Peter:

And rescued by truth.

When Neal did walk into the office, he simply looked around before settling into his desk and beginning to complete the paperwork that had piled up during his absence.

That was it for days. Just piles of paperwork and files after a simple glance around the office. He never said a word to anyone, except the agents that he was giving orders too.

This left us even more in the dark as to what to expect.

It only took a few days for Diana to be fed up with the situation and confront him. "Why aren't you talking to any of us?"

He surprised us all with his answer. "Because I have been waiting for you to decide how you wanted to proceed. After all, you haven't lied about who you are, what you do for a living, or why you do what you do. So, I figured that the first move, of whether or not you even wanted to talk to me, was in your ball park. Have you decided?"

Non-plussed, Diana simply stared at him for a moment.

After a few moments to absorb his reply, he was bombarded with questions as agents came from all corners of the office. When the crowd realized that I was standing at the back, the group fell silent and opened a path for me to step forward.

"Peter" was all that Neal had to say. It was an acknowledgement to my presence and an opening for me to say whatever I felt the need to express.

"How much of it was real?" That was the first question that I needed to express and have answered. How much of our friendship, struggles, and his betrayal was real. I didn't need to verbalize how much that simple question encompassed, it was the obvious question that I would ask.

"Our friendship is real. In college I had a roommate, his name is Chuck. For a long time he was my only friend, the only person who knew me as "Bryce from Connecticut" as well as "Agent Larkin of the CIA," and the only person I knew I could rely on to do "the right thing" no matter the cost. Then I meant you, and by that I mean I got to work with you and get to know you on a personal basis. You put it as "Doing the right thing and letting the pieces fall where they will," but that is just another way of doing the right thing no matter what happens as a result. I respect that in a person more than I can express to you. On top of that, you're honest, again just like Chuck. When it comes to a situation where you need to lie, both of you can for the cover, but both of you have trouble even trying to get a lie past the people that you care about. I know that if I were to hand you the lives of thousands of agents, you would protect them no matter the cost to you because thousands of lives is worth the trouble to keep them alive. That is why I sent Chuck something years ago, and that is why if I had something, where you were the best person, I would send you something that I would die for. I trust you."

Taking a breath, he continued to answer my question with his eyes staring straight into mine as his effort to convey just how much he meant what he was saying.

"Our partnership is real. I rely on you to have my back and I know, that even though you didn't know that I am a combat trained and seasoned agent, you would go to the wall to keep me safe in the field. For someone who has been betrayed more than once, and shot in the back resulting in temporarily fatal injuries, to trust without question is something that is not given easily."

As he continued, I felt the stress begin to release, maybe not everything was real, but the parts that count were.

"The family bond is real. I am dead to my family, and for their safety I can never acknowledge that I am alive or who I became. Family doesn't tend to work out for most agents because we can't tell those we care about who we are, we have to lie about what we do, and there is no guarantee that we will even be in the same place until the sun comes up. My life is not my own and I am not able to connect in an open honest way with people. Still, I have seen what could be and I have heard further information in the case of my friend Chuck. He is the lucky one. Life worked out for him in a way that he married my old partner and ex-girlfriend, his family found out about his work so that he doesn't have to lie to them, and his best friend ended up joining his team so that he works with his friends in civilian life and in the field. The man has everything that a person could ask for. My family is now my friends. If Chuck were to be considered my little brother that I have watched out for since we met in the commons of the college campus, then you are the big brother who has tried to keep me in-line. Even though I am not as out of line as you think."

He finished this with a smirk and I found myself amused at the idea of trying to make an agent obey the law, when unbeknownst to me, he was upholding the law all along, just by a different set of standards. Now I might not approve of some of his methods, but I also didn't know the whole story.

"Were our struggles real? Yes, and no. Caffrey is a role that has been played so long, and into so much detail that there are literal friends and foes who know him as a living person. Just like you did until a few days ago. His enemies were real and the struggles that they brought on were real. Mozzie is a real con artist and when he finds out about me being a spook suit, I don't know what he will think. I assume that with the cat out of the bag, it is just a matter of time until I get to find out. His criminal activity is real. Mine… well that is another story. I work for the CIA officially, but I am a part of a task force that my assignments could come from the NSA, in fact they usually do. Since I have been working in the FBI office, there are times when the FBI is involved in what I do as well. With three agencies pulling the strings, they sometimes blur the lines of jurisdiction, which makes my action a crime by one agency's standards, but not by another's."

That explained why he could pull off some of the stunts he has done, while still being an agent.

"And for the big, recent event of my betrayal. Was that real? Again, it is a yes and no answer. Yes, I did intercept communication that was meant for you. Yes, I did impersonate you at the meeting with Danny. No, I did not simply go to a computer and do what he said while putting some kind of fail safe. Instead, I went to the base that I work out of for official activities of my agency. I reported to the directors of several agencies via a complicated video call. We brainstormed how to handle the situation and I followed through with the plans. Does that make it all okay, no, and how you choose to handle it is up to you. If you choose for our friendship to be over, then I will leave you a card with a means of contact just in case you change your mind someday. There isn't a way to simply look me up in a phone book to contact me. Once I am sent away, I am unreachable, unless I arrange for a way to keep in contact, and even that is likely to be sporadic. If you choose for our friendship to continue, then the same point applies, and I will keep open a means of communication no matter where I am sent. You don't have to choose now and I am not going to push you. For now I have to be a part of your life whether you like it or not, but if I am not welcome, I get the feeling that things will be changing soon anyway."

With that he simply looked at me waiting for me to respond, even if it was simply to walk away in disgust.

I stood for a few moments contemplating before I answered. "El has been wondering how you're doing. What about six o'clock?"

It was a typical dinner invitation, so I didn't need to elaborate, but by the subtle change of his demeanor you would think that I had offered him a fancy invitation to the party of the century.

"There shouldn't be a problem. Do you mind if I bring Casey? I get the feeling that he is curious why I treat you so much like Chuck, only different." He had an uncertain expression on his face as he made his request.

Grinning I replied. "Just know that we will be asking him about your past ,as he has obviously been a participant in things that we never knew about."

A mixed look of amusement and panic crossed his face which made me give him a questioning look.

"Casey… he and I have been rivals in the field so there are things that he is not my biggest fan. On the other front, he is not afraid to tell you like it is. Also, there are things that neither he, nor I, can tell you about due to classified information. And you should probably know that… well… he is the person who shot me to death the first time. But I was undercover as a traitor and stealing something that I wasn't even supposed to know existed as far as official information went. He didn't know that Orion had contacted me when I was a rookie to help him guard the thing, and he didn't know that Director Graham had signed off on my cover personally so no one else knew about it." He had started out slowly, but when he went into the part about Casey having killed him he picked up the pace trying to explain his co-worker before we could get too bad of an opinion of him.

I froze for a moment. Neal wanted me to invite him, and the man who had killed him, over to my house for dinner to talk about Neal's past and who he really is?! "Are you kidding me? You work with the man who killed you?"

Neal's response was sheepish. "Well, it isn't the first time we've worked together. After I was accidently rescued, I escaped the medical facility to keep my cover. Enemy agents were everywhere, including our most secure facilities. My contact for my cover was in the building and I couldn't stay without blowing the whole operation. I messed with Chuck again, yes there is a reason he hated me for years, but as far as I last knew he had forgiven me and was sad to see that I was dying on him… again. Anyway, when Casey found me trying to explain myself he shot me again. Luckily, I was wearing a vest, as it is the expected reaction with him. Then, Chuck was able to confirm my story. Declared innocent of treason, Casey hasn't tried to shoot me since and we have worked together a few times. I wouldn't put it past him to tranq me if I ticked him off, but he wouldn't actually kill me again without reason. If he did, he would have to face the General, and she may be tiny but she carries quite the bite when she wants too."

Concerned, I could hold back. "Accidentally rescued and dying again? I know that I can't know everything but that is a bit much to leave unexplained!"

"After Casey shot me, I was declared dead, loaded into an ambulance, and shipped to the morgue. The ambulance was staffed by the enemy agents who revived me. I told them that I had what they wanted and I was the only source for the information. A cover story was created by the agency, my family arranged a funeral, and I was held prisoner in a sedated state for several months with no one the wiser. That is, until they accidentally intercepted me when a time sensitive transport was assumed to be a bomb, it was me in a medical box. As for the second death, that was later when I was betrayed and shot in the back." He had his stoic mask back up as he generally explained the details. They must have been unpleasant memories, so I decided not to pry too closely and let him leave them as his past.

Over the weeks that followed we had several more of these conversations and other agents in the office also took their turns settling their concerns with him in their own ways. Slowly, we got back to being friends again, but we had to rebuild how we interacted. Neal was now Bryce.

We still tended to call him Neal because it was what we were used too and he told us to keep going with it because it helped to hold his cover outside of the FBI.

The differences came out quickly though.

Instead of looking at technology like it was a means to an end, but not in his skills portfolio, Neal would chat about how to better deal with our computers. He even admitted to being a computer engineer with a degree from Stanford. (We weren't to go looking into his college days because we would find Chuck, but he did entrust with a piece of real information).

Suddenly, we no longer had to keep tabs on Neal. Even after I had thought I was used to him being off of the anklet, I would still find my fingers trying to go to the familiar page to check and make sure he was behaving. Then I would remember that he was an agent, free to go wherever, and not a criminal that I had to be concerned about committing a crime.

In the office, he was no longer just a consultant who handled certain aspects of the cases, but was restricted from certain activities due to his criminal background. With the office being purged form the affects Danny had implemented, Neal was the agent in charge for a lot of it. He had agents of all levels coming to him for orders, he had calls back and forth with DC Directors of agencies, and he had more paperwork than I handled in a month to attend too.

Then when we went into the field things changed there as well. Neal now had a gun concealed, a badge, and he was an active agent working as an equal with the rest of the team. When one take down went sideways, Neal pulled his skills into effect again. We watched as he dodged several bullets, took down two guys with quick combat movements, and took down the shooter with a single shot.

Another change we noticed was one day when Neal was helping us on a case. He looked at a file and got a funny expression on his face. His eyes flickered and looked empty, like he was no longer looking at the file, but the information in his head. I would almost compare it to a human computer that had information put into it and it had that spinning circle as it processed the information. Agent Casey got concerned and asked him if he "had it." Neal answered to the affirmative and told him not to worry. Orion had given it to him, warned him of what had happened with Chuck, and gave him a Governor. Casey didn't look like he was completely satisfied with the answer and got a contemplative expression. We continued to work the case, but the rest of the office was curious what had been going on. (There was no point in asking for answers, we knew by the undefined communication that this was something that they were not going to share).

In an effort to get to know Bryce we began to play a new variation of our old game.

We used to try and get information out of him about his past crimes and compare it to the cases we had been trying to solve that he was suspected in. Now, we tried to figure out how he accomplished the "crimes" and what he was actually doing when he did them.

He played the game by giving us little help, but enough that if we were a good team, we could discover a lot of information without getting into clearance issues. I am proud to say we proved that we are a good team, even Casey grudgingly complimented us in a backhanded way.

One of the questions that carried a new perspective with it was when Jones asked, "Who taught you how to take your opponent on such a wild goose chase?"

"Orion," was the simple answer that had everyone in range turning to look.

Diana exclaimed, "He is real!"

Neal was amused by our surprise. "Yes he is. I have even mentioned his involvement a few times."

Remembering his brief mention of him, I was curious. "You said that Orion had contacted you to guard something when you were a rookie. It sounds like he was a mentor to you and you helped him to protect some of the technology that he is rumored to have created. He is said to be one of the biggest legends in CIA engineering history and his work has helped to save thousands of lives. What I am curious about is why he contacted you as a rookie to undertake such a big task?"

"I took on the government and the military to keep them from force recruiting his son for a suicide operation. For Orion, this was the ultimate test of trust so he surfaced, told me his relationship to my friend, and he requested my help to protect his third most important creation." Neal was matter of fact as he explained this information to us and he carefully avoided giving to much away when it came to certain details.

Now I understood what Casey had said about Neal.

"He is dangerous, conscious of his duties, intelligent, quick, and a good fighter. He wasn't given his responsibilities for nothing. In fact, he is the third best agent I have ever worked with… and don't you dare tell him I said that." Casey was gruff when he informed me of this, but I get the feeling that gruff is the way he works.

Things were finally to a new normal, then we had a new problem.

While Neal was setting at his desk, his phone rang. He immediately left the office to take the call and when he returned he looked like he was squaring his shoulders in an attempt to prepare to share bad news.

"My orders have come. I am to leave tomorrow to begin my work on taking down the rest of Leverage." As he finished this information Casey walked into the room.

"Take care of settling your life here, I'll take care of the arrangements for the operation." Casey went to pick up the things that he had brought and Neal remained awkwardly standing as he waited for us to react.

I stepped forward. "Casey is going to be your partner?"

"Yes, don't worry. With him along I am in more danger of being tranqed by him than of the enemy getting the better of us." He tried to infuse humor knowing that this was the beginning of good bye.

Giving him a look, "Just take care of yourself Bryce." He was startled at my reference, but it felt right to acknowledge him by name.

They have been gone a few weeks and I have been reflecting on what happened before Neal and Casey left.

The team and I had cornered Casey before he had a chance to leave. "Please take care of him for us."

He grunted in reply, "Semper Fi." Which was good enough for me.

Then when I said good bye to Bryce myself, I shook his hand and gave him my patented be careful speech. When he turned to walk away, I pulled him back into a hug and told him what I hadn't been able to say. That I had forgiven him, that I was proud to work with him, and that I hoped we would be able to work together again someday "partner."

After a few weeks of being distracted, I finally received the first of many post cards. Sitting in my office I read through the short message and turned to look out the window to reflect in my disappointment. I was hoping that Neal would have more to say. Then it hit me. He said he would keep in touch just like in the old days… there was probably something hidden in the basic message. Rereading the card, and looking closer, I found a hidden chat site link. Following the link, I discovered a more detailed message and I was reassured that he was okay and making progress.

For the first time in a few weeks I was able to relax and respond with the knowledge that he would be getting back to me as soon as he could.

Things are still out of control, but now it is okay. I am an agent of the FBI and Neal is an agent of the CIA. We have no control of where our friendship will go, but we know that it is worth fighting for. Even though we can't work together as we would like too, we both know that we are agents working to uphold our part of the justice system, to do our best with what we have.

After a year of sporadic communication, I finally got the message that I had been hoping for. Neal is coming home, and he is bringing his other team for a visit.

Thank you for reading my stories, for every time you share that you enjoy them (kudos, reviews, comments, bookmarks, ect), and to those who like me as an author :D

On a side note, for those interested in helping to choose the next story I have updated my profile page so it now includes the summaries, fandoms, and how many chapters for each story. Due to up coming travel plans the choices for next week have been shortened to three ("Tales of Twins," "Neal What," and "The Intersect versus The Robot.") I will be posting early on Saturday, leaving for almost two weeks, and then posting on Sunday when I get back (no particular story at this point so feel free to cast your vote).

For an additional side note, it has been mentioned that it was confusing whether Danny knew Neal/Bryce as CIA or just from college. The answer is that he only knew him from college while having no suspicion of his CIA involvement.

I hope you will all come back next week for another story :D