By the time Ressler was hanging up from his talk with Red he felt a strong sense of panic and foreboding. Red had only gotten angrier the longer they talked, and in combination with what he already knew about the other man and his latest suspicion, he was pretty sure it was his way of dealing with fear and worry. The idea that a man like Reddington had fear over anything, most of all this, was enough to put Don on edge.

When his phone rang again he felt the same hope from before as he answered it, this time with a desperate, "Liz?"

He let out a huge sigh of relief when he heard her voice on the other end, but his fear went nowhere because of the tone of her voice as she all but whispered, "Ya, it's me. I was wondering if you are on your way over yet."

Don's hand itched to flip on his siren as he told her, "I'm not too far away. Ten minutes tops." He forced himself to ask the next, simple question. "Why?" He was hoping it would be an opening for her to let him in on what was happening, if not at least why she sounded a little frightened.

He heard a slight sigh through the phone before she answered, still whispering, "I was just wondering because there is something I want to talk to you about and I was hoping to do it in person."

Feeling a slight bit of relief, Don tried to coax her into telling him, "You can just tell me now Liz." There was a long moment of silence until Don heard something in the background and asked, "Liz? You still there?" Then the call was disconnected and this time Don didn't stop his hand from turning on the sirens as he dialed Red's number.

THE BLACKLIST

Liz found her phone being snatched from her hand as she opened her mouth, ready to tell Don everything. She quickly whirled around to see Tom glaring down at the phone. She could see his disguise slipping as he angrily asked, "Why are you calling Agent Ressler, Liz?"

Grasping for the most likely answer, she simply said, "I was just calling him about dinner tonight. I wanted to know when he was getting off work."

Tom gave her an unbelieving look as he slowly started walking toward her, daring her to come up with a better lie. Obviously trying to catch her in it, he asked, "Why didn't Ressler get off early too? I assume he worked just as late as you did last night. After all, you two are partners."

Liz was backing up with each step he took forward. She knew what he was insinuating, but she also knew what it would sound like if she wasn't suspicious of him. It would sound like a jealous husband accusing his wife of an affair, so she went with playing dumb. "Are you accusing me of cheating on you, Tom?"

She watched as a moment of doubt sparked in Tom's eyes, but just as quickly the same barely concealed anger returned, but he still played along. "Maybe I am, Liz. Did you even work late last night, or were just off somewhere else, maybe with Donald?" He had her backed into a wall now. She couldn't stop her eyes from darting over to her gun safe in the living room.

Kicking herself for letting him trap her into the question, knowing he was only interested in the first half, Liz knew what she had to do. She knew he would see through a lie, so she continued on with part of the truth, knowing how it would sound. She pretended to be ashamed as she said, "No, you're right, I didn't work late." She couldn't help the slight smirk as she added, "I was at Don's place all night." She then refused to look him in the eye, now fully committed to playing the part of the guilty unfaithful wife.

Liz was surprised by the reaction she got from Tom. With an angry huff he hit the wall beside her head. She couldn't help looking up with a start and was stunned by the pure rage she saw there. The mask that Tom had worn for years was gone and she found herself looking into the face of the complete stranger she now knew him to be.

THE BLACKLIST

Pulling up outside the house Ressler barely waited for the SUV to stop before jumping out. He could still hear the barely hidden fear that was in Liz's half whispered words before the line went dead. He knew that Red wasn't far behind, but he didn't have time to wait until he had back up. He automatically made his way for the door. As he realized it was locked he put his ear up to the door. Only moments later there was a crash from inside, so taking a step back, Ressler drew his gun as he kicked the door in.

If he hadn't been so well trained for situations just like this he would have frozen at the site before him. Just as he came into the living room he saw Liz stumbling backwards from Tom before tipping over the back of the coach and hitting her head on the coffee table. He also saw Tom turning and lunging for a gun that was on the floor in the dining room. Neither person noticed Ressler's entrance, so he used that to his advantage. Before Tom could turn with the gun in his hand Ressler was tackling him to the ground.

Tom proved to be a better fighter than Ressler thought as he managed to knee him in the gut, momentarily causing him to lose his balance enough for Tom to flip him so he was pinned to the ground, sending his gun off in some unknown direction. Tom quickly delivered two blows on either side of Ressler's face before he could defend himself, finally getting a blow to Tom's abdomen followed by one to the jaw. As Ressler rolled out from under Tom he kicked the gun from his hand, sending it gliding across the floor and into the living room.

That's when noticed two things. First, Ressler noticed that Elizabeth still hadn't moved from where she had landed when he arrived, and second, Tom had found a large object off a shelf and was now holding it back. Ressler looked back just in time to feel the crushing blow to the back of his head. Everything went black for a moment as he fell to the floor, but he could still hear. He could hear Tom scrambling toward the living room, toward Elizabeth.

Sucking in a large breath, Ressler forced himself back onto his feet, and even though the room was spinning, he stumbled toward the blur that was Tom. He managed to get to him just as he was standing back up, gun in hand, tuning toward where Elizabeth lay motionless on the floor. This time Ressler put all he could into tackling the man, sending them both rocketing toward the ground, crushing the air from both their lungs. Ressler heard the gun sliding across the floor again as he tried to gain back some of his breath.

Both men then noticed Ressler's gun, partially under the couch. As Ressler pushed himself up, however, he became painfully away that his ankle had been hurt during the last tackle, and with a pained yelp, fell back to the floor. He was up again on his knees quickly, but that was all the time Tom needed to get to the gun.

Tom stepped to the other side of Elizabeth, so she was between them as he stood over her and pointed the gun at her head. Knowing he wouldn't be able to take Tom down again with a his ankle how it was, Don did the only thing he could. He flung himself toward Elizabeth, using his own body to shield her from Tom.