Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One

He could hear Agnes crying and it stirred him slowly to awareness, though not quite all the way. Instead he felt like he was working his way through the layers of sleep at a much slower pace than usual. He had never been a morning person by nature, preferring to dig a little deeper into a pillow until he was ready for that first cup of coffee. It was a luxury he could finally afford.

"Tom?" Liz grumbled, her voice muffled by her own pillow and he felt her reach out clumsily. "Your turn."

"I know," he answered as he stretched out a little. One good roll and he'd be off the bed and onto his feet. He paused, though, straining to hear. She's gone quiet again, and he wondered if she'd drifted back to sleep. If so, there was no reason to wake her again.

"Babe, you need to go check on her. She's scared."

Tom shifted so he could squint in the darkness and found Liz's gaze on him, her eyes open and fully awake. Her expression was worried and he wondered if maybe she'd had a nightmare she was still trying to shake or something. "It's fine, babe. She went back to sleep. We're safe."

"No we're not. She's scared. Tom-"

All at once he couldn't breathe, like he had been tossed into a freezing cold pool and slipped below the surface. Liz was gone and he couldn't hear Agnes. Instead he could hear muffled shouts, and he was dragged upward.

Tom blinked hard, water in his eyes and there was no doubt that he was awake as he choked against the water he'd breathed in. There was a bucket of ice water in front of him in the dim room he found himself in and an arm went around his throat before he could fight, holding him there. A man stepped into his line of sight, a smirk on his face. "You were having some trouble coming around," he stated, as if nearly drowning him had been a favour.

Memories started to work their way through the panic of not being able to breathe. Slipping Reddington's detail, the plane, and the trip to Cuba. Liz's face and the way it had lit up as soon as he had walked through the door with Agnes. It had been so perfect for such a short time. They were free. They had thought they were free.

The blow landed hard, pulling him from his thoughts as he nearly doubled over from where he was already knelt on his knees. The arm around his neck tightened, holding him upright as the man in front of him reared back and slammed his fist hard into his middle again, stealing whatever breath he had managed to get back.

"What? No clever reply today? No quip to prove we haven't gotten to you yet?" his captor asked, grabbing a handful of Tom's dark hair and yanking him up do that he met his eyes. The man behind him released his hold nearly in unison, allowing the other to hold him upright that way instead. They didn't have names. Idiot One and Idiot Two, maybe, at best. Lead Idiot was the one that had been stupid enough to get close.

Tom reared back and forward, slamming into the Lead Idiot hard. It wasn't that he thought it would buy his freedom, but it would hurt the man. It would make him think twice about getting close again. He smirked at the thought, even as the other two circled to hold him down. He thrashed out, landing a hard blow against one, at least, and he had made it to his feet before a kick to the back of the knee sent it folding beneath him and something slammed hard enough into his head that he saw stars as he went skidding the rest of the way to the floor.

Lead Idiot was picking himself up. "You son of a bitch," he growled, wiping at the blood from his broken nose, and kicked out to where Tom lay on his side, still dazed, and he thought he felt something crack on impact.

He curled on instinct, trying to force himself to focus. This wasn't the first beating he received since being tossed into the room and the aches were starting to pile on each other. They always came in in threes, never giving him too much of a chance to get the upper hand. They seemed to know what he was capable of.

The door opened off to the side and Tom started to look towards it, but received a painful nudge against his cracked ribs for the effort. "No you don't. Don't move an inch. Freddie."

There was movement behind him before he was hauled upward and what felt like zip ties were wrapped around his wrists after they were jerked painfully behind his back. Lead Idiot pulled a flimsy chair over and one of the other two shoved Tom into it. He sat hard and it took all of his self control not to topple out of it immediately. Without warning, the ice water from the bucket that they'd nearly drowned him in earlier was emptied over his head, leaving him wide awake, drenched, shivering, and more miserable than before, if that were possible.

Tom blinked hard against the water dripping down his face and another chair was deposited in front of him. A hand on either shoulder pulled him upright in his own chair and he felt his body protest.

Footsteps sounded from the door, but Tom refused to look around. Instead he remained focused on the chair until the man came into his line of sight. He was tall, white haired, and dressed in a tailored suit. A businessman. His eyes were pale blue, icy both in colour and expression, and his brows were drawn downward as if he were already in a bad mood. Well, at least someone of importance had finally made an appearance.

The man sat across from Tom with the bearing of someone who didn't feel as if he should be bothered with a conversation as trivial as the one they were about to have and the former operative leveled a glare of his own as he began to speak. "You have proven more trouble than you may be worth, Mr Keen. Perhaps I should never have lifted the kill order off of you after all."

Tom snorted. "Hope you're not expecting an apology," he growled, his voice raw.

The icy cold gaze didn't shift. The man didn't even blink for a long moment, but finally he sighed and crossed his legs at the knee, hands folded. "I wonder, at times, if people are predisposed to make poor choices. It seems that there are certain types of people that simply don't understand when to quit until they are beaten into the ground. A physical beating, the loss of a person or people that you hold dear-"

"Where the hell are my wife and daughter?" Tom snapped.

"Safer than you at the moment." He stood slowly, unfolding himself, and Idiots One and Two held Tom down in the chair to avoid any surprises. "I knew a man once that was intent on fighting a losing battle. I warned him against it, but he didn't listen. Foolish, prideful. He lost his child for it and his wife never quite forgave him."

Tom felt the anger boil. "Where are Liz and Agnes?" he bit out.

"Perhaps it does run down the line," the older man mused.

An unsteady breath escaped him and Tom felt his shoulders sag. "What the hell do you want with us? At least tell me that?"

"Nothing with you. Masha and Agnes are all I need. You are simply a means to keep her in line. I would advise you, Mr Keen, not to become more trouble than she is. Otherwise I will simply kill you and find a new approach with her."

Masha. The name hung in the air as the man turned on his heel and stalked towards the exit. He had called Liz Masha. Tom pulled in a breath at the realization that, somehow, Reddington hadn't put a bullet in Alexander Kirk's head.

Elizabeth Keen rocked her daughter in her arms, murmuring softly to her as the little one dozed following her meal. After the initial meeting with Kirk and the declaration of his relationship with her Liz had gone quiet. She had been so certain that her mother had been the one to disrupt her wedding that the idea of Constantine Rostov being alive had struck her silent.

Her father was alive. She hadn't killed him, but she had had no idea where her daughter or Tom were, and that, in the end, had won out in the battle for her focus.

Kirk had delivered Agnes to her as a sign of good faith, as he put it. Her daughter, a room instead of the cell she'd half been expecting, and everything she might have needed, with the exception of answers. As if she needed another man in her life withholding answers from her. As far as she could tell she had been there a week and she was yet to see Tom or any real proof beyond Kirk's word that her husband was alive.

A knock came at the door to the room and Agnes stirred. It was more of an announcement than a request for permission to enter. That was something she had found out very quickly. She would be given more time if she said something, but the locks began to come undone on the outside of the door and she moved to set Agnes down in the crib.

The door opened and she caught sight of two guards outside. They were different than the ones that had been there when lunch had been delivered earlier that day, and as far as she could tell they changed out every four hours or so.

Alexander Kirk - because, really, she has no proof that he was anyone other than that - moved into the room, his expression steely as it always seemed to be, though there might have been an ounce more irritation there at the moment. "Forgive me for not coming by yet today, Masha. I've been detained handling an issue with your husband."

That caught her attention and Liz straightened a little, squaring her shoulders. "What about my husband? What have you done to him?"

Kirk shook his head as he moved past her to the crib and it took everything Liz had not to jump the man as he approached her child. The first time he had moved to touch Agnes she had done just that. She had had her hand on his jacket sleeve and was pulled back with her opposite fist, ready to defend her child if she needed to, when she'd been descended on. She had been hauled off her feet, and while she'd done a fair amount of damage in return, there had been more of them than there were of her. She hadn't seen Agnes for three days, and she had just been delivered back to her that morning with the promise that if she couldn't contain herself, she'd be taken again. The threat of Tom's health loomed unspoken as well, though she couldn't seem to get Kirk to give her any sort of proof of life. In the darkest moments she wondered if Tom were alive at all, and if he were, just what Kirk was doing to him. He must have been the backup way of forcing her to behave.

Liz watched carefully as he bent down, his fingers tracing over Agnes' cheek and she watched him curiously. "He broke one of my men's nose today."

A smirk pulled at the corner of her lips very subtly. Well, at least she knew he was alive. That sounded about right. "He should have known by this point not to get too close."

"You married a very dangerous man, Masha."

"He married a very dangerous woman," she countered and moved past him, scooping Agnes back out of the crib. "Don't touch my daughter."

"Will you attack me again?" Kirk asked, almost sounding amused.

Liz clutched Agnes to her. "I'll protect my family in any way that I have to."

"Masha, I do not want to harm your family."

She bristled at what had to have been a lie and raised her chin to glare at him. "Really? You've given me no reason to trust you on that. You attacked my wedding, tried to kill my friends, nearly got me killed, nearly got my daughter killed, and have kidnapped us to hold us hostage."

Kirk sighed, watching her. "You look a great deal like your mother when you're riled, did you know that? Katarina got a very similar look in her eyes." He paused, studying her. "Have dinner with me tonight. Just the two of us. I'll have someone in to sit with Agnes. Let me prove to you that I mean neither of you any harm."

"No."

"What can I do to convince you?"

"Get rid of the guards," Liz snapped, knowing it would never happen.

"I'm afraid that you can't leave, Masha, and I know you'll try if the guards aren't there. Something else, please."

"Tom," she said, her voice breaking at his name. "You haven't even let me see him. How do I know he's even alive?"

Kirk closed his eyes and she wondered if he was just coming up with a better way to shoot that request down as well. "If I have your husband brought here, you'll have dinner with me this evening," he said quietly, though it wasn't quite a question. It sounded more like he was stating the terms of a deal.

"Yes," she answered, before adding, "alive."

He chuckled at that and nodded. "Very well then. I'll have him brought here."

Liz blinked, surprised. "You will?"

"That's what you say you want, isn't it?"

There had to be a catch. "And, what? Take Agnes?"

"Agnes should be with her mother."

"What makes you think we won't run?"

"You haven't been able to yet, though I do think that your hesitation may stem from the fact that you know your husband is alive. You won't leave without him, and he won't be able to run with you."

He didn't give Liz a chance to ask him what he meant by that as he turned around and left the room. She found herself staring at the closed door for several long moments after, Agnes' fussing the only thing that drew her attention away.

By the time the knock came to signal someone had returned some time later, her nerves were in a knot. She was trying to rock her daughter back to sleep, but Agnes was feeding off the anxiety and had been wailing for a bit. The door opened and Liz felt her breath hitch at the sight of Tom being dragged between two taller men. "Just a second, sweetie," she murmured and set Agnes down in the crib again as they hauled her husband in and dropped him in the middle of the floor. He fell hard, lying there unmoving, and Liz saw one of the men that had brought him in was sporting two black eyes and a bandage across his broken nose.

"Get out," she growled at them to lowly that one of them flinched at her tone. "Now."

"Mr Kirk wanted us to remind you that dinner will be in an hour."

"Fine." Liz waited until they were gone to sink down next to Tom on the floor, her hand trembling as she reached to push back dark hair. His clothes were damp, as if they'd thrown water on him some hours before and he hadn't quite dried out yet, and he was shivering as he slowly started to come around. "Hey," she said softly. "Tom, it's me. You're okay. You're going to be okay. Just open your eyes."

A soft moan escaped him and she saw him pull in a shaky breath, eyes fluttering open sluggishly as he released it. They were unfocused at first, staring ahead at the carpet beneath him and along the length of the floor, but slowly he tilted his head and looked up at her, her name escaping him. She leaned down, pressing a careful kiss to his forehead. "Come on, there's a bed just a few feet away. Can you get up?"

"Yeah," he managed, but she wasn't quite sure she believed him. Slowly he started to move, putting his hands under him and wincing as he pushed himself up. She reached out, balancing him and letting him lean on her if he needed to. Once he got halfway up she wrapped an arm around his middle and he put his around her shoulders. They'd done this before. They could do it again, and this time it was a much shorter distance.

Tom fell back onto the bed, giving a sharp cry as he bounced a little and Liz helped ease his legs up. He was barefoot, his sandals that he'd slipped on to go get the diapers tossed away at some point, and his clothes were torn and covered in dirt and blood, some of it fresh, some darkened after a while. He stared up at the ceiling, gaze unfocused again as he seemed to put his attention towards breathing, one arm wrapped around his ribcage and she winced at the thought of the bruising that she'd see if she looked under what had once been a white, linen shirt. She took a seat next to him as gently as possible, reaching out to smooth back dark hair. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" he rasped, blinking hard once and his eyes shifted to look at her as they opened. "I'm the idiot that didn't…"

"This is not your fault."

"You were safe 'till I came," he murmured, and she heard the regret in his voice.

Liz tried for a reassuring smile. "I was alone until you came and brought Agnes with you. We're together now at least. Where's that positivity of yours?"

The thin tease pulled a rough chuckle from him and he reached a clumsy hand up to her. She caught it and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. His gaze was still a little blurry, but it was at least directed at her steadily now. "Love you."

"Love you too."

"You okay? He hasn't… hasn't hurt you or Agnes, has he?"

"No, we're okay."

He nodded and shifted, grimacing as he did, but before Liz could stop him he was pulling himself up to sit. There was no stopping him when he got like this, so she remained where she was to help if she needed to. Once he was up, his gaze drifted around the room. "Not a bad set up for a cell. They didn't even give me a mattress to sleep on."

Liz frowned. "He's…. Kirk says he's my father. Constantine Rostov."

Her husband was looking at her now. Starring might have been more accurate. "I thought… you shot and killed your dad when you were a kid," he said hesitantly.

"I remember the gun going off, the man dropping, but…"

"But you were just a kid." Tom reached forward and touched her hand, a quiet support offered and Liz let him for just a moment. She had been away from her family too much lately.

"You okay? I'm going to bring Agnes over, but I won't be able to catch you if you go toppling off the bed."

He snorted a short chuckle at that. "Lizzie, if I start going over, let me. If you try to catch me I might take us both to the floor."

She stood from her spot and started for the cradle to where their daughter had drifted to sleep after the commotion. It was amazing how well she had taken everything, that curious gaze constantly watching. Now Liz scooped her up and she stirred, burrowing down a little in her mother's arms. Tom's entire expression lit as she brought their little one over and he reached a trembling hand forward, fingers ghosting across the top of her head and her thin hair. "Hey, baby girl," he whispered. "I've missed you so much."

Her blue eyes blinked slowly open at the sound of his voice and Agnes seemed to recognize him as she stirred.

"I'm just glad you're both safe," Tom said quietly and Liz offered a thin smile.

"For now. I'm… I may find out more about what's coming tonight. I'm supposed to have dinner with Kirk. This is the only part of the building besides the holding area that I've been able to see." Her voice dropped into nearly a whisper. "Two guards outside at all times. They do rotations. There's a woman that comes in. She introduced herself as Angela. She seems to be Kirk's assistant or something. Always asking if there's something she can do to make my stay more comfortable." She snorted, rolling her eyes a little. "Letting us go doesn't seem to be an option. This - letting me see you, bringing you here - is the first time Kirk has given me something to get something."

"What's he taken?" Tom asked, an undercurrent of anger in his voice. He wasn't naive. He knew the dangers they were facing.

"You. And Agnes. For three days."

"We're going to get out of here," he promised.

"He made sure you weren't going anywhere very fast," Liz murmured, gaze drifting over the marks she could see. There were plenty hidden.

"Hey. I'm okay. I'll be fine. Promise."

"Yeah, you lie a lot," she murmured, the tease sounding hollow even to her own ears.

He cracked a smile for her anyway. "Not to you. I learned that lesson."

"Smart man." She leaned forward, careful of the baby still cradled in her arms, and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "I'm done letting other people save me, Tom. You and me, we're getting out of here. Together."

Her husband nodded slowly. "Not sure I've ever seen something stop you once you have your mind set in it," he murmured, exhaustion creeping into his voice. No, Liz thought reluctantly, they weren't going anywhere right away. Kirk had made sure of that. If it were just Tom or just Agnes, maybe, but not with both of them. Not with Tom hurt like he was. Maybe if she played her cards just right Kirk would give him a chance to recover some. She could take the time to earn his trust and get a better lay of the facility.

"I'm sorry, Lizzie."

Tom's soft apology pulled her from her thoughts and she looked at where he was finally giving in and settling back before he toppled where he sat. "I told you this isn't your fault."

"Not that. It's just… I know how much you've always wanted to know your biological family."

Liz swallowed hard. She couldn't think about that right then. She didn't want to. "I'm going to put Agnes back down for a nap and maybe you and I can get some rest before I have to go?"

He nodded, not pushing her on it. She moved numbly to settle Agnes back down, bending to kiss her as she did. For now, they were safe. Well, as safe as they could be.

Tom was half asleep by the time she got back around to the bed. He was shivering, his clothes damp, but she didn't have anything for him there. So instead she reached for a blanket and pulled it around him, causing him to stir and grimace. He shifted so that he was facing her more and she inched closer to him so that their noses were almost touching. "You and Agnes are my family," she whispered and she heard him loose a breath.

"And you're mine. We've got this."

It helped to hear the encouragement. It helped to have him near. She would get them out of this somehow. She had to. She'd come too far to lose them now.

TBC

Notes: Well here we go on a new story! I've promised myself to keep this much shorter, a bit less twisty, but we'll see how that goes. I do not plan for it to be another 60+ chapter story. Hopefully it'll wrap up nicely before the end of hiatus, but help get us through. Let me know what you guys think!

Next time - Liz has dinner with Kirk, the Keens take a few minutes to discuss everything that has happened, and the task force makes progress in finding their lost teammate.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

She sat with her face a perfect mask of calm, back straight, and shoulders squared. She hadn't fought it when they had come into the room to take her to dinner, nor even when they'd given her a change of clothes that she was expected to wear. She had, however, told them very plainly that she expected her husband to receive the same treatment. They might be prisoners there, but she was cooperating. The least they could do was provide him a chance to change out of the damp clothes that had had him shivering since they'd delivered him into her room. This wasn't something she could physically fight her way out of just yet, but she could find a way to get the upper hand through other tactics.

Now, though, she felt very much like her captor wanted her to know that she was at his whim, even if it was a more favourable whim than it would have been otherwise. She was left mostly alone - guards at the door, of course - in a large room, seated and expected to wait. The sound of the door opening filled the room and steady footsteps could be heard echoing from behind her.

"When you were a little girl it was a challenge to find anything that you liked to eat," Alexander Kirk said as he moved into the room and circled around into her line of sight. He moved slowly, a man with him that had two bottles of wine in his hands and paused next to Liz as if he were offering her a choice between the two. She motioned to the red without a word and the man set to work opening it for her. Kirk, for his part, had taken a seat at the other end of the table, his expression unreadable. "A family friend-" there was a slight sneer to the phrase as he spoke it - "was American, and he introduced you to hamburgers. You wouldn't anything else for nearly a month." A very small smile perked his lips. "I hope that's not still the case."

Liz's own lips tipped downward. "Tom cooks. He got me to branch out pretty early in our relationship."

Kirk snorted. "Relationship," he scoffed. "Spies don't work well in relationships, Masha."

She reached for the glass of wine that had been poured. "If you are who you say, I guess you'd know all about that," she answered, sipping at it. It was time to get answers. It was time to shift the power, at least for a few moments.

"You remind me a great deal of your mother. Stubborn to a fault. It cost her her life in the end."

"If you're going to threaten me, at least do it directly," Liz bit out as a plate of veal and vegetables was set in front of her.

"I'm not threatening you, Masha. I've spent too long looking for you."

"Why?"

"You're my daughter. Does there need to be a more specific reason?"

It was Liz's turn to make a small sound of disbelief. "Let me tell you what I know. I know that at four years old I shot my father because he was hurting my mother. I thought I'd killed him. I know that you hired someone to attack my wedding and that you killed the organist and were willing to kill my friends and my husband. Since then you've kidnapped me and my family, taken my child from me at various intervals, and have beaten my husband." She straightened her back. "Tell me why I should trust a damn word leaving your mouth."

"Delivering your husband into your room was an act of good faith, Masha."

"After beating him nearly into unconsciousness!"

"I'm perfectly aware what he's capable of. He shot one of my men that went to bring Agnes here for you."

Liz shook her head. "He was protecting our daughter."

"Still, I have no interest in putting my people in unnecessary danger. I kept him alive for you. Surely that counts for something."

"I'm sorry, are you expecting a thank you for not murdering Tom? Seriously?"

Kirk sighed heavily. "I want to prove to you that I do not want to hurt you or your daughter. If the man you married is part of that, so be it."

If Reddington and Kirk didn't know each other, Liz was going to be very surprised. "What do you want from me? You want me to give you a chance, you need to tell me the truth. I was willing to fake my own death to get away from a man that I know cares about me because he couldn't be honest enough to let me protect my family. You want to give me a reason to trust anything coming from you? Give me the truth. Why now? Why this way?"

The man claiming to be her father began to cut into his dinner. "Very well," he answered quietly. "I knew that Reddington had been in your life for several years now. I also know how… controlling he can be. It took time to set it up, but I reached out to a former acquaintance of mine. Her husband was no longer actively running their company, so I knew she would have no problem doing what needed to be done to get you away from Red."

Liz let the information sink in, sorting through it carefully. She had told Tom as much in the car as they fled the scene. The only difference was that she had thought it was her mother, not her father, pulling the strings. "Why now? Why my wedding?"

There was a pause, very slight, as if he were weighing truths and lies. She had seen the look enough before. Finally he looked up from his food, his icy gaze on her. "I'm unwell, Masha. Until now there has always been time, but now there is not. I wished to have time to get to know you before I die."

"You could have found a less dangerous route."

"Perhaps."

If Liz was going to get anything else out of him, it wasn't going to be then. He turned his attention to his food, asking a meaningless question every now and then as if he really didn't know what to say to the girl that had become a woman in his long absence.

It had been Agnes that had woken him initially, but once Tom was up - very slowly and stiffly, favouring his left leg - and had Agnes fed, changed, and settled back down, he had noticed a fresh set of clothes on the table just next to the door. Liz still hadn't been back and he had forced himself into the adjacent bathroom and into the shower.

His clothes that he'd been wearing were completely ruined by blood and grime. The water was hot, burning at his skin and washing away the remnants of the hell they had put him through in the last week since they had been taken. Blood swirled down the drain, washing off of him and leaving the cuts, scrapes, and deep bruises behind. He found himself leaning against the shower wall as he pulled his focus around. Passing out there wouldn't do any good.

The water shut off and by the time he managed to get into the clothes left for him he heard the door to the room open. He had left the bathroom door cracked to listen for Agnes, and he eased himself towards it to see Liz slipping in. He loosed a breath and pushed it open the rest of the way.

His wife lifted an eyebrow as she moved towards him. "You look like you're ready to fight someone."

Tom blinked hard, forcing himself to come back down out of the fight or flight mode. "You said they took her once since you'd been here. I wasn't going to give them the chance to do it again." He grimaced as he took a step forward, starting to move to slip the t-shirt they had given him over his head.

Liz reached out and stopped him, her touch gentle as her gaze swept over the damage done. "I'm not sure you'd have gotten very far," she murmured, fingers ghosting over the deep bruises along his ribs.

"You know me, Liz," he said with a smile. "I'm tougher than I look."

"Look pretty tough to me," she answered with the weak tease. It weighed on her, that much was obvious.

Tom reached out, his hand going to the side of her face and she leaned into his touch. "I'm okay. Promise. What'd you find out?"

That pulled her attention to the matter at hand and she straightened a little, pulling a breath in. "He has guards set up all over the premise. It looks like they rotate on a fairly regular schedule. We're in… I don't know. Maybe a warehouse that's been converted? Some of it is really nice, but other parts look more like a warehouse. There must be a kitchen. The food was fresh. Have they brought anything for you?"

"Yeah, there was a little something with the clothes when I woke up. A fresh bottle for Agnes too. What'd you find out about him?"

Liz frowned and moved towards Agnes who was starting to fuss. "He says he wants to get to know me."

"You don't sound like you believe him."

"Well, I'm a little hesitant when he threatens everyone I care about," she muttered. She leaned down and scooped Agnes up. "Hey, sweetie. Can you tell I'm stressed? I'm sorry."

Tom slipped the shirt over his head and moved carefully over to her. He looped his arms around her from behind, effectively pulling both she and their daughter into a hug and Liz leaned her head back against his chest and sighed. He pressed a kiss to her dark hair. "If we're leaving. I'm going to say it needs to be soon. He's going to underestimate us right now because he thinks I won't be any help."

"I'm worried that you won't get very far," she confessed very quietly.

"I'll be fine. I've gotten further with a lot worse injuries. You know that."

She hummed softly. "It's not just that. I don't know the routes. I don't know the guard changes. He wants to trust me."

"You want to wait it out?" he asked carefully, not wanting to misread what she was saying.

"I want to make sure we all get out safely."

The idea made him nervous, but she had a point. They couldn't just rush out of this. They had to play it smart. Agnes was the key. If it had just been the two of them, the risks could be mitigated and they could help protect each other against them. They both had to be at the top of their game to protect Agnes.

Tom watched his wife move over to sit on the bed with their daughter, cradling her close and murmuring softly to her. He followed slowly and took a seat next to her, laying back and letting loose a long breath.

"We're going to be okay," Liz murmured, her gaze focused on Agnes in her arms and her voice soft.

"I know." He reached out, not quite able to pull himself up, and his fingers traced along the back of her bent arm. "We're together. As long as that doesn't change, we're going to be fine."

He could almost feel her forced smile. "Tell me about what I missed?"

She was looking for a distraction, and he could hardly blame her. He spoke quietly and steadily, telling her about their investigation, how he had teamed up with her task force and how, despite what he would have expected, he had come to respect all of them. He pulled a laugh from her as he grumbled about how much easier it was to hate the perfect Boy Scout Donald Ressler and how impressed he had been at the lengths they were willing to go to help her. There was guilt in her expression as she moved to lay Agnes back in the bassinet and he sat up slowly, watching her. "They'll understand," he said softly.

"I wouldn't blame them if they didn't."

Tom swallowed hard. "Well, they can blame me. You were doing what you had to to protect Agnes."

"We both were."

"Yeah, but they expect me to lies put things," he answered with a smirk and his wife rolled her eyes and moved over to him.

He didn't stand, but she looped her arms around his neck and bent to kiss him. Her touch was gentle, careful of the many bruises and injuries, but even if she had managed to find every last one it would have been worth it. "You said there was something you needed to talk to me about. Right before we were taken," Liz murmured. "What was it?"

A soft sound left him and he squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to talk about Scottie Hargrave or Reddington's supposed secrets regarding her and her son. Even it were true, Tom had made a decision. Liz and Agnes were the only family he needed.

"Tom? What happened?" He let his eyes flutter open and found her staring at him, her brows drawn together. "Listen, if you had to do something you're afraid I'll judge you for…"

"It's not that," he answered truthfully. He pulled in a deep breath and steadied himself to be honest about a subject that he wasn't even sure how he felt about. "Hargrave, that I mentioned?"

"She runs the organisation that Kirk hired and she also helped you guys track Kirk down, right?"

Tom nodded slowly. "I… I was going to kill her after she'd served her purpose. She'd proven how easily - and willing - she could get to Agnes and she…"

Liz shifted and took a seat next to him, looping her arm through his and he sighed, revelling in the closeness. It helped. It steadied his emotions out and his quickly spiralling thoughts. "What stopped you?" she asked softly.

"Reddington, of all people. He said… He told me… It seems so stupid now. He just wanted to keep her alive and he knew just what button to push to make that happen."

He felt her lean against him. "He likes to do that. What'd he tell you?"

Better to just say it before he talked himself out of it. "That she was my mother."

Liz stiffened at his side and Tom loosed a long breath, leaning forward so that his elbows rested against his bent knees. He hadn't realized how much this subject stressed him out.

"You said you were taken from your mother and put into the foster system because she tried to hurt you," his wife murmured, her voice not quite accusatory.

Tom shrugged. "I was… three? Maybe four? Most of what I know comes from the records Bud gave me when I enrolled in St Regis. It said I was removed because a dangerous situation. Apparently I nearly drowned. I don't know. I have a pretty vague memory of going under the water and a hand coming for me. No clue whose it was or if they were pushing me down or trying to pull me back up. I just always assumed."

Liz sighed next to him, and when he glanced over she was looking towards their daughter. "I was hoping we could give her a better chance at be normal than we had." She closed her eyes and reached out for his hand as she reopened them. "Was that it? This Hargrave lady may be your mother?"

"It doesn't make sense with the records I do have," Tom said again. "My birth certificate has Jacob Phelps on it. No father, but it said my birth mother's name was Rebecca."

She squeezed his hand. "Those can be forged, you know."

"It doesn't matter either way," he huffed.

"Sure it does. If what you thought was true isn't, that means there's a chance that someone's been missing you. That-"

"Liz, please drop it," he said tightly. He knew she was pushing him on this because she had so many new questions without answers about her own parentage. She wanted to focus on him and his, but he didn't have answers for her and he didn't have a way to get them. At this point, all it was going to do was frustrate him.

"Last question?" she ventured and waited until he nodded. "Does she know? After working with you?"

"I don't know. She offered me a job, but you were already in Cuba when it came up. I chose to drop it because you are my family. You and Agnes. What might or might not have been… It doesn't matter. Only what is and what will be."

He risked a glance at her and she was watching him intently. He straightened a little, the unseen weight still pushing his shoulders down. He felt it ease just a little as she reached up, her hand against the side of his face, and leaned into a kiss. In the same way that Tom took a little longer to sort through his own emotions, sometimes Liz had trouble voicing hers. She came across cold or pushy at times, but he knew her, and in that moment he knew she was doing what she could to support him.

"This may sound crazy," he breathed after they broke, "but Kirk tried to take both you and Agnes alive. Is it possible he's telling you the truth?"

"Maybe," Liz answers in a whisper, "but he's continuously chosen to put the people I care about in danger. That says enough. Maybe once…. but I can't risk Agnes on a hope."

Tom nodded stiffly.

"Or you," she added with a quick kiss to his scruffy cheek. "He doesn't seem to like you."

"He and Reddington should start a club," Tom groaned, suddenly feeling the exhaustion slamming back into him like a tidal wave.

Liz laughed softly. "Agnes should be down for a bit. You want to try to sleep some?"

"Probably a good idea," he murmured and shifted so that he could stretch out on the bed. He felt Liz move to lay down with him, and he turned, careful of his battered ribs. They would play it safe get the lay of the area, and take every precaution they needed to. He had never been comfortable being caged, even if it was a relatively comfortable cage, but they would have to bide their time on this. He would do anything to keep their little girl safe.

It had been a week and he had barely slept, but he wasn't the only one. The entire team had been pulling long hours, taking a page from the Donald Ressler playbook and submerging themselves into the task at hand rather than give themselves five seconds to think about what it all meant. After the initial shock that had been the understanding that, not only had Liz felt it necessary to leave them out of the loop on this, but Tom had gone out of his way to earn their trust - worming his way in so that they almost cared about the lying bastard -, mourned with them, and hadn't said a damn word as they crossed lines that they never would have crossed otherwise. Ressler had stood next to the man at Liz's funeral. He'd seen the same purposefully stoic expression that he'd worn at Audrey's funeral on the younger man's face, and now….

It wasn't that Ressler wasn't willing to help his former partner and it wasn't that he would leave her almost-husband to rot in whatever cell Kirk was keeping him, but Donald Ressler was pretty sure not even Cooper could keep him from breaking Tom's nose the first chance he got.

"Agent Ressler?"

The ginger agent looked up from the file he had been glaring at while his thoughts had spiralled towards the Keens and the deception they had set down on all of them and the mess that they were now struggling to clean up. "Yeah?" he bit out, causing Aram to flinch a little at his tone.

"Uh… Director Cooper just heard from Mr Reddington. His people finally got a lead. He thinks he knows where they're keeping Agent Keen and her family."

Ressler risked a look up from his seat at the technician. He had taken Liz's death hard - visibly so - and Ressler wondered briefly what he was thinking about the situation. He shut the thought down immediately. He couldn't linger on that. They could sort through what they felt once Liz and little Agnes were safe.

"We're, uh… Director Cooper wants us to go in. To go after her ourselves. Off record."

"Is anything on record these days?" Ressler grumbled as he stood, pulling in a deep breath. It wasn't like he hadn't gone off book for his own reasons. He just preferred not to be pressured into it, but he supposed this made since. Technically she was a civilian. The channels they would have to follow to do this on book would take too long.

Aram gave a small shrug and turned to start out of Ressler's office, pausing at the door. "Do you think it was at least hard on them to do what they did?" he asked tightly, not bothering to turn to look at Ressler as his hand gripped the doorframe. "I mean, I get it. They were protecting Agnes. Trying to, but…. Did it have to go this far? They were our friends. Tom said we were like family. Do you think that was a lie too?"

Ressler sighed, grabbing his jacket and pulling it around his shoulders. "I don't know. I just know that friends - family - don't do that." He moved past the taller man. "But that doesn't matter right now. What matters is finding her. Everything else can be dealt with after we do."

TBC

Notes: Hopefully this was a slightly less stressful chapter (sorry, Becca!), but I can't make that promise moving forward. I'm trying to keep this plot bunny contained, so this little story is bound to be pretty action packed.

Next time - Help comes and Liz and Tom fight not just for their own lives, but for Agnes'.

Chapter Text

Chapter Three

The alarms woke her. They were blaring and screeching, and Liz jerked up at the sound of them. The walls were thick in this place. They must have been going off right outside of the door.

Tom made a small sound as he woke, grumbling against it, and Liz sat up. "Something's happening," she managed as she swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"What?" her husband asked, still making his way through layers of sleep. She usually found it endearing how slow he could be to wake, but right now she needed him with her.

"Not sure. Those are alarms. Someone may be coming for us."

"You think Kaplan would have told Reddington?" Tom asked.

"I don't know. Maybe, if she thought it would help us. I really don't know."

She was halfway to the cradle and Tom was sitting up stiffly, though his colour looked better after some rest. The door came flying open without warning and several men flooded the room along with Angela that Liz was beginning to really hate. "Miss Rostova, we need you and your daughter to come with us."

"Like hell," Liz snapped, making a dive for Agnes and one of the men caught hold of her.

"Hey!" Tom growled and Liz heard the sound of him fighting to get to her and their daughter. She didn't have a chance to look around at him as she swung around, one of the guards catching her around the middle as she did. The mostly healed scar from her surgery twinged and she loosed a startled breath before pushing it aside and throwing her weight into her attacker. She slammed an elbow into his ribs, putting her foot out to trip him back as he stumbled and he released her as he fell hard.

Angela had Agnes in her arms already and another man stepped in front of Liz to allow her to move to the door. "No one wants to hurt you, Ms Rostova," he said gruffly.

"Funny way of showing it," Liz snapped. "And my name is Keen."

She looked past to him, panic filling her as the woman took off with her daughter. Tom ducked past his attacker and darted after them, but another got in his way and Liz heard him grunt as the man slammed him hard in his battered ribs and he went down, arm wrapped around them and pain etched into every inch of his face. This was a waste of time. They were never going to be able to fight them off enough to get to Agnes. Not like this.

Tom's attacker pulled the first gun Liz had seen since the fight had started. They were packing, even if not openly. They probably had orders about hers and Agnes' safety, but those obviously didn't extend to Tom. The muzzle was aimed at his head where he was knelt down, trying to catch his increasingly ragged breath, and the man glanced over to Liz who had frozen. "Come along quietly and your husband will survive this."

"Bastard," Liz snarled, but it was Tom that moved. She wouldn't have bet on him being able to move as quickly as he did, but adrenaline did wonders. He was up before the man registered he was moving and his hand was on the gun, wrenching it to the side as it fired and the guard yelped as he pulled it from his hand, likely snapping the finger that was in the trigger with the way he did it. Tom didn't pause, didn't hesitate for a moment, as he turned the gun on him and fired two bullets into the man's chest.

Liz used her own opponent's distraction to take a risk, grabbing for the gun that he had hidden. Her fingers closed around it and she kicked out, catching him in the knee hard and he made a short sound of pain as she back-pedalled, the shot going off and taking him down. She spun, her mind registering that she hadn't heard Tom put the last one down and saw the man looming over her husband, Tom sprawled on the floor. How it happened didn't matter. Liz took the shot and the last guard went down hard. She risked the briefest look to see Tom moving to force himself to his feet before she started after Agnes.

She burst into the hallway, finding it empty. The woman was gone.

"Don't move!" a man shouted and Liz turned, finding him aiming a gun at the turn of the hallway. She leveled her own and took a low shot to the knee, sending him crashing down. She was on him faster than he could recover, kicking his gun away as she put another in his shoulder. "Where did they take her?" she growled, voice tight and dangerous.

"I don't know," he gasped and Liz moved to step against his mangled knee, pulling a howl of pain from him.

"Don't make me ask again."

She pressed down harder and he yelped. "The FBI is here! Mr Kirk would have taken her to the helipad. You too, if he could have."

"Where is it?"

"I can't-"

Liz fired another bullet off, this one buried in his gut. "You're the one wasting time, not me."

He coughed and choked. "North-west end of the building."

The fourth shot landed between his eyes and Liz turned, finding Tom behind her. "North-west?" he verified.

"Better be."

He nodded and she started forward, bare feet barely registering the cold of the concrete beneath them. Tom moved with her, keeping up well enough without her needing to slow her pace. She didn't think she would have even if he couldn't. Not with their daughter in danger like she was.

They were running, finding less resistance than they might have otherwise. The FBI was there, he'd said. Not Reddington. Her team. There was something about that that should have comforted her, but didn't. Nothing would until she was holding Agnes again.

The Keens rounded the corner and into what looked like a hanger with stairs leading to the rooftop helipad. Liz spotted Kirk who was surrounded by guards and various helpers, halfway up the steps including Angela who carried Agnes.

There were guards, and Liz's gun clicked, signaling her lack of ammunition after several shots. She dove for one of the discarded firearms and heard the door behind them open. A quick glance showed familiar faces filing in - Ressler and Samar, accompanied by Baz and Dembe - and she saw a path open up between where she stood and the stairs that would lead to where Kirk was boarding the helicopter with her daughter. She darted forward, taking the steps two at a time.

"Liz!" Tom shouted after her, but she didn't wait. Kirk turned to look at her from his place as she reached the top, wind blowing wildly around her off of the chopper blades, and she saw the woman with Agnes next to him as the door to the helicopter was shut hard. A strange sound echoed in her ears as the helicopter started to lift off and, after a half a moment, she realized it was her own scream.

An arm came around her from behind and she fought, slamming her head back hard into the person's nose. "Lizzie," Tom pleaded in her ear and it took a second for her to register that he was the one holding onto her at the edge of the helipad. A few more steps and she would have been off the roof in her desperation to get to it.

"He has her," Liz shouted, in part to be heard over the noise and the other part pure desperation. Her vision blurred as she watched the helicopter fly away with their child inside of it. "He took her. Tom, he-"

Liz's knees gave way and her husband held her up and held her close, his breath in her ear as he spoke. "We'll get her back. I swear, Lizzie. We'll get her back."

A sob let loose and she turned in his arms, throwing her own around his neck and holding onto him. He stood there steadily, holding her close and stroking her hair. His promises were quiet and filled with all the certainty and hope that they kept her from completely losing it. She tightened her grip a little more and she felt him return the same.

She wasn't sure how long they stood on that roof, the wind strong and them holding each other up. She had hold of the back of his t-shirt like he would keep her afloat. Maybe he would.

When they finally parted, Liz saw the rare tears in his eyes and she wiped at her own. "We're going to save her," he promised.

"I believe you."

He nodded and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You okay? You get hurt?"

"I don't think so," she breathed, though she wouldn't know until the adrenaline ran out. "You?"

"Not too much worse off."

She reached up to his face. "I hit you a minute ago…"

A very small, very forced smile appeared. "You've done worse. I'm okay."

Someone clearing their throat awkwardly drew their attention and Liz saw her partner standing with his arms crossed a few feet away. He was watching them like he wasn't quite sure what to say, his stony expression a careful mask. Liz swallowed hard. "Kirk took Agnes."

A little of the mask chipped away at that. "Son of a bitch," he managed, gaze sweeping out to where the helicopter was already gone.

"Where are we?" Liz asked. "Can we-?"

"Still in Cuba," Samar answered. "We're out of the FBI's jurisdiction, but Dembe is calling Reddington."

Liz felt her temper boil unexpectedly, and she wasn't entirely sure why. She hadn't done what she did out of anger. She hadn't done it to Red exactly, but because of the dangers Red brought into her life. But there they were again with Reddington being called on to bail her out as if nothing had changed at all. She had wanted to put a stop to the cycle. She had hoped that she could save her daughter from it, but nothing was changing. It was like she was swimming, not just against the current, but against the current in a raging storm with a riptide ready to drag her under. She felt sick.

"He won't take her Stateside," Tom said as he stepped closer, his hand slipping into hers and Liz felt a little calmer. Not a lot, but something was better than nothing.

"But until we know where she is we can't do much. We need to regroup and get all of us on the same page," Ressler said and Liz saw his gaze shift to her. "Unless you guys are planning at going at this by yourselves again."

She just barely managed to contain her cringe at his tone. He was pissed, and she supposed he had a right to be.

"We did what we had to to protect our daughter," Tom bit out, obviously not in the mood to play nice.

"Yeah? How'd that work out?" Ressler popped back.

Liz tightened her grip on her husband's hand as she saw his shoulders square up and he took half a step towards the shorter man like he was already ready to go to blows over it. They couldn't. She wouldn't let them.

Tom backed down at her tightened grip, but he still looked like he was seething over the comment. "We'll do whatever we need to to get her back," Liz assured Ressler. "And, for what it's worth-"

"Save it," he snapped. "Let's just focus on getting Agnes back safe."

She nodded stiffly and Dembe motioned for them to follow, his expression unreadable. Samar offered her a nod. "It's good to see you alive," she offered, and though the words seemed to be intended well, there was something forced about her tone.

Tom gave her hand a supportive squeeze and leaned in. "They'll come around."

Liz shook her head, watching part of the team that had become like family to her start for the door, Dembe and Baz following without so much as a hello. "I'm not sure they will," she confessed softly. "And even if they do, I'm not sure I deserve it after what I did to them."

"What we did," Tom corrected gently. "You're not in this alone, Liz. I'm right here with you."

She nodded, feeling her emotions shift dangerously and she tightened her hold on his hand like she might never let go.

For a relatively short plane ride, it could have been one of the more emotionally taxing ones Tom had ever taken. Liz had sat next to him, leaned in and silent. Her silence worried him more than anything else. He expected her to be laser focused and dragging the others into conversations on how they could start the search. There was nothing, though, almost like she was entirely spent by the time they had boarded the plane. He couldn't say that he didn't understand the feeling.

They went immediately to the Post Office where both Cooper and Reddington were waiting. The silence was as thick there as it had been coming back. It wasn't that they were walking on eggshells, necessarily, as focusing on the facts as they were. Liz stood quietly, still dressed in the blouse and slacks that she had fallen asleep in the night before, and neither of them had shoes on. They were dishevelled, exhausted, and beaten down, but no one dared approach the subject of Liz's faked death within the black site walls.

Liz's voice was even as she spoke, her emotions in check after the desperate outburst on the helipad. Tom, for his part, watched those around them as she walked them through what had happened. Reddington knew more about Kirk than he was letting on, even if the others didn't. It didn't set right with him, but nothing about the man did.

It was getting late by the time that she finished and Tom was starting to feel it weigh heavily on him. He had just stood as they parted their small huddle, but Liz motioned for him to stay where he was. "I need to talk to Red."

"You want me to come with you?" he offered.

Liz sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. "No. I have to do this alone."

Tom tried for a smile and he wasn't sure how reassuring it was. "I'm right here if you need me."

She reached up, her palm against the side of his face and he leaned into the touch. "Thank you," she breathed before moving towards the man that had turned her life upside down.

Tom purposefully turned, trying to give her as much privacy as possible while still remaining within earshot. He no longer worried that Reddington would physically try to harm her, but he still didn't like the man. He certainly didn't trust him.

He found Aram Mojtabai standing as if he were uncertain if he really wanted Tom's attention or not. The technician was wringing his hands, dark eyes focused in Tom's feet rather than his face, and it took a moment before he looked up and cleared his throat to speak. "I, uh, just wanted to make sure that you guys were okay. I guess Mr Reddington is probably going to find you a place to stay for tonight?"

Tom grimaced at the thought. "I don't know what we're doing. We haven't gotten that far."

Aram nodded. "I, well, if you want, or if you need it… I have some extra space. Not a lot, but the sofa pulls out like a bed. You guys are welcome to stay tonight. Well, as long as you want. I promise not to kick you out first thing in the morning." He tried for a smile, the joke told so awkwardly that it was painful.

Still, it pulled a very small but real smile from Tom. "Thanks. I'll run it by Liz when she's done. We may take you up on it for tonight."

The other man loosed a long breath, almost like he has held it the entire time they had been speaking and his gaze drifted over to where Liz was having what looked like a very tense conversation with Reddington. "I was so worried about seeing her again. How stupid is that, right? Don't get me wrong, I was so relieved to hear she wasn't, you know, dead, but…" He swallowed hard. "But I wasn't sure how I was going to react when I saw her. Or you. I mean, of course I understand why you did it, but still… I'm just so glad you guys are okay and so, so sorry about Agnes. I'll tell Agent Keen too, but I need you to know…" He pulled in a shaky breath and he looked down at his shoes and shifted awkwardly.

Tom opened his mouth to try to ease at least a little of the tension and Aram shifted and moved so suddenly that it startled him. The FBI agent had pulled him into a hug almost without warning. "I forgive you for lying."

The former operative stood stiffly, uncertain of exactly how to react. Liz, he understood. She had a history with them. They were there for her and she had been there for them, but him… All he'd done was lie to them. He'd earned their trust and abused it, even if he had his reasons. He didn't expect them to understand. "Why?" he managed after a long moment.

Aram pulled back and his expression was so open and honest it almost physically hurt. "Because that's what family does."

"That may have been the most infuriating discussion I've ever had," Liz growled as she walked over.

Tom looked back, at least partially relieved at the interruption. "That bad, huh?"

"And then some. Did you know that this is your fault?"

"Shocker. Couldn't possibly be that he hasn't figured out how to stop making the same mistakes over and over," Tom grumbled.

"Mr Reddington has been really hurt by all this, to be fair," Aram piped up in defence of the Concierge of Crime.

"I know," Liz admitted softly, "and once we have Agnes back I'll be in a better place to accept that. For now, he's going to have to stop trying to control this. Just because we weren't able to get away from the danger doesn't mean that we were entirely wrong." She sighed heavily. "I need a shower, a change of clothes, and a chance to think."

"Aram offered us his couch for the night."

Liz's expression softened. "Thank you."

The technician beamed at her. "It's no problem at all. I was just telling Tom I'm just glad you're both okay. Anything else… We'll figure it out after we get Agnes home safe and sound."

Tom watched Liz nod slowly, the day taking its toll. He felt it too. She was right. A shower and probably some sleep would start them fresh. Kirk wasn't going to hurt Agnes. That much they knew, but if they wanted a chance at finding their daughter, they had to be at the top of their game.

The shower helped, just as she knew it would. When she opened the door, steam pouring out around her, she saw that Aram and Tom had already gotten the couch pulled out and the bed portion of it made up. Her husband was stretched out on it and she thought he might have been asleep until he cracked an eye open to look at her. "Hey."

"Hey," she greeted back, taking a careful seat on the edge of the bed and wincing at the way the skin around his nose was a little discoloured. She reached forward, fingers brushing up against the side of his face, not quite close enough that it would have hurt, and he leaned into her touch. "I may have broken your nose earlier."

Tom snorted. "It's not broken, just bruised."

She hummed softly and crawled into the squeaky bed with him, careful as she draped an arm over his middle and felt him shift closer to her. He was tense, worried just like she was, but he hid it better. He always hid it better. "Are you sure we don't need to have you see a doctor? Not just the nose…"

Her husband shrugged a little. "What are they going to do? Tell me to take it easy on the cracked ribs and stay off my knee. Neither are an option, so why waste the time?"

Liz wanted to argue, but it was pointless, and if the tables were turned she knew she would have made the same argument. "I was thinking."

"Not surprised."

Liz risked a look up to find him looking down at her from where they lay and she steeled herself. "I'm not sure where I stand with Red."

"Have you ever known where you stand with the man?"

"Fair, but I mean moving forward. He's willing to put resources into find Agnes, but I want to make sure that we don't limit ourselves."

"What are you thinking?" he asked, his voice hesitant.

"You said Susan Hargrave's organization was able to help you guys get to Kirk once. Would she help again?"

Tom tensed and Liz sat up, propped on her elbow. His expression was careful and guarded. "For a price, but... we're tapped, Liz. Any money I had stored away that you didn't get to during your investigation a while back and that didn't get spent getting to Karakurt to clear your name went into that villa and pulling this stunt off. I sold the boat and everything. I'm not saying we don't have anything, but not the kind of money it'd take to hire someone like Scottie."

"Maybe she'd be willing to do it because she was responsible for nearly getting me killed?"

"No. We've already played that card with her to find Kirk the first time." He sighed, shifting so that he was propped up to look her directly in the eye. "She's not like Reddington is to you. She's not going to just drop in and help us. She's a businesswoman. She'll need something in return."

"I love how you think Reddington never asks for anything in return," Liz huffed.

"I know he does, but you know what I mean." He paused, closing his eyes for a moment. "I'm with you on not wanting to rely on Reddington. If you guys… pick back up after this, I don't think it should be because you owe him for finding Agnes."

"I don't want to have to rely on him," Liz said softly. "I do care about Red, but I'm not a child to be protected. I need to have the freedom - we need to have the freedom - to make our own choices without him threatening to pull support if he doesn't like it."

Tom reached forward, his fingers tucking a loose strand of her hair back. "I know. I may have something that'd be worth it to Scottie."

"What's that?"

He closed his eyes and there was a long moment that he was simply silent. Liz was about ready to ask again when they fluttered open and she felt a strange sort of sinking feeling as he spoke. "Me."

TBC

Notes: Thursdays feel like such a void during hiatus, so I feel like I need to post something. I know that's kind of silly, but hey, at least it forces me to update, right? I would love to know what you guys think of this chapter. It has a couple of scenes in it that actually solidified my resolve to write this story, so I'm interested to know your thoughts.

Next time - Tom makes a deal with Scottie Hargrave, Ressler picks a fight, and the team finds some very unsettling news.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four

Tom Keen stood in an office that had become far too familiar in a short time. Trey had met him in the front hall, surprise flickering across his face, and the other man had escorted Tom up the stairs to wait for Scottie Hargrave in her office. Not the hall, not the rooms on the same floor, Trey reminded him. The office. It was adorable that the little gofer thought he cared.

He had never been a patient man particularly. He'd learned patience in his line of work, of course, and he could present a mask of utter calm with it, but Liz liked to tease him that there were more little tells of his impatient nature than he would ever care to admit. He had made the mistake of asking what those were and she had given him a short list. He was a pacer, which he already knew, but even when he was standing still he needed his hands busy when he was waiting for something. He had thought he hid that better than he did, but Liz saw through him. He was glad she did.

"Tom Keen. This is a surprise. Last I heard you had disappeared off of the grid. With your wife."

Tom squared his shoulders a little, feeling his beaten body protest the movement. "You do your homework. I'm guessing you know why I'm here."

"I could make a guess," she said as she moved further into the office, her heels clicking softly as she did. "Though, I have to admit, I'm curious why I'm the one you're seeking out. Reddington take it personally this time?"

Her tone was teasing, but Tom found himself bristling just a little. She had no idea what they'd truly been through with Reddington, or what this was doing to Liz. She was amused that a man she hated had caught a taste of what it felt like to be lied to, and if his wife weren't so closely tied to it Tom might have joined her. As it stood, he preferred that they simply leave Red out of it. "Kirk took our daughter. We're not limiting our options."

Scottie's expression shifted to something like surprise. "Kirk took Agnes?"

"That's what I said," Tom growled, immediately pulling back and forcing a calming breath through his lungs. "Listen, I know that Liz and I don't have the type of resources anymore to hire someone like you to help us in this, but you offered me a job recently. I'm here to ask for a trade. We need all the help we can get, and you've proven more than capable of getting to Kirk before. You help us with this and I'll come to work for you."

"Just like that?" she asked carefully.

"Help me get my daughter back safely, and yes. Just like that."

She nodded slowly. "I am… truly sorry about your daughter."

"She's not dead," Tom said tightly. "Just… missing. We're going to find her."

Scottie Hargrave pursed her lips together. "Yes. At least one of us should have a chance at finding our child. I take it that you're expecting Halcyon to work with the FBI task force on this. Will Reddington be involved as well?"

"Probably. It's hard to keep him out."

"You'd be a fool to. I have very little good to say about Raymond Reddington, but the love he has for Elizabeth is not something that anyone that knows him can question." She moved to her desk and pulled a drawer open, taking a phone from it and slipping a SIM card into place before tossing it to him. "If you want my help, you will need to answer it when I call. I have a few things to set up on my end, but by lunch I'll need to meet with Elizabeth's team and Red's. Keep it on you."

Tom nodded and took that as his cue to leave. The sound of his name, somehow very strange when said in Scottie Hargrave's voice, stopped him. "Tom." She waited until he turned at the door, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "I don't know you well, but I do know the situation. The emotions run high in a desperate search for a child, and there's no one that feels it more painfully than the patents. It's easy for…. people like us to focus in and shut everything else out." She stopped, her voice sharp. "I won't tell you this will be easy, but we know who took her. That's a great deal of the battle right there. You'll need to focus on finding her, but don't forget that you're not the only one in this. Elizabeth will need you right now, even if she doesn't show it."

He felt his chest tighten at the words and he thought she must have been speaking from her own experiences. Perhaps that's why Howard Hargrave was never seen around his wife.

Tom nodded stiffly before moving forward and out, feeling very much like a ghost as he took the stairs. Liz would be expecting him at the Post Office and they would start digging. They would handle the price of him working for Scottie when Agnes was home and safe.

They had been going through footage, flight plans, and anything they could think of to track down a lead on Kirk all day. She knew Reddington's people were working in the background and Tom had brought word that Scottie had accepted the agreement and then jumped in with a fresh perspective with them until she showed. It was well into the afternoon before Liz's attention was pulled from the pile of maps by a voice over her shoulder. "Why is Scottie Hargrave here?"

Red had been all but ignoring her. She thought, after the initial irritation at it, that it was probably for the best. She wouldn't be in any place to talk to him calmly, rationally, and he wanted answers. The conversation wouldn't end well until she knew her daughter was safe. She wasn't sure she had the patience for it.

"Because Tom and I didn't want to limit our resources," she answered stiffly.

"Tom. Of course."

"Tom and I," she corrected. "It's our daughter that Kirk took."

"Only because you were foolish enough to try to take this on yourself."

She finally looked around from the maps, scowl firmly in place. "I was trying to protect my daughter," she snapped.

"With only a handful of the facts."

"And whose fault is that?"

Red bristled. "Elizabeth, I would have protected Agnes with my life."

"But it wouldn't have done any good." She stood feeling every muscle tense, and she tried to pull in her temper. "Red, I don't question that you would have tried. I don't even question that you would have been willing to give your life up for Agnes or for me, but I need to make sure my daughter is safe. You were just repeating the same thing over and over again, and if you hadn't noticed it landed my wedding in chaos, an innocent woman dead, and my friends - you included - in the crossfire. Don't make this about you and me. This is about my daughter. I did what I felt like I had to to keep her safe."

"And here we are with Agnes in Kirk's hands and you needing my help, but you are still…" He stopped, and Liz knew her face must have been flushed with fury. She saw Red pull in a breath and look around. "Please don't shut me out of this, Elizabeth."

"I'm not. You're just not the only one helping. We're going to attack this from every angle and increase our odds."

"Allow me to cover the cost Scottie is charging for her firm's services."

"Tom and I have it covered."

He tended visibly. "Elizabeth, what-"

"Don't worry. He didn't tell her," she bit out. "She offered him a job before he left. He's taking it, and in turn she's helping us."

"You're both playing a dangerous game with a woman like Scottie Hargrave."

"From what I hear you were encouraging him to take the job when you thought I was dead."

"She was less dangerous than Kirk to Agnes and he needed something to focus on."

"And she'll be useful here."

"Hello, Red. I don't see you for years and suddenly we seem to be working in all the same circles again."

Liz and Reddington both looked over to see the woman that Liz had seen her husband speaking to when she had entered. She was tall, with dark eyes and long dark hair. There wasn't anything that reminded Liz immediately of Tom, and for the first time she wondered if maybe Red really had been lying to Tom. Or had led him down a path and let him draw his own conclusions, which was more likely. It would be cruel, but if Red had thought distracting Tom was more important, it wasn't out of the question. The ends often justified his means. At least to him.

"Amazing what some are willing to put up with," he answered her tightly before turning. "I have some matters to follow up on. I'll can you as soon as we've found something, and… We will find her, Elizabeth."

"I know," she answered softly. She watched him as he moved away, purposefully ignoring Tom as he moved past him. As far as Liz was aware, the two men had not spoken at all since their return.

"Well, some things never change," Scottie Hargrave chuckled to herself as she watched Red walk away. She turned to offer Liz a charming smile and the younger woman relented on her suspicions of Red's lies to Tom. She'd seen a smile very similar for years. "It's good to see that the rumours of your death seem to have been exaggerated."

"You must be the infamous Scottie Hargrave."

"Well, infamous may be a little bit of a stretch, though I'm sure your husband hasn't been entirely complimentary of me. He's not my biggest fan."

"That's what happens when people in your employ attack his family," Liz answered with a shrug.

"Hiring Solomon was a poor decision in retrospect. I can admit when I am wrong."

The unspoken jab at the man that had just walked off didn't go unnoticed. "This doesn't need to turn into a competition between you and Reddington," Liz warned carefully.

"Of course not. This is about finding your daughter." Her voice had gone deadly serious and Liz nodded slowly, accepting that.

"Thank you."

"Finding her is my organization's top priority right now. My resources are at yours and Tom's disposal."

The younger woman pulled in a deep breath and offered a smile. They were balanced precariously, but that was nothing new. They would use every resource to find Agnes that they had available to them. She'd be damned if she lost the family she'd fought so hard for. Finally, years after Reddington had spoken the words to her, she understood what he meant about being willing to burn the world to protect the person you loved the most in the world.

He hadn't known exactly how he was going to feel digging in and working with them again. So far he had been able to focus entirely on work, burying in deep to find Agnes just like he had to find Liz and he hadn't let himself focus on his own emotions very much. That was the only way to handle it, and up until the moment that he needed something from Tom Keen and couldn't find him immediate, it had worked.

Liz was deep in conversation Scottie Hargrave and Tom was nowhere to be found. Samar mentioned that she'd seen him take the lift up towards the street level and Ressler begrudgingly followed. He needed an answer. How hard was it to be where he needed him to be when the task force was bending over backwards to rescue his child? From the mess that he had helped to create? That's what Ressler got from trusting a liar like Tom.

The lift shuddered to a stop and the doors opened. Ressler nodded at the guards as he took the stairs and moved towards the alleyway. He spotted Tom leaned against the brick outer wall, his gaze distant, and a cigarette in his hand. Ressler paused a moment, watching the younger man that looked like his world was being torn apart.

Tom's expression closed off immediately as Ressler's step caused one of the stairs to creak and his gaze shifted immediately up and then back down once he had confirmed who was coming down. He dropped the cigarette as discretely as possible and Ressler snorted. "Liz is going to kill you if she sees that."

"Don't I know it?" The dark haired man asked with a mirthless chuckle. "I managed to quit so many times over the years, but… I guess I'm a stress smoker. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention it to Liz."

"I don't lie to people I work with," Ressler snapped, his voice edgier than he'd meant for it to be.

Dark blue eyes flickered to look at at him again as Ressler approached and Tom pushed himself off the wall, the same irritable look he wore the day before when they had snapped back and frustration flashing across his face. "You know, I never actually said she was dead to anyone on the task force. I just didn't correct it when Reddington and the others said it. Technically I didn't lie to you."

The problem with burying emotions as strong as the ones tied to this situation was that they always tended to surface at just the wrong time. Ressler was snapping forward before his brain even registered it and his fist connected hard with the younger man's jaw, jerking his head around and sending him stumbling hard back into the wall. Tom sagged there for a moment and Ressler tensed, ready for the fight that he was sure to have landed himself in. The man's daughter had been taken and Ressler had let him goad him into lashing out. It was stupid, and the bastard probably had planned it to let off some steam. That would be just about typical. Of course Tom wouldn't be responsible for it. He never seemed to be responsible if you asked him.

He didn't jump into action though. Instead he paused, almost like he was gathering himself for a moment, before a short chuckle left him. He reached up, long fingers exploring any damage done and he thumped back against the brick wall. "I guess I deserved that," he managed, wincing a little as he spoke.

"Yeah. You did."

Tom snorted and motioned at him. "Well come on. You're a walking explosion waiting to happen. I'd rather it come at me than Liz."

"You're the one that deserves it. This - all of this - could have been avoided."

"Okay."

Ressler bristled and watched the other man shrug. "You don't think I know this is my fault? That she was safe before I jumped on the first chance that presented itself to get back to her? Reddington's wrong about a lot of things. That's not one of them." He leaned back, head thumping lightly against the bricks.

"They were coming for Agnes if you went to Cuba or not," Ressler said roughly. "That's not…" He closed his eyes, frustrated with himself at how betrayed he felt. He should have expected this from a man that was incapable of being honest. He'd thought, somehow, that maybe becoming a father, being responsible for a tiny, innocent life had helped to change that. Ressler had seen a man grieving the loss of the woman he loved. He knew what that looked like, what it felt like, and he'd even done what he could to offer Tom a little advice on how to get through it. It hadn't been a long talk - he couldn't think about Audrey and their own child that he had lost very long in the wake of losing Liz too - but he'd put aside his distrust to help support his partner's almost-husband. And he had. He'd offered him everything he knew how to, despite the history there. He'd thought maybe Tom had been right at the christening, but it had all been a lie.

He pushed a long breath through his nose. "We stood by you at Liz's funeral. We mourned with you. We… Hell, man, you made us the godparents of your daughter. If you said the words or not, even you should know that's a lie."

Tom blinked at him, looking like he was mulling the words over for a moment. "I couldn't tell you. You have to see that now… Now that you know what we were trying to do. It wasn't…" He stopped and Ressler saw his expression flicker in several different directions before his lips thinned out and he turned to meet the agent's eyes. "It wasn't about hurting you guys, or even Reddington. It was about protecting Agnes."

"And you don't think we would have done that? We were willing to risk everything to avenge Liz - I was ready to let Reddington assassinate a guy - and you don't think we would have done anything to make sure she was safe? Thanks."

Tom huffed a sigh. "It's not about what you would or wouldn't have done. Liz and I talked about it, but I told her what I still think: the more people you let into something like this, the more likely someone will slip. The moment someone slipped Reddington would have known and the whole thing would have been shot to hell, not to mention put everyone besides Liz and Agnes in Reddington's crosshairs for pulling it over on him." He straightened a little, squaring his shoulders. "So yeah, I lied straight to your face because I wasn't going to risk my wife and I wasn't going to risk the people she cares about. You want to be pissed, fine, but I had my reasons. I wasn't lying to you guys for kicks or even because I don't trust you." He stopped, the last statement causing him to pause as if he hadn't meant to let it slip.

"You have a hell of a way of showing trust," Ressler growled, though he'd felt at least some of the fight wash out of him. "Listen, what happens after we get Agnes back can be dealt with then. For now we're on the same side, and you and Liz can't be going around everyone. You want help, we're there, but you have to play it straight with us or you're going to get someone killed."

"That's fair."

"More than," the ginger agent grumbled.

Tom cleared his throat, running his hand through his hair in a nervous sort of motion. "I'm guessing you had a reason for coming out here? Not just to try to break my jaw?"

"I didn't break your jaw." Ressler rolled his eyes as Tom smirked. He did know how to push buttons. "Yeah. Liz was caught up in a conversation she couldn't break free of, so I thought you might recognize this." He pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled up a photo, handing it over to Tom to see. "Liz said there was a woman named Angela there. Is this her?"

Tom's gaze swept across the digital photo, his expression darkening. "Aram find it?"

"Yeah."

"Good man. At least we have something to go off of."

Ressler nodded. "Yeah. Let's-" He had turned, ready to get back to work, but Tom reached out and caught him by the arm. "What?" he grumbled, stopping reluctantly.

"Listen, what we were talking about… Being pissed at me is fine. I get it, but Liz is-"

"Stop. Right there. I don't - I can't - go into Liz right now. Not and focus on what I should be focused on. Agnes is still my goddaughter. All of our goddaughter. Let's focus on her and figure out the rest when she's home."

"Guys?"

Both men looked up to see Liz leaning over the railing. "Did you see this?" Ressler called up, waving the phone like they hadn't just been discussing how he felt about his partner's actions that he still wasn't sure if he counted as a betrayal or not.

"Yeah, but Red just called. We have a problem."

"What?"

"Matias Solomon was just spotted with her. He's alive, and he's working for Kirk."

TBC

Notes: So, I've been discussing with a couple of friends over on Tumblr and I'm curious about what you guys think. For Redemption, do you think Solomon will be working with a big bad or do you think he'll go back to working for Scottie and he and Tom will have to learn how to co-exist?

Next time - They hunt down Solomon and Liz and Red have a much needed chat.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five

He had been quiet since Solomon's name had come across their radar. It was the first solid lead they had and, for a kidnapping case, they had lost enough time as it stood. This was exactly what they needed to find Agnes, so when Tom had gone on lockdown rather than drowning her in reassurances that they were just steps away from rescuing their daughter, Liz had noticed.

"We'll be landing in less than half an hour," she said, sitting next to him and catching him deep in thought. "You want to tell me what's going on? I've obviously missed a few things."

"I told you what you missed," he said noncommittally.

"What's going on between Samar and the woman that Scottie assigned along with us?"

"Rowan? Yeah, she and Samar went at it at one point. I think Nez likes pushing buttons."

"Nez Rowan? From the bomb theft?"

"Fake bomb theft, but yeah."

Liz quirked an eyebrow. "She was working with Solomon. Can we trust her?"

"She's loyal to Scottie."

As if on cue, Rowan stood from her place and sauntered over to where the Keens were sitting on the bench seat of the private plane Scottie had provided them with while Red took his own to follow up on a lead he was certain was important. Liz wondered if he just wasn't willing to accept a ride from Scottie.

"I thought you killed Solomon," Rowan directed at Tom who shot her an intentionally lazy look and shrugged.

"Never said that." The Halcyon operative chuckled and Tom offered a smirk of his own. "The cops were closing in, we needed a distraction, and he was more useful crawling away than dead."

"Regretting it now?"

Liz's husband shrugged. "He's less than useful now. I plan to put a bullet between his eyes first chance I get."

"Unless she gets to it first?" Rowan asked, motioning to Liz. "Elizabeth Keen. You're starting to develop quite a reputation in certain circles. Careful, or you'll end up as infamous as your mentor."

Liz offered the woman a thin smile. "If you're referring to Reddington, he's not my mentor."

"What he is is the question on more than one mind," the other woman answered, her smirk widening just a little. "Solomon was a little more entertained by it than he should have been. Granted, the man can make light of most anything. He's a real pain in the ass."

"The man tried to fillet me," Liz answered coolly, watching Rowan for any signs of a reaction, "and he attacked our wedding. You're right. Tom may not get to him first."

Rowan grinned and shot Tom a look. "Please tell me that the deal you brokered with Scottie was a two for one. I like her. My guess is Scottie will too. She's a fan of strong, independent women."

"The private sector is more Tom's thing than mine."

The other woman shrugged. "I thought so once too. You've already gotten a taste of it. Don't limit your options."

Liz didn't answer as Rowan stood, the pilot asking everyone to take a seat, and she felt Tom watching her from the corner of his eye as he fastened the seatbelt. "You'd be good at it."

"At what?"

"The private sector. It's really not a lot different than what you do now. Just less red tape."

"What I did," Liz murmured, glancing over to where Samar and Ressler were talking. "I'm not sure they'll let me come back this time."

"Do you want to?"

She swallowed hard, glancing over to find her husband staring openly at her now. "For the first time… I don't know," she whispered honestly.

"Then we'll just take it as it comes."

Liz sighed and leaned against his shoulder. He felt tense beneath her, and her mind clicked what Rowan had said into place. "You know I trust you, right? That I know you made the best decision you could at the time to get where you needed to be?"

"I shouldn't have let him live."

"Kirk would have Agnes if you'd killed Solomon or not."

He loosed a breath and she saw the struggle. "I just… feel like this is my fault."

"It's Kirk's fault," Liz answered firmly. "No one else's. He had our wedding attacked and he took our little girl." She looped her arm through his. "Tom, please. This isn't your fault. Don't try to take it all on alone."

"I don't deserve you," he whispered.

A small smile crept up and she pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "You and I have fought for what we have. We've earned it."

"I love you."

"You too. Tom, just… please. Don't shut me out. Don't go somewhere I can't follow. I'm working really hard to do the same."

He leaned against her, his head against hers and she felt him relax ever so slightly as the wheels came down beneath them for the landing. "Promise. We'll do it together." He pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "Just like we agreed at the wedding."

"Exactly," she answered softly. As hard as it was, Liz hoped that he meant it, because she was certain that she couldn't do it alone.

Everything was in place. Scottie and Red worked surprisingly well together when they had a common goal, and no matter how tense the team that had been put together for this task was on a personal level, they put it aside as soon as they were in the field. Solomon, according to a trusted source, was attending a meeting to find a way to bring Kirk into the country undetected. Why they'd be foolish enough to try was anyone's best guess, but the general theory was that he was seeking out some sort of help that he could only get there. When it came down to it, Tom didn't care. He just wanted to get Agnes home and safe.

He pressed his back against the wall, having just taken out two armed guards that hadn't had a chance to raise their weapons before he had put a bullet in them, the suppressor on his gun keeping it quiet. He moved past them, half listening to the chatter in his earpiece as Aram and Dumond walked them through it, using all the newest gadgets that the FBI and Halcyon had to offer to hack the security feeds. He risked a glance over at a small sound and saw Liz ducking into his line of view. She shot him a look, as if daring him to argue with her as he closed in on where they thought Solomon was.

Tom paused at a door and he heard Aram's voice in his ear. "Tom, we're reading five heat signatures on the other side of the door you're at. One right inside, three at a desk in the center, and one at the far window. We're still waiting on a clear feed so you might want to wait for- Is that Agent Keen with you?"

He didn't answer. Instead he glanced across to where Liz gave him a firm nod and suddenly they were kicking open the door. He took out the one by the window, Liz shooting the one closer in. They split, Tom left, Liz right, and bullets followed in their path.

Tom ducked behind a desk for cover, shooting over it. Solomon had been in the middle of the room, two guards with him, and those two guards were the ones firing back as Solomon made his escape towards a far door.

"He's getting away!"

"No he's not," he growled back. "Cover me."

He didn't give her time to argue, but darted forward, trusting her to watch his back. He heard the shots go off, but his focus was on the man making his escape.

Tom leapt forward and slammed into Solomon, dragging him to the floor and rolling. He wanted to put a bullet in the man's head, but they needed him alive to find Kirk. The other man grunted as they hit, but he kicked out, sending Tom up over his head and the former operative rolled to his feet, crouched and ready.

Solomon picked himself up and chuckled. "Keen. Of course."

Tom straightened slowly, looking for small tells of the other man's next move. "All we want is Kirk."

"And all I want is a chance to repay you for our last meeting," Solomon answered with a lazy smirk. "Guess we'll have to see who gets what he wants today."

He leveled his gun and Tom threw himself to one side, rolling and instantly popping up to his feet close in. He swept out, the gun flying from the other man's hand. Solomon was moving slower, still healing from the bullet Tom had put through him in Berlin, but even the adrenaline rush was beginning to wear thin and Tom was feeling the stress his own body had been put under during his captivity. The two men exchanged blows, neither with a gun in hand. Tom could still hear the sound of gunfire from the next room where Liz was fighting the last of the guards Solomon had had with him.

"Was that your wife with you?" Solomon asked, a smirk still playing on his lips. "She looks good for a dead woman."

Tom ducked down, slamming his fist hard into Solomon's middle and the other man's dark eyes went wide as he sagged. He felt a smirk of his own tug his lips. "You were saying?"

Solomon gave a struggled cough, one hand pressed against what must have been his half-healed wound, and Tom saw motion from the door. He looked over, Liz looking disheveled but whole, and a snarky comment danced on his tongue, but he caught Solomon's movements and the gleam of the knife out of the corner of his eye. Every instinct screamed and he moved as quickly as he could, but he felt it bite deep, dragging a pained sound from him and he heard the sound of a shot going off as he stumbled, finding the wall to lean against before he toppled completely to the floor. He pressed his hand against his side, feeling warm blood soaking through his ripped shirt.

His brain pieced it together a little sluggishly and he saw Solomon on the floor, Liz kicking the knife away with a gun in her hand as he curled around himself, still alive but in more pain than Tom had dealt him.

"Tom? Let me see. Hey?"

He blinked hard, finding Liz with her hand against his. "I'm okay."

"What happened?"

Tom looked past his wife to see Donald Ressler coming through the door, looking at Solomon and back to them.

"Watch for any hidden weapons," Liz warned and pried Tom's hand away from the fresh injury and he hissed, head thumping against the wall as he relented and let her inspect the damage done. "You'll need stitches, but I don't think he did any permanent damage."

Tom snorted. "I'm going to kill him after we get what we need."

"Thought you would have learned your lesson about leaving me alive from the last time," Solomon managed from the floor.

Ressler gave him a painful nudge. "You really want to test anyone standing here? You give us what we want and I might consider returning his advice about killing you to him."

Tom grimaced, hand moving back to put pressure on the deep gash in his side. It would be fine, but it was just another setback, another problem between them and Agnes. Their little girl was in danger and they didn't have time to waste. He looked back over to Solomon who was busy mouthing off through gritted teeth as Ressler hauled him to his feet, and Tom pushed himself off the wall, his name leaving Liz's lips as he covered the width of the hall and had Solomon up against the opposing wall before Ressler had registered that he was taking his prisoner from him.

Solomon grunted loudly as Tom slammed him back, his forearm pressed against his throat and gun digging into his middle threateningly. "Going to shoot me again, Keen?"

"Agnes. Where is Kirk keeping her?"

"Do I not even get good cop bad cop? Your wife already shot me in the leg."

"I'm not a cop, and you know I'll put another one in your gut, but this time you won't be crawling away. Where is Kirk keeping my daughter?"

Solomon offered a lazy smile. "Highest bidder, remember, and you , my friend, are most certainly not the highest-"

Tom repositioned his gun, muzzle pressed against the man's injured leg and shot, cutting Solomon off and pulling a sharp cry of pain from him. "How much are you worth, I wonder," Tom growled dangerously. "No," he snapped as Solomon's gaze flickered behind him. "That's Liz's and my daughter he has. You'll be waiting a long time if you think she's going to try to stop me, and Boy Scout over here doesn't get a say. I have a price. My daughter's location. Give me that and I'll hand you over to Agent By-The-Book over there. He'll get you medical attention and make sure I don't put you six feet under. High enough payment for you?"

Solomon glanced around, as if trying to gauge how far the others would let Tom go with his threats. Liz would let him go as far as was necessary, he knew. She wasn't under any delusions that he wouldn't, but Ressler… Killing an unarmed Solomon was different than torturing him, and the man held tight to his principles. Before Ressler could say something stupid or Solomon decided that the fed wasn't going to let him keep shooting until he answered, Tom dug the barrel of his gun into the other man's leg. "Where?"

"I don't know," Solomon hissed.

"Wrong answer."

"But I can find out." The statement came out as more of a gasp. "I suppose you'll need me alive for that."

Tom pulled the gun back ever so slightly, but hadn't released the pressure against the other man's throat. If anything, he increased it. "You get one chance. If you're lying, there's not a person on this planet that can save you."

He waited for a brief nod of acknowledgement before releasing him, letting him sag down to the floor before turning. He could feel Liz's eyes on him, but she didn't say a word as Ressler cuffed the man they had come for.

Blood swirled in the sink, carried down towards the drain as Liz scrubbed it from her fingers. She had had far too much of her husband's blood staining her hands over the years and she was tired of it. They had been so close, so damned close, to have it all fall apart in the last moment. Now they were racing against a clock that they couldn't see the countdown for information that might or might not have been accurate. Trusting Solomon was a risk, and one that no one was entirely comfortable with, but once they had him situated he started talking. If he trusted in Tom's threats or he was handing them lies, they wouldn't know right away. All Liz knew for certain right then was that if he was lying, there'd be a line for his head, and Tom would have to be quicker than she was.

"You look like you're plotting someone's death."

Liz turned to where Tom was still sitting on the closed toilet in the small bathroom in Scottie's offices, and his gaze was focused on her. "Just thinking. Wondering if Solomon's smart enough to tell us the truth."

"I think we've made it pretty clear that his life depends on it. He's made it this far. He has to have something of a survival instinct."

She turned, leaning her hip against the sink and dried her hands. Tom had refused to go to the hospital for stitches when he had found out that Scottie was simply bringing a medic in to tend to Solomon's leg. He was a stubborn man, but Liz knew that. Most of the time she loved it about him, but right then it worried her. He was laser focused and wasn't going to let anything get in the way. Not even his own health. She understood, she even felt the same way, but she wasn't willing to give up either of them in this.

"Hey," he said softly, pulling her from her thoughts and he reached forward so that his fingers brushed hers. "We'll get her back."

Liz felt a smile tug the corners of her mouth very slightly and she took the offered hand. "I need to keep hearing that," she confessed.

"I know, and it's true. We'll make it true. We've beaten the odds so far." He brought her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm. "I love you."

"You too." She cleared her throat and motioned to her handiwork. "I still think that needs stitches, but that should hold as long as you take it easy."

Her husband snorted as he stood. "I'll take it easy as soon as we have our daughter back." He leaned in, his forehead touching hers and she felt his breath against her, their fingers still wrapped around each other's in support. "Scottie told me a story when I went to her for help…about she and her husband when her son disappeared. I need you to know I'm right here, okay? I just… I just need you to know."

"I know. We're a team," Liz murmured. "And we're not Scottie. We're not waiting a lifetime."

Tom leaned down and kissed her forehead, but a knock at the bathroom door startled them both. Liz pulled in a deep breath and opened it, finding Red standing on the other side. He shot Tom a very brief glare before his expression closed off again. "I thought you should know that Solomon has provided some promising intel, and Agent Navabi and Ms Rowan just proved to be a surprisingly good team together. They've delivered Angela Banks into FBI custody. Well, to the task force," he corrected as if there were a difference.

"Since when do you deliver your own messages?" Tom popped off and Liz shot him a warning look.

"Since this has to do with Agnes," Reddington answered tightly.

Liz sighed and touched her husband's arm. "Why don't you go see what they know? I'll be in in just a second."

He hesitated, his lips pursed together like he was trying to decide if he'd argue it, but finally he chose not to. He leaned in, a quick kiss pressed against her lips and she felt a rush of encouragement from it, her gaze following him as he moved towards where the others were.

"Was there something else, Elizabeth?"

A sigh escaped her. "This," she said as gently as she could. "I've been thinking, and… We've had enough lies, Red. I can't tell you that I'm sorry for what I did, because I felt like it was necessary to protect Agnes. It's the same reason that Tom and I decided to reach out to Scottie. We have to look at all the options. I… appreciate what you've done. I do. If it weren't for you, the Cabal-"

"You owe me nothing for that," he said quickly, not quite meeting her gaze.

"I want to protect my little girl, not hurt my friends, and you are my friend, Red. I meant what I said before Nik put me under. I do love you, and I know that you love me. You… I wish…" She closed her eyes, steadying herself. She had been so focused on her fear and anger since she had come back that it had left little room for working through her feelings about the people she had hurt by her actions. She hadn't realized until that moment just how heavily it weighed on her.

"Elizabeth-"

"I'm sorry that I hurt you. I'm sorry that it came to that. I don't want it to again."

He grimaced. "And what do you need to make sure that doesn't happen?"

"Room to breathe," she answered softly. "Answers. Honesty."

"You don't surround yourself with honest people," he snorted.

"No, but they're learning." She paused and closed her eyes. "You've told me to walk away from Tom so many times. Do you know that I did? I gave him an ultimatum. He had to tell me the truth or I was gone. He lied straight to my face about where he got the passports that had been in our townhouse, so I told him goodbye. He called me later that day and we talked. That's when he told me about how you had hired him and why he had chosen to switch sides. He told me so much that afternoon. It was… overwhelming, but I needed it if we were going to have a chance. Since that moment he's done his best to tell me everything. Sometimes it takes him a while, and sometimes he does incredibly stupid things before telling me, but he tells me. Because he trusts me and I trust him."

Red's gaze had been steady during the story and Liz closed her eyes for a moment. "I need to have control over my own life, and to do that I need information to make the best decisions possible. You give me half truths and pieces of answers. You're trying to protect me, I get that, but I'm not a child anymore. I need your trust if you and I can continue. If you'll give me that, if you can be honest - and that means more than just not lying - I will do my best to return it."

There was a long moment of silence before Red nodded slowly. "I… I will do my best, Lizzie."

She felt more relief than she had expected. It wasn't perfect. It would take time, but the boundaries had been set and now they could move forward with them. "Thank you."

"All I ask is that you do not make such a… foolishly desperate decision again. Please."

"I'll do my best," Liz murmured.

"Good. Then let's save your daughter. I think she's been separated from you for far too long."

TBC

Notes: Between work and various distractions the writing on this story has been a bit slower. I have, as a sidenote, discovered Alias and have been watching it. It is providing me with all sorts of spy-couple ideas, which, of course, leads me to Keen2. I love the idea of Tom and Liz on joint operations, though I'm going to try to focus on finishing this before indulging too much in that :P

Next time - The team comes up with a plan and jumps into action to get Agnes back.

Chapter Text

Chapter Six

Angela Banks was proving to be much more loyal to Kirk than Solomon in the information that she was willing to give up, but that could have had something to do with the fact that she hadn't been shot twice and was being held, not by a shadowy organisation that seemed perfectly willing to push limits, but by the FBI. The interesting thing, Liz thought as she listened to the others argue about their best course of action, was that that might work in their favour. "Hey," she tried, her voice drowned out by her husband and Red snapping back and forth at each other with barely contained hostility. She waited a moment, frustration building as she watched Tom's hands wave through the air and Red's head tilt irritably at to the side as they explained to one another that their individual plans would get everyone killed. Liz pushed a breath through her nose as she stood abruptly. "Could you put it aside for sixty seconds?" she growled as she stood, effectively surprising them into silence and all eyes turned to her.

"Do you have something better?" Ressler asked and she wasn't sure if it was meant to be sarcastic or if his voice was just weighed down by exhaustion. It had been nonstop and no one had gotten any sleep since the night before which was now closing in on twenty four hours ago. They had all worked straight through.

"Let Banks go. She hasn't given us anything concrete-"

"Give her to us and we can make her talk," Rowan answered from her place next to Scottie, but her boss tilted her head curiously.

"Let Elizabeth finish. What are you thinking?"

"Short of torturing it out of her we won't get anything concrete, and there's a chance that might not work and would just waste time. Make her aware that we have Solomon if you haven't. That'll put the pressure on her to reach back out to Kirk."

"She'll know we're watching her," Samar pointed out.

"Maybe not," Tom murmured. "Don't send Feds. Send tales that won't be spotted."

"It won't be enough to draw him away from Agnes," Red chimed in. "Ms Banks might not spot a decent tale, but Kirk will, and we'll lose our chance. The risk is one-"

"I'll go," Liz answered, cutting him off and pushing past the immediate arguments that left several people involved in the conversation. "That'll draw him away, and then send someone in to get her. Tom?"

Her husband sighed as he fell back into the chair he had been occupying before standing to argue with Red. He knew better than to argue with her at this point. It would just waste time. "Yeah. I'm good for it."

"And what happens when he takes you as well, Elizabeth?" Red asked tightly.

She shot him a glare. "It's a risk I'm willing to take to get my daughter back."

"Liz," Tom said softly and she looked down to where he was sitting.

She opened her mouth to argue her point, but Red cut her off. "If it's a risk that must be taken, let me go with you. Out of everyone in this room, there are two people who know Alexander Kirk, and have since he was Constantin. I know what he's capable of in ways you couldn't possibly."

Liz grit her teeth, pushing frustration down. Both Tom and Red were watching her with pleading expressions - their worry for her and for Agnes seemingly the only things in the world the two men could agree on - but she was a little surprised to hear Cooper's voice. "We just got you back. Don't throw your life away when there's a safer path."

"We've cut off his finances. It's not like he's moving anywhere quickly," Ressler agreed.

She looked around the room and felt some of the frustration ease. These people had risked everything for her so many times, and even after what she had done they were willing to throw it all in again for she and Agnes. After a long moment she nodded. "Okay, but Red?" Her gaze flickered over to the man that had saved her more times than she could count, the man that had brought the things she needed saving from into her life, and she held his gaze. "I need you to trust me. No manipulating me. No handling me. You and I are going at this as equals. If you need me to do something, you tell me. Don't just manipulate me into doing what you want so I won't ask why."

"Elizabeth-"

"Or I'll go alone and I'd like to see one of you stop me."

Reddington shook his head, a soft chuckle leaving him. "Alright."

"Don't just say it," she warned, and Red looked up, his own blue gaze catching hers and he held it.

"I promise you, Lizzie, that I will consider and do the best I can to abide by your boundaries."

"I'll set up the release," Cooper murmured. "Scottie-"

"I can handle a tale."

"Take one of Baz's men," Red instructed and she nodded.

Liz watched them shift into action and she felt almost frozen where she stood, the one still individual surrounded by a flurry of motion. She didn't hear her husband stand, nor did she hear him cross the space between them, and she jumped a little as he touched her arm. She loosed a breath and leaned into him as she felt his arms wrap around her, her head against his chest. "Tell me we're going to get her back," she managed, her voice much softer than it had been just moments before.

"We're going to get her back. She's going to be safe and we're going to get her back, Liz."

She nodded, sucking in a shaky breath. "You'd think there'd be a limit for people, right?"

Tom shifted. "A limit for what?"

"A limit to what they can endure."

He chuckled, the sound a little forced and he pressed a kiss against her dark hair. "There probably is, but we haven't reached it."

Liz turned in his arms so that she could look at him, finding those familiar eyes focused in on her. They had both been through so much, both together and individually. His childhood in the system and at St Regis that had tried to drive every ounce of humanity from him. Her own terrible night with the shouts and the flames that still haunted her nightmares and had changed to course of her life forever. There had been lies, manipulations, and anger. There had been struggle after struggle. They had thought they had earned a little bit of peace with everything they had sacrificed. All of the blood and the pain and the trauma. She had always heard that what didn't kill someone made them stronger, and that broken things mended with more resilience for the next time, but right then, standing on the edge of what they had to do and what they could lose with one wrong step, all of the confidence she'd spoken with just a few moments before felt like a façade. Like a mask. She loosed another trembling breath. "How do you know?"

Her husband offered her one of his small smiles. "Because we're still fighting. Because she needs us. And… because I've never known anyone stronger than you, Lizzie. If you're in the fight, I'll bet on you to win every time."

She shook her head, the corners of her mouth turning up very slightly. "What would I do without you?"

"We tried that, remember? I know I wasn't a fan.."

Liz rolled her eyes at him and tipped up on her toes, pressing a kiss to his lips. "You'll be careful, right? Going after her? I can't… Losing you isn't any more of an option than losing her. I need you to know that, okay?"

"We're going to be a family, Liz. We're going to be whole."

"You say that so confidently," she chuckled and ducked her head. "Annoyingly positive."

"I've got to be positive. If I let myself slip, I'm not sure I'll resurface."

She swallowed hard, the confession spoken with a lighter tone, but she heard the truth in the words. He was just as terrified as she was, but he was doing his best to remain steady. For her. For them. Liz laced her fingers through his and held on. "We're going to get her back."

"Yep."

"And we're going to be a family."

"You, me, and her."

"Okay."

"Okay," he echoed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Be safe."

"You too."

Liz's plan had worked, not that he'd ever questioned that it would. He'd learned some time ago that arguing with her when she set her mind to something was next to worthless, partially because it was nearly impossible to talk her out of it anyway, and also because when Elizabeth Keen set her mind to something it would get done.

Angela Banks had lead them back Kirk, who had just made his way into the United States across the Canadian border. He was in New York, using his contacts and those he had paid well in the past to help move Agnes in with him undetected. One of Scottie's people - tasked with monitoring missing children - was the first one to bring them photographic evidence that their little girl was stateside again, helping to settle out the plan on how they would go in and get her.

Reddington used his contacts to reach out to Kirk, but it was Liz that spoke to him. Tom had listened as his hands worked nimbly with the guns that he was checking, loading with ammunition, and securing for the fight ahead. Her voice had been steady as she told the man claiming to be her father that she wanted to meet for a deal. He wanted her, she wanted her daughter, and there had to be a middle ground that they could meet at. She and Reddington would come, he was welcome to bring guards, and he could choose the location. Tom watched Red nearly twitch at that last part and the younger man bit his tongue. He trusted her. She wasn't a naive fed in too deep into what she didn't know. Not anymore. Liz knew exactly what she was doing, and if he was going to focus on what he needed to do, he had to trust her with her end.

There had been some disagreement as to who would go where. They had a relatively small team to work with anyway, and the location that Agnes was being kept at was fortified. Tom would have preferred a small, handpicked team to slip in and out as undetected as possible to get Agnes. He couldn't go at it alone, he knew, but the more people along for the ride, the more likely they would be spotted before they got her out safely. Reddington, Scottie, and Cooper had discussed it, and when the teams were divvied out, they weren't as bad as he had expected. Red and Liz would be visible with Dembe along for support, with Samar perched nearby with a sniper's view and a rifle to go along with it, and Aram on comms to watch the space for anything unsettling. Ressler, Rowan, and Tom were going into the stronghold after Agnes with Dumond on their end. Apparently Ressler had nearly stopped Reddington from killing the stand-in for Kirk before they realized that it wasn't the man himself and the Concierge of Crime had no patience to replay the scene, so Tom was stuck with him. It wasn't that he didn't trust Ressler. The man was a walking Boy Scout, but Ressler didn't trust him, and if he was consistently second guessing him through their entire op, it could get them all killed.

"I'm still trying to figure out how you got Hargrave so on board with this. Better yet, why she was even an option?"

Ressler's voice pulled Tom from his thoughts and he lowered the binoculars that he had been peering through at their opposition. He looked over from his crouched position, Ressler having moved lowly over to him, and taking a place next to him and the younger man shrugged. "Joint interests and not wanting to limit our chances," he answered vaguely.

"You never give a straight answer, do you?" The ginger man shook his head. "How many are we looking at?"

Tom handed the binoculars over so that the other man could take a look for himself. "More than Solomon indicated there would be, even with Reddington's man Brimley after him."

"Shocker."

"I know, right?" He loosed a sigh. "I'm counting four on this side of the building and Rowan said that there's another three on her side."

"I just came around from the northwestern corner and there was another patrol there, so this is the most heavily guarded side."

"One of these four heads around the corner every little bit," Tom murmured, tilting his head in the opposite direction than Ressler had come from. "I'd say we take out the single guard, slip in through the door there, and split to cover the most ground once we're inside."

Ressler snorted and Tom risked a glance in his direction. "You have a better approach?"

"Didn't say I had anything wrong with that one."

The younger man shook his head, a mirthless chuckle escaping him. "Listen, man, I get that you don't trust me-"

"Or anyone here, really," Ressler cut in.

"-but you're going to have to gut it up or sit it out."

He watched Ressler weigh the words and the agent closer his eyes and spoke quietly. "I can do this, but it's not like there's a switch, pal. You've done plenty of damage on the trust front."

Tom resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Leave it to Ressler. "Sorry that I can't pack however long it would take to regain an ounce of your trust again into the five minutes we have before we go to rescue my daughter," he snapped.

"One true thing. Just one."

Dark blue eyes blinked in surprise. What? Did he want some confession before they went on their suicide run? Like the few words Ressler had spoken about his father when they had been defending Karakurt against the Cabal?

Ressler snorted. "You can't even give that. You know, in the grand scheme of things, you're not any better than Red is. At least he doesn't pretend-"

"Scottie may be my mother," Tom blurted out, squeezing his eyes shut hard as the words slipped from his lips. He finally forced them open again and found Ressler staring at him. "Reddington told me…. just before I left for Cuba."

"Why?"

"To keep me from killing her."

Ressler rolled his eyes. "Of course you were going to."

"It was… You know what. It doesn't matter. I didn't. Reddington stopped me. You wanted something real so there it is."

"Does Hargrave know? Is that why she's helping?"

"I don't think so."

"Does Liz know?"

Tom nodded. "You, Reddington, Liz, and me are the only people who know for sure." He waited, watching. "I'd appreciate it if it stayed that way until we figure out what to do about it."

"You ask me to keep a lot of your secrets."

The dark haired man snorted, shifting to stand as one of the guards moved out of sight. "Yeah, well, despite what I'd prefer, I can't seem to help but trust you. Must be that stupid Boy Scout vibe you give off."

Ressler snorted a laugh. "Must be. Tom?"

Tom paused, looking around to where the other man was crouched. "What?"

"Don't get yourself killed."

"Yeah. Same to you." He didn't wait for a reply, but ducked around and pressed a finger to the comm in his ear. "Everyone ready?"

They stood waiting in an open field for nearly half an hour. Liz felt exposed, even knowing that Samar and Dembe had their backs. She pulled in a deep breath and risked a glance at Red. "Are you going to kill him?"

"If the opportunity presents itself."

The honest answer took her a little by surprise. Apparently he was doing what he could to take their earlier conversation to heart.

"Will that be a problem, Lizzie?" he asked, almost uncertainty.

She paused for a moment, the words riding out on a breath when they finally came. "I don't know. He attacked my family and… We may be blood related. I don't know. I don't know the man. All I know is that he took my child from me. I'll go as far as I have to get Agnes back safely."

"And we will get her back," Reddington said softly.

"Guys? There's a chopper in route," Aram warned them over the comms.

"I have eyes on it," Samar acknowledged from her place.

The chopper in question became visible over the treetops and Liz watched it as it set down, the wind from the blades nearly knocking her from her feet. She stood steadily, though, and fixed a glare on the man that has stolen her child.

Kirk followed behind two armed guards and Liz showed her hands. He chuckled. "Masha, I'm not a fool. I am well aware that the protection you and Raymond have goes beyond what I can see. I should hope, though, that you would be willing to talk with your own flesh and blood."

"Return Agnes to me and we'll talk."

A slow, unnerving smile spread across Kirk's face and Liz could feel Red tense behind her as the white haired man spoke. "You've been working with Raymond, so I don't expect you to approach a situation in good faith. I know about your husband and the team that he's going in with. I know that they think they'll reach Agnes, but he won't. All you've done is sent your husband and your friends in to be killed." His gaze shifted slightly. "You see the irony in that, don't you, Red? I'm sure you recognized him somewhere along the way. He looks a great deal like both of them. Tell me, what do you think Scottie will say when she finds out that you organized her son - the one she has spent so long looking for - to be sent to the slaughter? Sacrificed him? I imagine it won't go well for you."

Liz risked the briefest glance back to see Red's face was carefully masked in calm, though she saw just a hint of satisfaction. "I'd wager the same thing that you did when you believed she had killed your daughter. Even more so when she starts digging into it again. Wouldn't that be a shame, after all the effort that you put into silencing Howard?" Reddington's smile tugged a little at his thin lips, though it was nothing but friendly. "I'll give it to the Hargraves. They just don't know when to quit, especially when it comes to their children. If you kill her son, I'd wager she would burn the world to get to you."

"So is that it, Red? You pit us against each other and hope to come out of it with two fewer enemies? That's a dangerous gamble, even for you."

"Or you give Agnes up to her parents and perhaps a deal can be struck. Perhaps you disappear to a place even Scottie Hargrave can't reach you and won't even think to bother with questions about who took her son from her that night or what that kidnapper was really after."

"You understand that they are not only outnumbered, but expected?" Kirk answered easily.

"That changes nothing. The deal is the deal. Call your men off or I guarantee that Susan Hargrave will destroy you in a way that Howard never could. Your money is gone and this entire operation is being run on favours and promises. You have nothing to back them up. You have nothing on your side except this choice here and now. You can fight for your granddaughter, kill her father and one of her godparents, perhaps even get away, but you will raise her running from Scottie until the day she kills you."

Liz stared as he spoke, the words swirling around her. Red was saying so much, and part of her knew it was important. It would be important to Tom, but that wouldn't matter if Red was wrong about how Kirk was going to react to the threats. He really was gambling with Tom's life. Tom's life, Agnes', Ressler and even Scottie's operative. If he was wrong, she would lose everything.

TBC

Next time -  Tom and the others race to save Agnes and Kirk makes a decision on how far he's willing to take this.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven

Tom dove for cover, a bullet cutting so close that he could have sworn he felt the heat off of it. He felt his injuries pull at the motion and his hand went to the gash in his side, willing the bandage to hold it together. Stitches wouldn't have done him any more good with the way he was being forced to move. The injury was going to need to be dealt with again anyway. After they got Agnes.

"There are a lot more men here than Solomon indicated," Ressler said as he pressed his back against the wall. They hadn't even had a chance to split ways before they had come under fire inside.

"And it's almost like they knew we were coming," Rowan growled. "Reddington's man interrogated him, didn't he?"

Tom risked a glance over. "I don't have any love for Reddington, but setting us up gets him nothing."

"Unless he has a deal cut with Kirk behind our backs. I can't imagine he was too happy when he realized you and your wife duped him."

A short breath escaped Tom as the newest round of bullets hit close to where the three were huddled, trapped in by the attack. "I'm going to kill Reddington."

"We may not get that chance," Ressler growled. "Listen, we need to get across this hallway to get to where-"

"We don't know if any of the intel provided is accurate now," Rowan snapped.

"Well we can't just sit here and wait for them to fill us with holes," Tom grumbled, gaze sweeping across the space. There was a hall that they at least thought they needed to get to towards the left, but they had to get across a wide open space that was being covered by people trying to kill them. "We need to split up and draw their fire. One of us is bound to be able to get over there."

Ressler frowned at him. "You going to be okay?"

Tom tilted his head in question until the agent motioned and he saw the way the blood had started to soak through his shirt. He snorted irritably. "Looks worse than it is. I'm fine."

Rowan popped up over their cover and took down one of the gunmen. "It's now or never, boys."

Tom didn't wait, but darted forward, shooting as he jumped for the next space to duck for cover long enough to reload, take another shot, and weave his way towards his goal. The others had moved into better positions and he saw their attackers taking fire finally. He just had to get across the open space and-

"Don't move a muscle."

Dark blue eyes flickered up to see a man standing over him, gun drawn and aimed at his head. He reached for Tom's gun to pull it from his hand and Tom moved, never giving himself a chance to second guess the action. He bobbed to the right, away from the gun, and was ready to swing back around when his attacker lashed out, kick landing hard against his side and sending him off balance as pain laced through him. He fell hard, hand moving to the injury, and he heard the other man kick his weapon away. "Stupid," he growled and Tom saw his finger put pressure on the trigger.

The shot went off, but it was his attacker that fell. Tom stared for a long moment, blinking hard, and heard an irritated voice in his ear. "You going to sit there all day or are we going to rescue Agnes?"

Tom took Ressler's offered hand and was hauled to his feet. "Thanks."

Ressler snorted. "Don't thank me until we're out of here alive."

"Guys, we're not done!" Rowan shouted, and Tom saw her backpedalling from the hall. When had she gotten there?

He expected to see more of Kirk's men filing in, but instead there was a familiar face. "Hold your fire!" he shouted at Rowan and cracked a grin. "Never thought I'd be so happy to see you," he greeted.

Baz offered him a raised eyebrow. "You guys trying to get yourselves killed?"

"We were trying to get in and save my daughter," Tom countered. "We got some bad information out of Solomon."

The other man shot him a look. "I've got enough men to cover us. Let's get going."

"I still think Reddington played us," Rowan said as she stepped forward, Tom and Ressler the only ones within earshot. "Even if he had a contingency plan."

"We can't worry about the right now. We just have to get Agnes out safely."

Her world was spiralling. She had trusted him. She was a fool, because only a fool would trust someone that had no interest in telling her the truth. Red was making a dangerous gamble with Kirk and he was using Tom and Ressler's lives to do it. If he thought that this was something that she could forgive, after everything….

"I've never known you to make such a desperate move," Kirk huffed. "You really must have been out of options."

One of his guards stepped up suddenly and spoke in his ear. Liz watched the colour drain from Kirk's face and his eyes narrowed.

"Or I had the entire situation under control from the beginning," Reddington answered cheerfully. "After everything, I suppose I'm still just a little sentimental. I thought I would give you a chance. Just one. You didn't take it. You've always been just a little short sighted for my taste."

Shots went off from Samar's location and the guards fell dead. A third took out the pilot and Red was smiling that obnoxious smile of his. "Elizabeth's husband, as infuriating as he is, is talented in what he does. Between Ms Rowan, Agent Ressler, and him, I knew they would be fine until backup arrived. More than you expected."

"You planned this," Liz managed.

"Of course."

"And he didn't tell you," Kirk chuckled.

Red leaned in closer to Liz. "When this is over and your daughter is safely in your arms, I will give you a full explanation. I will take any berating you feel necessary, but for now I suggest you call it in. I have little interest in transporting Alexander Kirk without a full escort."

Liz nodded numbly, the anger not truly subsiding as she dialed Cooper's number. "If anyone got hurt because of this," she warned as it rang.

"We'll speak when it's over," he promised, but she didn't believe a word of it.

He wasn't sure what Redington meant to accomplish with his stunt, but for all of his snark, Tom had always been fairly careful about the battles he chose. The current enemy was Kirk, if for no other reason than Kirk had his daughter and was trying to take his wife. Reddington's people had rushed in in the last moment to help, and while Rowan growled about being used as a pawn in Reddington's game, it would have to wait. Tom's first priority was to get Agnes out and safe by any means necessary, and he would deal with Reddington later.

"Hey!" he shouted down the hall, spotting Banks exiting a room. The woman turned, wide-eyed, and Agnes clutched in her arms. Tom lowered his gun and gestured. "It's over. Your boss isn't going to save you. Just… let me have her."

It was like everything was stilled around them and Agnes stirred in the woman's arms, a soft cry starting from her. Banks seemed to weigh her options, but Ressler showing up at the other end to cut off her escape along with several of Baz's men made her pause. Slowly she nodded and Tom put his gun away, reaching for her.

Agnes' crying eased to a soft whimper as soon as her father had ahold of her and she looked up at him with teary eyes and pouting lips as he pulled her up, pressing a kiss to her tiny forehead. "Hey, baby girl. I've got you. Don't cry, alright?"

"She okay?" Ressler asked, cuffing Banks.

"Yeah, she seems to be." He bounced her lightly in her arms and she snuggled in close to him. Tom swallowed hard, feeling the rush of a firefight mix strangely we the utter relief that his daughter was safe. He hadn't thought he could feel much for anyone until he met Liz, but this… this was so different. He'd known it the first time he had held her. He would have given anything to protect her, and there she was. She was safe. Finally. "You're mom and I've been so worried," he whispered. "We may never let you go again."

"Poor kid is never going to be allowed to leave the house," Ressler chuckled and Tom cracked a smile.

"She'll just be able to defend herself against anything before she does." Those innocent little blue eyes looked up at him and the little girl's daddy swallowed the onslaught of emotions back. "We need to get her home."

"Go. I've got things here."

Tom nodded slowly. "Thanks."

"Yeah…" Ressler ducked his head a little. "Listen… I can't claim to be good with what the two of you did. I can't even agree with the stupid way you went about it-"

"How do you really feel about it, Boy Scout?" Tom chuckled and Ressler rolled his eyes.

"But," he emphasized, "I understand your reasons. I don't agree, but I get what you've said."

Tom shifted his weight a little. "Listen, man, I appreciate it, but there's someone else that probably needs to hear it more." Ressler blinked owlishly at him and the dark haired man rolled his eyes. "If she works for the FBI or not, the two of you are partners. That's never going to change. What I said at the christening was true. You guys are family. It was hard on Liz to do this, and-"

"I'll talk to her," Ressler cut in gruffly.

Tom nodded. "Good. First things first, though. Agnes has been away from her mom too long."

"We've got Kirk," Rowan called. "You ready?"

"Yeah." He looked down at his little girl, carefully cradled in his arms. "Let's go home, kiddo."

He had waited. He had done well to wait, given how much had happened, but Elizabeth had secluded herself in Scottie's office with Tom and Agnes while one of Halcyon's on-staff doctors gave the little girl a thorough check over. Baz had called and everything was secure. He had had a full briefing of what had happened by the time the door opened and Tom stepped out. The younger man levelled a look at Reddington that the Concierge of Crime was sure might intimidate someone, but it was a waste of time with him and they both knew it. Tom set his jaw, as if weighing his options carefully before speaking. "You could have gotten us killed today. You could have gotten Agnes killed, all because you had to run the whole board by your rules."

"I don't expect you to understand-"

"I'm not the one you need to convince. You're not going to be able to again." He took a step closer, his voice low and dangerous. "I don't give a damn who you are, how much pull you have. You screw with Liz again, you put my family in danger again, and I'll snap your neck myself."

Reddington chuckled. "You might try, but really, Tom. Don't be so dramatic. You got out of it alive. Agnes was in no further danger, and if anything, she was in less. Need I remind you that you were the one that put Elizabeth and Agnes in danger when you agreed to this absurd plan in the first place and then rushed off prematurely, leading them directly to her? I understand Elizabeth's concerns, but you've lived in this world long enough to know better."

"You don't get to turn this around on me this time. She gets the final call with you. If it were up to me, they'd never find the body."

Reddington resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Tom stepped out of his way. He pushed past the younger man and into the room where Elizabeth sat on the couch cradling Agnes. She held a bottle carefully, the little girl draining it as quickly as she could, and Reddington found himself unable to move forward, caught up in memories of another woman with her child that he had loved so dearly. He hadn't been able to protect Katarina, and if he were truly honest with himself, he hadn't been able to protect her daughter either. Not when she chose to take matters into her own hands, which she would do again. She was as stubborn as her mother.

"You planning to come in or just lurk for a while?"

Red startled a little at the words and he shifted. "I suppose that depends on if I'm welcome or not."

Elizabeth motioned and he moved in, uncomfortable by the fact that this conversation was happening in Scottie Hargrave's office. It was a shift, and one he didn't like. He set his hat down on a table, though, and took a seat across from her. "While you were in hiding I made arrangements to have your name fully cleared. It should still stand. Here in a few months you will be able to return to the task force in a full and official capacity. It should allow you some time off to be with your daughter and to-"

"Stop."

He went silent for a moment and straightened his back. "I understand you're upset, Elizabeth, but your family was never in danger. No more than you were, at any rate. I know you don't always approve of my methods, but I did warn you that I would always do what I felt I had to to keep you alive. Kirk needed to believe he was winning. He needed to be overconfident. That is his greatest weakness: his pride. He thought he had won everything because all he saw was a small unit. He never expected their backup."

"And why couldn't you share these details?" she asked tightly.

"Time constraints, mostly. You saw the chaos that unfolded with so many leaders mixed in. I had all of the information, the resources, and I made a call to protect your family. Even that idiot you've decided to marry again." The last grumble slipped out and Reddington realized just how exhausted and strained he truly was from all of this.

"My husband -" Elizabeth pressed - "and I have every right to have to make decisions when it comes to our daughter's wellbeing and safety. You continuously take that from me at your whim. You swore you would be more open and you immediately went back on that. Because it suited you. The truth isn't just the truth when it's convenient to you."

Red closed his eyes for a moment, letting the words sink in and he pursed his lips together in thought. "I remember the day you were born."

"Red-"

"Please, Elizabeth. This is relevant." He waited until she nodded before continuing. "You were the tiniest little thing, much like Agnes the day she was born. So fragile and innocent, born into a world of chaos and evil. You weren't mine, but you could have been. I loved you as if you were." He swallowed hard, bringing himself under control. "I thought I was doing what was best for you when I left you with Sam. I was trying to protect you from the world you were born into. I kept up with you, but you know that. It's so much different seeing you day to day. You're a woman with a child of your own, but… I still see that child when I look at you. All innocence and love for life. I want nothing more than to protect you and keep you safe. There is nothing I want more. I don't… Losing you…."

He swallowed hard, but it didn't help. He heard Elizabeth stand and she set the empty bottle aside, Agnes shifted in her arms as she leaned against the chair he was seated in and sighed. "I'm not a child, Red."

"I'm I do know that, Elizabeth."

"On a level, maybe. I'm not sure you've accepted it yet, not with what you just said and not with the way you treat me."

"And how is that?"

"Like a father that missed out on most of his daughter's life and is trying to make up for it."

Her voice wasn't accusing, but softer than he expected. He looked up and was struck by her gaze. That intelligent gaze of the little girl, so small and innocent once, grown into a fierce and strong woman. "Perhaps you're right," he murmured.

She sighed. "Well, that's a step in the right direction. Red… I do love you. I do understand to a degree where you're coming from, but if we're going to work together again, I need you to respect me as your equal. If I don't know something, explain it to me. I've been told I'm a quick learner."

There was a tease in her voice that startled him. "I don't want to lose you again, Lizzie," he confessed softly.

"And I don't want to leave again. I meant what I said when I agreed to work with you. Do you remember? Screw with me and I walk. I believe what you've said, but words don't mean as much as actions. This isn't over, I know, and I'd rather work with you than not. You have to be honest though, and not just say you will be."

Red startled a bit at the hand she offered him, Agnes carefully balanced against her other arm and he took it, squeezing it. "I might be a bit slower to learn this, Elizabeth."

"I know. Heaven knows I've learned patience with it. You've seen the man I love," she said with a small smile shining through.

"Tom would have my head if he had his way."

"Tom's scared, and he lashed out when he feels cornered. Let me worry about him. He'll come around. I just… Don't antagonise him?"

Reddington snorted. "I'll do what I can." He paused and spoke hesitantly. "May I hold her?"

"Be careful. She's a little cranky with everything."

He hummed softly and took the little girl in his arms. She blinked her eyes open slowly and looked up at him. "Hello, Agnes. We've missed you here." He looked up at the little girl's mother. "Thank you."

"I don't want to lose you either," Elizabeth confessed softly. "I don't want to lose any of my family, and you and the task force are just as much family as Tom and Agnes. I don't want to lose that if I can stop it."

"I know."

"Good." She pulled in a deep breath. "I told you that I gave Tom an ultimatum once. Now it's your turn, and I need you to be honest. Fully honest about something."

"What is that?"

She closed her eyes, and when they re-opened determination shone in them. "I need you to tell me what part my father had in what happened to Tom as a child."

"You look like you could use a good night's sleep."

Tom turned, silently cursing himself for not hearing Scottie's approach. He was exhausted, but there was more to do before they could leave. Kirk was being held - apparently Reddington had given him a possible scenario of escape that thankfully hadn't panned out - and while he and Liz hadn't been a part of anything on the books with the feds, they needed to be easily found. Then there was this. Dealing with Scottie. Well, better to handle it now rather than push it off.

"How're you feeling?" she asked. "I hope that Dr Michaels-"

"Yeah. I finally got those stitches Liz was so determined about," Tom answered. "Thanks. For that and for having him look at Agnes. I, uh, guess I should talk to you about our deal. You delivered on your end-"

"Tom, stop. I'm not going to hold you to it. You were desperate to get your daughter home. I understand that. If I had the option to bring Christopher home, there's nothing that I wouldn't promise. I want you to work for me, but because you choose to. Only because you choose to." She reached out with an envelope in her hand. "Here's the written offer. Take a few days, talk it over with your wife, and let me know. You're not obligated to take it, but I hope you will."

He nodded and took the offered envelope. "Thank you."

Scottie offered him a smile. "I'm glad we could bring her home. Do you and Elizabeth have a place to go tonight?"

"Hotel. We don't want to descend on Aram again. Especially not with Agnes. We'll start looking for a place tomorrow."

"So you're staying in DC?"

"Yeah. For now. At least the whole Kirk thing is passed and… Well, it's probably better to be around the few people we trust rather than alone."

"Smart."

Tom shrugged. "Just doing the best we know how. I'll talk this over with Liz," he said, holding the envelope up.

"Good."

Tom turned as he heard the door open and Reddington slip out. "We'll get things together and get out of your hair."

"No rush."

He started to leave, but stopped. "The feds have Kirk. What are you doing with Solomon?"

Scottie smirked. "You should ask Red about that one," she answered with a smirk and turned, leaving him in the hall outside of her office.

Tom shook his head, chuckling to himself as he moved in. "How'd it go?"

Liz was bouncing a happy Agnes. "We'll see. I have to verify that what he told me is true. Did you talk to Scottie? Please tell me she's not going to make you start right away."

"She actually let me out of it. Something about agreeing under duress. She made an offer though, and I told her you and I would talk about it."

Liz stood from where she had been sitting to exchange Agnes for the paperwork, a switch that Tom was more than happy to make. He focused in on the happy sounds she made as he held her close and her mother worked the paperwork out. "Damn," she breathed. "She must really want you."

Tom shrugged. "Private sector pays well."

"A lot better than teaching."

"A lot more dangerous too," he pointed out with a thin smile and loosed a breath. "Babe, I've been doing this since I was fourteen. I'm… tired of getting shot at for money. I don't want that to be the reason I take this. What did Reddington say?"

His wife swallowed hard. "He thinks that Kirk - that my father - had you kidnapped as a child," she said very quietly.

Tom blinked hard. "Why?"

"Apparently they all knew each other… Scottie and her husband, my parents, and Red. Kirk was into something shady -"

"Shocking."

"I know, but Howard was closing in on finding out that it was him and so he made a point by taking you. Red admitted that most of it was speculation, but when he bluffed Kirk with it, he seemed to acknowledge it."

"So Scottie is my mother," Tom breathed.

"It sounds like it. You okay?"

"Yeah," he answered weakly. "I… You think I should take the job? To find out more?"

Liz pursed her lips together thoughtfully. "I would," she said slowly, "but you're not me. Tom, if you want to find out more about your past and your parents, I'm one hundred percent behind you. If you want to deal with crazy students all day long, I'm behind you. All I ask is no jewellery heists to pay the bills."

A short laugh escaped him and he took a careful seat on the couch, Agnes starting to doze in his arms. "I don't deserve you, you know."

She smiled and sat with him. "It boils down to what it's worth to you to find out. Will it be dangerous? Of course, but I don't think any more than the work I'm do."

He hummed softly and leaned into her. "Am I crazy for wanting to take her offer?"

"No, but if you do, I need you to promise me something."

"Anything. You know that."

"I need you to be careful," his wife said quietly. "I need you to always come home to me, and if… I don't know what's going to happen, but if I go back to work with the task force then I'll make the same promise to you."

"Deal," Tom answered.

"Good. Because all the answers in the world aren't worth your life, and I'm not willing to lose you again."

"Well, I know better than to argue with you," Tom chuckled and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "How much was the offer anyway?"

Liz held up the paperwork and Tom let out a low whistle. "I feel like Bud may have been short changing me over the years."

"Imagine that. C'mon, I want to get to the hotel and get her down for a real nap. Then I need a shower and food."

"And maybe a nap for us too," Tom said with a small smile.

Liz rolled her eyes as he stood and she followed, stopping him. "I love you," she said firmly.

"I love you too."

"Whatever happens with the task force, I want to stay with her for a little while. Do you think we can make that happen?"

"I bet we can work something out. Hell, babe, with that price tag if you never wanted to go back-"

"Let's not get carried away," she laughed.

He grinned at her and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. They had always talked about normal and the further into things they got, the more abstract it seemed. Nothing was black and white in their lives. They existed in the layers of grey between the extremes of the world, finding their own brand of normal somewhere deep in the grey, and that was okay. It was what worked for them, and as Tom watched Liz - the woman he loved, the woman that could fight and protect and love more fiercely than anyone he'd ever known - battle with the car seat so that they could get Agnes strapped in, he felt a sudden rush of peace and confidence. Even with all the unknowns, they would be okay. Together, they would always be okay.

End.

Notes: I kept it under 10 chapters! Woot!

Ahem. Anyway. Thanks, guys, for the awesome reviews and sticking with this one. I know that I didn't update it nearly as often as I started with Everything Back to You. I'll still be working on my one shot series Truth in the Lies, so if you guys have any prompts, feel free to send them my way :)

I hope you guys enjoyed the ride. I'm getting really excited as the spoilers start leaking out. I can't wait to see where S4 is going!