Chapter 8

Ten hours later Gibbs pulled up in front of his house with Neal in the passenger side of the truck. Their luggage was in the back. "Here is your suitcase," he said as he handed Neal a piece of luggage and pushed him towards the front door as he pulled out his luggage and joined him.

Once inside Gibbs directed Neal upstairs to the guest room and told him to get ready for bed. It was late and he was tired. Neal was too tired to do more than strip down his t-shirt and boxers before slipping between the covers and falling off to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

When Neal awoke in the morning unsure of where he was at first. The room wasn't familiar in the least and for a moment in began to panic. Then he began to remember what had happened the day before and he became to calm down…that is until he remembered the spanking Gibbs had given him at LAX with the threat of another one when they arrived at their destination.

"Oh man, I wonder if I can hide until Peter arrives to take me into custody," Neal thought as he quietly got dressed and crept down the stairs as carefully as possible. He thought he had achieved it when he grasped the door knob only

to be spun around to face one pissed off Marine.

"I see you remember my promise of yesterday, boy," Gibbs barked as he grabbed Neal pulling him down the stairs to his basement where he released him only long enough to push him over the nearest saw horse and swat him hard on his short clad backside again and again before pausing to grab a paint stirrer and resuming the attack on Neal's backside. He addressed most of the licks to Neal's sit spots and didn't stop until he had Neal sobbing about twenty licks later and stepped back to allow Neal to straighten up with a hiss. He looked so young and innocent that Gibbs easily pulled the sobbing kid into his arms to comfort him and realized then that he had just added another "kid" to his family.

Once Neal had calmed down a bit, Gibbs released him and returned to working on his boat. After a few sniffles Neal looked at what he was doing and was amazed at what he was building in his basement. "You are doing this by hand?" Neal asked with amazement.

Gibbs nodded, "I like to work with my hands."

Neal looked with a critical eye at the work Gibbs had done on the boat. "You are an artist Mr. Gibbs but instead of a canvas you work with wood."

"You hungry, son?" Gibbs asked suddenly as he put the sander down and started up the stairs.

"Yeah, kind of; but what I could really go for is some coffee," admitted Neal as he winced looking at the stairs he had to go up.

"Take your time coming up and by the time you arrive I'll have breakfast prepared with a cup of coffee ready as well," Gibbs said as he left Neal to slowly climb the stairs wincing and groaning with each step. By the time he walked into the kitchen

the climb had awakened the fire in his backside and he was nearly in tears.

Gibbs looked sympathetically at the young man and placed the plate of food on the table along with a cup of coffee.

Neal looked at the food and then rubbed his butt before coming to the conclusion that it would hurt too much to sit and eat his breakfast. "If you don't mind I think I will eat standing up," and did just that.

By the time Neal finished eating his breakfast and washing his dishes he heard the phone ring and a minute later Gibbs appeared and handed Neal the phone…."It's Peter and he wants to talk with you."

"Peter…when are you coming to get me?" asked Neal anxiously. "I want to come home and spend the next few days lying on my stomach."

"Neal, what did you do to get Jethro to give you a thrashing…never mind that's not important for now; we're are at home and need to work some things out to get you home without Kramer's knowledge. We were able to get a six hours head start on Kramer but he should be here before I can get to Washington and back.

If you can stay out of trouble for the next few hours I will be there to bring you home. Let me talk to Jethro," Peter added as he waited for his friend to get back on line.

Neal watched as Gibbs talked for a few minutes before replying, "Don't worry Peter, I'll continue to treat him like he was my own…but at the moment I have paddled all of the mischief out of him. All he has to do is keep the pressure off his rump," he added before hanging up with a smile.

"Well you don't look too bad," Peter remarked as he and El walked in and caught Neal lying on his side reading.

Neal looked up at the familiar voice and jumped up with a wince and hiss. "Peter…El," he cried joyfully as he charged towards the couple and engulfed them in a hug.

El returned his hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "you've been missed, son and we are here to bring you home. Peter has arranged a slight of hand to get you past Kramer and his agents at least long enough to get you to Reese's office where he is waiting," she explained while Peter and Neal exchanged glances.

"I've missed you Neal…the bullpen hasn't been the same without you," he said emotionally.

Neal nodded emotionally as well until he pulled away to ask, "What's your plan?"

Peter turned to Gibbs and asked, "I need to borrow Tony one more time…he's going to play me in Neal's return," Peter explained as he laid his plan out.

"So you have one of your junior agents ready to impersonate Neal and while they led Kramer and his agents away, you and Neal sneak in?" Gibbs summed it all up.

"Yep…El and I have gotten good at it while in Belize so it shouldn't be any trouble to continue it once we arrive home," Peter said with a smile.

The next morning early they set their plan into action. June had lent one of Bryon's suits to Agent Blake along with a fedora and was waiting for Tony to arrive to play the part of Agent Peter Burke. About an hour later Tony was let out

next to the surveillance van where Agent Blake was waiting. Tony climbed in ready to do his part in misleading Kramer yet again.

Neal and Peter were waiting around the corner in Diana's vehicle with Neal dressed in jeans, with a plaid shirt and jacket with sneakers on his feet. Peter was wearing a summer suit and watched as Philip Kramer walked out of 26 Federal Plaza with two US Marshals to wait for Peter to arrive with Neal. He figured to snatch Neal from Peter before he could walk into Reese Hughes' office.

Peter called Tony and said, "Get ready, Kramer is in position," and then made a quick call to El.

"Tony is ready…go and mislead Kramer again."

"Get ready, Caffrey and Burke will try and get past us…I want him arrested as soon as you see him," Kramer ordered as he watched a car he recognized as belonging to Peter speed by and screech to a stop at the end of the block. He saw two figures get out of the backseat and run towards the side entrance of the building. He couldn't make out much other than one figure was smaller and wearing a designer suit with a fedora on his head.

"There…that's Caffrey and Burke…arrest him," ordered Kramer as he watched the two marshals sprint forward and after a moment he followed. He had to be there

to rub the fact that he had won in Peter's face.

Peter and Neal exchanged a smile before they casually got out and walked into the building and soon were getting out on the 21st floor and walking up into Reese Hughes' office.

Reese smiled as his best agent plus the young man they all considered one of their own enter. "Where is Kramer?"

"Being delayed by Agent DiNozzo of NCIS and Agent Blake…they were testing out disguises and Kramer mistook them for us. Agents DiNozzo and Blake are leading them on mini wild goose chase and we just walked in. As with regards to the agreement Agent Kramer and I made earlier, Neal is in my custody and this is the original agreement stating that he is responsible for Neal running in the first place. It has been witnessed by both Jones and Diana," explained Peter as he handed it over.

Reese accepted it and glanced at the document. "Do you have anything else?"

Peter smiled and handed over a small tape. "I taped the conversation unbeknown to Kramer just in case," and handed it over.

Reese nodded and motioned for Diana to enter; in her hand she was holding a tracking anklet. "This is just a precaution to show that Caffrey is in our custody. His radius is the same as before he ran and if all goes according to plan it could be extended for another mile," Reese explained as he handed Peter a document reinstating him as Caffrey's handler. Diana fixed the tracking anklet around Neal's left ankle once again and left.

"Thank you sir…come on Neal, let's get you home so you can rest," Peter said as he walked out and down the stairs only to meet Kramer as he stepped out of the elevator.

"You've lost Philip…in more than one way. Because of you our friendship is lost and you've lost our wager. Neal is in the custody of the White Collar unit with me being reinstated as his handler," Peter said quietly.

"Oh Petey…I'm contesting that document...after all the witnesses were your junior agents…the document can easily overturned and then Caffrey's mine," gloated Kramer as he leered at Neal.

"I don't think so Philip…you see along with that document I also had a tape of the conversation…a conversation dealing with the wager and your admittance of causing the whole thing. The tape and document have been turned over to Reese. It's over Philip, just accept it and get back to your life like we are about to.

El and I have our son back…and we will fight you to keep him!"

Kramer finally realizing that he had lost and there was nothing he could do about it. He had finally recognized the father's love that Peter had for Neal and conceded that he must have been wrong.

"Okay Petey…you've won. I won't bother you again," Philip said defeatedly before turning to Neal to add,

"And you young man had better not do anything to cause the Burkes any grief because I have seen what love can do," and with that he walked slowly through the doors and up to the head agent's office.

Peter grabbed Neal and pulled him into a hug of joy at their success.

"Well Neal, El is going to want to give you the celebration party you didn't get to enjoy before…are you ready for it?" asked Peter as they walked into one of the elevator cars and headed down.

"Not just yet…all I want to do for the next few days is rest carefully on my stomach…your friend lit up my rear big time," replied Neal.

"Come on I'm going to take you home to your mother and while you are resting you can explain how you acquired your sore bottom," Peter said as he threw his arm over his surrogate son's shoulders and they walked out of the building together.

The End