Peter and Neal were still sitting in Peter's office when the door opened and Elizabeth walked in, carrying a manila envelope.

"Honey." Peter said, a little surprised to see here there.

"I know there is an explanation." She said, tossing the envelope down on the desk. "And I would really like to hear it."

"I, um, should go." Neal said, starting to stand up.

"Stay." Elizabeth said, sitting down in the chair beside him. "I'm assuming it has something to do with a case, so you probably already know."

"What is this?" Peter asked, picking up the envelope and looking inside.

"It was left on our doorstep."

Peter pulled out the contents and looked at them.

"Damnit." He mumbled, dropping the pictures and grabbing his phone.

"What's going on?" Neal asked.

"Diana." Peter said into the phone, ignoring Neal's question. "York knows where Anna is. Sit tight, I'm sending Jones and backup. When they get there, bring Anna here."

"Okay, Boss."

"York is dangerous, watch yourself."

"We will be fine."

Peter gave a few more instructions, then hung up. He called Jones and gave him some instructions, then hung up again.

"What's going on?" Elizabeth re-asked Neal's question. This time, Peter answered it.

Twenty-one years ago, I was on the New York PD. The captain of my precinct thought we needed to be more community friendly, so he assigned us to go to area schools and talk. I was assigned to talk at a school for children with learning disabilities, that's where I met Anna. She was an art therapist, and a very good one. We started dating and dated for about three months, then broke up."

"Why did you brake up?" Elizabeth wanted to know.

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"No."

Peter sighed and said, "Our relationship was mainly, um, physical." He felt his face flush slightly.

"Physical?" Neal asked, with a smirk.

"We both knew we wanted more in a relationship, so we called it off. We remained friends though."

"How close of friends?" Neal asked.

"Shut up, Neal."

"Who is York?' Elizabeth asked, not able to keep the smile off of her face. She thought her husband looked really cute when he got flustered.

"About a year after we broke up, I was helping investigate and murder of a young woman. The only witness was her five-year-old son, he was forced to watch."

"My God." Elizabeth said, all traces of humor gone.

"He was scared, and wasn't able to give us much of a description. Then I thought of Anna, how good she was with children. I asked her to see if she could get a description, and she did. Within a couple hours, she had a very detailed drawing of the suspect. One of the detectives recognized the picture as Nathan York. York was a collector for a local loan shark. We arrested him, and searched his house. He still had the gun he used to shoot the woman with. We learned that the woman's ex-boyfriend owed the loan shark over fifty thousand dollars."

"And now York is out of prison?" Elizabeth asked.

"He broke out, went to Anna's house. She managed to get away, but I know York will come after her."

"Because she drew his picture?" El asked.

"After York was arrested, he escaped." Peter said. "We had the boy in protective custody, he couldn't get close to him. So he went after Anna. There was a story ran about how it was her that helped the boy remember what York looked like, about how if it wasn't for her then York would not have been caught."

"What happened?" El asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

"He kidnapped her." Peter said, his voice distant again. "He tortured her, both physically and mentally. He burned her with cigarettes and…" Peter stopped talking and Neal and Elizabeth were both surprised and worried when they saw his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

El quickly stood up and walked over to her husband, and leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him. After a few moments, she let go and sat on the edge of his desk. She reached out and took one of his hands in hers.

"That son of a bitch used a knife and slashed her eyes out." A couple tears rolled down his cheeks and El squeezed his hand tighter. "By the time we got there, she was almost dead."

"You got there before he killed her." El said.

"But not before he blinded her, not before he hurt her really bad."

"She is alive."

"And in danger again."

"You will protect her." El removed one hand from her husbands, but still held onto him with the other. She used her free hand to gently wipe the tear drops from his face and tilt his head so they were looking into each other's eyes. "You couldn't have known York would go after her then, but you know now. You will protect her, that's what you do."

"I never should have asked her for her help." Peter said, his voice laced with guilt.

"You were trying to solve a murder, and Anna was trying to help. Both of you were trying to do the right thing, it wasn't your fault."

"El's right." Neal said. "We will find York."

Peter nodded. "Then let's get to work."

/

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Sorry this one is so short. I promise to have a longer chapter up by tomorrow night.