tighter on the wheel, as if that was even possible.
"Please," Liz said, her voice imploring.
Ressler's eyes never left the road even though Park could see Liz leaning forward in her seat, trying to get closer to him, as if proximity would help him finally acknowledge her.
"Ressler, I know…"
"Can it," the agent in the back said as he shoved Liz back against the seat.
"Hey!" Don yelled at the agent. "You put your hands on her again, and I'll put some on you!"
Park was surprised he had finally snapped and said something quite personal. She thought he would be all business, stoic, by-the-book. She thought he was doing everything to hold it together. Even when they took Liz in, Ressler had not once spoken with her. Not once engaged with her even though she had spoken with him directly; his only focus had been on the Protean, his only words to him.
The agent in the back looked properly chastised and Park saw Liz trying to catch Ressler's eyes again. He looked forward at the road, unwavering. It seemed his only issue was with her treatment, and he was still not interested in speaking with her. Park knew that was a wise choice because looking the way he did now, feeling the way he did now, he may just kill her.
The white SUV coming up along side them caught them off guard when it slammed against their side.
"Hold on!" Ressler yelled to everyone inside. The police car in front of them leading the entourage suddenly exploded and Don steered their vehicle away from the explosion only to impact hard with the other white SUV trying it's best to run them off the road.
Don looked in his rear-view mirror and saw the car escorting them in the back run into some parked cars and launch itself in the air. He abruptly turned down an alleyway and sped through the narrow passage losing the vehicle that was trying to derail them from taking Liz in.
"It's Townsend," Liz said as the SUV hurtled toward another intersection and joined traffic, bumping a car like bumper cars. The white SUV rounded a corner and almost launched itself into them, Don swerved and went down another alley.
The white SUV followed them this time and they rounded a tight corner to find themselves at the entrance to a car repair shop, door closed, the alley a dead end.
"Hold on!" Don yelled as he drove through the door and into the auto shop only for their vehicle to smack into a truck that was sitting in the repair bay spinning them around, so they were facing Townsend's people in the white SUV who opened fire.
Park jumped from the vehicle and started firing and Liz expected Don to do the same, but he didn't.
"Don!" Liz yelled as bullets reigned down on the car again, he slumped forward.
"No!" She screamed as she lay back against the window next to her, kicked the stunned agent next to her, who seemed to have a bullet graze the side of his head. She knocked him unconscious with her boots as a police car, one who must have been called in after what had happened to the others, showed up and started to fire on Townsend's men. Liz leaned over the agent and took the key to her cuffs from him and undid herself, grabbing his gun and jumping out of the car firing. Townsend's men were starting to go down and she opened the driver's door and felt for Ressler's pulse. It was there, thready, but there.
She undid his belt and started to pull him from the SUV when shots rang out in her direction and she turned and fired, causing Ressler to fall from his seat onto the ground groaning.
Liz shot another of Townsend's men and lunged toward Ressler, heaving his body into a standing position. Shockingly, the fall woke him up and he was able to somewhat walk. She wrapped her arm around him and walked with him, gun firing, toward the back of the vehicle and out into the alley while the police and Park dealt with Townsend's men.
"Liz, what are you…?" Don asked as he coughed and winced.
"Saving you," Liz said as she walked with her arm around him down the street.
Seeing a funeral home close by, she pushed open the door, closing it behind her and locking it, bringing him inside and laying him down on one of the sofas by the entrance. The place appeared empty, but was open, she wasn't sure where the person was that worked there.
"Hello? I need help!" Liz yelled.
No one answered.
"Listen to me Ressler," Liz said as she pulled off his jacket and felt for the wound, placing his hand over it to keep pressure on it. "You are going to be okay. I won't let you die. I won't, do you hear me?"
He nodded and looked like he was going to pass out.
"Liz, call it in," he said weakly.
Liz pulled his phone from his jacket that was laying on the floor and dialed Reddington's number.
"We're at a funeral home," she said as she picked up a brochure off the table. "Restful Acres."
"Lizzie," Reddington started.
"I need your medic team here now!" Liz said, her voice desperate. "Ressler is hurt. Shot in the shoulder, but there may be other…."
She walked back toward him and placed her hand over his wound causing him to look like he was going to blackout from the pain, but knowing it needed to be done.
"I will send the team, but you need to agree to a truce, Lizzie," Reddington said, calmly.
"You'd let him die?!" Liz screamed into the phone.
"I am quite fond of Donald, and no, I don't want him to die, but I can't be worried every time we are in a room together that you are going to try to kill me."
Liz nodded, worry apparent across her features as she looked at Don and the blood spreading everywhere under her hand. She could think of a less appetizing future than a truce with Reddington, but she was never going to let Ressler die.
"I agree, a truce, get here, now!" Liz said as she hung up the phone and pressed harder on the wound.
"Ressler, listen to me, he's coming, you are gonna be fine, do you hear me?"
He mumbled something and she leaned forward and took one hand away from the wound and caressed the side of his face.
"I'm so sorry," she said as a couple of tears fell from her eyes. "I'm so sorry you got hurt. I never wanted you to get hurt."
"What the hell is going in here?!" A woman yelled as she walked into the room pulling off her noise cancelling headphones.
"This man is a federal agent who has been shot," Liz said. "A medical team is on it's way."
"How was he shot?" The woman asked as she looked anxiously toward the door.
"Do you have any medical training?" Liz asked.
"I embalm bodies," the woman said.
"Good," Liz said as she walked toward the woman and pulled her toward Ressler. "What do we need to do until the medics get here?"
The woman looked at all the blood and then back at Liz.
"I only deal with dead people," she said.
"Well, he's not going to be one of them," Liz said clearly.
"Liz…" Ressler mumbled.
"You're going to be okay," Liz said softly.
"Just a minute," the woman said before she ran from the room.
Liz looked between the door and Ressler and hoped the woman was not calling 911.
She came back with a kit and dropped it on the ground, taking out some scissors and cutting open his shirt.
"Liz…" Ressler mumbled incoherently.
"It's going to be okay," Liz said as she wiped at the sweat gathering on his forehead, he was going into shock.
Liz grabbed Ressler's hand and held on.
Liz watched the woman pour germicide soap on the area and Ressler winced. Then the woman poured alcohol on it, Ressler screamed and crushed Liz's hand with his, possibly breaking a finger or two. Liz screamed and watched as he passed out.
"Now it'll be easier," the woman said as she looked down at Ressler unconscious. "I'm used to them not being alive,"
Liz pulled her hand from Ressler's and felt her fingers.
"Owww," she said as she tried to move them. There were two that were broken on her right hand.
The woman pulled out a medical scissor-like instrument and started to dig around in his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Liz asked, concerned.
"Trying to save him," the woman said as she leaned in and dug around for the bullet. "It's amazing how many bullets you people leave in bodies and don't retrieve before bringing them in."
"I'm Liz," Liz said, admiring the woman for her composure.
"Phoebe," the woman said, not taking her eyes off the work she was doing and grunting.
There was a bang at the door and Liz awkwardly picked up her gun with her left hand and walked toward it.
"Lizzie," Reddington said.
She unlocked it and a medical team walked in ahead of Reddington and set up in the middle of the parlour.
Liz watched as they lifted Ressler off the sofa and spoke with the woman who had been trying to dig out the bullet.
"He went unconscious when alcohol was poured on the wound," Liz said to the medical team as she held her hand.
"What's the matter with your hand?" Reddington asked her.
"Nothing," Liz said absently as she watched them start to hook Ressler up to some equipment and work on him.
Reddington looked at her looking at Donald.
"You care for him a great deal," Reddington observed.
Liz schooled her emotions and took a deep breath.
"You can try and hide it, but even Townsend knows it," Reddington said.
She met his gaze and said nothing. Then turned back to watch the team working on Don.
"You need to protect him," Reddington said. "Donald doesn't realize just how dangerous this game is."
Liz didn't take her eyes off the doctors working on Ressler.
"You could have run," Reddington pushed forward. "Disappeared. But you saved him."
Liz's eyes got watery, and she nodded.
"The more people you love Liz, the more vulnerable you are," Reddington said. "And your love for them means you have an obligation to them; to protect them from the forces that want to use them to get to you."
Liz nodded and swallowed hard.
"Donald cannot go back to the FBI, Liz," Reddington said. "You can't protect him there."
"I know," Liz nodded and sighed. "And, it's going to kill him."
Reddington nodded as they both looked back toward the surgery that was taking place five feet from them in the middle of a funeral parlour and heard the distinct 'ping' of a bullet being dropped into a metal bowl.
To be continued…
