Avoidance
Neal had been right. This needed to be handled officially as it was a part of their civilian files so Peter made sure to get a meeting with Hughes the next day.
After ensuring that the office was blocked from observation by the team below, Peter pulled up a chair and took a seat.
"This is serious?" Hughes commented as he frowned at Peter's actions. It wasn't typical for Peter to be so secretive without it being a clearance sensitive case.
"Yes, very. However, it's also personal between Neal and me." Sighing, he tried to prepare himself for going through this again. He'd already talked about it with Elizabeth and they were working to come up with plans on how to reach Neal.
"You know that I was adopted and the record sealed. It was in my background check and is tucked away in my personal files. However, what we didn't know is that Neal is also adopted with a sealed file. Our records have been processed by the same agency and our DNA was compared this month. We're full-blooded biological brothers." Peter knew that was going to be a big surprise.
Hughes furrowed his brows and steepled his fingers as he leaned back in his chair to absorb that.
"There are two problems with that. First, I'm his handler and now his older brother so that could raise ethical issues considering the policies on families being in the same team. Second, I already totally blew it with him." Unable to remain seated, Peter moved to pace despite Hughes raising an eyebrow in question. The man would obviously have a lot to say, but he was letting Peter get it all out before he would act.
"You've seen how Neal and I interact in the office. He does the job well and although he doesn't act like your typical criminal, he is still a convicted felon. Although I've gotten comfortable having him around, I do remind him of that difference. Jokes about putting him back in prison, making sure the anklet is on and functioning after an undercover operation, I check it often to know where he is and what his habits generally are when I'm not there, and so on." Running a hand through his hair, he realized that it might be a family thing he shared with Neal, and for a second he was glad he had someone to watch for family similarities before he remembered that said person would be avoiding him for some time.
"And? That can't be everything that happened." Hughes prompted him to continue.
"No, that is part of it, but not the ultimate issue of what I did. When we talked about it before the meeting, he talked like my life is charmed; he actually called my life perfect minus the lack of biological history. However, I didn't say anything back to indicate why someone would want him as their family, not one single word of positive support! I could have said that's he's smart with a lot of potentials and although he made judgmental errors in his past, he is taking the responsible route by doing his time and he could do something real and lasting with his life. It would have been true and at least something." Snorting, it was something he'd realized during one of the thousand reruns he'd gone through during the night. "Every one of those conversations was more one-sided than they should have been. Still, that's only getting closer to what I did."
Turning to face Hughes with his hands on his hips, Peter was still angry with himself. "When we were driving to the agency for our appointments, I said a bunch of things about how we're nothing alike so it wasn't like they were going to say we're related. He went silent after that but I thought it was just because we'd arrived at the agency so he was nervous. They had some meetings run over which dominoed until I decided to merge our appointments. We couldn't possibly be related, so what was the harm? While we read through the results, I was thinking those things; that we're different in every way including being a cop and a con, but I was saying it out loud even though I didn't realize it at the time. Then I asked if they were certain we're related which prompted the test being redone." Deflating as he once again remembered the stoic expression Neal had worn ever since; he dropped his hands to his side. "To pile on to everything else I'd done, I utterly rejected the only biological family I've ever met before even taking the time to think about it."
Hughes had one of the most severe frowns Peter had ever seen, but he couldn't blame the man. This posed a risk to the entire team, but particularly his best partnership. "Are you okay?"
"No, but I don't see a way to fix this anytime soon." Peter ran his hand over his face yet again. There was no point in hiding the obvious.
"Sit," Hughes ordered while watching him with concern.
"How is Neal handling the situation?" Like Peter had done, his boss was gathering the information for the whole picture.
"He isn't handling it very well either. Neal intercepted the second test's results and forged them to look negative thinking it's what I wanted. Then he gave me something of a verbal body slam by quoting me when I confronted him about it. Now he seems determined to avoid me in every means possible." Peter said glad he had sat down as his energy was waning. It had been a long night with little sleep and the emotional drain made it harder to handle.
"Is that what you wanted?" Hughes poked him with a hard question.
"Maybe, briefly, but not once I'd thought about it. As Elizabeth said, Neal is one of the few people who can keep up with me while making me work for anything I get. He may not be the ideal I would have described to you growing up, but he's the brother I have and he's got his own points of value. The man is my most favorite criminal because it was thrilling to chase him and I can't help but respect the honor he puts into being a gentleman thief. I like him as a person in general. He's smart, funny, creative, and he's brought a whole new kind of enjoyment to the job. And it's not just me either; the entire team seems to pick up on his cheery disposition. If it wasn't for his criminal history, I don't think we'd have any real problems." Peter looked up at his boss as he earnestly described the positive attributes of his brother, the things he'd forgotten before.
"I see, so you don't mind him as a brother, but you aren't thrilled about it. The connection does complicate things." Hughes started to describe what he was thinking, but Peter couldn't leave it at that.
"It isn't that," he interrupted. "For some crazy reason, I'm fortunate enough to have a guy who was becoming something of my best friend turn out to be my brother. By the time I got the envelope, I was looking forward to the results hoping for the connection and it hurt to read that he wasn't family after all. Now I'm angry at myself."
"Well, it still complicates the situation, but I'm glad for you Peter. Neal, he may be a rascal, but I have noticed that he has his own sense of honor and morals. Although I don't want his negative traits rubbing off on you, he is a good asset to this team and I'd hate to lose him." Hughes surprised him with a small smile. The agent wasn't exactly fond of the con, but he could see his good traits and the benefits of having him around.
Relaxing some, Peter spent a while talking to Hughes as they discussed the positive and negative effects of what it would be like for Neal to either stay or be removed from their team.
When he left the office, he knew Hughes was going to wait a little bit before calling Neal up. Since the brothers were to be working on their relationship, he didn't want to draw public attention to their situation just yet.
Acting on his first plan, Peter decided to start small. Coffee, it was something that was like gold in the office when they were doing a lot of paperwork. He tried to play it off like it wasn't a big deal by bringing in a carrier with drinks for Jones and Diana as well to see if Neal would accept it from him as a part of a team offer.
Walking into the office, Peter angled the carrier for Diana and then Jones to take their cups. They were grateful and each took a happy sip of real coffee to start their day.
Turning when Neal walked in behind him, Peter lifted the carrier indicating that the fourth cup was for him.
Neal just held up his own cup that he was already drinking and moved to settle into his desk.
Although it hurt, Peter understood that he was still in the dog house and he couldn't blame Neal for hiding from him. He had hurt Neal far worse, and in a way he couldn't just recover from.
Fortunately, Blake hadn't had his morning coffee yet so he was happy to accept the remaining cup as the next available person to pass by.
Waving Jones and Diana off, Peter indicated that he wasn't talking about what had transpired and to leave Neal alone about it too.
His second plan didn't go any better.
Peter waited until a large art show was passing through at a museum outside of Neal's radius. It was exactly the kind of show that Neal would love to see, the kind that he'd begged anyone and everyone to take him too in the past. In anticipation of Neal wanting to go, Peter had bought two tickets, one for Neal, and one for whomever he passed them to for taking Neal. The plan was to have 'gotten them as a result of one of El's events' so that no one would feel guilty but he could give his brother something he'd enjoy. Sure, Neal wouldn't necessarily know it had come from him, but he was biding his time trying to build something of a foundation that the kid might notice.
He didn't expect Neal to remain silent and serious. There wasn't a single comment about his desire to see the show, not even when Diana offered to take him.
Neal was taking his 'nothing but a con' act to the limit without doing anything illegal that they could complain about.
Not knowing what else to do, Peter laid them in Neal's keyboard on his way out one evening so he'd find them in the morning.
They were back in his keyboard the next day with a note to take Elizabeth.
Either Neal knew they'd come from him, or he'd thought about his wife and her love of art, which reason didn't matter because they both meant that his plan didn't work.
Elizabeth learned from Mozzie that Neal had asked him to use his Russian surplus technology to film the art show for Neal so that he got to see it without leaving his radius or having to inconvenience any of the suits.
This was going to be trickier than he'd thought.
Pulling out his big guns, Peter had enlisted Elizabeth to invite Neal over for dinner thinking that he would give in to Elizabeth like he usually did and that maybe they could talk. Even if they ended up fighting, getting words out into the open would be better than this silence.
Elizabeth made the planned visit to June so that she conveniently ran into him and remarked how she hadn't seen him in a while.
Neal had been polite and agreed that it had been a while, but he made no effort to rectify that.
Following the script, she asked him over for dinner as she was making his favorite on Friday and he might like to join them.
Neal was conveniently busy, and he seemed to have an excuse for any time she gave him so he was actually just busy anytime she wanted him to do anything outside of professional office work.
It was disappointing, but only reinforced Peter's fear that Neal might never forgive him.
As they worked another stagnated case, Hughes assigned Peter and Neal to an all-night stakeout hoping to either get a break in the case or to provide a chance for his best partnership to work their issues out. Either way, he was banking on a win and Peter hoped they wouldn't let him down.
Picking Neal up at June's, Peter watched as he opened the back door and sat a bag of things on the floor-boards where he could reach them before he closed the door and moved to the front. As he opened his door and slid in, Neal barely gave him a courtesy greeting before sitting back quietly to watch the traffic flow by.
In an effort to make conversation, Peter asked various questions and discussed information on the case to which Neal provided direct answers and insights relevant to the work.
When they arrived at the location, the conversation transitioned to their initial observations before falling silent. Instead of picking up a general conversation as he always had in the past, Neal reached behind him for a stress ball to squeeze while he leaned back and quietly watched the building in question.
Taking his opportunity, Peter said the summary of what needed said, "I was wrong." Reaching out, he had to grab Neal's hand to prevent him from turning up the radio directly, "and I'm sorry I was such an idiot." Then he released Neal to turn up the radio as a means of filling the awkward silence. If nothing else was successful for the evening, at least he'd finally gotten to say those words to his brother.
Settling back into his seat, Peter watched the building as was the official purpose of this endeavor but he also kept some of his attention for his passenger.
Neal seemed to manage the evening well enough as he had a thermos of hot coffee, some food, and a few things to help him keep occupied if he started to struggle with the boredom. Peter had also prepared so he was easily able to manage for the night in general. It was the pain of having his brother sitting not three feet from him and refusing to even talk about the weather than got to him.
As the hours crawled by, Peter fought not to sigh or antagonize Neal. He wanted to make him talk, scream at him if need be, but a stakeout wasn't the time for that so he continued to work and wait. Even if he only got a few words here and there or failed attempts to reach out, he wasn't giving up. Neal was the only family he'd ever met and he wasn't going to let him go without giving it everything he had.
Fortunately, they got a break in the case as a man entered the building early the next morning. Although the two men worked together to take the pictures and collect the information for analysis back at the office, it was a testament to Neal's mastery of avoidance when he managed to keep his distance all night, even when enclosed in a small space unable to get away.
Some plans Peter tried again, others he scrapped as utter failures, but he kept trying. Even riling Neal up with the intention of making him scream at him didn't get Peter anywhere.
Neal was utterly determined to refrain from showing any kind of emotion other than distant professionalism; he refused to interact in any fashion beyond that of the office and any necessary fieldwork, with any of them.
Peter was particularly in the dog house, but he'd taken the entire team with him and everyone noticed.
They all tried to get through to Neal in their own ways, but nothing seemed to penetrate Neal's protective shield that he'd constructed around himself.
Eventually, Hughes called Peter up to his office to deliver the news of the verdict on him being the handler for his brother.
Taking the seat in front of the desk, Peter accepted the file and flipped it open to see what had been determined for his brother's and his futures. "They want me to remain as his handler with the theory that I will be beneficial to his rehabilitation," he summarized. Neal had been right; they were gung-ho for the plan thinking he'd have the familiar leverage to control Neal in a way that would be beneficial to his rehabilitation. Their superiors were wrong though, because if Peter tried to use any such form of emotional manipulation, he'd push Neal further away while hating himself more.
"It's what we hoped for. At least you'll look after his well-being and be able to keep him safe where another agent might take him for granted." Hughes reiterated the primary reason why they wanted Neal to remain with them. The professional perks of his intelligence and skills were a given, but it would be easier for Peter to focus and handle the situation if he wasn't worrying about Neal under the care of someone else, especially if he ended up with agents like Rice or Ruiz.
"Yeah," Peter sighed. He was pleased to keep his brother under his protection, but he was still worried about their relationship in general. "Thanks, Reese" there wasn't much to be said as they'd already discussed the situation thoroughly.
Hughes nodded at him before watching him leave the office to return to his duties.
Thank you, everyone, for reading, reviewing/commenting, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
Alrighty, several of my family are leaving tomorrow with the intent of touring and possibly signing papers early this week on rentals in the area we're looking to move to. If this goes to plan, we will confirm our tentative 2-week notices and leave soon. This means that I will be busy helping to pack up the rest of the house and transitioning quickly. Despite how busy we'll be, I'm hoping to retain my weekly post and possibly fit in posting what I've dubbed the 'Farewell Series' inspired by memories of my current work that will be terminated with the move. I just wanted to let you all know since I might miss a post, post extra, or have delayed response time as we transition here.
