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In Darkness and Hope

Summary:

Peter always found Neal. Except when he didn’t. Neal takes comfort in that when a woman long forgotten from his past comes back and kidnaps him. Eventually Neal truly realizes that Peter wasn’t coming. That Peter wasn’t going to save him this time. Meanwhile Peter and Mozzie cannot seem to forgive themselves for failing Neal and stop at nothing to find him. When Neal gets back he has to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and rebuild.

Lots of angst, lots of hurt, lots of comfort. A lot of validation of feelings. Whole chapters dedicated to Peter and Neal discussing Neal's post-trauma feelings.

Sequel Now Posted!!

This fic is undergoing a complete re-write so be sure to click the series link to check it out!!!!!

Notes:

So this idea has been in my head for months upon months. About 7 months ago I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I had to make it real. So I did and here it is. It's inspired by one of my favorite novels, Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. (You should really check out her stuff, it's pretty awesome. She writes a lot of gritty, mystery, psychological, thrillers.) Takes place before the Pink Panthers in Season 6 but after Rebecca in Season 5.

Some songs that mostly inspired this first chapter are I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie, Paparazzi by Lady Gaga, and Every Breath You Take by The Police.
So yeah, enjoy the story. It's dark and angsty but I put everything I have into it.
Comments and kudos will be rewarded with my eternal love, gratitude, and an internet hug. :) Have a great day!

Chapter 1: I Will Possess Your Heart

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

She grabbed her camera and went to the street that she found out he was going to be staking out with the FBI. She saw the normal Municipal Utilities van pull up. She sat behind some bushes across the street, knowing her mark was inside. She’s been keeping tabs on him for years now, but others might call it stalking. She knew the day where they would be together was approaching. A few hours into her nightly watch she noticed her mark left, but no one else left from the van. She saw him grab a cab to presumably his place. She followed him. He did go back to his place. She then went to her “happy place”, a storage unit in the Lower East Side. She moved the boxes from the entrance. She printed out that night’s pictures and added them to her ever growing collection on the walls. She knew everything someone could know about him. She grabbed a picture of him smiling off the wall and hugged it. The picture was taken from quite a distance. She caressed the face in the picture and said, “Soon, my love. Soon we’ll be together. You might not know that we’re soulmates, but we are. I think once you know what we could have you’ll realize it too.”

She recorded the day’s events of her mark in her notebook. She then looked at her calendar, “Damnit!” She remembered, “If I don’t do it tonight, I might as well wait until next month.” An idea came to her and she thought out loud, “Well the Feds will be out all night and will sleep tomorrow. His friend’s gone. His landlady’s out for the weekend. It’s late enough that no one will notice. Everything’s all ready.” She asked herself and realized, “Then what the hell am I waiting for?” She grabbed a hat of his that she grabbed from his apartment (she visited once or twice when no one was there) and hugged it. “I’m coming my love!” She said excited, put the hat down, and grabbed a set of keys, a gun, and a loaded syringe. She turned off the lights, put the boxes in front of the door, and locked it up for good. She didn’t need it anymore. She was getting herself the real thing.


Neal, Peter, Jones, and Diana were sitting in the van. The man they suspected of selling weapons was supposedly going to make a deal that night and they were going to catch them in the act. They were doing it for a few hours when Peter was looking at Neal taping on the desk. He’s been at it on and off since they started a few hours ago. Peter finally reached his breaking point and snapped at him, “Oh my god! Stop!”

“What?” Neal asked

“With the tapping! It’s driving me nuts.” Peter snapped. Jones and Diana nodded in agreement.

Neal said, “Why do I have to be here? You’re just gonna arrest the guy if he shows. I don’t take part in that.”

“You’re staying.” Peter commanded

“Okay then,” Neal said, “But it’s really not needed. I’m just taking up space.” He added as a sidenote, “If he hasn’t come yet then he’s not going to.” Neal was trying to get Peter to tell him to leave so he could go home, make some dinner, and go to bed. Neal knew that Peter had a very long hard day. The thing that pissed him off the most (other than Neal right now) was that a suspect of another case got off due to a technicality. Neal then started to whistle instead.

 

Peter raised his voice, “Fine! Go home! I’ll see you Monday.” Neal smiled that his juvenile plan worked.

“See you all Monday.” Neal said with a wave, “Have fun in the van.” He added sarcastically.

No one had any idea they would not see Neal on Monday.

Nor any day in the foreseeable future.


Neal went home and opened a bottle of wine and was planning to have a quiet night in. He was about to start dinner when someone knocked on the door. He answered thinking it was Mozzie or even Peter when a woman came in that he didn’t recognize. She was average height, medium length straight black hair, slightly tan skin, wearing a knee length black sundress.

“Hi Neal.” The woman said with a smile. Neal looked at her confused

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” He asked. The woman scoffed and said,

“Of course. Men like you never notice me.” Her voice rose angrily towards the end, “I’m Christina Mendoza. We both worked for Vincent Adler.” She said. Neal noticed the angry undertone to her voice. It took a second but he remembered a Christina. She was an intern. He didn’t remember much about her. In fact, he just barely remembered her. He was too consumed with his con on Alder and he was head over heels for Kate. In a company like Alder’s, the interns never got face time with the boss. He worked closely with Alder, their paths didn’t really cross. He’d get people coffee sometimes and she was probably included but he never really talked to them.

“Oh yeah. Christina.” He played it up a little. “What brings you by at,” he looked at his watch,  “10:30 on a Friday night?”

“You.” Christina said seriously and went into kiss him. He rejected the advance and said defensively,

“Whooa.” He was confused, “What?” Christina got angry pulled a gun out, Neal immediately backed away and put his hands up

“Come with me.” Christina commanded

“How about we talk about this.” Neal said defensively, trying to talk her down. He was surprised, about the gun and the shift of mood, “Let’s just sit down. Put the gun down and talk.”

“We can talk later.” Christina said with the gun still pointed at him, “Let’s go.”

“What do you want? Anything I don’t have I can get for you.”

Christina scoffed and said, “I don’t think you’re understanding me. I want you.” Neal got even more scared than he already was.

“Could you please put down the gun?” Neal asked, “Please.” Christina lowered the weapon and sat down at the table. Neal sat next to her. “Let’s just talk about this. Okay?” He was wondering why she came back when he’s hasn’t worked for Adler in years. He saw his phone was on the kitchen counter, too far to get discreetly to text Peter.

“Why are you here, Christina?” Neal asked

Christina replied, “No one really understood me and I was so alone until I met you when we were working for Adler.” She leaned in close to him, her arm left arm going behind him with a syringe ready to be injected, she continued, “I realized that tonight was the night. It was now or I’d have to wait longer.” The hand behind Neal then came up and stabbed him in the neck with the syringe, unloading its entire contents. He was shocked, he never saw it coming.

“What the hell!?” Neal yelled and touched the area where she dosed him. A few seconds later he started to feel tired. “You bitch!”

Christina sat there satisfied. His neck, around where she stabbed him, itched and tingled, despite how terrified he was he felt his heart rate slow. He managed to get up, he needed to get to his phone. He needed to contact Peter. He started to go over when Christina remarked matter-of-factly,

“You’re not gonna make it.” She knew exactly what he was trying to do. He got to the counter and grabbed his phone, his vision blurry. He fell to the floor unconscious before he could dial Peter’s number or send him a text.

Christina looked down at him and remarked, “About time.”  She smiled,  “Time to set the scene.” and got to work.

 

 

Notes:

So yeah, this story is going to go from 0-100 really quick.