April 16, 2014
Sunday Morning—Maroon 5 (4:06)
White Collar
El, Neal and Peter
It had started so innocently. Okay so innocence and Neal Caffrey were pretty much foreign concepts but in this instance innocence was the closest she could ever come to a word for it.
El had thought of Neal in many different ways over the course of the years. An aggravation (so many missed reservations), an annoyance (Peter was always thinking of Neal), an amusement (Peter's stories about the con artist had her in stitches), a surprise (beautiful blue eyes and wide grin on her doorstep), a child (his infectious laugh and innocent expression), and a puppy (eager for approval over that Spanish bond forgery). She had never actually thought of him as a person. Sure she knew he was human. She knew that he'd have emotions like any other human. But to see that flash of despair, of horror, of shame when Peter brought up his crimes in front of her.
That was shocking and just so…adorable. Poor Neal. So she let out her inner deviousness just to cheer him up. She suggested the date to see what his reaction would be. He was a con man but even they had their tells if you knew to look for them. There was that frantic glance between her and Peter and then he relaxed. Until Peter opened his big mouth and basically told Neal that the art history professor wouldn't want to date him. She'd never wanted to smack Peter more. So Peter didn't actually say that and more than likely didn't mean it to be taken that way but El was excellent at reading people and that was what Neal heard.
Her visceral reaction astonished her with its intensity. She wanted to sooth Neal's hurt and tell him everything would be fine. She wanted to protect him. And she knew to her very bones that Neal wasn't conning her into this reaction. He didn't even know that she had it.
Huh. This was going to take further study. Maybe her husband wasn't the only one obsessed with the gorgeous conman.