Can't wait for White collar season 5! Sorry this chapter took so long, finals are a bitch. Yay almost summer, meaning I will have a lot more writing time. Thank you so much for all your reviews :) Sorry about my grammer and lower case i's. also if i say nick instead of neal more than once i'm sorry.
Snowflakes hit the windshield rapidly but Nick was completely oblivious. Peter was doing his best to keep Nick awake and drive without killing them both. He started by asking a lot of questions about school and baseball while he tried to keep his cursing to a minimum. But as the snow got worse Peter was forced to keep his eyes on the road.
"When did you get hit with the baseball bat?" Peter asked.
Nick though for a moment " about 3 am today."
" what were you doing at 3 am?" peter asked a little concerned
"My team takes baseball pretty seriously." Nick said making Peter laugh.
"I think you might be right about the concussion."
All of a sudden Peter's phone started ringing making the two of them jump.
"Crap, thats El, can you get it for me?
Nick nodded and hesitantly grabbed the phone sitting between them.
"Is this Mrs. Burke." He answered politely surprising Peter, whose experience with teenage politeness wasn't so great.
"Nick Holden." Nick told the phone.
He side glanced at Peter "I don't think that's a great idea, Mr. Burke is a little busy at the moments.
"Tell her we will be home in 20." Peter conveyed to Nick without looking at him.
"He says we will be there in 20 minutes." Nick replied again waiting a few moments.
"He is." Nick told her after a bit.
'I'll be sure to tell him, thank you Mrs. Burke." Nick finished hanging up.
"She told me to scold you for driving in this weather." Nick said a bit awkwardly throwing Peter an apologetic glance.
"You know Nick you are one of the politest kids i have ever met, and i have met a lot of kids." Peter said looking at Nick for a second before turning his eyes back to the road.
He was surprised that Nick looked almost guilty about the compliment.
"Yea, High school will do that to you." Nick said after an awkward few moments of silence.
"I learned to just keep my head down."
Peter laughed at that. "I totally get where youre coming from kid, in highschool i took math a little too seriously and lots of kids tried to beat me up."
Nick's ears seemed to perk at that "What did you do." He asked hopefully.
"Well luckily I was on the top baseball team so me and my bat put up a very convincing fight."
Nick looked down again. "Did you ever have to fight someone a lot bigger than you?" He asked.
Peter thought for a moment "Well yea there was a kid on the wrestling team once."
"What happened." Nick prodded.
Peter though back " I got a black eye."
Peter frowned when he saw Nick's expression.
"But then again so did the other kid, and it taught him not to mess with me again." Peter continued.
Nick's face lit up. "So even a mathlete like you could defend himself against bigger kids."
"I was not a mathlete." Peter argued back defensively making Nick laugh.
Peter smiled hearing Nick's laugh, it was so innocent it made his chest flutter with joy.
"Well we're here, home sweet home." Peter said pulling in front of his house.
Whatever he was expecting Nick's reaction to be it certainly wasn't this. His eyes got as wide as dinner plates and he bolted out of the car so fast into the billowing storm.
"You live here?" He asked Peter beyond excited.
Peter nodded ,"It's really not that great," He said looking around to see what Nick was so excited about.
"You have a lawn, and a picket fence." Nick said practically running circles around Peter, which couldn't of been great for his concussion. But there was no stopping him now.
" Yea I guess we do, but our lawn is so small and dead, and our fence is an iron fence that's paint job wore off." Peter said unlocking his front door with Nick on his heals.
The second they stepped inside El Peter with a grateful hug and a good luck kiss for Peter. Before she turned her attention to Nick.
"And you must be Nick." She hugged him as well deeply surprising the boy.
"Peter doesn't usually bring home kids like you," She winked at him making him blush "You must be a pretty good kid."
"He has a pretty bad concussion." Peter told her wincing at her surprise.
"Oh, you poor thing," She gave him a sympathetic look, before pulling Nick into the kitchen.
"You sit right here and get warm." She said sitting him down in one of the kitchen table's chairs.
Nick watched her with awe, he was so surprised he didn't speak for a second as he watched her fumble around in the cabinets for a huge mug, which she gracefully filled to the top with hot chocolate. Nick was about to tell her she didn't need to do that when his stomach growled in protest, he hadn't eaten anything all day and watching her overflow the mug with marshmallows and whip cream was too much for him to refuse.
"Thank you." He managed to stutter out as she placed the cup in front of him.
"Don't mention it," She smiled 'I'll be right back, i just need to go talk to my husband for a quick second." And with that she disappeared out of the room leaving Nick with his vast mug of hot chocolate.
A few seconds passed as he looked around the cheery lit kitchen all while pinching his skinny arm as if this was some sort of dream.
"Go now" He whispered "You don't belong here." Nick reminded himself. The thought made him sad that he could never have anything like this but it was his own fault after all right? Nick was about to get up and quietly slip away out of the warm fuzzy house when his stomach growled again.
He hadn't been totally truthfully with Peter, about anything in fact, but that was mostly because he was scared of what would happen to him if he did. But the main thing right now was that his head hurt waaay more than just a little, it felt like it was on fire. If he left now there was no doubt he would be dead within the hour, his body frozen out in the cold. He didn't have much choice but to stay.
His gaze shifted to his mug. Nick carefully freed the spoon from the sugary foam and took a careful tast.
Most of the hot chocolate Nick had tasted in his life had come from a little paper baggy. And this by far the best he had ever tasted. For the next five minutes Nick focused on drowning the sweet contents of the cup into his empty stomach. He would never told Peter this but all he had to eat all day was a stolen overdate sandwich.
He had almost finished the gallon of the delicacy when Peter returned to the kitchen not even two minutes later.
"We think you should stay here tonight honey." El told him carefully.
Peter nodded in agreement " I wouldn't feel right allowing you to stay by yourself over night. After all bad concussions can get pretty serious, did you know you shouldn't sleep for at least 24 hours?"
Nick sat staring at the two for a few seconds in shock, an FBI agent worrying about a kid with a concussion. Maybe they weren't as evil as Mozzie told him they were. After all they were both treating something so minor as a concussion like it was serious. Nick fought back the fit of laughter that threatened to bubble up. Instead he forced his face into a stern surprised expression.
"No? I didn't know that. Wow, thats so surprising." Nick tried not to mention the fact this was his third concussion and he had known that since 3rd grade.
"But i will be fine on my own, honestly, I know now not to go to bed." Nick said knowing it was the correct answer. After all it was only polite for kids to give the adults a way out of the social protocol that was thrust on them. He had seen it many times before from his friends parents. When they found out his parents were out all night again. There was always an order to these things, parents find out, parents offer the kid to stay over and when the kid declines they give him a grateful look and dismiss him with the thought of "I'm sure it's fine, after all it isn't any of my business."
Nick smiled back up the Burkes pulling his backpack over his shoulders, feeling guilty as he realised he wanted them to at least offer him a ride so he wouldn't have to walk back in the blizzard.
He watched with curiosity as Elizabeth's face looked almost shocked.
"Nick we couldn't let you go back into the blizzard, everything is getting shut down. Even the roads."
Nick frowned a little surprised most times the couples only insisted he stay, because it was a public setting and they would look bad if they just let the matter drop. Briefly he wondered if they were actually concerned, but he quickly brushed the thought aside. If there was one thing he knew about adults it was the second they found out about Neal Caffrey they would immediately stop caring.
"I can't impose on you two like that." He said shrugging deeper in his thin jacket.
"I have metro money anyway." He lied, it wasn't like he wasn't going to take the sub, it was that he just wasn't going to pay.
Once again both Elizabeth and Peter surprised him by telling him pretty much that there was no entity in heaven or hell that would get them to allow a kid with a severe concussion back into the worst blizzard that new york has seen in seven years.
'It's probably to do good for one day and feel good about it day.' Nick thought to himself. As he made himself smile at the two and thank them.
He helped Peter set the table while Elizabeth busied herself with re heating the cold dinner.
"Sorry Nick, I didn't know we were having company so all we have is last night's left over's"
Nick smiled politely "I'll eat anything." He was so starving his stomach had given up growling hours ago. He sent a silent prayer for the two people who were about to feed him. Nick did feel a little guilty about accepting food from these people. He had been taught at a young age there were only two options in the chain of survival, steal or starve, and a free handout definitely didn't fall into either.
He smiled up at Peter who had just finished setting the last plate. Elizabeth saw his face and let out a small laugh.
"You're so transparent." She told him in between giggle."
Nick quickly snapped to attention his shoulder tensing in defense ready to make a break for it at any second.
"All it takes for someone to get you to like them is feed you." She laughed
Nick relaxed noticeably and laughed as well as he sat down next to Peter. She was right, there was nothing Nick wouldn't do for food.
And true to the word he had to fight to keep his jaw shut as El brought out a plate pull of re heated steak and mashed potatoes. She gave him a generous proportion which in hindsight was a bad idea because Nick literally had grab his hand while he waited as she served herself and Peter.
"Fork, use the fork." He reminded himself slowly bringing up his hand clasping it around the utensil. It had been almost a week since the last time he had used a fork. He had tried to go slowly but the next minute El looked over she gasped to see all his food gone.
"It's so nice to have somebody who eats so much." She smiled warmly at him as he felt something twinge in his chest.
"Thank yo." He said as she refilled his plate again with the remaining left over."
"Eat all you want, it's not like we're going to eat that much.' Peter told him with a laugh.
Forcing himself to go against his instincts and eat slowly Nick listened as they asked about what must of been typical dinner topics. "School, baseball, sports, politics, stock market, news, girls."
Nick BS'sd his way through it pretty well until Peter finally gave in the El's badgering and told him FBI case stories.
funny stories told by Peter were probably the only thing that could possibly make the teen forget about the food. He couldn't ever remember the last time he had laughed so hard, in fact there probably wasn't one.
Peter beamed with pride "Told you they were good one's El." He told her proudly. She laughed as well.
After Nick had just about eaten all the contents of the fridge and helped to clearing the table he joining them in the living room for a late night movie. Peter said it would help him stay awake until 3.
"You don't have to stay up with me." He told them, only to be shot down by both of them.
so he sat down on the floor leaning against the couch as El and Peter snuggled on top.
Nick pretended to pay attention to the movie but after food in his stomach he had more pressing issues to think about.
The next time he looked up El and Peter were asleep curled up together, he waited a few more minutes to make sure they really were asleep. before getting up and pulling his backpack over his shoulder.
nick clasped his hands together and looked up at the ceiling "Tell them thanks for me." He asked before bowing and quietly disassembling the alarm system so he could slip out the door undetected. Back into the freezing cold.
Aww poor Neal, It's so sad, he really is a good kid, he is just distrustful and doesn't want to get punished. Sorry about the spelling this chapter was a rush job. Not much time to go back and re-read.
