Revealing Conversations

Neal cleaned up and settled in on the couch. Turning on his TV, he was faced with the general as she looked over some file or another. She appeared to be working at home because she was in relaxing attire instead of her usual uniform.

"What is it agent Larkin?" She gave him her sternest look.

"You remember the assault at the bust recently?" At her nod, he continued. "The doctors were very interested in why Peter and I survived an un-survivable poison so they did some intensive testing. I was given the results today and it turns out that something isn't right in my past."

Then he had her full attention. "What do you mean that 'something isn't right in your past?'"

"Agent Peter Burke is my full biological brother and I have DNA proof that it isn't a trick or an attack. The problem is that I didn't know I had a brother. So, either he is another secret my mom kept, or I am not who I think I am." He tried to hide his stress, but the general had worked with him for a long time.

She didn't like the situation at all. "I see. Expect Chuck and the team to arrive tomorrow, just in case someone tries to take advantage of the situation." Then she pulled up his pre Wit-sec files. "You have sealed adoption records. It looks like I have some more digging into your past to do this evening. Is that all?"

"Not quite… How is it to proceed with my family, because apparently I am a Burke?" That was the biggest question for the general. Would she let him tell Peter something?

"I'll have the panel discus that. Until further notice, things are to proceed like normal." With that, she was gone, and the screen went black.

Sitting back on the couch, he felt relieved and stressed. It had been years since he had last gotten to talk to Chuck and he had never been able to share his history with him, so this was going to be quite the reunion with his oldest friend. Perhaps Chuck would be willing to be his support while he discovered why his parents gave him up, why his brother didn't seem to know of his existence, what he is going to be able to share with them, and how they are going to react to his presence as a family member. Thinking about everything was already giving him a head ache, so this was going to be a long night…

There wasn't going to be much sleep, so he decided to pull out his paints and do one of those rare originals in order to work out some emotions.

Once Peter had realized that he wasn't adopted and that his parents had hid his little brother's existence from him, his curiosity got the better of him. Looking at the clock, he realized that it wasn't too late to call his parents for an explanation.

While Peter dialed the number, Elizabeth continued to flip through pictures and checked out his baby information as she remained by his side for support if he needed it.

Peter was grateful for her presence. He was trying to figure out how to broach the topic with his parents while the phone continued to ring in his ear. When it reached the third ring it was about to go to voicemail when he heard it picked up and a familiar voice answered.

"Hello Peter! Your mother was just thinking about calling you." He sounded like he was in a good mood and Peter hated to ruin that, but he needed to know.

"Hi dad. Actually… I need to talk to both of you. It's important." He tried to make his voice sound lighter, but it was impossible to keep the uncertainty out.

'Hey honey… grab the other phone, Peter needs to talk to us' was heard in the background. Back on the line "Peter… what's wrong?"

Avoiding answering, Peter tried to postpone until his mother got on the phone. "We should probably wait until mom is on the line…"

"Peter? What do you need to talk to us about?" His mother sounded concerned as expected.

Despite his fear, Peter decided to dive in. "I don't know how to discuss this, but I guess I should give you the back story to the questions that I have for you."

Sounding like they were uncertain where things would go, his parents gave him the go ahead to continue.

Taking a deep breath, Peter started from the beginning. "… So they tested us down to our genetics to see if they could find the answer. He is my brother and I have DNA proof of that. How could you hide something like that from me?" His voice was full of emotions, but he was mostly sad and hurt with a serious touch of anger. Mentally, he took a step back and gave his parents time to collect themselves.

They gasped in surprise. It had been thirty years since they had given their son up for adoption and they had not expected it to come up, especially not this way. "Oh Peter." His mom started to cry and his father had to comfort her while trying to explain the situation. "Peter... I'm sorry that you had to learn about Aaron this way. We should have told you, but we didn't even know if he was going to survive."

That wasn't what he expected. Peter felt his heart ache even though he didn't know what was coming. "What do you mean, what happened?"

It was his father's turn to tell a story and, even though his voice shook with emotion, he forced himself through it. "We wanted you to focus on your school and baseball practice so we started by hiding our financial issues from you. I was laid off of work when another company bought my employer out and I was having difficulty finding a new job. Then your mother told me that she was pregnant again and we were planning on telling you that weekend. She got sick, and we postponed the celebration until she was feeling better..."

Peter was remembering, but he wanted to hear from his parent's perspective.

"While she continued to get worse, we moved you to stay with your aunt and uncle. When she was placed in the hospital, the doctor didn't want you to be around her because you were a minor and not allowed beyond the waiting room. As her health declined, we feared for both of them and the doctor didn't know if they would survive or not. After a few months, we found out why she was getting sick and the doctor was able to turn her health around, but he feared that we were too late for your brother. Devastated, we hoped that maybe the doctor would be wrong… he had survived her illness, so maybe he would continue to pull through. Once she was strong enough, she was moved back home, but she had strict orders from the doctor… so we felt that it was still best for you to stay where you were. Finally, your brother was born. He had problems though, he wasn't strong enough to leave the hospital and he needed care that we couldn't afford to provide." He reached a point where his emotions got the better of him as he relived the worst days of his life.

Having cried out some of those emotions, Peter's mom took over. "The hospital suggested putting him up for adoption in the hopes of a family taking him in that could pay for his health care. With so many hospital bills and no way to pay them… we didn't know what else to do. Fortunately, a couple from DC was willing to adopt him. We made all of the arrangements and they paid for his medical bills. When the day came for them to pick him up…" She was overcome with her emotions again for a moment. "We told him goodbye, that we loved him, and that we hoped life would be good for him… it was the last time that we saw him because his records were going to be sealed like we never existed. They wanted him to truly be their son and we couldn't complain when they were giving him the life that we couldn't."

While his parents regained their composure, Peter took a few moments to think before replying. His parents didn't tell him because they didn't know if he would live, and then they couldn't because the adoption meant that he would never see him. It also meant that Neal was getting quite the surprise on his end too since his parents didn't want to acknowledge the existence of his birth parents. "I don't know what to say. A part of me wishes that I could have known because I have wanted a little brother for as long as I can remember, but then part of me is glad that I didn't have to worry about him for the last thirty years."

For several moments, everyone was silent. There were a lot of emotions in the air so each person stepped back to regain their composure before continuing.

"Peter… are you still there?" His parents were concerned about his reaction and he didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, I'm still here. It's just a lot to take in and I never expected anything like this to happen. I just don't know what to say or think at the moment." Then he remembered what his parents had referred to Neal as. "Hey, you called him Aaron. What is his name?"

It was like there was a mutual sigh of relief on the other end. "Aaron Micah Burke, we named him after your grandfathers. Did his parents change his name?"

Sighing again, Peter felt this wasn't going to be good. "I don't know. It took me three years to catch him on bond forgery via a worldwide chase… which means that I put my own little brother in prison without knowing it. Then he proposed working with me as a consulting informant, and I eventually decided to take him on, so we work together nearly every day. We've had a lot of conversations during stakeouts, the rides to and from work, and so on… but he isn't very talkative about his past. About the only thing that I have really been able to get out of him is that his adopted dad became a dirty cop and his mother lied to him about it his whole childhood. Then at eighteen he ran away and became a criminal on the streets himself. Beyond that, I have cases that we suspect him in, alleged stories of his activities, and the knowledge of a few criminal friends. Really, I don't know much of anything about him beyond what I learned to catch him."

His parents didn't like that. "Do you have any guess as to what might make him run away?"

That was something that Peter had a theory on, but there was more to it that had him worried. "I have a theory. He is very touchy on the subject of fathers and he never speaks of his mother, so my theory is that he ran away after finding that his father wasn't who he thought and that his mother had lied to him. What worries me, is the theories that I have had pertaining to his father being a dirty cop."

Taking sharp breaths, his parents were hurt. They had lied to Peter by hiding the very existence of his brother, so they felt like he had unintentionally shoved that in their faces. It was something that they had felt guilty about for thirty years so they wouldn't blame him if he did hold it against them, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Then to learn that their other son had been treated so badly didn't help them. Did they fail both of their sons?

After a few moments, they still hadn't said anything and Peter worried about their reactions. "Mom… dad?"

"We're still here son, but we can't help but compare ourselves to them. After all, we didn't tell you about your brother, so we lied to you for thirty years. Then we also adopted him out to people who hurt him so bad that he turned to crime? Our actions have hurt both of you!" His father was very upset.

"I'm not going to say that I'm happy with you keeping him secret from me… but I see why you did it. If you had told me then I would have been worried about him for thirty years and probably would have been looking for him around every corner. Instead, he got to be a surprise… which still hurts, but perhaps it is easier to deal with the worst of it at once and then be able to move on. As for his adopted parents, you gave him to people who were willing to save his life, so how could you know what was going to come later?" He couldn't hold it against his parents, despite being upset with them.

Relieved, his parents knew that they still had to re-earn his trust, but at least he wasn't going to hold it against them. Moving on to the next concern, they back tracked to what Peter had mentioned. "What do you mean that you're worried about his father being a dirty cop?" His mother had picked up on that and wanted to know what he meant.

"When a cop is dirty, it can lead to a lot of things. Sometimes the other cops shun the family, while a few might even feel the need to take action against them. Then there is the possibility of other dirty cops which adds a different element of danger. Finally, there could be criminals involved because groups like the mob often take advantage of dirty cops. That could have implications in a lot of directions from Neal being shamed to his life being in danger which could have merited Wit-sec." He feared what implications Neal could have endured.

"Could any of that have affected his choices in what to do with his life?" They were trying to understand their son as best they could.

"From what I have been able to gather, he doesn't remember his father so, whatever happened, it happened when he was very young. Then, based off of his comments on his mother lying to him and other things that I have gathered, I'm pretty sure he has seen some rough times and that his childhood wasn't as great as he would like me to believe. When he turned eighteen his world was flipped around as he learned the truth. Could all of that affect his choices? Yeah, he believes himself to be his father's son, so it is possible that he thinks he is of no more value than being a lying criminal. He is very touchy on the subject of family, but maybe he will be willing to open up and give me some answers now that we are brothers…" Since Peter didn't know how many things Neal was lied to about or how prepared he might be learn all of this, virtually anything was possible with him.

Now it was his parents turn to sit back to absorb the information while they endeavored to come up with how to handle it.

After a few moments, Peter decided to ask them if they were okay.

"No son, we're not. We always hoped that they would take good care of him and, maybe if we were very lucky, we just might get to see him again someday. Now you tell us that he probably had a childhood so bad that he ran away into crime? While we are happy to hear that we might get to see our boys together for the first time, we are also afraid of how things could turn out…" Both his parents were able to talk, but they both had emotional shakes to their voices.

When she didn't define the rest of her concerns, Peter inquired further. "How what could turn out mom?"

His mom answered. "How he'll react to knowing that we are his parents. Will he hate us for giving him up?"

Peter's heart continued to ache. Emotions were not his area of expertise but, when his family and friends were hurting, he tried to overcome that barrier. "I'm sure he'll come to love you as much as I do… but he may need some time."

"We hope so son, and we'll give him all of the time he needs." They had hope, which was all that they could ask for at the moment.

After a few moments of awkward silence, they decided to move on to a lighter topic. "Tell us more about him, son. You said that you work with him nearly every day, what is he like?"

They settled in while Peter told stories from the office and Elizabeth put in her stories as well. Between them, they kept the conversation going until it was time to settle into bed for the night.

Telling his parents good night, Peter told them again how he didn't hold their actions against them and that he was sure Neal wouldn't either, once he knew the full story.

Relieved again, his parents told him good night and asked to be kept up to date on what was going on.

Settling into bed for the night, Peter couldn't help but think that his whole life had changed. In one day, he went from an only child to discovering that his parents had hid his little brother from him. What more discoveries would tomorrow bring?

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