AN: At the end of the chapter there's something similar to a short scene from the Swedish movie 'Patrik 1,5'. If you have a chance to see it, it's a great movie about a fifteen year old orphan boy that gets mistakenly placed with a gay married couple that's looking to adopt.

Thanks Deej1957 for making my writing look better!

Disclaimer: White Collar belongs to USA Network and Jeff Eastin.

CHAPTER 11

Neal waited impatiently in the principal's office for Peter to come get him. It was late on Friday, and the school was practically deserted. He'd gotten into a fight. Well, actually, he hadn't done much of the fighting, it had been pretty one sided. The other guy, Mark something-or-other, seemed offended by the fact that Neal had gotten the attention of his girlfriend during lunch. Mark got up, accused him of being a good for nothing criminal and punched him hard in the jaw. As Neal doubled over, a teacher promptly stepped between them, grabbed them, and took them both to the principal's office. Mark had gotten a reprimand and he'd left about 3 hours ago when his mom picked him up. Neal of course, was blamed for the whole thing. He was the criminal boy with the tracking anklet after all…

Peter made his way to the office and after a glance at Neal's bruised face walked into the principal's office. Neal waited while they talked until Peter came out again ten minutes later.

"Come on. We're leaving," said Peter as he made his way out of the office rapidly. Neal got up, grabbed his backpack, and ran a bit to catch up with him.

They made it to the car and drove home in silence. Peter looked angry. Of course he'd blame me too, Neal thought bitterly. He was in trouble again. He wondered how long it would take for Peter and Elizabeth to finally decide he wasn't worth it all. This was the third time in the last four months that this had happened.

The first time, he was accused of cheating in a test. He hadn't, he had studied and had gotten a perfect score. They'd kept him in the principal's office until Elizabeth arrived and talked to the teacher to let him retake the test. He took it again and aced it again. They let him be.

The second time, he was accused of stealing the calculus teacher's laptop. It had gone missing the day before and everyone automatically assumed it had been him. He denied it, they didn't believe him. The laptop was never found, but Peter convinced them that they couldn't possible hold him responsible for something without proof. From then on, he always ended up with extra calculus homework.

The third time had also been a fight. It happened during gym class. They were playing basketball and his anklet caught in the sock of another guy. They both tripped and fell down. He tried apologizing but it didn't go too well. He ended up in the principal's office with a black eye and a less than favorable reputation.

Peter pulled to a stop in front of the house. Neal got out of the car and followed Peter to the kitchen. It looked like Elizabeth had just gotten home; she was starting to pour some wine into a glass, when Peter walked in and kissed her lightly on the lips. He made his way to the fridge to get a beer for himself and a glass of apple juice for Neal. He set the juice in front of Neal and paced around the kitchen taking sips from his beer.

"Hon, are you okay?" Elizabeth asked worriedly. She looked from Peter to Neal and saw Neal's bruised jaw. Rising, she grabbed an ice pack from the fridge and handed it to Neal.

"Here, hold this to your face. It'll help," she said. "Are you okay, what happened?"

"Got in a fight in school again," Neal admitted grudgingly. "The other guy beat me up."

"No, Neal," said Peter angrily, finally stopping his pacing and staring down at Neal. "You didn't get in a fight. You can't get in a fight if you don't fight back."

Neal gave him a puzzled look.

"Dammit Neal! You can't keep letting the guys at school beat you up!" he yelled.

"Peter? You should calm down a bit," said Elizabeth getting up to hold Peter in her arms. Peter sighed and rested his head against El's.

"Neal, why didn't you fight back? This is the second time this has happened. I'm getting tired of watching you come back hurt from school," Elizabeth turned to face him.

Neal shrugged, "Violence requires no imagination." Peter looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you mad at me?" Neal asked. They must be mad. It wasn't fun trying to get him out of trouble in school, having to pick him up from the principal's office every time he screwed up. For the tenth time that day, he wondered when they would finally give him up and get back to their quiet Neal-free life.

"Why would I be mad at you?" Peter asked. "You know what? I am mad," he continued rapidly when he saw Neal lower his gaze. "I'm mad that you can't defend yourself. I'm mad that you keep letting them hit you or accuse you of stealing things. You're a con! Can't you use your imagination to think your way out of a fight?"

"I thought I wasn't supposed to use my 'con super powers', isn't that how you put it in the rules?" Neal asked angrily as he pointed over to the list of rules hanging on the fridge.

"Yes," Peter paused. "No! You can't use your charm for anything illegal, but you have to use it for this, Neal." Peter started pacing again.

"So the rules are rules, but just for some things? I should just magically know when to use them or when to ignore them?" Neal looked at Elizabeth. "I should be bad, but only when you say so?"

He was having trouble breathing and his heart was beating too fast. He didn't want to have a panic attack. They had gotten better. He'd been living with the Burke's for four months now, and the panic attacks and the nightmares were not as frequent now. The last one had happened two weeks ago. He wanted to calm down right now, but he was just too worked up. He put his hand on the table to steady himself and started trying to calm his breathing. His head was already killing him, his blood pounding relentlessly against his skull.

Elizabeth immediately made her way towards Neal's side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Neal, honey, you have to calm down."

Neal looked at her comforting and worried eyes and then down at her hand on his shoulder. He wanted to trust Elizabeth. Every single cell in his body told him that he could trust her, but he still shook his head and slipped out of her hold. He couldn't afford anyone touching him. Especially not Elizabeth. God, my head is killing me...

Elizabeth sighed, lowered her arm and took a step back.

"Neal, you have to breathe now." Peter, Neal thought. Breathe.

He sat down and put his head between his legs and gave a big gasp, trying to suck in air.

"That's it kid, just keep breathing. We're here." Peter's voice repeated over and over until the room stopped spinning and the pounding in his head got smaller. He lifted his head and saw that Elizabeth and Peter were sitting down right beside him, holding hands. Satchmo was lying at his feet looking up at him expectantly.

"All better?" Elizabeth asked. Neal nodded and took a sip from his apple juice.

"I think you need a break," Peter said pensively after a few minutes of silence.

"A break?" Neal asked cautiously.

"Yeah. It's been four months and we still don't have anything that incriminates Adler. We're much closer, but not as close as I'd like to be," Peter responded. "I think we need a break. You know, to relax and do some fishing."

Neal made a face. "Fishing? Catch actual living fish?"

"Yes, fishing," Peter said with a smile, looking over at El. "We have the whole weekend. I have a cabin near the lake. I'll just call the Bureau to let them know so you'll be released into my custody for the weekend."

Neal swallowed. "So, we're all going…fishing?"

"No honey. Peter and you are going. I have a big event tomorrow night," Elizabeth responded.

"Just us two, huh?" Neal asked Peter nervously.

"Satchmo can come along. It'll be fun, just us guys."

Yeah, fun, thought Neal sarcastically. What could be better than going for a weekend fishing trip with a Fed?

"Do I have to go? Or is this one up for discussion, because if it is, I think I would rather just stay and relax here. I have a good book to read and…"

"I hate to break it to you buddy, but you don't have a choice. You're going and that's final."

Peter woke Neal up early next day and by eight that morning they were already outside of the city sitting at a table in a 24 hour diner having breakfast. From where they sat they could see Satchmo sitting in the car staring out the open window.

Peter ordered two plates of pancakes, simple ones for Neal and blueberry ones for himself. The nice old lady that worked as a waitress smiled at them and returned a few minutes later with their order and a big pot of coffee.

"Do you want some coffee, dear?" She asked Neal with a smile, "or just some for your dad?"

Neal shrugged uncomfortably but smiled at her. "Yes, I'll have some please." It was easier letting her assume that they were father and son rather than trying to explain the FBI-agent / criminal-teenager-with-monitoring-anklet relationship.

Peter smiled as well and waited until she was gone. He picked up his fork and attacked his blueberry pancakes.

"Do I look like a dad?" he asked Neal half-jokingly.

"I wouldn't know," Neal answered noncommittally, eating his pancakes and looking outside to see Satchmo with his head out the car window. He didn't know what the waitress was thinking. Peter looked nothing like him. Peter and Elizabeth's kid would probably be the exact opposite of him. Lucky for them, he thought.

Peter nodded and kept eating. He couldn't imagine not ever knowing his dad. He couldn't imagine not ever having a father figure in his life.

"What about your mom? What did she look like?" he asked the boy.

Neal ate quietly for a moment before answering, "She looked tired all the time."

"Did she look like you?" Peter pressed.

"No," Neal answered and kept on eating. This really wasn't something he wanted to talk about. He looked at Peter and he decided to offer a bit more of information so he would leave him alone. "Everyone always told me that I look just like my dad."

"Hmm…" Peter nodded and changed the subject. It was obvious that this wasn't a good topic with Neal, but he was determined to get something out of him by the end of the weekend. Some way or another, they had to learn to trust each other.