Caffrey Flashback

Chapter 25: Bonds

It was a silent drive back to Jacobi Hospital. Peter, Graham and Henry were all lost in their own thoughts. The bond Mozzie had given him was still in Henry's jacket. This morning he'd been certain Neal would want to give it to Peter. Right now he wasn't certain of anything, and he'd told no one about the encryption key Mozzie had mentioned.

If the FBI was right about Neal being the "key" for finding Adler, it was a diabolic plan on Adler's part. He sent the document with the key to Goddard to give Neal in exchange for opening the safe. And now Kate and Goddard would be learning that the very document they had given away held the information they needed to decode the message hidden in the passports. They would be looking for Neal to convince him to give them back the bond, or to steal it from him.

Assuming Kate made her getaway as soon as she stole the passports, it's possible she didn't know Neal was in the hospital. She would probably be hanging out around the mansion on Riverside Drive. The house was deserted now. June Ellington had gone to stay with her eldest daughter for the next couple of weeks. It would be easy to convince everyone that Neal shouldn't be left alone there when he was released from Jacobi. Graham's hotel suite had plenty of extra space, and from there Henry could control access to Neal while he recovered.

Tired and distracted, Henry forgot to put up a façade before running into his mother in the ICU waiting room. He gave her a carefree smile, but it was too late. She placed her hands on his shoulders to hold him still while she studied him, and then asked, "What happened?"

"I don't think I'm right person to lead Win-Win. Did you change clothes?"

"Yes, I took a shower and changed clothes to make sure no trace of my perfume remained. It seems to have done the trick. Neal is still sleeping a lot and not always sure what decade he's in, but he hasn't been panicked by my presence again or mistaken me for Meredith." She released Henry's shoulders, slipping a hand around one of his arms to walk into the ICU with him. "We'll talk about your future at Win-Win when we're back in Baltimore. Don't make any rash decisions."

Irene and Edmund Caffrey were in Neal's room, playing cards while he slept. Irene smiled when she saw Henry. "Come here, you scoundrel." She stood to hug Henry. "Half the time Neal thinks Edmund is you, but when he can stay awake he's a fantastic poker player and he says you taught him." She released Henry and said to Edmund, "Come on, darling. I'll admit I'm not as young as I used to be. Now that Henry's here to keep watch, I'm in desperate need of a nap."

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Noelle said, and then she followed her parents out.

Peter and Graham had stopped for coffee, and arrived at the room as Noelle was leaving. She asked Graham to walk with her. Henry regretted mentioning Win-Win to his mother when she had asked what was wrong. Now she was going to try to get more information out of Graham, leaving Henry alone with Peter. Henry really didn't want to talk to Peter right now. He sat in one of the chairs in the room, propped his elbows on Neal's bed, and rested his head in his hands. Physically and emotionally exhausted, he closed his eyes for a moment... and woke to hear Neal saying, "You can't make me stay here. I can check myself out any time I want."

The words and petulant tone snapped Henry back to Chicago in the late 1990s, and he automatically repeated what he'd said on that occasion, "Good luck with that, kiddo. Everyone here knows you're a minor."

"That's a lie! I turned eighteen almost a week ago. March seventh."

"No. Danny Brooks' birthday was March seven. But he's not real. Neal Bennett was born on March twenty-first. You're still seventeen. I can show you the birth certificate to prove it."

"How old are you?" Neal asked.

"Twenty. Face it: I'm an adult, and you're still a kid. You have to do what I say."

"You're really my cousin?"

"Yeah. When you can stay awake for more than ten minutes I'll show you the proof."

"I was just pretending to sleep."

Henry chuckled. "Good one. Now remember: the people here think I'm your brother and that I'm twenty-one. You have to keep going along with that or they'll insist on talking to your parents."

Neal started breathing faster. "They can't. They'll try to send me home and I won't let them. I'm not going back. My mom'll be glad I'm gone, anyway."

"Trust me, I'm not sending you back home."

Neal seemed to calm slightly but said, "I don't trust anyone. Not anymore."

"We'll work on that," Henry said with false assurance. He didn't know how he was going to get this kid to trust him, but he had to find a way. Neal wasn't going to be in any shape to make it on his own when the hospital released him. With a yawn, Henry focused and realized they weren't in Chicago. He didn't have to put on a cocky act to convince Neal he was in control. "What an idiot," he mumbled.

"You or him?" Peter asked.

"Both of us," Henry said, stretching. "We always had a lot in common."

"I want out of here," Neal said in a voice that verged on desperate.

Henry continued the conversation he remembered from seven years ago. He'd felt desperate, too, but had refused to show it. "I'm working on that. It will help if you do what the doctors want. I think I can get you out of here tomorrow. But you'll have to do what I say for the next week, okay? For the next week you're still a kid and I'm the boss. After that you really turn eighteen and you can do whatever you want. That's the deal."

"That deal sucks," Neal complained.

"It's the best deal you're going to get," Henry said. He saw the same obstinate expression Neal had worn in Chicago. "Don't bother trying to run away. You won't get far in your condition. I'll catch you and bring you back here again."

Neal scowled a moment, and suddenly he grinned. "I can't believe you took me to the morgue when I refused to see a doctor."

"Life's full of surprises with me," Henry promised.

"Can't believe I fell for that," Neal said, apparently back in the present day. "You were a pretty good con artist yourself."

"It wasn't that hard," Henry said with a shrug. "I hadn't finished my psychology degree yet, but I'd learned enough to recognize that on one level you were trying to rebel and take charge of your life, but deep down you were scared. Part of you wanted someone to lean on, and for the sake of your pride you had tell yourself it was temporary. Realizing you were still a week away from turning eighteen gave you an excuse to turn over control to an adult for a few days while you decided what to do next. And it gave me a week to convince you that hanging out with me would be a grand adventure, much more fun than striking out on your own. I actually convinced you I was doing you a favor by letting you stick with me."

"Slowed you down," Neal said.

"No, Neal. Thanks to you, I finally grew up."

Already Neal was drifting back to sleep. Peter said, "It must have been terrifying. You were a twenty-year-old kid yourself, trying to manage a teenaged Neal. I don't know how you did it."

"Me neither," Henry admitted with a yawn. "I told him I had everything under control, but mostly I was making it up as I went along." And then he folded his arms on Neal's bed, resting his head on them. He needed to get some rest before he could decide what to do with that Atlantic bond. He thought he felt someone draping a blanket over his shoulders, but he was asleep before he could determine who it was.