Blindsided
Peter couldn't believe it!
Neal George Caffrey, the internationally known White Collar con, thief, and forger reformed into a Consulting Informant… is his brother?
How was that possible? Was Neal born a Burke or was he born a Caffrey? Or, were they both adopted and neither of them knew who they really were? Well they obviously didn't know all of who they were because they were brothers and neither of them knew that… right? Peter couldn't remember his parents ever telling him that he was adopted or that he had a brother. Did Neal ever know, if he did, why didn't he say anything?
The questions kept rolling around in Peter's brain which kept him glued to his chair. His doctor had left long ago and Peter was still sitting there lost in his thought as he blankly stared at the papers in his hands.
Eventually, the questions settled into an arrangement of the most important ones which freed Peter from the initial shock. Did Neal know, what had happened to separate them, and what was he supposed to do now?
He decided that the best place to look first was at the papers clutched in his hands. These were the hospital's results to prove that Neal and he were brothers. Reading through them, he discovered that most of the content was scientific gibberish, but he understood the basics of the charts and the results summary. Basically, their genetics proved them to have matches for the same biological maternal and paternal markers.
Continuing to struggle with the information, Peter decided to close down his office at work and call it a day. Perhaps talking to Elizabeth and some digging through his personal records at home would help him come to a better understanding?
Satisfied with his plan, Peter went back to work and locked up early. When his office was closed down for the night he ducked into Hughes' office. "I got the results today… they were positive matches for maternal and paternal markers so I am going to go home and check some things out. Do you mind if I wait to fill you in on everything until tomorrow?"
Furrowing his brows, Hughes was surprised to hear the news despite having known the possibility of the outcome. "Go ahead. I'll start the paperwork tonight. How are you doing with the news?"
"I'm trying to wrap my head around it now that we're talking facts instead of slight possibilities. Neal has his secrets, tendency to get himself into trouble, and now I am going to have even more invested in him… I just hope that things work out well." It wasn't like he didn't like Neal. The man was his partner and quickly becoming his closest friend after all. There were just a lot of things that he didn't know about Neal.
With the work front nearly taken care of, he ignored the team's interested glances as he left the office. Passing Neal's empty desk by the doors, he couldn't even think about talking to him yet. Once he knew more and had a plan of how to bring the topic up, then it would be time to talk to his partner turned brother.
On the drive home, he did the last work related detail from the privacy of his car. He was relieved when the Marshal informed him that Neal's location read him as being at home. It didn't matter if Neal was playing high stakes Monopoly with June or reminiscing with Mozzie, as long as he stayed home and out of trouble.
Elizabeth was intimately familiar with her husband's routine when he arrived home from work, so she couldn't help but notice how quiet he was. Usually, he would hang up his jacket, greet Satchmo and perhaps play a moment, and then he would call for her. This time, he came through the door, there was the rustling of him hanging up his things, and then he went upstairs without saying a word to her or the dog. Something was wrong…
Putting dinner preparations aside, she decided to investigate. Walking up stairs, she noticed that the noise was coming from up in the attic. All they kept up there was old storage… including Peter's box of information on Neal. Had Neal done something again?
"Peter?" The best way to penetrate this quiet mystery was to start a conversation. If she asked the right questions she might be able to garner some good clues, if not the whole story. When there wasn't any answer, she tried again. "What's wrong honey?"
"I'll be down shortly El. Something came up today and I'm trying to find some answers." He replied enigmatically.
Since it probably had something to do with Neal, she went back down to finish dinner and hoped that Peter would be ready to fill her in while they ate.
Once the food was ready, she went back to see if Peter was ready to come down yet. "Peter, dinner is done. Are you about ready to come down?"
At first he was silent like he didn't even hear her. Then he seemed to catch up and replied. "Huh… okay, yeah. Could you help me haul these boxes down real quick?"
Obviously he was distracted. Whatever had occurred was upsetting him so she was certain that he would be talking about it soon. Climbing up the short ladder, she looked around to see him moving a final box to create a small stack by the entrance.
"Come on up El. I figured that I could climb the ladder and you could pass me the boxes."
"Okay." He still wasn't too conversational, but at least she could glance at the box labels as she waited for him to be ready for the next one.
After giving her a hand to help her make the climb up and into the attic, Peter kept a hold of her hand to pull her into a quick kiss and a hug.
She hadn't expected that. As she stood there in his embrace, he was simply breathing while absorbing strength from having her with him. Something had hurt him and he needed her comfort, so she put her theorizing aside for the moment and simply focused on providing it. "I don't know what happened or what is wrong, but it is going to be okay Peter. We'll tackle this together." When he didn't say anything, she continued to stroke his hair and held him close.
When a few moments had passed, he sighed and kissed her again. "Let's get these downstairs where there is better light for us to go through them after dinner."
While he moved into position on the ladder, she grabbed the first box and read its label. 'Peter's baby book and photo albums.' What did 'something cam up today' and his baby book have in common? Then reading the second one, she noticed that it was the expected 'Neal' box containing everything that Peter personally knew about the man. Elizabeth was really puzzled as to what the situation could be.
Once the boxes were downstairs and the attic was closed up again, they settled in to eat. It was a silent affair, but the lack of conversation meant that they didn't take long to complete their meal.
With the dishes cleared, Peter guided her to sit down in front of the boxes on the coffee table. Turning to her, she knew that he was about to fill her in on the big mystery.
"Thanks for being patient. There isn't anything to be particularly concerned about, but this is going to change a lot of things." Taking a deep breath, he continued. "I always thought that maybe Neal was taking the coward's way out when he said that he ran away after learning that his father was a dirty cop instead of the hero he had been raised to believe in. Now, I think that I understand what it feels like to have the very foundations of your life broken, shaken, and thrown up in the air. What scares me most is the unknown factor here, because I have found that there are secrets that my parents kept from me too. Suddenly, I feel cowardly and am left wondering if this is what Neal felt like. If so, I can't blame Neal for wanting to hide so much anymore."
While he stared at the two boxes and tried to figure out how to approach the rest of the topic, she reached out and took his hand.
Looking down at their intertwined hands, he found the place to start. "Do you remember when the doctors did those test to see why Neal and I survived that assault?"
She recalled the many test that Neal and Peter had been put through, "Yes, what about them?"
Clearing his throat, Peter appeared to be trying to build up the courage to reach the heart of the issue. "One of the tests was done because it is a rare genetic flaw that allowed us to survive. A flaw that is usually shared by close relations… that Neal and I both share."
With widening eyes, she had a feeling where this was going.
Nodding to confirm her thoughts, Peter continued. "We were tested to see if we could possibly be related. I didn't expect it, but… Neal is my little brother." Some of the weight seemed to ease off of his shoulders by sharing the burden.
Thinking through the many things that that implied, Elizabeth started into a few basic questions. "Does Neal know?"
Shrugging, Peter didn't have much of an answer. "I don't know. My doctor called me this morning and asked to meet him at his office this afternoon. When he finished telling me the information, I went back to the office and came home. Neal was already gone and his tracking data says that he is at home."
Moving on to the next questions, "Okay, do you know if you're full brothers? Or who your parents are?"
Rubbing his eyes, Peter looked tired and stressed. "We are full brothers. That means that I am either adopted and my parents never told me, or worse… I missed nine months and the entire existence of the little brother I always wanted…" Taking a deep breath, he continued. "Hopefully one of these boxes will help to settle the facts one way or another."
She was almost done. "Are you going to talk to Neal and your parents?"
Shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair, Peter remained leaned over with his elbows on his knees. "I hope to be ready to talk to Neal tomorrow on the way into work. As for my parents… I don't know when I might be ready for that conversation. Either way, they kept huge parts of my life from me, and I don't know how to feel about that."
Seeing his distress, Elizabeth leaned over and pulled him into a hug. For a few minutes, they simply sat there and relished in their embrace. Then Elizabeth pulled back and took the lead by pulling out Peter's baby book.
Sliding closer, Peter started to read over her shoulder.
The first thing that they noticed was that the book started with Peter's mom writing about discovering that she was pregnant. From there, it detailed about Peter's father being told, his reaction, and the process of the couple preparing for their first born. Then they reached his birth and transitioned into the firsts. His first laugh, words, steps, and so on. Finally, they reached his birth certificate, and it showed that Peter was indeed a Burke, which confirmed the rest of the information.
That meant that Peter's parents had had another son. How could he have missed that? Why didn't they tell him? What was Neal's real name, and why didn't they keep him?
Neal had always known that his life wasn't normal. He had noticed things growing up, so he knew something was off. Then he learned what and why when Ellen told him the truth.
What he hadn't expected, was for his life, down to his very identity, to be overturned so many times. Then again, who would? Now he was getting to go through that all over again.
His doctor had called him that morning to schedule an appointment. He had intentionally put it off for as long as possible so that he could leave work early for the meeting without leaving too early to cause questions at work.
Arriving at the doctor's office, he took a seat as directed and listened to the doctor. The man went through the forms and broke down what he was saying to layman's terms. In short, Peter was his older brother.
That meant that Neal's parents had at least one more secret.
Thinking through his questions, Neal quickly had three that he needed to know that answers to. Did that mean that Peter was the son of his parents, or was he adopted? Did Peter know about him? He had never mentioned having a younger brother before. And, what would Peter think?
The last question was what had Neal the most nervous. Peter liked him well enough as a consultant and friend, but what would he think about having him as a brother?
After the meeting was finished, Neal thanked the doctor, shook his hand, and headed home.
Neal couldn't play his character and deal with another round of discovering that everything he knew was a lie. So, instead of hanging around the apartment, he arranged for a run. After a quick change into running clothes, he set up the tracking system to display him as alternating between restless pacing and painting. Then he fled to Central Park.
He was happy to know that Peter was actually his brother. The agent was honest, good at his job, genuinely had his best interest at heart, but most importantly, he could trust the man behind the badge. His concern with the revelation was how it would change their relationship. Would Peter accept a criminal relation, or would he distance himself from Neal? Running the paths provided a great place for him to work his emotions through while giving him time to come to terms with Peter being his brother.
Finishing his circuit and heading back to his apartment, he thought about what had transpired to begin all of this.
The investment company was taking people's money and making bad investments that squandered their client's accounts. When a client chose to do further digging, they discovered that their money had not been invested, but was rather disappearing. Where did it go, and what were they really doing? After the client turned the information in to the FBI, Neal was sent under cover to investigate.
It didn't take him long to discover that the money was being funneled into the black market where it disappeared. They investigated, but were unable to find a trace of where the money was going. With no further leads to follow, the FBI decided to make an arrest.
Once Neal arranged to have all of the players in one place at the same time, Peter and the takedown team made entry.
While the agents were sorting through the arrests, a man dressed in black raced through the crowd. He had a knife in hand and made small cuts on Peter's and Neal's arms. As he made his escape, several agents went after him on foot while Jones and Diana took their teammates to the hospital.
The blade was coated in poison and the men were reacting to it.
When Peter and Neal survived against all of the odds, the doctors began intensive testing to discover how they survived the death sentence. Only the doctors thought that the reason for their survivals could reach as deep as their genetics, and no one expected what they found.
Back at his apartment, Neal decided that it was time to update the general on his change in circumstances.
Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing/commenting/PMing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite both me and my stories :D
Per request, the Genetics series is my next run at posting. As you may have noticed, it is the other brothers story that I have worked on for over a year, so I hope you all are ready to curl up and enjoy the ride with the new found brothers Peter and Neal as they go through fluffy bonding to hair raising angst :D
Oh, and just to let you know, I had an interview this week and got another part time job. That means that I work two scheduled jobs and a third entrepreneurial position from home. My enormous buffer will help to keep my posting steady and I do still have writing time, but that is going to be more limited now.