Thirty minutes… he waited thirty minutes for Dr. Sanders. Every few seconds he watched the pain flicker across Neal's face in waves and still no sign of the doctor. He couldn't stand it any longer… Peter had to know what was keeping the man. He marched up the hall to the nurse's station.

"Do you have any idea how long it will be until Dr. Sanders is available to check on the patient in 112…"

"I don't know… let me page him." she gave him a long suffering smile "you know there is a call button in the room for exactly things like this."

"I spoke to Angela thirty minutes ago…she said she was paging him then." He glanced around the woman to catch the younger nurse's eye but Angela looked away. "You never paged him did you?" her head came up then a defiant glint in her eye.

"I told you before my job is to care for patients who need it, not supply drugs to men like that. He is receiving appropriate pain management." she spat the word man as though the taste of it was foul in her mouth. Crushing back the urge to scream at the young woman, he looked at the older nurse.

"Please page Dr. Sanders… my friend is in a lot of pain." He kept his voice tightly even.

"Of course." She shot Angela a reproving look. As the call went out Peter turned away… walking back to the room he heard Angela's voice carry clearly down the hall

"The man is a criminal, Tammy, probably an addict… I heard he killed a little girl." Peter had the urge to turn back and tear into her. A small tortured sound from Neal's room made up his mind for him. Forgetting the woman in an instant he hurried back inside.

"Neal? You awake?" a pitiful moan was is only answer but the younger man's hand grabbed his blindly and hung on desperately his breath coming in hollow gasps. "shhh… Dr. Sanders will be here soon" he glanced at the monitor nervously as the blips became increasingly rapid and uneven. "It's going to be ok" the wave of pain seemed to be passing, the hand clutching his growing slack… Peter drew a shaky breath, glancing at the door hopefully. By the time Dr. Sanders appeared they had ridden out two more agonizing waves of near consciousness and anguish.

"Peter what is going on? Tammy said you asked her to page me."

"He was awake…"

"Fully?"

"He was talking to me… it was hard to tell how clear he was, because he was in so much pain!"

"He's in pain? He shouldn't be in pain."

"I'm not sure that pain really covers it… I asked one of the nurses to help him. She said he was receiving sufficient pain management, but he can't take much more of this." The doctor looked at the monitor and frowned…quickly pulling his stethoscope from his neck and positioning it in his ears he listened intensely to Neal's chest…his eyes filling with concern, as a deep groan escaped the injured man at the touch. Turning to the IV Dr. Sanders' expression darken suddenly.

"The nurse who was here… did she check this IV?"

"No… Angela seemed to think he wasn't worth the trouble." Fury flashed in the doctor's eyes as he carefully rearranged the tubing.

"The morphine drip was kinked… I doubt he has been getting even a quarter of the dosage he should have been." The doctor's jaw clenched tightly as he hit a button on the wall. He injected something into the line… he hesitated then added something else. Tammy responded instantly to his call. Once more he listened to the harsh shallow breathing. Tammy took in the situation at a glance before she lifted Neal's hand, fingers on his wrist… her eyes on her watch. They spoke in swift urgent tones, moving in hurried sync to deal with his apparent condition. Peter pressed his back to the wall trying to remain silent and out of the way while they worked. He didn't listen to the words they spoke… he couldn't follow most of the jargon they threw back and forth anyway… he listened rather to the tone of their voices…the urgency and concern worried him. He watched Tammy adjust the settings on the oxygen mask that covered much of his friend's face…several more injections went into the IV line before he heard it … stabilizing… the tone was confident, the tension in their voices released…Peter sighed with relief. Dr. Sanders on the other hand looked thunderous. He strode from the room, returning with the younger nurse in tow.

"Angela" he snapped "I want you to examine this patient."

"Dr. Sanders?"

"Do you see the elevated pulse? The shallow rapid breathing…? Did you notice the falling oxygen levels? The erratic blood pressure?" Peter noticed the color blanching from the woman's face. "You are aware of the severity of this man's injuries correct?"

"Yes, doctor but… he is receiving high doses of pain medication"

"Is he? When was this bag placed?" she nervously checked the chart looking up in fear

"This has to be a mistake … it says the morphine bag hasn't been changed in 8 hours but… it's still half full…it should have been changed 2 hours ago" she swallowed "I thought… that woman said he was a criminal… I thought he was addict… I didn't know…"

"A man has been unconscious for 6 days from massive blunt force trauma… and your first assumption when he indicates he's in pain is that he is angling for drugs…? You are so certain of your assumption you do not even glance at his vitals, because even a glance would have told you something was seriously wrong…"

"I …I…"

"He nearly died due to your assumption… if I had been unavailable when you first paged me…" Dr. Sanders barely contained his shiver. "10 more minutes with insufficient pain control, Angela and you would have been paging me for a code blue." He looked at her intensely… "As it stands… I have no idea how much this may have set him back… how much damage has been done… the man was already in shock when I arrived." The sharp intake of breath and the deathly shade of her face spoke of dawning realization of the level of trouble she was in. To her credit she didn't try to avoid it. Swallowing roughly she admitted

"I didn't page you when I was first asked to… I intended to but… another patient called me and… I thought…" Cold rage swept through Peter like an artic storm, at her confession…

"You thought any other patient was more worthy of you concern than he is!" he glared at the woman with eyes as hard as stone. "You heard what Valdez accused him of, and you decided to be Judge, Jury and…" his voice choked off strangling the next word before it escaped because he would not allow that outcome. "You let one of the smartest… kindest people I have ever met suffer because of a comment you over heard! A comment I might add that had no basis in reality!" he turned to Dr. Sanders with a sharp look "I don't want her assigned to him again."

"She won't be." he tried to smile reassuringly but the strain in his eyes was clear "Angela… you are aware there will disciplinary action for this" the young woman nodded wordlessly as she left the room. Outside the door however Peter thought he heard her mutter "Kindest… my eye. Tell that to the little girl's family"

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Jennifer Williams stared at her desk wondering when the nightmare like quality of her thoughts would fade … she tried to wrap her mind around the harsh reality… her partner was dead… Lenny Thompson was DEAD… again and again she watched Lenny jerk violently… stumbling weakly back two steps… a stunned expression in his green eyes, before his legs buckled and he sank to the ground in slow motion… "HE KILLED MY DAUGHTER!" echoed in her mind as Lenny's eyes stared at her…losing focus…drifting away… Berrigan leaning over him pressing on his chest….and the blood… so much blood… everywhere. Jennifer stared at her hands… remembered them uselessly caressing Lenny's face "stay with me…Look at me…" she pleaded but his eyes didn't focus…he gasped… choking…shallow and weak…she cradled him begging him to hold on. Lenny sighed deeply… the breath shuddering from his limp form… his weak grip on her hand releasing as his body relaxed impossibly… She'd held her own breath waiting for his next… but it never came… Berrigan pushed her gently aside… breathing for Lenny… his chest rose… fell… was still. Again… again… again… D*** it! Berrigan swore… suddenly she was crushing Lenny's chest over and over… trying to revive him… nothing. No response… his head rolling to the side as if none of it mattered to him… as if it wasn't his body they were trying to beat life into…didn't matter that his ribs and sternum cracked beneath the woman's hands… as if it didn't matter that his chest was utterly still…except when the woman above him forced it to move… as if it was nothing that Berrigan was pressing her lips to his over and over… he would have laughed at that…that's when Jennifer knew he was gone because Lenny would have laughed and he didn't laugh… or even smile… so that drooping bloody thing lying far to still on the gravel wasn't Lenny… not anymore because Lenny would have grinned at her if Diana Berrigan had kissed him even once but now his face wore… nothing… vacant unblinking eyes half closed, colorless lips parted slightly by an unbearably loose jaw, dripping blood with each chest compression, cheeks cold and white… there was no expression… no life in that face… simply nothing. Jennifer gripped his hand, begging for something… anything... and still he gave her nothing, his motionless, lax fingers growing ice cold and sickeningly blue in hers. She frantically rubbed them willing them to stay warm. His chest rose… fell… Berrigan gasped… rose … fell… rose… fell with forced breath… was still while Diana pressed on it sharply compressing his lungs… his heart… blood bubbled from his lips… his nose…spilling down his grey blue cheek…

She watched paramedics swooping in… tubes… wires… needles… frantic shouting… ripping his shirt aside. Lenny didn't flinch, not when they stuck the massive syringe in his chest, not when the rolled him on his side to look for an exit wound… his limps sagging strangely… folding bonelessly around his grey bloody chest. He didn't answer their calls as they asked him his name and if he could hear them…didn't look at them as they swarmed over him like carrion birds…moving him, talking to him… poking and prodding him…he didn't gag when they tilted his head pushing the tube down his throat… didn't even twitch as they cut into his chest and forced a catheter between his ribs…his arms flopped loosely as they shifted him to the gurney… green eyes still half open gazed skyward… sightlessly following his soul. She knew as they rolled him away he was dead…she knew he wasn't there anymore… that the strange hands pounding on his chest… the tube in his lungs… the paddles that shot electricity through his body, making his boneless limbs jerk convulsively …forcing his frozen chest to arch sharply in a twisted parody of breathing.… would be no more effective to bring him back than his best friend's pleading had been because Lenny was dead. Still she hoped… prayed …all the way to the hospital…pleaded to be wrong… the doctor walking toward her…Lenny's blood on his clothes, matching hers… face set… expressionless…hands firm… "Dead On Arrival…I'm sorry for your loss…" her mind screamed… though her voice was silent… her eyes far to dry… Lenny deserved tears… but she just didn't have them…

"Excuse me?" the voice wrenched her from the bitter memory "are you Agent Jennifer Williams?" the messenger ask her. She nodded unable to trust her voice.

"I have a delivery from the office of vital records." Jennifer smiled tightly… Meagan Richard's death certificate…Now they would finally see the teenager's cause of death… an explanation why her father wanted Neal Caffrey and his son dead… the reason Lenny was dead… she requested it two days ago… the morning after her partner… died…Jennifer shuddered.

Valdez believed Caffrey murdered the girl… Jennifer thought it was possible, it was some sort of accident. She didn't know that much about Caffrey but Diana had said he wasn't violent while they waited outside the CPS office before…Lenny… but he was a criminal so she could see him accidentally causing the girl's death and never looking back… a hit and run while evading law enforcement, maybe… she shook her head willing herself to focus, to stop speculating, she had the answer right there in her hands… trembling fingers opened the envelope. Her eyes scanned the document.

Name: Megan Richards.

Birth date: Oct 12, 1991.

Date of death: April 27, 2007.

Time of death: 2:14 pm

And there…the line she needed … Jennifer stared … read the line again… it still didn't make sense…

Cause of Death: Lung Cancer…

She glanced at her boss's empty office… Valdez needed to see this right now.

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Drifting awake was easier this time… the blinding light was still there… the rush of sound… but the pain was… distant…he opened his eyes tentatively… blinking the fuzzy room into focus. He turned his head slowly… no mind deadening pain. He drew a shaky breath… looking around. The room was quieter than he thought. He was vaguely cold… and numb. His limbs felt heavy… impossible to move. Neal's gaze traveled to the IV in his arm… the clear tube in his side… the monitors... reducing his life to numbers… he blinked letting his gaze wander to the empty chair drawn close beside the bed. Peter had been there last time, he remembered vaguely… someone cleared their throat… he shifted his gaze to the doorway… a woman he didn't recognize stood leaning on the wall watching him with cold intensity.

"Hel-lo?" he tried to smile but she probably couldn't see the effort behind the mask obscuring his face…because she glared in return.

"Hello Mr. Caffrey… I am Agent Adriana Valdez… I'm here to talk to you about Meagan Richards." Neal tried to think to remember who that was… was it someone he should know… be worried about?

"Who's… that?" he managed… hating that he didn't know. His mind felt so foggy…

"Meagan Richards…" She glared at him threateningly "her father Johnny Richards tried to kill you… and your son. He shot two good agents 3 days ago… one of them is dead. Richards claimed you killed his daughter… so Mr. Caffrey" her voice was ice "Tell me about Meagan Richards… how did she die?"

"Don-'t … know…" Valdez stepped closer her voice deadly quiet.

"What did you do to the girl Caffrey?"

"Noth-ing" he suddenly was afraid as she moved nearer… his breath catching in his throat… gagging him… wheezing in and out of his shattered lungs in tiny gasps. His eyes darted frantically to the door wishing Peter would appear… or a nurse… anyone really, who could make this woman leave.

"Did you kill her on purpose… or was it an accident?"

"Did-n't …kill…" he tried to sound clear and certain but he only managed weak and afraid…

"One of my agents… one of my friends is DEAD, Caffrey. I am not playing this game with you." She lay her hand on his arm clenching the muscle in her grip tight enough he felt her finger nails dig into his skin. He hissed in surprised pain. "What. Did. You. Do. To. The. Girl." she annunciated each word slowly enforcing them with a sharp shake of his arm. Neal recoiled in terror… remembered pain ricocheting though his mind….

"Please…" he whispered trying to get air… drowning… he was hanging upside down and drowning… he couldn't breathe… the blows kept coming… still coming…

"Caffrey I'm not buying this… you better talk to me!" He heard someone shouting at him from miles away as his vision tunneled to a pinprick of light… something was ringing… that distant voice… "Hello? I'm with Caffrey now, Williams… tell me you have something I can…" the voice faded away… somewhere… someone familiar was shouting… he was cold… drowning… he couldn't feel the bat striking his body anymore…