Fandom: White Collar. Title: One Day. One weekend.
Title: One Day. One Weekend.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Summary: Peter knew it was going to be one of them days, the ones where no matter what he did Neal was going to end up in trouble.
Author's Notes: Written for the Kid!Fest over at whitecollarhc. Yes it is kid!fic but figured there should be something cliche about my first White Collar fic. It was also meant to be posted yesterday (26th), but due to illness from myself and the lovely surreal_44 it is a day late. Many apologies. This is also the unbeta'd version, there has been some changes due to surreal_44 's direction of course and hopefully once surreal_44 is better the beta'd version will be put here. There will hopefully be more to this little 'Verse later on, something shorter but for now this is the whole thing.
Beta: surreal_44
Neal was humming some nameless tune - one he'd hear earlier in the evening - as he walked up the stairs to his apartment. He was in a good mood and maybe a little bit tipsy, they'd solved a case that had seem to have been cursed from the beginning and he'd even been allowed to leave early. Finding a nice restaurant inside his two mile radius was difficult but not impossible and he was pretty good at difficult.
The restaurant he found had been a lovely place, low lighting, quiet atmosphere and the smell of the cooking food that was mouth watering. Neal spent most of the evening there, sat the bar buying people drinks and even getting people to buy him a drink - not exactly the best use of his talents but it would do for now -. He should have felt bad for that, there should have a been a niggle of doubt that he was 'conning' people, but he just didn't, he wasn't hurting anyone and nothing was going missing. Everyone was having a good time, it was win, win.
So he'd stayed well past midnight, until one of the bar staff told him they were closing and he had to go home. So he picked up the many numbers he'd been left, not that he was planning on calling any of them, and walked in a slightly less than straight line (he refused to say he staggered back) back to his home.
He was stood at the top of the stairs, when he saw a brown paper bag sat outside his door, a bag that hadn't been there that morning when he'd left.
He should have been suspicious, should have been worried that someone had broken in but he wasn't; most thieves didn't leave presents. Besides he was a felon, nearly every federal agent knew where he lived, no one would dare to break in. Smiling Neal picked the bag up, there was clearly a bottle inside of it.
Neal frowned at the scrawl, on the slightly torn paper label. Stepping into his apartment, flicking the light on as he did so, he pulled the bottle out - closing the door with his other hand -. It was an old style bottle, slightly dusty, a few scratches across the glass, probably from being carried around. Holding it up to the light, he saw that it only had about a quarter left in the bottom, who ever had left it, didn't think about leaving a full bottle. Taking a glass from the shelf, knowing full well if he wasn't so intoxicated he wouldn't do what he was about to, he poured the liquid into the glass. It smelt like over ripe strawberries, very sweet and made him cough slightly, whoever had left the bottle really didn't have great taste. Lifting the glass up, he took a sip, it tasted a bit like citruses, which was strange considering what it smelt like.
Once the very lovely but very short lived beverage was gone Neal went about his nightly routine before falling into bed exhausted. It was always nice to fall to sleep after a good day.
**
Peter knew it was going to be one of them days, the ones where no matter what he did Neal was going to end up in trouble. He should have known something was going to happen, things had been running far too smoothly. They managed to close a case that had been plagued with bad luck from the start, no one had landed in trouble though and Neal had left the building in high spirits. A sure sign that something was going to unfold, no matter how nice it was to see Neal finally smiling again.
So it really shouldn't have come as a surprise to be woken up at 2am in the morning by someone telling him that Neal's tracker had gone off line, he was going to route the damn tracker to someone else if Neal wasn't careful, maybe that would stop him from running whenever things got too difficult. Peter cursed under his breath, before pulling himself from his bed and leaving the house. He was half tempted to just let the marshals find Neal, just to teach the younger man a lesson, but he knew he couldn't do that. No matter what happened or what Neal had done, Neal was always going to be his responsibility and he couldn't just pass that off to someone else, ever.
He was already kicking himself for not noticing that Neal had decided to run again and just why couldn't Neal get it through his damn head that he didn't need to run! Not any more. Why couldn't things ever be easy? Not that he had seen any of the usual tells Neal had when he was going to run, the ones that no matter how much Neal tried to hide them, he could always see them. Peter had always assumed that Neal let them slip through, as though he was asking to be stopped before he did something stupid.
As he pulled up in front of June's, thankful that he was the main point of contact for when Neal's tracker went offline, it meant that he had about twenty minutes before the marshals would come see for themselves what was going on. Maybe he could use the time to talk to Neal or figure out where he'd bolted to long before they arrived. The house was dark as he stepped inside, no doubt everyone else was still asleep, and made his way up the stairs quietly. Peter refrained from calling out, if Neal hadn't ran, if the worse had happened and there was someone else in the house, the last thing he wanted to do was announce his presence.
He felt his stomach twist at that, he didn't want Neal to be in any kind of trouble, he never wanted that no matter how frustrating Neal got. At least not the kind of trouble that would end up requiring him to spend time at a hospital bed side for days. He still had nightmares from the last time his partner had been hurt, he'd been more over protective of the younger man than Elizabeth had been. Peter took the last few steps two at a time, it was no good worrying about the 'should haves' and 'what ifs' now, he had a job to do. Once that was done and if he found Neal, he was going to berate him, loudly.
The door was slightly open, Peter knew Neal would never leave the door open, well not on purpose anyway, unlocked yes, open no. The suspicion that something was incredibly wrong intensified and for one split second Peter thought Keller was behind this. Except that Keller was once again locked up, behind bars, Russian bars this time. The door creaked loudly as he pushed it open with one hand, the other was resting on his gun (he could never be too careful when it came to Neal). Stepping into the apartment, missing the one squeaky floor board, Peter tried to make out what had happened. Neal's hat was sat on the table next to an empty glass and an empty bottle.
Moving further into the room, there were stripes of daylight just starting to creep through the glass windows, Peter felt a breeze draft across his shoulders, there was a window open. He was going to shout at Neal once he found him, he seemed to attract trouble like a magnet, especially when left to his own devices, and Peter was pretty sure he'd told Neal three times to not leave the windows open.
There was only one thing for it, he had to stop Neal landing in trouble, so from no on he wasn't going to let Neal out of his sight, even if it meant he had to spend his quiet weekends with him.
Slowly making his way further into the room, Peter had just stepped past the first dining chair, when he heard someone shuffling around behind him. Turning around quickly, Peter couldn't see anyone, there was no one there, yet he was sure he'd heard something.
“Neal?” Peter called, taking small measured steps back the way he'd just come.
There was no reply to his question, no muffled answer, and no bad guy appearing in front of him with a subdued Neal Caffrey, all that met him was silence. Peter felt like he was holding his breath, afraid that if he breathed too loudly then he'd miss hearing the noise again, he'd made it all the way back to the door when he finally heard it again. The shuffling sound, followed quickly by the sound of someone sniffling, like they'd been crying. It was coming from the corner that was still in darkness, where the book shelves were. Reaching out Peter blindly felt along the wall for the light switch, once he found it he pressed it. He'd refused to put the main light on just in case he had ended up disturbing someone.
As light flooded the room, Peter found exactly who was making all them noises and it wasn't who he thought it was going to be. Of all the things he had seen in his job, everything he'd done and he was still surprised to find a very small boy huddled into the corner. This just got that bit more difficult, it was always difficult when children were involved. The small boy was wearing an over sized shirt, the sleeves slipping past his hands, a tie that hung too loosely around his neck and a small beige bear - well worn out - sat next to him. One that Peter was sure he hadn't actually seen ever before, and was just one more thing that he didn't know about Neal.
Peter stare at the young child, he'd never been very good with children, he'd always say the wrong thing and make them cry or even the right thing and they'd still cry. He'd always left dealing with children to either his team - if he was working - or to El. So he was completely stumped on what to say or do, or what the child was even doing there ? He didn't think Neal had fathered any children.
The young child continued to try to make himself invisible and Peter couldn't quite stand to watch him, there was something about the kid that just made his heart ache. He might completely mess up with the kid, but really what choice did he have? He would never be able to forgive himself if he didn't try something. Finally holstering his weapon - clearly the only person there besides himself was the upset child - Peter crouched down, always better to be at their level than standing over them; or so he hoped.
“Hey buddy,” he started, the words feeling thick in his mouth. He wasn't use to talking like this, it felt awkward, and uncomfortable, but he continued on, “What are you doing here?”
The child let out another pitiful whimper and refused to even acknowledge that Peter had spoken, something had clearly spooked the kid and he wasn't sure he was going to get an answer. No matter how many times he asked. Sighing Peter checked his watch, he still had time before the Marshals turned up, not much time but enough for now. He wasn't going to be able to sort this out quickly and he couldn't just leave the child sat on the cold floor, no matter how much he wanted and needed to find Neal. The sniffling didn't stop and Peter grimaced as the child wiped his nose on the shirt, a shirt that definitely belonged to Neal. Peter shifted so he was kneeling instead of crouching, he was going to mess this up even more, he could just tell he was.
“You know sometimes it helps to actually tell someone what the problem is,” he was babbling a bit. Maybe if he didn't think about what he was saying and just let it come naturally it wouldn't be so bad. “I could help, if you told me why you're crying?”
The young boy shook his head, Peter edged a tiny bit closer just enough that put him in touching distance in case the boy tried to bolt.
“What's your name?” Peter was grasping at straws trying to make the child talk. Where was Neal when he needed him? Oh yeah that's right, he'd disappeared dammit! “My names Peter,”
That got a response, finally, the young boy lifted his head and Peter found himself looking into a very familiar face, that held a very familiar pair of blue eyes. The same ones that always had that glint in them when a certain CI was planning something. The same ones that had been nothing but lifeless for months after Kate's death and the same ones that had shown him just how sorry he was after El had been kidnapped. He wasn't ever likely to forget that face, ever, Peter felt his breath catch, there had to be some mistake? Maybe some highly improbably joke? It wasn't possible. He could not actually be sat on the floor at god knows what time of morning, staring at a four year old Neal Caffrey. It just wasn't possible. Although that did explain just why this 'mini-Neal' was wearing a shirt ten sizes too big for him and that his Neal was nowhere to be found.
“Neal?” He felt like laughing. This was some big joke, it had to be, but there was that tiny niggle of doubt, something in the back of his mind telling him that this was indeed very, very real.
Mini-Neal just nodded before hiding his head back into his folded arms, Peter could feel a Neal induced headache forming. Just what the hell had happened in over five hours for Neal to become a child? He wanted to ask exactly that, why had Neal been replaced with mini-Neal? How had it happened? Who had done it? How had they done it?
It really was going to be one of them days.
Rubbing a hand across his face Peter caught sight of the black tracking anklet to one side, of course it wouldn't work, surely what ever had happened to change Neal into...'mini-Neal' would have knocked out the tracker. It was now several sizes to big and there was no way it was going to stay on the four years old leg, he had to admit that if this was some way for Neal to get out of wearing the tracker he'd gone a ridiculous way of doing it. He also had to admit that this really was his Neal, how ever it happened he was now stuck with a four year old CI.
“Can you tell me what happened Neal? Do you know who I am?”
Again there was the head shakes and Peter felt his stomach drop, this Neal didn't know him, didn't trust him and he was unlikely to get anywhere quickly with him. It reminded him a bit of his Neal, when they'd first entered into the agreement, not trusting anyone and not willing to share a thing about himself. It was disheartening to think that they were back at the start again.
“Well I know who you are, you know who I am now, so why don't we get up off this floor? You can't possibly be comfortable down there?” Smooth talking to a four year old was definitely a trick he'd picked up from Neal. “Did you want to get up and we could find some where warm for you to sit?” More head shakes from mini-Neal as he refused to talk to him. “Why not Neal? You can't stay there forever.”
“Can,” came the wobbly reply.
It was the first words that had been spoken and Peter couldn't help the smile that crossed his face, finally the young boy was responding to him. Okay it was a negative answer, but it was a start, he could work with that. He'd been afraid that mini-Neal wouldn't speak at all, that he'd said something to traumatise the kid, thank god he hadn't.
“But why would you want to? There's a nice big comfy bed to sit on,” Peter said, hoping that mini-Neal was a little easier to manipulate than his Neal. Getting the older Neal to do anything when he was scared or upset was a up hill battle and normally he lost it.
But this mini version seemed to actually be considering what Peter had said before shaking his head again. Peter had always known that Neal would have been a smart child, the man himself was smart so it stood to reason a child version would be just the same, so for mini-Neal to be curled up in a corner, something had to be wrong.
“Well then, can I sit next to you?” asked Peter. He watched as mini-Neal thought about it, before a nod was finally given to him.
Finally a step in the right direction, as Peter moved himself next to mini-Neal (the name had gotten stuck now) he saw that there was a small scrape on the boys forearm, and a small bit of blood on the shirt sleeve. Peter gritted his teeth, it seemed even mini-Neal could end up hurt, but it didn't seem to be bothering the boy so he didn't point it out. Looking down at the mess of hair, the sniffling and tears had stopped now but mini-Neal kept trying to move himself further away from Peter.
Peter watched him squirm around for a minute before taking the initiative and wrapped an arm around mini-Neal's shoulders tugging him into a hug. He could feel mini-Neal tense up and Peter thought he'd done the wrong thing before Neal settled against him. He found himself stroking the top of Neal's head, muttering a few nonsense words as he did so. It seemed to work as after a few minutes he had his arms full of a sleeping mini-Neal Caffrey, with no idea what to do next; he hadn't thought that far ahead. He'd run on pure instinct for the last few minutes, but now, now everything felt inelegant and a lot out of his control.
He knew he couldn't stay sat on the floor for the rest of the morning, his back would never forgive him. So he very, very gently picked up the sleeping four year old, pulled a blanket from off the couch, wrapped it around the sleeping child before taking him across to the bed. Putting mini-Neal down on the bed got him a sleepy protest and he found himself once again soothing his tiny partner.
Once he was sure that mini-Neal wasn't about to wake up Peter moved himself away from the bed, he couldn't do this. He couldn't just look after a four year old - even if said four year was Neal - . He didn't know the first thing about children and the few times he'd had to interact with them things had gone horribly wrong and Neal had taken over, the last thing he needed to do was screw up with mini-Neal. Yet part of him knew he couldn't just leave mini-Neal there, he cared for his Neal and it seemed he also cared for the smaller version.
He could call Mozzie he would look after Neal and no doubt know exactly what to do to reverse whatever had happened, but something stopped him from dialling that number. Maybe it was the way that mini-Neal had been so trusting of him in the last half hour, but he couldn't just pass this on to someone else to deal with. This was his partner after all and he always looked after his partners no matter what.
No he had to look after this four year old ex-con, no one else but him, of course there was one person he had to call that he would trust with mini-Neal.
**
The fact that mini-Neal didn't wake at all as Peter moved around, making coffee and phone calls to the Marshals to tell them he'd found Neal, told him just how exhausted the boy was. He had managed to phone Elizabeth and tell her what had happened and asked for her to come over, she'd been surprised and then worried when he told her he couldn't explain on the phone. He knew that his wife liked Neal and had come to care for the younger man, they both had, not that he would ever admit that out loud; Neal was part of their family now.
Hearing Elizabeth's car pull up outside, Peter wondered what he was going to tell her, its not like he had the answers himself. In fact the only thing he knew for a hundred percent was the fact that the little boy currently sleeping in the bed was Neal. Rubbing a hand across his face Peter waited anxiously for Elizabeth to step into the apartment. Hearing the door creak open Peter smiled at his wife, before making a keep quiet gesture whilst pointing at the bed. He watched as she looked from sleeping mini-Neal to him and back again, it really was a lot to take in first thing in the morning.
When she sat down in front of him he pushed a cup of coffee towards her, “Hey hon,” he whispered. He really didn't want to wake Neal, not until he had, had the chance to explain.
“Hi hon, is that really Neal? I mean when you said something was wrong, I thought you meant like sick wrong, not completely impossible wrong.” replied El, not able to look away from mini-Neal.
“That's really Neal, he answered to his name and I'd know that face anywhere,” explained Peter.
“But how, Peter? This kinda thing is only supposed to happen in books or a TV show, not to Neal.”
“I don't know, I really don't, but its typical Neal style though,” replied Peter with a shrug. “If its supposed to be impossible Neal will find a way to make it possible.”
It was the same thing he'd told her time and time again when ever Neal got into trouble, it was his way of dealing with his worry in an absolutely crazy situation. Which this one made the top of the list of crazy things they'd done.
“What if someone did this on purpose, Peter?” asked El, looking away from mini-Neal.
“Why though? What could they gain by changing Neal into a four year old and how would they even do that?”
“Turn him into a child, befriend him and then get him to share all his secrets, its what I'd do.” El said, like this kind of thing happened every day.
Peter just stared at his wife for a moment, she always continued to amaze him and sometimes scare him. Although if someone had set out to do that, then they were in a heap of trouble and they would also know that Peter would be the first one there. He couldn't quite stop the chill that ran down his spine, he didn't like sitting there knowing he could be the next target.
“Once he wakes up, we take him home, its not safe here,” Peter said. He pointedly ignored his wife's knowing smile, she was far too smart for her own good at times, all they could do now was wait until mini-Neal woke up and they could leave.
**
The first thing that registered upon waking, was that he was in a big bed and very warm, the second thing Neal noticed was that he wasn't alone. There was the man from earlier - Peter - sat facing a woman he didn't know. He was still in the same room as he'd been in earlier, but it didn't feel as creepy now that it was lighter. He laid there a while longer watching the two strangers, it was odd seeing people being quiet because he was asleep; he was use to being woken by loud voices.
Knowing that he hadn't been spotted just yet, he was very good at not getting noticed until he wanted to be, he wiggled his way quietly out of bed. Yet as soon as he was standing up, shirt sleeves still covering his hands, he was spotted, clearly he hadn't been quiet enough, he really should practise that more.
Tugging at one of the large sleeves he just stared at the two adults, you never looked away no matter what'd happened, it was the one thing his mum kept telling him whenever he got into trouble. Not that he'd done anything wrong, well nothing he could remember doing, unless they were upset that he'd been sleeping for such a long time.
“Morning sweetheart, did you want something to eat?”
It was the woman who had spoken to him, she had a kind face and a soft voice, he couldn't help smiling back, she looked less scary than Peter and Neal felt glad that she was there as well. Pushing some of his hair out of his eyes Neal slowly made his way over to them, he still wasn’t sure about either of them, even if did have a voice in his head telling him he could trust them.
Stopping at the side of the chair Neal stood on tip toe to look at the table, it really sucked to be small. “What is there?” He could only see mugs on the surface.
“There's cereal, or we could go get you some fruit. Which would like?”
Neal just stared at her, she was giving him a choice, he could choose all by himself. He looked towards Peter who gave him an encouraging nod, before he looked back at the woman. “Cereal, please,” he finally answered.
Pulling the chair out, it scraped loudly against the floor, Neal pulled himself up on to it, maybe if he showed them he could do stuff for himself they wouldn't leave him on his own. Not that he didn't like being on his own, sometimes if he was on his own he didn't get shouted at as much, but this was a strange place. A bowl of colourful cereal was placed in front of him, he dug in not realising just how hungry he actually was.
When he was halfway done Neal noticed he was still getting watched and it made him uncomfortable, he got them kind of looks from his mum when she told him something bad. Something that would in turn make him sad, he had promised himself after the last time that he would never let himself be that sad again. Putting the spoon down, he stared back at them, he wanted to know why they kept looking at him? Had he done something wrong? Or was this just some other weird thing that adults did?
“Neal, we need to tell you something,” Peter said. “We need to leave here for a little while, and take you somewhere else.”
“Will you take me home?” He really wanted to go home now, he'd known something bad was going to happen, he shouldn't have trusted either of them. Now all he wanted was to be tucked up in his own bed, back home with his own family.
“No, but you can come stay with El and me, until you can okay?”
Neal just shook his head, no it was not okay, it just sounded like every other promise an adult had given him, empty. He didn't want to leave with Peter and El, he wanted to be at home, biting at his lower lip to stop it from trembling, he told himself he wasn't going to cry again. He was old enough now that he shouldn't be crying every time someone told him something he didn't like.
“You can't stay here, Neal, not on your own,” Peter said.
“You could stay with me,” replied Neal hopefully, talking around the lump in his throat.
“We can't do that, Neal, we don't live here,”
“Don't wanna go,” mumbled Neal, as a few tears ran down his face, he swiped at them with the sleeve.
“Don't cry Neal, we wouldn't say this unless we had to,” El said, taking hold of his hand. “You can't stay here on your own, you're not big enough yet. Besides if you don't come with us, you won't get to meet our dog, you like dogs don't you?”
Neal thought about it he really did like dogs, but he really wanted to go home as well, but there was no dog back at home. The hand holding his was warm and comforting, he looked from the hand up to El, maybe it would be okay to go with them, just for a little while? He could stay with them a little bit and then get taken home, finally he nodded his head, the smile that she gave him was so big he couldn't help returning it. Maybe, just maybe it would be okay to trust these people? Just for a little while at least, until he could find some way or someone to take him home. That was all he really wanted and if he had to go with Peter and El to get there, then he would. For now. Once he'd agree to go with them, everything seemed to move lightening fast and before he knew it he was at a different house being introduced to Satchmo.
**
Once mini-Neal had agreed to go with them, Peter had made quick work of packing a few things, he hadn't any idea exactly what he should take so he packed a bit of everything. He wasn't even sure how long Neal was actually going to stay in this state. He did know one thing for sure, if anyone had done this to Neal on purpose they were going to have to get through him first. He wasn't going to let anything happen to mini-Neal, he'd make sure that Neal was protected.
Turning to face his wife, Peter couldn't help the surge of protectiveness he felt, as he saw El holding mini-Neal, clearly Neal was going to be spoilt. Not that he expected anything less, in fact he was sure he was going to end up indulging mini-Neal as well, anything to make the kid feel comfortable and cared for. He had no idea how long this was going to last but he certainly wasn't going to just cast Neal to one side, no he was going to look after Neal for as long as was needed.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Summary: Peter knew it was going to be one of them days, the ones where no matter what he did Neal was going to end up in trouble.
Author's Notes: Written for the Kid!Fest over at whitecollarhc. Yes it is kid!fic but figured there should be something cliche about my first White Collar fic. It was also meant to be posted yesterday (26th), but due to illness from myself and the lovely surreal_44 it is a day late. Many apologies. This is also the unbeta'd version, there has been some changes due to surreal_44 's direction of course and hopefully once surreal_44 is better the beta'd version will be put here. There will hopefully be more to this little 'Verse later on, something shorter but for now this is the whole thing.
Beta: surreal_44
Neal was humming some nameless tune - one he'd hear earlier in the evening - as he walked up the stairs to his apartment. He was in a good mood and maybe a little bit tipsy, they'd solved a case that had seem to have been cursed from the beginning and he'd even been allowed to leave early. Finding a nice restaurant inside his two mile radius was difficult but not impossible and he was pretty good at difficult.
The restaurant he found had been a lovely place, low lighting, quiet atmosphere and the smell of the cooking food that was mouth watering. Neal spent most of the evening there, sat the bar buying people drinks and even getting people to buy him a drink - not exactly the best use of his talents but it would do for now -. He should have felt bad for that, there should have a been a niggle of doubt that he was 'conning' people, but he just didn't, he wasn't hurting anyone and nothing was going missing. Everyone was having a good time, it was win, win.
So he'd stayed well past midnight, until one of the bar staff told him they were closing and he had to go home. So he picked up the many numbers he'd been left, not that he was planning on calling any of them, and walked in a slightly less than straight line (he refused to say he staggered back) back to his home.
He was stood at the top of the stairs, when he saw a brown paper bag sat outside his door, a bag that hadn't been there that morning when he'd left.
He should have been suspicious, should have been worried that someone had broken in but he wasn't; most thieves didn't leave presents. Besides he was a felon, nearly every federal agent knew where he lived, no one would dare to break in. Smiling Neal picked the bag up, there was clearly a bottle inside of it.
Neal frowned at the scrawl, on the slightly torn paper label. Stepping into his apartment, flicking the light on as he did so, he pulled the bottle out - closing the door with his other hand -. It was an old style bottle, slightly dusty, a few scratches across the glass, probably from being carried around. Holding it up to the light, he saw that it only had about a quarter left in the bottom, who ever had left it, didn't think about leaving a full bottle. Taking a glass from the shelf, knowing full well if he wasn't so intoxicated he wouldn't do what he was about to, he poured the liquid into the glass. It smelt like over ripe strawberries, very sweet and made him cough slightly, whoever had left the bottle really didn't have great taste. Lifting the glass up, he took a sip, it tasted a bit like citruses, which was strange considering what it smelt like.
Once the very lovely but very short lived beverage was gone Neal went about his nightly routine before falling into bed exhausted. It was always nice to fall to sleep after a good day.
**
Peter knew it was going to be one of them days, the ones where no matter what he did Neal was going to end up in trouble. He should have known something was going to happen, things had been running far too smoothly. They managed to close a case that had been plagued with bad luck from the start, no one had landed in trouble though and Neal had left the building in high spirits. A sure sign that something was going to unfold, no matter how nice it was to see Neal finally smiling again.
So it really shouldn't have come as a surprise to be woken up at 2am in the morning by someone telling him that Neal's tracker had gone off line, he was going to route the damn tracker to someone else if Neal wasn't careful, maybe that would stop him from running whenever things got too difficult. Peter cursed under his breath, before pulling himself from his bed and leaving the house. He was half tempted to just let the marshals find Neal, just to teach the younger man a lesson, but he knew he couldn't do that. No matter what happened or what Neal had done, Neal was always going to be his responsibility and he couldn't just pass that off to someone else, ever.
He was already kicking himself for not noticing that Neal had decided to run again and just why couldn't Neal get it through his damn head that he didn't need to run! Not any more. Why couldn't things ever be easy? Not that he had seen any of the usual tells Neal had when he was going to run, the ones that no matter how much Neal tried to hide them, he could always see them. Peter had always assumed that Neal let them slip through, as though he was asking to be stopped before he did something stupid.
As he pulled up in front of June's, thankful that he was the main point of contact for when Neal's tracker went offline, it meant that he had about twenty minutes before the marshals would come see for themselves what was going on. Maybe he could use the time to talk to Neal or figure out where he'd bolted to long before they arrived. The house was dark as he stepped inside, no doubt everyone else was still asleep, and made his way up the stairs quietly. Peter refrained from calling out, if Neal hadn't ran, if the worse had happened and there was someone else in the house, the last thing he wanted to do was announce his presence.
He felt his stomach twist at that, he didn't want Neal to be in any kind of trouble, he never wanted that no matter how frustrating Neal got. At least not the kind of trouble that would end up requiring him to spend time at a hospital bed side for days. He still had nightmares from the last time his partner had been hurt, he'd been more over protective of the younger man than Elizabeth had been. Peter took the last few steps two at a time, it was no good worrying about the 'should haves' and 'what ifs' now, he had a job to do. Once that was done and if he found Neal, he was going to berate him, loudly.
The door was slightly open, Peter knew Neal would never leave the door open, well not on purpose anyway, unlocked yes, open no. The suspicion that something was incredibly wrong intensified and for one split second Peter thought Keller was behind this. Except that Keller was once again locked up, behind bars, Russian bars this time. The door creaked loudly as he pushed it open with one hand, the other was resting on his gun (he could never be too careful when it came to Neal). Stepping into the apartment, missing the one squeaky floor board, Peter tried to make out what had happened. Neal's hat was sat on the table next to an empty glass and an empty bottle.
Moving further into the room, there were stripes of daylight just starting to creep through the glass windows, Peter felt a breeze draft across his shoulders, there was a window open. He was going to shout at Neal once he found him, he seemed to attract trouble like a magnet, especially when left to his own devices, and Peter was pretty sure he'd told Neal three times to not leave the windows open.
There was only one thing for it, he had to stop Neal landing in trouble, so from no on he wasn't going to let Neal out of his sight, even if it meant he had to spend his quiet weekends with him.
Slowly making his way further into the room, Peter had just stepped past the first dining chair, when he heard someone shuffling around behind him. Turning around quickly, Peter couldn't see anyone, there was no one there, yet he was sure he'd heard something.
“Neal?” Peter called, taking small measured steps back the way he'd just come.
There was no reply to his question, no muffled answer, and no bad guy appearing in front of him with a subdued Neal Caffrey, all that met him was silence. Peter felt like he was holding his breath, afraid that if he breathed too loudly then he'd miss hearing the noise again, he'd made it all the way back to the door when he finally heard it again. The shuffling sound, followed quickly by the sound of someone sniffling, like they'd been crying. It was coming from the corner that was still in darkness, where the book shelves were. Reaching out Peter blindly felt along the wall for the light switch, once he found it he pressed it. He'd refused to put the main light on just in case he had ended up disturbing someone.
As light flooded the room, Peter found exactly who was making all them noises and it wasn't who he thought it was going to be. Of all the things he had seen in his job, everything he'd done and he was still surprised to find a very small boy huddled into the corner. This just got that bit more difficult, it was always difficult when children were involved. The small boy was wearing an over sized shirt, the sleeves slipping past his hands, a tie that hung too loosely around his neck and a small beige bear - well worn out - sat next to him. One that Peter was sure he hadn't actually seen ever before, and was just one more thing that he didn't know about Neal.
Peter stare at the young child, he'd never been very good with children, he'd always say the wrong thing and make them cry or even the right thing and they'd still cry. He'd always left dealing with children to either his team - if he was working - or to El. So he was completely stumped on what to say or do, or what the child was even doing there ? He didn't think Neal had fathered any children.
The young child continued to try to make himself invisible and Peter couldn't quite stand to watch him, there was something about the kid that just made his heart ache. He might completely mess up with the kid, but really what choice did he have? He would never be able to forgive himself if he didn't try something. Finally holstering his weapon - clearly the only person there besides himself was the upset child - Peter crouched down, always better to be at their level than standing over them; or so he hoped.
“Hey buddy,” he started, the words feeling thick in his mouth. He wasn't use to talking like this, it felt awkward, and uncomfortable, but he continued on, “What are you doing here?”
The child let out another pitiful whimper and refused to even acknowledge that Peter had spoken, something had clearly spooked the kid and he wasn't sure he was going to get an answer. No matter how many times he asked. Sighing Peter checked his watch, he still had time before the Marshals turned up, not much time but enough for now. He wasn't going to be able to sort this out quickly and he couldn't just leave the child sat on the cold floor, no matter how much he wanted and needed to find Neal. The sniffling didn't stop and Peter grimaced as the child wiped his nose on the shirt, a shirt that definitely belonged to Neal. Peter shifted so he was kneeling instead of crouching, he was going to mess this up even more, he could just tell he was.
“You know sometimes it helps to actually tell someone what the problem is,” he was babbling a bit. Maybe if he didn't think about what he was saying and just let it come naturally it wouldn't be so bad. “I could help, if you told me why you're crying?”
The young boy shook his head, Peter edged a tiny bit closer just enough that put him in touching distance in case the boy tried to bolt.
“What's your name?” Peter was grasping at straws trying to make the child talk. Where was Neal when he needed him? Oh yeah that's right, he'd disappeared dammit! “My names Peter,”
That got a response, finally, the young boy lifted his head and Peter found himself looking into a very familiar face, that held a very familiar pair of blue eyes. The same ones that always had that glint in them when a certain CI was planning something. The same ones that had been nothing but lifeless for months after Kate's death and the same ones that had shown him just how sorry he was after El had been kidnapped. He wasn't ever likely to forget that face, ever, Peter felt his breath catch, there had to be some mistake? Maybe some highly improbably joke? It wasn't possible. He could not actually be sat on the floor at god knows what time of morning, staring at a four year old Neal Caffrey. It just wasn't possible. Although that did explain just why this 'mini-Neal' was wearing a shirt ten sizes too big for him and that his Neal was nowhere to be found.
“Neal?” He felt like laughing. This was some big joke, it had to be, but there was that tiny niggle of doubt, something in the back of his mind telling him that this was indeed very, very real.
Mini-Neal just nodded before hiding his head back into his folded arms, Peter could feel a Neal induced headache forming. Just what the hell had happened in over five hours for Neal to become a child? He wanted to ask exactly that, why had Neal been replaced with mini-Neal? How had it happened? Who had done it? How had they done it?
It really was going to be one of them days.
Rubbing a hand across his face Peter caught sight of the black tracking anklet to one side, of course it wouldn't work, surely what ever had happened to change Neal into...'mini-Neal' would have knocked out the tracker. It was now several sizes to big and there was no way it was going to stay on the four years old leg, he had to admit that if this was some way for Neal to get out of wearing the tracker he'd gone a ridiculous way of doing it. He also had to admit that this really was his Neal, how ever it happened he was now stuck with a four year old CI.
“Can you tell me what happened Neal? Do you know who I am?”
Again there was the head shakes and Peter felt his stomach drop, this Neal didn't know him, didn't trust him and he was unlikely to get anywhere quickly with him. It reminded him a bit of his Neal, when they'd first entered into the agreement, not trusting anyone and not willing to share a thing about himself. It was disheartening to think that they were back at the start again.
“Well I know who you are, you know who I am now, so why don't we get up off this floor? You can't possibly be comfortable down there?” Smooth talking to a four year old was definitely a trick he'd picked up from Neal. “Did you want to get up and we could find some where warm for you to sit?” More head shakes from mini-Neal as he refused to talk to him. “Why not Neal? You can't stay there forever.”
“Can,” came the wobbly reply.
It was the first words that had been spoken and Peter couldn't help the smile that crossed his face, finally the young boy was responding to him. Okay it was a negative answer, but it was a start, he could work with that. He'd been afraid that mini-Neal wouldn't speak at all, that he'd said something to traumatise the kid, thank god he hadn't.
“But why would you want to? There's a nice big comfy bed to sit on,” Peter said, hoping that mini-Neal was a little easier to manipulate than his Neal. Getting the older Neal to do anything when he was scared or upset was a up hill battle and normally he lost it.
But this mini version seemed to actually be considering what Peter had said before shaking his head again. Peter had always known that Neal would have been a smart child, the man himself was smart so it stood to reason a child version would be just the same, so for mini-Neal to be curled up in a corner, something had to be wrong.
“Well then, can I sit next to you?” asked Peter. He watched as mini-Neal thought about it, before a nod was finally given to him.
Finally a step in the right direction, as Peter moved himself next to mini-Neal (the name had gotten stuck now) he saw that there was a small scrape on the boys forearm, and a small bit of blood on the shirt sleeve. Peter gritted his teeth, it seemed even mini-Neal could end up hurt, but it didn't seem to be bothering the boy so he didn't point it out. Looking down at the mess of hair, the sniffling and tears had stopped now but mini-Neal kept trying to move himself further away from Peter.
Peter watched him squirm around for a minute before taking the initiative and wrapped an arm around mini-Neal's shoulders tugging him into a hug. He could feel mini-Neal tense up and Peter thought he'd done the wrong thing before Neal settled against him. He found himself stroking the top of Neal's head, muttering a few nonsense words as he did so. It seemed to work as after a few minutes he had his arms full of a sleeping mini-Neal Caffrey, with no idea what to do next; he hadn't thought that far ahead. He'd run on pure instinct for the last few minutes, but now, now everything felt inelegant and a lot out of his control.
He knew he couldn't stay sat on the floor for the rest of the morning, his back would never forgive him. So he very, very gently picked up the sleeping four year old, pulled a blanket from off the couch, wrapped it around the sleeping child before taking him across to the bed. Putting mini-Neal down on the bed got him a sleepy protest and he found himself once again soothing his tiny partner.
Once he was sure that mini-Neal wasn't about to wake up Peter moved himself away from the bed, he couldn't do this. He couldn't just look after a four year old - even if said four year was Neal - . He didn't know the first thing about children and the few times he'd had to interact with them things had gone horribly wrong and Neal had taken over, the last thing he needed to do was screw up with mini-Neal. Yet part of him knew he couldn't just leave mini-Neal there, he cared for his Neal and it seemed he also cared for the smaller version.
He could call Mozzie he would look after Neal and no doubt know exactly what to do to reverse whatever had happened, but something stopped him from dialling that number. Maybe it was the way that mini-Neal had been so trusting of him in the last half hour, but he couldn't just pass this on to someone else to deal with. This was his partner after all and he always looked after his partners no matter what.
No he had to look after this four year old ex-con, no one else but him, of course there was one person he had to call that he would trust with mini-Neal.
**
The fact that mini-Neal didn't wake at all as Peter moved around, making coffee and phone calls to the Marshals to tell them he'd found Neal, told him just how exhausted the boy was. He had managed to phone Elizabeth and tell her what had happened and asked for her to come over, she'd been surprised and then worried when he told her he couldn't explain on the phone. He knew that his wife liked Neal and had come to care for the younger man, they both had, not that he would ever admit that out loud; Neal was part of their family now.
Hearing Elizabeth's car pull up outside, Peter wondered what he was going to tell her, its not like he had the answers himself. In fact the only thing he knew for a hundred percent was the fact that the little boy currently sleeping in the bed was Neal. Rubbing a hand across his face Peter waited anxiously for Elizabeth to step into the apartment. Hearing the door creak open Peter smiled at his wife, before making a keep quiet gesture whilst pointing at the bed. He watched as she looked from sleeping mini-Neal to him and back again, it really was a lot to take in first thing in the morning.
When she sat down in front of him he pushed a cup of coffee towards her, “Hey hon,” he whispered. He really didn't want to wake Neal, not until he had, had the chance to explain.
“Hi hon, is that really Neal? I mean when you said something was wrong, I thought you meant like sick wrong, not completely impossible wrong.” replied El, not able to look away from mini-Neal.
“That's really Neal, he answered to his name and I'd know that face anywhere,” explained Peter.
“But how, Peter? This kinda thing is only supposed to happen in books or a TV show, not to Neal.”
“I don't know, I really don't, but its typical Neal style though,” replied Peter with a shrug. “If its supposed to be impossible Neal will find a way to make it possible.”
It was the same thing he'd told her time and time again when ever Neal got into trouble, it was his way of dealing with his worry in an absolutely crazy situation. Which this one made the top of the list of crazy things they'd done.
“What if someone did this on purpose, Peter?” asked El, looking away from mini-Neal.
“Why though? What could they gain by changing Neal into a four year old and how would they even do that?”
“Turn him into a child, befriend him and then get him to share all his secrets, its what I'd do.” El said, like this kind of thing happened every day.
Peter just stared at his wife for a moment, she always continued to amaze him and sometimes scare him. Although if someone had set out to do that, then they were in a heap of trouble and they would also know that Peter would be the first one there. He couldn't quite stop the chill that ran down his spine, he didn't like sitting there knowing he could be the next target.
“Once he wakes up, we take him home, its not safe here,” Peter said. He pointedly ignored his wife's knowing smile, she was far too smart for her own good at times, all they could do now was wait until mini-Neal woke up and they could leave.
**
The first thing that registered upon waking, was that he was in a big bed and very warm, the second thing Neal noticed was that he wasn't alone. There was the man from earlier - Peter - sat facing a woman he didn't know. He was still in the same room as he'd been in earlier, but it didn't feel as creepy now that it was lighter. He laid there a while longer watching the two strangers, it was odd seeing people being quiet because he was asleep; he was use to being woken by loud voices.
Knowing that he hadn't been spotted just yet, he was very good at not getting noticed until he wanted to be, he wiggled his way quietly out of bed. Yet as soon as he was standing up, shirt sleeves still covering his hands, he was spotted, clearly he hadn't been quiet enough, he really should practise that more.
Tugging at one of the large sleeves he just stared at the two adults, you never looked away no matter what'd happened, it was the one thing his mum kept telling him whenever he got into trouble. Not that he'd done anything wrong, well nothing he could remember doing, unless they were upset that he'd been sleeping for such a long time.
“Morning sweetheart, did you want something to eat?”
It was the woman who had spoken to him, she had a kind face and a soft voice, he couldn't help smiling back, she looked less scary than Peter and Neal felt glad that she was there as well. Pushing some of his hair out of his eyes Neal slowly made his way over to them, he still wasn’t sure about either of them, even if did have a voice in his head telling him he could trust them.
Stopping at the side of the chair Neal stood on tip toe to look at the table, it really sucked to be small. “What is there?” He could only see mugs on the surface.
“There's cereal, or we could go get you some fruit. Which would like?”
Neal just stared at her, she was giving him a choice, he could choose all by himself. He looked towards Peter who gave him an encouraging nod, before he looked back at the woman. “Cereal, please,” he finally answered.
Pulling the chair out, it scraped loudly against the floor, Neal pulled himself up on to it, maybe if he showed them he could do stuff for himself they wouldn't leave him on his own. Not that he didn't like being on his own, sometimes if he was on his own he didn't get shouted at as much, but this was a strange place. A bowl of colourful cereal was placed in front of him, he dug in not realising just how hungry he actually was.
When he was halfway done Neal noticed he was still getting watched and it made him uncomfortable, he got them kind of looks from his mum when she told him something bad. Something that would in turn make him sad, he had promised himself after the last time that he would never let himself be that sad again. Putting the spoon down, he stared back at them, he wanted to know why they kept looking at him? Had he done something wrong? Or was this just some other weird thing that adults did?
“Neal, we need to tell you something,” Peter said. “We need to leave here for a little while, and take you somewhere else.”
“Will you take me home?” He really wanted to go home now, he'd known something bad was going to happen, he shouldn't have trusted either of them. Now all he wanted was to be tucked up in his own bed, back home with his own family.
“No, but you can come stay with El and me, until you can okay?”
Neal just shook his head, no it was not okay, it just sounded like every other promise an adult had given him, empty. He didn't want to leave with Peter and El, he wanted to be at home, biting at his lower lip to stop it from trembling, he told himself he wasn't going to cry again. He was old enough now that he shouldn't be crying every time someone told him something he didn't like.
“You can't stay here, Neal, not on your own,” Peter said.
“You could stay with me,” replied Neal hopefully, talking around the lump in his throat.
“We can't do that, Neal, we don't live here,”
“Don't wanna go,” mumbled Neal, as a few tears ran down his face, he swiped at them with the sleeve.
“Don't cry Neal, we wouldn't say this unless we had to,” El said, taking hold of his hand. “You can't stay here on your own, you're not big enough yet. Besides if you don't come with us, you won't get to meet our dog, you like dogs don't you?”
Neal thought about it he really did like dogs, but he really wanted to go home as well, but there was no dog back at home. The hand holding his was warm and comforting, he looked from the hand up to El, maybe it would be okay to go with them, just for a little while? He could stay with them a little bit and then get taken home, finally he nodded his head, the smile that she gave him was so big he couldn't help returning it. Maybe, just maybe it would be okay to trust these people? Just for a little while at least, until he could find some way or someone to take him home. That was all he really wanted and if he had to go with Peter and El to get there, then he would. For now. Once he'd agree to go with them, everything seemed to move lightening fast and before he knew it he was at a different house being introduced to Satchmo.
**
Once mini-Neal had agreed to go with them, Peter had made quick work of packing a few things, he hadn't any idea exactly what he should take so he packed a bit of everything. He wasn't even sure how long Neal was actually going to stay in this state. He did know one thing for sure, if anyone had done this to Neal on purpose they were going to have to get through him first. He wasn't going to let anything happen to mini-Neal, he'd make sure that Neal was protected.
Turning to face his wife, Peter couldn't help the surge of protectiveness he felt, as he saw El holding mini-Neal, clearly Neal was going to be spoilt. Not that he expected anything less, in fact he was sure he was going to end up indulging mini-Neal as well, anything to make the kid feel comfortable and cared for. He had no idea how long this was going to last but he certainly wasn't going to just cast Neal to one side, no he was going to look after Neal for as long as was needed.