What Happens in the Safe House

From KeJae:

I read this through a couple of times... I am more accustomed to the idea of werewolves so I found a lot amusing:) My mind kept wandering and playing with the idea of Peter having a case go wrong leaving him lost in the woods so Neal goes wolf to get him back to safety, or EL is taken and ends up in the woods but Neal disappears and goes wolf to track her down and walk her back safely. (I kept thinking it through with them knowing, not knowing, and perhaps something like that being how the teams discovers?)

Her last check in had been hours ago. She should have arrived by now. That was going through Peter's head over and over again as he paced the planked floor of the cottage safe house.

"I should be out there!" he exclaimed, banging his hand on the counter. He had been threatened, him! Not her. But, the FBI and Mozzie had all thought it best to put him and El in a safe house away from the city until it was safe.

"Do you want me to go search?" Neal questioned, his blue eyes almost glowing in the twilight. Peter felt a shiver go down his spine. It wasn't often Neal felt dangerous but Peter knew about the secrets the conman was hiding.

Neal Caffrey was a disguise, a ruse and a trick. Neal's real name was unpronounceable with a human mouth and tongue. As he had jokingly said to Peter once, "Satchmo would pronounce it better than you." Which was true. The sounds required a snout, a lolling tongue and an instinctive knowledge of canine communication.

Neal was really a werewolf, an unlucky one whose mother had gone into labour on the night of the full moon and given birth in wolf form to wolf pups.

Of the three pups, only two survived. Which was two more than expected. The first shift was always the hardest and shifting hours after birth was enough to kill even a healthy child.

Their mother was kicked out of her pack when it was discovered that her children were a little bit different. Neal wasn't colour-blind like the rest of the werewolves and Bryce was immune to the regular werewolf weaknesses, like silver, which made him almost indestructible.

Peter hesitated to send Neal out into danger.

"Five more minutes," he promised. Neal itched to run, he could see that. This time, it wasn't itching to run away but to run to someone.

With the slow ticking of the clock, time passed slowly. They waiting, perking up at the the slightest crunch of gravel from outside.

Still, waiting.

"It's been five minutes," Neal finally announced with a wild glint to his eye.

"Go," Peter ordered.

Neal moved, shifting into the form of a large black wolf. His blue eyes scanned Peter as he attached the tracker collar to his neck.

Finally, he ran.

Elizabeth stumbled through the forest. Her breathing harsh. Her eyes stinging. Her body wanting rest. Her thoughts screaming at her to keep going or else.

Or else. Her eyes pricked at the thought of the marshal assigned to guard her. It had only taken one shot through the chest to kill him.

One shot to end a life. It had almost been her life.

Why? Why was this happening? The driver was a thug, hired to kill her.

"This'll show Burke," he laughed as he aimed the gun. He hadn't expected her to yank at it and ram his head into the headrest of the car. He hadn't expected her to bolt out the door either with the marshal behind her. The driver managed to get out and fire the shot which ended the marshal's life.

Elizabeth kept running. She felt horrible but she needed to stay alive. For Peter.

She stumbled. Sticks and leaves stingingly poked into her hands. They scraped her face and her dress.

Someone took a step nearby.

She clenched her hands, stood up and kept going. There was a howl in the distance and her heart plummeted. She hadn't know there were wolves in this area.

"Where's the safe house?" she asked herself, almost begging her unconscious mind to remember. She saw nothing but trees and plants and leaves. Biting back tears, she continued moving.

And then she heard a low scream of pain. It howled out over the area, along with an animalistic snarl.

Again and the again the scream echoed. It was haunting and made her shiver in fear. She dropped to the ground again, her legs refusing to move. She didn't want to die but she couldn't find the strength to stand.

She froze as padding feet sounded nearby. A crazy thought went through her head as she wondered when it had grown so dark.

Her breath caught as a sleek, black wolf seemed to appear out of the darkness. Its blue eyes were like ice as it came closer. Flakes of something dark decorated its muzzle; she really hoped it wasn't blood.

She winced as it sniffed her and, a moment later, a hand rested softly on her leg.

"You're okay," Neal's soft voice crooned and her eyes snapped open to meet his blue ones.

"What?" she questioned, "how?"

Neal snickered and she frowned.

"It's not funny!" she scolded, "where were you? Where's Peter?"

"Peter's at the safe house, where you should be," Neal said seriously as he recalled the reason he was out here. "Now, I need you to trust me and follow the wolf."

"What?" Neal didn't respond as, before her eyes, he changed into the black wolf. It nudged her up to her feet and supported her as they walked towards the safe house.

"A werewolf?" Elizabeth questioned, wondering if her husband had been working too hard.

"Oh, I know that look," Neal commented, "that's the 'I don't believe this look'." When Peter just glared at him, he added, "trust me, I know. I've seen it many times."

"Many times?" Elizabeth asked. Neal just shrugged.

"I've told a few people. Mozzie had the same expression. He believes in government conspiracies but not supernatural ones."

"And Peter?" Elizabeth looked at the man in question who shifted nervously.

"You don't need to know that," Peter said, embarrassed.

Elizabeth nodded and then looked to Neal. There was certainly a story there.

"Oh, one of the criminals we caught was also a werewolf. He shifted during interrogation and tried to kill Peter. I shifted and saved him."

"And we spent weeks wading through paperwork for the cover-up which followed," Peter sighed.

"Was that during all those late-nights when you and Neal ate in the office?"

"No, that was the time he cancelled on the lunch."

"Neal!"

"What? They wouldn't let you leave until you finished reading and filling out forms and you had to cancel."

Peter groaned and placed his head in his hands, right as his phone rang.

"Hello?" Elizabeth and Neal watched on as he listened to the person on the other end. "Yeah, yeah." Peter cast a suspicious look at Neal. "Really? That's good. I'm sure they'll enjoy this."

"What?" Elizabeth and Neal asked in unison.

"They found the man who attacked. He was bleeding and volunteered information about the person after us in return for a hospital."

"Really?" Neal questioned, "I thought you couldn't do that; withhold medical support to those who need it?"

"We can't. But, no one told him that. He's currently telling us everything we need to know to take this guy down." Peter paused and then looked at Neal. "Any idea how he ended up injured?"

Neal shrugged and they all knew he wouldn't respond with an affirmative or negative.

"So, we only need to stay the night," Peter continued. This news was met with two happy sighs.

Elizabeth didn't like putting her work on hold to hide in government safe houses.

Neal didn't like being cooped up inside.