It was dark by the time Neal arrived at home. He couldn't remember much of the walk, but his tired feet assured him it had happened. Neal padded up the front walkway and steps quietly, staring up at the still house. The only light on was the lamp in the living room window. And the moment Neal saw it, his stomach dropped and suddenly he was thinking clearly for the first time since he'd heard Kate's voice earlier that morning.

The trial.

How had he forgotten the trial? How many hours had he spent agonizing over it only to ditch it without thinking twice? Peter was going to kill him. He hadn't told him or El where he was going. Neal groaned. Ten seconds earlier, the house had looked so welcoming.

Now, Neal's hand was reaching to open the door and he was stepping inside with a feeling of dread. Satchmo was waiting for him in the hallway. The labrador was laying on the floor, looking up at him with sleepy eyes. He didn't get up at the sight of the teenage, instead greeting him with a halfhearted bark.

Great, Neal thought to himself. Even the dog's pissed at me.

Stepping over Satch, Neal continued into the living room. The light from the windowsill gave the room a weak, orangey glow, which barely reached where Neal stood. But he could clearly make out the image of Elizabeth curled up on the couch with her phone clutched in one hand. He sighed deeply before crossing the room to her.

"El," he whispered, although he wasn't entirely sure why. "Wake up." She stirred in her sleep, and Neal shook her shoulder. "Elizabeth." He pulled his hand away as Elizabeth's eyes blinked open.

"Neal?" she asked, her voice still rattled with sleepy confusion. "When did you...?" Her eyes wandered around the room. "Is Peter with you?"

"No," Neal said, suddenly feeling anxious. Elizabeth put her feet on the floor and pushed herself into a sitting position. Neal sat down on the coffee table to face her before continuing. "He's not here with you?"

"He went out looking for you..." she said, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Neal, where have you been? The trial..."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just..." he sighed. "Something came up."

"I have to call Peter. He's got about a dozen FBI agents and about half of NYPD out looking for you." She pulled her out phone and got to her feet. Neal didn't move as she crossed the living room, but he turned around when her voice called back to him moments later. "Are you okay?"

He just nodded and dropped his eyes to the floor. "I'm fine."

Neal could hardly hear the muffled conversation coming from the kitchen, but he wasn't exactly trying to listen. Kate had left him, and he had missed his father's trial. He had known when he had woken up that morning that it wasn't going to be a good day. He just hadn't expected things to turn out this poorly.

"Peter's on his way home," Elizabeth explained when she returned from the kitchen a few minutes later. She sounded more awake now, and maybe it was the fact that she was finally fully comprehending the situation but she also sounded angry. "Now, are you going to tell me where you were today?"

She had flicked on the living room lights on her way back from the kitchen, so as Neal stared up at her nervously, he could clearly make out her form. She was standing just a few feet away with her hands on her hips and her brow deeply creased.

"I was nowhere," Neal said quickly. "What happened when I didn't show up to the trial?"

Elizabeth didn't look ready to let the question of Neal's whereabouts go, but she snapped quickly at his question. "I couldn't tell you because when you disappeared from your bedroom we were a little too busy trying to figure out where you were to show up ourselves."

"You didn't go?" Neal asked in surprise.

"Of course we didn't go!" Elizabeth said. "You vanished! We didn't know what to think. Peter sent his whole team out looking for you. Do you have any idea how scared we were? Did you even think about us for a second? Or the trial? What could have been so important that you decided you had to jump out of your bedroom window and disappear for twelve hours without tell us where you were going?" she seemed to be getting angrier and angrier with each word until she finally stopped. She was silent for several moments, and Neal stared back at her, unsure of what to say. "That wasn't a rhetorical question. I want to know where you were."

"I was...um..." Neal started quickly. His face was suddenly hot. "I was meeting a friend."

"A friend?" El repeated, her voice low and harsh. "You had us worried sick all day and missed your father's trial to meet a friend?"

"Yes..." Neal started. "I mean, no." His voice was starting to get just as frustrated as hers. "It wasn't like that. I went to see Kate." Elizabeth opened her mouth, but Neal continued talking before she could interrupt. "My girlfriend...Well, ex-girlfriend, I guess. My dad always hated her. He thought she was just some stuck-up private school girl from the upper east side. But she wasn't...I mean...She had money and everything, but it wasn't like...Any way, he told me he didn't want me seeing her and when I didn't listen...well, you know my dad.

"So, when Kate and her dad moved away last year, Kate refused to tell me where they were going. She thought I'd go after her, and she was afraid of what my dad would do if I did. I hadn't seen her ten months before today, and I thought that now that I'm living with you guys and my dad's out of the picture we would be able to get back together. She called me right before we were about to leave for the trial, and...I don't know, I don't think straight when it comes to her. I just left.

"But it doesn't matter anymore because she ended things. For good."

Elizabeth sighed loudly before crossing the room to him and dropping her hand to the top of his head. "Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry." Her voice was genuinely sympathetic, but that didn't stop her from continuing on a less-compassionate note. "But that doesn't make what you did any less reckless. Or selfish. You sure as hell weren't thinking straight when you chased after her today. And you aren't going to get off with just a broken heart."

"What does that mean?" Neal asked, eyebrow raised.

"It means you're grounded," Elizabeth insisted.

"Grounded?" Neal repeated, testing the words on his lips. He couldn't remember a time when he'd ever been grounded before.

"Yes, grounded...No TV. No computer. No phone...Starting now."

"But..."

"Go to your room," Elizabeth told him, waiting patiently as Neal slowly got to his feet.

"Seriously?" he asked, staring at her in amazement.

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

He knew better than to argue against that. There wasn't much more he could do beside turn on his heals and head to his bedroom. He heard Elizabeth clicking the television on as he reached the top of the stairs, and he was fairly certain it was only to spite him. He groaned as he pushed open his bedroom door and collapsed onto his bed.

He wasn't sure if he was angrier at Elizabeth or himself. He'd been dumped by the love of his life only a few hours earlier. How cruel did she have to be to ground him on top of that? It wasn't as though he'd meant any harm. Kate had called, and it didn't seem like he had much of a choice than to see her. He rolled over onto his back and stared up at his ceiling.

Of course he'd had a choice. What had he been thinking? He'd run off without a word on one of the most important days of his life. He'd needed to be at that courthouse. Not even for the Burke's sake, but for his own. And at the very least, he'd needed to tell them something. What must they have thought when they came into his room and found him missing? Neal snuck a glance at his phone, left forgotten on his bedside table after Kate's call that morning. He had more than a dozen missed calls and texts from both Peter and Elizabeth. He tossed his phone angrily to the floor before closing his eyes and pressing his palms to his forehead. He couldn't exactly blame Elizabeth. He'd acted like an idiot. He'd been reckless and selfish. And, as much as he hated to admit, Elizabeth had been right about everything.

But his feelings of self-loathing hardly lasted. Instead, the silence and loneliness of his bedroom only reminded him of one thing: Kate. It was the first time it had really sunk in since she had walked away from him hours earlier. She had left him. For good this time. There was no promise of getting back together. Not because of his father or the long distance. But because she didn't want to. With the painful words of their last conversation still buzzing in his head, he drifted off into a fitful sleep.