TRAUMABEANS AU

[conning]

boop

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[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods.

“He helped with the Endicott case when the higher ups wanted it dropped.”

[conning]

"Can you call him? Or..." Neal frowns at the painting, tries to shake off the sense that it's watching him back, and goes back to the kitchen. He slips an arm around Malcolm as he goes, drawing the other man back to the press. "Do you think your phone is safe?"

Peter holds up a hand. "Wait, what were you..."

Neal keeps his eyes on the coffee.

[abrightboy]

"I can call him to come over without saying anything sensitive," Malcolm assures him. At Peter's question, Malcolm holds up a silencing finger, then makes a show of dialling.

[conning]

Peter makes an irritated sound, takes a step toward Neal with the clear intent to draw him aside, and Ellen gets between the two of them. She puts her hand on Peter's shoulder and guides him toward the couch. "Let me catch you up on what happened this morning."

Neal relaxes as Peter's mix of curiosity and politeness temporarily saves Neal himself from interrogation.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm draws near Neal as he hangs up the call.

“Gil’s on his way,” he says softly. “How are you doing?”

[conning]

"I'm okay," he says, tilting his head in a way that says 'as okay as I can be.' A deep breath, a long exhale. "He's going to ask me what I meant by that. I don't know if I'm ready to tell him. Either of them."

[abrightboy]

"You don't have to tell them anything. Or make something up, if you feel like you have to respond. Say... getting away felt like another chance at life but this whole shooting business made the finality of it real or something." Malcolm smiles a little. "You have a more talented tongue than I do; you'll think of something good."

[conning]

"I don't want to lie to them," Neal murmurs, torn. "I just don't want to answer all the questions he'll have."

[abrightboy]

"Then just tell them you're not ready to talk about it yet," Malcolm suggests gently.

[conning]

Neal nods, wishing he was at all confident that Peter would leave the issue be at that.

The man himself clears his throat from his position at the other side of the kitchen island, Ellen at his shoulder. She looks pleased. Peter looks slightly uncomfortable.

“I owe you a… thank you,” Peter says. “For doing what you did this morning.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looks over, raising his eyebrows.

“…Me or him?” he asks, gesturing between himself and Neal.

He feels Peter looks just the right amount of uncomfortable.

[conning]

Neal looks at Malcolm in slight bemusement. Obviously, he thinks, Peter means Malcolm.

A pause, then Peter says, “Both of you.”

Another pause. To Malcolm: “You saved Ellen and Neal. Protected them. I owe you for that.”

Then to Neal, he says—more quietly, “Thank you for bringing me in on this. For trusting me.”

Neal blinks, surprised. “Of course I trust you.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm really doesn’t think he did anything he wouldn’t do for a stranger in the same position, but he smiles graciously.

“All I want is to find out who’s behind this so Neal can have his family back.”

[conning]

Peter nods gruffly. Looks at Ellen. Then at Neal. “Me too. I’ll meet with Diana at my place tonight, bring her up to speed, and she can read Jones in.”

Neal nods, feeling better with the knowledge that the two of them will be working this too. Diana in particular.

The kettle starts to whistle, and Neal glances toward it, thoughts briefly derailed. Peter takes the opening.

“Neal… are you all right?”

He glances at Peter as he goes to the French press, then focuses on the coffee. “I’m fine.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm doesn't go for the kettle when it howls. He leaves it for Neal, watching him and watching Peter, his gaze tangibly vigilant.

"Do you know anyone who can loop you in to the movements of organized crime in the city?" Malcolm asks Peter before he can question that lie.

[conning]

Peter glances at him, grunts and holds up a hand to forestall the question for a moment, then looks at Neal again.

“There are times when you’re really hard to read and times when you’re a really bad liar, and this is one of the latter.”

Neal hesitates in the middle of pouring water from teapot to French press.

[abrightboy]

“Maybe it’s not a lie,” Malcolm tells him. “Maybe it’s a boundary. He’s allowed to have them. All evidence to the contrary.”

[conning]

Peter twitches back in aggressive surprise from the response, and even Ellen looks surprised. Neal casts Malcolm a grateful look before going back to the coffee.

Give him another two years, and he’ll be snapping at Peter’s infringements himself. Another year, even. But he’s still too close to everything that happened with the U-Boat.

Peter presses his lips together. “I want to make sure we’re all focused. All being honest with each other.”

[abrightboy]

“Someone tried to kill his aunt and shot up her house with us in it. Shaken up is about as honest a response as you can get. If you weren’t ready to talk about the emotional ramifications of a difficult day, you wouldn’t appreciate anyone trying to make you,” Malcolm points out. “Let’s focus on the case. There’s a big enough mystery to solve.”

[conning]

Peter scowls. Neal braces himself for argument, but it doesn’t come. Instead Peter just rubs his face and turns away for a moment.

“Did any of you see who was doing the shooting?”

[abrightboy]

“They didn’t exactly want to talk,” Malcolm tells him, but pulls a map out of a kitchen drawer and starts drawing on it. “But this is the route I made them chase me and you should be able to get a decent CCTV image here…” He marks an ‘x’, “and here,” he explains, marking another.

[conning]

Peter is again surprised. So is Neal, though not in the same way. His surprise quickly gives way to admiration and affection. He sets Malcolm’s coffee down to one side of the map, putting an arm around his waist and pulling him in for a kiss.

“You’re amazing.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm huffs a self-deprecating laugh.

“You didn’t think I didn’t have a plan, did you?” he teases.

[conning]

Neal grins. “I mean, I rarely do, so…”

It softens again into a genuine smile and he kisses Malcolm. “You are amazing.”

Peter grunts and looks away from the two of them for a moment, pulling out his phone to take a picture of the map. “I’m going to have Diana pull footage from those cameras and we’ll see what’s what. Do we have a safe place for Ellen to stay until we establish who we can reliably work with?”

[abrightboy]

“Here,” Malcolm tells him. “She’ll stay here, but tell nobody. Literally nobody,” he cautions.