This might sound like a very weird nightmare about being locked in small spaces, and all. But it was not.
Neal was locked inside a glass jar, right now. And considering how many times Neal had been in several weird and dangerous situations, this was that one time he was so freaking scared it brought him to tears. Being lock in was not a nice thing, period! Feeling so helpless and scared about what's gonna happen next is one thing. But what if this wasn't even the main problem for our beloved ex-con?
Yeah it was something else. Something... different. And you might not even believe it. But something magical had happend, on a Sunday morning. Neal was shrunken down to the size of a tiny little mouse. And thanks to himself, his weird friend had put him in this jar because of his behavior. And now Neal felt so lost, he hadn't been that bad to Mozzie. And if he did, why did he left him like this?
"Please come back! I won't be a brat anymore. I'll play nice. I swear!" he yelled to death ears. Mozzie wasn't there...
How this happened exactly? Well, that's kind of a long story. But it began like the crazy stuff always begun.
With Mozzie.
…
Friday around 6 in the evening at the white collar head office
Peter was just about to leave the building when he spotted Neal behind his own desk, lazily bounce on his chair. His head was leaning back to keep an eye on the rubber ball that he occasionally threw up, to the ceiling out of boredom.
"Having fun with fraud case, Caffrey?" Peter asked sternly just as Neal threw the ball upwards, again. To get Neal's attention Peter caught the ball in a second. Neal looked up at his handler, slightly dazed. It was probably to humor him.
"Oh," Caffrey said then, with a one-shoulder shrug. "Too boring. Wanted another casefile but Di said you wanted me to do this one. But you know how much I hate those so I sended it back to you." Peter groaned.
"You brat. And what about that other one Diana gave to you an hour ago? Did you at least opened the file?"
"Oh. That one. Well..." Neal looked like he was bout to apologize to Peter but started to smirk.
"Already done, Piece of cake. Was just teasing. The other case will be done today as well. As soon as the new probie Freddie makes a fresh pot of coffee."Again with the smile. Peter had to huff some breath out of amazement.
"Do you even know how to make coffee, Neal? Because I never saw you llift a hand on that thing for over four years. Probies are not slaves you know."
Neal shrugged but then his eyes fell on the coat.
"Wow, wait a minute… where are you going?" Neal noticed the suitcase as well and swung his legs from the desk, to sit up straight.
Peter smirked, he was glad Neal asked.
"I'm going on a small vacation with my lovely wife. It is our anniversary and she just surprised me with the nicest gift of all."
Neal blinked at him.
"Let me guess. Spa weekend at the Bahamas?" His thousand watt smile was showing.
Peter chuckled.
"No, Neal. Italy. I always said that as we had found the time we would go to Italy. It has been a crazy couple of weeks and now that most of the cases are closed I suppose there is no better time than this weekend." Neal nodded. He was exited for Peter as a friend. But when his handler gave him his ball back Neal's smile was long gone.
"And where would I be in the mean time? Is Jones going to handle me? Or Di?"
Peter winced at that one.
"Actually… you have a weekend off, too." Neal would've cheered like an infant if he didn't knew Peter better than this.
"You have a but-face," Neal said. In which Peter frowned annoyed.
"Excuse you?"
"You have that special face when you are about to say but," Neal elaborated with a hand spinning gesture to say: spit it out already.
"But… you have to stay at home for the weekend." There it was. The big bommer.
Neal nodded, looking a bit hurt now.
"House arrest. Really?" He gave the agent a look. Peter shrugged.
"Hey, either this or prison. Listen, Neal. I know this isn't fair. But please... for once. Do as you told. I haven't been alone with my wife for over a decade. With that whole Pratt situation and all. You owe me this, right?" Peter sounded so pleading he even felt sorry for himself. So Neal heaved a sigh of empathy. A real one. No con, no con at all. He was still feeling guilty about this. And Peter sadly knew this.
"Promise, Peter. You deserve a nice weekend with Elizabeth. I will need to stock my fridge though. June is out of town and Mozzie is hanging around since Monday to keep me company."
Those kicked puppy eyes…
"You can go to the store to pick up a few things. I am even willing to drop you off now, you even can drive with me. I wanna make sure you won't be starving yourself when I am enjoying the sun elsewhere."
Neal smirked.
"Alright, agent Burke. Thanks." He gave his handler a shoulder pat and they both headed to the garage.
…
Friday night at Neal's apartment
Neal just came back from the bathroom, damp from his shower after a long day of work. Peter had paid for his food for the weekend, dropped him off and even compeled him to put away the groceries before he left. Since Peter was feeling so guilty about getting his fun in the sun without him. Neal even let him believe he was in fact very sad, just to get a gift out of this once he returned from his vacation.
Smirking at the thought, Neal walked towards his living room.
He didn't notice the bald man sitting there patiently waiting to be noticed. Neal was just getting his robe when he saw Mozz at his dinner table.
"Well hello."
"Mozz!" Neal covered himself better with the white towel he lazily wrapped around his waist moments ago. "What the… since when do you sneak in here in the middle of the night? Don't you have something else to do?"
"I do. That's why I am here, mon frère. Get the robe and take a look of this." The bald guy had a file spread on the table a few pictures of the same weird glass object and one old looking blue print of a building. That's where Neal had to stop him before he broke his promise with Peter, to stay put.
"No. No, Mozz. I can't. I have house arrest. I promised Peter to stay at ease so that he could have a nice weekend with Elizabeth in Italy." Mozz looked up at him, a bit shocked.
"You promised the Suit to behave? And now you actually are trying to listen? What did they do you? I heard the government had a small electronic device that could manipulate your free thoughts in no time. Have you been to the dentist lately? Or drank something Peter offered along the way? Can I see your neck?" Annoyed by his crazy friend Neal shook his head and hands as a gesture to get away from him; especially while he was basically naked.
"Mozz. Stop it."
But then Neal let his eyes fell on a picture of an amazingly big and shiny gemstone, it wasn't a diamond but it was downright close. Something broke within his right mind and a weird greedy feeling was coming over him. All he cared about now, was that he wanted this magnificent stone.
"Oh… what's that?" his eyes where almost drawn to it like a fly to the light. Mozzie didn't expect anything else from him and grinned.
"There we go," he patted his friend's strong, but also bony, shoulder.
His eyes were twinkling as he grinned. "You want to steal it, right? The file, are you working on a plan, let's hear it." It was so difficult not to give in to this impulse.
"Have a seat, Neal. What I am going to tell you is something very much worth it."
The story was simple. A convicted man wrote in the early twenties that he found solution to be never found again. There was a gemstone with a certain amount of power that could make you invincible in no time. He had built a funny looking glass device to control this magical power. As the direct sun was right above this device a beautiful stream of light will shine upon you and within no time you will never be found again. You will be a free man. But with great power thare will be great responsibility. As a diamond was pure this stone had something unpure in it. But what that was, it was for you to find out. If you was able to find it. This was just a silly story but it certainly caught Neal's attention. Not because of this story, as much as Mozzie wanted him to believe, but the stone alone would be a hell of a thing to look at.
"This is your lucky day, sir. I already did some work on this. I know where the stone is. It's simply locked up in someone's vault near your apartment." Neal laughed out loud.
"Oh that's too easy!" Neal clapped his hands and got really excited now. Maybe it was a good thing Peter was onn a vacation now. This was going to be fun.
"Wait, you haven't heard the good part yet." Mozzie grinned darkly. He was enjoying this maybe a little too much. He rummaged in his pocket and scrolled through his phone. When he got the picture he was looking for he handed the phone to his friend.
"I already have the device sound and safe in our storage unit near my beloved Wednesday."
Neal clapped a hand on his mouth to hide his smile. As much as he liked to believe in magic, Neal found it really funny that Mozzie brought this up.
"Mozz. You were planning to take just only the stone, right? Not just for this mombojumbo-stuff. you do know magic doesn't exists, right?"
Now, Mozzie looked insulted.
"Ow come on, Mozz. One con to another. I can't believe you are actual planning to..." eal had to stop himself before Mozzie was getting sad.
"B-but Neal. What if… ah forget it. You won't believe me anyway…" Mozzie slump his shoulders and wanted to tear these pictures apart that lay on the table. Now Neal felt bad for the guy and knew how bad Mozzie always felt if he thought someone told him he was crazy.
"Mozz… Mozz… No, don't tear them apart. Listen. If we can get this stone you can play with it as long as you want, since this is your plan after all. I promise I won't make fun of you. I swear." Even now Neal couldn't hide a little smirk.
"Really?" Mozzie said cheerfully.
The poor guy.
…
Saturday night, at Neal apartment
The plan was simple. Neal stayed at home until Mozzie came back with the device. Mozzie hadn't missed the surveillance Van, just at the corner of the street. He tried to avoid it but run into Jones.
"Haya, Mozzie. What are you doing with that ugly grandma's glass vase?" Mozzie bit his lip.
"Alright, Junior Suit, just so you know it isn't a vase. It's a… a gift, for Neal. I promised to bring it to him, since he can't get out of the house."
"A gift? Really? Where are the flowers? Don't you think it's nicer to give Caffrey a vase with flowers in it, since it is just an ugly vase and all?" Jones was testing him out in an amusing kind of way. Not really to interrogate him, just to tease him a bit.
"It's for a painting, you moron. He figured he might make a painting for Elizabeth Burke and Peter to feel less guilty about what had happened to them because of what his own father did to them. You know how Neal is." Mozzie looked so innocent. Of course Jones didn't belief him just one bit, but since there was still nothing weird going on, Jones let him go.
"Well then. Have fun, kids. I will be here, watching every move. Orders are orders."
Neal was already dressed in black burglar armer for the mission, when Mozzie came in with a pale face.
He closed the door behind him and leaned against the wood, soon after.
"We have a slight problem."
Neal blinked his blue eyes; already feeling the disapointment.
"The Van checking in on me already?"
Mozzie nodded.
"Just outside the corner. Jones called us kids!"
"Oh. What did Jones tell you? No wait. Let me rephrase that. What did you tell Jones?"
As soon as Mozzie opened his mouth to say what he always would say: "nothing" Neal's phone buzzed.
Caller ID: Jones.
"Jones. What's up? Hey listen. Sorry you have to be up all night, staying at watch just because Peter doesn't trust me while he is on vacation."
"No, I don't mind. I like the fresh air here in Manhattan. Besides, there was nothing good on TV anyway. Except for Real housewives I had to record."
The phone call sounded like another tease and Neal wasn't going anywhere this night without getting back to prison. And thanks to Mozzie he had a painting to make for the Burkes.
After some time moopingly painting and occionaly watching the bald guy pace a whole in the carpet, Mozzie suddenly stopped.
"I will get the stone by myself, Neal. I am too cooked up to let this one go."
Neal looked up from his painting. It actually was starting to look like something nice, by the way. The blue and greenness from the device was actually very pretty to paint behind a rusty mixture of thick dollops of orange and yellow. Elizabeth might be even glad with the gift.
"You are not serious. You want to steal the gemstone out of a vault, alone? You never do things alone, Mozz. That's why you told me about this earlier." Mozzie shrugged.
"I'll might surprise you how good I have become sneaking in places unnoticed. Oh wait, I already did that to you yesterday." That smile. That sneaky smile.
"Fine. But you need my equipment. And in case something is wrong, leave it. We will do this another time. This is not something you want to waste you're life for it, right?"
"Right."
Feeling for his friend, Neal totally got the urge to steal this stone. It was the pretitest stone he ever saw.
…
Sunday morning at Neal apartment
Neal was finally done with the painting just when he noticed the first light beams of the morning sun. He had been up all night, waiting for Mozzie's call. He was kind of worried something had gone wrong. But if something did go wrong he would've gotten a call from Jones. Right?
Now, sitting back in his chair he let his eyes wandering over his wet painting. Amazed by how nice the light caught up in the glass vase Neal nodded pleased. Then, without thinking he got a bit of white paint on his pencil and signed it with his name. Neal Caffrey.
He had never done this. Signing with his given name; still not knowing who he really was. Like he once tried to explain to his father.
Then finally he heard a knock on the door.
"Neal?"
"Mozz? Finally, Come in, please."
And the bald guy did, looking a bit bewildered but also very excited.
"I did it!" he laughed; totally amazed at himself.
"Wow, good! Well? Where are you waiting for, let me see it." Neal was just as excited as well but he was just betting in hiding the childish-bouncing-around-mode. Although, his eyes grew big when he caught a glimpse of the sparkly stone. A warm fuzzy feeling bloomed up from his stomach. He had to see it, now!
"Way to go, Mozz." He basically greedily snatched it out of Mozz's hands. Neal didn't care about his friend. He wanted the stone. He pushed Mozz aside as he walked towards the window.
It was so beautiful. The many colors inside the white stone. It was just like starlight. Pure starlight. But only prettier.
"Incredible." Neal stroke over the diamonds haped form. it felt cold, and yet soft under his skin. 'What if he wanted to have this for his own? Would Mozzie be mad?'
"See. Do you believe in magic now, Neal?"
"It's amazing. I don't care how you did it, Mozz. I just want to hold it. Just for a while." Neal made a beeline through his appartment to avoid Mozzie's hand trying to get it back.
"Hey!"Mozzie yelled. "Can I see it now? Neal!"
"Just a little longer, Mozz." He held it up so that Mozzie couldn't reach it. The poor guy jumped but never got it this way even if he wanted too. He was just about to give Neal a stumb in his stomach Neal forgot about him.
Completely love-drunk Neal held the stone against the orange sunlight. He had never seen Mozzie coming towards him and jumped a little on his feet while trying to get his stone finally back.
"You're being a bully, Neal. Making fun of my height and all."
Neal just shrugged innocently.
Mozzie was now heading towards the vase-like device.
"You promised me that I could play with it as long as I want. So, let me give this a try then. After all, I did all the work, here."
The little guy was right. Neal wasn't that mean, after all.
"Well, get on it then, mister wizard."
"Ha. Ha." Mozzie shot a warning look at his friend. But was too excited for this. He carefully placed the gemstone on the vase. It didn't fit. With a frown he started to shift the stone an inch to the left.
"Mozzie, maybe you should turn it upside down. The vase I mean." Mozzie shushed him, stalled like a minute or so, but did what Neal mentioned after all.
Neal was right. The gemstone fitted into a dimple on the underside of the glass vase. Immediately, a faint stream of light beamed up from above the vase. And headed to the ceiling.
"Wow… that is just. Wow," Neal mumble amazed. It was jaw dropping; so beautiful. Mozzie never left his eyes off from it while he said: "Incredible, right? What did I tell, ya? Magic."
…
"Neal! That's not fair! I did all the work! I earned it!"
"With the help of my aquipment. I did promise to let you play with it. but once you are done, I know better use of it." Neal knew this wasn't like him. But he wanted the stone so bad! It was so shiny and precious.
"You are very unreasonable. I will call Jones, right now! He will sort this one out," Mozz threatened. This wasn't like Mozzie, either.
"Do it. I wasn't the one who stole it in the first place. I can always tell the cops I was trying to retieve this stone from you, to give it back to his owners."
What was wrong with them, this day? They were actually acting like kids. All over one little gemstone that wasn't even a real diamond. It was just a little rock!
"No no no, leave it in the vase, Neal. I am not done playing with it!
"It's just a pretty light. Done. No magic at all. You can have it back in no time, just want to take another peek at it.' Neal was walking towards the stone and Mozze stopped him. He got Neal by his arm and nearly puched him in the stomach. Neal looked shocked at his friend. They would never puch eachother.
Not... until now! This is where the trouble started. Neal puched Mozzie off from him and Mozz kicked him against his knee cap. Some nasty words where spitting before Neal wanted to do the same to Mozz.
Somehow Neal (being a little brat) and Mozz (being that whiny one) managed to get in to an immature fight. Somehow, Neal eventually got a pillow from his couch and started hitting Mozzie's head. Mozzie poulled the pillow away from him and with that, the vase fell onto the ground. After that the beautiful beam shone upon the painting. Just before… it suddenly shrank completely. Say whuuuttt? It only took a few seconds until it was almost too small for them to regonize it from their distance. Both very baffled they ran towards the tiny painting.
"Oh my... Mozz! Now look what you did too my gift!"Neal pointed at the mini painting but even didn't realize how weird this was. Mozzie's jaw dropped in awe.
"It shrunk!"
"Yeah... Mozz. I noticed." Now Neal started to get it. Eyes grown wide in the proces. A cold shiver went up his spine.
"Wait a minute! This can't be real, right?" It took a little while before Mozzie answered.
"Nope. But all I do care is that I was right about the magic part. So I get the stone." He was planning to retrieve it when Neal stopped him.
"Oh no you don't. It's mine now. You just destroyed a real Caffrey!"
With that he accidentally got his ankle into the stream of magical light. It was the weirdest feeling of all. It was like you jumped out of that six-stores-high judgehouse window only he didn't need to bounce off the trampoline fabric from his bakery. Because he never left the ground with his own feet. however it wasn't the nicest feeling, and Neal was very certain of that. A sick feeling got the better end of him and he was so close to throw up afront of his friend. His... wow... his... giant friend...
Just as he looked up he saw the ugly cheap fabric of Mozzie's grey pants.
Before he noticed what really happened, because Neal was still too nausious to actually get this all, he now stood affront of a very giant Mozzie.
"Neal! Oh God!" his normally high pitched voice was now a very low roar.
Dazed and perplexed Neal stood there, looking up at his small friend. Well… Now he was the small one. A very very very small one.
"You-you-you shrank! Just like the painting!" Mozzie finally got out of his mouth. Within this magical thingy, their cursy power over the damn stone was broken. They were finally acting like friends.
'No shit Sherlock.' Neal nodded as he tried to shield the big noises. He looked behind, there it was, the painting. Intact… but just as tiny as he was.
"I'm a mouse!" he mumbled scared. Mozzie didn't get that from that far away.
"What?"
"I said: I'm a mouse!" Neal yelled at the giant Mozzie. With his hands next to his mouth and everything. Now his throat hurt.
"We have to do something about this. Neal? Can I… lift you?" Mozzie got to his knees as he carefully took of his glasses to see him nod at him.
"You can lift me, but I will walk in to your hand, alright. I don't wanna be squished like a bug."
It was all so different. His apartment looked like a city. His favorite chair (yeah he had one, but it was always occupied by Mozz) looked like the Titanic! While holding on to Mozzie's thumb Neal looked at the shattered vase. Had had maybe broken down because his tripped over it somehow. During his journey down.
"Oh no. The vase. How are we going to solve this, Mozz?"
"What? I can't hear you, Neal. You have to speak louder. All I hear is squeaky noises."
Neal didn't have enough strength to yell any harder. So he just pointed at the shattered glass.
Being tiny sucks!
Of course Mozzie didn't get it right away and thought Neal just gave him the finger and squeezed him a little bit.
"Owww!" Neal yelled. It did hurt!
All Neal wanted was the damn stone. I didn't actually believe this weird story about a man who had found out a way to focus the power of this stone to let yourself disappear. He hated this. At least he was still able to wear his favorite suit.
"Get me down, Mozz!"
He had an idea, since Mozzie moved way to slow for his likings. He grabbed his tiny phone and called him. A loud noise went just beside him Mozze grabbed the phone.
"Neal?"
"Can you hear me now?" Neal tried; yelling in his tiny speaker.
"Yes, I do. How does it feel? Feeling like a free man yet?" It was a joke. An evil joke in which Neal didn't found it funny.
"It feels unfair! The smells, the lights, my stomach feels kinda bad, like I have been in a rollercoaster ride one to many and I need to pee!" Neal wasn't joking.
"C-can you… bring me to the toilet. Stead!"
He stopped the phone call en grab a hold of Mozzie's thumb. Mozzie chuckled and first put the phone away while he walked at the bathroom. With care he let Neal step off from his hand to the edge of the pot and tore the tiniest piece of toilet paper for Neal. Neal wasn't stupid. He knew this must've been extremely amusing for his friend. He called again to tell him to turn around. When he was done doing his tiny business he called him to flush and then the next task began. Washing his hands with a drip from the faucet, without soap because the smell was unbearable for his tiny nostrils.
…
Sunday afternoon, in Neal's apartment
After a while Mozzie settled Neal on the table with an emptied match-box, stuffed with a tissue where Neal could sit on. The little Neal had been a little mean and kept calling him over and over again that he wanted to hold de stone. When Mozzie kept shaking his head Neal started mooping and tried to kick something over, but couldn't. Mozzie had found this very amusing. But when the little guy exhausted himself by running around on the table Mozzie was starting to realize too that this wasn't funny anymore.
"Well," Mozzie whispered, because Neal told him about the hard noises that made him shiver too much, "At least we know that magic is real. And that invincible means shrinking like a mouse and eventually you will get tired of running around and die or accidently run over by a squirrel. Good thing I was around to take you everywhere. Otherwise you never got this far." Neal took his tiny pen, in which he found in his suit jacket and started writing something down on the backside of Mozzie's file paper. Several words like 'Shut up!' 'Need to go to the bathroom!' 'Hungry' 'Cold!' and 'I want a drop of that wine, too' where already written in those tiny letters Mozzie had to get his loop for.
He saw the tiny Neal getting more and more tired. Writing things down, running everywhere to let Mozz know what he meant; this had to stop. Besides, tomorrow, Peter was back. So there wasn't much time left to fix this weird problem. It was already past midday.
He looked down at the words Neal was working on for so long.
"We need to find a way to turn me back to normal. Can you fix the vase? I have glue in left kitchen drawer." The last word was written shaky. Neal was sitting on his knees as he shook his pen. The ink died on him. As well as his strength. Mozzie got up to the vase and started to gather up the pieces. Neal called him just in time to warn him he almost trampled the painting with his foot. They will need him for the test ride before they will try something on him first.
It took a while for Mozzie to get all the pieces together and worked really hard. Neal was so tired he fell asleep in his little box. One arm was dangling over the rim of the box, while sleeping on his belly. Tissues are really comfortable. Neal never knew…
Mozzie had woken him up at some point telling him he was done and had done the best he could to fix this vase. Neal felt better and started with a lot more energy. He got out of the box en run towards Mozzie's hand, grabbed onto his thumb and looked his work over. It was amazing of how good it looked. So he grabbed his phone to tell him that.
"Now get the stone and place it upside down into the dimple. Let the light shine upon the painting."
Mozzie did that, hopefully he watched as the sunlight beamed his beautiful light upon that little masterpiece of his tiny friend.
But nothing happened.
"Maybe the stone have to be on the other side of the vase. Just like you did at the beginning," Neal yelled in the phone. After this call he had to start texting, his throat was getting scratchy.
Meanwhile Mozzie was busy with the vase. Again with no success.
"It's not working, Neal," Mozzie whispered. Neal took a big bite in his thumb. Because he had dropped his phone and it somehow must've been slipped inside Mozzie's sleeve. Mozzie didn't get the fuss. And most likely just thought Neal was getting angry or annoyed with him so he just put the tiny brat inside a glass jar in the middle of the table. "Hey, be nice. I worked hard on the vase and didn't get any sleep too, you know! I know this sucks. But you don't have to keep biting me!" And without another word giant Mozzie left his giant apartment; leaving him inside the jar. "Nononononono Mozz! I wasn't... ahhh never mind..."
Sure he was a little mean to him but Mozzie didn't understand how bad it was, down here.
What a nightmare, Neal thought. He sunk to his knees and let his head fall in his hands.
There was no way he could communicate or get out of this jar Mozzie was such a bastard sometimes. Oh great. Now his tiny stomach was grumbling. Wait... what was that smell? What had been in this jar? It smelled sweet. Oh jam! Dear God! He was dying for some sandwich with sweet strawberry jam. The urge to lick the glass slowly fade away.
"Damn you, Mozz!" Tiny little tears fell down his face. It dripped on his pants and while he was crying so hard he suddenly stopped. What if… what if he cried his way out of this? Instead to hitting the glass like the tried already. It was worth a try.
Thinking about Kate wasn't difficult. And Ellen's death. His mother's death. He cried and cried, until he started sobbing from exhaustion. But this didn't get him very far. Now he was only stuck in a jar with a wet layer just up until his waist.
"Great," he muttered. "Now my ass is all wet. Hate you Mozz!" Arms crossing angry.
Then finally, Mozzie came running in the room. The table shook a little as while as the jar. With his hands and nose he pressed himself against the glass wall.
"Mozz! Get me out of here! I know I was a brat. I am sorry! Please help!" Neal knew he was sounding desperete.
"Neal! I have a solution! I had forgotten about the last piece of this device. It kind of came to me just now. It is the metal plate who's missing; I forgot to pack. And... wait… Did you just pee in your pants, Neal?" Mozzie took off his glasses to look closer at the tiny and overly ashamed Neal. He shook his head and pointed at his red-rimmed eyes. Not that Mozzie would get this.
"Aww you don't have to cry about that. It's my fault. Wait. I get you out. Pull up your hands. Grab on to my thumb like you always do. But don't bite me again, or else I am going to drop ya."
Neal was set onto the tissued bed. Than Mozz started to readjust the glass device. When he was done with it he put the gemstone back on the dimple and pointed the blue-green light towards the painting. Within a second the painting grew to his normal proportion. Boom! Just like that. Mozzie cheered happily.
"Just like magic, right Neal?"
"Don't you ever use that word again, Mozz," Neal mumbled. He knew his friend couldn't hear him.
Neal bit in his thumb when Mozz wanted to do this again.
"Ow! Neal, damned!"
"Not just yet! Examine the painting first! I don't want to get miss-figured or something. Is it okay?" Mozzie brought his ear towards the tiny Neal.
"The painting," he yelled hard. And he ended with a cough. "Is it okay?"
"It's as fine as it was, Neal. Hey, now I see what you did there. You signed it? Nice; a first Neal Caffrey. And it already has a great story to tell."
"Enough with that, Mozz. Turn me back!"
And so this story ended. Neal appeared back into normal height; and nearly coughing up a lung on the way.
…
Monday morning, way too early, at the Burkes residence
A text message was send by an unfamiliar number, probably Mozzie's.
"Welcome home, Suit. Neal can't come to work today, he is a bit under the weather. Can't talk and lost his phone, but check up on him today, he got something for you, Haversham."
Peter, tired from the long trip and burned by the Italian sun, rolled over in bed to face his sleepy wife.
"Who was it?"
"Mozz. Neal is sick. Flu or something. I think he is just mad because I gave him house arrest while I burned till dead."
"Hmm… poor thing. You need to check up on him, Hon," Elizabeth mumbled half asleep.
"I will. In an hour."
…
Later that Monday morning, at Neal's place
Neal was so exhausted that he never heard Mozzie leave with the ugly vase and that damn gemstone; he never wanted to see those again. He even didn't hear Peter knock on his unlocked door so, the Agent let himself in.
"Neal, still in bed? Well, before you're going to nag about your stuffy nose and sore throat I want to apologize for the Van outside your apartment. It was just because… well. You are Neal Caffrey. Even though you promised to listen to me for once I can never trust you completely… also… I thought. Jones said you were home this whole weekend and I am proud of you."
Peter looked around in the apartment and saw Neal's painting easel standing in the middle of Neal's living room, covered up with a sheet. He wanted to peek under it since this was obviously a gift were Mozzie was texting about. But the urge to check up on Neal was stronger. So he walked towards the occupied bed.
"Neal? Did you hear me at all?" He hovered over the sleeping young man. He lay on his stomach, arms hugging his pillow while snoring; completely out of it. He had never seen him in this state, yet.
"My God, Neal. I leave you alone for two days. Two freaking days." He clacked his tongue out of annoyance.
Still dressed in a dark blue suit, Neal had dropped himself in bed. Even his neatly tied shoes were still on and peeking out from under the thin blanket. A half drunken bottle of water was standing on the nightstand. Sympathy got the better end of the straw and Peter kneeled beside the bed. Softly he shook the man awake.
"Neal, why doesn't it surprise me that your little friend isn't the mother hen kind of type? Come on. Get up. You need to get in to your Pajamas." Neal startled awake and gazed into Peter's brown eyes lazily.
"He's not that little, you know," he whispered hoarsely. His voice hurt to listen to it and when Neal immediately started to cough, Peter handed him the bottle. Neal drank it empty in one gulp.
He was sitting up and for the first time looking at Peter's red face.
"So… had your fun in the sun, then."
Peter snorted.
"Keep talking like this and I might leave you like this, right away." Neal, then nodded voiceless at the covered painting.
Peter grinned.
"So, you did make something for me. Really? A real, Caffrey?"
"First one, yeah," Neal whispered painfully.
And of course Peter liked this painting. One look upon it he couldn't hide his awe. It would be so nice on the wall next to the fireplace. Out of excitement he made a picture and sent it to his wife. A text messages followed with so much c's in the nice Peter had to scroll down two times with a grin.
Somehow Neal was able to get out of bed and ruffled through his hair, already looking better than before.
"Glad you like it. But I'm not sick. Just a sore throat. Let me get dressed and I can come with you to the office." When he left to the bathroom something cracked under his shoe. Startled Neal picked something out of his sole. It was the tiniest little phone he had ever seen. Oh God. That was his phone!
"What is it, Neal?"
"Nothing. Just… never mind. Be right back. Have to shower first," he croaked like a teen who just started to get the famous 'beard in the throat'.
"I need to buy a new phone, Peter. You think I can get one free from the office?"
With his eyes still on the paining he snorted.
"Buy it with your own money Neal."
"But I don't have the money. You have more, than I have."
Peter groaned.
"Fine, I will lend you the money."
"Lend? Thought we were friends." Neal smirked evilish. All part of the play.
"Alright. Little Brat. I buy you one. But next lunch is on you, Caffrey."
It was the 'little brat' that shut Neal down for a while.
…
End.
…
AN: Please review and let me know what you think of this little puppy!
X
Josie