White Collar Ficlet - Closer Than Blood (WC100 - 039 - Blood)

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: Closer Than Blood
Prompt: White Collar 100 - #039: Blood
Author: elrhiarhodan
Rating: R
Characters/Pairing: Peter Burke, Neal Caffrey, Elizabeth Burke(Peter/Elizabeth/Neal), Mozzie
Fandom: White Collar
Spoilers: Under the Radar, All of Season 3
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: 300 Exactly!
Summary: Mozzie is angry at Neal’s reconciliation with Peter, Neal seeks to console him.

Set after Concealed in Plain Sight. 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 | TIE | INNOCENT | WHISPER | SKIN | SECRET | SECRET 2 |

______________


Neal needed to talk with Peter. Not just about what happened this morning and what happened to him all those years ago - but about what happens next. While they’d been chasing McGuinness-Humbolt ghosts, Pavel Czerny had been playing them all for fools. But it was impossible to talk with him without Elizabeth in earshot - she wasn’t leaving them alone.

Not that he minded - but it was hard to keep secrets when your wife, the person you were trying to protect, was determined not to let you out of her sight. Neal actually wondered if Elizabeth knew there was something going on, and was intent on figuring it out.

Neal shook his head - no, that wasn’t possible. But this stasis was killing him. So he went to Mozzie.

“So, you’ve forgiven the Suit?” There was more than a touch of bitterness in the question.

Neal didn’t say anything. Mozzie’s disapproval about his relationship with Peter and Elizabeth was something he’s lived with for a while.

“I need information.”

“You’re just going to let him ride roughshod over you? You have a spine of Jello and I’m disgusted.” Mozzie had a few more choice words about the situation.

“He’s forgiven me for much worse, Moz.”

“Don’t be such a moral relativist.”

Neal lost his patience. “He was trying to protect me - not steal a billion dollars in art that belonged to the Russian government.”

Moz turned white. “That was uncalled for, Neal.”

He didn’t care if he crossed an uncrossable line. “I’ve forgiven Peter. Elizabeth’s forgiven him. He needs our help.”

“I’m not part of your happy family, Neal. I never will be.”

“Damn it Moz, that’s not true. You’re my …”

“Your what? Your patsy? Your two-legged search engine?” He flung those words like acid.

“No, Moz. You’re my brother.


FIN

Comments

[coffeethyme4me.livejournal.com]

FANTASTIC!!!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Oh Moz!

One thing, you kind of made the whole thing into a hyperlink.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thanks!

(I've fixed. I hadn't closed the tag on the new chapter entry. Second day in a row that I've done that!)

[sugakane-01.livejournal.com]

*warning, long rambling comment is long and rambling*

You know...even though Mozzie was harsh, I have to say I see his side of things. Even in canon (imo) Neal is a little too quick to turn the other cheek (case in point, in the pilot when Peter makes that incredibly insensitive remark about Kate when they're in the car talking about Peter and El's anniversary) One of the things that makes Mozzie so dear to me is that he's ride or die Team Neal...and it's Team Neal as is, not Team Neal as long as Neal _ *fill in the blank with condition of choice* or until Neal _ *fill in the blank screw up of choice*. He's thrown himself into the line of fire countless times and literally taken a bullet for the guy. I honestly don't think Neal appreciates that, or Mozzie, nearly as much as he should. Plus...as much as I dig OT3, I think if push came to shove, Peter and El would be at a table for two and Neal would be sitting alone at June's with yet another empty bottle trying to figure out what went wrong, while Mozzie sat at the table setting up the chess board.

But as always, brilliant work and I love the complexities of all the relationship dynamics that are playing out. And I DO think El's sensing something is wrong. Mrs. Suit is no dummy and she knows her boys...I think someone as sensitive and intuitive as El knows when something is off but she's not pushing for now...sooner or later though she's either going to ask or they're going to tell.

[elrhiarhodan]

Long comment is not rambling.

Long comment is insightful and interesting.

Neal is - and I've said/written it many times - a fool for love, which is one of the things that has made his character so interesting, and one of the things that makes his outright greed this season so distressing (to the romantic in me).

Even though I love Peter, Peter and Elizabeth and the whole bromantic dynamic, I actively identify with Mozzie - I find his voice the easiest of all the WC characters to write. But I am also quite angry at the character this season - whether the art is blood loot from the Nazi's Jewish victims or not (according in JE and the WC writers, it was stolen from Tsarskoye Selo along with the rest of the Amber Room), I find Mozzie's willingness to overlook the origins of the loot very troubling, and the way he keeps pushing Neal deeper into his crime is not the act of a friend.

Or maybe it is - I just don't like it. It makes me unhappy.

[sugakane-01.livejournal.com]

Truthfully, the origins of the "big score" is the only aspect that bothers me about it (other than Peter getting the short end of the stick) I wish the treasure had some other origin...heck I'd have happily accepted pirate loot or just about anything else if they could have kept the whole Nazi angle out of it. The Tsarskoye Selo explanation somewhat mollifies me but its just...no matter how you slice it its stolen Nazi loot and its just distasteful.

I know *most* in the fandom are seriously distressed w/Neal's "turn to the darkside" but I'm not mad at him in the least. First, I've never forgotten Neal IS a criminal and as such he's got a certain moral ambiguity. I think he's such a good person people forget that he's quite capable of doing the absolute wrong thing for the absolute wrong reason.

I also think people discount just how much pressure Neal is living under. The way they've presented it on the show, Neal is OUT, but he's not FREE and the little bit of freedom he does have can be, and HAS been snatched away from him at a moments notice (after the plane explosion, when he was set up for the diamond heist)or if someone decides he's no longer "useful". Add to that the limitations, the regulations and the constant reminders of what he can't do, where he can't go, who he can't see, that he'll ALWAYS be suspect numero uno when something foul goes down, that he'll always be guilty until proven innocent, having to beg,scam cajole and coax for simple things like going to a gallery showing, ect and suddenly it doesn't seem so far fetched for him to feel like throwing up deuces and bouncing. For someone like Neal, who is such an inherently free spirit, so impulsive and has such a love for and NEED for adventure there are things, things he feels are essential, that are missing from his life. He's in an entirely different sort of prison in some ways.

Mozzie gave a fabulous insight into Neal in the pilot when he called him Icarus and said he'd flown too close to the sun and the FBI had clipped his wings. I think that's a very apt description.

I think Mozzie's the only person (except maybe June) that doesn't see Neal as someone who needed "fixing" or "saving" and recognizes that, whatever else he was, Neal was HAPPY with his life before and he was ok with the person he was. Mozzie (and June) are the only people in Neal's life that (imo) don't treat Neal like he needs to redeem himself...he accepts Neal for who and what he is. Neal doesn't have to do better, be better, become this person that he isn't sure he even wants to be...he can be Neal Caffery, or Nick Halden or Steve Tabernacle or the man in the moon and Mozzie doesn't blink, doesn't fade, doesn't judge. Neal doesn't have to do or be anyone or anything other than what he is, good, bad and ugly and it makes Mozzie no difference. I think that's part of why I adore their dynamic. Mozzie is, imo, the only person in Neal's life that can he absolutely mess up seven ways from Sunday with and he'll STILL be there when it all falls down. I don't think Neal has unconditional support from anyone else...everyone else has strings, or expectations, or qualifications or conditions. Everyone else acts like because things could be worse, Neal should just be grateful and not feel any grief for what he's lost or resentment for the choices he doesn't get to make. Mozzie doesn't and I think that's part of why Mozzie did what he did, he's the only person in Neal's life that recognizes the conflict Neal was in, the pressure he was under, and the danger Neal was in (ops could go bad, word could get out about him being a CI, Neal could mess up, higher ups could change their mind, ect)and from his perspective, he was giving his friend both his freedom AND the score of his dreams.

LOL maybe its the romantic in me, but I don't see this as much about greed as I do about freedom. The only thing that really bothers me about it is that Peter would be hurt and hurt Peter makes me sad.

[damietta.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic reply. It has really made me think.

[clemgo3165.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I don't see all out greed in Neal this season, in fact, I see him as still a fool for love, just not for Kate this time.

He and Peter had been getting progressively closer over the second half of last season and he's upset that Peter was so quick to accuse him of stealing the loot. Then he goes home only to find a key and a storage locker full of treasure, with Mozzie at the helm. He loves Moz too much to turn him in, with the loot, so he's torn.

There's an appeal to what Mozzie offers - some semblance of freedom and a neverending stash of cash - but there's an appeal to what Peter was offering too - but yet its being held out of reach at the moment. And there's no obvious way to reconcile the two. Choosing Moz tosses Peter (and Diana and Jones) under the bus. Choosing Peter means he loses Mozzie, as a friend certainly, and possibly to prison as well.

[queenaeron.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take the sort of middle road and say I agree with both of you, sugakane & chelmgo. I think Mozzie sees himself helping Neal back to his pre-arrest life. But the problem with that, as I see it, is that Neal has grown past that. He has established roots, friends, and a place where his skills are useful that doesn't end up with him being arrested. As far as we know, Mozzie has never been in jail. I would think that jail changes someone like Neal.

Wasn't it Elr who wrote a story where Elizabeth died right after Neal was sentences and Neal never escaped from prison. Peter and Neal end up meeting after Neal gets out (and Peter almost rapes him and Neal stops him by asking about Elizabeth, which is horrifying and heart-rendingly sad and beautiful all at the same time.)

Part of that story is that when Neal gets out, he takes a job with a company because he decides he never wants to go back to prison. There is no Mozzie (who is most definitely the devil on Neal's shoulder) in this story.

But I can see how Neal is so angry and hurt with Peter. In Payback, the bad guy (who's name I can't remember) says that every 6 months or so he gets roughed up by the FBI because he's got a conviction and he is so angry about these intrusions in his life so that he allows Keller to talk him into kidnapping Peter as payback. Consider what it would be like to be trying to live a legal type of life when every time there was a crime similar to the one you committed committed the police or the FBI rousted you. Neal has been working to gain Peter's trust. When Larrson came to Neal to make a deal to get out of the city, what did Neal do, he went straight to Peter. He kept his side of that "No More Secrets" ending of whatever ep, I can't remember that either! :-) But when Peter finds that scrap of paper, he immediately suspects Neal. I can understand why Peter would be suspicious of Neal and even in a different state of mind (he had just killed Adler, killing someone should freak you out a bit), but with everything that had happened before, especially Neal saving Peter's life in Payback, you would think that Peter would give him some benefit of the doubt.

In my opinion, this whole treasure arc feels sort of forced. Like JE and the writers said "Opps, we got them together too quick and now we have to pull them apart so we don't end the show too quick"

Here's a concept that someone once wrote about Bones. You don't need an over-arching arc to do great TV. You've got your central characters (Bones/Booth, Peter/Neal), you have them solving crimes with their crazy business family (the Squints/Squinterns - I still miss Zack, Jones/Diana/Mozzie), throw in some character development and just leave it alone. With Bones, the whole Gorgamon thing was interesting, but the resolution sucked (Zach! ARGH) and I still stand by my stance that the whole Adler thing was over way too quickly and Adler could have been a much better bad guy than Fowler ever was.

But I'm not the writers and I can do is come along for the ride and if the show jumps the shark (which I remember when Fonzie did jump the shark! LOL) I'm outta there. I'll be mad and probably swear never to get involved in another fandom, but it is what I do, so I won't mean it too terribly much! It is irritating, but there it is.

I'm done rambling now! :-)

[damietta.livejournal.com]

THIS! I think in canon this is going to have to come to a head (mon frere), too. Mozzie needs to feel a part of the family as well (I'm not talking OT4, but a part of the love).

I am very interested how YOU see Neal and Moz healing in the 'verse.

[elrhiarhodan]

Are you reading my brain?

I am writing that right now!!!!!!!

[damietta.livejournal.com]

See, I'm storing up brain points for when we eventually sit down and have several drinks together.

[rabidchild67.livejournal.com]

D'AWWWW!!!! I'm making high-pitched noises here. Like a dolphin. Or a humpback whale.

I love this so.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so much!

New chapter up now.

More high pitched noises are now expected.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

No, Mozzie, don't turn against Neal!

[elrhiarhodan]

As I used to do with my nephew when he was a fretful baby, I'd rock him and whisper, "sha sha, bebeh. It will be all right."

It will. New chapter has been posted. I don't think my heart could bear 20+ chapters of fixing Neal-Moz.

[ladygray99]

YES! That really is Mozzie's place. The brother who gets him into and out of trouble and helps him even when he doesn't want to. And for Mozzie who was a never adopted foster kid being called a brother implies being a member of a family and that's got to mean a lot.