I am so sorry for how long you've had to wait for an update! But I like this story to stay unique and until my brain comes up with something I feel like you haven't read a million times in kid fic, I don't want to update. So I hope you like this chapter, it was originally for Dream A Little Me in You Dreams, but I ended up not finishing it and writing a Father's Day fic where all WC characters are their normal ages.
"Breakfast is served, my little prince charming."
Elizabeth placed a plate of Mickey Mouse waffles down in front of her four year old boy, before setting down at the table across from him with breakfast of her own. She watched a smile spread across Neal's face, wiping away the last remnants of sleep.
"Waffles!" The boy exclaimed as he picked up his fork and dug in. The adoptive mother chuckled at her son's excitement. Picking up her mug of coffee, she sipped at it quietly marveling at the simple, yet heartwarming sight of the boy eating waffles. Elizabeth had never been a believer in perfection. Peter came the closest she ever thought possible, until Neal, adult or child, entered their lives, wormed into their family.
Her phone rang. Elizabeth sighed in response. "So much for perfection right?" She mumbled to herself. She wasn't surprised when Neal just kept sticking his hand in the syrup and giggling. She picked up her phone laying on the table and eyed her son warningly, before pushing the answer key. Neal bit his bottom lip and wiped his hand on his shirt. Elizabeth threw her hand up in disbelief. "That's not what that look meant!"
Neal stuffed his mouth with waffle.
"Hello? ...Oh, no, Renee, I was talking to Neal. Sorry...No, perhaps it was my doing. I put to much syrup on his plate so I guess he decided he would put it on his shirt." Elizabeth laughed as she listened to her assistant's response. "I know, I know. So, was there something you needed?...No, that's fine. We can pick the shipment up on Monday. Just finish up the invitations today and take the weekend off. Sunday is Father's Day, after all...Of course, you too! Bye."
Neal watched in wild amusement as the syrup strung between his fingers when he would pull them apart. He giggled around the waffle in his mouth, barely aware of Elizabeth's telephone conversation. That was until she said Father's Day.
Neal almost choked on the food in his mouth. He started coughing, but quickly managed to recover before his mom thought he was choking.
"You okay, sweetheart?"
Neal nodded and smiled weakly at her while picking his fork back up, but with no intention to eat anymore. Suddenly, he felt very sick.
He had not shared a Father's Day with the Burkes since he was reverted back to a child. To be honest, he had actually forgotten about the touchy holiday all together until the moment Elizabeth had spoken of it. What was he supposed to do? What was expected of him? Was he supposed to buy Peter a gift? He had no money! But when did that ever stop you before? He questioned to himself. He shook his head. He would figure something out.
He watched Elizabeth hang up her phone and lay it on the table. He cast his gaze back onto his own food a moment, pushing the bits of uneaten waffle around his plate with his fork while his mom ate hers.
"M-mommy?"
Neal silently, and oddly, cursed himself for the hesitation.
"Hmm?"
"What do I...what am I...how am I..."
Elizabeth chuckled and wiped at her mouth with a napkin. "One question at a time, baby."
Neal chewed on the tip of his thumb for second. "What do I get Petew fow Fathew's Day?"
Now it was Elizabeth's turn to choke. She coughed and recovered a lot quicker than Neal had. She took a sip of her coffee. "Well, Neal...you don't have to get him anything." She responded gently, but when Neal's face looked crestfallen she quickly added, "Unless you want to! I'm sure Peter would love it if you got him a gift." She expected it to help, but Neal's frown, though not as deep, still remained.
"But...what do I get?"
"Umm...well you could make him something?" She suggested. Neal raised an eyebrow. "What? I know for a fact Peter would love something made by you rather than anything you could buy." Neal still didn't let up. "Trust me, honey. Draw him a picture, or something."
"But I've dwawn so many befowe."
Elizabeth smiled and stood up from the table. "I know you'll think of something. Now come on, we have to get that syrup off of you."
Saturday, the day before Father's Day
Neal stood beside Elizabeth, one arm snaked around her leg, the other holding Mario, his polar bear, close in the other while they waited in line at the bank. He wasn't claustrophobic or anything, but now that he was 'smaller', the word he uses, big crowds or long lines of bigger people had a way of making him feel uncomfortable, again his word. He definitely wasn't scared.
A tall man walked up next to them in the other line. Neal hugged Elizabeth's leg tighter.
"It's alright, baby. We're up next and then we will be out of here before you know it, okay?"
Nope. He definitely wasn't scared.
Elizabeth kept her arm on Neal's shoulder while she made her deposit, not because she was afraid of what the little ex con would pull, but because she could feel his tiny fingers dig into her leg with each passing second. Both she and Peter knew about Neal's 'anxiety' in large crowds, but neither really brought it up much in front of the small boy, because they knew it would make his denial that much more stronger.
"Here's your receipt, ma'am, and a sucker for the little guy."
"Oh, thanks!" Elizabeth smiled and took the slip of paper and piece of candy. "Here you go, sweetie. Say thank you."
"Thank you." Neal whispered from behind Elizabeth's leg as he took the sucker in his hand. He stuck out his arm to wave, but the man beside them walked into it and the boy scrambled to get his arms back around El's leg faster than humanly possible.
"Okay, okay. It's alright. We're going. We're leaving." El encouraged as she picked him up and carried him out of the bank, his arms tight around her neck.
Neal sat in his car seat on the ride home from the bank, listening to his mom sing quietly along with the radio, something that she always did when Neal got 'uncomfortable' in public.
"Neal, did you eat your sucker?" Elizabeth questioned from the driver's seat. He fingered the piece of candy still in hand, intending to peel the wrapper off, but suddenly stopped. The sucker in his hand was green and to Neal it wasn't just a sucker. It was the best Father's Day gift he could ever get Peter.
Sunday, Father's Day
Peter woke up early for a Sunday morning, not because he was excited or anxious or anything, he just...woke up early. Glancing over at his wife's side of the bed expecting to see her beautiful sleeping self, he was surprised to find the bed empty.
A smile came to his face and he raced out of bed and down stairs like a kid on Christmas morning, but slowed down and came to stop at the bottom of the stairs, while listening to the sounds coming from the kitchen. Pots and pans clinging, the refrigerator door opening and closing and the most beautiful sound his ears had and would ever hear, his wife and son laughing.
A pain in his cheeks started to flare up from the grin on his face as he made his way into the kitchen. "Good morning, family."
"Morning, honey." El replied back as she motioned for him to sit at the table. She took three pancakes from the pan and placed them on a plate that Neal wobbly held between his little hands. She leaned down and whispered, "take those to daddy," then watched him trot over to the dinning room table and standing on his tip-toes, he sat the plate down in front of him and grinned.
"Bweakfast is sewved, daddy."
"Aw, thanks bud. This looks great! Did you help make this?"
Neal nodded eagerly and flashed his pearly white teeth. "Uh huh. Just fow you."
"Well, I guess I'm in for a real treat then, huh?" Peter cut a piece of pancake and chewed for a second with a pondering expression, before chewing dramatically. "Mmmm. These just might be the best pancakes I've ever had."
"Even bettew than the ones at Sea Wowld?"
Peter tilted his head to the side. "I don't know...those shark shaped pancakes were pretty awesome, but I bet if you help me put a little more syrup on these, I'd bet these will be even better. What do you say? Will you do the honors?" The agent held out the syrup bottle for dramatic and enticing effect, before the little boy nodded and was placed on his father's lap. He took the bottle and drowned Peter's pancakes.
Elizabeth walked over and leaned down to kiss Peter on the cheek before whispering, "Happy Father's Day, Hon."
Together, they ate sugary soaked pancakes.
After breakfast, Peter got ready on Elizabeth's instructions of shorts, t-shirts and sneakers before following of her next instruction of helping Neal.
He knocked on the door to the kid's room, before entering. "Neal? You ready to go?"
The little boy sat on his bed, picking at the hem of his shorts.
"Neal?"
Still nothing.
Peter sat down on the bed beside him. "What's the matter, kiddo?"
Neal just shrugged his shoulders, which prompted Peter to nudge him gently. "Come on. You know you can tell me anything."
The boy sighed before mumbling, "I got you a pwesent...you know fow...fow...Fathew's Day."
Peter bit his lip, trying to hide his smile knowing he needed to get the kid to lighten up first. "Well, where's it at?"
"Undew my bed."
"Well get it. I can't wait to see it."
"I...I'm not so suwe...you might...what if...what if you don't like it?"
Peter wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders. "It's from you, correct?"
Neal nodded. "Then I'm going to love it. Now, go get it."
The little boy slid off the bed and crawled under the said piece of furniture while elizabeth silently appeared in the doorway. Peter noticed her and shot her a questioning look about the gift, but she looked just as curious as he did with a shrug of her shoulders.
Neal wiggled out from under the bed a few seconds later, with a white piece of paper folded neatly down the middle and handed it to Peter. The agent wasn't surprised to see a hand made Father's Day card, one a little less precise and pristine as those he received from adult Neal when he was on the run, but exactly the same heart behind it.
Crayon crafted letters spelled a wobbly 'Happy Father's Day' on the front, but on the inside was where the real message was.
There on the inside of the folded piece of paper, no letters were written, no pictures were drawn. All that was there was a green sucker from the bank taped to the inside.
The agent stared at the object a few seconds before glancing down at the boy in front of him. Blue eyes, wide with awe, respect and just that hint of mischief that always kept Peter guessing looked up at him, just like the blue eyes that stared at him the first time he met Neal Caffrey face to face and received a green sucker from the bank from him.
"Do...do you like it?"
Peter looked back to the sucker, then back to Neal as he pulled it out of the card. He held it out in between them and twirled it in his fingers.
"You know I ate the first one you gave me?"
"You did? Y-you remember that?"
Peter nodded. "I ate it the day I finally...arrested you. You know why?"
Neal shook his head.
"It wasn't because I felt like I had beaten you at our game, or anything." Peter paused, relieving the memory in his head. "It was because I felt like I could finally enjoy it, because I knew...I knew I would see you again, that you wouldn't just vanish or fake your own death again. I knew that even though our little cat and mouse game was over...or so I thought...I just knew...life would be a lot different and...I was perfectly okay with it and ready for it, actually."
Neal blinked at him. "Oh."
"Yeah." The agent picked the little boy up and sat him on his hip.
Neal's arms snaked around the man's neck, before whispering, "Happy Father's day, daddy."
"Thanks, buddy." Peter replied, hugging the small boy close to him.
"And for your last, but not least present, I thought we could all go out to the park for some baseball." Elizabeth called from the doorway.
Peter grinned widely at that and jogged Neal on his hip. "What do you say, kid? You up for some baseball?"
Neal nodded and wiggled to get down. The agent let him go and watched him race out of the room. Elizabeth looked at him. "Ready?"
Peter looked at his card one more time, then at the sucker. A few seconds passed, before he tore off the wrapper and put the sucker in his mouth.
Around the piece of candy, he responded, "More than ever."
AN: Thanks for reading and sticking with me. Let me know what you think!