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fan_flashworks2016-06-29 02:03 pm
china_shop) wrote in fan_flashworks2016-06-29 02:03 pm
Entry tags:
Communication: White Collar: fic: Soon, but not yet
Title: Soon, but not yet
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: G
Length: ~860 words
Notes: Peter gen, missing scene from 1.06. Also for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wc_rewatch. A million thanks to mergatrude for beta. <3 <3 <3
Summary: Peter writes a memo.
Peter emerged from Hughes’ office with mixed feelings: they had ample evidence against Lao, at least enough to take down his money-laundering operation and punish him for the murder of John Costa. SWAT would move in and arrest him within the hour, and Peter could attend Costa’s memorial service and offer condolences to his widow with a clear conscience.
All the same, the operation hadn’t exactly gone smoothly, given Neal’s double agent act. He’d sat there with that helpful smile on his face, all the while trying to stop them discovering the truth about Meilin. Delaying long enough that they hadn’t been able to recover Costa’s body. In other circumstances, that misdirect could have been the difference between getting an agent out alive or not.
Peter was guiltily grateful Costa’s murder had preceded White Collar’s involvement.
And as for Neal, who refused to accept that his obligation to the Bureau had to take precedence, or how precarious his position was, let alone how much political capital it was costing Peter to keep him out of prison, this eternal obsession with Kate was a vulnerability that anyone with insider information could exploit. Which meant any day now Neal would find out Kate was working with the FBI—if the ring in the photo were anything to go by—and then the fragile trust that had been building between Peter and his CI would collapse like a failed soufflé.
Peter paused on the mezzanine. Neal had just arrived back at his desk. He dropped into his chair and slid a thumbdrive into the USB slot of his computer with an air of casual innocence that set Peter’s alarm bells going. Meilin must have slipped him some intel after all.
But what? How much did she know?
Cruz pushed through the doors from the elevators, and Neal grabbed a file from his in-tray and pretended to be engrossed in it. When the coast was clear again, he pushed the file aside and clicked around on his computer, probably opening the drive directory. For a moment, Peter thought this was it, the moment of truth, and time seemed to slow with the anticipation of disaster. Then Neal pushed his chair a few inches back from his desk, slumping in obvious disappointment, and Peter breathed again.
He went into his office, sat at his desk and brought up a new email window. The cursor blinked steadily.
Attn: Chief of INTERPOL Operations and Command Center, Washington
I am hereby lodging a formal complaint against INTERPOL operative Meilin Won for attempting to bribe and co-opt an FBI criminal informant, Neal Caffrey, in the middle of a highly sensitive investigation into missing federal agent Mark Costa, with the clear aim of obstructing that investigation. Agent Won lied to Caffrey and encouraged him to abuse his role to interfere with the operation. This is unacceptable, and constitutes a real threat to the continued viability of interagency cooperation. I will be apprising the FBI executive as soon as
Peter gritted his teeth. His hands stilled on the keyboard.
As soon as hell froze over. Dammit!
He couldn’t tell the Bureau. He couldn’t even tell Hughes the whole story. The more people who found out Kate was apparently working with someone from the FBI, the sooner Neal would find out, and Peter had no doubt Neal would raze his life to the ground for Kate. Again. To “rescue” her, when she was probably in exactly the same position he was (even if she wasn’t officially registered as a federal CI, as far as Peter had been able to discover).
Then Ruiz and every other department head with a bee in their bonnet about letting criminals out of prison and sharing information with cons would make it their business to ensure Neal ended up back behind bars, signaling the end of both Peter’s partnership with Neal and the not-inconsiderable bump in the White Collar unit’s closure rate.
Dammit.
Peter rubbed his face tiredly. There was only one real thing to do, and that was to continue on as he had been: closing cases with Neal and, off book, enquiring into which FBI department had Kate and to what purpose. He couldn’t strategize beyond that until he had the facts.
A knock on his door startled him out of his reverie. It was Neal. “Mr. Twan just called and invited us to lunch at his restaurant. You in?”
Peter glanced at the half-written memo on his screen and clicked delete, before Neal psychically figured out what he’d been doing. Neal was so close to getting himself on track, tantalizingly close. A couple more weeks, and Peter was sure he could convince him that this—working with the team, outwitting criminals and putting them away—was the right choice, the life he was made for.
And once Peter was sure Neal had made that choice, was steady on the path, Peter would tell him everything he knew about Kate. They’d figure it out together. But not yet. There was too much at stake. Soon, and definitely before Neal found out through other means—but not just yet.
“Yeah,” he told Neal. “I’m in.”
END
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: G
Length: ~860 words
Notes: Peter gen, missing scene from 1.06. Also for
wc_rewatch. A million thanks to mergatrude for beta. <3 <3 <3Summary: Peter writes a memo.
Peter emerged from Hughes’ office with mixed feelings: they had ample evidence against Lao, at least enough to take down his money-laundering operation and punish him for the murder of John Costa. SWAT would move in and arrest him within the hour, and Peter could attend Costa’s memorial service and offer condolences to his widow with a clear conscience.
All the same, the operation hadn’t exactly gone smoothly, given Neal’s double agent act. He’d sat there with that helpful smile on his face, all the while trying to stop them discovering the truth about Meilin. Delaying long enough that they hadn’t been able to recover Costa’s body. In other circumstances, that misdirect could have been the difference between getting an agent out alive or not.
Peter was guiltily grateful Costa’s murder had preceded White Collar’s involvement.
And as for Neal, who refused to accept that his obligation to the Bureau had to take precedence, or how precarious his position was, let alone how much political capital it was costing Peter to keep him out of prison, this eternal obsession with Kate was a vulnerability that anyone with insider information could exploit. Which meant any day now Neal would find out Kate was working with the FBI—if the ring in the photo were anything to go by—and then the fragile trust that had been building between Peter and his CI would collapse like a failed soufflé.
Peter paused on the mezzanine. Neal had just arrived back at his desk. He dropped into his chair and slid a thumbdrive into the USB slot of his computer with an air of casual innocence that set Peter’s alarm bells going. Meilin must have slipped him some intel after all.
But what? How much did she know?
Cruz pushed through the doors from the elevators, and Neal grabbed a file from his in-tray and pretended to be engrossed in it. When the coast was clear again, he pushed the file aside and clicked around on his computer, probably opening the drive directory. For a moment, Peter thought this was it, the moment of truth, and time seemed to slow with the anticipation of disaster. Then Neal pushed his chair a few inches back from his desk, slumping in obvious disappointment, and Peter breathed again.
He went into his office, sat at his desk and brought up a new email window. The cursor blinked steadily.
Attn: Chief of INTERPOL Operations and Command Center, Washington
I am hereby lodging a formal complaint against INTERPOL operative Meilin Won for attempting to bribe and co-opt an FBI criminal informant, Neal Caffrey, in the middle of a highly sensitive investigation into missing federal agent Mark Costa, with the clear aim of obstructing that investigation. Agent Won lied to Caffrey and encouraged him to abuse his role to interfere with the operation. This is unacceptable, and constitutes a real threat to the continued viability of interagency cooperation. I will be apprising the FBI executive as soon as
Peter gritted his teeth. His hands stilled on the keyboard.
As soon as hell froze over. Dammit!
He couldn’t tell the Bureau. He couldn’t even tell Hughes the whole story. The more people who found out Kate was apparently working with someone from the FBI, the sooner Neal would find out, and Peter had no doubt Neal would raze his life to the ground for Kate. Again. To “rescue” her, when she was probably in exactly the same position he was (even if she wasn’t officially registered as a federal CI, as far as Peter had been able to discover).
Then Ruiz and every other department head with a bee in their bonnet about letting criminals out of prison and sharing information with cons would make it their business to ensure Neal ended up back behind bars, signaling the end of both Peter’s partnership with Neal and the not-inconsiderable bump in the White Collar unit’s closure rate.
Dammit.
Peter rubbed his face tiredly. There was only one real thing to do, and that was to continue on as he had been: closing cases with Neal and, off book, enquiring into which FBI department had Kate and to what purpose. He couldn’t strategize beyond that until he had the facts.
A knock on his door startled him out of his reverie. It was Neal. “Mr. Twan just called and invited us to lunch at his restaurant. You in?”
Peter glanced at the half-written memo on his screen and clicked delete, before Neal psychically figured out what he’d been doing. Neal was so close to getting himself on track, tantalizingly close. A couple more weeks, and Peter was sure he could convince him that this—working with the team, outwitting criminals and putting them away—was the right choice, the life he was made for.
And once Peter was sure Neal had made that choice, was steady on the path, Peter would tell him everything he knew about Kate. They’d figure it out together. But not yet. There was too much at stake. Soon, and definitely before Neal found out through other means—but not just yet.
“Yeah,” he told Neal. “I’m in.”
END
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Poor Peter. He really has no idea what's going on, and how much he and Neal are not on the same page.
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Thanks so much, you! <3
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(Honestly, I love White Collar when it's Peter and Neal -- and the rest -- against the crims of the world. When it's constantly Neal and Peter hiding information from each other and secretly working at cross-purposes, it makes me sad for them.)
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Thanks so much! <3
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IKR?!?! Peter broke it from the start - he had the music box, and never told Neal about it. Coulda saved like 4 or 5 eps if Peter'd been honest about it from the start. Peter even knows they are missing a piece of it! Who d'ya think's gonna know something about that missing piece, huh, Peter? *wanders off muttering about arrogant numbskull Feebs*
*g*
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That can't be right: they made the promise just as they were opening the music box together, at the end of 2.08. Then in 2.09 Peter shared the invoice linking Fowler to the explosives, while Neal roped in Alex to run around behind Peter's back and steal the music box from Diana's place. :-P
(ETA: Note that I'm not calling Neal names. Please stop badmouthing Peter in my comments. Thanks.)
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I get frustrated with Neal too - even more so later on in the series.
Both Peter and Neal have some serious flaws - just like all us human beings (one of mine is tactlessness, sorry!) - but they are both so very likable at the same time :-)
Anyway, you're right, the "no more secrets" promise comes after they put the music box together. My frustration came from Peter earlier in that ep, 2.08, saying that "We are working on this together," but by "together" he means sending Diana in to find out what Neal and Mozzie know. Peter and Diana don't tell them that they have the music box until Neal confronts Peter about the sheet music Mozzie saw that Diana had. So I was disappointed in Peter's defn of "together", but then they are in the middle of a case, so obvsly Peter's focus is going to be there, not on the Kate-Fowler business.
And then yeah, it's Neal who immediately contrives this elaborate secret plan to have Alex steal the box from Diana and give it to the Russian embassy. He could just have easily gone to Peter with a plan for a sting/con - but no, Neal does it this way cuz he does want to keep his "revenge" option open (among other reasons); thus proving why Peter needed to be holding back all this time.
Oh, Neal *sighs*
After 1.08, when Peter tells Neal about his meeting with Kate, I thought they were building a lot more trust in each other - like Peter knows Neal is going to get the music box, and Neal becomes more honest about the lengths he'll have to go to to get it. From 1.09
(I had to quote that cuz it is one of my fav scenes. I think it does hurt Neal to tell the truth (well, depending on the truth) - talk about character flaws *g*)
But of course Peter's not gonna be happy about Neal's stealing the box, and after the plane explosion and Neal's stint in prison it's understandable that they've both backed off their level of trust in each other :-(
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See, we haven't got to that point in the rewatch yet, obviously, but as I recall, Peter and Neal had an agreement early in the season that Peter would look into Kate's death and tell Neal when he found something. *searches transcripts* Yeah, in prison when Peter offers Neal the anklet back:
I think Peter is totally trying to protect Neal by withholding the details of his investigation/speculation... completely rightly, as it turns out, since Neal commits about a billion crimes as soon as he has somewhere to focus his grief/revenge.
and after the plane explosion and Neal's stint in prison it's understandable that they've both backed off their level of trust in each other :-(
I don't feel like they have. They're still really close there, there's a lot of mutual understanding, and at least on Peter's part, any secrecy is a practical I-know-him-well-enough-to-know-he's-not-ready-to-hear-this-yet tactic, rather than lack of trust. IMO.
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Neal's developing trust in Peter, but Neal has such long-standing issues with trust period that I don't think he can trust anyone, not with something like this.
Plus, Neal has to do something with his grief, and right now, he just wants to focus it on finding out what happened and who's responsible. There's other coping methods for grief, but I don't think Neal could be convinced to use any other. He doesn't want to deal with his feelings and work through them; he wants to focus on external actions and distract himself. And of course the con and the heist are his fav actions - they consume all his attention, especially with his current limitations (the tracker, and the balancing act with the FBI).
Just as the show makes Kate into a shadowy character with unclear motives, the show's focus on Neal means the viewers get a lot more sympathy and understanding of his position. We don't get Peter's POV nearly as much (how did he contact Kate? Why couldn't (or wouldn't) he get a meeting with them both together?) I guess that's partly because we mostly law-abiding viewers are expected to understand Peter motivations much more easily, but we'd need to really get into Neal's heart and mind to understand why he's still constantly pulling these capers.
But also Peter is (on occasion) presented as a bit shadowy and unclear in his motivations, like at the end of 1.07, and then the beginning of the second season, where he and Diana have hung onto the music box (against FBI evidence regulations). Obviously we learn pretty quickly that all this is done with the best intentions, but there's still a bit of "is Peter trustworthy? Does he have a hidden motive?" going on.
no subject
Though, actually, we see Peter's inner workings in his scenes with Elizabeth, including El's awareness of how emotionally invested Peter is.
*pets everyone*
Why couldn't (or wouldn't) he get a meeting with them both together?
Because he wants Neal to forget about Kate and focus on rehabilitating himself. Why would he take Neal there? That would just feed into Neal's overblown narrative of his life as a romantic tragedy.
Also, as you've pointed out elsewhere, Kate was (possibly) avoiding Neal for some or all of their recent past, and she's still keeping her distance, for whatever reason -- maybe Peter thought she wouldn't want to see him, or she vetoed Peter telling Neal they were meeting. Who knows?
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But Peter really cares - he could get plenty upset at Neal for what he did, but that could land him back in jail.
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The show is pretty much ignoring what Peter does and doesn't know about Kate right now, so I thought I'd try and figure it out/explain his silence.
no subject
But in any case, complaint or no, prolly doesn't affect anything in the big picture. Just poor Mrs Costa D: D: D:
I have always wondered how Peter found Kate. I bet someone on "Project Mentor" slipped him some sort of story which prejudiced him against Kate.
Neal would raze his life to the ground for Kate. Again. To “rescue” her, when she was probably in exactly the same position he was
And you don't think Neal considers his position as one he'd like rescuing from? Certainly he'd want to "rescue" any of his friends from it, if he could. Tho obvsly it's not what "you" think, it's what Peter thinks, and he's so pro-FBI (at this point) that I'm sure he can't view working with the FBI in any capacity as anything other than an honor and privilege *g*
(oh shoot, I've always wondered how they (Fowler/Adler) kept Kate strung along for so long, under their thumb. What was she doing in between the few times she contacted Neal? Maybe she has been acting as a CI - see, dang it, now there's another whole series: how BAMF!CI!Kate helps the FBI solve crimes while trying to shut down Fowler/Adler's threats and protect Neal from them AND figure out how to free herself and Neal from all this bullshit once and for all...
and do all this wo Mozzie! Or Mozzie's trust, or Neal's trust, or Fowler's trust, or anyone :-((((
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Well, we don't know that Meilin had anything to do with Costa's death. It's just as possible $500K was the cost of not recovering his body.
it's what Peter thinks, and he's so pro-FBI (at this point) that I'm sure he can't view working with the FBI in any capacity as anything other than an honor and privilege
I believe the appropriate phrase is, "It beats looking at prison bars all day."
Thanks for reading. :-)
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