Chapter Text
"Neal." I shook his body, hoping to arouse him from his troubled slumber. "Neal!" My face contorted, feeling his turmoil, increasing the severity of my rousing as he continued shaking spasmodically.
"M-Malvir! No!" His heartbreaking cry was loud and terrifying as thunder. This was not the first time nightmares such as this happened, and he always mentioned one name. Keller.
Finally I stilled him, restraining him by his shoulders as I pressed my lips to his, waking him. He flew up suddenly, confusions evident in his face. "Wh-who are you? Where am I?" He grabbed my shoulders and shook them harshly. "Tell me how I got here!"
"Shhhhh.... Neal, it's me, Sara, your girlfriend. You just had a nightmare." His face became a canvas, horror, anger and sorrow covering his face.
"Oh my God Sara!! I'm, I'm, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"
"Neal, it's okay. I'm a big girl." I replied, chuckling at his concern, but his face reminded me of the matter at hand. "Neal. I know you may not want to tell me everything -"
"Sara..."
'No Neal, let me finish. I know you may not want to tell me everything, but I need to know something. To know that you're okay. I want to help you, and it's not the first time you've been tossing around screaming "Malvir". I love you and I don't want to see you hurt. It hurts me too! Please. Let me help you.' He looked so vulnerable, like an innocent young boy in need of his mum. Nothing like the poised, confident, charming and often obnoxious con man he was. It scared me. "Please let me help you Neal." I whispered.
"Malvir. Savion Malvir." I rubbed his back, heart breaking with every tear he shed. "H-He killed her. He killed my mother." I shifted from my position under the sheets, moving to face him directly. Moving my hand up and down his shoulders, I wished I could take away all his pain.
"That was the day that my childhood really ended. You know that my father was a dirty cop. And the day my mum told me, I was angry. Really angry. And so I thought I'd confront him about it. Talk to him. But I hadn't seen him since I was two and he'd become... become an alcoholic. He said he'd come over. So I got ready to meet him at two.
Somehow, I guess you could call it mothers intuition, my mother figured out that I was going to rondezvous with my father. She insisted that she come. I didn't understand why, but she was so stubborn that I let her come. We got there a few minutes before two, but he ended up being almost half an hour late. He said that he was held up at work, had some loose ends to tie up. Now that I think about it, I should have realised something was wrong. My father kept looking over his shoulder, as if expecting trouble.
Turns out the 'lose ends' he had to tie up didn't end up being resolved - he was followed to the dock. By the time he was itching for a drink, Malvir sprung. As soon as my father saw Malvir, he showed just how much of a wimp he truly was. He just ran, not even glancing back to see if mum and I were okay. Malvir was determined to get what he came for, and pulled me into a headlock, muzzle to my head. My father was still nowhere to be seen. Naturally, my mother was a blubbering mess, cursing my father and his goon associates. Cursing the world. Crying out, asking what she had done to deserve it. 'Kill me instead! Kill me!' she started to cry. "I mean more to him than his own son!" she spat bitterly.
That was the comment that changed Malvir's mind. In an instant I was thrown on the ground. As I checked if I'd been injured, my mother took my former position. He had no qualms killing an innocent youth, and even less about killing my mother. He wanted to destroy all that my father cared about. But he should have started with the bottle, not his family."
He paused, and almost incomprehensible, his whisper came "and then my mother would still be alive..." the tears were falling freely now.
'Malvir cocked the gun, readying his murder instrument. I... I began to plead with him. "I'll give you anything, money, I'll work for you, anything if you spare her. I'll help you hunt my father down! Anything!" His reply came, mocking and cold as a man hardened by years of destruction "It's too late now kid, there's nothing you can do to save you mummy." He laughed, pulling the trigger. Watching my mother falling to the ground, he sneered at my screams. He... He yelled I was weak, whilst shooting my mother continuously. "It's too late now, kid. Look what that wonderful father of yours has done!"
"T...th-"
He broke down in tears, the one man who was always composed was vulnerable and needy in my arms. I tightened my grip on him, soothing him with my words. It stung to see him hurt this much. We sat there in comfortable silence, thankful for one another's company.
"The next day I got a text from an untraceable number.
Son, I'm ready to talk now. Sorry about last time. I had to make sure it was safe, she shouldn't have come.
That was the day I changed my name to Neal Caffrey, and abandoned him forever. I found out what kind of a man he really was - a cold blooded killer. I haven't talked to my father since, nor do I ever plan to."