It was the day after Neal got shot in the heart.
El sat on the edge of the bed and asked, "I saw it on TV. Did Neal really get shot?"
"Yes he did", and then Peter added, "But I don't want to talk about it"
"He got shot in the heart and you don't want to talk about it, I can't not talk about it. Were you there?"
Peter sat on his side of the bed with his back towards El.
"Oooh yeah I was there" Peter's look said a lot, he was hurting and his face told of his pain.
El knew he was trying to hide, but she could see his face in the mirror.
"I know it'll be tough, but please tell me about it."
"El there is so much to say and this has taken so much out of me, I don't even know if I could put it together if I wanted. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around what happened."
"OK, but please tell me about it tomorrow? she asked.
"OK I will, well I'll try."
Both lay down and gave each other a peck. Peter rolled away from El in almost a fetal position. El put her hand in Peter's hair, kissed him on the back of the head and cuddled in.
Neither slept well.
The next morning started early with a phone call. Peter felt like he had just got to sleep, but Jones told him that Hughes had called a meeting.
"Hughes said you need to come in, You have an hour, and bring El. He said don't talk about it , hopefully you haven't"
"What?, Bring El, OK?"
El rolled over and asked "Bring me where?"
"Thanks Jones see you there"
El asked again, "Honey, bring me where?"
"I don't think Jones has a life, he's always in the office"
El nudged Peter.
"Hughes has called a meeting, we have an hour and he wants you to be there."
"Aahh, what?", El cocked her head. This would be the first time she was called to an FBI meeting, how she figured into anything had her baffled. Luckily she didn't have a client until 10:30.
"What is this about?"
"About the shooting"
"Oh"
"I think Hughes wants to debrief us and he has requested you be there."
"But why?" El did NOT want to see any bloody pictures of Neal, her heart was already torn, she didn't need it to burst.
Peter could see the fear on her face and for some reason he smiled and said, "don't worry you won't..."
El hit Peter in the shoulder
"... see anything you don't want to see."
The drive to the office was quiet to Peter's surprise and delight.
He didn't want to have to explain what had happened.
El was still in shock, hadn't slept much and couldn't imagine why she was being requested by Hughes.
The conference room was full, but Jones had saved a couple seats.
El was surprised at how many people were there, every time she visited the office it always seemed there were more desks than people.
Hughes came in and the room got quiet quickly.
"Thanks everyone for meeting on such a short notice."
Hughes threw down a newspaper, the front page had a picture that El had not wanted to see. Neal Caffrey laying on a dirty sidewalk, his hair was a mess, blood all over his shirt, his tie stuck to his face.
El started to cry.
Hughes continued, "As many of you know by now, seven years ago Neal pulled off what he told me was one of his favorite capers."
"Many of you know we have been after the Pizzatti crime family for years, this is the real family that the 'God Father' movies made look like sweethearts."
Hughes took a sip of water and looked around the room, he saw El crying and staring at his paper. He flipped it over. She needed to hear this.
"Neal found out that they were laundering their money through art and diamonds and were dumb enough to hold all of these in one place, Vito Pizzatti's home."
Some agents that had heard about the Pizzatti heist were connecting the dots and murmuring, this disrupted Hughes.
Hughes cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"Seven years ago Neal made off with close to 10 million in goods. Vito had no idea for the longest time who had ripped him off. We all know Neal, but this was one he told very few in his other life about. Just a few weeks ago we learned that Vito had found out that Neal had done the job and had a contract out on him."
The crowd started to whisper again, had Vito pulled the trigger, was it his muscle, Jimmy Two Pants Dupanni, or was it someone else.
Peter looked uncomfortably around the room, what little they knew.
"Alright!", Hughes bellowed, "enough, everyone pay attention."
In a small house two men sat at a table. Both wore suits that any trained eye would instantly mark them are some kind of police officer.
Nicolas came out of a bedroom.
"Morning sunshine" Gene barked. Gene was the smaller of the two Marshalls and was always trying to make up for his insecurities.
Nicolas still sleepy said, "Morning ... Jim?"
"Gene"
"Oh sorry, morning Gene"
Gene's partner David Johnson, DJ to his friends, said "Hey Nick, you know you look a lot like this guy in the paper, except your nose, maybe."
"Yeah, I saw him get shot, scared the shit out of me, that guy was only ten yards ahead of me, but it's Nicolas."
DJ repeated his name, "...Nicolas..."
"Four guys, one did all the shooting. They saw me and ran. Glad they did 'cause I just froze, I thought I was dead."
Hughes took another sip of water, looked around the room and said, "What I am about to tell you will surprise almost all of you."
"We have seen his file and though we knew most of his aliases, Tabernackle, Halden, but Neal Caffrey was also an alias."
El felt betrayed, Neal had lied to her.
"His real name", Hughes continued, "was David Rhomer, he stole the identity of Neal Caffrey from a childhood neighbor that died the year David was eight.
David did a lot for us and though I still want to call him Neal we will bury him as David Rhomer"."
"I hope everyone understands what needs to be done, lets go out and do it."
Everyone started to get up.
El was still in shock and hurt now by the lies and the loss.
Hughes walked over to Peter and asked, "Elizabeth, Peter, can you come into my office?"
"Yes sir." Peter nodded and hooked his arm through Els.
"Peter", Hughes asked, "Walk with me first to get some coffee."
"Please wait here Elizabeth", Hughes asked.
"Can I get you anything El?" Peter asked.
"No... thank you no."
Els mind was racing, the things Hughes has talked about. How could it all be true? It all seems so out of Neal's character. Did she know Neal, uh, David at all. Maybe not.
Hughes looked at Peter and Peter spoke first. "El has been through the ringer. I'm not sure she can take anymore."
"Well hopefully I can bring her back, do you think she can pull it off?"
"Oh yeah" Peter hoped he was right. He didn't like having to use El for any Bureau work.
"Did they sweep your office?"
Hughes nodded his head, "All clear, as well as your home and car."
They walked back into Hughes office.
"Peter close the door."
Jones looked into the office and saw Elizabeth Burke beating her fists into Peters shoulders and said to Diana, "Wow she is taking it hard"
Diana looked up and said, "yup" and turned back to her work.
El looked at Peter and then at Hughes and back to Peter.
"You shot him, you shot Neal, you shot him in the heart!" It was almost a scream. She wanted to beat Peter and her hands were already ahead of her thoughts
El had never felt so betrayed and alone, her ears were ringing and she didn't want to hear anything.
Hughes said, "That's good, let me shut the blinds."
El heard it but thought she mis-heard it, "What!"
Hughes started off, quietly, "Elizabeth, everyone here knew you were close with Neal and we needed you here to help perpetuate this lie."
El turned to Peter and he met her stare. "I'm sorry El"
"What is going on?" she asked.
Now he had her attention Hughes came back to his regular voice
"We needed someone here to see you upset at Peter"
"Why?" still confused and tears on her face, makeup ruined.
"We have a mole, a traitor in our midst", Hughes told her.
"Well who is it?"
"We're not sure just yet"
El realized this was all a setup and then just maybe...
"How much of this mornings meeting was true?"
DJ pulled the curtains aside and looked out the window, nothing going on outside, so he pulled the curtains back in place.
Nicolas was making eggs and bacon, "You guys sure you don't want any?"
"No Thanks"
"Nope, ate hours ago"
DJ was nervous, but hid it the best he could.
Hughes wanted to keep it brief, but knew he needed to spill the beans and give El enough to calm her down.
He didn't want to put the Burke marriage into hot water if he could help it.
"Vito knew Neal as David Rhomer, so it had to be David that died."
Tears started to well up in Els eyes.
"Neal has always been his real name, but as I just mentioned we have someone giving out our secrets"
"After Peter shot Neal yesterday..."
Els arm shot out and hit Peter.
"We took an 'eye witness' into custody." Hughes fingers still lingered from his air quotes
"Diana helped get this guy in place at the shooting. He's close enough to Neal that we're hoping that the lousy job we did moving him to a safe house will bring out the rest of the shooters."
"I thought Peter shot him?" El asked, "What other shooters are there?"
"This guy is actually named Nicolas Holder" This went over Els head, she had never knew any of Neal's aliases.
Peter said, "One of the names Neal went by was Nick Halden"
"So this guy looks like Neal and has a similar name to one of his aliases?" El asked
"Yes, he weighs more but with an open jacket you can't really tell."
Hughes walked over and peeked out his blinds, "Who's the guy that sits two desk over from Jones? Elevator side."
Peter looked like he was reading a seating chart off the ceiling, "that's Johnson, Derek Johnson, goes by Deek"
"He's the last one here and he's on the phone." Hughes said still peeking out his blinds.
DJ ducked into the bathroom and whispered into his cell, "Yes 2413 Bonnaire Ave, be here right at 11:30"
Gene asked, "What's going on?"
"I have a hankering for some pizza."
"Didn't know anyone still used 'hankering'" Gene smirked
"It'll take me 10 minutes to go get them so I'll leave in about 20."
Hughes asked Peter, "Do you still have the short guy's phone number?"
"Mozzie's, yes I do."
"Call him, have him pick up El, we need to go."
"Sorry El please meet Mozzie out front, I'd love to tell you all about this, but I think Mozzie will be able to fill in a lot of blanks."
Mozzie pulled up in a small European car, a Citroen, he swung the door open.
"Lets go"
"I didn't know you had a car. Why the hurry?"
"Not my car, and I don't want to stop long enough that anyone will recognize you with this car."
At 11:25 DJ walked out the front door and Jones and Diana started following him
Five minutes later Deek pulled up and upholstered his gun.
A radio crackled, "OK Gene get out the back door now!"
Mozzie opened the elevator door and told El, "So you see Peter had to shoot him so we would know it was a blank, we also timed his gun to the blood splatter device we had Neal wearing so that it would go off and would convince anyone that he was really shot.
Neal turned around the corner and said, "Hey, El, I heard you were worried."
El ran and almost tackled Neal as she hugged him. "I though you were gone."
"It had to appear that way, having the news van there just worked in our favor. You don't need to squeeze that tight..."
~END~