Title: Maker, remake, complete

Fandom: Highlander/White Collar

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: future!fic for both shows

Pairings: none stated

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 710

Point of view: third

Prompt: White Collar/Highlander. Neil, Methos, Duncan, Joe. "Hey, Uncle." "Uncle?" "He was my teacher's brother. Hence, uncle." Kronos was Neil's teacher.

The way Adam's fingers clench around his glass for a moment lets Joe know that someone's on the way. A few moments later, Mac lifts his head, and about ten seconds after that, a fancy kid saunters in.

Joe's pretty sure no one dressed so nice has ever been in the place before.

Sharp blue eyes take in everything: the few patrons here so early, Mac, and the Old Man masquerading as a kid just outta grad school.

He settles next to Adam with a grin and his act is almost as good as Adam's. If Joe hadn't seen Mac and Adam's reactions, even as a watcher, he'd have been fooled.

He orders the same thing Adam's drinking and seems content to sit there all day, nursing a single glass. Joe wonders if he knows what he is; he hasn't reacted to Mac or Adam at all.

"He's dead, you know."

The words are so soft Joe barely hears them. He isn't even sure Adam's spoken until the kid's fingers clutch his glass so hard it shatters.

"He died because I betrayed him," Adam continues, eyes on his own glass as the kid picks shards out of his palm. "The last thing he saw was me taking Silas' head."

"And Caspian?" the kid asks quietly, no emotion in his voice. His gaze stays on his skin as it knits.

"Lost his head."

The kid nods and looks up to smile at Joe. "Another, please? I'll pay for the glass, of course."

Adam gives the kid a fond, exasperated glance that Joe's sure he himself used to give Adam, back before he knew about the Old Man. "Put it on my tab, Joe," he says. "And toss in some food for the brat."

The kid rolls his eyes (and Joe seriously needs to stop thinking about him as the kid, because he clearly knows about the Horsemen, which makes him old).

"I'm Neal Caffrey," he says brightly. "And an FBI agent is going to rush through that door any minute now," he adds, turning his head to look at Mac. "Please don't try to attack him or anything." Looking back at Adam, he confides, "Peter worries about me."

Adam laughs. "He wants to strangle you, you mean."

Neal's grin makes him look ten years younger, which is quite the feat since he already looked maybe twelve. "Well, yeah."

"Before your keeper arrives," Adam says, gesturing for Mac and Joe to lean in close, "allow me to introduce my darling nephew." Joe shares a glance at Mac, who shrugs, just as in the dark. Hopefully this secret revealed won't blow up in their faces.

(And he mentally pauses for a moment, to wonder if Methos has been fiddling around with the Chronicles for years. He doesn't recognize this kid, not from a description or pictures, but he's got to be somewhere near Cassandra's age.)

"This is Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod and his Watcher, the delightful Joe Dawson."

Neal shakes both their hands. "Thank you for looking after Uncle for me," he says. "It's been awhile since I saw him."

A man whose bearing and outfit scream FBI storms in, arrowing straight for Neal. Joe bustles away for a moment, letting them have the illusion of privacy, and Adam clearly hears every word, if his grin is anything to go by.

"Special Agent Burke," the FBI guy finally says, looking to Joe. "My consultant, Neal Caffrey."

Joe moves back in and asks, "Somethin' I can help you with, agent?"

"I hope so," Burke says.

o0o

Later that night, after Joe turns the bar over to Mike and makes his way to Mac's, as they're discussing this turn of events and Joe confesses he searched for any mention of Neal in the chronicles, Mac pauses mid-sentence and turns his head to the door.

Joe is unsurprised when Adam lets himself in, Neal at his heels.

"The brat's agreed to play Truth or Dare, if you want," Adam says, sprawling on Mac's couch, not caring that Mac had already been settled there. "I'm all for it, myself."

Mac rolls his eyes and Joe tries to discreetly hide his notebook.

Neal grins, though, settling himself next to Adam, and Joe figures, what the hell.