Author's Note:
Hello again people!
I'm sorry for the late update, I started to write this chapter a long time ago but I never had the motivation to finish it.
Long story short (and without bothering you with my problems), I just wanted to say that I am in a pretty bad place mentally right now and I'm really struggling to see the meaning with everything, sadly that also includes that I'm not really seeing the point of me writing my fics.
That being said, I'm not going to give up on my fics but the updates may take longer depending on my mental state.
Motivating comments is appreciated but of course in no way necessary.

CHAPTER 32

It had been an absolutely exhausting morning.
Both Peter and Elizabeth had hoped that a good night's sleep would get Neal in a better mood, but the boy had proved them wrong.
Neal had started the day by trying every single trick in the book to avoid going to school, and when nothing had worked on them he had decided to throw an epic tantrum.
The kid was throwing things, stomping his foot, crying and yelling loud enough to make the neighbours think that someone was being murdered.
The worst part of it all was that it was pretty obvious that something had happened, and that he really didn't want to go back, but they had no way of helping him since he didn't want to tell them anything.
Elizabeth had even snuck out of the room and phoned Mrs. Fisher, but the teacher hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary and as far as she was concerned everything had been well yesterday.
They had no way of knowing if there was really an issue or if Neal was just trying to con them, so they decided to take him to school and hoped that maybe the realization that he would have to go back would make him speak up.
Since Elizabeth had an early meeting, Peter got the absolute joy of driving the kicking and screaming child to school, and he didn't know how many times he had to stop himself from yelling at the boy and instead calm himself down by counting to ten.
He had to remind himself several times that this was one of the aspects of taking care of a child, you couldn't always get the good parts.
Neal was still yelling, at least the kid had a good set of lungs, when they arrived at the school and apparently it was heard outside too based on the sympathetic look a mother gave him when she passed their car.

"Neal I will drop you off even if you're going to continue screaming."

Peter informed him and it was like turning off a switch, Neal went from full on temper tantrum to dead quiet in a second.

"Please Peter, can I go to work with you instead? I will be really good."
"You have to go to school, Neal."

Even if he wasn't too fond of leaving Neal in a place he didn't like, he couldn't bring the child to the bureau everyday either.
Neal needed his education and Peter needed to be able to work without any distractions.
He looked back at the kid and saw the sadness in his eyes and he tried to yet again figure out what the problem was and if there was someone being mean to the poor child, but Neal just kept shaking his head.
The clock was ticking and he had to give up on the interrogation for now if he didn't want to be late.
He hugged the child and placed a gentle kiss on top of his head before sending him off to the school, Neal didn't say goodbye instead the kid just walked over to the building, looking like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Peter was flipping through a folder, reading up on their latest case, when his phone rang.
He didn't even check the number, instead he just answered absentmindedly while reading about the valuable jewelries that had been stolen from a museum.
As soon as he heard Mrs. Fisher's voice, and the urgency in it, though the case was the last thing on his mind.
Mrs. Fisher started to nervously ramble but every single word she said after "Neal ran away" fell on deaf ears.
She was still talking but he couldn't focus, it was like the whole world had just stopped and he felt his entire body go limp with fear.
The thought of the little boy being God knows where, all alone and possibly hurt made him want to cry and throw up at the same time.
His mind suddenly imagined a scenario where Keller or James had kidnapped him again.
The thoughts were irrational, he knew that, both James and Keller were safely locked away, something he double checked every single day, but that didn't calm him down at all.
James and Keller were far from the only people that was capable of kidnapping or hurting an innocent child.
The thought of Neal being snatched away from them again scared the living daylight out of him and he knew that he had to find Neal as fast as possible.

Peter didn't even bother knocking before he rushed inside the residence of June Ellington.
He had called Elizabeth on the way here and she had immediately left her meeting to go and check the house, while Peter had hoped that the kid would go to the same place he had when he ran away the first time.

"Please tell that Neal is here."
"I'm afraid he's not."

June showed him a genuine worry, and he believed her.
He didn't think that she would hide him like she had done the last time.
If Neal wasn't here, then where else would he go?
The realization hit him like a ton of bricks and he felt incredibly stupid for not thinking of it before.
Of course, Neal would try to find his way to the hospital, especially since yesterday's visit had been cancelled.

Peter ran through the hospital halls, almost colliding with several people.
Some of them yelled angrily after him but he didn't listen to them, he didn't care about anything but finding Neal.
One of Mozzie's nurses saw him and walked towards him but he didn't even bother to greet her, instead he just rushed into the hospital room where he saw the runaway boy curled up under Mozzie's arm.
He couldn't say anything, he was afraid to say something because then he might breakdown, so he just walked over to the hospital bed and picked the boy up.
Peter hugged Neal tightly to his chest, and the kid hesitated a bit before he hugged back.
After a minute or two the boy pulled back and looked at the agent.

"Peter are you okay?"
"No I am not okay!"

He answered, and Neal flinched at his raised voice.
Peter took a deep breath to calm himself down, because now that he had Neal in his arms and knew that he was safe and unharmed, the anger came.
Neal decided to change the subject and pointed at the bed.
Peter looked over at the bed and noticed for the first time since entering the room that the man was actually awake, he still looked like death warmed over but he was awake.

"Look Peter, look! Mozzie is awake!"

Mozzie flinched at Neal's way too loud voice but the boy didn't seem to notice how tired Mozzie was.

"Neal, I think we should let Mozzie sleep now."
"But he just woke up!"

Neal argued, not wanting to leave Mozzie now that the man had finally woken up.

"I know but his body is still tired, okay?"

Neal didn't look happy at all but he finally agreed to let him sleep and Mozzie gave Peter a thankful smile before he, now free from the loud and excited child, could fall asleep again.
Once in the hallway, Peter led them over to a couple of chairs where they sat down, and he could notify his wife that Neal was safe before he started to talk to him.

"Neal you are not allowed to run away from school like that."
"I'm sorry but it's good that I did because I was here when Mozzie woke up."

The boy didn't sound sorry at all, he just sounded happy about the coincidence and it was as if he didn't understand the seriousness of the situation at all.

"Neal you shouldn't have left school all on your own like that."
"I used to be alone before, remember?"
"Yes but that wasn't okay Neal. You should always have an adult with you, you're just a child and anything could have happened to you."
"But I'm fine Peter."

Peter had to pause and take a deep breath in order to not start yelling at the kid for having such a nonchalant attitude.
Getting angry wouldn't help the situation at all, it would probably just make it so much worse, so instead he tried to calmly make Neal understand.

"Neal you ran away before and you've been kidnapped twice. Our first thought wasn't that you were fine, our first thought was that someone was going to hurt you again.

Elizabeth and I were really worried about you, pal"
Peter could see the exact second that it Neal and he really understood what he had done and how it had affected them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think I just ran."
"Why did you run?"

Neal went dead quiet and when Peter repeated the question Neal just shook his head.
Peter sighed when he realized that the kid was going to be silent yet again, and he made a mental note to call his teacher later and actually listen to her words this time.

"Come on, we have to go home and prove to Elizabeth that you're alive."

Neal gave him a small smile before he got up from the chair and grabbed Peter's hand.