Chapter Five: Surprises
Patience was learned. Through trial and error, success and failure. It was built and practiced and eventually, one might even find themself in a place where that anxious drive to get to the next key point now eased just a little.
Scottie wasn't one of those people, but she had perfected the mask she wore that convinced others that she was. No one - well, no one save maybe Howard - would know just how many pieces of the puzzle, how many different scenarios and possibilities, swirled in her head as she offered Gabriel Moreau a welcoming smile into their home. He didn't return it. She didn't expect that he would.
"Gabe!" Howard greeted as he rounded the corner. He was all charming smiles and warm hand shakes. The dark mood that had hovered around him recently was nowhere to be seen. "Sorry I missed you last week."
"Always busy, Howard," Moreau answered with an amused chuckle and motioned at the bruising that was beginning to fade. "Did you win?"
"Always."
Scottie motioned towards the living room. "I hope you have good news and aren't just here to add to the bill."
Moreau flashed her a dangerously smile. "You have the first half?"
"You do love making a point."
"As do you. Yes, I've come with news. Good or bad remains to be seen." He reached into the satchel slung over his shoulder and pulled a tablet out, pressing his thumb against the reader and it opened for him. He looked at them both as if he were weighing something before he chose to hand it over.
Scottie took it, positioning it so that Howard had a clear view of the screen. She saw photos of two people. They looked different in every shot, but closer inspection showed the people that had, at least for a time, lived under the names Frank and Eva Phelps. Moreau had found quite a bit of information on them. She had suspected that he would. He worked fast, but he was thorough.
"They're dead?" Howard asked, his tone bordering on dangerous.
"They would like you to think so," Moreau answered.
Scottie flipped to the next segment and saw a money trail leading to a couple that looked very different. "They're good."
"So am I," Moreau answered with a quirked eyebrow.
"They're down in Florida," Howard mused, taking the tablet from her and his clever gaze scanned the information. "We could be down and back in twenty-four hours."
Scottie's lips tilted down. "I'm meeting with Tom about his project tomorrow," she said, the words intentionally vague. Their conversation about St Regis and Halcyon had ended better than she could have predicted after the call from Katarina. Tom wasn't running in as blind as she had feared, but had been steadily doing his homework on the subject and was ready to make adjustments where he needed to. He had spent the majority of that week with his wife's Task Force catching them up and going over options while Liz continued to battle it out with the Bureau's therapist.
"Then I'll go alone."
The frown deepened. "We said we would do this together or not at all."
"Then do this," Howard pressed. "You and I both know he's trying to distract us from it, but we've never been this close. Years of research has gotten us here."
Patience was learned, and Howard had never bothered to even play at it. When he wanted something he was all in, driven to the point of obsession. He was passionate and brilliant, and she loved him for it. She loved him despite it.
Scottie pulled in a deep breath, holding his gaze, and finally she nodded. Together or not at all.
The graveyard was empty that afternoon. Well, empty of visitors, at any rate. There were plenty of loved ones lost that filled the grounds. A few that she knew. Kate was buried up the hill a ways and Baz not too far from her. She wasn't sure if her own gravestone still stood in that cemetery, but Liz was certain that Tom's did. They'd been busy. That was the excuse she had used, but if she were honest she didn't think she could look at it. There were still moments where she was hit with the overwhelming fear that she'd lost her mind and imagined him coming home to her. That if she looked at the gravestone with his name etched into it that the illusion would shatter and she would lose him all over again. It was absurd, she knew it was, but knowing that didn't make the fear any less present.
Liz drew in a deep, steadying breath and squeezed her eyes closed. She wasn't there to handle that. Not that day anyway. She had another grave she had been avoiding that she needed to visit. One foot in front of the other took her to the grave and there were fresh flowers laid across the top. Dembe must have been by.
She hadn't brought flowers. She hadn't even been sure she would drop by until the car was parked. Even as she stood there she didn't know what to say to the man that had equal parts upended her life and saved it so many times over.
Her knees bent and Liz sank to the ground, taking a hard seat. "I know I promised to come by more last time," she tried. "I know that I need to mourn you. I've never been very good at that, have I?" She blinked hard, feeling the tears building and slipping down her cheeks in the late summer afternoon. "There's no one to go after. They're gone and it's just…." Her voice trailed off as she heard soft footsteps behind her and she turned and looked up, blinking into the sunlight.
"You missed our meeting," Sharon Fulton said by way of greeting.
"So you tracked me down?"
"I had a feeling you'd be here. May I?"
Liz offered a shrug, trying to pull herself together.
Fulton turned her gaze on the tombstone. "I don't have any love for that man. I know what he's done, what he would have continued to do."
"He saved Tom's life," Liz murmured.
"Do you believe he could have redeemed himself?"
Liz looked over at that, the question. "What do you mean by that?" she asked carefully.
"If he had lived, so you think he would have been a better man?"
A long silence stretched between them and Liz turned to look back at the gravestone. Reddington had always been a walking contradiction in her life. The man with all the answers that would give none. He had saved people and he had killed them, sacrificed others and then himself. The offer to walk was put in the table more than once, but somehow he had always managed to make himself indispensable at just the right time. If he had been honest, maybe…. maybe things could have been different. Maybe they could have continued without it destroying everything.
"He did," Liz said after a long moment. "He died to make sure my family lived. If that's not worth redemption I don't know what is." She could feel Fulton's eyes on her and she kept her own gaze focused on the gravestone. "We could guess what he would or wouldn't have done if he'd lived, but what he did do is what matters."
She heard a small huff from the other woman. "And what do you think that means for you?"
Liz pulled in a deep breath. "I'm still figuring that out," she murmured honestly.
There was a long stretch of silence and Liz was certain that she'd failed whatever test Fulton was trying to administer. Right then she couldn't find it in herself to care. Maybe Tom was right. Maybe there was something off about the woman.
"I'm recommending a probational reinstatement," Fulton said at last.
That pulled Liz's attention around. "What's the catch?"
"You and I will continue our meetings. I'd like to keep talking with you, keep helping you through this grieving process, especially on a personal case like this one."
Liz watched her for a long moment, unsure if she trusted the woman or not. In the end it didn't matter. She wanted - needed - to have Tom's back in the St Regis case. As everything came together between the Task Force and Halcyon on it, she was running out of time, and only Fulton could give her what she needed in it. It was a deal she would need to make.
The sun was dropping low in the sky and while DC wasn't winding down for the night, there was a shift at that hour. Men and women in business suits left their offices at least for a short time and filled the surrounding bars. This one was no different, and Aram had been lucky to snag such a good table at that particular hour. The others were all on their way. Samar had made contact with an old Interpol associate, Tom was wrapping up something with his Grey Matters team at Halcyon, Liz was… somewhere - she'd been more vague than usual that day - and Ressler was picking up the girlfriend that they were finally getting a chance to meet. He had grumbled about it all day, but Aram thought it was exciting. Their lives were so intertwined between work and personal that it was nice to take a breather in the middle of it all.
Aram certainly needed a breather.
He cringed a little as he felt the small box inside of his suit jacket. He had been deliberating for weeks now, every piece of advice he had been given swirling in his head and contradicting the other. Ressler said that she would assume any ring would be a proposal while Liz thought that it would be taken as a proposal only if Samar wanted to marry him…. if he meant to pop the question or not. Tom had flipped it around on him, though, and told him to look at what he wanted it to mean. None of those answers helped though. Not really. Even if he did decide that the ring was meant as a proposal, what if Samar didn't want that? What if she didn't want to marry him? The idea was devastating. He couldn't imagine his life without her. He didn't want to. No matter how it played out, he needed her. A ring didn't change that.
Aram jumped as a hand came to rest on his shoulder and Samar's soft laugh reached his ear. "You're thinking hard about something," she teased lightly and kissed his cheek.
He tried for a smile, but it felt strained and fake. If her expression was anything to go by it looked every bit of that too. Samar pulled a chair a little closer and took a seat. "Something on your mind?"
Her eyes met his and Aram found himself swallowing hard. "I was, uh… just thinking. About you. And me. Us, I mean."
Samar's lips tilted up just a little at the corners. "Good things?"
The panic didn't subside, but it was joined by a flood of warmth at her smile and it left him in a strange limbo of uncertainty. His gaze flickered down. "Yeah," he managed after a long moment. "I just…. You're happy, right?"
That seemed to catch her off guard and she blinked at him. For just half a moment the panic won out before her expression softened. "Yes," she said firmly. "Very."
His mind ran away with him and in that moment he couldn't bring himself to think of a world without her. A world in which he didn't wake up next to her each and every morning. He wanted to marry her, and in that frozen moment he thought she might even want to marry him too. "I, uh… so…." He reached clumsily for the box in his pocket, but her gaze flickered past him. He looked around. "And oh look. The Keens are here," he grumbled, his tone a little more sour than the two probably deserved. He huffed and tried to put on a smile for them.
"Ressler and the new girlfriend gotten here yet?" Tom asked as he slid into one of the chairs with his back against the wall. He and Samar both had good views of the rest of the bar while Aram and Liz were at either end of the table. Hopefully Agent Ressler and his girlfriend wouldn't have a problem with their backs to the bar.
"Ressler left out just before I did and said he was picking her up," Samar answered with an amused smile.
Liz grinned. "No reason to wait on him for drinks."
The two women slipped back out and waved the guys off in the offer to help as they started for the bar, leaving them to keep claims on the table.
Tom sank down a little deeper on the bench seat and his gaze fell on Aram. "Did we interrupt something?"
Aram blinked and then sighed, risking one glance back to see that Samar and Liz were out of sight before he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the ring box. Tom loosed a low whistle as he opened it. "Okay. That might be why Ressler said she would think it was an engagement ring. That's nice."
"I wanna marry her," Aram said, the confession riding out on a single breath and halfway jumbled together.
Tom offered a lopsided smile. "Good for you, man. Congrats."
"What if she says no?"
The other man shrugged. "Not sure why she would."
Aram shook his head, closing the box and hiding it away again. "You wouldn't get it. I bet you knew Agent Keen would say yes."
"Not once," Tom chuckled. "First time I was so nervous I dropped the ring. I didn't get a chance to even pop the question before she saw it. Second time was after she'd been on the run. I didn't have a plan. Didn't even know I was gonna do it." He ducked his head a little. "I didn't even have a ring, just a washer from some of the repairs I was working on on the boat."
Aram snorted a laugh. "You proposed with a washer?"
That wide smile returned as Tom looked back up. "Don't let her tell you she didn't wear it for a while too." He paused, looking like he was lost in the memory for a moment. "Point is I knew nothing mattered without her. If you want to spend your life with Samar, let her know. You guys can figure out what that looks like." His gaze flickered beyond Aram. "That was fast."
Aram turned to see Samar and Liz with drinks in hand already and he couldn't help the smile that tugged into place as Samar caught his gaze.
"The bartender was very attentive," Liz answered with a smirk and Tom flashed her a grin.
His expression slowly faded to something that bordered on concern and Aram turned to follow his line of sight. Ressler was walking in with a beautiful woman on his arm. Tall, dark skinned, and with a bright smile, it looked like even he was put at ease. Not Tom though.
"Babe, is that…"
Liz managed a choked laugh. "You ever tell her I was alive?"
"She'll know now," Tom answered and the smile returned as he offered a wave to Ressler's girlfriend who was staring at them now. "Hey, Ellie."
TBC
Notes: Well, now we know who Ress' new girlfriend is ;)
I mean, Ellie does have a tendency to just... pop up. Teacher, Realtor, doctor... randomly coming to Liz's funeral after it looked like she cut ties with the Keens and hugged Tom at it? I mean, the woman is full of surprises. She also seems like a genuinely kind and intelligent person, and Ress deserves all the best after all the crap he's been through. I've been entertained by the idea for a long while now, but this was the first time I was able to find a place to work it in.
Thank you for your patience on this chapter! The convention was a ton of fun and while I'm still playing catch up on both sleep and writing, I'm getting there.
Next Time: Ellie gets a crash course in the strange dynamic of the Task Force, the Hargraves track down their son's adoptive parents, and Tom gets a second surprise of the night.