8.
Reddington watched Tom fall, his expression blank as the man Lizzy loved crashed through the flooring and landed in a heap at the bottom. He didn't move.
"Johnson, go make sure-"
"No need," Reddington cut the Major off mid-order. "Dembe, call Mr Kaplan. We can't have this getting back to us."
Dembe didn't miss a beat as he nodded, pulling his cell from his pocket and starting down the stairs. They had spoken about their options, and as long as Tom were still alive when he got downstairs, Dembe would be calling in medical favours that morning.
"You'll forgive me if I don't trust you entirely."
Reddington snorted a laugh. "You don't trust me? That's quite entertaining. Bill, you wanted Tom, and there-" he motioned to the still form of the older man's former operative - "he is."
"I wanted him alive," the Major snapped.
"Look at you two. Both so sentiments all of a sudden. You should have been more specific." Reddington waved him off and nudged a bag of cash his direction. Double what the Cabal was paying and added protection. It was more than he deserved. "I take it that our business is concluded."
Bill looked back down the hole at the still unmoved Tom Keen sprawled out where he fell. He stood there, as if watching for a sign that he was coming to, and when he received none he gave a stiff nod. "Yes it is. I'll leave the clean up to you."
Reddington considered himself an excellent judge of a person's level of honesty, but even he was having trouble deciphering if the older man's icy look was a cover or if he were just busy calculating his own risks in the matter.
The Concierge of Crime waited until he was sure Bill and his people were gone before he peered over. Dembe was picking his way through the rubble towards the younger man and finally knelt down next to him to check for signs of life.
What Lizzy saw in him, Red couldn't be sure. Tom was bad for her. She could never fully trust him after what he'd done, yet she wanted him near. Almost like she was choosing to trust him. In the end, he supposed it didn't really matter. Liz loved him, and they would do what they could to make sure their little show didn't end badly.
Dembe signalled that he had survived the fall, and Reddington frowned a little. Well, Tom did know how to complicate things.
She was going to kill him. If he hadn't already gotten himself hurt with whatever trouble he had landed himself in. He should never have followed Reddington. If he had just trusted her they wouldn't be in whatever mess they were in. The fact she wasn't entirely sure what that mess entailed was what was worrisome.
Liz had waited and waited for him to call her back, pacing and checking her phone like that would cause the call to come through. Finally she had had enough waiting. Red hadn't come back, Tom wasn't calling, and she needed answers. She stuffed her phone in her pocket, tucked a gun into the back of her jeans, and started out the door. If her ex was in trouble, she wasn't going to sit around and wait for the bad news. It had been hours. Something had to be done.
"The infamous Elizabeth Keen."
Liz spun, hand on her gun and eyes fixed on a man she didn't recognize. He was tall and fit, hair so dark it was nearly black and eyes to match. His lips curled in a nasty smile that hardly seemed to fit with the way he raised his hands in a peaceful motion. "Don't worry, Agent Keen. I'm not here to hurt you. A deal is a deal. I just wanted to see what all the fuss is about with my own eyes. Didn't get a good look at you at the airport in London."
"London?" she demanded, fingers still posed to grip her firearm. "Masterson."
His gaze fixed on her uncomfortably. "I also came to offer my condolences."
Liz stiffened. "What are you talking about?"
The smile broadened and it made the knot already forming in her stomach tighten. "Reddington didn't tell you about the deal he made with the Major? Your safety for Jacob's life. He didn't seem too torn up about it when he killed him, from what I hear."
"Liar," she breathed and her gun was in her hands in an instant. She didn't care if she was standing on the steps of the safe house in New York City. "Why tell me?"
The man shrugged. "I knew Jacob as well as any other operative save Gina knew him. He had a reputation amongst the ranks. Nothing got to him." He tilted his head, studying her. "Except you. He threw everything away for you. I thought maybe I'd get it if I saw you, but I don't. There's nothing special about you."
"Where is he?"
"Dead. Reddington's cleanup crew took the body away."
There was a chill that swept through her that Liz couldn't fight. Her hand trembled just a little as her mind refused to push back images of Tom laid out somewhere, broken and bleeding and dying. Red wouldn't kill him. She had promised that she would protect Tom. Red knew what that would do to her. Surely they had come far enough that that had to mean something to him.
"Justin Masterson. Aren't you aware how foolish it is to taunt an armed woman?"
Speak of the devil and he'll appear. Liz didn't lower her weapon at the sound of Reddington's voice, but the man in question shrugged, still not appearing worried at all by the looming threat against his own life. "She's a fed. They're notoriously predictable."
"Not this one. Lizzy, please don't shoot Mr Masterson here. It will further complicate the situation."
"He said-"
"That Tom is dead."
She shot him a questioning look, silently pleading with him to tell her it wasn't true.
Red's lips twitched downward. "Sometimes to protect those we love we must hurt them. Believe me when I say, Lizzy, if there had been another way-"
"You killed him," she breathed, horror filling her words. "You killed Tom."
To the side, Masterson smirked. "I'll let you two figure this out. Good doing business with you again, Reddington."
"Elizabeth," Reddington said sternly. "Put the gun down. Standing out in the open like this isn't safe for anyone these days."
He was touching her arm, coaxing her gently, and while she holstered her gun - the last thing she needed was to shoot Reddington in the same style of rage that had her jamming a pen into his neck when she had first met him - she jerked away from him. "You killed him. You murdered Tom... Jacob," she corrected. "Why? To keep your secrets? To make sure that he couldn't tell me what I need to know? Maybe if you had just told me in the first place you wouldn't have to worry so much about-"
"Lizzy, you need to breathe and we need to go," Reddington said calmly.
Tears were blurring her vision, hot and angry. "Why, because he doesn't matter?" she demanded, echoing the words he had spoken to her after he had sent Zamani after Tom.
His hand was against her back and he guided her to a car, gently pushing her inside instead of taking her back into the safehouse. He followed and pulled in a deep breath, looking exhausted. "Dembe, any update?"
"They've moved him as you asked, but he has not regained consciousness yet."
Liz perked a little. "Who?"
"Your former husband," Red almost snapped, his voice thin and strained. "I didn't kill Tom, Elizabeth. As little use as I have for the man, you've made your feelings quite clear."
"He's alive?" she breathed, relief rushing through her with as much force as the anger. She tried to reel it in and regain control. After everything, she shouldn't be this invested. She couldn't be.
"Idiot nearly blew everything to pieces that I was laying out. If Bill knew why we were really there he would have put a bullet in each of us. He had the manpower to do it, even if Tom didn't see it. I had to make it look real, Lizzy."
Some of the anxiousness returned. "What did you do?"
He didn't answer, and she didn't ask again. Instead she sat in silence as Dembe drove, watching the scenery pass by. Tom likely followed Red because he didn't trust something that was happening. It was something that drove them both insane, but where Liz had seen everything work out too many times to do much more than quietly grumble about it, Tom couldn't sit still for long. He was taking a huge risk, exposing himself dangerously, by helping her. He was putting himself out in the crosshairs and she wasn't surprised he had taken matters into his own hands.
The car pulled into a warehouse and parked. Reddington stepped out and held the door for Liz to follow. She did so and followed him silently through the open space that filtered into smaller rooms on the back. He stopped just shy of a door, a doctor slipping out of it and nodding the go ahead. Red touched her arm as Liz slipped by, stopping her. "I am quite aware of your feelings for that man, Elizabeth, and his for you. I cannot... I cannot stop you from doing something utterly foolish, but I do hope you'll think - really think - before jumping back into this... toxic relationship all the way."
"You don't know him like I do."
"He's fooled you before, Lizzy. Perhaps not for malicious reasons, but he's proven he'll say anything - become anything - to be with you." He released her and she stood still for a moment, staring at him. She didn't risk her voice before she turned, pushing through the door and into the little room, feeling her breath catch dangerously.
It reminded her of the first time they had let her see him after he came out of surgery the day Zamani had tried to kill him. There was what looked like the beginning of a deep bruise forming up under his left eye, right along the cheekbone and a bandage covered some sort of injury along his left temple. As she looked closer, she could see the cut, not quite as deep, up past the bandage and into his hairline. His hair was growing back, but it was still thin and short enough to see at least some of the gash left behind.
His wrist on the same side was heavily bandaged halfway up the arm to keep it immobilized, and she could see bandages wrapped around his chest and up across his shoulder. The sheets on the bed covered any further signs of injury. She didn't know if it was a good sign or not that a surgeon hadn't been called in. That either meant that his injuries weren't as terrible as they might appear or the surgeon just hadn't made it there yet.
Liz glanced back at the door briefly before circling the bed and carefully taking his unbandaged hand in her own. He didn't stir and she felt her heart sink a little. "I guess this is how you felt worrying about me, huh?" she whispered, squeezing his hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anything then. I guess that's one good thing that has come out of this. No more secrets."
Her eyes flickered up when fingers tightened a little in hers. Slowly, blue eyes slid heavily open and struggled to focus on her through the drugs coursing through his system. "Hey, babe," he croaked and she felt her lips quirk upward at the old nickname.
"Hey, babe," she greeted back. "You okay?"
He winced at the thought and shifted, going a little paler as he did. "Don't know," he answered more honestly than she expected. "Where-?"
"One of Reddington's locations." She watched his expression grow a little more anxious and she tightened her grip on his fingers. "He said that he had to make it look real. Any idea what he meant?"
"Sent me crashing two stories down," he managed, cringing a little. He looked miserable, but he was still trying to focus on her. "Why... would he bother saving me?"
"I think for me."
"Then I guess I should be thanking you, huh?" he asked with a tired smile.
Liz leaned forward and carefully pressed a kiss to his forehead. "You're welcome. Get some sleep. I'll stick around for a while."
Tom nodded and he was already drifting. Liz had half expected the doctor to come back in once he woke up, but he hadn't, so she eased herself onto the bed, careful not to jolt him. She loved this man, and she wasn't ready to let him go.
Notes: Happy Fourth of July, everyone! It's been a crazy weekend. I meant to get this up yesterday, but we hosted a bunch of people for fireworks, and things got a little too busy to finish editing. Sorry for the wait!
Next time - A familiar face appears as the doctor Red called in for Jacob, and Reddington has a very blunt conversation with his former employee.