BLACK AND WHITE, AND MANY SHADES OF GRAY

This is installment #12 in the series. Just a bit of mindless fluff, and my way of explaining a few things.

Enjoy!

"I'm surprised that Peter let you out of his sight for this long." Tony said as he and Neal took a seat in Tony's living room.

"He trusts me." Neal grinned.

Tony just looked at him.

"You're gonna make me say it?" Neal asked.

Tony nodded.

"Okay," Neal sighed. "…he trusts you to babysit me. Are you happy?"

Tony laughed. "Immensely."

"How did we end up so different?" Neal asked. "I mean, we started out the same…pretty much. Absentee parents, military school…."

"…our motivations." Tony replied.

"That's it?" Neal asked, taking a swallow of his beer. "That's all?"

Tony nodded. "Sure, I was motivated NOT to go into the family biz, and to piss off my dad. You wanted the intellectual pursuit and, of course, the money."

Neal just stared at Tony.

"You were always trying to build the better mouse trap. You love puzzles, and finding unconventional ways to solve them." Tony replied.

Neal nodded. "Yeah, that principal we had…Major Benson. He always said nobody could steal that trophy he had in his office. That basketball trophy…. I got so tired of hearing about what a great athlete he was…about his glory days."

"You know…" Tony said, grinning. "…if you hadn't gotten in trouble so much…."

Neal shook his head. "No, he was challenging me. And I accepted that challenge." He paused. "I thought that if that damned trophy was gone, he would shut up."

"So, you stole it?" Tony asked. "I was never 100% sure. I was afraid to ask. I thought I would get in trouble for just knowing."

Neal nodded. "I broke into his office one night. I even left him a ransom note."

Tony had no idea about the note. What did it say?" He asked, then took a swig of his beer.

"One hundred million dollars or the trophy gets it." Neal laughed.

"…so original." Tony replied.

"Hey, I was a kid." Neal stated. "He said nobody could open the thing without a key. I took it as a personal challenge, like I said. And he was right; I just unscrewed the glass case from its base. It was still locked when he came in the next morning. It was empty, but it was locked. I even put the screws back."

"That was very…conscientious of you." Tony stated, grinning.

"I thought so." Neal chuckled.

"Why was it found, the next morning, tied to a life preserver in the middle of the lake?" Tony asked.

"Oh, yeah," Neal laughed. "…Benson couldn't swim. I couldn't help myself."

Neal took another swallow of beer. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while.

"So that's it…brains and money…" Neal asked. "…those are my motivations?"

"Well Neal, you are the smartest person I know. And you made some really, really good money selling the pieces you…acquired." Tony reasoned.

"Then along came Agent Peter Burke..." Neal took a long swig of his beer.

"Yes, Agent Burke. And how…are things?" Tony continued, unsure of how to phrase his question.

"Well, as you know, he spent 3 years of his life chasing me." Neal stated. "I never told you, but I used to send him birthday cards."

"Birthday cards…why?" Tony asked, confused.

"When he was chasing me, it was purely to torture him. I loved to remind him that I was still free." Neal paused. "After I…after I went to prison, it was…it was so he wouldn't forget about me." Neal looked at Tony. "In prison I was a number, number 6002847. I was never a number to him. I was never just a case file, never just a criminal. I was Neal Caffrey. And…and after I went to prison I…I had a lot of time on my hands. I read up on him, all I could find. And what I found was a pretty good guy just trying to do his job. And he happened to be really good at it. I couldn't fault him for that. After all, he had caught me. I just…." Neal shook his head.

"I get it, Neal." Tony replied.

Neal nodded and smiled. "So, you became a cop just to piss your dad off?"

Tony grinned. "Sort of, could you imagine me running around yelling at a bunch of high school kids to 'pick up the pace'?" He shook his head. "The Physical Education degree was to piss Dad off. The cop thing, I just…. That was after the fire. That picture that Peter has on his wall in the office…my life changed that night. I just…I realized that there was more to life than sports. Dad believed sports and civil service occupations to be left for the under-educated, lower rung of society. I was to grow up to be a DiNozzo, Sr. clone."

"That is a scary thought." Neal said as he finished his beer.

"You ain't kidding." Tony replied, swallowing the last drops of his beer. He got up to head to the kitchen just as the doorbell rang.

Neal looked in his direction. "…you expecting anybody?"

Tony shook his head. "Agent Burke decide recess was over…maybe?"

Neal chuckled and got up to answer the door. He opened it wide to let in their visitors.

"Peter, Agent Gibbs…." Neal said, surprised to see them both. Peter was carrying a couple bottles of wine and Gibbs had a couple pizza boxes in his arms.

"Well, I guess recess is up." Tony said, smiling as he returned with two bottles of beer. "Let me guess, Neal's favorite wine and two DiNozzo specials."

Gibbs looked up at Tony. "You know that old saying about cats and mice." He said as he and Peter sat the items that had brought on Tony's coffee table.

Gibbs headed into the kitchen. He came back with a beer and a wine glass for Neal. Gibbs than sat down on the couch. "So…what do the mice do when the cats are away?" He asked, then took a swallow of his beer.

"Reminisce." Tony replied opening the pizza box and helping himself to a slice.

"Really?" Peter asked.

"…on the subject of military school." Neal replied. "Actually, we were talking about motivations."

Both Gibbs and Peter looked interested.

"What about motivations?" Gibbs asked.

"We were discussing how two people who started out, pretty much, at the same place in life could end up taking such different paths." Tony replied.

"And what did you come up with?" Peter asked. Neal's and Tony's friendship still confused him a little. Maybe this would help him to understand.

"Our motivations, what we were motivated by…." Neal replied. "Tony said I was motivated by the intellectual pursuit and the money."

Peter nodded. "I can see that."

Neal continued. "Tony said his was to stay out of the family business and to piss off his dad."

Gibbs smiled and shook his head.

"What?" Tony asked.

""Those are the facts. But your motivation is much, much simpler than that." Gibbs replied.

Tony grinned at Gibbs, waiting for him to continue.

"Tony is just very, very good at what he does." Gibbs said. "The fact it kept you out of the family business and pissed off your dad…."

"…were just extra, added bonuses." Tony stated.

Gibbs smiled. He and Tony clinked their beer bottles together and drank a toast.

"How can you overlook the whole criminal thing?" Peter asked Tony. "How can you just overlook that?"

Tony looked at Peter. "I don't overlook it, not at all. But that is just a part of who Neal is. I realize that most people can't or won't get pas that. But they don't have my history with Neal. They don't know the type of person he was before all that. They don't know that that person is still there. They don't know that that part of him hasn't changed." Tony explained. "You've seen, for yourself, the type of person Neal is. And, truth be told…I think that person is the reason you agreed to this whole consultant thing." Tony smiled. "It's not complicated, Peter. Neal is a good guy at heart, and he is a really easy person to like."

"Awww." Neal smiled. "You should condense that and sell it to Hallmark."

Tony chucked. "Shut up, Smartass."

THE END