ELEVEN
Finally, Ray and Lizzie were alone. Dembe and Ressler had taken a very sleepy Nora back to the safe house Ray and Dembe were currently occupying. Lizzie nuzzles into Ray's neck, breathing his scent in deeply. She was loathed to let him go, let him out of her sight. She might have to go to therapy after this.
"Ray…" she trails off, as she looks over at him, to find his eyes were closed. She sighs out before snuggling back into him.
"Lizzie?" he questions as he opens his eyes to look at her. She looks at him as a tear leaves her eye and travels down her face. "Sweetheart?"
"He…uh…he took my ring. I was wearing it on the chain, and afterwards when I woke up in his truck, he had it," Ray's arms tighten around her. As she starts crying once again. "He took my ring," she murmurs once again.
"It's alright, sweetheart. I will get your ring back." He drops a kiss onto her head.
"Ray?" she asks once again, slowly this time. Not sure how he would respond. He looks at her, waiting for her to ask her question. "Is it okay, if I want a different ring? Something that's not tainted by him? I feel like I should want my ring back, but at the same time I don't. He has taken something from me. Something that should have been a joyful time for us and turned it around, twisted it. I love our family and our baby, but sometimes during the time I was gone, I wished I would have mis…" she trails off, she lets out a sob pulling herself even closer to Ray. "He threatened Nora. Told me that he was going to take her so we could be a…a family."
Ray's heart breaks for his Lizzie. What she must have went through. He had his people out and looking for him. If Lizzie stabbed him, then he was either out there already dead, in which case, he was going to find some way to bring him back from the dead, just to torture him. Or, he was in some hospital getting patched up. If that was the case, Ray would know soon enough.
"Ray?" Lizzie asks, once again. He catches her eyes, wondering what was going to come out of her mouth next. "I want to get married. I don't want to wait anymore. If you don't want me to take your name, that's fine. I know having 'Reddington' as a last name, will bring a lot of things our way. That's why we agreed for Nora to have 'Scott' as a last name." she watches him, watching the wheels turn in his head. "Ray?"
"You want to get married?"
"Yes. I don't want to wait anymore. I want to be your wife."
"How soon?"
"Can we do it tomorrow?"
He smiles at her. "I could grease some wheels, but I'm not sure if we could get past the three day waiting period. I don't have any contacts in the department here."
She beams at him. "Well…" she waves her IV'd arm at him. "I'm not going anywhere. You could fly Cooper, Aram and Samar in. I don't have any other family, Ray. You and Dembe and Kate and the rest of our team are the only family I have."
He thinks about this for a moment. Mulling everything over in his mind. "Where do you want to do this?" he finally asks.
"Really?" she asks. "On the beach." She blinks a few times, trying to keep the sandman away. "Do you think Dembe would walk me down the aisle?" she slurs finally letting sleep overtake her.
"I am sure he would be honored," his whispered, laying his head against hers and closing his eyes as well.
~*~ TBL ~*~
Ray wakes up the next morning to find the bed empty next to him. He looks over to see Lizzie coming out of the bathroom. She smiles at him and then pulls herself onto the bed, snuggling into him.
"Ray, I was thinking…" she trails off. "I think I want to take some time off. Now that you are willing to talk to Ressler about the names on the list, I would like to take some time off. I'm gonna talk to Cooper. See what my options are."
Ray nods his head. "If you feel you need to. I will support you 100%."
"Thank you," she replies leaning over and giving him a kiss. There was a knock at the door and a nurse pokes her head into the room. She smiles when she sees the two of them. She walks in and over to the IV, checking everything over.
"My name is Dani and I will be your nurse until seven o'clock. I'm just gonna change out your IV really quick. And also, I have someone waiting to talk to you. Her name is Grace."
"Oh," Lizzie says. Ray notices a look he couldn't quite decipher. Shock, maybe? "Alright, uh, send her in."
She breathes out slowly as her stomach turns, the morning sickness starting to kick in. She pushes the nurse away and heads towards the bathroom, making it just in time. Ray pulls her hair back as she gets sick. "Morning sickness?" the nurse questions.
"Afraid so," he tells her. "Are you okay sweetheart?" he asks as she finally pushes away from the toilet.
"Yeah," she replies quietly before turning to the nurse. "Can you tell my friend to give me a few minutes? And is there any way I can get a toothbrush, some toothpaste and mouthwash?"
She nurse smiles brightly at her. "Sure. I will be back in a few minutes." Lizzie sits down on the toilet, heaving out a sigh. "I think our son hates me," she grumbles.
"Our son?" Ray asks with a big grin.
"Call it mother's intuition," she tells him. Lizzie looks up at him while handing a hair elastic over to him. "Can you?"
"Sure," he replies. He runs his fingers through her hair a few times getting all the tangles out. He then starts to French braid her hair.
"It still amazes me that you can do this," she tells him. They turn as the door to her room opens and the nurse walks in. she hands the items over to Lizzie, who sighs in relief seeing a toothbrush and toothpaste.
"Sorry, couldn't find any mouthwash. But I'm sure the gift shop in the lobby might have some."
"I will send my assistant out to the store to get her some. It's been hell the past few days for all of us. I will also have him pick you up some clothes. So you don't have to be stuck in this gown. Although, it does have its advantages," he says as the back of the gown opened while she was leaning over to brush her teeth.
"Raymond!" she chastises him as she feels his hand rubbing her back and getting lower every time his hand went down.
"What?" he asks as if he was doing nothing wrong. "Like I said, it's been a trying few days. And we are getting married, I'm allowed to cop a feel."
"Maybe in the privacy of our bedroom, not here with the nurse three feet from us," she says laughing. She turns from the sink and wraps her arms around his neck, nuzzling into him. "Love you."
He gives her a kiss on her head. "Love you too. Now, go get in bed and get your IV in. I am going to use your toothbrush to brush my teeth, then I am going to call Dembe to get him to do a few errands for me." Lizzie gives him another kiss before she walks over to the bed while trying to hold her gown closed. Ray turns to the nurse. "She will be able to wear regular clothes, correct? She doesn't need to stay in the gown?"
"Oh, yeah. She can wear regular clothes."
Ray gives a brief nod before turning to the bathroom. He quickly brushes his own teeth before walking into the room to see the nurse finishing up the IV. "Can you tell my friend she can come in, in five minutes?" Lizzie asks the nurse, who smiles and nods before walking out of the room. "Come here," she turns to Ray and pats the bed next to her. He crosses the room and gets onto the bed next to her. "Now, I want to be truthful here, okay? So, just let me explain." He nods his head, curious about where she going with this. "When I made my escape, I ran across an ATV path. This girl Grace, saved my life. I could hear Nick screaming from somewhere behind me. She told me to get on and she got me the hell out of there. You will know who she is just by looking at her. So, I just want you to know that whatever happened, it was purely accidental. Do you believe me?"
"Of course. Whoever she is, I am going to have to give her a big hug. She saved your life Elizabeth. She saved our child," he places his hand onto her abdomen. She then places her hand over his. There was a soft knock at the door and they both turn to look at the door.
"Come in," she calls out. The door opens and grace walks in with plastic bags in each hand. Ray gasps as he takes in the girl, no, woman standing in the doorway. He turns to look at Lizzie who only nods her head, a soft smile on her face.
"I…uh…I brought you a few things. Your…uh…bodyguard or whoever he is said it would be a nice gesture. There's a mall and…" she trails off as she catches Ray's gaze for the first time since walking in. "I…uh…wanted to….went to Bath & Body Works. Got you some…uh…shampoo and stuff…" she stops as Ray gets off the bed and walks over to her. "Hi." He takes the last step and wraps his arms around his daughter for the first time in years. She extracts herself from his arms, places the bags on the floor and gives him a shy smile. "Okay…uh…let's try that again." He wraps his arms around her again while she wraps her own arms around him. Lizzie starts to tear up as Jennifer lets out a "Dad."