12C: Concluding Reunions

It was late when they were leaving for the vehicles to head to another base and for sleep.

With their initial reports filed, Peter went to a room to get some sleep on a cot while Neal settled into his own cot next to him.

Getting a chance to have a conversation with his friend, Peter wanted to know what had happened.

Also curious, Chuck ducked into the room that they were staying in along with his wife and they joined Peter by sitting on his cot to listen to Neal explain what had happened.

"My brothers are alive and conscious enough to communicate." Neal's whole demeanor had improved since he had confirmation that his brothers were alright.

"Where are they?" Peter didn't want a description of how Neal knew what condition his brothers were in without receiving contact.

"Junior is in a hospital while they tried to dump Bryce out to sea but he was found by a boat that is transporting him back in." Neal was angry that his brothers were hurt but relieved that they were recovering. "I need to make some calls to find just exactly which hospital and ship before arrangements can be made to move them to New York where I can be there for them as they recover."

"It's late so most locations aren't going to be running on anything more than a skeleton crew of a night staff so we should get some sleep and then we'll all help you with the phone calls starting in the morning." Peter directed since it was going into the early hours of the new day. They'd do a more efficient job if they got some rest before tackling it strategically with full-functioning brains.

"We'll help. I have a lot to talk to Bryce about. There is probably a conference room in the building so I'll go make arrangements for one to be set up and then we can get started once we've gotten some sleep." Chuck promised as he and Sarah got up. They bid them goodnight before leaving to make the arrangements and find their own cots.

Left with his friend, Peter wanted to make sure that Neal got some sleep so he settled into his cot and ordered Neal to do the same. "Go to sleep, Neal. You'll find them faster and better after you've had some rest."

Reluctantly, Neal slowly got settled onto his own cot but he quickly drifted off to sleep as his fatigue caught up with him.

Seeing that Neal was out, Peter closed his eyes and tried not to let his mind wander. The triplets had been a huge surprise, but he suspected that there was more to their bond than just being brothers. Neal had suddenly known what had happened to his brothers, something of where they were, and an idea of what condition they were in without any contact. That was strange and creepy so Peter wasn't in a rush to learn it, but he also felt that he'd need to address it with his friend later… once he'd had some sleep and could better process it.

Peter had done the work on short sleep so it wasn't surprising when his eyes opened not too many hours later. He knew that it was morning and time for them to get up and begin the search for the other triplets.

He quickly got ready doing the bare minimum to freshen up in the locker room. Wherever they were, the building had fully equipped locker rooms with showers so that he was able to do a quick wash off, shave, and dress in fresh clothes so that he was ready for whatever they'd need to do for the day.

Returning to the room where they'd slept, Peter was glad to see that Neal was awake but that his eyes no longer looked so shadowed so he'd gotten some solid rest. Leaving him to follow in the process of getting ready for the day, Peter went searching for coffee and breakfast for them.

Meeting Chuck in a hallway, he was guided to a conference room. "We've got phones set up and laptops for everyone to research with. My team will be taking one side of the table so that you and Neal can take the other. Morgan is on a coffee and breakfast run with a local agent so we'll have food shortly. Did Neal sleep?"

Appreciating the agent's attention to detail, Peter walked along with Chuck since he had no idea where they were heading. "He did. I think he was exhausted by the stress of worrying about them as he was out once he settled down and allowed himself to relax. When I woke up he was still asleep, but he's getting ready now and should be along soon."

Arriving at their destination, Peter walked into the conference room to see Casey and Sarah already arranging their spaces to begin working.

Chuck joined his wife and Peter began to shift the things in his space to suit his comforts. It didn't take him long, but it was something to do while they waited for Morgan with their breakfast and Neal with the information on his brothers.

Morgan returned just before Neal arrived to join the group.

Dividing the coffee and breakfast sandwiches up, they took a brief respite for their meal as Neal recounted to them what he knew of his brothers' situations. The more they knew, the easier it would be to narrow down their locations.

Once they were ready to go, they began divvying up the lists of ships and hospitals that needed to be called throughout the region. Then they began making phone calls looking for the missing men.

After a couple of hours, Peter got a hit on a John Doe that had been found by a local citizen who'd gotten him to a hospital. The police had been called in but were still processing his information.

Taking the information down, Peter got the details on the hospital and room number where they could find their man. They'd need to confirm that he was indeed Junior, but he was pretty sure he'd found one of the brothers.

Transitioning to help with the other search, everyone was down to calling ships. It wasn't that there was a long list, but more that they were difficult to reach that complicated the work.

Eventually, they got a ship that confirmed having found a man of Neal's description adrift at sea.

They were heading for port, but they were a big ship that moved slowly so they were still out.

Making arrangements, they set up a means of transport to retrieve Bryce and take him to a New York City based hospital for treatment.

Chuck and Sarah volunteered to join the transport to ensure that Bryce would have familiar and friendly faces to escort him along the way. Their team was not fond of Bryce and preferred to remain in the office so they set off together.

With everything else done on the search, Casey and Morgan transitioned to helping with anything that they could do on the greater case while Peter and Neal went to their transportation.

Peter and Neal were going to the hospital to confirm Junior's identity and make arrangements to transfer him to New York.

Although it was late when they arrived, the hospital let them up to see Junior.

When they entered the room, Neal visibly relaxed at seeing his brother lying there awake and looking back at him.

"Hey," Neal didn't feel the need to say much, at least not out loud.

Standing to the side, Peter could tell that the brothers seemed to be conversing silently with the addition of subtle shifts in their body language which told him that they were doing more than silently looking at each other. He couldn't understand it, but he assumed this was something of how Neal had learned about them the day before.

After a while, Neal turned to him and smiled softly. "He's glad you've been able to help me deal with everything while he and Bryce were unable to."

Nodding at the man in the bed, Peter didn't know him, but he could understand the brother's wishes to have a friend there to help with the difficult situation. Peter couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for Neal to face potentially losing all of his siblings at once. "Glad I could do what I could, even though it wasn't much."

"Don't underestimate yourself and what it means to have a friend at your back in a difficult situation. If I'd have had to face that alone, I don't know if I could have handled it…" Neal shivered at the thought before reaching out to his brother's hand for the physical anchor of reassurance.

"I have no siblings so I can't imagine what this has been like for you. It had to be miserable worrying about both of them at once." Peter didn't think his word choice expressed what their emotions must have been, but it was the best he could think of at the moment. He wasn't good with emotions and everything had been emotional ever since he'd picked Neal up at the start of the whole mess.

Since Junior was getting sleepy, Peter directed Neal to say goodnight and head toward the door. They needed to get some sleep themselves and the triplets would be reunited at a more convenient hospital the next day.

The hospital had allowed Neal to accompany Junior to the new location, but then he'd been relegated to the waiting room where Peter, Chuck, and Sarah had joined him while the staff checked the other brothers out.

Whiling away the time, Peter asked Neal about his brothers and the connection that he'd noticed.

He'd had enough examples to get an idea of what it entailed, but he was curious about what Neal would share on the topic.

Grinning, Neal seemed impressed at how much he'd noticed, but he also didn't seem to have a prepared answer as he leaned back to think. Gathering his thoughts, Neal started his efforts to describe his situation. "You probably won't believe me; this is such an odd thing that Washington has studied us since we were kids."

Exchanging glances, Peter and Chuck were both intrigued.

Peter had already guessed that there was some kind of twin connection multiplied, but this beginning hinted at more.

"In essence, it begins with a connection of our minds. This allows us to do something like talking to each other telepathically, but it's more like shared thoughts. Then to the next level, we can see and hear what is going on around each other as our brains process them." Neal kept shifting his hands as if that would help him formulate the words to explain what it was like in his head.

Trying to imagine it, Peter could only picture a camera effect, the idea of the triplets watching videos of each other's experiences. "Like sitting in a van watching a live feed?"

Nodding, Neal smiled to hear him trying to understand him and his brothers. "That's an idea of what it's like, but it's better since it's firsthand. Then we can also use that connection to step into each other's bodies; basically, control one another through our minds."

Flabbergasted, Peter stumbled on that one, and he could see Chuck doing something with his eyes as he screwed up his face.

Peter had been prepared for the possibility of something strange, but that felt too strange. "What?"

Smirking a little despite his expression falling, Neal continued. "Yeah, that's right about where we tend to lose most people. It's not like it's normal to mentally step into your brother's hand so that he can paint when he has no talent or interest on his own. Neal's attention shifted to the nurse's station, but there hadn't been a call indicating his brother's being settled into their room or rooms.

Appreciating a few moments of reprieve, Peter tried to wrap his mind around that one.

As far as he could tell, Neal was saying that it was like the triplets could be in one mind. That they could function as three people in one body if they wanted to? "So, it sounds like you're saying that you can do some kind of mental form of switching places which would allow you to be the artist for one of your brothers while they can, in turn, use their skills to help you? Am I understanding that you can just randomly go anywhere you want by switching into one of your brothers?"

"That would agree with the government reports based on tests and experiments that they've performed on the triplets since they were kids," Chuck added to the conversation much to Peter's surprise, but Neal didn't seem to be phased.

"Pretty much, it's how I take a break and get out if I get bored with my two-mile radius." Neal was back to grinning as he admitted to his legal escape.

Sighing as he rolled his eyes, Peter felt put upon. "This means a whole new level of shenanigans that you can pull. I mean, you have knowledge and access that you've been hiding in addition to the ability to slip out through your brothers."

His imagination started roaming but he shut it down as quickly as possible to keep his stress level down.

That made Neal's grin turn devious," You probably don't want to know what we've gotten up to over the years."

When Peter glanced at Chuck for his reaction, the man was making the strange facial expression again before he gave his input on the conversation. "I don't think you want to know, Peter. Based on reports of things relating to the brothers, they are very skilled at being annoying when they want to."

Holding up his hands, Peter agreed with them. "My curiosity is tempted, but I think I should hold off for my peace of mind. There may be a time I need to know so we'll address that then."

"Are you sure, I won't answer questions just any time?" Neal teased him with the threat not to answer when his curiosity got the better of him.

"I might regret this later, but I think I have enough to process right now." Peter thought it was best to wait until another day when his mind had had time to process this initial information.

"Alright, it's your choice," Neal smirked, but his expression quickly changed a moment before the nurse notified them that his brothers were being settled into a shared room.

Getting directions to a waiting room closer to where they'd be, Peter, Chuck, Sarah, and Neal moved to wait out the remaining time until they'd be able to begin visiting.

Settling in with some coffee, Peter enjoyed the quiet while he sipped on his drink. He was glad things were turning out as well as they were.

The case had closed effectively finishing the operation for the agencies, the triplets were together for their recovery, Bryce was being reunited with his friends, and he'd learned a lot more about his friend and his family.

Slipping Peter a business card for him and his wife after they'd waited a while, Chuck promised to help Peter if Neal refused to provide him answers. "I have a lot of access to the reports on the brothers, but I'd never looked into things before since I thought I knew Bryce. We'll have a lot to talk about after this… a lot more anyway since we already had a lot to talk about."

Taking the card, Peter pulled one of his own for them to reach out to him. "It's probably a good idea to exchange contact information since we're connected by the triplets if nothing else. They seem to have a knack for getting into trouble so this way we can better work together if needed."

Snorting softly, Sarah spoke for the first time in quite a while. "That's an understatement. Bryce was my partner and we dated for a few years, he's a magnet for trouble."

Bantering at the triplets' expense, Peter, Chuck, and Sarah teased them by exchanging some general stories of their experiences with the two triplets that they knew and their knack for finding or being found by trouble.

When Neal got up to go talk to his brothers face to face, Peter realized that he looked forward to the future where he could connect to at least some of Neal's family and their extended friends, work with the triplets at total capacity, and enjoy his closer relationship with his friend since Neal had opened up to him.

The task force was over and all that remained was waiting for Neal's brothers to recover while life resumed a semblance of normal.

Thank you, everyone, for reading, commenting/reviewing, and leaving kudos :D

This was the last multi-chapter fic for the series. The rest will be one-shots and then we'll go through the other series that I have edited before going into the newer stories. My buffer has dwindled over the last few years... let's just leave it that between moving multiple times, family having issues, a stressful job, and life in general, I've struggled to either write, edit, or both with any kind of regularity. I have several stories drafted or in the process of being drafted and I will continue to work on them as I can. I'm currently working on a story on my phone where I can access it any time or place and I'm endeavoring to make a little headway more regularly.