When Diana and Jones descended the stairs fast, Jones suddenly stopped running for a moment.

"What, Jones? Come on. "

"One moment," replied Jones distracted and walked into the men's room. Diana was pretty sure Jones was not stupid enough to take a leak in the middle of an arrest. He just followed his feelings. Jones was more looking for Caffrey than finding Michael Brendan. Jones had never ignored orders of Peter. Only when his instincts signaled him something, he did his job differently. Diana could relate at Jones gut feeling. The gnawing feeling in her stomach told her the same. Michael was long gone, by now. With or without Caffrey.

So she stood and waited with her gun back into his halter. And it didn't took long before Jones came back with Neal's sunglasses.

"He's been here, alright. I'm pretty sure there was some kind of struggle. There's blood on one of the sinks." Jones looked worried. His dark eyes fluttered in the faint light.

"That's not good," Diana replied with a frown.

She wobbled nervously with the heels of her shoes. Without words the two agents run down the to cellar accelerated. And this time without their guns.

It was not difficult for them to confirm their selves, that Michael Brendan was long gone. It was death quiet down this basement. Jones was the one that found the light switch and clicked it on. They half expected to see a tied up Neal strapped to a chair with a rag in his mouth. Scared and sweaty. But what they saw was far more worse.

He was nothing more than a lifeless shadow; Neal was on his side against the wall on the floor. Motionless. Curled up and bloody.

"My God," stammered Diana and began searching for her phone with trembling fingers. Jones rushed to the lifeless heap kneeling to check on his pulse.

"He's still alive. Just unconscious, thank God. " Diana sighed relieved just before Peter was on the other side of the line. The connection was bad but she could hear the worried tone in her boss's voice.

"Did you get him? Michael, I mean?" Diana sighed again. Diana thoughtfully turned himself away from Jones and Caffrey, attempting to erase the image from her memory and to keep her voice as tight as possible for her boss. Jones rolled the unconscious man on his back to look at his injuries. She was horrified seeing Neal's head lolling to one side in this process. His face was covered in blood.

"No. Sorry, Peter. He's gone. But ... we have Caffrey. More or less." She wanted to tell Peter cautiously about Neal's condition, when Jones suddenly interrupted her.

"Hey, Diana," cried Jones and Diana averted her gaze to her anxious colleague. The man had the Sapphires chain clamped between his fingers. It was the only evidence that Michael had left for them. Besides the handprint on Neal's face. The poor man surely had a rough day.

While the voice of Peter grumbled through the phone Diana bit her lip in concern. She was not sure how to put the news a front Peter about Neal's state. Her eyes fluttered ones.

"Michael was here, Peter," she began with a grim voice. "He was here, of sure. And he managed to escape, from under our noses. But he has left a message for us." Her eyes were looked again at the unconscious man who now was now gently placed in the recovery position by Jones. His injuries were not cleary visible. But his face was covered in blood. Most of the visible trauma was concentrated around his nose, chin and on the back of his head. At first it seemed like the damage wasn't that bad after all. But Diana knew how treacherous head injuries could be. So she closed her eyes for a moment before she talked to Peter again.

"Peter. I think you'll better should come down here. Neal is badly beaten and unconscious. He wears the Sapphire necklace." Again Diana looked down onto the lying figure and sighed deeply. Jones was holding Neal's neck and slowly looked up at her with a deep frown.

"I think we need an ambulance," she added with a shaken voice. She had never seen Neal Caffrey all quiet like that. And she hated it.

You could always count on Peter when it came to speed. Within minutes he was with them, together with two paramedics. They quickly pushed Jones aside and started working. At the time that the unconscious Neal was hoisted on a gurney, Peter had called in the news to the office. Hughes was not happy. But also very concerned about the condision of Caffrey. Diana and Jones insisted Peter to accompany Neal on ride to the nearest hospital, so he just climbed into the ambulance. As soon as the stretcher firtstwas gently pushed onto the back. The ride was quiet. Peter stared at the slightly swollen face of his partner, no... friend. The paramedics already started to clean him up to examining the damage. Peter felt sick when he heard them say: "nose is broken".

It had lasted two hours before Neal was done with all the brain tests and cat scans to look into all his injuries. And when Peter thought they were finally done, the young doctor found a large bruise on his abdomen and started talking about possible internal bleeding. But that was not the case, thank God.

Neal had regained consciousness when they were done examining and it was obvious that the young man suffered a hell of an concussion. But he knew his own name and could tell the nurse how many fingers. But the younger man surely was not himself when he started humming some kind of old Sinatra song. And stopped halfway when he realized what he just did. And after that he went quiet again. Maybe because he was embarrassed of himself, a front of his partner. Or maybe he was just death tired. And Peter only had to take one look in the face of friend to know the man was exhausted.

"That shall sting in the morning, ha partner," Neal slurred as he saw Peter stare at his battered face.

It could have been so much worse as Michael was armed. That was the first thing what Peter said when Neal awoke. And then Neal said something back that Peter pretended not to hear. He said something like: "I didn't say I never had the Klimt. I had him for, like, I don't know… only five minutes. I swear."

Silently Peter took his place beside his bed, after the nurse was gone.

There was a long silence. Neal let out a sigh en rested his empty head on his stuffy pillow.

The younger man didn't notice the tender smile on Peter's face when he stroked his fuzzy hair. Peter notice that they were wet from cleaning up his wound on the back of his head. It was stitched and he surely had lost some amound of blood out of that one. But that's just how it goes with head wounds. It bleeds like hell.

Neal's head hung into his touch and closed his squinting blue eyes. After a moment Neal just slumped his head to the side were Peter was sitting and stared tiredly at his amber eyes.

Neal's eyes were bright but his look was very off. And Peter started to chuckle.

"Everything alright, Neal?" he asked softly. "You look a little weird."

"I look sleepy, Peter. I'm exhausted. Don't know why."

"You're tired because you managed to get a big bump on your coconut, remember? Concussions make you feel sleepy." With that Peter smiled again.

"Fine," Neal sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, Peter's smile disappeared.

"Are you in pain?" Then the younger man shook his head and gently started to touch the weird bandage on his nose.

"Besides my head feels like a balloon, or too empty… I feel better than I've felt all day, Peter." There was a faint smile on his cracked lips. His eyes suddenly grew heavier.

"I'm just very sleepy," he slurred softly.

Peter pulled his hand back from his friends head and leaned back in his chair as he unconsciously remembered the morning. He suddenly felt slightly guilty about how he was acting. After some silence Peter touched Neal's head again. Neal opened his eyes again and let out a deep exhausted sigh.

"You are beaten up. And now you feel better than you felt this morning? Is a migraine really that bad?" asked Peter softer when Neal's eyes were getting smaller and cloudier again.

'Yep,' was his hoarse answer.

Peter just swallowed hard and watched how the younger man slowly fell asleep. The bandage on his nose caused Neal to breathe through his mouth. Small snoring sounds came out and Peter found himself in a softened smile.

He stayed a while, listening to the slow balanced breathing.

"Okay, Neal. I will not tease you again if you ever have another migraine," he whispered softly and gave the younger man a gentle pat on the head before he came out of his chair.

Fortunately there was good news when Peter came into the office the next morning. The jewel thief Michael Brendan was arrested after a bust, near Detroit. The man was transferred to New York for questioning and he will be adjudicated for his actions. Peter knew that the punishment for theft was not as high as the punishment for assaulting an FBI agent. Or CI, in Neal's case. Possible that he could do something for Neal .

Neal had stayed one day in the hospital for observation and seemed to recover quickly so at the end of the next day he was been discharged from the hospital. The first day out Neal was among the herding of Resort a la Burke and was quite spoiled by Elisabeth with delicious snacks and warm milk or cold compresses for his eerily blue colored and slightly swollen face and stinging headache. The rest of his free week he spent at June's.

The week flew by, however, and beside his still bandaged nose and light headache Neal was eager to go back to work, again.

But on Neal first day at work he heard that Peter himself had reported sick. He apparently had managed to twist his ankle while jogging in the park. Elizabeth had driven him to the medical center and was now in a huge cast that prevented him from walking.

"Peter Peter Peter ... Is not it true that 86% of the 100, that twisted an ankle while jogging are mostly women? Or were you running on Elisabeth's Pumps?" Neal asked with a grin on his face while calling the poor man.

"Yeah. I'll get it, Caffrey. Enjoy your sweet revenge. See you about two weeks, you bastard."

Neal just smiled and hung up the phone. It does feel good to tease someone ones and awhile. Especially when they deserve it.

End ;)

AN: Occasionally it is necessary to tease. But not when they do not deserve it! It's just a light way to teach someone something of their one mistakes. For Neal, it was his good right, right? How did you like the ending? Tell me! And tell me if I should do another one. For now: Good bye!

X

Josie