Peter knocked on Elizabeth's door and was a little surprised to have Neal let him in. The boy didn't look sick yet here he was at home, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day. Still, schools seemed to keep stranger hours now than when he was a youngster. Following him through to the table where El had set up lunch for three Peter asked, "Which school do you attend, Neal?" Peter greeted Elizabeth with a kiss as he listened for an answer from the young boy.
"I attend the school of life, Peter."
"What does that mean?" Peter pulled out a chair and sat down.
"What do you think it means, Peter?"
Ne pas être à puce, Neal." El admonished firmly as she poured the drinks.
"Oui Mère. Excuse me Peter. I don't go to school." Neal spoke in a more contrite tone.
"Why not? Did something happen?" For sure the child hadn't been expelled. Peter had seen worse behaviour on a nun.
"School didn't agree with me, Peter. I found it… stifling." Neal made himself a salad sandwich out of the selection before him on the table. "Instead, I prefer to learn from living."
Peter looked across at El for a clue. Too early in their relationship to blurt out, 'what the hell.' So instead he went for, "Are you home schooled, Neal?"
"Not in the official sense. I learn a good deal at home, reading books, helping Mom out with the chores. I look after filing the bills and help to manage the finances. So I guess you could call that home schooling in an unofficial capacity." The teenager took another bite of his sandwich and Peter slipped a little deeper into the mystery novel that was Neal Caffrey.
-W-C-
A week later when El invited Peter to come over for dinner, she suggested he may like to bring an overnight bag. El found herself longing for the sweet, caring, thoughtful man when he wasn't around and the house was beginning to feel like Peter belonged there as much as its other two occupants. At the same time, Peter, when asked to stay over, felt like a person must feel that had just been told they'd won the lotto. He couldn't concentrate all afternoon. Work was a right-off and he was more than happy to head home early to pack a bag for his sleepover. He stopped at the bottle shop on the way and picked up a selection of white and red wine. It was more than he'd ever spent on alcohol in one transaction in his whole life. Of course he'd only take in one or two bottles in with him when he arrived so he'd need to make a decision at some point.
Peter actually managed to make it to El's place before she did, even with all his procrastinating in the bottle shop, so he hung out in the car waiting. About half an hour later, he saw the door open from the inside which was a little interesting as he had rung the doorbell when he'd first arrived and no one had answered. Neal stepped out the front door looking cautiously in each direction and moved to stand on the footpath. He was dressed smartly and wore a khaki satchel over his shoulder and a trendy hat on his head. He looked like he was waiting for something to happen and sure enough, a dark blue camira pulled up and the young boy jumped in. Peter copied down the plates and was about to check it out when El rapped on the window of his car. Peter climbed out and pulled El in for a kiss. "Hi Honey."
"You been waiting long sweetie? I'm sorry, the traffic was really bad." Peter grabbed his bag off the back seat and they both headed up to the house.
"I haven't been here too long at all El, but just before you arrived, Neal left in a car with someone. I didn't catch who it was."
"Oh." El looked surprised but not concerned. She dumped her assortment of files and bags she'd been carrying onto the coffee table and moved on from Peter's inquiry. "Do you want to go out for dinner or should we eat in."
Okay, so El wasn't troubled by the 'Neal incident.' "We could go down to that little Chinese place on Market Street? If it's not too chilly out for a stroll we could walk."
"Oh I love that restaurant."
So it was decided, Dine-In Chinese to celebrate the first sleepover.
Peter was uncertain how Neal would fit into going out for dinner since he'd just split but he had to be careful. He didn't want to bombard El with a grilling about her son. Sometimes he had to work at pulling back from being an agent and try to be more like a friend.
They got back home soon after ten and Peter was intrigued that the house was still empty and El was yet to offer an explanation. Perhaps Neal was having a staying over with a friend. That would explain a lot. But in his gut he knew it was unlikely to be that simple.
The next morning after a romantic night of kissing, cuddling and everything else that a new couple gets up to, Peter rolled over and snuggled up to his sweet, stunningly gorgeous girlfriend. He made a wish that it would be the first of many mornings waking up beside Elizabeth. The thought of sleeping in his own cold bed back at his apartment without smelling her intoxicating beauty was more than he could bare.
When Peter finally got back into his car around mid-afternoon, he was anxious to look up the number plates of the blue camira. He went to place his hands on the little notebook he'd scribbled the information on the afternoon before but it was gone. "What the hell?" And this time he did blurt the words out loud.