History
It had been a horrible day. Neal had endured so much in his life, but nothing as bad as this.
Stretched out on his bed, he laced his fingers above his head and stared at the ceiling while his life replayed through his mind, the path that had led him here.
A long time ago in a city halfway across the country, his aunt Ellen had taken him aside and surprised him by saying she wanted to tell him a story, and she had, she told him their story.
Before that night he'd thought his father was shot down in action and had died some hero's death. As a result, he loved those movies and comics where the hero saved the world and it didn't matter if the hero was a cop, spy, or vigilante, they gave insight into how his father might have lived and died. But it had all been a lie.
Learning the truth had been painful, but he trusted Ellen, so he's listened to what she had to say. Going through the series of events, she'd retold the details of his father's confession and the results of her own investigation.
In short, his father had attempted to skim off the top at a bust and had been caught by a superior who coerced him into working for the local mob. The crimes and complications grew until the day he murdered that superior and Ellen had caught him standing over the man with a smoking gun. His confession had taken down a huge portion of the local mob, but he'd also told her about the corruption in their precinct which her own investigation confirmed. Ultimately, this meant the end for all of them as his father went into States Evidence and she landed in the Witness Protection Program with him and his mother.
He hadn't remembered that early transition when they were moved through temporary locations to ensure their trail was clean before ultimately settling in St Louis. There little Neal Bennett had become Daniel Brooks. He'd quickly become Danny as he was too cute and sweet for the more formal version of his name.
However, he did remember the years that followed where his mother had regressed more and more into herself as the depression became more overwhelming. Slowly, the stories of him having his father's blue eyes and other details to appease a little boy's curiosity had waned to the simple answer that she had already told him and a refusal to repeat. As a result, he was forced to grow up too soon and slowly had to learn to be more independent whether he learned things the hard way or simplified tasks with shortcuts until he was the one handling the general tasks around the house ensuring everything was managed.
After learning the truth, he'd been torn as he returned home. His flight instinct had pushed him to run, to get away from this chaotic past and become someone new. But, he had an ingrained responsible streak, and with the end of his senior year so close, he knew it was best to remain until he'd finished his classes. That gave him a deadline, a time to decide what to do with his future with a promise of looming freedom. Then, even if he didn't become a cop, he could move on to become someone else at college. With his future stretching out before him, he had to make a decision of some sort. This was one of those pivotal points that would change everything so he had to be careful.
Still warring the urge to run when he reached his room, he was debating on how to handle the anxious energy when a soft sound of the creak by his door alerted him that he wasn't alone before her voice carried through his room.
"You're adopted."
Turning, he'd seen the outline of his mother in the shadows of the hallway. Her hair was a mass of curls that hung about her face further masking her away from his sight so he couldn't read anything beyond the dull sound of her voice.
"What?" He'd asked. She was actively talking to him, something she hadn't done in a long time.
"I said you are adopted. Your father and I, we couldn't have children so we adopted you in Washington. Considering Ellen was going to tell you what happened when you were three, I thought you should know what happened to bring you to us. James, he isn't your father, and I'm not biologically your mother. As you make your decisions going forward, you need to do what's best for you. Your biological parents sealed your file so you can become whoever you want to be, you are your own man." Her voice was raised sufficiently to carry through the room, but she didn't seem to gather up enough gumption for much more.
"My file was sealed? Does that mean I can't find who my parents are?" Did they not want him?
"They sealed your file so we never knew anything about them." She had confirmed before retreating back down the hall to her room.
Knowing he wasn't the son of a murderer was freeing, but it also cut his anchor and left him adrift in the world without any anchor or direction. He was weightless, nothing, no one.
Using his time until graduation to choose his next step, he decided to leave Wit-Sec and go to college for accounting with a minor in computer engineering. He would become someone else, someone undefined by his past preconceptions based on lies. His next marker was to spend four years finding out who he was before he'd have to make his next big decision.
Saying goodbye to his adoptive mother wasn't difficult, but parting with Ellen was painful. She'd been the one to teach him so many things over the years, they were close, and this was going to be their last meeting.
Fingering the new identity in his pocket, Bryce Larkin took his first steps onto the Stanford Campus in California. All he knew was that he was a track star, a good student, and a total nerd. These were foundations of things he'd liked as a child so the Marshalls had built them into his new identity. The rest was up to him and who he wanted to be.
Being generally friendly, he was easily able to make new acquaintances and was soon building a social network of contacts, but it wasn't until he'd met a tall curly-haired kid doing his homework on a bench that he'd made a friend. Chuck was the first best friend he'd ever had.
Soon, everyone knew that Bryce hung out with Chuck as his friend and roommate. Some of the ladies tried to get to him through his friend while others looked at him sideways wondering why Bryce enjoyed this awkward geek. Chuck took it in stride. He'd point the girls on to Bryce, but he'd always warn him if there was something he didn't like about them. Bryce always listened, even if he didn't let Chuck see just how much he trusted and respected his opinion. The others, well, if they couldn't like Chuck how were they supposed to tolerate Bryce for anything more than his looks?
During his junior year, Bryce was called into Professor Fleming's office for a meeting and at first, he actually believed the pretext, but then he started talking about options for his future and his good qualities, things that made him a good student and athlete that would also make him a good spy. A confidentiality agreement followed by a contract and he was on track for recruitment.
That summer he went through the training process and spent three months going through one class after another. Only one teacher stuck out in his mind though. Langley had an older agent named Roan Montgomery who taught Infiltration and Inducement of Enemy Personnel, or the seduction class. Sitting through his lessons meant watching an aging man charm and schmooze the pretty trainees and flunking the partner of anyone who had been teamed up with someone he wanted to spend more time with. Fortunately, Bryce was partnered with a young lady who was cute, but she wasn't so pretty as to get them held back. Still, he'd learned how to improve and refine the skills he'd learned a long time ago. The class came naturally to him so he'd aced the lessons, but it was odd how Roan had occasionally looked at him with a distant expression. Maybe he reminded the man of someone?
His senior year brought more challenges and change. Not only did he particularly have to evade and dodge Chuck's honest curiosity with their lives so intertwined, but he also had to squeeze in additional training and small missions without attracting attention.
Intercepting Chuck's mail and impersonating him, it had been a surprise to learn that Chuck was being force drafted to a project like Omaha. He could understand the government wanting someone of his intelligence, but they were poor judges of character to put such a soft-hearted person in such a violent project. Fortunately, it had been easy to convince Fleming of this and gain his aid in planting the false evidence to get his only friend expelled.
Then with nothing but the remaining weeks until graduation tying him to the campus, it was easy for Bryce to bury himself in training and classes. If he wasn't running for track or due to something government-related, he was studying or in class.
A few weeks later he was working on his computer in the dorm to study. The space was empty and quiet without Chuck so he had no distraction. Suddenly, his computer went dark and nothing but a white line blinked in the corner indicating the cursor. Going through commands and checks to figure out what happened, nothing got a reaction until a message typed onto his screen.
It was a date, time, and location, a meeting. He was curious and cautious. The message didn't come through official channels so it wasn't a mission, Chuck wasn't around to mess with him and was likely back to living with his sister, so who could this be? Did someone want to avenge Chuck on him? What he did to Chuck had cast a suspicious shadow over his character so maybe someone had a bone to pick with him over it? Unable to determine anything from the details he'd been given, he decided to check it out and see what he found. It wasn't like anyone other than the government would lament anything happening to Bryce Larkin, and even they didn't have enough invested to care for long.
When the date came, he lurked across the street observing the place without approaching. As the time drew nearer, he noticed someone else keeping to the shadows and watching the appointed location for the meet. Circling around to the likely escape point, he came up behind a small figure wearing a long coat and a hat angled to hide his face.
"Are you here to see me?" He'd calmly spoken from behind them.
Startled, the man had twitched but showed no other reaction. "Are you Bryce Larkin?"
"You know I am, otherwise you wouldn't have contacted me. Who are you?" He knew this person would have looked him up so the question was a test.
"Stephen Bartowski. You got my son expelled for cheating, something we both know he didn't do, but I also know what you protected him from." The man turned and angled his hat up so that Bryce could see familiar brown eyes set into a different, older, face.
Standing straighter, he was no longer worried about an enemy or retribution; this was something he couldn't possibly have foreseen. "You have my curiosity and attention."
Leading him to a nearby safe house, Orion had introduced him to a whole new level of government work. He was just a rookie still wearing training wheels, but that night he secretly dove to the innermost depths of spying on the spies.
Graduating, those few remotely interested in his future were given the story about accounting in Washington while he himself disappeared into full-time work for the CIA as an agent and intelligence officer running missions all over the world.
It wasn't long before his bosses were approached about a taskforce opportunity and they asked for Bryce to play Neal Caffrey, an alternate version of himself. There was a little work to hammer out the agreement before he was set loose as a young con artist and criminal coming up in New York City.
Balancing the juggling act, he spent several years working in multiple operations. Bryce completed missions all over the world climbing the ranks until he caught the attention of Director Graham himself, his work as Neal caught the attention of the FBI garnering his own personal agent dogging him around the world, and Orion had him secretly investigating Fulcrum. Nothing crossed over until Fulcrum began to target him in return, but that was easily passed off as their attempt at recruitment. His acrobatic abilities were put to the ultimate test as Neal was placed in prison and Bryce was sent undercover to infiltrate Fulcrum acting as a traitor.
Everything nearly came tumbling down when he was killed for the first time, but as he lay there in that parking lot, he could only think that his childhood stories were true of him, he'd been shot down as the secret hero. Being revived by the enemy meant the act resumed so he continued until Chuck came back into his life with the accidental rescue.
Although he didn't want to hurt his friend anymore, he couldn't think of a better way to accomplish his mission and the stakes were bigger than either of them. Risking estranging his former friend further, Bryce used him to escape and then bounced through messing with his life once in a while until his last mission got him killed again. This time things were damaged beyond repair.
The Ring had gone through every file for Bryce Larkin connected to the CIA and spread his information throughout their organization with leaks into the general black market effectively ruining him from being a problem should he somehow survive death again.
With nothing left for him in his field, General Beckman put him on permanent loan to Operation Confidence where he resumed his role as Neal Caffrey.
A breakup and a breakout caused him to become a Confidential Informant to the FBI under the direct responsibility of his personal agent, Peter Burke. His job was to aid the FBI in whatever case crossed their desks while secretly looking for the corruption responsible for placing his family in Witness Protection and should he find any other corruption while he was at it, then all the better.
Rolling over to stare out of the window, Neal wished he hadn't taken that step to find an anchor.
In searching for enemies to protect his adopted family, he remembered a suppressed curiosity. Who was his family, who was he?
It hadn't taken much research to find that the adoption agency his parents had gotten him from had a branch in New York City, and a call put his name into a database to see if anyone was searching for him. By the time he'd completed the process, they had his DNA, original adoption history, and current contact records.
When they had found a match, it was more painful than he'd expected to be utterly rejected by his brother.
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