Chapter 33: Bonus Content
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reading this series. My earlier works didn't have much from the point of view of women, and I've kept that in mind while adding bonus content. This time I'm introducing Diana, letting us see what she's up to before she meets the rest of the White Collar crew, and how her experiences relate to other story threads.
March, 2004.
Quantico.
Diana Berrigan found an open seat, and once she was settled she looked around at the other people in her class. All of them wanted to become FBI agents.
"Welcome!"
The agent-hopefuls turned their attention to the front of the room, to the woman who had greeted them.
"I'm Agent Mutisi," the woman continued. "For the next twenty weeks, you'll live and study here in our facility in Quantico, Virginia. We look forward to getting to know you during that time. Those of you who successfully complete the training will receive assignments as probationary agents. Those who successfully complete those assignments will be promoted to full-fledged agents."
Manhattan - Federal Building.
"The latest class at Quantico started this week," Hughes told the agents who reported directly to him. "That means they'll be available for interviews in late June for assignments in July. We have budget for two probies. Any takers?"
Peter Burke raised his hand. "White Collar is already busier than I'd expected."
Quantico.
Diana entered the office of Agent Mutisi, her assigned advisor during the program. This was their first session, and she was eager to hear the agent's thoughts. They discussed Diana's aspirations and then she asked, "What advice do you have?"
Mutisi smiled. "You're excited about becoming an agent, and that's good, of course. Just make sure you temper that excitement with realism. You aren't going to be in the field every day. We have Bureau in our name, after all. Bureaucracy is a fact of life, and so is paperwork."
"Yeah, the application and intake forms gave me a taste of that already," Diana said.
"Patience is important, not only with your supervisors and team members, but also with yourself. I find that new agents start to have second thoughts after a few weeks, wondering if joining the FBI was the right decision."
"Buyer's remorse?" Diana asked.
"That's a good analogy. Being an agent is this bright, shiny new thing that people like to brag about. Some of my students build it up in their minds into something so grandiose that they're inevitably disappointed with the reality."
Manhattan - Federal Building.
Peter motioned for Neal Caffrey to take a seat. "Now that you've been with the Bureau for ninety days, it's time to set your goals for the rest of the year. Let's start with the goals I'd set for the team as a whole, and then we'll see which ones make sense for you to contribute toward."
Neal gave him an obviously fake smile. "I'm finally getting the indoctrination Mozzie warned me about. Maybe I should record this for him."
"Smart ass," Peter said. "It isn't that bad."
Manhattan - Sterling-Bosch.
Sara Ellis was wrapping up her first assignment at Sterling-Bosch, and it was… okay. She was still a newbie, of course. She was shadowing a more senior recovery agent and doing most of the paperwork.
A lot of paperwork.
Well, the allure of this job was mainly the location. She'd wanted to be in New York City, and her skills from Winston-Winslow were a good fit. Soon the bosses here would trust her enough to send her out on her own. Then she'd like this job as much as the one she'd left.
And it wasn't like Win-Win had fewer forms. Gathering data for their IT geeks and impressions for their psychology geeks was a major part of the job. Only… Win-Win's forms made more sense, had less duplication.
"This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself. The Sterling-Bosch forms would make more sense once she was used to them. What she missed were her friends in Baltimore. It wouldn't be so bad if she could still reach out to them, but she'd left under a cloud.
The timing had been unfortunate. She'd had no idea her end date at Win-Win would coincide with so much drama, with Robert Winslow disappearing only days before she left. The man had the gall to falsify records to make it look like Henry Winslow — Sara's former boss — was guilty of Robert's hefty crimes. The man had actually tried to murder someone.
It wasn't Sara's fault that she'd accepted the job offer right before all of that happened. But she still felt guilty leaving Henry and his team shorthanded as they tried to deal with the aftermath. She'd reached out after her move, offering moral support even if she couldn't be there in person, but they didn't respond to her messages.
She glanced at her phone, as if she could make an answer to one of her emails appear through a sheer effort of will. They're busy, she reminded herself. She wouldn't feel so lonely when she was less bored.
Not bored, she hastily corrected. She wasn't bored, not really, not when she had things to do. Soon the job would keep her busy and she'd be fine.
Her phone beeped a notification.
She smiled after she read the text from Neal, suggesting they meet for lunch before spending Saturday afternoon at the runaway shelter where they both volunteered. It was a timely reminder that she did have friends here in New York. And for that matter, Henry Winslow had taken the time to suggest that particular shelter, even given everything else he had going on. It was time to stop complaining about being forgotten and to start working on making her experiences now unforgettable.
Baltimore - Winston-Winslow, Henry's office.
"You're brooding. That's never a good sign."
Henry had been staring out the window, and he swiveled his chair around to face his grandfather. "Yeah, Mom's been saying the same thing for a week."
Graham Winslow wasn't part of the day-to-day operations at Win-Win anymore, but as chairman of the board he delighted in showing up and poking around. "You got to give them some time."
"I know, I know. And my team needs me after I was away. I'm nearly caught up, though. I can —"
"You're not joining the search for your father. Not next week, not even next month if it comes to that." Graham shut the door behind him.
"C'mon. If they haven't found Robert after a month, you're still not going to let me help?"
Graham sat across from Henry. "Not planning to let you, no."
Henry considered this. "Planning to stop me?"
"You're named for my father, one of the co-founders of this company, and I know you're as headstrong as he was. If we really can't find Robert after more than a month, we'd be fools to think you won't jump in, whether we want you to or not."
Henry nodded.
"Just like you'd be a fool to jump in without a plan. My compromise with the board is that you'll get to see weekly progress updates. I told 'em that would help keep you off the backs of the team actually assigned to the case. I'll go over the updates with you personally. He's my son. I'm as invested in this as you are."
"And if I kick off my own investigation, at least I won't be starting over from scratch."
"The board hopes we'll provide feedback, not initiate a separate, non-sanctioned investigation."
It was a fair compromise, Henry knew, even if he was itching to join the search now. He had to admit that the lack of leads indicated Robert had spent significant time planning his getaway rather than simply running away in a panic. Henry knew it would be wise to approach this as a chess game, planning out his own moves and options in advance. If no one could catch up with Robert, then the next best option was to get ahead of him.
"We need to get you another project to keep you occupied," Graham announced.
"The Vincent Adler case?" Henry asked hopefully.
"The FBI would have my hide if I gave you that case after your stunt with Neal at the airstrip. No, not that one, but we'll find something good. Something local," he added.
Henry had expected as much. "At least you aren't telling me to take a leave of absence. I half expected it."
"It was tempting, but setting you loose like that would be asking for trouble."
"Speaking of Neal, there is a project I'm working on. A personal project. I think this one would be right up your alley."
"Something that'll annoy the FBI?"
"Don't we want to avoid that? We've got a contract with them now."
"Taking away all my fun," Graham grumbled.
"Remember Sara Ellis?"
"Your team member Sterling-Bosch snatched away."
"Yeah, she's in New York now, and I arranged for her to meet Neal."
Graham grinned. "Matchmaking, are you? I'd nearly given up on any of my offspring following in my footsteps."
"It won't be easy to live up to your legend, but I'll give it a shot."
Quantico.
Agent Mutisi delivered the lecture on collaborating with other government entities. "Suspects and witnesses may ask for concessions, like a reduced sentence, in return for cooperating with us." She described coordinating with prosecuting attorneys, and then moved on to the U.S. Marshals. "It's rare, but sometimes we'll recommend Witness Protection."
Diana paid close attention. Her first-choice assignment was in the Organized Crime division. They were the group most likely to send people into WITSEC.
St. Louis - Ellen Parker's home.
"Deirdre Brooks' location was compromised," said U.S Marshal Marcy Weaver.
Ellen Parker and Mike Chan exchanged looks across Ellen's dining room table. Ever since Marcy had called to schedule time to talk with them, they'd been speculating about what news she had. There was always the slim chance that Marcy would tell them the danger had ended and Ellen would be able to live the rest of her life free of restrictions. Realistically they knew it probably wasn't going to be such good news, but Ellen hadn't expected this bombshell.
"What happened?" Mike asked. Straight to the point, as always. Mike had been a marshal himself, assigned to Ellen, Deirdre, and Danny when they first arrived in St. Louis. Several years ago he'd left the job to work in the private sector, and then he'd been free to start dating Ellen.
"Do you remember her brother-in-law, Robert Winslow?" Marcy asked Ellen.
She nodded. "I saw him at the wedding, when James married Meredith." Meredith Caffrey had become Meredith Bennett, and now was Deirdre Brooks. "I don't think I spoke to Robert, but James mentioned he was a cop. He lived in Baltimore, I think."
"Right," said Marcy. "He eventually left police work to take a job in his family's company, an investigation firm called Winston-Winslow."
"That sounds familiar. I remember James was jealous of the Winslow family's money, especially because it meant Robert and his wife could afford a more lavish lifestyle. Their wealth was tied to the company."
"Robert used the resources available to him at Winston-Winslow to track down Deirdre. He called her recently to confirm he'd found her. He told her…" Marcy paused. "Back in December, a man named Neal Caffrey called you and claimed it was a wrong number. We've confirmed that he was the person you knew as Danny Brooks. Deirdre's son."
Ellen nodded. When questioned by the marshals, she'd maintained that it was a wrong number, but in truth she'd recognized his voice. They'd even arranged to meet briefly while he was in town. Neal had told her he lived in New York now.
"Neal recently started working for the FBI," Marcy said. "We helped establish his official, post-WITSEC identity. I want to assure you that's he's safe and healthy now, but he was injured during a case. Robert found out and called Deirdre, telling her that Neal was in the hospital. Once he confirmed that he had the correct contact information for her, he issued a threat. If Neal didn't do something he wanted, Robert would share her location with her ex-husband's enemies."
Ellen took a sharp breath and squeezed Mike's hand.
"Fortunately she informed us of the call and we were able to move her to a new location the next day. We also learned how Robert discovered her location, and we are making certain he can't do it again."
"What about our location?" Mike asked. "Did he have that, too?"
"Unfortunately Robert escaped, but to the best of our knowledge, he didn't have your location. However, he did know Deirdre's address from when she lived here. We can't say with certainty whether or not he discovered that you were both originally placed in the same neighborhood. Even if he did, he probably assumed that you were relocated at the same time we moved her away from St. Louis."
"Do you think we should move?" Ellen asked.
"You've never been open to it before," Marcy remarked, sounding surprised.
That was because Ellen had been determined to stay here in case Danny — Neal — returned after he ran away from home. But now they had arranged a method they could use in case they needed to contact each other. "There was never such a specific threat before."
"For now we believe you're safe here. We'll step up our level of monitoring, however, and I'd advise you to be ready in case the situation changes. If Robert stays on the run, he'll eventually need more funds. If he does know your location, he might decide to sell that information. If we have any reason to believe that's happened, we'll need to move you quickly. So think about what you'd want to take with you."
After Marcy left, Mike glanced around the living area. "Considering you've been here more than twenty years, you haven't accumulated much stuff. It shouldn't be a problem to pack up quickly."
Ellen nodded. She liked her things, but they were just that — things. If she had to leave it all behind, it wouldn't cause any serious heartache. "What I most want to take with me is you. I know you grew up here, and I understand if leaving isn't in the cards, but I want to put the offer on the table."
He looked both surprised and pleased. He didn't make a commitment yet. This wasn't a decision he'd make rashly, and that's part of what she loved about him.
Three months later.
Quantico.
"You can't be serious." Diana stared at her advisor in shock.
"You said you'd take any assignment," Agent Mutisi said. "Every student explicitly agreed to those terms before training started."
"But there were supposed to be interviews. How did I get assigned to the Office of Public Affairs without even talking to them?"
"Your reputation proceeds you."
"My reputation?" Diana scoffed. This was all about her father, the career diplomat. Public Affairs had seen that information on her bio and made the decision. She'd been the perfect little trainee, an agreeable, mostly tactful team player. Now she wished she'd been more outspoken. "Public Affairs is about making nice with people. I'm not nice."
"You're efficient," said Mutisi. "You cut through the niceties and get straight to the point."
"You realize that, and you're still approving this assignment?"
Mutisi glanced toward the hallway. Although the door to her office was closed, the glass walls didn't offer much privacy. "Let's go for a walk, shall we? I'd like to discuss this away from prying ears."
Diana nodded, and the two women made their way to an outdoor training space that wasn't currently in use.
"I've worked at the FBI for two decades," Mutisi said. "For the most part I buy into how things work. I couldn't be a trainer otherwise. That being said, there are times I disagree with decisions that are made above my level. When that happens, I have to weigh my options carefully. In this case, I could make a fuss about how your assignment bypassed normal procedures. However, I don't believe it would change the outcome. Instead I'd waste my time and make enemies of people who could make my job difficult."
Diana continued walking beside Mutisi, carefully parsing through what she'd heard. "That's the option you discarded. What options are left?"
"I can advise you on how to make the most of this assignment, and how to use it to move into something better suited to you."
"Thanks," said Diana. "Let's hear it."
"First, do your best work. Don't tell them they screwed up, but don't hide your no-nonsense nature. Be fully yourself, and let them discover the mistake they made in bypassing the interviews."
"I see how that benefits you," Diana said. "If they learn their lesson, they won't repeat this with future students."
"That brings us to my second point. Public Affairs doesn't work in a vacuum. More than any other group, they work with other teams, providing support for all types of cases. Take advantage of that. Whenever there's an opportunity to work with another group, volunteer. Make connections in those teams. Impress them with your understanding of what they do. If there's a team you're a better fit with, let them see it."
"Entice them to recruit me away from Public Affairs, while making Public Affairs regret selecting me, so they'll okay a transfer."
"That's the goal, although if anyone asks I will deny any knowledge of such a scheme." She paused. "It will take subtlety. You may wish to think of this as an undercover assignment."
"Or a series of job interviews."
"An undercover assignment sounds more fun," Mutisi said, smiling at Diana. "I fully expect you'll move to another team before the year is over."
Diana smiled back. "I appreciate your faith in me."
A/N: The next story in this AU is Complications by Silbrith, followed by Caffrey Disclosure by me. Among other things, that story includes the hunt for Robert Winslow, and further disclosures by Neal to Peter. The main case involves a corrupt executive in the music industry. And yes, Diana meets the White Collar team at a particularly dramatic moment.
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