When You Meet A Man

An Unexpected Turn Of Events

"Raymond, I'm sorry." Dembe said again, looking back in the rear view mirror and noticing Red just wasn't himself. "It's fine." Red insisted, face stoic and fueled with pain and anger. Dembe turned into the parking lot of a warehouse where Joey was still housed in a pop up hospital. They walked in and saw Weecha reading to her.
Red slowly paced over and placed his hand on Weecha's shoulder. Dembe held the door open as Weecha stepped outside with him, leaving Reddington with Joey, who was still laying unconscious and on a ventilator.
He picked up the book Weecha was reading to her and smiled to himself. "No one reads Shakespeare anymore." He said flipping through the pages of "Macbeth." He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Joey's head, stroking her hair a bit. "It's okay." He whispered as he touched his forehead to hers. His eyes grew glossy and he shut them. "It's okay" he repeated. His planted another gentle kiss on her forehead and stood up. He placed his hat back on his head and turned to the door, opening to it let Dembe and Weecha back in.
"The doctor said he'd be back shortly if you wanted to speak with him." Weecha said as she fiddled with her fingers a bit. All three, saddened, looked around for the moment, staring at a mostly empty warehouse. "She doesn't deserve this." Red said, pacing alright slightly. "Mr Reddington." A voice came from the other side of the warehouse floor. "Mr Reddington." He repeated. The doctor emerged towards Red with some papers in hand. "We thought due to the explosion she would eventually recover but suffer from a TBI. With the force of the explosion and the blunt hit to the ground, we found the fluid in her brain as you kn-" "Yes I know, just tell me." Red interrupted, appearing agitated. "The hydrocephalus is showing fatal. I know we said we'd monitor it but without the proper tools she can't be properly treated and it's too late now." Red stared at the ground, the doctor's words echoing in his head. "Thank you." Red said, dismissing the doctor. He slowly walked back towards Weecha, who had spent all day with Joey. "How long?" He asked. "The doctor sa-" "I don't want to talk about the doctor, how long does she have?" Red sternly shouted. His anger showed in his eyes. It came mainly from guilt. "24 hours. Maybe 36." Weecha replied quietly.
Red's burner phone ran and he instantly pulled it out and threw it against the wall, shattering it. He stormed out of the warehouse. "I'll check on him." Dembe told Weecha. Weecha slowly walked back to Joey and picked up her spot in Macbeth and continued reading.

Red was walking towards the car at a quick pace when Dembe ran up behind him. "Raymond it's not your fault." He assured him. "Of course it is Dembe! It always is! You joined the FBI, Weecha still suffers from migraines from her blast when we thought Kate was alive and now Joey! And I thought she would pull through like Weecha. I assumed she would be okay. She could've been in a real hospital getting surgery!" Red yelled at Dembe furiously. "She's still fighting." Dembe said softly. "She's gone." Red shouted. "She's not, Ray" "SHE'S GONE! That's not her. That's her body, she's gone. I fucked up." Red banged his fist on the top of the Mercedes' trunk. "You must get some rest Raymond. This isn't healthy for you. Her soul is still with her body until the very end. Why don't you speak with her?" "And say what? Apologize? For not helping her? All you three ever did, and Luli for that matter who I also let die in front of my eyes...all you guys do is help me. You work for me. I at least owe it to you not to let you die like this. Luli cried her last breath. Joey is having it shoved into her through a tube. What if I lost you!?" Red was still angry with himself. "Let me take you home Raymond." Dembe continued to speak very calmly to him. Red got in the car and allowed Dembe to drive him away.

"CUT."
An applause came from the set. "That was powerful." Jon announced to James. Beck sat up and removed her face covering and wires from around her. Diany helped her off the gurney. "Shit even I almost cried." She said to Diany. James walked over and hugged her, rubbing her arm. Diany came from behind and hugged Beck as well, landing a friendly kiss upon her cheek. "I'm going to miss you!" She said still squeezing Beck. "I'll come and visit with Amir!" Beck said smiling widely. She was saddened to have filmed her last scene on the Blacklist but very proud of herself for landing the role in the first place.
She walked over to her trailer to put some of her things away when James stopped her at her door. "Hey..." he said softly. Beck replied back with a simple "hey." Filming that felt difficult for her as she felt as if his feelings were real. "Don't let this be it." He said quickly. "I don't know why they changed the script again and killed off Joey but, I'd like to keep seeing you." James continued.
Beck smiled softly and nodded. Her face began to glow red again. "Oh go splash some cold water on you and talk to me when you're not flustered." He chuckled and walked off. Beck went inside her trailer and washed off the makeup and ruffled her hair up. She changed back into her own clothes and came outside with all her items packed up in her backpack.

Beck walked back over to the set to continue talking with everyone. "Shit, I thought this would happen to Weecha at the end of season 9." Diany said smiling. "They had to take one of us out, Red would be unstoppable with two mean ass bitches behind him." Beck laughed as she spoke pretending getting cut from the Blacklist wasn't painful. She didn't think it was done with malicious intent but she worried her ratings on the show weren't high enough for them to continue writing her in.

"Carol could you un-mic me" James asked as she turned his back towards one of the crew members. She and another crew member lived his suit jacket to unhook his microphone from the battery.

"Ugh, freedom" he groaned as he shook a bit and walked over to Diany and Beck.
"You girls going to miss being together huh?" James smirked at the two. Diego walked over with Hisham, "we keep losing people!" Diego said in a funny tone. "I should've let Donald rot in that box season 1" James turned and gave Diego a smug look, jokingly. "Ha ha very funny." Diego said, raising his cup of coffee to James. "It's okay Diego, you and I will be the last two standing in the post office, just you wait." Hisham said chuckling about it. "Not if Red has anything to say about it." James said tilting his head and playing with his tongue again.
James' actual phone rang and he looked at it, rolled his eyes and answered it. "Hello?" He answered it almost sarcastically before he walked off to take the call in private.
"A man's work is never done." Diego said sipping his coffee. "Maybe that man's, but don't worry, Donald will be killed off soon. The spirit of Joey will haunt him to death" Beck joked, landing a fake punch on his shoulder. The grouped laughed a bit before being called by Jon to say they wanted to film the next few scenes before they went home. Beck of course was no longer needed.
She went back into her trailer to rest up a bit as she didn't want to leave the set before the end of the day. She wanted to say and linger a bit before officially saying goodbye to everyone. Within the few weeks she lived her dream thanks to her role on the show and within one script change, it was all taken away.

After an hour of resting in her trailer, trying not to cry, she walked back out to check on filming, hoping it was done so she can talk to her co-stars again. She peaked over to James' trailer to see him angrily sitting and texting on his phone.

She could only assume Leslie was hounding him about something again and she felt bad about it.
Not only will she not be seeing him daily but he broke up years and years of a relationship because he met her, or at least, she felt like that's what he did. It saddened her that meeting her made James felt wanted again but she was grateful to be able to give that to him. She planned on staying in touch with him but feared that due to his lack of desire to use technology much, that they would lose contact quickly.
She wanted to approach him but didn't think to bother. If he wasn't in a good mood, she didn't want to push his buttons, especially after he had such a powerful scene. She could only imagine what that took out of him.
Instead, she continued to linger around on set a bit in the background taking it all in before it was over for her.