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elrhiarhodanTitle: It Might Have Happened Like This
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Neal Caffrey (Neal/Kate)
Spoilers: None, Reference to concepts from Season 1
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~400
Summary: An alternative theory of just how Neal got his hands on an empty bottle of ’82 Bordeaux
A/N: No beta. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
__________________
There are crimes, and then there are Crimes.
Stealing a Raphael - even if it wasn't a famous one like "St. George and the Dragon" is a crime (with a lower case "c"), using a $10,000 bottle of Chateau Petrus Pomerol '82 to make sangria is a Crime, one of the very highest order.
Yet that's just what those idiots did. They raided Daddy's wine cellar, grabbed a "bottle of red, a bottle of white" and went back to the party. The morons and dumped the contents into a punch bowl, added about a half-pound of sugar, a bunch of fruit, and some more sugar - because it wasn't sweet enough - and then proceeded to get plastered. Mummy and Daddy just paid the bills, apparently - they couldn't bother to attend.
Neal watched - his face carefully schooled against any sort of disapproval. He was only the hired help here - a waiter for these rich kids' graduation party (actually, he was here to case the place – Moz had gotten a lead on a set of very rare Roman coins. They’d be back another time for them).
They finished the sangria, and the kids went back downstairs for more wine. Neal wondered what their come up with next, a bottle of '82 Screaming Eagle? Thank goodness, no - Neal didn't think he could stop himself if they did that. This next bottle was another French Bordeaux - also '82, but thankfully not of the same quality as the Petrus. This one was probably worth about $700 - $800, and these little jackasses treated it as if it were boxed wine.
Inevitably, the evening ended - and while he had to stay and help with the clean up detail - he got stiffed. No tip, no payment for overtime. Just his $5.75 an hour for what? Watching a bunch of stupid rich kids behave like animals.
There was a bag with garbage - there were several, actually - but the one that was handed for him to take out contained the empty bottles for the lesser Bordeaux and the Chateau Petrus.
This changed the whole complexion of the evening. He'd sell the empty Petrus bottle - it was worth about three grand, maybe more, to the right person. The Bordeaux - that he'd keep. Kate would appreciate the irony.
FIN
Author:
elrhiarhodanFandom: White Collar
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Neal Caffrey (Neal/Kate)
Spoilers: None, Reference to concepts from Season 1
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~400
Summary: An alternative theory of just how Neal got his hands on an empty bottle of ’82 Bordeaux
A/N: No beta. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
There are crimes, and then there are Crimes.
Stealing a Raphael - even if it wasn't a famous one like "St. George and the Dragon" is a crime (with a lower case "c"), using a $10,000 bottle of Chateau Petrus Pomerol '82 to make sangria is a Crime, one of the very highest order.
Yet that's just what those idiots did. They raided Daddy's wine cellar, grabbed a "bottle of red, a bottle of white" and went back to the party. The morons and dumped the contents into a punch bowl, added about a half-pound of sugar, a bunch of fruit, and some more sugar - because it wasn't sweet enough - and then proceeded to get plastered. Mummy and Daddy just paid the bills, apparently - they couldn't bother to attend.
Neal watched - his face carefully schooled against any sort of disapproval. He was only the hired help here - a waiter for these rich kids' graduation party (actually, he was here to case the place – Moz had gotten a lead on a set of very rare Roman coins. They’d be back another time for them).
They finished the sangria, and the kids went back downstairs for more wine. Neal wondered what their come up with next, a bottle of '82 Screaming Eagle? Thank goodness, no - Neal didn't think he could stop himself if they did that. This next bottle was another French Bordeaux - also '82, but thankfully not of the same quality as the Petrus. This one was probably worth about $700 - $800, and these little jackasses treated it as if it were boxed wine.
Inevitably, the evening ended - and while he had to stay and help with the clean up detail - he got stiffed. No tip, no payment for overtime. Just his $5.75 an hour for what? Watching a bunch of stupid rich kids behave like animals.
There was a bag with garbage - there were several, actually - but the one that was handed for him to take out contained the empty bottles for the lesser Bordeaux and the Chateau Petrus.
This changed the whole complexion of the evening. He'd sell the empty Petrus bottle - it was worth about three grand, maybe more, to the right person. The Bordeaux - that he'd keep. Kate would appreciate the irony.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-09 04:07 pm (UTC)I couldd really identify with Neal here because I have some friends who just don't get that you don't mix coca cola and good red wine. I drives me crazy! ;-)
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Date: 2011-12-09 04:09 pm (UTC)I agree - I've seen people add club soda to very good bordeaux for a red wine "spritzer"!
GAHHHHHHH!
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Date: 2011-12-09 05:25 pm (UTC)Also, appropriate post for one of my favorite Neal icons. Hurray!
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Date: 2011-12-09 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:35 pm (UTC)(And just WHAT have you done to poor Simon?)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 06:35 pm (UTC)Don't worry; he's a grump, but he'll do ridiculous things for his boys. haha.
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Date: 2011-12-10 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:35 pm (UTC)Smart Neal is smart, isn't he?
no subject
Date: 2011-12-10 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:38 pm (UTC)Neal has a very interesting sense of morality. He doesn't think that it's really wrong to case the house for a future burglery, but he's completely outraged at idea of his employer's kids abusing the wine cellar. Not for the parent's sake - but for the sake of the wine itself.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-11 08:23 am (UTC)I'm so with Neal on this on.
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Date: 2011-12-12 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-11 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:40 pm (UTC)I remember my parents getting bottled sangria and then getting drunk on the fruit.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-11 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:41 pm (UTC)Neal definitely has classist issues - we see it occasionally in canon (I'm thinking of his OTT reaction to Daniel Picah's art collection).
no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-13 12:15 pm (UTC)Personally, I've got low, "peasant" tastes as far as drinkables go; I prefer the flavor of sangria, or cheap rum in diet cola, or truck-stop coffee with artificial sweetener and lots of creamer. But I'd never waste someone else's good wine like that, even if it was just a $40 or $50 bottle.
I hope, when Neal and Mozzie came back and stole the Roman coins, that they swiped the rest of the good wine too, if only to save it from such a fate. (Besides, they'd want to toast their success, right?)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-13 01:24 pm (UTC)If I were to write a followup for this ficlet, you've given me the perfect idea. Moz and Neal would definitely liberate the contents of that wine cellar - at least of the really good stuff!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-13 02:34 pm (UTC)And THIS icon...
Date: 2011-12-13 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 05:37 pm (UTC)