12A: Consoling The Con

Somehow, Peter's instincts picked up on something and he knew it wasn't going to be a good day from the start.

Arriving at June's to pick Neal up; he noticed that his consultant and friend looked pale and sullen as he slid into the passenger seat. There were dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept much.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked trying to get a handle on what was wrong.

"Fine," Neal mumbled while looking out the window to avoid meeting his gaze.

"How's Mozzie?" Peter wasn't convinced that Neal was okay. More likely, Neal wasn't the one hurt or in trouble, he was reacting to something related to someone else.

"Fine," Neal repeated himself in the same monotone.

"June?" Peter continued to work through the short list.

"Fine," Neal continued to make him pry it out of him.

Running out of ideas, Peter asked about Alex.

"Fine, last I knew anyway."

Neal's shrug meant she wasn't the source of his concern.

"Like pulling teeth," Peter muttered to himself as he navigated through traffic and tried to figure out how to question his friend next.

Once he was stuck at a light, Peter gave up. "Alright, what's wrong?" he turned to Neal in his frustration.

"I don't know, and that's the problem." Neal's voice caught as he admitted to what was bothering him. Then he muttered, "There's nothing, absolutely nothing," but that seemed to be an aside to himself that he didn't intend for Peter to hear.

Mulling on that for a little way, Peter thought Neal might be sensing pending trouble like he was and searching for the source. But, Peter also couldn't help but sense that Neal was his source. Clearly, whatever was going to happen, it would involve Neal.

"Let me know when you figure out what it is. I get the feeling that we're both going to be drug into whatever it is," Peter directed. He could only hope that Neal would do as instructed. Maybe they could reduce the issue if they could identify it before it hit.

Muttering to himself, Neal seemed to be doing a desperate internal search for the source of his distress. He probably wasn't even listening anymore.

Passing the rest of the drive in relative silence, each man tried to assess recent events and current circumstances in a vain effort to prepare for what was to come.

By late morning, Peter could tell the team had picked up on his and Neal's moods. Everyone was on edge and walking on pins and needles.

The atmosphere of the office was charged.

Then it was just before lunch that a red-haired woman walked in with an entourage. She was clearly government and important, but no one recognized her at first based on the curious stares.

That is, except for Neal.

He immediately paled upon seeing her, but he only nodded in acknowledgment as she passed him on her way to Hughes' office.

"Are you okay, Neal?" Jones approached their unsteady consultant and put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, she's confirmation of what I feared. She's their boss." Neal remained cryptic and unwilling to answer their questions beyond his vague comments.

Settling back into his work, Peter occasionally watched the team as they kept wary eyes on Neal and the office above.

They could only wait for what was about to impact them and hope it wouldn't cause too much damage.

Peter wished he'd brown-bagged it when his stomach growled, but he didn't want to leave for lunch while the meeting continued next door in Hughes' office. He knew the cause of the meeting was the source of his foreboding feeling and that it involved Neal so he didn't want to risk missing anything.

Eventually, he heard a knock on his office door as one of the agents from the entourage requested his presence next door.

He'd already prepared for the probability of being invited to the meeting, he was Neal's handler, after all, so he'd put most of his work away. It made it easier to lock up the remaining work and move next door quickly.

Going into his boss's office, Peter was curious to learn who their visitor was and why she garnered so much attention.

"Peter, this is Director-General Beckman from Washington. She's here to borrow Caffrey for an operation." Hughes made the introduction and started into what the situation was.

Opening his mouth to protest, Peter was cut off by Hughes' raised hand.

"We've already discussed that. Being his handler and responsible for him, I've insisted that you accompany him." Hughes addressed his concerns without them needing to be voiced.

Calming down a little, Peter was still worried about why Neal was being required and why he was sensing impending disaster.

Settling into his seat next to the general, Peter listened to the information about an operation and two agents going missing. The other agency wanted Neal to fill in for their missing personnel. It sounded dangerous and it didn't make sense, but Peter was outvoted.

Despite his fears, Peter soon found himself escorting Neal home to pack.

"This is the cause of everything, isn't it? Did you know this was coming?" Peter couldn't help but ask as he realized that Neal knew something all along.

"Yes, she's here in response to the issue, the missing agents. However, I hoped it wouldn't be a situation so bad that she'd contact me. Instead, it's worse, she actually came in person." Neal's voice cracked and he shivered with emotion. Clearly, he was barely keeping it together.

"You know the agents, don't you?" Peter realized but he had no idea how they connected.

Neal didn't answer at first, but he explained a little more for a change after a pause to determine what to say. "They're my brothers and they haven't been in touch so I knew something was wrong."

Slamming his breaks, Peter hadn't ever considered that possible connection. Neal never talked about his family. They're agents? "You're brothers?"

Shrugging, Neal didn't overly react to Peter's surprise or the sudden jolt into the seat belt. "We don't talk about each other for safety reasons."

Pondering that as he navigated traffic, Peter could understand the brothers not wanting to risk Neal's safety since he was White Collar and his brothers were Black Ops. However, they had no connection that had ever come up. How could their enemies find Neal? "Is there a connection I missed?"

It took a few minutes again for Neal to decide how to answer. But, when he did, Peter certainly didn't expect the connection.

"We're identical triplets. If an enemy is looking for us, it's pretty obvious when they find one. It's risky no matter what considering our similar appearance and relation, but we hope they'll mistake us for just being similar looking if no one knows about us."

Glad he was sitting at a light, Peter just stared out the window. "Identical triplets…" two of them were agents and they all looked alike.

Had he mixed them up and put the others on his radar without realizing it? "How many times have I mixed you up?" Peter looked over at his friend and found that he was really curious.

"The light is green," Neal indicated that he would need to move with traffic, but there was a hint of humor in his mouth. If he weren't so worried, he'd probably be laughing.

"That's not how many times I've mixed you up. I'm guessing it's a lot?" Peter continued to prod curiously as he moved through the intersection.

"Everything international is just the beginning, but beyond that, it's tough to say so I can't put a number out for you." Neal managed to smirk at him a little.

Whistling, Peter knew that was a lot, he had a whole list of alleged crimes that Neal might have committed overseas. How many others were Neal innocent of? "Do you take advantage of the confusion to inflate your criminal reputation?"

The conversation appeared to be distracting Neal at least enough for him to smile a little. "You'd be surprised how inflated the criminal aspect of my reputation is."

Keeping that in mind as he arrived at Junes, Peter dropped Neal off to pack while he went home to handle his own packing needs.

Calling Elizabeth as he drove, Peter let her know that he and Neal were being loaned for an assignment.

"Do you know what you'll be doing or how long it will take?" Elizabeth was concerned and curious.

"No, it's in relation to some agents Neal knows, something's wrong." Peter wasn't sure how much to elaborate. He didn't want to worry his wife, and he wasn't sure how safe it would be for her to know about the triplets. That was something he'd have to discuss with Neal. "We'll be updated when we arrive."

"Neal knows other agents? How, did they also chase him or something?" Elizabeth tried to make sense of the limited information.

"They're related. Apparently, working for the government runs in the family." Peter wasn't sure why that evoked a point of curiosity. Could Neal's government work go deeper than as a consulting informant? It wasn't expected, but some law enforcement agents went deep undercover for various reasons so it was possible.

"Family? Maybe that's why Neal doesn't talk about them?" Elizabeth was initially surprised but quickly filled in the reasoning before moving on to concern. "How is he doing?"

Sighing, Peter knew that Neal wasn't okay. "He's trying to keep it together, but he's very worried. They're his brothers." Peter figured it would come up so it wouldn't be dangerous to share a little.

"Oh, honey, he must be miserable. Have you been able to distract him some?"

"He thinks it's funny how many times I mixed them up in my chase. It amused him to hint at even a little of his inflated criminal reputation." Peter was curious what his wife would make of that.

"Being brothers, they could look rather similar in a grainy security fee. It also makes sense that he wouldn't be as criminal as his reputation indicates. He's such a sweetie and he has so much heart for people. I wonder what else he's hiding." She was as intrigued as he was.

"Me too, Hon, me too.

There are a lot of mysteries surrounding Neal and this just opens up the possibilities." Peter agreed with his wife.

Their conversation changed after he got home to his packing needs before they ended the conversation on his return trip to retrieve Neal.

When Neal got into the car with his bag, his nerves were getting the better of him again.

Reaching out to squeeze his shoulder, Peter tried to comfort his friend with reassuring words. "I'm sure they're alright, maybe keeping low for their safety. They won't be easy to catch if they're anything like you."

Taking a deep breath, Neal slowly released it to regain some control of himself.

"Thanks," he cast a glance at Peter but mostly tried to distract himself by looking out the window.

Patting his friend's shoulder, Peter returned to his usual driving for the rest of their trip to the government building they'd been instructed to go to.

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