White Collar
A Gift of Hats
BeautifulAlice
Summary: Neal gets his team members hats that fit their personality. He doesn't expect them to return the favor. Very tiny spoilers in regards to season one. Gen fic.
Diana
Neal felt that the perfect hat for Diana was a beautiful ladies hat, deep sapphire blue, with a bit of lace on it. He'd seen the lady side of Diana, and had been impressed...and rather disappointed she was attracted only to women. Still, he left the hat on her desk one afternoon, and watched from his desk as she hesitantly picked it up and put it on.
It looked exactly right.
Diana caught him looking and grinned.
"Thanks, Neal. It's awesome,"
"You're welcome." Neal said with a grin in return.
Of course, he didn't tell her that the hat was over five hundred dollars. He was just glad she didn't threaten to punch him.
Jones
Jones hat was a bowler hat, but a wicked cool one, and an old one. Jones didn't realize what it was at first, or that it was even on his desk, as he came in one afternoon, until about half an hour later when he demanded in a startled tone,
"What the hell is this?"
Neal perked up.
"It's a bowler hat. I thought you'd like it," Neal said, and Jones raised an eyebrow and tried it on.
Surprisingly, it didn't look as ridiculous as June thought, but it looked...rather perfect on Jones.
"Cool. I think I like it, Caffrey, thanks." Jones said, pleased.
"No problem," Neal said with a grin. He missed seeing Diana's thoughtful look as he spun around in his chair in celebration of the fact that Jones like it.
He was rather glad he didn't tell him that the hat was worth about three hundred dollars.
Peter
When Peter came into his office after lunch, it was to find a nice baseball hat sitting innocently on his desk. He ducked out of the office a bit to call down to the floor below,
"Neal, you left your hat in my office!"
"It's yours," Neal called back, and Peter frowned but went back into the office to look at it again.
He had to admit baseball caps weren't exactly Neal's style.
Except the emblem on the hat wasn't something that belonged to any team. It was a single knight on it, and he turned the hat around and it read: for the best and dangerous agent I've ever known.
There was no name attached.
But Peter knew already who it was from.
With a grin, he put it on his head, and considered what to do for Neal in return. Diana came into his office then, and grinned as she saw the hat.
"Nice hat boss,"
"You too," Peter returned, surprised that Diana was wearing something that obviously wasn't part of the FBI regulated clothes. It did look nice on her, and he wondered how much something like that cost.
"Neal got me and Jones a hat, and a few other agents hats too," Diana informed him with a grin. "I think maybe that we ought to get him something in return boss."
Peter turned thoughtful, glancing down at Neal who was still spinning around aimlessly in his chair, looking happier than he'd seen him in a while, since Kate's death.
"I think you're right,"
With that the two began to plan.
Neal
When Neal walked into the office the next morning, he was surprised to find a package sitting on his desk. Raising an eyebrow, he went over, and picked it up. It had no signatures.
"Maybe you should open it, it could be something you'd like," Peter said with a grin from behind him. Neal turned and saw that Peter, Diana, and Jones were all standing there-along with a few random agents that he'd given hats too earlier.
Neal opened the box, using a pocket knife he borrowed from Diana, and tossed aside the wrappings.
He blinked at what he saw inside.
Tickets to an art viewing that was outside his radius, and a really nice deep blue suede jacket that looked more than what all the team could afford.
He stared.
"We felt you could use a night out," Peter said cheerfully, enjoying the shocked look on Neal face.
"Try on the jacket! We asked June for help in your size, we're hoping it's right," Diana said eagerly, and Neal lifted the jacket. It felt like silk, it was so smooth and soft.
He pulled off his current jacket and set it gently into his chair, before moving to put this one on. A flash of bright light took him by surprise, and he scowled at Peter who was holding a camera.
"Elizabeth helped pick the color and wanted a photo," Peter said cheerfully, taking another picture.
"Stop that!" Neal protested, but was grinning nonetheless.
He couldn't believe that his team had surprised him like this. As he began to hide around Diana who was actually giggling at their antics, Neal couldn't help but feel that he had finally found something that was sentimentally valuable to him...and worth fighting for.
His team.
End