Agnes 27

Author's Note: Now it's Liz's turn to discover the past.

Let me know what you think.

RRRRRR

Ressler sat next to her with his hand on her forearm.

"Liz, let's go back to your appendix incident," Dr. Orchard said.

"It hurts so much," her face twisted up in pain. "I feel like there's a knife inside me."

"Is there anything odd about the incident?"

"I've never had my appendix burst so…no," Liz said confused.

"Did Tom act differently or strange?"

"No, he was really sweet, he carried me to the car, so I didn't have to walk," Liz smiled softly. "He was worried."

"So, everything he said was normal for the circumstance?" Dr. Orchard asked.

Liz's face twitched a little and she looked confused. Dr. Orchard saw her brain activity spiking.

"What is it, Liz?" She asked.

"Just before I was taken into surgery, he said "it's for the best" which, yeah, not dying is for the best," Liz chuckled.

Ressler and Dr. Orchard exchanged a look.

"And after the surgery, was there anything strange?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"There was some blood, like I had my period, but a light one, a day later. Tom said the doctor said it could happen," Liz said. "I was sore, more sore, than I expected. We didn't have sex for a couple of weeks."

Ressler bowed his head, she had just undergone a medical procedure that had nothing to do with her appendix.

"Let's look at May 2015," Dr. Orchard said.

"Ressler…" Liz said and his eyebrow raised in interest.

"What about Ressler?" Dr. Orchard sked as she exchanged a look with Reddington.

"I'm sad I'm doing this to him, putting him in this place," Liz said. "I don't like that I'm hurting him."

"Are there any times during this month when you have lost time, woke up in a strange place, or felt off?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"I slept with Tom," Liz said.

"And there was something odd about that?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"Halfway through…" Liz said. "It all went foggy…"

Ressler shifted.

Dr. Orchard saw her levels spiking and leaned in.

"You now remember something that you didn't at the time, don't make sense of it," Dr. Orchard said. "Just experience it."

"He's dressing me," Liz said. "Pulling on shorts and a t-shirt that's his. This woman and these men come on board the boat and I'm foggy and unable to speak or move…"

Everyone stayed silent and listened for her to continue.

"The woman said there are just four," Liz said, her brow furrowing. "There was an accident at the lab but four should work."

She's turning her head from side to side.

"What is it, Elizabeth?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"She's talking about time released drugs that are cutting edge," she said softly. "And Tom keeps smiling over at me and saying 'it's for the best' again and again. He looks…worried."

Liz relays that she is taken off the boat and onto another, awaiting boat, that had a high-tech procedure room on it. There she was prepared for the procedure, injected with some drugs, some sub-cutaneous drugs were placed under her arm and in a leg crease, and IVF was performed on her. She was left laying for an hour after the procedure while Tom held her hand.

"He told me we'd be great parents…" Liz said as some tears fell from her eyes.

Ressler leaned forward and wiped at them.

"He said that it was for the best," Liz said. "Then he had to leave…"

"Do you know where he went?" Dr. Orchard asked her.

"I heard him arguing with some of the men on the deck…I don't know what they were saying," Liz said. "But I heard her…she was on the phone."

"Who?"

"The doctor, the woman," Liz said. "She said that Tom still didn't know, and any results needed to be vetted before he saw them to keep the secret."

"Did she share any more information?"

"She…she…called him Peter…", Liz said.

"The fucking Director?" Ressler asked, astonished as he looked toward Reddington.

"Peter Kotsiopulos," Reddington said. "Jesus Christ, it was the Cabal."

"Why would…" Ressler started.

"Shhhh," Dr. Orchard cautioned them.

Ressler whispered an apology.

"What happened after the phone conversation?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"Another man, an old man, showed up with some equipment," Liz said. "He had a heavy accent."

"Did anyone call him by name?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"Dr. Krilov," Liz said. "He was smiling, and he said he would take it all away…."

"Anything else?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"He injected me with something, and I heard him say it wouldn't harm the baby before I lost consciousness," Liz said. "Then I woke up alone in Tom's bed in the morning."

"Do you remember anything else about the next few days?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"I felt weird, there was a fullness…I felt nauseated for days and thought it was all the stress…"

"When did you find out you were pregnant?" Dr. Orchard asked.

"I noticed my period hadn't happened in two months…" Liz said. "I was scared to find out. It was Tom's and…"

Everyone waited.

"…and I knew I could never leave him if I was having his child," Liz said. "But he…he wasn't good for me."

Ressler scoffed quietly.

"Did you sleep with anyone besides Tom in May of 2015?" Dr. Orchard asked. Ressler looked at her surprised, it was obvious she knew, or thought she knew, it was Tom's child.

"No, just the one night with Tom," Liz said. "I wished it hadn't happened. I wanted to…undo it in the weeks that followed. I thought giving her away would give us both a fresh start."

Ressler nodded, he hadn't thought for a long time about how harsh he was with Liz at that time, he should have been a better person.

Dr. Orchard looked between Ressler and Reddington and they both nodded. The session was done, they had all the information they needed.

"Okay Liz, I'm going to bring you back to now," Dr. Orchard said. "You will remember everything we recovered when you wake up from your rest. And you are safe."

Liz nodded.

Dr. Orchard injected her with something else and turned to Ressler. "She'll wake up sometime in the next hour."

"Thank you Dr. Orchard, for helping us find out answers," Ressler said.

"I'd have to look at a calendar to be sure, but it looks like her ova were harvested under the guise of a burst appendix and hormones were given to her that she thought was Vitamin B. The difference in dates suggests the eggs were implanted with your semen and then successful eggs were frozen until the implantation which seemed to be on a medical lab boat when her memories were taken. The hormones to sustain the pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone, were given to her subcutaneously, I am imagining, on a time release…she underwent IVF without knowing it."

Ressler and Reddington nodded.

"She was very tired those first few days," Reddington said. "The good thing about travelling in a cargo ship was for a few days we did almost nothing. That must have helped Agnes implant. We did drink wine, but Agnes seems unaffected."

Ressler nodded.

"It sounds like Tom was part of it, but also duped," Ressler said. "He really thought the baby was his, but he took advantage of Liz to make that happen."

"Hence his dedication to Agnes," Reddington said, realizing the story was similar to what happened when he was younger. "He thought Agnes was his."

Ressler nodded.

"But she was mine," Ressler said as he met Red's eyes. "Why would the cabal want that? And why was Tom working with them?"

"They would want it to use Agnes as leverage," Reddington said. "I don't doubt they have doctored images of you and Lizzie together to support an affair that resulted in Agnes. As for Tom working with the cabal, I can't answer that."

"But they didn't do it," Ressler said.

"No," Reddington sighed. "Maybe they were waiting to use that card later and it never came to fruition. I will seek those answers for you and Lizzie, Donald. But we may never know. What we do know, is that you and Lizzie are Agnes' parents biologically and in every other way. She is a very, very, lucky little girl to have you."

Ressler swallowed hard, touched by his words. He looked down at Liz knowing that there would need to be a conversation with Agnes; they would need to decide what exactly she needed to know.

To be continued…