Fic - Minutes and Hours

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: Minutes and Hours
Author: Elrhiarhodan
Rating: G
Fandom: White Collar
Characters, Pairing: Peter, Neal, Elizabeth, Diana, Moz, June, Sachmo
Spoilers: 114
Summary: What they remember in the minutes and hours afterwards
Warnings/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~1300
Disclaimer: Nope, own nothing - but if I did, WC have 52 episodes a season.
A/N: I had not intended to write this today, but it somehow just appeared.   Inspired by hoosierbitch's incredible piece, Shelter.

Beta'd by hoosierbitch, all mistakes are mine. Comments and criticisms most highly welcomed.


Neal doesn’t remember much of the minutes and hours after the jet exploded.

The heat of the fireball. The sight of the small plane disintegrating. The stink of burning jet fuel, metal, plastic, flesh. Kate. The iron bands of Peter’s arms keeping him from running into the fire. Maybe the sound of sirens, but that could have been his imagination or the ringing in his ears. The shockwave from the blast damages him – a concussion, his eardrums, broken ribs.

He remembers Peter dragging and carrying him to his car, and he remembers Peter laying him on the back seat, gently manipulating his body so he could fasten a seatbelt around him – to keep him from falling. Neal remembers Peter’s shaking hands stroking his forehead, wiping the soot and tears from his face. He remembers seeing Peter’s lips move, but he can’t hear anything over the roaring in his brain, the thudding of his heart. She’s dead – she’s dead.

Then, nothing. Mercifully nothing.

~ ~ ~

Peter remembers everything in the moments before and hours after the jet exploded.

Watching Neal walk away, then turn back. Saying his name like a prayer, like a curse. Then the jet exploding, the heat and roar of the fireball, the stench of burning jet fuel and metal and plastic and human flesh. Neal’s screams, the agonized twisting and pulling of his body as he held him back. The sirens of fire trucks and police cars, the explosion ringing in his ears, the pounding of his heart.

Peter remembers the acid taste of fear in the back of his throat – Neal should be dead, he should be dead. Keep him safe, get out of here NOW. He remembers the adrenaline fueled strength of pulling, then carrying Neal back to his car. At some point Neal stops fighting and becomes deadweight in his arms. Peter remembers laying Neal’s limp, unresisting body across the back seat and fastening a seatbelt so Neal wouldn’t roll off and injure himself further. He remembers running back to the tarmac and grabbing Neal’s bag.

Peter remembers getting behind the wheel, pulling out and driving very carefully. He passes emergency vehicles and police cars speeding by. He can’t afford to get stopped. The seconds and minutes move in an agony of slowness as he plans how to keep Neal safe. To keep Elizabeth safe. And Jones and Cruz and Diana. June and Havisham. Everyone he loves, everyone Neal loves, how to keep them all safe.

Peter remembers answering his phone, it’s Diana. He remembers hanging up – the phone, his FBI issued cell – is probably bugged. . He pulls over and uses the untraceable cell Neal gave him to call Diana back and arranges a place to meet. He doesn’t call El – he doesn’t know if their house phone, her cell phone has been bugged. He can’t risk it. He makes another call – to Havisham.

Peter remembers pulling into the parking lot of a diner in Yonkers, near the racetrack, and seeing Diana waiting for him, Havisham standing next to her. He remembers checking on Neal, who was thankfully, mercifully unconscious.

Then time speeds up, training kicks in. Plans are made, discarded. Peter remembers feeling that something was missing – it’s been so long since he’s had to strategize without Neal to fill in the gaps that it’s like a part of his brain has been removed. The last plan, the one proposed by Havisham – by Moz, Mozzie – is the best and the most dangerous. To hide in plan sight. To take the chance that the people running Mentor won’t be so quick to show their hands. Peter will ride out his suspension; keep Neal under wraps until they both can go back to work. Then they will both have to give the acting jobs of their lives, to pretend that nothing has happened.

And to wait, and plan and be prepared.

Peter remembers taking Neal back to June’s, leaving Diana and Moz to get Elizabeth and the dog. Even with a single point of entry, the little row house in Brooklyn is too vulnerable tonight. June’s mansion on Riverside has security to rival an embassy – a legacy from her late husband. He remembers begging June, and her calm quiet voice assuring him that he will have everything he needs. He then realizes he needs a doctor for Neal – but is afraid to have an official medical record with Neal’s name on it in the hours of the aftermath. June makes a call, and another call. A friend’s daughter is a former Army trauma surgeon, recently decommissioned after a two-year deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Peter remembers thinking, after the doctor arrives, that she’s too young, too pretty to have served for so long in the bloody battlefields, and then he sees her eyes. They are flat, old, dead. Like Neal’s eyes, now.

Peter remembers standing, pacing, sitting, waiting on the knife edge of patience – the ringing in his ears receding a bit. He remembers listening to the doctor’s steady voice as she examines Neal, who is sitting passively on a couch in the library, eyes open but unseeing. Listening to June’s voice instructing her staff – Maria the housekeeper, her driver, the cook – about the enhanced security requirements that will now be in place.

Finally, the doctor is done. She tells Peter that Neal’s injuries are relatively minor – a concussion, a few broken ribs, bruises on his knees from hitting the tarmac, no sign of internal bleeding. Neal’s hearing will probably return to normal in a matter of days.  She tells him not to let Neal sleep for the next twelve hours, standard instructions for a concussion, and what to look for in case something was ruptured internally. Peter knows that something has been ruptured – Neal’s heart – but he doesn’t know how he will be able to stop the bleeding.

Peter remembers standing still when the doctor checks him out too. His hearing should be fine in a few hours.

Peter remembers the intense feeling of relief when Diana and Moz show up with Elizabeth and Satchmo. They won’t stay at June’s for too long – any change in the Burke household routine would be too suspicious, but Peter needs to keep them close and he can’t leave Neal just yet.

Peter remembers making one last call, to Hughes. He doubts that the bastards running Mentor would have bugged Reese’s phones, but he doesn’t want to risk it. He asks his old friend to meet him for breakfast, to talk about the suspension. They arrange to meet at the coffee stand in Columbus Park, out in the open but out of range of prying ears.

Finally, the adrenaline recedes and Peter remembers the exhaustion. He remembers getting Neal up the three flights to his suite, getting him into bed. He remembers El telling Satchmo to behave, and the big lab, sensing his family’s distress, ignores the temptation of eating June’s little Pomeranian and makes himself comfortable at the foot of Neal’s bed. Peter remembers Moz taking a blanket, making himself comfortable on the couch, promising to wake Neal every hour. He remembers Diana hugging him and El, saying something about getting herself transferred back to New York, before leaving.

He remembers June showing him and Elizabeth into another guest suite, and El pulling off his clothes, stinking of burning jet fuel, scorched metal, melted plastic, and pushing him into an unfamiliar shower. Peter remembers the sobs that wrack his body and his wife’s comforting arms as she holds him under the hot, clean water.

Peter remembers climbing into an unfamiliar bed and listening to Elizabeth as she gets ready to join him, but not much else after that. Riverside is a genteel, upper class neighborhood, but there is little silence in Manhattan.

Peter lies there, listening for the soft sounds of traffic but all he hears over the ringing in his ears is Neal’s voice saying his name, like a curse, like a prayer.

Comments

[asimaiyat.livejournal.com]

<3.

This is lovely and sad. I love how practical Peter is through all the emotion.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you - when I was writing this, I just really intended to jot down a few lines about Neal - more to get this out of my head. Then I started thinking about Peter as Paladin, and how he would react.

The rest just flowed out of me. It was really kind of scary.

[hoosierbitch.livejournal.com]

*blinkblink* Wow!

I got through the first bit and was all: hey, how cool, this story is like my story! Then I reread the notes and realized why...*facepalm* But seriously - I'm so freaking flattered that "Shelter" inspired this.

This is SO GREAT - of course I love love love the last line, and Peter and El's moment in the shower together - how Peter takes care of everyone and then El takes care of him. You dealt with a lot of the practicalities and realities that I skipped over in mine - and you really made them all work. It fed into how tense and hectic the aftermath would be, and how hard it would be to hold things together in the midst of all that.

To sum up: WOO!!!

[elrhiarhodan]

I so had not intended to ever write an aftermath piece. This just welled up from inside of some odd, hidden place. I think re-reading you work early this morning loosened some scabs. I am really surprised at myself. I am glad you liked it - honored and really pleased.

[kathana-grey.livejournal.com]

The last sentence was like a punch with a caress underneath. You touched the ....layered (schizophrene?) aspect of the episode and what it means for the characters on so many levels so damn well.

[elrhiarhodan]

Kath - Thank you.

[dawnie1970.livejournal.com]

*weeps* Beautiful.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, this is gorgeous. What a lovely talent you have.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so much for your lovely, lovely compliment. I am glad you enjoyed this.

[damietta.livejournal.com]

You really have a talent for weaving intricate and believable descriptions. Little things like Satchmo senses the distress and behaving and "choosing" to sleep with Neal.

I am reminded of families that you are born with and families you choose. Neal has a tremendous group of people surrounding him...and Peter realizing that he must keep those people as well as El (and Satchmo) safe was heartwarming.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you for your kind words. I can't wait to see how the WhiCoWriters are going to handle the aftermath.

Peter is definitely my favorite character - and maybe that's why I find it so easy to get into his head.

Best,

Elr.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

I didn't feel like reading 114 aftermath fics right after the finale, but I went back to this today and I'm glad I did. This is really powerful writing!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you.


I know exactly what you mean...I pretty much avoided most of them except for Hoosierbitch's piece, because I love her work so much.

[wihluta.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. This hurts. Just like the finale. Great fic!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so very much, I'm glad you found this and enjoyed it.

Elr.

[ostaras-journey.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is wonderful. And amazing. A really effective and accomplished piece of writing.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so much. I love when people come and find my older works.

[shelley6441.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link - I'd missed this.

Wonderful telling of the aftermath. Love how Peter is so protective, loving and strong here.

Thank you.

[elrhiarhodan]

Shelley -

Thanks for going back and reading this. It really sets the stage for so much that happens next in my 'verse.

Elr.

[badfalcon.livejournal.com]

oh... oh... *makes whimpery flaily hands* oh PETER

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you for reading this...and your comments.

And thank you for giving me the chance to re-read something I haven't looked at in so long.

[yamx]

The way this is told -- very close, very visceral -- makes it real. I'll admit I never thought to much about the immediate aftermath, because I watched that episode and the first of S2 back to back. But it must have taken almost superhuman strength to keep going and put everything back together.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you.

The last five minutes of S1 were so emotional, I walked around in a fog for days, and finally just sat down at my keyboard and let it all pour out of me.

I'll admit that I am both happy that S2 didn't start with the immediate aftermath and sad that they didn't start with the immediate aftermath - because I really wanted to see how the explosion impacted Peter. If there's been one thing that's bothered me about S2, it's been that Peter is perfectly unaffected by seeing an airplane blow up with at least two people inside.

[longbca.livejournal.com]

Awesome

[jamalov29.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this. Great insights into Peter's mind .
I always loved how he wants to protect Neal, to keep him safe, as soon as he went to get him out of prison. There's something so moving ... that gets straight to my heart in there.

[pipilj.livejournal.com]

Loved reading Peter POV, he seems to retain his calm till he and El are alone. " telling Satchmo to behave, and the big lab, sensing his family’s distress, ignores the temptation of eating June’s little Pomeranian " made me smile.