White Collar - "Daggers"
Title: Daggers
Author: TeeJay
whitecollar100 Prompt: #28 Lovers
Genre: Gen or Het, depending on how you look at it
Characters/Pairings: Neal, mentions of Kate
Word Count: 300 (not including the lyrics)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including 1x14 'Out of the Box'
Summary: There had been a time when he knew with certainty that he would never love anyone the way he had loved her.
Author's Note: We all know Neal's position on Kate and what she meant to him. Still, what must be approaching a year after her death, I kinda like the idea of him starting to move on. Lyrics are from a song by Stanfour, called "For All Lovers". I don't know any other of their songs, but I heard this one on the radio this morning and I felt it was very fitting.
Disclaimer: White Collar, its characters and its settings belong to Jeff Eastin and USA Network. And, guys? Your characters are not only welcome, they're wonderful. I'm just borrowing, I promise.
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For all the lovers and believers
And the ones who've been betrayed.
To all the fighters, all the dreamers
And the ones who've not been saved.
Kate.
The name still stung like daggers piercing his heart. It didn't matter if Peter mentioned it and meant her, or if someone else called the name to address a person unknown to Neal. It always came back to her, and a small part of him hated himself for it. Sometimes he wasn't sure what exactly they'd been. Soul mates? Partners in crime? Lovers? A couple? All rolled into one?
Every now and then he thought about what Peter had said, that time by the seaside house after uncovering the boiler room scam. That she might not be on his side, that there was no concern for Neal in her eyes. He hadn't wanted to believe it then, and he still didn't want to believe it now, but the inklings of doubt in his mind could not be denied.
It was a moot point now anyway. He would never know-the flames had consumed any chance of certitude (and her), and then the sharp blades of the daggers in his chest were back.
What he realized over time was that they hurt less and less, and he didn't know whether to take comfort in it or feel guilty. There had been a time when he knew with certainty that he would never love anyone the way he had loved her. And perhaps he wouldn't, but there was that glimmer of a possibility that perhaps one day, he could love again.
His finger smoothed over the crinkle that a dog ear had caused in the goofy photo of him and Kate they had taken in one of those airport photo booths. There was a smile on his face when he put it back in the drawer, and for the first time in a long while, it was more sweet than bitter.
Author: TeeJay
whitecollar100 Prompt: #28 Lovers
Genre: Gen or Het, depending on how you look at it
Characters/Pairings: Neal, mentions of Kate
Word Count: 300 (not including the lyrics)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including 1x14 'Out of the Box'
Summary: There had been a time when he knew with certainty that he would never love anyone the way he had loved her.
Author's Note: We all know Neal's position on Kate and what she meant to him. Still, what must be approaching a year after her death, I kinda like the idea of him starting to move on. Lyrics are from a song by Stanfour, called "For All Lovers". I don't know any other of their songs, but I heard this one on the radio this morning and I felt it was very fitting.
Disclaimer: White Collar, its characters and its settings belong to Jeff Eastin and USA Network. And, guys? Your characters are not only welcome, they're wonderful. I'm just borrowing, I promise.
+-+-+-+
For all the lovers and believers
And the ones who've been betrayed.
To all the fighters, all the dreamers
And the ones who've not been saved.
Kate.
The name still stung like daggers piercing his heart. It didn't matter if Peter mentioned it and meant her, or if someone else called the name to address a person unknown to Neal. It always came back to her, and a small part of him hated himself for it. Sometimes he wasn't sure what exactly they'd been. Soul mates? Partners in crime? Lovers? A couple? All rolled into one?
Every now and then he thought about what Peter had said, that time by the seaside house after uncovering the boiler room scam. That she might not be on his side, that there was no concern for Neal in her eyes. He hadn't wanted to believe it then, and he still didn't want to believe it now, but the inklings of doubt in his mind could not be denied.
It was a moot point now anyway. He would never know-the flames had consumed any chance of certitude (and her), and then the sharp blades of the daggers in his chest were back.
What he realized over time was that they hurt less and less, and he didn't know whether to take comfort in it or feel guilty. There had been a time when he knew with certainty that he would never love anyone the way he had loved her. And perhaps he wouldn't, but there was that glimmer of a possibility that perhaps one day, he could love again.
His finger smoothed over the crinkle that a dog ear had caused in the goofy photo of him and Kate they had taken in one of those airport photo booths. There was a smile on his face when he put it back in the drawer, and for the first time in a long while, it was more sweet than bitter.