Peter turned around to see Neal about six steps behind him. Thinking that Neal was laying back to avoid the force of the impact of the torture they were about to endure, Peter walked down a few steps to meet Neal and dragged him up the stairs at a faster pace.
"Get up through here." Peter said exasperated.
He grabbed the smaller man's bicep and pulled as he continued to climb the stairs. Neal stumbled a bit and bit back the urge to scream out as his knee once again took on stabbing pain. Peter thought nothing of the stumble since he was all but dragging the younger man up the stairs.
They walked silently towards Elizabeth who stood stock- still in front of the laundry room door. They stopped beside her since they already knew what she was looking at. Neal glanced at Peter, then back at Elizabeth who had yet to move.
Finally, after seconds of grueling silence she spoke very low.
"What. Is. This?" She asked, still staring at the pile of all of her towels on top of the washer.
"Uh, honey-" Peter started, but Elizabeth whipped her head around fast with an index finger pointed at his chest. Both Peter and Neal stiffened.
"Don't call me Honey. Not after me coming home to find every single one of my towels piled on top of the washer covered in filth!" Elizabeth warned.
"Honey," Peter started to say again but Elizabeth gave him another warning look. "Elizabeth, we can explain."
"You damn well better be able to explain." Elizabeth shot back, looking between Peter and Neal.
"Uh, Neal..." Peter volunteered.
Neal looked at Peter incredulously. Peter nodded in Elizabeth's direction urging him to explain.
"Okay." Neal took a deep breath and out stretched his hands. "Elizabeth, when we were trying to fix the sink, Peter-" But Peter cut Neal off before he could say anymore and solely place the blame on him.
"There was a water spill, and we had to clean it up fast, so we grabbed the towels."
"So you used ALL of my nice bath towels to clean up nasty water from a sink spill?" Elizabeth asked with skepticism.
"Yeah, well it was-" Peter started to say but this time Neal cut him off.
"Look, it was either ruin your nice bath towels or ruin your hardwood floors." Neal stated bluntly.
Elizabeth and Peter looked at him with their jaw on the floor.
"What do you mean ruin my hardwood floors?" Elizabeth asked. "What happened?"
Neal opened his mouth to respond, but Peter spoke next.
"You finally decide to tell the truth and it had to be that?" Peter asked in disbelief. "You really couldn't think of a better time than right now to be honest?"
"Peter,-" Neal groaned.
"Enough!" Elizabeth shouted."You two can bicker back and forth like siblings some other time but this isn't it!" She glared at the two. "One of you, tell me right now exactly what happened."
Neal opened his mouth to speak, but Elizabeth held up a finger.
"Nothing, and I mean nothing, but the truth. Don't leave anything out."
Neal nodded. "Peter you better take this one." He admitted quietly.
Peter rolled his eyes.
"El, we were trying to figure out what was wrong with the sink and I was hitting this pipe that looked really bad," Peter said with a laugh he didn't really feel, but was trying to get some humor anywhere he could into this conversation. "and all of sudden it just burst and all this water nasty water started running out all over the floor and pouring out into the hallway and down the stairs and then you came home and Neal lied to get you to stay out of the house until we-"
"Peter told me too and I didn't lie." Neal interjected, but looked down at the floor when Peter glared at him.
"-Until we cleaned it up. We were going to wash the towels before you came home but by the time we had it all dried up we were tired and we accidentally fell asleep on the couch and well you know the rest." Peter finished explaining.
Elizabeth thought back to the picture she took of the two of them, which they still didn't know about. She smiled to herself as she thought about what to do. She knew she could easily blackmail them and although Peter wasn't the type to blackmail her back, she pegged Neal as the type to win a prank war and knew he was convincing enough to get Peter roped in as well. She decided she would deal with that later and looked back up at her two boys. For some reason, her anger started to dissipate.
She gave a long sigh.
"FIne. Just, wash these towels while I finish supper."
"You're not mad?" Peter asked hopefully.
Elizabeth walked up to Peter and gently tapped the side of his face.
"Oh no, I'm mad." Elizabeth said. "But I'm just going to go down stairs and finish cooking dinner while you boys wash these towels."
With that she left.
Neal looked over at Peter.
"Well, that wasn't so bad."
"You do realize we still haven't told her we didn't get anything accomplished in the bathroom and about calling someone else to do it?" Peter said shaking his head.
"Oh."
"Yeah, but let's not mention it till after dinner." Peter planned as he started putting the towels in the wash.
Ten minutes and an argument about how to work the washer later, Peter and Neal had a load of towels in the wash and were headed down stairs. Neal tried to maneuver himself so that Peter would go down the stairs before him, but he failed. He made it to the third step before making the mistake of putting all his weight on his left leg. His knee buckled and he couldn't stop the groan of pain that came out of his mouth. He would have fell down the stairs for a second time if Peter hadn't caught him under the arms from behind.
Once Neal, and Peter both, felt like they weren't going to go tumbling down the stairs they both straightened, but Peter didn't let go of Neal's arm as he walked down the two steps that were separating them. He stood next to Neal on the same step since Neal was leaning against the wall, his left leg not touching the ground and shaking slightly.
"Neal are you okay? What's wrong?" Peter asked looking between Neal's face and his leg.
"Nothing, I'm fine." Neal lied even though it was no use.
"Neal." Peter warned.
"I may have hurt my knee when I fell down the stairs." Neal admitted, not looking at Peter.
"May have?" Peter prompted.
"Okay...I did hurt my knee, but it's nothing Peter. Honest."
"You just told my wife we almost ruined our hardwood floors. That was the time to lie. Not now." Peter said, his hand still holding on to Neal's arm. Neal didn't say anything and just stared at his shoes.
"Let's just get to the couch, okay?" Peter moved to put Neal's arm around his shoulder but the younger man stopped him.
"I got it. I got it." Neal said, resisting any help from Peter. The agent knew Neal wanted to do it himself, but he couldn't take the chance of Neal falling down the stairs again and hurting himself further.
"Neal, stop. Forget your damn pride for ten seconds, before you fall down the stairs again and end up breaking your neck." Peter warned, pulling Neal's arm around his shoulder. Neal turned his head towards Peter and gave him a small smile.
"So you can be the one to break it, right?" Neal asked. "What do you think I'll get for compensation?"
"A good life lesson: To do as you're told." Peter shot back.
"I did do as I was told. You told me to get Elizabeth to leave so I ran down the stairs to do so." Neal retorted.
Peter rolled his eyes as he tightened his grip on Neal's arm around his shoulder.
"I told you to get her to leave, not run down the stairs like my dog." Peter countered and he knew he'd won the argument when Neal just rolled his eyes.
"Alright, let's get to the couch and see about your knee."
Peter told Neal not to put any weight on his knee so he had to awkwardly jump down the rest of the stairs while holding on to Peter and the the wall.
Elizabeth must have heard the stomping because she quickly appeared at the bottom of the stairs when they had made it half way down.
"Oh my God, Neal! Are you alright?" Elizabeth asked looking up at them concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Neal's voice was strained as he grimaced when he jumped down to another step.
"Peter?" She asked her husband, ignoring Neal's lie.
"He hurt his knee when he fell down the stairs earlier and failed to tell anyone until he almost fell down the stairs again." Peter informed her as he helped Neal down two more steps.
They were three steps away from Elizabeth when Neal told Peter to wait a minute. Peter stopped to let Neal rest, but didn't let him go. Neal was close enough to the wall that he rested his head against it while he worked through the pain in his knee.
"Why didn't you tell us that you were hurt, Neal?" Elizabeth asked softly as she walked up the few steps between them and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"I didn't think it was that bad." Neal reasoned, lifting his head up to give Elizabeth a grin.
"You know, I really wonder sometimes how you managed to live this long." Peter teased.
"But you're glad that I did." Neal said.
"Ha, well only when that light on your anklet is green and you aren't on any wanted posters." Peter teased again. "Are you ready to continue?"
Neal nodded and Elizabeth walked down the steps but stood at the bottom in case something happened, not that she would be much of help if they both came tumbling down toward her. When they made it to the bottom safely, Elizabeth grabbed Neal's other arm to steady him.
"It's ok Elizabeth. I can manage." Neal said not wanting to look anymore helpless in front of the Burkes than he already did.
"I'm happy for you, but I'm not going anywhere, at least until you're sitting on the couch." Elizabeth informed.
Awkwardly and thankfully Neal made it to the couch and plopped down. He kept his left leg out in front of him and watched in weird amazement as his knee jerked ever so slightly.
Elizabeth stood behind Peter who squatted down in front of Neal.
"I'm going to roll your pant leg up." Peter informed as he took the material and slowly started to roll it up over the anklet.
"I don't have a garter on, Peter and even if I did, you're not supposed to take it off until after we are married." Neal joked at the awkwardness of the situation.
"I know, I've removed a garter before. I'm already married." Peter shot back.
"Ruin another one of my bath towels and you won't be." Elizabeth teased as she smacked the back of Peter's head.
Peter pulled the material over Neal's knee.
"Ow, ow, ow. Stop." Neal demanded as he swatted Peter's hands away. "Geez Elizabeth, I think you need to stop calling Peter Mr. Magic Hands. It isn't suitable."
"Would you stop trying to redirect attention?" Peter asked, trying to stop the conversation before it got anymore uncomfortable or embarrassing.
All three turned their attention to Neal's knee which was black and about twice it's normal size. It was jerking despite Neal's best efforts to keep it still and that frustrated Neal to no end.
"I can't make it stop." Neal's voice was low as if he didn't mean to say it out loud. Neal wasn't really sure if he meant to.
"It's okay, Neal. That can happen with sprains." Elizabeth tried to assure. "I'll go get some ice." She said as she turned to leave.
"How does she know it's sprained?" Neal asked gently poking his knee, but Peter swatted it away.
"Let's just say I've had a few of these playing basketball with the guys." Peter said.
"You know we really aren't anything alike." Neal offered.
Elizabeth entered the room carrying an ice pack, a bottle of Motrin, a glass of water and some medical wrap to go around his knee.
"Oh please. You two have more in common than you think." She said as she laid the supplied on the floor next to Peter. She picked up the Motrin and water and sat down next to Neal on the couch.
"Here take this. It'll help."
Neal took two pills from her and the water and did as he was told. Peter held the ice to Neal's knee, then told him to hold it a minute. Peter stood up and scooted the coffee table closer to the couch and grabbed a pillow to lay on top of it.
"Alright, let's prop your leg up for awhile and keep some ice on it."
"Yes, Dr. Burke." Neal smiled at him tauntingly.
"You're really not in any position to make jokes, smart ass." Peter threatened as he picked up Neal's leg.
"Okay, Okay, Okay." Neal said leaning forward slightly his arms outstretched. "Easy."
"Peter! Be careful." Elizabeth said standing up next to Peter.
"Why do you always take up for him?" Peter asked as he "gently" propped Neal's leg up and replaced the ice back on his knee.
"Because he's a charming conman, Peter." Elizabeth joked. "How can I resist?"
"You've officially turned my wife against me." Peter said shaking his head and sitting down next to Neal on the couch. "Next time you find yourself on the stairs again, you better hope I'm not around." He teased.
"Okay, boys. Don't kill each other while I finish making dinner." Elizabeth said as she retreated into the kitchen.
"Hey you know, that would be a lot easier if you made Peter help you!" Neal shouted. "He said he'd love to- oof!" Neal was cut off when Peter elbowed him in the ribs. "some other time!"
Neal gave a 'please don't kill me' smile to Peter, who glared back at him.
"Oh Honey," Elizabeth started to say as she walked back into the living room. "You better go check on the towels in the wash. They should be done by now." She went right back into the kitchen.
Peter took a deep breath and clenched his jaw, when he saw Neal out of the corner of his eye try to keep from laughing.
"You better find a way to run by the time I get back from the laundry room." Peter warned as he made his way up the stairs, trying to keep from laughing himself.
AN: So I think the next chapter will be the last one, which is kinda sad because I have really enjoyed writing this. But feedback is always appreciated and I thank you all for reading!