Hello nice people who are going to read my story. This is set near the beginning of the season 1 when Neal is still looking for Kate.

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar (WHAT? I know, total surprise)

Neal burst through the double doors leading to the lobby of the FBI headquarters, unusually late. He nodded to the receptionist and punched the elevator button. It opened instantly, instead of taking the usual ten minutes. Huh, apparently he had a little luck today after all. His wouldn't consider today one of the best days ever, but who knows? It might turn up. He doubted it though. Neal had another sleepless night. He was just so sure that he and Mozzie found a lead on Kate. It had seemed promising—Kate loved Niagara Falls—until it turned into a dead end. Neal gave a frustrated sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. He was beginning to doubt that he'd ever find the Man with the Ring.

When Neal did actually manage to fall asleep—4:27 AM, but who's counting?—he woke up with Mozzie prodding him experimentally on the forehead. Apparently his alarm clock died over night, how quant. So here he was, forced into practically running a marathon to work, so the Feds, his supposed coworkers, wouldn't assume that he was trying to escape which, frankly, was getting old. What does an alleged art thief have to do to get some trust around here?

Neal watched as the glowing number changed to 21. Show time. The elevator doors dinged open, cueing Neal to get his game face on which consisted of a charming smile and a fedora placed stylishly slanted on his head. Somewhat satisfied, he sauntered out.

" 'Bout time you showed up. Thought I was going to have to send out a search," said Peter, leaning against a wall nearby. Neal took a moment to wonder how long Peter had been there.

"Oh come on, and leave you guys to fend for yourselves? I don't think so," said Neal as he twirled his hat around hoping, and succeeding, to annoy Peter. "So what are we doing today? Catching a master thief? Finding…"

"Mortgage fraud," Peter interrupted. Dang. Neal had a list prepared for this and everything.

"Ah." More mortgage fraud. Fun. At least it beat copyright infringements…maybe. Neal tended to think out of the box for those, not in a good way. He always came up with reasons why it didn't violate the copyright instead of the other way around. Peter was irritated at him for no end for doing that. Peter was even more irritated at him when Neal was actually right. Small victories. They were very satisfying.

"Ah, indeed."

"I'll go get the files," Neal said wearily, once again curious to the fact that he had to do the clerks' job. He just hated the tax payers' money going to waste like that which he explained to Peter a number of occasions, but Peter always rolled his eyes and told Neal to 'cowboy up.' Wow, Neal was really starting to have a hate that phrase. He nodded to Jones as he rounded the corner.

~O~

Peter watched Neal leave in a very well hidden, deflated way. He should probably talk to him soon. El was growing more and more insistent that he did so. This week had been a very dry week for the White Collar Unit and Peter knew Neal was bored out of his mind. It was a miracle that the office wasn't in shambles, but Peter was still convinced that Neal had something planned. He was determined to figure it out before it was too late. There was not going to be another glue incident, or paper clip incident, or moving everything on an agent's desk to an alternate location just to watch in amusement while said agent searched and searched for an object he knew he put in the top drawer. He was never leaving Neal in his office unsupervised again.

Peter caught sight of Jones rounding a corner. He made his way toward the younger agent. "So who's getting interrogated for the forgery?"

"Forgeries," Jones corrected as Peter came to a halt beside him, "and his name is Thomas Holdings and so far he has said all of nothing. He's starting to scare some of the newbies." In answer to the questioning look Peter gave him, Jones elaborated. "He's real…bulky…in an Arnold Schwarzenegger sort of way."

"He was probably the muscle man for the thief team."

"Probably, but he still isn't talking and if we can't find any new evidence, we'll have to release our only suspect," Jones sighed. "Remind me again why Neal isn't helping."

"They're worried he'll be impressed by these thieves and want to run with them," Peter said, his polite tone barely disguising what he truly thought of the idea.

~O~

Yep. Today is an all around horrible day. Neal finally concluded as he glared at the huge pile of mortgage fraud files he was currently holding. Not my worst day ever, but by far not the best. It couldn't possibly get any worse, Neal instantly berated himself. Great, I just jinxed it. Lovely. The reformed conman brightened slightly. Of course, there's absolutely no chance of having the wrong end of a gun pointed at me. That always seems to put a damper on my day for some reason… Neal began to calculate the odds of him completing five cases before mooching a lunch off Peter when he turned the corner.

Neal nearly dropped the very heavy box of mortgage fraud cases on his foot. He froze in shock as he watched in fascinated horror all the White Collar FBI agents being patted down by black masked gunmen before they forced, very efficiently, into a tight circle in the middle of the bullpen. The guns and other weapons were being thrown down a line of gunmen and into a box with an ease that could only come from experience.

"Boss there's one more!" shouted one of the henchmen. Neal mentally kicked himself. Why did stand in plain sight of the unknown gunmen instead of sneaking off?

"Vell, vat are u vaiting for?" yelled the boss. "Put him vith the others!"

Neal was brutally shoved over to the pile of FBI agents. A small part of him was a bit peeved that a wrong end of a gun had, in fact, been pointed at him.

So…what did you think?