A/N: Haha... This is really weird and sorta rambly, but it wanted me to write it.
Neal looked at Peter with questioning, blue eyes holding something slightly hard. "What about when we find Fowler? What happens then?" His posture was stiff and shoulders tense.
Peter seemed to choose his words carefully. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he said slowly. "Together." He gave Neal a look of warning. Be careful, follow the rules, don't leap ahead without looking first.
Neal nodded slightly, leaving the office with a troubled mind. He wandered down toward his desk and sat down, holding a small ball in one hand.
They'd cross that bridge when they came to it. But that wasn't how Neal Caffrey operated. He always planned ahead (except for a few select times when Kate had been in jeopardy, but he wasn't counting those). If you didn't plan ahead, there were too many variables, too many unknown possibilities. Anything could happen, and you didn't have control.
Neal liked being in control. He liked to know exactly what he was getting himself into and have a pretty darn good idea of how to get out of it. Mozzie had said something to Peter once (granted, he'd been rather drunk at the time) about how what they did was largely about control. He'd been right on at least some level.
Tossing the ball up and down once gently, Neal let out a silent breath. No, he didn't like waiting to cross bridges. Didn't like not having backup plans and failsafes already prepared. Especially when it came to Fowler and Kate and the music box.
But there was that last word that Peter had spoken, too. "Together."
That was still a slightly foreign one to Neal. He had worked with people before, and they'd used it.
Coming from Peter, though, it was different. It spoke of trust and camaraderie. It said, "I've got your back."
And maybe, if Peter would be there with him, he could wait to cross this bridge. Just this once.
The plane explosion flashed in his mind and his grip on the ball tightened slightly.
Maybe.