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elrhiarhodanTitle: The Ties That Bind
Prompt: White Collar 100 - #049: Tie
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elrhiarhodan
Rating: R
Characters/Pairing: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey (reference to Peter/Elizabeth/Neal)
Fandom: White Collar
Spoilers: Hints to the events in Under the Radar, On Guard
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: 300 Exactly!
Summary: Since the journey to better starts with a single step, Neal puts one foot in front of the other.
Previously, on White Collar, Danger’verse: Peter was unutterably cruel to Neal - to drive him away for his own safety. The plan works. But Peter has to leave the safehouse too. When comes back to Obscurity, it's only to find his wife and his husband are furiously angry at him - and rightly so. If ever there was a case of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, it was this.
Set after A Story Written Long Ago. Continues the Danger Series, which is now a single entry on AO3.
THE DANGER SERIES:
TARGET | HUNT | CASE | FILE | BACKGROUND | INTERROGATION | WITNESS | HOME | HOME 2 | FAMILY | FAMILY 2 | TEAM | UNIT | UNIT 2 | PAPER | CLAY | PAINT | INK | CHECK | CASH | CREDIT | LOAN | SAVINGS | GOLD | WIFE | SILVER | GLASS | PARTNER | BACKGROUND 2 | CLUE 2 | TRACK | BOYFRIEND | BOYFRIEND 2 | LOVER | FAMILY 3 | DIAMONDS | CREDIT 2 | WIFE 2 | LOVER 2 | PAINT 2 | FAMILY 3 |PAINT 3 | LOVER 3 |
______________
Neal finally allowed himself to look at Peter, to look closely. The past few days had taken their toll on him, Peter looked worn out, used up, old. Neal didn’t want to care, but he couldn’t stop caring. They were tied together and it would break his soul to be sundered from this man.
And yet, he let his words be an indictment, a trial and a judgment. They’d been through too much, and too many times Peter had stood judgment over him. He didn’t want to carve out his pound of flesh, but he was still Neal Caffrey – and a man who did not, could not just let things go.
“Where do we go from here?” Peter reached out. Neal didn’t recoil, but he didn’t welcome his lover’s touch.
“I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of being so damn vulnerable. We’ve been through this before.”
“Yeah – and I wasn’t wrong.” There was a thread of iron – and irony – in Peter’s reply.
“But you weren’t right either.” Neal kept his eyes on Peter’s face. “I still love you …”
Neal ignored Peter’s hiss of indrawn breath. “But I don’t like you very much.”
“I deserve that, I know.” This time, Peter took hold of Neal’s hand, rubbing his thumb across the pale space where his wedding band used to be. “But my motivation…”
“You’ve often accused me of doing the wrong thing for the right reason.” Neal turned his hand and grasped Peter’s fingers. “Your motivation may have been the purest, but you don’t get to make those decisions for me, for us.”
“Can you forgive me? Can we get back what we had? What I destroyed? Please?”
“I don’t know …” Neal paused, he tried to find the words, but the despair in Peter’s eyes was terrible.
FIN
Prompt: White Collar 100 - #049: Tie
Author:
elrhiarhodan Rating: R
Characters/Pairing: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey (reference to Peter/Elizabeth/Neal)
Fandom: White Collar
Spoilers: Hints to the events in Under the Radar, On Guard
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: 300 Exactly!
Summary: Since the journey to better starts with a single step, Neal puts one foot in front of the other.
Previously, on White Collar, Danger’verse: Peter was unutterably cruel to Neal - to drive him away for his own safety. The plan works. But Peter has to leave the safehouse too. When comes back to Obscurity, it's only to find his wife and his husband are furiously angry at him - and rightly so. If ever there was a case of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, it was this.
Set after A Story Written Long Ago. Continues the Danger Series, which is now a single entry on AO3.
THE DANGER SERIES:
TARGET | HUNT | CASE | FILE | BACKGROUND | INTERROGATION | WITNESS | HOME | HOME 2 | FAMILY | FAMILY 2 | TEAM | UNIT | UNIT 2 | PAPER | CLAY | PAINT | INK | CHECK | CASH | CREDIT | LOAN | SAVINGS | GOLD | WIFE | SILVER | GLASS | PARTNER | BACKGROUND 2 | CLUE 2 | TRACK | BOYFRIEND | BOYFRIEND 2 | LOVER | FAMILY 3 | DIAMONDS | CREDIT 2 | WIFE 2 | LOVER 2 | PAINT 2 | FAMILY 3 |PAINT 3 | LOVER 3 |
Neal finally allowed himself to look at Peter, to look closely. The past few days had taken their toll on him, Peter looked worn out, used up, old. Neal didn’t want to care, but he couldn’t stop caring. They were tied together and it would break his soul to be sundered from this man.
And yet, he let his words be an indictment, a trial and a judgment. They’d been through too much, and too many times Peter had stood judgment over him. He didn’t want to carve out his pound of flesh, but he was still Neal Caffrey – and a man who did not, could not just let things go.
“Where do we go from here?” Peter reached out. Neal didn’t recoil, but he didn’t welcome his lover’s touch.
“I don’t know. I don’t like the idea of being so damn vulnerable. We’ve been through this before.”
“Yeah – and I wasn’t wrong.” There was a thread of iron – and irony – in Peter’s reply.
“But you weren’t right either.” Neal kept his eyes on Peter’s face. “I still love you …”
Neal ignored Peter’s hiss of indrawn breath. “But I don’t like you very much.”
“I deserve that, I know.” This time, Peter took hold of Neal’s hand, rubbing his thumb across the pale space where his wedding band used to be. “But my motivation…”
“You’ve often accused me of doing the wrong thing for the right reason.” Neal turned his hand and grasped Peter’s fingers. “Your motivation may have been the purest, but you don’t get to make those decisions for me, for us.”
“Can you forgive me? Can we get back what we had? What I destroyed? Please?”
“I don’t know …” Neal paused, he tried to find the words, but the despair in Peter’s eyes was terrible.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 07:53 pm (UTC)Seriously pleased to see you continue this. Was just rereading this morning, as a matter of fact, cuz I was missing this! Can't wait for more.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:15 am (UTC)As you know by now - there are two more chapters up.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 08:13 pm (UTC)Seriously I love this story and the way you've chosen to tell it.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:17 am (UTC)There are two more chapters up.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-16 09:32 pm (UTC)But seriously...I LOVE this verse and am so happy to see it continue. Now um...*shameless,begging and abandoning of all dignity and flagrant hint dropping* Blood of Helios...I can haz smexy vampire man love please :)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:19 am (UTC)I know I need to get back to Vampire World. I need to read it from start to finish and get my head back into it.
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Date: 2011-06-16 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:22 am (UTC)And I consider everything from Under the Radar forward to be A/U. How's that for a river in Egypt?
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Date: 2011-06-16 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:22 am (UTC)But you'll be happy by the end of the third.
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Date: 2011-06-16 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 05:02 am (UTC)yay to Peter getting some honesty about what he did, lol
Love it. And love this line about Neal - i so agree:
"and a man who did not, could not just let things go."
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 05:18 pm (UTC)And Peter's finally going to pay the piper on this.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 05:16 pm (UTC)(And Sooooooooo Glad to see this series back.)
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 05:17 pm (UTC)I have a few longer stories in the works (and the grand epic) but with everything else going on, writing this in 300-word bites is just perfection for me.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 05:25 pm (UTC)