The Architect. [The Blacklist. Donald Ressler X Oc]

Worried.

Maggie.

I recall when I started to see Don behave differently. It was a week after I got back from Russia, he had a new case that was a little unsettling.

It was an intense week of him going up and down doing interrogations, but it was one particular night that I saw and realized something wasn't right.

He had been staying in my place a lot, he brought some of his suits in, his paperwork, his car. I, of course, couldn't be happier. Blessed were the mornings were we woke up earlier than usual and Don began kissing my neck, I would hold him close, wrap my legs around his waist, and an hour would pass on us just loving each other. His lips on mine, our bodies together. It was all I wanted.

Therefore, as usual, he would finish his assignments for the day and come straight to mine, take a shower, talk, eat, go to bed together.

I was standing near the doorway towards the living room near the front door when I saw him.

He was slowly taking off his jacket, the blue one with the FBI logo bright yellow on the back, it was the one he used when he had to put on a bulletproof vest.

He wasn't taking it out slowly as if he was injured, but thoughtful. He didn't notice my presence, so he continued to pull from the Velcro on his vest to loosen it, absentmindedly looking ahead.

It was that night when I found out something was troubling him, and given the whole confidentiality thing, I had to pry it from him.

I walked to him, putting myself in view, he raised his eyes to me and gave me a smile.

"Everything was too quiet, I thought you were gone"

I smiled at him and helped undo his vest.

"Caught the bad guy?"

"Yeah thankfully" he dismissed. He threw the vest on the near sofa, then walked past me to sit on it.

I walked back to the kitchen and fished a few beers for us, sitting close to him, leaning my body to his, he passed his arm around my back and held the beer I held to him.

"I want you to tell me what's on your mind" I said, he gave a swig of his beer and looked sideways at me.

"I'm fine Mags"

"Fine my ass"

"Indeed"

"Donald" I said letting out a little chuckle, he smiled back at me, then gave me a sigh. "Seriously, you're..." He looked at me, I felt his hand roam around the low of my back "troubled"

He turned his sight back at the bottle, turning the contents around it while he thought. After a few seconds he took a deep breath and began talking.

"Liz is fucking up" he let out in a sigh "she's in some trouble and... She can be facing jail time, and if she does, the task force shuts down"

"Does she have a chance to fight back?"

He looked at me, thinking.

"There's people who won't let the team go down. Whether I like it or not, we're doing good work with Reddington, the task force works. But Keen... Her consciousness his hitting her back hard."

"Are you worried about Liz? Or the task force shutting down?"

"Liz. Without her the task force is done. We're back to step one"