Chapter 3

Peter had expected to receive at least a phone call from Neal that night but was surprised when Diana, Jones and even Hughes called.

Neal's call had been to whine about Sister Anna and how he had been thrashed with a ruler and then forced to write 500 lines about obeying Diana. Peter had a hard time not to laugh out loud but only replied sympathetically, "All you have to do is obey Diana and your butt will be safe from Sister Anna's ruler. I know you can do it buddy," and after some comfort from El he had hung up.

The call he got from Jones and Diana were similar in how well Sister Anna had handled Neal. "Boss you should have seen how he behaved after he got the ruler…he meekly and quickly obeyed her and then me for the remainder of the day. I think you should talk to Hughes about hiring her full time."

"Burke, at first I was skeptical about having a nun be in charge of Caffrey but after today I'm a believer. You say that Boston PD has a nun working for them?"

Peter replied with a yes. "Talk to Detective Rizzoli about her. It seems that when she was a child the same nun taught her."

"Well, we shall have to see how the rest of the week goes but I'm considering adding her to our staff with other duties but the main one will be keeping Caffrey in line. Tell Elizabeth Hi and enjoy the rest of your week…worrying about Caffrey for the rest of the week should be the least of your problems," Hughes ended his conversation.

Peter hung up with a strange expression on his face as he turned to his wife. "What's wrong honey?" El asked.

"It seems that Sister did such a good job with Neal that Reese is considering adding her to the staff with her main duties being making sure that Neal behaves. Whatever happened today convinced Jones, Diana and even Reece that she should stay at that job," explained Peter.

"Poor Neal…I bet he can barely sit," cried El.

"Or write," Peter added. "It seems that besides receiving twelve licks from Sister Anna's ruler he also had to write 500 times, 'I will obey Agent Barrigan from now on'. My first call was from Neal complaining about his new keeper. I may not recognize Neal and his behavior when I return."

"We need to bring him back a present for surviving the week with Sister Anna," El said firmly.

Peter nodded and said, "You pick something out that he will like."

El nodded and they returned to their present activities.

Wednesday morning when Neal arrived at work he looked automatically up at Peter's office and seeing that it was unoccupied and hurried up. In his hands he had a basket of blueberry muffins that he was going to leave for the Sister but as soon as he entered he was shocked to find the room filled with flowers; flowering plants…as well as flower arrangements with the largest on the corner of Peter's desk where his had been placed the day before.

Neal heard a clearing of the throat behind him and turned to see Sister Anna looking expectantly behind him. "Mr. Caffrey there is no need to keep bringing me flowers in the hope that I will be easier on you," she started to say when Neal interrupted her with,

"No these aren't mine, Sister Anna I did however bring you this basket of muffins to say that I was sorry for my behavior yesterday that caused you to punish me," as he held out a basket.

"You should be taking these to Agent Barrigan Mr. Caffrey…it's your misbehavior that caused the punishment…you disobeyed her…I was just the instrument used to punish you," Sister Anna replied when she shook her head and wouldn't take the basket. "Now you take this basket and go to every agent in White Collar and offer them a muffin. I'll be watching and if this isn't done with sincerity and charm you and I will be having another discussion," she added as she tapped her ruler against her hand. "And please behave."

Neal took one look at the ruler and did as he was directed and graciously offered every agent one of the delicious muffins within his basket before taking what was left and leaving it with the Sister.

Neal did behave for the next two days as they cleared up their present case and opened another. The second one was a counterfeiting case dealing with bonds, Neal's specialty. The trouble came on Friday when Neal decided that the case wasn't moving fast enough and arranged for his friend Mozzie to call in a tip about the counterfeiters.

Unbeknownst to Diana, Neal had enlisted the aid of Mozzie in finding the counterfeiters. It wouldn't have hurt to give this information to Diana; he would have done the same thing if Peter had been there but he also had another reason to hide it. He knew the counterfeiters and they knew him to be the White Collar's CI and would react violently and that is what Neal was counting on. He knew if they threatened him within Diana's hearing she would come in with guns and the case would be solved. He also knew that if she knew in advance that he was walking into a dangerous situation, she wouldn't send him in…so he had Mozzie call in the tip and assure the agents that there was no way they knew of Neal.

Everything went according to plan; Neal was wearing a wire when he went into the thrift shop where the counterfeiters had set up their operation and Neal had walked into the back room surprising them. They reacted pretty much like Neal thought as they admitted to counterfeiting and threatened to tear Neal apart for being what they considered to be a snitch. Diana and Jones were about to rush in and arrest them when shots were fired…the little wrinkle in Neal's plan had just occurred, one of the felons had pulled a gun and had taken a shot at Neal…thank goodness he had missed but it spurred the FBI to rush in and arrest them all.

Neal would have gotten away with it if Diana hadn't seen Neal and Mozzie together afterwards and had put two and two together. Neal had conned her into sending him in so the week could end with it being solved and she was furious.