What He Does Best


Disclaimer: White Collar belongs to Jeff Eastin and the wonderful people at USA Network. I am merely playing in their lovely little sandbox. No copyright infringement intended.


Chapter 1

Author's note: This story contains flashbacks to when Neal was in Witness Protection. These flashbacks will refer to Neal as Danny Brooks, his WitSec name, so I hope this doesn't confuse any of you. I hope you enjoy the story.


Neal Caffrey did what he did best. What he had always done best….he ran.

As he ran, he wondered, not for the first time, why he was so good at running. Was it just in his nature? Was it something inborn in him? Something that generations of Caffreys had excelled at for hundreds of years? Or was it something he had learned to do throughout his life as a means of self-protection? Nature vs. Nurture…which one was it? Or was it maybe just a little bit of both? Whatever the reason, he really wished that he wasn't so good at it.

Running had always felt a little bit like giving up to him. A person usually ran from things as a last resort, right? When there wasn't any other option but to give in. And Neal definitely didn't think of himself as someone who gave up easily. That contradicted everything he believed about himself, everything he hoped to be true about the man he had grown to be.

For as long as he could remember, his life had been complicated. He figured that there were probably happy days in the beginning, before his family fell apart, but he didn't really remember them. His earliest memories were mostly just elusive feelings of happiness where his mother and father worked together to make him feel safe and loved. These memories were so vague that he really didn't even believe that they could be real.

His more concrete memories of childhood were fraught with uncertainty, instability, and discontent. He had grown up believing that his father had died when he was three years old, leaving him with a mother who was unstable and barely able to take care of herself, let alone a child. If it hadn't been for his Aunt Ellen, Neal was sure that he wouldn't have survived his childhood.

Growing up in Witness Protection as Danny Brooks had definitely helped to sculpt Neal into an excellent con man. He spent many afternoons- when he should have been in school- in a nearby pool hall, honing his skills as an excellent pool player and hustler. He had quickly taught himself how to forge his mom's writing, making the attendance office at his school think that he was the sickest child they have ever schooled. The proprietor of the pool hall tried unsuccessfully to keep the boy away, but eventually he just gave up.

It wasn't until Aunt Ellen followed him one day and figured out what he was doing that he stopped going to the pool hall. He still cringed at the memory of his Aunt Ellen grabbing him by the ear and walking him out of the pool hall and all the way home, lecturing him the whole way. Once he was home, he listened as Ellen explained everything to his mother, who didn't seem too bothered by the idea of her nine year old son becoming a pool hustler. That day wasn't the first time his mother and aunt had had a colossal argument over the appropriate ways to raise a child, but it definitely was one that stood out in Neal's mind.

By the end of the argument, his mother had thrown Ellen out of the house and then spent the next hour yelling at him for causing so much trouble. Once she was done yelling, she sent Danny to his room with several stinging smacks to his backside, her words ringing in his ears.

"You're more trouble than your worth sometimes."

These words echoed loudly in his head, as tears fell down his face, and for the first time, Danny ran.


Neal remembered that day so clearly, even though it had been more than two decades. He ran as far and as fast as he could that night, finally stopping on the outskirts of town. Once he had stopped, he realized how hungry, tired, and cold he was. He hadn't taken the time to grab a coat before he left, so he had nothing more that the light sweatshirt he had been wearing. The worst part was that everything happened before dinner, so it had been almost seven hours since he had had anything to eat.

Knowing that he wasn't ready to go home, yet not knowing what else to do, he walked over to a nearby building and sat down, leaning against the brick wall. The ground was damp from an earlier rain and he could feel the dampness seeping through his jeans. Even though the dampness was uncomfortable, Danny didn't have the strength to get up. Closing his eyes, he tried to push away the echoes of his mother's words, but in the silence they just seemed to grow louder and louder, until he finally felt the truth of them sink into his bones. Finally giving in, the exhausted boy fell into a fitful sleep.


Neal wasn't proud of the fact that he ran when things got sticky, but he did see the intelligence behind such an act. Running wasn't always a desperate, cowardly deed. In fact, sometimes it was a well calculated plan, executed at the most opportune moment. A successful con artist realized the value of a good escape plan in any situation. There was definitely nothing wrong with being well prepared for any and every possibility.

Neal could remember a multitude of times when running had worked well for him, the first time notwithstanding. That particular experience was one that he wished he could burn from his memory. By the time he woke up hours later, Danny had been shivering violently, completely soaked by the rain pouring down. Slowly climbing to his feet, he realized that there was a car parked across the road and that someone was watching him through the window. As fear shot through him, he watched as the door to the car opened and a man climbed out.

"Hey, kid! What are you doing over there?"

When he didn't answer, the man stepped around the door and started walking across the road. Seconds later, he was standing in front of Danny.

"I asked you a question, boy! What are you doing here? This is private property."

Danny's words came out in a stutter, his small body shivering from the cold. "I-I-I was j-j-just r-resting. I d-didn't know th-this was p-p-private property."

"What are you doing out here all alone?" the stranger asked. "You're awfully young, aren't you?'

"I-I'll just g-go," Danny said, as he turned to walk away.

"Wait a minute," the stranger said, grabbing him by the arm. "I'm not going to just let you take off by yourself. It's raining and it's almost two o'clock in the morning, so either I can give you a ride home, you can call someone to come and get you, or I can call the cops. Your choice, kid."

Danny knew that there was no way he was getting into a car with a complete stranger and there was no way he wanted the cops to get involved. Thinking he had no other choice, he agreed to call someone to pick him up. A few minutes later, he found himself standing in a small kitchen, warily eyeing the stranger standing a few feet away as he called the only person he knew he could trust.


Thirty minutes later, Danny stiffened at the sight of the small car pulling into the driveway. He watched as Ellen stepped out of the car and ran up to the front door. As soon as her frantic knocking was answered and the man had led her into the kitchen, Danny found himself wrapped up tightly in her arms.

"Danny Brooks! Do you have any idea how worried I was when your mom called and told me you had run off? What were you thinking, young man? Why would you do such a thing?"

Danny could feel the tears falling down his face again and wondered when he had turned into such a crybaby. "I'm sorry, Aunt Ellen. After you left, mom and I got into a big fight and I had to get out of there."

"Danny, you should have come to me! I'm always here for you. You know that, right?" Ellen searched Danny's face, hoping to see that he really did know that she would always be there for him. She knew that things with his mother were not as they should be, and she wanted him to understand that she would do anything for him.

"I know," Danny answered. "I just got so mad and I needed to get out of there. I didn't even think about where I was going, Aunt Ellen. I just ran."

Ellen pulled Danny into another hug. "Well, that's not okay, sweetie. You should never just run off without a plan of some sort. That just leads to you putting yourself into unnecessary danger."

After a few more minutes of talking, they both thanked the man who had watched over Danny, before heading out to the car. Danny climbed into the car, trying to prepare himself for the expected Aunt Ellen lecture as he buckled his seat belt. Neal could remember vividly that she didn't disappoint that night. By the time they had reached his house, Danny's ears had been burning viciously from the scathing lecture.


As Neal ran, he thought about the fact that Peter's lectures were usually just as scathing as Ellen's had ever been. He was usually mortified to find himself reverting back to his childhood self in the face of one of Peter's lectures. His face would turn red, his ears would burn, and he could never stop himself from internally fidgeting, as Peter expounded in explicit detail every single thing he had done wrong. By the time Peter was done lecturing, Neal wanted nothing more than to crawl into the nearest corner and bury his face in his hands. Of course, Neal was a rather adept con man, so he was usually able to stay calm and unruffled on the outside, never giving Peter the pleasure of knowing how ruffled he truly was. This, of course, drove Peter absolutely crazy.

At the moment, Neal actually wished that he was sitting in Peter's office, listening as Peter's lecture voice droned on and on. Hell, he even wished that he was sitting in a jail cell somewhere, safe and sound behind the locked cell doors. Either of those options had to be better than what he was currently facing. Either of those options had to be better than the fact that he was on the run again, and this time it was without the relief of knowing that Peter actually understood why he was running.


Author's note: I would love to hear what you all think of this story. Should I continue? Or just leave it as a one-shot? I have a few ideas of where I could take it, if you're all interested at all. Oh, and I hope the Danny/Neal stuff wasn't too confusing. I tried to make it as clear as possible, but it wasn't easy. Thanks for reading, y'all.