Author's Note: Surprise! I got really inspired all of the sudden and managed to get another chapter together and I hope you will like.

I would like to thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites and then I would also like to wish you all a happy new year and hope that 2018 will be a great year for all of us :D

CHAPTER 11

The next morning Peter had to force a sleepy, grumpy Neal into the car while he himself had needed two cups of coffee just to be able to function.
None of them had been able to get a good night's sleep, Peter couldn't fall asleep because the thought of having a mole was eating him up alive and Neal had nightmares about his mother being killed.
Peter wouldn't mind staying home and sleep all day, but he had to get to work, now that he had new important information, and before that he wanted to stop by Neal's school to update the teacher about the situation as well as pick up some things for the kid to do during the day.
Since he didn't dare to have the child anywhere but by his side, he had to at least make sure that Neal was entertained so that he wouldn't complain or wander off.
Once at the school he left Neal out on the playground, with clear instructions to find him or one of the teachers if he saw anyone who shouldn't be there, while he went inside.
It felt like the safest option right now, he would be safer on the playground with other children and a couple of teacher than he would be waiting in the car or even having an agent watching him.
Neal's teacher was very understanding of the situation and she gladly handed him some work that could last for a week, if Neal needed to stay out of school for a longer time, but not before she talked about how well the boy was doing in school, especially praising his art.
Despite the fact that Neal wasn't even his son, Peter couldn't help but feel proud.
When he made it outside he again he spotted Neal talking to three other boys, who looked like they were a little older than him.
Peter were slowly walking towards them, not wanting to interrupt their conversation, when one of the older boys, without any warning, pushed Neal to the ground while the other boys started to laugh.

"Hey!"

Peter called out, instinctively reaching for his gun but stopping himself in the last second, realizing that pulling a gun on a school playground wasn't a good idea.
The three boys turned around and their faces filled with fear before they scattered and ran away.
Neal got up from the ground and at least he didn't look like he was hurt, he just looked annoyed.

"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine can we go now?"

Neal brushed off the dirt from his clothes and Peter was reminded of Neal's scraped hands and knees a couple of days ago, when he thought that maybe someone had pushed the kid.

"Are they usually mean to you?"
"Please don't get involved in this."

Peter's protective instincts had been activated and if it weren't for the fact that it was kids, he would have gladly found them and taught them a lesson for hurting the kid he had sworn to protect.

"Neal, if they're being mean to you I have to know."
"No you don't, you're not my dad so you don't have to care about me!"

Peter was taken aback by the anger in Neal's voice and he wanted to question why the kid had gotten so upset but Neal decided to take off running towards the car and Peter had no choice but to drop the subject for now and follow him.

When they walked into the bullpen that morning, Peter no longer felt the same warm, happy feeling he usually got in the place that was more or less his second home, instead he felt like he was surrounded by enemies.
He looked at the people he used to trust with his life and wondered which one of them had been betraying him, and he realized that he couldn't even suspect any of them.
He had never seen them as anything else but a sort of family, and then one bit of information had managed to shatter that.
There were only two people in the bullpen that he could look at and not see an enemy, Jones and Diana would never do something like that, it was unthinkable.
Therefore, he brought Neal and the only two people in this office that he trusted into his office to tell them about yesterday's events.
Jones and Diana were just as shocked as Peter had been when Mozzie dropped the bomb on him and just like he had, they questioned if it could really be true.

"I'm afraid so."

He said when Jones asked if he was sure.
He had spent hours and hours thinking of it, but Mozzie had been certain that the information was correct and it just made sense.
This Scarface guy were always a step ahead of them and it was the obvious explanation to why he knew when they followed through on his demands or not.
His two confidants looked out at the bullpen and he could see the same distrust on their faces that he felt when he walked through the doors.

"First of all, I want to find out who left the note in Neal's backpack yesterday, if it was our mole or one of the bad guys."

Jones volunteered to go to the school and ask around while Diana volunteered to stay in Peter's office to keep Neal company.
Peter meanwhile decided to question the agent that had been watching the school for the past days, suspecting that he could be innocent since he hadn't been around the office when they were discussing the notes.

"Neal, remember that right now you shouldn't trust anyone but me, Jones and Diana, okay?"

He never thought he would have to warn the kid about his own agents but he also couldn't risk anyone getting to the boy.

"I won't even talk to anyone else, I promise."

Neal said before turning towards Diana.

"Diana, can you help me with this math problem?"

He asked and pointed at the math book he had started to work with during the agents' conversation.
Diana happily went over to the boy and started to help him, and Peter could leave the office knowing that Neal would be in safe hands.

Peter told the agents that he would call them in one by one to have a conversation about their wellbeing, it wasn't unusual since they were very keen on making sure that the agents were happy and felt satisfied with their workplace environment.
It was a much safer way to go then to suddenly wanting to talk to agents in private, because that would most likely make the mole nervous.
He started with agent Ford, who had been the one watching Neal's school.
Peter decided to start with asking the man about yesterday but he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary.

"And you watched the school all the time?"
"Yes, didn't take my eyes off it. Well, except when I went home for my lunch break."
"Lunch break?"

Peter hadn't known anything about a lunch break, as far as he had been concerned Ford had been eating lunch in his car just like a classic stakeout.

"Yeah? You sent agent Collins over yesterday saying that I deserved a lunch break and that he would take over?"

Agent Ford sounded nervous all of the sudden but he seemed more nervous about going against the order of never leaving the school than him having something to hide.
He should be nervous, considering that Peter had never sent Collins anywhere, come to think of it agent Collins hadn't been around the office at all yesterday.
Peter dismissed Ford before he leaned back in his chair, looking at agent Collins who were sitting at his desk, slowly typing on the computer.
He didn't know the agent that well, he just knew that the 40-year-old agent still lived with his mother and that he was what some people would call weak-minded.
In that way he was the perfect candidate, as long as Peter had known him he had never taken any own initiatives and he was easily influenced by others, and he could imagine that it would be easy to manipulate or blackmail the man.
Peter called in some other agents before Collins, just so that he wouldn't suspect that the conversation with Ford had led to revealing that he'd been at the school yesterday.
He was just about to fetch Collins when Jones called to inform him that a teacher and a janitor had both seen an agent in the school building yesterday.
The agent they had described did not sound like agent Ford at all, but it did sound exactly like Collins.

He made the decision to wait for Jones to return before he talked to Collins.
One thing you could say about the agent was that he was a very friendly guy, and it was hard for Peter to understand that the man could ever be their mole, manipulated by someone else or not.

"I know you were at the school yesterday."

Peter said to immediately let Collins know what this was really about and the agent paled.

"I just wanted to let Ford get a break, it's not that fun sitting in a car all day. So, I just took his place for an hour or so."

It sounded innocent enough, like the man was just doing a favor but Peter knew better than to trust him.

"So, you just sat in the car the whole time?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Two people saw you in the school building."
"Well, uhm I can explain."

He said while he started to fidget with his tie.
Agent Collins looked up at the two agents and for a second it looked like he was about to get up and run before he did something neither of them expected, agent Collins started to cry.

"I'm sorry."

He managed to say between the sobs before wiping some snot away with the sleeve of his shirt.

"I put that horrible note in the backpack. I'm sorry."

Even if Peter was angry at the man, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him at the same time.
The agent was clearly regretting what he'd done and his reaction strengthened Peter's suspicion about Scarface blackmailing or manipulating him into this.
He wasn't fond on that idea, but at least it was better than one of his agents going against him willingly.

"Have you been giving Scarface information about the case?"

He received a nod as an answer and he leaned back in his chair while he waited for the agent to calm down so that they could have an actual conversation with the sobbing man.

"How long?"

Peter asked once Collins had calmed down.

"Since the first robbery."

It was unbelievable, one of their own agents had been feeding information to their perp all along, no wonder they had such a hard time catching the guy.

"Why?"
"My mother is very sick, agent Burke. I couldn't pay for her hospital bills, but then he showed up at the hospital offering to pay me for information. I couldn't say no, I love my mother very dearly."

Peter slammed his fist on the table, surprising both himself and Collins.
He could understand the desperation Collins was in, but it didn't justify what he did.
It didn't justify that Elizabeth had been taken from him, or that she had been taken from her son.

"So, does Neal, but because of you his mother is in the hands of some psychopath!"
"I'm so sorry. I had no choice but to tell him."
"What do you mean?"
"He asked me who provided the phantom sketch and I had no choice but to tell them about Elizabeth."

Peter just froze, trying to process what the man had just said.
Agent Collins was not only their mole but he was direct responsible for Elizabeth getting kidnapped.
All sympathy he ever felt for the man was gone and he saw red, he lunged at the man and if Jones hadn't been there to stop him in the last second Agent Collins would be a very sorry man.

"You better tell me where to find Scarface!"

He shouted at him, no longer caring about if anyone could hear him.

"I can do better, sir. I can tell you where Elizabeth is."

Author's Note 2: I would just like to say that I hope you didn't think that solving the mole situation was too rushed, I just wanted to hurry it along so that I can bring Elizabeth back :)