Wash, Rinse, Repeat Part 6
Author's Note: The story is getting revealed a little more in this chapter. Expect only a handful more until this wraps up. I am reading all of your comments and will reply to them this weekend-thank you for the wonderful reviews everyone!
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Don Ressler was cautiously optimistic as they decorated for Christmas with the kids. Liz had said she'd pull her statement, their lawyer got a judge to rule Tom could not have access to Agnes in prison, and she had started back to work with him on the task force this week. Tonight, was going to be the first night he slept in his house in months. They had gone back to see their counselor and spent time talking without the kids around so they could focus. He had never been one for the touchy-feeling emotive shit about therapy but he realized months ago that her betrayal had really rocked him. More than he was willing to admit; and until he did, they weren't getting better.
So, he told her everything. Ressler spoke about his insecurities with Agnes, his worries about her safety, the impotence he felt when they were gone and he was unable to find them, the worry, the fear, and the embarrassment that his wife was on the run with her ex and their child. It wasn't always easy for her to hear, but to her credit, she listened and tried really hard to understand the situation he had been in and was still in. She thought she understood the depth of his pain; she didn't and she now admitted that. It was good. Scary and tiring, but seemed to be working. They had started to laugh with each other again; he felt his anger lessen when he thought about what happened a year ago. And Liz finally told him the details of that month when she was away with Tom and Agnes. When she first came back she thought she was protecting him by keeping things ambiguous. But she had learned that he needed the details so he could box them up in his mind and leave them alone.
"Remember when you made this one?" Ressler asked Agnes as he pulled a dough Santa from the box.
"He looks weird," Agnes cringed. Apparently her tastes and artistic ability did not enjoy being reminded of her 4-year old's art.
"He looks kinda Picaso," Liz smiled as she took the decoration from Ressler. "You made this one at daddy-daughter day at school, didn't you?"
Agnes nodded and smiled. Despite the rough when she first returned home, things had gone back to normal with her and Don.
"Oh, yeah, and I made this one..." Ressler said as he pulled out another dough decoration of a reindeer. His barely looked like one.
"You really need to spend more time looking at your artistic side, babe," Liz said as she smirked at their daughter.
Agnes giggled and leaned into Liz. "I said it was nice, but it doesn't even look like a reindeer..."
"Hey, I heard that," Ressler said as he pulled a giggling Agnes away from her mom and started to tickle her as he threw her over his shoulder.
"Daddy I'm going to pee!" Agnes laughed uncontrollably.
"Not on me again you aren't," Ressler said as he pulled her quickly off his shoulder and set her down so she could run for the washroom.
"Again?" Liz asked.
"Long story, but when she says she has to pee, she has to pee," Ressler chuckled as he reached into the box again.
He pulled out a decoration that looked like an old-time gas pump and his mind immediately went to another gas station.
"Don? Can I see you?" Cooper called down from his office above as Ressler and Samar were sorting through the reports from people who said they saw Liz and Agnes in the last 24 hours.
"Sure," Ressler said as he turned and quickly mounted the steps. Despite living on caffeine, sleeping on the sofa in his office many nights a week, and sleeping very little, he was hopped up on adrenaline and moved quickly when needed.
Liz and Agnes had been missing for almost two and a half weeks. She had taken Agnes to ballet and not come home. Security footage from the auto body shop across the street showed them being taken away in a van. Then days later, they found out through Reddington's channel's that it was Tom Keen who had them. Ressler had been going out of his mind thinking them dead or trafficked in those first days and, surprisingly, finding out Tom Keen had them calmed him down. Tom wouldn't harm Liz or her child and may be aware Agnes was, biologically, his. So, the focus had turned to finding out what Tom had been up to these last almost 6 years and see if they could locate him now.
The Lamb's, their next-door neighbors and friends, had taken Luke off his hands for a couple of days until his mom arrived from Detroit to move in and take Luke full-time so Ressler could focus on finding his wife and daughter. He visited Luke once a day when he slept at the office and made a point to go into his room and kiss his little head as he slept when he got home in the early hours of the morning for a couple of hours of shut-eye before he was back to work.
Despite thinking that Tom wouldn't harm them, the fact that they were missing, on the run, and being sought by several police agencies didn't help Ressler feel they were safe. He had also learned that Tom had been involved with some major drug-smugglers in the last few years. He wasn't sure what the man was capable of and didn't want to find out. He was sure Agnes was scared and upset and Liz was livid. They needed to be home and safe.
"Hey, what's up?" Ressler asked him as he walked into his office.
"Shut the door Don," Cooper said quietly.
"Uh, I sense the higher-ups don't want me on the case but I'm not..." Ressler started to pre-emptively argue.
"It's not that," Cooper said as he gestured toward the chair.
"They're okay, right?" Ressler asked his heart in his throat.
"Yes Don, they are fine according to the latest footage I was forwarded from an hour ago," Cooper said cryptically.
Ressler placed his hand on his hips and furrowed his brow. "What aren't you saying?"
Cooper again gestured toward the chair and Ressler stayed standing. Cooper sighed and turned his monitor toward Don.
On it was Tom walking with his arm around Liz and her holding Agnes' hand.
"Where are they?" Ressler asked.
"That's from Kyle, South Dakota," Cooper said.
Ressler was about to bolt from his office when Cooper called.
"Don, wait!"
Ressler turned and looked at Cooper confused.
"You need to see the video," Cooper said as he his play and Ressler turned to watch.
Tom was walking and smiling with his arm around Liz while she held Agnes' hand. Agnes' expression told Ressler that she was unhappy. He watched as the video continued and then all the blood drained from his body when he saw Liz suddenly pull Tom's face toward hers and kiss him passionately.
"Jesus Christ..." Ressler said as he sat down heavily in the chair Cooper had repeatedly offered him.
He watched Liz pull back and smile broadly at Tom and he smile back at her before they stepped out of the frame.
"No other cameras in the area so we don't know if they went east or west but..."
Ressler rubbed his hands up and down the side of his face and massaged his temples. A piercing headache had just started.
"Agnes looked scared," were the first words out of his mouth.
Cooper nodded.
"Don, it's our best lead but the footage...I'd understand if you don't want me to release it to..."
Ressler sighed and dropped his head into his hands and leaned forward.
"I can't explain why Elizabeth...but I'm sure there is an explanation Don and..."
Ressler thought about his scared little girl and how he needed her home and safe. He thought about the rumors and jokes that would circulate around law enforcement once everyone saw it. He also thought about his family, their friends, and their neighbors who would see it on TV and...it was going to be a fucking mess. Never mind the fact that his wife seemed to be quite happy and intimate with her ex. No, he couldn't go there with his thoughts right now or he'd explode.
"Release it," Ressler said, his voice cracking. "I'm going to South Dakota."
"That's...I know this is..." Cooper stammered.
"I just need them home," Ressler said before he got up and walked quickly from Cooper's office. And with his head pounding, his heart aching, his body bone-tired, and his nerves on edge, Ressler boarded a plane to Rapid City South Dakota to get his family back.
Hours later with the tree aglow and the kids tucked into bed with promises of daddy's pancakes in the morning, Ressler watched Liz carry two glasses of wine to him as he sat on their sofa looking at the tree.
"Penny for your thoughts," Liz said as she handed him a glass.
"Our tree looks like Christmas barfed on it," he chuckled as he took the glass offered.
She laughed and nodded, sitting next to him and snuggling into his side. "But it's the best kind of barf."
He chuckled and nodded.
"The Wilm's hire a decorator to decorate their tree and house every year," Liz said; revealing a secret she had discovered from their neighbor Becky.
He looked down at her shocked. "Is that why their house always looks so perfect?"
Liz nodded.
"Huh," he sighed before he took a drink. "Probably why they host an open house every year too. They need to show off their investment."
"I always thought they were so perfect until..." Liz started.
"Tax evasion..." Ressler supplied.
Liz nodded.
"No one is perfect, Liz," Ressler said quietly.
She sighed and set down her glass and wrapped her arm around his torso.
"I think I know someone who is pretty close," she said softly against his chest.
"I'm not," he said clearly.
She closed her eyes and regulated her breathing with his.
He thought she may have fallen asleep until her voice cracked the silence.
"Come to bed?" She asked quietly; he could tell there was fear in her words that she'd be rejected and he'd say he'd stay on the sofa. They had been working hard on their relationship and were in a much better place than they had been this last year, but there was still doubt. Doubt that he'd forgiven her, that he could move on, that he still loved her and wanted her.
He gently lifted her off him and stood holding out his hand for her to take. In silence he walked ahead of her up the stairs to their bedroom, holding her hand the entire way. And when they got to their bedroom they kissed and traced the edges of each other's bodies for the rest of the night; getting to know each other again after months apart. Starting fresh and new; attempting to put the past away and look toward a future that was together. When he woke in the morning to his children running into their room and jumping on the bed while he and Liz scrambled to pull on some clothes, Ressler knew he was home.
To be continued...
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