CH1.
At dawn Liz felt Ressler tossing and turning in his sleep and muttering incoherent words, his heart racing and a thin layer of sweat accumulating over his body.
- Ressler… - she called in a whisper trying not to scare him, but still he woke up with a start, trying to identify where he was.
Nightmares weren't uncommon, but they were becoming frequent for a few weeks now. He needed rest his mind because his behavior had been erratic for some time now, arguments with Reddington more and more frequent. Something had happened between them, but Red didn't show any signs of it because, possibly, it was commonplace for him, but Ressler was totally affected by whatever it was.
- All right, calm down. – Liz said stroking his hair softly.
She waited for him to calm down a bit, feeling his heartbeat slow down to a normal pace.
- Do You want to talk about it? - Liz tried, but received a short "no" for an answer, his voice still husky with sleep.
She watched the shadow of his body lying face up, breathing heavily, unmoving.
- Ressler, you need to deal with this. Whatever it is. You haven't slept properly for weeks. Whenever you are here you have nightmares and wake up like this. Talk to me!
- I don't want to talk Keen! – Using her last name instead of her first name was a bad sign. - I just want you to leave me alone.
His voice was louder than it should be in that silence, and she could hear him panting ant trying to suppress his emotions, his fingers clawing the sheets.
Liz adjusted herself on bed positioning on an elbow, so she could face him, even in the dark.
- Ressler, you are on the edge, anxious, everything is a problem for you. It's unbearable. I think you have to talk to Dr. Friedman so she can...
She didn't get the chance to finish.
Ressler hurriedly threw the covers away and got to his feet searching the floor for his clothes and dressing quickly, not bothering to button his shirt properly or tuck it inside his pants.
- What are you doing?
Liz watched the quick movements and could feel the anger building inside him.
- I need to get out of here.
His voice was choked and he sounded edgy.
- Ressler, you are more irrational every day! If you don't seek help I will report you to Cooper and Dr. Friedman.
Ressler paused for a moment, sighing heavily and pinching the bridge of his nose he started to say something but couldn't find his voice and ended up walking quickly toward the door and out, leaving Liz speechless in the dark bedroom.
This strange relationship between them started a few months ago and they still hadn't define what they mean to each other: just friends with benefits, partners, boyfriend/girlfriend thing. Everything was very new and very weird sometimes.
Yes, they might know each other well at work, be one of the FBI's best partnerships, but personally speaking, she knew next to nothing about him on a more deep level, damn it! She barely knew the truth about her own life!
Did she like the relationship she had with him now? Yes.
Did she enjoy sex with him? Definitely.
Did she want to know more about his private life? Yes.
Was she ready for another relationship after Tom? Absolutely not!
Every fiber in her being screamed that this was not the time to be romantically involved with anyone, least of all someone as volatile as Ressler was at this moment. As professional as he was, his temper grew more and more explosive.
Liz looked at her bedside watch, it was about five in the morning, and the dawn was just cracking the blackness of the night. In a few hours, she was going to face a rather grumpy Ressler at work, but she couldn't shake her growing concern over his behavior.
Whatever it was, it was psychological, he was on the verge of a breakdown, but she had no idea what could have caused all that stress.
At Liz street Ressler was sitting in his car, trying to calm down and cursing at himself. He was panting, his vision going dark, his mouth dry, his body sweating, the claustrophobic feeling that the weight of the last few years were going to crush him at any moment, he was nearing a panic attack.
He leaned his head back, took a deep breath trying to empty his mind, focus on some object, sound, smell, anything...
He noticed that the day was starting to lighten, and he tried to focus his tired eyes on the colors: lilac, blue, orange, yellow, the sound of small birds in the trees on the street. It was about ten minutes before he was finally able to start the car and go back to his apartment.
He hurried in, stripping off his clothes on the way to the bathroom. At that moment, he had only one need: to take a hot bath to relax his body. The tension had been so strong that every muscle ached.
In the safety of his own home he was gripped once again by the thoughts that had plagued him for the past few weeks, since all the events with Prescott he felt he no longer had control over his own life. Everything he did depended on Raymond Reddington's will.
In the early hours of the morning, the sun hadn't even risen properly, an FBI tactical truck released agents in a house near the California border with Tijuana, Mexico, for another operation to hunt drug lords, people responsible for human trafficking, weapons sale, and money laundering that dominated the region.
The explosion opened the door and left everyone inside stunned initially, giving the SWAT team a chance to break in and establish dominance over the first people captured.
Many half-naked women were working counting money, bills were now scattered around the room because of the blast.
Progressing inside the property in search of the command of the criminal operation Kate Macer and his team moved forward swiftly, shouting orders in a shock and awe move, when Kate cornered a man near a window while he tried to escape.
- FBI, LAY DOWN!
She yelled, pointing the assault rifle at him, who obeyed without resistance, kneeling slowly and then lying down with his expensive suit, shirt and tie on the dirty floor.
Kate knew what that meant: a rich guy who wasn't going to be stuck in jail for too long.
The operation began and ended like lightning. No wounded, no shooting, no resistance. But Kate's sixth sense told her that something was still going to go very wrong, the purest instinct causing discomfort, based on the presence of that strange man in the place.
The agents came and went carrying bags of evidence: drugs, money, documents and computers with information, separating the men and women, informing the command the operation's results. All according to the rules, before taking them to the FBI headquarters to start the interrogations.
Kate still hadn't been able to identify the rich man in the suit at the first look, and only got positive information after processing his fingerprints in the system: Manuel Lorca, brother of Hector Lorca, a drug dealer who was imprisoned in New York after a daring escape attempt.
He faced trial for several crimes, and was convicted because of the murder of several people, including the only witness that existed against him back in time.
According to the suspect's testimony, he was there to do business with the local drug dealers, to seal a temporary alliance. He said he was there on orders from his brother Hector Lorca.
Kate found it all very suspicious, and that same afternoon she and her partner Reggie took the first flight to New York to speak with Hector in prison, and try to understand how, from within, he was organizing alliances at the border.