A/N: Sorry for being so slow updating! Thank you so much for being so wonderfully kind with your reviews. It means so much to me to read them. Just know, that I cherish them! You guys are amazing and I love our ship!
This chapter is lots of introspection, but the reunion is upon us! Next chapter may get bumped up to M, what do you think? I can try to clean it up and make it teen if you guys want to keep it 'T' rated.
Disclaimed, as usual.
Chapter 6
Raymond Reddington knew he loved Elizabeth Keen.
However, he also knew that he was a dead man. It may not be today or tomorrow, but he was vitally aware that his days were numbered.
Working on the Blacklist was a means of leaving the world a little better off than it was when he started on his hellish journey two and a half decades ago.
All he could think to himself was-Should I encourage her to care for a dead man?
The answer was unequivocally no.
He knew he could think that way now, when Lizzie was thousands of miles away, but he would inevitably falter in her presence. He knew that as soon as he looked into her eyes, he would forget that he wanted to spare her.
She deserved a good man. Someone who could be there for her.
Not someone so selfish as to overlook her needs and merely provide temporary companionship.
The facts were undeniable.
He was not a good man. He had never been very good at doing things he should, rather than shouldn't do.
He was going to burn in hell for just thinking of her, let alone thinking of the decadent things he wanted to do to her.
She was goodness and light, he was shadows and doom.
Every day, he called and spoke with Dembe. Elizabeth had not volunteered to speak with him again.
He was fine with that. He knew he hurt her and what he had to say was not a conversation to have over the phone.
He's always preferred face to face communications. He could get a better read on her that way.
He hated convalescence. Always had, always will. Mr. Kaplan did allow him to take business calls, but only because she knew it wouldn't do for anyone to know that he was not 100%.
There was light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow was the day.
By this time tomorrow, he would be with Lizzie and once he kissed her, hopefully they wouldn't come up for air for quite some time.
He knew he wasn't yet at full capacity, but to even hold her for however long she let him would be glorious.
He couldn't wait to tell her that he cared for her too.
This is it. Today. It was all Lizzie could think about. She could barely eat, watched the clocks incessantly, and could barely hold a conversation.
Dembe wasn't exactly a chatty Cathy, but he had given up trying to get more than a couple of words out of her at a time.
After she sighed for what was probably the hundredth time, Dembe took pity on her and asked if she would like to leave early and wait at the airstrip.
She leapt out of her seat and was heading for the door before Dembe could finish his sentence.
His chuckles followed her to the car.
Mr. Kaplan was going to shoot him. He was certain that if she didn't take such pride in her work of patching him up and caring for him, he would be dead.
He knew he was being a cantankerous shit. He excelled at it, in fact, even when he wasn't trying.
In this case, asking if they were going to land on time and if Dembe knew to pick them up one more time, his nervous chattering was going to earn him a bullet.
He didn't doubt he was annoying, he just couldn't help it.
He was dressed in his cream suit that Lizzie loved so much. He didn't miss the way her eyes had wandered or her nostrils had flared the last time he wore this color.
He wasn't a vain man by any means, but he knew the signs of attraction.
He still had to wear a sling on his right arm to keep it immobilized, but Mr. Kaplan would hear nothing of letting him forgo its use for this trip.
"Raymond. We are ahead of schedule. It won't be but a few more minutes. I sure hope that you two kiss and make up. You've been an insufferable bastard the entire week."
Giddy with the knowledge that he would see his Lizzie soon, his head fell back with a booming laugh.
"I hope so too, Kate. I hope so too."
Lizzie couldn't wait. Her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. She didn't know what she was going to say to him when she saw him. Probably yell at him for being stubborn and flying so soon.
She might even smack the self-satisfied grin right off his face.
The jet had just stopped near the hangar where they waited, but Liz didn't wait for the door to even open before she jumped out of the car.
She would have ran up to the plane, but Dembe held her back.
She glared back at him, but acquiesced. He was in charge of protecting her after all. The least she could do is stop acting like a child.
Two of Mr. Kaplan's team members stepped out of the plane and stood sentry at the bottom of the stairs.
Her breath held until she saw him.
She never even felt herself move. Dembe must've realized the futility of holding her back any longer, because she met no further resistance on his part.
He was smiling and looked so damned good. His suit. His suit, Jesus.
How can a man that almost died two weeks ago look so amazing?
Tears were running down her cheeks and by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, she was in his arms.
Her lips fused to his as if her life depended on his taste.
If he was at all surprised, he never showed it.
He grunted at her impact against him, but wrapped his left arm around her, fisted the hair at the nape her neck.
Their mouths clashed in a meeting of tongues, teeth, and a desperation that was reflected in how tight they held each other.
Her hands were running up and down his head, neck, and back.
She needed that tangible proof that he was here and this was real, that it wasn't another one of her dreams that left her panting, covered in a sheen of sweat.
The entire world could have went down in flames for all she cared.
All she was aware of was the fire that they created with just one kiss.
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