"So Neal got a cat today."

Peter mentioned in greeting to his wife.

"What?"
El stopped suddenly in her dish washing to stare at her husband. He went on with his routine, pulling off his shoes to reveal brightly colored puppy socks underneath, putting down his briefcase, and storing his gun in the safe.

Meanwhile, El had stopped completely.

"What do you mean, Neal got a cat?"

Peter explained about the stray and then sat down to eat some meatloaf. El honestly forgot about it for a while. Although the image of Neal with an orange kitty purring on his shoulder was adorable, Peter never talked about the cat again and she assumed Neal had found a home for it.

She never had the chance to ask the conman because he wasn't able to make it down to the Burke's, due to a temporary issue with his anklet. When the issue was finally resolved and Neal's leg wouldn't start beeping every time he went near the Burke's, El invited him down for a celebration dinner.

Peter and Neal turned up from work right on time, with a bottle of wine and...a cat. The cat calmly washed itself on Neal's shoulder as it studiously ignored Satchmo's curious sniffs. El, for her part, simply watched the con man like she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Hey, El."

Neal greeted warmly, giving her a genuine smile and a hug. The cat's tail brushed her face as Neal expertly maneuvered himself so his cat stayed aloft around the hug.

Elizabeth, consciously keeping herself from gaping, hurried into the kitchen to pick up her casserole while Peter answered the door to Diana and Jones. They all greeted each other, including the cat, and then sat down to eat.

"What's up, Dev?"

Diana said when the cat jumped onto her lap. Elizabeth almost choked on her food. Oh, she was going to kill Peter for not telling her about this.

When the female FBI agent thought no one was looking, she slipped a small piece of turkey onto her lap.

After dinner, Peter and Jones, who had insisted on helping wash up, retreated to the kitchen while Neal, Devore, El, and Diana sat on the couch. Neal dragged a loose thread for his cat to play with, petting Satchmo with his foot so that the dog didn't feel left out.

Diana and Elizabeth chatted about Elizabeth's newest event, with Neal chiming in with questions or a roll of his eyes when El talked about a particularly annoying client.

Jones and Peter exited the kitchen, and Jones took over playing with Devore, whom he seemed quite fond of. Satchmo gave an experimental lick to the cat's face before the orange kitten swatted him lightly, then curled up next to him.

During all of this, Neal smiled like a proud father, and El felt her heart melt.

Everyone insisted on a Die Hard marathon to end the night, and Devore jumped back onto Neal's lap, where he absentmindedly pet him while simultaneously debating about the best method of entrance in the movie.

At the end of the night and the fifth Die Hard movie (honestly, she didn't know why the FBI agents loved them so much), El found herself the only one awake. Diana had somewhere kicked off her shoes and was resting them on a snoozing Satchmo.

Jones had one leg splayed across Neal and had his head thrown back.

El really wished she wasn't smushed between Diana and the arm of the couch so that she could get a camera when she caught sight of her husband and his CI. Neal had his head on Peter's shoulder, while Peter had thrown his arms across the conman.

Devore curled contentedly in the space in the warm space between the two. When he noticed El looking at him, he yawned and stretched languidly before pattering his way over to her. Huge, sleepy blue eyes peered at her as she patted her lap. Devore, after a moment of deliberation, curled up in her lap, but not before giving Neal a little lick on the nose.

Warm, purring fur piled into El's lap as she started to drift off.

Okay, she loved Neal's cat.