CHAPTER 17

Mozzie had to admit that it was getting harder and harder to not let himself enjoy the time spent with the Burkes.
He also had to admit that it was getting harder for him to not get attatched, especially to Mrs. Suit, He still didn't trust the suit or any of his co-workers, especially not his boss who kept getting into his head with all of the cryptic answers to his questions.
The agent's wife however was different and the more time he spent with her, the more she started to remind him of his mother, before she got sick.
Her light laughter, her sparkling blue eyes, her sweet perfume and the way she made him feel seen and understood was all parts of her that was just like his mom.
A part of him got sad, still feeling the grief that came with losing her, but another part of him made him feel more drawn to her, the similarites making him feel safer and more relaxed in her company.
It was like there were two parts of him constantly at war with each other.
One of them was more mature, more reserved, sadder and had a hard time trusting people.
That was the part that had showed up during their time with Keller and it was the part that had protected him and made him able to take care of himself and his brother.
The other part was the part that he tried so hard to repress, the part that was a naïve child who wanted to believe that the people around him were good people and who just craved love and attention.
The first part had become big and strong but it was things like Mrs. Suit's kind smiles, Neal's happy giggles and Satchmo's wet kisses that caused the second part to grow bigger and stronger and wanting to take over.

"Okay Neal, I'm ready you can go get him."
Mozzie told his brother and the four-year-old ran out of the office to find the agent.
He looked down at the paper that he had spent the last ten minutes writing on, making sure that it was perfect.
Since they had come to stay with the Burkes, the suit had been pushing him to tell him about the robberies that his uncle and his partner had performed but Mozzie had refused to talk.
Their deal had been his words for the promise of them staying together and the suit thought that he had held up his end of the deal but their presence at the Burke residence was only temporary and for all Mozzie knew, the agent would send them off to seperate homes as soon as Mozzie talked.
He had originally planned on keeping quiet until they found a new, more permanent home but after seeing a man at the supermarket who looked eerily similar to his uncle, he realized the danger of having Keller out there.
So to protect himself and his little brother, he needed to make sure that their monster of an uncle was caught and locked away.
He looked up as the small boy returned, his hand holding the suit's hand as he more or less dragged the man into the office.

"Suit, I have summoned you here to-"
"Summoned me? You can't summon me to my own office."

The agent protested before Neal gently pushed against him and when the suit looked down at him, Neal placed his finger over his mouth to tell him to be quiet.

"I have summoned you here to sign this contract stating that you will hold up your end of the deal even after I talk."
"Mozzie, I already told you that I would."
"I don't trust your words, Suit. I want it in writing and Neal, the ladysuit and demisuit will all be my witnessess."
He said, gesturing to Jones and Diana who was standing behind him.

Mozzie fidgeted in his seat while the suit found a blank page in his notebook.
At first he had wanted to record the conversation but Mozzie had refused, not wanting the feds to have a recording with his voice.
Who knows what they could do with it?
They could edit it to make it sound like he was saying things that he wasn't.
The suit called his fear ridiciolus but he still complied.
He was going to write down what Mozzie said and then let him review it to make sure that his words weren't twisted around.

"Are you ready?"
"Do you promise that whatever I say, me and Neal won't get in any trouble?"

Mozzie knew that they were minors who had been forced into be accomplices but he still wanted to make sure that their actions wouldn't be punished in any way.

"Unless you two killed someone, I promise that you won't get in any trouble."

The suit answered and Mozzie nodded before he took a deep breath and started talking.
Once he started to talk, the words all just flew out of him.
He told the agent about how Keller and his partner had robbed the museums and how him and Neal had been used to help them.
The agent was quiet the entire time, he just patiently listened and made notes.
It wasn't until he was done talking that he noticed how upset he had become, talking about Keller and their time together had managed to cause tears to form in his eyes.

"Thank you, Mozzie."
The suit said while giving him a kind smile.
He seemed to have notice that he had gotten upset because instead of asking any questions, he just closed the notebook and told him that he could go back to his brother, which he did.
Neal immediately noticed that Mozzie was upset and literally dropped everything to go to Mozzie and hug him tight.

"Look! They're showing a documentary about conspiracy theories!"
Mozzie told Mrs. Suit excitedly while the suit groaned.

"Can I watch it?"
"Sure."

She answered and Mozzie smiled before he noticed what time they aired it, it was 30 minutes after they usually went to bed.

"It's after bedtime. Can we stay up?"

Elizabeth looked up to see what time it aired before she answered.

"You can but your brother should go to bed as usual."
"But we always go to bed together"
"I know but don't you wanna watch it? You always go to bed for Neal's sake but don't you think that it's time for Neal to learn to go to bed alone?"

Mozzie looked over at Neal who was happily drawing, and humming to some song that he had heard on the car radio, too lost in his own head to notice that they were talking about him.
Mozzie did agree that Neal should learn to sleep on his own, it was one to be close to each other when they were staying with Keller but now he was getting a little tired of lying in bed for sometimes an hour or two, waiting for his body to get tired enough to sleep.
He looked at Mrs. Suit and nodded.
"We can try."

It was painful and Mozzie couldn't stop himself from crying.
It had been almost twenty minutes since they had tried to put Neal to bed alone and the four-year-old had been crying and screaming nonstop.
Normally kids used to wear themselves out while throwing tantrums but not Neal, Mozzie knew that he could go on for hours with no sign of stopping.
Mrs. Suit held held Mozzie in her arms while the suit struggled with Neal.
Mozzie had been taught to react to Neal's crying and do everything he could to comfort his little brother and now that he was held back, even if it had been his own choice, he had no choice but to break down himself.
He didn't know who was suffering the most right now, Neal who was scared of being alone or Mozzie who had to listen to his brother crying out for him, begging him to not leave him alone.

"Aow! Son of a-"

They heard the suit say.

"What happened, hun?"

Mrs. Suit asked, almost yelling to be heard over Neal's loud crying.

"He bit me!"

Mozzie tried to break free from Mrs. Suit's arms, wanting to scold his brother.

"We agreed that you would stay out of it, right?"

She said and they had agreed on that, Mozzie had thought that by removing himself from the whole situation, it would be easier for them to get their point across to Neal but that was before he knew how hard that would be.
Neal called out for him again, sounding more desperate than ever and Mozzie couldn't take it anymore.
He didn't care about the documentary anymore.

"Let me go."

Mozzie asked but she didn't.

"I'm sorry."

He said before he took a hold of her arm and bit down on it causing her to let go of him while she swore to herself.
Mozzie ran from the adults' room, where they had been waiting, and into the guest room where Peter was trying to get Neal to stay in the bed.

"Mozzie!"

Neal cried out and Mozzie more or less threw himself at his little brother, hugging him tight.
Hugging him was like pressing a button, the loud cries and yells disappeared in a second and the house went quiet again.
Mozzie sighed, wondering if Neal was ever going to be able to be on his own.