Part 2

Things get better after that night. Or at least that's what Mozzie chooses to believe. Neal acts less angry, he gets a little more sleep.

Butch goes everywhere with Neal.

The name had startled Mozzie at first. He didn't think that Neal would ever choose something that reminded him so much of the Suit, but he ultimately has to agree that those smart brown eyes just have something...

Two months pass in relative peace. Neal is trying. There's a fake smile plastered on his face every day and the crazy rides in the motorcycle only happen once or twice a week. He's doing other reckless things now. Like swimming in the ocean at night, like diving off waterfalls into shallow pools of water, like stepping in front of Mozzie when a kid tries to rob their usual coffee shop, like getting shot right on the chest for doing so.

Mozzie can't even process what is going on when it does. One second everything is almost as perfect as it's ever been. One second they are talking and joking about heists they've pulled off. The next second they are getting mobbed and Neal is in the floor bleeding.

Neal is in the floor dying.

Someone calls the police and the paramedics. They take Neal to the hospital and they refuse to tell him anything. Mozzie tries to insist that he's Neal's best friend, his brother, he even tells them he's his boyfriend. It doesn't work, they don't tell him anything, and he doesn't know what to do. There are no papers to prove anything, and he doesn't have the time to forge some.

In the end he steals a doctor's ID badge and slips into the ICU. Neal's hooked up to a lot of machines, he's not breathing in his own, but he's alive. He's alive.

Mozzie manages to slip inside the hospital every single day to see Neal. He's not there when Neal wakes up for the first time. He's not there to take care of him. He's not there those first few hours of confusion and pain. He's not there to see Neal calling for him, for June, for Elizabeth, for Sarah, and Peter.

Neal wakes up alone in a strange place. He wakes up in pain. He wakes up and calls for something, for someone. He needs someone. He needs to feel like there's someone in this world that actually cares that he's alive. Instead, he calls and there's no one. He's alone.

He's on another country with a freaking bullet hole through his chest, a parched up lung, in a hospital where everyone is a stranger speaking to him in another language, and he really just wants home. He wants Peter. His pain makes everything confusing and for some time he can't understand why Peter is not there. Peter always finds him.

When Neal sees Mozzie for the first time since waking up, he starts crying. He's so relieved to see him. Mozzie is someone. Mozzie is Mozzie, and Neal can't stop crying.

For some reason he spends a lot of time thinking about the time before he met Mozzie. A time when he ran away as a teenager, his dad long gone and his mother a non-existing presence in his life. He had tried to steal something for the first time. One of his mark's henchmen had caught him, beat the hell out of him and left him on a street to bleed to death. He'd been found and taken to a hospital and he'd woken up alone. He was scared, hurting, and completely alone in the world. He was there for a week. Not a single person showed up to see him.

Here he is, more than a decade later, and he feels exactly the same as he'd felt that time. He feels guilt and shame and somehow he even feels worthless. He's so desperate for something deep and satisfying, he's so desperate for something that back then he couldn't actually name. He's so desperate for something he now knows. He taught himself through the years to do without love or without a home of any kind. He taught himself to become someone else. He became a lot of people. Confident characters, charming characters, and characters that where on top of the world, characters that everyone loved and no one got close to.

Not anymore though. He can't be those people anymore. He doesn't need those characters to survive anymore. He only needs one. He needs to be Neal Caffrey. He needs to be Neal Caffrey so Peter will find him.

Peter Burke found Neal Caffrey. Peter found him again and again. He gave him a second, a third and a four chance. He took him back again and again. Peter loves him. Peter changed him.

He spends a week and a half in the hospital. He gives the doctors permission for Mozzie to visit. He's not completely alone.

They go back home. Funny how that enormous beach house now represents home, when all he ever thinks about when he thinks about home is the city, his apartment, their house, the office.

It's fine, he thinks. It's fine. He goes back to the beach house. He feels genuinely happy when he sees Butch. He runs in the beach with his dog and he paints every day. He waits another month for Mozzie to back off before he starts riding his motorcycle. He waits one more month after that to start closing his eyes again when he's riding. He waits another week to throw himself over a cliff on his motorcycle, with his eyes closed, at night.

His phone rings relentlessly. It's the middle of the night and he just wrapped up a case that took him three months to crack. He has not been on his top game for a while and this was his first case after the suspension. He wonders what the hell they want from him now and with a groan turns his bedside lamp on before reaching for his phone. He frowns when he sees that the number is restricted. A second later, his mind makes the connection, he sits up and answers.

"Neal?" he asks tentatively, suddenly afraid that something is horribly wrong.

"Peter?" a frightened voice asks back.

It's not Neal. It's Mozzie. It's Mozzie and even after eight long months, even after all this time, Peter knows that voice. He'd know it anywhere. It's Mozzie and he called him Peter. Something is wrong.

"Mozzie?" he asks. It's not a question about who he is. His tone of voice is implying something else. He wants to know why he is being called.

"Yes," Mozzie responds, ignoring the silent question.

Peter frowns. "It's late Mozzie. Are you okay?" Is Neal okay? He thinks.

"Yes. We're okay." His tone of voice belies the statement.

They are both silent for a moment, and despite the words just uttered, Peter thinks that Neal must be dead. He must be captured somewhere, he must be sick and dying in another country.

"What's going on Mozzie?" he needs to know. He needs to know his Neal is alive and well.

Mozzie is silent for another moment and Peter thinks he's about to hang up the phone.

"Neal's not okay, Suit," he finally says.

"Is he hurt?" Peter asks, sending a silent plea for him to be alright.

"He's not hurt." Mozzie says and pauses. "I mean, not anymore."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He's getting angry and this conversation isn't getting him anywhere.

"Neal needs you," Mozzie says.

"Okay," Peter says quietly. "Okay, just… I'll go there, okay? Just tell me where to go and I'll go."

There is no hesitation in his voice. There's not even a question of why Neal needs his help. He'll go, just like that, and Mozzie is finally convinced that this was the right thing to do. He knows this is what Neal needs.

"I'll send everything you need."

"Okay."

"Good." Mozzie hesitates. "Thanks Peter."

Peter is about to answer when he hears the call disconnect.

Six lies, three airplanes, a boat, and a taxi ride later Peter finds himself in a beautiful beach on an island half a world away. He stands there, looking at Neal sitting in the porch steps of a beach house. Neal's looking at the sunset over the ocean and there's a brown dog sitting beside him.

Peter can't see him clearly, but he sees that he's whole, he's alive. Neal's alive.

Neal turns around when Butch gets up and starts barking at someone that's walking towards the house. He gets up and freezes.

It's been eight months since they've seen each other. Neal stands there and his mind can't process what is happening.

"Quiet Butch," he calls softly, and the dog immediately stops barking and sits down in front of him, ready to leap up and protect him against the approaching stranger.

Neal watches Peter Burke make his way down the beach towards him. Suddenly, everything comes rushing back. The anger. Neal hates Peter. He hates Peter for calling Kramer. He hates Peter for calling him on his cons. He hates him for working behind his back and never letting go of the damn U-boat treasure. He hates him for telling him to run. He hates him and a part in the back of his brain tells him that he can only truly hate someone that he loves. And of course he does. He loves Peter. He loves him.

Peter is the only person who's ever cared for who he is, for who he could be. Peter is the only person who has ever cared enough to try to make him see all that he could be. He's the only one who has tried to change him for better and he's the only one who has succeeded.

They both stand there in front of each other in the beach. Peter is close enough to observe Neal now. He hasn't changed too much. Longer hair, beard, different clothes, but Peter knows him and he sees a different person in front of him. Neal's tired. He looks tired and lost and there's not a single wall up. It's not many times he's seen him like this, but it's just Neal standing there. It's just Neal.

Peter takes a step forward. He smiles and brings his arms around his best friend. He hugs Neal and after a quick moment of hesitation, his best friend hugs him back. They hold on to each other tightly, and Peter feels whole for the first time in a long time. He finally accepts that he ached for Neal. He ached for his friend.

"Hey buddy," Peter says, affection and relief pouring out with his words.

"Peter." Neal can't say anything else. Not really. How can he put into words what he's feeling? It's Peter. Peter is here and everything will be okay.

Mozzie watches the reunion from the porch and Peter releases Neal and walks up to hug him as well. They both smile. He sent all the information over to the Suit a mere three days ago: maps, plane tickets, money, and a vague and coded two page letter about Neal. He tried to explain everything. Neal's reckless behavior, his stunts with the motorcycle, his broken arm, his gunshot wound, his time at the hospital, his diving activities at night, he even mentioned Butch.

Peter had a hard time trying to decipher the code, but his long flights and his oppressing worry for Neal made him work extra hard not to get exasperated at Mozzie's "precautions". He transcribed the whole thing and his worry escalated with every word. He felt the fear behind every sentence written. Neal was not fine. He was not okay.

Peter had been working on a way to bring Neal back for six months. It was complicated and the main problem was that he didn't know where the hell Neal was, he didn't know what Neal was doing, he didn't know if he wanted to come back. He kept working and he chose to believe. He believed that his friend had changed and waited.

Now, standing there, Peter begins to believe that there really is a way back. He's here now. He's here and he won't leave until they can all go back home. He slaps Mozzie in the back affectionately and guides Neal inside the house placing his hand in the small of his back.

They go inside. Butch follows them. He licks Peter's hand and wags his tail happily. Brown eyes meet brown eyes and Peter watches the dog walk to Neal and rest his head against his knee. Neal reaches down unconsciously and scratches the dog behind his left ear.

Peter smiles. "It's good to see you, Neal."

Neal looks at Peter and he feels like he can swim for the first time after eight months of drowning. He feels like he can breathe after eight months of suffocating.

They've all been lost for a while. Lost to each other. Lost to themselves. But they are here, and somehow the pieces of themselves will come back.

Neal tries to thank Mozzie with his eyes and he breaks into a smile when Mozzie just ignores him and starts talking about the weather and how global warming is the biggest conspiracy theory of all times.

Later that night, Neal and Peter sit on the porch. They drink beers and watch the moon and it's reflection over the waves. The night is warm and calm.

"It's really good to see you Peter," Neal says honestly.

Peter takes a sip of his beer.

It will be okay. Tonight's the night the world begins again.