Reporting and Vigilance

Walking into the FBI building with slumped shoulders and a distressed appearance, Peter suddenly remembered he was still partially covered in dry blood. The whispers were already spreading through the building as people noticed he was returning from the court in such a state. Ignoring it for the moment, he had to inform his team before he retrieved his back up suit.

Riding the elevator, he tried to come up with a way to break the news. All he could come up with was telling Hughes first, before having his support to tell the rest of the team.

Diana wasn't going to be happy with him, because he hadn't called her yet, but so much had been happening and he didn't know what to say, even now when he generally understood what was going on.

Reaching his floor and exiting the elevator, Peter heard the silence follow him as he walked through the room and up the stairs. As he closed the door to Hughes' office, he heard the break as whispers started below.

"We messed this up big time… I messed this up," He entered his boss's office with hardly a knock.

Hughes was only slightly startled because he had noticed Peter's entrance below when everything went silent. Closing his folder, Hughes focused his attention on Peter knowing the agent wasn't going to be so flustered for nothing. "Why don't you start from the beginning?" He directed Peter to take a seat.

Forcing himself to settle down again, Peter took the seat as directed. "Everything blew up today and now we are being directed to solve the cases and finish everything." He held up his hand, "Start from the beginning, I know."

Breathing deeply to calm down, Peter organized his thoughts for a moment before getting started. Running through the general gist of the story, as he would have to repeat it again shortly, Peter filled Hughes in on what he had learned.

As the story progressed, Hughes became more and more surprised and better understood why Peter was reacting so strongly, "I see. How is Bryce?"

"Not good," Peter didn't want to say Bryce's condition. He wouldn't be able to hold it together after those pictures hit him again. If he bided his time, then maybe he could retreat to clean up after telling the team. That way he would have some private time to pull himself together from rehashing his emotions.

"That blood… is it Bryce's?" Hughes asked to get a better picture of why he was such a mess.

"No, one of the guys who shot Bryce tried to put a bullet through my head, because I was outnumbered and unarmed. However, Bryce had backup including a sniper. He saved my life, but I still got covered with blood spatter," Peter said.

Deciding it was best to tell the team and allow Peter his retreat to focus on solving the case, Hughes directed Peter to join him in standing, "Are you ready to tell the team?"

"The sooner they are told, the sooner we can get to work settling things down. Besides, we are also expecting information from the other agencies, so we might as well be ready when it gets here." Peter took a few moments to prepare before moving to the door.

While the others talked, Chuck and Sarah didn't spend long in Bryce's room. They were going to be stationed right outside his door, so they planned on making many smaller trips to visit.

Reaching out to gently lay his hand on Bryce's shoulder, Chuck wanted to let his friend know he was present, "Hey, buddy. This time you aren't going to wake up in enemy hands, or without the face of a friend. We are going to be standing guard, and the others are practically camping out in the waiting room. Get your rest, but don't forget to wake up for us, we are all looking forward to talking to you." With a gentle squeeze for a physical connection to the comatose man, Chuck released his hold and went out to take his place as guardian. He wasn't going to fail his friend this time.

Since she was alone, Sarah took advantage of the opportunity to be a little more personal with her former partner and ex-boyfriend. "I never thanked you for sending Chuck the Intersect. Your actions drove me to follow it and caused me to meet him. It probably wasn't your intention to introduce us, but I'm grateful all the same." She wasn't sure what to do, so she mimicked Chuck in a more feminine way of stroking Bryce's shoulder before walking out to the hallway.

Stepping out onto the landing, Hughes waved for the rest of the team to pay attention. It was time to get answers.

Eagerly focusing on them, the agents looked for the real story instead of their speculation.

Giving Peter the floor as the eye witness, Hughes let him tell what had happened in his own words.

"I messed up pretty big on this one, and we were all taken for a spin. There have been three cases we suspected Neal of, and he has been virtually ostracized because of our belief in his guilt… but we were wrong," he leaned against the railing with his fingers curled around it for support.

"Did the trial go badly?" was asked.

"It didn't even get started. Agent Larkin's case exploded first," Peter answered as he forced himself to glance over the team. He kept his eyes from landing on any single person but tried to show a strength he wasn't feeling.

Holding up his hand, Hughes quieted the team's curiosity, while Peter shifted his life grip on the railing before continuing. "Neal Caffrey was murdered several years ago before he appeared in New York, but after he forged the bonds. From what I understand of the circumstances, the murderers slaughtered him and his entire family, despite them being split up. Because they were all either in State's Evidence or Wit-sec, the government launched an investigation and placed agent Bryce Larkin, Neal's doppelganger, as the decoy to draw the killers out. He found them, but today the killers made their run at the courthouse and got him." Shuddering, Peter found the images floating through his mind again. "Bryce was shot repeatedly and has a head injury from when he collided with the floor. Now he is in a coma… with no guarantee of waking up."

Seeing Peter's distress, Hughes gave him a moment to deal with the pictures flooding through his mind by taking the next stage. "Since agent Larkin was a part of a multi-agency task force, some of the evidence has been withheld from us up to this point in order to keep him as safe as possible. Now we'll be getting the full picture to close these cases as quickly as possible with the help of the other agencies. The evidence is to be expected at any time."

As Peter regained his focus, Hughes let him take the lead again while the team looked for more details. What followed was a sort of question and answer session.

"How did he survive the attack at all?" Jones asked in wonder. Several shots would be fatal and should have killed Bryce, not left him in a coma.

"He was wearing full body armor because he knew an attack was likely. Taking so many bullets caused enough damage his system swelled up, and combined with the head trauma, he laid there and suffocated while we couldn't do anything about it. I watched him die three feet from me." Shuddering again, he finished answering. "His other friends and I teamed up to bring him back."

"Is there any further news on agent Smith?" Someone else asked.

"He is the one who put two rounds into Bryce's back. I knocked him out and then Bryce's counterparts knocked him out again when he regained consciousness. Now he is in the custody of some agency or another, Casey was the agent in charge of handling the arrests." Peter was no longer so concerned about the former agent. He would face charges for what he did.

Finishing their questions, the team gained a general understanding of what all had happened and realized some of the trauma Peter was dealing with. Transitioning into a work mode, the team began shifting their caseloads around and preparing for the coming slew of additional work.

This shift in focus allowed Peter the leniency to retreat to the locker rooms where he could get clean clothes and a hot shower.

Going to visit Bryce, Elizabeth settled into the seat next to his bed. It was arranged so she could converse with him, but also to keep her out of the way of the machines. Reaching out and touching his hand, she covered it with her own as she tried to come up with what to say.

"I'm sorry, Bryce. When Peter said the treasure had been stolen, and he suspected you of committing the crime, I couldn't help but believe it too." Her eyes were getting bright with unshed tears. "Over the last few months there wasn't a single time where I took the effort to see you, to defend you, or think of you as much of anything beyond the con artist who was making life difficult for Peter and I. Now I know it wasn't fair to think so badly of you, but at the time…" As her eyes continued to get brighter, they reached a point where they began to overflow. With tears beginning to stream down her face, she started to use the tissues in an effort to catch them.

Not knowing if he could hear her, she figured it wouldn't hurt if she continued in her apology. If nothing else, it would give her practice for when he woke up. "I hope you will forgive me when you wake up. Now I know more of who you really are, I would like to be friends again."

Having taken her first run at apologizing to him, she switched to spending the rest of her time talking about possible plans that could become a reality in the future, things she figured Bryce would enjoy.

Thinking on a more positive topic stemmed the flow of tears and gave way to tentative smiles. There wasn't a specific reason to feel hope, but making plans to please her friend did help. Being a planner, it was what she did for a living, so the normalcy helped to soothe her nerves.

When her turn ended, she returned to the waiting room where she would be spending as much time as possible until Bryce woke up.

At first, Peter enjoyed the feeling of being clean as the blood washed down the drain. It was bad enough to be covered in his own blood, but for it to be someone else's made him feel even dirtier. Once there was nothing left to scrub off, he was in a hurry to get dressed and return to his office. Trashing the tarnished suit, he grabbed the spare and was soon dressed.

With a quick stride, he was soon back up to the office and knocking on Hughes' door, "Has the evidence arrived yet?"

Looking up, Hughes studied his second in command for a moment. He looked a great deal better simply having the blood washed off and a change of clean clothes, but he was more concerned with the man himself. Observing him, he noticed his hands were steadier and his general countenance seemed to be somewhat relaxed. Feeling more at ease, Hughes answered the question. "No, it hasn't been seen yet, but I presume it will arrive soon enough. Why don't you write your statement while you wait? It will give you something to do and get the task over with so you won't have to delve back into it later."

Nodding his head, Peter knew it was a wise recommendation. If he worked through the worst of it as soon as possible, then he would hopefully recover from it sooner without rehashing it to tear any progress apart. "I'll have it written within the hour. Thanks, for helping earlier," he tagged on. His boss's presence had been a great support.

"Anytime. I just hope the kid doesn't keep bringing trouble like this down on himself," Hughes answered.

Paling, Peter's reaction prompted Hughes to question him. His response was rather short, "It's the third time he died and was revived."

Frowning, it wasn't a good answer. "Let me know if there is anything else we should be on the lookout for. It sounds like Bryce is just as much of a magnet for trouble as his character." Hughes left the conversation so Peter didn't need to answer. He could tell his agent still needed to face what had happened and delaying it wasn't going to do any good.

"Will do," Peter was rather short as he left the office. Returning to his own space, he powered up the computer and settled into his task. It wasn't going to be pleasant, but it needed to be done.

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