(Chapter 4)
Neal struggled against his bonds but was held securely to the gurney. Sam hovered over him with the scalpel but Goru stopped him.
"I think he should share in your fate, don't you think, Agent Jackson? His silvery tongue is an asset in his line of work but I may have use of it one day. Perhaps... something a bit less severe but just as terrifying?"Goru turned and grabbed something, handing it to Sam. Neal could only observe, muffled sounds of fear from his throat when he saw what was held.
Neal struggled even more, the tape removed from his lips and more rags stuffed into his mouth. The faceless nurses and interns held his head still while Sam used the needle and thread Goru had given him and started to sew Neal's lips shut. Neal gave a groan of pain with each prick of the needle trying to scream but unable to as Sam slowly but deliberately sewed his lips shut. Finally Goru smiled and the job was done.
"I may have use for that tongue one day but for now, you will remain silent. You are too much of a liability to my operation and I will not lose what I have just because of one con man." Goru turned and grasped something else, metallic by the sound of it.
"And until you learn to obey me, I think one more lesson is in order."
Neal watched as the figures held down his right arm tightly, Goru holding up a large machete.
"They cut off the hands of thieves in some parts of the world to prove a point. Let's see how you fair with only one hand, Mr. Caffrey."
()()()
Peter sat in the waiting room of the ER hoping to hear what was wrong with Neal before the end of the night. Elizabeth had come a few minutes later in the Taurus with clothes and other necessities and sat beside him in the waiting area, her sleepy form leaning against him. He watched her sleeping, hugging her close as he leaned back in the seat.
Something had happened to Neal when he had been with that Goru person. Whatever it was, it made him more sensitive to things. He could only guess it was some kind of hypnotic suggestion but until he could actually speak with Goru and get a feel for what he did, he wasn't sure how to help his friend or Sam.
Peter sighed, looking up when he heard footsteps. A doctor was heading towards him. It was Dr. Ambrose. Peter gently moved Elizabeth to the chair, placing his jacket under her head as he rose and walked over to the doctor. The man was a tall swarthy individual in his mid to late fifties with light blue green eyes and cropped straight dark brown hair. He wore a pair of green scrubs covered with a long white lab jacket, a stethoscope hanging around his neck.
"Dr. Ambrose... How is he?" Peter spoke softly, trying not to wake his wife as they moved a few yards away. The doctor looked worried, a sign things weren't going too well.
"Mr. Burke, your friend is suffering from a number of ailments all of which seem to have no physical cause. His heart was weakened but we were able to stabilize him so that it is now beating regularly. There is an overactive amount of activity in his brain when we did an MRI and CAT but we can't establish why when you said he's not epileptic. We gave him some meds for the seizures which seems to have helped for now but we still have a few more issues to deal with." The doctor pulled Peter even farther aside, speaking softly.
"I have some ideas what might be happening but I need to talk to you in private. Do you have a moment?"
Peter blinked and nodded, looking back at his wife.
"Let me tell my wife where I'm going. Just give me a moment." Peter walked back over to El who was beginning to rouse. He sat beside her and smiled softly as she hugged him.
"Honey, where did you go?" She yawned looking around the hospital waiting room before she saw the look on his face.
"Is Neal ok? Did you hear something?" She was suddenly awake, looking at him with curious blue eyes. He nodded telling her what the doctor had said.
"He wants to have a discussion with me. Wait for me here and I'll tell you what he said when I get back." He kissed her on the forehead and she frowned slightly but nodded.
"I'm sorry honey but he wanted to speak with me alone. I'll share with you when I get back . I just need to see what it is he wants to tell me. Ok?" He watched her nod with a sigh as he rose and left her but not before they had one more hug and kiss. Peter walked back around the corner and met up with the doctor.
"My wife is just as attached to him as I am. He's like family and she's disappointed not to come talk to you." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. Ambrose nodded.
"I understand but what I need to tell you is ... well let me take you to my office where we can chat in private. This way."
()()()
Dr. Galen Ambrose motioned Peter to a chair as they entered the large but cozy office. There were pictures on the walls of what he could only guess could be friends, family and maybe associates. The decor was eclectic at best, with paintings of what appeared to be the Bayous of Louisiana. Peter smiled.
"You're from Louisiana? Always wanted to visit." He saw the doctor nod as they both sat down.
"Yes, some of my family lived in a small town off the bayou hence the pictures. The paintings were by local artists of the area. I wanted to bring a bit of home with me when I moved up here. Very spiritual and mystical place." He seemed to emphasize the last part, Peter looking at the man a little bit closer. The doctor smiled softly.
"I think I can guess the kind of person you are, Agent Burke; Very no nonsense just like me. I have always trusted what I can see and touch to what I can't. I'm sure you believe in intuition?" The doctor's tone was friendly, Peter trying to figure out just where he was going with this conversation.
"I guess you could say that. And yes I believe you can gain some intuition about things from past experiences... why do you ask?" He looked at the doctor who stood and moved towards a filing cabinet. He pulled out a key and opened up the top shelf, pulling something out before he closed and locked it again. He walked around the desk and handed the item to Peter.
Peter looked at what appeared to be a bracelet made of hemp, some kind of preserved flowers, what appeared to be animal bones or teeth and various other small items including various beads of either glass or wood. It was strange looking if nothing else, Peter glancing from it to the doctor.
"I don't understand what this is supposed to mean, Doctor..." He was interrupted.
"Call me Galen. It's a protection amulet. Let's just say it's supposed to keep away those that would harm one with hoodoo or voodoo as some call it. My grandmother made it for me some time ago but since I've become a doctor and a man of science, I have no use for it. I can't say I don't believe in it anymore, but the reasons for me having it have ended. I'm giving it to you for your friend." He sounded quite serious as he spoke although he was blushing slightly at Peter's reaction to the story.
"Galen, are you trying to tell me my friend is being attacked by 'spiritual' means? Someone's put a curse on him?" Peter was beginning to doubt the professionalism of this doctor although he had dealt with him in the past if only briefly. He stood and placed the bracelet brusquely on the desk, walking towards the door.
"I don't know what it is you're trying to do, but if it's some kind of weird joke..." Peter was angry and his manner showed it if not his voice. He saw Galen look at him in apology and hold up a hand.
"I'm not trying to make fun or do anything to make you look foolish. Agent Burke... your friend is being attacked! I know the signs even if I don't want to believe them myself. I visited the Bayou where things like this happened. You don't want to believe in them, and my family was middle class from the city. It was when we went to the Bayou to visit my paternal grandmother that these things were evident." He paused, looking as if to find the right words to say, to convince Peter of what he was trying to convey.
"Shakespeare wrote: There are more things in Heaven and Hell than seen in your philosophy. I believe that even if I don't always want to. I've seen some miraculous recoveries as a doctor that could only have been due to faith if not what could have been only said to be God or his angels interfering where people should have died." Galen paused again, sitting on the edge of his desk.
"I'm not trying to spout any religious tenets at you or make you believe in the power of anything, I just wanted to tell you that what I see happening with your friend is beyond the medical realm. I can keep his body alive but for how long, I can't say. I've seen something like what is happening to your friend once before... I don't know if you'd believe me if I told you."
Peter watched the man curiously. He didn't know what to think about what he was being told. Neal was possessed? He didn't believe in such things! He could understand hypnotic suggestion to some extent. Maybe brain washing but possession by spirits or psychic attacks didn't seem a possibility in a concrete world. He knew Dr. Ambrose enough by reputation and some interaction to know the man would not spout such nonsense unless he had a reason to. He moved away from the door and sat down.
"So tell me what you saw..."
()()()
Peter left Dr. Ambrose's office, shaking the man's hand and walking back down the hallway. He was deep in thought, trying to take in all that the man had told him. He barely noticed when he almost walked past his wife.
"Peter?" Her voice was full of concern, his brown eyes turning to meet hers. He walked back and sat beside her, his mind still mulling over all that the doctor had said. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her, his expression doubtful. She seemed to feel something was wrong.
"Honey, what did Dr. Ambrose have to say about Neal?" She turned his head with her hand when he didn't respond right away. He blinked.
"Dr. Ambrose... uhm... it's kind of hard to explain. Neal's been stabilized but they still need to do some tests. He did say we can go visit if we like. They're setting him up in a room now." He rose, helping her to her feet as he took up his jacket, arm wrapped around her shoulder and they walked down the hall.
()()()
Neal lay against the gurney in pain, his whole body aching although most of the pain was in his lips and right hand. He peered down reluctantly and grimaced. He wanted to be sick but he couldn't with his mouth full of rags and lips sewed shut. He felt dizzy and out of it, the only thing keeping him going was the thought he might wake up soon.
It was just a nightmare but he knew as long as Goru controlled it he couldn't leave. Sam stood watch over him like some silent statue, that one brown eye staring down at him vindictively. He wanted to talk to the agent again. Tell him to wake up but he knew they were beyond waking now. Sam was falling under Goru's spell and would die and be trapped here as a minion like Judith Erickson had been. She had finally come to and freed herself but how it had happened was beyond Neal's thoughts. He still couldn't really understand how he was here and what power Goru held. It made no sense to him with the rules he knew about the world. This shouldn't be happening!
He felt thirsty. The rags absorbed all the moisture in his mouth. Neal shook his head trying not to think about it. This was a dream. He would wake up and find himself at the Burke's asleep in their guest room. Peter would smack him on the back and tell him to cowboy up and El would baby him with soothing words and good food. He had to think about that or he was going to be like Sam.
Neal closed his eyes, feeling the pain of his missing hand. He tried not to think about it but the images were burnt into his brain like the smell of his wrist being cauterized. He held back being sick since he couldn't be although this felt real, if he choked here he would die in reality so he had to be strong while he knew what was going on. Sam had given up his body was suffering where he lay in ICU. Neal hoped his own body hadn't been hurt. Had Peter or El found him already?
Neal? Neal wake up.
He heard a familiar voice, Elizabeth's. He smiled slightly trying his best to concentrate on it.
Do you think he can hear us?
He thought he heard her sniffling as if crying. Was she crying over him? Neal didn't want her to be sad because of him. He struggled slightly against the bonds on the gurney, seeing Sam look at him ever so more pointedly.
I'm sure he knows we're here. It's going to be ok, El.
Peter? Neal struggled a bit harder wanting to talk to his friends. He wanted to wake up and now! He pulled against the bonds feeling the gurney creak in reply. Sam drew closer, scalpel in hand and pushed it against his Adam's apple. Neal stopped struggling, looking up at the man with a glare.
Help me Sam... please! He thought to himself but the man just shook his head at him and moved away again as he resumed his post as guard.
You can't understand... but you will. Goru is master here. Don't fight him, Neal. You won't win.
Neal could hear the words as if Sam had spoken them and he thought back to when they were getting ready for the sting. When things had still been simple and real.
(Just before the Raid on Goru's compound...)
"So what kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo do con men believe in? I'm curious." The agent smiled half-jokingly, throwing on a very nice jacket like the ones Neal often wore. They had to look the part and Neal had commandeered an extra suit for Sam from his own collection. They were about the same size and build although Sam was slightly stockier with dirty brown hair and brown eyes. He was also a slight bit tanner, always looking like he had just come back from the beach. You might say he had the surfer boy look if anything. Neal blinked back, turning from adjusting his tie and lapel for the tenth time.
"I believe in luck... lady luck is a good friend. Maybe some Karma at times and intuition for sure. That is something you have to have, a sixth sense for where you are and what is going to happen. But I believe in preparedness foremost. Know what you're going to do and all the possibilities before you go in. Why do you ask?" Neal turned back to the mirror looking at himself and smiling. Sam chuckled.
"Other than believing that you're all that... I just wondered because we're going in to take down someone who people believe brings spiritual enlightenment. I grew up going to church till I was 12 but then my family decided they would leave any further choice of going to me. My mom wasn't ever very religious although she believed in a higher power. My father was similar and they matched up in many ways so it was nice to have that choice to believe or not to. I just wonder sometimes about things like that." He shrugged slightly, fighting with the tie Neal had given him. Neal moved over and helped him with it smiling.
"Ah... well I never went to church beyond what they taught us in the school I went to for elementary." He saw Sam gawk.
"You went to a Catholic school? And I always thought the rumors of those kids going bad was a joke." He smirked as the ex-con blushed.
"Geesh... why did I say anything. Don't tell Peter. He'll never let me live it down." He saw Sam nod and smile.
"No worries. Burke is a pussy cat and you know it. Best boss anyone could have. I wonder what his thoughts are on this."
