White Collar: The Stone of Freyja - Part 3
Title: The Stone of Freyja, Part 3
Author: Serena-chan (hourglass244 )
Fandom: White Collar
Pairings: Peter/Neal, Peter/Elizabeth
Rating: PG (rating will go up as story progresses)
Spoilers: None - Takes place sometime during season 2.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: An ancient relic turns our favorite con artist into a cat.
A/N: This story seems to be fighting me every step of the way, but I like the idea too much to abandon it. As always, feedback is much appreciated.
Part 1 ~ Part 2
When Peter awoke the next morning, he felt a brief moment of confusion at his surroundings before the events of the previous day came crashing in on him. Sitting up, he looked around for his now-fluffy partner, but the other side of the bed was empty. A soft thumping sound caused him to peer over the edge of the bed, and he let out a surprised bark of laughter at what he found. Neal had Peter's tie from the previous day (which Peter had left hanging over the back of one of the chairs), and was rolling around on the floor with it, biting it and batting at it with his paws.
At the sound of the older man's laughter, Neal looked up at him, surprise and embarrassment written all over his face. He quickly tried to put some distance between himself and the tie, but ended up becoming tangled in it and tripping. Peter was laughing so hard that he was almost in tears, but he still managed to reach over the side of the bed and extricate his friend from the offending item of clothing.
"I'm sorry!" Peter laughed. The indignant look Neal was giving him was absolutely priceless. "I always knew you hated that tie, but I never thought you'd try to murder it."
Neal gave him a withering look and darted under the bed.
"Oh, come on!" Peter called after him. "Look, you're a kitten now. Kittens play with things. It's perfectly understandable!"
The only response he got was a soft growl from somewhere under the bed.
Leaving him there to sulk for the moment, Peter climbed out of bed and went to make a pot of coffee. He had the feeling that he'd need it.
Neal eventually came out of his hiding place just as Peter was finishing his breakfast. The agent opened a can of tuna for him and went to take a shower. When he was finished, he made quick calls to both Elizabeth and Diana.
"No news yet," Peter told Neal. "But it's still early days, and we haven't heard from Mozzie yet, either." He grabbed his laptop and went to sit over on the sofa.
"I'm going to do some research of my own. Here, play with this if you want something to do." He tossed Neal the stuffed toy mouse that Elizabeth had bought, delighting in the indignant noise the con made before looking down at it speculatively.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Look, if you won't tell anyone that I held you last night, then I won't tell anyone that you played with a toy mouse, okay?"
After a brief staring contest which Peter thought he might have won, Neal eventually made his way over to the toy and sniffed at it. He looked up at Peter in surprise.
"I think it has catnip in it," Peter said, in answer to his inquisitive gaze.
He turned his attention back to his screen and brought up his favorite search engine. Diana apparently hadn't had much luck digging through the Bureau's files on antique artifacts yesterday, but she promised to resume her search today. Peter decided to focus his searches on the strange symbols carved into the surface of the jewel.
He spared a quick glance up at Neal and had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing again. Neal was laying on his back, biting at the mouse and holding it still with his front paws while he kicked at it with his back legs.
An hour or so later, Peter felt like his eyes were beginning to go cross from looking through charts and lists of ancient languages. He was about to take a break when he finally saw something.
"Neal, take a look at this!" the agent called excitedly. "I'm still not sure what these larger symbols are, but I think these smaller ones are ancient Norse runes. Now, if I can just figure out... Uh, Neal?"
The younger man had jumped up onto the couch and climbed into Peter's lap, purring and rubbing against him.
"What the - oh." His eyes fell on the toy mouse. "That catnip must be pretty potent stuff, huh?"
In response, Neal nudged at Peter's hand with his cold nose.
"You seriously expect me to pet you?" Peter asked incredulously, although his hand was already stroking down Neal's soft fur. "Fine, but I want it noted that the idea of petting my partner is just plain weird, no matter what body you're in."
Neal purred, seemingly undaunted, and rolled over to have his belly rubbed.
"Hedonist," Peter accused fondly. He went back to his research with one hand, his other absently petting the purring bundle of fluff next to him.
Around noon Peter decided to take a break, stretch his legs, and call Diana. He left Neal in a catnip-induced slumber on the couch and took his cellphone out onto the balcony so he wouldn't disturb him.
"Please tell me you have something," Diana said, sounding frazzled. "You wouldn't believe the state the records are in down here, and our new clerk is absolutely useless!"
"The smaller symbols are Norse runes," Peter told her. "I haven't been able to find any record yet of what the bigger markings are."
"Well, that's something at least," the younger agent conceded. "At least I can narrow down my search. How's Neal doing?"
"Still furry. Oh, and he's discovered catnip."
"I see," Diana wasn't quite able to keep her laughter out of her voice.
"Yeah, you can thank Elizabeth for that," Peter groused. "How are things at the office?"
"Jones has been covering for me on our current case," Diana informed him. "I told him that I'm working on a special project for you. Oh, and Hughes said to take the weekend as well if you need it to 'get better.'"
"At the rate we're going, we might need it," sighed Peter. "I just hope Mozzie is having better luck than we are."
As Peter was hanging up, his phone beeped, letting him know that he had a text message. It was from Elizabeth and simply said: 'Come open front door.'
The agent made his way downstairs, surprised to see his wife on the doorstep. She held up bags of takeout with a smile.
"Hey, hon, I brought lunch," she said, kissing him. "I rang the bell, but no one answered. Are you two here by yourselves?"
"Yeah, we got lucky," Peter said, taking the sacks from her and following her up the stairs. "June's away visiting relatives, and she gave the staff the week off. I'm not sure how we'd explain this to her, or if she'd even believe me."
Elizabeth stopped just outside Neal's door, and asked in a lowered voice, "So how is he today?"
"Physically, he fine. He had a nightmare and... I guess it was some kind of panic attack last night," Peter told her.
"Poor thing," she murmured. "I hope you didn't just tell him to cowboy up."
"I was sympathetic!" Peter protested. Elizabeth just gave him a skeptical look and swung the door open.
"Neal, lunch time. I ordered you salmon," she called, in what Peter considered to be on overly-bright voice.
Neal sat up, blinking sleepily, and let out a joyous mew when he saw his visitor. He hopped down off the couch and went to rub himself against her ankles, purring.
"Awww," Elizabeth crooned, swooping him up in her arms.
"I think he's still a little loopy from the catnip," Peter told her, grabbing them some drinks from the fridge. "Speaking of which, did you have to get him the toy mouse?"
"Well, he can't exactly have a glass of wine to unwind anymore, now can he?" she said, scratching the kitten in her arms behind his ears. "I thought catnip might be the next best thing."
Neal purred in agreement and snuggled closer, pleased with all the attention, and prompting Peter to yell, "Caffrey, stop flirting with my wife!"
****
Elizabeth showed up again that evening with an overnight bag and the simple explanation that she missed her husband. Peter suspected that she was really there in case Neal had another panic attack, but he was glad to see her just the same.
She and Neal spent the evening curled up on the couch watching something in French with subtitles. Peter quickly lost interest and took his beer, his laptop, and one of the sports magazines into the bedroom for some quiet. After thumbing through the magazine, he checked his email and grinned at what he saw there.
"El, Neal, look what Diana's found," he called, carrying his laptop back into the other room.
Elizabeth looked up from her place on the couch and put a finger to her lips. Neal was curled around himself on one of the cushions and was fast asleep. Peter motioned for his wife to join him the next room, and she did, pausing the movie first.
"What is it?" she asked, peering at the screen over his shoulder.
"Diana ran the big symbols that we couldn't figure out through an image recognition program at work. Here's what it found." He pointed to a picture of ancient stone carvings depicting a woman with long, flowing hair riding in a chariot drawn by cats. "Look at the symbol carved into the side of the chariot."
"That's the same marking as on the necklace, right?"
Peter nodded. "I don't know what it means, but we're getting closer to discovering the origin of the piece. Hopefully that will lead us to some answers on how to change Neal back."
"That's great, hon," she smiled and kissed him on the cheek, although Peter realized that her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Peter, I've been thinking..." She sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh. "I know that if there's a solution then you'll find it, but what if there isn't one to be found? What are we going to do if Neal is stuck like this forever?"
The agent took a seat next to her with a grave expression on his face. "I've been thinking about that, too, and I just don't know, El. Neal will never be truly happy like this." He took her hand and squeezed it, as much to reassure himself as it was to reassure her. "We'll take care of him, make him as happy as we can, and... I don't know what else. Satch will have to get used to cats, I guess. Hughes will think he ran, and we'll have to let everyone else think that, too. There's no way anyone would believe us."
Elizabeth threw her arms around him, and they sat there for awhile, just holding one another. Peter didn't want to worry her any more than she already was, but something else had been bothering him all day. Cats didn't live as long as humans. If they couldn't change Neal back, then his lifespan had just been shortened considerably.
Mentally shaking himself out of his stupor, he glanced at his watch. "Feel like turning in early tonight?"
"You go ahead," El told him. "I want to finish my movie first."
She made her way back to the couch and found Neal awake. "Tired, huh?" she asked, settling down next to him. "I bet you've had a long day. It can't be easy getting used to a new body."
Petting him, she let her eyes roam speculatively around the room. She never noticed before how sparse Neal's movie collection was, and from some of the titles, she suspected they actually belonged to Mozzie. There were tons of books in the room, but she wasn't sure how many were Neal's and how many belonged to June.
"You don't watch much TV, do you?" she asked. "What do you do to relax?"
Stretching, Neal hopped down onto the floor and made his way across the room. Elizabeth followed him curiously and found him staring longingly at a large wooden box next to his easel. Lifting the lid, she found tubes of oil paint, brushes, some drawing pencils, and a few sticks of charcoal.
"Oh, right," she murmured, and silently prayed that Neal would be able to pick up a paintbrush again one day. Picking him up, she whispered, "Peter will fix this, and I'll find something for you to occupy yourself with until he does."
****
After the movie was finished, Elizabeth carried a very sleepy Neal into the bedroom to find Peter already in bed asleep. She crawled in next to him and tucked herself into his side, and his arm automatically went around her shoulders. She set Neal down on Peter's chest and wrapped her arm around them both. It was nice, but she hoped for Neal's sake that there wouldn't be too many more nights like this.
Continued: Part 4
Author: Serena-chan (hourglass244 )
Fandom: White Collar
Pairings: Peter/Neal, Peter/Elizabeth
Rating: PG (rating will go up as story progresses)
Spoilers: None - Takes place sometime during season 2.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: An ancient relic turns our favorite con artist into a cat.
A/N: This story seems to be fighting me every step of the way, but I like the idea too much to abandon it. As always, feedback is much appreciated.
Part 1 ~ Part 2
When Peter awoke the next morning, he felt a brief moment of confusion at his surroundings before the events of the previous day came crashing in on him. Sitting up, he looked around for his now-fluffy partner, but the other side of the bed was empty. A soft thumping sound caused him to peer over the edge of the bed, and he let out a surprised bark of laughter at what he found. Neal had Peter's tie from the previous day (which Peter had left hanging over the back of one of the chairs), and was rolling around on the floor with it, biting it and batting at it with his paws.
At the sound of the older man's laughter, Neal looked up at him, surprise and embarrassment written all over his face. He quickly tried to put some distance between himself and the tie, but ended up becoming tangled in it and tripping. Peter was laughing so hard that he was almost in tears, but he still managed to reach over the side of the bed and extricate his friend from the offending item of clothing.
"I'm sorry!" Peter laughed. The indignant look Neal was giving him was absolutely priceless. "I always knew you hated that tie, but I never thought you'd try to murder it."
Neal gave him a withering look and darted under the bed.
"Oh, come on!" Peter called after him. "Look, you're a kitten now. Kittens play with things. It's perfectly understandable!"
The only response he got was a soft growl from somewhere under the bed.
Leaving him there to sulk for the moment, Peter climbed out of bed and went to make a pot of coffee. He had the feeling that he'd need it.
Neal eventually came out of his hiding place just as Peter was finishing his breakfast. The agent opened a can of tuna for him and went to take a shower. When he was finished, he made quick calls to both Elizabeth and Diana.
"No news yet," Peter told Neal. "But it's still early days, and we haven't heard from Mozzie yet, either." He grabbed his laptop and went to sit over on the sofa.
"I'm going to do some research of my own. Here, play with this if you want something to do." He tossed Neal the stuffed toy mouse that Elizabeth had bought, delighting in the indignant noise the con made before looking down at it speculatively.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Look, if you won't tell anyone that I held you last night, then I won't tell anyone that you played with a toy mouse, okay?"
After a brief staring contest which Peter thought he might have won, Neal eventually made his way over to the toy and sniffed at it. He looked up at Peter in surprise.
"I think it has catnip in it," Peter said, in answer to his inquisitive gaze.
He turned his attention back to his screen and brought up his favorite search engine. Diana apparently hadn't had much luck digging through the Bureau's files on antique artifacts yesterday, but she promised to resume her search today. Peter decided to focus his searches on the strange symbols carved into the surface of the jewel.
He spared a quick glance up at Neal and had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing again. Neal was laying on his back, biting at the mouse and holding it still with his front paws while he kicked at it with his back legs.
An hour or so later, Peter felt like his eyes were beginning to go cross from looking through charts and lists of ancient languages. He was about to take a break when he finally saw something.
"Neal, take a look at this!" the agent called excitedly. "I'm still not sure what these larger symbols are, but I think these smaller ones are ancient Norse runes. Now, if I can just figure out... Uh, Neal?"
The younger man had jumped up onto the couch and climbed into Peter's lap, purring and rubbing against him.
"What the - oh." His eyes fell on the toy mouse. "That catnip must be pretty potent stuff, huh?"
In response, Neal nudged at Peter's hand with his cold nose.
"You seriously expect me to pet you?" Peter asked incredulously, although his hand was already stroking down Neal's soft fur. "Fine, but I want it noted that the idea of petting my partner is just plain weird, no matter what body you're in."
Neal purred, seemingly undaunted, and rolled over to have his belly rubbed.
"Hedonist," Peter accused fondly. He went back to his research with one hand, his other absently petting the purring bundle of fluff next to him.
Around noon Peter decided to take a break, stretch his legs, and call Diana. He left Neal in a catnip-induced slumber on the couch and took his cellphone out onto the balcony so he wouldn't disturb him.
"Please tell me you have something," Diana said, sounding frazzled. "You wouldn't believe the state the records are in down here, and our new clerk is absolutely useless!"
"The smaller symbols are Norse runes," Peter told her. "I haven't been able to find any record yet of what the bigger markings are."
"Well, that's something at least," the younger agent conceded. "At least I can narrow down my search. How's Neal doing?"
"Still furry. Oh, and he's discovered catnip."
"I see," Diana wasn't quite able to keep her laughter out of her voice.
"Yeah, you can thank Elizabeth for that," Peter groused. "How are things at the office?"
"Jones has been covering for me on our current case," Diana informed him. "I told him that I'm working on a special project for you. Oh, and Hughes said to take the weekend as well if you need it to 'get better.'"
"At the rate we're going, we might need it," sighed Peter. "I just hope Mozzie is having better luck than we are."
As Peter was hanging up, his phone beeped, letting him know that he had a text message. It was from Elizabeth and simply said: 'Come open front door.'
The agent made his way downstairs, surprised to see his wife on the doorstep. She held up bags of takeout with a smile.
"Hey, hon, I brought lunch," she said, kissing him. "I rang the bell, but no one answered. Are you two here by yourselves?"
"Yeah, we got lucky," Peter said, taking the sacks from her and following her up the stairs. "June's away visiting relatives, and she gave the staff the week off. I'm not sure how we'd explain this to her, or if she'd even believe me."
Elizabeth stopped just outside Neal's door, and asked in a lowered voice, "So how is he today?"
"Physically, he fine. He had a nightmare and... I guess it was some kind of panic attack last night," Peter told her.
"Poor thing," she murmured. "I hope you didn't just tell him to cowboy up."
"I was sympathetic!" Peter protested. Elizabeth just gave him a skeptical look and swung the door open.
"Neal, lunch time. I ordered you salmon," she called, in what Peter considered to be on overly-bright voice.
Neal sat up, blinking sleepily, and let out a joyous mew when he saw his visitor. He hopped down off the couch and went to rub himself against her ankles, purring.
"Awww," Elizabeth crooned, swooping him up in her arms.
"I think he's still a little loopy from the catnip," Peter told her, grabbing them some drinks from the fridge. "Speaking of which, did you have to get him the toy mouse?"
"Well, he can't exactly have a glass of wine to unwind anymore, now can he?" she said, scratching the kitten in her arms behind his ears. "I thought catnip might be the next best thing."
Neal purred in agreement and snuggled closer, pleased with all the attention, and prompting Peter to yell, "Caffrey, stop flirting with my wife!"
****
Elizabeth showed up again that evening with an overnight bag and the simple explanation that she missed her husband. Peter suspected that she was really there in case Neal had another panic attack, but he was glad to see her just the same.
She and Neal spent the evening curled up on the couch watching something in French with subtitles. Peter quickly lost interest and took his beer, his laptop, and one of the sports magazines into the bedroom for some quiet. After thumbing through the magazine, he checked his email and grinned at what he saw there.
"El, Neal, look what Diana's found," he called, carrying his laptop back into the other room.
Elizabeth looked up from her place on the couch and put a finger to her lips. Neal was curled around himself on one of the cushions and was fast asleep. Peter motioned for his wife to join him the next room, and she did, pausing the movie first.
"What is it?" she asked, peering at the screen over his shoulder.
"Diana ran the big symbols that we couldn't figure out through an image recognition program at work. Here's what it found." He pointed to a picture of ancient stone carvings depicting a woman with long, flowing hair riding in a chariot drawn by cats. "Look at the symbol carved into the side of the chariot."
"That's the same marking as on the necklace, right?"
Peter nodded. "I don't know what it means, but we're getting closer to discovering the origin of the piece. Hopefully that will lead us to some answers on how to change Neal back."
"That's great, hon," she smiled and kissed him on the cheek, although Peter realized that her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Peter, I've been thinking..." She sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh. "I know that if there's a solution then you'll find it, but what if there isn't one to be found? What are we going to do if Neal is stuck like this forever?"
The agent took a seat next to her with a grave expression on his face. "I've been thinking about that, too, and I just don't know, El. Neal will never be truly happy like this." He took her hand and squeezed it, as much to reassure himself as it was to reassure her. "We'll take care of him, make him as happy as we can, and... I don't know what else. Satch will have to get used to cats, I guess. Hughes will think he ran, and we'll have to let everyone else think that, too. There's no way anyone would believe us."
Elizabeth threw her arms around him, and they sat there for awhile, just holding one another. Peter didn't want to worry her any more than she already was, but something else had been bothering him all day. Cats didn't live as long as humans. If they couldn't change Neal back, then his lifespan had just been shortened considerably.
Mentally shaking himself out of his stupor, he glanced at his watch. "Feel like turning in early tonight?"
"You go ahead," El told him. "I want to finish my movie first."
She made her way back to the couch and found Neal awake. "Tired, huh?" she asked, settling down next to him. "I bet you've had a long day. It can't be easy getting used to a new body."
Petting him, she let her eyes roam speculatively around the room. She never noticed before how sparse Neal's movie collection was, and from some of the titles, she suspected they actually belonged to Mozzie. There were tons of books in the room, but she wasn't sure how many were Neal's and how many belonged to June.
"You don't watch much TV, do you?" she asked. "What do you do to relax?"
Stretching, Neal hopped down onto the floor and made his way across the room. Elizabeth followed him curiously and found him staring longingly at a large wooden box next to his easel. Lifting the lid, she found tubes of oil paint, brushes, some drawing pencils, and a few sticks of charcoal.
"Oh, right," she murmured, and silently prayed that Neal would be able to pick up a paintbrush again one day. Picking him up, she whispered, "Peter will fix this, and I'll find something for you to occupy yourself with until he does."
****
After the movie was finished, Elizabeth carried a very sleepy Neal into the bedroom to find Peter already in bed asleep. She crawled in next to him and tucked herself into his side, and his arm automatically went around her shoulders. She set Neal down on Peter's chest and wrapped her arm around them both. It was nice, but she hoped for Neal's sake that there wouldn't be too many more nights like this.
Continued: Part 4