Some background information before we begin: I started thinking about this story after watching "Burke's Seven". I had already thought about the U-boat and some amzing treasure found inside of it. Of course, I had no idea that it would be as fantastic as what it came out to be in "Under the Radar". So, I had already written most of this, but I changed up some of it to go along with "Under the Radar"'s plotline. But basically, it's a big, alternate ending story. And the treasure isn't the same. But you'll read about that later on. Just wanted to share that with y'all. Hope y'all enjoy!

CHAPTER ONE

"Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men."

March 9, 2011

12:02 AM

Neal gasped as his head broke the surface and he took a much needed gulp of air. Arms flailing, he breathed hard for a few seconds as he blinked water from his eyes. While treading hard in order to keep himself a float as waves rolled over him, he looked around wildly. All around, there were pieces of wreckage; wooden parts of the archaic submarine. But there was no sign of his companion.

"Peter!"

The only answer that greeted him was the lapping of water against the debris. Neal continued to look around, the starlight and faint moonlight helping his vision some. "Peter!"

Neal slapped the water in frustration. Peter had been right behind him! He had pushed Neal's feet through the hole. He should've come up right behind him.

"PETER!"

His bellow went once more without reply. He flinched horribly with surprise when something bumped his shoulder. But when he spun around, he saw that it was only a large piece of wood, appearing like the side of one of the cabins in the hull of the U-boat. Desperate for some rest and not wanting to tread water forever, he climbed up on it. In the open air, with the constant breeze slipping over his soaked body, a chill went through him. It lingered though at the thought of Peter still somewhere below…

Neal jumped back when a hand plopped out of the water and grasped the side of the wood beside his face. Peter's head popped up with the same breathless gasp that Neal had experienced. Neal immediately took hold of Peter's hands and helped him up onto the wood. Fortunately, it was stable and large enough to hold both of them, even if they had to hang their feet in the water some. From one end, Neal watched Peter on the other lay on his back and looked up at the stars as he breathed hard and fast to get his breath back. Neal just watched patiently, taking a moment to revel in the fact that they were currently alive. It was a feat they deserved to be proud of.

"You still go it," asked Peter.

The fact that that was Peter's choice of first words after such an incident was testimony to the incident's direness. He looked at Neal as he sat up and Neal gave him an offended look.

"Of course I still have it," he said, voice quivering just slightly from the chill. He reached into deep pants pocket, which still had a little water in it, and pulled out their little treasure.

It was an amber necklace, ringed in gold with little diamonds and with a gold chain. The amber piece was rather large for how amber necklaces were usually seen. It was a deeper red than normal as well. Neal eyed it like the appraiser he was; affection and awe mixed with nostalgia and regret at not being able to claim it as his own. At one time, perhaps before the word amber had a long and dangerous meaning to it, he may have desired to see this around Kate's neck. It would have been a prize steal he would have used to show his affection for her. Now, it was a link. It was a link to what had been in that U-boat; the same U-boat that Adler had locked them up in and dropped to the bottom of the sea with explosives.

Peter was looking at it as well, with the same glint in his eyes that was saved for an opportunity to lock someone away for good. He shook his head when Neal held it out to him.

"You can hold onto it," he said.

Neal placed it back in his pocket. "Now what?"

They both looked back to the city. It was a little after midnight. The lights of the city told them that they were miles and miles out at sea. It was going to be a long swim back.

"Well, we need to get ashore," said Peter. "That's first."

"Do you think we should head straight for the city?"

Peter shook his head. "We need to play this out. We need to let Adler think he got us. That way, we can at least get back to the Bureau without attracting attention. Then, we can continue to work with what we have. He'll find out that that piece is missing. He'll still be looking for it, which means he won't go to ground forever. We can use it to get to him."

"How," asked Neal. He knew this wasn't the best venue for creating a game plan, but they had to have a long term plan before they went any further. Their lives depended on it. "Peter, this isn't going to be like we do with capturing fences or something by putting me out there with a piece of art and baiting them in. This is Vincent Adler, the man who blindsided everyone with that Ponzi scheme eight years ago, and pulled the wool over our eyes with Kate, Fowler, Mozzie, and Larsen."

"So what are you suggesting," asked Peter.

"I don't know," said Neal. "I just know that we're not going to take him down just with this evidence. We need to come at him from another angle; one he's not expecting."

"We could always just look for him now," said Peter. "We know he's in the area and that he's got all that art with him. He told us he has a lot of accounts in Europe. We can start poking around with international agencies for that. If we can get his location, we can take him down."

Neal was nodding as Peter spoke. "Right. We'll just have to be very careful. We'll have to keep it in our team in the White Collar Unit. We can't even let OPR know. Because then he'll know."

"You think he still has people in OPR," asked Peter.

Neal shrugged. "Who knows? He could have people anywhere."

Peter sighed. He looked back at the city. "C'mon. Let's start heading back."

"Which way?"

"Away from the lights."

Neal nodded. They each took a side and began paddling with their arms towards the shoreline. They headed for a set of much dimmer lights south of the city. It was a long, difficult swim, especially when the waves began to pick up some with the wind. They feared that a might be coming, but it ended up just being a quick shower. Though they weren't thrilled about being rained on, it beat a thunderstorm that could have come up. Four hours later, they ended up much further south than they had anticipated. The scrambled ashore; the beach was pebbly and came off a quiet looking seaside town with a few beach villas. They dragged their piece of wood to a dumpster outside a beach motel. Somehow, they were wordlessly agreeing to covering up their tracks at having survived the scuttling of the U-boat.

At around five (they couldn't tell because their watches were waterlogged) they sat under a pier, stomachs grumbling, shivering from their still damp clothes, and both silent in thought. Neal was fidgeting with the necklace, continuously rubbing it with his sleeve as if he could make it shinier with every rub. Peter paced as he often did when deep in thought about an important decision.

"Okay," he finally said. Neal looked up. He already knew what Peter was going to say. He had been thinking the same thing. Just neither of them wanted to acknowledge it. "This is what we're going to do…I can't believe I'm saying this…"

"We're going to do it ourselves," said Neal. "We're going to do our own investigating."

Peter just nodded.

Neal looked back at the necklace. "You know what this means, right? The world has to believe that we died out there. And by the world I mean the FBI, Elizabeth…"

Her name seemed to cause Peter pain. "I know," he said sharply. "But…Adler has already shown that he's willing to do anything for this…stuff—".

"It's not stuff, it's priceless art," interrupted Neal.

Peter glared. "No, Elizabeth is priceless which is exactly why I'm doing this. If he thinks we're dead, then he'll think that that necklace is somewhere out in the world. He'll continue to look for it and leave us alone. And by leaving us alone, he'll leave the people we care about alone. If he's going to shoot someone like he had Mozzie shot, then it's going to be me before Elizabeth. He will never use Elizabeth to get to me. Never."

Neal could only nod at Peter's conviction. "Okay," he said simply. "Then let's get out of here. We'll head south. We'll drive as far as we can before we need to stop."

"But we have nothing," said Peter. "We don't have any money or ID…why am I even saying this? You've got a solution for all that, no doubt."

Neal didn't even answer but got up and started walking up to the motel. "C'mon. We need to get a car before the town wakes up."

"Of course," muttered Peter.

An hour later, they were crossing the state line into New Jersey in a stolen 2001 CR-V with the heat blasting into their faces. Neal was at the wheel while Peter went through the contents of the car. They had left the more personal items in the parking lot, sure to leave no finger prints behind. Being law enforcement (at least one of them) they knew what they had to do to leave behind no evidence. So far, Peter had found two NYU sweatshirts, a First-Aid Kit, a lunchbox with Chewy bars and sliced apples that were awfully brown, and a few bottles of water. There was also some cash stashed away in the glove compartment, and at least three dollars' worth of quarters stored in old film canisters. There was also a full tank of gas, which meant a lot of nonstop driving ahead.

They devoured the apples first and saved the Chewy bars for later. Peter flicked on the radio for a bit and then fell asleep. Neal kept at a steady pace of 80 on the open, highway that ran down the Atlantic seaboard. The radio was now switched to a station with old jazz and Neal let himself get lost in that. The necklace was still heavy in his pocket.

At noon, he pulled into a gas station. Slipping the sweatshirts over their still damp shirts, they went inside to use the restroom and grab some lunch in the form of beef jerky ("because it would last long" was Peter's explanation) and some PowerAde. Neither man was pleased with such a lunch, but with their low amount of cash, they really didn't have a choice.

They continued on further south, this time Peter behind the wheel and Neal crashing in the back. The radio switched from old jazz to a basketball game. Then a news broadcasting station. And then a 60s rock station. Neal woke up at five in the afternoon to the Beatles. He climbed up front and looked around. The Atlantic was still on their left and now the sun was on their right.

"Where are we?"

"We just crossed into Virginia," said Peter. "Ready to call it a day?"

"Sure," said Neal.

They drove till dark and then started looking for a remote hotel in a remote town. They found a quiet looking seaside town. But Peter stopped before pulling in. "We don't have any cash."

Neal looked around. "Keep driving."

Peter didn't even ask. He kept on driving till it was nearly 10:30, before Neal instructed him to turn into another remote looking town. They passed a bank and Neal told Peter to pull over a minute later. He looked at Peter who just shook his head.

"I don't want to know."

Neal nodded and got out. Peter pulled over to a darker part of the street and waited. Five minutes later, Neal hopped back in. Peter drove off and got back on the highway.

Neal placed a stack of cash in the back seat. "Don't worry about how much it is. I promise that I didn't take it all. I just took most of what was in the ATM."

"That seems like a lot of money for this little town," said Peter.

"It was insured by the FDIC," shot back Neal.

Peter groaned. "I'm stealing from the very stuff I swore to protect."

"I hope you know that in order to do what we have to do, illegal things will be done," said Neal.

"I know, I know," said Peter. "It's just going to take some time to get used to."

Neal just smiled. "Now we can call it a night."

So they next remote motel they found they got a room in. It was a simple room with all the necessities: two twin beds, a bathroom, and a television. They didn't utter a word as they locked the door and fell into bed, out before their heads even hit their pillows.

()()()()()()

March 9, 2011

6:47 AM

Elizabeth felt like she had only just fallen asleep when the ringing of her cellphone woke her up. She looked at her clock and realized that she had just fallen asleep about an hour ago. Well, that's what you got by worrying over your missing husband the FBI agent all night long. She picked it up, groggily saying: "This is Elizabeth."

"It's Reese." Hughes's tone was much less than comforting.

Elizabeth sat up quickly. "Did you find anything?"

"Yes, we did," said Hughes. "You need to come to the Bureau. Jones is on his way to pick you up."

Elizabeth had a million and one questions in her head, but she knew that there was no point in asking them all right now. Chances were that she wouldn't want to hear their answers over the phone anyway.

"Okay, Reese," she replied softly. "Thank you."

"I'll see you soon."

The line went dead and Elizabeth set her phone on the bedside table. She got up and quickly threw her hair into a ponytail and dabbed on some make-up. She pulled on some jeans and a comfortable shirt. She was just pulling on a light jacket after having fed Satchmo when the doorbell rang. Sure enough, the loyal Clinton Jones was outside waiting for her.

"Are you ready, Mrs. Burke," he asked.

"Please, Clinton, how many times have I told you to call me Elizabeth," she said.

Jones just smiled and led her to the car, where he even opened the door up for her. Once they were on their way, she looked at him.

"You can't tell me anything, can you," she asked.

Jones shook his head. "I'm sorry…Elizabeth."

She smiled and nodded. "That's all right. That's what I expected."

The rest of the ride was silent, but not in an awkward sense. It was just that both of them were silently thinking. Elizabeth was thinking of any other scenario that didn't involve a funeral…or a double funeral in this case. When Peter and Neal had disappeared yesterday morning, Elizabeth thought about a lot of situations that didn't involve kidnapping. They had a horrible habit of checking out things by themselves that they shouldn't and were liable to get caught up in something without ever thinking about telling someone. But when they weren't checking their phones after some time, it quickly became disconcerting.

Then an hour of no contact turned into a few hours, and the manhunt began. But there was nothing. There was only the place where Neal's anklet had gone offline via Peter's key. Diana and Jones were convinced it had to do with Adler since it was the same place Alex was last seen. Sarah and Mozzie were in on the hunch. Elizabeth had Sara and Mozzie give her information about Adler. Elizabeth knew quite a lot from talking with Peter, but now she wanted to know everything they knew.

Eventually, Hughes convinced Elizabeth to return home and try and get some rest. That didn't work very well, and she spent most of the night trying to distract herself by working on upcoming events. But her thoughts never got far without the worry of Peter and Neal coming to the forefront of her mind. But eventually, exhaustion drove her to lie down and get some sleep.

It now occurred to her that all those people at the Bureau had been working nonstop as well. She felt somewhat guilty and very grateful to them all. She only hoped that their hard work rendered a happy ending.

But when she arrived at the Bureau, most of the looks she got were of pity. She ignored them and held her head high to give off her strong persona. On the 21st floor though, she knew something was very bad. The office was quiet and subdued. She saw, from the corner of her eyes, one of the young clerk girls hiding amongst the bookshelves, sniffling. Most of the people who were seated stood up. She noticed the great appearance of fatigue around the office: ties off and hanging with the coat jackets; coffee mugs everywhere and an empty pot; Chinese take-out scattered around the desks; and circles underneath the eyes almost as dark as hers.

Elizabeth looked up to Hughes's office and was surprised to see another woman up there. The woman, sitting down, turned around when Hughes stood up when he saw Elizabeth walk in. It was Alexandra Hunter. Elizabeth swallowed as she swiftly walked through the quiet bullpen and up the stairs. Hughes met her outside the office.

His face said it all.

"Elizabeth," he began.

"I can see," she said. She faltered and looked down at her feet momentarily. "I can see that you didn't find something good."

Hughes shook his head. "That's Alexandra Hunter in there." She nodded. "She was with Peter and Neal for a time. She knows what happened to them."

Elizabeth looked Hughes right in the eyes. "Just tell me."

He swallowed. "They didn't make it."

Elizabeth surprised herself by taking a deep, shuddering breath, and holding back the tears that surged to her eyelids. She just nodded and walked into the office. Alex stood up and gave Elizabeth such a look of pity that she was forced to fight the tears again.

"Please," said Elizabeth. "I just want to know exactly what happened."

Alex looked at Hughes, who gave her a sharp nod and then shut the office door, leaving the two women alone.

"I don't want you to leave out any details," said Elizabeth. "I want to know what happened to my husband and Neal. I want to know why they had to die."

Alex nodded. "Okay, well, Adler brought them in probably about a day after I'd been kidnapped. He drugged them, and when they woke up, Adler showed us why he had brought us all there. He found a U-boat that supposedly had some sort of treasure on it from WWII. He needed Neal to break into it because it was wired with explosives. Adler had me as extra leverage for Neal. I gathered that Peter wasn't supposed to be there. My guess is that he just needed Peter for the key to Neal's anklet and dumping Peter on the side of the road wouldn't help matters any. So, he left Peter with Neal to do the job. They got into the U-boat."

She took a breath and Elizabeth could see that she was going back to what she had seen.

"It was filled with all the remnants of the Amber Room that had been plundered by the Nazis in WWII. There was nearly a billion dollars' worth of treasure in there. The artwork was stunning. Even the pieces of furniture in there were pieces of art because of all the amber. It was incredible. Adler had Neal and Peter load it all onto this eighteen wheeler. Then, he locked them in the U-boat."

Elizabeth fought back a gasp. She could hear Alex choke some on her words and emotion.

"He locked them in there and told his men to get the U-boat out to sea. There was still a lot of TNT on board and Adler ordered them to set the charge and sink the boat. He said all of this while we were on top of the U-boat. He was standing on the hatch and right underneath they were banging on it and yelling for someone to open it up. I think they thought they would suffocate. They were trying to bust it open."

Elizabeth tried to keep herself from envisioning it, but when she finally did, she couldn't keep a few tears from rolling down her cheeks. She sniffed and said, "Go on."

Alex sniffed as well and continued. "We waited on the docks till around midnight, waiting for Adler's men out at sea to give him the word that it was done. At 12:02, they radioed in and said the U-boat exploded and that debris was everywhere."

She took another breath. "Two of his men took me away into a car and tried to drug me. I think they were going to do away with me too. But I picked a knife off one of them earlier. When we were in the car I stabbed one of them and opened the door and jumped out. I came straight here. This isn't my idea of a safe place, but I knew everyone would be looking for Neal and Peter."

Elizabeth just nodded. "Well, thank you. I would much rather know…than go on and on without ever finding the truth."

Alex gave Elizabeth her best smile and stood up. Elizabeth stood up as well. "I'm sorry about Neal," she said. "Peter told me that you two had a history."

Alex smiled sheepishly. "We were friends. I'm sorry for your husband. He really was a good man. I know he was one of the only people in the world that Neal trusted, which means a lot. He was a good man."

"They were both good men," murmured Elizabeth. "Thank you, again." She frowned. "What are you going to do now?"

Alex shrugged. "What I've been doing all my life: look for that treasure. And I promise, that when I find Adler—because I will—I'll kill him for what he did."

Elizabeth shook her head sadly. "Don't get yourself killed."

Alex smirked. "Too late."

She left and Elizabeth found herself alone in Hughes's office. She walked out and went into the empty office next door. She just stood in the doorway for a long moment, looking around at it. There were all of Peter's commendations, from college, graduating college, graduating from Quantico. There was one of his unfashionable ties hanging on the back of his chair. There was the apple on the desk that Neal had given Peter as a stupid birthday present. There was Neal's hat on the table, where it didn't belong, but it was always there because he never listened. She moved around to behind his desk. And there was the picture of Peter and Elizabeth on vacation…something that seemed like eons ago.

She sank down into his chair. It smelled like him. She ran her fingers of the desk, where he sat every day and worked so hard. She could envision him there, with Neal on the other side bickering but collectively contributing to the case until they closed it. Elizabeth didn't realize she was crying so hard until Hughes came in.

"Elizabeth."

He sat on the arm of Peter's chair and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She let her face fall into his shirt where she let the tears fall shamelessly. She didn't care if that strong woman persona fell now. She wanted her Peter.

Okay, so how was it? So, in my story the treasure is actually the remnants of the Amber Room. That's what I thought it was going to be after watching "Burke's Seven". I guess I was close. And I had the U-boat guess right on the nose so I gave myself brownie points for that. Anyway, please review. I want to know if this is a good story, if anything is confusing...let me know!