A/N: I do not own White Collar or any of its characters. This is just a bit of fun that I earn nothing for besides smiles and comments. This is unbeted, any mistakes are mine.
Floating on the Edge
Chapter 1
There was a warm dreamlike quality to Neal's conscious, like he was inner tubing down a river on a lazy, sunny day. He could live here in this bliss. Nothing to worry him, no one to bother him. It wasn't until that thought that he tried to open his eyes. The dreamlike state he was in reminded him too much of being drugged. Forcing his eyes open he was expecting to see a hospital room, not this. He closed his eyes again, willing the sight before him to change, but it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't a dream or a nightmare. Neal was propped up against a wall, in the corner of a metal room. Darkness lived in this area he was in, but there was an occasional brightness of light coming from the hallway. The world was tilted and he couldn't move but he wasn't bound either. He wondered at how he arrived in this place and came up with nothing. In his current condition he hoped that he wasn't alone.
Long minutes went by and Neal was almost asleep again when voices coming from the hall woke him. A man and woman were arguing, turning into a woman pleading. There was a twang and a thunk, then silence. Dragging, that was the sound now. Neal's breath hitched when a solid figure stood in the doorway. There was a man there, dragging a woman by her hair into the room with him. Neal wanted to pull his legs to his chest and wrap his arms around them. He still couldn't move. He felt his heart rate pick up, it wasn't long before he was convinced it was going to beat out of his chest.
"Neal Caffrey…" the man drug out his name like he was testing its sound on his tongue. "I should have shot you before I was arrested." There was a metal tinking coming from the hand that Neal could see. A long cylindrical metal object taping on the wall. "You know, hunting really isn't given the credit it deserves."
The man walked forward, continuing to drag his unresponsive partner. Suddenly, the man dropped the woman close to Neal. With the lights out, he still couldn't see who the woman was or the man talking to him.
"There are those that hunt in a despicable and unsportsmanlike way." His voice was smooth and melodic as he spoke reverently about his passion. "They drug a caged animal before releasing it. It's usually only done with the animals that are considered dangerous." Neal heard the man's knees pop as he crouched down in front of him. "I think you're dangerous," he continued, "you're a chameleon, that makes you more dangerous than most."
There was a knock on his head, two of them. Neal was caught between wanting to roll his eyes because of the theatrics and being scared to death that this was really it. The ability to talk and move taken from him made him lean toward the latter. Comprehension donned on him a moment later when he realized what the metal object was that was to carelessly being beat on everything. It was an arrow. Hunter…
"Before you entertain the notion of getting the upper hand, or getting out of this position before I'm ready for you to, please, pay attention to your left. Right now, you only know this is a woman. You have no idea if you knew her, or if she was some random person I grabbed to scare you. Let me remove any doubt for you."
Neal waited for the light to come on, but nothing happened. Then suddenly there was light. It illuminated the face of his abductor as none other than Van Horne and unfortunately allowed him to see who was sacrificed because of him. Neal made a strangled noise when he saw her face. His angel, his saving grace. The only person to ever give Neal a chance without wanting anything in return had an arrow through her heart. June. He felt his heart shatter and didn't realize that it could still do that. He thought that when Kate died it took those feelings away from him. He didn't know he could care that much for someone again.
"Good, I see that the drugs are starting to wear off. You still won't feel anything for a while, but I am going to leave you with a couple parting gifts." Van Horne cupped Neal's face and used his thumb to wipe away some of Neal's tears. "These are but the first of many tears to come, I'm afraid. You thought that you could make a deal with the FBI and that there would be no penalty for turning your back on your former life." Van Horne was now close enough to kiss. "You were wrong. This is your penance for thinking yourself above the rest of us."
With that parting bit of information Van Horne reached into his pocket and pulled out a tracking anklet. "Once I put this on you our time will be cut significantly shorter. This is your first gift. This ship that we are currently on is sinking. That's why we are tilted. You still have about three hours before you'll be able to move. There is only about four hours before this ship sinks, unless I miscalculated."
He took the tracker and placed it on Neal's ankle. It immediately turned the light red and sent a shock through Neal's leg. When Neal was shocked he looked away from Van Horne. He didn't get a chance to look back up at him before he heard another thunk, and saw an arrow and a green laser site in his shoulder. It was strange seeing an arrow in his shoulder. Stranger still was the fact that he couldn't feel it. At some point Van Horne had changed Neal's clothes. He was back in the Navy dress whites and was watching the blood drip out of his shoulder.
"I guess I can be satisfied with this. You have a very narrow window for getting off the ship before it sinks. This is your second gift. Your feeling will come back before you're able to move, so you'll have time to think about your pain." Smiling Van Horne crouched down again and pressed against Neal's wound. "It looks like you have a broken collar bone. Nasty wound that one. Let's hope that the FBI still thinks that you're a valuable asset and gets here to help you before it's too late."
Van Horne got up and walked away from Neal and out the door. Dazedly, Neal wondered when Super Villains became real and hoped Super Heroes were real too, otherwise he was massively screwed.
