(A/N): I'm truly blown away at how many people enjoying this! You guys are fantastic. Any mistakes you find are mine and I don't own anything.
At the moment, it was just Neal and Peter in the conference room. Jones and Diana set not too long ago to ask around about Greene. Greene had made some recent bank deposits from Midtown Mutual, confirming their suspicion that he was still in the city. They hadn't found anything new on their mystery man, but he had to show up sooner or later. The two men had been quiet at work for some time, so Peter decided to break the ice.
"So…Elizabeth has this huge event planned tonight and won't be home for dinner. Would you wanna come over order a pizza or something?" he offered. Even though Peter didn't say anything, he still felt Neal was in some sort of danger since they haven't found out who leaked their files. Having Neal around a bit more just in case something was to happen remained fine with him. Of course, Peter didn't mind having the consultant over for dinner and drinks either.
"Yeah, sure. Sounds great." Neal put the file he was looking at down. "Just wondering, they don't put deviled ham on pizza do they? In that case, I'd have to take a rain check."
"Ha, ha, very funny. And no, as far as I know they don't. But, I could always ask Elizabeth to try making one herself. You can even taste test for her."
"That's a big fat no. I'm sure Elizabeth would understand considering no one but you actually eats deviled ham."
Peter was just about to make another sarcastic response when Jones and Diana came in.
"Hey, boss. Find anything?" Jones pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Nothing other than the bank deposits. Were you guys any luckier?" Peter asked hopefully.
"Actually, we were. I talked to the manager at the bar right by Midtown Mutual and showed him a picture of Greene. He said that Greene is definitely a regular at the bar. The last time he saw Greene was two days ago and he was with some friends." Diana informed them.
"And that is the same day that Greene deposited 150 grand into his account." Jones said.
"Looks like he was out celebrating with his buddies." Peter stood up. "Great work you guys. Neal and I are going to go work from home. If we see any more deposits in his account, now we'll know where to look."
"See you both tomorrow." Diana went back to her desk along with Jones.
Before leaving the office, Peter placed in the order for the pizza. They decided to go with a plain cheese pizza since both of them couldn't agree on a topping. Upon arriving at the Burke household, they were greeted by an extremely hyper Satchmo, who nearly knocked the pizza box out of Neal's hand. Once they took some slices out of the box, Peter cracked open some beer and brought out some wine for Neal, which Elizabeth thankfully kept around.
Neal had a feeling Peter was keeping a closer eye on him. Peter has a way of showing that he cares, which in this case, was inviting him over for pizza and drinks. Though, he can't say he has a problem with it. After all, whoever this mystery guy is, wants him dead. If there's one person Neal would want to watch his back, it would be Peter. No doubt about it.
"Then my superior agent at the time told us to bust in. So, you know, I thrust open the doors to the van, about to jump out, and end up falling out right on my face." Peter concluded his story. "It was my first time in the van and I made a lasting impression."
Neal couldn't contain his laughter. It took a while but he finally stopped laughing long enough to actually breathe. "Wow, I can't believe they kept you around."
"Yeah, well, other than that, I did good work. We ended up catching the suspect anyway so it was fine." Peter took a swig of his beer. "Okay, I told you my embarrassing moment, now you."
"Peter, I don't think so." Neal put down his wine glass. "I haven't drunken that much."
"I guess it must be pretty bad then." Peter chuckled.
"Or maybe I've never been embarrassed like you." Neal countered.
"Oh, you're right. I forgot that I'm talking to the Great Neal Caffrey. What was I thinking?" Peter's voice was dripping with sarcasm. He turned his attention toward Satchmo, who just made his way over to him. "Hey, boy." Peter rubbed Satch. "I'll be right back, I think he needs to be let out." Peter got up and grabbed the leash and hooked it to Satch's collar and went out the front door.
It was five minutes later when Peter came back inside with Satchmo. He unhooked the leach and Satch went straight to Neal.
"I'm going to start cleaning things up for the night." Peter announced. He was surprised when Neal didn't respond. "Neal?" Peter turned to look at the figure on his couch and couldn't help but smile at what he saw. Neal was already fast asleep on his side with Satchmo on the floor wagging his tail. The young man looked so peaceful in his slumber; Peter couldn't bring himself to wake him up. Instead, he grabbed a blanket from an adjacent chair and carefully draped it over Neal. A few minutes into clearing out the pizza box and the empty beer bottles, Peter heard the front door opening.
"Peter?" He heard Elizabeth call out.
"Coming." When Peter made his way out of the kitchen, he found his wife staring at the couch. He walked over and gave her a kiss. Neal was still out of it, but now so was Satchmo. The dog was now nestled right next to the couch.
"Oh, Peter, can we keep him?" Elizabeth smiled. The sight of Satch and Neal both asleep was just priceless.
"Don't you think he's over here enough?" Peter joked, but Elizabeth gave him a weak punch in the arm. "I guess I deserved that. So how was the event?"
"It went perfect! The clients loved how everything turned out. I'm sure I'll be hearing from them again." Elizabeth whispered happily.
"That's fantastic, honey." Peter paused to yawn. "I think it's time to get to bed ourselves."
"You think he'll be okay down here? The couch isn't that comfortable."
"He'll be fine, don't worry so much. Now, let's get upstairs." Peter finally led Elizabeth upstairs to their warm bed.
Neal felt something wet on his hand. He tried to ignore it, but to no avail. After moving around a bit, he noticed that he wasn't sleeping on June's divine silk sheets. Neal unwillingly opened his eyes to find himself at the Burke's. He figured that somewhere between the pizza, wine, beer, and embarrassing stories, he must have dozed off. A closer look around revealed the source of the wetness on his hand: it was Satchmo licking him.
"Good morning, Satch." Neal rubbed Satch's head.
"Glad to see you're up." Neal looked up and saw Peter coming down the stairs, dressed for the office.
"You should have woken me up last night. I could have just gone home." Neal said as he stretched out.
"Seriously, it was no big deal. We can stop at June's before the office so you can freshen up." Neal got up and put his shoes on as Peter grabbed all the files on Greene. Right as they were walking to the door, Elizabeth came down stairs.
"You boys heading out?" Elizabeth walked over to the mirror to finish putting in her earrings.
Peter nodded. "But we'll stop by June's first so Neal can get ready."
"Thanks again for letting me sleep here." Neal said sincerely.
"Oh, sweetie, anytime." Elizabeth smiled as she walked over to Peter and gave him a goodbye kiss. "Call me if you can make dinner, okay?"
"I will." Peter opened the door. "Bye, honey." And with that, the two men set out for June's.
Neal decided to take a quick shower before heading to the office. Meanwhile, Peter was looking over Greene's files again on the terrace, even though they've been over them all numerous times. He stopped reading after a while and got up to lean up against the ledge of the roof, taking in the sight.
"It never gets old, does it?"
Peter spun around and saw that Neal was already dressed. He didn't even hear him get out of the shower.
"How did you…?" Peter started to ask.
"Are you forgetting who I am?" Neal smirked.
"Yeah, yeah." Peter threw up a hand. "Let's go."
Jones and Diana were already hard at work in the conference room when they arrived at the office. Peter loved seeing these two working together and he couldn't imagine his team without either of them. Both provided great insight and were always reliable. He would even go as far as to say that his team was the best in the whole division.
"What are you guys up to?"
"Morning boss." Jones greeted. "Neal." he nodded towards the consultant.
"Anything come up?" Neal asked.
"Not yet, but we met with the manager from the bar we told you about earlier. We got him to sit with a sketch artist to help identify the other guys with Greene that were at the bar with him." Diana spread out the sketches. "We've identified them all. Joe Nickles, Mike Binns, and Eddy Vick." she pointed to each picture as she said the names.
"They've all been involved in some petty crimes as far back as 2006." Jones added.
"This is great work. I guess all we can do now is wait and see if Greene makes anymore deposits. If he does, I'll bet anything he'll be at that bar right after."
"I can go on a quick coffee run if you guys want anything." Jones announced. "I'm not really in the mood for mud today." he joked, referring to the office coffee. "Will the usual be alright?" Neal, Peter, and Diana nodded. "Well, I'll be right back." Jones got up and exited the office.
"I have to say, Peter, I'm surprised you've lasted this long on so little caffeine." Neal smirked.
"You underestimate me." Peter retorted. "A little can go a long way."
It was about 10 minutes later when Jones came back with the coffee.
"Here," Jones looked at the side of the cup, "this is yours, Diana."
Diana gladly accepted. "Mmm," she took a sip, "this is just what I needed."
"This is for you, boss." he handed Peter his cup. "One for Neal and one for me."
"Thanks, Clinton." Peter was about to take a sip of his coffee when he clicked something on the computer. "Wait, come look at this." He placed his cup down. "Greene just made another deposit."
Neal took a sip of his coffee. "Do you think he'll celebrate again?"
"You're the criminal consultant, you tell me." Peter raised an eyebrow. "Is that what you'd do? Go and celebrate a recent success?"
"Of course." Neal paused to drink some more of his coffee. "But, I wouldn't be stupid enough to keep going to the same bar. People will start to recognize you, which is exactly what happened for Greene."
"Sounds like it's time for some surveillance in the van." Jones stated nonchalantly. "I'll go make sure a van is available." he walked out.
"I'll go tell Hughes we made a break. He said he'd like us to keep him updated on the case." Diana said as she also got up.
Peter got up and started gathering files along with Jones and Diana. He glanced at Neal, who was rubbing his temples. "Neal?" He grew concerned when the younger man didn't answer him. "Hey, Neal, are you alright?" Peter said a little bit louder.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm fine." Neal smiled and got up, but wavered a bit as he held on to a chair.
"You don't look fine."
"Peter, it's just a headache or something. Don't worry." Neal assured him.
"If you don't feel good, we can drop you off at June's." Peter offered.
"No, that's not necessary. I'll just go take something for it."
"Alright." Peter said hesitantly. "Let's head out. We don't even know when or if Greene will show up." He grabbed the files and left the conference room with Neal following behind. As he made his way down the stairs, he heard a thud and a couple of gasps coming from surrounding agents and clerks. Peter turned around and saw Neal on the floor, with his eyes closed. He dropped all the files he was holding and went down to his partner.
"Neal?" Peter gently slapped Neal's face, but the latter didn't stir. There was a thin layer of sweat forming on Neal's forehead. "Neal, come on, wake up." he shook the consultant's shoulder but Neal didn't move. Peter looked up and shouted to no one in particular, "Someone call 911!"
Poisoned.
He let Neal get poisoned right under his nose.
Peter was sitting alone in a cold hospital room along with Neal, who hasn't woken up yet. The only noise was the steady beep of the heart rate monitor. He called Elizabeth not too long ago and told her what happened. She said she was on her way right before hanging up. Thankfully, the doctors were able to pinpoint the poison and administer an antidote. They said Neal should wake up soon and there shouldn't be any long term affects. It seems like their mystery man has struck again, this time not messing around. Peter heard his phone start ringing and looked at the caller-ID, which showed a restricted number. He pressed the accept button and held the phone against his hear.
"Hello?"
"Good afternoon, Agent Burke."
"Who is this?"
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough."
"What do you want?" Peter asked angrily.
"I was just calling to see how your dear consultant is doing. And if you liked that little stunt, don't worry, I have plenty more where that came from."
(A/N): Uh, oh! Hmm, I wonder who this mystery man is! Oh, wait, I already know...haha. You'll find out soon, don't worry. Hope you liked it and thanks for reading! Don't forget to watch/dvr the season 3 premier tomorrow night at 9! But I bet you already knew that ;) And in case you didn't know, the Pilot, Withdrawal, and a sneak peak of On Guard are all free on itunes. I apologize for this extremely long note, but thanks again!