Notes: Why do these stories end up so long? I swear, I don't intend for them to get this way!
Chapter 29
El was not surprised to see Peter up. It wasn't too late as she had gone to bed alone only an hour earlier. It was obvious that Peter was worried about Neal and maybe even the rest of the team. Mar'i, Damian, Chuck and Chuck's team were on their way to the League of Shadows and Peter was watching their tracking data to see how the journey was fairing.
"They're on an airplane. Nothing's going to happen that high in the air," El tried to explain. Peter sighed and kindly decided to not reminder her that planes could crash. "There's nothing you can do even if they get into trouble."
"Neal- I mean, Damian trusts me to get information to Batman if something goes wrong."
"I'm sure information sharing can wait a few hours. Besides, Damian set it up so it'll send an alert if something happens."
Peter let her drag him to bed. El carried the computer with them, placing it on the beside table, although with the lid closed.
"You can check it first thing in the morning," she said with a fond smile. "You weren't even this bad with Neal's tracking anklet data."
"Because Neal was in a 2 mile radius," Peter responded as he curled up under the sheets. "And he still found a ton of trouble."
"Chuck and Mar'i will keep him safe."
"I'm not too sure about Sarah and Casey though."
El hummed in response, cuddling closer and closing her eyes. No alarms disrupted their sleep and Peter woke to new tracking information as the group made their way into desert.
Damian hated this leg of the journey. The sun stung his skin, his body was coated in a slippery and oily sheen of sweat and his legs felt stiff.
Mar'i was enjoying this. At least she knew not to flaunt her alien abilities at them but she was floating and basking in the sun and heat. Rather than being tired and drained, she was energetic. She bounced around on the ground and in the air, even doing flips and other maneuvers to burn off energy. Casey made a couple of jokes about shooting her for being so cheery but they all knew he would never get the shot off.
Sarah seemed to be doing quite well. It could just be her hiding how uncomfortable she felt, like he was, but she was doing a better job of it as she led the party through the desert.
Chuck looked like he would rather be anywhere but here and had moaned a couple of times about how he should have stayed with Agent Burke.
Damian had told them that he was getting someone to watch over the Burkes while he was gone. With that information, Peter believed he had spotted a red figure hanging around when he went to work. El was content to mostly ignore the figure, especially since the hair raising on the back of her neck was the only indicator that she was not alone.
It was creepy and she was beginning to understand why someone might not want to stay in a place they felt was haunted. Whoever Damian had gotten to watch them, they needed to be where El could see and interact with them. None of this watching from the shadows stuff.
El called Mozzie. He was reluctant to help and he was ignoring calls from Damian. He had only answered the phone when he saw it was her calling. Damian was part of the vigilante world and it was not a world Mozzie was fond of. People died helping vigilantes.
But people died helping the FBI too. With that, El managed to convince Mozzie to come to her place and help ferret out the person watching them.
"It's a woman in a red hoodie," Mozzie said when she opened the back door to let him in. "I bet if I pull out a gun, you can get her in here."
"Won't she attack you?"
Mozzie shrugged. He was here so he might as well go all in, right?
"No way. Just point out her hiding place to me."
"But then she'll know we've been watching her. It might not be as easy next time!"
"So be it." El wasn't going to back down. She stared at Mozzie, hands on her hips and trying to channel as much of her husband's influence she could into her gaze.
Mozzie pointed out where the vigilante was hiding and El walked over to meet her latest guard.
The hooded vigilante didn't seem to want to stay hidden as soon as El revealed they knew where she was. She let herself be invited in.
"What's your name?" Mozzie demanded to know.
The woman crossed her arms, silently conveying 'really?'
"Mozzie means your name when dressed like this," El said.
Mozzie shrugged as if to respond 'sure, that's what I meant' although sarcastically.
The woman grinned, face lighting up under her hood and red domino mask. "I'm Red Hood, the Arrow version."
"What's the other version?" El asked.
"Murderous."
"He's like an uncle to me," Red Hood responded. "So when I wanted to make my own name, I took his. My father was hoping that would help Uncle to quit."
"It didn't work."
Red Hood glared at Mozzie. "I'm aware."
El chuckled to herself. They were interesting together. It was good that Mozzie hadn't left yet.
"So you were assigned to watch over us while Damian and the group goes after the League of Shadows?"
Red Hood nodded. "Mar'i's a close friend and Damian's... Damian. If they trust me to watch over their friends, I won't let them down."
Mozzie was kind of impressed.
"How do you feel about them dating?" El asked.
There was a pause. El and Mozzie shared a look because she didn't know.
"Huh. They're pretty good together."
Peter had barely been in his office five minutes before Diana knocked on the door. She remained standing when invited in, although she locked the door behind her.
"You know something."
"I know a lot of things," Peter responded. It was part of his job after all. "Which thing are you talking about?"
"Neal Caffrey. Vanished from our systems and our lives overnight. You had one day of freak out and then nothing." Diana was grinning because she knew she was right. "You know what happened."
Peter didn't know how to explain this. Or how he could explain it. That Neal had been a spy? That Neal was associated with vigilantes and superheroes? That he was really the son of a famous billionaire?
"I know some," Peter responded carefully. "Enough to know that Neal will return only if he wants to." The time where Peter could arrest him was over.
Not that he would have any issue handing over Neal's case to the higher ups if it became apparent that he was breaking the law, outside of the vigilantism.
Diana raised an eyebrow. Peter shook his head.
"It's not my story to tell. I have tracking on Neal so I'll try and get him to explain as much as he's comfortable with to you when he returns." Diana was really interested now. Peter had no idea how to curb that enthusiasm. "I mean it, Diana. Stay out of it for now."
For a moment, Peter thought that Diana would refuse. Then she grinned.
"Whatever you say, Boss. Although it's nice to see that some things don't change. You still have a tracker on Neal Caffrey then?"
Peter rolled his eyes and kicked Diana out of his office.
