The Heart of Life

CHAPTER 3: "Shatter Me"

CHAPTER 3: "Shatter Me"

"We have something!" Aram declared; Liz's heart began to pound harder and faster inside her chest. "What do we have?" she asked him; "I think I found something, I couldn't get a good look at his face, but it is clearly seen that he is being carried away..." Liz took a closer look, she saw it was somewhere public; "are they at a hospital?" she asked him; "we couldn't confirm it yet... there we can just see..." Aram started pointing to the footage "...that Mr. Reddington is being placed inside the car, and Dembe in the boot." Aram began typing faster and a few more pictures and footage showed up "there, we can see where he stopped for gas near D.C, before the van was finally disposed at a wearhouse in Johannesburg, where Dembe confirmed he was left behind. I hacked into the system but it was a dead-end. It was all what I can find." Aram finished. Liz was grateful for Aram's help; before she could say anything her phone rang...

====Line Break====

He doesn't tell her enough, he thinks; intimacy is hard for him. It's hard to open up as much as she had tried for him. She is indeed his everything and he isn't gonna lie about that. He tried to think of a way on how to save her, and how to get out of this mess, without a thought of a consequence for himself. He will kill every single person in this facility, FBI be damned.

The torture went on and on, and all he could hear was her desperate screams for him; "Take me!...STOP THIS!...She KNOWS NOTHING!... I HAVE THE ANSWERS! TAKE ME! LIZZIE!" he was pounding at his door the best he could while his chains were preventing him to get closer. Hours later, the door flew open and the armed men brought him, a pair of ears, a hand, a foot, 9 fingers, and an eye. He was mindless in his grief, and rage; and all he could hear was her desperate screams for him. Sitting in a far corner of the room blocking his ears, he rocked back and forth; he knew she is dead..gone. Gone was his light; the love of his life was murdered, killed mercilessly without even fault.

Tears ran down his face and blood was everywhere, on his clothes, on his hands. He knelt onto the ground pleading for her life, pleading for whatever God there is up there to save her, and take him instead. He can no longer hear screams from the other side, his voice was raw and hoarse from all the screaming he had done, but his screams couldn't do anything to save her. They had killed her, murdered her like an animal; he told them everything he knew; and he only knew so little, but they wouldn't believe him. A voice was yelling now, screaming at his team at how stupid they were for nipping an artery and killing her; when they sawed of her foot and arm, she had bled to death. They needed her to get information. Red had failed. She was dead, and along with her death, came everything else that mattered in his life, they had taken everything from him. And once again, the hideous fish had lost its light; his second chance was gone. Life was taken away from him.

A few more minutes later, an explosion rocked the whole building, gunshots raging, screams, and bigger explosions were heard from outside his cell door. Still Raymond Reddington did nothing about it, instead, he stayed still and stared sightlessly at the walls rocking back and forth creating a small chanting "she's gone...she's gone..." he kept on rocking, covering his ears and just kept on rocking, always rocking.

Minutes later with Liz and Ressler leading the charge along with Dembe and Samar, the entire team from inside the building were all dead, they scrubbed every cell until they came to his; with gun at ready, Dembe and Ressler kicked the door open and Samar and Liz followed inside. They were prepared for anything, Ressler even brought along with him a med kit just in case. They were all worried, Carlos Gaona's team was holding Red for a week now. He had been through worse over the years, much much worse, or so they thought.

Liz hoped he was still in better shape than the women that were in the other room from where he was. The corpse that she had seen would be giving her nightmares, but none of it was scaring her at the moment as the thought of what they could have done with Red, she'll worry about it after they have found him, cared for him. He's okay, he's okay... he's gotta be okay! Liz repeated it to herself like a mantra. They were unprepared for the sight that they have seen; The Concierge of Crime, and FBI's No.4 Most Wanted Criminal was sitting on the floor sobbing and rocking back and forth. Liz dropped to her knees and knelt before him, cupping his face in her hands. "Red, Red... you're okay...we're here... you were gone for days...but we managed..." she couldn't stop herself from touching him, mindless of the dirt and grime, she ran her hand across his arms and back, his face and his neck as well. She couldn't find any injuries at all but they still weren't sure; she turned to the men behind her; "Dembe, please..."

"Raymond..." he knelt before him and touched his cheek, but still nothing; "Raymond, please...what's wrong brother?" he had to ask again, but still nothing. He stared off into space and kept on crying and rocking. "Liz we need to go, reinforcement's here!" Ressler called out; Samar grabbed the med-kit and handed Liz her gun; "we must go... they're coming..." she said; Dembe stood up and hoisted Red to stand with him, Red went crazy and started fighting; "No! Lizzie! Please! Let me see her! I have to stay with her! LIZZIE!" he shouted "Liz! Get the morphine from the bag! Hurry!" Samar fumbled inside the bag and got hold of the syringe of morphine, she handed it to Liz and together with the unshed tears, she stabbed it into Red's backside. Within moments, he quieted down and Dembe hoisted him up in a fireman's carry and they all left the building.

They have agreed that Red would be stopping the hunt for a while, but Dembe suggested that they can still do the list, he'll just be giving them the small names in which Red doesn't need to play a part in. Cooper have agreed that Liz can stay with Reddington in his recovery at a safe house in Annapolis; Samar, Donald, and Aram were more than willing enough to help in whatever they need. Ressler may not like Reddington, but he knows that he had been good for Liz and maybe they can work this out; he has to say, the man may have wormed into their hearts; it may not be a friendship but rather as colleagues.

They flew together on Red's private Jet, Ressler said, they'll be in touch after a couple of days when the paper works were all filed, and then they will visit them. Liz had agreed and hugged them all, thankful enough that they understood her and the situation. Liz thanked Cooper the most for his understanding, he wished them well, and bouts of good luck; she smiled and waved a final goodbye before chartering the jet with Dembe and Mr. Kaplan.

Inside the jet, Mr. Kaplan assessed Red's condition. He was not hurt in any physical way, or so to say the least but he was dehydrated. When Mr. Kaplan walked out the bedroom where he was staying, Liz stood up and walked to her; Mr. Kaplan placed a hand on her arm and told her to sit down; "how is he?" he asked her, worried filled her voice. Mr. Kaplan sighed and took the seat next to her; " I am not worried about his physical condition dearie, however, I am worried about his mental condition..." she started and Liz's heart began pounding in her chest. "I sedated him, because frankly I do not want to do anything to him after everything he's been through, I'm not going to lie to you Elizabeth, I think they have worked into his mind..." she could only nod at what she said; "has he spoken yet?" Mr. Kaplan sighed and went on; "No, he just stared and hummed a hauntingly beautiful tune while hugging the bear you had left with him... he kept on until the drugs took over." Lizzie's eyes grew wide, in her absence Red has kept a hold of the bear he had won for her on their trip to Coney Island, she happened to have left that one on his place, and never got the chance to get it even before the whole fiasco. "REDdy bear..." Liz said and Kate nodded; "Raymond, could no longer sleep without that bear by his side...since you..." "..left." they both chorused and Kate nodded knowingly. "Elizabeth dear..." Kate continued " you have to understand that Raymond is broken...they have broken him; He may never recover, and you have to be prepared for that..." she said. She stood up, she was done listening, no matter how haunting the whole thing was, he has to pull through, she wouldn't even contemplate of that future without him.

Once she entered the room, seeing him on the bed, hugging the bear, she knew she was out of time. He had been holding on for far too long. She shut the door locking it behind her, and dimming the lights into a firelight glow. She laid down beside him, careful not to touch or disturb him. she faced him, and drank in the sight of him. it was there inside the dark confines of the jet's bedroom where she had poured every ounce of bottled emotions that she had been keeping at bay for the last two weeks.

Her silent tears poured down on the pillow from where she lain her head, and there she had made promises to him, that everything was going to be alright. That she would spend every moment with him, and will help him get better, and will be with him all the way through. She would lie, and steal and kill if that wasn't enough to protect him for the rest of their lives. She would protect and cherish him for the rest of their days. It was there where she told him, that she in fact and indeed loved him, and what she had said before was a lie; that she loved him with all her heart, and being.

She must have been as quiet as she thought because he had stirred in his sleep. She lain frozen, afraid that she might have disturbed him, she tried to calm her heart and her breathing. He whimpered softly and hugged the bear tighter to his chest, but quieted when she whispered her name. it was there in the dark, that a man who just experienced crushing hopelessness and torture may have brighten up her shattered heart and had been given a gift; by hearing him breathe out her name in return. "Lizzie..."