I do not own White Collar

Finally the White Collar Fic I promised. :)No slash. Father son love.

Neal had loved his father, why wouldn't he? Just because his father wasn't the cop he had told everyone he was? No. That wasn't a good reason. Even with that love Neal always had troubles making bonds with people. The trust just never came as easy as it should.

Always, that was until he met Agent Burke. Truely met him. This was a man Neal could love and be proud to be assosiated with. Peter may have not been much older than Neal but he was the closest to a real father Neal had ever experienced.

So when the choice was lay before him, there was no other option.

He saw the gun and knew what he had to do.

The love he felt for Peter didn't dull the pain as the bullet seared through his chest. The need for a real relationship of any kind with a real person didn't crush the fear rising deep in Neal's raceing heart.

He knew he had made the right decision. He knew Peter would be heart broken and would probably greive, at least for a little while, but Peter had people to comfort him. He would move on and live his life, and maybe, just maybe he would think about Neal every now and then.

"Why did you do this?" Peter asked as he held Neal in his arms. He had done his best to help Neal but he wasn't medically trained well enough to stop the bleeding.

"Because, I couldn't watch someone else leave me." Neal smiled then winced as the words ached. He knew it would all be over soon. Soon.

Neal closed his eyes for a moment then opened them. He was standing in a large room with grey walls. There was no blood, no Peter, no dying Neal.

"Neal." He felt his eyes widen as he turned slowly on his heal and saw Kate. She was in a pretty. Navy blue sundress and her brilliant blue eyes shown out," Neal." She said again as he felt the tears running down his face.

"Kate." He said weakly and then he pulled her close to him, burying his face in her hair, breathing her in. He felt whole again. Better than he had in a while but she pulled away and looked into his eyes, smiling.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Neal. I love you. You need to leave. It's alright. I know you're scared but Peter won't leave you. I love you." She stepped away from him then put her hands on his chest.

"I don't want to leave you, Kate." He said weakly.

"You must. I'll be waiting. CLEAR!" She shouted. Neal gasped at the wrenching pain in his chest and his eyes fluttered open.

"He's stable." He heard faintly as he fell asleep.

He awoke a while later and smiled. He was in a small hospital room that had been painted forest green. At the foot of his bed was a large boque of flowers and twelve balloons of various colors. He turned his head to the side and his grin spread even further. Asleep across two chairs was Elizabeth who was laying on top of a snoring Peter. He chuckled to himself, glad for the desicion he had made for once in his life.

Abrupt ending, I know. I hope you like it. Not really used to this style of writing so thought I would give it a try. Used to more of a diologe oriented story but this one was in the details. I hope you liked it. Review if you want to. :) would be apriciated.