A/N: I DO NOT OWN ANYONE IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S. THIS IS MY FIRST WHITE COLLAR STORY AND IT'S NOT SET IN ANY PARTICULAR SEASON AND I'M SORRY IF IT'S OUT OF CHARACTOR AT SOME POINTS, I'M TRYING MY BEST. PLEASE ENJOY THOUGH!

As I was walking down the street to the restuarant I work at as a dish washer, I was trying to spot my next victim of being pickpocketed. I found a guy wearing a suit topped with a fedora walking my way, he would be the easiest person I could pickpocket out of all the people on the street at that time. I started to walk towards my target, the space between us got shorter and I started to get nervous of doing it yet again, I always get nervous when I have to pickpocket for money. When we got within inches apart, we bumped into each other and I was able to grab his wallet, my insides were jumping with joy that I was able to pickpocket yet another person. I continued walking in hopes that he didn't notice, but the arm that was holding the snatched wallett was grabbed from behind holding me where I was. I turned around to meet the piercing blue eyes of the man that I just pickpocketed.
"My wallett please?" He asked sticking out his other hand, I looked down at the hand that he stuck out.
"Here..." I said setting his wallet back in the hand he held out, he held onto my arm while he double checked to make sure everything was accounted for. "How'd you know I pickpocketed you?" I asked curiousily, he was the first person that ever caught me.

"I just know..." He said as he pulled out a twenty dollar bill handing it me, "This is for a good try..." He said smiling as I grabbed the $20, I needed all the money I could get and he winked before he went on his way. I just watched the man I just tried to pickpocket go on his way happily like nothing happened, I shook my head and turned back around to get going so I wouldn't be late to work.

The Next Day-

Neal's Point of View-

"Mozzie, that will never work..." I said as we turned into the park to cut through it to head to my loft.

"Why wouldn't it work? It doesn't have any kind of loop hole..."

"Why don't we..." I said stopping mid-sentence and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the girl from yesterday trying to pickpocekt yet another person.

"We what?" Mozzie asked trying to get my attention.

"Hold that thought Mozzie...I'll meet you back at the loft..." I said walking over to the girl standing next to her. "Do you pickpocket often?" I asked as I stared at the children on the playground, I glanced over at her as she looked at me for a moment and rolled her eyes before she turned and headed towards where I just came from.

"Oh...it's you..." She said as she did so.

"Yep...your just angry that I caught you in the process..." I said gettng her to stop and turn to face me.

"What do you want?" She asked putting her hands on her hips.

"I just want to know if you pickpocket often?"

"Why do you care if I do or not?"

"If you do, I may feel obligated to call the co-" I said when I was interrupted by a girl about six years old running up to us.

"Mommy!" She exclaimed.

"Yes?" The mother asked.

"I'm hungry..." The daughter said, I was in shock that she had a daughter and it clicked in my head why she is resorting to pickpocketing.

"Let's go get something to eat." The mother said.

"I'm quite hungry myself, you mind if I join?" I asked as she gave me a dirty look of sorts, "It'll be my treat." I added.

"Okay then...fine...thank you..." She said.

"The name is Neal..." I said sticking my hand out to shake hers.

"Leslie..." She said shaking my hand.

"And who is this beautiful young lady?" I asked squatting down to be the same height as her.

"I'm Olivia." She said.

"Olivia, that is a pretty name, but not as pretty as you. Wait...what's this behind your ear..." I said as I did a lame magic trick pretending to pull a gold coin out of her ear. Olivia was shocked and I handed her the coin.

"How'd you do that?" Olivia asked.

"It's magic." I said.

"What are you hungry for Olivia?" Leslie asked as I stood up.

"Ice cream!" Olivia exclaimed.

"That'll ruin your dinner." Leslie said as she checked her watch.

"Why don't you live your life on the edge for once?" I asked smirking.

"Please mommy! I promise I'll eat all my vegetables at dinner..." Olivia said.

"Fine...just this once..." Leslie said as she grabbed her daughters hand as I led them over to my favorite ice cream parlor that was down the street from my loft.

"What do you want?" Leslie asked looking at Olivia.

"Chocolate." Olivia said.

"Cone or cup?" Leslie asked.

"Cone!" Olivia exclaimed as we walked up to the counter.

"May I help you?" The employee asked us from behind the counter.

"We want three single scoop cones..." I said.

"What flavors?"

"Chocolate." Olivia said excitedly.

"A chocolate, a ..." I said looking to Leslie, her big brown eyes met mine for a moment when she moved a strand of her long blonde hair behind her ear.

"Vanilla please." Leslie said smiling for the first time since I first begun talking to her.

"Make that two vanillas." I said smiling at the employee before they went to make the three cones.

"Mommy..." Olivia said tugging Leslie's shirt.

"Yeah?" Lelie asked as she squatted down, Olivia whispered into Leslie's ear and Leslie stood back up. "We'll be right back, we have to use the little girls room." Leslie said as Olivia was doing a potty dance.

"Right..." I said pointing them to where the bathroom was. Leslie walked Olivia to the bathroom, I paid for our ice cream and carried the three cones to a table that was made for four people. I sat down waiting for them to return, when they got to the table I stood up until they sat down then I sat down. "Chocolate for Olivia, vanilla for Leslie and vanilla for me." I said as I handed them the proper cones.

"What do you say Olivia?" Leslie asked.

"Thank you Neal." Olivia said before she licked her ice cream.

"Yeah, thanks Neal." Leslie said smiling a tad, which made me smile.

"No problem...what grade are you in Olivia?" I asked curiously.

"Kindergarten..." Olivia said between licks.

"Do you like it?" I asked as she nodded, "What did you do in class today?" I asked.

"We did finger painting...we sung the alphabet...we colored and drew pictures...I drew a picture of mommy and I." She said.

"I like to paint and draw myself...is that your favorite thing?" I asked as Olivia nodded, she was too involved on eating her ice cream.

"Are you a famous painter?" Leslie asked.

"Trust me when I say that you may or may not have seen my work." I said smiling, I didn't have to tell her that I'm a con artist and I make replica paintings.

"Can you draw people?" Olivia asked.

"I'm sure I can..." I said confident in my skills.

"Can you draw me?" Olivia asked.

"You bet." I said as she smiled as we contined eating and making small talk until we finished eating.

"I swear, you get more on yourself than in your belly." Leslie said wiping Olivia's face and hands with napkins.

"She's a kid, thats their job is to be messy when they eat..." I said as Olivia was trying not to fall asleep.

"True...I should get her home, she usually takes a nap about now." Leslie said as she stood up pulling Olivia up into her embrace, Olivia wrapped her legs around Leslie's waist, her arms wrapping around her neck and her head fell onto her shoulder.

"She always take a nap at 4 PM?" I asked checking my watch.

"Well, I work night shifts so it's hard to have a kid at work with you on night shifts so she usually naps when I work." Leslie explained as I stood up taking care of the trash as she walked around the table meeting me at the door, I opened it and held it open for her.

"Let me walk you home." I said as we stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"It's fine, I got it..." Leslie said as she started walking the opposing way of my place.

"Let me be the gentleman that I am and walk you to your door..." I said catching up to her, "So, where do you work? Obviously it isn't enough to where you are resorting to pickpocketing." I said.

"Work is work, I need some kind of constant pay...it may not be enough to support us or cover our rent sometimes, but I do what I have to do to make sure my kid has what she needs." She said as Olivia was out like a light.

"A mother has to do what a mother needs to do, what if you ever get caught by the cops?"

"That is why I won't get caught and obviously I haven't yet..." Leslie said.

"Have you tried to find a better job?"

"I can't risk finding a better or any other job right now...this job is working and I don't want to leave it and there may not be another, then I will be worse off."

"Your not that far off from worse off if you keep pickpocketing, what will happen if you get caught, where will Olivia be?" I asked as she stopped turning to look at me.

"I have tried to stop, but I need that to help me financially. If I could, I would stop. If I get caught, at least Olivia will go to a family where they will be able to support her financially, until then I am going to be the best parent I can be." Leslie said storming off and I could tell she was upset and didn't want to talk about it.

"You have thought about this haven't you?" I asked following her.

"Everyday of my life." Leslie said as she started walking up a set of stairs to a door, I looked around at the bad side of town. It was really run down, a lot of homeless people and you can see gangs wandering around. I walked up the stairs to be with her as she unlocked her door. "Thank you Neal for the ice cream..." Leslie said.

"Leslie, what would you say if I can help you?"

"By what, giving me another $20?" Leslie asked.

"What if I can teach you how to pickpocket better?"

"What do you know about pickpocketing?"

"I know a lot more than you think, let me help you...for Olivia's sake..."

"Give me one reason why I should let you help me?" Leslie asked as I lifted her wallet up that I pickpocketed from her at the ice cream shop, she checked her pockets before she grabbed it from my hand looking through it. "How and when did you do that?"

"It doesn't matter...if you change your mind, my card is in there..." I said smiling before I walked down the couple steps turning to look back at her before I started heading back to my own place. I let myself in, seeing Mozzie sitting at the table sipping a cup of wine and he turned to look at me quickly.

"Where have you been?" Mozzie asked.

"Out..."

"Who was that girl that you were talking to?" Mozzie asked, I sensed a little hurt in his voice, I walked further in laying my jacket over the back of a chair.

"Her name is Leslie...she needs our help."

"Our? When and how did I get involved with this?" Mozzie asked.

"Since her kid got involved..."

"A kid, as in?" Mozzie asked.

"A kid about 6 years old..." I said.

"Why so interested in this lady? Is it because she was the first one almost able to get your wallet?" Mozzie asked.

"No...I don't know what it is...just going with my gut instinct and wanting to help her..." I said as I didn't even know what about her made me so interested.

"Is it because you feel for her daughter coming from a family without a father as well?" Mozzie asked.

"Maybe..." I said sitting down pouring myself a glass of wine and sipping it trying to not think about her but it was hard to get her out of my head.

"Let's be honest, what are the odd's that she will call?" Mozzie asked.

"I hope she will call..." I said as I swirled the glass before taking a sip.

"Until she does, let's work out this plan..." Mozzie said pulling out the blueprints of the building we were talking about earlier.

Lindsey's Point of View-

I slid my wallet into my pocket as I watched Neal walk down the sidewalk. I opened the door carrying Olivia up the four flights of stairs to our floor, I walked down the hall unlocking our apartment and went in locking all the locks I had installed before carrying Olivia to our bed. I could only afford a studio apartment so it has to do, luckily it came with it's own bathroom and we don't have to share it like other studio apartments have to. I walked over to the kitchen part of our room pulling out stuff from the fridge to make dinner thinking about what Neal had said. As I was getting the stuff together, I pulled out his business card and looked back at Olivia letting out a sigh. 'Maybe Neal can help...no, I can't bring him into this, he has no idea what my life is like...but he is better at this than I am.' I thought to myself as I was cooking the food for dinner. I put his business card up on the fridge to keep it safe. When dinner was ready, Olivia was starting to wake up so I set up our coffee table where we would normally have our dinner when I'm not working. I went to the bed sitting on the edge shaking her gently to wake her rest of the way up.

"Olivia, time for dinner." I said as she woke up rubbing her eyes.

"We're home?" She asked confused.

"Yeah, dinner is ready." I said as she sat up and sat beside me, I reached out pulling the coffee table to us. I clicked the television on by the remote turning it to the Disney channel since she loves that channel. I kept looking at the business card that was hanging on the fridge.

"When will we see Neal again?" Olivia asked drawing my attention away from his card.

"I honestly don't know Olivia."

"I liked him." Olivia said as she did finish all her vegetables like she promised, I enjoyed spending time like this with Olivia, I cleaned the dishes when we finished dinner. After the dishes, I went to her backpack searching through it pulling out all the stuff that could stay home and the things I needed to sign. I read over the papers signing them before putting them back in the folder that will be put in her bag.

"What do you want for lunch tomorrow?" I asked.

"I want to buy hot lunch. Tomorrow is pizza day."

"You know you can't..."

"Why mommy?" She asked in a begging and whiny manner, we have been over this before and I always hate telling my daughter 'no.' I pulled out my wallet seeing the $20 that Neal gave me and I would get paid tomorrow from my job.

"Alright, hot lunch tomorrow." I said as I pulled out a ziploc bag putting the $20 in it and wrote a note to her teacher for her to read it so she will keep a hold of it until lunch. The $20 should last her a couple weeks of hot lunch so it will be easier than packing a lunch every day. Olivia and I watched television until she fell back asleep. As Olivia slept, I laid on the bed next to her playing with her long black hair that was like mine before I dyed it. I would listen to the constant alarms of cars or the store down the street, the gun shots, the screams, and the fights that was happening outside. I stayed up all night like I do every night to protect my daughter.