They were the last to be on the scene. Ambulances and police cars had already surrounded the street corner where a black sedan had crashed into a wall. Neal ran forward, only to be stopped by an officer. "Sorry, Sir"
"I know her!"
"FBI, Peter Burke, this is our case", he declared with the badge.
The officer glanced at them both before allowing them to pass. Neal ran forward to the car where they had just taken out the second person in the car. A young woman was carried to the ambulance with blood dripping down. He rushed to her side, "Wait! I know her!"
She was completely unconscious, and Neal was pushed back by one of them the men around her, "I am sorry, sir. She needs immediate treatment. We have to take her to the hospital now!"
Neal watch them drive away as he stood, frozen in a moment of the possibility that this was the last time he would see her alive.
"What happened?" Peter whispered as Diana finally joined them in the Hospital where Peter and Neal had waited since they arrived. It was critical, as the doctor had told them before going in, and it remained so.
"She crashed the car", Diana glanced at Neal before she continued, "By the look of it, she pulled the steering wheel so the car crashed... She called from his phone... They obviously didn't get far"
Neal sat down in distress, "Why would she do that?"
"She was getting away. She's a clever girl, Neal. She knew that she couldn't let this go too far. She was abducted by the Kenny Long, who happens to be the brother..."
"Gerald Long", Peter finished for her. "He is a big fish in the gambling sea..."
"And he doesn't know how bad this has gotten for him", Diana smirked. "We know where he is. Kenny wouldn't speak but Jake open up like a gossip magazine."
Peter glanced back at Neal, "Are you going to be okay?"
"Go, Peter. Bring him in", Neal nodded.
He had not imagined that it would have been worse to wait alone. When Peter left, Neal was relieved to be alone without his comforting but then everything became louder. There were times when he thought someone told him that she was dead. Other times it was as if he could hear the long tone of a flatline from the heart monitors, and every time he fell back in the chair, trying to catch his breath.
"I will never leave you, Angie Noam". His own words were beginning to haunt him in the silence. He had promised this to her when they got back together, and he had never thought that it would be necessary to get such a promise from Angie. He had always thought that he, at some point in life, would be in that room while everyone he loved would stand here, praying for him.
"The more I know you, the more I know that I don't deserve you because I am too afraid to live, too afraid to love and much too afraid to be loved", she had told him this when he confronted her. Would she be too afraid to fight now? Would she fight to live? Would she fight to be with him again?
"I am sorry about Kate", she had looked him straight in the eyes and apologized. Was she to suffer the same fate?
He buried his face in his hands, mumbling, "you can't leave me, Angie. You can't leave me".
Concussion, lost of blood and shards of glass that had cut through her chest. The doctor had not said anything about her chances to live so when Elisabeth, Mozzie and Daisy rushed toward him, he had nothing to tell him. He glanced at them, "I don't know".
"She is strong, Neal" Elisabeth put a hand on his shoulders. Daisy stared at him with big watery eyes, waiting for him to say something. He couldn't and repeated, "I don't know".
"They got him", Mozzie interrupted. "Gerald Long. Peter called me. They have him now. They shot some of his guards in the way in and caught him doing business with other scum, who decided to turn on Gerald the moment they caught him."
"Good", Neal wished he could show more enthusiasm but his heart was occupied by Angie only.
"Was I too late?" Daisy looked down on the floor.
"No, Daisy, you weren't. You were right, and you saved her" Neal took her in his arms and stroke her hair back, "You saved Angie", he whispered to her between sobs.