The Brat
Neal was as close to pouting that you could be when you are a full grown adult. How could Peter go off for a whole week and tell him that Diana was in charge. He really thought that they had a good relationship and that Peter trusted him now. No way was he going to obey orders from Diana. He worked hard to get to a place where they were friends and now he was going to have to obey her as if she was his mother. Well maybe that was an exaggeration but it was certainly the dynamic he had with Peter. At least he thought so. Maybe Peter didn't think of him that way. Maybe he didn't mean anything to him; just a CI who needed watching so that he didn't lose his job. Well he would show them. His head was spinning. There was no way he was going to go into work. Like he needed a babysitter!
"Where are you Neal?" Diana said into the phone. She certainly sounded exasperated.
"I'm not coming in today. I work for Peter and since he is not here, I will not be there either." He had meant it to sound confident but he sounded like a nine year old instead.
"Neal Caffrey, are you kidding me. Peter told me to make sure you do what you are supposed to. Get your butt here in the next half hour or I will come find you!"
Who does she think she is yelling at me as if I am a small child? "You can come after me if that is how you choose to spend your day but just remember it took Peter four years to catch me." He was smirking to himself at that last remark.
Diana sighed knowing that he was one hundred percent right. "What the hell is your problem Caffrey? I thought we were friends. Peter is gonna be pissed off and so is Hughes. We have work to do and I don't appreciate the way you are treating me."
Now he was beginning to feel bad but not bad enough to go in. Peter dumped him with a babysitter. If Peter doesn't care about him than why should he care if he was pissed off? "I'm sorry Diana, I didn't mean to take this out on you, but if Peter thinks he can just dump me off on someone then he has another thing coming. He is my handler so let him handle me!"
This statement came out with authority and Diana was surprised and confused. He sounded confident but the words were a glorified temper tantrum. "Neal. I don't know what your problem is but if you don't show up here I am going to have to either come get you or call Peter. He won't be happy about me bothering him and if he gets on my case, you will pay!"
Neal didn't really care at this point and was sure that by the time Peter returned in a week's time no one would care that he had not gone to work since he was just a criminal who helped Peter so that he could keep his case numbers up. "I guess you will have to call him then because I am not coming in!" With that statement, he hung up the phone.
Diana knew she should call Peter but she decided to wait and give Neal a chance to do the right thing. They didn't have any pressing cases at the moment and she could live without him there for the time being. She thought she was being nice to Neal but this only make Neal even more agitated because Peter didn't even call to reprimand him. He was never more certain that Peter didn't care about him than he was now. And to think, he had worked so hard to do the right thing and help. So what if once in a while he got into some trouble. He couldn't really help himself, but he was trying because he wanted to make Peter proud. Well that was the end of that. It has been two whole days and not even a phone call.