A/N: This chapter is set in March, 2005, immediately after the "Spring Break" chapter.
Fiona's apartment, New York City. Monday morning, March 21, 2005.
The alarm clock buzzed and for a rare moment Neal Caffrey wished he was a kid again. Back then his mom had let him sleep in and skip school on his birthday.
Fiona stirred, then reached for the clock on the nightstand. As Neal appreciated the view, he had to admit there were definite advantages to being an adult. Fiona smiled at him, and his return grin was interrupted by a beep from his phone. It beeped again as he reached for it, and he saw three text messages:
Happy Birthday, kiddo.
Breakfast in 15 minutes.
Pls be dressed.
Neal jumped out of bed and ran for his duffle bag. He'd packed one of his vintage suits so he could go directly to work from Fiona's. "We're about to be invaded," he warned.
His girlfriend and fellow student in Columbia's graduate art program laughed as she reached for a robe. "It's not my fellow Brits hoping to retake the colonies, is it?"
"Not that type of invasion." He kept a toothbrush and razor in her bathroom, so all he grabbed now was clothing.
Fiona followed as he dashed toward the bathroom. "You're annoyed, rather than worried. Is it someone from the FBI?"
After the ordeal with Keller recently, he should have been more clear. "More annoying than work. It's Henry."
"Your cousin?" Fiona had met Henry Winslow on his last visit to New York. "I thought you liked him."
Neal turned on the shower, and as he waited for the water to get hot explained, "Normally, yeah. But we spent the last four days trying to outsmart each other at the Burke family cabin. I thought he'd give me a break today, but no such luck. He's a firm believer in starting birthdays with a big breakfast."
Fiona glanced toward her kitchen in dismay. Cooking wasn't her strength. "Most mornings I make do with a cup of tea," she reminded him.
"Don't worry about the food. He'll bring it with him." Neal sped through his shower and wondered what other surprises Henry would have in mind today. He couldn't do much, right? After all, it was Monday. They both had to work. They were adults now. Professionals.
As soon as he stepped out of the shower, Fiona stepped in. Although the apartment was charming, a downside was how long it took to get hot water. They'd learned it was best to keep the shower running once it finally reached the right temperature. When the doorbell rang, Fiona was drying her hair, and Neal was buttoning his shirt. He opened the door, but remained standing in the doorway, arms crossed. "Did you consider we might want privacy this morning?"
Henry pushed past Neal, arms filled with canvas bags. "Nah." He set most of the bags on Fiona's tiny dining table and started pulling out containers of food. "Courtesy of June's chef."
"Emil didn't have to do that," Neal protested. "We could have gone out for breakfast. There are plenty of places to choose from."
"Speak for yourself," Henry said as he grabbed a still-warm croissant and smeared it with honey. "No restaurant can beat this spread. Good morning," he added to Fiona as she joined them.
They all sat down to eat, and Neal contributed an absent-minded comment occasionally as Henry pelted Fiona with questions. Of course Henry took care that it didn't come across as an interrogation. Fiona would assume he was merely expressing an interest in her life. But with a master's degree in psychology, Henry was an expert at getting into your head and learning more about you than you would have imagined possible. It was actually a lot like the way a con artist operated.
Neal understood that Henry was acting the role he'd adopted years ago — that of protective older brother — even if he did seem particularly intense this morning. While his actions might make sense, his appearance didn't. He'd always worn a suit when visiting the White Collar team's offices in the Federal Building, and that's where they would go after breakfast. Why was Henry in jeans and a red polo-style shirt?
"Is it a casual day or something?" Neal interjected when Henry paused to bite into a Danish.
"Yeah," Henry confirmed. "This afternoon's team building event isn't conducive to wearing suits. Since Peter and I were keeping it a surprise, I figured I'd need to bring along something more appropriate for you, too. You'll find it over there." He indicated one of the canvas bags he'd carried in with him.
Fiona asked, "What else do you have planned for Neal's birthday?"
Well, that was a novel approach. Simply ask Henry his plans? No way would he give a straight answer.
Sure enough, Henry deflected. He rolled his eyes and said, "It's gonna be meetings all morning, with updates on a case and strategizing next steps."
"Stop whining," Neal said. "You love strategizing."
"It does happen to be a strength of mine. As opposed to Neal here, who acts entirely on impulse."
Neal considered going with impulse and shoving him, but decided to be gracious in light of the gourmet breakfast. As much as he enjoyed spending the night with Fiona, breakfasts at her apartment were normally not a highlight. "I have good instincts," he said calmly. Hey, he was twenty-six today. He could be grown up.
"I had hopes that after the meetings we could go someplace interesting for lunch," Henry said, returning to Fiona's question. "I mean, Manhattan, right? So many options for excellent food. But based on what I saw of the agenda, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up calling out for pizza."
"I've never quite grasped the appeal of pizza," Fiona admitted.
"Then Neal has been a very negligent boyfriend. Next time I'm in town, I'll take you to a place I discovered in Little Italy."
This time Neal was the one rolling his eyes. "Between work and classes, Fiona and I don't get many evenings free to spend together, and she's leaving soon for a temporary assignment in Paris. What makes you think I'm bringing you along on a date?"
"Oh, did you think you were invited?" Henry responded. "How about we make a bet? This afternoon I'm going along for your firearm certification test. We'll see who's the best. If you beat me, you can come along. If I win, we leave you behind and talk about you over New York's best pizza."
Neal had never seen Henry shoot. It was safe to assume he was good at it. Henry's father wouldn't have tolerated anything less than perfection, but Neal was a crack shot himself. He was about to agree to the bet when he noticed Fiona's expression. She was getting better at accepting the dangerous aspects of Neal's job, but talk of guns and shooting still made her uneasy. He gestured toward Henry's shirt. "What made you think you could raid my closet?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject.
Henry looked affronted. "It's my shirt. I've been looking for it since July. How did it end up in your closet?"
This was would get a smile out of Fiona if he told it right. "Last summer when you fell off the radar, Sara Ellis helped me sneak me into your office on a weekend to look for clues of what you were up to. We started by visiting your apartment so I could dress like you and fool the office security guard. Sara took it a step further than I intended. When I started styling my hair like yours she volunteered to help. I thought she was just applying a gel, but it was actually a temporary hair dye that gave me highlights in a color closer to yours. I nearly panicked when I realized what she'd done. I was half afraid my hair would turn green and fall out." He smiled. "I'd seen too many sitcoms with that scenario as a kid."
Fiona laughed as intended but then looked from Neal to Henry and back again. "Did you actually fool the security guard into thinking you were Henry?"
"Piece of cake," Neal said. "I walked in like I owned the place, and kept my face averted most of the time. Sara and I were busy pretending to flirt, so I barely spared a glance for the guard."
She studied them both again and frowned. "You don't look alike. You're about the same build, but…" She shook her head in disbelief that they could ever be mistaken for each other.
"Well, at the time Henry's hair was longer," Neal said.
"In our younger days we made a game of impersonating each other. We can copy each other's walk and expressions and voices," Henry added.
"Why?" Fiona asked. "Is this another American tradition no one told me about?"
"Not exactly," Neal said. "Remind me someday to tell you about the Masterson Music case. Then it'll make more sense." It was a long story, and they needed to head to the office soon. "I guess I should change." He picked up the bag of clothing Henry had brought and carried it into the bedroom. A pair of jeans were folded on top of a crimson polo shirt, similar to the one Henry was wearing. Definitely a theme here, Neal noted. Was the implication that Neal was supposed to follow Henry's lead, or was Henry wanting to imitate Neal this time?
Neal returned to the dining room, carrying the running shoes that had been at the bottom of the bag. He sat down to put them on.
"Oh, that reminds me." Fiona stood and hurried to the closet, where she pulled out a gift bag. Handing it to Neal she said, "Happy Birthday!"
Opening the bag, he pulled out a pair of blue socks with a birthday cake printed on them. Fiona had become aware of the concept of novelty socks over Thanksgiving and now they were her go-to gift. He stood to hug her and said, "I'll make sure Henry doesn't steal them, but it won't be easy. In fact…" he sat down to pull off his plain brown socks and replaced them with the ones from Fiona. "That should do the trick."
Her smile lit the room. "You look every inch the birthday boy, now. What a happy coincidence that it's a casual day for you. I must say, however, I'm still confused about something. What is team building, and why does it require you to dress differently than you normally do?"
Neal was curious about that, too. He'd heard the term before, but when Jones and others mentioned team-building events it usually referred to something like going out for drinks after work.
Henry explained the concept of a group of co-workers trying an activity with the goal of learning more about each other and building bonds. However, he declined at first to share what today's event would be.
"C'mon," Neal insisted. "You want to be the one to tell me, right? You can do that now, or I'll get it out of someone else as soon as we reach the office."
Henry pondered that, and then nodded in acquiescence. "Good point. We're going to play laser tag."
Neal grinned in anticipation. Last year after his firearm certification test, he'd noticed the laser tag facility and had tried to talk Peter into playing. There hadn't been time that day, and then Neal had forgotten about it. "Have you ever played?" He wondered if Henry had been practicing, planning to trounce him.
"No, but it's essentially hide-and-seek with lasers, right? We're gonna wipe the floor with everyone else." He grinned.
"Oh, I see it!" Fiona exclaimed. She beamed at them. "I hadn't believed anyone could mistake you for each other, but I see it now. It's that smile, and that mischievous look in your eyes. It really is identical."
"Yeah," Neal agreed. "For an instant he looks almost as good as me."
"Still in denial that I'm older, wiser, and better looking." Henry looked pointedly at his watch. "C'mon, kiddo. Time to get to work."
Henry's rental car.
Over the last four days, Neal and Peter had been chasing after a mystery of Henry's invention. That had been a birthday present to Neal — a mystery to solve while vacationing at the Burke family cabin. Now Henry presented another riddle, but Neal suspected this one wasn't a game. Henry was working to present a facade of birthday lightheartedness, meaning that he was hiding something else.
A few years ago Neal had read several of Henry's psychology textbooks. It had been enlightening for an up-and-coming con artist. There was a section about how people took on different traits at home versus at work. Neal assumed that he'd already seen Henry's work personality. After all, Henry had collaborated with the FBI before. But now Neal wondered if he had ever really experienced what Henry was like at Winston-Winslow, where he had the weight of a family legacy to contend with. Today could bring new insights as a whole contingent of Win-Win representatives descended on the FBI.
Neal put on his seatbelt and said, "I appreciate that you were trying to be subtle this morning with your questions, but you don't have to grill Fiona like she's a suspect in a case, you know."
"Just being thorough," Henry responded as he started his rental car. "You did run a background check on her, right?"
"No," Neal said. "And I'm not going to. First of all, the FBI frowns on using their resources for personal reasons, and secondly she's not a criminal."
"The Win-Win databases didn't have anything suspicious on her, but I like to follow up in person when I can."
Henry reached forward to turn on the radio, but Neal pushed his hand away. This discussion was far from over. "You ran a profile on my girlfriend?"
"Well, yeah. I was checking out Michael after I met him on my last visit, so I thought I might as well run Fiona through a background check, too."
"Does Angela know you're checking on her boyfriend?" Neal was certain their younger cousin wouldn't be happy to hear that.
Henry's expression hardened. "After what I found about her last boyfriend, she should be grateful. Anyway, Michael seems clean, but I'll find time to talk to him more, to be safe."
There was definitely something up with Henry. He sounded stressed, but Neal didn't mention that he'd noticed. Not yet. "Okay. I get you want to keep an eye out for us, but don't go overboard."
"If I'd known Fiona was leaving, I wouldn't have been so worried."
"It's just for three months. Probably." Neal tried to sound upbeat, but he knew the allure of Paris. He wouldn't blame her if she agreed to stay longer.
"And that's why you decided to spend the night at her apartment, getting in a little more time together. I wondered why you abandoned me at your loft."
"Yeah, I wanted time with Fiona. But there's also the fact that you invited yourself over. You didn't ask if I wanted a houseguest for a couple of nights." Not wanting to argue, Neal turned on the radio, scanning through the stations until he found one he liked. Soon they were singing along to "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Even as he harmonized on the song, Neal made plans to talk to Peter about his concerns. If Henry was worried about something and thought he had to hide it from Neal — after their recent agreement to stop keeping each other in the dark — it had to be serious.
Federal Building, Manhattan.
As soon as Neal arrived in the office, he caught Peter Burke's eye and gestured toward Henry. Both young men looked worried, and that had Peter's gut churning. He always trusted his gut, but there wasn't time for Neal to fill him in. Hughes was already calling them up to the conference room.
Peter believed he was a decent manager, but after a year in the role he had to admit he still had plenty to learn. The touchy-feely aspects of management weren't his strong suit. When his boss told him a few weeks ago that they needed a team-building event with the visitors currently sitting in the conference room, he'd been underwhelmed at the idea. Who had time for team building? Why not just tell everyone they needed to get along?
But now as he stood at the front of the conference room and looked at his audience, he had to admit they didn't look even slightly unified. All the participants from the FBI were seated on one side of the conference table, staring at the representatives from Winston-Winslow. The folks from Win-Win were staring right back from the opposite side. Win-Win had a culture of distrusting and demeaning the FBI, and likewise FBI agents weren't big fans of private investigators.
Apparently collaborating over the phone and via email had not melded this group into a high-functioning team. Maybe the game of laser tag planned for this afternoon really would serve as more than an excuse to goof off on Neal's birthday.
Peter called the meeting to order and after introductions he explained the need to iron out a more formal arrangement between the FBI and Win-Win. Graham Winslow rolled his eyes. It was only a matter of time before he said something disparaging about the bureaucracy of government agencies. Peter decided to put him on the spot. "My boss and I learned about your exploits when we went through our training at Quantico, but I understand you're not part of the curriculum anymore. Graham, would you fill my younger team members in on your company's history?"
As Peter took a seat, Graham gave him a wry smile that indicated he knew he was being called on to speak before he could start heckling. The oldest person in the room, he was officially retired but remained an active member of the board of directors. "My father was one of the founders of Win-Win, and before that he was an FBI agent who got fired for making a nuisance of himself. He kept pushing the Bureau to adopt more modern methods, like psychological profiles. He believed that psychology could be applied not only to suspects, but also to victims and witnesses. Around the same time, another agent quit. Martin Winston was a proponent of using more computer-based tools in solving cases, but he walked when he couldn't get the budget. Both of them had worked in the D.C. offices and knew each other casually. They met for drinks to commiserate and ended up deciding to pool their ideas and resources to open an elite private investigation and security company in Baltimore. Without government restrictions, they were free to work any way they wanted."
His eyes twinkled. "And what they wanted was to do things that would shock their former bosses. They took big risks, and it paid off." His expression sobered. "Eventually we took things too far, and that contributed to my son's death. It's time we adjust our attitude. Neal, can you pick up the story? Several of the Win-Win team members here don't know how you roped Henry into some of your cases last year."
Neal looked surprised, but he had the confidence and humor to follow Graham's lead. "All of you know Henry's my cousin on his mother's side, right?" People nodded and Neal continued, "In January of last year, just a few weeks after I started working for Peter, I took a quick trip to the emergency room after a minor mishap on a case. Henry got wind of it and decided to visit. You know Henry," he said to the Win-Win side of the room. "Didn't matter how many times I told him I was fine. He wasn't going to be satisfied until he saw for himself."
That brought smiles from Henry's colleagues. Neal continued, "Well, it wasn't enough to see that I was healthy. He thought he should also check out my new boss and make sure the FBI was treating me well. Using his psychological mind games, he invited himself along to the office and wound up joining us in taking down some criminals. It all went like clockwork until after the arrests."
Peter gave him a stern look. The case had not gone like clockwork that day. Far from it.
Neal ignored the look. "As we were leaving the crime scene, Henry slipped on a patch of ice and broke his arm, and then it was his turn for a trip to the hospital."
Smart, Peter thought, to address that incident. Henry had been concerned at the time that Win-Win would blame the FBI for his injury. Most of these people had probably seen Henry in a cast when he'd returned to Baltimore. Making them laugh about it now reduced the resentment about the company's golden boy being hurt on his first collaboration with the FBI.
"I waited until the cast was removed," Neal continued, "and then invited him back for an encore. Usually for surveillance we set up in a fake municipal van, but that wasn't going to work for the location we needed to monitor. It was an estate on the edge of Long Island, and what we needed was a boat. I knew Henry had access to a sailboat. Little did I know that he'd invite his grandfather along to help us with the case."
"It was my boat," Graham pointed out.
"I assumed Henry would hot-wire it, or whatever you do to take a sailboat. It never occurred to me that he'd actually ask the owner's permission. I mean, we're talking about Henry."
Neal was obviously goading his cousin, who finally spoke up. "Thanks so much for that endorsement of my character," Henry said. "Pops and I had no idea when we were sailing up here that the case involved a lead on Vincent Adler. Talk about a big prize. It didn't pan out then, but we've made progress. We have new leads, and new tools." Henry was referring to the revolutionary new facial recognition software Win-Win had developed, and which the White Collar team would soon start using.
Peter's boss raised a hand. "If I might interject here," said Reese Hughes in his usual dry tones.
"Take it away," said Henry. He looked grateful not to be the center of attention, which seemed out of character. Peter glanced at Neal, who simply shrugged.
Hughes walked to the front of the room. "Both of our organizations hit low points in the last year. On the Win-Win side, you had Robert Winslow bribing FBI agents. On our side, we uncovered two agents who seem to have been in Vincent Adler's pocket."
With everyone's attention on Hughes, Peter took a chance at tapping out a message on the table in Morse code, knowing Neal would understand: What is up with H?
Meanwhile Hughes continued, "Everyone in this room is aware of the need to keep all discussions about the Adler case limited to this group, and not to send any information about the case in unencrypted email."
Neal responded: Hiding something.
Hughes added, "While we believe Adler has no more accomplices in the Bureau, we can't be certain. He may have other resources we aren't aware of. I'm going to err on the side of caution until we arrest him."
"As will we," added Allen Winston, the CEO of Win-Win. He joined Hughes at the front of the room, and explained that he had found a group of Adler's victims willing to pay for Win-Win's services. These clients wanted to find the money Adler had stolen from them. That meant finding Adler. "We're going to collaborate with the Bureau to bring Mr. Adler to justice." He paused. "When I say collaborate, I mean working the case together as a team. Recently, Radha warned me that we aren't achieving that. Radha, would you explain?"
The young man who had introduced himself as Radha Prasad leaned forward in his chair. "At Winston-Winslow, we have many brilliant people — strong individuals with strong personalities — and they often prefer to work alone when we first hire them. The challenge is to build trust and to appreciate what each person brings. I believe those of us from Win-Win have learned to function as a team." But he cast a quick, uncertain glance toward his side of the table, and Peter wondered who Radha was looking at. Henry? Or the woman sitting beside him? "From what I have observed, those from the White Collar team work together well, also. But we are currently two separate teams with sporadic, sometimes reluctant, interactions." He nodded to a woman on the opposite side of the table. "I have spoken with your behavioral analyst about this. Agent Wiese?"
Tricia returned his nod and said, "I've noted that Adler keeps his accomplices compartmentalized. Thus he ensures that nothing significant can happen without him, as no one else knows his full plan. It means that if we capture a single member of his team, we'll learn only a small part of what he's doing. It also means he doesn't get the full benefit and synergies of a true team. That's where we can beat him. If we bring our two unique groups together to act as a single unit when we're working on this case, we will out-think him."
"Thank you, everyone, for summarizing why we're here and what we hope to accomplish today. I appreciate that both sides provided input, and I hope by the end of this day we'll all feel and act like we're on the same side," said Hughes. He divided them into smaller groups for the rest of the morning. Hughes, Peter, Allen, and Graham discussed the exact terms and wording of the contract amendments so that it would pass government scrutiny without tipping their hand to anyone who was monitoring FBI activity on Adler's behalf.
Clinton Jones and Travis Miller met with Win-Win's Anna Hsu and Vernon Heinemann about the facial recognition software. All of them were technical experts who shared a love of computers, and they brainstormed how they might use the software to look for Adler's accomplices. Tracking their movements could uncover a trail back to Adler himself.
Tricia and Diana met with Win-Win's Sofia Winston and Radha to discuss methods for profiling and outwitting suspects. They combined what they knew to create enhanced profiles of Adler and his crew.
Henry and Neal started out in that group, but later moved to another room to discuss Henry's upcoming trip to Paris, where he would follow up on a lead on the Adler case. Peter knew that Henry had a personal motivation to stop the renegade billionaire. Adler seemed determined to recruit Neal for a project that was rumored to be as big as the Ponzi scheme, and his efforts a few months ago had nearly landed Neal in prison.
Peter still hadn't found a chance to talk to Neal alone, and now he walked by the cousins on his way to get coffee. It sounded like Neal was speaking French. Walking past again a few minutes later with a full coffee mug, Peter heard Neal say something in French again, and then Henry responded in what might also have been French. Or maybe German. It didn't actually sound like any language Peter recognized.
"Non, non, non." Neal shook his head in despair. "Didn't you learn anything in two years of high school French? Your accent is atrocious."
"How is it you can imitate Neal perfectly in English, but not in French?" Peter asked.
Henry looked intrigued. "Say it again," he told Neal.
Neal repeated a phrase in French. Henry parroted it back perfectly, mimicking both Neal's voice and his accent.
"Not bad," said Neal. "I'd be impressed if I thought you had any idea what you just said."
"What if it was a song?" Peter suggested. "You memorized tons of lyrics for the Masterson case. Can you set the phrases you need to learn to music?"
"Maybe," Henry said. "If we made the lyrics the English phrases followed by the French translations, I'd probably retain it. It might mean humming in the middle of conversations to bring the phrases to mind, but that's better than completely mangling the language."
Neal nodded. "It's your best shot. I could work with Angela to set some phrases to a tune that you'd remember. We might even use the resources for her ethnomusicology classes to record it. Then you could listen to it on the flight to Paris. Let's call her now, see if she'd have time for us tonight. I could get you started and then head to my Abstract Expressionism class."
"You won't have time before your class," said Henry. "We have dinner plans."
"What, like the breakfast plans I knew nothing about?" Neal complained. "Listen, the whole trip up to the Burkes' cabin in the Catskills was supposed to be my combined spring break and birthday celebration. Why can't we just leave it at that?"
Peter realized these dinner plans must be the reason El had warned him to keep his schedule open tonight and not work late.
"This isn't me," Henry said. "June wanted to be part of your birthday, especially since she was out of town last year."
Neal took a deep breath. He was likely thinking back to the fact that last year on his birthday, June had been staying with her daughters, mourning the loss of her husband. She seemed to be rebounding from her grief, but Elizabeth had told Peter that recently the anniversaries of Byron's death and funeral were leaving June feeling blue. If she actually wanted to celebrate something now, of course Neal would want to be supportive. He nodded. "Sure. What's the plan?"
"You'll find out when we get there," Henry said, with what Peter thought was an overly smug smile.
"Are you kidding me?" Neal said. "I need more than that. How about when, where, and do I need to change back into a suit?"
"Trust me," said Henry. "All will be revealed in due time."
"Screw that," said Peter.
Henry looked at him wide-eyed in surprise and then tried a placating smile. "Umm, Uncle Peter, I think you're supposed to be setting a better example for us."
The reminder that Henry's mother had recently married Peter's older brother did nothing to soothe his temper. Instead it reminded him that he was stuck with this troublesome young man for the rest of their lives. It was time to let him know that didn't mean he was getting a free pass for obnoxiousness. "Did you listen to what Radha and Tricia were saying this morning?" Peter asked. "It applies to families, too. You've had plenty of chances to spring surprises on Neal the last few days using the excuse of his birthday. We're at work now. Stop playing games. You want someone to set an example? You do it. The two of you, show everyone here that you're working together instead of trying to outshine each other. Got it?"
"Got it," said Henry.
Neal nodded. "Loud and clear."
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to share what's eating at you?" Peter prompted. He even sat down, to be at Henry's level. "You were getting worried looks from the Win-Win contingent in the opening meeting." He turned to Neal, "Unless you've already gotten it out of him?"
"Not yet," Neal admitted. "He won't talk about it."
"That sounds counter to our goals here today," Peter said.
"Yeah, I get that." Henry looked down at the table and seemed to be gathering his thoughts. "The thing is —"
Jones strode down the hallway, and they could smell the pizzas in the boxes he was carrying. "Get it while it's hot!" he called into their room.
Henry stood up.
"A psychology major should know avoidance isn't going to solve this, whatever it is," Neal warned.
"True, but I'll need every bit of strength I can muster. Food, first. Confessions later." He followed Jones to the conference room where Sofia was setting out plates and napkins.
"Confessions?" Peter asked. "What's he talking about?"
"Whatever it is, I'm on his side."
"Yeah, I know. That's what worries me."
###
After waiting in line to get slices of pizza, Neal carried his plate and drink over to the end of the table where Henry sat with Diana. She was describing an experiment they were running on a cybercriminal whose code name Azathoth was inspired by his fascination with the works of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. With coaching from Tricia, Diana was writing fan fiction based on the Cthulhu Mythos, with lead characters based on members of the White Collar team.
"No characters based on me?" Henry asked.
Diana shot a glance at Neal. "No. I promised not to bring Azathoth's attention to Neal's family. And honestly, I have plenty of characters already… Everyone seems to want a role, and they provide so many 'guidelines' about their characters." She shrugged. "Mozzie wanted to be at least six inches taller and suggested sexcapades for his character that… Well, let's just say I wanted to bleach my brain after that particular discussion."
Henry chuckled. "I can imagine. Don't worry about me, though. I won't petition to be included. I like the idea of being off Azathoth's radar."
"You'll be our secret weapon," Neal said, guessing where Henry was going.
"Yeah… and, umm… speaking of secrets…" He shrugged. "I'm sorry if I got carried away with the birthday thing." He finally provided the details of when and where they would have dinner that evening, and also listed who would join them. "And I'll call Fiona after lunch to invite her. I wasn't sure if I could trust her to keep the secret, but I know you'd like to have her there."
It was more people than Neal had expected. "You've got our relatives flying from D.C. and Baltimore in order to attend. They didn't have to do that."
"And you didn't want a big fuss this year. Angela told me."
"Then why arrange such an elaborate dinner?"
"Partly because June missed out on the big party last year, but mostly… guilt."
Neal blinked in surprise. "I don't follow."
"My last birthday party was massive," Henry explained. "Must have been more than a hundred people there, and the festivities went on for days. I know you wanted to keep things simple but… It didn't seem fair."
Diana listened intently, and she wasn't the only one paying attention. Conversations had come to a stop at their end of the table. Most members of the FBI team knew little about Neal's family, and the Win-Win contingent had been fixated on Henry all morning.
Neal suspected it wasn't just the size of Henry's last birthday party that was causing the guilt, but also the number of parties his family had thrown for him over the years. Only recently had Neal reconnected with most of his Caffrey relatives, and birthdays growing up with his mom hadn't amounted to much more than an excuse to play hooky. Pizza and a beer had been his mother's idea of a sufficient celebration when he turned eighteen.
No wonder he didn't love pizza the way Henry did. It was okay for gatherings of his college friends, but not today. He pushed away his plate, admitting to himself that he had no desire to keep eating what had become his default birthday food as a child.
"Your birthday falls in the summer," Neal pointed out, "when it was convenient to schedule the family reunion our grandmother was dreaming of. Those people would have gathered with or without the excuse of your birthday. And anyway, you weren't exactly having fun."
Henry nodded. He'd been a mess last summer.
"Any other surprises you should warn me about?" Neal asked.
"Well, Angela said she wanted to bring the cake."
"Odd, but okay. What else?"
"I've arranged a gift for June. I'd noticed she was feeling low, and often pets are helpful for someone who's grieving…" Henry paused as several people around him gasped. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not springing a pet on her without notice. We'd talked about it several times these last few weeks while planning the dinner party. She thought it over, did the research, and told me what she'd decided would be an ideal pet — in fact she's already met him. She picked him out herself, but he wasn't old enough to be adopted yet. We thought it would be fun to introduce him to everyone during the party."
Neal tried not to worry about what they'd selected. June would pick something sensible, right?
"So I guess this means I don't have to let you win at laser tag this afternoon?" Henry said.
"No one's letting me win because of my birthday," Neal agreed. He saw Henry glance across the table again and asked, "Are you going to let Sofia win?"
All conversation came to a stop.
"What?" asked Sofia.
"Listen," Neal said. "Everyone from Win-Win is tiptoeing around the two of you. If our goal is to act like a unified team, you've got to work through whatever the issue is." He faced Henry. "You said you had a confession to make, and I don't think it's the plans for my birthday party making you so tense. If the two of you need some privacy, fine, but deal with it."
Sofia stood up. "Go ahead. Tell them you don't want me here."
"That's…" Henry stood up, too. "I'm sorry, Sofia. I can imagine how you feel, and I feel like a jerk for not noticing and dealing with this sooner. There's an empty conference room down the hall. Why don't we —"
"No. No more hiding the truth. I want this out in the open." Sofia was nearly quivering with a mix of emotions. Neal read anger and pain and sadness. She clutched a napkin in one hand, perhaps thinking that she might need it to wipe away tears, but for now her eyes were dry.
Henry walked over to the wall of windows and leaned against them, trying to appear relaxed. "Why don't you tell them? You deserve to be heard."
"I shouldn't have agreed to come." Allen Winston took a step toward her and she held up a hand. "No, Dad. You're not going to fix this. I'm an adult. I have to deal with it on my own."
"I'm so sorry," he said, regret visible in his face.
Henry gazed at the attendees, seeking out the faces of the FBI agents. They looked merely confused, whereas his Baltimore colleagues looked embarrassed. "I've wanted to open a New York branch of Win-Win ever since I joined the company, and that's finally happening. Next month I'll find office space and move up here. Once the office is ready, I'll recruit new people to my team, but I'll also bring a few current employees from Baltimore. Radha and Anna are both interested in moving up here, have exceptional skills, and we work well together. Sofia, too, but everyone assumed…" He looked at Sofia again. "Are you sure you don't want to tell them your side?"
She crumpled the napkin in her hand and said, "Henry's dad was ambitious. He always talked about how he was going to be CEO someday, and then Henry was supposed to follow in his footsteps. My dad isn't like that. He didn't push us into Win-Win. In fact he encouraged us to explore our options. My older sisters found other careers, but being an investigator always called to me. I interned at the company in college and then started working full time. I was good at it… I am good at it," Sofia corrected. "One of the best. Like Henry. And people… when he was hired they said…"
"Ooooh," said Tricia.
Neal looked from Henry to Sofia to Tricia. He took in the expressions of Sofia's father and Henry's grandfather. His con artist's skill at reading people warned him where this was going.
"You're both the same age," said Diana, repeating what she'd learned in the morning meetings. "You said Henry was just a couple of months older than you."
"We went to high school together," Henry said.
"And the prom," Sofia added.
Neal nodded. "I'd guess that Graham, the tough-as-nails businessman who moonlights as the family's matchmaker, thought it would be perfect if the company's future CEO married the most talented Winston of the same generation."
Graham cleared his throat. "They were good friends growing up. I didn't know."
"It was just an idle wish. I had no idea so many employees had picked up on it," Allen said. "I should have handled things differently."
"We're a bunch of nosy investigators," Sofia said. "If they're any good at their jobs, of course they figured out what you had in mind."
"Earlier this year, when I came out," Henry added, "I didn't realize that a romance between us was such a wide-spread expectation. Pops had only hinted at it once, but looking back I realize we were paired up on a lot of cases. I had so much on my mind around telling my co-workers I'm gay, I only realized last week the way people were acting around Sofia."
"Now you want her on your team," Neal said, having put the pieces together, "but you don't want to make her even more uncomfortable. Only at this point, you're not sure if it's worse for her to work with you here in New York, or for her to feel excluded from a new opportunity."
"That about sums it up," Henry agreed. "Sofia, what do you want? You're welcome to join my new team, but I don't want to pressure you."
"I…" She glanced around the room, as if seeking advice.
"If you'd accept a suggestion?" Hughes said.
Sofia nodded.
"Don't jump into a decision. Realistically it's going to take months for Win-Win's New York office to be operational, and the team will likely be in a growth mode for quite some time. Take the opportunity to consider what you want. The offer to join the team will stay open, correct?"
Henry nodded. "I'm sure we'll always need a good investigator."
The room fell silent, and Neal knew they needed to move past this. "So, does this mean you'll let Sofia beat you at laser tag?"
Henry looked at Sofia.
Her chin rose and she insisted, "I'm not looking for pity. I'll do my best to win, based on my own skills and nothing else."
"That's the spirit," said Peter.
"I like her," said Diana in an aside to Neal. "I get why they were friends."
"Yeah, but I'm also starting to get why he was so nervous about coming out. I didn't realize how complicated it would be."
Diana grinned. "Are you going to let him win at laser tag?"
"No way."
Laser tag facility.
The laser tag teams had been intermixed, with FBI agents and Win-Win employees paired up. In the end, Neal and Henry were the last two players. They took a break as the staff made changes to the configuration of the room to make it even more challenging.
He checked his watch. They'd need to make this final round quick. They didn't have a lot of time if they were going to have dinner and birthday cake at June's mansion. Neal had to be at his Monday night class by 7:00.
He tugged at the vest he'd been wearing for the last couple of hours. The wires were loosely attached and now they popped off at the least effort. "Daphne," he said, calling out to the woman who was responsible for the equipment. He held out the wires for her to see.
"Looks like some of the wiring tore while you were playing. Let's get you a replacement. This way."
He followed her into an office where she took his old vest and handed him a new one. He was adjusting it to fit comfortably while she went to a terminal and entered a serial number.
"I'll get this one registered to you. Neal, right?"
"Henry," he corrected.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. We're related. People confuse us all the time."
She finished typing and pressed a button. All the lights on his vest lit up. "That's what we want to see. You're ready to go."
"Thanks, Daphne. Wish me luck." He noticed one of his shoes was coming untied, and he sat down to retie the laces.
Daphne chuckled. "Those your lucky socks?"
"Yeah, it's my birthday," said Neal.
Ten minutes later Neal was declared the winner when the system indicated a direct hit on Henry's vest.
"I got you first," Henry insisted, until his grandfather told him to be quiet.
Jones trailed behind with Neal as they left the facility. "Everyone else was watching both of you from the viewing area, but I had my eye on the computer screen."
"Always the gamer," Neal said. "Did you wish you could control us with a joystick?"
"If I could do that, hanging out in the van during stakeouts would be much more interesting. I did see something unusual, though. The computer recorded two shots, seconds apart, from two different laser weapons, but both said they hit Henry's vest. I mean, it looked like you shot Henry, and he shot himself."
"You know that didn't happen. He's too competitive, and he said he wasn't going to let me win."
"Yeah, but how did you do it?" Jones asked. "If it were Travis or Vernon or Anna, I'd assume they hacked the system, but that's not your style. Unless you talked one of them into it?"
"Nope. None of them had anything to do with it."
"Did you smuggle in a mirror on your vest to reflect his shots back at him?"
Peter unlocked his car. They were both riding with him. "I remember telling Neal over the weekend that Henry overcomplicates things, and sometimes a simple solution is the best way to beat him."
"You were right," said Neal as he climbed into the back seat.
Diana had been saying goodbye to Sofia, but now followed Neal into the back seat. "How did you do it?" she asked.
It might have been a simple solution, but Neal spent at least fifteen minutes bragging about how he'd pulled off the win. "And Fiona said she didn't see how people could confuse us," he concluded.
"I'm guessing you're on your best behavior around your girlfriend," Diana retorted. "Whereas we get to see that you're easily capable of being as annoying as Henry."
Ellington Mansion, Manhattan.
The seafood fettuccine was exquisite. And it's not pizza, Neal thought happily. There was a larger crowd than he'd originally wanted, but now that they were here, he enjoyed talking with them. When he tired of being the focus of their attention, he turned the conversation to his cousin Angela and her boyfriend. The same people who felt protective of Neal also felt a need to vet Michael.
Neal already knew Michael from their classes together at Columbia and thought the couple were great together. He raised a glass in a silent toast when Michael turned to him and mouthed, "Help."
Angela grinned and whispered something to her boyfriend. He stood up, holding her hand. "It's been a pleasure getting to know Angela's family this evening," Michael said. "Even though it's only been a few months since we met, we have an announcement to make."
"Oh, my," said Irene Caffrey, leaning forward to look at her granddaughter. "I didn't see an engagement ring on her hand. Did you, Edmund?"
"He might plan to give it to her now," her husband replied. He was watching Michael intently, withholding approval of the boyfriend he'd met for the first time tonight.
Noelle smiled up at new husband Joe. "If this is a proposal, I hope they decide to get married in Hawaii. I want an excuse to go back."
"I know this is Neal's birthday, and I don't want to take the limelight away from him," Michael said. "But I'd be honored if you'd let me…" He smiled radiantly down at Angela. "Do you want to be the one to tell them?"
She stood up, returning his besotted smile before turning to face her family. "Last night, I asked Michael if he'd do me the honor of…" She looked up at him again and they burst out laughing. She leaned against him and said, "I asked Michael if he'd be willing not only to attend this party, but also to bake the cake!"
Fiona walked into the dining room carrying a cake. While everyone gathered around the buffet table to admire Michael's handiwork, Fiona explained to Neal that she hadn't been able to leave work early enough to join them for dinner but had arranged with June to slip in to the kitchen when she arrived, so she could be part of the birthday cake surprise.
Michael sliced and served while Angela extolled his baking skills. She described a cake he'd made for Valentine's and a sci-fi themed one he'd provided for a party at Columbia recently.
Irene picked up a piece. "Is this Hummingbird Cake?"
Michael nodded eagerly. "Angela told me you used to make it for birthdays, and I wanted to try it. I looked up the recipe online. I hope you like it, and I'd be thrilled if you'd share your own recipe with me."
They continued their conversation while Edmund listened, still making up his mind about Michael.
Henry slipped in to take a corner piece.
"Typical," Angela said to Neal. "Always the sweet tooth. Give him a chance and he'll claim the piece with the most frosting."
"You know it's only a year and a half until he turns thirty. I already have ideas for the party."
"I'm helping with that," Angela said. "It needs to be really obnoxious."
"That's a given," Neal agreed. Then he described the project he had in mind to help Henry learn a few French phrases that would be useful in his travels.
"I've been exploring international music for one of my classes. There's a French singer whose songs I'd love to use. If Henry's going to be humming, it might as well be a French tune, right?"
Henry brought them both pieces of cake, and heard Angela's comment. "We're not talking 'Au Clair de la Lune,' are we?"
"No. What I have in mind is a current pop artist," she promised.
His fears allayed, Henry returned to the buffet to snag a second piece of cake. He struck up a conversation with Michael, who laughed at something he said.
Angela smiled her pleasure. "I'm glad they're getting along," she told Neal.
"You know Henry ran a background check on him?"
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Did he do the same with Fiona?"
Neal glanced over to where Fiona was talking to Noelle, the aunt who was in many ways like a mother to him now. She was also a professor of psychology. And he'd been concerned about Henry questioning Fiona? Both women were smiling. That was a good sign, right? "Yeah. I told him it wasn't necessary, but he believes he has to watch out for us."
"I've been thinking it's time for us to return the favor. I mean, he just came out a few months ago. He probably hasn't had many serious relationships, not introduce-someone-to-your-mom relationships like what I have with Michael and you have with Fiona, right?"
Neal wondered what Fiona and Noelle were talking about, and didn't answer until Angela nudged him. Then he asked, "We need to make sure his next boyfriend isn't going to take advantage of him?"
"I don't want him to get hurt," Angela said. "And that almost makes me understand his obsession with vetting my boyfriends."
Neal nodded, but before he could say anything the doorbell rang.
Henry grabbed his arm, leading him toward the door. "C'mon, kiddo. Let's meet June's newest lodger."
In the entry hall, they opened a crate that contained a tiny, wriggling puppy.
"It's a pug," Henry said.
Neal, who had wanted a dog when he was a child, knew that he was going to volunteer to walk and care for this little guy whenever June wanted a break. And even when she didn't want a break.
He carried the puppy to June, who sat down to hold her new pet. "Welcome to the party, Bugsy," she said. Most of the guests gathered around to meet him.
Fiona put her arm through Neal's. She didn't appear to be flustered by her experience with Noelle. "June is such a lovely person. I do wish I could have met her husband."
"He was an inspiration to me," Neal said. "In the weeks before he died, he recorded a CD filled with advice for situations he thought I'd be likely to encounter. It was around this time last year that June gave it to me. You know, I have to admit I only listened to a couple of tracks. Losing him… it was still so fresh, hearing his voice was too painful."
"Do you think you could listen to it now?" Fiona asked.
"I'd like to give it a try."
They heard a series of clicks on the hardwood floor, followed by a tiny yip. They looked down to see Bugsy tugging on Neal's shoelace.
Peter scooped up the puppy. "You're a good boy. Just need a little training and some self-control, and you'll be fine."
"Are you talking to him or to me?" Neal asked.
Peter thought it over. "It's good advice, either way."
A/N: I'm not an expert at laser tag, so please excuse the things I made up for the purposes of entertainment.
Thanks to Silbrith for beta services.
See the Secrets and Lies post on the Penna and Silbrith Conversation blog for more about Neal's secrets and the lone wolf tendencies of both Neal and Henry.
See my stories Full Circle and Henry Takes a Holiday for more about Henry and Sofia learning to work together.
The next story in the CC series is Taxing Situation, which is the next chapter in the Caffrey Vignettes.