In Finding

Although he had a hard time thinking of it as his parent's house, it was pleasant for Neal to stay with the Burke's through his initial recovery.

Peter was given some time off to get to know him in relation to their recently discovered familiar bond.

The office and team were aware of it, but the board thought it was good for his rehabilitation so he was to remain with them when he returned to work.

In the meanwhile though, he'd been able to spend a considerable amount of time talking to his parents so that he was more comfortable and familiar with them on a personal level.

Part of that had included the inevitable trip through the family photo albums. Neal had been surprised to see just how many photos Elizabeth had taken or collected of him; it took them so long to organize the adult photos that they never did get to his baby photos.

Looking through them, Neal saw some where he was alone, others were of him working with Peter whether he was aware of the camera or not, a few were with Satchmo, at least two were of him asleep on their couch, and then there were countless shots of him from around the office.

"Diana and Jones take pictures of you sometimes, and they have a pension for sharing them with Peter, and I insist that he send any office pictures on to me so that I can get glimpses into his days," Elizabeth explained the office photos.

Undaunted, Neal assisted in putting the pictures where Elizabeth wanted, but he wasn't the fastest at it. He was often too busy looking at the pictures on the pages in between to make any rapid headway on the pile that she'd allotted him.

There were pictures of Peter and Elizabeth on their vacations, weekend fun where one would take a shot of the other doing some random chore and goofing around, and general shots of them with family and friends. Neal didn't know who everyone was, but he loved seeing Peter and Elizabeth in their personal time. He'd heard the stories, but the pictures added to the information about their home life.

"This one is about done, I'm getting a print of it framed but they've been backlogged so it's taken a long time." Elizabeth handed him a smaller image that showed Peter standing in the middle with Elizabeth on one side and Neal on the other. They'd been dressed up for an event and their picture had been taken so they'd posed together. "I know the photographer so it wasn't hard to get a couple of copies."

"You said you've been going to get it framed for a while?" Neal knew they'd said he was like family, but they were going to hang him on their wall as family before he was even family?

Looking at him, Elizabeth was adamant. "Yes, we'll show you where it's to hang later. It's upstairs in the hallway by the guest bedroom."

That would advertise to any visiting family or friends that he was important to them. It wasn't downstairs where everyone would see it, but that was already arranged with art and other things so there wasn't room to maneuver a larger picture of him in. Touched, Neal appreciated that the action reinforced that he'd been family to them before he was officially so.

When it was time to return to work, Neal was uncertain what his reception would be.

The first day he returned, it was for desk duty, but Peter had picked him up with a steaming cup of coffee waiting for him so that they could enjoy the ride together. When they'd approached the office, Peter had put a hand on his shoulder as they entered to reinforce that he was happy with the results that Neal was his son, but without putting too much focus on the action as it was something he'd done with Neal before he was his son.

Through those initial days, there had been welcoming comments that the team was glad to have him back to work, congratulatory comments on the discovery of their biological connection, and updates on what he'd missed in his extended absence.

However, after a few days, Peter's work got busy in the field and he wasn't able to pick Neal up and be around the office as much. That was when things got interesting for Neal.

Standing in the back hallway at a supply closet, Neal was getting some more supplies since his extra desk work had him going through them faster than usual.

"Uh-oh, it's the boss's son. We'd better not loiter or else he'll tell on us." A younger probie agent muttered to his friend but loud enough to be heard.

Snickering, the other agreed. "Yeah, and don't let him hear you teasing him, he might turn you in for that too."

Rolling his eyes at the cabinet, Neal didn't appreciate their schoolyard humor, but he ignored them to avoid pandering to their behavior.

Turning to leave with his needed supplies, Neal felt one of them stick out a foot to trip him, but he managed to catch himself so that it didn't do much more than make him stumble slightly.

Glancing back to confirm their faces and names, he noted that they'd need to be watched out for. Not that he couldn't handle them, but because he didn't want to allow them to cause trouble.

However, their continued efforts to torment him through his recovery left Neal hard-pressed at times to keep the behavior of the two subordinates from escalating.

They knew they were risking trouble by attacking the boss's son, but they were upset that the fortune fell to a criminal and were letting their ire be known.

Once he regained his clearance to work in the field, Neal was better able to dodge any efforts to trip him or knock whatever he was carrying out of his hands which improved his circumstances, but he'd still noticed that his supplies continued to run out more rapidly than usual. He determined that the two were tampering with them to make him leave the security of the office where witnesses would prevent them from their endeavors.

Finding himself navigating yet another obstacle course of assaults on his way to retrieve his supplies, Neal managed to dodge through without any harm being done. Then he collected his things while preparing them for his trip back through their efforts to push and trip him the other way back towards the office where his work was waiting for him.

He hadn't anticipated that someone else had caught onto their efforts until he heard a throat clearing behind him.

"Is there something going on here?" Hughes was standing with Jones and Diana before Peter caught up behind them.

Turning the rest of the way around, Neal was simply holding his supplies which explained his trip, however, the two agents who'd been harassing him had no such purpose so he left them to their own devices.

Making excuses, both agents tried to cover for themselves, but no one appeared to be buying it.

Hughes continued to lead the situation as the head of the department. "Jones and Diana have noticed you messing around at Neal's desk while Peter's noticed his increased need to retrieve supplies. You two tend to follow him or be waiting when his supplies run out." He held up a hand when they tried to come up with further explanations. "The security footage shows what you've been doing so there's no point in lying."

Directing both agents to follow him, they were facing disciplinary action for their behavior while the other three remained behind to talk to Neal.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked as he finished coming around the other two.

"Yeah, it's not like I can't handle a human obstacle course," Neal shrugged.

"I get the feeling you didn't say anything to avoid making further waves?" Diana guessed at his motivation.

"Pretty much, it doesn't help it when people are treating you like a teacher's pet to report them to the teacher. That usually just tends to make things worse and they weren't doing anything dangerous. They were just being juvenile and annoying." Neal wasn't concerned, but he was still glad that others had caught onto the situation before anything had gotten out of control.

"Come on, Junior, we've got work to get back to, but I'd appreciate it if you'd at least let someone know if anyone else tries anything." Peter admonished lightly before guiding him back to the office with a hand on his shoulder.

"You do know, you can tell us if someone gives you a hard time. Then we can watch if more evidence is needed to handle the situation without making waves." Jones volunteered to continue to watch his back.

"Unless we're the ones picking on you, which as your work siblings, we might be obligated to do from time to time." Diana bumped his shoulder playfully as she teased.

Snickering, Neal gave Peter a look to see him smiling at the acceptance that their new relationship had garnered. Then he turned back to Diana, "Alright, sis, how about you buy lunch today then?"

"I'm in," Jones accepted the invitation with a smile before Diana could object.

Frowning, Diana had been caught at her own game, but she gave in with a roll of her eyes. "Fine, but you'll have to take your turn one of these days."

"I'll leave you, kids, to your own fun, I have a date with my wife," Peter ducked out of the game with a grin as they were reaching the office to return to his own work until it was time to leave.

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