Chapter 11

Neal, Mozzie and Casey were off-grid doing goodness knows what. Casey was connected to the CIA agents who had responded to the request Peter had Diana lodge. Elizabeth believed that Casey was the person Mozzie had called, "he did say he was a 'spy-suit'," and Peter agreed with her.

But, how did Neal fit into all this? Peter was missing something; he could feel it in his gut.

Peter had looked over Kramer's information connected to Neal; or 'Bryce'. It proved useless to him. The only way Peter knew it was connected to Neal was because Kramer had told him so. And Kramer could have been lying. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Boss."

"What?" Peter snapped which he immediately felt sorry about. Diana didn't deserve it. She had put herself in a position to gather information for him. She was doing more than him.

She didn't respond verbally, instead pointing at the entrance.

No. No, no, no. Peter's mind sprung up with about fifteen different ways to express 'no', just like a toddler in the middle of the tantrum, before he would allow himself to believe what he was seeing.

Neal was strolling into the office, as if it was an ordinary day.

"Thought he wasn't coming back," Diana commented. Even though she sounded cold to the casual observer, Peter noticed the slight hesitation in her voice before she spoke.

Peter hadn't stopped staring down at the vision of Neal, which was waving at Jones and chatting happily to the agent. Neal looked up a moment later and waved to him. His smile was perfect but, he had taken his hat off and placed it on his desk before chatting with Jones.

Did he believe this was over? Peter wanted to scoff. It was far from over.

"Keep Kramer from hearing about this," he ordered Diana, "get Jones to help you."

"Got it, Boss," she responded, moving out of the way as hurricane Peter passed out the door.

"Hi, Peter," Neal greeted. His conman smile softened for a moment and then his smile faded as he noticed the unmoving expression on Peter's face. Somewhere between shocked and horrified.

"We're going to interview a suspect," he announced, nodding to Jones as he placed a hand on Neal's shoulder.

"Ooh, jewellery theft?" Neal questioned, "bank robbery?"

"Didn't you get the news while you were locked away in a government bunker?" Jones quipped, "there's only mortgage fraud and cold cases."

Neal's face drooped.

"Not mortgage fraud?" he questioned, sounding heartbroken. He didn't want anything to do with mortgage fraud. It was dull, boring and had tons of paperwork; Neal feared for the future of the trees and forests where the paper came from.

"Not mortgage fraud," Peter responded with a sigh.

The previous night, two different conversations took place at two different locations, connected by case matter.

The first took place in a comfortable hotel room with soft beds and fluffy carpet.

The second took place in a hidden location; a storage container hidden among other storage containers. There was a bed, a table, four chairs and a couch.

Sarah sat on the bed in Morgan and Alex's hotel room while Chuck sat at a small, round table with his laptop open.

The sound of Alex retching sounded sporadically through the room. Sarah's heart clenched in sympathy at the sound. Chuck had tuned it out as he worked.

Morgan walked out of the room and collapsed on the bed. Thankfully, they were long past the days where Sarah would have to wonder what stunt he was pulling on her.

"Kill me now," Morgan groaned, "I don't think I'll ever eat again."

"Think about how Alex must feel," Sarah reminded him.

"I've been doing that all day." Morgan breathed a sigh of relief. He had made her a hot bath; no bubbles as Alex couldn't stand them right now, and she was resting in it. They could only hope that the heat and water would help to abate some of the symptoms. "I'm in serious need of 'me' time."

Sarah shook her head, but she really shouldn't judge. She knew what it was like to need time alone.

"Chuck, buddy, done yet?" Morgan asked. He didn't get a reply.

Chuck typed away on the keyboard, hacking his way through the FBI files. He was in the zone; a place where he was going to ignore everything in the outside world unless someone distracted him.

Morgan gave Sarah the puppy-dog eyes. She rolled her in return and got up to distract Chuck, it was time for him to report what he had found.

"I managed to find a picture of Neal Caffrey," Chuck reported after sharing a kiss with his wife. "Along with the information the FBI placed on his CI badge."

"CI's get a badge?" Morgan questioned, turning the computer for a better look.

"Why are you looking into Burke's CI?" Sarah asked.

"Because Casey took him for some reason. I'm hoping something in Neal's file will tell us why."

"Well, take your pick," Morgan said in an impressed tone of voice, "he's a thief, a forger and a con artist. Convicted of bond forgery and suspected of hundreds of thefts."

"That is quite a list," Sarah responded, impressed in spite of herself.

"That's what I found on Google," Chuck responded, "the FBI has a much long list of suspected crimes. Much, much longer."

"I hope he didn't steal from the Buy More," Morgan commented. He misinterpreted the looks Sarah and Chuck gave him. "I'm sure he probably didn't. If he did, can we press charges?" They hadn't moved. Morgan slammed his hand on his knee. "I knew I shouldn't have left him alone! Suspicious guy all in black-"

"Wait!" Chuck said, stopping Morgan's rant. "When did Neal Caffrey come into the Buy More?"

"Since when do con men shop at the Buy More?" Sarah questioned sceptically.

Morgan looked confused for a moment.

"Uh, years ago," he said, "I thought he was Bryce Larkin at first. Came in looking at TVs during the Black Friday sales; the one where we evacuated the store because of the gas leak."

"Morgan," Sarah groaned, "that was Bryce."

"Really?" Morgan said in a surprised voice, "'cause, I thought he was dead."

"That was after he got revived the first time and before he died the second time."

"Oh."

Chuck had stopped moving as they spoke. Completely frozen his mind passed over the past few days and what Sarah was saying.

That was after he got revived the first time... he knew she had said it for clarification, or maybe it was just the slip of the tongue, but it allowed Chuck to connect the dots.

The FBI had a CIA badge; they thought it was false and Agent Burke suspected it was real. Agent Burke had a CI who looked suspiciously like Bryce. Chuck didn't flash, but that might just mean that Neal's image and name didn't match those in the Intersect.

Casey had collected Neal from the FBI office. Casey had possibly come to New York because of Neal Caffrey.

Neal Caffrey seemed to be at the centre of it all.

Yet, they hadn't met him. They had heard about him but hadn't seen him.

"That does seem odd," Sarah said hesitantly as he brought it up. She didn't want Chuck getting his hopes up, only for them to be dashed.

Chuck knew he was getting hopes up over this. The idea that Bryce might be alive was overwhelming, not matter how he tried to keep it check. The man had died in front of him, because of something his father had created.

If Chuck had said 'yes' to General Beckman; agreed to join the Intersect Project when she asked instead of grasping at a 'normal' life, he might have been able to help. The 'what ifs' sometimes kept him up at night. Those first few nights after Bryce died had provided him with his worst nightmares ever.

They discussed their next step quickly as it had been a long day.

Mozzie disinfected everything Neal or Casey touched. It was frustrating but, Neal knew that he was lucky Moz was letting him into any of his safe houses.

Casey sat at the table where his mounted gun had been placed. He hadn't removed the gun from the mount but he wouldn't let it out of his sight either.

Neal wriggled on the plastic wrap Moz had placed over his chair.

Mozzie was sitting across from them with a wine glass in his hands, looking as content as a Mozzie facing two government agents could be.

"I quit the CIA, Mozzie," Neal couldn't help reminding him when his friend grouped him with Casey.

"Which was insane," Moz responded, "who gives up being CIA only to make a deal with the FBI?"

"The little guy has a point," Casey commented with a grunt of amusement.

"Stop ganging up on me!" Neal protested, "we're supposed to be getting Kramer off my tail!"

"I could always just shoot him," Casey suggested.

"No," Neal and Moz responded at once.

"No guns," Neal added.

"He's a fed!" Moz protested, "you don't kill feds! They're like roaches, you kill one and before you know it, they're everywhere!"

"Either of you have any suggestions?" They were silent and Casey gave another grunt of amusement. "No wonder the FBI got a hold of your badge," he goaded to Neal.

"It's not my fault Kramer cracked the code," Neal responded, not completely taking the bait, "I used one of the Company's ciphers mixed with something of my own, it shouldn't have been crackable."

"So, how did he crack it?" Mozzie asked before taking a sip of his wine.

"I don't know."

"You think, maybe, he's in contact with another spy-suit. Or maybe just a spy." Mozzie had a point.

"We need to find out who he's been speaking with," Casey said, "if someone from the CIA is selling information like that, we need to take them down."

"YOU need to take him down," Mozzie corrected, "it's a job for you two, not me."

Casey shrugged. He didn't care whether Mozzie helped or not.

Neal cared. He knew that he wouldn't be the person he was today without Mozzie. Actually, he would probably be dead. Mozzie had helped him improve his skills to a legendary level and he protected him when things were tough. Mozzie was always there.

Bryce didn't have Mozzie and he died twice. Bryce tried to protect Chuck and got his friend kicked out of Stanford, mistakenly thinking he would land on his feet.

"Moz, I really could use your help with this," Neal said.

Mozzie thought about it for a moment.

"Fine. But, I will remain behind the curtain. No Man In Black will catch me."

"Fine," Casey agreed before Neal could, "let's just get this done."

Author's note: Just thought I'd clarify, 'the Company' is a nickname for the CIA which I borrowed from another show.