Later that day at the office
Peter sat alone in the White Collar division office; well actually except for Hughes and that new agent he was the only one at the whole office now. Everybody else was having lunch outside in the beautiful weather. Quickly Neal stormed in Peter's office causing Peter to jump in his chair.
"Hi!" Neal said with the world's biggest glare on his mouth.
Peter continued reading and writing about the file and said; "Have you ever heard of knocking at a door before you go in?"
Neal was about to open his mouth to answer right before Peter took his hand up and said in annoyance; "Please don't answer that! What is it?"
Neal sat down at the chair on the other side of Peter's desk and started talking. "Umm, you know how at the morning we planned to be at my place for Halloween, because El was having a girls only party at your place and you had nowhere else to go, so you went to me?" Neal said quickly without stopping once to catch his breath.
"Yeah? Why are you bringing this up now?" Peter asked impatient.
"Well…No you have nowhere else to go again" Neal said carefully.
"Why? What are you suddenly going to do now at Halloween?" the agent asked in wonder.
"I don't have to get your permission to go to a party with some friends!" Neal defended back.
"Well actually you have to, because I am your handler! And YOU are my responsibility! And if I don't know what you are doing that night, but suspects even the slightest bit that is illegal, I will put you in a 24 hour lock down or even handcuff you to my wrist!" Peter shot back
Neal gave up the fight and said; "a party" with a low and unhappy voice. Knowing that the chance of him going was suddenly extremely faint.
"And who invited you to this party?" Peter asked like he was talking to a 3-yearold kid, which Neal hated so much.
"An old friend of mine" he said again with even more defeat in his voice then the last time he spoke. Thinking that now he was lucky if he even got to spend that night somewhere else than in lockdown.
"And let me guess, there will be many of your old friends at this party, right? And many of these friends are alleged criminals as you like to call it?" the agent said with a self-reliant voice.
"Yes to the first question." Neal carefully said he felt confounded. He really wanted to see all his old friends/colleges, he missed his old life so much, and he thought that when he met his friends from the past again he would maybe have one night with his old life back.
"NEAL!" Peter said loud and clear in a determinate voice.
The consultant looked up fast with his best innocent look. "What?"
"You didn't answer the second question" Peter said rolling his eyes when he saw Neal's innocent look.
"They may all be in a same line of business," he said with casual yet very careful tone.
"Ok, you are not going to that party. NO WAY!" Peter said with a determinate voice. Hoping that if he said it clear enough maybe Neal wouldn't make any bigger deal out of this than it had to be and drop this thing before it drove him crazy.
"Peter, please just this once. If you let me go to this party I will do all your mortgage fraud cases the next month." The con-man said, hoping that if he threw in a advantage for his handler, maybe he would let him go.
The agent's office was silent. Neal looked hopefully with his best puppy eyes look at his handler. The older man was completely silent and just looked into those innocent blue eyes and said;
"You have to options "he started in a confident voice
"Option 1. You can stay at the office or at the your apartment with me" the agent stated with a tired voice, then right before he was about to speak he smiled and said "Or option 2. You can go to the party"
"I'll take option.2!" Neal shot back quickly happily.
"Hang on, I didn't finish. You can go to the party, but with me to look after that you don't do anything stupid" Peter shot back with a grin that was almost as big as his consultants for some seconds ago.
"Oh god no!" Neal said while he took a face palm to show how stupid he thought that idea was.
"Then option 1 it is!" the agent said smiling to Neal's annoyance.
"Your mean!" Neal said annoyed, and then he rose from the chair he was sitting in and walked out of the agent's office and down to the bullpen.
The agent just leaned back and laughed to himself. He knew Neal would change his mind. He tried to picture himself at a party with a group of people talking about all their alleged crimes. "This will be a interesting Halloween night," he said to himself.
