![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nywcgirlArtist:
treonbFandom: White Collar
Pairing: none
Characters: Neal, Peter, Mozzie, Jones, Diana
Warning/genre: Attempted murder, kidnapped, friends, angst, suspense
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen
Author's Notes: This is my entry for
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
wc_reverse_bb and is inspired by the lovely fanvid made by treonb. It also fills the ‘Assault’ square on my H/C Bingo card.Word Count: ~5800
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine…
Summary: Someone is trying to kill people around Neal, but who? Will Peter be able to figure it out before members of his team get killed?
Story can also be found on AO3.
‘The mockingbird is still hovering.’
Peter sighs. Why does meeting with Mozzie always involve cliché spy lines?
‘Big Bird wants to shoot the mockingbird.’ Peter growls.
‘There is no need for such hostility, suit. Jezs.’
‘Come on Mozzie, what do the streets say? Did you hear anything?’
‘It is awfully quiet Peter. There is nothing.’
It isn´t lost on Peter that Mozzie used his name. Neal´s disappearance must affect Mozzie maybe more than himself, especially since even Mozzie can´t find out the tiniest clue. Neal Caffrey seems to have just vanished from the face of the earth. Peter has his team working around the clock, assisted by both Ruiz and Rice´s teams, but they haven´t found anything useful.
There is no doubt in anybody´s mind that Neal is kidnapped. When June had contacted Peter that Neal hadn´t come home and didn´t pick up his phone, Peter had come over to check it out. When he was over the initial shock when he had opened Neal´s apartment, he had called ERT.
Neal´s loft wore clear evidence of a struggle. Neal hadn´t left with his kidnappers without the fight, that much was sure. The destroyed tracker and a fair amount of blood made it clear to the White Collar team that Neal Caffrey had been kidnapped. The lab quickly confirmed that the blood was Neal´s, but the amount wasn´t enough to be life threatening, which was a relief. The empty syringe found discarded on the floor contained a powerful sedative, meaning they didn´t want to kill Neal immediately. But the kidnappers had been careful not to leave any clues that could be traced or prints.
The Marshalls had insisted that Neal had run, but Peter had explained that if Neal Caffrey wanted to run, he would just vanish and not put up a big show.
‘Do you think we will find him?’
Peter turns to study Mozzie.
‘Of course, Mozzie, that is what I do. Neal is counting on that. I will find him.’
A car honks and Peter looks at it. When he turns back, Mozzie is gone. He gives a wry smile, he hadn´t expected any different.
* * *
Mozzie walks back towards Monday. It is a brown stone he bought ages ago, and he likes it, especially in situations like this. It has a homey quality his other safe houses don´t have. The suit hasn´t been very helpful and he has been working his street contacts relentlessly, but there is no word on the street. He needs to figure out this puzzle. He needs a glass of wine and some time to think.
Once he is home, he puts on his robe, takes the book he has been meaning to read for some time now and is just about to pour in a drink, when he hears someone enter the house. He turns and there is this guy dressed in black, black balaclava and dark sunglasses. More worrying is the gun he is pointing at him.
‘What do you want? If you know me, you know I don´t keep valuables in the house. If you don´t know me, well… I don´t keep valuables in the house.’
The man doesn´t say anything, he just stands there like he is having an inner conflict on what to do. So Mozzie starts talking to the guy. There is something familiar about his appearance. Just as Mozzie think he will be able to talk himself out of this one, he realizes who is standing in front of him.
It is Neal.
‘Neal? What? How?’
He can see Neal’s trigger finger squeezing. He ducks just before the bullet embeds itself somewhere above his head in the wall. Mozzie can´t believe Neal just tried to shoot him. Seriously?
After the shot, Neal scrambles out of the house while Mozzie is still too shocked to pursue him.
* * *
Peter is solving his cross word puzzle. He has a beer next to him on the side table and Satchmo at his feet. El has an event and she promised to bring take out, so Peter is enjoying the quiet house. He has taken Satchmo for a long walk when he came home, grabbing a snack on the way, so he is good to wait for El.
He is brought out of his concentration when he hears a ring tone, it is not his phone, because his is next to him on the side table. He gets up and locates it on El´s desk. So it must be hers, although he doesn´t recognize it. When he looks at the caller ID, it says ‘The Cleaner’. Probably a burner Mozzie gave her.
‘Mozzie, how can my wife help you?’
‘Suit, why are you answering your wife´s telephone? Don´t you have any regard for other people´s property and privacy?’
‘Mozzie, what do you want? And why don’t you call me in my phone.’
‘Like I would call a government phone.’
Peter sighs. ‘Just tell me why you are calling.’
‘I saw Neal!’
‘What are you taking about?’
‘He was here, in my house.’
‘You have a house?’
‘Yes suit, I have a house, where do you think I normally live? In a container?’
‘To be honest?’
‘Look Peter, Neal was here, he is the only one who knows about this place.’
‘I will be over…’
‘No, he didn´t leave anything, but I have the encounter recorded. I will come over so you can see it.’
Without any further notice Mozzie hangs up. Peter sighs and wonders what has happened? Mozzie only said Neal was with him, he will just have to wait until he is here.
Ten minutes later Mozzie´s knock announces his arrival. Peter let´s Mozzie in and Mozzie makes a beeline for the kitchen. Peter already put a wine bottle and glass on the table. Mozzie walks up to the table and pours himself a glass while handing Peter the memory stick.
‘What happened Mozzie?’
‘Watch the footage.’
Peter starts his laptop and opens the avi file. The camera was somewhere in front of Mozzie because at first he can only see Mozzie pouring himself a drink. Unknown to Mozzie, an assailant walks into the room. The man is calm. Because Peter´s is told that it is Neal, he studies the images for evidence that it is indeed Neal, but like Mozzie said, he can only come to one conclusion, it is Neal. He can see it in the movements, the way he holds the gun, the way he walks.
Peter is shocked when he sees the gun being fired and Mozzie ducking away. What did just happen? Neal doesn´t do violence, but he just tried to kill his best friend. Peter stares at Mozzie when El enters the house with Thai food.
‘Oh hi Mozzie.’
‘Elizabeth.’
‘Are you joing us in Thai take out?’
‘No thanks. I need to get going.’
‘You are more than welcome to stay.’
‘I know, but I need to go, it is important. Your husband will explain.’
Peter nods and walks Mozzie to the door.
‘We will be in touch.’
‘Yeah.’
* * *
Jones drops Diana off at her place before going home. He has to park his car a block away, but enjoys the walk home. He descends the stairs to the front door and without thinking, he opens it. But for some reason, the moments he takes a step over the threshold, the hairs in the back of his neck rise. Something isn´t right.
He pulls his gun from its holster and carefully walks further into the house. The moment he sees the man in black he aims his gun and shoots to the person to back off. But the man is quicker and kicks his gun from him. The next kick sends him to the floor and he can hear a gun being cocked. The shot is deafening and he can feel the air displacement caused by the bullet. But the gun man misses and leaves running. Jones pursues him but the man jumps in a car that leaves with squealing tires. He curses when the car is out of sight. There is no license plate, so all he has is a dark unmarked van.
Jones re-enters the house and calls Peter to explain what just happened. Peter sounds worried, but not as much as he had expected. He promises Peter to meet him in the office. He grabs his stuff and drives back to the office, picking up something to eat on the way. It promises to be a long night.
- * *
Peter explained El that they had a lead on Neal, but she insisted that he would eat first. She had told him that she already knew he would go into the office the moment he talked to Mozzie and that it would be late before he would be home again. She knows him all too well. And a couple of more minutes wouldn´t hurt anybody.
He is just about the finish his meal when he is called. He checks the caller ID and sees it is Jones.
‘Burke.’
‘Peter, I was attacked in my home.’
‘What happened?’
Jones recounts the events and when he starts describing the gun man, Peter is convinced it was Neal. Neal seems to be on the war path. This isn´t good. He needs to warn his team. He is not sure what has happened to Neal or who is manipulating him, but it is not good. He would never have imagined Neal doing anything like this.
He tells Jones to go to the office and that he will meet him there. After he disconnects the call, he calls Diana to tell her to come into the office, but to be careful. He explains what happened to Mozzie and Jones and she promises to be careful.
He calls Blake and asks to come over to guard El, who explains to him she is very capable to take care of herself. But Peter doesn´t want to hear it, if Neal is capable of attacking Mozzie, he will have no second thoughts about El.
The moment Blake enters the house, Peter kisses El and leaves for the office. Since it is already late, it doesn´t take him long to reach the office. Diana and Jones together with three more agents are already present. Peter shows them the surveillance video of Mozzie and Diana gasps. Jones immediately picks on.
‘So it was Neal who shot at me in my home.’
‘Probably, I am almost certain it was. I don´t know why, I don´t know what happened, I don´t know what they did to Neal, but we have to realize that this is not the Neal we know.’
‘That is an understatement Peter, he took a shot at me, he fought me. He knows how to fight.’
‘I know Jones. We will need to be careful. I want you to wear vests whenever you are out there.’
‘Come on Peter, he attacked both Mozzie and myself in our home.’
‘Wear the vest at home as well. I don´t want you to get hurt.’
‘Do we have any clues?’
‘No, he is wearing gloves and he escapes without any trace. Nobody sees him coming, and he is gone too quickly to make anything out of it or to find a pattern. I have no idea why he does what he does. He seems to miss deliberately. I know Neal, he is a good shot. If he wants to hit his target, he will hit it.’
‘Do we have any leads on the car he used?’
‘No, there is a BOLO out for it, but so far, nothing.’
‘OK, let´s start with the basic, pull up all traffic cams in Jones´ neighborhood.’
* * *
The sun is rising when Peter calls it a night. He tells the agents to go home and rest, to be careful since they still have no idea where Neal is or what he wants. Peter is tired and he needs to dig deep into his reserve to stay awake long enough to get home without crashing the Taurus. He sighs in relief when there is a parking space not too far from the house. He turns off the engine and sits there for a moment, gathering strength to get out of the car and walk up to the house. He is dead on his feet. He sort of stumbles towards the front door and tries to get the key to get into the lock. It is a testimony of how tired he is, that he can´t do it on the first try, and before he can try again, the door opens and El is there. Peter looks up and smiles.
The noise of the gunshot is thunderous. His instincts makes him head for the floor, grabbing El with him. He makes sure she is underneath him, so she is covered. They hit the ground hard and all he can hear is El´s surprised yelp. Blake comes out, gun drawn, his eyes darting over the houses in front of him. When Peter turns to see where the sound came from, there is nobody. Peter tells El to get inside the house and to stay away from the windows. He walks to the spot where he guesses the shot came from.
There is a bullet on the ground. It hasn´t been fired. This is just sloppy. Neal doesn´t do sloppy. Peter takes out his handkerchief and picks up the bullet. He studies it, maybe there will be fingerprints on it. He calls out to Blake for an evidence bag. After he bags the bullet, He tells Blake to stay with El. He is pretty sure Neal isn´t coming back. He gets into the car and drives back to the office, delivering the bullet to the lab for further investigation. All fatigue gone because of the adrenaline.
When he sits down behind his desk, he is in desperate need of coffee, but luckily, a probie notices and brings him a cup. He almost inhales it while turning his computer on to check his emails. It takes a moment to start up his laptop.
He startles awake when his coffee mug hits the floor, and breaks.
OK, so he needs to sleep. He is no good to anybody if he is falling asleep behind his desk. He quickly sends a message to El that everything is fine and that he will catch some zzz´s in the on-call room. He tells the probie to wake him if the lab results come back in, before walking into the on-call room. The moment he puts his head down on the pillow he is out.
When he wakes, he feels even worse than before, but after a quick shower and a fresh shirt, he feels a lot better. When we walks into the bullpen, Diana and Jones are back at their desk. Diana asks one of the younger agents to gets some Danish and coffee for everybody.
‘We found the car.’
‘And?’
‘It was burned beyond recognition. ERT couldn´t find any helpful clues.’
‘Damn. Come on Neal, what happened? What could have happened that you turn on us?’
‘Maybe he is brainwashed?’ Jones suggests.
‘That only happens in the movies. I thought you would know that.’
‘When I was in the military, there were studies being performed. Don’t discard the possibility, it can happen Peter.’
‘But in such a short time frame?’
‘Short? They had him for what now, seven weeks?’
* * *
They work the car lead for most of the next day, they can trace it back to the person who last owned it, but it was reported stolen some time ago. Diana goes to interview the previous owner and returns without any clues. The car is stolen from a kinder garden teacher. Diana checks her background, but she has nothing to do with the kidnapping.
Peter orders some Chinese takeout for the team. But somewhere during the evening, Peter calls it a night. They need to be fresh in case there are new clues in the morning. He orders everybody to go home and rest. Before they go, he asks to be careful and to be on the lookout.
Diana drives home, contemplating if she is going to get something to drink, watch some television or turn in. She decides the sensible thing would be to turn in. She walks into the bedroom when a shot rings through the night. She takes cover behind the bed. When there is no other shot, she carefully comes out of hiding and checks out the environment. She scans the roofs on the opposing houses, but can´t see anything out of the ordinary. When she inspects the window of her bedroom, she can see where the bullet impacted.
Shit, Caffrey was here and she let him get away. She picks up the phone and calls Peter before calling ERT to come over.
* * *
This time they do get a clue. ERT calls Peter and asks him to come over. When he arrives there is a bottle in an evidence bag. He takes a deep breath and walks up to it.
‘It is a…’
‘Bottle of Bordeaux.’
The woman frowns, ‘how did you know?’
‘It is a message from our kidnap victim.’
‘What does it mean.’
‘The bottle means goodbye.’
He can see the woman shaking her head in disbelieve. She tells him he can have it after the lab is finished with it.
‘Can you please rush the results. A life may be at stake.’
‘Sure.’
Peter can only hope this is the breakthrough they need. Hopefully there are some fingerprints on it or some sort of message from Neal. He wants the bottle now, but he knows the lab can get more details from it, so he will have to be patient.
Peter drives back to the office, wondering whether Neal will come after him as well. Because it doesn´t make sense. He shot at all his team members and El, but always misses. Neal may not be a trained marksman, but Peter knows better than to underestimate Neal´s capabilities and he is one hundred percent sure that Neal wouldn´t miss if he wanted to. He knows how to handle guns, so why the attempted murder? Is he set up to do them and always misses. But who is behind it all of it is not Neal?
And the strange thing is, Neal hasn´t made any attempt on his life. Why hasn´t he? Is it something Neal tries to tell him? Or did he try to shoot him and was El just in the way?
‘Peter?’
‘Yes Jones?’
‘We got a call from NYPD, they have a witness who claims to have seen some burglars.’
‘So? That is not our division, transfer it.’
‘You will want to talk to this guy. I already have and I am checking out the camera footage the guy provided.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Interrogation three.’
‘I will be right up.’
Peter walks up to the interrogation room and can see the young man sitting behind the table, he seems excited. Peter enters and introduces himself and asks the man what he has seen.
‘I saw these guys go into a car and they seemed suspicious, that is why I noticed them.’
‘Why were they suspicious.’
‘Well, they were all dressed in black. They were poster boys for bank robbers. Like you see in the movies. Here, I filmed them with my phone.’
The guy hands Peter his phone and Peter watches the movie. He can feel the color drain form his face when he sees Neal get in the back of the car. There are two other men in the front seats. They all pull a balaclava over their faces. It is shocking to see that Neal is not restrained, he gets in the car without force.
‘We will need to take this phone into evidence. If you have time, I will ask the lab guys to retract the tape and you can have your phone back.’
‘What is my other option?’
‘I confiscate the phone and you will get it back when the case goes to trail.’
‘I guess I will take option one, please.’
‘Smart choice. I will be right back.’
While he walks to the evidence team, his heart sinks. This does not look good. It looks like Neal is willingly participating in these crimes. But this is the first time they have real evidence that Neal is alive.
It doesn´t take the tech guys long to copy the file, delete it from the phone and to make sure there are no other pictures of movies on the phone that they need. Peter hands the phone back, thanking the man and handing him his business card, just in case.
When the guy is gone, Jones, Diana and Peter go into the conference room and watch the movie very carefully. They have a partial license plate that Diana immediately checks out. This time, they made a mistake, the car is not reported stolen. It is a lead they can follow.
Peter calls in the whole White Collar division and asks if anybody recognizes the street the car is parked in. Nobody does, but they make stills and circulate them through the bureau. Within an hour they have a hit. An agent in missing persons recognized the street. They check it on google street view and they immediately know they have another hit. They are getting closer. Peter can feel it in his gut. They will need these leads further.
* * *
Peter is feeling anxious. If everything works out, Neal is inside and they will have him in their custody within the next couple of minutes. Nerves are building and the moment SWAT enters the building, Peter is up and out of the van and runs behind them towards the building.
When he enters the building, it is not Neal they are holding at gun point.
‘Ah agent Burke. Glad you could join us.’
‘You know my name, but I don´t know yours. Care to introduce yourself?’
‘You may not remember me, but I certainly remember you.’
‘Why did you take Neal?’
The man snorts with a condescending smile.
‘Because he is important to you. I could have taken your wife, but it was more satisfying taking your boy and breaking him, re-educating him. You can be proud of him.’
‘Where is he?’
‘Somewhere safe. At least from you.’
It is only now that he notices that the man has his foot on what looks like a light switch.
‘I see you notice my little gadget. If I push on this button, your precious CI will be blown to smithereens.’
‘Why? I mean, what has Neal ever done to you?’
‘Nothing agent Burke, absolutely nothing. He is an innocent bystander in all of this. You on the other hand. You cost me everything so it was only fair that I would take something from you.’
‘Well, it seems that your little plan didn´t work.’
‘Yeah, a small hiccup that your precious boy turned out to be more loyal and resistant then I expected. That was indeed unfortunately.’
‘So now what?’
‘Nothing, you let me go or I will blow up Neal. It doesn´t get more complicated than that.’
‘You know I can´t let you go.’
‘OK, so be it.’
Peter can see the man pushing down with his foot. Peter will later remember that he called out not to shoot the man, but the moment the explosion sounds, one of the SWAT officers takes down the threat. The man is dead before he hits the ground.
Peter ducts instinctively when the explosion sounds.
‘NEAL!’
Peter runs outside and can see other agents closing in on the explosion site. Someone must have called the fire department because he can hear sirens closing in. Peter runs inside the burning building, calling out for Neal, but he doesn´t receive any answer. He can hear first responders entering the building.
‘NEAL!’
He stops to listen, but he can only hear the fire fighters moving forward with their gear.
One of the SWAT officers calls out.
‘Here. I need some help.’
He runs as fast as he can, and stops dead in his tracks, when he realizes it is Neal he is staring at. He is laying on his side and he is clearly unconscious and he has burns on his leg and side. There is still one handcuff attached to his left wrist. He must have been able to escape his restrains and in the process of escaping when he was caught up by the explosion. There is a bit of blood running from his nose.
Suddenly there is a fire fighter next to him, together with Peter and the other officer, they carry Neal to safety. Other firefighters start extinguishing the smoldering room.
‘Sir, we need room to work.’
Peter moves back when two paramedics enter the scene. They start assessing Neal. He is still unconscious and he is not waking up, despite their best efforts. One of the paramedics asks Peter what happened and he gives a short detailed report.
‘Can he be drugged?’
‘That could be an explanation, but we would like to make sure, there is a small amount of blood seeping from the ears and nose, so there could be pressure injuries from the explosion. We want to make sure he is not bleeding internally.’
When they are ready, Neal is lifted on a backboard and carried to the ambulance. It leaves with blearing sirens. It is then that Peter realizes he forgot to ask to which hospital they were taking Neal.
‘Peter!’
Peter turns to see Diana walk up to him.
‘I will drive you, they are taking him to Presbyterian.’
Peter nods and walks with Diana towards the car. Diana drives like a maniac and Peter wonders if this is how Neal feels when he himself is driving. While he is wondering about it, he realizes how stupid the though is.
When they arrive at the hospital, Diana tells him to go in so she can park the car. She promises she will find him inside.
Peter walks up to the reception and asks for Neal, identifying himself. He also tells her he is Neal´s medical proxy and the nurse promises to make sure the paperwork is in order and the doctors will know that Peter is Neal´s contact.
She explains him that Neal is being assessed at the moment and that she will come and get him the moment he is allowed.
Peter settles down on one of the plastic chairs, looking at all the people waiting to be treated. When Diana enters through the doors, she locates him and walks up.
‘Do you want some coffee?’
‘You are a lifesaver. Yes, please.’
It is when Diana walks away, Peter realizes that he hasn´t called Elizabeth, she must be worried.
‘Hi Hon. No, everything is fine. We found Neal. We are in the hospital to have him checked out. No, I don´t know anything yet. We are at Presbyterian. Ask Blake to drive you here, OK? Take care.’
Peter gives Diana a small smile when she enters the waiting room with two cups of coffee. He warms his hands around the cup and gulps it down. A nurse enters the waiting room.
‘Family for Neal Caffrey?’
Peter jumps up.
‘How is he?’
‘The doctors would like a word with you, can you follow me?’
‘Of course.’
‘I´m going back to check on the scener, will you be alright?’
‘Yeah, El is on her way. Blake is driving her.’
‘OK, take care and tell Neal to get better soon.’
‘Thanks Diana.’
Peter follows the nurse behind the doors into the ER. They have taken Neal into a room instead of a cubicle, which alarms Peter somewhat. When they enter, he can see Neal has an oxygen mask and several IV’s. They are monitoring his blood pressure and heart rate, but there are no other instruments.
‘Agent Burke?’
‘Yes.’
‘My name is doctor Felix. I was told, Neal was brought in after an explosion and he was kidnapped? Do we need to take extra precautions?’
‘No that won´t be necessary. If there is a risk I will let you know. How is Neal?’
‘Well, he still hasn´t regained consciousness. Which is worrying, the damage of the pressure wave cause by the explosion is also cause for concern, especially since we can´t check Neal´s reflexes. There seems to be no ear damage which is good, at the moment we are still waiting for someone from internal medicine to come and check out mister Caffrey.’
‘OK, but do we have any idea why he still hasn´t regained consciousness?’
‘We drew some blood for a tox screen and we are waiting for the results. Since he was a kidnap victim, it is possible that he was kept sedated.’
‘He must have moved, since we found him in a position that indicates that he was trying to escape. If he had stayed where his kidnapper placed him he would have been killed by the explosion.’
‘OK, that is important information. Once I have the tox screen back, I will be back.’
‘Can I stay with him?’
‘Of course, I will ask one of the nurses to bring you a chair.’
* * *
El arrived at the ER and has been shown to Neal´s room. She is talking to Neal, telling him that he will be alright. Nurses come and go, adjusting IV´s, checking vitals, but it is almost an hour later when the doctor arrives back.
‘Agent Burke, can I talk to you in private?’
‘Sure…’ Peter answers hesitantly.
El tells them that she will get a cup of coffee and leaves.
‘I have the results of the tox screen.’
‘And…’
‘Well, he was definitely kept sedated and it had to be over a prolonged period of time. How long was he kept prisoner?’
‘Almost 9 weeks.’
‘Yeah, that qualifies as prolonged. We found all sorts of drugs in his system, some rather innocent, but there are also some nasty ones that have a tendency to cause severe hallucinations.’
Peter can only imagine what Neal went through.
‘And know?’
‘We will have to wait until Mister Caffrey regains consciousness.’
Peter nods while checking over Neal´s sleeping form. The doctor excuses himself and leaves. Peter walks up to Neal and touches his hand.
‘Come on Neal, you can fight this. We are here.’
* * *
The next afternoon, Neal starts showing signs of waking up. His face gets more animated and he starts moving in his bed. Peter encourages him to wake up, but it takes almost all day before Neal really opens his eyes. Peter and El have been ushered home to get something to eat and come back during visiting hours.
‘Hi mister Caffrey, welcome back.’
Neal just stares at her.
‘It is good to see you awake.’
Neal continuous staring at her while she takes his vitals.
‘It is OK to be a bit disoriented. It will all come back to you. How is the pain? Do you want something for it?’
Neal doesn´t respond at all. When the nurse is ready, she leaves the room and types her findings down Neal´s medical file. She calls Neal´s doctor and reports them as well, before she returns to her other patients.
The doctor doesn´t make any more progress and asks for a psych evaluation. The psychiatrist that is visits Neal comes quickly to the conclusion that Neal needs to be monitored since it is unclear whether he is still a danger to himself and others. But with the amount of drugs he was exposed to, they are skeptical that Neal will not have some setback, so Neal is committed to the psych ward that same night.
Peter is not amused when he finds out but since Neal is committed being a danger to himself and others, Peter is not allowed to see him, even not after flashing his badge. Neal is on a twenty four hour hold and evaluation.
All Peter can do is wait until the evaluation period is over. But deep inside he knows the evaluation will not be good.
When he is finally gets the call from Neal´s doctor that he is allowed to see Neal, he leaves the office and drives up to the hospital. Neal´s doctor is already expecting him and asks him to take a seat before they go see Neal.
Peter hesitantly does as he is asked, he wants to see Neal, make sure Neal is fine, but he also realizes that if he is being difficult the doctor can deny him visiting rights. So he sits down, accepts the offered coffee and braces himself.
The doctor explains that Neal has been evaluated and that he is deemed a danger to himself and others. He will be kept in the department and closely monitored. Peter hears words, like mental unstable, unresponsive,
Peter tries to nod at the right moments, but he is not sure he heard everything the doctor told him. He needs to see Neal.
‘Can I see him?’
‘Yes of course, but I have to warn you, Neal may not be aware you are here.’
‘I need to see him.’
The doctor leads Peter into the ward and behind a locked corridor, the stop in front of a door. Peter can see inside. Neal is laying on a bed. The room is designed to be low stimulating. To his relief, Neal is not restraint, he is laying on his side and is staring at the opposite wall. But he is wearing what looks like a quilt made into a smock.
‘What is he wearing?’
‘That is anti-suicide smock. It will keep Neal safe and comfortable.’
‘Is it really necessary?’
‘I am afraid it is, we believe in letting patients have as much freedom as possible, but the anti-suicide clothing is necessary.’
Peter nods and the doctor opens the door. Peter walks in. There is no chair or anything, the room is bare, so Peter crouches down next to Neal.
‘Hi Neal, how are you doing?’
Neal doesn´t respond at all. Peter keeps talking and trying to coax some reaction out of Neal. But it is clear that Neal has withdrawn into himself. When visiting time is over, Peter gets up from the floor and pats Neal on the shoulder before leaving.
‘You see what I mean, Neal is completely unresponsive, we fear he is suffering from severe PTSD. I have a multi-disciplinary team that will monitor and work with Neal.’
‘Thank you. I…’
‘It´s OK, it is hard to see a loved one in this state. But I promise we will do our best to get Neal back on track.’
‘Yeah, again, thank you.’
Peter leaves the hospital, this I not what he had expected.
* * *
After a couple of weeks, the medical team that is taking care of Neal, asks for a meeting with his family. Mozzie, June, Elizabeth and Peter join them and they are told that Neal hasn´t given any indication that he is improving. They are warned that this maybe a permanent state, that the trauma he was exposed too was just too much for him to handle and Neal had to protect himself.
This is not the news they had hoped for, but there is nothing they can do about it. Neal seems to have lost his way home. They need to trust that Neal will find his way back out of his own mind, in his own time.
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