A\N: This is the fourth chapter 4 of Neal's hope! In this chapter, Neal and Alex talk about what their two kisses mean for them. I don't know how many chapters Neal's hope will have but I DO know that it'll have a Happily Ever After between the two of them! I've had my braces tightened so I'm in a lot of pain so hopefully it'll mean more updates!
Have a good week, Angels!
Neal cooks them pancakes with syrup, bacon and more coffee for breakfast, and they eat them on the wet terrace, the rain has finally stopped for the time being.
"I forgot how good of a cook you are." Alex says after swallowing a mouthful of syrupy pancake and bacon. He smiles into his coffee, having given his own pancakes and bacon to her.
"Well I'm a little bit out of practice." He says, placing his now empty coffee cup on the table beside his plate. "It was perfect." She says as she reaches out and takes his hand. "What are we doing today?" She asks, Neal sighs. "Well because of my house arrest, nothing." He says. Alex breaks their hands, stands up and clears the plates and carries them into the kitchen but not without a kiss to his lips, Neal watches her from his chair.
He's missed this: he's missed having someone to cook for. Missed having someone to talk to. Missed having someone to share his bed with.
"Hey, you can help you know instead of staring at me!" Alex's voices come from where she's standing at the sink, the low hums of the radio in the background. He laughs as he walks inside, closing the doors behind him, joining Alex at the sink where a soapy water fight breaks out, covering them in soapy water.
Alex smiles thinly as she walks up the stairs to Neal's apartment with her arms ladled with groceries and other things she got from the store. Since Neal's house arrest, Neal's been confined to the big house and she knows he hates hates being cooped up, ever since his first arrest and his four years in prison and now the whole two mile radius limit has him really somewhat depressed, so she has an entire night planned out to make him feel a little bit better with his friends, excluding Peter, seeing as he put Neal on house arrest.
The door to Neal's apartment is open and she can hear Neal speaking to someone, and judging by the feminine laugh she'd say it's either June or Diana.
When she enters the apartment, she sees it's Diana. She smiles at the FBI agent, the only one she likes. "Oh hi, Diana." Alex says as she places the groceries on the counter before walking towards Neal and Diana, placing herself into his lap, kissing him.
"Hi." She says to him, Neal smiles and kisses her back. "So have you heard off the fed?" Neal shakes his head, his eyes drifting to his visible anklet.
"Nope, but Diana came by and asked something about what French food I like. You know anything about that?" He asks, Alex laughs and shakes her head.
"I'm not telling you." She replies, slipping off his lap. Diana only laughs. "It's good to see you smiling again, Neal, but unfortunately, I've gotta head into the office. Me and Jones will try and talk to Peter about letting you out of house arrest. We'll see you later, hopefully with good news. Nice to see you, Alex." The woman leaves with a smile closing the door behind her.
Alex looks at Neal. "I'm not telling you anything but we do need to talk about what we are and what these kisses mean. I'm not a booty call for when you miss Kate, Neal." She tells him. She wants to be with him again, like they were before Kate entered his life.
"I know we do, and we will but can it be after I know whether or not I'm still on house arrest this weekend?" He asks, pulling the famous 'puppy dog' look at her, she sighs and shakes her head, hating herself for denying him anything.
"This is the best time to talk about it." She says. "Look, I love you, Neal, I've always loved you and you know that. And I thought you loved me too." She says as she starts putting the groceries away.
"I do, Alex, I do, I love you more than I can say but I'm chained up like a dog and I am for the next two years, I don't want you to hit pause for the next two years because I got caught. I won't let you hit pause." Neal says, standing up and looks at her.
"Neal, I won't hit pause, but I want to be with you." She argues, turning around. Several seconds later she feels Neal's arms wrap around her waist, his chin on her bare shoulder.
"I wanna be with you too, Alex. I do. So how about this? We only tell Jones, Moz and June will instantly know but we don't tell Peter. Elizabeth can keep it a secret from Peter until he and I talk Diana was here earlier and saw us kiss so she already knows but she won't tell anyone. Is that okay?" He asks in her ear, Alex nods her head. She knows he's not had a proper chance to grieve Kate, thanks to the Marshalls.
"That's fine. Neal, we can take it as slow as you like." She says quietly. She knows he needs time to mourn Kate and speak to Peter about what happened earlier this week.
Neal kisses her cheek before he lets her go, she hears him pad over to the couch.
Neal looks at Alex with a look of adoration. He can't believe she pulled this off and he didn't suspect a thing. He was nervous for tonight when Alex told him that this was happening but he soon relaxed.
"Did you have a good night tonight?" Alex asks as she strips down to her underwear and crawls into bed.
"I did, I didn't know how much I needed it. That's why Diana asked me what French food I liked. She knew you were planning it, didn't she?" He asks, covering her with the duvet.
"Everyone knew, Neal." Alex says smugly. Neal kisses her head.
"Thank you for tonight." He whispers. Alex snuggles into him and quickly falls asleep while he lays awake, staring at the ceiling.
He can't sleep, Diana told him that Peter hadn't decided on the end of his house arrest yet. He knows that Diana and Jones are trying their best to make sure he's okay but there's not much they can do from the office.
Alex on the other hand has been at the apartment since the rainstorm on Wednesday night and bar today, has been inside with him. He needs to start going back to work otherwise he's going to start going insane.
A\N: I know, I know, this chapter is so late but with my motivation depleting on this story and with Christmas just gone and with my other fandom stories, this one just slipped through the cracks. I'm planning to have five chapters with this one and the last chapter will be short but at least this story will be complete.
Have a good day, Angels.