Fic: A Safe Place (2 of 7)
Title: A Safe Place (Part 2 of 7)
Author: Turtlebaby_02
Characters/Pairing: Peter, Neal, Elizabeth, Mozzie
Genre: De-Aging of Neal fic, kid!fic
Rating: PG-13 for some swearing
Warnings: MAJOR SPOILERS for 4x16 Also, my brain thinks Neal has daddy issues, clearly.
Word count: 2000 (this chapter)
Summary: After the events in the finale, Neal needs a safe place to hide.
Previous Chapters: Part 1
After a moment Mozzie rose slowly to his feet and started gathering the books off the floor muttering softly to himself, “Oh buddy. I know today sucked but this... this isn’t going to help anything.” Straightening, with an armload of books, he turned again to the tiny horror that was currently running his fingers through his hair in a very adult manner. “Hey Kid?” He had a hard time calling this tot by his friend’s name, “Why don’t we get you cleaned up and...” With a smirk “maybe some clothes?”
Neal turned away from the dog portrait and looked down at himself. Bright blues, yellow, and red covered his arms and chest. “Can I have bubbles, Mossie?”
Setting the books on the table he started toward the bathroom. “Sure, kid. Bubbles it is.” If any one grown man was going to have a collection of bubble baths under his sink, it was going to be Neal. The selection he found as he opened the little cupboard did not disappoint. He turned on the water in the tub before changing his mind and turning on the shower instead. “Let’s rinse you off first.”
Neal came up beside him and stuck a little hand under the water to check the temperature before grabbing the edge of the tub and clamoring over. As soon as the water hit his body it turned to a swirl of greens and purples at his feet. “ ‘S almost a rainbow!” he giggled. He stepped half out of the stream letting the water wash the colors away in turn, smiling to himself at the swirling kaleidoscope it created at the bottom of the shower.
As soon as the water ran clear Mozzie plugged the drain and sat Neal down on his rear. Letting the tub fill, he knelt beside it and added a cap of Jasmine scented bubble bath to the water. “Neal, I know what you indulge in in the privacy of your own bathroom is your own business... but jasmine? We might be revoking your mancard after this. Well, as soon as you’re a man again.”
Little Neal closed his eyes to sniff the fragrance out of the air. “ ‘Ts Sara’s.” His small shoulders slumped and he sucked in his bottom lip, the grown up memory of another love gone too powerful for his small heart to contain. “She left yaknow.”
Mozzie’s heart pulled a little at his soft words and he raised a hesitant hand to Neal’s damp head. “I’m sorry, little friend. Your grown up counterpart had no right to give you that burden.” With a sigh he got to his feet. “I’ll be right back. … Don’t drown.”
He left the room and after hesitating for a moment he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the number of the one woman he knew didn’t want to hear from him just then. But she was the only one left to help, hopefully even given the circumstances.
After three rings the phone was answered with a sniffle and small sob, “Mozzie. Tell me you can fix this. Tell me you have a way.”
He closed his eyes. “Mrs. Suit... Elizabeth. I’m so sorry. We’ll fix it. We will. You have my word.”
“How?” There was doubt in her voice and a spark of anger. “Your plan got my husband ARRESTED. He’s sitting in a cell right now, for doing the right thing, for helping his FRIENDS, and for what, Mozzie? I hope Neal got all the answers he needed. I hope that box was worth this.”
“Elizabeth, you have every right to hang up and never speak to either one of us again. But I’m calling because right now, Neal needs us.”
“What’s happened?” There was immediate worry in her tone that let Mozzie know that for all the anger she had for the young man, she still cared. “Is he ok?”
“Yes. And that’s all I feel comfortable saying. Because you’re not going to believe me until you see it anyway.” He smiled as Neal’s singsong voice floated through the door to the tune of the ABC’s. “Can you come to Neal’s? And maybe make a stop along the way? Don’t ask yet, but is there a children’s clothing store on your way?”
An hour later Mozzie and Neal were engaged in riveting game of Candyland that he had borrowed from a cupboard downstairs. The stakes were high with a small pile of chocolates on the line. The boy was wrapped in the fluffiest towel Mozzie could find and his hair was drying into unruly curls that stuck up in every direction. The little boy was so intense in his concentration of the game that Mozzie didn’t have a hard time forgetting that this was a game about Candy and not chess and that his best friend was now too small for his fedora. Yep, Neal was definitely still in there. Now he just had to figure out how to get him out again.
The knock at the door jolted both of them out of the game and Neal grinned, “Liz’beth?”
“I hope so mini-you. I’m getting my butt kicked.” He stood and walked towards the door. “You wait here ok? I need to talk to her for a minute before she... well...” He waved a hand in Neal’s direction. “You’re a lot to take in at the moment.”
“S’ok, Mossie. I’ll wait.” A little hand darted out from beneath the towel to pilfer a chocolate. “You can trusts me with your candies.”
“I can tell.” Mozzie shook his head and pulled open the door. “Mrs. Suit....” He waved her away from the door and stepped out slipping it shut silently behind him.
“Mozzie.” She nodded at him before handing over a plastic bag with circus animals on front. “Can I come in?”
“Not yet. There are a few things I think I need to tell you before, well, Neal did something stupid.” He blurted out. “I’m not sure what he was thinking and honestly, right now, he’s not in a good state for me to ask him.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew wide. “What happened Mozzie? You told me he was ok, what kind of state is he in?” She slipped past him and pushed the door open before he could stop her. The sight of Neal sitting sans towel on the floor surrounded by an army of artifacts, holding a much too large book of historical paintings upside down in his tiny hands, stopped her in her tracks.
“Well, Mrs. Suit... ingenuous comes to mind.”
Elizabeth’s hand quickly covered her mouth. A giggle slipped passed her fingers and her eyes crinkled with amusement. “Neal?” Her tone was oddly lacking in disbelief and she took a few steps further into the room before turning back to Mozzie. “This cements my belief that today is one big nightmare.” She stifled another laugh. “Is there a logical explanation? Or are we going to go with the truth?”
“I’m glad you find this funny, Elizabeth. But this is a serious problem! I don’t know why or how or... how long it’s going to last or if I’m going to have to raise a tiny art thief with a tiny criminal record!” If he would have had hair he’d have been pulling it as he paced back and forth between the door and the wine rack trying to decide on which escape would be a better idea.
Neal watched with fascination as his friend worried a hole in the floor before selecting one of his soldiers off the rug beside him. “I think t’was this one.” He held it out for Mozzie’s inspection.
He reached for a tissue before taking the statue carefully and placing it on the table. “Clothes, Elizabeth, please tell me you brought some?”
“Oh! Yeah, in the bag. You should have told me it was Neal. I would have bought a suit.” She smiled at the boy and pulled a pair of jeans and a tshirt out of the bag in Mozzie’s hand. “I hope these are good enough.” She also pulled out socks, shoes, and tiniest pair of underpants Mozzie had ever seen. “Come on buddy, I bet you’re getting cold!”
She knelt down in front of Neal and he placed a steadying hand on her shoulder as he slipped one foot and then the other through the underwear and El hiked them up around his waist. She buttoned the jeans as Neal fought to get his arms out the correct holes of the shirt and when he was finally free she ran a hand through his tangles with a smile. “There! Isn’t that better?”
He plopped onto his bottom and started forcing his tiny feet into the socks. “Can we go play Liz’Beth?” Can we go to the swings?” His eyes too big for his face as he smiled up at her. “Pwease?”
“What do you think Mozzie? Can we take him outside? He’s not suddenly going to sprout back into a full sized man, is he? Because that might be a little hard to explain.” She took Neal by the hand and squeezed gently.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should just lock him up in here. Not letting people see him sounds like the smartest thing we could do.”
Neal’s eyes filled suddenly with a pool of tears that he sniffed back hard. “Are you ‘shamed of me?” He sucked in that bottom lip again and hung his head.
Elizabeth fell immediately her knees and lifted his chin. “Oh baby, no. No no. We’re just worried about you. We don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Come on,” She stood again and pulled him gently towards the door. “let's go to the park. We’ll ride the carousel and hey! Do you want to take Satch? I bet he could use a walk!” She smiled when his eyes lit up at mention of the dog.
“I made you a pit’ure!" He scampered over to the easel and pulled the top sheet down with the ease of his much taller counterpart.
Elizabeth took the picture with a grin. “Kiddo, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for a Caffery original to call my very own? This is beautiful!” She meant every word, the picture was stunning with a childlike quality while still being well beyond the talents of your average preschooler.
Neal beamed and took her hand again. “Can we show it to P’ter?” As soon as the words left his mouth his smile faltered. “I fr’got. I’m sorry Liz’beth.”
“I know buddy, so am I. But it’s going to be ok. Some of the best people in the whole world are working right now to make sure he comes home again soon.” She shot a meaningful glance in Mozzie’s direction. “I trust them.”
Mozzie swallowed the sudden lump in his throat but just nodded back at her.
“Now!” El smiled down at the sad little boy at her side. “I say we start with ice cream.” She waited for the smile to reach his eyes before she swooped him up and settled him on her hip. “And then we can swing for as long as you want, buddy.”
Mozzie watched them go before turning back to the small bronze statue beckoning for his attention. He used the tissue to pick it up again, he wasn’t sure how it worked and he’d be damned if HIS inner child was coming out to play.
Flipping the small icon over in his hands, his eyes caught the inscription in the bottom. The translation coming easy to mind, “To give your mind an innocent place to play, until your heart is a safe place to stay.” He sat the statue down with a small thunk and somehow knew he wasn’t in any danger of it accidently re-forming him. He sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket. He knew a couple of guys , and one very odd woman, that might be able to tell him how to fix this.
Author: Turtlebaby_02
Characters/Pairing: Peter, Neal, Elizabeth, Mozzie
Genre: De-Aging of Neal fic, kid!fic
Rating: PG-13 for some swearing
Warnings: MAJOR SPOILERS for 4x16 Also, my brain thinks Neal has daddy issues, clearly.
Word count: 2000 (this chapter)
Summary: After the events in the finale, Neal needs a safe place to hide.
Previous Chapters: Part 1
After a moment Mozzie rose slowly to his feet and started gathering the books off the floor muttering softly to himself, “Oh buddy. I know today sucked but this... this isn’t going to help anything.” Straightening, with an armload of books, he turned again to the tiny horror that was currently running his fingers through his hair in a very adult manner. “Hey Kid?” He had a hard time calling this tot by his friend’s name, “Why don’t we get you cleaned up and...” With a smirk “maybe some clothes?”
Neal turned away from the dog portrait and looked down at himself. Bright blues, yellow, and red covered his arms and chest. “Can I have bubbles, Mossie?”
Setting the books on the table he started toward the bathroom. “Sure, kid. Bubbles it is.” If any one grown man was going to have a collection of bubble baths under his sink, it was going to be Neal. The selection he found as he opened the little cupboard did not disappoint. He turned on the water in the tub before changing his mind and turning on the shower instead. “Let’s rinse you off first.”
Neal came up beside him and stuck a little hand under the water to check the temperature before grabbing the edge of the tub and clamoring over. As soon as the water hit his body it turned to a swirl of greens and purples at his feet. “ ‘S almost a rainbow!” he giggled. He stepped half out of the stream letting the water wash the colors away in turn, smiling to himself at the swirling kaleidoscope it created at the bottom of the shower.
As soon as the water ran clear Mozzie plugged the drain and sat Neal down on his rear. Letting the tub fill, he knelt beside it and added a cap of Jasmine scented bubble bath to the water. “Neal, I know what you indulge in in the privacy of your own bathroom is your own business... but jasmine? We might be revoking your mancard after this. Well, as soon as you’re a man again.”
Little Neal closed his eyes to sniff the fragrance out of the air. “ ‘Ts Sara’s.” His small shoulders slumped and he sucked in his bottom lip, the grown up memory of another love gone too powerful for his small heart to contain. “She left yaknow.”
Mozzie’s heart pulled a little at his soft words and he raised a hesitant hand to Neal’s damp head. “I’m sorry, little friend. Your grown up counterpart had no right to give you that burden.” With a sigh he got to his feet. “I’ll be right back. … Don’t drown.”
He left the room and after hesitating for a moment he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the number of the one woman he knew didn’t want to hear from him just then. But she was the only one left to help, hopefully even given the circumstances.
After three rings the phone was answered with a sniffle and small sob, “Mozzie. Tell me you can fix this. Tell me you have a way.”
He closed his eyes. “Mrs. Suit... Elizabeth. I’m so sorry. We’ll fix it. We will. You have my word.”
“How?” There was doubt in her voice and a spark of anger. “Your plan got my husband ARRESTED. He’s sitting in a cell right now, for doing the right thing, for helping his FRIENDS, and for what, Mozzie? I hope Neal got all the answers he needed. I hope that box was worth this.”
“Elizabeth, you have every right to hang up and never speak to either one of us again. But I’m calling because right now, Neal needs us.”
“What’s happened?” There was immediate worry in her tone that let Mozzie know that for all the anger she had for the young man, she still cared. “Is he ok?”
“Yes. And that’s all I feel comfortable saying. Because you’re not going to believe me until you see it anyway.” He smiled as Neal’s singsong voice floated through the door to the tune of the ABC’s. “Can you come to Neal’s? And maybe make a stop along the way? Don’t ask yet, but is there a children’s clothing store on your way?”
An hour later Mozzie and Neal were engaged in riveting game of Candyland that he had borrowed from a cupboard downstairs. The stakes were high with a small pile of chocolates on the line. The boy was wrapped in the fluffiest towel Mozzie could find and his hair was drying into unruly curls that stuck up in every direction. The little boy was so intense in his concentration of the game that Mozzie didn’t have a hard time forgetting that this was a game about Candy and not chess and that his best friend was now too small for his fedora. Yep, Neal was definitely still in there. Now he just had to figure out how to get him out again.
The knock at the door jolted both of them out of the game and Neal grinned, “Liz’beth?”
“I hope so mini-you. I’m getting my butt kicked.” He stood and walked towards the door. “You wait here ok? I need to talk to her for a minute before she... well...” He waved a hand in Neal’s direction. “You’re a lot to take in at the moment.”
“S’ok, Mossie. I’ll wait.” A little hand darted out from beneath the towel to pilfer a chocolate. “You can trusts me with your candies.”
“I can tell.” Mozzie shook his head and pulled open the door. “Mrs. Suit....” He waved her away from the door and stepped out slipping it shut silently behind him.
“Mozzie.” She nodded at him before handing over a plastic bag with circus animals on front. “Can I come in?”
“Not yet. There are a few things I think I need to tell you before, well, Neal did something stupid.” He blurted out. “I’m not sure what he was thinking and honestly, right now, he’s not in a good state for me to ask him.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew wide. “What happened Mozzie? You told me he was ok, what kind of state is he in?” She slipped past him and pushed the door open before he could stop her. The sight of Neal sitting sans towel on the floor surrounded by an army of artifacts, holding a much too large book of historical paintings upside down in his tiny hands, stopped her in her tracks.
“Well, Mrs. Suit... ingenuous comes to mind.”
Elizabeth’s hand quickly covered her mouth. A giggle slipped passed her fingers and her eyes crinkled with amusement. “Neal?” Her tone was oddly lacking in disbelief and she took a few steps further into the room before turning back to Mozzie. “This cements my belief that today is one big nightmare.” She stifled another laugh. “Is there a logical explanation? Or are we going to go with the truth?”
“I’m glad you find this funny, Elizabeth. But this is a serious problem! I don’t know why or how or... how long it’s going to last or if I’m going to have to raise a tiny art thief with a tiny criminal record!” If he would have had hair he’d have been pulling it as he paced back and forth between the door and the wine rack trying to decide on which escape would be a better idea.
Neal watched with fascination as his friend worried a hole in the floor before selecting one of his soldiers off the rug beside him. “I think t’was this one.” He held it out for Mozzie’s inspection.
He reached for a tissue before taking the statue carefully and placing it on the table. “Clothes, Elizabeth, please tell me you brought some?”
“Oh! Yeah, in the bag. You should have told me it was Neal. I would have bought a suit.” She smiled at the boy and pulled a pair of jeans and a tshirt out of the bag in Mozzie’s hand. “I hope these are good enough.” She also pulled out socks, shoes, and tiniest pair of underpants Mozzie had ever seen. “Come on buddy, I bet you’re getting cold!”
She knelt down in front of Neal and he placed a steadying hand on her shoulder as he slipped one foot and then the other through the underwear and El hiked them up around his waist. She buttoned the jeans as Neal fought to get his arms out the correct holes of the shirt and when he was finally free she ran a hand through his tangles with a smile. “There! Isn’t that better?”
He plopped onto his bottom and started forcing his tiny feet into the socks. “Can we go play Liz’Beth?” Can we go to the swings?” His eyes too big for his face as he smiled up at her. “Pwease?”
“What do you think Mozzie? Can we take him outside? He’s not suddenly going to sprout back into a full sized man, is he? Because that might be a little hard to explain.” She took Neal by the hand and squeezed gently.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should just lock him up in here. Not letting people see him sounds like the smartest thing we could do.”
Neal’s eyes filled suddenly with a pool of tears that he sniffed back hard. “Are you ‘shamed of me?” He sucked in that bottom lip again and hung his head.
Elizabeth fell immediately her knees and lifted his chin. “Oh baby, no. No no. We’re just worried about you. We don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Come on,” She stood again and pulled him gently towards the door. “let's go to the park. We’ll ride the carousel and hey! Do you want to take Satch? I bet he could use a walk!” She smiled when his eyes lit up at mention of the dog.
“I made you a pit’ure!" He scampered over to the easel and pulled the top sheet down with the ease of his much taller counterpart.
Elizabeth took the picture with a grin. “Kiddo, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for a Caffery original to call my very own? This is beautiful!” She meant every word, the picture was stunning with a childlike quality while still being well beyond the talents of your average preschooler.
Neal beamed and took her hand again. “Can we show it to P’ter?” As soon as the words left his mouth his smile faltered. “I fr’got. I’m sorry Liz’beth.”
“I know buddy, so am I. But it’s going to be ok. Some of the best people in the whole world are working right now to make sure he comes home again soon.” She shot a meaningful glance in Mozzie’s direction. “I trust them.”
Mozzie swallowed the sudden lump in his throat but just nodded back at her.
“Now!” El smiled down at the sad little boy at her side. “I say we start with ice cream.” She waited for the smile to reach his eyes before she swooped him up and settled him on her hip. “And then we can swing for as long as you want, buddy.”
Mozzie watched them go before turning back to the small bronze statue beckoning for his attention. He used the tissue to pick it up again, he wasn’t sure how it worked and he’d be damned if HIS inner child was coming out to play.
Flipping the small icon over in his hands, his eyes caught the inscription in the bottom. The translation coming easy to mind, “To give your mind an innocent place to play, until your heart is a safe place to stay.” He sat the statue down with a small thunk and somehow knew he wasn’t in any danger of it accidently re-forming him. He sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket. He knew a couple of guys , and one very odd woman, that might be able to tell him how to fix this.