Thanks again for the reviews and follows. Now here are the answers, or most of them. I'll post an epilogue tomorrow for some resolution :)
Tyger Tyger Chapter Five
"Please...stop..." gasped Neal, his voice quavering. His wrists were chafed from his futile attempts to jerk free, his face wet with tears he'd been powerless to prevent from falling.
"Look Neal, we know you have the recording. Just hand it over and I promise I'll make her stop."
"Never," he wheezed, as his female tormentor moved close again, hands mercilessly moving from his ribs to his stomach and up to his armpits. "Nooo...," was all he could manage before subsiding into rasping gasps of laughter.
Suddenly, three phones chimed in unison.
"You're too late" smirked Neal, allowing his head to loll to one side as Peter and Diana pulled back, withdrawing their phones from their pockets.
Both agents' faces turned grim as they each loaded the offending message. Neal could only watch their expressions with wry amusement as tinny music sounded from each of their phones, their faces paling as their antics of the previous night were revealed to them via the medium of email. And not only to them...
"Oh God, he's sent it to El..." Peter mumbled, mortified.
"And half the office" noted Diana, glancing angrily up at Neal, who merely shrugged, a little awkwardly given he was still cuffed to the fire escape, and grinned back at her like a Chesire cat.
"I can't believe you got Jones in on this, what did we do to upset him?" asked Peter, genuinely perturbed.
"Well, let's see, who always gets to watch the van while you two run off after the bad guys? And who gets to type up the reports while you close down the leads? And who gets to..."
"Alright, I get it" interrupted Peter. "I blame you for this," he added, rounding on Neal. "You're the one that suggested that karaoke bar after the other one shut, and the one that made the recording and sent it to Jones. He would never have done something like this before you showed up."
"But I didn't send it to anyone else, I was just going to keep it as leverage, you know, an incentive to let me and Jones have some fun. Besides, I was a little tied up while the email was sent," Neal countered, nodding up at his bound hands.
"Hah, just you wait..." muttered Diana darkly, before turning and stalking out of the apartment. Neal sighed in relief as she started down the stairs, he'd feared want to exact immediate revenge, and while he'd held out initially with her tickling, once she'd started on his armpits he'd been powerless to do anything but collapse into fits of giggles.
His relief didn't last very long though, as Peter turned to follow her.
"Er, Peter, you can't leave me like this..."
He sighed again as Peter stopped and turned around, giving the agent a hopeful grin. Peter fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his cuff key, holding it up to Neal's face before turning and putting it firmly on the coffee table.
"Didn't you say that Mozzie's coming for lunch?" he grinned, not without malice.
"Peter...!" Neal's protests were cut off as Peter closed the door behind him.