A/n: Just something that's been sitting on my computer for awhile. Thought I'd post it. Uber long title…
Disclaimer- I do NOT own White Collar or anything associated with it.
You Conned Your Way into My Heart
I've known Neal Caffrey for as long as I've know Mozzie and I've known Moz for as long as I've been conning. It was Moz who hooked us up. We did a major con together. You have to take in mind, I was young and stupid and, unfortunately, let my hormones run my actions at the time, so when I say I let him con his way into my heart, I'm sure it wasn't very hard. But I fell fast and hard so when Neal met Kate Moreau and fell for her I was heartbroken, badly. And, like many other things in our relationship, or rather, what's left of it, that doesn't make the current situation very likeable, to say the least.
It's been a week since none other than Neal Caffrey himself gave me the deal to help the FBI rather than rot in the cramped prison cell. I've been pacing the length of that so called 'cramped' prison cell for that week. I mean, I wanted out of this prison cell, badly might I add, but did I want out of it badly enough to work with the man at one point I called the love-of-my-life-but-turned-out-to-be-in-love-with-someone-else-jerk?
"Yes, I do. No, I can't go through with that again. Maybe. I don't know." I sighed and sat down on my bed. I heard the door open.
"Talking to yourself again, Addie?"
"What do you want, Neal?" I sneered.
"Don't eat my head off, Addie! I just came for your answer," he said.
"Well, I don't have one. As you heard, I can't make up my mind on anything," I said a little less bitchy.
"Well, would you like me to make up your mind for you?"
"Neal, I don't think that's best."
"I do. Give me your ankle, Addie," he demanded. I sighed and walked over to him.
"What is this deal consisting of again?" I asked holding up my ankle.
"Instead of spending the next four years locked up in this cell, you're spending it helping the FBI catch some of the most notorious white collar criminals," he said.
"That's what I thought."
It felt nice walking outside, free –well as free as I could possibly be with a tracking anklet on—even though it was cold and raining. The ride to the FBI was long and strenuous. Agent Burke and Neal chatting the entire time, about a case I suppose. I didn't care; I was just basking in the glory of being outside the prison walls. When we got there, there were a few people staring. I guess not many people are used to seeing a girl in a dress and pumps with a tracking anklet, huh strange customs. Inside was buzzing with feds, normal I suppose for a federal building.
"Who's this?" some guy asked.
"Jones, I'd like you to meet you Adelaide Socorro," Peter Burke said.
"First, Caffrey, now her? Peter, are you trying to piss of Hughes?" he asked. Peter ignored him and led me and Neal into a conference room.
"Brief her please? I gotta call El and tell her I'll be late for dinner," Peter said leaving us alone. Neal came over to the chair I was sitting in and leaned over.
"It's a simple forgery case," Neal enlightened me. I read through the file.
"It's a bridal shop fencing for a dress forger?" I asked a few minutes later.
"Yeah, we're not after the business just the forger."
"Exactly," Peter said. He was standing at the door way with Agent Jones and another fed behind him, a girl. "Have you told her her part in all this?" Agent Burke asked.
"No. No I have not. I thought it'd be best coming from someone she already hates," Neal said.
"You and Neal are to go undercover as an engaged couple planning their wedding," Peter explained.
My breath caught. "Me? And Neal? Engaged?" I asked desperately trying to change what I heard. "Oh, no. This is not gonna work. I can't stand Neal or weddings." This all came out in one gushing breath.
"Adelaide?" Neal asked worriedly.
"Don't act like you didn't know I can't stand you," I said.
"I honestly didn't," he said. I sighed. This was gonna be a long case.
Now You have to Pay for the Damage.
It had been two weeks since we started this case. Neal and I weren't getting along very well, but our façade we put up for the sake of the case was very convincing. Peter even complimented us. Diana and Jones both asked us separately if there was something going on between us outside of the case; I assured them there wasn't. I tried forgiving him for leaving me for Kate, who I found out had died, but I just couldn't. He tried to get me to be nice but I wasn't having it. It wasn't my fault exactly. It was the whole situation; working with feds, being engaged to Neal (which I liked the fact just not the circumstances), having to plan a wedding real or not, and having to wear the cheap as dirt fake diamond ring. Anyway, I was thinking about how nice going back to prison would be when there was a knock at the door to the house of Mozzie's I was staying at. "Coming," I called. I opened the door to find Neal standing there. "Oh, hey," I said.
"Well, you don't have to sound so disappointed," he said, letting himself in.
"Oh hey why don't you just make yourself at home?" I said sarcastically.
"I brought Italian," he said making his way to the dining room. I followed.
"I see. But I never let you inside."
"You know you want me," he said, smiling, teasing me as he emptied the contents of a bag he had with him.
"Uh huh, yeah, totally," I said, just as sarcastic. He walked the few steps over to me and pulled me into a very surprising embrace.
"I told you." I blushed. He smiled. His to-die-for eyes, those clear, pretty, ice blue eyes, looked longingly at mine.
"Neal," I breathed. He kissed me, and it was everything I ever dreamt it would be.
"Adelaide, I'm sorry! I just-" I kissed him before he could make a fool of his self.
It was that moment that I finally realized that maybe; just maybe; it would be nice to forgive Neal for the whole Kate incident. I mean, after all he did watch the love of his life get blown up.
And as I finish typing the last of our first true romantic moment together, Neal is bugging me, telling me to get off the computer and come to bed. I smile as I remember my thought from the next morning;
Neal conned his way into my heart, broke it, and now has the smarts to pay for the damaged.
–Neal and Adelaide Caffrey –
– Married June 21, 2010 –
– Together forever.–