I do not own White Collar or any of its characters. Please enjoy.

El looked at Peter across the table as she took a sideways glance at Neal. They were eating their first meal together since Neal came out of jail. She kicked Peter under the table, meaning to be less forceful than she meant to be. Peter raised an eyebrow at El, flicking a baby tomato at her for the kick. Neal looked at the two of them before flicking a bit of macaroni at Peter. "Neal," El said.

"What?" Neal asked innocently with a grin. He stuck his tongue out at Peter as he got hit with a bit of meat. "Don't stain."

"Peter," El said.

"You started it," Peter replied with a grin. "You kicked me," he said as Neal flicked another piece of macaroni at him.

"I was trying to get your attention, not start a food fight," El said as she gave Neal a look.

"Sorry El," Neal said a bit sheepishly.

"It's not your fault," El replied to Neal with a soft smile. "But I do want to bring something up that is about you."

"Oh?" Neal asked with a bit of curiosity. "What is it?"

"She thinks that I should tell you something that Hughes wants you to do," Peter said. "Even though I think you're going to say no. But El did suggest the person and she passed all the background checks that we have in place for someone in her line of work."

"What line of work?" Neal asked, even though he had a sneaking suspicion what Peter was going to suggest.

"A therapist," Peter replied. "Her name is Cristina Manzo and she works with people who have gone through different kinds of trauma. It's not because you need to be fixed but Hughes thinks that it would help with the different cases that we're going to have coming our way. We went through the first one fine, but he's worried about what will come in the future. Heck, I'm a bit worried about it as well."

"I know," Neal said quietly and looked down. "I know about your meetings with Mozzie. I followed him that day after we were done with the job."

Peter blinked and then smiled. "Cannot put anything past you."

"You two were good in the beginning but Mozzie blew it. He said he had to go see someone about a newspaper. It sounded fishy, so I followed and I had the okay from the office to do so."

"Since they thought you were with me," Peter said with a chuckle. "We're going to keep those meetings."

"The two of you could just call each other on the phone and talk," Neal pointed out.

"Phones are bugged," Peter replied. "And he won't come over here unless El is home."

"Moz is very nice and not about to try anything," El said quietly. "He did check the house a few times for us while you were away. Never did find anything, but I'm glad that he did it."

Peter smiled at that. "He did and he is nice. I'll give him that. He's a good friend to have."

Neal raised an eyebrow. "Friend?"

"He'll never admit it," El replied at that. "But he is trusting Peter more and more. I think it helps that Peter is doing a bit more on his side of the law rather than Peter being stuffy."

"I am not stuffy," Peter replied.

"You are at times, love," El said with a bit of a smile. "Who wants more?"

"I think I'm good," Neal replied as El got her plate and went into the kitchen. "Moz is trusting you more and more?"

"Yes," Peter replied with a shrug. "Now, about the therapist."

"What was her name again?" Neal asked.

"Cristina Manzo," Peter replied. "I think she could help you, Neal, if you want help. I know that we've been talking and you've been talking to El a lot."

"And El shares, I know that," Neal replied quietly and nodded a yes. "Maybe you're right…I've been having dreams of what happened at the hanger."

Peter looked worried. "Dreams as in looking from the outside or reliving dreams?"

"Reliving," Neal replied quietly. "I'm not sleeping all that well and going a bit overboard with the espresso. Besides, admitting you have a problem is the first step to getting better, right?"

"Only if you're doing the twelve steps, but I do think you're on the right track," Peter replied with a smile. "Your first meeting with her is tomorrow at three."

"…You already set up a meeting for me?" Neal asked. "How did you know I was going to agree?"

"One of the things that I just know about you," Peter replied. "And I could see today that you weren't sleeping as well as you did the night before. Or the night before that. So you were more likely to agree to help rather than dismiss it out of hand."

"You're quite the mastermind," Neal said with a grin. "Are you sure we shouldn't just give up our day jobs and go into the bank business?"

"Burke and Caffrey?" Peter asked with a grin. "I think El might kill us."

"Not if we give her a good cut of the money," Neal joked. "Okay, so she might just kill you."

"No, you," Peter replied. "You're the one who got me into it, remember?"

"Only because I knew the other way in," Neal said with a grin. "Besides, wouldn't it better than the retirement money you're going to get from them?"

"Neal, you are not allowed to get Peter into your business," El replied as she came back to the table. "Or anything else you two are thinking up."

"We'd give you a nice cut," Neal said.

"The only cut I'd like is something that Peter knows about," El said with a grin at Peter.

Peter just grinned as he relaxed into his chair. "What?" He asked as he saw Neal raise an eyebrow.

"Am I allowed a piece of the action?" Neal asked, hopefully.

"You already are, but not on this," Peter replied. "We're trying. Again."

"Again?" Neal asked.

"We tried two times now," El replied. "If nothing else, we'll just adopt you."

"We did that already," Peter said with a grin.

"Now I just feel loved," Neal said with a chuckle as they sunk more into the banter back and forth with each other. He relaxed for the first time since Kate's death, feeling a bit more of belonging and safety.