Waiting with Stories
Arriving at the emergency waiting room, Peter was the first to enter with Elizabeth, Sara, and June right behind him. Seeing Chuck and Sarah waiting in a side corner full of empty seats, he headed in their direction for answers, "How is he?" It was the first thing that mattered.
"He made the drive to the hospital safely and nothing seemed to be going wrong, but head injuries are tricky. My sister is a brain surgeon, so I have heard enough stories…" Chuck trailed off as he tried to shove those stories out of his head. This wasn't the time for his imagination to conjure up every worst scenario possible. Having an Intersect wasn't helping either. "There is hope he will have a full recovery until we are told otherwise."
Holding his hand in response to his distress and the pain from the Intersect flashing on so many possibilities, Sarah tried to provide some comfort for him while seeking it for herself. She was no longer romantically interested in Bryce, but she still had a history with him.
Squeezing her hand back, Chuck knew she was upset by what had happened too. He didn't feel as insecure about their relationship anymore, but he understood that she still had her history with Bryce.
Taking seats around each other, the group introduced themselves, and soon they were joined by the Larkin family.
After they had gotten their update as to what Bryce's condition was, the Larkin group settled in to comfort each other, or to discuss other topics until there was a new development. Although they were present in support of Bryce, much of it was due to family obligations and not so much about a real bond to concern them. He wasn't close to most of them, and those he had a bond with hadn't been close in several years.
Given the choice between the two groups, Jonathon moved to sit with the rest of Bryce's friends in an attempt to get acquainted. He had heard so much about them over the years and he was curious to meet them himself. "Do you mind if I take a seat over here?"
"No, you're welcome to join us," Peter waived at the seats. He had begun to get to know the man and welcomed his company.
The group sat in silence as each dwelled on their own thoughts and emotions.
Elizabeth was caught up in anxiously watching the back doors. Each time a person of the medical staff walked through, she tensed up and observed which direction they went hoping news would be on its way. After several minutes, she needed a break for her nerves. Distracting herself the best way possible, she tried to get to know Bryce's friends and who the man was through them.
Continuing to struggle, Peter welcomed Elizabeth's suggestion. He couldn't pull himself to join the conversation at first, but he did enjoy the prospect of a peripheral view from the sidelines.
Listening, Peter heard Jonathan share the details of Bryce's early years. His mother's death, his removal to boarding school, and the almost abandonment as his family barely retained contact with him. Hugging Elizabeth as she curled into his side, he knew she shared his feelings of pity and sympathy for the young man while wondering how his family could treat him so coldly.
Cracking a smile, Peter reacted in response to Jonathon's efforts at lightening the mood. He hadn't been paying much attention to the nerdy humor and stories about the formation of their friendship, but he was glad to know Jonathon had been there to support their friend when he needed it.
Growing more interested as the group decided to tell Bryce's life story from their perspectives in order of occurrence, Peter figured it would be a prime opportunity to learn more about who his friend really was.
The stories progressed from Jonathon's tales of boarding school to Chuck sharing their college experiences.
Smirking mischievously, Chuck settled in to tell as many tales as possible. "There are things Bryce wouldn't want me to share, but since he is unconscious, this is a prime opportunity for me to fill you in." Then he proceeded to tell the basic story of how they had met and their friendship had begun.
"I thought you were going to tell us more interesting stories?" Jonathon lightly interrupted. He was interested to get to know Chuck, and teasing him was a good way to start.
Seeing that Jonathon was trying to tease him, Chuck allowed it but pretended to be impatient with his interruption. "I'm getting there Jonathon, but I want to build the foundation by telling how we met."
"Are you sure he won't wake up just to keep you quiet? You should share these stories while you have a chance," Jonathon continued to pester.
"Be quiet, or it will be your fault for all of your interruptions," Chuck reprimanded him playfully. "Now, while I have the chance, we should get into the more fun details about our mutual friend." He proceeded to tell them about Bryce's habits back in college. Anything from his odd peculiarities to his embarrassing acts of stupidity, to various failures, were covered. Being kind enough to hold the worst things back, Chuck still let several things be known by Bryce's other friends.
Taking mental notes, Peter loved collecting real stories about his friend, but there were still several things he wished to know. Continuing to listen, he hoped to reach those points in the conversation eventually.
Grinning evilly, Jonathon was thrilled to collect the stories, "Teasing Bryce is going to get a lot more entertaining now with fresh material."
"Oh be nice, you boys are so mean," Elizabeth teased. She was enjoying the stories and wanted to tease Bryce as well, but they seemed to be taking it more seriously.
Jostling her lightly, Peter wasn't taking it, "You're enjoying collecting these stories for your own purposes, so don't pretend to judge us."
Smiling slightly, Elizabeth gave him a reproving glance, "Shush, you aren't supposed to oust me like that."
Amused, the group was beginning to enjoy the comradery. They just wished it was occurring under better circumstances.
Then Peter was asked to join the conversation more actively by sharing his introduction to Neal Caffrey.
Having enjoyed the teasing and banter between the growing friendships, Peter hoped his part of the story would be accepted as well as the rest had been. Questioning for where to start, he asked: "Does anyone know who I met that day at the bank, about the forged bonds?"
"Bryce, it was always Bryce you knew as Neal," Chuck clarified.
Relieved, Peter was glad to know he hadn't been fooled so far as to confuse two people. Instead, he had met one man impersonating another. That made it easier to handle because his friend was still alive in the back room. He didn't know the young man who had been killed after starting the character.
"If I tell you my story, you get to tell me what was really going on, deal?" Peter offered Chuck.
"Agreed, at least as much as I can, the situation is an open case file after all," Chuck promised.
With the relief of answers in sight, Peter began to share the tale of how he had met his friend. They were fond memories for him after having spent time working with Bryce. Recounting his history with the agent, Peter found himself genuinely smiling, especially when he brought up the sucker incident.
Having completed his introduction, he turned to Chuck eagerly waiting for the real story.
Obliging as promised, Chuck shared something of the real Neal's past going into wit-sec before running away to become a con man. Then he skimmed through the forging of the bonds before ending with the horrors of his death. With a shake, he tried to remove the imagery provided by the attacks that had transpired earlier in the day. Transitioning to the more appealing topic of how Bryce took up the role, he shared what made him the choice. "The decision to place Bryce in his shoes was made when someone found how similar they were. Unfortunately, they dropped the files when they were going to share their plan, and based on how difficult it was to separate them, it was finalized as a good idea. Although the files might still have mistakes between them, it was that challenging to tell them apart, most of Neal's life before moving to New York is the real Neal while Bryce portrayed him after.
Picking up the next portion of the story, Jonathon shared the third angle depicting what Bryce had been doing in his private life between his fieldwork. This meant sharing some of his own past, which made him more interesting to his audience.
"After we graduated high school, I went off to law school where I met my wife. We lived in the clouds until she got sick, and after she passed, our fortune disappeared with the market and some bad investments. Then Bryce found me trying to pick myself back up, so he offered me stable employment. It was during the period after his graduation and before he was assigned to play Neal, so it was a good time for him to make his back up plans. Working off of his original intentions with Chuck, he changed from games to designing training programs to make fieldwork safer for himself and other agents since he had become invested in the field. We set up the legal foundation for the company and hired a teacher from our boarding school days to manage it. Simula Scripts was born, and Bryce was secretly the owner behind it. Since everything from his cover life to his work was stationed in Washington, it was decided to also give him some element of a foundation in the city. He purchased an apartment that I take care of in addition to overseeing his finances. This way he has a landing pad between operations, and he is always taken care of financially."
Bringing up a question that had been bothering him, Peter pushed for the truth behind the lawyer's knowledge of Bryce's life. "How did you know he was alive? Even though Bryce has a full death certificate, you have still been running his life. And don't give me the 'will' story again, this time I would like to know the truth." Peter had already heard the cover story, so he pushed for the real answer.
Holding up his phone, Jonathon shared the truth. "Bryce carries tech that he is always aloud to retain, even in prison. It reads his stats, like his pulse, to tell me when he is technically dead and when he has been revived. The device then transmits a signal which is relayed to my cell phone. Don't ask me how he put it all together because I have no technical understanding of that level of engineering."
After a brief pause, the group directed the stories to continue. Sara had avoided it long enough, and her turn came up next.
Learning the basics of their partnership, Elizabeth asked, "How did your relationship turn romantic?" She knew how she had gotten her agent, but she was curious if the spy world was different.
Looking a little awkward, Sarah wasn't sure what to say. "I think I need to describe the environment we were working at the time… The environment spies are usually in."
Diving in with Chuck's support, Sarah knew delaying the inevitable wasn't going to help. "The life of a spy is one of secrets, change, and danger. We changed our identities from one week to another in order to pursue some new target that changed just as often, and no one ever got close enough to know who we really were… not even our partners. It was secluded and lonely, so we turned to the only available person who was there from one week to the next, each other. Still, despite the years we were together romantically and professionally, he still doesn't know my real name, and I didn't know anything about the real him, or that he was slipping off to play another role as Caffrey."
Curious, Peter wondered if Bryce was just professionally distant, or if he was a secretive person in general. He had been partners with him for a few years and hadn't known the real person either.
"With spies, your friend of today could be your enemy tomorrow, and your enemy today could likewise be your friend tomorrow. Although there needs to be an element of trust, there is never complete and open honesty in our field. It's too dangerous to give someone that kind of leverage over you," Sarah further explained the world she had been in with Bryce.
Feeling oddly relieved, Sara was glad to learn that Sarah wasn't much of a rival threat. She was obviously in love with Chuck, and she didn't seem to feel a current romantic attachment based on her more factual focus of her story. Still, the information she shared made Bryce's relationship with her both better and worse. This other woman wasn't a competitor, but it put Sara on less stable ground, was she a relationship of convenience for him as Neal? Worried about the truth, Sara both wished to ask him, and dreaded what his answer might be.
Filling the growing silence, Peter propelled the conversation forward again by taking his next part in the storytelling. "It took me three years chasing Bryce around the world before I caught him. He always seemed to be out there plotting something, but I never knew what until after the crime had been committed. Now I'm sure some of it was because he would have been bouncing around as an agent at times, and therefore he wasn't always on my radar as a White Collar criminal, but I also think it was because he is one deviously intelligent person. Somehow, he managed to keep me believing he was a con, you said you knew nothing about him being Neal Caffrey, and I'm now very curious about Mozzie's perspective, but I suppose that will have to wait. In the meanwhile, I'll tell you how I arrested him."
"He is rather devious," Jonathon and Chuck said in unison before smiling slightly at their joint thought.
"Save that for your turns" Peter directed before he started into his next story.
When he finished, Sarah explained how Bryce had been pulled for another assignment after being targeted for recruitment by an enemy. This led to Chuck sharing what Bryce had been doing in his life during his alleged stay in prison.
Working together, the couple carried the conversation for a while by entertaining the group with their happy stories.
Enjoying the love story, Elizabeth asked guiding questions and pushed for information until the group had a good understanding of how their relationship had come about. It was adventurous and exciting, something different from any she had heard before.
Feeling Elizabeth shake him, Peter realized he had zoned out from the conversation that had been transpiring around him.
"I thought you could tell us about how Bryce came to be working for you as a CI," Chuck helped him in finding a place to start.
Taking the hint that it was back to being his turn, Peter began filling the group in on the more recent events from Neal's escape to a general summary of what had brought them together in the hospital waiting room.
Transitioning the conversation, they moved from telling Bryce's story to their reactions to it. He was a friend to all of them, but they had all been missing huge parts of who he really was.
Showing common ground, Chuck focused on Peter and their shared feelings of confusion and anger.
Appreciating the effort, Peter was still dealing with the raw feelings. He had managed to delay some of the effects, but the conversation coming to an end meant the barrier was gone and his feelings would have to be dealt with.
"That is a pretty good summary of it. He seemed to betray me, I got angry, and then he turned out to be doing something admirable, so now I feel like a horrible friend. On top of that, he was hurt under my watch and technically died right in front of me… and I couldn't do anything to help him." Peter found himself sharing deeper emotions than he usually did with people.
"Been there and done that too," Chuck continued to show how he had been down the same path. "We were coming to help him after we learned of a traitor in his protection team. Unfortunately, I dropped in too late and could only talk to him as he died before taking his place. Sometimes there is nothing you can do, even when it is happening right in front of you."
Relieved that Chuck seemed to be helping Peter, Elizabeth could see he wasn't over what had happened, but at least Chuck's words were a start in the right direction.
Distracted by a sudden voice near them, the group jumped, "Family of Bryce Larkin?"
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