What May Come

His head was spinning, thoughts and emotions and possible scenarios blending together and fracturing apart before he could fully process them. Risk assessment was a skill he'd developed over his many years as an operative, but tossing in his own personal emotions into the equation always did make it more difficult to work through to a conclusive end, and this was nothing if not personal.

Tom reached out, his palm pressed against the tiles of the shower wall, the steaming water doing nothing to ease the tension in his shoulders and he loosed a long breath, trying to work through it slowly and steadily.

Raymond Reddington was Liz's father.

It wasn't like he'd never considered it before. In fact, he'd been all but certain of it more than once. He knew Liz had questioned it too, but thinking about it and knowing it were two different things entirely. That blood connection changed everything for her. He had seen how she had reacted when she thought Kirk was her father. She'd wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. She'd wanted to trust him in a way. That desire had clouded her judgement and pushed her as far as putting her own safety in jeopardy. Learning that she and Reddington shared blood…. She would want to trust him. She would want to put faith in him.

But blood connections didn't make people trustworthy. That was a hard lesson Tom had recently learned. Those connections, that desire that a grown child that never known their parents had to get to know them, just made it easier for those parents to manipulate to their own advantage, no matter the collateral damage left in the wake. If Liz went to Reddington, he'd use the newfound relationship to twist her around. He did it easily enough already.

No, Tom needed to have more information before he brought it to her. And he would. He just needed to have as much information as possible so she could make an informed choice.

The curtain to the shower pulled back and Tom jumped, startled out of his thoughts, and he whirled around. He found Liz joining him, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Hey you," she greeted. "Mind the company?"

Tom pulled in a steadying breath, focusing in on the woman he loved. His anchor. His peace in the middle of the chaos. He reached forward, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and he leaned in. She met him there, her arms going around his neck as she tipped up on her toes to deepen the kiss. The world melted away for just a few moments and he was desperate to hold onto her.

They finally broke, both a little breathless, and Liz's gaze turned worried. One hand slipped around to rest on the side of his face. "Are you okay?"

He leaned into her touch, turning just a little to press a kiss to her palm. "I missed you." It wasn't a lie. That was probably one of the most honest things he could tell her in that moment.

"Yeah?" she asked, her smile returning slowly.

"Yeah," he murmured.

"Well, Agnes is in bed so…"

He took the hint, leaning in and kissing her again. The bones could wait. The fears and the possibilities and the dangers could all wait. They would have to. Right then, he just wanted to focus on what mattered most. He would deal with everything else as it came, and once he knew what they were up against they could face it together.

Notes: I just needed to get a few thoughts down this morning about what might be going through Tom's head. I'm working on another one shot that I'm hoping to have up tomorrow that touches on that scene at the end of the episode that's sent so many people into a panic. For my part, I'm confident that they will not kill Tom. I'm hoping to have our Keen Minds podcast posted tomorrow afternoon/evening and we'll be going over the scene and theories in detail if anyone's interested :)