Title: sin of living
Disclaimer: any you recognize aren't mine
Warnings: pre-series; child abuse; character death
Pairings: mentions of Neal/Kate
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: 630
Point of view: third
Prompt: green
The first con Neal ever pulled, he was seven. Neal's name was Jake back then, and his baby brother was only four, a slight boy Neal always calls Matty in his mind.
He told Matty to hide and not come out till Jake fetched him, and then Jake went to their 'caretakers' (even now, Neal can't think of them without pain and fear and hatred and so much sarcasm) and pissed them off so thoroughly they forgot about Matty breaking a vase.
But Jake was in no condition to go find Matty, and so Matty spent all night in a dark closet and the next day, when Jake could finally move, Sir had already dragged Matty into the den and demanded to know why he thought startling people was a good idea.
Jake was too slow, too injured, too small. (Neal knows it wasn't his fault. He does. But Jake still blames himself, and Sir, and the system.) Matty cried, but one swipe of Sir's huge fist sent him reeling into the wall. Jake screamed and sobbed and swore he'd make Sir pay.
So two hours later, after Sir hid Matty's body in the trunk and Ma'am made Sir breakfast, Jake snuck out the house and went three doors down, to Mrs. Tunston. Mrs. Tunston was the neighborhood busybody who made dozens of calls to the police a month, and Jake had quite the story to tell her.
And Jake collapsed at her feet, moaning about masked and men and Mama and Daddy and the trunk. With a wailing child in the background, she called the police and soon enough officers arrived at the house, and they opened the trunk of Sir's car to find tiny little Matty, so small Jake could still carry him around.
Jake spent a week in the hospital for broken ribs and a severely sprained ankle. But then he was put back into the system. (Neal still hates having to rely on anyone, because Jake spent his whole life hoping only to always be let down.)
When he was fifteen, Jake remade himself into Neal and started his career as a con artist, an art thief, a forger. He took advantage of a flawed system, and made sure his targets deserved it. (Neal doesn't feel guilt for anything, except Matty. Matty's the reason he learned to use a gun, because Sir got out of jail too soon and Neal could never beat him in a fair fight. So Neal mastered a weapon and confronted Sir and reminded him of those horrible months and then he shot Sir until he ran out of bullets. It took three clips.
Neal wishes he could raise the dead, so he could kill Sir again and again and again.)
No records exist of Neal Caffrey before his fifteenth birthday. Peter Burke has looked a hundred times, a hundred different ways. There are no records of Jacob Connors or his brother Matthew, either. No one thought to look for those, though. Jake and Matty only exist in Neal's mind anymore.
Neal's cons are far more elaborate than collapsing at some old woman's feet, but at the start of every single one, he still feels terrified. He doesn't have a little brother anymore, just a woman he loves, and he knows that Agent Burke is closing in.
Neal doesn't worry; Jake tells him things'll either work out or they won't, and he remembers Matty when Burke yells, "FBI! Freeze!"
Neal freezes. Jake runs back in time, to before his parents died, to the hospital when Daddy said, "This is Matt. Take care of him, Jakey."
(Alone in prison, dodging men who make him wish for a gun and thousands of bullets, Neal prays for his little brother's soul. He never prays for himself.)