CFFR - Caffrey

From Guest:

"Hi! Love this story. Could you do one in which Bryce leaves with Neal and they become conmen or partners as spies."

Notes: This is a long one. Also, probably won't be updating for a while as there's an expo on this weekend and I'm managing a stall.

Neal went to Harvard. However, he couldn't be found in any graduation record. They made sure of that. When he was a senior, he received a visit from his twin brother.

Bryce looked broken. So much self-doubt and hesitation was etched into his face that Neal instantly felt like punching whomever made his brother have that expression. And Neal was not a violent person.

"I need… no," Bryce shook his head like he was in the mist of some internal war. "Neal, I would like your help. Please listen to what I have to say, please."

Bryce rarely said 'please'. Neal soon learnt why.

Stealing answer sheets from a Stanford professor was not Neal's first crime. However, it was his first crime since being accepted to Harvard. It was also his CIA admission test.

He passed spectacularly. He managed to steal from a CIA recruiter without them even realising it until Bryce made the 'anonymous' call to dob Chuck Bartowski in for cheating.

"I feel like you sold me out to the CIA in order to save Chuck," Neal commented.

Bryce didn't deny that. Instead, he responded with, "you're that one who wanted to be a cop."

"Yeah, Bryce. When we were children. And not after we found out the truth about our father."

"You'll be happy with your undercover identity then," Bryce commented. He held out a folder containing the details of the cover identity he had been using and wanted to pass to Neal. "It's about as far from a cop as you can get."

With growing dread, Neal took the folder from Bryce. He opened it. The first thing he noticed was his face and name and the dread turned to angry annoyance.

"Bryce! What the- you used my name to create a… conman?" he exclaimed. He flipped through the information, seeing a number of wanted posters. "And we're wanted by the FBI?" He shook his head, completely floored with what Bryce had gotten him into.

"Look, I've arranged for my undercover contact to teach you everything you need to know about being Neal Caffrey, Neal Larkin."

Neal looked at the work-up on the contact. A conspiracy theorist. He sighed.

"You so owe me," he muttered under his breath.

Mozzie looked Neal up and down before giving a slight huff of annoyance.

"You know, my training isn't two-for-one," he pointed out, referring to how he trained Bryce and now had to train Neal.

"Yeah, well, I'm not happy with this either," Neal grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Let's just get started, shorty."

Mozzie shoved a finger in his face. "It's Mozzie, Alpha-Suit. Call me anything else only when instructed."

"Uh-huh," Neal agreed in a bored tone.

Mozzie seemed to almost shudder with revulsion at his presence. At least, until they started their lessons. He placed a simple lock in front of Neal and a lockpick set.

"Now," he said, beginning to explain what each pick was and when to use it.

Neal stared at him with a blank look and silently picked up the lock, slid out the two picks he needed to open it and picked it open in under a minute. When the lock clicked open, he placed it back on the table and sat back.

Mozzie looked like a gaping fish. Then he pulled out another lock.

"Alright, try this one then," he said, pulling out another lock.

With a smug smile Neal didn't notice, he reached forward and began picking this lock. And the next. Mozzie put locks in front of him until they found where he had the most trouble. Then, Mozzie showed him some new tricks which actually impressed him.

"Of course, there's no need to pick a lock if you can talk your way in," Mozzie advised. "Let's move on to picking pockets."

Neal slid up to the dummy in the bell jacket and picked the pocket without making a sound. He turned around and brandished the wallet in Mozzie's face. With a flick of his wrist, he added Mozzie's wallet next to it.

Mozzie snatched his wallet back. There wasn't much in it, Neal had already looked.

"I should have guessed you'd be as good as your twin," Mozzie commented. "Where did you kids learn these things anyway?"

It was a question muttered to the wind, not something Mozzie expected an answer for.

Neal answered anyway;

"I was taught to pick locks when my mother would leave me and my brother locked outside. Not on purpose but, there were times when she forgot we went out and even times she herself forgot where she put the keys. And I learnt to pick pockets at a cop bar near where I grew up." Ellen had helped him hone both skills. An ex-cop, she had been skilled in both in a 'know thy enemy' kind of way.

"You know, Bryce never told me that," Mozzie commented.

Neal shrugged. That was just Bryce.

"Can you paint like he can?" Mozzie asked.

"Better," he responded. He was faster at it.

"Maybe this isn't a lost cause," Mozzie muttered to himself. Neal could see the plans forming in the little guy's mind.

It would be like pulling teeth to get Neal to admit it but, Bryce was right. He did like being Neal Caffrey.

They switched on and off a few times. Until Bryce was partnered with Sarah. The CIA didn't want to reveal their involvement with creating one of the FBI's most wanted White Collar criminals, even to their own agents, and so Neal was stuck being Caffrey alone.

The same year Bryce stopped joining in the con was the same year the Caffrey identity was to be burned. Neal was arrested in a wonderfully scripted moment which couldn't have happened without Peter's team laying the groundwork.

He was almost impressed.

The CIA didn't want to get him out. Instead, they dropped him desk work and information in the hopes that he could make connections and plan take-downs. Neal was good at it too. In any other circumstances, he would have found the endless desk work boring, however, it was just what he needed to keep himself busy in prison.

He only had to do four years and then Neal Caffrey would disappear. Neal Larkin, on the other hand, was to receive a promotion and his pick of assignments.

Then Bryce died a traitor's death yet, Neal couldn't bring himself to believe Bryce would betray the CIA. Bryce was far more loyal than he.

Proven when news of Bryce's heroic return and subsequent second death reached Neal's ears. Neal broke out of prison in search of his brother's ex-girlfriend and his own con-partner, Kate Moreau. She had vanished a day before news of Bryce's death reached Neal's ears.

Neal would never get any answers from her. Kate was forever silenced in an instant of noise and fire.

It seemed like Neal's life never worked out the way he thought it would.

"Daydreaming, Caffrey?" Peter questioned from the other side of the desk.

Neal hummed non-committedly in response. Instead of working on whatever he wanted with the CIA, he had ended up on an FBI leash. His brother had died twice. Mozzie had gone so far off script; stealing a Nazi treasure and sharing it with him, that they had gotten El kidnapped and almost killed.

At least Neal was up for commutation in a few months.

"Just trying to figure out who would have had access to the jewels," he answered Peter's question. "I'm leaning towards the manager, which means this is probably some kind of insurance fraud."

"Great," Peter said, sounding like he meant it for the first time in a while. "Sara will be overjoyed."

Neal tried to hide the flash of something he felt at Sara's name. They had dated and then broken up over the treasure and he didn't know where they were in their relationship now. It was a mess and he could only be grateful that at least neither of them were pointing a gun at the other.

"Alright, home time!" Peter announced with great glee. El was making him his favourite for dinner and they were having a kind of 'date night'; meaning no Neal.

Neal went down the elevator, let Peter drive him home and let himself into June's and then into his apartment.

"Hey, Neal! How's the FBI?"

Bryce was sitting at the table, a laptop in front of him and looking like the cat who got into the cream.

Neal froze and glared.

"What?" Bryce questioned innocently. He was anything but innocent.

"Have you seen what I've been up to lately?" Neal roared. What right did Bryce have to appear now? Now, when it was almost over! "It's been one thing after another and it all started with you! Your death!"

"Technically second death," Bryce mused out loud but Neal ignored that for now.

"It all starts with you!" he accused.

"You and Chuck could have a lot of things to talk about," Bryce commented quietly. "Anyway, I'm here to tell you what I've been up to."

Neal continued to glare as he sat down, waiting the story. Bryce passed him a beer and he took a few gulps in an attempt to feel calmer.

Bryce told him about being shot while stealing the Intersect, passing the Intersect to Chuck Bartowski with his last few breaths, tricking a hostile espionage organisation in reviving him and coming back into Chuck's life, going into deep cover only to die again when I left deep cover for start of the Intersect 2.0 agent field testing.

"You died?" Neal questioned sceptically. Bryce nodded in confirmation. "Then how are you here?"

Bryce shrugged.

"Something-something CIA?" he suggested.

Neal took a deep and calming breath.

"Fine. You had a good reason to vanish, I guess."

"And now I'm back! And ready to give you a break from being Caffrey."

Neal didn't know how to respond to that. There were times when he forgot he was anything aside from Neal Caffrey and he knew that wasn't good. That it would make it harder to go back.

He couldn't go back. Neal Caffrey wasn't supposed to have a future but he had one. It was the closest Neal had been to having a peaceful place he could return to and Bryce turned up with an offer which could ruin it.

"Are you worried about that?" Bryce asked in the silence, pointing to the anklet. "No worries, I can get it off."

"No," Neal responded flatly. "I'm keeping it. Bryce, you've been gone for a while. I've changed and Caffrey's had to change with me. You can't just slot yourself in, people will notice. Especially now, when they're focused on me for my commutation hearing."

Bryce relented that fact and didn't comment on it again that evening. He was still there when morning came.

Something was going on. Peter was sure of it. Neal seemed huffy when he got in the car. He could say it was something he hadn't seen before but it was the same kind of expression he got when something went wrong at the office. Like the time Diana took his pen. He had only put it down for a moment but she took it because she needed to take a note and hadn't brought her own. Neal had directed his huffy expression at her until Peter had told him to cut it out and ordered Diana to go get a pen or make do without.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Neal responded.

"See, that's the kind of phrase that does make me worry."

"It's fine, Peter. I just saw an old friend."

"Is this friend trouble?" Peter asked. He didn't want any surprises with Neal's commutation coming up.

"We'll have to wait and see," Neal responded. Peter stopped the car and stared at him. "I don't know!" Neal insisted. "He just turned up."

Peter gave him that and turned back to the road. His eyes skimmed the rear-view mirror at just the right moment to spot someone who looked a lot like Neal get into a taxi a few cars behind them.

Peter offered to get lunch for Diana and Jones. It was a gut feeling that had him leave the building and go to the food place which had a good view of the FBI building's entrance.

He walked in and made his order. He paid careful attention to those who left when he came in but none of them seemed familiar.

The guy sitting near the side in the last seat with a view outside was. Even wearing a black turtle-neck, leather jacket and sunglasses, he still looked like Neal.

"Alright, FBI," Peter said, sliding into the chair across from him. He held up his badge and glared right at this guy. "Who are you?"

The man laughed.

"Peter, this is silly-"

"If the next words out of your mouth are you trying to convince me you're Neal, don't. I left Neal in the office and Diana is texting me constant updates."

The man seemed surprised and shocked.

"Okay. My name's Bryce. I'm Neal's twin." He certainly seemed like a more serious Neal.

Peter nodded his understanding, he could believe that.

"Why were you following us this morning?"

"I think Neal's in trouble," Bryce responded, "but he wouldn't let us switch so I have to protect him from a distance."

Peter silently applauded Neal. Then he tensed as two men in coats walked up to them. They could have been regular businessmen however, they went straight for them.

"Don't make a sound, don't alert anyone and do what we say," one of the men said and he showed them the gun hidden in his coat and pointed at them.

Bryce and Peter shared a look. Bryce gave a small nod, showing that they needed to do as they said. Peter agreed.

Neal thought Peter was taking a while with lunch. Thankfully, it didn't take much to convince Diana and Jones of the same. They went down and had a look around for him.

Neal charmed a few store staff into telling them if they had seen him. Peter was well known at his regular places, at least to the point where they would recognise a description of him.

They finally got some information. Peter had come in, ordered their meals and then sat down to chat with another guy by the window. After a while, another two people came up and they all left together. The staff remembered him because he left without his order.

"That sounds like a kidnapping," Diana pointed out.

"Don't draw any conclusions yet," Jones reminded her before asking the staff if they had any surveillance in their store.

Diana tried Peter's phone, his wife and even contacted the office to check that he didn't return there and they somehow missed him. Nothing.

"Right, put me on to Hughes," she said.

While Jones and Diana alerted the FBI to keep a watch for Peter Burke, Neal walked over to the table to see if Peter left him any clues. Maybe they were just jumping the gun and nothing had happened.

"Neal?" Jones questioned, noticing the CI's sudden stillness. He and Diana came over to see what was up.

Neal was staring at a crumbled piece of paper. It was a list of names, many marked with 'missing, presumed dead' or just a plain 'deceased'.

"What is this?" Diana asked.

"Found it under the chair," Neal commented in a strained voice. "And if this is what I think it is, then Peter's in trouble."

This was new. Neal had stormed back into the FBI and taken over Peter's office. The door was locked, Hughes didn't even want to go in there and Neal was yelling at someone. He had obviously used the computer to start a video call with someone.

A very furious video call.

"Reminds me a little of Peter," Diana mused quietly.

Jones didn't want to agree but, he hadn't seen Neal act like this before.

Meanwhile, Neal had been told the real reason Bryce had turned up. Someone was targeting undercover agents and Caffrey had been on the list.

"He should have told me!" he raged, not bothering to hide his frustration and anger from the General. She had seen it all before. "You didn't forbid him from telling me, did you?"

"Any choices Agent Bryce Larkin made, he made himself," she responded calmly. "Although, I doubt he planned to get this FBI agent Burke involved."

"Peter has a wife! He has a life here and if anything happens to him-"

"Agent Neal Larkin! Calm yourself this instant!" the General ordered. Neal froze to attention. "I assure you, we want this person as soon as possible. If you are in a position to track them down, do it. Get Agent Bryce Larkin and FBI Agent Peter Burke back. I'm placing you in charge."

"You're what?" Neal questioned. "You know I'm a-"

"You're one of the best undercover specialists we have. I'm sure you can figure it out." With that said, she ended the call.

Neal stared at the black screen for a few moments before sitting down. If he was going to solve this, he better start now.

Peter's head hurt. It wasn't from the rough treatment as he and Bryce had been shepherded to this underground cell. It was from everything Bryce had told him.

Neal was an undercover agent. CIA. He and Bryce worked together, although everything after Neal escaped prison was all Neal.

"That's his real name by the way. He was so mad when he learnt I took it to create the Caffrey identity."

"Aren't you worried about them overhearing you?" Peter asked, motioning to the man who had taken a seat outside the cell and the other man who had vanished into the ordinary-looking house upstairs.

"Not really. Nothing I've said isn't anything they don't know. I've been watching their reactions," Bryce responded. Peter realised that this guy was just as smart as his twin. "Which means they've been getting CIA information somehow. At least they haven't gassed us or anything so that's a plus."

Peter's stomach sunk with nerves. This was way above his pay rate. This was the kind of stuff his wife worried about when he went to work.

"We're in trouble," he sighed as he began looking around.

"What are you doing?" Bryce whispered.

"Believe it or not, this isn't my first kidnapping." Actually, this was preferable to the time Keller had Jason Lang take him. That had involved being tied to a chair.

The White Collar office paused in their search for the missing man when Neal Caffrey came strolling out of Peter's office.

"I think I know where Peter is," he said quietly to Jones and Diana. Bryce was a genius. In preparation for this mission, he had swallowed a tracker and it was active. Neal now knew everything he could about the building where they were supposably being kept.

Once the FBI had the address, Neal vanished.

Bryce didn't like the tools the two men seemed to be gathering. Everyone talked but he didn't like the hard expression on Peter's face which suggested he was going to make them work for a confession of any kind.

"You know, you've done it now," he commented in a low hiss. He pressed up against the bars and glared coolly at the two men. "Do you know who that is?" He cocked his head in Peter's direction. "That's an FBI agent. You do anything to him and the FBI will be all over you."

"Heard it all before," the shorter and buffer of the two said. "And if the CIA can't find us, what chance does the FBI have?"

"I have the best team," Peter commented. Bryce glared at him, trying to silently tell him to shut up. Bryce was trying to get them to focus on him.

A red light in the ceiling flashed.

"That's the doorbell," the taller man pointed out, standing up with a sigh. He went to answer it.

All the better for Bryce. He could take one man easy.

"Are you going to question us? All the way out there?" he sneered as an insult. However, it seemed neither of these men would rise to the bait. The one left alone with the agents more so.

"He's calm," Peter whispered to Bryce. "I don't think you'll be able to talk him into anything at this point."

"Yeah well, I'm out of practise," he hissed back.

There was a thud upstairs. The man froze.

"Hey," he called. "Dude?" He wandered over towards the door, which was opened in one swift movement.

The next moment, the man fell to the ground, a tranquiliser dart in his shoulder. Neal came down the steps, holding a gun ready but pointed at the ground.

"Bryce, that all of them?" he questioned.

"That's all we saw!" Bryce answered. Neal didn't completely relax but he loosened up as he came over, searching the man for the keys and letting them out.

Peter wrapped Neal in a quick hug.

"This is nice and all but I need to get out of here before the FBI turns up," Neal said with a grin. "I've given them enough to think about and I don't want them thinking too hard about who Neal Caffrey is."

"You mean, forger, thief and spy?" Peter questioned.

Neal winced. "I'll explain later?"

"Your brother already did," Peter informed him. "Now, didn't you say something about the FBI turning up?"

Neal bolted. Peter hoped it was towards the FBI building and not a crime.

Peter relayed everything to El.

"So, Neal's really an agent and has a twin brother?"

"Yep."

"What do you think about that?" she asked.

"I think Bryce is a lot more trouble than Neal," Peter responded honestly.