Okay, the 'escape from the hospital scene' was honestly one of my favourite sequences we've ever seen in the show! So of course, I had to write it. And I know that I used a lot of it directly from what we saw (sorry!), but I did add bits into it all the way through it, for those parts where we left them while we saw what Red and Samar were doing. It was such an adorable scene, the way Ressler and Liz literally leaned all over each other, with their arms around each other. Loved it!

But then we got a very special scene at the end of the show. Loved it just as much. The 'prospect of having to live without me must've been terrifying' scene. Wow. Thank you writers!

Two mornings later, following the briefing on Professor Collins, Liz followed him to their office telling him they needed to talk. He'd felt her looking at him for two days now. And each time he told her he was fine, and doing okay. And in one sense, he wasn't lying and had really made sure she saw that part of him. He hadn't taken any pills. The urge was overwhelming, but he'd resisted. And truth be told, he was allowing himself to feel just a little proud of that accomplishment.

Apart from one… minor detail…

I have a bottle of pills at the back of my desk drawer…

He'd asked himself 'why?' a dozen times an hour, but still couldn't answer that. All he knew was that he wasn't taking them, and while extremely uncomfortable, he was handling it as best he could. He was getting off the pill train, one way or another. So when Liz told him they needed to talk, he groaned inwardly, feeling the guilt flare to the surface.

Because his first thought was that she knew what was in his desk drawer.

When she asked him when was the last time he'd used, he was truthful when he told her it had been almost a week and not since Sitka, running his hand across the back of his neck in frustration. But he couldn't hide the fact he was struggling from her. And for a moment, he didn't know what she was going to do.

"What are you gonna do, Keen? Tell Cooper I'm an addict?" he asked her worriedly, sighing heavily.

"I want you to get help…" She told him, knowing he was struggling each day. And while the fact he was struggling told her he probably wasn't taking pills, she was still concerned for him.

With a troubled yet determined look in his eyes, he faced her. "And I'm telling you, I can kick this on my own, and if I can't, hell, I'll walk into Cooper's office myself. I got no problem with that." He left her then, walking into their office to sit at his desk. And all he could focus on was the drawer beside him that held the bottle of pills.

Her cellphone vibrated, telling her she needed to go, but not before she glanced into their office, seeing the tension in her partner's shoulders as he sat at his desk. Slipping her phone in her pocket she walked to him and leaned on his desk. He didn't look up at her.

"I'm sorry. But you know I'm just concerned about you, right?" she told him softly

He nodded. He knew that. "It's fine." He told her, glancing up at her and giving her a small smile before returning his attention back to his computer. A computer she knew he wasn't focused on right now.

"I gotta go, Red just texted." She lied, knowing she needed to head to the ship again. "We'll talk when I get back, if you like." She said, receiving a silent nod from her partner. Giving him a worried smile, she patted his shoulder then left the office, heading for the elevator.

And as she left, Ressler gave up looking at his computer, leaned back in his chair and willed himself not to open the drawer where his pills where. And closing his eyes, simultaneously berating and encouraging himself, he found himself in oh-so-familiar territory - sitting at his desk with his pills screaming at him to open the drawer.

But just like he'd been able to do all week, he again succeeded in ignoring them.

And for a moment, despite the screaming in his brain, he felt good about that.

###

Three hours later, he really could have done with one of those pills. Hanging upside down in the demolished SUV, pain was shooting through his head. Bleeding from his nose, with his head pounding from multiple impacts as the Suburban had rolled over and over, he was aware of Liz beside him and heard her groan as she too hung upside down. Unable to move or reach for her, darkness invaded the edges of his vision as he closed his eyes, struggling to remain conscious. But he quickly lost that battle and the voices outside receded as everything faded to black.

For a while, he rested in that familiar blackness. He'd been here too many times to count and it had become a place of solitude. Somewhere to take a welcome time out. Snippets of voices and sounds reached him and he became aware he was no longer hanging upside down in the vehicle, but lying in a bed. And as the sounds became clearer, he recognized the familiar beep and whir of hospital monitors in the distance.

And then things started to feel better. So much better. As the blackness dropped a little and he regained consciousness, he slept, becoming aware of something he'd missed feeling for days. His body was reacting to the drugs they were pumping into him. It was enjoying this. And despite the pain in his head, he relaxed and drifted off, letting his body rest as the meds ran through him.

At one point he heard Liz, or thought he did, saying his name and then something about Radiology. But then it all faded away again and he slept on.

And sometime later, in the midst of that calm rest with hospital sounds and voices just out of reach beyond his sleep, he was suddenly aware of hands on his face and someone calling to him.

"Ressler! Ressler!"

Le me slee…

"Ressler!" The hands were patting his face more urgently now, and he opened his eyes, blinking in the light, confused to find Liz right in front of him.

Wha…? He tried to pull his head away, unsure of why she was here.

"Ressler! Can you hear me? We gotta get the hell out of here!" She told him urgently as he tried to focus on her. The room was spinning though, and he quickly shut his eyes.

What…?

"Liz…?" He opened his eyes again and looked at her dizzily, seeing double as the room swam. "…why are there two of …?"

She leaned into his face, holding his cheeks in her hands. "Concentrate. We are in trouble. I don't know where we are, but we need to leave now. Understand?"

He didn't understand, but he heard the urgency in her voice. And despite the fact he couldn't focus his eyes on her …on the two of them… he nodded, grimacing at the pain that brought his head and tried to rise. Tried to do as she told him, but couldn't manage to just yet. His brain was far too foggy.

"..kay…help me up…"

As she hauled him up into a sitting position, the room swam in front of his eyes.

"Can you stand?" she asked him worriedly, looking from him to the door, knowing they'd be in here very soon when their 'nurse' didn't show back up. And if Ressler couldn't stand she'd need to find a wheelchair very quickly.

He looked at her face inches from his as she supported him, and didn't know if he could stand or not. "We'll find out…" he answered and swung his legs over the side of the bed. And as he did so, he noticed something.

Liz…why are you in your underwear….oh…I guess I am too…

And then he felt her urging him to stand and he leaned on her heavily as she helped him out of bed. "…you smell nice…" he whispered as she grabbed him to stop him falling, and then she gave him 'the look', but smiled while doing so. He was loopy, she knew that.

Oh, did I say that out loud…

The room lurched alarmingly as he stood, swaying as he stood up with her help.

Damn, those are good meds...

"Okay… I'm standing…" he whispered, leaning on her heavily, gulping in air and willing his vision to clear. "Clothes…?"

Propping him up against the bed, she found his clothes and tossed them on the bed to him, then ran and got her own clothes from her side of the room. Heading back to him, she quickly threw her jeans on as she stood beside him, ready to grab him if he fell, especially with the way he was leaning over.

"…what happened…?" He asked her and she quickly explained how they'd been brought here and it was all an elaborate con and they were definitely not at Bethesda Hospital.

She looked at him, realizing they were never going to get out of here if she didn't keep helping him stand straight so he could get dressed. "They told me I had fractured my arm," she explained, then showed him the two puncture wounds. "But all they'd done was put nails in my arm then covered it up in a cast."

His head was pounding. "…I think they also put nails in my head…" He told her, his face close to hers, propped up against her. And despite the urgency of their situation she actually smiled at him. "There are no nails in your head, Ress." she told him, while still wishing like hell he'd hurry up and get dressed.

He wasn't convinced, not with the way his heartbeat was throbbing through his head, but took her word for it.

Ressler had done pretty good getting his pants back on. No mean feat while propping himself up against Liz and the bed. But now feeling like he had three heads and way more arms than he remembered, he was finding it difficult to put his t-shirt on. And as he stood there trying to figure out which armhole went where, still seeing double, they heard the squelch of a radio outside the room.

"They're coming!" she whispered, and ran to the door, armed only with the phone she'd grabbed. As the man entered with his gun pointed at Ressler, she slammed the phone down onto his arm, then knocked him out.

Ressler was impressed. He tried to focus on the guy lying on the floor as Liz retrieved the weapon. Two Liz's are better than one, apparently. And then she was by his side again, after he'd finally figured out his t-shirt. Putting his arm over her shoulder he leaned on her as she led him out of the room, knowing he'd fall flat on his face if he had to put one foot in front of the other by himself.

As they entered the hallway, seeing no one in sight, they had to guess which way the exit was. He leaned heavily on her, gasping as she led him down the hallway. The pain in his head increased as they moved and he clutched her as a strong dizzy spell overtook him.

"…what did they give me…?" he whispered, and she quickly answered, "Sedatives. I have no idea what sort though." She said, while looking backward to see if anyone was following, urging him to try and move faster.

Strong sedatives…but good… Oh for God's sake. Stop being a junkie for a few minutes.

But the junkie in him had realized something. Had realized that there was FINALLY something good to come of him being an addict. The sedatives they'd given him should have knocked him out completely for hours. Yet with his high tolerance to opiates, all they'd done was made him very sleepy and dizzy.

Score another one for the Oxy team…

"This way, come on Ress." She encouraged dragging him out of his thoughts, feeling him drooping against her as she hauled him along.

"I'm good…I'm good…" he whispered, his body leaning on her as she held his left arm over her shoulder. Trying hard here Liz…

"…are you sure they didn't put nails in my head…?" He asked her, widening his eyes, trying to focus again. While the dizziness was easing, his vision was still swimming.

She ignored his question, worriedly looking behind her. "We need to hurry." She dragged him faster now, hearing commotion behind them now. As they rounded another corner he reached up to pull the bloody dressing off to check his head, and was alarmed to discover that his head wound was just as fake as Liz's broken arm – and no nails...

Okay, so it's 'just' a headache… He recalled his head being slammed into the door post as the vehicle rolled, and wasn't really surprised then.

"There…" he pointed, seeing the Exit and she led him to it. And as they went through the doors and into the hallway, they slowed and looked up in astonishment. The hallway ended, opening up to a large brick floor of an abandoned warehouse. They weren't in Bethesda. They weren't even in a real hospital. It was all an elaborate hoax.

What the…?

He held onto the hand rail as Liz let go of him, walking out into the warehouse with the wooden walls of the 'hospital' behind her. They heard voices, and Liz turned quickly back to him, again putting her arm around his shoulder as they fled the area.

"Move it! Run!"

Run…? I'll give it my best shot…

The good news was, he could now stand and walk without falling over. The bad news was, he really couldn't run well. So when he couldn't keep up, trying to both run and keep his balance, she reached back and grabbed his arm, dragging him behind her.

He was feeling a little steadier now and not quite so dizzy when they entered another area of the warehouse, with dark brick walls and narrower passageways. Hearing voices ahead of them now, they ducked for cover in a shallow alcove.

He leaned on the wall as she stood pressed up against him, trying to flatten themselves out of view behind the brick column. He was feeling better by the minute, and even though his headache was alive and well, his vision was finally clearing.

Only one Liz now…

"Want me to take the gun?" he whispered to her.

She gave him the look. "You'd end up shooting me!" she hissed back at him, then urged him to be quiet.

Yes mom…

The men were closer now, and all they needed to do was get by those two guys and they'd be out. She peered around, nodded to him, and they quickly made their way to the next alcove. They assumed the same positions, him against the wall and her in front of him, gun at the ready.

And as he stood there looking down at her, he suddenly remembered a year ago and telling her that she didn't belong in the field. And now here she was with gun drawn, having just got him out of a situation he'd have likely been killed in … and she's protecting me…and I'm trusting her to protect me…

You've come a long way Liz.

Or maybe I have.

And then the gunman was there and Liz sprang at him, knocking him to the ground. Ressler moved out of the alcove as the guy went down, suddenly seeing the other gunman behind them. He whirled, and ignoring the pain in his head, saw Samar with her weapon raised on the gunman.

In a split second, he saw Liz was right in both their lines of fire.

"Keen!" He grabbed her, pulling her back into him as he slammed against the wall, holding her out of the way of the gunshot as Samar took down the gunman.

"Oh God…" she breathed, and held his arm, panting.

As Samar approached he grabbed Liz's shoulders, guiding her out to the waiting FBI vehicles. Outside in the sun, squinting at the bright light that was making his headache scream, he faced her.

"You alright?"

She nodded to him, and then Samar was there, opening the back door to the SUV for them. He guided Liz inside, then climbed in beside her, leaning back on the seat, his head pounding.

She looked up at him and whispered, unheard by Samar climbing in the passenger seat. "Thanks partner."

"You too." He replied, and he smiled down at her as they leaned together out of choice this time.

###

A few hours later, it was night and Ressler sat in their office, keeping the lights low. He'd told Liz he would catch up with her, yet he hadn't moved. Hadn't gone out to the river where they'd found the body Cooper had assumed was the Scimitar. He hadn't made any move to go anywhere and was still twirling the pen in his hands, like he'd been when Liz had entered their office an hour ago.

The pills sat in the drawer beside him, and he'd lost count of how many times he'd opened it to peek in at them, then closed the drawer quickly. And when he finally got tired of opening and closing it he had taken the pills out and looked at them for a while - a long while - and had then quickly put them in his right pocket.

Dammit. His right pocket was his 'ease of access' position for his pills. They had just moved up in the ranks of him needing them near.

And he could hardly breathe at the thought of that.

He hadn't answered Liz's question. "What about that? Is that going to be a problem?"

And in his defense, he couldn't exactly answer her with Cooper poking his head in their office right at that moment. And so Liz had left to go ID the body from the river, leaving that hanging between them.

And in the ensuing hour, he'd been trying to answer her question. And with the pills now in his pocket – that answer was becoming muddier.

The logical answer was simple - No of course it's not going to be a problem. Everything is under control. (And you may notice I'm lying through my teeth).

The actual answer was more complicated – I don't want it to be a problem. But I'm taking this day by day. Hour by hour. Minute by minute. So I don't know. But when I do know, you'll be the first to know. (And by the way, right now I'm freaking out).

And in the middle of his conflict in trying to answer that question, his mind kept replaying something else - that when he'd told Liz 'the prospect of having to live without me must've been terrifying' he'd injected humor into it to ease the tension. It didn't make his question less serious. It was just the way he had phrased it. But what he kept replaying was her reply. 'It was.' And not so much what she had said, but HOW she had said it.

She had been serious.

And the more he sat there, he found himself reversing the conversation. What if she had said that to me? What would I have replied? And he knew in no uncertain terms that he'd have also said "It was." But he would have covered it with humor, because it's just how I am... A complete dick at times... But underneath, he'd have been as serious as Liz had been.

'It was.' Two words that had him thinking more about 'women stuff' than he cared to admit. He'd been leaning on Liz a lot lately. Emotionally for a while – and then physically today. And try as he might, he couldn't come up with a sarcastic or humorous comeback about that. Because he was thinking about her differently of late. She was still his work partner. But there was no denying now that he felt…more. And while he was in no way ready for a relationship with anyone…not with how he still felt about Audrey, he realized just how much he valued Liz as his friend. His best friend. He liked having her around. He trusted her. Confided in her. Broke down in front of her. Leaned on her.

And maybe…one day…more…? Now he had two questions he hadn't answered.

That was definitely too much 'women stuff' to think about, so he shook his head and leaned forward in his chair. To continue thinking about that, he realized, was really going to overload his brain. And right now, feeling the residue of the headache he'd had from the SUV accident and sedatives, he didn't need to overtax his brain. It was having a hard enough time as it was on the I NEED DRUGS roller coaster.

His phone lit up with a text from Liz right at that moment. Her ears must have been burning.

[It's definitely the Scimitar. Coroner took him now. Where are you at?]

He typed his reply to her. [where u left me. sitting at my desk] He stood up then, and looked out the blinds. Apparently, he was the only one left in this area of the building. His phone buzzed again.

[I'll be there soon :)]

She typed a smiley. She never types smilies…

And he found himself smiling at that, as he dropped his phone on the desk.

###

She arrived back at the post office 20 minutes later, and sat down tiredly at her desk across from him.

"So…you didn't catch up with me." She stated, trying to read him.

"No, sorry. I was…" Going around in circles… "Just thinking…" he replied.

"Are you okay?" she asked him softly, leaning forward to look more closely at him.

Am I okay? And when he looked at her, she was worried again, because she still couldn't read him right now.

"Hold that thought." He suddenly said, coming to a decision. "And come with me." He stood, waiting for her to join him.

She looked at him warily. "What's going on with you…?" and the overwhelming concern running through her mind was that he had used and was…high? But he wasn't, she could see his pupils were fine when she came and stood beside him.

He motioned with his head as he left their office with her beside him. Walking away from the bullpen, he headed down the 'Anslo Garrick walk of fame' as he had dubbed it. The hallway that led to the box. It was silent, and only a few lights shone in the distance in the hallway. She reached out to him and touched his arm.

"Where are we going…?"

He looked sideways at her, his eyes catching the dim lighting. "Here." He told her, stopping at a door.

"Here?" she looked, and the door had 'Supply Closet' painted on it. He opened the door, revealing a dimly lit room inside. A few mops and buckets lined the wall, and yellow 'Wet Floor' signs hung on hooks. And on one wall, a dirty trough sink, with a large mirror over it. Guiding her gently inside, he closed the door behind them.

She was confused now. Completely. "Um, yeah. Well this is nice…"

Here's your answer Liz…

He looked at her, and then completely and utterly surprised her when he put his left arm around her shoulder, drawing her close. Just like they had been when fleeing the hospital, only now it was …different.

"You asked me earlier tonight if being drugged today was going to be a problem." He told her, his head beside hers in the semi darkness. She looked up at him, her face close to his. She still couldn't read him. Had never seen this.

"So I've thought about it all night, since you left." That, and... other things…

He reached into his right pocket, and heard her intake of breath when he showed her the bottle of pills. "Ress…" she whispered. "...no…"

He met her eyes. "I got these three days ago..." He hesitated when he saw the tears brimming in her eyes as she looked up at him. "And it's a refill for 30 tablets." He told her quietly, right beside her.

"Liz, there are still 30 tablets in here." He told her then looked at her silently.

Her tears spilled over. And when he reached down and wiped them away she looked up at him, unable to speak. And then he lifted his arm off her shoulder and stepped over to the sink, uncapping the bottle.

She held her breath as he turned on the water. And cried even more when she saw him turn the bottle upside down, spilling the tablets into the stream and washing them away. "Ress…" she whispered.

He felt calm. Calmer than he had imagined he would feel while doing this. And he knew it was right. He spilled the tablets down the sink, and as always, when he was near a mirror he looked up into it. He'd seen himself in this mirror a few times. And what he saw tonight was so different he barely recognized the look. Liz wasn't the only one.

He turned away from the mirror, seeing her crying as she watched him. He stepped back to her, and gave her the bottle.

"You keep that. Now there are no tablets in the bottle. And that is my answer to your question Liz."

She took the bottle and smiled at him through her tears, and then he surprised her all over again when he reached his arms around her and hugged her close.

And this is the answer to my other question I had tonight.