Alright guys… I will no longer be mentioning her age anymore as we have finally reached the point of the time line that intersects with the show. Woohoo! I will be using lines from the show…I do not own them. These characters are not mine. Also, due to the AU nature and the alternate history, the timeline for this story is going to veer off course from the show… probably by a lot. The show starts taking place about 2 years after the last chapter.

Also, I wasn't planning on sending out this chapter so soon after chapter 16 but I wanted to hear your thoughts on how I've done with intermingling the show with the new time line. So please... REVIEW!


Red looked up at the camera, with a bored expression on his face, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"I said I'll help you find Zamani, and I will. But from this point forward, there's one very important rule... I speak only with Elizabeth Keen."

Ressler looked over at Cooper. "Who the hell's Elizabeth Keen?"

/\/\/\/\/\

"Oh, buddy." She grumbled sleepily.

"Seriously, dude?" Tom laughed, petting the dog and wrestling with him playfully.

Lizzie smiled as she looked over at her clock to see it blinking. Her eyes widened in panic.

"Babe, what time is it?"

"I don't know. What time you gotta be there?"

Lizzie grabbed his wrist and took a look at his watch. "Oh, crap."

"What's up?" Tom wiped the sleep from his eyes.

"Crap!" Lizzie threw herself out of bed and ran into the bathroom.

"What?"

"No! My first day!"

/\/\/\/\/\

"You took the dog out, right?" Lizzie asked as she spread peanut butter across her toast.

"I did. For the field trip... Air and Space or the D.C. Zoo?" Tom held up brochures for both.

"The zoo's gender neutral." Lizzie nodded at the brochure for the zoo as she took a bite of her meager breakfast.

"All right. Good thinkin'."

"We're out of milk." She grumbled good naturedly.

"Oop. Sorry." Tom gave her one of his boyish grins.

"Is this pee? I'm standing in pee, babe." She looked down at her foot in disgust.

"He's your dog, too."

"Yeah, thanks a lot. I'm gonna smell like a urinary tract infection on my first day!" She shouted as he started towards the hallway. Lizzie hopped on one foot as she took her socks off.

"Hey, don't forget we got the last adoption meeting today. One-thirty. You heard me, right? One-thirty." Tom shouted.

"Yep. One-thirty. Last meeting." She shouted back before taking the last bite of her toast.
"I'm in the car. You got the keys?"

"Yeah, in my pocket." Lizzie yelled just before she heard the door slam closed. Almost immediately she heard her phone ring. Grabbing it out of her pocket, she smiled as she recognized the number.

"You know, for two men who are supposed to be on the run, you guys really call me at awkward—"

"Elizabeth." The way he said her name called her up short. Dembe was generally rather reserved but there was a certain tone he used that tended to sound like he was offering condolences at a funeral and always meant something bad.

"What's wrong?"

"Today. You do not know him."

"What?" Lizzie took a sip of her coffee, heading towards the door.

"You do not know him." Dembe hung up just as she opened the door. Staring at her phone in confusion, Lizzie shrugged it off and walked out, smiling as Tom plopped a kiss on her lips, having waited for her on the stoop.

/\/\/\/\

Lizzie's eyes widened in shock as she looked up at the helicopter circling around her street. When the black SUV's pulled up onto the curb in front of her house, she felt Tom grab her hand.

"Agent Keen. Donald Ressler. Washington field office." Lizzie knew that she was an FBI agent but that didn't stop her from thinking that their tendency to go full cave man when introducing themselves was a bit ridiculous. Your name is not a full sentence. "I need you to come with me right away."

"Babe, I don't think I'm gonna need to take the car." Lizzie whispered, plopping the keys into Tom's hands as they both stared dumbly at the scene before them.

/\/\/\/\

"Agent Keen. Am I getting that right?" AD Cooper smiled at her warmly.

"Yes, sir." She tried to sound confident, albeit a little giddy. On the inside she was freaking out. Oh god. It'd finally happened. He was caught. And on her first day. She was so going to have words with him.

"Harold Cooper. Assistant Director of Counterterrorism." He offered his hand for a shake.

"Yes, sir. I know who you are, sir." Lizzie laughed nervously.

"So, uh...can you tell us what's going on?"

"I wish I could. I can tell you that... I've been vetted by the agency like everyone else, you know, same background checks, psych profiles. I'm sure OPR's trolling my digital footprint right now, and I can tell you what they'll find." She knew exactly what they'd find. The benefits of having the Concierge of Crime as her father. Her entire history was one large alias. And he'd made sure that she remembered it in its entirety.

"What will they find?" Cooper leaned back in his chair, crossing his fingers over his stomach.

"Nothing. I have no history with Reddington." Lizzie surprised herself with her ability to lie while staring the AD of Counter freaking terrorism in the eye.

"They tell me today's your first day as a profiler."

"Yes, sir. I graduated Quantico last month."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you." She was actually able to force a convincing smile. At least, she thought so.

"Do me a favor. Profile yourself."

"I'm sorry, sir?"

"Who are you? What is he looking for? Profile Elizabeth Keen."

"Oh. Okay." You can do this. You know your file like the back of your hand. Literally. You wrote it on the back of your hand once. You've got this. Lizzie gave herself a little pep talk. "Um, well, I was the head of the Police Mobile Emergency Psych Unit in New York. We worked murders, extortion—"

"Read your résumé." Cooper had the smile of a grandfather who asked you how you've been and then tunes out as soon as you begin speaking.

"Of course…My colleagues call me 'sir.' They think I'm... a bitch." Lizzie took a deep breath. She hated the next part of her file. It felt like a betrayal to both of her fathers. But she couldn't have a fake history without having a fake psych profile. She was a profiler for Christ's sake.

"Like most kids who raised themselves, I can display narcissistic behavior. I can be withdrawn, disconnected. Uh... I have a deep yearning to understand and relate to the criminal mind. I'm board certified in forensic psychology, and yet I operate under the delusion that I can rewrite my past by having kids of my own." She gulped and started rubbing her scar as she remembered the appointment later that afternoon. She had the feeling she wasn't going to make it.

"Do you find it odd Reddington surrendered himself the day you started working as a profiler?"

Yea, and I'm going to throttle him for it later. "I think that it suggests he was waiting for me."

"Why you? Specifically."

Because I'm his daughter. "Because I'm new and he thinks I can be easily manipulated. The man obviously doesn't know me very well."

/\/\/\/\

Okay, don't panic. No recognition… oh for fuck's sake. She was going to kill Dembe. He couldn't have given her a little more of a hint when he called?

The bile rose in her throat as she walked over, watching as the box surrounding her father slowly retracted. It was physically painful to see her father shackled to a chair.

"Agent Keen, what a pleasure." The Concierge of Crime smiled at her but she could swear that she saw a little twinkle of her father in the corner of his eye.

"Well... I'm here."

"You got rid of your highlights." His eyes said 'Breathe. You're doing wonderfully.' "You look much less Baltimore. Do you get back home much?" He knew damn well she'd never lived in Baltimore. He was enjoying putting on a show for the FBI.

Lizzie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was just racking up the reasons why she was going to kick his ass in their next sparring session.

"Tell me about Zamani."

"I haven't been home in years." She knew he meant that literally. It'd been awhile since they'd all been back home in Nebraska. Red would always make sure Sam was flown to where Lizzie was so that they could all visit.

"Why involve me? I'm nobody. It's my first day. Nothin' special about me." Lizzie shrugged.

"Oh, I think you're very special." Lizzie had to look away as her eyes began to sting. If he wanted her to keep it together, he needed to stop insinuating… and being her dad while chained to a chair.

"Within the hour, Ranko Zamani will abduct the daughter of U.S. General Daniel Ryker. There'll be some kind of diversion, communications will be scrambled, then he'll grab the girl. He wants to be out of the country within 36 hours. If you don't move quickly, she will die. That's what I know." Lizzie shivered, she had never seen this mask before. At that moment, she knew she was looking at the concierge of crime.

She swallowed, sitting straight in her chair. "And how do you know this?"

"Because I'm the one who got him into the country."

"And I'm supposed to believe you?"

Reddington threw his head back and laughed. "No, of course not! I'm a criminal. Criminals are notorious liars. Everything about me is a lie." You're my father. That's a fact. And you never lie to me. "But if anyone can give me a second chance, it's you. The two of us have... overcome so much." Her eyes screamed for him to stop. She prayed to whatever deity existed that there were no cameras with a view of her face.

"I mean, look at you. Abandoned by a father who was a career criminal, a mother who died of... weakness and shame." She was going to kill him. He was dead. He just didn't know it yet.

"And yet here you are, about to make a name for yourself, about to... capture Ranko Zamani. I'm gonna make you famous, Lizzy."