White Collar Ficlet - Sunny Day Blues

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: Sunny Day Blues
Author: elrhiarhodan
Rating: R
Fandom: White Collar
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~200
Summary: A fill from the prompt provided by photoash.

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By all rights, Peter should be a happy, happy man. He just got a promotion, a pay raise and a nice big gold star in his jacket for catching Neal Caffrey and ensuring his conviction. But something feels off - wrong - bad. It feels like an old, but distant friend died, someone you didn't talk to everyday or every month, and who could always there to pick up the conversation where you left off, but was now gone forever.

At first, Peter thinks that four years isn't so bad. Neal will get out before his thirty-third birthday, and hopefully will not resume a life of crime. But four years is 1460 days and nights in a maximum security prison filled with murders and rapists and hard case prison guards who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of someone young and physically weaker.

Peter attends Neal Caffrey's sentencing hearing, even though he knows the outcome. He just wants to see him – so he can remember him as a beautiful, shining thing. At then end, when the bailiffs take him away - Neal turns and smiles at him, like they are good friends and they'll be seeing each other soon.

Peter walks out into the bright October afternoon and all he sees are shadows.