Is it true, what they say, that she was your partner?
emWas your partner.. /em
It hasn´t even been a whole day since the events took a drastic turn
and he had not once thought about that.
After working for more than a year with her, her presence at every crime scene, every arrest
was something normal.
Now his partner, no strongex-/strong partner, was the one he was after.
But damn it that stupid little part of his brain told him she still was his partner
and that there was more to this, that she wasn´t just another terrorist.
The rational part of his brain told him the facts: Elizabeth Keen was a terrorist and now a fugitive.
One of the persons they hunted down everyday and locked away for good.
She killed more than 14 people in cold blood.
She was highly trained and dangerous.
But the other, the stupid part of his brain, made it so hard to believe in the facts.
emEvidence could lie. Especially when it was put there on purpose./em
One of his first lessons he learned at Quantico.
Could the agent, who had willingly put down her gun to save a mans life, regardless of every FBI rule, the partner who crumbled in his arms after being kidnapped by some psychopath, the woman who stood at his treshhold when she literally ´didn´t know where else to go´, the friend he had celebrated her birthday with and shared a special wine and who saved him from going all junkie – Could she really be a cold-blooded killer?
And she worked so hard to gain his trust. He had seen how she had proven herself everyday.
em`Evidence lies.´/em
Once that thought had creeped up on his mind he simply
couldn´t shake it off anymore.
His gut told him that they – the whole task force – simply missed something.
It started ever since that Conolly guy stepped out the elevator for the first time.
It never left and now it was driving him crazy.
In his mind he replayed the moment when he saw how Liz shot Conolly.
There was something in her eyes.
Something scared and broken, something lost.
At that moment it seemed like she wasn´t in the room with them, but in a
much much darker place.
But damn it, he wasn´t supposed to listen to his gut.
There were rules to be followed and orders he had to obey.
He was supposed to go after her, do everything to get her behind the bars.
But that wasn´t what he wanted to do.
He had not the urge to shot her, to hurt her.
Hell, he didn´t want to hunt her down.
If you had told him that he, Donald Ressler would not want to catch a criminal
he would have told her that you were crazy.
But things have changed. He had changed.
When he was trying to catch Raymond Reddington it took over his whole life.
He had put that hunt before his personal life and it ruined him.
All he wanted to do was catch this son of bitch.
But now with Liz on the run he felt completely different.
Yes, he wanted to get to her and to bring her back.
Not to put her in some non-exicisting place where she wouldn´t even get a trial.
This wasn´t somewhere near his mind.
But he wished so bad she would stop running
It didn´t feel like he was chasing a criminal.
It felt wrong what he did.
He knew that she was scarred as hell.
Don had seen it in her eyes when she begged him to let her go.
But what worried was that she scared of him.
Damn it she was the profiler.
Shouldn´t she knew that he did not want to hurt her.
And again that little annoying part of his brain told him that evidence
lies.
In his mind on clear thought raised to the surface.
He simply could not see her like that.
He knew what she was capable off and Somewhere deep down,
he knew that she was no criminal and no freaking terrorist.
The more he thought about the more unbelievable
this whole ordeal become.
Slowly he started to understand why Red had such a low opinion of
the FBI.
Everyone around him, the whole FBI, the task force, they just concentrated
on the facts, on the things they found on the surface and what they could see.
They didn´t learn anything these past years.
But he was Liz´ partner.
He knew more than just her file.
The thought occurred him that this was the main reason they didn´t caught
Reddington all those years ago.
Because everyone was just concentrating on the black and the white side.
But he knew this world was not black and white.
Not in a world with Raymond Reddington.
On the other hand the rational part of his brain told him to stay
focused on the facts, stop criticizing the government, to stop
sympathizing with the top one on the most wanted list
and to snap out the thought that he could change a damn thing
just because she kissed him.
Maybe that was just an action to get away
not because she felt anything.
Because he felt something.
She brought back this bittersweet situation of having actual feelings.
That made things so much more complicated.
It was then, when he got a call from Reddington.
What you know about her...What you feel about her could all make the difference.
Red knew it. He wouldn´t ask how.
But it made his next decision easier.
Because when he spotted these now blonde locks of her and saw her,
he stopped listening to the rational part of his brain and ran to her.
He couldn´t remember the last time he ran this fast.
All he wanted now was to get to her and to hold her.
He realized he wanted to protect her.
But when she started to climb the fence in front of the Russian Embassy
he could feel how his blood run cold.
Why was she doing this?
But then he saw the angst in her face.
He had never seen her that scared before.
My name is Masha Rostova.
Later, when he told Samar that he couldn´t let her go
it was nothing but the true.
He could not lose her to what ever this was.
Even if it meant war.
But as always something in his life didn´t give a damn what he could
and what he wanted.
It wasn´t really the words of Agent Navabi, more the look
he got from Liz that convinced him to let her go afterall.
The second time on this day that had to let her go.
And for the second time on this day he got a call from
Reddington.
"The second she gets on that plane" - She is dead.
The realization of what could actually happen hit him like a truck.
Even the imagination of this scenario was more than painful.
He would not let her die.
Immediately, his mind went back to his horrible day in the last winter.
Blood on his hands, while he felt like Audrey's body became more and more
lifeless.
He would not let that happen again.
And while the whole FBI was on a mission to catch
the extremely dangerous terrorist Elizabeth Keen.
Donald Ressler was on his own mission to save his partner and the woman
he was falling in love with.
Red knew that.