Neal Caffrey (ihaveabadge) wrote in saveatlantisic, @ 2018-02-03 21:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, *hannah, *maxi, lissa dragomir, neal caffrey |
JANUARY 15-19
NEAL CAFFREY ✦ NPC KELLER ✦ LISSA DRAGOMIR
Keller screwing with people's lives: take 100 MEDIUM COMPLETE |
Lissa Lissa hated needing to have bodyguards again, but she understood the risk, and she understood why they were there. She made sure that she made extra coffee when she got up for them and even offered to have some scones or something brought over, they took the coffee but turned down the scones. Lissa, however, made a mental note that while meeting with Buffy she’d buy a lot and have it around so she could offer it to them. “Here you go Bill,” she said handing the tall black man his coffee that had more sugar in it than coffee. “Thanks, Ms. Dragomir, or er, Queen-” “Lissa,” she said cutting him off, she hadn’t been called Queen in a while, and she was okay with it. She missed ruling her people and being there for them, but she was where she needed to be. “Please, just Lissa.” She offered again. As she finished getting ready she didn’t even hear commotion in the living room which was strange in of itself given her hearing, by the time she felt like something was wrong and came to check, she opened her bedroom door just in time to get blasted with a chemical, the last thing she saw was her bodyguards bodies being moved. They were breathing, but she didn’t get a chance to see where they might be going as she drifted into unconsciousness. As much as Neal hated the fact that Keller was out there again causing trouble, it was almost worth it to be able to see Moz again. He’d missed his bald-headed best friend and partner in white collar crime so much that he didn’t really realize how much until he saw the other man again. Because of the timeline discrepancy, Moz didn’t understand exactly how long it had been since they’d seen each other (or that the fact Neal was legally dead in the right timeline), but that wasn’t something Neal was going to reveal. Not to Moz of all people. In typical Keller fashion, the team was sent all over the city looking for clues and meeting up with old contacts. Moz was even given a couple riddles to try to decipher, and it was fun to watch his friend work his crazy magic again even if the rest of the team didn’t seem to know what to make of him. That was part of what made it so much fun. Neal was sitting at his desk going through some of the clues when his phone buzzed. Pulling it out of his pocket, his face immediately blanched as soon as he saw the picture and read the message. The women of your life are really easy to get a hold of, Caffrey. The picture showed Lissa blindfolded, tied up, and gagged all while being surrounded by some magical force field. All Neal could do for the first few seconds was just stare at the picture and feel the hot, burning anger start to bubble inside of him. Keller had gone too far, and now he was going to pay. Lissa (& Keller) The next few days were painful, she’d tried to break out, she’d tried to compel her way out, but there was a forcefield around her. Keller had been in a few times talking about how pretty she was, and if she was doing bad guys, she could do better. By the third day she felt weak, they’d given her some blood but not what she needed, and between the occasional endless questioning and the in and out of COS agents and Keller, Lissa didn’t get much rest. “I’m going to see your boy today,” Keller gloated as he stopped by telling her about how he was going to see Neal and only Neal. Lissa nodded, not responding verbally. She’d learned quickly that engaging with him went nowhere. He always stayed behind the forcefield protecting himself from her ability to compel. He’d laughed at her when she tried it right after waking up a few days before. “Any message you want me to take to him?” He asked with a smug grin. “I’m sure you’re message enough,” Lissa answered her eyes cold. Laughing Keller disappeared, and a COS Agent showed up to guard her again. It took some round and round between the group, but finally it was decided that Neal would go into see Keller by himself. That’s what the note had demanded, and Neal wasn’t about to risk something happening to Lissa because Peter wouldn’t let him do this himself. He knew they’d have eyes and ears on him when he went in, but Neal was insistent that no one else physically go into the meet. Neal had been told to keep his head in the game, but that was a lot easier said than done especially when it came to Matthew Keller. In some ways, he was as focused as he’d ever been, but he also knew that his focus was probably a little too narrow. The others were there to help him see the bigger picture. Walking into the Guggenheim, Neal kept an eye on the time as he made his way to the area where he was supposed to meet Keller. As soon as the time hit 10 o’clock, he was in place and within seconds he caught sight of Keller. Just seeing him made Neal want to punch the smirk right off of his smug face. Looking around, though, Neal didn’t see Lissa anywhere. “Where is she, Keller?” He asked, doing everything in his power to keep his voice steady. There weren’t many people that Neal hated, but Keller was one of them. “I’ve always admired your taste in women, Caffrey. Sara and Alex and of course Kate. We both know how well Kate and I got along, don’t we?” Keller smirked, and Neal’s face twitched at his words. “But this one? Oh, you’ve out done yourself. She’s such a pretty thing, and she’s way out of even your league. What’s a nice girl like that doing with a criminal like you?” “I’m only going to ask you one more time, Keller. Where is she?” He asked again, but just as he heard Keller chuckle to himself, the museum started to fade away and then they were transported to an unfamiliar warehouse. Keller was still there with COS agents on guard, but he still didn’t have eyes on Lissa. “What in the hell is going on?” Neal demanded and saw the rest of the team appear inside the warehouse behind him. Peter and some of the other team scattered, going for the COS agents and The Regent Diamond that was being guarded, but Neal only had eyes on Keller. He wasn’t going to let him slip away without telling him where he’d hidden Lissa. With all of the commotion, Neal lost sight of Keller for a few moments only to see him later heading out one of the side doors. “KELLER!” He yelled and ran after the man. Neal didn’t have a gun or any type of weapon on him this time since Peter had refused to let him go into the meet with one, but he still ran after him. Just as he was about to catch up with him, Keller turned around with a gun in his own hand and fired off a shot. Neal stopped in his tracks for a brief moment, not realizing at first that he’d been hit. He wasn’t prepared this time with an empty round, blood bags, and meds to make him appear dead. This time blood was coming out of an actual wound from his shoulder. He could hear muffled yells behind him, but Neal dropped to his knees about the same time that he saw Jones appear with backup and surround Keller before he escaped for good. That was about all he remembered before people were on him trying to get him to go to the ambulance. The minutes passed painfully slow, and she hated that she had no control over anything. There was something going on in one of the other rooms of the warehouse and just as she was about to ask the COS Agent something she caught sight of Neal’s friend Mozzie who held up a hand indicating for her to be quiet. Lissa knew Neal trusted Mozzie and that was good enough for her. Nodding once she looked away not wanting to draw attention to him. A few minutes later he appeared back with Katie Bell, she didn’t see what happened to the COS agent, but before she knew it, Katie had done something with her magic to get Lissa free. She was also handed a bottle with a little blood in it to get some strength back. After thanking both Mozzie and Katie, they walked out of the room she’d been in for days. “Where is she? She has to be here somewhere!” He asked and looked around frantically. Someone was holding pressure to his arm, but he pushed away from them once he saw Katie and Moz come through one of the doors with Lissa. She looked a little unkempt and rattled but otherwise alright. “What-” Lissa started but didn’t get out as soon as her eyes locked on Neal’s. Neal pushed the medic away and ignored his own pain so that he could run over to her. “Are you alright?” He asked her, searching her body for any trace of injury. Finding a way to kill Keller was still on the table if he found that Keller had hurt her even a little. Having just about asked a question her eyes loved with Neal’s and he was there before she could get a word out. The blood coming from him was the first thing she noticed. “Neal, you’re shot,” she whispered pushing anyone who was around her away, she didn’t care if she was weak, the magic didn’t have the same adverse effect it once hand, and she wasn’t going to sit there and watch her boyfriend bleed out. Placing her hands over his wound, she pulled on Spirit to start the healing process. “Hang on, you’ll be okay.” She whispered, more worried about him than the fact she’d just be rescued. “What are you-” Neal barely had time to look down to see her put her hand over the wound before he felt this warm and completely calming sensation come over him. For a few moments, he felt perfectly content as the pain from the wound disappeared and all that was left was a nasty bloodstain and gunshot hole on one of his favorite suits. As long as he’d known her, she’d never needed to use her healing abilities on him, and he’d never felt anything like that in his life. Once the feeling started to fade, he held her with his hands on either side of her face and kissed her. His blue eyes searched her green ones as he tried to figure out if she was alright. “I’m sorry you were pulled into this. He never should have-..” Neal sighed and pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry, Liss. Did any of them hurt you?” Placing her arms around him for comfort and for support as her head was fuzzy from healing him she smiled into his kiss tears streaming down her face. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered as she pulled herself closer to him. “It’s not your fault,” she insisted again. “I’m fine. I’m fine, I promise.” She could almost feel how hard it had been for him as she shut her eyes trying to push everything else around them out of her mind. He held her for a few moments longer before finally pulling away. He noticed that some of the members of the FBI were trying to usher them out of the warehouse as everything was being taken into evidence and the scene being secured. Peter had left with Jones and a couple of the others to take Keller into custody. It was probably better than they’d already gotten him out of the building or else Neal would want to do something he’d likely end up regretting. Instead he nodded over to Moz and the other members of the team who were left that they were both alright. Putting an arm around Lissa, he walked with her out of the warehouse and over to the back of one of the cars waiting. “We’re fine, we’re fine,” he said to the medic who was trying to steer them over towards the ambulance instead. “Where do you want to go?” He asked her. “We can go back to White Collar over at the FBI, my old apartment, or some place else. I just want you be somewhere you feel safe.” He’d catch back up with Peter in the morning and deal later with the fact that he didn’t report in immediately. Leaning a little bit more heavily on Neal than she might have normally she let him lead her out of the building. She knew one thing for sure, she never in a million years wanted to see Keller again and hoped that he'd never harm anyone else. "You have talked highly about your apartment here. I'd love to see it." Lissa smiled softly. "Although I might need to rest a little before fully appreciating it." She admitted knowing rest was important. "Somehow I can imagine you need some rest too," she teased. Neal would have gone anywhere that she wanted, but he was grateful she chose the apartment. He’d briefly taken the time to stop by to see June after he’d first arrived back in New York, but he hadn’t had the chance to really spend some time back at what he’d considered home for a long time. He gave the FBI agent the address of where they were supposed to go and assured him that Peter was alright with it. Or, well, Neal would text him on the way and say he’d meet back up with him at the office in the morning. It had been a really long day. He held Lissa close to him in the car for the duration of the ride, and let them both inside once they arrived. As much as he wanted to introduce her to June, he was thankful for now that she didn’t seem to be home. They both needed to get some rest and come down after dealing with the last couple of days. “Well, this is it,” he said once they were inside. It looked pretty much the same since the last time he’d lived there. The first time he’d stopped by, he’d even checked a couple of his hiding spots for supplies and documents to help with their investigation. “Do you want anything to drink? There’s water or I can make some tea or coffee. Or wine since it doesn’t look like Moz pilfered my collection in this timeline. I can try to find something for you to change into if you want, too.” As they traveled uptown, Lissa couldn’t help but look out the window of the car. She wished they’d been in New York for a different reason, a fun reason, not this. She knew it was over but that didn’t stop her from wishing they had a little more time to see New York together, or rather have Neal show her around. Looking around his apartment, it was perfect. “I can see why you loved living here.” She commented. Lissa knew she should turn down a glass of wine, but after everything she decided they could both use a glass. “I think wine and a glass of water would do it, you have mentioned your collection a few times, I wouldn’t want it to go to waste while we are actually here.” “Maybe I'll even be able to smuggle a few bottles back,” he said as he poured both the water and the glasses of wine. They could order in, try to have a relaxing night, and forget about everything else that was going on outside these doors. Neal handed her the glass and disappeared for a moment to the large closet down the hall. He admired all of the suits he'd left behind, Byron's old suits, and already knew which one he was going to change into in the morning for their trip back to Atlantis. Now, though, he pulled out a shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms then returned to offer them to Lissa. He doubted Keller had offered her a change in clothes since she'd been taken. He sat down at the table next to her. “I know you don't want me to say I'm sorry, but I am. Keller… he's a part of my past I never wanted to have to confront again.” Neal took a sip of the wine and reached over to hold her hand. “I'm just glad it's over.” Thanking him as she took the glasses she took a long drink of water before taking a sip of the wine, it relaxed her a little bit, calming some of the still tense muscles in her body. As he vanished her eyes continued to look around the room. Taking the clothing from him, she placed them on the table before looking at him. “Neal, it’s not your fault COS found a way to use him, or your fault that he kidnapped me, it’s all on him.” She meant it too. She knew they both had pasts. “There are people from my past I wouldn’t want you to have to deal with too.” She offered with a small smile squeezing his hand. “I think I need a shower,” she said after a couple of moments. “It’s been a few days. You’re welcome to join me, and maybe we can order in or get food after?” While he knew what she was saying was probably true, it still wouldn’t be something he’d easily believe for a while. Anytime Keller came back into his life, it was more than just about what was happening in the present. There was so much baggage that he brought with him. He nodded, though, and was going to try to heed her words as best that he possibly could. Neal leaned forward and gave her a kiss. “I’ll join you, but go ahead and start without me. I’ll get us some food ordered so that it’ll be on its way by the time we’re finished.” Delivery in the city took longer than most deliveries in Atlantis did. She disappeared into the bathroom, and Neal got started on their order. Enough food and dessert that they’d never be able to eat in one sitting but that they might be able to munch on in the morning before it was time to head back. Once that was taken care off, he shed the bloody shirt he’d been wearing and tossed it in the trash without a second glance. He needed to put Keller behind him for good. Starting with a hot shower with his girlfriend. |