FRIDAY

"Friday old man." Peter poked his head into Reece's office.

"I knew there was a reason you were one of the best Peter. Nothing gets past you."

"Just thought I'd remind you that today is the last day for the clinic. And as far as I know, it's still only going to be a 99.5% immunization rate. You okay with that." The younger agent was unwilling to lose the grin from his face.

"No, I'm not alright with that. When Caffrey gets in this morning, we're going to have a very reasonable chat and then I'm taking him down for his shot."

"You sound pretty sure of yourself."

"Yes. That's because it's going to happen."

"Would you like to place a bet on it?"

"Peter…" Reece warned.

"No, it's fine. I know it's not a safe bet for you to make. Sensible choice, Reece." Peter began to head back out the door but Hughes called him back.

"Fifty! He'll have it by the close of business today and then you can hand over fifty dollars."

"You're on."

Hughes was becoming increasingly frustrated. He'd been trying to catch up with Neal all morning. The young CI was in, but every time Reece would go to call out to him, he wasn't around. All he got was an empty desk and a phone going straight to voice mail.

"Where is he?" Hughes growled out as he barged into Peter's office.

"How should I know?" the younger agent rose from his seat and took on an equally aggressive stance.

"Because he's 'your' CI!" Hughes shot back.

"But he's your…" Peter had begun to wave his arm in Hughes direction when a small movement at Neal's desk caught his eye. He walked up to the window for a closer inspection.

"What?" The older man couldn't see what had caught Peter's attention.

"Hold on." Peter held up a hand. "Look." He pointed down to the bullpen.

Both men stood staring down at the CI's empty desk.

"What? What am I looking for Peter? I am way too busy for this nonsense!" His young brat had used up whatever tolerance the older man had to begin with owing to the antics over the last couple of days.

"See that."

"No I don't!"

"Fine. Wait here a minute." Peter walked out the door leaving behind one extremely fed up senior agent.

Peter stood silently in front of Neal's empty desk and waited. Jones looked up to see what was going on but made no comment. Peter didn't have to wait too long. Out of no where, a hand appeared holding a stapler and placed the item carefully back onto the desk. As the stapler touched the surface, Peter grabbed the wrist attached to the hand, while at the same time, a rather loud bang could be heard on the underside of the table. "Yeowwww!" Peter held the wrist firm and waited until it was joined by the rest of the body. Neal stood up rubbing his head with his free hand. "Peter do you mind."

"Yes in fact I do. Your troubles have washed over into my office." Peter indicated an angry looking Hughes standing in the doorway to his office. "Let's go."

"But…But I'm trying to get this filing done for you." Neal pleaded as Peter began to drag him towards the stairs while still holding his wrist.

"It can wait."

"Close the door."

"Yes sir." Neal sat solemnly in the chair. He looked at the clock on the wall. The clinic was still operating for another few hours and he wasn't sure if he had anything left up his sleeve.

"Now Neal, enough of this nonsense." Reece sat down across from the younger man. "I know it's not an easy thing for you to do but I need you to dig deep and try for me please. It really makes me disappointed to know that I've done everything I can this week to help you, and you still haven't done the one thing I've asked of you."

Okay, so his top was going to play the guilt card. Not an easy one to work with but Neal was about to give it his best shot. "Yes, I know. I'd be feeling very disappointed with me, if I were you. I would completely understand if you'd rather I stayed away from you for a little while so you could have a break from all my troubles. It only sounds fair."

"No Neal!" Reece shook his head. "That's not fair to me or to you. Don't even make a nonsense suggestion like that."

"Okay. I won't. Maybe I can do some extra chores around your house to help make up for all the trouble I've caused."

"No. Neal you're missing the point." Reece wiped a hand across his face. He was getting too old for this.

"Look, I know it's a very difficult thing for you so how about I make you a deal. How about if you go down now and have your flu shot, tomorrow I'll take you anywhere you want to go and we'll spend the whole day together. How does that sound?"

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

"But there'd be restrictions right?"

"No. No restrictions whatsoever."

The young man sat quietly contemplating the deal.

"Well?" Hughes raised his eyebrows. "What do you say?"

Neal got up from his seat. "I'll be right back."

"You going down? I'm coming with you." Reece got up from his own chair and reached around for his jacket.

"Ah…no…I'm just going to the ….bathroom." It was a hopeless attempt at a cover up.

"Where are you really going Neal?"

"Ah…" Damn… "Look Reece, it's a really sweet deal and I appreciate you caring for me so much, but I just can't do it, no matter what you promise." He took a step backwards as he spoke.

"Neal…"

"Hold on…I just need to…" Neal took another backwards step, inching himself closer to his escape.

Reece became a little concerned that his brat was about to do a runner. "Don't you dare take one step outside this room, young man!"

Too late. Neal turned on his heals and made a very bold decision to defiantly ignore his top. He yanked the door open and practically jumped out onto the balcony walk-way. Reece was only a couple of steps behind. Neal took a few quick strides before coming to a screeching halt. Peter and Jones were blocking the top of the stairs. Reece called out to the men, "Stop him!" and the two agents immediately began moving towards the younger man. Neal checked back and saw Reece almost within arms reach and the CI found himself between a rock and hard place. Almost. There were always possibilities were Neal was concerned. Placing both hands on the balcony rails, he leapt over in one hell of a spiderman-like move and landed easily on the bullpen floor. He turned to look up at the three stunned agents above and lifting his arms on both sides, he gave an exaggerated shrug before running out the front door.

"Man, did you see that jump?" Jones was suitably impressed but he was reluctant to say more after receiving a chastising glare from the senior agents.

"Where is he?" Hughes stood in Peter's office shouting.

The younger agent leaned back in his chair. "I've already found him once for you today. Don't take it out on me that you keep losing him." Peter still had a sense of humour about the whole thing.

"You're hoping I won't find him so you'll win the bet." Reece's face displayed nothing but irritation.

"Hardly!" Peter stood up, not at all happy with that accusation. "I've had agents looking for him for the past two hours. Now his tracking data says that he's still here in the building but for crying out loud Reece, there are forty floors and well, you couldn't even find him earlier when he was hiding in the bullpen!"

Reece was losing it fast. "Don't you have any control over your CI?"

"Don't 'you' have any control over 'your kid'?"

"Ah Sorry to interrupt…" Jones reluctantly stuck his head into the firing line.

"What?" Both Peter and Reece shouted at the same time.

"Ah…I just…Peter, your wife is here." Jones indicated the bullpen with his head.

Both men stopped their verbal abuse of each other and directed their gaze down to the front entrance.

Elizabeth Burke was marching across the bullpen while holding the ear of one very sorry CI. She didn't let go of the young man until the two of them arrived in Peter's office.

"Hey hon." Peter reached over and kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Hi. Hello Reece." She didn't look overly happy, but then again, neither did Neal. He hung his head and remained focused on the carpet.

"What's going on?" Peter asked casually.

"Well, I was having afternoon tea with June when we got a surprise visitor." She nodded in Neal's direction. "He looked a little stressed so I sat him down and had him tell me what was wrong. He told me and I said while it was okay to be frightened of things, it wasn't okay to run away from the people who love you, ever." Neal folded his arms and tried not to be noticed. "So I gave him a couple of good swats to his backside, put him in the car and brought him back here."

Reece spoke up for the first time. "Neal, look at me please, Neal, your tracking data says that you were still in the building. Care to explain that?"

The young man looked up at Reece, then Peter and finally Elizabeth. He was going to shrug but there were just too many people in the room more than prepared to whack his behind so he settled for the truth. "I wrote a program a little while ago to alter the data being emitted from the monitoring anklet. I was saving it for an emergency." Neal grinned sheepishly at the two agents. They didn't grin back.

"Neal Caffrey…" Reece growled and was about to throttle the young man when he saw a look of horror appear on the CI's face. Reece tracked the young man's line of sight and turned to see what had brought on the sudden look of fear. Reece shook his head. It was the clinic nurse heading up the stairs. Neal's face went pale, his eyes rolled back and before anyone could stop it, the young man had passed out and was sprawled out across the office floor.

Reece, Peter and Elizabeth all stood staring down at the young kid, too stunned to move as the clinic nurse walked through the door and took over. "Gosh I hope I don't get that same reaction with all the men. I was just delivering the invoice to your office, Agent Hughes. I've finished up for the week." She reached down at put a gentle hand on Neal's head. "This the one?" She turned to Peter, referring to their conversation from two days earlier.

Peter nodded.

"Do you want me to give him his shot now? He's already signed the form."

"Okay." Reece answered a little uncertain.

Peter glared at Hughes, realising he'd just lost the bet. "Nurse, would you do me a favour?"

The nurse nodded.

Peter smiled evilly, "Give it to him in his butt!"

SATURDAY

"Come on, Reece. You promised."

"I don't know, Neal. It's certainly a gray area."

"You said no restrictions, whatsoever. They were your exact words. You can't go back on your promise now."

"Fine. Get in."

"No, you first." Neal pushed the older man in ahead of him.

"Wait, before we go any further, I want to make it clear that this is the only one."

"Oh, no sir. The 'Rolling Thunder' is the first of many of the Six Flags rollercoasters. I fully intend us trying out them all today. Some we may even have to go on more than once if they're particularly good." Neal gently nudged his top into the seat and pulled down the safety bar.

"But I hate rollercoasters," whined the older man. "How anyone would find this a thrill is beyond me!"

"You're not scared are you?" Neal asked once the rollercoaster began its ascent up the steep incline.

Reece would have answered but he had a death grip on the safety bar and he was way too terrified to talk.

Neal just laughed his head off, and didn't stop laughing for the whole day!