What can you steal from a thief?
Author: NYWCgirl
Fandom: Macgyver/White collar crossover
Pairing: None
Characters: Macgyver, Jack Dalton, Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke, Rebecca Lowe/Charlotte Cole
Warning: none
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen
Genre: (emotional) hurt/comfort, team as family, kidnapping, hostage situation, bombs
Author's Notes: This fic fills the ‘theft’ square on my H/C Bingo card and is a crossover between White Collar and Macgyver S3E12 and is an alternate ending to White Collar´s S5E, pretend Season 6 never happened.
Word Count: ~2050
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine…
Summary: Rebecca Lowe, now better known as Charlotte Cole, who is a mom by day but a Master thief by night teams up with Mac and the gang. Little does the team know how she got her family.
Fic can also be found on AO3.
‘The four in the cat masks are a notorious group of thieves, responsible for a dozen high-end robberies in the last year. Today they were trying to steal five million in gold bullion. That woman in the cat mask, she is their leader, Charlotte Cole.’
‘Turns out Charlotte has been living quite the double life.’
‘By day, she a married mother of two who works as a sales rep for an LA medical company. But by night she moonlights as a Master thief.’
‘Well, it is a solid cover. Who would suspect a young mom of leading a gang of thieves? And a job in sales means no one would wonder about her travel.’
‘Is it just me or is this cover a bit too solid?’
Matty looks surprised, ‘what do you mean?’
‘What do we know about her family?’
‘Nothing, except that she is married and has two daughters.’
‘What do we know about the husband?’
‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘Isn´t that suspicious? Is he involved?’
* * *
‘Charlotte Cole, we’re here with an offer. Give us the location of your meeting with the Fence and in return, we will only hold you, and your crew for forty eight hours before wiping your records clean and releasing you back into the wild as the fine upstanding citizens who will never break the law again. Ever.’
Charlotte gives a smile that doesn´t reach her eyes.
‘That is the carrot? What´s the stick?’
‘You will disappear down a dark hole where there are no clocks and no calendars to track the years you will be spending down there.’
‘Considering you’re holding all the cards and I´m not a fan of dark holes, how about I make it easy for you?’
* * *
When they walk out of the room, Matty can see something is bothering Mac.
‘What´s wrong?’
‘Something doesn´t add up. She didn´t even mention her family. Her cover is too neat, it is almost like she has experience in undercover background stories.’
‘Well she is a criminal Master mind.’
‘Still, she didn´t seemed to be fazed by Matty´s threats. Not your typical mom.’
‘Yeah, well she won´t win a mom of the year award.’
‘Riley, is there anything you can find out on her family, husband´s job, school records of the kids?’
‘Well, his name is Nate Cole, he is a stay at home dad, I guess, because I can´t find any employment records.’
Riley types away on her keyboard, ‘it gets even more strange. I can´t find anything on Nate Cole before 2014.’
‘OK, Let´s pay Nate Cole a visit while you check out the family.’
Jack and Mac drive up to the address in Charlotte´s file. There is an SUV parked in the driveway and it appears the family is home. Mac rings the front door bell. They can hear noise in the house but nobody opens the door. Jack quickly makes his way around the house to make sure nobody leaves it through the backdoor.
Mac rings again and a voice can be heard through the intercom attached to the bell, ‘How can I help you?’
‘Nate Cole?’
‘Who wants to know?’
‘My name is Angus Macgyver and the person standing at your backdoor is Jack Dalton. We work for the Phoenix Foundation.’
‘Never heard of it.’
‘Well, that is entirely possible, but we are a government agency and we have your wife in custody.’
‘You caught her?’
The disbelief mixed with relief in the man´s voice is almost overwhelming. Jack has come back and is standing next to Mac, listening to the man on the intercom.
‘Sir, can we come in?’
‘NO!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The house is booby trapped.’
Mac´s eyes widen, ‘what do you mean?’
‘Rebecca doesn´t want us to leave the house without her, so she makes sure we can´t.’
‘Nate?’
‘It´s Neal.’
‘Neal?’
‘Yes, Neal Caffrey, I… never mind. If you really are an agent, contact Special agent Peter Burke at the FBI New York office.’
Mac is taken aback by the man´s revelations.
‘OK Neal, I will make a call and then I will get you out of there, OK?’
‘There are explosives wired throughout the house, I think you will need the bomb squad.’
‘Well, you have the best EOD tech there is, standing right next to me.’ Jack states proudly.
* * *
Mac made a quick call to explain to Matty what they had found out and asked to call this special agent. Within minutes Mac had a very anxious sounding Special Agent on the line.
‘Special agent Peter Burke, did you find Neal Caffrey?’
‘Peter, my name is Macgyver and we just met a man who claims to be Neal Caffrey, but we have no visual confirmation. Can you describe him to me?’
‘Neal has dark brown hair, blue eyes, born March twenty first nineteen seventy seven. He used to be slim built and five feet eleven and a half tall.’
‘That will be helpful once we get to him.’
‘Get to him?’
‘Yeah, he says the house is booby-trapped, so we will try to dismantle the explosives. I have your number now, so I will be in contact.’
‘Thanks.’
Mac disconnects the line and focuses again on the man on the other side, ‘Neal? Are the children home?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, can you describe what you can see, wires, stuff like that?’
Neal starts describing what he can see and what he suspects is there. The more Neal talks, the more Mac can picture the way the house is rigged and this is not good. He is worried about Neal and the kids. Like he suspected Neal confirms that Charlotte, Rebecca according to Neal is an MI6 agent who knows her way around explosives; so he will need to be careful.
He tells Neal he will need a way into the house. But since all doors and windows are secured that won´t do, not even through the basement.
‘I saw a cat flap when I was at the backdoor.’ Jack remarks.
‘Neal?’
‘No, rigged as well.’
She is one messed up mum to allow the cat freedom while she keeps her family hostage. Neal sounds so resigned, he must have given up a long time trying to get away. Then a thought crosses Mac´s mind.
‘The air condition unit? Is it rigged?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Can you check whether or not you can detect anything strange? Wires? Something that seems out of place?’
‘Sure.’
Neal leaves and is back a couple of minutes later.
‘There is nothing I can see.’
‘OK, do you know whether the basement is reinforced?’
‘Yeah, it is, Rebecca built some sort of shelter in it.’
‘Take the kids and stay there until we are inside and come and get you.’
‘OK.’
Once Mac thinks Neal and the children must have made it to the shelter, he takes his SAK and starts dismounting the air condition unit. Now they have a whole in the wall. They will need tools to widen the hole so they will fit through. But Jack already knew what Mac was planning, so he rang at the neighbors, when nobody opened, he forced his way into their shed, finding the tools they need. Together they quickly make a hole big enough for them to fit through.
Inside the house doesn´t look suspicious, not until Mac sees the wiring, not noticeable until you know what you are looking for. They quickly make their way downstairs to the basement and find Neal and the children inside the reinforced shelter. Neal is curled protective over his daughter and son. He is singing and Mac smiles.
‘Neal? Hi, I am Mac and this is Jack. What do you say, ready to leave this place?’
Mac stares at both men and clearly doesn´t trusts his voice to say something. He just nods. He straightens out and shakes both men their hands.
‘Peter Burke says hello. And his description of you fits, so…’
‘You spoke to Peter?’
‘Yes, but let’s get out of the house first.’
Jack and Mac help Neal and the kids to leave the house through the hole they made and once they are warm in the car, Mac takes his phone and calls the last number back.
‘Peter? I have someone who would like to talk to you.’
He hands Neal the phone, smiling encouragingly.
‘Peter…?’
* * *
‘So what is happening now?’
‘Well don´t hold your breath for a happy family reunion. Charlotte or better Rachel Turner or Rebecca Lowe is being indicted for kidnapping Neal and endangering her children. Turns out she had him kidnapped in 2014 and forcefully had two children with him. The Psych team is going to have a field day with her.’
The team is silent, nobody expected this outcome. It was supposed to be a simple op.
‘Neal suggested he wants to help us get the Fence. Special agent Peter Burke is convinced that Neal is willing to go undercover with you guys to get this guy.’
‘We can´t take a civilian on our op, can we?’
Matty shows Neal’s FBI file on the large screen in the war room.
‘As you can see, Neal Caffrey turns out to be a well-known con man and forger. He served his prison sentence as a criminal informant for the FBI until he was kidnapped. Special agent Peter Burke was his handler.’
‘Wow, who would have expected that?’
‘Nobody.’
‘Do you think Neal is up to par for this op? We can´t have a liability in our team. He was kidnapped in 2014, he has been off the streets for quite some time.’
‘Why don´t you ask himself?’
Matty gestures through the windows and the door opens. In comes a totally different Neal than they met. This Neal is wearing a tailored suit, his hair cut short. Confidence oozing from him. Behind him stands an older man, clearly Law enforcement, it must be his handler Peter Burke.
‘Nice to meet you all,’ Neal walks up to Mac and takes him into a hug, ‘I can´t thank you enough for saving my children and me.’ He does the same with Jack, who is taken aback a bit. Peter introduces himself, shaking hands with the team.
‘Now that introductions have been made, we still have an op to run,’ Matty continues the briefing, ‘My team is concerned about taking a civilian onto an op this delicate.’
‘I want to help you guys as thanks for giving my kids a chance for a normal life.’
‘Look, Neal hear is the best con man I have ever met and I can assure you if he can´t do it, nobody can.’
Jack gives Peter a skeptical look.
Peter just smiles, ‘do you want to show them Neal?’
Neal steps forward with a confident smile, he pulls Mac´s SAK from his suit pocket, next comes Jack´s wrist band, Riley´s phone.
‘You didn´t take anything from Bozer?’
Neal smiles, ‘he wasn´t carrying anything that was precious to him.’
They all look at Bozer, who just shrugs.
‘Like I said, Neal hasn´t lost his skills and he is the best art forger we have ever met.’
‘So that is settled then.’ Matty starts briefing the team what is expected of them. Neal gives pointers what he would do different and in the end they agree on how to proceed.
* * *
‘Come on kids, we need to go.’
The children come running down the stairs, bickering. They grab their coats and get into the car. Neal drops them off at school before returning back home. The op for the Phoenix Foundation had been a success and they managed to catch the Fence.
The Phoenix offered to give Neal and his children new identities without having to go into witness protection. Neal accepted the offer and still works on commission for the Phoenix Foundation whenever they need consulting on art matters.
They still go to family counseling, making sure that the kids get the best possible care he can. But they do well, made a lot of friends and Neal is happy. They will be OK.
Fandom: Macgyver/White collar crossover
Pairing: None
Characters: Macgyver, Jack Dalton, Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke, Rebecca Lowe/Charlotte Cole
Warning: none
Spoilers: none
Rating: Gen
Genre: (emotional) hurt/comfort, team as family, kidnapping, hostage situation, bombs
Author's Notes: This fic fills the ‘theft’ square on my H/C Bingo card and is a crossover between White Collar and Macgyver S3E12 and is an alternate ending to White Collar´s S5E, pretend Season 6 never happened.
Word Count: ~2050
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine…
Summary: Rebecca Lowe, now better known as Charlotte Cole, who is a mom by day but a Master thief by night teams up with Mac and the gang. Little does the team know how she got her family.
Fic can also be found on AO3.
‘The four in the cat masks are a notorious group of thieves, responsible for a dozen high-end robberies in the last year. Today they were trying to steal five million in gold bullion. That woman in the cat mask, she is their leader, Charlotte Cole.’
‘Turns out Charlotte has been living quite the double life.’
‘By day, she a married mother of two who works as a sales rep for an LA medical company. But by night she moonlights as a Master thief.’
‘Well, it is a solid cover. Who would suspect a young mom of leading a gang of thieves? And a job in sales means no one would wonder about her travel.’
‘Is it just me or is this cover a bit too solid?’
Matty looks surprised, ‘what do you mean?’
‘What do we know about her family?’
‘Nothing, except that she is married and has two daughters.’
‘What do we know about the husband?’
‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘Isn´t that suspicious? Is he involved?’
* * *
‘Charlotte Cole, we’re here with an offer. Give us the location of your meeting with the Fence and in return, we will only hold you, and your crew for forty eight hours before wiping your records clean and releasing you back into the wild as the fine upstanding citizens who will never break the law again. Ever.’
Charlotte gives a smile that doesn´t reach her eyes.
‘That is the carrot? What´s the stick?’
‘You will disappear down a dark hole where there are no clocks and no calendars to track the years you will be spending down there.’
‘Considering you’re holding all the cards and I´m not a fan of dark holes, how about I make it easy for you?’
* * *
When they walk out of the room, Matty can see something is bothering Mac.
‘What´s wrong?’
‘Something doesn´t add up. She didn´t even mention her family. Her cover is too neat, it is almost like she has experience in undercover background stories.’
‘Well she is a criminal Master mind.’
‘Still, she didn´t seemed to be fazed by Matty´s threats. Not your typical mom.’
‘Yeah, well she won´t win a mom of the year award.’
‘Riley, is there anything you can find out on her family, husband´s job, school records of the kids?’
‘Well, his name is Nate Cole, he is a stay at home dad, I guess, because I can´t find any employment records.’
Riley types away on her keyboard, ‘it gets even more strange. I can´t find anything on Nate Cole before 2014.’
‘OK, Let´s pay Nate Cole a visit while you check out the family.’
Jack and Mac drive up to the address in Charlotte´s file. There is an SUV parked in the driveway and it appears the family is home. Mac rings the front door bell. They can hear noise in the house but nobody opens the door. Jack quickly makes his way around the house to make sure nobody leaves it through the backdoor.
Mac rings again and a voice can be heard through the intercom attached to the bell, ‘How can I help you?’
‘Nate Cole?’
‘Who wants to know?’
‘My name is Angus Macgyver and the person standing at your backdoor is Jack Dalton. We work for the Phoenix Foundation.’
‘Never heard of it.’
‘Well, that is entirely possible, but we are a government agency and we have your wife in custody.’
‘You caught her?’
The disbelief mixed with relief in the man´s voice is almost overwhelming. Jack has come back and is standing next to Mac, listening to the man on the intercom.
‘Sir, can we come in?’
‘NO!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The house is booby trapped.’
Mac´s eyes widen, ‘what do you mean?’
‘Rebecca doesn´t want us to leave the house without her, so she makes sure we can´t.’
‘Nate?’
‘It´s Neal.’
‘Neal?’
‘Yes, Neal Caffrey, I… never mind. If you really are an agent, contact Special agent Peter Burke at the FBI New York office.’
Mac is taken aback by the man´s revelations.
‘OK Neal, I will make a call and then I will get you out of there, OK?’
‘There are explosives wired throughout the house, I think you will need the bomb squad.’
‘Well, you have the best EOD tech there is, standing right next to me.’ Jack states proudly.
* * *
Mac made a quick call to explain to Matty what they had found out and asked to call this special agent. Within minutes Mac had a very anxious sounding Special Agent on the line.
‘Special agent Peter Burke, did you find Neal Caffrey?’
‘Peter, my name is Macgyver and we just met a man who claims to be Neal Caffrey, but we have no visual confirmation. Can you describe him to me?’
‘Neal has dark brown hair, blue eyes, born March twenty first nineteen seventy seven. He used to be slim built and five feet eleven and a half tall.’
‘That will be helpful once we get to him.’
‘Get to him?’
‘Yeah, he says the house is booby-trapped, so we will try to dismantle the explosives. I have your number now, so I will be in contact.’
‘Thanks.’
Mac disconnects the line and focuses again on the man on the other side, ‘Neal? Are the children home?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, can you describe what you can see, wires, stuff like that?’
Neal starts describing what he can see and what he suspects is there. The more Neal talks, the more Mac can picture the way the house is rigged and this is not good. He is worried about Neal and the kids. Like he suspected Neal confirms that Charlotte, Rebecca according to Neal is an MI6 agent who knows her way around explosives; so he will need to be careful.
He tells Neal he will need a way into the house. But since all doors and windows are secured that won´t do, not even through the basement.
‘I saw a cat flap when I was at the backdoor.’ Jack remarks.
‘Neal?’
‘No, rigged as well.’
She is one messed up mum to allow the cat freedom while she keeps her family hostage. Neal sounds so resigned, he must have given up a long time trying to get away. Then a thought crosses Mac´s mind.
‘The air condition unit? Is it rigged?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Can you check whether or not you can detect anything strange? Wires? Something that seems out of place?’
‘Sure.’
Neal leaves and is back a couple of minutes later.
‘There is nothing I can see.’
‘OK, do you know whether the basement is reinforced?’
‘Yeah, it is, Rebecca built some sort of shelter in it.’
‘Take the kids and stay there until we are inside and come and get you.’
‘OK.’
Once Mac thinks Neal and the children must have made it to the shelter, he takes his SAK and starts dismounting the air condition unit. Now they have a whole in the wall. They will need tools to widen the hole so they will fit through. But Jack already knew what Mac was planning, so he rang at the neighbors, when nobody opened, he forced his way into their shed, finding the tools they need. Together they quickly make a hole big enough for them to fit through.
Inside the house doesn´t look suspicious, not until Mac sees the wiring, not noticeable until you know what you are looking for. They quickly make their way downstairs to the basement and find Neal and the children inside the reinforced shelter. Neal is curled protective over his daughter and son. He is singing and Mac smiles.
‘Neal? Hi, I am Mac and this is Jack. What do you say, ready to leave this place?’
Mac stares at both men and clearly doesn´t trusts his voice to say something. He just nods. He straightens out and shakes both men their hands.
‘Peter Burke says hello. And his description of you fits, so…’
‘You spoke to Peter?’
‘Yes, but let’s get out of the house first.’
Jack and Mac help Neal and the kids to leave the house through the hole they made and once they are warm in the car, Mac takes his phone and calls the last number back.
‘Peter? I have someone who would like to talk to you.’
He hands Neal the phone, smiling encouragingly.
‘Peter…?’
* * *
‘So what is happening now?’
‘Well don´t hold your breath for a happy family reunion. Charlotte or better Rachel Turner or Rebecca Lowe is being indicted for kidnapping Neal and endangering her children. Turns out she had him kidnapped in 2014 and forcefully had two children with him. The Psych team is going to have a field day with her.’
The team is silent, nobody expected this outcome. It was supposed to be a simple op.
‘Neal suggested he wants to help us get the Fence. Special agent Peter Burke is convinced that Neal is willing to go undercover with you guys to get this guy.’
‘We can´t take a civilian on our op, can we?’
Matty shows Neal’s FBI file on the large screen in the war room.
‘As you can see, Neal Caffrey turns out to be a well-known con man and forger. He served his prison sentence as a criminal informant for the FBI until he was kidnapped. Special agent Peter Burke was his handler.’
‘Wow, who would have expected that?’
‘Nobody.’
‘Do you think Neal is up to par for this op? We can´t have a liability in our team. He was kidnapped in 2014, he has been off the streets for quite some time.’
‘Why don´t you ask himself?’
Matty gestures through the windows and the door opens. In comes a totally different Neal than they met. This Neal is wearing a tailored suit, his hair cut short. Confidence oozing from him. Behind him stands an older man, clearly Law enforcement, it must be his handler Peter Burke.
‘Nice to meet you all,’ Neal walks up to Mac and takes him into a hug, ‘I can´t thank you enough for saving my children and me.’ He does the same with Jack, who is taken aback a bit. Peter introduces himself, shaking hands with the team.
‘Now that introductions have been made, we still have an op to run,’ Matty continues the briefing, ‘My team is concerned about taking a civilian onto an op this delicate.’
‘I want to help you guys as thanks for giving my kids a chance for a normal life.’
‘Look, Neal hear is the best con man I have ever met and I can assure you if he can´t do it, nobody can.’
Jack gives Peter a skeptical look.
Peter just smiles, ‘do you want to show them Neal?’
Neal steps forward with a confident smile, he pulls Mac´s SAK from his suit pocket, next comes Jack´s wrist band, Riley´s phone.
‘You didn´t take anything from Bozer?’
Neal smiles, ‘he wasn´t carrying anything that was precious to him.’
They all look at Bozer, who just shrugs.
‘Like I said, Neal hasn´t lost his skills and he is the best art forger we have ever met.’
‘So that is settled then.’ Matty starts briefing the team what is expected of them. Neal gives pointers what he would do different and in the end they agree on how to proceed.
* * *
‘Come on kids, we need to go.’
The children come running down the stairs, bickering. They grab their coats and get into the car. Neal drops them off at school before returning back home. The op for the Phoenix Foundation had been a success and they managed to catch the Fence.
The Phoenix offered to give Neal and his children new identities without having to go into witness protection. Neal accepted the offer and still works on commission for the Phoenix Foundation whenever they need consulting on art matters.
They still go to family counseling, making sure that the kids get the best possible care he can. But they do well, made a lot of friends and Neal is happy. They will be OK.