Wash, Rinse, Repeat Part 9
Author's Note: The final chapter is here! I hope you like the way I concluded it.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Don Ressler searched the crowd around him anxiously.
"Where are you?" He asked himself more than anyone.
"Pardon?" The man next to him asked.
"Oh, sorry, nothing," Ressler apologized to the man.
"Your kid racing?" The man asked Ressler.
"Yeah, her race is next," he said, looking at Agnes sitting with her rowing teammate in the water preparing to start.
"BU?" The man asked.
Don nodded.
"What's her name? My daughter is on the second-string team that trains with those elite ones," he smiled. "She did one of the races at the start."
"Agnes," Ressler smiled at him.
"Agnes Ressler?!" The man asked excitedly. "I hear she's an Olympic contender for double sculls? There was an entire article about her in the alumni magazine."
Ressler couldn't help but smile; Agnes was going to the Olympics, he didn't doubt that for a second. "Yeah, we'll see."
"Wow," the man said as he looked at Ressler in awe. "She's a fantastic rower."
"We took it up when she was younger and she...well, she took to it like a fish in water, or a rower in water as is the case. She trains hard."
"She must," he said as he looked back at the race starting. "You row?"
"I learned with her," Ressler smiled. "My son rows too but he can't keep up with his sister. And I can't keep up with him so..."
The two men chuckled.
"He a contender?" the man asked as the officials seemed to be talking and the race was delayed.
"Maybe?" Ressler asked as he looked around the crowd trying hard to spot them. "He is coming here with his sister next year."
"Both kids in Boston, I hope your commute to see the events isn't bad," the man chuckled.
"Washington until recently," Ressler said. "Just moved here. With both kids here..."
"You'll like it," the man smiled. "It's a nice city and if you ever want to get a beer...I'm Ted Wallace, Brianne is my daughter."
"Don Ressler," Ressler smiled at him and shook his hand. "I'd like that."
Ted handed him his business card and Ressler thanked him and put it in his pocket.
Ressler watched them ready for the race.
The gun went off and Agnes and her teammate were off like a shot. The other team did well at the start but then lost steam while Agnes and Emma ploughed ahead.
"Go!" Ressler said as he watched his girl. She was in perfect form. Her coaches, since she was young, commented how she was all about the form whereas others were about speed. They said form will get you the speed one day but speed without form will blow your joints.
His eyes flicked to the clock. If they kept this up, they would set a new record...
"Yes!" Ressler yelled as he pumped his fist in the air. The time looked good for a new record.
"Holy shit that was amazing," Ted clapped Ressler on the back. "This counted as a time trial, right?"
Ressler nodded.
"It was, and she is," Ressler smiled from ear to ear.
He then spotted Liz and Luke down below.
"Liz!" He called to her over the cheering crowd.
She turned and caught his eye smiling and cheering. Luke was waving frantically to his sister and pumping "#1" with his finger in the air.
"Olympics!" Liz mouthed to him.
Ressler nodded. She and Emma made the time today.
"I gotta get down to my family," Ressler clapped Ted on the back. "But I'll take you up on that beer, Ted."
"Call me," Ted smiled. "And congratulations!"
Ressler thanked him and wove his way down the stands and through the crowd to Liz and Luke.
"Did you see that dad?!" Luke screamed before he took off for the docks. "She blew them away!"
"She did," Ressler smiled as he kissed the side of Liz's face. "What took you so long?"
"Traffic," Liz smiled at him as she wrapped an arm around his waist. "The delayed flight meant we hit rush hour."
Ressler nodded. Luke and Liz had just flown in from DC where they were visiting Aram and Celeste and their third little girl who had just arrived a month ago.
"Babe, we need to put in for the time and book for The Netherlands," Liz said with an ear-to-ear smile. "Our girl is going to the Olympics!"
Her squeal was infectious and he pulled her in for a hug while the announcer confirmed the time and said it was a new record.
He watched Luke run through the crowd and fiercely hug his sister and her teammate Emma.
Ressler kissed the side of Liz's face when he thought of when he knew Agnes had the rowing bug.
"You did some extra laps," Ressler said as he handed her a towel after she pulled her single scull into the dock. It was 7 am and practice had just ended. He had taken a single out for his morning row while her team rowed laps around him. He usually did an hour and then sat and watched them while he drank a coffee. It was a nice start to his mornings and one Liz couldn't do; she liked to sleep in.
"I needed to," Agnes said out of breath. "I was out of rhythm and I needed to get it back before I let up for the day."
She was 14 and they had introduced her to rowing on a whim the summer previous. Ressler and Agnes had taken a parent-child row team class and he had learned what real pain was. She out-rowed him from the start and he had doubled down his training to not embarrass himself. And just as they got even, she pulled away again. It was a tough summer on his body with Liz generously applying Voltarin to his back, shoulders and joints daily while he tried, in vain, to keep up with his athletic and motivated daughter.
The following summer he enrolled in the adult casual rowing class and she in the team training. She moved up the teams quickly and discovered, by the fall that doubles were her racing favorite even though she raced as part of a larger team and as a single as well. She trained 6 days a week and seemed to love every second of it.
"What are you going to do all winter?" Ressler asked.
"We train then too dad," Agnes smiled at him.
"I know you did a little last year, but..."
"Dad, I really want this," she said as she reached for her water.
He looked at her and smiled. She was a girl who knew her own mind, just like her mother, and wasn't one to shy away from a challenge. She was naturally athletic and played a variety of sports over the years, but this was the first time he saw love tempered with determination in a way that he hadn't before.
"Okay, I'll talk to the coach and..." Ressler said as he heaved her bag up over his shoulder.
"He just needs you or mom to sign the forms," Agnes smirked at him. "Oh, and pay him."
"What? You're not financing this yourself?" Ressler chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her and they walked to the truck.
"Daaaad," Agnes whined and chuckled.
"I don't know sweetie," Ressler teased. "It's hundreds a month and..."
"Dad, I promise I'll go to every practice and..." she stopped when she saw the smirk on his face. "Uhhh! You are too much sometimes!"
Ressler chuckled and got in their SUV.
"Get coach to send me the forms and I'll donate a kidney or something to pay for..." he chuckled as he started the car.
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, excited.
"The kidney will be worth it when I make it to the Olympics!" She laughed.
"If you make it to the Olympics I'll donate your mother's kidney too," Ressler laughed.
That night as they settled into bed, Ressler couldn't help but count his blessings. Luke was headed to Boston University in the fall, they were flying to the Netherlands to watch their daughter be an Olympic athlete, his family was safe, his family was healthy, they had a wonderful house, good jobs, money in the bank, nice friends...
"Why do you have such a far-off dreamy look in your eyes?" Liz asked him from the door of their ensuite washroom as she put cream on her hands.
"Just grateful," Ressler smiled at her across the room as he turned down their bed. He was grateful for Reddington's funds that he left Agnes in his will paid for all of Agnes' coaches and training as she moved into the big leagues of rowing. He was grateful when she turned 18 that she still didn't want anything to do with Tom who later died in a jail brawl when she was 19. He was grateful that the craziness of their separation, the kidnapping, and the trial eventually blew over and things went back to normal with them, their family, their friends, and their work. He was also grateful that when they needed to transfer to Boston to be closer to both their kids that positions came up. He was working white collar crimes and Liz was back in forensic psychology. He was grateful for his amazing wife who, after 21 years of marriage still occasionally wrote him a letter, who always...
"You knew this was going to happen," Liz smirked at him, interrupting his thoughts. "Years ago."
"I know my daughter," Ressler smiled back at her.
"She's got your determination, that's for sure," Liz said as she walked back into the washroom. "And, luckily, is an early-bird like you or she'd never be a rower."
He chuckled as he threw one of the many stupid pillows she insisted on placing on their bed everyday onto the floor.
"Why do we have so many throw pillows again?" Ressler teased.
"Uhhhh, stop with the pillows already!" Liz groaned from inside the washroom.
He chuckled. It was an old, and very futile argument. She decorated their new Southie house as she liked and he was just happy her tastes were not florals or pastels.
Agnes was at Boston University on a full scholarship and Luke got a partial one for the fall. Agnes lived on campus in a townhouse with fellow rowers and Luke was going into dormitory residence in the fall. They still bought a 3-bedroom place but Ressler wasn't sure they would need it for more than a few years. Agnes had cut back her schedule to row and it would take her 5 years to get her degree instead of 4 so she was still a couple years away from graduation and could move back in...but Ressler doubted it. She was a 21-year-old girl who enjoyed her freedom from her family; as much as she loved them. He sensed the same would be true for Luke when he got out of the house.
He settled onto the bed and reached for his puzzle.
"What's another word for nipple?" Ressler called to his wife as he chuckled. The sexy puzzle book Liz put in his stocking this year made him snicker every time.
"Teat!" Liz called from the washroom.
"Not enough letters!" He called back.
"Children's ears!" Luke called from down the hall.
"Then shut your door unless you want to know the answer for 'when three people..."
The door slammed and Ressler and Liz broke out into laughter.
"He's going to need therapy for what you put him through," Liz laughed as she took the puzzle book from his hand and put it on his dresser before she shut the door.
She heard her son's music playing down the hall and knew he was probably gaming.
"He's 18 and has yet to do more than kiss a girl," Ressler noted.
"I like that he's naïve and innocent," Liz said as she walked toward the bed.
"I have tried to talk with our son about sex since he was a pre-teen but he is so prudish..." Ressler chuckled as Liz straddled his lap. "Ohh, unlike his mother..."
He ran his hands around her and cupped her behind.
"Or his father," Liz reminded him.
"We go well together," Ressler smirked at her.
"We do," Liz leaned in and kissed him.
The end.
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