3.

Neal left the interrogation room, the gears in his mind racing at a hundred miles per hour. Peter met him out in the hall, his expression a mixture of amusement and more exhaustion.

Peter looked ready to laugh, but it came out as a sigh. "You didn't crack her, huh?"

Neal sighed. "No. I didn't." He caught the sudden burst of amusement on Peter's face and groaned. "Oh, don't start, Peter."

"Sorry," Peter chuckled. "It's just that you don't meet a girl that can deflect the Caffrey charm like that very often. Especially not one that's so young."

Neal couldn't help but grin. "Oh, now you're just mocking me." He visibly brightened as Lauren Cruz appeared at Peter's shoulder, a thin file in her hands. "Lauren! What have you got for us?"

Peter shot Neal the old look of warning as he turned to the resident team newbie. "What he means is, what have you got for me, Lauren?"

Neal exchanged exasperated glances with Lauren. "Of course."

Lauren smiled as she handed Peter the file. "Turns out, the name Isabelle Bravo is just an alias," she

said, as Peter flipped through the meager contents of the file. "Our suspect's real name is Isabelle Reilly, age 20, 21 in the fall. Jones and I looked her up, and it turns out that she's got quite the family history. She comes from small-town Minnesota and, from the looks of it, supported herself through her childhood: both of her parents were drunks, a real pair of scumbags."

Peter "mmhed", a telltale sign of the agent's intense concentration as he studied one of the papers in the file. "She an only child?"

Lauren shook her head. "Uh-uh. She's got a little sister named Mimi Reilly, seven years old."

Neal's brow furrowed. "Who raised her?"

Lauren looked to Neal. "Isabelle did."

"But Isabelle—"

"Was only 11 when Mimi was born," Lauren confirmed. "Looks like she had it pretty rough growing up."

Peter sighed as he closed the file. "A felony is a felony, no excuses," he said, practically reading Neal's thoughts from the expression on the younger man's face. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "If Reilly's parents were both worthless drunks, then where is Mimi now?"

"She's currently checked into the cancer ward at Mount Sinai Hospital here in New York," Lauren reported.

Neal blinked. "Cancer?"

Lauren nodded. "Acute leukemia. Mimi first got sick during Reilly's first year of college as a scholarship student studying art at the Rhode Island School of Design. After she finished her freshman year, Reilly dropped out of school and moved to New York, where she put Mimi in treatment at Mount Sinai and took on multiple jobs to pay the medical bills. A year later, she ended her employment at all three of her jobs when a mysteriously large amount of money was deposited in her bank account, enough to pay for Mimi's current medical bills." Lauren gestured to the files in Peter's hand. "Three guesses where the money came from."

Peter nodded. "Good work, Lauren. Go get some rest; it's been a long day."

Lauren nodded gratefully. "You got it, boss."

Neal and Peter watched her go in a deep, mulish silence. Then Peter sighed and turned to Neal with an air of resignation. "Alright, spit it out."

Neal didn't waste a second. "Peter, this changes everything," he blurted out.

"No," Peter said, giving Neal a sharp look. "This doesn't change anything."

"But—"

"So she had a sad past and a rough childhood. Lots of people do. It doesn't give them the right to commit crimes and steal from honest people. You hear me Caffrey?"

Neal hesitated, then sighed. "You're right."

"Of course I am. And now, I am going to go home and have dinner with my lovely wife, and you are going to head home, too." He shot Neal another sharp look. "And don't be getting any ideas, either."

Neal nodded and gave Peter a small, charming smile. "You got it, boss."

A/N: Hello! Thank you to everybody that reviewed, I really really really appreciate it. You guys seemed to like it, so I'm going to keep going with this one. Sorry for the mainly uneventful chapter, there's going to be better stuff coming up soon, promise ;) Until then, review, and thanks for reading!

P.S. There's a brand new episode of White Collar tonight! Who else is as excited as I am? :)