Hero
Back in the office, Peter and Neal anxiously watched the interrogation.
After Chuck had locked himself away to investigate and Sarah had worked with Winters on the streets, they had managed to get a lead on the whereabouts of Blade. In response, the government had sent a taskforce led by agents Casey, Jones, and Berrigan to apprehend him.
With their man in custody, the same agents worked to interrogate him into slipping up about his backers. Their hope was to use him to find the bigger threats behind him.
Experiencing his first meeting with law enforcement, Blade spent most of his time regaling them with comparisons to express just how deep his hatred of cops went.
In an effort to unbalance him, Diana came up with an idea to throw the young man. "Caffrey isn't a cop, so why hurt him?"
Furious, Blade lashed out at them with venomous accusations about their lies. Still, the maneuver proved successful when he slipped and mentioned 'the man.' "He said that Caffrey is FBI… but he theorizes that he might be something more. You don't even know who you have on your team!"
Grabbing onto that, Diana pushed the topic further. "Caffrey is a member of our team. Don't you think that we would know who he is? Besides, if we were to be wrong, what makes his resources better than ours?"
Arrogant, Blade was certain that his contact knew what he was talking about, even though he couldn't verify his resources. "He is invested in that company, and he said that they needed to be stopped before they learned too much. If they did, they would stop his rebellion against you, so I had to help him."
Diana continued to try, but as the group failed to get anything more out of him, Peter and Neal eventually drifted back to the office.
"Whoever is behind him, he is pro enough not to tell the kid anything." Neal mused.
"At least we got Blade. I don't like knowing that someone is randomly out there cutting people." Peter was glad to see justice being served, but he still wished that the bigger problem behind it all could also be apprehended.
"One perpetrator down… countless yet to go." Neal sighed.
"We have gotten this far, we will clear up the rest of it Neal. The best teams and agents that we know are on it." Peter tried to reassure both of them.
"I don't doubt that, I just hope that it will be sooner rather than later." Neal answered.
The next step of progress for the case came when two young CIA agents felt that they had found the key to the whole puzzle.
Having returned to field work after an extended leave of absence and desk duty, Peter and Neal were happy to accompany the young agents as they went into the field to pursue their lead.
As they drove to the warehouse where they hoped to get some hard evidence to verify that it was a good lead, Neal questioned the agents about their information. "So, who do you suspect?"
"A freelance spy, he goes by the name of Cyprus Mortimer. He is known to work on the side of the villains, but only with the highest bidder. Since that investment fraud case of yours was brining in a lot of money, he seems to be the best suspect for the middle man and a likely connection to both sides." One started the explanation.
Then the other finished it by connecting what he had found. "Mortimer was a weekly regular in the building as he performed the role of their technical analysts from another company. He would deliver his information once a week in a brief case, but then he would also leave with a handy brief case." Leaning towards the older agents, he continued. "We believe that he was brining the market trend information to help them look legit, but that he was leaving with a portion of the cash as his cut. The rest seems to have slipped away in other methods."
It was a valid theory, and the man seemed to be a likely suspect. With five agents, they shouldn't run into any trouble, so they proceeded to the warehouse and began looking for evidence.
Splitting up, Chuck stayed slightly behind Peter and Neal as he wanted to be available to help either group if they ran into any trouble. The younger agents took one direction, and Peter went with Neal in another.
As they walked, all of them could feel their senses tingling. It was a valid location and they weren't alone, but they only had their senses to go on.
Suddenly, Neal heard a scuffle, just moments before the shot was fired. It wasn't much of a warning, but it was the difference between life and death. Leaping to take Peter down in a tackle, Neal heard the shot, felt the sting of penetration, but was distracted by the hard landing as he and his brother hit the ground at full speed.
Waiving Chuck to go (who was shouting for the other two to back him up), Neal rolled off of his brother. "Are you okay Peter?" He asked out of breath.
Working to figure out what had happened, Peter was also trying to catch his breath. "I was before you landed on me, but luckily the damage is only having the wind knocked out of me. You?"
"Yeah, I think I'm fine." Neal responded as he moved to check himself over.
Getting a good look at his little brother, Peter panicked at the sight of blood beginning to soak through Neal's jacket. "You idiot! Neal, you're hit." Moving to his brother's side, Peter hurried to see the extent of the damage.
Wincing at his brother's prodding, Neal noticed his injuries as the shock wore off. "They're just grazes Peter. The bullet passed between my arm and my chest… nothing that a few stitches and bandages won't take care of." Pushing his brother back away from him so that they could see eye to eye, he tried to calm Peter down again as the man was still panicking. "Peter, I am going to be just fine. That shot would have killed you though, so I'm glad that I heard him coming."
"I know you saved my life, thank you for that. But that doesn't mean that it's okay for him to shoot you either. You're not only my friend, but your also my brother by blood… don't scare me like this again. Do you hear me?" Peter tried to go big brother on him, despite the rational part of his brain saying that it would probably happen again.
Knowing that his brother was acting out of panic, Neal didn't push him. "I will do my best to avoid it." He promised.
It was the best that Peter was going to get, so he settled for it.
Returning to check on his friend, Chuck didn't have good news. "We lost him. Apparently, he was expecting us. His bag was packed and most of the evidence is gone… but we did find enough to connect him to the case, so at least this wasn't a wasted trip." Getting close enough to realize that Neal was hurt, he grew concerned as well.
Seeing the familiar panic in his friend's eyes, Neal reassured him too. "I'm fine, Chuck. The bullet just grazed my arm and chest as it passed in between."
Calming down, Chuck wasn't as worried over such a minor injury, but he knew that it still needed to be tended. "Well, we had better get you to a hospital while a team checks this place over.
Outnumbered, Neal had to agree.
In reaction to the close call, Peter and Neal got into their first big fight as brothers.
Peter was terrified that Neal would get hurt again, so he insisted on Neal staying behind in the office while he continued to pursue leads in the field.
Neal defended his stance by telling Peter that he was trained for these kinds of situations, so he wasn't going off half cocked without a plan. The bullet had been aimed to kill Peter, but Neal had automatically calculated his tackle to minimize the risk for both of them. "You have a wife waiting for you at home, and our parents don't want to lose you just because I'm back in the picture." He argued.
Furious, Peter jabbed him in the chest to drive his point home. "Bullets don't bounce, Neal! Do you seriously think that I would rather go home without you? We would all like the chance to get to know you, and I certainly don't want to be the reason that you get killed in the field." His emotions were breaking him, he had just experienced the worst scare of his life, and he needed to cool down.
Fearing for his brother's safety as well, Neal didn't want to give in, but he could see that Peter wasn't going to give in easily either. "Fine, I'll spend the rest of the day with Jones and Diana, but you don't go anywhere alone. Do you hear me? These people have nearly killed you twice, and I am not going to sit by and let them succeed."
Still not pacified, but seeing that it was the best compromise that he was going to get, Peter had one last point to throw in. "I can work with that for now… but you take Chuck with you. You're injured again and won't be able to defend yourself as well if they do attack."
"Aren't Jones and Diana enough?" Neal asked. He would feel more comfortable having Chuck with Peter.
"They will be doing their work. Chuck is to be protecting you, remember?" Peter threw that back at him.
Arguing, Neal couldn't sway Peter to move on his point. After a while, he grudgingly gave in. "Here, wear this at all times, so that I know you are okay." He passed Peter an ear piece.
Putting it in his ear, Peter agreed. "And I'll know that you are okay."
With their fight over, Peter clapped Neal on the shoulder, only to receive a surprise hug.
"You be careful out there bro, I just discovered your existence." Neal hugged him tightly with one arm.
Squeezing his brother gently, but firmly, Peter relished the comfort of knowing that he was okay. Then he pulled away from him and headed out into the field with the other agents.
While Peter was busy ahead at the warehouse, Neal was riding to the scene with Jones, Diana, and Chuck. The scene had been cleared, so they were heading back to see if anything jumped out at them.
As they were driving there, Neal felt his gut churning and his instincts warning him that not everything was right.
"Peter? Is there anything suspicious going on there?" He questioned.
"No… but I can feel that instinctual insight that something bad is coming too." Peter was on full alert. Was it him, or his brother that was in danger?
Before Neal could respond again, there was a crash and the sound of heavy gun fire.
Shouting, he called to his brother, but Peter wasn't answering. "Can you go any faster Diana?" He pleaded. "There is an attack going on there and Peter isn't answering."
"The traffic is too thick." Flicking her siren on, she tried to signal traffic to get out of the way. "It's not working, they're too packed for me to get through."
"Pass me a gun, Chuck." Neal ordered as he slipped off his sling. He really didn't need it, but it was doctor's orders to keep his arm still until it healed. "It's about a mile to the location where Peter is and I used to be a track star before I was recruited to the agency."
Moving to keep up, Chuck made sure that they were both armed before he hurried to slide out of the vehicle behind him. "Alert backup that we are proceeding on foot." He called as he shut the door.
Racing through the cars, Neal and Chuck made it to the sidewalk where they used the borrowed FBI jackets, obvious urgency, and shouts to clear a path. Heading at full speed, Neal raced past people and neatly flipped over obstacles with Chuck mimicking him from behind.
Listening intently, he could hear groans that meant Peter was hurt.
Then Peter started to talk softly. "No Neal! They are heavily armed, and there are fifteen of them… don't come running in here." Peter tried to beg him to stay away, he had already had one scare for the day.
"Peter, you don't know it yet, but we are black ops agents, so fifteen men of an armed kill squad aren't going to be enough." Neal growled.
Hearing his brother's pained breathing, Neal drove himself to move faster. Leaping hurtles, sliding under tables, and racing through crowds, he covered ground in record speeds.
Arriving at the warehouse, he crashed through an upper window to land into the enemy full tilt, he didn't hold back. With a series of combat moves, he was making quick work at taking them down, even before Chuck could fly in behind him. Combing the efforts of two black ops agents, and the kill squad fell very quickly!
Peter lay on the floor after having been shot and beaten. After the bullet had sent him flying, he had lost his ear piece, but after the beating, he had managed to crawl away to grab it while the squad was distracted with another part of their task. Just when the group had completed their intended work, they were moving to kill Peter once and for all when Neal had flown in through the window.
It had been close, but Neal and Chuck had arrived just in time to save the day.
Crouching next to his brother, Neal was the one panicking this time. "And you got upset when I had a measly graze!" Cataloging his brother's injuries, Neal was showing a side of himself that Peter had never seen before. "He was shot through the shoulder, one rib appears to be fractured, there is going to be some serious bruising over his torso, and there is the chance of a concussion from where he hit his head." This wasn't the nonviolent con artist, this was the calculated black ops agent who had just fought off an entire kill squad with his bare hands.
Slightly scared by the look in Neal's eyes, Peter tried to get him to calm down. "I'll be fine Neal."
"Yeah you will, but you aren't going anywhere without me until this case if over." Neal gave the order.
"I guess that means that you will be off duty for a while then… and here we just got back." Peter commented.
"Take it as a chance to look through my government box. I suppose you are going to want to know more about my work and what that entails, especially after all of this." Neal was calming down, but there was still an obvious edge to his voice.
Hearing the surprised voices behind him, Neal turned to see that Jones, Diana, and the two young agents had caught up to them.
"You're…" One young agent had obviously figured him out.
"Wow! You two are legends!" The other added.
"Keep that to yourself." Chuck chided them.
"Ambulance is on its way." Diana said before she and the others moved to clean up the scene. Chuck and Neal had Peter taken care of, so they would catch up with them later.
Arriving home from the hospital, Peter sank into his couch and breathed deeply. "You have no idea how good this feels." He wheezed as he took his seat. Catching Neal by his collar, Peter held him in place and made sure that he had his attention. "What were you thinking when you jumped into the middle of that?" He was too injured to fight Neal, but he had his hold on him, so Neal was going to do some explaining!
Sighing, Neal told him a few secrets of his work. "I'm an agent Peter, and one who has spent the most dangerous parts of my career in protection work. Whether it was people, or information that protected people, there were always plenty of bullets flying around, so calculating how to get the job done and survive was a necessity. Although the job has shifted to safer ground, the experience and knowledge doesn't just go away."
Peter was too horrified to think about what that could entail, so he gripped Neal's collar tighter in fear.
Continuing to try and talk him down, Neal settled in next to him on the couch and pointed to the box he had just placed at their feet. "That has everything I can share, and we have plenty of time to talk."
With the promise of information, Peter settled down to heal and learn more about his brother.
Thank you everyone for reading, commenting/reviewing, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
I fixed some minor editing errors.
