elrhiarhodan

Title: We Shall Come Home - Chapter XIII
Author:

elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing/Characters: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey, Elizabeth Burke, Reese Hughes, Diana Berrigan, Clinton Jones, Mozzie, Satchmo, plus other characters.
Rating: R
Spoilers: None
Word Count: ~ 3300 (this chapter) ~61,000 (total)
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Summary: Transformed beyond recognition, beyond comprehension, Peter and Neal are lost in the woods and desperately try to get home. A tale of friendship, sacrifice, loss and ultimately, of love. Lost and alone, Neal finds a safe place and a new pack. But this place isn’t safe, and the pack can’t protect him. Warning – scenes of cruelty to animals.

We Shall Come Home is not a work in progress. New chapters will be posted once a week, on Tuesdays.
Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III | Chapter IV | Chapter V | Chapter VI | Chapter VII | Chapter VIII | Chapter IX | Chapter X | Chapter XI | Chapter XII |

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CHAPTER XIII – MONDAY MORNING

NEAL’S SAFE PLACE REALLY WASN’T ALL THAT SAFE. It was an ancient, burned-out car somewhat lost in the bushes that framed the edges of the Walt Whitman Houses, one of the oldest projects in Brooklyn. Although it was a mere mile from the Pratt Institute and several other august cultural landmarks, the Whitman Houses had resisted the renaissance that blossomed throughout many of the residential areas of Brooklyn.

That was not to say that these projects were a hotbed of drugs or crime or lawlessness. The COMSTAT rating for the Whitman Houses was only slightly higher than those for the rest of the Fort Greene neighborhood, but the general decrepitude of the collection of massive brick buildings gave the whole area a feeling of despair.

And despite all that, children still laughed and played and pretended they were great military leaders or starship captains or superheroes. The late-June day was one of seemingly endless daylight; it was, in fact the morning of the summer solstice, when great magic could be performed.

The two young boys and their older sister heading out to play knew nothing about that. All they cared about was that it was almost summertime and although it was Monday, they didn’t have to go to school (the big kids were taking tests, and the little ones got to stay home). It was hot in their apartment, and who wanted to stay inside when it was so beautiful outdoors?

They bypassed the playground with the really littles, their stinky diapers and their mommies, and headed out to their secret hideout. If their mother knew that they were playing pirates in the rusted-out old car, they’d get scolded until their ears rang and quite possibly sent to bed without ice cream for a week.

Even though Kitty was the eldest, it was Joseph, or Little-J to everyone who knew him (not to be confused with Big-J, his older cousin, a bully who lived down the hall and loved to terrorize the littles and the middles), who always took the lead.

“We gonna play pirates, Lil’-J? Ya gotta let me be tha’ captain tadah.” His twin, Charlie, spoke funny, which drove his mamma and grandma crazy. But that was because he was slow. He had a hard time being born (or at least that’s what his grandma told him). Kitty called Charlie Slow-Poke, but Little-J never made fun of his brother. Even though Charlie was slow, he really wasn’t all that stupid – he didn’t have to go to the special classes or anything like that. He just needed to take his time. Little-J and Charlie were identical, which was kind of freaky. But Little-J wasn’t one to let an advantage go to waste. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d pretended to be slow and a little stupid if he was caught doing something wrong. It was good enough to fool the teachers at least, and would usually get him out of detention. But his daddy and his mamma and grandma, they were too smart to be fooled, and besides, he didn’t really want Charlie to get punished for his shenanigans.

He loved his brother, and his classmates learned that it was a bad idea to tease him about Charlie, or to prank Charlie, because Little-J would come back at them with everything he had. Since he could walk, his mamma and his grandma told him that he needed to look after Charlie, to keep him safe and out of trouble. Little-J suspected that Kitty got the same lecture, because she was just as fierce when looking after him and Charlie.

When they got to their secret hideout, it was Little-J who found the surprise inside their “ship.” He’d deny it, but Little-J screamed like a girl when he pulled open the door and was confronted with a huge pair of glowing blue eyes. He shut the door right quick.

“Wha’s tha’ matter?”

“There’s something in there.” Little-J’s voice shook. Just a little bit.

“A monsta?” Charlie wasn’t scared – maybe because he didn’t know better. He just pushed Little-J out of the way and stuck his head inside the busted-out window of the old car. He saw a pair of big blue eyes and a hairy snout, and asked, “Are you a monsta’?”

Kitty took her responsibilities as big sister very seriously with both her brothers. She pulled them away from the wreck. “There could be a bum in there.” Kitty knew that most of the homeless in the area were harmless, but there was no point in taking any risks.

“No, it’s not human. It’s a werewolf.” A few nights ago, the three of them had snuck into the living room and watched True Blood. The next morning, Grandma gave them all the business for messing up the cable box, but she didn’t know what they’d watched.

“Don’t be silly. There’s no such things as werewolves.” Curiosity won out over caution, and Kitty peeked inside and gasped. “It’s a dog...just a doggie.” It wasn’t just a dog, though – it was the biggest dog she had ever seen. She liked dogs, except for her aunt’s smelly little poodle that peed on everything. She held out her hand, palm up.

The dog just blinked at her.

“Come on, come out.” To her disappointment, the dog wouldn’t move.

“Little-J, open the other side and give it a push.”

“You sure that’s such a good idea, Kitty?”

“Just do it. The poor thing could be stuck, or hurt. Come on, help me get the dog out of there,” Kitty ordered her brothers.

Charlie and Little-J struggled to open the other door, which was buried in the bushes, but finally it flew open. Charlie, ever fearless, climbed in and started to pet the dog. Like Kitty, he really liked dogs. Even the stinky poodle. He petted and scratched and even hugged the big beast. Little-J stood behind him, ready to yank his brother away at the merest sign of danger.

“Charlie, get out of there!” Kitty yelled.

“No!” Charlie flung his arms around the dog. “He gonna run away. Don’ want dog to go.”

Little-J spoke up – Kitty could get too bossy. “Let him be. Charlie’s having fun.”

She frowned at her brother. It really wasn’t a good idea for Charlie to be playing with a strange dog inside a busted car. But she watched and the dog didn’t seem to mind. It had kind of a stupid look to it, sort of like Charlie.

Kitty reached inside and scratched the dog’s ears. It had big eyes and floppy ears and fur that went every which way. It was filthy too, and she bet that Charlie was going to be covered in dirty dog hair (which meant she would get it for letting him play with the animal). She sighed; sometimes she hated being the eldest. She finally got a tentative lick, and she wondered what’d happened to the dog. Its eyes were so sad, she wanted to cry when it looked at her.

Kitty and the boys were so involved with the dog that they didn’t hear the footsteps coming up the walk and onto the grass.

“Whatcha’ doing?”

Holy crap. It was Big-J. And Big-J hated dogs.

Kitty stood up and looked Big-J in the face. Even though they were cousins – her daddy and his mom were brother and sister – Grandma had arguments with Daddy about Big-J, and she always told Kitty and Little-J to stay away from their cousin, and particularly to keep Charlie away from him.

He did things – he liked to hurt the littles and the middles. Not just like other kids did, with pranks and rough-housing. He liked to hurt you in ways that you couldn’t show, or that seemed like accidents. Kitty knew that her aunt’s poodle peed on everything because Big-J liked to kick the little dog in the nuts – she’d seen him do it. And he’d seen her watching him. He didn’t say anything, just made a face and spat on the little dog.

And now he discovered the three of them – no, the four of them. Even though he should have been in school, taking those tests.

“I said, whatcha’ doing?”

Little-J crawled into the car, dragging Charlie down and out of sight. Smart boys.

“We’re not doing anything.” She made sure she kept eye contact with the older boy. Grandma said that Big-J was like a dog – if you could stare him down, he’d back off. She also kept herself between Big-J and the burned-out car.

“You’re hiding something. Whatcha’ got back there?” He reached around, or tried to. Kitty blocked him as best she could.

“Nothing, just an old car that the boys like to play in. You have no business here, Joseph Holliman.”

“Yeah, if I don’t, then you don’t either – and I think you’re hiding something.” Her cousin was just too big, and he shoved her to the ground with little effort.

Kitty tried to crawl between Big-J and the car, but he kicked her hard in the side.

“What have we got here?” Three pairs of eyes stared at him. “A brat, an idiot and a fucking dog.” He said the last with vicious loathing. “I don’t like brats or idiots … or dogs.”

Kitty scrambled and stood up. She pushed at Big-J – a futile move, he just knocked her to the ground again. This time, he knelt down right on her, one knee digging into her stomach.

Little-J scrabbled out of the other side of car. Ignoring Kitty’s shouts to run away, he launched himself onto his cousin, and Charlie followed right after him. The two boys were no match for their cousin’s brute strength, but they were persistent, pulling and yanking on him. Big-J just swatted at them with closed fists; he hit Charlie in the face and Little-J in the stomach, all the while kneeling on top of Kitty.

“Don’t know why you’re making such a fuss over an ugly old mutt.” He reached in and grabbed at the dog, which pulled itself back as far as it could.

“You’re not getting away so easily. I’m in the mood for some fun.” He managed to get hold of the scruff of the dog’s neck and pulled hard. It yelped and tried to retreat, but Big-J held on fast.

Kitty managed to pull herself out from under the boy’s knee and flung herself onto his back, trying to get him away from the car and the poor, defenseless dog. Her brothers recovered enough to throw themselves on top of Big-J too, kicking and screaming, and finally the older boy let go of the dog and turned on them.

“You’re not gonna interfere with my fun – and you’re not going to tell nobody.”

Kitty stared in horror as her cousin reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked at first like a pistol, but wasn’t. It was a stun gun – the housing police carried them. “Where’d you get that?”

“Stole it, where’d you think I got it?”

Kitty made sure the boys were behind her. “You don’t dare use that.”

“Or what, bitch? You gonna run home to your mommy? You won’t be able to run, not when I get done with you.”

Just as Big-J reached for her, the dog erupted out of the car. The boy paused for a second – he hadn’t realized how big the fucking dog was. The animal tackled him, but strangely, it didn’t bite, it just kept him from going after Kitty.

That suited Big-J just fine. He wrestled around, and kicked the dog off him, catching him in the belly. When the animal came back at him, Big-J reached out, pushed the Taser against the dog’s throat and pressed.

The dog convulsed and collapsed. The boy sneered. “Some vicious dog you are. Have another.” This time, he pressed the weapon against the dog’s chest, right above his heart. When he pulled the trigger, the air was filled with the stench of burning fur and feces, as the animal voided its bowels.

Big-J got up, kicked the dog’s body and walked away.

To Be Continued