It still struck Agent Moreau as odd that Larkin hadn't tried anything yet, but maybe he was waiting for the right moment, or something Robert didn't know about. He couldn't imagine what; the team would arrive any minute, and the spy would be carted off to a much more secure facility. It was not as if this place wasn't secure, but one couldn't be too careful when dealing with a man like Larkin; he had already slipped out of the Ring's hands more than once.

Robert was beginning to become annoyed with his daughter. She kept telling him that she had made a mistake, and this man was not the agent the Ring was after, but he knew better than to believe her. Kate had fallen for Larkin, which wouldn't have been hard, and now he was fooling her into thinking he really was this 'Caffrey' character. How dense did he think they were? It wouldn't be long before Agent Larkin told them the truth, in fact, in a days time, he will be willing to tell the Ring his whole life story - not to mention the ones of his fellow agents. Those men at the facility were that good. Now, Agent Moreau could only hope his daughter didn't do anything stupid to endanger the mission.

*******

"Neal?"

It was barely a whisper, yet all the same he heard it. Night had barely fallen, and he had been waiting for the people Robert - or Agent Moreau - had told him about. The man had not reappeared, and Neal was still on his side; his shoulder aching and his jaw stiff with pain. He could hear people, lots of them, pacing around the building, and occasionally, a few would check in on him to make sure he had not escaped. Guards, he thought.

Neal had closed his eyes, hoping to fall into some sort of sleep when he heard the voice - her voice. At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him, until he saw her.

"Kate!" He kept his voice down as much as he could.

"Are you alright, did they hurt you?" She was by his side in a flash, cutting the zip ties that bound him to the chair.

He stood up stiffly, and despite what Robert had said, he was overjoyed to see Kate, and not just because she had freed him.

"I- I'm fine," He managed, "We need to get out of here." Neal took her warm hand in his, and recalled with a jolt that it had been almost four years since they had touched.

"Follow me, I know a way out. I promise that I'll explain everything as soon as we're safe."

Kate led him to a utility closet near the back of the building, and opened it to reveal a mop bucket flipped upside down and insolation scattered over the floor. Neal looked up at the opening in the ceiling that had been jaggedly cut away. After giving her a boost, Neal pulled himself up after Kate, using the mop bucket as a stool.

They crawled silently through the cramped, dust filled space, not daring to make a sound for fear of someone hearing. Neal was just wondering how Kate had managed to do all of this when she stopped; they were at a dead end, or so he thought. Kate pushed on the sheet metal carefully, revealing the night sky. The drop the the ground was shortened by the stack of wooden pallets under the opening. It looked as though she had thought all of the escape through.

Neal looked around, eyes adjusting easily to the dark after being shut up in a light deprived warehouse. They were in the middle of a warehouse district, the metal buildings looming around them in every direction. They ran silently through the ratty alleys between the buildings for what seemed like miles, before stopping to catch their breath.

"Kate, you have to tell me what's going on." Neal said between gasps.

"I'm so sorry, Neal," she said, obviously distraught, "It's all my fault. I told them you were Agent Bryce Larkin, and I thought you were, just like they did."

"Who's they?"

"The Ring, even I don't know the details, but my father is a part of them. They're some type of anti-government. The agent they're looking for has something they want, and they think you're him."

"So everything was a setup? The music box, Fowler, our relationship?"

Neal could hardly bring himself to say those last words, but he needed to know the truth, even if he couldn't bear thinking the woman he was in love with did not love him back.

"Fowler was just a pawn, but the music box was real - it had intel that the Ring needed," Kate paused, looking into the young man's intense blue eyes, "In the beginning, our relationship was set up for the Ring's purposes, but now... I wouldn't have helped you if... Neal, I think I love you."

After everything he had been through, hearing those words from Kate made it all worth while. Neal tenderly touched her cheek, and drew her face closer to his. Their lips were less than a hands breath away when the first shot rang out.

Neal could only watch in horror as Kate fell to the ground right in front of him, and he barely managed to catch her in time. More shots were fired, and he felt a burning pain in his calf as a bullet from a rickashey hit him as he tried to find cover.

"We need him alive! Stop shooting!"

The gunfire ceased immediately, and Neal could hear the men approaching, but he couldn't move. Warm blood slid down the back of his leg as he tried to shift Kate to were he could see her face. His breath came in rasps as he felt for a pulse, praying that she was alive, and unable to accept the fact that she might not. Neal was flooded with relief temporarily when he could feel a pulse, but the relief was short lived given the situation.

"Ne...Neal?" Her eyes fluttered open, and he pushed her hair out of her face.

"Kate, where are you shot, where does it hurt?" His eyes darted over her body, but it too dark to see where the wound was.

"My head." She winced, and Neal panicked.

What if there wasn't anything that could help her? What if...? Trying to quell the shaking in his hands - not only from the fear of Kate's injury, but also from the men who were about to find them hiding behind the scrap metal - and cautiously ran his fingers over Kate's head. He came in contact with a warm, sticky substance that he knew only too well, and felt bile rise in his throat.

"It's just a graze." He told the barely conscious girl, when a bright light was shone on them.

Neal looked up to see, not Robert, but another man standing over he and Kate with a dozen other men. This was the team the Ring had sent, and they looked ruthless.

"Nice to see you again Agent Larkin."

Again?

The man motioned for the others to grab Neal and Kate.

"She's been shot, she needs help!" Neal struggled to hold on to the now unconscious Kate, but the men were too strong.

"Really? Interesting," The Ring agent turned to another one of the men, "Take her as well. If Larkin has trouble talking, she might be needed to help him."

"No, don't you dare touch her! That's Agent Moreau's daughter!"

The rage that shone in Neal's eyes would have been enough to made any man back down, but he also hoped that as the daughter of an agent, Kate would get fair treatment and be spared.

"What Agent Moreau doesn't know won't hurt him."

A/N: Really sorry about the wait! I decided to do a chapter centered on Neal this time, so the next one will probably be Team Bartowski and friends at work to find him!! Hopefully, the next chapter will be up by this weekend! I'm also working on the next chapter for Chuck Versus the Feud, so that one should be updated shortly as well! =D!