They were running through a dark and long corridor underneath the museum. All he could be certain of were two things: the stolen gun on his right hand, and the woman on his left. The path before him was a mystery, but he knew he had to move forward. Behind them, Jacob screams of "Go! Go!" Told him that they were still being followed, still in danger.
A faint light indicated there was a way out coming, and he followed that to reach a door ajar. They entered to find it was a deposit. Not really a way out, but they could at least stop to catch their breath. Liz let go of his hand to enter the room first and he felt as if a bit of his life left through his fingers, only to sigh in relief as she held him from behind to hide as he gave cover so Jacob could reach them. The moment the man entered they slammed the door and went in search for something to barricate it. The two man pushed a heavy shelf against the door as Liz leaned against a wall, panting, hands clutching the ledger against her chest.
It all happened too fast. They went after Hutcherson and found the man surrounded by armed men, while a tall dark man spoke to him.
A strange noise called their attention to the group, and hell ensued. The armed men started shooting while the dark man and Hutcherson found shelter inside a room. They were three and unarmed against at least 10 men and Ressler didn't know what to do, when Jacob tossed him a glock. "C'mon!"
He jumped in front of Liz, who was still unarmed and started shooting while Jacob tried to move forwards.
"Jacob! Come back!" He yelled, but the man was determined to break through the manned barrier to reach Hutcherson. Why is he so determined to reach the ledger first? Donald tought, thinking that the noise seemed to have come from him.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of fabric being ripped and he realised that Liz had ripped the bottom of her dress to give room for her to run faster. He tried not to pay attention to her legs.
"Ressler, look out!" She screamed, and he turned to find a man face to face with him, a machine gun at point. Ress used fast thinking and fast movements to take the gun from the man and knock him out with it, then hitting the man again in the face to ensure he was unconscious. He then gave the glock to Liz.
"Are you sure you are going to arm a known terrorist?" She said, scornfully.
" I don't see a terrorist. I only see my partner" he said as she stood up and tossed aside the remains of her dress. She was sweaty, dirty, hurt and with her clothes torn, but she was still a sigh for sore eyes. He tried to focus on the men still shooting at them, Jacob AWOL and Hutcherson about to escape with the ledger, although all of that reminded him that their time together was about to end.
Together, they were perfect. They had a synchronicity that only comes with trust and chemistry, and they had it. They killed the men and knocked down some, and ran to the room where Hutcherson had gone with the other man.
They entered to find Jacob holding the two at gun point, Hutcherson somewhat scared, both hands up although his left one couldn't go that upwards because of the weight of the briefcase attached to it. The other man looked at them with eyes of scorn, as if that was exactly what he wanted.
"Give us the ledger" Jacob screamed. The man chuckled.
"Oh look, Agent Ressler, what a pleasure!"
"Who are you?" Ressler said, raising his gun to join Jacob, and noticing Liz was doing the same.
"You'll find out soon enough. Give them the book, Craig"
"What? But..." Craig Hutcherson was shocked with the man's orders. It was clear he was his superior, because a simple look made the accountant shut up and open his briefcase.
"You can have the ledger, but that doesn't mean you are going to leave here." He said, as Hutcherson handed the book to Liz, who grabbed and immediately clutched it to her chest and went behind the two men with her.
"Let's play a game, shall we? I'll give you a few seconds ahead as advantage, considering her wardrobe" he pointed at Liz's torn dress. "Go!" He said, a smug smile on his face. If he didn't know better, Ressler could shoot that smile off his face easily. Fearing that would be exactly what Jacob would do, he grabbed the man's sholder and pulled him towards the door. "Let's go, Phelps" he knew what the man meanted. He was going to call for more men, and they would have little chance of escaping.
Now they were inside the deposit, and Jacob came directly towards Ressler to push him. Liz tried to appease the situation.
"Hey! what is it?" she screamed as she kept herself between them. Jacob looked angry, and so did Donald, together with surprise.
"What the hell? you should have let me shoot him!" Jacob screamed, refering to the man who had called all the army that was now following them.
"We don't know who he is! We don't know what this all mean. It wouldn't help us to kill him"
"For once, he wouldn't have called all these men to catch us!" Jacob considered as a reason to do what he wanted.
"You have to think as a cop here, for Liz. We don't know if killing him would have helped exonerate her!"
"And we don't know if it would!"
The men looked as if they were about to hit each other when Liz interrrupted. "Look, stop, both of you! Jacob, I agree with Ress, I know we are in a bad situation but..." She stopped talking and both man turned their attention to where she was looking. Without saying anything, she moved towards a wall, stepped on some boxes and used the back of her gun to hit somewhere near the ceiling. It was glass. It was a window which had been painted black. She finished breaking the glass and opened a way out. The light invaded the room and they had to squint to keep looking at it. She used her armed hand to shield her eyes, and then turned to them.
'We can get out!"
Jacob didn't say anything, just climbed the boxes behind her and went through the opening. Then he came back to help Liz climb up. "C'mon Liz!"
She turned to Donald at the exact moment they heard sirens coming closer, a sign someone had called the police. She had to go, he couldn't go with her.
"Give me the book, Liz" He said, thinking as a cop first. "We can figure out how to use it, Aram can analyse it, it's better this way." She clutched the book to her body, considering for a moment.
"No, Liz, don't give it to him! Red can do it" said Jacob, revealing who had given him reasons to be there. Of course he was under Red's orders.
Ressler held his hand towards her, and calmly asked again. "Liz, please, we can do it. I'll help you come home."
She turned to look at Jacob doing the same thing, reaching for her hand to pull her out of there, and for a moment she was motionless. The sirens grew louder and the sound of men trying to break into the room signaled that she had to make a decision. a tear ran through her face, she took a deep breath and when she heard that cops had found the men trying to break him, a sign that Ressler would be safe, she made a decision. She ran to him, gave him the ledger, and then leaned forward and gave him a kiss.
The sound of the sirens came as a relief and panic at the same time. He was glad the cavalry had come to save them, but at the same time knew that she had to go. He had to let her go again. It wasn't still time for her to go with him. She had to run. But he could help.
"give me the book, Liz" He said. "We can figure out how to use it, Aram can analyse it, it's better this way." He saw her react to his words by holding the book even closer, and for a moment was scared that she didn't trust he would do something to help her. Jacob was rushing her from outside, pleading her not to give him the book, but he looked into her eyes, reaching for that faint light that said that they were partners, and could trust each other.
"Liz, please, we can do it. I'll help you come home."
She took a few seconds to make a decision, and the noises outside indicated that the police had reached the bad guys. It was safe, but she had to leave. He didn't expect her to do what she did, though.
In a single movement, she put the book in his hands and kissed him on the lips, a lingering yet chaste kiss. Somewhere behind her there must be a shocked Jacob, and somewhere behind him were a number of cops about to bust the door open to find them, but for those seconds that their lips were touching, he didn't care for anything else in the world.
When her lips left his, it was as if the world had exploded inside him, and he refused to open his eyes and see that it was over. "I trust you" she said, and then he felt the tip of her hair brush his face as a sign that she had turned away. He opened his eyes to see only hers and Jacob's legs moving far from the building, as a loud thud indicated someone was trying to enter the room. He turned to move the shelf away as he screamed "Don't shoot! Agent Ressler, FBI!"
She didn't know exactly why she was doing it, but she felt that she had to. as her lips touched his, a whole sequence of images came to her head, from the first time they had seen each other, in front of her house, as he was going to pick her up because Red had ordered to, to the look on his face as he tried to stop the Russian car that took her to the airport. the fights, the missions, the jokes, the time he bought her food for her birthday and they shared a bottle of wine. All that was playing like a film inside her head, rushing through those seconds that the kiss lasted. more tears came to her eyes as she broke apart, and she had to blink them off to be able to see him with his eyes still closed, the light coming through the broken window illuminating the freckles on his face. She wanted to brush her fingers through them, but she didn't have time. She came closer to him, and whispered to his ear "I trust you", and then took a deep breath to give her courage to turn away. she then climbed the boxes and grabbed Jacob's hand, who then pulled her through the window.
As she left the building, still holding the hand of the man she once loved, she thought of the man she had left behind. Then, she looked at the puzzled face in front of her, ignored any attempt to explain what had just happened, and just said "let's go", as she ran in front of him far from the building and the sirens.
Author's Notes: Ok guys, that's it. Hope you liked how I ended things. I really wanted to include the kiss, but I wasn't sure if something else would be a bit OOC. I liked it, though, and I hope you understood that I repeated the scene through his and her POV because I wanted to play with both sides of the scene, show what they were both thinking at that moment. Ok, that's all, thanks a lot for the reviews!