Chapter 21

After leaving the office that afternoon, Neal had called Mozzie. He invited him over to try some new wine he had acquired.

At that point, Neal hadn't imagined that Chuck would be joining them. He was panicked by the thought, not that he let it show. Neal smiled and opened the door, letting Mozzie see Chuck standing inside.

"Who's the Schnook?" he asked as he walked in. Mozzie had brought his own wine glass, which he immediately filled with some of Neal's wine.

"Chuck, we met earlier today," Chuck reminded him. Although there hadn't been introductions between them, Mozzie had stuck to the background.

"I know that," Mozzie responded.

"He's part of the CIA team that Peter called in," Neal explained. Mozzie looked Chuck up and down and took a sip of his wine.

"If you've come to take Neal back into your unholy government circle, you'll find me to be your opponent," Mozzie said with confidence. Neal was slightly warmed by the display. It was the first real sign that Mozzie was okay with his past as a CIA agent.

To his surprise, Chuck held out his hands and responded; "not just yet."

"'Not just yet'?" Neal repeated in disbelief. He knew it had been too easy!

"Right now, Neal Caffrey belongs to the FBI and the CIA isn't going to mess with that," Chuck said, "especially considering you destroyed hundreds upon thousands of dollars worth of CIA resources. The General is still mad about that."

Neal recalled the numerous computers he over-clocked; trying to erase his data from the system, and the few explosions he caused while escaping the CIA medical facility. He hadn't been too proud about that but there had been a number of agents chasing after him at the time.

"Add that to the two Intersects you helped destroy and Beckman thinks you're kind of a liability."

Neal sensed a 'but'.

"When your work with the FBI ends, Beckman will see about getting you back then."

"No way."

"I did have a plan to counter that."

"I can look after myself, Chuck."

"Because you did so well before?"

"Oi!" It wasn't until Mozzie spoke that they realised how loud they were speaking. Mozzie stepped between them, forcing them both to back off a little. "What's wrong with you, Neal? I like a good dose of distrust in the government but, you keep getting into verbal sparring matches with these CIA suits. That isn't how we do things, Neal."

Neal swallowed and his eyes dropped to his feet. Yeah, it wasn't. Getting into fights with Chuck and his team wouldn't help him in the long run.

"Now, what was your plan, Schnook Suit?"

Chuck blinked for a few moments before responding;

"Basically, Neal; or Bryce, joins my team but in name only. That way, any missions for him have to go through us. Basically, as long as we don't absolutely need him; which we probably won't as we do have other people who could help us, Neal won't get called in."

"And he'll have access to all your secret government information?" Mozzie asked, sounding excited.

"I guess," Chuck responded. He brought a hand up to point at his head. "But most of it is in here. We do have access to the CIA and NSA databases but the Intersect is far more flexible."

"And what is this 'Intersect'?" Mozzie asked, engaging his 'dumb' persona he used to wheedle information out of unsuspecting marks. He held out a filled wine glass for Chuck.

Neal intercepted it.

"No," he told Moz, "stay out of it. You don't mess with the Intersect, trust me."

Chuck seemed to realise that at the same time and paled when he realised just how much he had said. He hadn't been tricked into giving up the information but he had thought that Neal's friend was okay to speak around.

"Oh, boo," Mozzie responded, "that's no fun."

"He's right," Chuck responded, "Bryce got shot twice because of it."

"Getting shot is not a big deal," Mozzie responded. He had been shot a few millimetres from his heart during the hunt for Kate's; Neal's dead girlfriend's, killer.

"The first time was near the heart and the second time he bleed out," Chuck responded with his hands trembling. "Both times, we thought he was dead."

"Sorry about that by the way," Neal said, realising that he had never apologised for dying again. "When I was healed enough to escape I just wanted to run and cut all ties to Bryce Larkin."

"I'm not angry," Chuck said, as if just realising it himself, "maybe I should be, but I'm not. I'm just glad you're alive."

Neal was silent for a moment as he absorbed that. He then pushed it aside for the moment, he could think about it later.

"Right," he responded. He pulled out a chair and sat down. "Well, I actually called Moz because I wanted to tell him about the reason why I agreed to help him pull cons even though I was a CIA agent."

Chuck wondered if it was alright for him to hear this. He hadn't meant to intrude on what Neal had planned with his friend. Nevertheless, he was interested in why Bryce would commit crimes and go to prison and since Neal wasn't pushing him out the door; he sat down. Since he sat at the head of the table, he had Neal to one side and Mozzie to the other.

"Alright," Neal sighed reluctantly. This hadn't been an easy decision to make; telling Mozzie and now Chuck. But, he owed Mozzie the truth, even if Moz used it as evidence of Stockholm Syndrome towards the FBI. "I've already mentioned that I came to New York after doing something bad; but I never told Moz what it was." He paused, downed the rest of his glass of wine and poured another. His throat felt tight and the words stale on his tongue.

"What did you do?" Mozzie asked, "steal government secrets? Assassinate some government bigwig? Test mind control on the unsuspecting masses?"

"My job wasn't to assassinate," Neal pointed out, "that's more Casey's area. And the CIA doesn't employ mind control." And if Chuck shifted nervously during that sentence, Neal was just going to ignore it. He was well-aware of the number of things that could go wrong with a faulty Intersect and he really didn't want to get shot again. He took another sip of wine and answered, "I betrayed someone." He was going to blame the sudden burn in his cheeks on the wine and not on embarrassment. "And got him kicked out of Stanford."

"Oh." Since he wasn't looking at Chuck, Neal heard the pieces click into place instead of seeing the look of realisation.

"I thought he would bounce back easily and didn't account for how I would feel. I couldn't," Neal continued, staring at the patterns in the wood of the table. If he didn't look up, he could just pretend that Chuck wasn't here. "He trusted me completely and I went and stabbed him in the back. Got him kicked out because I didn't want the CIA to use him. Everyone thought he did it and they weren't quiet about it. Every comment was piercing, a reminder of what I did. The room was quiet without him and people left me alone; 'out of respect'. I was guilty and he was innocent but no one knew that. God, Chuck, Stanford sucked without you. And it was my fault. I brought it on myself."

Neal wasn't close to finished yet. Somehow, it was easier to keep going now that he had started. He spoke; Chuck and Mozzie listened.