Pool Party
It had been a few years since it happened. Neal was in prison, Peter was working cases, and something happened to change the course of both their lives.
The case had seemed like a normal art fraud, so Peter had dug in with his Harvard crew to unwind the threads of inquiry and sort the jumbled mess of information out into a solvable case.
Somewhere along the way though, Peter was doing some late night investigating on his own when he stumbled into something big. Trying to understand what he had found, Peter started reaching out for help which drew too much attention. Once he had made some noise, he found himself the surprised host for the directors of the FBI, CIA, and the NSA who all personally told him to close his line of investigation, that the case was being turned over to people with the proper clearance level, and they instructed him to act like nothing had happened.
Peter knew when to back off so he obeyed the orders and the situation seemed to have melded into the past… or so he thought.
Fast forwarding up a few years, Neal was instilled as the cheery CI and Peter was his ever suspicious handler. Although the two had formed an unlikely friendship of like minded partners, they were still a convicted felon and the agent who caught him… twice.
When a new agent showed up in the office, their relationship had some friction.
The new guy seemed determined to make his place on the team and he obviously coveted the position as the boss's friend. In an effort to usurp Neal's position, he showed an interest in baseball, always had the right answer, and seemed determined to make himself appealing to the older agent.
In response, Peter did take an amount of notice. He went to games with the agent, called on him in meetings, and chose him for some of the more interesting cases. Still, he never fully forgot Neal so he tended to drag him along for the ride.
As it usually goes when two people are placed in direct competition, the person with precedence felt threatened, while the other endeavored to use any means necessary to take their position.
Neal was consequently aware of what was going on, so he made it his mission to get to know everything he could about this intruder who was trying to wedge his way in between Peter and himself. As a result, his focus was more directed towards seeking the intent of his competitor. Why did he want to be friends with Peter so badly? Was it in an effort to climb in the office ranks, or was there something more to it?
Eventually, the agent decided to host a party to bring the team together and to celebrate another big win as an important case was officially closed.
Walking through the office, he announced that he had sent a team wide email to invite everyone over to his place on the weekend for a pool party. Smirking, he added in an aside, "And that includes you Caffrey."
Since the general consensus was pro the party, Neal grudgingly agreed to attend as well.
With the full guest list intending to show, the agent left the office with a "See you tomorrow then" and he walked out with a smile.
"Are you bringing Elizabeth?" Neal asked Peter.
"I think she'll want to go. Elizabeth loves the beaches so this is the next best thing." Peter smiled fondly as he thought about his wife.
"Do you mind giving me a ride?" Neal broached the transportation subject cautiously. Even though Peter usually gave him a ride to work, he didn't want to seem incapable.
Not noticing the extra hesitation, Peter happily agreed. "I'll pick you up on our way." Turning like he was going to make a teasing comment, Peter looked like he had thought better of it so he turned away smiling at whatever had crossed his mind.
Shaking his head, Neal settled back into his desk so he could finish his last report for the day before going home.
When the time of the party finally arrived, Peter pulled up in front of a nice new apartment complex with a lot of vacancy available signs. Apparently, the agent had gotten in on the ground floor so he was one of the first tenants which meant the pool was virtually private.
Walking around to the center of the grounds, Peter, Elizabeth, and Neal followed the smell of grilling and the sounds of laughter to find the rest of the team having fun.
"Hey, Peter. Neal. And you must be Mrs. Burke?" The agent greeted them.
"Please, call me Elizabeth. Peter has told me a lot about you." Elizabeth greeted him and started some general conversation.
Continuing in his effort to be pleasant, the agent was all smiles and gallant gestures. Showing his guest around, he showed them where the towels were if they wanted to swim, the best seats for lounging, and even gave his recommendation as to which snacks to try. Once they had the tour, he left them to mingle while he continued to flow through his guests and keep his role as the host.
Settling into a chair to watch, Neal didn't like the situation so he spent some time playing on his phone as the others chatted, played in the pool, or munched on the snacks.
Despite the number of people mingling about, Neal seemed to have an awareness of everything going on. He winced before one of the team fully lost their grip on a drink that went crashing to the ground, he flinched away from a splash before the water could reach his perch, and he knew exactly where someone was at if he was asked a person's whereabouts.
After a while, Peter noticed that his social friend wasn't participating in the fun. "What is going on Neal? I thought you would love these sort of things?"
"It depends on the party." Neal tried to shrug it off.
"What? It's not fun because your swim shorts don't hide enough to make swapping our processions easy? Did you flirt with someone and get turned down? There is nothing wrong with this party, so why aren't you having any fun?" Peter pushed.
"First, I could have swapped out any number of things if I had wanted too… people keep losing each other yet alone their stuff. Second, I haven't even flirted with anyone. Third, if I had, they wouldn't have turned me down. And finally, there is something wrong, but I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet…" He knew who was the problem, but he still didn't entirely know why. Then man had lured them to a relatively uninhabited neighborhood, no one was armed to defend themselves, he seemed to have an agenda, but to what end was still something to be figured out.
"Are you sure that what's wrong, isn't that no one has dumped you into the pool yet?" Diana teased.
When Neal gave her a bit of a dirty look, she called on Jones for some help. Between the two of them, they wrestled Neal to the ground, grabbed his hands and feet, before jointly carrying him over to the pool where they threw him in.
Clapping to the splash, the rest of the group was enthusiastic to see Neal involved in the festivities.
Another teammate who was already in the water took it upon themselves to dunk Neal when he started complaining. "Seriously Neal, no one cares that you got your swimming shorts wet… that is the point!"
Diving down and strongly swimming away, Neal managed to find a safe place to come up where no one was immediately close enough to dunk him again. "Seriously, did you really have to dump me in with no warning?" He complained to his friends. Peeling off his shirt, shoes, and looking around for his sunglasses, he made sure his processions where safely next to his seat before he went back under to get his hair more organized. With his bangs out of his eyes, he frowned at the smiling team. "What?"
"You do know how to lighten up." Diana teased.
Rolling his eyes, Neal made sure to splash her before she could react too much. "And that is coming from you Diana?" He threw her remark back at her.
"Now you did it, Neal." Peter smiled and held his hands up to say that he wasn't getting involved while Diana moved to dive into the pool.
Swimming away, Neal was on the other side of the pool before Diana resurfaced and got her bearings.
"You little twerp you…" Diana took off swimming and the game began.
"Polo." Neal called to the laughter of those watching.
"Marco this Caffrey." Diana made a strong dive towards him, but Neal was faster so she was too late by the time she arrived at his location.
"Marco what?" Neal teased. Then he shouted "Polo" before diving to a new location.
Round and round they went until Diana gave up. "You had a head start on me Caffrey."
Turning the challenge to Peter, Neal teased. "I had a head start on you, and you still caught up."
Getting a competitive glint to his eye, Peter decided to give it a try. "Marco." He said as he got into the pool.
Grinning like the game had just taken on a new challenge, Neal called out "Polo" before diving again.
Gambling on the location of other occupants, Peter made a guess based on his instinctual knowledge of Neal. Moving to intercept Neal, he didn't catch him, but he did gain some ground.
Upping his game as well, Neal chose to hide behind people, would swim the full length of the pool so Peter would have farther to catch up, or he would pull stunts like dive and change direction to avoid Peter's attempt at interceptions.
Eventually calling it a draw, the two climbed out of the pool to towel off and relax.
"I think it was easier to catch you on land." Peter was breathing harder due to the exercise, but he was smiling at having given Neal a good competition.
"Don't forget, I walked into that trap and let you catch me." Neal teased as he hung the towel around his neck.
Smacking him with his towel, Peter made his sentiments known. "Hey, I kept up in gathering the evidence to catch you and setting the right trap that you walked into. Besides, I would have worn you down eventually."
Giving him his win, Neal didn't continue the argument.
As the evening progressed and several of the team went home, the agent hosting the party started to get more suspicious to Neal.
Asking for Peter's opinion on something, he drew the agent away from the rest of the party before pulling a gun out and grabbing Peter as a hostage.
"You have information I want Burke. Do you remember that little art fraud case you worked while Caffrey was in jail… the one that brought the directors of the FBI, CIA, and the NSA on a personal visit to see you?"
Paling, Peter obviously remembered while the team watched on helplessly.
"Seriously? You want to target me for something I don't know anything about? All I know is that there was something funny about the art, I reached out to try and figure it out, and the directors reassigned the case without telling me anything. What could you possibly want to get from that?" He was baffled.
"That 'funny' art, is the key to understanding the Intersect. It is the key to the primary database the government uses to store everything from the nuclear codes, agents missions and identities, to softer targets like analysts and the families of active agents. My people and I would like this information because we are trying to revive an organization that I once worked for, a group called The Ring. If it hadn't been for those stupid agents getting in our way, we would have taken over the country!" He ranted.
"I wouldn't threaten him if I were you." Neal calmly stated from his position of observation.
"Yeah, and why not?" The agent snarled dismissively.
Not saying a word, Neal pulled out a card and held it up beside him.
The shot comes out of nowhere to hit the card at a perfect center mass. Then Neal pointed at the guy's chest.
Looking down to see the red light, the guy pulled Peter closer to use him as a shield. "Based on the angle, your sniper is half a mile away so I can pull this trigger before he shoots me. Besides, one of your criminal friends would go down for murdering an agent." He smugly defended himself.
Unfazed, Neal held his ground while Elizabeth was nervously watching her husband being held at gun point, the team stood around helpless to do anything, and Peter continued to be surprised.
"You're right. He is half a mile away, but as the agent tends to be trigger happy, I wouldn't test him. Besides, if you push him, he has kill orders for your head." He continued to lounge nonchalantly.
Getting mad, the agent called for his back up to reveal themselves. As they swarmed out heavily armed, he went back to bragging. "Now you're outnumbered, and out gunned. This isn't going as you planned now is it?"
Shrugging, Neal didn't react much. "We don't need numbers or guns, so…"
Flabbergasted, the agent asked. "Who are you?"
Stepping forward, Neal bowed slightly. "Agent Danny Larkin. NSA guardian of the Intersect, and Peter's assigned body guard."
The entire group was shocked as no one saw it coming.
"You said 'we,' who else is around?" The agent's voice was starting to show that he was getting a little nervous as he hadn't expected any opposition.
Pretending to count on his fingers, Neal got a thoughtful expression. "Two Intersects, two guardians, the guy in the van, the sniper, and full backing from three agencies…" He stopped pretending to count as that was just too many to tick off on his fingers. "And one of them is my twin."
Caught off guard, the agent had been paying too much attention to Neal which allowed for Bryce to sneak up behind him and take him down safely. "That would be me."
As some of the villains raised their weapons, the taskforce team came out of hiding to take them down quickly with no shots fired.
Once the smoke had cleared, the remaining White Collar agents stood around stunned. They had no idea what to say.
Looking at Peter's shocked expression, Neal quipped. "What? So you think the NSA and CIA are going to leave you fending for yourself?"
Finding his voice again, Peter answered. "I didn't think I'd warrant a body guard for as little as I know."
Shrugging, Neal explained. "I still do other work for my agency, but on a different front than I used to since I actually work in the FBI now. Most of my career has been task forced with the FBI because it's dangerous running around out there with my brother's face."
Indignant, Bryce muttered. "Like it's so safe looking like you out there?"
Glaring at his brother, Neal stared counting again. "Who got me punched for getting Chuck expelled, who got me shot at and arrested for treason, and whose involvement in this project got me involved…?"
Raising his hands to placate his brother, Bryce tried to calm him down. "Alright, alright already, point taken. But, you do have to admit that you're the reason I got dragged into playing Caffrey the con with you."
"Hey, at least I get to work with my favorite team which is even worth the stupid jewelry. Which, by the way, was added to the role due to your idea for the agencies to use the bonds in the first place."
The twins were somewhere between teasing and arguing, but they got distracted when Chuck muttered.
"So, this is why the directors don't want them together for operations."
Their glaring attention turned on him for a moment before Elizabeth quipped.
"They're brothers, so sibling rivalry is inevitable… is it worse for identical twins?" She asked Neal.
Seeing the intent of their friends, Neal and Bryce calmed down to answer them.
Bryce sheepishly answered Chuck. "Pretty much… unless absolutely necessary. We can work together fine in the field, it's just outside of the field that can be problematic…"
Neal shrugged at Elizabeth. "Your dad is the psychologist… ask him."
Breaking up the conversation, Casey came in with a growl and started to cuff the perpetrators. Most of the group followed suit, but Neal took Peter and Elizabeth aside.
Peter had a lot of questions, but didn't know where to start.
Diving in, Neal started answering them. "I meant the White Collar team when I said I work with my favorite group. Peter, except for my brother, you are the closest friend I've ever had, and I hope you still see me as your friend, despite the lying."
Taking the chance, Peter responded. "I do see you as my friend, but apparently I don't know you at all." He sounded a little hurt.
Sticking out his hand, Neal waited until Peter accepted it to begin. "Hello, my name is Daniel Tyler Larkin. I'm from Connecticut where I grew up with my parents, twin brother, and younger sister. At eighteen, I actually went to college at Princeton where I majored heavily in art. During my junior year, I was recruited to the NSA and have been an agent for about ten years now. My work has crossed over with the FBI on a frequent basis, so when my brother's involvement took me into the Intersect and you got too close, I was suggested to be your body guard. The whole escaping prison for agent Moreau was to make it more believable for me to work with you. From there, I don't actually run around committing crimes, you are my friends, Kate's death was real, and I am on this assignment until further notice. If things were to change, I'll let you know what I can."
Making the best of an opportune moment, Peter took advantage of their hands being clasped to pull Neal into a hug. When he released Neal, Peter shook his hand again briefly. "It's nice to meet you Daniel." While he didn't say much, his eyes, actions, and obvious emotions said so much more.
"We're partners Peter, so it's Danny." Neal corrected him.
Elizabeth grabbed Neal into a hug as well. "Thank you for protecting us Danny. I'm glad to get to know who you really are." Once she pulled back, she returned to her husband's arms as the three of them walked back to where the rest of the teams were finishing up the work with the scene.
Leaving to go their separate ways, the teams parted knowing they would be working together again. It wasn't known when or on what case, only that the villains had better beware.
Thank you for reading, reviewing/commenting, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
I'm back from my trip and working to get settled back in. Tomorrow I return to my new department and a new schedule which will be interesting. Next week I will be posting "Twins verses Twins" per request and the collection only has a single one shot at the moment. The following week my posting will be up to you readers again. Do you want more twins from this collection, triplets, or my "He Didn't Have to Be" from a prompt about the little twins with their mom Elizabeth and step dad Peter? Share your vote through review or private message :D