Notes: Tessa from Tumblr requested this story before 5.08 aired and I'd planned to write it this week leading up to Thanksgiving. With the events of the Fall Finale, I wasn't sure I was going to be capable of doing so. I went ahead and gave it a go this evening, though, and here we are. I hope everyone that celebrates has a great Thanksgiving this year.

Keen Family Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving had always been a crazy affair growing up. Sam and she had made an effort to see the extended family on Thanksgiving. Aunt June had hosted every year, and every year something new had gone wrong. One year she had dropped the turkey, the next year she'd set it on fire. Undercooked food had given everyone there food poisoning yet another. The list went on and on.

And then she had moved away and Thanksgivings had taken a backseat to school and then her career. It was fine. It wasn't like she had trusted herself to try to take on a turkey even if Sam had said he'd make the trip for her. She always went home to Nebraska for Christmas anyway.

Then she had met Tom, and he'd loved every second of it. Knowing what she did now about how he'd grown up it made more sense, but at the time it had just been amusing. He went all in for it with that goofy grin that reminded her of a kid on Christmas morning. Their first Thanksgiving together he had been determined should be perfect. He'd gone all out and had later admitting to doing more than a little research as to what was considered normal for Thanksgiving dinners. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, cranberries, and he'd even managed an apple pie that they had polished off with Sam's help within a couple of days. It had been one of the best Thanksgivings she had ever had.

Life had been crazy since then, but that was just the way things went. Between work, finding out who he really was, and everything that had happened they had never quite topped that. They had spent their first Thanksgiving with Agnes in the fake apartment Reddington had set up for them as a safehouse - to his credit, Tom had managed to get a turkey from somewhere and with all they'd had to be grateful it had certainly rated high on her list in its own way - but their little girl had spent her second Thanksgiving without either of them. Liz had been in a coma and Tom was….

Elizabeth Keen blinked hard, finding a tear escaping at the though thought. She had thought she was cried out by now. There had to be a limit at some point, right? To wake up and find that not only had she lost ten months of her life - of her daughter's life - but her husband as well had been too much the bare, and she hadn't done it well, she was willing to admit. She'd been angry and hurt and lost. Like all the happiness in the world had been snuffed out with him. It had left her to be swallowed up by darkness, revenge all that mattered save her daughter. But like everything else that had happened in the last decade or so of her life, not everything was what it seemed. The Hargraves were stubborn people, Howard had explained to her as yet another chapter of chaos opened up to her in the form of finding that her husband's death had been faked, but she'd known that. She'd seen that. And she wouldn't change it for the world. For all their faults, Tom's parents had brought him home to her and to their daughter.

"Babe, can I get you to stir this?"

She looked up, pulling in a deep breath at the voice from the kitchen. "Not afraid I'll set it on fire?" she called back, uncurling herself from the chair and padded her way over to the kitchen where Tom was standing over a pot and shooting her a quirked smile.

"On second thought…" he teased and she swatted at him playfully. He leaned forward, a quick kiss against her lips flooding her with the need for more. "Wouldn't have asked if I didn't have full faith in you, babe."

Liz grinned, shaking her head and rolling her eyes just a little as she took the wooden spoon from him and peered into the pot. "I thought I smelled cinnamon apples," she sighed happily.

"We haven't had them in years," Tom said as he disappeared into the walk in pantry of the apartment they had moved into just a month earlier. "I figured if we were going to sit through the chaos we might as well have your favourite."

"Mama, mama, look!" Agnes called from her little plastic desk they'd moved in so that she could be close, crayons all over the place and a picture of a purple and pink turkey her afternoon project.

"It's gorgeous, sweetie," Liz assured her and turned back to the bubbling pot of melted red hots and apples, turning Tom's words over in her mind. "It's not going to be so bad."

Her husband leaned back around to shoot her an incredulous look from the pantry. "Have you met our parents?"

"You mean my dad that's nearly gotten you killed a couple times now and your mom that nearly got Agnes and me killed?"

"Yeah those."

Liz paused, a thought striking her. "You told Scottie to leave weapons at home, right?"

"Several times."

"Think she'll listen?"

"Anyone's best guess." He finally exited the room with an armful of cooking supplies carefully balanced and a bottle of wine mixed in with it.

"Are we starting early?" she teased, lifting an eyebrow.

She loved the smile he gave her. "Again. Have you met our parents? Could you get the glasses?"

It had been a long year. Hell, it'd been a long few years if he really thought about it. Even the moments of peace had been snatched up in the middle of everything happening around them. But that was just the way their lives went. He'd spent a lot of time thinking that they needed that picket fence and that he needed to put where he'd come from to rest, but it had gotten him through one of the closest calls of his life and brought them to where they were that day.

A knock came at the front door and Agnes stopped mid-spin in her pretty new dress with a pumpkin on it, her big blue eyes growing even wider as she turned to look.

"Who do you think that is?" Liz asked her, her voice a stage whisper that made their daughter even more excited.

"Grandpa Red!" the toddler cried happily and darted towards the door only to be scooped up by Liz before she got more than five steps towards it. Agnes giggled and the sound filled the whole apartment, leaving her father smiling as he set the turkey down on the table and managed to get turned just in time to see his wife pulling the front door open.

It wasn't Reddington standing on their doorstep just yet though. Tom heard Scottie's voice greet Liz from beyond his line of vision. She was smiling and complimenting Agnes' new dress as he moved towards the door, but she went silent as soon as she saw him. The smile didn't fade though. Instead it grew just a little warmer, even if she looked like she were trying to dial it back just a notch for his sake. "Tom," she greeted.

"You two try to kill each other on the flight over?" he asked with a grin, motioning between his two parents and Howard rolled his eyes good naturedly.

"Almost came to it when I reminded her that she was checking her weapon at the door."

"Really? And who was it that mentioned-"

"Liz, something smells wonderful," Howard said cheerfully as he moved past, shrugging his coat off and pulling a small package from the inside pocket as he did.

"Mine?" Agnes asked, and apparently Grandpa Red had been forgotten for a box in shiny purple wrapping.

"Why don't you open it and find out?" Howard asked with a wink and Tom shook his head, smiling as Liz set her down to start tearing into the package and took his father's coat and Scottie's to hang them up on the wall pegs. Agnes had been slowly warming to them over the last few months, but her Grandpa Red had been the one to watch after her when her parents couldn't. For everything that Tom held against his father-in-law, he had to be at least grateful for that.

Howard's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Has Red not made it in yet?"

"No, he's coming in from out of country. He said he might be a few minutes late," Liz murmured as she busied herself with the flowers she'd put on the center of the table earlier that day. Things had been chilly with Reddington since the business of the suitcase and just how much he had known about Tom's would-be murderers and everything that had led up to Ian Garvey attacking them in their home had come out. For better or worse he was family, though, and both Liz and Tom were well aware that neither had brought normal parents to the marriage. At least this time they'd known what they were getting themselves into for the most part.

"Look!" Agnes squealed, holding up a little tugboat from the package that she had ripped open.

"Your daddy said that you love the beach. I thought maybe you could take it on your next trip," Howard explained, squatting down in front of the little girl.

"What do you say, Agnes?" Tom prompted and she grinned, launching herself from her seat on the floor to wrap her arms around Howard's neck..

"Thank you!"

Liz smirked and nudged him hard, the non-verbal reminder crystal clear: inviting them had been the right call.

"It was your daddy's when he was little," Scottie said. She'd been so quiet since her greeting that Tom had almost forgotten she was there.

Agnes looked over as if demanding to know if it were true or not and her daddy offered her a shrug. "Guess so?" he offered with a grin, even as another knock came on the door. Liz tensed next to him and he touched the back of her arm. "You mind getting the plates?"

He moved to the door, tugging it open to find his father-in-law and Dembe standing there. "Tom," the older man greeted almost stiffly. He didn't meet his eye more than just a few seconds, but offered a nod as he stepped over the threshold into the Keens' home.

"Grandpa Red!" Agnes cried, leaping to her feet and the little tugboat toy was left on the floor as she threw herself up into Liz's father's arms. He scooped her up instantly, holding her close and she giggled, the sound reminding Tom again why the relationship remained. Why it would always remain. Liz's love for him had saved him from Reddington's wrath, but their daughter's love for her grandpa saved him from being turned out once and for all.

"She'll be glad someday."

Tom blinked owlishly. Dammit if Scottie didn't sneak up like no one else could. "What'd you mean?"

"Reddington. You know I don't have any use for the man, but he's Elizabeth's father and he does love her, in his way. Someday, when he's gone, when time makes everything he's done wrong fade into the distance, she'll be glad she didn't push him out. That she gave him just one more chance."

"And then another and then another," Tom chuckled. He knew he didn't have any place to be bitter over it. He'd had a second chance or two or three from Liz over the years himself, but that didn't make it easy.

"Some of us need a few of those chances," she murmured and Tom's lips quirked up at the corners.

"Don't I know it?" He pulled in a breath and turned to meet her eyes. "I'm glad you guys made it."

Her smile was something he still wasn't quite used to. That one that she gave him like he was the most precious treasure she'd ever known, and not for the first time he wondered how different his life would have been if he hadn't been taken. If he'd been with them growing up.

"Daddy! Daddy! Turkey!" Agnes squealed from her place in her grandfather's arms, Reddington's fedora much too big for her head but there anyway.

"Hang on, don't tell me you want to eat turkey? Not that you've been asking for it all day," he teased her, his grin only growing as he neared her and she reached out for him and kissed his cheek.

"Please?"

"Okay, but only because you said please."

She gave a loud squeal of excitement and started to chant turkey again as he put her down for the knife, risking a glance to where Howard was handing Scottie a glass of wine and asked Reddington something about his jet. For all the animosity that had been between so many in the room they were there together that afternoon as family. The niceties wouldn't last. Scottie would pop off to Reddington who would snark off and eventually someone would threaten someone else, even if it never came to anything in the end. They're family was strange, and it certainly wasn't what most would consider normal, but it was their normal, and as Liz moved to him and wrapped an arm around his back, pulling him in towards her, Tom was certain it was the only kind of normal he wanted.