Distraction

In all the things he could have been over his head in, his cover job as an elementary school teacher had never even made the list of ones to worry about. He was good with kids and he had found out fairly early on at Bud's school that he actually enjoyed teaching, so when he had been forming up the alias Tom Keen, he had chosen the profession. Bud had been in the business too long to call any cover useless, but he had been hesitant on the Tom Keen one until it had fit perfectly for the Reddington assignment. The fact that Jacob had had it ready and waiting was part of the reason he'd been chosen for it.

The part had been perfect until he and Liz started to get to know each other. Now they'd been dating for several months - he was still keeping her safe, which meant he was still doing his job, even if not following instructions to the letter - and that's how he found himself in the strange position of his work crossing dangerously with a personal life he had never bothered with before her. It was also what landed Liz sitting on his couch and trying to hide a giggle at what was probably a very frustrated expression plastered across his face.

"So, tell me again how you got saddled with this?" Liz asked, taking a long sip from her oversized tea mug to hide her grin.

Tom sat on trash bags laid out to protect his living room floor, surrounded by pumpkins, pieces of paper with childish drawings sprawled across them, and tools that were supposedly for carving. He looked up from the ruined pumpkin in his hands and blinked a moment before his eyes focused in on the piece that was stuck to his glasses. Trying to clean them was pointless at this point. "A couple of the teachers thought it'd be fun to throw a big Halloween party for the kids. Somehow I landed pumpkin carving duty."

"You've never carved a pumpkin before, have you?" Liz asked with a teasing smile.

"What was your first clue?"

She grinned and set her mug down on the coffee table, moving to take a seat on the floor with him. She scooter right next to him and reached over to pick up the knife from his other side. "The first clue was that you don't seem to know where to start," she answered and he offered a sheepish grin. "Did you never carve pumpkins as a kid?"

Tom pursed his lips thoughtfully, weighing how much truth to give her. He found himself wrapping as much truth up into his lies as possible, an unexplainable urge for her to know him, not just the mask he wore, driving him. He was pretty sure that the story of the one time he'd been in a foster home where they had tried to let the kids have some fun with the pumpkins and how one of the girls had pulled the knife on one of the boys was probably a little too much truth for this stage. "Not really. I kind of think my parents must have had a bad experience with Craig, so I never got a chance."

Liz's smile faded a little. "You and your brother don't really get along, do you?"

He shrugged. "We're better than we were. Can't choose family, I guess. What about you? Did your dad teach you?"

Her expression brightened considerably, just like it always did when she talked about Sam. "Yeah, we'd carve a couple of them every year. It was always a lot of fun. You want me to show you?"

"You mean before I ruin another one?" he asked and Liz leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"You said it not me," she teased. "First thing you need is a sharpie."

"Kitchen drawer closest to the sink." He watched her stand to go get it, her hands still clean enough to rummage around for it.

Liz returned a moment later, retaking her seat just next to him, and started drawing where she would cut. The lid was first and Tom watched as she cut it and began to dig the insides out. "Sam and I would always go out on the porch to do this. One year we had so much fun with it that we had ten of them by the time we were done."

A small smile perked his lips as he listened to her talk about her childhood. It was so starkly different from his own. He had been passed around, wanted and accepted by no one until Bud had picked him up off the streets, but Liz had found a real home with Sam. She had been cared for and loved without conditions. Funny, though, that he didn't feel any jealousy over such happy moments. All he felt was the same small happiness that he was growing accustomed to every time she opened up about her family. She had been happy, and Sam had helped make her the person that she was right then. The person that sat with him on the floor and was teaching him to carve pumpkins for a class full of ten year olds. The person that made him feel, if he let himself sink into the moment, like someone might actually care about him.

"What?" Liz laughed and Tom realized he'd been staring.

"Just you," he breathed honestly and leaned forward. She didn't pull away, but met him halfway between, her lips against his and his fingers touched hers, taking her hand.

Liz laughed as she pulled back a little, raising her hand still gripped in his. They were both covered in pumpkin and it was only half a beat before he joined in the laugh. It was strange how easy it was to laugh and smile around this woman.

She leaned forward and gave him another quick kiss. "Stop distracting me. We're doing this for the kids, remember?"

Tom grinned and sat back. "You want me to start on the next one while you cut the face in?"

"You sure you're not going to cut a finger off or something?"

He rolled his eyes dramatically. "You do realize I use knives when I cook, right? It's not like I've never handled one before."

"Could have fooled me," she teased and his smile didn't fade. Not for the first time since their lives had become intertwined, he wondered if this was what love felt like. He had always thought that people put on a bit of an act, exaggerating what love was, but if this was it, he could understand it. He would give anything to stay in it and with her.

"I love you," he told her, his grin still not fading.

Hers grew. It was still new to them both, but Tom wasn't sure that the feeling even could fade with time. "I love you too, but you're making it really hard to concentrate right now."

He chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose, reaching for a new pumpkin. "Pumpkins first," he agreed firmly, starting in on the lid of the next one. After a moment he realized that she wasn't working on hers, and when he glanced up he found her watching him this time. "Hmm?"

"Well, it is Friday evening and these just need to be done by Monday, right?"

Tom nodded slowly.

"I guess we might have time for a little distraction," she offered with a sly smile.

"Well, we do have all weekend, and since I have an amazing girlfriend that offered to help, it's going to cut the time in half."

"You do have an amazing girlfriend," Liz agreed and leaned in to kiss him.

Tom felt himself melt into it, not caring if they were both covered in pumpkin or if it got everywhere. Her laughter filled his ears as they toppled back onto the floor, careful of the sharper objects as she landed on top of him, plucking his glasses from his nose and kissing him again. He wasn't a man easily distracted from a goal, but Elizabeth Scott had definitely proved capable of stealing his attention any time she chose.

Notes: It's October and I needed cute Keen2 Halloween fluff. I'm just going to say that his apartment has hardwood floors, because otherwise I feel like pumpkin would be almost impossible to clean up out of carpet.