Let Your Heart Hold Fast
Chapter 4
It took almost two hours to finish everything at the scene and by the time Peter was done, he was exhausted. To his regret, Neal had been taken by Child Protective Services an hour earlier. That particular scene left him feeling like the worst man on the planet since Hitler.
Neal had put up quite a fight when he found out that he was being taken away from Peter. It seemed the little guy had latched on to the man who had saved him and really wasn't willing to let him go.
Peter knelt down in front of Neal, his heart breaking at the sight of the little boy trying not to cry.
"Listen, Neal….you need to go with that nice lady over there, okay? She's going to find you something to eat and a warm bed to sleep in. You can trust her, okay?"
Neal's impossibly blue eyes filled with tears. "I don't want to go with her, Peter. I want to stay here with you. Please! I'll be good, I promise. "
"Hey, buddy, it's not a matter of you being good. I have a few things to take care of and it's almost five o'clock in the morning. You need to sleep."
"I'm not tired, Peter! I slept in William's office, remember?" Peter almost would have been convinced, if Neal's statement hadn't been punctuated by a massive yawn.
"I'm sorry, Neal, but you have to go. I don't have any control over that decision."
"Call Lizbef, then. She'll let me stay!"
Peter laughed at that. "Elizabeth definitely controls a lot of things, but not this. I'm sorry, little man. You're going to have to cowboy up and go with Ms. Barnett."
By this time, the tears had overflowed and were streaming down Neal's little face. He abruptly wiped them off his face, pulled himself to stand taller and walked over to the lady that was going to take him away. Right before they got into her car, Neal turned back around to face Peter. "Peter? What does 'cowboy up' mean?"
It was seven in the morning by the time Peter finally got home. He was hoping that Elizabeth was still in bed, so he could postpone the talk he knew he had to have with her, but she was always an early riser. As predicted, he found her sitting on the sofa, with a book and a cup of coffee in her hands.
"Hey, hon. You look exhausted."
Peter bent down and gave his wife a kiss. "I am exhausted, El. It was a long night."
"Are you hungry? I can fix you some breakfast." Elizabeth put her book and coffee down and stood up.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something first." Peter waited for her to sit back down before talking. "El, we took down William Miller last night.
"That's great, Peter!" Elizabeth looked happy for all of two seconds before realizing that Peter had a strange look on his face. "What happened, Peter? What aren't you telling me?"
"We went to arrest him and found out that he was holed up in his office with a gun. We also found out that he had a hostage. It was Neal, El."
Elizabeth stood up suddenly, knocking her cup of coffee off the table. "Is he okay? What happened?"
"He's fine, hon. Tired, hungry and a little shaken, but fine."
"Where is he, Peter? I want to see him."
Peter knew she was going to say that, but still wasn't prepared to answer. "CPS took him, El. I'm not sure where, but they'll make sure he's safe."
"What about Jenna, Peter? Why didn't she take him home?"
Peter spent the next few minutes explaining everything to Elizabeth, who grew more and more distressed as the story went along. "Oh, hon, he must be so scared! Can we see him? Just to check on him?"
"I'll see what I can do, El, but first I need to get some sleep."
When Peter woke up he found Elizabeth lying next to him, obviously waiting for him to wake up. He couldn't help the groan that escaped him, his bones aching immensely.
"Okay, hon, you're up. Let's go."
"Hold on, El. I need to make a few calls first. I don't even know where he was taken."
Elizabeth pulled Peter up to his feet and handed him his phone. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
Peter knew better than to argue with his wife. A few minutes later, he was on the phone with someone from Child Protective Services, trying to figure out where Neal had gone. Eventually, he was able to find out where he was and had made arrangements to visit with the young boy. When he hung up, he turned to face Elizabeth, but she was nowhere to be found. Seconds later, she came out of the closet, holding a handful of his clothes.
"Let's go, Peter. Get in the shower!"
Peter parked the car a block away from the group home where they had taken Neal. He and Elizabeth walked up to the rather worn looking house, trying to stay objective about what they were seeing. There were toys strewn about the front yard and the front porch looked like it was about to collapse. Knocking on the front door, they waited patiently until someone answered.
After several more knocks, a rather frazzled looking woman holding a crying baby answered the door.
"Can I help you?"
Elizabeth squeezed Peter's hand before answering. "Yes, I'm Elizabeth Burke and this is my husband, Peter. We're here to see Neal."
"Oh, Ms. Barnett said you wouldn't be here until later." The woman didn't look too happy about the interruption to her day.
"We're sorry, but we just couldn't wait to see him. I'm sure you understand."
The woman obviously didn't understand, but moved aside anyway, as she handed the still crying baby over to another young woman. "Yes, well, he's probably out in the backyard with the other kids. I'll show you the way."
Neither of them was impressed to hear that she really didn't even know where the child was for sure. They followed her through the messy house, out into a backyard that was teeming with kids.
"How many kids do you have in your care, Mrs….?" Peter asked.
"It's Mrs. O'Connell and we currently have nine kids in our care. We're considered a group home and there are three adults working here, so the state allows us to have up to twelve kids at a time. We are a short term emergency placement center, so most of the kids are only with us for a few days."
Peter and Elizabeth looked around, growing more and more scared when they couldn't find Neal. Mrs. O'Connell asked one of the older kids if he knew where Neal was and the kid pointed over to a corner of the yard that was unoccupied.
"I think he's in the tree again, Mrs. O."
"What is with that kid?" she said, exasperatedly. "That's the third time today he's climbed that tree."
Looking up into the tall tree, Peter and Elizabeth were shocked to see Neal sitting in the crook of a branch, at least ten feet up.
"How in the world did he get up there?" Elizabeth asked, breathlessly.
"He's like a little monkey," the woman answered. "He can climb up that tree in less than five seconds. I told him not to do it, but he obviously didn't listen. In fact, he hasn't listened to a thing anyone has said since he showed up."
Peter stood directly under the branch that Neal was sitting in. "Neal? You need to come down, okay?" he called out. Neal didn't even blink. "Neal, buddy, I need you to climb down."
Neal still didn't answer. It looked as if the boy didn't even register that someone was talking to him. Turning back to the woman, Peter asked her if Neal had slept at all since he had been brought to her.
"Not a wink," she answered. "Ms. Barnett told me that he hadn't slept all night, but when I laid him down in the bed, he just stared up at the ceiling. He stayed that way for hours, until I finally sent him outside for some fresh air. He hasn't eaten anything, either."
Elizabeth's heart hurt at the thought of how tired and hungry the little boy must be. Turning back to the tree, she called up to Neal. "Neal? Sweetie, it's Elizabeth. Can you hear me? Neal?"
To Elizabeth's surprise, Neal finally turned his head to look down at her. "Lizbef? Is that really you?"
"Yes, sweetie, it's me. Peter and I came to see you. Can you come down from the tree?"
Seconds later, Neal had shimmied down the tree and landed right in front of Elizabeth. Looking up at her, he gave her a tired, but magnificent grin. "Did you really come to see me?"
"Of course, we did, Neal. We wanted to make sure that you were doing okay? How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, Lizbef. Can we go now? I don't like it here."
Elizabeth's heart nearly shattered at Neal's words. She didn't want to have to tell him that they weren't there to take him away, especially when he was looking at her like he was.
Peter knew his wife was at a loss for words and stepped in to save her. "Neal, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here for a while. You can't come with us, okay? Elizabeth and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay."
"But, Peter….I did what you said. Remember? You told me to 'cowboy up' and I did, I promise. I don't want to stay here anymore. Please!"
Elizabeth knelt down to be eye level with Neal. "Oh, sweetie…..we'd take you with us if we could, but it doesn't work like that. You have to stay here for now, until we can figure something out."
Elizabeth looked up into Peter's eyes, begging him to do something and Peter knew that she would settle for nothing less than taking Neal home with her. He also knew that it wouldn't be as easy as he hoped it would be. CPS was notorious for following protocol and procedure and he doubted that his FBI badge would help him out in this situation.
"Listen, Neal….Elizabeth and I are going to see if we can take you home with us, but it might take a little while, okay? In the meantime, you have to stay here with Mrs. O'Connell."
Neal looked more forlorn than any five year old should ever look. "Okay, Peter. But, hurry, okay? I really don't like it here. It's too noisy and I can't hear myself blink."
The adults laughed at Neal's blunder and all three were taken in by the innocent, but serious expression on his face.
"I think that's supposed to be 'I can't hear myself think,' little man," Peter said with a smile.
"Well, that doesn't even make sense, Peter, "Neal answered, seriously. "You can't hear yourself think….it's all in your head."
Peter, Elizabeth and Mrs. O'Connell laughed again at the adorableness of Neal's indignation.
After spending an hour with Neal, Peter and Elizabeth decided to leave. It was obvious that the poor kid was about to fall asleep in the bowl of cereal they had convinced him to eat. He tried to convince them that he wasn't tired, but they all knew better.
"Neal, we need to go so we can get started on figuring out a plan to bring you home with us, okay? And you need to take a nap." Elizabeth smiled at the big yawn that escaped Neal.
"I'm five years old, Lizbef. I'm too old to take a nap," Neal answered, indignantly.
"You're never too old to take a nap, if you need one, Neal. You haven't slept in a long time, so you definitely need a nap. How about if I tuck you into bed, sweetie? Would you like that?"
After Neal admitted that he would like it if Elizabeth tucked him in, he stood up and grabbed her hand. Peter stopped them before they walked through the door. "Just a minute, Neal," he said. "I want to talk to you about something first. " Once he was sure that he had the boy's attention, he continued. "While you're here, I expect you to eat something at every meal and to go to sleep when Mrs. O'Connell tells you to, okay? And I don't want to hear that you've been climbing that tree anymore, either, little man. It's much too dangerous, and I don't want to get a phone call telling me that you've fallen and cracked your head open. Do you understand?"
"I understand, Peter, but I wouldn't fall out of the tree. My mama said I have monkey blood in me and monkeys never fall."
Leaving Neal at the group home was a hard thing to do for both of them. It had taken Neal about two minutes to fall asleep, lulled easily by Elizabeth's soft voice reading the story and her gentle hand rubbing his back.
Now they were driving down the expressway, both lost in their own thoughts. It was Peter who finally broke the silence. "Are we really thinking of doing this, El? Taking care of a five year old is tough work and I think this particular five year old will be even tougher. He's full of energy and I don't know if I can keep up with him."
"Peter, we have to do this. Did you see the way he lit up when he realized we were there? He's all alone in the world and for some reason he feels safe with us. If we don't do this, he'll just get passed around from foster home to foster home and I couldn't live with myself if that were to happen. Could you?"
Peter didn't miss the longing in her eyes and he knew, without a doubt, that he would do whatever it took to make her happy.
"No, I couldn't, hon, so let's go and see about bringing Neal home."
Author's note: I am completely and humbly blown away by the reception of this story so far. You guys are all amazing and I want to thank you all for taking the time to read. I'm trying hard to keep Neal in character as much as I can, but it's proving to be a little harder than I thought, so bear with me, please.
I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas, if you are so inclined. I really have no idea where I'm taking this story, so I'm definitely open to suggestions. I sometimes have a loose idea of where a new chapter is heading, but I'm always surprised at where I end up by the time I'm done writing it. I've often heard of stories writing themselves and now I really understand what that means, lol.