Thank you for such an amazing response to this story. To everyone who left a review I greatly appreciate it, if I could reply I believe I replied to all of you. If I couldn't reply- Thank You! I hope the Muse keeps going and it keeps flowing. I'm hoping to update regularly until it is finished. I have no Beta and wanted to post this before the new ep tonight so please ignore the spelling and grammar errors I will fix them. All legal stuff is in 1st chapter.

On to our story:

12 hrs earlier

5:58am

Liz lay on her side facing away from her husband. She was wide awake and had been up for the past hour just starring at the numbers on her alarm clock tick by slowly. The tension in the house since Anslo's attack was palpable and the rift it had caused between them even followed them to their bed. Both choosing to sleep facing away from one another, leaving a large valley that Hudson had no problem filling.

5:59am

Tom had been persistent in his suggestion that they move to Nebraska, citing the danger of her job and the strain it had put on their lives. Liz didn't argue the point that her job did provide unneeded stress to their already sensitive relationship but with Red missing- the task-force had kicked into high gear working round the clock to find any trace of him.

When weeks passed with her blatantly ignoring his suggestions, he changed tactics, he became more adamant that her job wasn't healthy for either of them. He requested she take his feelings into consideration on the matter. What he felt like being stabbed, the terror he felt finding out she had been abducted by a psychopath then a strange man saying he was going to kill her.

Liz felt horrible that her work had been brought into their home but everything else came with the territory. She worked for the FBI, it was her job! He just didn't understand! She had worked hard for a lot of years to get into the FBI - let alone to be working on such a high profile task force right out of the gate. Better Profilers worked years to get assigned to such a high profile subject such as Raymond Reddington and he was asking her to walk away from all of it. To walk away from Red and The Blacklist and for what? A desk job at some precinct, it wasn't even a lateral move for her it was a punishment in her eyes.

Again weeks turned to months and his request fell on deaf ears. Last night their dance around the subject had escalated into a full blown fight. Tom demanded that she quit her job so they could move away. He had even gone so far as to call out he had already phone interviewed for a position and could start in as little as two weeks: she just needed to come with him.

They had screamed back and forth for hours, each finally retreating to separate ends of the house and neither gaining any ground. Tom's finale declaration of "It was him or the job and she needed to choose. Now!" hung heavy in the air around the house.

The ultimatum even followed them to bed as they both finally came back together in their bedroom intent on finding whatever restless sleep they could manage.

6:00am

Liz couldn't lay there any longer thinking on the matter. She had an early debriefing at the Post Office and figured she might as well get moving before Tom woke up.

She tried to be as quiet as possible collecting her things but when she went to move past him she noticed he was fully awake as well.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

Liz stopped but refused to maintain eye contact with him, "Work. We have a debrief at 8am." Her answer was short and left no room for discussion on the matter. She started to move once again making it to the doorway before she heard him.

"By the time you get home, I will be gone." Tom didn't elaborate or display any emotions in his statement, he just casually rolled away from her frozen body standing in the hallway.

8:00 am Post Office

The conference room at the Post Office was packed by the time she made her way into the meeting and grabbed the only available chair left. Donald, Meera, Aram, AD Cooper and Director Diane Fowler were present for today's meeting. She quickly took an open seat beside Aram and open her dossier as Harold began speaking.

"We have officially hit the 8 month mark with no contact with Reddington since the breech. We haven't had even a spec of credible intel." Harold started every meeting out with the same information, the only thing that seemed to change was amount of time Red had been gone.

"Agent Keen based on your profile, recent events and time spent with Raymond Reddington- what can we expect from him? How do we get ahead of him? He has to have a weakness?"

Lizzie sat concentrating on the dossier before her regarding Red. She wasn't the same woman that had been flustered and unsure of herself only a few short months ago when she had first been interrogated by Assistant Director Cooper. She took time to organize her thoughts and began to speak, still not taking her eyes off the report before her. "It is safe to assume that Reddington will not resurface until he so chooses."

Slowly she closed the report and sat back, "He will not slip up, you will not smoke him out- he is not going to make a mistake. He did not spend 20 years in the wind without knowing what he was doing." At this she glared at Donald as he scoffed at her. After her fight with Tom, Ressler's dismissal of her made her blood boil causing the rest of her report to be a clipped and straight to the point."He will only appear when he is ready and with his own agenda. Someone inside sold him out. He will not forget that." With that she glared at Ressler, giving him a challenging glare.

Cooper and Ressler shared a questioning look that did not go unnoticed by Keen. "Is there anything else you can tell us about him?" Cooper asked speculatively.

She had a war raging between her professional side and the personal side that had begun to sway to the side of grey...or a better descriptor would be Red. She paused a few moments battling her inner turmoil- trading back and forth the idea of admitting he had been in contact with her before he left and not saying a word. If she were a betting woman the first person that would hear from him when he returned: was her. She was pulled from her reverie by AD Cooper's voice once again.

"Agent Keen!"

Deciding against adding any more fuel to the fire she shook her head and replied, "No sir, Red isn't like anyone I've ever studied. Aside from his personal fixation on me - he has no statistical characteristics to base any conclusive response from."

Cooper sighed and rubbed his temple, "Then get out of here and find him! GO!"

As the room started to slowly file out of the office Meera appeared at Liz's side, closer than what felt comfortable. "What are you..."

Grabbing her arm, Meera directed her away from the group making sure they were a safe distance away before acknowledging Liz's question. "Listen very carefully- do not answer just nod. We've ascertained there is a mole correct?"

Liz went to answer but the pressure of Meera squeezing her arm changed her mind and she snapped her mouth shut- just nodding her agreement.

"Anslo Garrick saw your connection to Red first hand and now with that little speech you've added a large target to your back. Whomever is after Red now knows to draw him out they need you."

The blood drained from Liz's face as the reality of Meera's words hit her full force. "They wouldn't?"

"The FBI? No but whomever is our mole may relay this information back to their Leader. Be very careful." Meera released her hold on Liz's arm and patted it lightly, "Trust no one."

10am - Diane Fowler's Office

"It's been 8 months Diane without sight or sound from Reddington. What is your plan to rectify this situation?" Fitch sat glaring at the individuals in the room but directing his questions to the Director.

Diane didn't back away from his directness, " Sir we have an plan in place to draw him out but it is of rather questionable means."

"I don't really care what the details are, I want results!" Fitch slammed his hand down on the table.

Diane glared at the screen then turned her attention to Harold and Donald. "Do you truly believe Reddington has his own spy inside our nest?"

Both men nodded but Ressler was the first to answer, " There are too many inside secrets he is privy too that he could not ascertain if not for someone on the inside."

She nodded, glancing at the paperwork before her, "Are you confident this will draw him out of hiding?"

Fitch interjected here, "I do not just want to capture Ray, I want the information he stole. I want this done once and for all."

Again both men nodded, "We have already used Agent Keen's safety once and he dropped everything he was doing without so much as a blink of the eye. That is something he will not fall for again, it must be real." Harold explained cooly.

Ressler took the opportunity to add, "We have employed Lucian to handle the task."

"Lucian? He is more volatile than Garrick was. I'm sure Agent Ressler, your leg can attest to that." Diane replied quickly, her surprise at this choice evident in the little jab at Ressler's still nagging injury.

Harold was the one to interject, "Agent Keen's entire existence in this Blacksite is solely due to Reddington. I am on board with this action plan so long as she is not killed. I see it as a perfectly logical solution to our current situation."

Diane and Fitch both nodded their agreement. "Agent Ressler, please make the call. I want this done tonight, I do not want to delay this another day."

Ressler nodded and pulled the burner phone out of his jacket, excusing himself to make the call.

3pm Post Office

Liz had wasted most of her day in an emotional fog. Between Meera's warning and wondering if Tom was going to go through with his threat this morning: she was useless. It was impossible to concentrate on finding Red when her own life was in such upheaval. At so many points in the recent months finding Red had been able to take her mind off of everything else. Now she had to admit she wished she could disappear the same way he could.

Deciding it was useless to stay any longer, she informed AD Cooper she was leaving for the day. Surprised but uninterested in analyzing his lack of concern for why, she gathered her things and made her way through command and out to her car.

The short drive home left her feeling sick to her stomach at what might await her. Liz wasn't exactly sure what she was hoping for: on one hand she knew Tom would be gone and she was ok with that. They had never truly been right after Zamani and the notorious box - now the weight of faking it was too heavy a burden to carry any more.

But on the other hand if Tom left her she would be alone; utterly and completely alone. She would have no one, not Tom or Sam or even Red. The one who had promised her he would be there no matter what. All of them would be gone from her life in an instant.

It was then that Liz realized she had started to cry. There was no outcome she could see that would be right for her. She cried the rest of the way home.

When Liz finally arrived home she took a couple minutes to compose herself and try to gather a game plan for both scenarios. Depending on what she found when she entered the house would dictate her next move. If Tom were home, she had every intention of taking Hudson for a walk to delay the inevitable argument they were bound to carry out. If Tom was gone... Well she would cross that bridge when she got there.

Gathering her purse she climbed out of the car and slowly mounted the steps. Once she reached to the top of the stairs and let herself in, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief. The house was silent, indicating no one was home. This immediately took a immense load off her shoulders at not having to be attacked as soon as she got home. The next question was if Tom had truly followed through with his threat to be gone when she returned and the only way to find that out would be if his things were still in the bedroom.

Liz made deliberate steps slowly up the steps to their bedroom and still wasn't sure what she actually wanted to see. She figured she would know once she opened the door.

Before her hand even touched the doorknob she heard a rustling behind her. She didn't even have the opportunity to turn around before someone pushed her forcibly into the closed door and jammed something sharp in her neck.

AN: Please don't flame me for my mole selection. I actually came to it when Anslo made the comment about giving Ressler everything he needed to bring down Red and let my imagination go from there. I wanted a bit of a back story before getting back to the torture... I mean storyline so here was my attempt at giving you some details.

Yay for the new ep tonight! Message me for my Twitter and Tumblr name and we can chat the night away.

As always leave love or hate just let me know someone is reading this.

Lady