DWH3 - What Brings Hope


From JantoHarkness on AO3; Chapter 5 of Trackers vs Guns

Also, you know you have to do one of these for Neal right? It would only be fair for his life to be tortured as equally as his twin's life. XD

Notes: Tried to base this one off the one I wrote about Bryce. Also, I needed some cool old lady June.


"Go home. The rest of the office will be putting in all hours trying to sort this mess out. The only advice I can give you is this: do not talk to a lawyer, don't talk to Mozzie, keep your head down until we fix this. If it goes public in any way, the higher-ups will revoke our deal and you're back in. For however long that'll be," Peter grumbled that last bit under his breath.


"You lied right to my face!" Mozzie yelled glaring up at Neal as the taller man looked down on him.

"It wasn't a lie-"

"No, it was a con," Mozzie interrupted in a disappointed tone. It seemed that maybe Kate was right about one thing, Neal was a con. He conned everyone and it didn't matter if he liked you or not. It both hurt and pleased him to see Neal physically recoil from his words.


A day became two days, two days a week, a week a month, a month became two months, and then half a year passed without Neal being able to chat with his old friend.


June was the first to notice. To really notice. The maids worked different days and were dazzled by Neal's manners and smile and interest in their lives that they didn't notice his increased requirement of medical supplies.

They didn't notice how he stopped getting paint and art supplies, although they hadn't been in charge of that anyway.

They didn't notice how the amount of food he bought was decreasing. Just the fact that he stopped eating from June's kitchen was enough to hint that something was wrong.

June was slightly appalled that no one noticed but then, she must have missed some kind of sign if she could leave to visit grandchildren and come back to a thin and tired Neal who looked like he hadn't seen sunlight in a long time.

It was worse than if he had been in prison.

"Mozzie, what's wrong with Neal?" June asked one evening during their regular games night. Mozzie still hadn't improved his technique at High Stakes Candyland.

"Neal?" Mozzie questioned going stiff. It was a tell-tale sign to June that he didn't want to talk about this. "If you haven't heard, we're out. No longer partners. I do not work with him and I do not associate with him. For my own safety, of course."

"Safety?" June questioned, a little surprised. She had thought that there was nothing which could tear Mozzie's and Neal's friendship apart. "But surely Peter-" she paused. Peter was an okay guy, for a Suit who didn't understand their ways. However, she hadn't seen Peter the past few weeks. How was Neal getting to work?

"Got to go," Mozzie quickly said, ducking out of the house through one of the many hidden exits. As June suspected, Neal came walking through the door a moment later.

"Ah, June. I, sorry, I didn't realise you were in here," he said, stepping backwards. June raised an eyebrow and motioned for Neal to come and sit down.

Since when did Neal shy away from human contact? The boy thrived on it.

"Neal? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Neal responded with a flash of the conman she saw when they first met.

And that didn't convince June at all.

"How's Peter been?" she asked.

"Fine," Neal responded after a beat.

"And El?"

"Fine." Neal seemed to be getting suspicious.

"And the Feds you work with?"

"Fine."

"Really? Even the Lady Suit Mozzie approves of?" Mozzie would probably be horrified that she was even suggesting that he approved of a Suit but, it worked. Neal's face scrunched in concentration as he tried to remember if anything had happened to her. So something was going down at the FBI too. June wondered just what Neal did to make both Mozzie and the FBI want to avoid him.

"I haven't been into the office for a few days," Neal informed her, "they just call me whenever they need me and sometimes Jones drops by with cases he wants me to look at."

"Why?" June asked. She saw the slump of his shoulders, the hollowness of his face and figured that whatever it was, he had been punished enough.

"I introduced my twin brother to them."

That... was not at all what she expected.


The White Collar office seemed to pause as the elegant June Ellington walked in. She looked around, the piercing disapproval in her eyes causing every inexperienced probie and a few agents to turn away in shame. Peter sighed at the sight and wondered just why she was here.

And then she took a few steps and the agents could catch a glance at the figure behind her.

"Is that Mozzie?" Jones questioned in shock.

"Whoa," Diana commented as the two made their way up to the Conference room. You could see from their body language that June was not happy with Mozzie.

She also wasn't happy with the Feds either.

"Neal's not eating," she opened with, "he gets hurt every time he goes undercover. He doesn't paint and he doesn't leave his apartment unless you pull him out for a case, Agent Burke."

"I don't-"

"Unless you want to talk to a lawyer instead of face-to-face, you will let me finish," June stated. "Neal finally tells you something about his family and you kick him around for it. I don't care if he's CIA," she looked to Mozzie, "has Neal's face," Peter, "or anything like that. Peter, you would have given almost anything to know about Bryce earlier and Mozzie, you've known Neal for years, he's earned the benefit of the doubt." They were staring at her like she was speaking another language. "Peter, you and your wife and invited to dinner. I expect to see you there. Mozzie will be there too." Mozzie looked surprised and briefly considered countering but this was June and she didn't pause until finished. "Neal will be there and you are going to talk to him and apologise." Her tone left no room for argument.