Title: Addled - Coda
Author: angelita26
Rating: PG
Characters and/or Pairing: Gen - Neal, Peter, Elizabeth
Spoilers: None
Warnings: As usual, betaed by my anal personality - all mistakes are mine.
Word Count: ~1000

Notes: By request, this is a coda for Addled, in which Neal wakes and the Burkes are there for him.



Neal's head hurt. It felt like someone was taking a jackhammer to the back of his skull, and they weren't being very nice about it either.

It took him a while to deal with the pain, compartmentalize it so that he could figure out what had happened and why he felt like he'd been whaled on by a very angry Diana. Surely, he hadn't finally pissed her off enough to actually hit him. No, it had to be something else.

He blinked his eyes open, hoping for a clue in his surroundings, but his vision was too blurry to actually make anything out.

Suddenly, there were small, cool fingers brushing through his hair, and he startled badly enough to cause the pain to flare back up and try to engulf him.

“Neal?” A familiar, female voice called his name, but he couldn't verbalize anything beyond a groan just yet. He was trying so hard to tuck the agony away again, but it only grew worse.

“Call the nurse,” a different but also recognizable voice said. This one was male, and he had to scrounge through his brain for the name. Peter. Peter was here.

Neal relaxed, letting the pain wash over him. Everything would be okay.

~~!!~~

The lights were dim the next time he woke. He was grateful since that allowed him to focus on the couple curled together in a pair of chairs near his bed. He tried to turn his head but found that he was laying on his side, propped up by a number of pillows, and there was a strange pressure around his neck. His fingers fumbled with the soft cervical collar there, anxiously trying to remove it.

“No, no,” Elizabeth's quiet voice stilled him just as her hands closed over his. “Let that be, sweetie. How are you feeling?”

“Hurts,” he murmured. “What happ'n'd?”

“What do you remember?”

That was a loaded question. Everything was jumbled, and thinking made his head pound again. “Dunno,” he finally said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to help ride out the misery.

Elizabeth squeezed his fingers and took pity on him. “You fell out a window, but you're going to be okay. You'll be sore and grumpy for a while, I suspect, but you'll heal.”

“Never grumpy,” he protested lightly.

“Uh-huh, sure. I've seen you with the stomach flu,” she shot back gently. Her voice was still pitched low, and she was speaking slowly enough that he could keep up with her.

He grimaced. “Low blow.”

She laughed softly and nodded. “Can I get you anything?”

“Water?”

“I'll go ask the nurse.” She patted his hands and moved them away from his neck brace before leaving the room.

He blinked, trying to stay awake. His lips and mouth were dry, and he really wanted a few sips of water before he fell back to sleep.

Peter was in his line of sight now but was clearly sleeping. He was sitting up with his head canted to the side, resting on his fist. It looked as uncomfortable as any position Neal had ever seen, and it made something warm and fuzzy well up inside him.

He blinked again and Peter was suddenly awake and sitting right in front of him, as the nurse and Elizabeth stood nearby. He sluggishly rolled his eyes from one to the other, trying to figure out how they'd moved so quickly.

“Mr. Caffrey? Neal? Can you hear me?” the nurse asked.

“Mmhmm.” He cleared his throat and managed to say, “Water?”

“Only ice chips for now,” the nurse replied as someone else shoved a spoonful of amazing, delicious, cool bits of ice into his half open mouth. He closed his eyes, almost moaning as they melted on his tongue.

He felt the nurse lift his wrist to take his pulse, and then she checked his IV and moved some of his pillows around. Mostly she was keeping him awake, so he opened his eyes and sought out the cup of ice. Peter was holding it.

“More?” He reached for it with a shaking hand, but Peter easily maneuvered around it to give him another small spoonful.

“Are you in pain?” Peter asked, watching him closely. He usually hated that look, like Peter was scrutinizing him to his very core, but he found it hard to care right then.

Neal thought about the question while the ice melted. The pounding in his head was the worst, but it wasn't nearly as bad now as before. There was the tight feeling of stitches in his back that he knew from experience would be hurting if he moved. And then there was his neck, which was stiff and sore. All in all, he mostly just felt achy, and he said so.

Peter nodded and looked up. Neal followed his eyes to the nurse, and she placed something in his hand. “This is your call button. Press it if you need something for the pain, okay?”

“Okay,” he parroted back, sensing that it was the right thing to say. He could keep the pain away if he concentrated hard enough. It wasn't that bad. Elizabeth had said so. Hadn't she?

“Get some rest. I'll be back in to check on you in a couple of hours.”

Neal watched her go before his eyes drifted back to the Burkes. They were once again tangled together on the two chairs they'd pulled up to his bedside.

“Need anything, Neal?” Peter asked, squirming to get as comfortable as he could in the molded plastic.

“No, 'm good.” He was already drifting off, but he had to say something more, “Th'nks.”

“For what?” Peter whispered as he smoothed Neal's hair off his forehead with a gentle hand.

The touch further calmed him, and it took all of Neal's energy to answer, “Staying.” He sighed softly, contentedly, as sleep finally claimed him.

~Finis

Thanks for reading!


Crossposted to whitecollarhc, my LJ, and AO3