Disclaimer: I own nothing! This counts for every chapter!
A/N: This idea wouldn't leave me alone. I have completely ignored the canon version of Neal's history, but considering this is an AU you'll just have to forgive me. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Introduction
Linda Shaw was ten years old when she ran away from home. Her mother spent most of her time in a drunken state in which she didn't even remember she had a daughter. The times between the alcohol and drugs were the worst though, for when memories of her little girl came back to the front of her mind, the woman who should have loved her, instead lashed out in fits of anger.
She never knew her father, the only things she knew about him were what her mother had told her before passing out. Things about a man who didn't want to be burdened by a child or married to a worthless lump of a woman. The police had informed them of his death when Linda was five; some sort of a mugging gone wrong.
Living on the streets, she learnt early that little girls drew too much unwanted attention. She cut her hair with a rusty shard of metal and that was enough; she was at that young age when a haircut was the only thing that proved her gender. Most guessed she was just an effeminate looking boy and she avoided any who would have looked harder.
She'd only been living on the streets for a few months when she met the person who was going to change her whole life. Law meant nothing to a child who just wanted something to eat, and so she'd become quite skilled at picking pockets. It was a fortunate mistake that led her to try picking the pocket of a young man, thinking that he would be an easy mark.
The boy had been quicker than she'd expected and before she'd had the chance to do anything, he had dragged her into an alcove and taken his money back from her while keeping hold of one of her wrists. They'd stood in silence for a while, hers a mixture of terror and defiance and his thoughtful.
"What's your name?" He finally asked, his voice didn't give away any of his emotions. She tugged on the grip he had on her wrist but he didn't let go, just staring at her from behind a pair of round rimmed glasses.
"Neal," she answered with a glare. She'd created a new identity for herself out of need but she knew that she would need documents to back it up when she got older.
"Well, Neal, you're in luck," the man smiled at her, loosening his hold a little but not enough for her to run away. "Because I need someone to help me with a con and you look like you need the money."
"What sort of con?" She asked suspiciously; she'd learnt to be wary around men, even in her boy disguise. It wouldn't be the first time that she'd conned someone but she usually did them on her own since she could never be sure that the other person wouldn't just keep all the money and drop her in it.
He quickly explained what he wanted her for and the money that she'd get from helping, even promising to buy her something to eat if she agreed. He let go of her wrist and told her that she could think about it, arranging to meet her again when she'd decided.
Four weeks later they'd successfully pulled of the con and were splitting the money, the boy giving her the amount that he had promised. There'd been a couple of complications but in the end it had gone their way.
"You can call me Mozzie," the man told her after handing over the money. It was the first time that he'd told her a name to call him by and she smiled at him in thanks. "And if you want to, I can teach you how to be a brilliant conman."
"What's the catch?" She questioned, more at ease around him then when they'd first met, but not yet completely ready to trust him.
His eyes assessed her briefly before he replied. "I need someone to help me pay the rent for my room."
"You old enough for your own place?" She raised one of her eyebrows. People on the streets grew up quicker than other children, just because he looked like he was in his late teens didn't mean that he was.
"I'm twenty," the boy, Mozzie, admitted. "But the motel owners around here don't care about age anyway. Surely you know that by now. I've been living on my own since I was thirteen."
A grimace crossed her face as she nodded. It wasn't too hard to decide on what to do, even with all her suspicions and fears; she was still young and, though not very trusting, she craved the idea of human interaction with someone who didn't want to hurt her.
Mozzie was strange and full about conspiracy ideas, but he hadn't tried to harm her in the weeks she'd known him. In the end, the offer of a place to stay and the thought that she might be able to eat more regularly finally made her accept the deal.
She had to go out often to pick pockets in order to pay her bit of the rent and they got better at pulling cons, each one getting bigger with a bigger pay check at the end as their confidence and trust in each other grew.
It only took Mozzie a week of living with her to discover that she was female, but he told her that he'd had a few suspicions of it. Linda didn't doubt that because Mozzie had suspicions about everyone. They decided that it would be best if she continued to pretend to be male and she had no problems with it; she'd grown to depend on her mask of being Neal.
After the awkward time of going through puberty with only Mozzie to teach her what to do, she learnt to bind her chest with bandages in order to continue her disguise. Mozzie grew into the role of a protective older brother and she depended on him as the only person who she could be herself with. He suggested once or twice that she give up the idea of being Neal, but by that time the mask had become her safety net and she didn't know how to let him go.
When she was sixteen, Mozzie gave her documents that declared her to be Neal Caffrey, an eighteen year old boy from New York. He'd changed her birthday to the21st March but had otherwise left her early history blank. She was thrilled that she now had proof that she was Neal and no one could doubt it.
He also handed her a second pile of papers with another identity that declared her to be Lizzy 'Neal' Haversham, age 16, sister to Dante 'Mozzie' Haversham. She noticed that her birthday was the day that they'd first met and was overwhelmed by emotion. Her new name was perfect to her, a nice mix of her old life and new; she thought of it as a combination of Linda and Mozzie.
Occasionally, she would get the chance to wear a nice dress and heels and use the documents that she felt were hers. She'd given up her identity of Linda Shaw when she'd left her house all those years ago, choosing instead to adopt her persona of Neal Caffrey, but out of all her names she felt that Lizzy Haversham was the only one that was truly her.
Mozzie had asked her once when she was fourteen if she liked being Neal because she wanted to be a boy. He'd reassured her that he would support her no matter what, sprouting theories about famous people who he was sure had changed their gender.
After calming him down and getting a hold of her giggles, she'd told him that she was perfectly happy being a girl and never wanted to change that. She liked being Neal because she felt safer when she was him; she had more confidence and people treated her with more respect.
She'd thought about it afterwards, but found that she'd been telling the truth; while she might pretend to be male ninety per cent of the time, she was a female in her mind and she didn't ever want to change that. Those times when she got to be Lizzy were cherished by her, even if it was by her own choice that they were so few and far between.
As Neal, she developed her own sense of style that included designer suits and black fedoras. For cons, she wore whatever was needed in order to succeed and get paid at the end. When she got to be herself, she preferred to wear expensive dresses and heels, both of which made her feel good. With all these different styles and identities, it was a miracle that she hadn't developed a personality disorder.
She got incredibly good at pinning her hair up so that it looked like a boy's haircut, but in reality when she let it down it fell to her shoulders. It meant that if she ever got into a tight scrape, she could alter her whole look a few seconds and no one would ever connect Neal Caffrey to her.
One thing that she did notice was that she could charm nearly every woman that she met when she was Neal and even a few men. She was confused about how to feel about that to start with but eventually accepted it. The woman she'd flirted with had told her that she was beautiful and seemed so sensitive; all things that appealed to them. She supposed it could also be that she could relate to them and knew the right things to say when complimenting them.
For obvious reasons, she never had a relationship with any of the women and never slept with any of them, never going further than kisses and a bit of touching. When dressed as Lizzy however she could pick up anyone she wanted to; the men repeatedly told her how sexy she was, but her relationships never went further than one night stands.
After all the flirting and kissing that she did with women when she was Neal, she decided to try and pick up a woman in her true female form and was surprised that it just as easy as it was when she was Neal. It seemed that she could pick up either gender no matter what form she was in, proven when she had a make out session with a man in her Neal disguise.
She decided after all her experiments that she didn't care about gender and could be happy with either a man or a woman, but found that she had a slight preference to men. Mozzie hadn't said anything about her new sexuality other than to tell her to try and keep her conquests out of their flat because he didn't need to see or hear his baby sister like that.
When she was twenty three she met Kate Moreau for the first time and developed a small crush on her. Mozzie warned her about trying to start anything with the woman, mentioning the fact that Kate had a boyfriend. Lizzy was a lot of things, but she wouldn't ever try to go further than flirting with someone who was in a relationship and had no respect for cheaters.
They parted ways as friends, but Kate only knew her as Neal and she didn't want to tell her the truth. She could tell that Kate was attracted to her in her male form, but it was just a base attraction that neither of them acted on beyond heated flirting. She had no way of knowing if she would find her true body as attractive as she found Neal's and wasn't willing to take the risk of ruining their friendship.
While celebrating her twenty fifth birthday – even though as Neal she was documented as being twenty seven – she bumped into a predatory woman in a bar who tried to take her wallet. Instead of reporting her like a law abiding citizen would have done, Lizzy bought her a drink and spent a fun night drinking and picking out marks.
They ended the night with an intense make out session that only didn't go further because she was dressed as Neal and she wasn't drunk enough to risk Alex – the woman – freaking out that she was actually kissing a woman.
A week later Alex found her again and they roped Mozzie into helping them with a con, during which they discovered that Alex was a black market fence and agreed that they might think about working with her again. She offered to buy them drinks after the con, looking at Lizzy when she spoke; Mozzie claimed that he would be perfectly happy drinking fine wine in the hotel room, but Neal accepted the invitation.
A few drinks in, Alex invited her back to her place and, against her better judgement, she agreed. They had another drink in the room before continuing what they'd stopped a week ago, only this time they began to go further than a make out session. It was only when Alex began to remove Lizzy's suit jacket that she came back to her senses.
"Stop," she panted, pulling out of the kiss and trying to move back a bit, a progress that was stopped by Alex's hands in her shirt. "W-we need to st-stop."
"Why?" She growled, leaning forward and catching her in another kiss. Lizzy let out a low moan when they pulled back to breathe, but she still tried to get herself out of the others grip. "Why should we stop?"
"I'm a woman," she finally managed to get out between kisses, freezing when she realized what she'd admitted. Alex cocked an eyebrow at her and then quickly moved; pulling the shirt that was the only thing still covering the bandages holding her breasts down until it was pooled on the floor.
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that," Alex murmured, checking out her curves and quirking her mouth up in a slight smile at what she saw.
"Sorry," Lizzy muttered, moving her arms to cover herself up as much as she could.
Alex laughed, bringing their lips back together until they were forced up for air. "Don't be."
In the end, they team up for a few cons, even deciding to go after a well-known music box together and getting closer than anyone else ever managed before she was forced to leave Alex in a hospital in France, fully expecting to never see her again. Their relationship had been fiery; full of passion and arguments, but not of much else. Most of the time they'd met up, spent the night together and then left, neither of them interested in a long romantic commitment with each other.
Feeling a bit lost, she decided not to go find Mozzie after the failed attempt at getting the music box. She felt guilty at leaving Alex alone, knowing that there was a chance she would be arrested, but she knew that in this life you had to protect yourself first; it was the first and most important lesson she'd learnt.
It was during this time that she found Kate again. This time the other woman was single and their interest in each other was more clearly expressed. Lizzy introduced Kate to the criminal world and helped her become a successful con-woman.
The only problem was that Lizzy never trusted her with her secret and because of that they couldn't get further than kisses and romantic dates. Despite this, Lizzy began to feel that she was slowly falling in love with the dark haired beauty.
Unfortunately, things began to unravel too quickly for her to stop it. Kate was pressing for them to go that next step, but a F.B.I. agent was getting closer to catching her and she lost control of everything. Agent Peter Burke caught her on Bond Forgery and before she knew it, she was being sent to jail.
A/N: IMPORTANT: I don't want to offend anyone with this story, so I will try my hardest to explain things now. If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate in asking me about them, I will do my best to answer them all.
In this story, Neal was born a girl and DOES NOT want to be a boy. She is female; she has always been and always will be female. Pretending to be a boy is her way of coping with life and since she's lived like that her whole life, she doesn't really know how to let it go.
She sees Neal as another part of her personality, but she knows that it's not really who she is. As a con woman, she can take on many different identities but the one she claims as her own – as if she was born with it – is Lizzy because that's the one that means the most to her. Neal Caffrey is a mask that she uses.
I probably didn't manage to explain that very well, but what I'm trying to say is that I don't want anyone to feel offended after reading this. Lizzy is not transgendered, she wasn't born in the wrong body, and she doesn't want to change anything about herself. She's not a transvestite, though the description might occasionally fit her.
If I've written anything that insults anyone, please tell me and I will do my best to fix it.
