So many miles between us now
But you are always here with me
Here with Me, Susie Suh
Back to You
The boot slammed hard into his middle and Jacob couldn't choke back the pained sound that escaped him as he curled a little further into himself. Everything hurt. He wasn't sure how long he had been there or even where there was, but he did know the relentless, single question that they had asked him since they had tossed him into the room.
"Where is she?"
The boot pressed against battered ribs and he tried to pull away as best as he could, but there was nowhere to go. A struggling moan left him, but quickly turned into a yelp as the pressure swiftly increased. He could feel the bones giving under the weight and if they were weakened enough they would eventually break.
The next blow left him sputtering and coughing, and Jacob hoped he'd just bitten his tongue for the taste that filled his mouth. He did his best to glare. "You think this'll change my mind?" he managed, every other word halted.
His assailant bent down and took up a fistful of his dark hair, pulling him up until Jacob was on his knees. He could feel his left leg protest the weight, a deep gash they had left in it pulling and probably opening up again as if he hadn't lost enough blood already. The dimly lit room was pulsing dangerously, shadows threatening his focus. "You have a way to contact her."
"Doesn't mean I will. Told you that already. Don't make me repeat myself."
The grip on his hair tightened and Jacob winced. He should just let himself pass out. He was getting to the point that he was fighting it, but why should he? He wished that he had lost count of what all they had done. He was half drowned from the waterboarding, burned from the electric shock, and exhausted from sleep deprivation. Three fingers on his left hand were badly broken, his shoulder likely out of socket, and he was having trouble breathing. He didn't want to know how bad off his ribs were or just what sort of damage couldn't be seen. Jacob was bruised and beaten, the gash in his leg not the only one he was sporting. There was a particularly deep one in his upper back, between his right shoulder blade and his spine where they had gotten a knife in him before capturing him, and it made moving that arm painful. One sharp retort he had given had landed him with an aching jaw and another seeing stars as they slammed his head against the unyielding wall. The second slam into it had caused him to blackout, but for how long he had no way to know.
"She'll come for you and all of this can end," his captor promised.
"I know she would," Jacob answered, blue eyes flickering up to meet the steady gaze. "That's why I'll never tell her. You'll kill me before I do, so you should just get on with it."
He found himself crumbling to the floor then, the sudden release surprising him enough that he couldn't fight gravity. He landed in a heap and groaned painfully.
"She'll come for you. Maybe she'll even get a chance to say goodbye."
Jacob didn't move for several long moments, even after the door slammed shut. Finally he rolled, slowly stretching his limbs out as best as he could. Chains rattled as he moved and he flexed bare toes. At least Lizzy had given him boots when she had chained him to the wall. These guys had stripped him of his shoes and socks, leaving him in jeans and a thin tshirt. He was cold, shivering, and hurting.
They were going to figure out eventually that they would get nothing from him. He had destroyed the burner that he used to contact Liz and any numbers that might or might not be valid anymore were locked in his head. He had excelled in remaining steady under all levels of stress during his training. The key was not to have a thing they could use against him. In this case, his one weakness was the one they were trying to get him to give up. They didn't stand a chance.
The door swung open again without warning and Jacob looked up. The same man that had been leading the interrogation since he'd gotten there strode in, coal black eyes fixed on him. "It's your lucky day, Mr Phelps."
"Yeah?" Jacob managed, trying to get his arms under him to push himself up and off of the filthy floor. He didn't get a chance as two guards took him, one on each side, and hauled him up. A strangled cry escaped him at the movement, more than one of his injuries screaming in protest, and they put him unsteadily on his feet.
"Yeah," his tormentor agreed. "We didn't need you to make contact. We found her, and I think she'll want to negotiate when she sees what we have."
Jacob snorted. "You get that she's my ex wife, right? She's not going to trade her life for mine."
"We'll see about that," his captor said with more cheer than seemed appropriate, and he motioned for the others to bring Jacob along.
As the chains were unhooked from the wall and he was shoved forward, his leg giving under his weight and he felt the world shifting dangerously around him, all Jacob could think of was that for once he was glad that Reddington hated him so much. At least the man wouldn't let her play hero.
Red was hiding something from her. She knew he was. Months on the run had given Elizabeth Keen a unique perspective on the Concierge of Crime that few had, and she was pretty sure it also gave her the right to a little trust by this point. She stopped on the sidewalk, arms crossed over her chest, and waited until Red turned around.
"Lizzy, we really don't have time to-"
"What aren't you telling me?" she cut him off.
Red frowned a little. "There are quite a few things that I haven't mentioned today, mostly because they aren't relevant. Let's get to the plane and you're welcome to ask anything you wish."
"This is important. I know it, and you're not telling me."
"Lizzy-"
"Don't Lizzy me. You swore, Red. Honesty was part of this deal." She motioned broadly, but he knew what she meant. "What are you not telling me that you think I need to be on a plane off the ground to hear?"
"Elizabeth Keen."
Liz turned, her name bouncing off of the empty street and she heard Reddington take a protective step towards her. A man stood there, thin and dark skinned. He smiled at her, his expression relaxed and his suit pristine. He held his hands up, the smile remaining. "Mr Reddington, I'm not here to take Ms Keen against her will. Only to speak and make an offer. If she turns it down, she's welcome to leave as if I had never spoken to her."
"Elizabeth, we need to go," Reddington said tensely, but there was something in the man's voice that amused her to pause.
"You couldn't have anything that I would want. Not if you're with the Cabal."
"Oh, I think you're wrong there," the man said cheerfully, motioning to the alleyway.
Red's hand closed around her arm, ready to pull her away as two more men rounded the corner, carrying a limp figure between them. Liz ripped out of his grasp as she recognized him, her ex's name falling from her lips.
"It took us a while to find the connection. Your task force is a weakness, of course, but we'd rather avoid all this messiness with a federal agent if possible. Your ex husband though-" the man looked over to Tom who looked like he was struggling back towards consciousness between the two large men holding him up - "well, it took a bit longer to uncover the truth about that. Seems you two still have a soft spot for each other." He reared back without warning, slamming his fist into Tom's middle and blue eyes flew open as he coughed and sputtered against the blow before sagging again.
"Elizabeth," Red growled in her ear and she pulled fully away from him.
"You knew," she hissed, betrayal working its way deep into her voice. She turned back around in the Cabal representatives. "What do you want?"
The man who was running the whole ordeal motioned and they tossed Tom onto the street between them. He lay there a moment, barely moving, and Liz's mind was in overdrive to find a way to get him up and out of there. Red might try to argue, but he didn't have that option in her mind. He'd been ready to let Tom rot in the Cabal's custody.
"His freedom for you seems fair."
Tom snorted from his place, and apparently he was closer to consciousness than Liz had realized. "Told you before," he said in a rough, strained voice that confirmed his injuries as much as the blood did, "she's my ex for a reason. Liz doesn't care enough to exchange me for her."
He was looking at her, one eye half swollen shut, but the underlying meaning to his words were clear. Don't do it.
Liz jumped as two gun shots went off and the two men that had carried Tom in fell dead. She turned to see Red with his gun drawn, expression tight, and his entire focus was on the dark skinned man with the polite tone. The man was still smiling, even as Reddington spoke. "I've heard of the Cabal's attack dog, and while I'm sure this won't be our last run in, you're not leaving with her today. I'd suggest you go. The police in this city have a decent response time to gunfire. Elizabeth, get Tom. We're leaving."
Liz didn't hesitate to dart forward. Tom was already pushing himself up, favouring his left arm as he did, and when she saw the mess his hand was she could understand. Carefully she knelt, taking hold of his right arm. "Hey, careful," she murmured.
"'m okay," he managed, everything in his voice screaming that he wasn't.
"Lean on me," Liz said, leaving no room for argument. He did so as his leg nearly buckled under him and she wrapped an arm around his middle as carefully as she could.
"Till next time," the man said as if he hadn't just lost two agents and a prisoner without gaining anything in return.
Liz risked a look at Red who was fuming just beneath his mask of calm. He took Tom's other arm to help speed them up, and Liz's ex half swallowed a pained sound as the older man did little to worry over jarring his injuries. "We're getting on the plane and leaving. You and I will discuss this once we're in the air," Red told her, motioning to Tom, and Liz couldn't help but feel a little bit like a scolded child.
Jacob woke slowly, the sound of the airplane engines the first thing he noticed. The second, and a close second at that, was what sounded like a lecture. It took him a moment, but Reddington's voice became more clear and Jacob's eyes finally fluttered open.
"I wasn't going to just leave him there," Liz bit back. "Anyway, you knew they had him, didn't you? You kept that from me and were going to keep it from me until I couldn't do anything about it!"
"Yes I was. Elizabeth, you have a blind spot for that man and Solomon knew that. Heaven knows how he did, but he did."
"I think he was trying to gauge her reaction," Jacob managed from his spot, trying to sit up and his left arm buckled under him, sending him crashing back down to the bench seat he was stretched out on.
"Tom, lie down," Liz said as she moved into his line of sight, bent over him and smoothing his hair back. "We'll be able to get you to a doctor when we land, but you need to keep still until then. We don't know how bad the injuries are."
"I'm okay," he said with a strained smile that he knew didn't fool her. "I will be, anyway. They aren't the only ones that got information."
"What do you mean?" Reddington asked, curiosity peeked.
Jacob finally got himself up enough that he could slouch back against the seat rather than across it. Liz took a seat next to him, expression tight with worry. He reached his uninjured hand out and touched hers, noting for the first time that at least some of his wounds were bandaged. His broken fingers were in splints, tape wrapped around that wrist and he could feel gauze wrapped against his leg and taped to his back to keep the two deepest wounds from bleeding openly.
"Tom?" Reddington called, pulling his attention back to the subject at hand.
"I heard some things while I was there. Tidbits, but useful. They had another prisoner in there that they seemed to be trying to flip. It sounded like they're looking for a mole to infiltrate your task force."
Liz stiffened at his side. "Why?"
"Well now that they know the lengths you're willing to go, likely to try getting to you through others you care about," Reddington answered.
"If you'd just told me-"
"Liz?" Jacob called, catching hold of one waving hand. "Hey? Can't believe I'm saying this, but he was right not to. What would you have done if you'd known I was in there?"
"I would have gotten in and-"
"Gotten yourself killed," he said softly. She bit her lip, glaring at him and Jacob chuckled. "I appreciate it, I do, but I never want you to risk your life for mine."
"Tom-"
"If you got yourself killed trying to save me... Lizzy, I couldn't forgive that."
"I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me."
"Hey, I could have given you up and it wouldn't have happened. That was my choice, not yours. This isn't your fault."
"And if you had died for me, I couldn't have forgiven you either," she managed, her voice trembling just a little.
Jacob could see the way that the running was getting to her. He had heard it in her voice the handful of times they'd spoken since she'd gone off with Reddington and he'd taken off on his boat. Liz was strong and she was resilient, but looking at her now, he saw a fear had crept in that it would never end. That she would never make it home and that she would get everyone she cared about killed as she ran. On instinct he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead and she wrapped her arms around him, burying of face in his chest. It hurt, but he pushed it down and stroked her hair as she tried so hard not try cry, as if she were the lone person trying to keep an entire dam from breaking. In her own way, she probably thought she was.
"It's okay," he promised. "What do you need?"
"This," she whispered, clinging just a little tighter.
"Then you have it," Jacob whispered and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
Surprisingly, Reddington didn't say anything as Liz held onto her ex husband, soft crying the only sound from either of them. It subsided after a while and Jacob was pretty sure that she was asleep against him, but his fingers continued working through her dyed blonde hair - something he was just then noticing after everything - and she snuggles closer.
"That can't be comfortable with the injuries you have," Reddington said gruffly as he draped a blanket over Liz.
Jacob couldn't help the small, quirked smile. "Doesn't matter. I'd rather have her here."
The man that had once been his employer took the seat directly across from the bench and crossed his legs at the knee. He was silent to the point that Jacob had nearly dozed back off by the time he spoke. "It isn't Elizabeth that would bear the burden of guilt if she had died for you," he murmured, and it took Jacob a moment to realize that Reddington wasn't so much reminding him of the fact as acknowledging that that's what Jacob had meant, even if Liz hadn't recognized it.
Two pairs of blue eyes met and Jacob's shifted to look down towards the woman that he loved. "I've done a lot of things I should probably feel bad for, but I don't. I was doing my job, but..." He pulled in a steadying breath. "But I couldn't live with myself if she died for me."
"That… is something I can understand," Reddington answered quietly.
Jacob's lips quirked up slightly at the corners. "Guess that means we better keep her alive."
He heard Reddington snort, but the older man didn't say anything further. Jacob sank just a little deeper against the cushions, Liz pressed up against him in sleep. They could get through it. They were together then, and together they could face anything.
Notes: It's always bothered me that Red tells Liz early in S1 that he can understand a man willing to burn the world down for the person that he loves, but he never seems to be able to accept Jacob. Jacob has proven again and again he's willing to give up everything for Liz, yet Red hates him passionately, even though he's acknowledged that Jacob loves Liz and has gone to great lengths to stay with her. I really just need Red to acknowledge it once. Just once, and to Jacob.