A/N: Shauna's episodes will continue in a series of one-shots as long as my addiction to White Collar lasts, which will probably be until the show ends, which will hopefully be never. Rated T just in case. Neal, Peter, and the rest of the gang (including a couple of quotes) do not belong to me, but to the brilliant writers of a brilliant show.

This episode has mild spoilers through Season 1, Episode 12, and major spoilers from Season 1 Episode 13. [SPOILERS BEGIN NOW] It takes place during the show, when Neal is entering the club under Agent Rice's direction, and Burke and Gless are having coffee back at the agency. If, of course, during the show Neal had a sixteen-year-old sister named Shauna Caffrey. :)

Shauna pushed open the glass door of the FBI office with the back of her fist. There was no need to leave obvious fingerprints. Burke was in what was supposed to be a lunchroom but what seemed to be more of a corner appropriated for coffee. It led one to assume that FBI Agents drank only coffee for lunch, which, Neal said, wasn't far from the truth.

"Shauna?"

She tried to smile at him, but she was nervous. And angry. "I was shadowing. Neal made me leave. He didn't want me around."

"Of course he didn't. It's not good manners to shadow an FBI operation." Burke nodded to the gentleman sitting at the table. "This is Gless."

Shauna wasn't in the mood to see Gless. She forced a smile – and unlike most people's forced smiles, hers was quite convincing – and shook his hand. "Shauna Simpson. Nice to meet you. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances. I'm so sorry about your daughter."

Peter looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.

Gless didn't notice. He shook her hand limply, without meeting her eyes. "It won't be much longer."

Peter nodded at her confusion. "Pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit down. Gless is waiting for Rice and Neal to come back with Lindsey."

"I thought Neal said that the club was a waste of time."

Peter glared, raised his eyebrows toward Gless, asking her with his eyes to be considerate.

Shauna looked away from and poured herself the coffee. She didn't sit down. She couldn't sit down. She rested her elbows on the counter behind her and took a sip. It was terrible coffee. Neal had told her that, Neal had warned her. She hadn't listened. She drank it anyway.

"What are you most worried about?" Peter was playing the part of nice, helpful, compassionate FBI Agent. Not that he wasn't all of those things. But he was rarely this soft-spoken.

"The meeting."

The meeting? Shauna paused with the rim of the coffee mug pressed against her lip. She looked at Peter, but he seemed just as stunned as she was. He repeated, "The meeting. What troubles you about that?" His gentle mask had slipped in surprise, but now it was back.

"The kidnapper calls and asks for a meeting with Caffrey in exchange for Lindsey? That seems too easy." Gless wrapped his hands around the coffee mug.

Shauna felt her heart began to race. She swallowed another gulp of coffee, then set it on the counter. "Peter?"

If he was lying, if he'd sent Neal in there alone, without the anklet...

"Yeah." Peter blinked, looked at her. He looked at Gless, and, in a voice that revealed nothing said, "Excuse me."

How could this have happened? Didn't they know how much Wilkes hated Neal? Surely Peter knew! They had sent him to his death. Of course Gless wouldn't care; Gless hated Neal, too. Neal was good at making friends, but he was just as good at making enemies. And now Gless had virtually murdered him. "Gless..."

Lindsey's dad looked at her. He didn't seem like an enemy, he looked like a dad. For a moment, Shauna was very, very jealous of Lindsey.

And then Peter, halfway across the room, snapped his fingers. "Shauna. Now."

She gave Gless one last look, hard enough to kill, then jogged to the stairs, following him to his office. Peter swung open the door and almost banged her in the head; she grabbed it and followed him. He pulled his phone from his pocket and fumbled with the buttons.

Shauna stepped in his way, so close that he had to stop to avoid running into her. "Did you know?"

"Shauna..."

"Did. You. Know." She stared him straight in the eyes. Inside, she was begging him to answer that he hadn't known, that it had all taken him by surprise. She wasn't sure she could stand it if Burke had betrayed Neal. Burke was the only person she could trust.

He met her gaze. "I didn't know."

She felt the tears rise, pulled them back, flattened her hand over her mouth. This was not the time to cry.

"I promise, Shauna. I didn't know."

She nodded. She couldn't talk. She stepped away from him and stared out the windows. The city was dark, with sparkling lights thrown across its expanse like stars. Yellow, red, green, orange. But there were no lights in alleyways. Somewhere out there was Neal. In the dark. Alone. Oh, why hadn't he let her shadow? She could be there right now, watching, tailing.

"You need to get out of there right now." Burke was on the phone. At least Neal had answered. He didn't always answer when he was on a job.

Burke's jaw clenched. "Neal, you're the ransom."

Hearing it said out loud was like a punch in the stomach. Shauna's breath caught in her throat, and she watched Burke's face. Watched as he winced, then asked, "Neal?"

She should have been there. He should have let her shadow.

"Neal?"

She should have been there.

It was several seconds before Burke pulled the phone away from his ear, flipped it shut and set it gently on the desk. He looked at Shauna as if he wasn't sure how to break the news.

She saved him the trouble. "They got him."

He nodded.

"Do you think he's dead?" Her voice trembled as she said it, but crying was no longer an option. She needed to think, and she couldn't cry and think at the same time.

"You know Wilkes better than anybody. Do you think he would have killed Neal?"

"He hates Neal." She pressed her fingernail between her teeth. "But he's not stupid. He wouldn't set this whole thing up just for revenge. He's got a use for Neal."

"Then he's alive." Peter seemed relieved. "We'll know more when Rice shows up."

Shauna swallowed. "If Rice shows up, I'm going to make her wish she'd never been born."

"No, you're not. You're going to behave, or you're going to go home." He said it absently, out of habit, not as if he really cared. Almost as if he, too, wanted to make Rice wish she'd never been born.

Burke was angry, too, Shauna realized. When Burke was angry, things happened. Usually they were things like Neal getting arrested, or Neal getting a lecture, or Neal getting in trouble. But now, for once, Burke's anger was on Neal's side. And that was a very good thing.