Can´t escape

Jan 09, 2018 09:56

Author:
nywcgirl
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing: None
Characters: Neal, Peter, Rachel, Mozzie
Warning/genre: hurt/comfort, angst, loss of hearing, bombing
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen

Author's Notes:
leesa_perrie made me this art last year. This fic fills the ‘Loss of hearing’ square on my H/C Bingo card and was written as a fandom stocking filler for her.

Word Count: ~1180

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine…
Summary: Rachel is not accepting no for an answer.

Story can also be found on AO3.





‘Do you accept a collect call from the Metropolitan Correctional Facility? - Inmate - Rachel Turner.’ ‘Yes.’
‘I'm impressed, Neal. That was well played.’
‘What's the threat? You kept a backup of the video?’
‘No, I didn't. There's no threat, just a promise. I'll see you soon.’
The line is disconnected before Neal can say anything. He stares at his phone for a moment. He is smart enough to recognize a real threat. He walks back inside and pours himself a glass of wine. He needs to think. Rachel is dangerous, she is a trained operative and her skills set matches his own. He makes a mental note to talk to Mozzie tomorrow, they will have to think of a way to make sure Rachel stops stalking him.

* * *

Peter is giving is morning briefing when a call comes in. Neal can see Peter blanches a bit before he pushes the speaker phone button.
‘The bomb is placed somewhere in the Federal building…’
Peter makes hand gestures and Diana and Jones, run outside to start the evacuation sequence of the building. An alarm starts wailing and Neal looks anxiously at Peter.
‘Oh I see, you already started the count down, OK, that will do. Like I said Neal, see you soon.’
‘Run Neal!’
Neal darts off towards the stairs, taking them in two jumps. He can hear Peter right behind him. They are OK, they are almost there. Neal runs towards the doors with Peter on his heels. The have barely made it out of the building when there is a deafening bang. All Neal notices is the heat and pressure behind him and his last thought when he slams against a car is that they didn´t make it.

* * *

Peter slowly rises from the depths of unconsciousness. And then suddenly everything comes back at once, the pain, the excruciating pain and more disturbing, the annoying ringing sound. He opens his eyes to see what is going on and all around him, there is chaos.
Neal!
Neal was in front of him, so he must be OK. He does his best to look around, until he sees Neal. He is laying crumpled against a car. There is a large dent in the car, so Neal must have thrown into it with a great deal of force.
Two paramedics walk up to Neal and he can see them kneel next to his partner. It is testimony to Peter´s state of mind that he doesn´t immediately recognize the female paramedic as Rachel. He is just relieved that someone is taking care of Neal. Luckily that they arrived at the seen so quickly.
The paramedics hoist Neal on a backboard and it isn´t until the female looks straight at him with a cruel smile that he recognizes her as Rachel. He wants to get up, but when he puts weight on his arm, it gives under him and he falls down with a strangled cry he doesn´t hear because of the ringing in his ears. The last thing he sees is the two paramedics that carry Neal away.

* * *

Neal wakes in a daze. He recognizes the feeling, pain killers. He never was good with them. He also realizes, that behind the daze lurks pain, it is sort of shielded at the moment. What happened that he needed pain killers?
He searches his brain and then suddenly, it pops up. There was an explosion. And Peter was behind him. He wants to move and see where Peter is, but the movement flares up the pain and he cries out.
Wait, he didn´t hear that cry, or was it only in his imagination. He needs to see what is going on. But before he can do so, he can feel a warmth pass through his arm and when it reaches his brain, he is out.
He is floating and the pain pulls him back to reality. He doesn´t want to because he likes the floating feeling an knows there is only hurt once he opens his eyes.
He slowly blinks against the light and his breath stocks. Next to him in a chair is Rachel, she is smiling at him and he can she hear talk, but he doesn´t hear her, there is this persistent ringing in his
‘What happened?’ Is what he wants to ask, but probably not what comes out of his mouth. Rachel feeds him ice chips. And even though he doesn´t want to take anything Rachel has to give him, he needs the water, so he accepts them.
She is talking to him again and he does his best to read her lips, but the drugs that are still in his system, the fatigue and the persistent headache make it difficult to follow what she is saying to him.
‘What?’ he croaks.
He can see her facial expression change into annoyance, but he is just in too much pain to do anything about it and he keeps his mouth shut. The headache makes his vision blurry, resulting in nausea, so he closes his eyes. He can only hope that someone is looking for him.

* * *

Neal starts when a hand touches him. He pries open his eyes but everything is blurry and he feels nauseated. Something cold is pressed against his chest and he wants to try and get away. You never know what Rachel is going to do.
Hands keep him still and it takes his brain some time to figure out that there is more than one person with him. The fact that Rachel has an accomplish scares Neal and he does his best again to open his eyes and voice his disagreement with his treatment.
Two persons dressed in blue and working on him. He tries to fight them, but he is just too tired and sick. Suddenly there is a sting in his arm and the world turns nicer, warmer and then goes away all together.

* * *

When he wakes, Neal feels there is a difference. He feels better, less sick. He tries to open his eyes again and this time it doesn´t require so much effort as before. Someone with a white coat is standing near the window but turns when he moves. Maybe he made a sound.
He can see it is Mozzie and he smiles. They must have found him. He asks if they caught Rachel, or he thinks he does and he can see Mozzie talking, except that he can´t hear him. He tells Mozzie, who immediately changes to sign language. Luckily Mozzie forced him to learn it when he was still in training with him.
He understands that the FBI found him and that he is safe. He is in hospital and his hearing is being checked, but the doctor suspect it is just temporary. And yes, Peter is also OK.
He wants to know if they caught Rachel, but he is just too tired and falls asleep while trying to pay attention to Mozzie. Mozzie will look out for him, he is safe.

kidnapping, loss of hearing, bombing, angst, hurt/comfort, round 8, h/c bingo

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