Chapter 2- Everything Burns
A/N:Thank you all those who read, reviewed, followed and/or favourited this story. You have all inspired and encouraged me to continue writing, thank you for that. This chapter has slight references to neal/kate relationship. There is nothing graphic romantically speaking and even if you don't like the couple, I'd urge you to still give this chapter a try. I hope you enjoy. Oh and all the medical stuff in this story is probably really exaggerated and unrealistic because I wanted to put in a lot of Neal hurt so I apologize if that annoys someone. Do press that review button or PM me about how you felt this piece of writing was, I'd really appreciate it. And reviews make me write
A gentle nudge woke him up from a peaceful sleep.
'Mmmhmm, five more minutes!' the blue eyed con-man said only to be ignored and nudged again, forcing him to open his eyes and smile at the sight that was before him.
A fully dressed Kate sat on the bed next to him on her knees, balancing a tray of breakfast in her hands as she repeatedly nudged him with her elbow. She was wearing a simple outfit, a black halter top with loose fitting pants and the food in the tray was not perfect, the scrambled eggs seemed a bit under cooked and the sausages were slightly burnt. But at that moment, with her smiling and looking at him- her face one filled with innocence and slight pride at having done what she deemed to be such a major feat, with the sunlight falling just so.. making it seem as if a halo was sitting atop her head made her absolutely perfect to Neal.
"Mmmm, I could get used to this.' He said, his mouth curving into a rare genuine smile that made itself known in her presence alone as raised himself off the bed by his elbows, placing a soft kiss on her mouth.
"I'd rather you didn't, my cooking is such a disaster.' She laughed, her eyes dancing with happiness.
"Imperfection is what makes you perfect. I love you, thank you for this.' He said as he gently kissed her forehead and then took a bite of his breakfast. 'Besides, this is delicious! I don't know what you were so worried about.' Neal continued, smiling sweetly at her as he took a large swallow of orange juice to cover up the excessive salt in the eggs.
'Oh, you!' she smiled as she took a bite, a grimace marring her features as she tasted the extra salt. 'Blegh! This is awful!' all she had wanted to do was make Neal something for breakfast to show him how much she loved her and the food that she made wasn't even edible. She felt like such a failure.
'Well, I love it!' her gorgeous blue eyed boyfriend replied as he devoured the food, bringing a huge smile to her face.
They lived in a shabby little one bedroom apartment. They were broke. They had to eat really bad food (when Kate cooked, Neal excelled at cooking) and drink cheap wine. Yet neither of them had ever been happier than they were at that moment.
That is, until the moment the door slammed open with a shout of "FBI! We have you surrounded. Surrender and come out peacefully!' and three very familiar figures wearing extremely unfamiliar expressions of pure loathing barged in, destroying the happy little bubble the two had been basking in.
"Peter! Jones? Diana? What are you doing here? Whats going on?' The often deviously smart con-man was confused.
"Neal caffrey, you are under arrest for the murder of your girlfriend Kate Munroe." Diana declared, adding to the confusion of the blue eyed man.
"M-Murder? What the hell are you talking about?' Neal stuttered, clutching Kate close to himself as Jones threw what smelled like gasoline at them, and all over their apartment.
"Peter? Whats going on? Peter! PETER!" Neal yelled as Peter Burke, his once best friend lit a match and threw it at them.
Flames engulfed the couple, Neal watched in detached fascination and horror as fire crept on Kates' body, as she writhed and shrieked in pain. As the flames engulfed him, filling him with agony he had never experienced before. His back arched and he screamed as his legs, his torso, his arms and finally his face was on fire. Arms restrained him, he couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't breathe. But the white hot fire burned him as he struggled, struggled in vain as everything went dark.
Wcwcwcwcwcwcwc
It had been six hours since they had brought Neal to the hospital. The state of the con-man scared Jones. He was so used to seeing the suave, calm and collected man that the pale, unresponsive person with several machines and tubes attached to various parts of his body made him rather nauseous. An over-whelming feeling of guilt sucked him in for a moment. Neal was supposed to be their friend, and they had treated him like crap the past few weeks. The man was a social butterfly and yet they had shunned him for two long weeks until something had cracked in the CI and he had ended up like this. They had punished him for something that he had repeatedly claimed was not his fault. And there had been no evidence that Neal had possessed the nazi loot. Yet they hadn't given him the benefit of doubt, assuming that since he was a criminal it was his fault.
Jones still had no idea whether Neal was in fact responsible for the theft or not. But he still regretted his hostile attitude for the past several days towards the man. Even if he had stolen the treasure, he had saved his life a few months before when he was discovered in an undercover op. Clinton owed Neal caffrey, so why had he been such an ass towards him? Besides, Neal had nothing to do with Elizabeth Burke's kidnapping. The man had risked his life saving hers from what he gathered from the bloody gash that adorned his head the night El was rescued and the not so slight limp he had walked out of the house with.
Jones was startled out of his thoughts when the alarms on the alien-looking machines surrounding Neal went berserk. As he watched with horrified fascination, the con-man started writhing on his bed, his body convulsing as the CRO monitoring his heart rate screamed for attention. Several doctors and nurses pushed past him as Neal caffery flat-lined.
A/N: Loved it? Hated it? Questions? Comments? Please review!