Finding History
Returning to his space, Peter kicked the darts into a pile before transferring them to a random cranny that was handy to hide them in. Let's see if Chuck can find them there… Settling back up to the table, he pulled the files closer and started into the next stage of Neal's history.
Immersing himself into college life, he read about how Neal had taken classes in computer engineering and accounting at Stanford. The files included copies of his class schedules, grades, and final class rankings.
Interested, Peter paid close attention to the details of his accounting abilities. Since he had taken the classes himself at a different school, he pictured what Neal might have been like had he been in those classes. Amused, he pictured a mix of Neal loving the problem solving as he eagerly held his hand up, and his bored doodling lining his class notes from the lectures. Having discovered a source of common bond, he looked forward to being able to discuss their mutual love of numbers once Neal remembered everything.
Continuing to look into Neal's activities between classes, he enjoyed learning what Neal had been like in a fraternity and comparing the truth to what he and Neal had hypothetically imagined.
He was relieved to discover that they were wrong in assuming that Neal would be teasing towards the nerds… it turned out that he was one himself! Peter found the unexpected fact amusing and had a few teasers ready to make up for all of the times that Neal had teased him in the past…
Digging into the other aspects of his life, he found that Neal was also a track star.
No wonder we could never catch him on foot… Sure it wasn't baseball, but it was a sport, so it made more sense to Peter than his love of art.
The next group of details was composed of things that Chuck had added into the files and depicted their activities as friends. Reading through those, Peter was regaled with tales of college parties, all night studying, games of Gotcha, and programming sessions.
Thinking back to his own college days, Peter could picture Neal enjoying the fun of competing with his best friend. It was easy, because he had witnessed it the previous night, or at least a version of it, and he had also experienced an element of it during the best of days when he and Neal had been on the same side of a case. There was that element of challenge, the feeling of comradery, and the thrill of the game that made ordinary things exciting.
Then everything in the files changed with the appearance of Neal's betrayal.
Reading through the reports, Peter saw the end of Chuck's college career, Neal go down for a betrayal, and the happy days of Neal's life ended. Suddenly, the pages were filled with details of how he was virtually ostracized by his previous friends, how he went from having a social life to focusing on his classes, and how he went from being a kid in school to a focused agent in training.
Frowning, Peter realized that he had done the same thing to Neal in the recent times. He had ostracized him and criticized him for something that he hadn't done…
Looking for better news, he was surprised by the next file that he found. In anticipation of the Caffrey assignment, the government had funded for Neal to actually get a full education in art. It worked out that he had no social life for the last year of his public college education because he was studying hard to finish two degrees with the beginnings of a few more.
Amazed, Peter realized that Neal did a very good job at juggling his work in training for the CIA, his classes, and the loss of his best friend all at the same time… And I though juggling school and work was hard. Peter mused.
Having enjoyed seeing what it was like when Neal was free to be himself, Peter looked forward to the opportunities to see it again.
After lunch, Chuck went back to work and started searching into why the character of Neal Caffrey had been created in the first place.
Going back to the early days in Neal's life, he researched into the group of corrupt police and their mob counter parts.
He noticed that it was unknown who all was involved, how many there were, what their long term goals were, and what kind of threat level they presented. Following through the years, these very same officers climbed the ranks and moved into other avenues until they were in the senate, FBI, Marshals, and several other important positions in the country.
Comparing them to the Ring, Chuck couldn't help but wonder if they were connected, or if they were just another corrupt system with an agenda.
The next part of the research depicted an attack on Neal's family after he had left them, but there weren't any details attached as to what had occurred.
Pulling up his computer, Chuck accessed the system and pulled up the files from a different means. Although there still wasn't much detail, there was enough to get a picture. Basically, a Marshal had infiltrated Officer Hill's protection team and tried to kill her. Being trained, she managed to get away until an emergency response team came to the rescue. Shaken by such an incident, the Marshals reached out for help.
In response, an investigation task force was created.
When operating internationally, the character would complete missions under the guise of committing crimes with allies working to help keep up appearances. On US soil, he would work on more of a consulting level as the front man while the FBI would chase him around to give him a criminal reputation. His overall job was to solve as many problems as possible while trying to bring out any of the corruption that he could find.
Since the operation was going to be dangerous, the agencies decided to use Bryce. He had shown an aptitude for getting the job done, his records proved him trustworthy, he had personal interest as it was his family under attack that started it all, and with a little help, he had the skills required to play such a varied role.
From there, it was simply a matter of the CIA, FBI, Marshals, and Interpol to set their agreement up before setting Neal Caffrey lose on the criminal world.
Lost in the life of Caffrey, Peter eagerly pulled out the next files. This was the part of Neal's life where he started coming into the picture and he was eager to see what was really going on.
His first goal was to read through the file details that explained why the Character of Neal Caffrey was created in the first place.
Miffed, he realized that he was simply sent after Neal to make him look good… At least he was credited with being chosen as the pursuing agent because he was trusted not to betray him, he was deemed intelligent enough to compete, and they hoped to advance him in the FBI as he was deemed to have great potential. Still, as complimentary as their reasoning was for choosing him, he was still chosen to chase a fake criminal which annoyed him. Why not tell him what was going on if he was so trusted?
Understanding why the character was created, Peter moved on to what the character did. The cases covered a wide variety of work too. Neal covered anything from drawing out bond forgers by collecting their product and flashing it as his own work, stealing terrorist diamonds, intercepting stolen data being transferred via the frames of stolen paintings, transferring his own information using his 'forged' paintings, and so on.
Amazed again, Peter wondered how he had missed all of it. Was I seriously so focused on the shiny conman that I completely missed the agent underneath? Thinking back to his surprise in discovering the truth he thought, Yes, yes I was so focused that I was completely fooled… Then another thought occurred to him. But, I did see something of the man.After all, I did notice that he was loyal, his intelligence, his need for family and acceptance, and there was something else there that never made sense to me… Continuing to think about how quickly he had adjusted to knowing that Neal was an agent, he decided that maybe he was fooled by his head, but his gut sensed that there was something more. That had to count for something, right?
Moving on to why Neal allowed him to catch him, he was curious as to what caused the man to simply walk into his trap when he would have known full well what it would cause. The file held limited details for that part, but Peter learned that Neal's files had been accessed by the enemy and he was being transferred to another case for a while as a bigger threat had been found.
Shuddering, he read through the details of Neal dying twice, being held captive, and simply disappearing.
And here I had thought that putting him in prison was bad… that would have been nothing compared to what he was actually going through. The reports and crime scene photos made Peter fight back his emotions. Thanks to one particular picture, he could now see exactly what his best friend looked like dead… Why did they have to include that in these files? Hoping to get the image of Neal lying on the ground with a bloody hole next to his heart out of his head, he knew that he would fail and be having nightmares courtesy of Casey.
Closing the files, he knew everything about Neal that the files could detail. He knew everything about him from his family history, through his childhood, academics, and into work history. There had even been details telling him that Neal was an officer of the CIA with a level six clearance.
Settling back in his chair, Peter decided to take the rest of his time to think through what he had found.
Interested in the people of Neal's life, Chuck started looking into the relationships he had associated with his character.
First, there was this person known only as 'Mozzie.' Chuck looked into him and there wasn't much to find. The man had shown up when Neal had encountered him in the park playing Three Card Monte and had become his working partner which gave him another level of dimension in the criminal persona. Oddly enough, Mozzie hadn't been seen since an incident with Vincent Adler at the docks… that was something to be further researched with Neal when he got the chance.
Second, there was a woman named Kate Moreau. She had the character's heart wrapped around her little finger, but the agent still had a job to do which caused a rift in their relationship. Although she had feelings for Neal in return, it looked like she had a secret that she couldn't share… she was also an undercover agent. Did Bryce know that he was falling in love with an undercover agent, or was he as blind as she to their real identities? Following their romance, Chuck found that they separated due to Neal's work, got back together when he was caught, were separated again for her work, and she was killed during her operation to get closer to Adler.
Then the third main person who came up as a friend from the criminal records was an Alex Hunter. She was a fence and thief with connections to the Nazis which made her a good contact into the criminal world. Although there was a brief romance between her and Neal, they were mostly just friends who occasionally worked together.
Looking into the enemies from Neal's file, the list was rather long, but a few particular ones stood out.
Vincent Adler had of course had been known as the man who swindled New York City and he was considered to be very dangerous. Fortunately, he was dead and no longer a direct issue.
Ryan Wilkes had made a brief appearance, but his taste for violence and tendency to play dirty made him a special priority to take off of the streets when he started taking civilian hostages. It didn't hurt that he had taken Neal prisoner which allowed for an inside perspective into the plans so that Neal was able to initiate the action to take him down.
Matthew Keller had proven to be one of the biggest problems in Neal's past and might have further cause for concern. He was considered to be a blue collar version of Neal with a tendency to get his hands dirty with violence, bloodshed, and he wasn't above using innocents to get his way. Although the man was in prison for abducting Elizabeth, he wasn't likely to be gone for good.
Finally, Chuck focused on the current people in Neal's life.
Of course there were the Burkes. Although there had been some issues between them and Neal since the treasure incident, they were generally Neal's support system, safe landing, and the three of them had even become a form of a family. Peter was Neal's big brother and father figure when he went boss while Elizabeth played the softer role of big sister and mediator when the men couldn't understand each other. They were the anchors who kept Neal taken care of.
At home, Neal had his land lady June Ellington. She performed an almost motherly role to him in that she made sure he had a roof over his head and provided him with her deceased husband's old wardrobe for clothing. He was the company and excitement that she needed as an old widow with such a large mansion all to herself. His presence made her feel younger and needed, gave her something to do by taking care of him, and his shenanigans reminded her of the old days when her husband had been a con.
On the work front, Neal had a reliable team of skilled agents to back him. Reese Hughes was a legend who knew how to lead a team and get the job done. Peter carried his role into being the intelligent boss who watched out for him and kept him out of trouble… as best as he could anyway. While Agents Clinton Jones and Diana Berrigan provided the support and assistance that was needed to close cases.
Having gone through most of the relationships connected to Neal, Chuck decided to call it a day.
Gathering the team, they headed home, and dropped into bed after a long day with the anticipation of a longer one to come.
Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D
I'm glad to see that people are continuing to enjoy the story, and even though I can't respond to guest reviews, I still enjoy seeing your comments :D
Returning to work at the end of the week here, I discover that there isn't much about the merger. It is officially started, but won't be finalized until sometime next year. All well, at least the next few months can generally be planned for and the rest will be what it will be later ;)