16.

She had been knocking too long. It was growing excessive, she knew, and while she was irritated by his lack of response, she was starting to grow worried. Liz stood on his doorstep, posed to knock again, and the locks finally came undone from the inside and the door started to open. Instead of allowing the relief that was sweeping through her to show, she let the corners of her mouth tip downward and she crossed her arms over her chest in an irritable manner as a blurry-eyed, sleepy Jacob opened the door, hair standing on end and squinting like he'd forgotten to grab his glasses and hadn't been sleeping in contacts. She huffed for good measure. "You know if you just gave me a key this wouldn't be a problem."

Her ex husband blinked at her, but a slow, real smile perked his lips. "Thought we decided to take it slow? I barely have a key to this place."

Liz rolled her eyes, but her own smile gave her away as she stepped in and pressed a kiss to his cheek, unwilling to keep the facade up any longer. She glanced into the living room of the tiny apartment that he had rented out. The walls were bare and no new furniture had cropped up since the last time she'd been there two days before, but she did see a blanket on the floor next to the couch as if he hadn't even made it to the bedroom the night before. It was midmorning and she'd expected him to be awake by that point. "Were you sleeping in here?"

"I dozed off."

Liz set her purse down on the counter as if it were practiced. In truth, he'd been in the apartment just a little over a week, but she had been over several times between the countless legal hoops she and the task force were jumping through to put her back on active duty. Once she was healed, of course. Ressler had made it very clear that he wouldn't put her on active duty until she was ready to go to it. She had a sling waiting in the car to slip her injured arm into before actually getting to the office.

Jacob looked tired, worn down and most certainly not back up to his usual speed. "Are you taking the pain medicine the doctor gave you?" she asked as she started for the bathroom to back up whatever he told her.

"It's fine, Liz. I don't need them," he answered from the livingroom and she found the nearly full bottle of pills that he simply hadn't been taking.

He hated them, she knew, but if he wasn't sleeping it was likely because the pain was keeping him up. "They won't make you sick of you eat with them," she pointed out.

"I tried that. Doesn't work. It's fine. I'm feeling a lot better."

She emerged again, her gaze sweeping over and studying him. He offered her a small, lopsided smile and reached a hand out. Liz took it and let him pull her close, feeling him press a kiss to her hair. "You don't need to worry so much, Liz. I'm okay. I'm taking it easy, just like I said I would."

"Your easy and my easy are different," she murmured and squeezed his hand. "Do you feel up for going in to the Post Office today?"

Jacob frowned. "Why do they need me there?"

"A statement mostly. Ressler's finally getting things with the school situated. He needs your statement on it since you helped us get in there."

"Can't I just be an anonymous source?"

Liz snorted a laugh, letting go of his hand and seeing a brief flash of disappointment in his eyes. "Talk to him about that when we get there."

"Now?"

"I would have given you more of a heads up, but you weren't answering your phone."

"Give me a sec?" Jacob asked, running a hand through his short, dark hair. He limped into the single bedroom - ignoring the crutches the doctor had given him to stay off his injured ankle - and Liz watched him as he tugged his shirt over his head before reaching for one that hadn't been slept in. "They going to put you back on the job soon?" he called over his shoulder.

"Hope so. I have psyche evaluations and at least two more hearings set up over the course of the week."

"Thrilling."

Liz padded her way across the short distance between them. He didn't stop what he was doing, but she wrapped her arms around his middle gently, hugging him from behind, and pressed her cheek against his bare back. Some of the bruising was fading, but he would have several new scars from the whole ordeal. "Could be worse. A lot worse. What about you? Any idea yet what you're going to do? You know, since you've gotten a place and seem to be staying and all."

Jacob leaned into her. "I don't know. All my actual, legitimate degrees are in other names. I'm going to have to see what I'm going to do if I'm going to use my own for the first time in twenty years."

She released him, letting him shrug his shirt on stiffly and start at the buttons. "I don't want to hide things from you for work," she confessed softly, the words escaping her before she gave them permission to.

Her ex turned, arms reaching out and it was amazing how safe she could feel with him after everything. "You don't have to, Lizzy. I'll... try not to pry, but I'm going to worry if you're out there. You know that."

"I know," she answered softly and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Maybe you won't have to." He tilted his head in a questioning look and she smiled, kissing him again. "Put shoes on. We need to get over there before Ressler starts blowing up my phone."

While he was grateful to avoid the bag this time, the armed guards didn't seem necessary. Jacob felt exposed as Liz told him that he just needed to go up to Ressler's office and he'd fill him in on everything. She was just shy of being late to another round of evaluation or she would go with him. He watched her smile and walk off, leaving him standing awkwardly with people milling around and doing their jobs. He started slowly towards a set of stairs, wincing as his ankle protested the movement upward.

He wasn't even able to knock when he saw the blond man motion for him to enter, never looking up from the computer screen in front of him. Jacob stood there for a moment, shifting his weight carefully, and feeling his body protest.

"Keen said you found a place in town," Ressler said after a long moment. "I take it you're staying?"

"That's the plan," the other man answered carefully. "Liz said something about you needing some sort of statement?"

That finally caught his attention and he looked up. "I do. Apparently my promotion is permanent with Cooper getting Wright's spot. Everyone's moving up. Take a seat."

Jacob bristled at the abrupt offer that wasn't quite an offer. Slowly he eased himself down into the chair, feeling even more trapped than he had before as Ressler pushed a pile of papers across the desk to him. "Look this over, add notes, and if anything needs to be added at length do so at the end and sign it. Your real name please."

"Then what?"

Ressler's gaze flickered back over to him. "Then I'll add it to my ever growing file. Don't leave the premise with that stack of papers."

He was purposefully avoiding something, and Jacob didn't like it. "Then what?" he pressed again.

"You expecting something?"

"Just trying to figure out what you have planned. Liz is safe, as far as I know I've served my purpose in your viewpoint."

The fed chuckled. "You think I'm going to arrest you?"

"The thought crossed my mind."

"I wish. It'd make my life a hell of a lot easier. No, the powers that be-" he sneered a little at that, and the man looked like he'd had about enough of whoever had given the order - "have extended an offer to you."

"What do you mean?"

"A job."

"For the FBI?" Now it was Jacob's turn to scoff. "Thanks but no thanks. That's more Liz's scene than mine. I'm not exactly fed material."

Ressler sighed. "Believe me, I told them the same thing. They seem to think it's a selling point." He leaned back in his chair, looking tired and irritable as he worked to pressure from the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "They seem to think that your talents would make you a very useful asset or a very dangerous enemy."

Jacob tilted his head, studying the other man. "It's this or I'm going to prison, isn't it?"

"Eventually, yes. You'd have time to run if you wanted it."

"I'm not leaving her," Jacob snapped immediately.

"That's what they're banking on."

A sigh escaped the taller man and he slouched in his seat. "So I don't have a choice," he breathed. "This the kind of task force you run, Ressler?"

"This is what I'm getting pushed into. Trust me, whoever they replaced me in wouldn't have told you this much. I don't want you on my team, but in the same way I have no interest in blackmailing you either."

"Rock and a hard place," Jacob acknowledged softly and the other man nodded. "Are there any assurances they're not just going to tap me for information and then toss me into some hole somewhere?"

"I've looked over the paperwork. It's actually a pretty solid deal. And... you'd be working directly for the task force. As long as you prove your loyalties lie with us, we stick together, no matter personal feelings."

Ressler might not want him on the team particularly, but Jacob heard the promise. His past wouldn't be looming over his head if he chose this path. "Have you told Liz?"

"I mentioned it. It would put her in a worse spot than me if she didn't want it."

Jacob nodded slowly. "I need to talk to her about it. We're... working on fixing things."

"She mentioned."

"I'm not making a decision like this without her."

He thought he saw a hint of satisfaction in the other man's expression. "Good. If you join, you two need to keep the personal stuff out of work."

"That won't be an issue."

"You'll need to pass a medical and psychological evaluation before we can let you into the field." He reached into a drawer and pulled another file out. "This you can take home, look over, and talk with Liz about. Everything's there in detail."

"Any negotiating room?" Jacob asked as he flipped through the pages.

"Depends on the subject."

"I'm not giving you all my aliases."

Ressler chuckled. "Not that we'd know if you did."

"And I'm not going in on any deep cover missions."

The assistant director blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you need someone to go undercover in a quick op? Fine. You need someone for weeks or months at a time? No. I promised Liz I'd be here for her. I can't if I'm running around still trying to be someone else all the time."

"Fair," Ressler answered. "Take a look at the statement, then take that with you. I'll need an answer by next week at the latest."

"That's it?"

"Unless you have something I can arrest you for and end this before it begins," Ressler sighed and Jacob stood, shaking his head and chuckling. "And, Tom?"

"Yeah?" he answered, not bothering to correct him.

"It goes without saying that this task force has Keen's back. You screw her over again and you won't make it to prison."

"Understood." He ducked out before Ressler had a chance to ask anything else. He had an afternoon filled with the beginnings of paperwork before Liz was done, but then he hoped they could take the evening just for them. They needed to talk about this, because he needed to make sure she understood exactly what this meant. He was done working around her. It was time to work with her.

He had tried to talk her into letting him cook for her, but they had grabbed Chinese and took it back to his place instead. They had both been at the Post Office for hours and he looked ready to crawl into bed and ignore the world for a while. Liz knew how stubborn he could be about things though, and his wanting to cook for her was likely just an excuse to give them time to talk. She could give him that, but not if it sent him crashing to the floor over the stove.

"How much do you know about the offer Ressler made me today?" he asked, back leaned up against the couch from his place in front of it on the floor.

"Just that it came from higher than him and that he's not thrilled about it." Liz's gaze drifted over to her ex husband. "Was there some sort of threat on the other side of it?"

"Oh yeah."

"Ressler wouldn't-"

"No, but someone higher than him would. I wouldn't be working for whoever that is though. I'd be working for your buddy that hates me."

"He doesn't hate you," Liz grumbled.

He offered her a tired smile. "Babe, if I worried every time someone didn't like me I'd never get anything done. I'm not stressing over it."

She shook her head. "He just doesn't trust you. He will. Give him time."

"Do you want me there?"

"Do you want to be there?" she countered and watched him draw a deep breath.

"I don't like being cornered. Once they do it once they tend to come back around with the same threats, regardless of promises."

She gave a small nod, not confirming the fear, but acknowledging it.

"But I want to be with you and I don't want to run," he whispered.

Liz leaned forward, covering his hand with her own. "I won't let them bully you into anything you don't want to do. Jacob, you don't have to join the task force, but if you do, none of us will let that happen to you. We stick by each other."

He swallowed hard. "I told him no deep cover work."

She smiled. "That's fair."

"Anything else I should know?"

She perked up at that. When Ressler had first mentioned it to her, she hadn't know quite what to think, but the more she had turned it over in her own mind, the more it seemed to fit. She didn't want to give up the life she'd created with the taskforce. These people had come for her, putting their own lives and careers on the line to protect her. They were much more than a team. They were closer to family. Jacob had done the same, though, and the more she learned about him, the more she wanted to learn more. He was willing to give up everything for her and she was tired of all the secrets. She needed someone to share them with. Having him join the task force would keep him occupied in something that he likely wouldn't lose interest in and it would provide their team with extra support. That, and if she were honest, she just wanted to be close with him again. She just wasn't sure if he would accept the offer or not, especially if he felt cornered into it.

"Are you thinking about taking it?"

He shrugged. "Better than running, and I get to be with you," he said with a small smile and Liz leaned forward, nearly toppling into his lap. He laughed as she kissed him, pulling her closer and finally she did fall halfway into him, made clumsy by her injured arm. "I love you," he whispered, as they broke and Liz found herself staring up at him, half laid out in his lap.

"I love you too," she answered, fingers touching his cheek as they moved and she pulled him back down into another kiss. "There may be one more thing," she mumbled.

"Hmm?"

"Red still doesn't know."

He chuckled, barely breaking from her so that he was looking directly into her eyes. His own danced with amusement. "You're trying to get me killed, aren't you?"

"Hope not."

"Good. I was hoping to stay around for a while."

"You better," she warned him, sitting up to level what she could of a glare at him between their teasing moods.

"Promise," he murmured and pulled her against him. She didn't fight it, just sank down so she was leaned against him, her head against his shoulder. Elizabeth Keen couldn't quite push down the smile that had taken hold, so instead she closed her eyes and let herself relax. It might not have been their townhouse with the double doors or the big kitchen that he liked so well, but she was with him. Somehow they had made it through the fire and she was home.

End.

Notes: Thank you everyone who stuck with me till the end on this! Now I need your advice on something: I have a collection of oneshots that I've started with Jacob working with the taskforce. Some are cute and silly, others will be them on cases after blacklisters etc etc. My question is this: Would you guys want to see them continued on as further chapters in World on Fire or would it be better to start another collection of one-shots like I have for Truth in the Lies? Any opinions one way or the other?