Chapter 12 - Men called horse - Sacking out
This story is rated explicit, for warnings, please check out chapter 1.
Here is chapter 12, which can also be found on AO3.
When Neal and John arrive back, Peggy has prepared a wonderful dinner that everyone enjoys. Nobody talks about what happened or why Diana is here. They just have a pleasant conversation; Diana telling them what happened in the office. The fact that she has a new girlfriend to whom she is engaged. Jones who moved in with his girlfriend..
“Where are you staying?” John asks.
“I booked a room at the Harmony.”
“The owners are lovely, you will enjoy your stay.” Peggy smiles.
“Good. Well, it is getting late, I am going to leave you, shall we meet tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
Neal stays seated while Peter escorts Diana to her car after they said their goodbyes. When they arrive at the car, Peter stops Diana.
“Diana, who else knows you found us.”
“Just Jones and me. I wasn´t ´going to tell anyone until I was sure.”
“Not even Mozzie?”
“Peter, I…”
“What is wrong?”
“After you disappeared, Mozzie left and we never heard from him again.”
Peter nods.
“Can you please keep this to yourself, for now. We need some time to figure out what we are going to do.”
“Of course, no worries, we will take it one step at a time. See you tomorrow.”
Peter watches Diana drive away before walking back to the kitchen. Neal is not there and Peggy just nods towards the stable. When Peter walks in, he can see Neal nervously pacing the stable. He doesn´t say anything just enters Peter´s space and bumps his head against Peter´s shoulder. He pulls Neal towards him and puts his head over Neal´s shoulder and they stay like that for a while. It used their only possibility in comforting each other.
“Nobody knows. Just Jones and Diana.” Peter says quietly.
“That is good.” Neal whispers.
“Why don´t you rest, we will talk tomorrow.”
“You want to go back home, don´t you?”
Peter doesn´t know how to answer that question, he does and he doesn´t. His feelings are mixed but his concern for Neal outweighs his own desires.
“You want to go back home, don´t you?” Neal repeats softly.
Peter hugs Neal. “I want what you want. I want you to feel safe and at peace. If that is not home, that is OK for me.”
“But you want to bring these men to justice.”
“Yes, I need to. It is my duty to make sure they can´t hurt anybody else.”
“But they were arrested when we were rescued.”
“Yes, but I want to make sure.”
In the end Peter explains to Neal that he would like to go back with Diana to make sure the culprits are prosecuted and that he would like for Neal to stay with John and Peggy. Neal tells Peter that he will join him, but in the end agrees that he would be not be comfortable to go back at this point in time.
When John and Peggy go check on them before bed, they find Peter and Neal curled up together, sleeping on their warm water beds in the stable.
* * *
“Diana, we need to talk.”
“Sure, that is why I came over. Caffrey not here?”
“No, he went with John to Vesta Stables.”
“He isn´t coping well, is he?”
Peter stares out in the field.
“No, he isn´t, he will with time, but for the moment he is doing his best.”
“Is there something we can do?”
“We discussed it and no, I don´t think so, John and Peggy take care of him and his needs and we will see.”
“What happened Peter? What did they do that broke him? That affected you both in such a way, that you didn´t even call the minute you were released?”
The operation went as planned. Neal has made contact with Margaret Kutnetsov. But it turned out she was an owner, not the mastermind behind the operation. She was highly involved and she could lead them to whoever was behind it all. So Neal concocted a plan to get her to talk or introduce him into the inter crowd.
But it didn´t go as planned. They didn´t even know what went wrong. After another day at the stables, they went to their hotel. They had dinner together and a drink in the hotel bar. And that is the last thing Peter can remember.
He woke up in a moving horse trailer. But the sedation lingered and before he knew it he was out again.
The next thing he remembers was waking up in a filthy stable, restrained against a wall. He searched the stable to find Neal, only to find him in a dark corner of the stable, still out. He too was restrained in a leather harness.
“Neal? Neal! Wake up. Come on, open your eyes.”
But Neal is completely out and doesn´t respond at all.
* * *
“Once you missed the call-in, we were worried. I immediately asked for a warrant to search the premises of Kutnetsov. While it was processed, we searched your hotel rooms, but there was nothing. It was like you were never there, no clues, no evidence, nothing. When the warrant came through, we searched the whole estate, but there was nothing, no trace of the both of you. Nothing. We kept looking and following up on tips, but it was like you had vanished from the face of the earth.”
Peter nods, he can hear the frustration in Diana´s voice. He can imagine, there is nothing more frustrating than having nothing to work with. Especially if you are personally involved in the case.
“The first six months we were allowed to keep looking for you but then resources needed to be spend on other cases. Jones and I kept looking in our free time. I have to admit, after the first anniversary, we really didn´t believe in bringing you home alive. It was more a retrieval mission. And then after more than two years, I get a call from a hospital that states that they have a patient brought in that has a resemblance with a BOLO. And behold, here you are. I still don´t understand why you didn´t call us immediately the moment you were rescued.”
Peter sighs and breathes deep to tell her the truth. He lifts his head and shows the fresh scar on his throat.
“What is that? You were injured?”
“They silenced us by damaging our vocal cords.” He whispers.
Diana looks in horror at Peter.
“Is that why Neal was in hospital? Because there was no record of you being there.”
“Neal has a condition where he is sort of allergic to the anesthesia and they performed his reconstructive surgery in a hospital, mine was done with an equine specialist at Vesta Stables.”
When Diana gives him a doubtful look, he quickly continues. “The surgeon really did a good job. But does that explain why we didn´t immediately call?”
Diana can only nod.
“Diana, Neal was in really bad shape, when we were rescued, PEETA wanted to put him down, because they thought he wasn´t salvageable. It is only for John and Peggy that he is the way he is right now. They nursed him back to health, they took care of us.”
“My God peter, I… I don´t know what to say.”
“That is OK. But do you understand Neal is traumatized and I don´t want him to go through everything again.”
“Peter?” Neal groans. He has a smashing headache. He shouldn´t have drank so much last night, never a good idea to hit the hotel bar late at night.
“Neal?”
Neal pries his eyes open at the worried tone in Peter´s voice. It is only then that he realizes that he is restrained. Now he is fully awake. What happened?
“Peter? What happened? Where are we?”
“I don´t know, but I think we pissed off the wrong people. What did you say to Kutnetsov?”
Neal searches his memory, but can´t come up with anything that could have given them away.
“Can you get the bindings off?” Peter asks hopefully?
Neal tries, but since it is a harness, there is not really anything to pick and he can´t get rid of the tight leather bindings.
“No, I can´t, you?”
“No, they are really tight and I guess designed to keep someone from escaping.”
They both stop talking when they hear someone walking up to them.
“Square up.” A man calls out, when neither of them reacts, Neal, who is standing closed, gets zapped with a cattle prod. He yelps in shock.
“SQUARE UP!”
“NO!” Neal shouts back.
Three men enter. Two of them drag Neal out of the stable and the two other makes sure Peter can´t follow them.
“NEAL! Get your hands off me.”
Peter can hear the struggle Neal is giving them while being drag away. But he can´t pounder long over it, because one of the men tries to push something between his teeth. To his surprise it is a horse bit. He tries to turn away, but something is pinched on his septum and tears spring is his eyes. He keeps his head still, because he can feel the pull of the nose grip. Since he doesn´t want his nose ripped off, he keeps his head still while the man fastens the bridle around his head. Next they try to lift one of his legs but because he doesn´t know what they are planning, he resists. The clamp is pulled taut and Peyer stills and lets his leg be lifted. A shoe, no a boot is being fastened and when he can put his foot down, he wobbles. Shit, they are giving him hooved boots.
They are turning him into a pony.
“Flashback?” Diana asks.
“Yeah, sorry, I…”
“No need to apologize, boss.”
Peter laughs. “I am not your boss anymore.”
“Yeah, well… you will always be my boss. What can I do to help?”
“First of all, don´t talk in a dominant way when Neal or I are near. For the moment, it makes us slip into pony headspace.”
That makes sense to Diana, she nods.
“And we need to bring these guys down.”
“That is easier said than done, you do realize that, don´t you?”
* * *
“Good boy, stand.”
Neal comes to a stop, he is sweating and panting.
“Square up.”
John comes closer and unscrews a bottle of water and feeds Neal slow sips and Neal drinks greedily. When the bottle is gone, he takes the reins again and gives them a gently tug; Neal follows him towards the swimming pool.
“Let´s do some exercise in the pool to cool you off.” John states and Neal slowly walks into the pool. John doesn´t need to attach the reins anymore, he just unclips them and starts the treadmill. Neal gets into a nice rhythm and sloshes around. John knows he enjoys the pool, so he lets him in a bit longer until he knows, Neal is cooled down enough.
“OK, let´s go Neal, I will give you a nice grooming.”
Neal leaves the pool and walks next to John towards the stable. He washes Neal with some nice warm water, rinsing his hair and hand drying him and then massages his body with the soft brush. Neal has his eyes closed and John can see all the tension is gone, he is completely in the moment.
“You are doing good.”
When he is done and Neal opens his eyes, John has a piece of cake in his hand which Neal quickly takes and eats. It is still something they do, even though Neal doesn´t need any more fattening up. He is back at his fighting weight, but a treat now and then, especially when he exercised well, is OK.
“Ready to come back up?”
Neal nods.
John hands Neal his regular clothing and walks out, giving Neal some privacy to come back up. He finishes up at the Stables and says good evening to Ann, before waiting for Neal by the car.
Neal walks up and looks relaxed, he really looks good.
When they are in the car, Neal looks at his feet.
“I never told you what happened in the beginning.”
“Neal, you don´t have to, I know this is difficult for you.”
“No, it´s alright, I want you to know, maybe it explains something, I don´t know. I guess I am babbling, Diana coming over, I…”
“Yeah, Neal, it will all be OK.”
Neal stares out the window when he starts talking.
“When we were first kidnapped, I was dragged from the stable, away from Peter. I fought as best as I could but they were just to strong and after a couple of kicks and lashes with a whip, I let himself being dragged away. Restrained as I was, there wasn´t much I could do anyway. I could hear Peter fighting the men that were restraining him as well, but I thought it better to preserve my energy. A lot of good I did me, but I really didn´t realize at the moment what they wanted or what they were planning.
Before I could do anything, a choke chain was attached around my neck and pulled taut. So when they started putting me in tack, I didn´t really fight them. Not even when they put the bridle on, even though it hurt. The bit sat uncomfortable in my mouth and it hurt. The moment they were fastening the boots, I knew what they were planning and I tried to fight them. At first I thought it was Margaret getting revenge, for me trying to seduce her. But later on I realized there was someone much more powerful that had his hand in our abduction. Margaret was good, but she didn´t have the resources it took to make us vanish.
The first days in tack were excruciating, everything hurt and I can´t remember how many times I face planted because I couldn´t keep my balance on the boots. But since we weren´t cooperating as they wanted, we were transported to another stable.”
“Hence your anxiety for horse trailers. You were brought to breakers.” John states.
“Breakers?”
“Yeah, there is a whole criminal part in the scene. Some owners can´t train their ponies in the behavior they want and contract breakers. Men and women who will do anything to get the pony to display the ‘wanted’ behavior. But whoever kidnapped you didn´t want your behavior changed, they wanted you broken.”
“Yeah, well, it worked. It didn´t take them long for me to behave appropriate. I guess the moment I realized we were in real trouble was the moment the branded us.”
Neal´s choke chain is fastened to the stable wall and he is pushed against it with his back. His hand are tied to it as well, and so are his feet. A rubber bit is pushed in between his teeth. He is confused, why all of a sudden a rubber bit, normally it is some vicious metal wire bit they use. He still isn´t sure why the sudden restraining, but that changes when he sees a man entering with a hot branding iron, the tip is almost yellow, but quickly turning orange. He starts to struggle in his bindings.
“I wouldn´t struggle, if I miss, I will do it all over again. Keep still.”
Neal stills, he doesn´t want the brand to be all over the place, it is bad enough he can´t prevent it but he saw the Jackass movie, he knows what happens if you move or the guy doing it doesn´t have a steady hand.
The moment, the iron connects with his flesh, he gags, the smell of burned flesh hits his nostrils, before the pain registers. But then the pain hits him like a freight train.
“Breath!” a voice shouts at him and a punch in the gut has him gulping in air.
“Where is the other one? He is next.”
“Peter!”
“Neal? Are you Ok?”
Neal swallows. “Yeah, yeah, really I am fine.”
“Let´s go home Neal, Peggy made one of your favorites.”
Neal gives him a small smile. “Yeah, that would be nice. Let´s go home.”
Note:
Desensitization, sometimes called sacking out, the process of introducing a horse to flapping objects such as blankets, teaching the horse to allow itself to be touched by an object and not to fear things that people move about a horse.