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"Agent Keen," Cooper addresses her over his glasses as she approaches the briefing at Aram's desk. "You're late," he pauses, "again."
Smoothing down her hair, Liz bites her lip, realizes what she's doing and stops. "Sorry, sir. It won't happen again."
"That's what you said yesterday. And last week," Cooper reminds her, thinks better of continuing the conversation and then returns his attention to the overhead screens. "Aram, you were saying?"
Behind Cooper, Ressler is watching Liz closely and misses what Aram was actually saying. He takes in the sight of her. She's thinner than he's ever seen her, and the dark rings under her eyes are barely covered with her makeup. He may not be a profiler, but it's obvious something is up.
"Ressler, Keen, get over there and talk to Derek Cantell and see if he has any information on this," Cooper tells him, interrupting his thoughts. Get over where? is Ressler's first thought, having not been listening for the last part of the briefing. A glance at the screen shows the CEO of the company that Cooper wants him to talk to, and taking the address off Aram, he has enough to go on. Once again, his eyes return to Liz as they head for the elevator.
"What's going on, Keen?" he asks, wondering for a moment if she'll lie like he once did and tell him she missed her train.
"It's nothing, I just had to wait on the babysitter this morning and she was way late," she replies, not meeting his eyes. The downward shift of her eyes tells him this is not 'nothing'.
Right, he thinks. "I thought Tom looked after Agnes while you were here?" he asks, trying not to chew off the name 'Tom' too harshly.
"Yeah, he couldn't… today," she tells him as the elevator doors open and she steps out in front of him toward their vehicle.
And yesterday too, as well as last week apparently. As they climb in the vehicle, he pulls on the seatbelt and looks across at her. "What's going on? Because you're not fooling me."
Her pleading eyes meet his. "Can we please not do this now? Please?" she asks.
Okay then. Clearly something is going on. "Okay, but later, Liz, when we get done with this interview, you talk to me." And it's still foreign to him, even after all these years to be the one insisting on 'difficult' conversations. He's learned a lot, being around her, it appears.
###
Their meeting with Cantell over, they make another stop to talk to another lead after a call from Aram. After talking with that woman, Ressler walks beside Liz glancing in her direction. This isn't the Liz he knows. Once back in their SUV the silence continues, punctuated only with Liz getting a couple of texts from the babysitter. Ressler's curiosity can stand it no longer. He's not only curious. Now he's downright worried.
"Okay, that's it," he tells her and turns off the highway into a small parking lot outside a convenience store and shuts off the engine. "Talk to me," he tells her, turning in his seat a little to face her.
Wringing her small hands in her lap, she gazes out the windscreen and for a moment he doesn't think she's going to say anything.
"Liz?" his tone changes, softening.
"I have a babysitter there with Agnes because…Tom's not there."
"Not there?" he prods. "Liz, why isn't Tom there with Agnes?"
Her eyes drop and he's surprised at the tears brimming. "Hey…" he tells her, reaching for her arm.
"Because, I'm a fool," she whispers.
"What? Liz, no…" he replies, leaning down to look at her dropped eyes.
"You all knew. You all told me," she says, tears breaking free as she turns to him. "You most of all. You said there was no coming back from him having raised a hand to me."
Anger flares in Ressler's eyes. "Did he hit you?!"
"No. No, Ress, he didn't," she tells him quickly, wiping the tears and composing herself. "But you were right. He did previously and there was no coming back from that. I tried. I really tried to just see him as Agnes's father."
And Ressler is sure he knows what's coming, and he's trying to quell the sudden rush of hope that's rising in him - and failing. He's almost willing her to say the words. Yet still concerned at how upset she is, he admonishes himself for thinking only of himself.
"What's happened, Liz?" he asks her, touching her arm again.
"I finally realized that I don't love him," she replies softly. "I love the idea of him, but not him."
Ressler holds his breath.
"And so I told him I don't want to continue this charade of being with him. I told him I was done with it. Done with him."
Ressler exhales slowly.
"He left last week. And you don't need to lie and tell me you're sorry," she tells him, meeting his eyes.
He doesn't. "Are you okay?" he asks instead.
"I think so, yes. It's just that even though I had doubts, I really tried for Agnes, but I just couldn't keep living that lie anymore. And I think he understood. There really was no big fight. No big showdown. He just packed up his stuff and left the next day."
Ressler simply squeezes her arm. And his heart suddenly feels lighter than it has in some time. "What about Agnes?" he asks.
Her voice stronger now that she's let it out, she replies, "We will work out when he can see Agnes. I was never married to him, so that made it easier for him to just leave, but he's still her father and will get to see her."
"I'm…okay, I'm not sorry that he's gone," he tells her honestly, "but I am sorry you've had to deal with all of this, Liz."
"Me too," she replies, then gives him a soft smile, "and thank you."
"For what?"
"For not saying I told you so."
He'd never tell her that.
"But you'd never say that, because you're a good man."
"Just don't ask me to babysit," he smiles. "That, I wouldn't be good at."
And she's smiling with him. "Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad you finally know. It's been hard, keeping it all in."
She sobers, "and Ress, you're wrong. You'd be amazing with her. I've seen you with children and you're a natural."
He looks out the windscreen, the image of holding Audrey's pregnancy test coming to the fore. "Uncle Don, reporting for duty," he tells her, as he reaches for the ignition and starts the car. Pulling out onto the road they make their way back to the Post Office. And there is no silence between them now, as they chat with each other. Just like old times.
And the first thing Cooper notices on their return is a very different, almost confident Liz. And a very relaxed Ressler.