Disclaimer: White Collar belongs to USA Network and Jeff Eastin.
Chapter 20
While they sat in the waiting room, Peter caught Elizabeth up on the latest developments and showed her the information Diana had gotten from the missing children's website.
At first, she laughed delightedly at the photographs and cooed over how sweet their boy was. It was hard not to. Neal looked like the Hollywood stereotype of a ragamuffin. Then the realization of just how vulnerable he and Jennika must have been set in, along with the horror of what was about to befall them.
"Oh, Peter," Elizabeth remarked sorrowfully. "This is so much worse than I had imagined. Look at Neal. He looks so small. In fact, he's a lot smaller than the other kids, especially next to Jennika."
"I know, I was thinking the same thing. If you read his information sheet you'll see he was almost a year younger than her, which explains why he was so much shorter and lighter," Peter said with a sigh. "And look at the dates. The school pictures were taken the same day they went missing. These must have been taken just hours before the kids were snatched."
Elizabeth ran her fingers over the lettering at the foot of the class photograph. Tears filled her eyes as she turned to her husband in distress.
"So essentially, this is a record of the last day of Neal and Jennika's childhood," she stated as the tears started to flow.
Her words hung in the air, weighing heavily.
Peter took her hand, unable to offer any comment to reduce the impact of the truth she had just spoken. He felt sick at the thought of what lay ahead for Neal and Jennika before that fateful day was over and for the years thereafter. He swiped angrily at his own tears before putting his arm around Elizabeth and pulling her in close to him. As they sat together for what seemed like an eternity, his resolve to help his partner through everything strengthened. By the time the doctor came through to talk with them, he was clear on what he had to do next.
"Good news!" the doctor greeted them cheerfully. "Your friend will make a full and speedy recovery. There was no serious damage done, and we relocated the arm cleanly. He's being moved up to one of the overnight rooms. He's not thrilled at the prospect of staying with us, but we had to pump copious amounts of pain meds into him, so he will have to stay for observation at least until tomorrow afternoon. I must say, he can put up quite a ruckus. I've never had to literally wrestle a patient before. Even with the arm out of place, he gave us quite the run for our money. You'll find him up on the third floor. Just follow the singing!"
Elizabeth and Peter both laughed, easily imagining what had gone on in the emergency room. They thanked the doctor and made their way up to Neal's room. True to the doctor's word, they could hear Neal as soon as they stepped out of the elevator on the third floor.
"Oh good grief!" Peter groaned, "The 50's Sinatra medley I can take but honestly, Duran Duran? This is awful!" He shook his head at his partner's thunderous rendition of Hungry Like The Wolf.
Thankfully, the performance ended immediately upon their arrival in Neal's room. He gave them his goofiest grin and motioned them over to the bed. He was propped up on several pillows, heavily bandaged and clearly even more heavily medicated. Various wires were attached to his chest and hand, recording his heart rate and oxygen levels. In addition, there was a drip stand next to him with a monitor attached to it. A tube ran from the fluid bag hanging on the stand to Neal's wrist with a wire running from the monitor to a handheld dispenser with a red button at the end. It lay on the bed next to Neal's hand. Clearly, this was for dispensing the meds, which were now coursing through the ex-con's veins.
Peter doubted that Neal should have been left in charge of such a thing but was grateful, as it was integral to his plan for getting Neal to talk more about his time with Jennika. He sat down on the same side of the bed of the morphine pump while Elizabeth took the chair on the other side.
"You're looking beautiful, Elizabeth," Neal cooed, while Peter rolled his eyes.
"Unbelievable, you're barely conscious, and you're still working the room!" Peter exclaimed.
"Well, the good-looking side of it anyway," Neal replied, giving Elizabeth a wink.
Peter let out a disgusted snort, while Elizabeth accepted the compliment with a slight blush.
"As I recall, Peter," Neal added. "You did offer your wife's services as solace. I believe I'm due a kiss."
"Hello boys!" Elizabeth chimed in with mock frustration. "Have we somehow gone back to the Middle Ages? I do have a choice in this matter you know!"
"No you don't." Neal laughed, giving her what could only be described as a leer. "A verbal contract was made and I demand my payment!"
"Glad to see you're doing so well, Sweetie." Elizabeth laughed, as she patted Neal on the leg.
Slowly, she opened her purse and removed her lipstick holder. With exaggerated deliberation, she opened it and liberally coated her lips in a rich coral lipstick.
"Okay, Romeo. Where do you want it, cheek or forehead?"
"No lips?" Neal pouted, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
"Not a chance!" Elizabeth snapped back instantly.
"Oh thank god!" Peter exclaimed, laughing. "At least one of you has some boundaries."
"Cheek." Neal sighed reluctantly, pointing to his left cheek.
Not the side next to Elizabeth, Peter noticed, but the one on his side of the bed. He knew fine well that Neal had deliberately chosen the side closest to him, just to make him jealous. However, it provided a perfect camouflage, so he did not put up any complaint.
Obligingly, Elizabeth rose and bent over Neal to firmly plant a perfect lipstick kiss on his left cheek. As she did so, she caught a peripheral movement as Peter slid his hand over and pressed the morphine pump unbeknownst to Neal, who was giving out a melodramatic groan and clutching his chest. As Peter pushed the button the machine beeped, almost giving him away.
"What was that?" Neal asked, turning round to face Peter.
"That was the cardiac monitor," Peter answered immediately. "I believe your heart just skipped a beat!"
"Wow, Elizabeth. Your kisses really pack a punch!" Neal said with admiration.
"Know what else packs a punch? My right fist! You got your kiss, now knock it off!" Peter growled.
Neal reluctantly stopped trying to seduce his partner's wife. His eyes began to droop as the effects of the additional hit of morphine kicked in. Elizabeth was watching him curiously.
"Hmm, they're not that great." She mused, looking over at Peter.
Peter moved his eyes to indicate the pump, which lay on the bed beside him. Elizabeth let out a whispered gasp.
"Peter Burke, you just used me!"
Sometimes she got so caught up in Neal's charming web that she forgot that Peter was still the smarter of the two. He gave her a quiet smile and looked over at Neal who was humming gently to himself, barely aware that his friends were still there.
"How about you go have something to eat at the cafeteria, and then see if you can reach Mozzie and ask him to come here? Neal and I are going to continue our conversation."
"Oh, okay," Elizabeth replied sadly, her mood immediately sobering. "Are you sure Neal will be okay?"
"I honestly don't know, but I think this is the best chance I'll have of getting the full story out of him. I'm sure his reluctance to tell me what happened is partly driven by embarrassment. You know how important his image is to him. The drugs should take care of that, and if he gets panicked, well what safer place could we be? I'm not convinced that my reviving him the other night wasn't just a fluke. Anyway, I don't want to go through that again. I'm going to give it my best shot to get to the bottom of this today. How about a kiss for me too? I'm sure I'm gonna need it."
"Oh, Peter." Elizabeth gushed, "You're always my hero, honey."
She came around to his side of the bed and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him on the cheek. Then, turning his face toward her, she kissed him again on the lips. She ran her fingers through his hair before rubbing his nose gently with her own and looking into those brown eyes she loved so much.
"You'll do just great, I know you will," she said confidently, kissing him again before getting up and smoothing her skirt down.
"I'll text you when Mozzie gets here. Call me when you want us to come back up. You sure I can't get you something before you start?"
"No, hon. I've kindda lost my appetite. I'll get something when I'm done with Neal," Peter replied.
He watched Elizabeth leave. As she closed the door behind her, he scooted his chair in closer to the bed and tapped Neal gently on the back of his hand.
"Hey, buddy. We've got some talking to do."
Neal turned to look at him, with a sleepy expression. Peter took a deep breath and steeled himself.
"Tell me what happened that day, when you and Jennika were walking home from school."
It was over two hours later when Elizabeth's phone buzzed. It was sitting on the table amidst the various empty coffee cups and sandwich wrappers that she and Mozzie had accumulated since he got there an hour earlier. Despite his well-known fear of hospitals, Mozzie had come immediately when Elizabeth had finally gotten through to him. He apologized that he had been otherwise engaged when she had called the numerous times before he eventually picked up, and she did not pursue just exactly what that meant. When he arrived, Mozzie had brought supplies for them both, explaining that it was safer than hospital food; given all the germs in the air conditioning. Elizabeth hadn't argued, as she was pretty hungry by then, having been too anxious to eat before Mozzie's arrival.
Surprisingly, Mozzie had not objected to Peter's strategy when Elizabeth had told him about it. He had long since given up on trying to fill in the blanks regarding Neal's missing years as he referred to them. On the rare occasions that he had gleaned something, Neal had always been so distressed that he had been unwilling to bring up the subject himself. After some small talk, he and Elizabeth had settled into a comfortable silence awaiting Peter's call. When it finally came, they were both jolted out of their reverie and rudely awakened to the fact that zero hour had arrived. It was with considerable reluctance that Elizabeth answered the phone and she looked over at Mozzie. He nodded encouragingly and Elizabeth switched on the speakerphone.
"Hey, hon," Elizabeth said, for once at a loss for anything more comforting to offer her husband.
"Hey," was his similarly bland response.
Mozzie motioned with his hand for Elizabeth to continue.
"Mozzie's here. Are you ready for us to come on up?" she asked.
"Sure. I'm out in the waiting room. There's no one else in here so it will be private."
"Can we bring you up anything to eat or drink?"
"No, I've no appetite. But I could use a coffee, a strong one."
"Okay, hon. See you in a few."
"Sure." Peter hung up.
"That didn't go so badly." Mozzie said soothingly.
"Oh, Moz. I can tell he's upset. I'm not sure what to do. I know he will have to talk to unburden himself, but I'm not sure that I can hear what he has to say."
To Mozzie's horror she burst into tears and buried her head in his neck. However, he rose to the occasion, patting her comfortingly on the back and making appropriate sounds. If he had coped with Neal's breakdowns in the past, he could cope with Elizabeth's. Once she had calmed down, Elizabeth was quick to pull herself together. Using the abandoned napkins on the table, she wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Then she drew herself up straight and checked her makeup, applying more of the lipstick she had used on Neal (and Peter) earlier.
"Thank you, Mozzie. I needed that. Let's go."
"Right behind you, Mrs. Suit." Mozzie quickly gathered up their garbage and took the tray to the counter.
They stopped at the coffee stand to get Peter an espresso and headed off to the elevator bank. When they arrived at the third floor, they walked passed Neal's room. Mozzie took a quick peek inside and found Neal snoring loudly.
TBC
Thank you to lstuds for your continued patience in beta reading.
