AN: I had so much fun writing this chapter. Though I have one question: how old is Neal in general? I tried to figure it out and ask around but I haven't gotten a clear range anywhere (which is bad for me as a fan but….). anyways, I went with him being around 29-30 in the story. Sorry for any confusions. Please know that as my summer semester is coming to an end, I will only be able to update once a week, (probably every Thursday or Friday). Hopefully, I will be able to do 2-3 chapters/week once school is over (which is around June 20th). I am VERY SORRY FOR THAT! However, I wanted to take a moment and thank you all for your awesome reviews as they make my day everyday and encourage me to keep writing, thank you guys. I also wanted to send a special thank you to Pherenike 26 for the continuous awesome reviews from day one. Thank you.
Hope you enjoy reading this chapter and please leave a review!
Chapter 4: Surprise Visits
Peter Burke shot up in his seat behind his desk still groggy from his unplanned nap and feeling disoriented. It took him a minute to gather where he was at three in the morning. A quick glance at the clock in his office told him that his partner and best friend has been missing for approximately 45 hours. Peter was sent home at around 10PM earlier that night. However, after sharing a late meal/snack with his wife, who knew him well enough and was as worried as he was about the missing man, managed to reassure him that it was alright to head back to his office and work on finding his partner. The FBI agent ran his hand down his face in frustration as he realized that instead of searching for his best friend, his brother, he fell asleep and hadn't made much progress. Checking his phone for any messages from El or Mozzie, he was even more frustrated (if that was even possible) as he found none. 'Where are you Neal?' thought the agent to himself in the dimly lit office.
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Elizabeth Burke had had a restless and sleepless night, as she was worried about one FBI agent and one missing blue-eyed young man. Sighing to herself, she pushed the covers off of her and decided to get an early start to her day to prevent her thoughts from going to the million worst-case scenarios she had managed to cook up the previous day. 'Be optimistic Elizabeth! Neal is just fine' she repeated in her head as she touched up on her make-up before heading down the stairs to get her much needed cup of coffee. It was then that she heard insistent knocking on her front door. Frowning at whoever is knocking on their door at 6AM, she rushed down the stairs to greet her surprise visitor.
"Mozzie! What are you doing here?" she asked as her guarded expression relaxed into one of surprise.
"Mrs. Suit. I hope you are doing well today." Said the little guy as he stepped further into the house.
"Yes, thank you for asking. However, I would be much better once Neal is safe and sound, here with us." She replied as she started the coffee machine. "Any news?" she continued while looking at the room's other occupant with the corner of her eye.
"No news yet." Answered Mozzie with a dark, sad expression.
"They will find him Moz." Elizabeth said in a form of reassurance while she debated internally if she was reassuring him or herself.
Silence fell between them as the coffee machine beeped, signaling that their drinks are ready. Quietly, while each of them is lost in their own thoughts, they drank their drinks, cleaned up and headed for the door, ready to tackle the day as the promise of staying in touch with each other was made with no words.
"Be careful Mrs. Suit" was the only thing Mozzie said as he turned around the corner, disappearing in the crowd.
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In a windowless room, in an abandoned warehouse, sat the missing FBI consultant with freshly cleaned and bandaged injuries, as well as gun to his head and a clear white canvas in front of him. "Get started." Growled John, using his gun to gesture at the clean paintbrushes. "We are on a time limit here." He continued.
"What?" exclaimed the kidnapped man; "no one ever told me anything about a time limit. If you want me to do a forgery for you I am going to need to do it at my own pace!" argued Neal.
"If you don't get started now, you won't finish it on time. Remember what we said about you not following orders Caffrey?" said Keller as he walked through the locked door. "You don't want us to start with your pretty landlady do you?" asked the blue-collar criminal. "Now get to work." He snapped, not waiting for an answer from the ex-white collar criminal. Hesitantly, the threatened young man picked up one of the brushes in front of him and started mixing the needed colors and muttered to himself "I hope you don't hold me accountable for this forgery Peter," before closing his eyes to try and relax. With a deep breath, the talented artist got to work.
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"Did you check his bank account? Any recent activities there?" questioned Peter, hoping to get a "yes there was some unusually activity" or a "sir, we got something" from Diana or any other agent for that matter.
"Nothing new Peter. I do not know what we are searching for anymore. Keller and his crew are way ahead of us and we don't even know where to look! How will we find Neal if we don't have anything?!" exclaimed the tough female agent in anger, irritation and worry. "You do know that if we do not find him and I mean soon, we are going to get orders from HQ to stop right? He is a criminal and just a consultant in their eyes, not as important as an FBI agent. They wouldn't want to waste their resources on someone like Neal." Continued Diana as she voiced everybody's fears. Sensing that she might need to talk to Peter privately, everybody went on a quick break except for Jones, who stayed behind to make sure the things between the two don't take a weird, bad turn as they are all running on very low amounts of sleep and under a lot of stress. "Even if the Bureau orders me to stop looking, I won't stop. Neal is my partner, my best friend and my… is like a little brother to me Di. He has always had my back and has always trusted me. I can't let him down. I won't." replied Peter. "We both know that boss," said Diana as she glanced quickly at Jones before looking Peter dead in the eyes and continued, "that is why we want in."
"Are you sure? If someone finds out that we might be looking into Neal's disappearance after we were told to let it go, our careers could be over. I won't be able to help you or pull any strings." Replied Peter, trying to emphasize the danger of the path that they were most likely going to take, sooner or later.
"Yes sir. Neal has done a lot for us the past 3 and a half years. Despite his past actions and his previous lifestyle, Caffrey deserves justice, every one of us does. I am a hundred percent sure that if our situations were reversed, Caffrey would say and do the same thing." Spoke up Jones for the first time since they started this conversation. Peter eyed his best agents quietly, giving them a chance to back out before saying. "Alright, we will do our best and won't stop until we find Neal. For now, the Bureau is still backing us up on everything we do so we use those back ups and resources to our full advantages. Let's take 5 before we continue." He ended with a small smile.
"You got it boss." Replied Diana and Jones as they went to refill their empty coffee mugs.
Alone with his thoughts for once, Peter tried to sort out the chaos in his head while gazing at the chaos that was happening downstairs. Everybody wanted to find Keller in order to find Neal. Agents were running around the offices and cubicles with files and papers in hopes of someone finding any sort of clue that will get them out of square one. Peter's eyes wondered to Neal's vacant cubicle, which remained untouched, just the way the ex-conman left it when he left the office the day before his kidnapping. 'Please hang on Neal. I will find you, I promise you that'.
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Neal needed a break. His wrists were numb from painting. His shoulder was throbbing so badly. His legs, abdomen and back were stiff an burning from the stupid stool and posture that he has been in for the past 4 to 5 hours. "Bathroom break John," he said while he dropped his paintbrush into the empty plastic cup that held the dirty paintbrushes.
"Do you have to?" asked the big guy. Neal raised his eyebrow in a do-you-really-have-to-ask sort of expression. "Fine. I suppose it is about time you took a break. It also wouldn't harm to put some food into you, maybe that will make you work a bit faster." Ranted the big bald guy more to himself than to Neal. Neal rolled his eyes in amusement. With a gun in each hand, (which after seeing Neal's slightly amused expression at the amount of weapons he was carrying John said "I am not taking any chances with you Neal Caffrey so you better watch yourself and behave"), John lead a cuffed artist and forger extraordinaire to the bathroom that was directly across from the room they were in. Neal managed to get a quick glance at his surroundings thanks to his field trip to the bathroom. He quickly made deductions that if he had any chances of escape they are going to have to be through the room he was in or the bathroom. Escape from either would be kind of impossible as the only way in and/or out was through the door where at least 4 other goons were standing guard. Neal had to think of another way out. And he had to think fast. Suddenly, there was loud banging on the door while John said, "break time is over Caffrey! Back to work!" sighing, Neal slipped out of the bathroom before he had the chance of thinking of another way out. John led him back to the room where the doctor from before changed his bleeding bandages before being forced to continue. An hour later, Neal felt John stiffen in posture as the door opened and in slipped a person he never thought he would see again. "Well hello Neal…"
