elrhiarhodan: (Neal - Looking Up)
[personal profile] elrhiarhodan
Title: Luck
Author: [livejournal.com profile] elrhiarhodan
Rating: Gen
Fandom: White Collar
Spoilers: Out of the Box
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~300
Summary: The totally sublime [livejournal.com profile] photoash  opened up a terrific ficlet challenge yesterday.  She gave me three prompts, and here is my response to the second one:

Neal - Luck

Neal doesn't believe in luck. That's why he plays chess, not poker; backgammon, not baccarat. Skill is what matters, the untalented rely on luck.

This doesn't explain Peter Burke, though. There was nothing about skill that resulted in the random assignment of Special Agent Peter Burke to the investigations of a series of seemingly unrelated art thefts, confidence schemes and forgeries. But luck had nothing to do with Burke's ability to piece together those random crimes into a singular pattern and track Neal with the tenacity of a bloodhound on the scent.

Neal never considered the assignment of Agent Burke to his case to be bad luck. As he once told Kate (who had bemoaned the fact that Burke was responsible for the hasty abandonment of their lovely apartment in Venice), there where probably hundreds of FBI agents equally skilled. They'd just have to work a little harder to keep ahead of the very tenacious Agent Burke. That hard work paid off in Prague - Neal had very deliberately picked a third floor apartment over a bakery with a sturdy awning.   Just in case he needed to defenestrate in an emergency. Luck had nothing to do with him standing next to the opened window when Burke burst into the apartment.

Neal didn't even consider his eventual arrest a matter of good (Burke's) or bad (his own) luck - Burke was just that much smarter, and he respected that immensely.

In fact, the only time he even remotely considered that his relationship with Peter Burke was lucky was the day after he nearly boarded a small private jet that was supposed to take him and Kate to a whole new life.

We're lucky

Date: 2010-06-17 02:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ursula4x.livejournal.com
To have you writing us stories.

This one was full of references to the bits of the over riding story you have been telling.

Date: 2010-06-17 02:27 am (UTC)

Date: 2010-06-17 05:12 am (UTC)
ladygray99: (Default)
From: [personal profile] ladygray99
This little drabble (and the one before) just made my day but then I tend to want to gush over most all of you fic.

Date: 2010-06-17 11:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com
Ahh, brilliant. If I didn't already worship you for your writing skills, I'd love you simply for your use of defenestrate!

Date: 2010-06-17 07:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] photoash.livejournal.com
:) You have such clever ideas <3 I like this a lot!

Date: 2010-06-17 07:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ostaras-journey.livejournal.com
Great piece of character study. I can totally see Neal feeling this way about luck v. skill. Very convincing.

Date: 2010-06-17 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] misura.livejournal.com
For some reason, I rather imagine Peter might well agree with Neal on most of these points, especially the central one of luck being far less important than solid planning and skill.

Loved Neal respecting Peter's skills and smarts - although I'm somewhat curious if he still holds the opinion that there are plenty of other FBI agents like him. *g*

Date: 2010-06-17 11:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shelley6441.livejournal.com

Luck is unreliable, unlike smarts and skill.

Thank you for writing such excellent WC fics - keeps me excited until the show resumes next month.

Date: 2010-06-18 12:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] damietta.livejournal.com
I really love how you weave canon and your own WC world in and out of your stories (I have finally caught up on Venice and the bridge, thank you!)

I love that they are the smartest guys in the room. And both would use the word "defenestrate". Mozzie would understand it as well as Elizabeth.

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