Notes: New story. I've actually finished this one all the way and am trying something new with my way of writing and uploading. This is so that I hopefully don't burn out the way I did last year.

This story come from this idea: what if Neal was Bryce's ghost while he was in a coma?

Enjoy.


Chapter 1


Sometimes, when Neal went to sleep, he would hear voices talking to him.

"-, wake up, Buddy."


Chuck wished he could feel silly as he asked his old friend to wake up, but all he felt was sadness and regret. Bryce had been lying in this hospital for years without a name or a visitor. Now that they had found him, Chuck took some time every week to sit by his side. He would ask Bryce to wake up and then launch into stories from work and of his week.

Sometimes the work stories were best, especially when Jeff or Lester did something crazy. Sometimes, Chuck just liked telling Bryce about the newest game to come out and how he enjoyed, or did not enjoy, it.


Neal smiled and hummed softly to himself.

"I didn't know you liked mortgage fraud," Diana joked.

Neal immediately realised he was humming and stopped at the same time. He hadn't even noticed!

Hiding his panic under a smug grin, he commented, "maybe I'm trying to mess with Peter's head."

Thankfully, the joke landed as intended.

"Instead of being confused, I think Peter would just give you all the mortgage fraud cases, just to see how long it'd take until you crack."

Neal laughed with her. "True."

As Diana returned to her work, Neal drifted into thought. He was a conman, trained to control his emotional state. He wasn't supposed to just start humming for no reason.


Chuck was talking about the recent lost shipment at the Buy More. He got into the story as he described Morgan rushing around, hoping that Sam had just found the boxes and placed the merchandise out on the shelves without marking them off.

"He's running around, trying to be responsible and just crying out about 'the good old days', when he didn't care about work so much."

Chuck glanced at Bryce as he laughed at the memory. Then he choked as his heart jumped into his throat. Two blue orbs were staring unblinkingly back at him.

"Bryce!"

Bryce blinked. There was a button Chuck was meant to press - he needed to call a nurse or doctor!

Bryce recognised Chuck as his friend tried to soothe him. He didn't know where he was or how he got here.

The thought 'where's Peter?' floated through his head before a wave of tiredness made it fade into the back of his mind.

Action exploded into the room as noise and movement filled his vision. Bryce's body felt weak as he tried to summon the strength to move or fight back. But he couldn't even lift a finger. A moan made its way past his throat as his eyes closed.


Neal woke with a shudder. He was in his apartment at June's. The lovely lady herself was out on the balcony.

"Morning June," he greeted. He tried not to show how unsettled he felt. Something was off and he knew it but he couldn't quite understand what.

June jumped. "Neal! I thought you had left for work!"

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't see you in the apartment when I came to wake you."

Neal was sure he had woken up on his bed. The sheets had been tossed to the side so he should have been easy to see, as embarrassing as it would be to have been seen.

"I guess we missed each other," he laughed. He put aside his worries as he didn't want to worry June.


Mozzie hummed, deep in thought over what Neal just shared.

"So, you were in a hospital and people were there? And you're certain it wasn't aliens?"

Neal sighed. Mozzie has already spent a few hours talking about the aliens and how it sounded like the stories about alien abduction.

"I'm sure. It wasn't aliens but it was something else."

"Repressed memories from your time as a government experiment?"

"I'm not a government experiment, Moz."

"Not that you remember!"

"I'm not a government experiment!" He was certain of it. Why did the titles for multiple government programs and experiments come to mind? It wasn't long enough for him to understand why he knew them but long enough for him to know he was not one.

Not him.

Neal groaned and ran his hands through his hair. What was going on?


Bryce's body was numb and yet, it ached. It took effort to open his eyes, to catalogue everything for Moz.

Moz?

There was no one around, unlike the last time he could remember waking up. Bryce huffed, through a throat so dry, it was burning. He hated hospitals.


Neal rubbed his eyes and stumbled to his feet.

"Ahh! Ghost!" Water was thrown at him. He blinked water out of his eyes and wiped it off his face. His attacker was Moz, who had been apologising for tossing holy water at him but also rambling about how Neal had appeared from nowhere!

"I was asleep."

"The apartment was empty, Neal!" If Moz was saying it then, as strange as it sounded, it was probably true. "Maybe you are a ghost," Mozzie mused, "and the hospital you were dreaming of was your last moments."

The idea was disturbing. "I'm not dead, Moz." He couldn't dispute the ghost idea. After all, he had been gone and there was a hospital on the other side.

He couldn't hide much from Moz. "Chuck is the only name I remember, " he said. "Although I'm certain my name isn't Neal in these dreams."

"That's a shame, I guess," Moz knew that Neal was attached to his name. "Is Chuck new information?"

The other place felt so real that it was becoming disturbing. Even though he had been happy to see Chuck, it was probably time to start solving this issue.

"New enough."

Mozzie ignored the implication that Neal had been keeping information from him. "I wonder what the anklet does during that time," he mused instead.

"If it stopped transmitting or went outside my range, it would alert Peter." Maybe this was just some kind of strange sleepwalking. "The anklet might show me moving around."

"This is true. But the Suit won't just share that with you."

"He would. He has before." Neal liked to go for runs and he sometimes used his tracking data to find places he hadn't explored or been to in a while.


There was nothing strange with Neal's tracking data. Except that Neal had Mozzie's testament that he hadn't been in his apartment like the data said.

Neal felt tired. Why was this happening? He closed his eyes and felt like he was floating away...


And crashing to the ground. His stomach rolled and his head throbbed.

"Bryce?" Chuck. Bryce forced his eyes open, glaring at the world.

"Are you really-" his voice cracked and he coughed. It ached and brought tears to his eyes.

Chuck sighed and muttered a Klingon passage which roughly translated to 'I'm taking this as a personal challenge (or fight)'. Basically, Klingon was their way of identifying Chuck. And Chuck knew he wouldn't be able to use the same phrase as before because it was a reply and could be copied by anyone after it was used in a CIA facility. Anyone could try and mimic it but only Chuck was fluent.

"Chuck," Bryce croaked out. his throat continued to burn and his head throbbed.

"Hey Buddy, how are you feeling?"

"Not all here," Bryce answered.

"That might be the drugs."

Bryce's eyes narrowed.

"I know you don't like drugs," Chuck laughed. "But you were asleep."

"Not right now," Bryce huffed, eyes drooping. He was getting tired. He yawned. "Stupid drugs."

Chuck was grinning stupidly at him as his eyes closed. Chuck's mouth was moving but Bryce didn't hear what he was saying.