So, what can I say about 2x21, except that it was pretty much perfect all round. The right mix of story, action - and Ressler was in it all the way through! Finally! There were so many good scenes. But the first one that stuck with me was the truck explosion. It was amazing, but I felt it wasn't covered enough. I wanted to know what happened after we saw them both dazed on the ground. So of course, I had to expand on that (and I apologize up front for describing the explosion, because yeah, we all saw it!)

The white truck was barely noticeable as they walked back to their Suburban, parked between the rows of loading bays and warehouses. Sidestepping rain puddles, Ressler's mind was still on Kilpatrick. The man had acted like a prick, but fair enough, he could cut him some slack if it helped them with their case. Then his attention was back on Liz as she handed him her phone, showing the photo of a smiling woman sitting on a swing with a child in her lap. Even he could see the child was Liz from almost 30 years ago as she explained where she'd got the photo from.

"Why would a Russian CI have information about your mother?" he asked her, Karakurt briefly forgotten for the moment. She hesitated and as the familiar look of 'just how much do I tell you and get you in deeper shit with me?' radiated uncomfortably from her, his phone rang.

Her answer cut off for now, he handed Liz her phone. Retrieving his own phone from his suit pocket he answered, hearing Samar on the other end. Listening, his eyebrows furrowed as she informed him that it appeared Karakurt had a truck bomb. And without even realizing he was doing it, he took Liz's arm determinedly at the very thought of a bomb and hurried her back to their vehicle.

"They think Karakurt has a white moving truck with explosives," he told her as he strode quickly to the Suburban. Beside him, Liz stopped as he listened to Samar in his ear. And in one of those moments where time appears to slow and everything plays out in painfully clear slow motion, he saw Liz turn and face the white truck they had walked by moments ago. In his ear Samar was breathlessly telling him the truck was parked outside the OREA.

And now Liz was stepping toward the truck.

No!

"Liz! Liz, look out! The truck!"

Reaching his arm out to point, his words reached her, but were then lost as the morning air erupted in an orange fireball. For that one split second there was no sound. In that moment there was no heat. Only orange and yellow fire billowing through the air and white truck panels ripping apart as their deadly contents erupted from within. But then that second was over as the heat and shock wave hit them.

And still it was in slow motion as the orange fireball grew and the air turned red hot. Dragging in a lungful of heated air he tried in vain to call out to Liz again, but suddenly had no voice. The heat had sucked it from his lungs and no sound came. And while Samar's voice was still in his ear the shockwave slammed into them. Suddenly airborne, for one fleeting moment he thought he'd left his shoes on the ground. Phone still pressed to his ear, unable to even tell Samar anything he slammed into the driver's side of the Suburban.

Pain radiated across his back on impact as the phone clattered to the ground, shattering as it fell from his hand. And if his lungs had been unable to breathe enough to call out to Liz a moment ago, now they had the wind knocked completely out of them. With a fleeting glance at Liz before his eyes closed involuntarily against the impact as he hit the vehicle, he felt the mirror dig hard into his right shoulder.

The SUV windows shattered around him from the initial shock wave. The air shook again with another explosion as the gas tank of nearby vehicle went up, followed immediately by a third explosion. The vehicles parked by the white truck stood no chance as their gas tanks contributed to the growing inferno. As broken glass hit him he fell to the ground, landing on his side as pain seared across his back.

Liz! Still she was first and foremost in his mind. He couldn't call to her, his voice having been sucked away in the heated void. Opening his eyes, she was hidden in the smoke. Heart pounding as he struggled to fill his lungs, he sought to control the rising panic of not being able to take in a breath. Suffocating under the heat and glass as he willed his lungs to open, he finally saw her. Liz! He still couldn't call to her, but she was turning to him. Blood was on her face, but relief flooded over him. She looked okay.

As the flames crackled and smoke filled the air, still everything moved at half speed. In an almost stunning ballet of orange flame and black smoke, the flames reached high into the sky, transforming the rainy day into a dance of orange and yellow. And now the scene became clearer as the first fireball lifted, leaving behind a war zone of charred vehicles and loading bays. His mind now elsewhere, as soon as he stopped concentrating on trying to fill his lungs the air rushed back in. Gulping in lung fulls of stifling hot air, he raised his head a little and looked toward Liz. Dazed, head pounding and his back a mass of pain, he struggled to rise but found that wasn't happening.

With no voice yet, he met Liz's eyes and held her from afar. In silent understanding, each checking their partner for injuries they both breathed sighs of relief at seeing the other in one piece. Together, their eyes slowly left their partner and focused on the inferno before them. As he looked at the charred truck and vehicles that were now reduced to burning piles of twisted black metal, his brain woke up. They were right next to a vehicle and the air was searing hot around them. If this gas tank overheats!

Now his voice rang out in the burning air. "Liz! We need-" he stopped, unable to continue for a second as he sucked in more hot air, "We need to move!"

On her knees now, she was crawling toward him, wincing as broken glass dug into her knees. As she reached him, he held his hand out to her as she grasped it.

"Ress!" she called to him breathlessly. As she came closer he ignored the pain in his back and drew her into him as they kneeled on the ground, feeling her leaning heavily against him.

"Liz! You okay?" he asked her, his mouth against her ear as his arms grasped her to him.

"I think…" she panted, clinging to him as smoke billowed around them. Above the crackle of the fire, sirens could be heard in the distance as they held each other, each unable to let go for the moment.

As he again attempted to pull his legs up under him, he noted almost in amusement that his shoes were still on his feet. With his back muscles complaining loudly, he began to haul himself up but slipped to the ground again. Dammit! Get up!

In the end he wasn't sure who helped who but together they struggled to their feet. His left arm still around her, they stood shakily together as they faced the burning vehicles. He felt her fingers touch his cheek and as they came away from his face he saw blood on them. He hadn't even realized he'd been cut.

"Come on," he told her and holding her to him, hissing at the pain across his shoulders and back they limped away from their vehicle. Sirens filled the air now as they slowly made their way, reeling together like two drunken cohorts returning from a night out on the town. Glancing at her bleeding nose he reached into his pocket and retrieved a handkerchief. Handing it to her she held it to her nose, wincing as she tried to stop the bleeding as they made their way to the rear of one of the warehouses.

As soon as they turned the corner and took shelter behind the building, the air immediately felt cooler. As she slowed to a stop, he dragged her on with him.

"No, keep going. We need more distance. I don't trust our veh-"

He never finished the sentence as his worst fears were realized. Having been exposed to the intense heat, the gas tank in their own Suburban exploded. Erupting in a fireball, their vehicle lifted into the air before crashing to the ground. Shards of twisted, burning metal dug into the softened asphalt. For the second time in a few minutes they were blown off their feet. But this time, he never let go of her. His fingers dug into her, holding her to him as they were flung to the ground. Heat filled the air as small debris rained down on their backs as he shielded her with his body, half laying on top of her.

The sirens were now deafening as fire engines came screaming past them, their huge wheels mere feet from them. For one awful moment he was afraid they'd get run over, unseen on the ground in the blowing smoke.

"Liz!" He still had his voice. Sheer adrenaline drove him now as he dragged her to her feet as pain shot across his back and shoulder. Hauling her to the back of the warehouse with arms around each other, they staggered toward the building and flung themselves into a covered loading dock. More fire engines entered the area, flying past them with sirens blaring and firefighters at the ready.

"Oh my God…" she gasped, her hand clutching his arm as she fought to stay upright. Standing close together, hunched over against the pain in his back he simply nodded and gasped for air.

"Need to...sit down!" she told him, and again, unsure of who was leading who they sank to the ground and leaned against the back wall of the loading dock. He wasn't sure what felt worse - standing hunched over or leaning on his painful back. As he was trying to decide, realizing he couldn't stand up right now even if he'd wanted to, a fireman approached them at a run.

"You guys okay?!" he called, pulling his helmet off, revealing the blond head of a young fireman.

Liz whispered to Ressler, "Are we okay?"

"I'm not sure," he replied quietly to her.

He raised his hand to the young fireman. "We're good, thanks!" he called out, then suddenly grinned. The fireman wasn't sure what to think, so just scratched his head, nodded, then ran back to help his colleagues.

"Yeah, we're awesome," said Liz under her breath to the retreating fireman, before turning to her partner. "What are you smiling about?"

"I just thought of Amy. Something she said," he told her, looking away as his eyes focused on the memory of the Kenyon compound.

"Amy?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to look into his bloodshot eyes.

"Yeah, she told me her daddy said all FBI agents would go to hell and burn in a lake of fire…" he said, remembering the little girl in the back of the car, before meeting Liz's eyes next to his own. His smile left his face as he saw her smoke affected red rimmed eyes and smeared blood below her nose. He surmised he probably didn't look much better himself.

"It kinda feels like that right now," he said quietly, again relieved that she wasn't badly hurt. Lifting his hand he gently tucked a wayward strand of her hair behind her ear, then stopped, realizing what he was doing. But as his hand dropped she reached out and held it as a tear rolled down her dusty cheek.

"Ress…they wouldn't have survived that. The CIA agents we spoke with. They couldn't have…"

He shook his head, having already figured that one out himself. "No, they wouldn't have."

"If we'd delayed two more minutes…" she whispered, clinging to his gaze. It didn't bear thinking about. His arm still around her, he gripped her a little tighter as they sat together.

Something else occurred to him. "Oh man, I was talking to Samar. They must be frantic. Is your phone working?" he asked her as she reached into her pocket for her phone.

"Seems to be," she replied as she hit the speed dial for Samar and turned on the speaker.

They hadn't even said anything before they heard Samar's voice between them, "Oh, thank God! Are you guys okay?!" Aram's voice was in the background, yelling at Cooper that they were on the line.

"We're okay," they both said in unison, hearing a cheer go up on the line as Samar put them on speaker.

Ressler spoke into the phone as Liz held it to him, "We need someone to come get us though. We, uh… don't have a vehicle any more," he told Samar and in the background Cooper replied,

"I'm sending a driver to pick you both up. Just hang tight a bit longer!"

Liz spoke into the phone, "Sir, it went off right outside the OREA office. We don't think anyone could have survived."

Cooper replied to her, "We have it on the TV monitors here. It doesn't look promising, no. The building is…gone."

Unable to reply, Liz hung up the phone and wordlessly leaned into Ressler. Sitting on the ground as the sound of the firemen's efforts to quell the flames surrounded them, he recalled their conversation before the bomb went off. She had asked those agents to help her locate her mother. This was personal.

"I'm sorry, Liz."

She nodded, looking again at the photo on her phone of her mother holding her. "It's okay, I'll find out though," she replied.

Of that, he had no doubt. If there was one thing he knew about his partner, it was how resilient she was. Stubborn, actually. Something they both had in common. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Each busy with their own thoughts and each in no hurry to move away from the other. As the firemen ran to and fro, their shouts could be heard from around the side of the building. Neither wanted to go and watch the effort to put out the flames.

He was about to ask her again about her mother, when an FBI issued black Suburban pulled into the area. As it slowed, the driver spotted them in the loading bay and stopped.

"Come on, Liz," he said and pulling his long legs under him, they both gained their feet. The movement sent a new wave of pain across his back and he knew he was likely one mass of bruises. But still, it could have been worse. Much worse. Making their way slowly to the waiting vehicle, the sight of their former vehicle came into view. Firemen were pouring foam onto it having almost extinguished the flames.

Their driver was watching the firemen and had just realized what he was seeing. "Wow. That was one of ours."

As they climbed in the back seat, Ressler looked past the driver to the remains of their SUV. As they buckled in, their driver slowly drove past their vehicle, slowing even more as he surveyed the entire scene for the first time.

"It didn't look this bad, even on the TV," he said almost to himself.

Ressler looked out the window at the remains of the inferno and the mass of yellow clad, bustling firemen. Water was spraying everywhere from a myriad of hoses snaking across the ground. The lake of fire that had been borne so rapidly was now almost extinguished. Looking away from the scene he glanced at Liz and she met his eyes, both silently thankful they'd survived. And as they pulled away from the charred remains of the warehouses, he again thought of Amy's words.

Not today, sweetie…