White Collar Ficlet - Calculated
Dec. 12th, 2011 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elrhiarhodanTitle: Calculated
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke
Spoilers: S2.12 – What Happens in Burma
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~500
Summary: It wasn’t quite a lie that Neal told Peter that day. Not quite. Tag to S2.12, What Happens in Burma.
__________________
A/N: No beta. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
When Neal told Peter that his father was a cop, it wasn’t exactly the truth. And it wasn’t exactly a lie either. It was one of those in-between statements that Neal was so good at making, a calculated misdirection. His father was a cop - just not the kind that he knew Peter was going to assume - a beat cop, a local hero, a member of the thin blue line.
No, Neal’s father was a very special kind of law enforcement officer - the same kind as Peter. An FBI agent. Okay - technically, “cop” did not equal “FBI agent” - but for Neal, it was close enough not to be considered an outright lie.
There was simply no way that he could tell Peter that his father was a fellow agent. It would be far too devastating for both of them. He could see what Peter would do with that information - he’d worry at it like a dog with a particularly meaty bone, chewing and chewing and chewing until all that was left was splinters and a big, bloody mess.
No, it was better this way. Peter didn’t know much about his childhood - something that Neal was quite proud of, and as long as he thought that Caffrey Senior was part of a local PD, then Neal was safe. There was really no place for Peter to dig - and no reason to do so.
Neal never blamed his mother for the lies she told him - what little boy wants to know that his daddy was a liar, a thief and a murderer? And to be honest, she never knew the extent of her husband’s misdeeds. That he sold out his fellow agents to the not one but three of the major organized crime families in the New York area. That his testimony blew cases that should have been certain convictions. That he actively participated in the extermination of entire families - including women and children. When Neal called his father evil, he wasn’t indulging in histrionics.
And amazingly, the Bureau never knew - at least not until after he died, not until after he was interred with all the honors of an agent who was killed in the line of duty. His crimes were swept under the rug - the brass buried his file deep. The real George Caffrey was an embarrassment to the FBI, the Justice Department and humanity.
When Neal found out the truth - he wanted to do two things. Never pick up a gun again and change his name. For a decade and a half, he managed to do the former, but despite the dozens and dozens of aliases he created over the years, he never abandoned the name he was born with. Moz once asked him why, and Neal could never give him an answer that made sense.
Maybe it was just that he could never stop being the little boy who idolized the man he thought he father was. The little boy who wanted to grow up and be just like his daddy.
FIN
Author:
elrhiarhodanFandom: White Collar
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke
Spoilers: S2.12 – What Happens in Burma
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~500
Summary: It wasn’t quite a lie that Neal told Peter that day. Not quite. Tag to S2.12, What Happens in Burma.
A/N: No beta. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
When Neal told Peter that his father was a cop, it wasn’t exactly the truth. And it wasn’t exactly a lie either. It was one of those in-between statements that Neal was so good at making, a calculated misdirection. His father was a cop - just not the kind that he knew Peter was going to assume - a beat cop, a local hero, a member of the thin blue line.
No, Neal’s father was a very special kind of law enforcement officer - the same kind as Peter. An FBI agent. Okay - technically, “cop” did not equal “FBI agent” - but for Neal, it was close enough not to be considered an outright lie.
There was simply no way that he could tell Peter that his father was a fellow agent. It would be far too devastating for both of them. He could see what Peter would do with that information - he’d worry at it like a dog with a particularly meaty bone, chewing and chewing and chewing until all that was left was splinters and a big, bloody mess.
No, it was better this way. Peter didn’t know much about his childhood - something that Neal was quite proud of, and as long as he thought that Caffrey Senior was part of a local PD, then Neal was safe. There was really no place for Peter to dig - and no reason to do so.
Neal never blamed his mother for the lies she told him - what little boy wants to know that his daddy was a liar, a thief and a murderer? And to be honest, she never knew the extent of her husband’s misdeeds. That he sold out his fellow agents to the not one but three of the major organized crime families in the New York area. That his testimony blew cases that should have been certain convictions. That he actively participated in the extermination of entire families - including women and children. When Neal called his father evil, he wasn’t indulging in histrionics.
And amazingly, the Bureau never knew - at least not until after he died, not until after he was interred with all the honors of an agent who was killed in the line of duty. His crimes were swept under the rug - the brass buried his file deep. The real George Caffrey was an embarrassment to the FBI, the Justice Department and humanity.
When Neal found out the truth - he wanted to do two things. Never pick up a gun again and change his name. For a decade and a half, he managed to do the former, but despite the dozens and dozens of aliases he created over the years, he never abandoned the name he was born with. Moz once asked him why, and Neal could never give him an answer that made sense.
Maybe it was just that he could never stop being the little boy who idolized the man he thought he father was. The little boy who wanted to grow up and be just like his daddy.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-12-13 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-13 09:18 pm (UTC)