This scene is a longer version of the scene ending Checkmate, season 3, where Neal learns that he can be free in three months. By request.


"What does that mean?" Neal's head was too tumbled over this morning's events to get the juridical mumbo-jumbo to something he could grasp.

"It means no anklet. No nothing. In three months, you could be a free man." Peter was just as stunned as he, it seemed.

Neal grabbed for a chair. He sank down and rested his head in his hands. What he wanted was to continue down on the floor and disappear into a dark corner until everything settled.

He heard the door close. When the chair beside his moved, he looked up. Peter and he were alone in the conference room.

"I don't deserve this" Neal had never been surer of anything in his life. Minutes ago he was about to confess to a crime that would put him away in prison for a long time. Now someone thought he was possibly worthy of his freedom.

"You have done a great job for the FBI" Peter pointed out.

"What happens now, Peter? Where does this leave us?"

"We continue the work as usual."

"I meant with us. Are we still friends?"

Peter watched him in silence. Neal wanted to scream, to beg, do anything to get Peter's friendship back.

"Neal... I am your friend. But you said you never lied to me, and until the day before yesterday, I did believe you on that point. I can't any longer." Neal nodded.

"I don't blame you." That treasure had meant nothing but bad luck for him. He wished that Mozzie never stole it but must of all he wished that he had walked away, let Mozzie have it all. But he had not, and regrets were of little use. Time moved forward, and it was nothing he could do about it.

"You need to understand that what you do get consequences not only for yourself. It affects your family too. Me and El. I can accept that you think something is worth a risk to get to prison. But you must get into your head that it's not only you who is affected. Not any longer."

"I do understand that now." Neal was ashamed for not consider it before. Peter and Elisabeth and Sara, they were all people for others to use. He ought to feel trapped, but he did not. He just felt like a reckless schoolboy.

"Do you?" Peter leaned forward. "I appreciate that you were ready to confess, truly, I do. But this is not just about you, and me being disappointed."

No, it was not. But Neal, on the other hand, had taken care of himself since he was a boy. He had never learned to consider other people. Yet a lesson to be learned this day.

"Can I see Elisabeth?" he asked.

"What for?"

"For the reasons you just said. To say I'm sorry." Peter nodded and sent him a smile.

"Come by for dinner."

"No. No, I can't."

"Yes, you can. And Neal?"

"Yeah?"

"You came here this morning believing you would go to prison. Take the day off. Find your footing again." Neal rose with an effort that seemed inhumane.

"Thanks, Peter. Truly."

"See you tonight."

"Yeah."


When Elisabeth let him in he held a bottle of fine wine in his hands.

"I know this will never replace..." For once Neal did not find the words. Elisabeth smiled, accepted the bottle and pulled him into the kitchen.

"Peter is out on an errand" she informed him. "I think he intended to let us talk without ears." Neal saw Elisabeth was watching him.

"El, I... I've caused a lot of trouble for you both the past two years... and you've always been there with your open arms, no matter what. And... I know nothing I do will ever fully heal the damage I caused."

Elisabeth placed the wine bottle on the counter. She stood with her back to him, and he wished he could read her expression. She turned, stern.

"Neal, you lied to Peter."

"I did." It was no use trying to find a loophole out of it. He had had every intention not to tell Peter. Even if it meant he had to lie.

"Why didn't you just walk away from the treasure?"

"You know why. I'm a con-man, a thief. That's what I've been since I was a kid. And El, I have never had to care for anybody but myself. Those around me were the same. No one has ever been there for me as you have. I didn't have a clue what the treasure would lead to. I knew I risked being thrown back into prison, but I could not see this coming. Neither did Mozzie. If he had, he would've kept me out of it. None of us would ever want to harm any of you."

Elisabeth nods.

"I know. I just... Neal, I hated when we couldn't trust each other. When I didn't know if you came to visit me or had an angle to it. Peter was so sure you had stolen it and... You may not have been lying, but you didn't tell him the truth either. You deceived him. Or tried to."

Neal nods.

"If you had told him," Elisabeth continued, "you would've gone to prison. But you would have had Peter's trust. I knew you've been working very hard to make him trust you."

"But he never did," Neal mumbled and bit his tongue.

"What?"

"El, don't get me wrong but before the treasure, I had never given Peter reason not to trust me. When he accused me that day, at the fire, I was so mad at him. I had done everything to prove myself, to show he could trust me. And yet he threw that accusation into my face. When I then learned what happened and faced the treasure, I felt that whatever I did, Peter would never trust me anyway. Why waste this chance of a lifetime?"

"Do you blame Peter for this?" Elisabeth frowned.

"No! I explain why I didn't just walk away." Neal sighed. "And why I never told Peter when I should've. Whatever I did, Peter saw nothing but a con-man in me. If he couldn't see me as honest... I had tried everything, El. I was disappointed, angry. And tired of trying." Nothing had ever hurt that much as when Peter accused him. When he had done everything he could to do the right thing, to get Peter's trust, but it had not been enough. Peter had still been nothing but a criminal.

Elisabeth hugged him.

"Thank you. For being honest and telling me."

"Thank you" Neal hugs her back. "You're the only family I've got."

Peter opened the front door. He smiled when he saw them.

"Hon" Elisabeth greeted him. "I think Neal has something he would like to tell you about trust." Neal felt he could not breathe. "Relax, Neal" El assured him. "Just tell him what you told me."


Peter could not sleep that night.

Neal had explained how he had seen the situation when he came across the treasure. He had admitted that he should have walked away and let Mozzie have it. But the reason that he had not had been Peter's doing.

Peter had never trusted Neal not doing illegal things when he felt the need to, and on that point, Peter thought it was justified. But had he ever showed Neal how much he trusted him in doing his job? How many times had he told the kid that he saw hope, that he trusted him in so many ways, compared to all the times he had shown him nothing but suspicion, often about things not related to the job. Had he missed giving the kid feedback on the good stuff?

He had believed Neal stole the treasure and he had thrown it at his face at a time things could have gone otherwise if he had not. Peter wondered what would have happened if he had stopped by and talked to Neal and told him he was sorry the next day, instead of starting a hunt for evidence. Neal had deceived him, but not before Peter had shown him the ultimate distrust. He had to learn to live with that mistake.