Beads of exasperated perspiration were popping from Peter's temples at an alarming pace. Diana looked simply amused but Jones knew better than to have any emotion splashed across his face at all and remained silent. Neal stared around at them all with frustration in his heart. They were good people, and damned fine agents but… good Lord they were conservative people. They could catch their latest prey in his own web of deceit if they just used a little ingenuity. But of course, Peter was having none of it and Diana and Jones never challenged anything he decreed. Neal huffed an angry breath as Peter opened his mouth to shoot him down once more. He could practically tell what the man was going to say, word for word, and he was right.
"Neal. The answer is no. It's too risky, too pricey. We do this-"
"By the book?"
Peter's eyes narrowed at the thinly veiled insolence, but nodded nonetheless. "Yeah, we do this by the book. That's why we have the book, so we can do things by it. It's really a very clever system." He turned back to the file on his desk that they were all stood around and frowned in concentration. "Diana, I think that the undercover operation you proposed has some merit and…" he trailed off, rubbing his temples in ire at the explosive noise of discontent that burst unchecked, from Neal. "You disagree?" he challenged, and any person who wasn't Neal Caffrey would have shaken their heads so fast they'd see stars. Neal however, nodded without hesitation.
"I do. Sending Diana in undercover isn't going to work. He's going to spot her as a plant a mile off."
It was Diana's turn to snort in indignation.
"Excuse me Caffrey, but some of us are actually trained in this field and-"
"Enough," Peter ordered sharply, more sharply than he intended such was his state of tiredness and he flashed an apologetic look at an even madder looking Diana. "That's enough," he added more softly again, "Diana, you are going to go in undercover as you suggested. I think tomorrow night is the best option. I know he's there tonight and for the next two days so we'll give ourselves tonight to get the story set and rehearsed. Jones and I will be your primary back up and Neal-"
"I'll be in the van making no noise and pretending I don't exist?"
Peter threw his eyes up to heaven.
"You're a little old to be playing an aggrieved Harry Potter, don't you think?"
Neal stared at him with an odd watery fire burning in his blue eyes and didn't deign to answer.
"But yes," Peter continued, "You'll be our point of contact in the van. We need someone to have eyes on Diana at all times and feed us that info to our stations." He turned back to Diana. "So, what we need you to do above all else is to isolate him. He never goes anywhere alone so that is going to be a challenge. His two body guards are also his cousins, so he doesn't trust outsiders. You're going to have to influence-"
"She could put him under the influence of class A narcotics and this plan still wouldn't work."
It was only El's extreme fondness for Neal at that moment that kept him alive. Even Jones and Diana exchanged subtle looks of surprise. Caffrey often pushed Peter to the limit, but he wasn't often just flat out insolent because he didn't agree with something. There was something off about his stance as well, now that they really looked at him. It was rigid and it was clear that he was pissed. Not in his usual way, but in a real, meaningful way. Before Peter could answer, Neal's fed up and angry voice washed over them all once more.
"Have you people never considered the logic of the phrase to catch a thief, you send a thief? You might be the agents here but you're messing in a world you, forgive me, quite frankly do not understand. The only way you're going to isolate him is to charm him, and the only charm that man will understand is the allure of a big pay day. Not that he cares about the money, but he certainly cares about his reputation. You need to give him bait and play the line. Not cobble together some ham fisted undercover operation to try and seduce a confession out of him. You're trying to play his ego, but you're going about it the wrong way. His standing in the underworld is everything to this guy, it's everything and you're completely ignoring it."
Three sets of eyes blinked at his lengthy outburst in a range of mild to extreme confusion.
Peter recovered first.
"Neal, I hear you. I do. But I do not have that kind of budget or that kind of time. I need this wrapped up in a week, not in a couple of months with a red line through my costings for the quarter. The guy's an ego-maniac, I know that. But I can't accommodate it in the way you want me to, if the resources were there…then maybe. But they're not and we've got to work with what we've got. So I need you to get on board with us here, alright?"
Neal stared.
"I could get us the financing we need. With minimum risk."
Peter's lunch trundled in his stomach in protest as he whipped his head back and forth. "Absolutely not. Under no circumstances," he rejected flatly, "You are not going to get any financing, you're just going to get on the same page for this operation and that's the end of the matter." With one warning look, he glanced down at the file on his desk once more but his stomach was beginning to pique with that gut instinct that something was off with his maddening protégé. Neal was too vehement about this whole case for it to be just a difference of opinion. He'd been resistant at every turn, fighting Peter tooth and nail about the direction he was taking with the case.
He glanced up from the file and saw to his alarm that the kid was wearing that far away expression.
The "trouble" expression as Peter had dubbed it.
The migraine that he'd been keeping at bay suddenly spilled past his barriers as Neal stared off over the heads of the quietly conversing Jones and Diana, his mind clearly far away from the glass panelled office of the FBI White Collar division. Reaching for his pain killers, Peter popped two with abandon and glugged down a dollop of water as his gut screamed at him to intervene in whatever it was that was going to require intervention. He reached up and rubbed his temples as a sudden bright light shone in the kid's eyes and he very subtly flashed a smile of self-satisfaction.
Peter felt his heart sink.
…
A/N: I've had a few PM's requesting another Multi-Chapter White Collar fic so here we are! I always say when I finish one that I won't write WC again because sometimes I feel I'm missing the Peter/Neal dynamic, but the show always calls me back so here we go again.
_Inks
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