No cage needed
Author: NYWCgirl
Fandom: White collar
Pairing: Neal/OMC
Characters: Neal, OMC, Peter
Warning/genre: hurt/comfort, blindness, deafness, human trafficking, kidnapping, restraints
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen
Author's Notes: This fic fills the ‘cages’ square in my H/C Bingo card and was written as a birthday present for
pipilj. Happy Birthday!
Word Count: ~ 1536
Summary: Neal is taken during an undercover job. The White collar team works to find him back, but when they do, it is not like they expected.
Fic can also be found on AO3.
Neal is grabbed from behind and held fast but he lets himself go limp and the person that is holding him can´t keep him upright and they stumble, giving Neal a chance to throw his head back. It impacts with something hard and Neal can only hope he hit they guy full in the face.
He scrambles upright, but not seeing where he is going, makes it difficult to get away from his attackers. He must have made a wrong call, because he can feel himself run into someone else and he is grabbed again, this time a second pair of hands grabs his legs and he is pulled to the ground and kept there. He keeps struggling but it is too no avail.
Suddenly he feels his belt being loosened and his pants being pulled down and he starts struggling in earnest now.
A prick and then nothing.
* * *
‘Peter! We got an anonymous tip about Neal!’ Jones shouts.
Peter immediately leaves his desk and takes the stairs with two steps. They check the data and call a local sheriff’s office, who promise to check it out. They round up a couple of agents and they are off. Their research had shown them that Neal had been taken upstate, so a FBI team from Missing persons had kept contact up in a local police station.
While they are driving, news comes that Neal has been found and brought over to a local medical center.
‘How is he?’
‘A bit worse for wear, but the doctor says he will be fine eventually.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Just get here. Your boy is not life threatening injured, so be careful. We will keep him company until you get here.’
When they arrive at the hospital, they are met by a special agent from Rice´s team and a local law enforcement officer.
‘Can I see him? Is he OK?’
‘He is doing well, considering. Although …’
‘What?’
‘The doctor had to sedate him.’
‘Why?’
‘He seems to be fighting everyone who comes near.’
‘Neal? Do they know why?’’
‘They believe he can´t see or hear us.’
‘What? Take me to him.’
‘Sure, follow us.’
Peter is happy to see that they posted a guard in front of Neal´s room. Although he is not so sure if it is to protect Neal from others or the other way around. He enters the room and can see Neal is on his back and his eyes are closed, his breathing deep and even. He is clearly asleep. Peter can see bruises in various state of healing on his arms and face. But there are also some disturbing fresh ones on his arms. He is put ins restraints, but Peter can see they are the ones hospitals use to protect patients from themselves and their personnel.
‘Neal?’
No reaction. His eyes keep close.
‘You can stay here and I will call for the attending so he can explain his medical condition.’
‘Thank you.’
Peter pulls a chair up and sits down. It doesn´t take long and a doctor appears in the door, once again followed by the two agents.
‘My name is doctor Pierre, I am Mister Caffrey´s doctor. I was told you are his medical proxy?’
‘Yes, Specials agent Peter Burke. How is he?’
‘Well, I understood that Mister Caffrey was held captive and was rescued my Law enforcement. He was brought in extremely agitated and resisted the agents trying to get him to hospital.’
‘What do you mean “resisted”.
‘Well, from what I saw, all I can conclude is that Mister Caffrey can´t hear or see us. He thinks he is still with the people who took him.’
Peter frowns, thinking what it must have been like to be rescued from the people who did this to him, but not knowing they were the good guys.
‘Can I touch him?’
‘Of course, but we warn you, he can react quiet violently.’
Peter nods. He slowly extends his hand until he can touch Neal´s arm hesitating. But then he cowboys up. Neal is alone and must be terrified. He touches Neal´s arm and can see Neal´s eyes fly open in panic.
‘Don´t touch me!’ he shouts while struggling against the restraints.
Peter takes Neal´s hand in his left and with his right he taps Neal´s palm. It takes a moment before Neal stills and pays attention.
‘Peter?’
Peter taps something in Neal´s hand and pulls Neal in an awkward embrace with Neal being restrained to the bed. He can hear Neal inhale his scent.
‘It is you, you found me.’
A sob escapes Neal and Peter asks for the restraints to be unfastened. The nurse and doctor quickly do so. Tears fall and even Peter can feel tears built in his eyes. He was starting to believe they would never find Neal, but here he is, alive and kicking. The medical staff leaves the room, giving the men some privacy.
After some time, Neal has calmed down and lies back down, keeping physical contact with Peter.
‘How did you find me?’
.-.. .- - . .-. / .-. . ... - / .. / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / -... . / .... . .-. . (= Later Rest I will be here)
‘Thank you.’
..-. --- .-. / .-- .... .- (= For what)
‘For finding me.’
.- .-.. .-- .- -.-- ... (= Always)
Peter lets his fingers trace through Neal´s hair which is lank and greasy but Neal probably wouldn´t have let anyone touch him, so it is understandably. He makes a mental note to ask the nursing staff if he can do it.
After a couple of minutes, it is clear that Neal seems to have fallen asleep again, which is normal with the sedation he has gotten earlier.
Once Peter is sure Neal is fast asleep, he leaves the room and finds the doctor standing at the nurses’ station.
‘How did you accomplish that?’
‘Morse code. Neal knows Morse, so I told him I was there. And I think he recognized my scent once I embraced him.’
‘That will do it, dumb that I didn´t think of that.’
‘So, what is wrong with him?’
‘Nothing we can see. He doesn´t have any visible wounds or brain injury that we can tell. But now that he can communicate, we can ask what happened to him. Until now, he was fighting us.’
‘OK, I’m going back so I am there when he wakes up.’
‘Good idea. If he is ready to talk, have me paged.’
‘Will do.’
Peter walks back into Neal´s room and is glad to see Neal is still asleep.
* * *
The White collar time has worked together with Violent Crimes and Missing Persons with the information Neal provided in hospital and they were able to take down a human trafficking ring. It turned out that they used a special made drug to render their victims deaf and blind, making escape almost impossible. Luckily they also found out that the drugs only have a temporary effect, which was the best news they got all week.
It is already six, by the time Peter arrives at June. She tells him that Neal and Mozzie upstairs, so Peter climbs the stair to Neal´s apartment.
Neal is sitting on the patio at June´s and Peter can see Mozzie sitting next to him. They both have a glass of wine in their hand and Peter is surprised to see that both men are laughing. The moment he steps forward, Mozzie looks towards him and stops laughing, but Neal´s laugh is still dying down, not having heard Peter coming towards them.
‘Suit.’
‘Mozzie.’
‘So how is he doing?’
‘As well as one can expect, I guess.’
Peter nods, they had their fights already in the hospital when Mozzie found out Neal got hurt during an undercover operation.
‘What was so funny?’
‘Mozzie?’ Neal asks while holding out his hand.
Mozzie starts making signs in his hand and Neal changes his gaze.
‘Hi Peter.’
Peter puts his hand on his shoulder.
‘I didn´t know that you two know sign language for Deaf-blind.’
Mozzie just rolls his eyes and then it suddenly makes sense to Peter. What better way to communicate with your partner when you can´t make a sound. It seems a lot quicker than the Morse code Peter uses, but he also knows that learning sign language is not a simple thing, so he will stick to the Morse code.
‘Please ask Neal how he is doing?’
Mozzie conveys the message and Neal smiles.
‘I´m fine. This morning I could detect some light, according to the doctors, my vision will come back over a period of several days. My hearing will also come back, but I can´t still hear a thing, so.’
Peter takes Neal and taps that that is a good sign. Mozzie makes Peter a cup of coffee and they talk a bit before Peter excuses himself telling Mozzie it is time to go home.
When he is sure Peter has left the building, Mozzie turns back to Neal.
‘Do you think he bought it?’
Neal smiles with a smirk.
‘Totally. I am in no rush to tell him my hearing is already back and that I already can see shapes and colors.’
‘Welcome back, mon frére.’