Part two.

The plan was fairly simple. Aram would take the cameras offline along with communications. Power would be cut and it would give them a chance to get in down through the elevator shaft. It was a relatively small team: Baz at point, three of his men, Dembe, and Jacob. Originally Reddington had intended to waltz in there with them, but between Dembe and Mr Kaplan they had talked him out of it. The fact that he'd voiced the idea at all - knowing that the Cabal would be waiting for him to make a move like that - made Jacob a little uneasy. One of the things that made Reddington such a dangerous enemy was how precisely calculated he was, but just as she had always been, Lizzy was a bit of a blind spot for him.

Not that Jacob didn't have the same problem. He just hoped that he'd live to see her again.

Things went smoother than he would have predicted. They made it down the shaft before the bullets started flying, but he had been right in thinking the Cabal would be anticipating their arrival. It was late and the majority of non essential personnel should be gone, but there were plenty of people to shoot at them. They took cover where they could, but one of Baz's men went down in the firefight.

"Red's not sure we can trust you, but I've seen you fight," the older man said as took cover behind a pole just across from Jacob. "What do you say?"

"I say I'm here for Liz and I don't give a damn what Reddington thinks."

Baz smirked. "Need you to take the southern route that James was going to take and circle around the other side opposite of Dembe."

"Got it."

"Don't get yourself killed, kid."

"You either," he answered and pushed off to dive for his route. Dembe was ahead of him already, but if he pushed himself he could catch up. Her holding cell would be well guarded and he'd need all the help he could get to get her out.

Jacob had cleared the next room and was halfway across it when a bullet ricocheted off the floor at his feet, nearly catching him. It was a warning shot, though, and blue eyes turned to see a woman standing with her firearm raised, ready to fire if necessary. "Don't move," she instructed, her accent unexpected and a small smirk played on her lips as she stepped forward. "You must be Tom."

He tilted his head a little. "I feel like Liz talked about me to you people a whole lot more than she talked about all of this to me."

"Probably a good thing, from what I hear."

Jacob's lips perked up at the corners. "I'm not leaving her here. You want to stop me, you're going to have to shoot me."

"I hear that doesn't work very well either."

"Does everyone know that story?" he grumbled, but was moving before she could answer. She was fast, and the fact that he didn't particularly want to kill one of Liz's team members brought him in close. Surprisingly enough she didn't take another shot at him, but they exchanged blows close in and he could tell she'd received her training somewhere other than the FBI.

"My favourite is the one where you came back for her after it," she said, ducking low and she got a good hit in, causing him to stagger a little. He wasn't holding back against this woman. She stopped suddenly and stood straight. "And keep coming back for her. Call me a romantic, but Liz could certainly do worse." Her dark gaze traveled up and down him and Jacob wasn't sure if she was flirting, fighting, or a bit of both. "It'd be nice to work with you someday, when this is all over, but for now, I need you to make it look real. I have a bit of a reputation."

He blinked at her for a moment, trying to gauge if he understood what she was saying. She wasn't going to try to stop him. "You're Samar."

"I am."

"I promised someone I wouldn't hurt you."

A smile spread. "Aram," she chuckled. "All the best intentions. Do you want to get Liz out or not, Tom? You'll do what needs to be done. Preferably before anyone catches me basically letting you walk past me."

He snorted and she smirked. He could see why the tech geek liked her. Spunk didn't begin to cover it.

Samar came at him again and he dodged, landing a blow hard enough to knock her out cold.

The alarms were screaming, the lights were dimmed, and it had every sign of being a potential break out. Leave it to Reddington.

The door at the other end of the large holding room opened up and the guards on the outside of the box only relaxed a little as Ressler came striding through. Liz sat up on the small cot. "What's going on?"

"What do you think?" her former partner demanded. "Reddington is trying to tear this place apart to get to you." He turned towards the guards. "Get a transport ready. We're moving her to another black site."

"Sir, the Director-"

"The Director isn't in charge of this task force," Ressler growled. "I am. Do it."

Liz watched her two guards scramble out of the room, and Ressler cringed at the gunshots that followed. The door slid back open and Dembe appeared, gun aimed and determination set across his features. "Agent Ressler, I do not want to injure you-"

"Just like those guys?" the blond snapped, motioning out the door.

"They'll live. Please, open the box."

Liz watched a man she'd come to know fairly well straighten his back. "Cameras are down," he muttered. "At least half the staff is linked to this Cabal you guys are up against. Those are just the ones I know about." He turned, fitting his hand against the biometric reader and punching in the code. "But I can't do a damn thing if they know that I know that. Cuff me to the chair. Shut it up tight, and Liz?"

She had to remind herself the breathe as the door opened. He was letting her go. He really did believe her. "Yeah?"

"We're going to make these bastards pay. They can't manipulate us like this."

Her emotions felt like they were running wild and she stepped forward before she gave herself permission to, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight hug. "Thank you, Ressler."

"Don't thank me yet. Get yourself out of here and don't get caught again. These guys are out for blood and my hands are pretty tied."

Liz heard someone clear their throat from the door and she released Ressler, surprised to see who was standing there. "Tom!"

Her partner turned and she thought the temperature in the room might have actually dropped a degree or two.

"We need to move," Dembe said gently. "Are we clear?"

"As much as it can be and for now," Tom answered, his voice tight.

"Be careful, Keen," Ressler said as he stepped into the box and Dembe fastened him to the chair and closed the door.

Liz stepped towards her ex, trying to find a balance between being happy to see him and unhappy that he'd risked his life to come get her. She had just been lamenting that she would never have a chance to see him again, speak to him, or tell him things that she thought he probably knew, but needed to hear and that she needed to say. Even with all that, her voice was small with what she managed. "Hey."

"Hey," he greeted, handing her a gun and his tone was all business, his eyes focussed. "We're going to go out through the southern-"

She took his newly free hand in her own and he stopped mid-sentence and looked like he'd forgotten the plan entirely. He blinked at her, an expression that was usually saved for the earliest hours of the morning before coffee resting there before he shook it off. "We have to go," he said firmly, and she thought he was telling himself as much as her.

"Right." She squeezed his hand before releasing it. They could talk about it all when they were both out and safe. She wouldn't let her need for answers come between making sure he knew everything. That he knew just how much she still loved him.

It happened so fast that Liz barely had a chance to follow it. A man dressed in black - one that she didn't recognise as a regular at the Post Office - came through the door with his gun raised. His eyes met hers and recognition flickered through his gaze. The shot went off before she could level her own weapon and she blinked hard, waiting for the pain to set in.

A moment ticked by before her brain registered that she was no longer looking at the man bent on killing her, but at Tom's back. It was stiff and straight, like he was frozen there, and she hadn't even seen him move. A second shot went off and the man in black fell to the ground from a bullet to the head.

"Tom?" Liz breathed, touching his back lightly as she circled around. His gun wasn't raised, but Dembe's was, and realization sank slowly in. He hadn't shot the man. There hadn't been time. He had only stepped in the way.

His features were pulled tight and she reached out as his knees gave way beneath him, helping to ease his fall to the floor. She pressed down against where blood was already soaking through his t-shirt and he gave a struggling, pained sound. "Stop," he wheezed. "You have to go."

"I'm not leaving you," she managed. "Tom, I'm not-"

"There's no time. Just..." He coughed hard, eyes squeezing shut against the pain.

Liz looked back and Dembe was already moving forward. The tall man stooped down, pulling Tom up without a word, and her ex husband gave a small yelp before his eyes rolled and he went limp. Dembe nodded. "We'll get him out, Elizabeth, but we must hurry."

She nodded, gripping her gun tightly. They had to move quickly or the halls would be swarmed with guards and the Cabal would win. That wasn't an option.

Reddington was waiting when they came through the door. He glared a little at the still-unconscious Tom that Dembe was hauling inside, but Dembe seemed to know where to take him for medical attention. Red stopped Liz by the arm before she could follow, his eyes focused on the blood on his shirt. "Are you hurt?"

"No. Tom... He got in the way. I need to-"

"No, you don't. Dembe will make sure that the medical team looks after him." There was a slight twitch to his expression and Liz wondered if he meant to have Tom come back from the mission at all. He was looking over her, as if trying to assess if she were being truthful about any injuries, and she frowned.

"Ressler knows the Cabal has taken over the task force."

"While I'd prefer you never repeat this to him, Donald is a clever man. I thought he might."

"Agent Keen! You're okay!"

Liz turned to see Aram jogging towards her. He looked ready to burst, like all of his nerves had loosened at once, and when he stopped himself just shy of hugging her she pulled him forward. "I'm okay. Did you... Are you how they bypassed security?"

"We'll be looking into the situation to see if you'll be returning to work or if I'll be temporarily retaining your services until this is all over," Reddington stated.

"I... Yes. Yes I was. We believe you, Liz. Agent Ressler and Samar and I. Speaking of... is she...? Tom said he'd keep an eye out for her. Where is he?"

Liz felt the knot in the pit of her stomach return. "He was hurt. I'm sure she's fine, though. If Tom promised to keep an eye out for her, I'm sure she's fine."

"You put too much faith in that man, Lizzy," Red huffed.

"He took a bullet for me," the former agent snapped. "The man was going to kill me and Tom stepped into the way."

Reddington blinked at her as if that bit of information wasn't something he expected. Maybe that would do it, then. Maybe they could finally put their squabbling behind them for her.

"Is he okay?" Aram asked, breaking through her thoughts.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." She strode past both men and towards the back of the safe house they had delivered her into. She could hear shuffling and moving in the back, and Baz was sitting in a chair just outside a set of closed doors, a woman stitching up a nasty looking gash in his arm. Dembe looked up from where he'd been speaking with him.

"That blood yours?" Baz asked.

"Tom's," she answered, eyes flickering to Dembe. "What are they saying?"

"The bullet looks to have broken a couple of ribs, and they are unsure how deep the damage goes yet. They won't let you in."

Liz felt her heart sink. "Everyone else okay?"

"Lost James," Baz said tightly. "The rest of us aw mostly whole except your husband."

She nodded and leaned against the wall. Dembe resumed his conversation and excused himself a few minutes later. The nurse offered to check Liz over when she was done with Baz, but the former agent waved her off. Reddington hadn't followed her, so she was left alone in the hall outside of the room where they were treating Tom. She assumed he was in surgery, but they hadn't even told her that much. Instead she was left to her own imagination and her own thoughts.

Hours may have passed - it certainly felt like it anyway - before footsteps echoed down the hall. Liz risked a tired glance up and Aram offered her a cup of coffee. "Mind if I join you?"

"Thanks," she managed and took it. "Does Red know if you can go back or not?"

"Not yet."

"I'm sorry, Aram. I know how much the task force means to you."

"To you too. We'll get this cleared up. It'll be okay."

She tried for a smile. His optimism bordered on nativity, but in a way it was refreshing. "Guess we'll have to if you want to ask Samar out, hmm?"

He blushed, his whole face going red. "I... Uh... Is it that obvious?"

"Oh yeah, but it's okay. She thinks it's cute."

"Cute isn't exactly what a guy wants to hear," he sighed, but his lips quirked up ever so slightly. It faded, though, and he turned to look at her. "Any news on Tom yet?"

"They haven't said, but... I'm nervous."

"He gave me something before they left out and asked me to give it to you when you got here... if he couldn't. I mean, I think he meant that if he died - which he isn't going to, of course - but maybe it'll give you something to hold onto until you can see him?"

Liz watched him as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of cloth. He unfolded it, long fingers careful with it, and blue eyes focused on a small, silver ring hooked onto a chain. Suddenly she couldn't breathe.

"I guess he's held onto it. He told me to give it to you and to tell you that he loves you."

Her vision blurred as she reached for Tom's wedding ring. He'd never mentioned it to her that he had kept it, but as she ran her fingers across the smooth surface of the outside of the ring, and then on the engraving inside, she thought she recognized the chain as one he wore when she had held him on the boat. She hadn't put a lot of thought into it at the time, but now she realized that even then he had kept it on him. Through all of that he had held onto it.

"Agent Keen?" Aram asked uncertainly and she looked up, feeling tears spill over.

"I haven't told him," she whispered. "Not since... Not since I found out. What if he doesn't know?"

Dark eyes blinked at her. "What if he doesn't know what?"

"That I love him," she whispered. He needed to hear her say it. Even before everything had come to light there had been something in Tom that needed to hear it verbalised. She had attributed it to being the second child with a brother like Craig, but now... She wasn't entirely sure what his childhood had been like with the exception of the fact that he didn't like to talk about it and that he had been trained as an undercover operative since he was fourteen. He needed to know. He needed to be told - and reminded - that he was loved.

"You can still tell him," Aram said quietly. "I'm sure he'll be happy to hear it."

She nodded and held onto the ring tightly. Her own rings were lost, just like everything else she had left behind to go on the run. How he had held onto his, only he could tell her. It made her wonder what else he had. Her fingers worked the fasten open and she slipped it around her neck. It weighed on her, but at least it was something, as Aram said, to hold onto while they waited.

The room came into focus slowly and Jacob felt the uncomfortable sensation of of pain medication dulling his senses. He blinked against it, trying to force himself to focus. All he managed to do was find the pain and a small groan escaped him.

"Hey," a voice greeted him and his gaze drifted over. Liz was sitting in a chair by his bedside, a tired smile tugging at her lips. She looked like she hadn't slept in a while.

"Hey," he croaked, throat scratchy and dry. He swallowed hard. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Some idiot thought stepping in front of a bullet to keep it from hitting me was a good idea." She leaned forward, her touch gentle as she smoothed back his dark hair. "How're you feeling?"

"Groggy," he answered and tried to reach up to take her hand. He didn't quite make it, but she didn't let him fumble too long before taking hold of it and squeezing his fingers.

"That's the medication. Red had a team on standby for any injuries."

"How pissed was he I was still breathing?" Jacob chuckled, but instantly regretted it when Liz's lips tugged downward. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay. I've just been worried."

"How long was I out?"

"I'm not really sure what time it is... The surgery took a few hours and they've kept you sedated. The bullet broke two ribs and cracked a third."

He winced. He was going to be off his feet for a while.

"Thank you."

He looked up, her eyes catching his. "Anytime."

She snorted and smiled a little. "Let's avoid putting any more holes in you, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan," he breathed, feeling the medication begin to tug him back towards sleep. He didn't want to follow, though, not with Liz right there. She might have to leave again while he slept, and he didn't know when he'd see her next.

"Aram said you left something for me."

Jacob cracked an eye open at that and focused on the necklace that rested against her blouse. "Wasn't sure I was coming back. I needed..." He swallowed hard, fighting to keep control against the tidal waves of emotions that the conversation was suddenly dumping on him. She was wearing it. "I needed to make sure you knew."

Liz was staring at him, her expression more open than it had been in a long time. She leaned over him, pressing a careful kiss to his chapped lips. "I was so scared I wouldn't get to say it."

His eyes fluttered back open slowly, her kiss leaving him feeling like he was floating. "Say what?"

"That I love you."

He was grinning like an idiot, he was sure of it, and this time Jacob did manage to reach clumsily up to touch her face. She leaned into it and his words escaped on a breath. "Love you too."

Her smile made everything worth it. The pain would fade and the dangers could be beat, and if fighting with his very life let him see that smile again, he was sure it was worth it.

"So," she said as she pulled her chair a little closer, "I was thinking."

"Uh oh," he chuckled and she rolled her eyes.

"You're running and I'm running. If you and Reddington can act like adults for more than five minutes-"

"Hey now," he groused.

"- then maybe we don't have to go in separate directions just yet."

"Run together?"

"And fight this together," she said firmly. "I can't run forever."

"Not sure my boat can take three of us," Jacob managed with a small smile.

"We can figure out the logistics later. I just... I don't want to be away from you, Tom."

"I don't want to be away from you either." He settled a little deeper against his pillow and felt her press a kiss to his hand.

"We'll figure out the rest when you feel better."

He nodded tiredly, forcing an eye open. "Stay?"

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised and he felt himself fading back into sleep. Reddington wouldn't be any happier sharing her with Jacob than Jacob was sharing her with Reddington, but Liz was right. They were both adults and, if they both cared for her like they said they did, they needed to find a way to make this work. "Love you," he whispered drowsily.

"Love you too, babe," she answered and he thought he felt her shift to lie on the bed with him, leaned in as close as she could without hurting him. He drifted off, her presence a welcome change to his recent time alone. It was familiar and more right than anything he had ever known, and he wouldn't give it up for all the world.

End.

Notes: Well now that I got that out of my system... Hope you guys liked this little two-parter! :)