BLLJ2 - Only a Matter of Time

From KMW1968:

A sequel to "Bryce Lays Low at June's". While Bryce is still recovering, first Mozzie, then Peter discover him. The Tupper Brothers would also feature as they try to track Bryce down.

Bryce woke the moment someone opened the door to the room at June's. It was downstairs from Neal's apartment and belonged to Cindy, who was away, or so June had told him.

So, no one should have been opening the door. Bryce's first instinct was to fight but, his leg was still injured and he wasn't able to balance on it, let alone kick. Instead, he quickly rolled off the bed and slipped under it. As long as the intruder didn't look under the bed, he was safe.

He did shoot Neal a text for some backup, just in case.

The bed creaked and Bryce winced as the weight pressed onto his body. He was not safe! He was being squished!

Bryce Larkin, squished to death under a bed; he could hear Casey's laughter already.

"Mozzie?" Neal's voice rang in the darkness. In that moment, Bryce silently thanked his brother for his swiftness. "What are you doing in here?"

"You think I crash on your couch every night?" Mozzie questioned indignantly. He moved around the bed, unknowingly pummelling Bryce below.

Neal hissed in sympathy, knowing from experience how painful hiding under a bed like that could be.

"Well, that's no reason for you to hang out in Cindy's room," Neal said, "come on back up and we'll open up the new bottle of wine June gave me."

Mozzie considered it for a moment.

"Alright," he finally said, getting off the bed.

Peter came right up to Neal's door. He was suspicious of Neal and that meant he hadn't given June's staff time to warn him that he was coming up.

He knocked on the door once before opening it.

Neal was sitting on the patio, coffee poised at his mouth and dressed only in a pair of pyjama pants.

"You're not ready yet?" Peter asked as he moved across the apartment.

"Rough night," Neal responded, flashing a weak smile as he took a sip of his coffee.

Peter studied him; his head tilting as he noticed what appeared to be light bruises on Neal's arms and face.

"I'll go get ready," Neal suddenly announced. There was a moment when he moved to stand that he paused, right before using the table to push himself to his feet.

"You okay?"

"Leg cramped during the night," Neal responded, "haven't quite worked out the kink yet."

"Ouch," Peter responded in sympathy. He knew the pain cramping muscles from experience. But, he couldn't bring himself to completely believe Neal, not when his whole body moved slower than normal.

He didn't move like someone with a muscle cramp.

Bryce was sweating as he moved into the bathroom. His leg burned and his breath was coming in little gasps. He stopped hiding his pain and just slid to the ground.

"Bryce!" Neal whispered in a worried tone. Neal placed his hands on Bryce's cheeks and forehead, checking his temperature.

"I'm okay," Bryce responded. He looped his arm around Neal's as he tried to stand. Neal caught onto what he was going and pulled him up, carrying him the short distance to the toilet where he dropped him on the seat.

"No, you're not," Neal responded, his voice kind as he scolded, "you're supposed to be staying off you leg."

Bryce explained that Agent Burke came in without warning and he had to play Neal in order to escape.

"Peter's going to be looking weirdly at me all day," Neal commented with a sigh. Bryce raised an eyebrow; it sounded almost like Neal was okay with it.

"You consider him a friend," Bryce realised.

"Not you too," Neal said with a sigh. "Peter's a good guy."

"Good," Bryce concluded. In his opinion, Neal needed more friends on the right side of the law. Mozzie was more of a gray area kind of guy since he wasn't suspected of any crimes or on any watch lists and Kate was just a little too in love with the adventure and adrenaline that came with criminal acts. After being a victim of Adler's ponzi scheme, she had changed; she had become more devious, like she couldn't trust anyone and began looking out for herself first, determined not to be burned again. To her, you were either the mark or the con and she didn't want to be the mark ever again.

Bryce didn't approve of her because, in order to stay with her, Neal had to be the con as well. And Bryce thought that being a conman was a waste of Neal's skills.

Neal thought that Bryce being a spy was dangerous. No, he knew it was dangerous. Why else would he have to fake his death? And Neal didn't even want to consider what it meant if Bryce hadn't been faking but had been injured enough that people thought he was as good as dead.

But, he knew that Bryce wouldn't quit; he was keeping the country safe and Neal could understand that a little more now.

"So, you had Neal stand in for you at Stanford?" June questioned. They had been telling her about the time Neal turned up at Stanford after running away from home.

"He didn't tell me anything," Neal snorted into his wine, "just thrust his bag at me and left me with his frat buddies."

"I left you with Chuck," Bryce responded in an offended tone, "Chuck's the furthest thing from the 'frat buddy'."

"And without Chuck, I would have been exposed by the end of the day," Neal reminisced, "there was no way I would have been able to bluff my way through that C++ lecture thing."

"I'm sure you would have thought of something," June assured him.

"I don't know," Neal responded, "I still have nightmares about that lecture." He shuddered. That lecture might as well have been in another language for all he understood. And the rest of the students all spent the time taking notes and paying attention, unlike the rest of the lectures Bryce was enrolled in where Neal could goof off a bit. It was one of the most boring times of Neal's life, right up there with prison.

Bryce just rolled his eyes.

Mozzie burst in at around three in the morning, jolting Neal from his bed and dialling panic up to eleven. It took several minutes for Neal to calm down enough to understand his friend.

"So, the Tupper Brothers are still searching?" Neal questioned.

"Yeah, and they say that the person they're after is a Fed! They searched his room and got his badge and everything!"

Neal rubbed a hand over his face. While that might be bad news for Bryce, at least it meant he was safe.

"Why did you need to barge into my room, while I was sleeping, to tell me this?" he asked, "I may work with them but I'm not a Fed. And I still have my CI badge."

"The badge has your picture on it!" Mozzie exclaimed, "I saw it and they're showing it to anyone who'll listen."

Now, that was bad news. But, before Neal could react, Mozzie shoved the badge in his face.

"Thankfully, I managed to lift it before anyone else could get a good look. But, why didn't you tell me that you had a CIA alias? Imagine what we could do with this!"

Neal took the badge from Mozzie and stared at it. There was Bryce's face; his face. The badge had been issued that year.

"Neal? You okay?" Mozzie asked. It was then Neal realised he was crying.

Maybe it hadn't really sunk in until now. Bryce was alive. Neal wasn't hallucinating, this wasn't a dream and Bryce encounters weren't limited to this house; the CIA knew about Bryce, the Tupper Brothers were still after him and Mozzie was tracking him, even if Mozzie didn't know it.

Neal had good, solid proof in his hands.

"Anyway," Mozzie continued when Neal kept crying and didn't respond, "why didn't you tell me about this? I mean, the Tupper Brother's are bad news and I could have helped you."

"That's not it, Moz," Neal said, his throat tight. He swallowed and whipped his eyes, trying to regain a little control.

"Does it have something to do with the Suit?"

"Not Peter."

"Mrs. Suit?" Neal shook his head. "The Suit Jones?" Neal shook his head again.

"Neal?" Bryce questioned with his voice auditable and strong throughout the apartment. He walked in through the door and spotted Neal and Mozzie sitting at the table.

Mozzie, who was facing the door, stared.

"You're not supposed to be on that leg," Neal reminded him without turning to look at him. His voice still carried a slight weight from his tears and Bryce immediately knew something was wrong. He quickly hobbled over and slid into the seat next to Neal.

"June warned me that Mozzie was here," Bryce said, wrapping a comforting arm around Neal. Neal leaned into it and held up Bryce's CIA badge.

"You're alive," he whispered. The words were a kick to Bryce's gut. He should have contacted Neal before now, regardless of the consequences. He remembered how he felt when Neal, then Danny, ran away without a word and he had gone and done the same thing but worse.

Mozzie squeaked, catching their attention.

"First, are you a government issued clone or identical sibling?" he asked Bryce. "And, second, why didn't you tell me?" he asked Neal and then added, "I guess he could also be the result of plastic surgery but, I don't know anyone who does work that good."

"Identical twin," Neal responded, "and I didn't tell you because I haven't seen him in years."

"And he's CIA," Mozzie said, well aware of how that confession might have affected him in the early stages of their working partnership.

"And he's CIA," Neal agreed.

"He's also sitting right here," Bryce commented, "and wants to know where you got the badge."

"Tupper Brothers," Neal responded as Mozzie pressed his lips together; he didn't give information to government agents. "They were flashing it around, trying to find you."

Bryce swore. He hadn't thought they would be that determined.

"It's only a matter of time before they track you or Neal here," Mozzie pointed out. He didn't give information but, he could make comments.

Neal and Bryce plotted until morning but still hadn't come up with a viable plan to get the Tupper Brothers off Bryce's tail. With Bryce injured, Mozzie unwilling to face them in order to protect a government agent and Neal's two mile radius, they didn't have the manpower and flexibility to take on two violent, angry and resourceful men.

"Can't you call in backup?" Mozzie questioned.

Bryce shook his head.

"Since the majority of the CIA still believes I'm dead and there's a powerful group looking for me, I'm on my own. I can't risk calling in backup, especially around you guys. If they find out about Neal..." Bryce let his voice trail off. They all had an idea of what could happen and it wasn't pleasant.

"Right," Mozzie said. He cleared his throat, and his mind of Neal being tortured, and continued, "so, we need someone able to take the Tupper Brothers out of play. Someone who won't put Neal at risk and someone who won't connect Neal to the guy the Brothers are after."

"Or someone who won't report it," Neal said, thinking about the other side of the coin. Both Mozzie and Bryce looked at him like he was crazy. "Think about it," he told them, "Peter's FBI, he's able to take the Tupper Brothers out of play and I think he can be convinced to keep out names out of it."

"I don't know," Bryce said, "that powerful group I mentioned has its hooks in every government agency."

"Really?" Mozzie questioned, his interest piqued.

"Peter's not one of them."

"How can you be so sure?" Mozzie and Bryce said in unison. Neal edged away a little as they him out.

"You would know," Neal responded to Bryce, "after all, you've seen Peter." And both he and Bryce knew that the Intersect would have picked up if Peter wasn't who he said he was. When neither of them seemed convinced, Neal sighed and added, "and if he is, I guess I can always run."

"Let the Suit help," Mozzie said eagerly.

"I have to say, thank you for catching my brother," Bryce said, biting into one of the pastries Neal had brought back with him. "He was getting a little too full of himself and needed the wake-up call."

"At least I got caught and not shot," Neal responded, able to joke about it now.

Peter just nodded dumbly as Neal and Bryce continued their verbal sparring match. He had gotten the fright of his life when he brought Neal back to June's for lunch and Bryce had stepped right into his vision saying, "Agent Burke," as a greeting.

And then the CIA badge and explanation that followed knocked out any sense he had left.

"And he's also a good influence on you," Bryce continued, his voice light and teasing. He was saying this mostly to get a reaction out of Neal. "Who knows, we may just make an agent out of you, yet."

Neal chocked and erupted in a fit of coughs, Mozzie froze and looked like he was about to faint and Peter refused to even entertain the idea and just ignored Bryce's comment.

"Neal doesn't like guns," Peter pointed out, trying to keep hold of his last shreds of sanity.

"He wouldn't be the first gun-hating agent," Bryce responded with a shrug.

"Tupper Brothers," Mozzie said, reminding them of why they were all gathered and effectively changing the subject, "we need to get them off the streets before they track their 'pretty boy' here."

"Fine, I'll help," Peter agreed. Neal and Bryce both smiled and, for a moment, he felt sorry for the Tupper Brothers. They had no idea what was about to hit them.