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Neal and Peter seemed to have a psychic connection. Maybe that’s just how it is when you are close to somebody for years practically living in each other’s pockets day after day. Or maybe that phenomenon had evolved back when two men had made it their mission to study each other like lab specimens during the early days of a chase. But for whatever reason, Neal could read Peter like a book, and right now that novel seemed to be an angst-filled one.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Neal asked as he and Peter were having lunch together at a café not far from the Federal Building.
“Talk about what?” Peter answered as he purposely stared down at his Caesar salad instead of meeting Neal’s eyes.
“The ‘what’ that has you stabbing at that lettuce like a pirate using a rapier to skewer a rival brigand trying to board his ship. Something has recently changed. Just last week you were ecstatic when you told me El was pregnant. Now you’re down in the dumps. Is something not right with her pregnancy?”
“I hate when you do that mind-meld thing, Neal,” Peter grumbled.
“Well, you pull that parlor trick on me more times than I’m willing to admit,” Neal reminded his handler. “Now, let’s get back to whatever problem has you twisted up in knots. Maybe I can help.”
“That’s not likely unless you’re a geneticist who can perform magic with strands of DNA,” was the obscure answer.
“So, I think that does mean that it’s related to Elizabeth’s pregnancy,” Peter’s CI quickly deduced.
Peter took a deep breath and thought about what had caused him to plummet from a state of euphoria to the depths of anxiety in just a matter of days. It was because a possible problem had arisen that was out of his control, making him feel helplessly stymied, an attribute that was so foreign to his nature. Maybe it would help to talk about it, and Neal would be the perfect listener because his partner knew how to be unfailingly discrete.
“Okay, Neal, since you’ll continue to pester me until I’m ready to strangle you, I’ll tell you to prevent your premature death at my hands.”
“That’s a wise decision,” Neal agreed.
“Um, well, here it is. As you know, I’m new at this pregnancy thing, but I’m learning a lot. I’ve been told that El is technically an older ‘primipara,’ or first-time mother, according to her obstetrician. I don’t consider my wife to be old, but there you have it.”
Neal shrugged. “Neither do I, but keep going.”
Peter took another deep breath and soldiered on at his partner’s urging. “Let me just preface things by saying that when I researched El’s physician after a pregnancy was confirmed, the woman seems quite competent on paper. And probably because she’s good at her job, she wants to cover all the bases. So, she ordered the usual ultrasound as well as an extensive panel of blood tests to ensure that this new life growing inside El is healthy. Those results have recently come in, and we’ve been made aware of a lot of things. I guess I can let you in on a secret. The ultrasound showed that we are going to have a boy.”
Neal’s face broke into a grin. “Congratulations, Buddy!”
“Thanks,” Peter said, but with less enthusiasm than expected.
“But there’s more, isn’t there,” Neal said softly as his smile faded.
Peter nodded. “Yeah. At first, we were both over the moon, but then we were given some other information that has to do with chromosomal abnormalities.”
Neal waited, but Peter seemed to have stopped dead in his tracks while telling the story. Finally, a worried partner felt obligated to pick up the slack and maybe put a voice to something Peter couldn’t bring himself to say.
“Does your son have Down’s Syndrome, Buddy?”
Peter’s head jerked up. “No, it isn’t that, Neal, but it is genetic and related to chromosomes. El’s bloodwork showed that she has a recessive gene for cystic fibrosis. According to her doctor, she’s one of 10 million people who are CF carriers.”
Neal felt a bit of relief. “Well, if I remember back to high school biology and Punnett squares, unless you’re also a carrier, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. And even if you are a carrier, there’s only a 1 in 4 chance of the baby having the disease. So, did you get tested?”
“Yeah, I did and I’m clear, but the baby could still be a carrier.”
“I doubt that’s anything to agonize over, Peter. Elizabeth’s been fine all these years when ignorance was bliss. So, stop fretting. Your son will be good to go when he makes his entrance into the world and begins to turn yours upside down.”
“Maybe not according to El’s obstetrician, who, like I said, is a very cautious practitioner. She wants El to have an amniocentesis. She claims that studies have proven that if this baby is also a carrier, he’s at risk down the road for possible pulmonary problems or other disorders related to the endocrine system.”
Neal tried to be supportive. “In today’s society where everybody wants to sue doctors for malpractice, the obstetrician is probably just covering her ass to avoid a lawsuit for not going the extra mile. So, just to be on the safe side, can I assume that Elizabeth is going to have an amnio?”
“Yeah, but it’s still too early in the pregnancy, and doing it too soon can put the fetus at risk. So, we have to sweat it out at least for another month.”
“Then consider me sweating it out with you, Buddy,” Neal forced a smile back on his face. He had come to love both Peter and Elizabeth because they were like family, and that meant that the new little life they had created was family, too. He would try to be upbeat and positive, which was really all he could do at this juncture.
“Look, Peter, you gotta have faith. You have to believe with your entire being that everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.”
“Is that how you live your life, Neal?” Peter asked softly.
“I wouldn’t have survived if I had thought otherwise,” Neal assured him.
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During the following weeks, Peter wasn’t sure he could embrace Neal’s strategy for dealing with worry. So instead, he tried a different approach. He threw himself into his work with a ferocious intensity that had Neal, Jones, and Diana struggling to keep up. Elizabeth seemed to be faring better while enduring the as yet unknown. When Neal would visit or stop by for a meal, the new mother-to-be seemed almost serene like a Michelangelo painting of a Madonna. Maybe it was Mozzie’s comforting support that made her feel that everything was going to be okay, and if down the road it wasn’t, she would deal with it in her own very loving and competent way.
However, Elizabeth wasn’t displaying any of that calm tranquility as she strode onto the White Collar floor one snowy afternoon several weeks later and zeroed in on Neal like a heat-seeking missile.
“Where’s Peter, Neal? My calls aren’t going through to him, and he’s supposed to be here and he’s not! Has something happened to him?”
“Take it easy, Elizabeth,” Neal said as he quickly stood and held up his hands in a placating manner. “Peter’s okay. He left first thing this morning to drive up to Sing Sing to interview an inmate. He thought he would be back before this blizzard hit, but apparently a multicar pileup on the Interstate outside of Ossining has everyone gridlocked. He called me less than an hour ago to give me that update, but if your calls won’t go through, then the weather is probably making cell service spotty.”
“He shouldn’t have gone, not today of all days,” Elizabeth said as tears welled up in her eyes.
Just then, Reese Hughes appeared. He must have noticed Elizabeth’s arrival and curiosity made him leave his personal Mt. Olympus to join Peter’s wife and Caffrey as a scenario was unfolding in the bullpen. “Elizabeth, what’s wrong?” the old ASAC asked solicitously.
Elizabeth was agitated and didn’t pull any punches. “What’s wrong is that my husband put his job before his family! He should be here with me today, not up in some prison. His child and I need him.”
“Please tell me there’s nothing wrong with the baby,” Neal pleaded as a spike of fear hit him.
A pregnant woman snorted. “Well, that’s what we were supposed to find out, or at least put the wheels in motion to find out. My amniocentesis is today, actually in the next half hour, and Peter was supposed to be my rock standing right by my side while it was being done.”
“Why would you need that test?” Hughes seemed a bit mystified.
Neal quickly stepped in to shut the old man down. “That’s a long story for another day, Sir, and now is not the time.” He then turned to Elizabeth, “If the test is in 30 minutes, I’ll make sure to get you where you need to be.”
Elizabeth swiped at her eyes and sniffled. “Okay, fine, since that’s my only option. You can get me there and then you can stand in for my wayward husband. I don’t want to do this alone, Neal.”
“Um, maybe Diana might be a better substitute for Peter than me,” Neal was suddenly shy about getting involved in maternal stuff which was way out of his comfort zone.
“No, it has to be you!” Elizabeth was quite firm with her answer.
Neal saw the handwriting on the wall as did Hughes, who was suddenly giving Clinton the dreaded two-fingered summons. “Agent Jones, you are to commandeer a four-wheel drive vehicle from the motor pool. Make sure it has a siren and flashing lights, and you are to get Mrs. Burke and Caffrey where they need to go with time to spare!”
“On it, Sir!” Jones said as he snapped to attention and hurried out.
“Elizabeth, you’re right,” Hughes said as he gently patted El’s hand. “Family responsibilities should always supersede the job. I’ll definitely remind Peter of that when he gets back here. And for the record, I sincerely hope everything goes well today.”
“Thank you, Reese,” Elizabeth said primly as she handed Neal his fedora in an effort to hurry a reluctant man along.
As Neal and Elizabeth waited for Jones in the garage, a very emotional woman turned to Peter’s stand-in. “I’m sorry to bushwack you like this, Neal. But you’re the only person who knows about our situation. We haven’t told anyone else, not even my mother. I hope you understand.”
“You know that you can always count on me, Elizabeth. I’ve got your back,” Neal smiled as Jones came tearing down the ramp in the garage on his errand of mercy. But when Neal got to the hospital with El, he was worried about how much help he was actually going to be. And his anxiety ramped exponentially when he was taking off his suit coat and putting on a green hospital gown, a matching head covering, and a mask.
“You can do this, Caffrey,” he kept repeating to himself like a mantra. “You’ve faced worse, like people pointing guns at you. So, get your act together and cowboy up, as Peter likes to say.”
Well, it wasn’t a gun, but a very long, thin needle looked just as lethal to Neal as he stood beside Elizabeth as she lay reclined on a padded table in a room with a glaring adjustable light hovering over her rounded exposed abdomen. The physician was using the ultrasound equipment to decide where she was going in with that needle, and Neal was holding his breath as he got his first glimpse of Peter and El’s son lying placidly in a womb soon to be invaded with a foreign object.
The suspense intensified as the procedure began. Neal averted his eyes as the needle made its entry into flesh. Instead, he concentrated on watching the image of a fully formed miracle provided by the Doppler. As the small balloon-like sac filled with fluid was slowly being depressed in the tiny fetus’s world, the child languishing there somehow seemed to know something unusual was happening. Suddenly, the unborn baby sensed ‘stranger danger’ coming his way, and he reacted by quickly swimming away from an unnatural interloper invading his space.
That made Elizabeth laugh. “It looks like this little guy knows how to run when he perceives a looming threat. That reminds me of someone I know who’s near and dear to me. Don’t you agree, Neal?”
Actually, at that moment Neal felt like a whiny kid desperate to ask, “Are we done yet?” Instead, his response was to squeeze El’s hand gently and keep his mouth shut.
The drama was over quickly after the physician finished aspirating enough amniotic fluid for her testing. Neal continued to sit by El’s side as she waited until she was given the green light to leave.
“Thank you, Sweetie, for being the best friend ever,” Elizabeth told him sincerely.
“No thanks necessary,” Neal assured her. “It’s what you do for family.”
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Of course, Peter was completely bummed and remorseful that he had been absent for the procedure. Eventually, El let her husband off the hook after a very serious discussion about priorities and responsibilities had taken place. And the atmosphere in the Burke home improved even more when the amnio test came back showing everything was completely normal with the little guy everyone was so worried about.
“Maybe that power of positive thinking works, Neal,” Peter said jokingly the next day in his office. “But all kidding aside, I do owe you, Buddy, for keeping me focused and especially for keeping El sane during that amnio.”
“Yeah, you do owe me big time,” Neal agreed. “Maybe you can repay that debt by naming your first born after me. I know the boy can run just like yours truly.”
Peter laughed. “Yeah, maybe we do have a little Neal in our future. I don’t know whether to be happy or scared!”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Buddy,” Neal grinned.
Maybe in all the excitement, Peter had failed to read his friend. He hadn’t noticed the almost melancholy expression on Neal’s face as he left to go back to the bullpen. That look was because the young man now realized he was going to have to run if he wanted to protect his adopted family and keep them safe from a lethal gang of international thieves. He knew his plan would be heart-wrenching for everyone, but there was no other choice. Sometimes you just had to have faith that you were doing the right thing for the right reason.