Chapter Thirteen

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

Sitting at his desk muttering to himself unhappily Peter put together the official case file on the Bashiri break in. He looked through the information for the hundredth time before reluctantly signing his name to it. As confident as Neal was in his abilities he was also missing half the night and Peter wanted to ensure that nothing the police had given him so far pointed towards him. Peter felt it was obviously Neal's work, but he also reminded himself that he was bias.

Peter had dropped Neal off at his apartment to take a shower and possibly a quick nap before planing to join Peter at work in a few more hours. Peter had tried to convince him to just take the day off but Neal was far too excited about talking to the Bone Baron concerning the missing skulls. As much as Peter appreciated Neal's work ethic he worried about Neal pushing himself too hard after the night he'd had. Peter reminded himself to talk to Frost about the fact that Neal couldn't be working for the FBI all day and the CIA all night on a regular basis. Peter jolted slightly as his cell phone rang, taking it out he rolled his eyes when he discovered that not only was Frost calling but at some point in time he'd put himself into his contacts as 'Your Spook Friend'.

"What do you want?"

"Good morning to you too, Peter." Frost replied cheerfully. "How's Neal doing? I trust he lived through the night."

"He woke up in agony because of you." Peter snarled.

"What?" Frost asked sounding genuinely concerned. "Did you take him to the hospital? The concus…"

"It has nothing to do with his 'concussion', the stress of last night brought his conversion disorder back."

"That's not good. I'll have Dr. Harris check in with him right away. Injuring that same arm must have triggered it."

"What really happened last night, Frost?" Peter demanded. "A simple cut on a fence wouldn't have sent Neal back into the kind of panic he was in this morning."

"Peter I know that Neal is family to you and its hard to see him in pain, but with conversion dis…"

"Stop there," Peter interrupted "I'm not in the mood to play games and I'm clearly not going to get an honest answer or anything even resembling the truth out of you right now."

"I honestly don't want Neal to get hurt." Frost said solemnly. "Do you believe that's the truth?"

"For your sake it had better be."

Ending the conversation with the open threat Peter disconnected the call. Peter did believe that Frost didn't mean Neal any intentional harm, but that didn't mean he was above placing him in a dangerous situation as last night had proven. It might be out of Frost's control that Neal was quick to ignore orders and get into trouble, but it was his responsibility to be more careful when dealing with Neal and the kinds of jobs he asked him to do. Neal's individual thinking and 'leap before looking' personality wasn't something that Frost's military background had prepared him for dealing with. In general Peter felt Frost was ill equipt to even attempt to keep Neal safe in the field.

"Year of working with him and I'm barely qualified for the job." Peter admitted quietly to himself.

Peter had turned his back on Neal for half a second and he'd run off to confront Rebecca alone with what had ultimately ended with disastrous results. Considering the high price Neal had paid that day for his recklessness Peter had never confronted him about how his tenancy to abandon good sense and caution when his heart managed to speak louder than his head had lead to everything going wrong that day. It was a conversation they'd basically had a million times before to no effect anyway. Peter was considering whether or not he should try to talk to Neal about sticking closer to procedure now that he was actually in the FBI when there was a knock at the door. Knowing who it was Peter glanced over the case file one last time in hopes that anything he might have missed would jump out at him. Aubrey waited a full minute before cautiously knocking again.

"Come in." Peter called.

"Hey, Chief…is this a good time? I mean I know you called me in here and all, but if something's come up…"

"No, sorry, please, come in."

Aubrey came into Peter's office and made himself comfortable in one of the chairs in front of Peter's desk. Aubrey was a year younger than Neal but already had a good deal of gray at his temples. He'd been in the FBI since he was twenty-five, he'd spent the first three years of his career as part of the Hostage Rescue Team before moving into Behavioral Profiling briefly before settling into Art Crimes. Peter had read the report on the poorly ended hostage situation that had pushed Aubrey out of the high pressure hostage division and into the more office based areas of the FBI. From what he could see Aubrey hadn't been at fault for the hostage's death, but Peter could fully understand how the nightmare scenario had caused him to lose his nerve for future hostage situations.

"You were right about the Malaki case," Aubrey said conversationally "the wife did pay someone to destroy the heirloom painting, she confessed when confronted with the fact that she'd tried several times to find a buyer behind her husband's back. The divorce is now pending so…go team."

"Anyone willing to burn their spouse's past because it clashes with the furniture already had marital issues." Peter said without sympathy.

"Very true." Aubrey nodded.

"So that case is all wrapped up?"

"It is." Aubrey nodded. "No arrests, but I'll have the case report on your desk by the end of the week. Since they never actually filed for the insurance money there's no case there, the husband and his divorce lawyer can deal with local PD on any charges they want to press against her as far as property damage. It's not really an FBI problem anymore."

"Well your new case is." Peter assured.

"Something fresh?" Aubrey asked hopefully.

"Just last night."

"Wow, cops aren't usually that quick to alert us, half of what makes this jobs so tough is the fact that most cases are 'cold' before we even get our hands on them."

"This is a high profile theft that they want quick answer on, a home invasion."

"I'm surprised you don't want to take this one." Aubrey said as he reached out and took the folder. "It sounds fun."

"I'm working with Agent Caffrey on his first case. I need someone who can devote their full focus."

"On it." Aubrey smiled as he looked over the case file. "Damn…right off the balcony, that's bold. Kinda have to respect that kind of commitment to not getting caught. I can see why you didn't want to give this to Caffrey."

Peter gave Aubrey a questioning look.

"Didn't want him getting any ideas." Aubrey chuckled. "In the old days he would definitely been at the top of my list for this, it feels like something he'd do. Particularly this dog door stunt, very Caffrey, and the fact that the guy risked his own life rather than injure the homeowner."

"Aubrey…"

"Actually, do we know where Caffrey was last night?" Aubrey teased. "Where is he right now for that matter? Are we sure this wasn't him?"

"Aubrey." Peter growled darkly.

"Easy, Chief, just a joke."

"I don't appreciate it."

Peter hadn't meant to sound quite so angry or defensive but he had a healthy dose of both in his voice and the effect on Aubrey's light mood was instantaneous. He and Aubrey had gotten along very well in the first five months of Peter replacing the previous Section Chief. Aubrey had been more formal with him at first but had quickly relaxed when he found that Peter wasn't particularly 'level conscious'. Aubrey now had the fearful look of someone who had just taken one step too far with their boss and wasn't sure how to make it right.

"I'm sorry." Peter apologized.

"It's okay, I was out of line." Aubrey admitted sheepishly. "I shouldn't be slandering Agent Caffrey even in jest. I'll stop."

"Thank you."

"Although I have to say you had a better sense of humor before he graduated…has anyone ever told you that Caffrey kinda puts you on edge?"

"It's been mentioned once or twice." Peter sighed. "I have every faith that Neal is going to make an excellent Agent, but due to his reputation, deserved or not, he has a lot to prove."

"And comments like mine don't help." Aubrey added apologetically. "I'm sorry, I'm being unfair, of course he didn't do this. As much as I've suspected him over the years of countless thefts he has no record. Even your arrest…well I'm not sure what happened with that."

"I got the wrong man, simple as that." Peter lied. "It happens."

"I suppose." Aubrey said doubtfully. "Still I've read your case files with him as your CI, you don't learn the kind of skills he has by living an honest life. Of course the Statue of Limitations is probably up on anything he may or may not have done in the past so I guess all that really matters is that he's on the right side of the Law now."

"He is."

"Then I better get to work catching whoever this is." Aubrey lifted up the file.

"Keep my updated on anything that comes up with this case."

"Absolutely, Agent Burke." Aubrey replied respectfully. "Hey, maybe this is the real 'Caffrey' we've been after all these years."

"Maybe..."