Author's Note:
Hello again people!
I just want to say thanks for the reviews/follow/favourite and especially thanks to the support I have gotten, it's amazing how some strangers on the internet can really brighten up my day so thanks.
A couple of weeks ago I moved to my very own aparment which is both good cause it gives me the peace and quiet I need for my writing but it has also been really bad for my mental health.
On a more positive note, I'm getting a cat this Saturday (a cat that happens to be one of the kittens our family cat gave birth too) and I'm really excited for his arrival.
I'm also very inspired in general right now so I'm hoping to update this story again in maybe a week or so.
Okay enough about my life and on to the story.
Thanks for reading :)

CHAPTER 16

It was very hard for him to comfort Elizabeth and make her believe that it was okay, especially since she kept trying to apologize for Neal's words as if she was directly responsible for what her kid said and did.
Peter guessed that her ex-boyfriends was the reason to her being so used to apologizing.
They had sounded like the kind of people who thought that misbehaving children always equaled bad parents.
Peter, however knew that it wasn't always the case, it had been one of the first things he had learned after all; that kids could be both adorable little angels and horrifying little demons.

"Elizabeth, it's okay."

Peter promised her for probably the 100th time, but Elizabeth didn't listen to him.

"I'm sorry I should have-"

He interrupted her by gently grabbing her shoulders and making her look at him with those stunning, blue eyes.

"You're a good mother, Elizabeth."

Her beautiful eyes filled with tears again and there was something about the look on her face that made him believe that no one had ever told her that before, and he made a promise to himself that he would tell her that every single time that she needed to hear it.
Elizabeth gave him a gentle kiss before she started to wipe away the tears.
It seemed as if his words had finally made Elizabeth stop apologizing and realize that Peter was in no way blaming her for her son's behaviour.

"I'm going upstairs to talk to Neal."
"Are you sure about that, Peter? I'm pretty sure that he's still mad."
"I know but I still want to talk to him."

She gave him a look that yet again told him that she didn't think that it was a good idea at all, but then she still wished him good luck before he walked upstairs to face the little rascal.

After knocking several times without receiving an answer, Peter opened the door and fully expected to see the kid lying on the bed, sulking but instead he was just met by an empty room.
His heart started to beat faster in his chest while he stepped inside the room, trying to convince himself that the child was probably just hiding and there was no need for panic.

"I come in peace."

Peter said, just in case the child was hiding in order to do a sneak attack or something like that.

"Neal, I just want to talk to you."

He continued when no boy was seen nor heard, and when he yet again received no answer he started to check every possible hiding spot in the room but came up empty.
The panic started to set in but he tried to calm himself down by reminding himself that this was Neal, was that kid ever where he was supposed to be?
Peter walked out of the room and started to check every other room, but Neal wasn't in the bathroom, he wasn't under Peter's bed and he wasn't hiding in the hallway closet.
It wasn't until he had checked out every single place that could hid a six-year-old, that he was forced to realize that Neal wasn't there and now he had to walk downstair and tell Elizabeth that her son had somehow gone missing.

Elizabeth smiled at him when he rejoined her in the kitchen and he really wished that he wasn't forced to take that dazzling smile away.

"How did it go?"

Peter took a deep breath which caused Elizabeth to tense, sensing that something was up.

"What did he do?"
"Neal wasn't there."
"What?"

Elizabeth's voice was filled with disbelief, she was probably thinking that he must have heard him wrong.

"I checked everywhere but he was not there."

Elizabeth's face went completely blank for a couple of seconds as she realized that she had heard him right and that her beloved little child was really gone.
Then she started to move, she bolted up the stairs and he could hear her call out for Neal as she ran through the different rooms, first she called his name in a very sweet, loving tone, then a stern one and then finally a desperate one.
Peter was just about to go upstairs again when he was struck by a sudden realization.
He looked around him and found that Neal wasn't the only one that was absent, the golden retriever was nowhere to be seen.
Had they really been so caught up with the crying and the comforting that they hadn't noticed the disappearance of both the kid and the dog?

"Satchmo, come here boy!"

He called out but the usual sound of claws on wooden floor wasn't heard.

"Satchmo, do you want to go for a walk?"

Nothing and no one could come between Satchmo and his walk, even if the dog had been trapped somewhere he would have been howling by now, and the absence of a howl was the ultimate proof that the dog was really gone as well.
The only ways out of the house, that didn't evolve getting a tiny six-year-old to lift a 30 kg dog out the window, was the front door and the back door.
Since Elizabeth and Peter had been sitting by the back door, the only option left was that Neal and Satch had managed to sneak out the front door and done so completely unnoticed by the adults.

Peter rushed out the front door, looking around him as he crossed the street to talk to the FBI agent that was still watching the house, in case Scarface decided to pay a visit.
The agent rolled down the window and smiled at him.

"Good afternoon, agent Burke."
"Did you see Neal and Satchmo leave the house?"

He asked, not wasting any time on greetings.

"Yeah they walked out just a couple of minutes ago. I asked the kid if he was supposed to be outside alone and he said that you guys had allowed him to walk the dog around the block."
"And you believed him?"

The agent's face suddenly turned a shade of red as he realized how irresponsible it would be to allow the small child to walk a big dog all on his own, even if it was just around the block.
All it would take was one little squirrel, another dog or any other distractions for Satchmo to pull and send Neal flying to the ground.

"They walked that way."

The agent informed him with a point of his finger before Peter hurried inside to inform the worried, sobbing mother what had happened.
Elizabeth decided to stay in the house in case her precious baby came back while Peter got into the car, hoping to find Neal and Satchmo before anyone else did.