Donald Ressler was getting impatient with his partner. Two hours out from the Post Office, Liz Keen had announced she needed to 'get ready' for this mission once they got to the gas station up ahead of them. Get ready? Hell, we've been getting ready for a week, he thought.

They were travelling in their unmarked surveillance van, with Red and Dembe 'somewhere' up ahead. Probably in Harrisonburg by now, thought Ressler. Ten minutes later they pulled into the gas station on the outskirts of Harrisonburg, with the mountains rising out of the morning mist to the north of them. They saw Red and Dembe's vehicle, already at the pre-arranged staging point.

"What do you need to 'get ready'? We don't have a lot of time here," Ressler asked her, trying his very best not to sound annoyed.

Liz looked at him almost shyly, he thought. "Um, just need to get some supplies. Snacks and the like..." she said vaguely.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Don't be too long." And she nodded as she climbed out of the van, and headed into the quick stop.

Pulling up to the pump, he got out to fill the van. No one would see him as an FBI agent, dressed in jeans, hiking boots and a jacket that hid the bullet proof vest over his clothing underneath. He nodded to an elderly man who was pumping gas at the pump beside him. The man returned the nod, and asked Ressler where he was headed.

"Just here and there, thought we might take in some hiking and maybe some fishing," he said, being deliberately vague.

"Be careful out there son, there's a gully washer a comin'," the old guy told him, and Ressler nodded his thanks. There wasn't a cloud in the sky he noted, looking up.

After filling the van, he pulled up to the parking area in front of the store, waiting for Liz.

His thoughts inevitably returned to their mission. Starting with the initial briefing from Red, who had first introduced them to the Cole family; twins, Jessie and Jacob, and younger brother Jeremy. Three All American boys who had now turned on their own country. The fact that the information was coming to them from someone who had also turned his back on his own country wasn't lost on Ressler. He was having that familiar internal argument with himself. The one that had started the day Reddington gave himself up, and continued every time they received a new case from the man. The argument that went something along the lines of 'Reddington is a traitor. But he's giving us worse traitors, so I guess that makes it okay. Doesn't it?"

But the fact remained that several hours of briefings, research and field work over the ensuing week had only established three basic facts regarding this latest case: 1. The Cole boys had a weaponized airborne virus of 'some sort'. 2. They were going to disperse it 'in a large city'. 3. It was going to take place 'in the next few days'.

Those three facts were alarming, yet utterly useless without details. And that was putting it mildly. It was just enough information to be infuriatingly incomplete. Ressler didn't like things to be incomplete. He liked them spelled out plainly, something that was becoming increasingly harder to come by the longer he worked with Raymond Reddington, he noted. He longed for the good old days. Days that didn't involve planning missions with Number 4 on the FBI's Most Wanted list.

His thoughts were interrupted by the man himself climbing into the passenger seat so recently vacated by Liz. Bundled up in his coat, he rubbed his hands together against the brisk morning air. Red looked sideways at Ressler, noting the agent's dour expression. Well, Ressler usually looked like that, so that was nothing new to Red.

"Donald, why the frown?"

Oh, I don't know, thought Ressler, only a million things could go wrong on this mission. We're heading into the wilderness, with only one road, no backup, no air support, no radio, spotty cell signal, just he and his partner, plus Number 4 (who very likely had his own agenda in all this). What could he possibly have to frown about, right?

He turned to look at Red, who was regarding him with that smug expression that seemed permanently etched on Reddington's features. Ressler really disliked that look. It reminded him of the fact that he had failed to capture this man. That Red was here under his own terms, whether Ressler liked it or not. And the fact that Donald didn't like it seemed to make it all the more entertaining for Red.

Ressler ignored Red's remark, and got down to business. "Let's go over this again. Once you get the information from Cole..."

"We're all aware of what we need to do here, Agent Ressler," Red interrupted him. When he called him 'Agent Ressler', that was Red's way of demeaning his position. Of putting him down and belittling what Ressler was good at. Damn the man. He had this way of making him feel like a schoolboy in the presence of the principal, and Ressler detested that. He sighed heavily, closing his eyes for a second, and continued trying to go over this with the criminal.

"When we get what we need from Cole, we'll be watching for you to exit the cabin. We'll wait for you to clear the area before we move in. And if you don't ...or can't... move out quick enough, I'm arresting you along with Cole, maintaining your cover."

"Yes, Donald," intoned Red, humoring the agent now.

Ressler gave up. He was well aware Red knew the plan. In all honesty, he was going over it for his own peace of mind. And where the hell was Keen?!

"Donald, we can't be seen chit chatting here for very long, but I will tell you this. I can't change this meeting time. Believe me, I tried. So whatever you're going to do, do it fast. There's a storm coming." Red looked up at the sky, indicating the building clouds on the horizon. Ressler turned to look in that direction, not seeing anything all that ominous. First the old guy, and now Reddington.

Raymond Reddington had developed a great many skills in his lifetime. Granted, most of them in the last two decades involved conniving his way from one criminal enterprise to another, collecting resources, names and people in the way that others might collect recipes. But one skill had been borne of years on the water, learning as a young man how to read the ocean currents and what the sky and clouds foretold. Becoming one with the ocean with the feel of the wind on his face, Reddington could read weather. He'd once asked Ressler 'have you ever sailed across an ocean...' to which the younger man had answered 'no'. Pity, thought Red, because if he had, the FBI agent would have known that those clouds on the horizon were bad news. And that bad news was heading in their direction.

"I don't intend for this to take long. We'll get in, get done and off that mountain before dark," Ressler informed him, checking his watch again. He didn't have time for cloud watching. They had to get up that mountain, stake out the cabin, wait for the signal from Red and get in and out fast before Cole's buddies showed up. And if Keen didn't hurry up, he'd be leaving without her, he thought, looking at his watch yet again. He was just antzy though, he knew that. They had hours, but he just wanted to be in position.

"Keep an eye on the weather," said Red, reaching for the door handle to exit the vehicle.

Ressler pursed his lips, and held up his iPhone to Red. "Don't have to. I have an app for that," he told the man, dismissing his concerns and smiling smugly at the criminal.

Red turned to him with thinly veiled disdain. "You know what you can do with your app, Donald." And with that Red climbed out of the van, tugging his hat on his head as he walked over to where Dembe was waiting for him at their vehicle.

Keen finally came out of the store, much to Ressler's relief, carrying two plastic sacks full of ...stuff. She saw Red and Dembe, but didn't acknowledge them openly. This was supposed to be a covert operation, after all.

"Good gosh Liz, did you buy half the store?" Ressler eyed her as she got back in the van, watching her load the bags into her back pack. Well, she's the one who has to carry the stuff, he thought. She gave him 'the look' so he shut up as she put her seat belt on.

"Let's get out of here. We're burning daylight." He'd heard that in a movie he watched the other night, and liked the sound of it. Though John Wayne sounded much cooler when he said it.

Liz looked at him, noting the impatience and clenched teeth. He was uneasy, and that made her a little nervous too. She didn't like it when he wasn't sure of things. She remembered something then.

"Guy in the store said it's going to rain bad. Said he knows because the squirrels told him." She smiled at that, waiting to see Ressler's reaction.

He didn't disappoint. He turned to her looking confused.

"He said they gather up more food stores before a storm," she clarified, watching him shake his head, turning his eyes back to the road.

Just great, thought Ressler. Now even the local rodents are telling me a storm is coming.

###

Their route took them North West, heading through the town of Harrisonburg. Leaving the town behind them, they crossed a bridge over a small river, and started their drive up the mountain. The sparse trees in town gave way to a thicker forest almost as soon as they started their ascent. Liz found the view rather desolate. She had to admit, she was a city girl at heart. Ressler actually liked it. He'd grown up in an area similar to this and spent a lot of time at his parents' cabin in Prince George's county.

Though now that cabin brought back other memories... While not actually in the grounds of his parents' cabin, he'd been very close to it when he'd faced Jonica in the snow. After Audrey. He sucked his breath in and swallowed hard. Keep your mind on the task at hand here.

Liz looked over at him quickly, noting the change in his expression. "What...?"

He shook his head, glanced at her, but didn't say anything. She knew what it was now though, looking at the narrow road, with trees on either side. There was no snow on the ground now, just lush trees and undergrowth, but she knew him well enough to know where his mind had taken him.

"How far is it?" she asked, helping him get his mind back on the case, knowing he'd studied the map in detail. She liked how thorough he was in things like that. Leaving nothing to chance, he would scout out an area, either by driving through it, studying it, even looking on Google maps when no other options were available.

"It's about 4 miles up the mountain, almost at the summit. The road climbs steadily, then takes a dip around an outcrop of rocks, then continues climbing up to the cabin." He replied, his mind fully on the job at hand again. There had been a grainy image of their destination during one of the briefings, and he'd scanned the photo and kept it on his phone. He would know the place as soon as he saw it. Their task at hand was to drive past the cabin, and position themselves on a fire access road immediately above the cabin, out of view in the trees. From their position they would hear the conversation inside the cabin when Reddington got there for his meeting with Jacob Cole. Red was offering his services to the Cole boys to get them out of the country after the job. For him to do that, he'd need to know the location and timing in order to arrange transportation. Once they had that, the plan was to raid the cabin, arresting Cole as well as Red, maintaining his cover. Red wouldn't be there for a few hours yet. Yes, they were way early, but Ressler had wanted to be well in position before the meeting took place.

Sounds simple enough, he thought. What could possibly go wrong? A million things...he reminded himself worriedly.

Their dark green van wound its way up the mountain on a road that was well paved and not too narrow. The sun was shining, casting linear shadows across the road as they drove beneath the tall trees. The morning fog had all but burnt off now, and it was turning out to be a pleasant morning. Not a storm in sight, he mused. Remembering the old guy at the gas station, Ressler almost wished they really were up here to do a spot of fishing and hiking. It was a good day for it.

The road began to turn to the right, and sure enough, there was the rocky outcrop that Ressler had mentioned. It rose above the road, a cliff face about 30 feet high on the driver's side, and a slope downward on the other side. Making their way around it, the road then headed upwards again, slowly turning left, the rock cliffs now a quarter of a mile or so below them. At length, they came to a paved driveway leading up between the trees, revealing a wooden cabin sitting quietly among the trees at the end of the driveway. They slowed, but didn't stop, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Both glanced at each other, knowing that was their target for the day. Ressler continued past the driveway, the cabin dropping out of sight behind them now.

"The fire road should be right... about... here." Sure enough, there it was to their left and he swung in, pleased to see the thick underbrush that would conceal their van. Driving in about the length of a football field he pulled a little way off the road and stopped. All they could see were trees and thick brush around them, as the fire road continued upwards toward the lookout tower at the summit above them.

"Well, this is our view for the next few hours, Liz." He felt a little better, now that they were finally here and in position.

"Such a lovely spot for a picnic, thanks," she smiled. If she had to spend the next few hours on this mountain, most of it cooped up in this van, she was very glad it was with Ressler.

He chuckled, looking at her, then climbed out to survey the scene. She followed him and they walked silently, feeling the urge to stoop down, even though no one could possibly see them up here. At length they found a small opening between the trees, and found themselves in a perfect position above the cabin. From this vantage point, they couldn't see much more than the roof and back of the house. They knew from the photo and what they'd briefly seen from the road that it was a two storey building, and rather a good size. The area around the cabin was grassed, and it had been mowed recently. Two small outer buildings sat away from the main building, big enough to house a couple of vehicles easily in each.

Aware their voices could carry, they spoke in hushed tones. "I wonder if they're in there yet..." Liz said.

"Not sure. But we'll find out soon enough. This will work perfectly though." They rose then, carefully making their way back to the van. She walked beside him, feeling the brisk morning air on her cheeks. It wasn't real cold, but the air definitely had a bite to it at this higher elevation. She glanced over at him, suddenly struck by something. He was wearing the same black jacket he'd worn that day in the snow with Jonica... He'd unzipped it now, revealing his vest and dark t-shirt under it, above his dark jeans. He looks the same as that day... she thought. Now she looked at his features though. No, definitely not the same. Today he was confident, mind set on their task at hand, eyes sharp and focused. She smiled a little then, looking down at the dirt road as they approached the van.

"Something on your mind, Liz?" he asked, not looking at her, but seeing her smile out the corner of his eye.

"Nothing at all, Ress," she smiled, as they stopped at the back of the van while he unlocked the rear doors. He wasn't too convinced of that.

The doors opened, revealing a full surveillance unit, complete with satellite receivers, video monitors and sound feeds. They quickly entered, closing the doors behind them.

"We'll need to set up the camera so we have eyes on the cabin and out buildings," he said, opening up a small case containing several small cameras in waterproof casings. He didn't want to risk having a wireless feed from the camera to the van, in case it was intercepted, so pulled out a long reel of cable. Gathering up the small case, reel, and a tripod, they exited the van again and made their way back to the small opening they'd looked through earlier.

It didn't take long to set up the camera. It looked tiny, perched on top of the tripod. It always amazed Ressler how much these tiny things picked up, and the resolution they produced. Satisfied with the view, they weighed the tripod down with a rock so it couldn't topple, and concealed it pretty well in the underbrush. Walking back to the van, they strung out the cable in the grass as they walked. You'd never know it was even there. Well, unless you saw the van, of course, he thought dubiously.

He connected the cable to the inputs on the van, and once more inside, they were greeted with a good view of the cabin grounds. They didn't have a view of the front door, but they could clearly see anyone arriving and leaving down the drive way. He looked at his watch, and saw that it was 10:15am. Red wasn't due to meet with Cole until 2:00pm. Back at the Post Office, wanting to get in position hours ahead of time had seemed like such a good plan. Now, faced with a four hour wait in front of them, he wasn't so sure.

"I'm going to run a second camera. I don't like feeling blind in here," he told her, rummaging through the little case of cameras again. He found one and attached a clip to it, so that it didn't need a tripod. Opening the back doors again, he stood on the tailgate and reached up, clipping the camera to the luggage rack before running the cable to the van inputs. Now he felt better, with eyes on the road behind them. He closed the doors to the van again, satisfied with the two images on their monitors now.

###

Liz stood up and reached through the small door that separated the driver and passenger seats from the rear of the van. Retrieving her backpack, she dragged it through the opening. It was heavy, but then she had got rather a lot of goodies at the gas station.

He had one eye on the monitor in front of him and one eye on her. "What the heck have you got in there?"

"Snacks. Gotta have snacks on a stakeout," she grinned.

"What goes in must come out, and I for one really don't want to designate his and hers trees to pee behind," he said knowingly.

"Suit yourself," she grinned, pulling an apple and a bottle of water out the backpack, "but it's here if you want something later."

He nodded, pulling off his jacket and settling back in his chair. If he looked at the feed from the cabin long enough and hard enough, perhaps something might happen. Liz was also watching it on her monitor, when a memory popped into her head. She dropped her eyes and looked down, smiling. Looking over at his bemused look, she asked him if he remembered their first stake out together.

He nodded, rolling his eyes at that. "How could I forget," he said. "You're not going to profile me again... are you?" he asked her warily.

"You want me to?" she teased, laughing as he held up his hands, shaking his head to keep her profiling voodoo away from him.

His smile faded then though, and she watched him change. "Your profile was right back then... but not so much now Liz..." he said quietly. He looked at her as she met his eyes. "I'm not such a Boy Scout anymore... and the worst part is, I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad thing." He looked down now, biting his bottom lip, a distant look in his eyes.

She reached up and touched his shoulder in friendship. "We all change through circumstance...and Lord knows, we've both had major changes in our lives... major losses..." She said gently, dropping her hand. Life had not been easy for either of them the past few weeks, and Liz knew they had both changed.

"And we learn to roll with the punches, right?" he said, looking up at her again, half smiling, the glow from the monitors making his eyes shine a bright blue.

She nodded, smiling back at him again. "Something like that, yes." She would like to think she had toughened up, but then when she woke in the middle of the night, heart hammering in her chest from bad dreams, she wasn't so sure.

He looked away then, back at the monitors, thinking he saw something. But it was just a change in the light as a cloud moved overhead.

She was still watching him, thinking about the changes in their lives. "And Ress... You'll always be my Boy Scout," she smiled.

He looked sideways at her then, and smiled. It was the same smile he'd greeted her with when she went to his apartment after Red had told her about Sam... It was what she had since dubbed his "I'm not sure what's happening, but I'll go with it because, darn it Liz, I trust you" smile.

He was still looking at her when they heard something on the van. A pattering sound on the roof. They both looked up, then across at each other as the sound increased.

It was raining. Huge drops were now hitting the van and darkening the view on their camera feed. Even as they listened, it increased, settling into a steady thrum on the roof above them. The rain that Red and the old man had warned him about had started, and he hadn't even noticed it coming.

He closed his eyes, groaning as he listened to the rain. "Damn squirrels."

And at that she lost it completely, laughing until she almost cried.

###

Ressler always thought that four hours fell perfectly into his Goldilocks "just right" time frame. Not too short that you miss something, and not too long that things drag on. Just the right amount of time. But four hours sitting in the back of a van, with barely enough room to swing one's arms (if one had a desire to) was really putting his Goldilocks rule to the test today. He'd never really thought of himself as claustrophobic. Having sat in the back of vans like this numerous times over the years, he usually found them rather... "homely" in an odd sort of way.

Usually.

Not today.

The sound of the rain pounding on the van non-stop for the past three plus hours was fraying his nerves. The effect it was having on the cameras was negligible, tucked safely in their waterproof housings. They were sending pictures back to them like little troopers, but the images were getting difficult to distinguish through the heavy rain. They didn't 'think' anyone had arrived at the cabin yet. That didn't mean someone wasn't already in the cabin though. In the four hours they'd been watching they had not seen any sign of life.

The view from the rear facing camera was worrying them. The sheer volume of rain was alarming, causing two small rivers to run down each side of the road. For now, the center of the road was still fairly clear, but he really wondered how much longer that would be the case. They opened the small door between the back of the van and the front, watching the rain pouring down.

And right at the point where he was sure they'd need to get out of here for their own safety, almost positive the meeting wouldn't take place in this, there was movement on the cabin camera. Red's car had just pulled up outside the cabin. They leaned forward, each unaware they were holding their breaths as they slipped their headphones on, almost surprised to finally see some movement down there. Red stayed in the car. Ressler didn't blame him. No point getting out in this unless it was absolutely necessary. Red was wired, and after a moment they heard his voice as his mic came online.

"As I'm sure you've seen, we're here. Cole hasn't come out of the cabin yet. Though in this rain, one can hardly blame him." His voice was fairly clear, but there was a little static on the line. Ressler had heard worse, so wasn't too concerned.

Yet.

Red continued, but they realized he wasn't speaking to them. "If this goes much longer without seeing anyone, we're heading back down, Dembe." Ressler could hear concern in Red's voice. He glanced over at Liz. She heard it too, and asked Red a question.

"Red, how bad is the road?" She too was concerned about getting back down the mountain.

"Lizzie my dear, for now they are still passable. But Donald, remember what I said. We need to make this quick."

Ressler wanted to ask 'yeah, then why didn't you try harder to move the meeting up to earlier in the day?', but instead kept silent.

"There he is, Dembe."

Someone carrying a large umbrella appeared in their view, approaching the car quickly. Another umbrella appeared from the vehicle as Red opened the door, stepping briskly out to the man, before both umbrellas headed back inside, out of their view. Ressler reached up and flicked two switches, killing their own mics, but they were still able to hear Red.

"I don't like this Liz..." Ressler shook his head, leaning back in the chair again. Red's meeting needed to take place very quickly.

Liz didn't like it either. The rain had been worrying her for a couple of hours, and now the stakes had risen with Red and Jacob Cole, they presumed, entering the picture.

Static filled their head phones as Red entered the cabin, and Ressler immediately started adjusting the signal, trying to get a better connection. He got it cleaned up a little, but it wasn't very clear.

"Just great." This was going from bad to worse. He held his fingers to his ear, pushing the earpieces in a little to try and hear a little better. Liz was doing the same and Ressler reached up and turned the volume up even more. Red and Cole were making small talk about the rain, and talking about where Red could hang his coat. Now Cole was asking if Red wanted a drink.

Get on with it, thought Ressler impatiently.

More static filled their earpieces then as a bright flash lit up outside the van windows. The thunder clap was heard only a second behind the lightning, so loud that their van moved with the shock wave, making them duck in reflex.

"Damn. Damn. Damn..." Ressler swore under his breath. He hadn't believed it possible, but the rain intensified. "We're going to need to abort in a few minutes. This is crazy." He told her, and she was nodding, really getting concerned now.

They could hear Red and Cole talking, but the sound was cutting in and out, making their words unclear.

Ressler shook his head, looking at Liz. "We're done. We can't even hear." He was reaching for the mic switch to inform Red they had to pull out, when they heard another loud crack. Thunder? Not thunder. He knew that sound!

"Oh my God! That was a gunshot!" she cried out, looking at Ressler in horror. A second shot rang out, startling them anew.

Ressler flipped on his mic. "Reddington!"

A voice came over their headphones, but it was not Reddington. They didn't recognize the voice of Jacob Cole, but knew it had to be him.

"Mr Reddington is... indisposed. If you want to save your man, you had better get down here and stop sneaking around up there, FBI man."