Part 2

Next evening, Liz sets the alarm to go off at two A.M in the morning, before opening up the containers of the take-out she brought for dinner in the small kitchen in her motel room. It's the exact same time Red called her the previous night before, babbling nonsense about wearing only his birthday suit and prattling on about multiple orgasms. She grins to herself as she sits on the edge of her bed, chowing down on the stuffed dumplings and noodles she brought for dinner, as well as a light beer to wash it all decadently down with; Her reward for getting through another grueling day capturing the next criminal on Red's list.

She's decided that she is going to make Reddington pay for keeping her up last night. She's going to do the same, in calling him at a ridiculous hour of the night, talking sheer nonsense. Some part of her even wickedly hopes that she'll disturb him from sleep while she does it.

Payback is a bitch. And Liz's going to enjoy every second of it.

Once she's finished with her dinner, she throws the takeout container into the trash and takes her beer with her as she heads into the bathroom to have a quick shower. Even as she stands in the shower, shampooing her hair, the smile won't seem to leave her. She rehearses a few different scenarios in her head, coming to one that she is most satisfied with.

She's going to call him and pretend to be distressed. Knowing Red, he'll worry his ass off and assume something is seriously wrong with her, potentially one of his enemies coming to threaten her, therefore bringing out his caring and protective streak. Then she's going to turn it all around on him. He won't know what to think once she's finished with him.

Once she's done showering, she gets into her sloppy shirt and track pants for bed, swallowing the rest of her beer down. The beer seems to mellow her out, make her feel less self-conscious about what she's going to be doing. Wrapping her damp hair up in a towel, she heads back into the room, peering down at the time illuminated on the clock near the bed. It's only 11.30 in the evening. She's not even so sure she can last that long, in keeping herself awake until two A.M in the morning.

She yanks her phone out of the charger and sits on the bed, crossing her legs. She's undecided on what to do. Should she just call him now, have her fun, and get it over with? She has to be up early for work in the morning, and considering how Red disrupted her from her sleep last night, she had already felt tired enough during the day. What is it really going to hurt any, in doing it now?

While the idea of getting revenge on Red for the phone call is satisfying, it doesn't seem worth it, sacrificing sleep for another night just so that she could do it. She had been clumsy and out of sorts during the day, with having trouble keeping her mind focused. Cooper had even noticed and had asked if there was something concerning her. She couldn't go through work like that again, not two days straight in a row.

Liz opens her phone, searching through her contacts for Reddington's number. Before she can have any regrets, she thumbs the call button, placing the phone up against her left ear. This was going to be interesting...

She hears the clicking of the call going through, then Red answers in his deep voice, "Ah, Lizzie. What a pleasant surprise, you calling me at this hour. Is there something that I can finally do for you?"

Her mouth goes dry and for a second there, she can't remember how to speak. Her mind goes blank and she can't seem to recall what it was that was part of the plan. She can feel her heart pumping furiously in her chest. Then it comes to her, her plan, and she clears her throat curtly.

"Um, Red?" She makes her voice sound as panic-stricken as possible, knowing he couldn't resist coming to her aid then.

"Yes?" Immediately, he sounds alert and cautious. Anxious, even. Just exactly what she needs... "Lizzie, are you all right?"

"I... I don't exactly know." She makes her voice sound faintly higher, so Red assumes she's been crying. "Something's really wrong. There's a... a..." Pulling the phone away from her ear, she starts rubbing her palm back and forth along the receiver, hoping to make crackling and rustling noises on his end. Then she brings herself to make a few loud moaning noises of fake sexual pleasure, grinning to herself while she tries to stifle down her laughter once she thumbs the speaker on so that she can hear every single reaction he makes clearly.

Hopefully the sounds she is making will really freak him out and he'll lose it.

Liz has to press her lips together tightly to refrain from laughing when she's hears Reddington breathing in a shallow, desperate way through the speaker phone, sending it crackling. She wonders what he was up to minutes ago before answering her call- if she's interrupting him from reading a chapter in his erotic novel.

"Lizzie? Lizzie, are you still there?" He finally says, and his rich, baritone voice sounds confused and panicked.

"There's a..."

"- Are you... are you all right? Is something happening at the motel? I think you're breaking up. It's impossible to hear with all of that-"

Purposefully cutting off his concerned inquiry, she makes another deliberate moaning noise, tapping her fingers against the receiver again. She's never had so much fun in years, she doesn't think. Playing with Reddington's mind... it's the most hilarious and joyful thing she's done in months.

"Red," she cries out in a fake sobbing voice. "I... I don't know what's happening. They're everywhere!"

"Who's everywhere? Are you hurt? Shall I come over?"

She sends a silent fist pump into the air when it occurs to her that she has immediately succeeded in her plan. Red sounds so worried and anxious, everything that she'd hoped for and more.

Unable to contain herself from laughing out loud, she hangs up on him quickly in order not to spoil and ruin it, letting her laughter free as she cups her hands over her mouth, her body shaking from head to toe with mirth. God, it's priceless, how easily she could get Reddington all worked up. It's the best form of payback. She imagines him sitting there in his armchair, stressed out of his mind, his natural protective instincts when it comes to her tingling.

Her cell vibrates and rings, and when she checks the I.D, surely enough, it's Red.

Another brilliant idea forms out of nowhere, and she grabs the remote, flicking on the old TV in the motel room, finding the free-to-air porno service the room has for all of its tenants. She turns the volume up, standing from the bed to hold her cell near the speaker system as she thumbs the answer button to receive his call again.

"Lizzie, Dembe is gathering the car. I'm on my-" His alarmed words drift off when he hears it quite clearly through the phone then. She knows he's heard it, without a doubt; The disgusting moaning and groaning noises from the man in the porno segment, sleazy and primal. "Good Lord," she hears him exclaim through the speaker on her cell over the sounds, equal measures flustered and amused, his voice trembling a little. "What is all of that dreadful noise, Lizzie? Sounds like something of an orgy?"

She feels her cheeks redden at his words. He sounds so casual about it, as if the idea of hearing her in the middle of an orgy in her motel room is completely natural and an everyday event.

"Have to say I'm left feeling a little neglected that you hadn't thought of including me in all of the fun. I remember, in the Summer of 1982, I had the privilege of being offered to attend a swinger's party where they held orgies on a nightly basis. I remember... there was this one marvelous woman with arms like spaghetti and the legs of a racehorse." She sighs loudly in annoyance with how sudden he is to go on a ranting tirade about some God awful thing she doesn't even want to know about in the first place.

It disappoints her how quickly her plan seems to be backfiring. He's supposed to be panicking and worried for her, not assuming that she's actively participating in an orgy, as if she's even the type of woman that ever would.

She hits the mute button on the TV abruptly, breathing heavily as she butts through his words. "Payback's a bitch, Reddington," she mutters under her breath sarcastically. "Hope you enjoyed that while it lasted."

"Oh, I don't know about you, Agent Keen, but I for one can certainly last longer." The deviant, naughty tone of his voice makes her feel as if she's blushing like a coy virgin. Trust him to immediately turn her plans around on their head. It's as if, for Reddington, speaking this way, filled with cryptic sexual innuendos... its something that comes so effortlessly to him. "Is that the main reason that you called? You're intrigued as much as I am to find out whether multiple orgasms-"

"- Don't you dare even start speaking of whether multiple orgasms truly exist again, Red. It isn't a debate that I want to get into with you right now," she says in warning. "I never called about that. This is about you waking me up in the late hours of the morning last night, then expecting me to get through another grueling day of catching one of your Blacklisters."

To her relief, it seems to quieten Red down from what he's started. There's a weird moment of silence as she listens to him breathe on the other line, then he says, "What are you wearing?"

"My birthday suit," she retorts immediately, recalling his words from last night.

"Oh, really? That makes two of us then."

"What? I thought you just said that you were getting Dembe to go get the car ready?"

"Exactly. I'm sitting in the car, right as we speak, coming to your door in nothing but my birthday suit while Dembe shields his eyes and cowers in horror."

"Ha-ha, very funny, Red. I know for a fact that you would never in your wildest mind get changed into your birthday suit while Dembe's there in the room."

"I suppose that's true. You've caught me out on the lie, Agent Keen. Wonderful detective work." She hears a hiss of air leave him, "But in front of you, however... well, that's another story."

What? Is he saying he would get naked in front of her, and have no worries about doing that?

"Can you do something for me, Reddington?"

"What? I'm all eager ears."

"Picture a pen, then picture it going into your jugular. Then picture me laughing while you bleed out, covered in your own blood."

Startling her, he laughs; a deep pleasant chuckle that rises from the speaker phone straight to her ears, a sound that makes her body break out into goosebumps. "Titillating," he says with a deep hum. "I like your style of flirtation, Agent Keen. Picture me, then my tongue-"

"- Goodnight, Red," she sighs, hanging up hastily, knowing that if she let him finish his words, they may have been the very death of her. And yes, it definitely had been fun for as long as it had lasted, even if with Reddington, it never lasted long.