Happily Ever After AU - for conning

[abrightboy]

From here

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[conning]

James eyes Malcolm from across the room, something on his face that Neal doesn't like. He can't tell what it is, though. It's not scorn, exactly--or is it?

It bothers Neal that he can't pinpoint it. He shakes the thought off and takes Malcolm his tea. "How's your head feeling?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm gives him a weak smile but tries to compensate for it with a stab at humour.

"Like I fell on it from thirty or forty feet. Shouldn't it be better by now?"

He lets his knees fall to the sides so he can reach up and take the tea with both hands.

[conning]

Neal makes a sound of exasperated amusement. "Unfortunately, the body doesn't work that way."

[abrightboy]

He sips his tea.

"How annoying and inconvenient," he remarks, looking up at Neal. "I can still help," he promises.

[conning]

"Malcolm." Neal gets down on one knee, pressing both his hands around Malcolm's own. "Even if you couldn't, I--"

Something tells him not to say I wouldn't care. "Even if you couldn't, that would matter less to me than you being okay. You know that, right?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods, then winces because that hurts.

"I do know. But this is... this is important to you. Personally. And I'm not good at sitting around convalescing but I am good at solving a murder."

[conning]

“I don’t want to lose you either,” Neal says, his voice dropping enough that only the two of them can hear him. “I can’t.”

It’s selfish, but it’s true.

[abrightboy]

"You won't," Malcolm says matter of factly. "This is what I do. Better than you." He gestures over Neal's shoulder towards Peter and everything he represents. "Better than any of them. Even with a brain injury."

[conning]

He can feel his eyes welling, and he tries to blink it back. He's not comfortable crying in front of James. He's barely comfortable crying in front of Peter. Neal just nods, not trusting himself to say anything immediately.

"You okay over there?" Peter's wariness seems more over the question of whether or not Malcolm is going to have a manic episode than anything else.

[abrightboy]

“I’m deeply moved by your concern for my health,” Malcolm calls back. “But I’m sorry to report that I’ll probably live.”

He winks at Neal mischievously.

[conning]

Neal manages a laugh, a real one, and kisses Malcolm firmly.

James leaves not long after, Peter escorting him to meet Mozzie outside one of the man’s safe houses. Neal can’t hide his relief when the door closes behind the other men. He sags a little, turning to pull Malcolm close. “Thank god that’s over for now,” he murmurs. “We just have to wait and see what they turn up on the Flynns. Peter and Gil, I mean.”

James isn’t much use as far as Neal is concerned.

[abrightboy]

“We need to know why now. It’s been so long. They lost their power on their own, in the meantime. So why her? Why now?” Malcolm says, clutching Neal’s shirt as he holds on to him and fidgeting at the fabric.

[conning]

Neal clings back, his mind starting to buzz anxiously with the questions—but a thought draws him up short. “The videotape, the videotape she sent me, we haven’t watched it.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm blinks at him, then lets go of him to run over to the kitchen where he hid it.

“Throw the deadbolt,” he says, already moving into the living room to pull out the VCR he’d picked up to watch his mother’s interrogation and hook it up to the TV. “And the chain.”

[conning]

Neal does as requested without hesitation, though he stays at the door for a moment after doing it, his hands shaking. He stares at them, trying to make them stop before he turns around. Instinctively hiding weakness.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm pushes the tape into the machine, getting up and turning to look at Neal, but he does it too fast and almost loses his balance, steadying himself on the back of the couch.

“Neal, do y…” He stops, frowning faintly. “Are you okay?”

[conning]

“Yeah,” he says, sounding a little breathless. He knots both hands into fists before turning around, taking a deep breath and letting it out with a smile. “Yeah, I’m…”

He noticed Malcolm hanging onto the couch and takes a sudden, concerned step forward. “Are you?”

[abrightboy]

“Same old head injury stuff.” He reaches for Neal in lieu of the couch when he’s close enough. “Are you ready to watch it?”

[conning]

Neal cradles Malcolm, focusing on being steady for him, giving himself that out. “No,” he says softly, “but we need to.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm urges him to the couch where he can curl up against him as he hands him the remote control. Neal gets to decide how much and how fast.

[conning]

Neal hangs onto the remote for several silent minutes, staring at the TV, mind almost blank with anxiety. Finally, impulsively, he lifts the remote and pushes play.

Ellen's face pops onto the screen, but it's not Ellen as he last saw her. It's grainy, monochrome, the Ellen of his childhood through the filter of formerly-high-quality recording equipment.

He's transfixed.

"Neal. It may be a while before you get to see this, so I'll just start from the beginning. I was your father's partner in the Washington, D.C., Metro police department. I, uh... I'm still trying to make sense of this week..."

She stops. Half-smiles, but sadly. "This year, really. I'm making this tape, hoping it finds its way to you. In case you don't get to see me or your father again."

Another pause. "That's the first time I've said that out loud. By now, I assume you know that your father's been accused of a very serious crime. He told me he was innocent, and I believed him. I've worked with him a long time. He's no killer, Neal. The man I know can't be."

There's uncertainty in her eyes, but only for a moment.

"After he was arrested, your dad told me that our department is filled with dirty cops and they set him up. So I've spent the last few months running down leads, trying to back up his story. And he's right about one thing. There are dirty cops... a lot of them. But did they set him up? I thought maybe they had. And then yesterday, your father confessed to the murder."

She fidgets, a woman whose world is coming apart, trying to be strong because she's the only one left to do it. "I tried to talk to him, but all anyone will tell me is that he turned state's evidence and you, your Mom, and I are being placed into Witness Protection. All the information I've found on the others since James' arrest... Only me, your father, and one other cop know about it. And the other cop... I'm not gonna tell you his name for his own safety. He works undercover. He's a good man."

She lifts a black metal filing box into the view of the camera, forcing another small smile. "I'm giving this to him. I'm gonna keep this box safe. And, Neal, if it you need it..." She sets down the box and holds up the chain of her necklace, revealing a large locket, plain in every respect. "The key inside this locket will lead you to it."

She lets the necklace fall. "The marshals are shipping us out soon. I've requested to be placed near you and your Mom. And they say there's a good chance, given the circumstances. Know this... I will do everything I can to keep you safe."

She tears up, barely bites her lip, then tries for a smile. Leaning forward to hover a hand over the stop button. "Goodbye, Neal... Until we meet again."

The tapes goes to static. Neal watches the static for a moment, eyes brimming, before hitting rewind to play the whole thing again.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm points at the screen, tilting his head to look up at Neal.

"....Is that what you took at the hospital?"

[conning]

Neal looks at him, dazed. "What?"

[abrightboy]

"You took something from Ellen," Malcolm reminds him. "Was it the locket?"

[conning]

"No," he says, starting to clue in to what Malcolm is saying. "No, they probably took that and put it with her personal effects during the... exam."

He can't make himself say autopsy. "She never took it off. I guess now I know why."