Teach Tennis?

It was an ordinary day for the NC Manhattan White Collar Unit - well, if you want to call getting kidnapped and then Neal or Peter making deals with the kidnappers to let them go or a gun fight goes down, an ordinary day, then - yeah, that's an ordinary day.

It was around four in the evening now. Peter was signing some papers and sipping his hot - as Neal called it - 'gross-White-Collar-Department' coffee. While Neal was leaning back in one of the chairs and casually throwing his rubber-band ball up in the air as though he had nothing better to do.

Diana and Jones sat opposite of Peter and Neal with a phone in Jones' hand and Diana was curiously watching everyone in the room with raised eyebrows.

They all had gathered in the meeting-/-debriefing-\-briefing room and were having a 'fun' time sitting around debriefing what they had done wrong on the mission. Although, they all went silent after a little while of not-as-usual arguing had started among the four, so they just stopped all together.

Now Neal was bored. Diana was just a little sad that they had all gotten in a fight but didn't know how to fix it. Jones was more interested in his phone than he was in anything else at the moment. And Peter didn't even want to pay attention to his agents or his CI after the argument.

With nothing better to do at the moment, Diana started with Jones. Looking him over carefully she noticed he was clenching his jaw together as though he was mad, but his eyes told another story. He seemed as though sad but slightly angry while staring into the bright screen of the penetrating lit screen. His lips were curled into a slight pucker as though he was concentrating on whatever he was doing on his phone, but a tiny frown still was on his face. He was also rapidly typing on his phone like he didn't want anyone to look, but was so concentrated on trying to reply or post something.

Then, Diana turned to look at Peter. She first noticed his furrowed eyebrows, concentrated and eyes narrowed at his papers. Next, she noticed the same thing she had on Jones. His jaw was clenched tight and he was currently slightly puckering his lips out like Jones had. Except it wasn't exactly a pucker, more like a 'I-Am-The-Parent-And-As-A-Father-I-Am-Very-Disappointed-In-All-Of-You' look. She next noticed how Peter had one hand down on the table with the other hand on the coffee cup.

Now she finally turned to the playful CI sitting across from her and Jones. Neal had his eyes on his rubber-band ball, narrowed and concentrated, like Peter was. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed but still making him look a little hurt instead of mad. Her eyes travelled down and she noticed how his lips weren't puckered like the two FBI agents they were sitting beside. Instead, Neal's lips were frowning like her was about to cry, but slightly mad at the same time, like he wanted to shout. She next noticed his hands. One was throwing the ball with slightly more force than usual, and the other was closed into fist-like ball while he had a hold on the armrest.

Diana soon realized that she too had a puckered frown and her hands were clenched tightly at her sides. One more glance at Neal's ball, and an idea instantly popped up in her head.

Yeah. She needed to fix this. And she had the perfect idea.

"Alright." She stood abruptly, the chair sliding backwards as though trying to run from her, backwards.

All three men snapped their heads toward her and she narrowed her eyes to looked at each one.

Jones lowered his phone quickly, as though he didn't want anyone to see what was on it and had to hide it. Peter had a slightly surprised, but also a narrowed look in his eyes, as if asking 'what're you doing, Diana?'. And Neal caught his ball once more before setting it down slowly, like he might have to get back to doing that again, or as though someone might steal it and he won't have anything to play with anymore.

The female FBI agent whipped around, grabbed her chair, and put it back in place. She then turned to face them all again, raising her watch to look at the time.

"It's 4:21. We're all supposed to have left work an hour and a half ago. Come on. If we're all done throwing balls in the air, I have a better idea." She spoke up, lowering her arm and aiming the last sentence at Neal, who was still clutching the rubber-band ball in his right hand.

Neal looked back at her with the usual huge, innocent - and probably fake - eyes of his that he uses most of the time. Even though pretty much every single time, it doesn't work on anyone.

Diana gave him a smirk back, showing him that it obviously wasn't working. His response was to give her a playful glare and then look away. But she soon got everyone's attention again, causing all their heads to turn towards her again.

"I said 'come on'." She proclaimed, using a threatening tone and narrowing her eyes at all of them.

All three men stood quickly and glanced at each other nervously before grabbing their coats and inching toward her.

"Leave the coats, boys. You won't need them where we're going. We all need to cool off a bit." She gestured to the coats and then walked out the door, not even waiting for the two agents and an ex-criminal to follow behind.

Neal was out the door in seconds, a hand being placed on his lower back to get him going faster from his angry handler. Especially since he was walking slow and accidentally making Peter more mad at him.

Jones was out the door behind Diana before Peter and Neal ever were and was by her side within seconds.

"Where-"

"You'll see." She replied, smirking at him with her own 'Berrigan-Charm' before patting his shoulder and walking on through the doors and into the elevator.

Neal stepped inside the elevator, biting the inside of his lip with nervousness, but not showing it on the outside.

Peter took his hand off his back after they had gotten down the stairs. But he could still feel the angry eyes of his handler penetrating the back of his head as he stood away from him.

Neal stared down at the floor, seeming more interested in that than he was in the walls or people surrounding him.

Once the elevator opened, they all stepped out with a look of slight relief on each of their faces, not wanting to spend another elevator ride with each other with that much tense silence in the air.

Neal walked faster than he had upstairs and avoided getting pushed by his handler's rough hand. Usually he'd be fine with Peter pushing him to go faster, but this time it felt like he was trying to punch his palm into the small of Neal's back.

Once they finally got outside, the breeze brushed their hair quietly in the wind. Neal shuddered and didn't want to know what Diana had planned. And as curious as he was, he knew that Diana had some pretty 'out-of-the-box' ideas at times, and he had a feeling this was one of them.

They all stood for a minute before Neal noticed Diana roll her eyes in annoyance and glare at them again.

"Guys, let's go. We're all driving in my car. Obviously, Neal doesn't even have a car. So it's either we all drive together or Neal's driving with only one of us." She explained, putting a hand on her hip with a knowing expression.

Neal narrowed his eyes at Diana, "Oh, what? No one likes to drive with me? Is that what you mean?"

Diana shook her head at the CI, "No, Caffrey. I mean that we're all ready to shout at each other if not get in a fight. So your the only one that walks here instead of drives, and it's probably likely that whoever your going to drive with, you two will probably get into an argument. Most likely over nothing, too."

Instead of turning into an understanding 'oh I get it' look, Neal's eyes only turned from narrowed to fiery and ready for a fight. Understanding instantly zipped from his mind and the only thought in his brain was to stand his ground, ignoring everything else his mind tried to convince him of.

Like a 'stupid' fight. Which he was getting himself into. With his 'friend' of all people.

But he ignored those thoughts and spoke back at her with a small bit of fury in his voice.

"So now your saying that I'll just get into a fight with anyone? Is that what your saying? That I'm just 'that' mean?" He snapped, clenching one hand into a fist.

Diana saw his hand turn into a fist and raised one hand as though to calm his instant turn of mood.

"No! Caffrey, calm down. That's not what I meant either! You know what I mean, but your damn brilliant mind won't wrap around that fact that you know it." She proclaimed furrowing her eyebrows in an attempt to show him that she wasn't a threat.

Neal had no clue how to fight in a real fight and obviously knew that he would be down in seconds with Diana, or really anyone on the force...but especially Diana.

His hand slowly unclenched and his mind opened up, finally giving him an idea of what she meant, really.

He let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head. Still acting like a mad child as he stalked off toward Diana's car with a look of annoyance on his face.

Diana shrugged, "You all coming?"

Peter and Jones looked at each other nervously with a shrug, before joining the CI and FBI agent at her car.

Peter cautiously put his hand on his CI's shoulder and squeezed it, knowing that they all had gotten pretty mad at each other, and the CI had gotten yelled at most of the meeting.

Neal glared at him, side ways, but still enough to tell him that he was not interested in his hand being on his shoulder.

Peter took it off, but not without giving him another small squeeze of reassurance and sat in the passenger side of the younger agent's car.

His CI didn't respond, but only got inside the car behind his seat.

After a honk and a few shouts at traffic, Diana was out of the parking lot and into the ongoing cars whooshing by theirs.

The uncomfortable silence broke through again and everyone had to hold their breath just to keep it from getting any worse.

A few red lights and annoyed sighs later, they finally had reached their destination and once everyone saw where they were they had to let out a small groan, gasp, or squeak of shock.

Neal stared at the tennis courts in front him, frozen and unmoving at the sight. The only thought in his mind was 'shit no no no. I have no clue how to play this.'

"Caffrey come on. We're doing this whether you like it or not." Diana informed, apparently already out of the car and had opened his door.

The CI soon noticed that both Peter and Jones had also gotten out while he was frozen.

"Do I have to?" He groaned, looking at Diana's face.

She gave him a serious look before raising an eyebrow, "Yes, let's go. These courts already have rackets and balls for us. Oh, and Caffrey?"

Neal perked up at the question and looked at her, "What?"

"Thanks for the idea with that little ball you throw around in the office. I got this idea from 'you'." She said cocking her head to the side with a smirk.

Neal gave her a glare and sighed, unbuckling his seat belt and stepping out of the car.

"So we're playing tennis in work clothes and shiny shoes? This ought to be fun." Peter dead panned, closing Neal's door for him before he could himself. After doing that, it earned him nothing but a small glare from his CI and a questioning look from both his agents beside him.

He just shrugged and walked up on the sidewalk with a lopsided grin. This was going to be interesting.

After they had gotten all their equipment to play tennis, they were told that they could use court 2 for as long as three hours. They had paid minimum for it, so it didn't really matter either way.

Once in the court, Peter was holding two balls and Diana was holding the other two.

The court had a chain-linked fence around it like every other usual court had, and a net with painted flooring to show where and where not to go with your feet and the ball.

Peter, Diana, Jones, and Neal all stopped walking once inside the court and Jones locked the gate door before turning back to the others.

"Alright. There are two nets in each court to play in. So, who's on who's team? We can either play two on two or one on one with someone." Peter explained, looking at everyone.

"How 'bout 'you' guys play, and I can stand back and enjoy leaning on the fence." Neal suggested, gesturing to the fence.

Jones shook his head, finally speaking up, "Neal that'd be not only unfair to you, but to us too. We need equal teams. So, whether you like it or not, your playing." He smirked at the CI after saying that.

Neal rolled his eyes and sighed, "Fine."

"Why don't you wanna play, anyways? I thought you loved playing with balls." Peter mocked, smiling knowingly.

Neal glared playfully at him, "Oh come on, I - I rather be throwing the ball than be hitting it with some flimsy racket that might break in my hand."

"It won't break." Diana shook her head in disbelief of Neal's childish words and he just looked down at the racket he was holding with a glare.

"Okay. How about we go one on one first for one hour an a half, and then we can go two on two the last hour an a half." Jones suggested, shrugging and looking between all the rest of them.

"Alright. Since your my partner we can team up." Said Diana, slinging her arm around Jones' back and around his shoulder.

"I guess that makes us a team, Sundance." Peter said with a smirk towards his CI.

Neal shrugged, "Then let's get to it, Butch."

Neal and Peter picked the slightly bigger court at the back and Jones and Diana chose the slightly smaller, medium sized court up closer towards the gate door.

Diana dropped one of the two balls and it bounced away from her, successfully hitting the corner of her side of the court. She clutched the ball in her left hand, holding the racket with the other, and threw the ball up.

The tennis ball went up in the air for less than a second before the agent swung with medium force and it hit the ball.

The ball flew towards Jones' side of the court and bounced once before he came at it with the same force as she had. It bounced towards her but only got as far as the net before slamming into that and bouncing back to him.

He looked at her sheepishly, "I haven't played in a while."

She shrugged, "It's fine, besides, we're supposed to have fun anyways. Not get every hit perfect."

Jones nodded in agreement and grabbed the bouncing ball while it was in the air. He threw it up like a professional and slammed his racket into it with more force than he intended.

Diana bit the inside of her lip to keep from flinching away from the ball flying towards her faster than she intended. Instead, she rose her racket, stepped out of the way and swung quickly, almost hitting it.

The ball bounced away from the two and into Neal and Peter's part of the court.

Neal gave Diana a mischievous smile before picking the ball up and throwing it with his right hand.

The ball sped toward Diana in seconds and she ducked, letting it hit the fence instead of her neck.

It bounced back to her and she grabbed it, momentarily giving Caffrey a 'I'm watching you' glare and then getting back to their game.

Peter walked over to the middle and placed one of the two tennis balls down beside the net. Looking up, he noticed that Neal was still wearing his hat.

"You gonna put that hat over here, Neal?" Asked Peter, raising his eyebrow at the ex-con artist.

Neal perked up at the sound of his name again and looked over at his handler.

"What?"

"I asked you if you were going to put your hat over here. You know, with the ball. By the way, that's not how to hold the racket." Peter couldn't stop himself from smiling amusedly at how Neal was holding the medium sized racket.

He had one hand on one side of the edge of the metal bridge, and one hand on the other side, like he was going to push it forward instead of hit things with it.

Neal glowered down at the metal/plastic racket and then up at Peter with a lopsided sneer or -what looked like- a lopsided smiling wolf.

"I know that." Exclaimed Neal, not sounding to sure, "I'm just holding it this way right now." He mumbled, taking his left hand off and holding it with his right one.

Peter looked at Neal with amusement before shaking his head and getting up. He grabbed his racket and rose it with one hand. His hand on the handle of the object. He rose it a little higher, showing Neal the proper way to hold with a smirk.

"See, that's how to hold a tennis racket." He called out, then lowered it.

Neal glared at his handler, but still slid his hand down to the handle and glanced at Diana and Jones, who were hitting the ball back and forth. Not with ease or grace, but more like two children who weren't exactly filled in on how to play the game.

Neal turned back to look at Peter before grabbing his fedora and walking over to where his handler was.

Peter watched his CI walk over and place the fedora down, slanted and on the side of the metal part of the net. He shrugged and turned around, walking up and standing on his side, holding the racket in both his hands firmly.

Neal stepped back, twisting his racket around in his hands while doing so. He stepped into his own spot and warily watched Peter's hand, the one with the ball.

Peter turned, threw the ball up, swung his racket, and it hit the ball with force.

Neal stared at the ball flying toward him with wide eyes before recoiling and pushing the racket out in front of him as if to block himself from the hit.

Almost tripping on himself, Neal stumbled to the side, blocking his face and neck with a hand and the racket while the ball bounced past him and hit the fence.

Silence wrung in the air for a few seconds. Neal heard no bouncing of balls or hitting from other rackets. Just silence.

Slowly lowering his racket, the first thing the ex-criminal saw was a ball. The small green tennis ball rolled over and lightly hit his shoe before rolling around it and back, repeating slower and smaller each time.

Neal's eyes snapped up and his arms went to his sides, shaking slightly with embarrassment. Everyone was staring at him.

Jones was confused, furrowed eyebrows and all. Diana looked slightly slightly amused and was smirking at him. And Peter looked...amused and was chuckling at him. Silently of course.

"What? Look, I don't know how to play, okay? I don't!" Neal threw his hands in the air, the racket in one and nothing in the other.

"Wait wait wait-" Jones put his hand in the air as if to stop Neal from speaking, even though he had already stopped, "Your saying that the only thing you aren't good at...is tennis?" Jones' serious look instantly broke out into a smile of amusement as if to want to laugh, but he couldn't quite get it out right.

Neal shook his head and looked down, red beating into his face before looking back up again, "I...I can - um."

"Well this is spectacular. We actually know how to do something that The Neal Caffrey has no clue how to do." Exclaimed Diana, eyes wide and a huge knowing smile on her face.

"Oh come on guys, you're being mean." Said Peter who looked between each of them with his own smirk.

Neal looked up at Peter with shock in his eyes and his eyebrows raised up in confusion at his handler's words.

Without getting another word in, Neal opened his mouth, but was cut off by Peter.

"Come on, back to your tennis." Proclaimed Peter, looking at Jones and Diana with the look of 'Don't-Disobey-The-Leader' in eyes.

Diana nodded before sticking her tongue out for a brief second towards Neal, who stuck his tongue back out at her, before turning back to Jones and they continued on with their game.

Peter shook his head at their antics and walked over, standing in front of his CI.

"Ignore them." He grumbled, before bending down and snatching the tennis ball off the ground.

Peter rose the racket and then put the ball on the webbed...plastic stuff that Neal had no clue what was.

"Wha-"

"Shut up, I'm trying to teach you how to play without either of us getting more embarrassed than we already are." Peter interrupted.

Neal sighed and watched Peter walk over to the other side of their court and hold the ball up, as if to show it off.

"Instead of throwing the ball in the air, I'm going to bounce it on the ground. That's the easier way to serve a ball." Announced Peter, lowering his hand a second later.

"Now, the correct way to...react - I guess - is to stand like this." He continued.

Peter stepped back with his left foot and gestured for Neal to do it too.

Neal stepped his left foot back and had the racket in his left one, ready to dodge if necessary.

"After that- Neal, look at me -After that, you want to face sideways, and grab the racket in both hands." He said, placing the ball down so Neal could see the proper stance.

Neal rose an eyebrow and nodded before clutching his tennis racket with both hands on the handle.

"Oh! And when you're holding the handle, stick you thumb up and out, like its pointing up to the wires of the racket." Added Peter, noticing the way Neal had his thumbs around it and not up.

"Why, exactly would I want my thumb like this. It makes it harder to move anyways." Neal informed him, trying to wave the racket around but struggling slightly.

"Because it gives you more force and aim for when the ball comes. It also gives you better grip on the racket." Peter implied, bouncing the ball up and down against the colored ground.

"Alright, what next?" Neal asked, wrapping his hands around the racket's handle and standing sideways.

"Now-" Peter set the ball back down again and walked over to Neal with his racket hanging at his side. "I'm gonna show you how to swing."

"Like what? I could swing it like a baseball bat, and I'll still miss." Neal shrugged, watching him stand in the same stance he was, but only to the left of him.

Peter smirked at that, "Yeah, well that's because you probably have never played baseball before either."

Neal playfully glared at him, "What, do you think I've never played sports before? I will proudly say that I played Jr. League in soccer when I was - uh - younger."

"Right. You, the James Bonds of all Bonds creators playing soccer of all sports." Peter retorted, shaking his head.

"What! It's a sport, much better than baseball, I'd say. At least you don't have to hit balls for points. I never was a baseball fan much." Neal admitted with spite, cocking his head ever so slightly to the side and looking at the FBI agent.

Peter rolled his eyes, "Yeah right. You've probably never even tried hitting a baseball before-"

"-I have, and I got a touchdown."

Peter burst out laughing and Neal looked at him with a confused smile.

"What's so funny?"

"Neal-" Peter bent down and leant on his racket for a second while laughing some more.

"Seriously, Peter why?" Neal shook his head and glared at him.

"This is so not your day today, CI." Peter exclaimed amusedly after catching his breath. He grabbed his friend's shoulder while stabilizing himself and then breathed out.

"Neal." He stepped in front of his CI and put his hand on Neal's other shoulder firmly. "Neal, it's called a Home Run, a Touchdown is in Football."

Neal raised his eyebrows almost to where they touched his hair, "That's what was so funny? Anyone could have made that mistake." He shrugged.

Peter shook his head with a pant of a chuckle, "No, Neal. I think you're the only one."

"But, that's not what's funny." He instantly added after a moment of breath again.

Neal blinked, waiting for him to cut to the chase already.

"What's funny - is - is that you. You, the Neal Caffrey can't remember if what he won at a baseball game was a Touchdown, or a Home Run." Peter started laughing again and then let go of Neal's shoulders to turn back around.

Neal sighed and then let out a small chuckle. He was so stupid, how could he forget..?

"This is going to be a long...long three hours."