So, we come to the last chapter in this Season's Conversations and once again it falls mostly on Ressler's shoulders to carry this chapter. Would I have it any other way? Of course not! With Liz and Ressler separated by painful circumstance he's the one I stand beside. He's our heart broken Boy Scout. Our fiercely loyal agent, simultaneously fueled by an inner rage, pain and addiction. Our beautiful tortured soul. Seriously, I cannot fathom how much this character means to me! He's not real, I know that. And yet I feel for this guy and think about him and find myself in his head. I love this character and I hope I do him justice. Thank you Diego, Jon and the Johns for giving us our beautiful Ressler! It's going to be a LONG wait until late September!

Donald Ressler sat in the passenger seat of the Suburban as the city flew by outside his window. The events of this day sat cold and hollow within him, yet outwardly he was calm with his mask firmly planted on his features. The one that belied the inner turmoil. The façade that hid the cold dread circulating through his veins. To an observer he was in control, and unfazed. To the uninitiated he was a man in charge.

And in a day that couldn't possibly have got worse than Liz being framed for murder and 'escaping' just a few hours ago, it had become indescribably worse. Four minutes ago, Reven Wright had delivered the blow that had almost brought him to his knees.

'There's been an incident. Tom Connolly is dead. Agent Keen shot him.'

At her words his stomach had roiled and for a moment he had been positive he would vomit. But rapidly regaining his composure - as well as his stomach contents - he turned his deceptively calm eyes to the woman and simply nodded, head held high, unable to speak.

At her side in his newly delegated position they'd strode to the elevator. As he'd turned in the yellow box to ascend, he was witness to Samar and Aram moving together with clear concern on their faces. The news was spreading like wildfire. Agents stopped what they were doing as word flew through the room.

Elizabeth Keen had killed the Attorney General.

Liz! Why?!

Nothing could possibly justify her actions. And as the elevator had ascended to the parking garage to their waiting vehicle Reven Wright had received another text on her phone. Keen had fled while Cooper had been detained for questioning.

He'd determined an hour ago that his best course of action – indeed his only course of action – was to focus on the job at hand. It had always been his mainstay. Wright had announced to the team that in Cooper's absence, he was now the Acting Director. Unsure what to say to his colleagues that wouldn't sound hollow and insincere, he'd simply stood quietly beside her in the war room. The team had offered cautious nods, unsure if they should congratulate or commiserate.

And with no other course of action before him, he'd stayed by Aram and Samar, hovering around their desks because it felt normal. It felt like something he should be doing, in the absence of Reddington offering a Blacklister. Because if he thought too long about Liz's escaping with Red, he was afraid he'd lock himself in his office and never want to come out. And that would not be a good look for the newly announced Acting Director.

From the rear seat, Wright's phone rang, jarring him back to the present. His eyes flickered to the rear view mirror and seeing her on her phone, he immediately dropped his eyes against his intrusion. She was an unknown. He was not comfortable in her presence. Unlike Cooper, who with all his gruffness was actually easy and reassuring to be around. As the car slowed at approaching traffic lights, Wright interrupted her conversation and spoke to the driver.

"No stops."

Reaching for the siren and lights the driver engaged them. As they came to life around Ressler, flashing red, white and blue above the windshield they gave him some measure of clarity. The flashing of the lights matched the beating of his heart and as Ressler grasped at that diversion, the driver ran straight through the intersection with authority.

"Yes, we're on our way." Wright's answer was curt and to the point as she ended her conversation.

"The Coroner has arrived and DOJ are questioning Cooper," she informed him as he turned his head to look at her sitting behind the driver. Again he simply nodded. What more could he possibly add to that information?

They were almost there and as the driver weaved in and out of traffic, Ressler returned his gaze to the front and concentrated once again on the flashing regularity of the strobe lights. The building came into view, along with an armada of law enforcement. A large banner announcing the Fraternal Order of Police Banquet hung from the marble columns, moving gently in the breeze. Below it, yellow police tape was being strung, cordoning off the entire building. The crime scene. His partner had killed the AG of the United States. And try as he might, the horror at her actions was being matched by the dawning realization that this was as much his own doing as hers.

I let her go.

He had been unable to arrest her. And in doing so, she'd run from a trumped up charge straight into a real murder charge. This one was not cooked up by the Cabal. This was real.

Liz! How the HELL did this happen?!

If she'd been arrested – if HE had arrested her, she would have been secure. Behind bars, definitely, but prevented from carrying out this crime. And still inwardly screaming he opened the car door and exited into the mayhem before him. As Reven Wright came from her side of the car to meet him he walked up the stairs, foregoing his usual two or three at a time for the sake of the woman beside him. An officer held open the door for them as they flashed their credentials.

A large oval, gold ornate room met them and in stark contrast to the police presence outside it was relatively quiet inside. A body in a black bag was being secured to a gurney, and as he strode further into the room he spied Cooper. His stomach dropped. He'd just been appointed in his bosses' place and there he was surrounded by four guys leaning over him in exactly the same way Liz had been interrogated earlier. The DOJ were out for blood today. And the task force – his task force – was well and truly in their sights.

A voice spoke to his left, drawing his attention from Cooper for a moment.

"Don, how have you been?"

It was the Coroner, about to escort Connolly's body from the premises. Images flew through Ressler's mind. Of Audrey. Of blood spilled on a road. Of tears, helplessness and overwhelming grief.

"Joe," he addressed the Coroner, voice calmly giving nothing away as he reached out and shook the man's hand. "I've been okay." Amazing how easily he could lie about that, he briefly reflected. The gurney with Connolly's body was being brought closer. Shaking his head a little, he looked at the Coroner again. "This though…"

Joe spared him finishing his sentence, "Yeah, not a good deal at all."

He was unsure if Joe knew his own partner was the reason he was wheeling a fresh kill from a crime scene. But Wright caught his eye now before walking toward two FBI agents across the room from Cooper. He needed to be there too. "Duty calls." He nodded to Joe and took a step way.

"Don, you take care," replied the Coroner before turning and walking to his assistant.

As Ressler headed to Wright's side, he averted his eyes from Cooper. But suddenly he couldn't ignore the man and slowed, turning his head to acknowledge him. And immediately wished he hadn't. Cooper's eyes held him. Full of submission yet tinged with resolve regarding the DOJ surrounding him, but something else shone through.

Disappointment.

It radiated from his boss – ex boss – and for one moment Ressler could only hold the man's eyes before suddenly averting his gaze and uncertainly walking to Wright.

One of the agents held an evidence bag. Coming to stand beside them, keeping his back to Cooper now, he realized what the agent held in the bag. The murder weapon. Liz's weapon. Steadfastly listening to Wright now, he dragged his eyes away from the plastic evidence bag with its damning contents.

His phone rang, and relieved at the distraction he excused himself and stepped away from the group to answer it.

While his mind had been on no one else despite his best efforts to keep his mind off her, Liz's voice still took him by surprise.

"Where the hell are you?" he asked her in hushed tones, walking out of earshot and turning away, concerned his eyes would give away the fact he had her on the line.

It was clear she wasn't calling for her own welfare when she informed him Cooper had nothing to do with the murder. He already knew. He didn't need her to tell him that. His concern was her. Only her.

"You need to turn yourself in," he voiced, needing her to understand the complete mess she'd left in her wake. That the only way out of this was to come in where he could try and help her.

And still she talked of Cooper, ignoring his advice. Phone pressed to his ear as he listened to the desperation in her tone, the room behind him faded as he clung to her voice.

"You HAVE to come in," he told her, as a desperate edge crept into his voice, knowing she wasn't listening.

Damn, it Liz, please!

"I can't." The defeat in her voice almost caught his words in his throat.

"Damn it, Liz. Wake up!" he told her as his breath hitched, "You keep running, you will be hunted down."

Her voice was small. Childlike and lost, breaking with fear. "I know."

"By ME," he emphasized, needing her to listen. To hear him. To come in.

But she wasn't coming in. She was running.

He hadn't let anyone else in. No one else knew. Yet she would understand. Even in their current situation she was the one who would know. "Don't make me do this," he begged, playing his last card to her.

Please! He'd never begged her. But he did now.

"Please, Liz! Tell me where you are-" he suddenly swallowed, knowing he was losing her. "Tell me, and I can-"

The line went dead. She was gone. She wasn't going to tell him where she was.

Searching the air in front of him, unfocused, he could see her walking away in his mind's eye. Somewhere close, yet on her way to Reddington to get her out. And she would disappear just like Reddington had.

She had become Raymond Reddington. And he had contributed to it by not arresting her. By not doing his job.

"Agent Ressler!" Wright's voice jarred him back into the room around him. Slipping his phone into his pocket he turned and walked back toward her, noticing that Cooper was gone. Avoiding her direct gaze he looked around the room trying to focus on anything other than Liz's desperate voice.

You will be hunted down.

By me.

"Ma'am," he acknowledged her and went and stood beside her, hands on hips as she addressed him. He was the Acting Director of the task force charged with finding the fugitive Elizabeth Keen.

Liz! Don't make me do this!

Wright informed him they had several eye witness reports to process. They were spotty, the reception center staff having run as soon as a gun had been produced. Agents were talking with the staff and their reports would be on his desk soon.

He nodded to her, "Yes, ma'am."

It was time to go, and as he strode out with Reven Wright he saw the dark red stain on the thick carpet. Tom Connolly's blood. Spilled by Liz. And mustering every ounce of resolve inside him, he sidestepped the blood and walked with Wright to the waiting vehicle. He needed to head back to the Post Office and brief the team.

His team.

###

An hour later Ressler sat at his desk having finished reading the eye witness reports. All said pretty much the same thing. Cooper and Liz had faced off with Connolly, but not one witness had heard their conversation. Liz had suddenly stepped away from Cooper and held her weapon on the Attorney General before firing at him about one minute later.

Nothing in the reports gave him any insight into why. Not one damn word. It didn't make sense. Cooper would know, but he'd been locked up tighter than a drum and no one was getting in to see him. He flipped back and found one of the reports that specifically mentioned Cooper. Scanning his finger down the page, he found the witness statement. 'The black man was talking to the woman with the gun. Kinda like he was talking her down.'

Of course Cooper hadn't wanted her to do it. She'd go to jail for life.

Damn it Liz. Why?!

Tossing the eye witness report on top of the growing pile, he sighed and leaned back in his chair rubbing his tired eyes. As he opened them, his attention strayed to the edge of his desk to where Liz usually sat when talking to him. As his eyes left the edge of the desk they fell to the top desk drawer. And as if under someone else's control, his hand pulled the drawer open where he almost expected to see a prescription bottle of Oxy in there. He hadn't thought about pain pills since he'd been at the Kenyon compound.

And he wasn't going to think about them now. Slamming the drawer shut, he leaned forward, hissing through his teeth. Taking the eye witness statement report back off the top of the file to keep his mind on the task at hand, he had just opened the file again when there was a knock at his closed door.

Whoever it was didn't wait for an invitation. As the door opened he swiveled in his chair to face his two colleagues. Aram came in behind the confident stride of Samar, quickly closing the door behind them. Her catlike grace found the edge of his desk and as she perched there Ressler resisted the insane urge to tell her that was Liz's spot.

"We have something to say," announced Samar, leaning forward a little as Aram stood beside her. Ressler turned slowly in his chair regarding both of them in front of him, raising his head a little to hear what they had to say. Though he could already guess.

"She is our friend too. We may not know why Liz killed Tom Connolly, but we believe," she motioned to Aram, "that she had a good reason to do so at the time."

Ressler already knew that. His eyes dropped from Samar for a moment. He just didn't know what that reason was. And at this point it was moot. She'd killed the AG. No jury in the country was going to listen to nonsense about a clandestine cover up driving her to do what she'd done.

Aram spoke up, bolstered by Samar having broken the ice. "We know she's going to need help to get her through this," he said to Ressler, glancing to Samar for support.

"From the inside," clarified Samar looking directly at Ressler.

Ressler knew where they were going with this, and let them continue, folding his arms in front of him.

"And we know that you are in the most unenviable position of being in charge of having to hunt her down," Samar continued, pausing to allow him to say something. He didn't. What was there to say? He'd walked through the war room and pinned Liz's photo on the board. That had said it all. His partner was now his target.

Samar continued, leaning down conspiratorially. "And while we are hunting her, we will be right there with you helping clear her name, finding out what the hell happened and get her back here where she belongs."

Aram was nodding at her words. "They won't get away with what they've done, Agent Ressler. We're going to bring Liz home."

And now Ressler looked between the two of them, tilting his head a little. And finally spoke. "She killed a man in cold blood. And not just any man. The Attorney General of the United States." He looked briefly away, recalling saying that to Liz on the phone.

Aram faltered, looking down at Ressler's words.

Ressler continued, unfolding his arms and rose to his feet to face them. "My job is to find her. Arrest her and bring her in to face charges."

Looking to Samar, Aram nodded in defeat, "Well, we just…"

Ressler was regarding the two of the before him. Samar faced him with a hint of a smile as Aram looked at her, as if waiting for his next cue. Unbidden, a small defiant smile rose on Ressler's lips, surprising him somewhat as he looked from one to the other. "But I'm damn well going to do what I can to clear her name in the process. She deserves that. And as the leader of this task force that's as much my mission as bringing her in."

Aram's face lit up with a soft grin, as Samar patted Ressler's arm. "That's the spirit." Smiling, she eased off the desk as Aram headed for the door, their little meeting complete. As Ressler stood at his desk, Samar turned back to him as Aram reached for the door handle.

"And Ressler?"

He looked at her silently.

"We would have let her go too." A slow smile grew on her features as Aram, nodded behind her, confirming what she'd said as they slipped out of his office before he had a chance to reply.

###

It was much later and Ressler was still at his desk. The office was deserted, but still he didn't want to go home. Jacket on the back of his chair, shirt sleeves still rolled up he just sat, leaning back in his chair. Trying to make sense of the past day was impossible. It didn't mean he was going to stop trying though. And inevitably his eyes returned again and again to Liz's desk. And every time his eyes landed on her chair, he could see her 'birthday smile' as it had lit up her face, beauty radiating from every pore of her being. She was beautiful.

So unlike her mugshot up on the board.

Sitting alone, the memories of their dinner surrounded him as he rose from his chair and went around to her desk. Opening the top drawer slowly, his breath caught in his throat. The empty bottle of wine was still there. And the memory of her holding it as she'd talked of Sam came flooding back, of her almost cradling the bottle as she'd talked.

Slowly picking up the bottle he held it a moment hearing Liz's voice in his mind. 'Red told me to share this…with someone special.' His eyes closed momentarily at that.

Their conversation that night filled his thoughts as he again looked at the empty bottle. She'd thought she'd have something to show for her life by the time she was in her thirties, yet now she was gone. 'I thought I'd have a loving relationship with someone, maybe we would be raising a family together.'

As he opened the drawer to return the bottle, he stopped halfway, frozen to the spot. Oh my God... Returning the bottle to the drawer, he moved to his chair and grabbed his jacket, opened the drawer and retrieved his car keys. As the Acting Director he was offered a driver. That would take some getting used to. Until then, he was quite capable of driving himself around.

Walking alone into the war room, he was unable to stop himself approaching the board. He stared quietly at the picture of Tom Connolly's body, Senator Hawkins, the demolished OREA building and some of the slain agents. The name Masha Rostova written on a piece of paper. And in the center of the board the place he'd stuck Liz's photo. He dropped his eyes.

Liz…

Turning his back on the board, he walked to the elevator before heading up to the parking garage. The guards at the door bade goodnight to him as he exited. Pulling out of the garage he turned onto the road, glad that there was very little traffic at this late hour. Concentrating on the drive and not allowing himself to dip into too many thoughts again, he stayed on course.

The street lights didn't work so well in this section of town, but no matter. He knew the way. And pulling into a parking lot a few minutes later he cut the engine as he sat parked outside of a run-down hotel room. Fishing through his pocket he found the key he was looking for and exiting the vehicle he walked to the door. Unlocking it, he slipped inside.

The room was dark, lit only by a soft night light filtering through from the bedroom. Walking in that direction he stood in the doorway and looked at the queen sized bed. Memories flooded over him again. Her desperate, heart wrenching sobs that he'd tried to soothe. Of lying beside her in the dark room, comforting her.

Liz… His best friend.

Don't make me do this…

A sound came from the room, dragging him from his thoughts and as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he saw what he'd come for.

"Hey, little dude."

Hudson's bright eyes shone from the corner of the room in the dim light, and as the dog stood up and shook himself, he then trotted contentedly to Ressler as he stood in the doorway. Crouching down, he met the little dog halfway as Hudson stood on hind legs and wagged his tail.

"Yeah…I know. Your mom-" he swallowed hard as he ran his hands through the dog's scruffy coat, "your mom has gone away for a bit." He paused, glancing away toward the bed, before returning his eyes to the dog. "So how about you come stay with your uncle Ressler, huh?" Hudson had no idea what Ressler had said, but wagged his tail even harder at the sound of his voice.

"Because I don't know when-" he stopped again, his voice faltering, "or if... your mom will be back. She's-"

His voice hitched as he gulped in a breath of air, blinking hard. "She's-"

And sliding down the door frame behind him for support he found himself sitting on the floor. Hudson scrambled into his lap in the semi dark, and as Ressler held him tears rolled down his cheeks and dripped onto the animal.

She's gone!

He'd held it together all day. But now alone in the dark with this small animal, the façade crumbled and he let go. Clutching the dog to him, feeling the soft fur in his fingers, he spoke out loud with a voice tight with tears.

"I have to hunt you, Liz. Just like I hunted Reddington. Don't...please don't make me do this." His strangled voice filled the empty room as Hudson leaned against him, soft and warm. And as he clutched the dog to him, finding some measure of comfort in the animal, he finally knew why this hunt was so much harder for him.

Because she wasn't only his partner and his best friend. He was in love with her.

THE END

Authors Note: So now we come to the end of Season 2 and begin the long Summer hiatus. In my chapters, I chose to make them closer than what we're seeing on our screens, yet never cross the boundary of 'just partners'. I keep them canon, because it feels right to me. Yet over the course of two seasons my chapters changed. No longer just sitting and chatting in their office or having coffee, I introduced new story arcs, and took more license with them. Yet I love these characters so much that I respect who they are and tried not to take them too far off track. And I hope that in the preceding chapters I have stayed true to that. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, private messaged, emailed, twittered, tumblred and chatted with me about our beloved show and my Conversations 2 stories. It means a lot :-)

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