AN: Thank you all for your kind reviews! Beta credit belongs to the excellent Deej1957!
Disclaimer: White Collar belongs to USA Network and Jeff Eastin.
CHAPTER 15
Neal squinted trying to discern any movement from across the street, but it was pointless, it was too dark. The street lamp shone weakly and he turned once again to look at the clock in the car's dashboard. Had it really been only 5 minutes since Peter ordered him to stay in the car? It definitely felt like an hour.
After his pathetic breakdown earlier, Peter had called the cops to put the anklet back on. He'd dropped Elizabeth at home and reluctantly taken a still agitated Neal with him. Diana and Jones had met them two streets away from the building, and after they agreed to be discreet, they went to investigate and see if they could make contact and possibly extract Mozzie.
That had been, Neal looked at the clock again, 8 minutes ago! It was silent and the street in front of him was deserted, but he could see the light inside the building and he knew there was movement in the garage. He could see several people moving back and forth. He stared at his hands for a moment, struggling to obey Peter's order and stay in the car, but the promise was forgotten in the next second. Two consecutive shots disrupted his thoughts and the silence around him.
Neal jumped out of the car without a second's hesitation and made his way over. Suddenly, light flooded the street as several doors opened. He found cover behind a wall and observed the scene before him. Peter, Jones, and Diana had their weapons drawn and were pointing them towards five men standing by a truck inside the garage. One of them had Mozzie by the neck and was practically dragging him towards the vehicle. There was another man in the floor with a pool of blood all around him.
Neal heard Peter trying to calm everyone down, negotiating, and trying to get them to surrender. They were obviously not buying it.
Maybe if Mozzie hadn't kept struggling, they would have just gone and no one would have gotten hurt. Maybe if Neal hadn't chosen that particular moment to step out of hiding and shout to them as a distraction, then they could have overpowered them. But Mozzie hadn't stopped, and Neal hadn't stayed hidden.
Neal watched in horror as the man released Mozzie, lifted his gun, and shot Mozzie point blank in the chest. Another shot rang out not even a second later, and both the man and Mozzie fell to the floor bleeding. Then, all hell broke loose as the remaining four men took cover behind the truck and started firing towards Jones and Diana.
It took a moment for Neal to realize that Peter had grabbed him from behind and was struggling to pull him behind some crates on the other side of the garage.
"No! Oh my God, no!" Neal screamed. He couldn't take his eyes off of Mozzie. He couldn't hear anything around him.
Peter finally lifted him, shoved him behind the crates, and held him down.
"Stay here. Stay back," Peter ordered.
"No! No. No. Mozzie." He kept shaking his head and trying to free himself to get to his friend. No, no, no, no, no… God, no…
They both heard the sound of the trucks' engine and then screeching tires as the truck drove away. The fire ceased and Peter slowly released Neal, who made his way frantically over to the pool of blood and his friend.
Mozzie was barely breathing. Blood kept flowing out of his chest at an alarming rate.
"I'm here Moz. I'm here." Neal dropped to his knees beside him and carefully put his hands over the wound. The blood felt warm, and he just stayed there repeating the same words over and over until he found himself holding on to Mozzie's hand. Peter had gently moved him and was applying as much pressure as was possible to the wound. He had taken off his jacket and covered Mozzie with it.
Everything that happened afterwards was a blur. He stayed with Mozzie when the paramedics arrived. He stayed with him in the ambulance. Somebody kept asking him where he was hurt. They must have thought the blood was his. He ran behind the stretcher until they wouldn't let him go further into the hospital. After that, he sat in a chair in a waiting room. Jones kept pacing and talking on the phone. Peter sat beside him. They didn't speak and didn't move until Elizabeth got there. Then, under El's instructions, they washed the blood off, and changed clothes.
Neal sat there in that waiting room, Elizabeth and Peter sitting close by, for nearly five hours. After that, he recalled a doctor, an argument, Peter flashing his badge, and finally sitting in a chair besides Mozzie's bed in a private room. He settled in the chair and closed his eyes. He was drained, completely and utterly exhausted, and his tired mind kept playing the same scene over and over in his mind. He fell asleep listening to gun shots and to Peter explaining how Mozzie was in a medically induced coma, and how they weren't sure if he would make it.
Elizabeth put a blanket over Neal's shoulders. She gently pushed the hair out of his eyes and returned to their chair on the other side of the room. Peter reached out to grab her hand as she sat down beside him.
"He's asleep…" Elizabeth said in a relieved whisper.
It was early morning and light was shining through the large hospital window. It had been a long night, and Neal had refused to go home, refused to eat, refused to sleep, refused to talk…refused to do anything except sit quietly in a chair until they told him he could see Mozzie. Peter had abused every single strand of power that came with his badge in order for the hospital to let the three of them into Mozzie's room.
Elizabeth and Peter were probably as exhausted as Neal was. Peter had spent half the night talking on his phone, trying to mitigate the situation. The consequences for what had happened were hard to fix. The FBI was breathing down his neck, trying to assess what had happened, why there had been a shootout involving three FBI agents, and why there as a body in the morgue. Peter had done his best, but he wasn't sure it was enough. The whole Adler case was in jeopardy because of his actions today…not to mention his job. Hughes had made it clear that the only reason he was going to help him get away with the breach of protocol that night was because he was his best agent, and he didn't want to send him to an early retirement. He also made it perfectly clear that he wouldn't permit another slip like this.
Peter sighed, and pulled Elizabeth closer to his body. She had fallen asleep almost as soon as she had rested her head on his shoulder. He looked over at Mozzie, Neal beside him on the chair, and he couldn't bring himself to regret what he had done.
Peter wasn't a very religious man, but he made a quick prayer for Mozzie to survive. If something happened to him, he didn't think Neal could ever get over it. He knew that Neal would break if one more person in his life left him. It would destroy him. As much as he didn't want to admit it, if Neal would break, he wasn't sure they'd be able to pull him back together. For reasons that he didn't understand, he didn't think that he'd be able to survive if he couldn't save Neal.
The next couple of days were awful. Peter had to return to work, to clear the mess up, but Neal wouldn't leave his friend's side. Peter and El took turns keeping him company, bringing him fresh sets of clothes and giving him food that was hardly touched. El brought him books and Neal pretended to read while he waited. They tried to get him to talk about what happened, but Neal deflected and insisted that he was fine.
Mozzie finally woke up two days later. It happened during the least expected moment, when Peter had just left for work and Elizabeth was on her way to the hospital. Peter left them alone after an hour of watching Neal sleep. He didn't want to wake him, every second of rest and peace for Neal was a miracle in itself.
Mozzie opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings, concluding that he was in a hospital room. He could hear the beeping of the machines around him, and with shaking hands he removed the oxygen tube from his nose. Neal woke up with a start. He looked at Mozzie and smiled.
"Hey…" Neal said with a soothing whisper. "Hey, Moz."
"They did it. They finally got me," Mozzie said turning around to look at Neal. "What happened?" he asked in a husky voice.
Neal considered going easy on him, but he decided that the truth, in this instance, would be better. "The bullet missed your heart by two millimeters."
"That's because I don't have a heart," Moz replied.
Neal gave him a questioning look. "Look at the bright side. You're not dead."
Mozzie actually groaned. "I know. It's worse. I'm in the system."
"Not exactly." Neal moved to lift Mozzie's hand closer to him. He gestured with his head to the hospital identification band around his wrist.
Mozzie read the band and managed a small smile. "Ivan Bliminse? Invisible man? That's apropos."
Neal's smiled widened. He pushed the call button beside the bed and watched as the nurse came to check on Mozzie and left again after a few minutes to call the doctor. Neal waited outside for the whole evaluation and after the reassurances by the doctor that Mozzie would stay asleep for most of the day, and that he'd be fine, he left to wait for Elizabeth by the elevator. He leaned against the wall in the corridor, and after she got there he managed a, "he's going to be okay," followed by, "can you take me to the house?"
They drove in silence until it got disrupted by Peter's call to Neal.
"Mozzie's awake," Neal told him as soon as he picked up.
Peter felt relief for the first time in two days, and smiled. "That's great. How's he doing?"
"He quoted Nietzsche to a nurse He's gonna be okay."
"Good. I'm glad, Neal. Are you staying in the hospital?" Peter asked.
"No. Elizabeth is taking me to the house. I guess I need some sleep."
"You do," Peter replied. "Tell El that I'll be home early tonight."
"Okay, bye." Neal relayed the message to Elizabeth and rested his head against the car window.
Half an hour later he was curled up in his bed. He had managed to close the door of his room, shove off his shoes, and pull a blanket around himself. He closed his eyes and cried. Although no one had dared to mention it, he knew that everything that had happened had been his fault. It just kept happening, over and over again, this… path of destruction around him. Dad, mom, Kate, and now Mozzie too, he thought, how long until I kill everyone else around me?
El made her way into Neal's room an hour later, and found him in bed, awake. She sat down on the edge of the bed and talked to him. She talked to him about Mozzie, about how he would be fine, and about how Peter would find who did this. She told him they wouldn't let anything happen to him. She even told him that they wouldn't let anything happen to Mozzie.
Neal looked her in the eyes, nodded in all the right places, and in return told her what she wanted to hear. He told her that he believed her and that he trusted the FBI. He told her that he knew they would get Adler and that everything would be alright.
El looked relieved for a moment, finding solace in Neal's words, but then she tried to grab his hand, and he pulled away from her grasp. He ever so delicately moved out of her reach. Her face must have shown her distress because they stared at each for a moment and shared a mutual understanding. He had just conned her. He was not alright. He did not trust them, and touching was out of bounds again.