Stupid
Biting the hand that feeds you is stupid
Neal is ready for one last job. He doesn't care what he has to do, as long as Kate is at the other end of the line. That's all he's ever wanted. He doesn't care that he has to lie to anyone, not even Peter. Ends to means; that's all. Burke won't care when he's gone, anyway. Why would he? He's a good man, far too good to be stuck with a cocky ex-con for four years. Let him go back to life before Caffrey.
It's only stupid to bite the hand that feeds you if you wanted to eat whatever they were forcing into your mouth. Neal's a con; nothing more, nothing less. He'll never change, no matter how much they try to make him.
Fighting the arms that hold you is stupid.
Neal can't go through with it. He says goodbye to everyone but Burke, because Peter is the single person in the universe who can change his mind. For the first time, Neal knows the impressive power of expectations in the hands of someone he trusts. Peter's eyes stare him down with absolute certainty that he has it in him to change. That invitation is more mesmerizing than the most skilled conman could ever be.
It's stupid to fight the arms that hold you so you can't rush headlong into the inferno that just killed the person you love most in the world, but Neal is beyond reason. It's only later that he realizes what it all meant. If Peter hadn't been there, he'd have died. Strong arms had kept him from the fire, but the weight of Burke's belief in him had kept him from the plane that would have been his tomb.
Sometimes he wishes he'd died with Kate. Most of the time he can't understand what Peter Burke sees in him that makes him so dead level sure there's a better man inside Neal Caffrey.
A/N: This concludes the chapters for Series 1. Series 2 will follow! Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm so impressed with the quality of the show's writing.