Wash, Rinse, Repeat Part 7
Author's Note: I know many of you are wondering about Liz's actions...they won't all get answered here but expect an answer or two.
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Donald Ressler walked into the prison visitors lounge and was pleased the guards were close by so he wouldn't choke the life out of Tom Keen. His hearing was tomorrow, he had asked for it to hear new evidence that would support his claim to see Agnes. His lawyer had reached out to Ressler requesting a visit with Tom today and, as much as Ressler would rather be anywhere else, for the sake of his child and his wife he was here.
"You've hardly aged," Tom smirked at him as he quipped.
"You have, badly," Ressler said as he sat down opposite him. It was true; the years with drug smugglers and on the run had not been kind to Tom Keen. He had a couple of facial scars, new tattoos on his arms and neck, and a cold look in his eyes.
They found out that he had gotten involved in some pretty shady business besides the drug smuggling. Tom Keen had run prostitutes and been involved in some human trafficking of teen girls from Romania. He was not the Tom Keen who left on the boat; a sadistic killer with a conscience. No, he left that conscience behind.
"Well, I haven't been living a cushy life with my daughter and wife like you have," Tom countered.
"Jacob...whatever your name is, didn't marry Liz," Ressler said, annoyed. "So technically you weren't ever married."
"Except in the biblical sense and boy did we get biblical a lot," Tom smirked at him.
"What do you want?" Ressler asked, refusing to be baited by the scumbag. "More cigarettes?"
Tom Keen sighed. "I want access to my daughter. I want to get to know her..."
"You mean kidnapping her and her mom wasn't the best start to a relationship?" Ressler asked sarcastically. "Shocking."
"She liked me," Tom said. "She and I really started to bond."
"Between cheap motels and stolen cars? What you put my daughter through..." Ressler started.
"My daughter," Tom corrected him.
"No, my daughter," Ressler growled. "I have been her father. You were the sperm donor."
Tom looked hurt for a moment but then covered it up quickly.
"You left and didn't look back and then when you did find out about Agnes...instead of reaching out and trying to..."
"You would have put me right in here without batting an eyelash," Tom snapped at him.
"Probably," Ressler agreed. "But then I wouldn't have a daughter in counselling once a week to deal with the shit you put her through. I wouldn't have a little girl who went back to wetting the bed for months, having night terrors, and always following one of her parents around so she could be close and not get taken after you abducted..."
"She's my child!" Tom snapped.
"Volume," the guard said as he stepped closer.
"Your child who doesn't want anything to do with you," Ressler said. "She has made that perfectly clear."
"Because you didn't tell her about me," Tom leaned in. "You kept that from her until I told her and she..."
"She?" Ressler asked.
"She felt betrayed by the man she thought was her father," Tom said as his cold eyes met Ressler's.
Ressler swallowed hard. Honestly, he wasn't sure if they were ever going to tell Agnes he wasn't her biological father until Tom decided to tell her. He knew she felt betrayed by him and Liz and they attended a few therapy sessions with her to work on that. She was fine now, but Ressler was scared for a while that she wouldn't ever look at him the same way again.
"I am her father," Ressler said clearly. "And we're done here."
He started to rise when he saw Tom Keen take out a small plastic bag with a couple of photos in it.
"You sure about that?" Tom asked as he took the photos from the bag and laid them out on the table before him like he was dealing cards.
Ressler caught sight of the content of the photos and turned to see them.
One was of Liz looking around the shower curtain, some of her naked body visible and smiling at the camera. Another was of the three of them smiling at a camera. The third was a selfie of Tom in bed shirtless next to Liz while she was sleeping; her shoulders bare and the top of a breast showing. The last one was Agnes holding up a drawing she'd made that said daddy on it; she was smiling at Tom who was taking the picture and Liz was smiling at her.
It felt like a gut punch.
"You grant me access, once a month to Agnes and I won't put these into evidence for everyone to see," Tom said as he picked up the picture of Liz in the shower. "Boy, we got biblical..."
Ressler wanted to kill him. He wanted to choke the life out of him with his own hands and...
"You aren't getting access to Agnes," Ressler said through gritted teeth as he stood on shaky legs and tried to not look like he wanted to throw up. "Submit the damn pictures, I don't care."
Tom looked visibly shocked. He was sure the man's ego and desire to not be humiliated in front of all of his friends, family and colleagues would have won over a measly once-a-month visit with a kid that wasn't even his.
"Okay, man...your funeral," Tom called after him as he walked out. "I just wanna see my kid!"
Ressler pivoted on his heel and growled. "Over my dead body."
He walked from the room and didn't look back. When he got to his car his hands were shaking and he was having trouble breathing. Ressler quickly opened his driver's side door and vomited on the ground next to his car. He focused on one place, a small tree, in the distant corner of the parking lot and tried to re-gain his composure. Thinking of an offer that had been made and he'd rejected.
"A word Donald," Reddington said as he ushered the young man to the side of the task force main room. They had just arrested Tom Keen and Ressler had personally ushered him to lockdown. He was about to leave to see Liz and Agnes at the hospital.
"I have to go to the hospital, Cooper will..." Ressler said.
"I want to know if you'd like me to fix this situation with Tom," Reddington said candidly.
Ressler swallowed hard. He wanted to say 'yes' knowing that 'fix' meant make Tom disappear. It would clear up the messiness of the kidnapping, Liz's part in it, Agnes would only have one dad...
"He needs to be brought to justice," Ressler said clearly, knowing he couldn't go down that path.
"There are different kinds of justice Donald," Reddington said. "Not all of them involve a court room."
Ressler placed his hands on his hips and shook his head.
"No," he said as he met Reddington's eyes. "I appreciate the offer and, although I am seriously tempted to wipe him off the face of this earth for what he's done to Agnes and Liz...I can't do that."
Reddington sighed.
"Donald with him back and knowledgeable about Agnes this may just be the tip of a very large iceb..." Reddington started.
"I hope not," Ressler said as he wiped at his forehead. "But I need to give Liz and Agnes a chance to face him, to see him away and know he can't harm them. Especially Agnes."
Reddington nodded.
"I need to get to the..."
"Donald," Reddington said as he placed a hand on the young man's shoulder. "I know I've said this in my own way over the years but I feel the need to be candid. You are the best thing that has ever happened to Lizzie and Agnes. You are a good man, an honorable man, and a man I am proud to say is a friend. I can't imagine a better husband or father than you."
Ressler was taken aback by his words. He had been unusually nice to him since Ressler and Liz got involved. He still enjoyed his digs, and his snide comments, but Reddington had never been that forthright in his thoughts and feelings about Ressler.
"Thanks," Ressler said with a soft smile. "That means a lot after everything this last month..."
"I'll see you at the hospital," Reddington said before he let go of Ressler's shoulder and walked away.
Ressler stood in his driveway looking at the Christmas lights he'd strung up just yesterday and sighed. She would be putting the kids to bed and had expected him home hours ago. Several text messages and phone messages later, he texted her he was fine and would be home later tonight.
In truth, he needed some time to process what he saw, what she had told him happened, and make sense of the two. He believed her when she said nothing happened. He did. Then he saw photographs that told another story and he really, really, still wanted to believe her but it was getting so hard to be the man that always trusted in the face of evidence that said otherwise. It was so hard.
It was hard when the video footage of her kissing Tom was released to the public and law enforcement. The media kept saying her full name, saying she was married, saying Tom was her ex-husband and a fugitive. Over and over again the footage was out there. His mother said the footage came up on a commercial break from the game show she was watching. Robbie said it was all over the TVs at his garage for a couple of days. Ms. Lewis across the street, a realtor, brought him a pie with her card (in case they were thinking of selling). He had people around him in South Dakota hush the second he came close, overheard talk in the squad room in Cedar Rapids that died down when someone saw him, and heard a couple of beat cops joking about him and Liz and Tom outside on their smoke break in Columbus. It was hard to ignore it, hard to hold his head up, hard to believe his wife. It was so hard.
But he did, and within 2 weeks they were caught in the Appalachians of West Virginia. And then, a high-speed car chase (thankfully) happened in LA and they were no longer the top news story. No one that knew them forgot, but at least the eyes of the nation weren't on his family falling apart anymore.
And now this. Pictures of them in bed, of her in the shower, of Agnes making a picture for him that said daddy, of them as a family. They would all be out there, maybe not to the degree that the video was, but his colleagues, people in the court, their friends and family, and his mom would see them. He knew not striking the deal with Tom was the best thing for his child but it was, by far, the worst thing for him. A man who had his confidence, his ego, his very idea of who he was, kicked and squashed and broken apart over the last year. At some point it was too much. When was it too much to bear?
He stepped toward his house thinking of the conversation that lay ahead, of the deal he maybe should have made with Reddington after Tom was caught—all of this would be in the past and he wouldn't be worried about Agnes visiting a manipulative animal in fucking jail. He wouldn't be worried about Liz's face telling him a different story when he told her about the pictures. He wouldn't be worried about losing what he thought he had back.
The front door opened and Liz stepped outside and walked quickly toward him wrapping her arms around him.
"I was so worried," she said into his frame.
He hugged her back. "It's okay, I'm home now."
"What happened?" She asked as she pulled back. She looked at his face and worry spread across hers. "Don, what happened?"
"Let's get inside before you..." he started to step forward.
"No, what happened?" She demanded, unmoving.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
"He wanted to make a deal," Ressler said meeting her eyes. "He sees Agnes once a month and he won't enter into evidence some compromising pictures."
"Compromising pictures?" She asked, her brow furrowing. "Like nudes he took of me when we were first together? I don't give a shit about..."
"No, on the run," Don said as he carefully watched her.
She looked baffled.
"I don't..." she stammered.
"One of you in the shower," Don said quietly.
"What?!" Liz asked. "What do you mean?"
"He had these pictures Liz..." Ressler explained. "You in the shower smiling at a camera, you two in bed, Agnes..."
"Wait, babe, back up," she said. "I was never in bed with Tom. I was handcuffed to a bed and wrapped my entire body around Agnes so he couldn't take her from me. I was never, ever in a bed with him. Ever."
"The picture..."
"Is bullshit," Liz said clearly angry. "Who took it?"
"It looked like a selfie," Ressler sighed.
"So, he fucking climbed in bed with me and Agnes?!" Liz asked, incensed.
"I don't..." Ressler said.
"Jesus Christ," she said as she reached for the keys in his hand.
"What are you doing?" Ressler asked, gripping the keys.
"I'm going to see Tom and possibly gut him like a fish," Liz said as Ressler wouldn't release the keys. "The manipulative fucking..."
"What happened? Why does he have these pictures of you naked in a shower, and you look naked in the bed and there's a family shot of the three of you and Agnes with fucking daddy art for him and...?"
"Wait, art?" Liz asked.
"Yeah, it said Daddy on it and was a picture of Tom," Ressler said. "She was holding it up smiling."
"She made that for you babe," Liz said. "She was upset and confused about what Tom was telling her about being her dad and she asked for coloring stuff and she drew that picture of you and announced that was her daddy."
Ressler looked at her confused. He hadn't really looked closely at the drawing...
"He asked for the family picture and...I was trying to appease him," Liz said. "It was almost 3 weeks at that point and arguing with him, trying to escape and fighting with him wasn't working so I tried a different route. I agreed to a happy family picture. I kissed him and said what a great dad he'll be. I developed a fantasy of a family in hopes he'd let his guard down..."
"And did you fulfill any other fantasies of his?" Ressler asked, callously.
She slapped his face.
The shock and the cold made him gasp.
"I have never, ever, ever cheated on you," Liz said clearly. "Least of all with the man who had kidnapped..."
"The fucking pictures Liz," he said as he held her shoulders.
"I don't know how he got a shower picture or how I didn't notice him get into bed with me and Agnes, but I swear on our children's lives...I swear, those do not point to any kind of involvement," Liz said with tears in her eyes.
He pulled her close into a tight hug and rocked her side to side. "Shhh...it's okay...we'll figure..."
"At the end I think I..." Liz stammered.
He rubbed her back.
"I shouldn't have made that statement," she said as she cried into him. "I was fooled myself. He tricked me into thinking he wasn't all bad, that his intentions were...I'm so sorry Don."
He patted her hair and kissed her hair.
"It's going to be okay," he said softly.
"Is it ever going to be?" Liz asked him.
He didn't know what to say. So, he reached into his pocket and pulled out two letters. He stepped back from her and held them up.
"You're still writing me," he smiled.
"I guess I can just leave them on your nightstand...that is if...please tell me you aren't leaving again," Liz said as she looked into his eyes.
"I'm not," he said before he leaned down and kissed her nose.
"I'm not leaving," he said before he kissed her forehead.
"I'm yours," he said before he kissed her one teary cheek.
"All yours," he said as he kissed the other cheek.
"Because I love you," he said before he gently kissed her lips.
"I love you too," Liz said when their lips slowly pulled apart at the end of the kiss.
To be continued...
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