The next morning dawned gloomy and overcast, which fit the mood perfectly inside the house; and for the rest of the world for that matter. Liz had woken up in the early morning light, and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. Her mind kept playing the events of the previous day over and over, and she couldn't get the images of those monsters out of her head. When she had first woken up, she'd thought she'd just been having a bad dream, but then she had realized that she was lying on the floor of an empty house with Red sleeping next to her. She hadn't been dreaming at all, and she felt despondent at the enormity of their situation. They didn't have food, water, clothes, or fuel; and she didn't know where they were going to find any of that stuff. They couldn't go back into the city because it was overrun, and she didn't feel right going into other people's homes and stealing their stuff.

She turned over and studied Red in the faint light that came from the curtainless bay window. He was facing her, with his right hand outstretched toward her, as if he had reached for her sometime during the night. He looked tired, even while asleep, and she could tell he wasn't sleeping peacefully. His eyebrows were pinched together, and his mouth twitched every few seconds. His eyes were moving rapidly beneath his eyelids, and she could see little beads of sweat forming on his upper lip. He must be having nightmares.

She reached out a finger and wiped the sweat off of his upper lip softly, but as she started to move her hand away, he grabbed her finger and pulled her body to his roughly. Before she could get a word out, he rolled on top of her, straddling her and pinning her arms to her side with his thighs. As he reached his hand back to strike her, she finally found her voice, "Red, Stop! It's just me!"

His eyes cleared after a moment, and he quickly stood up from her and ran both of his hands over his head, then grimaced, "Lizzy, I apologize. I thought you were one of my enemies attempting to kill me." He glanced around the empty room and sighed, "I almost think that would have been preferable to the mess that we're in now."

She sat up slowly, still a little shaky from their encounter. It was easy to forget what a dangerous man he could be if he wanted to, which was a good thing in the kind of world they were going to be trying to survive in now. She nodded and swallowed, "What time is it?"

He glanced at his watch and squinted in the faint light, "It's only 7:00. Are you still tired, or are you ready to get up?"

Liz shook her head and hugged her knees to her chest, "I don't think I could fall back asleep if I wanted to." She shivered and reached out to pull the blankets over her. She watched as he bent over and picked up his shirt from the ground, then handed it to her. She shook her head, "You need it just as much as I do. I'll be fine."

She heard him sigh, "Lizzy, just take it. You're cold, and this will help warm you up quicker. You can give it back to me when you're warm enough."

She reached out her hand and took it reluctantly, then slid both arms into it and buttoned it up; it really did make a difference, and the smell of his aftershave clinging to it helped to quell her rising panic.

He sat back down on their makeshift bed and looked at her, but she broke the silence first, "Have you thought of any places we can find supplies at?"

His mouth twitched and he looked away, "Yes, but you're not going to like it."

She didn't have a good feeling about whatever he was going to say.

"Just say it, Red."

He turned back to look at her, his face hard, "You understand that the world is different now. We're going to have to do distasteful things to stay alive."

Liz huffed a breath in annoyance, "I know that Red. I'm not naive."

He tilted his head to the side, studying her, "I just felt like I needed to remind you of that. It's not going to be easy or enjoyable, and you're going to have to let go of your FBI mentality."

She was tired of his runaround, "So where can we get supplies at?"

He cocked his head, "There's a small neighborhood grocery story about a block from here. We can check there first, but I'm quite certain it's going to be mostly picked over by now. On our way back, we can check out some of the abandoned houses. Even if we don't find enough supplies by noon, we'll return here and wait for Dembe for a little while longer."

Liz nodded in agreement, then reached forward and put a hand on his knee, it was freezing cold, "Red, you need to get dressed, your skin is like ice!"

He glanced down, then put his hand on top of hers, "I hadn't noticed, but now that you mention it, that would probably be a good idea."

The nights and mornings were already cool, and it was only going to get colder as winter approached. It was imperative that they found warm clothes first. They would freeze to death before they ever starved to death, or were eaten by Walkers.

Liz reluctantly stood up and shivered as the cold air hit her. She didn't understand how Red could stand sitting out in the open with only his boxers on. She quickly unbuttoned the shirt that she wore and handed it back to him, then pulled her own clothes on and made her way to the bathroom. She didn't want to go in there, but it had a mirror and a toilet, so she would have to deal with the smell of the decaying body in the tub.

As she fixed her hair with her fingers the best she could in the mirror, Red knocked once, then walked in fully clothed, sans his tie. He still managed to make wrinkled, dirty clothes look good. "Do you mind if I use the bathroom?"

She shrugged and caught his eye in the mirror, "I'm sure we'll have a lot of moments with little to no privacy, so go ahead and do what you need to do."

He smirked, then walked over and used the toilet. He didn't seem embarrassed, and while listening to a man that she wasn't intimately familiar with use the bathroom caused her to blush a little, she needed to get used to it quickly. A few moments later she heard the sound of his zipper, and figured it was safe to look at him. She turned to face him as he walked up to her and said, "Are you ready to leave? We need time to gather supplies before coming back here."

She nodded, giving up on trying to make her hair look decent, "I'm ready, I just wish I had a hair tie. Hell, even a rubber band would be better than nothing."

He stepped closer, his face inquisitive, and said, "I used to watch my mother do her hair when I was a child. I still remember her doing some sort of elaborate twist that didn't require anything to hold it back. Do you want me to try with yours?"

She would try anything at this point, because her hair was in her face, and it could potentially cause her problems trying to get away from Walkers. "Sure, why not?"

He reached his hands out and put them on her shoulders softly, "I need you to kneel so I can see what I'm doing."

She knelt and stared at the white counter in front of her as he began to gather her hair up by combing his fingers over her scalp. It was soothing, and she found herself trusting him completely. She was too short to see what he was doing in the mirror, so she closed her eyes and concentrated on what his hands were doing. After a few moments, he patted the top of her head lightly, "All finished. It wasn't as difficult as I imagined it to be."

He grabbed her bicep and helped her to her feet, and she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't see what he did in the back, but it looked good from the front, so she was happy. Liz turned to him and put her hand on his chest, right over his heart, "Thank you, this may save my life at one point."

Red nodded, his eyes suddenly serious, "You're welcome, anything to keep you safe and alive."

She looked at him closely, and he averted his eyes as if he was attempting to conceal any emotion they might be showing. She watched as the light coming through the bathroom window moved over his face, highlighting his dark blonde facial hair. This was the most hair she'd ever seen on his face, and knew that it was only the beginning. He wasn't likely going to have many opportunities to shave in the coming months. She reached up and ran her hand over his cheek, giving in to the urge to touch the soft hair there, "Are you ready to go?"

He caught her hand, then squeezed it once and nodded, "Yes, I don't know about you, but I need water desperately."

She swallowed thickly, her mouth feeling like sandpaper, "Yeah, I think water is something we should find first." Liz pulled her hand out of his grasp, turned and walked out of the bathroom, saying over her shoulder, "Come on, let's go."

OOOOOO

They were in the car driving towards the grocery store that Red had mentioned earlier that morning. Liz stared out the window in shock and dismay as Red drove. It didn't look this bad last night, and she found herself wishing that it was nighttime once again so she didn't have to see all the horrifying things that they were passing. Abandoned cars with doors hanging open, scattered trash everywhere, and multiple chewed up, bloody masses on the ground; with what looked like pools of dried blood cropping up every so often. They passed hundreds of the Walkers, and Liz could only stare at them in disbelief, they were even more grotesque looking in the daylight.

Within minutes they pulled up in front of the small, older looking grocery store. Red killed the engine then turned to her, "I don't see any Walkers right here, but we need to do a sweep of the store before we look for supplies. Also be on the lookout for people that are alive, we need to be cautious of them too." She understood why, bad situations in the past had almost always brought out the worst in people. She nodded and turned to open the door, but was stopped by his hand on her thigh. She turned her head to look at him as he said, "Get your gun ready in here, then follow me."

She rolled her eyes at his over-protectiveness; she was a trained FBI agent after all. Though, instead of wasting time arguing with him, she pulled her gun out and chambered a round. She watched as he did the same, then he opened his door and stepped out of the car quickly. She opened her own door, then stepped out and closed her door as quietly as she could. It wouldn't do to attract unwanted attention from the living or the dead. Red made it to the front door in seconds, then put his gun in his waistband, pulled the sliding doors apart, and walked in. She trailed after him, her back to him as she covered his flank; she didn't see any unusual movement. As soon as she backed her way into the store, Red closed the doors behind her and turned to her. His face was all business, and Liz was glad to see that he was back to his normal self after his breakdown the previous night.

His voice was quiet as he said, "You go left and I'll go right. Remember we're not picking anything up until we make sure there aren't any surprises waiting for us." He glanced around and grimaced, "It doesn't look like there's much left here anyway, but we might be able to find something useful."

Now wasn't the time to argue with him about how he was ordering her around like she was an employee of his, so she just nodded and said, "Sounds good, see you soon." Then turned to her left to go down the first aisle she came to. He called from a distance, "Be careful, Lizzy." As if she didn't already know that. She hoped he wouldn't be this bossy and over-protective for the rest of their time together; it would get old really fast.

She held her gun in front of her as she walked down the second aisle, taking stock of what supplies they could still salvage. There were a few cans of food lying on the ground haphazardly, but not many. Whoever had cleaned out the store had done a good job. She turned down the next aisle, which was the "Feminine aisle" and breathed a sigh of relief to see it had been untouched. The people clearing out the store had obviously been men, and they apparently didn't realize that a lot could be done with a tampon besides being used for periods.

She stopped for a second to listen for any sounds before moving on to the next aisle. She didn't hear anything amiss, so she continued and rounded the next corner; never seeing the man crouched down waiting for her. As soon as he saw her, he stood up and pistol whipped her. She didn't have time to react as she dropped like a ton of bricks, out cold.

The man obviously didn't know that she had Raymond Reddington protecting her, or he wouldn't have come within a mile radius of either of them. He didn't know that he wouldn't be living for much longer; he made the fatal mistake of hurting the one person that Reddington cared about. If he had known, he would have never touched Elizabeth Keen.

Author's Note: I know this is kind of a cliffie, but I'm trying to set up the story. That takes time, so please bear with me. I would really appreciate any comments about this, and how you think I'm doing. I need to get a feel for what you guys are thinking. Thank you so much for all the comments, and thank you for reading. I won't wait as long to update next time. :)