Okay, second part came to me fast... I won't promise the following chapters coming with quite the same speed. Warnings as before!

UPDATE: A reader advised me to separate dialogue from the rest, so that's what I've done. Hope it makes it easier to read.

Peter was just walking around the living room, restless, and dreading tomorrow, when the moving van would be picking up a part of his and Elizabeth's life together. El would go to Washington and they had decided that at first she would live there during weekdays and come back to New York on weekends. He felt that he was ripping away a part of his heart, yet he knew deep down inside that he couldn't leave Neal here, alone, either. Not now. He would see this through. After all, he made the agreement with Neal back then, not Jones, not Diana, not the bureau in general – no, he did... Peter Burke, who always made a show of sticking to his word. He had promised Neal this deal, so he would stay as long as it was needed.

Elizabeth was still packing her suitcases on the 2nd floor, when Peter's phone went off. Not the usual ring tone, but the alarm... The anklet alarm! He grabbed his phone, looked at the display like his eyes were betraying him. No, Neal, no! You didn't do this. Peter dialed the number for the Marshall's office, hoping that this was a mistake. It was not! The office confirmed that the alarm of Neal's tracking anklet went off just a few minutes ago. Not the alarm marking that he stepped out of his radius, no the GPS broke off completely – somebody cut it, Neal must have cut it! Peter disconnected the phone call and was about to call Jones and Diana when Elizabeth came down the stairs.

"Honey, what's wrong? You look like you just found out Neal ran off or something!", she said.

"He did, hon, he did! I told him not to do anything crazy just a few hours ago". Peter cursed: "Dammit, Neal!"

Elizabeth grabbed her husband around the waist, pulled him close. Peter was too tense to really notice.

"Are you sure, he ran, Peter? Would he do something like this now?". She kissed him.

Peter sighed. "I don't know, El, but it looks like it. I have to go to the office. I'll find out... But if he ran...? El... If they find him, he's going back to prison for a very long time."

Elizabeth looked at her husband. She knew that Neal was disappointed about not getting his sentence dropped, but taking off this soon after knowing? Either he would've have had it planned a long time ago, or something else happened. She didn't voice her thoughts, though. Instead she kissed Peter again and said:

"Go, hon – go find out. Maybe it was all a mistake!"

On his way to the office, Peter called Diana and Jones and they both promised to join him right away. Both of them were confused about this suddenly happening, until Peter told them about how the higher-ups had declined his request on Neal's behalf. Diana felt sorry for Neal, but she also expressed her anger about him running off and leaving them all behind like nothing had ever happened. Jones turned into his always professional persona and promised Peter that they'd find Neal soon.

"Yeah, right... Look, I'll see you at the office, Jones!", Peter said, but in his mind he wasn't so sure about finding Neal.

Was he even sure he WANTED to find Neal? Neal deserved to be free, right? But was this the way to do it? It wasn't right to keep him tethered for years to come after all he had done, but then again he probably should serve out his time. Peter's thoughts were racing. He had let Neal run once, maybe he could do it again? Peter shook his head, cursed at the traffic and knew for sure that neither the FBI nor the Marshalls would ever let Neal run off. They'd keep looking for him, until they caught him – and then they'd lock him up for ages, maybe even for good. Neal didn't deserve that. He was a good man, with a good heart, an intelligent mind. Sometimes he just messed up, made mistakes. Everyone made mistakes sometimes. After all they were just humans. Peter had made mistakes, too. He knew that! He had called Neal a criminal, but Neal was so much more than that. Peter had seen it clearly these last few days. He had seen Neal's heart break when he found out his "supposed" girlfriend was nothing but a con, a murderer, who had played him all the way. He head seen Neal worry for Mozzie, seen his happy smile and relaxed posture when he found out that Mozzie had pulled through. He had seen Neal's targeted effort to bring down Rachel Turner, the woman with whom he had fell in love in such a way that Neal had compared it to the relationship between Peter and El.

When Peter pulled into a parking space, he could hardly remember the drive from home to the office, but he now knew that whatever the truth was about the anklet being cut, he would have to figure it out fast and then maybe he could save Neal from going back to prison. He would try. He would do this for Neal. But first he would have to find him!

Peter got out of his car, took out his phone and called Neal. If this was all just a mistake, Neal would pick up, and all problems would be solved – at least for now. Peter listened intently to the ringing, and Peter felt kind of comforted by the thought that at least Neal hadn't turned it off. This was a good sign, right?

"Come on, Neal, pick up", he whispered to himself when he walked towards the elevators.

The men in the van didn't act upon the ringing as fast as Neal would've suspected, but the one closest to him suddenly mumbled something Neal couldn't decipher. Then he felt himself being patted down and the phone pulled from his pocket.

"What the fuck, you stupid moron. You didn't take his phone?", the man said.

Neal mentally named him "Gruffy", because of his ever so gruff voice.

"I thought you did it, man!", the other one answered and added, "Just get rid of right away!".

Neal heard the phone being dropped to the floor of the van and then somebody stomped on it, no doubt about it splintering into several pieces. Neal hoped. He hoped that the one calling was Peter. Peter was already looking for him, wasn't he?

Next to him, Neal felt a bit of stirring, then some groaning. Mozzie! Neal tried to get a bit closer and quietly called out his friend's name. No reaction. He tried again a little louder, nudging him as much as it was possible in his present situation. Mozzie groaned again at the same time as Gruffy told them to shut up. Neal didn't bother, he needed to know that Mozzie was awake and okay.

"Mozz, are you okay?", he said completely ignoring the order about keeping quiet.

"I said: Shut up!", Gruffy repeated and Neal felt a light kick at his arm like Gruffy wanted to catch his attention.

Neal didn't budge and said: "Just need to know, he's okay. Mozz? Mozzie, are you okay?".

That earned Neal quite a kick in his side, and as he felt one of the guys crouching down next to him his head was pressed into the floor of the van.

"What's up with you not following simple orders?", Gruffy hissed. "I thought, boss said you were smart. Not likely! Unless you want me to beat the crap out of you even before we reach our destination, you shut up NOW!"

Neal kept quiet and Gruffly released his grip. For a brief moment Neal pondered how much one could squeeze the human skull until it cracked. He didn't want to find out.

Neal's mind was dragged towards Mozzie again when he felt his friend stirring a little more. He listened intently to find out if Mozzie was breathing all right or if he could convert other sounds into some kind of consolidation that Mozzie was okay. Then he heard a faint clicking sound. The sound of a tongue clicking in a certain pattern. Thank you, Mozz! Neal smiled to himself thankful of the creative mind of his slightly paranoid friend. That wouldn't be a sound the men would easily hear and recognize as being anything but noise from the moving van.

Peter was waiting for Neal to pick up and for a second it sounded like he did. Then a loud bump, and the connection was cut. Peter looked at his phone. That was weird! He swore to himself that it sounded like someone picked up and then disconnected. Besides... if it hadn't been picked up it would usually just go to Neal's voice mail.

Peter reached the office on the 21st floor and was greeted by Jones who had already arrived. Diana wasn't in yet, but he hadn't expected that either since she needed to find someone to babysit Theo first. He told Jones to track Neal's phone, find out where it had last connected to a cell tower. Jones started to explain that Neal would've turned off his phone and whatever tracing they could find wouldn't help much.

"I just called him, Jones", Peter interrupted. "It wasn't turned off."

"Why didn't he turn it off, what did he say?", Jones asked looking a tad confused.

Peter explained that he hadn't actually gotten a hold of Neal, but the phone had been ringing until the connection was – apparently abruptly – cut.

"I'll get right on it", Jones said, and handing Peter a folder, he added: "Here's the last known location of the anklet."

Skimming through the information in the folder, Peter first thought of how many ways you could get away from the city fast from that position without being caught. Plenty of possibilities, but none of them struck him as being the most obvious. Then something else struck him: Why would Neal cut his anklet in a park area and not in his home?

TBC