Apologies, hit a snag :/
"I've got something."
Meera backed out the room, leaving Liz and Ressler alone again. They exchanged a look; Ressler understanding that Liz would love to go out there with him but knowing she couldn't, and Liz silently begging him to keep her in the loop. Checking the blinds to see if they were fully closed, Ressler stood and pulled Liz up from her seat by the hand. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against his chest. She breathed in deeply as he rested his chin on the top of her head.
"I'll come straight back in here and tell you everything they tell me, okay?" Liz nodded against his chest, mumbling a thanks. "I mean it, Liz, we'll find out every thing about him, and we'll get him. I won't stop until we do."
"Thank you, Don." She smiled at him before leaning up and placing a light kiss to his cheek. He smiled back and released her, moving towards the door.
When he stepped out the office and closed the door behind him, he instantly spotted Aram and Meera crowded round the formers computer. He couldn't decipher why they were giving him the knowing looks they were, until he passed a window and caught his reflection. His cheeks were flushed with pink and he was sure he could see a faint lipstick mark. He groaned inwardly, now knowing exactly what they were thinking and used the back of his hand to wipe his cheek.
"Don't say a word." Ressler growled to them as he reached the desk. Aram had just been about to open his mouth to question him but thought better of it. He looked away quickly, busying himself with typing at his computer. Meera, however, continued to keep a sly smirk on her face. She nodded to Aram, signalling that she wanted something pulled up on the screen. He obliged, and an image of Tom Keen from at least five years ago popped up in front of them.
"Meet Justin Warren."
Ressler gaped at the screen, not believing what he was seeing. "Justin Warren? You found out who he really is, how?"
"I have level seven clearance."
"This is level seven?"
"Technically, no, but I have a friend who owed me a pretty big favour."
Ressler nodded, still staring at the image of Justin Warren, also known as Tom Keen, on the screen. "So, who is he? Why is he so high up on the CIA's radar?"
Meera moved to the other side of the desk, now facing Ressler and Aram head on. "He's a former CIA agent gone rogue. His file shows the agency believed him dead, though a body was never found. Ressler..." She lowered her voice and beckoned them closer. "This is highly classified, until we can get confirmation from another source we can't be shouting this out. When he was on the agency's payroll, he was tasked with hunting down none other than Raymond Reddington and bring him on to English soil to stand trial in the connection to the deaths of an government official, his wife and the disappearance of their four year old daughter in nineteen eighty eight."
Meera nodded to the screen again and Ressler shifted his attention over to it. Aram brought up a newspaper clipping from that year. The black and white archive photo showed the image of a burning house and was captioned 'MP and family die in blaze horror'. He scanned the article, reading it aloud to the other two in a whisper.
It has been confirmed today that MP Daniel Cameron and his wife, Charlotte, died in the fire at their London home last night. It is believed that the couples four year old daughter, Jennifer, was also in the house at the time, and unconfirmed reports suggest she was killed in the blaze along with her parents.
Though the police have denied to comment, many believe the fire may have been started deliberately and a team of specialists were called out to survey the scene once the blaze was extinguished.
Spokespeople at the Houses of Parliament have also declined to comment, but it was released that a minutes silence of remembrance would be held within the walls for Mr Cameron and his family later today.
Ressler read the article through two more times to fully grasp what it was saying. Meera was staring at him, as if waiting for him to realise something, to come to some sort of a conclusion, and she seemed to be adamant that she wouldn't be spelling it out for him. He read through the article again to be sure he'd gained everything he could but also went over what she'd told him about Warren being tasked with catching Reddington... and then it clicked...
"The girl, she didn't die in the fire did she?"
Meera shook her head. "No, the reports were falsified."
"And Reddington made that happen?"
"That's what the CIA believe."
They were finally getting somewhere; they knew who Tom really was and part, if not all, his connection to Reddington... but what he didn't understand was Liz's part in all this was. His mind seemed to be running through a thousand words a minute, and the main ones flying out at him being 'fire', 'the girl didn't die' and 'four year old daughter'. Slowly, much too slowly and he would later be ashamed to admit, all the pieces of the puzzle fell in to place. He checked the date of the article one last time before not so gently shoving Aram out of the way of his own computer and grabbing the mouse. A few clicks and quick taps of the keys and he had Liz's personnel file on the screen. Ressler skimmed along her personal information until he got to where he needed.
"Son of a bitch." He slammed his fist on the desk.
"Agent Ressler?" Aram asked timidly, not entirely sure why Ressler was acting like that. Meera took one look at what he'd pulled up and cursed under her breath, realisation dawning on her face.
"The dates match."
Ressler nodded but Aram looked as confused as ever. "Can one of you please tell me what's going on."
Ressler deleted his search and beckoned them both to follow him to one of the far corners of the war room. He checked around them to ensure no one was listening before turning to face Aram. "It was Liz."
A few seconds passed and Aram continued to have the same confused look upon his face. "What was Liz?" Ressler growled in response and Aram flinched back against the wall. "I really don't understand. How is Agent Keen involved in all of this... other than the obvious, obviously.
Ressler glanced at Meera, wanting her to take the reigns with the explanation; he'd end up throttling Aram if she didn't. Meera nodded and stepped closer to Aram, gaining his full attention.
"We believe, from what we've just read in both the newspaper article and Liz's personnel file, that she was the girl in the fire. The dates of the Cameron fire and the date of the fire Liz was in match and we know she was adopted after that event." Painstakingly slowly it seemed, Aram started to understand where they were coming from. "I haven't been able to access all the files on the investigation but I do know that, just over five years ago, one of the detectives involved in the original investigation admitted to his former superior on tape that he had taken a bribe from a man he claimed not to know at the time, but later identified him as Raymond Reddington."
"But we have no proof," Aram said slowly. Ressler and Meera stared at him, and he held his hands up at them. "Look, until we can access the official CIA files, we don't have anything to prove that it's all linked."
"He has a point." Meera tipped her head to Aram, but spoke to Ressler, who nodded in recluctant agreement.
"Then, Aram, I want you to pull up everything you can on the Cameron fire, and the fire involving Liz. Meera, pull every string and every favour you can and get access to all the files in their entirety connected to both investigations."
"What are you gonna do?" He could tell by her tone that she knew exactly what he had to do now.
"I promised I'd let her know any and everything as soon as we had it, I'm not gonna break that."
"But we don't really know anything." Aram took an involuntary step back from the glare Ressler was now giving him. "Not for sure anyway..."
"Agent Mojtabai, I will tell my partner whatever I see fit. I do not need your permission, understand?" He waited long enough for Aram to nod before continuing. "Print me out a copy of everything we have so far. Anything either of you find from now on gets checked by me before it goes in to our current case file."
Two minutes later Ressler was standing outside his and Liz's office, the file Aram had printed for his clutched safely in his hand. There was no need for him to knock, but it felt right. He wanted to give her warning, even if it was only a few seconds. He cracked open the door and instantly caught sight of Liz, who was wearing the slightest hint of a guilty expression.
"Sorry, I didn't like having my back to the door."
She was sitting in his chair at his desk, one leg curled underneath her. He couldn't help but chuckle and give her one of his signature half smiles. "Don't worry about it, Keen." He wheeled over her own chair and sat as close to her as he could given the tight space and placed the file on the desk in front of her.
"Is this-?"
"It's what we have so far."
She stared at the file with Ressler waiting patiently at her side, but remained still. When she had still made no move to open it a few minutes later, Ressler took her hand in his a squeezed lightly.
"His real name is Justin Warren." She suddenly stared at him. "He's former CIA, Liz, so until Meera can access his internal file, we don't have much to go on."
"But it's a start. An hour ago he was Tom Keen, now he has a whole new identity, a real one." She flipped the file open and skimmed through it, stopping at the article of the Cameron fire. Ressler saw her jaw tense and her eyes bulge as she read it through. "I don't understand?"
"We don't yet have all the details, but Reddington was somehow connected to that fire. Warren was tasked with bringing him in to stand trial but something changed and he went rogue, faed his death and began working with one of Reddingtons enemies." He took her hand again and tugged her gently, forcing her to look at him. "We have a theory, but you need to understand that we have barely anything to go on, so we could be completely wrong with this, okay?"
"Don, anything is better than what I came to you last night with." She took a deep breath and looked up at him. "Just tell me what you think."
Ressler tried to sigh discretely; he was starting to fast wish he'd listened to Aram and kept his mouth shut until they knew more. Liz looked at him so hopeful, like he could give her all the answers when, in reality, he could barely give her anything.
"We think, ugh... We think..." He sighed, rubbed his forehead and looked her dead in the eye. "We think you were the girl in the Cameron fire."
Liz stared at him at him for all of ten seconds, her eyes widening as she processed the information. She then raced back through the file he'd given her, looking for any indication to confirm that what he'd said was true, before resting on the page with the newspaper article. Suddenly, she slammed the file shut and stood, pushing the chair away with such force that it hit the back wall.
"This doesn't make any sense, Don. That girl died in the fire. How can I be her? It's not possible." She began to pace, muttering disbelief to herself. Ressler stood and grabbed her by the hand in an attempt to calm her. It worked, and she eventually came to rest with her forehead pressed against his shoulder. "How can this be possible?"
"We're not sure that it is, but the dates of that fire and yours match, Liz. Meera's intel has it that Reddington paid off the investigating officer to report that the Cameron girl dies with her parents, but the confession he made before he dies contradicts that. Warren was tasked with bringing in Reddington, but only for two murders, not three." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, running his hand gently over her upper arm. "Meera's gathering more intel and Arams looking in to the two fires. Reddington can't refuse to give you the answers if you already have them, and I'm gonna see to it that you do. There's a chance this might come to nothing though, Liz."
"But there's a chance it might come to something." She pushed away from him, choosing to stand in front of him now. She spoke in a small voice. "Your honest opinion?"
He was afraid of that. "Liz-"
"Please, Don." She begged him, her eyes wide and pleading. If there was ever an appropriate time, he'd one day tell her how adorable she looked. But right now... right now was not that time. He closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath, then giving his honest thoughts.
"I think you're Jennifer Cameron."