Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar, i can however watch the first three seasons of it on Netflix.
A/N: I've only watched the first two seasons but I love the show so i'm doing little drabbles. Send me any prompts and I'll try to do them but, no slash. I ship El/Peter, Neal/Kate, Neal/Alex, Neal/Sarah (i'm not good at making up my mind though alex is my favorite!) and Diana/Jones. I'll usually post three or four drabbles once a week if I can, if i get some prompts and my teachers don't murder me with projects. i'm already avioding homework... Review, even if it's a flame it tells me someone read this so... Progess!
Con or Man:
For some reason those words bad struck a nerve. Peter kept saying he thrived in the grey areas that he would have to make a choice between being a con or a man. He's not sure he can make that choice. As a kid he wanted to be like his dad. One of the good guys. When he found out his dad was a dirty cop he decided that blood ran too deep to change it. He ran away. For someone who spent his whole life running he spent forever holding on and looking back. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. He ran for the first time when he learned the truth. He was 15. New York city made a good life for him. At 18 he found mozzie and the adrenilene rush of a big heist. Bad blood will out after all. He cant make that choice though because it would be choosing between the past and the future. When be worked for Adler he found Kate and Alex. But he alsofl found Keller and the FBI. 18 when he showed up on the radar. 23 when he got tired of running and got caught. Then at 27 he gets a chance. To do good. To get the happy ending. And the one thing he cant seem to forget are the only words he can remember his father ever saying "their are good people who do bad things and bad people who can do good things. No such thing as a pure motive either black or white. You cant trust anyone. Same way no one can trust you" he doesn't want to let go. So he cant make that choice. If he's not a con and a man then he not him. And hes changed to many times to change again. A game is one thing. Life is another. There's a reason he has certain rules. Not that he'd ever admit it...
Grey areas:
Theres a reason he never told Peter. There's a story behind it, and it's not a good one. Yes, his father dies when he was two. Yes, his mother let him hail him a hero, rather then loathe him as a villain. All little kids look up to their fathers. Maybe she did it so he could feel that too, or maybe because she, and later Ellen, didn't want him to end up a criminal. But he guess blood really is too thick to wash it away with lies. She when he overhears ellens talking to an agent about how they should tell him the truth, he doesn't stay to hear the whole story. He grabs what he can, shoves it into a bookbag and runs, untill he reaches New York city. It takes him a week to clear his head enough to realize how messed up it all is, everythings a lie. He's a 16 year old out on the streets without a person he knows within a 200 mile radius. And he doesn't care, because somehow, lies are easier then the truth. He can't bring himself to be the bad guy, because it goes against everything but his blood. He doesn't want to break hearts, only fix his own. But being a good guy doesn't work when no one will look past your (real) name. So he does something different. Not good, not bad. He does what it takes to surive, tries to help people in a way the good guys can't, but refuses to hurt people. His father died dealing with guns and mobs, it doesn't get you a happy ending. But honest and goodness doesn't get you too far either. and then, he's so far gone his schemes get bigger and bigger, a little bit for the money, a little bit for the adventure. How far he can bend and sneak around the rules until warning bells go off and he's long gone. The only thing better then running away was being chased, was running towards something. Being in a grey area really opens your eyes, because there is no black and white after all, just light and dark shades with a line you don't cross. He's been crossing it his whole life. No one really understands the grey area thing though... The happy ending dream. That a conman can have a moral code. Maybe he's too good at this, or maybe he's the only one that's seen both sides of the line...
