Past Haunts: Chapter 5
Welcome to Chapter 5 :) Here is an early chapter for all of you lovely people who said I was killing them to make them wait another week. :)
Warnings: Oh! and don't kill me! Has Neal whumpage, and some mentions of past non con. as stated above, never anything desrciptive. Read these warnings BEFORE you read please!
Disclaimer: I don't own white collar, just this plot line and OC. *sigh*
Will we find out some of Neal's past? Who is Frank really? HMMMM...
Past Haunts
Mozzie showed up not five minutes after the call he got from the suit. Elizabeth hurried to answer the door and ushered him in. The short man nearly collapsed in the seat opposite Peter, and gratefully accepted the wine El proffered.
"I was in the neighborhood, if that's what you're wondering." He said on answer to Peter's slightly questioning expression.
"Okay. Well, Neal-" A raised hand cut him off.
"I know. I was nearly run over by him for the second time today. In these kind of situations, Neal tends to have blinders on and just run. He could never handle emotional situations. At least the one's involving his emotions. Anyway, I'm sure you have questions, so, let me start from the beginning with what I know.
Neal's Past
(Any holes are due to Neal's misinformation or just plain denial of answers. "Mozzie get on with it." "Right, sorry.")
Neal Caffrey, of course, is not his real name. He was born Matthew Smithson, son of Jacqueline and... Peter Smithson. They lived in southern Vermont.
"What?" "Don't interrupt, Suit."
The whole family had been coming back from celebrating Neal's seventh birthday, when their car was struck by a drunk driver. Neal was the only survivor. The police handed him over to Social Services, and they in turn put him in a foster home, while they searched for any family members to take him.
Unfortunately, they found Frank Smithson. He was Neal's dad's younger brother, who was apparently always jealous of Peter. Neal had never met him before, good thing too, the man was a dirty, perverted, drunk, son of a-
"Mozzie..." "Sorry." *sigh*
Neal stayed with him for years. Frank used him to get money for rent and food, and eventually, Neal worked his way up to ripping off tourists and innocent families just so he didn't starve.
One day, Frank was particularly drunk, and when Neal got enough courage to stand up to him, he lost it. Nearly killed him, until Neal managed to knock him over the head with a lamp. He ran and ended up on the streets of the Big Apple. That's where I met him. He beat me at my own game, and I took him under my wing. Besides I couldn't just let a hundred pound seventeen year old wander around-
End Neal's Past
"Whoa! Did you say sixteen?" Mozzie looked down at his fisted hands.
"Yeah. Surprise, surprise, he lied about that too. He tried to tell me he was twenty when we met, but I quickly popped that bubble of his. Took him forever to tell me his name, though. Kept insisting I call him Pony Boy." Elizabeth's face pinched up.
"You mean, like from The Outsiders?" Mozzie quirked his lips slightly at that and at any other time would have begun spouting lines from the book Neal had glued to his hands for the first year he knew him.
"Yeah. When we met, that was his favorite book. He refused to put it down. Neal probably still has it memorized." El gave a sad smile, picturing Neal-or Matthew?-as a young boy who still had happiness in his life from something as simple as a book despite what he had lived through before. Peter leaned forward though, more eager to hear what happened next.
"So, what you taught him everything he knows? You turned a sixteen year old into a world renown con artist?" Mozzie scoffed at that.
"Hardly. All I did was erase his past and help him become Neal Caffrey to the outside world. And as for his thieving and conning and forgery skills, that, he learned long before he met me. Like I said, Frank used him to get money, so Neal had to catch on pretty quick." Peter sat back, disgusted with this man he had, apparently, met already. "Though I did have to school him, when he started to verge into the white collar area. He was a natural genius and could paint a perfect Degas, but he wasn't refined in the ways of the upper crust." Mozzie paused mid flashback and suddenly looked very like his normally paranoid self.
"All of this is off record, right, Suit? If I wake up in Guantanamo Bay tomorrow-" Peter through his hands up in a placating gesture.
"This all just to help Neal. I swear. Besides I can't arrest you without probable cause, and from what I'm hearing, you only helped a young man escape a possibly dangerous past, and then he made some poor decisions." Mozzie released some of the tension that had bunched up his shoulders, and actually gave Peter an almost grateful look.
"I knew I almost felt a twinge of liking towards you for a reason, Suit." Any other day, Peter would have milked that statement for all it was worth, but now there was something much more important to deal with.
"Mozzie, do you have any idea why Frank is here?" The balding man's face scrunched up in anger.
"No, but from what I know about the-" He caught himself. "He wants something. Something he thinks only Neal can give him, or more likely get him." The pit in Peter's stomach grew.
Home
Neal was running away again. It seemed like that was what he always did. He finally paused to catch his breath, and looked around him. He had stopped right in front of his home. Home. The thought made his stomach clench as images of his home now being tainted by the same man who ruined the notion for him years ago. Neal checked his watch, knowing that if he missed the curfew Frank had set for him... He shuddered.
Dragging his expensive leather clad feet as much as he could, he made it up to his door. As quietly as he could, he slipped inside, praying that Frank was asleep.
No such luck. He was very much awake. And drunk. Oh no.
"What took you so long, Matty? I thought I told you to make it quick." Neal's shoulders tensed and his hands shook at the familiar tone.
"I'm not late. I-" The slap seemed to echo in the young man's ears. His head was snapped to the side and added to his trembling, caused him to lose his balance for a moment.
"No back talking! I told you to make it quick." The drunkard paused as he slowly approached Neal. "I also told you what would happen if you weren't home..." There it was. That word again. That word that had taken on such a darker meaning for Neal over the years. He clenched his eyes shut for only a moment, but realized that even that was too long. Frank was a lot closer than he was before.
A grubby hand reached out to trace Neal's cheek bone, only to clench into a fist, when the possessor of said cheek bone cringed away from the touch. Neal saw the punch coming, but this time he wasn't fast enough to get away.
Well? There is still a bit more to Neal's past that Mozzie doesn't know about. Will Peter find out? Wait and see ;) R&R please:)