Peter Burke

Taking Elizabeth out for lunch had been an attempt to get them both to relax a little.

Things have been tense around the house since Neal had gone into the hospital, and while Peter sincerely doubts it will go away until they have Neal back and are absolutely certain he isn't going to do anything, he'd been hoping it could get a little better, if just for an hour.

And while it hadn't exactly worked, it could have gone much worse, and Peter's ready to take what he can get.

But any help it might have done evaporates when Peter opens the door to find Neal on their couch, and he stops short a couple of steps into the house, his expression of confusion rapidly turning to frustration and worry.

He shouldn't be surprised. He knows he shouldn't, but he is anyway. He'd thought Neal was going to stay, like he said he would.

Work intervenes, and what was supposed to be a couple of days before the next dinner is put off a little longer. The case is wrapped up on Thursday, and the invitation pans out for a late lunch on Saturday instead.

Peter's on the couch as they wait for Neal to show up, a beer on the coffee table in front of him and Satchmo at his feet. He's still nervous about the thought of talking it over again -- in part because, with work picking up, he hasn't gotten the chance to finish thinking about what else they need to talk about, or to talk it over with Elizabeth as much as he wanted to -- but things going well last time helped, and it didn't seem like putting it off longer would do any of them much good.