LATER THAT NIGHT

Neal stood outside of the Burke's house for more time than he cared to admit. He just couldn't bring himself to raise his hand and knock. But finally he did, feeling the slight vibrations in his hand even though he couldn't hear the sounds.

The door opened almost immediately, and Elizabeth stood in front of him. "Hi, Neal."

"Hey, Elizabeth." Neal injected some energy into his voice that he didn't feel, as he stepped inside the house. "Is Peter here?"

"Yeah, he's upstairs." She turned her head and called out, "Peter! Come down, Neal's here!"

Neal had been deaf for more than a week, but that was something he still wasn't used to. He could understand what people were saying, and read their tone from their facial expressions. But shouting was shouting, and it still unnerved him that he couldn't hear it, no matter how loud it was.

He kept his eyes on Elizabeth, as she was talking to him to fill the space, and he didn't notice Peter had come down until he was standing right next to Neal.

When Elizabeth stopped speaking, he turned to Peter. "Hey, Peter, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something."

"Yeah, sure, what's up?"

Neal glanced uncomfortably at Elizabeth. He knew she has a right to know—she sat with him for hours in the hospital before, worrying about him—but he thought he could only get it out if he were to just talking to Peter. "Can we talk outside?"

Peter saw his discomfort and nodded, giving Elizabeth a look of curiosity as he passed. The two men went out onto the small patio in the backyard and sat, facing each other.

"Peter," Neal started, but wasn't sure what to say next.

There was silence for a second, before Peter broke it. "Neal, if this is about the other day, what I said, well, I'm sorry. I've just trained myself to be suspicious of you all the time, and it's hard to turn off. I didn't mean to hurt you, or-"

"Peter, it's ok. It's not about the other day. Well, I guess it is, kind of…" he trailed off a bit, and took a deep breath. Then he decided the only thing he could do was dive right in. "Peter, I'm deaf."

The look of confusion on Peter's face was almost comical. "What?"

"The explosion from the warehouse. The bomb messed with my ears, and I haven't been able to hear anything since."

"But—we've been talking this whole time. You've been at work. How—?"

"I can read lips," Neal said. "Really well now. I got pretty good during my time of leave from the office. It's amazing how much you can motivate someone to learn if you take away their ability to hear." He ended with a rather forced chuckle.

"I'm so sorry I didn't know. I should have been there for you, helped you."

"No," Neal said, "I'm glad it was this way. I wasn't treated any differently because of it, which I'm glad about."

"I guess you really are the world's best conman. To be deaf for a week but have no one know…"

"Well, Mozzie helped me," Neal said, "and Diana found out. And as much as I hated it at first, now I'm glad she did. I wouldn't have gotten through work without her, and I also wouldn't be here."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't want you to know. Not before tomorrow. But Diana made me tell you."

"What's tomorrow?" Peter asked, ignoring the other part for a moment.

"In the hospital, after you left, I told the doctors about it and they took some scans. They found that my inner ears had swelled up because of the explosion. They thought when the swelling went down the hearing would come back, but that hasn't happened. They ran some more tests and found that the bones inside my ear are shifted slightly from the swelling—enough that no sounds around me are processing. They said as soon as the swelling is totally gone, they'll go in surgically and try to realign them. The surgery's tomorrow."

"Wow," Peter breathed, hardly any sound coming out of his mouth. But that didn't matter for Neal. "Wow, Neal…"

Neal hung his head. "I didn't want you to know. I wanted to go in tomorrow, get the surgery, and be fine. I didn't want you to have to know."

"Neal, you should have told me. I could have—"

"Could have done what, Peter? Nothing. There's nothing anyone could do." He couldn't hear his voice raising in volume, or the bitterness that rang through it, but he knew Peter could so he paused for a second to calm himself down. "I didn't want you to worry, to hover over me or treat me any differently."

"God, Neal, I hope there's not a next time, but if something like this ever happens again, tell me. There's no reason you should have to hide it, deal with it on your own."

"I wasn't on my own," Neal said. "Mozzie helped me, every step. Don't worry, Peter."

Peter reached out, placing his palm on top of Neal's hand. Neal looked down at it, and Peter waited for him to look back up before speaking. "I'll be there for you now. Whatever happens tomorrow, you won't be alone."

Neal's eyes looked a bit brighter in the lights of the dark city night. "Thank you, Peter."