They had discussed back and forth. His young protégé was starstruck sure enough, but he also had a focus span so short that Neal felt he hardly had time to finish a sentence.

"It's your life, kid," Neal reminded him.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I'm just… not used to… It's so serious."

"What did you expect when you steal from people?" Mozzie asked. "Stealing is not the hard part. The hard part is getting away with it."

"I did get away with it."

"You've got FBI and a very angry gangster on your tail, knowing your face and your name," Neal said. "Is that what you think 'getting away' means?"

The kid looked down at the table.

"No."

"It took the FBI less than six months to find you. The only reason you're not arrested was because someone tried to assassinate you."

"How did they catch you?" the kid asked.

"Peter set a trap with what I wanted most as bait."

"Who's Peter?"

"He's the agent who chased me for three years and then caught me."

"Peter is also Neal's handler," Sara added.

"Wow. You're friends, huh? How's that work? I mean, will he arrest you if—"

"Focus, kid," Neal said. "We're trying to form a plan here."

"Okay, how about I just walk in as I did last time?"

"You think they haven't learned from last time?" Neal shot back.

He caught eye with Sara.

"Why don't we take a break," she said and took the kid out on the patio.

Mozzie joined them with something to drink - lemonade and note wine for once - but soon returned inside to Neal.

"While Scott's out there hitting on your lady friend, take a look at Bob." Mozzie gave him a passport with his photo and Bob's name to it. Neal took a closer look.

"It's truly amazing work."

"No one's ever gonna find us, Neal. We can be taking off to paradise as soon as we get ahold of that list."

Neal took his and Moz's passport and hid them in the secret compartment beside the one-way mirror. To keep them out of sight. It was not exactly a secret place any longer.

"Unless we get arrested for harboring a fugitive first. Or Scott pins this on us so he can live to steal another day."

"Oh, he isn't gonna do that. I sense good in him."

"Do you, Qui-Gon Jinn?" Neal was not so sure.

"Well, chaotic good, anyway. Neal, he's us."

Neal's phone rang.

"This is Peter." Moz left, and Neal took the call. "Hey, Peter."

"Any word on the street where Scott might be?"

"No, the streets don't seem to know where he's disappeared to."

"We need to catch him soon. We catch Scott, we might be able to bring Carlisle down, as well."

"I'll keep my ears open," Neal assured Peter.

"You got something more important you're working on?"

"No. I'm sorry, Peter. I'm just distracted right now." He glanced out at the group on his patio. "I'm with Sara," he whispered. No lies to Peter, ever.

"At home?"

"Yeah."

"Neal."

"Yeah?"

"I like the two of you together. She's a good influence on you."

"You think so?" Had she only shown Peter her totally legal side, or was he imagining her being far too interested in what he was doing?

"Yeah. Don't be a bad influence on her."

"I'll do my best."

He ended the call as Sara joined him.

"Figure out a plan yet?" she asked.

"I'm working on it. Listen... Are you sure you want to be involved with this? Whatever we end up doing, it probably won't be legal."

"All right, what I do occasionally falls in the same gray area."

"This won't be gray." Neal wanted to be clear about that part.

"I have stretched more laws than I care to admit."

"That's what I like about you." They were so much the two of a kind. And Peter must have seen only her good sides, as he thought.

"Yeah? I'm usually returning things to their rightful owner, though."

As he looked on the kid, the pieces fell into place.

"What?" Sara asked.

"That's it. You're a genius. Guys, I got an idea." Scott and Moz came in. "Show me the glass," he demanded from the kid. He stopped dead, staring at him.

"Hey, we got your Keister off the hook," Moz barked. "Don't hold out on us now, kid."

Scott moved to his bag.

"Are you still sure about him?" Neal asked.

"Not so much."

The kid put a bundle on the table and opened it, and inside was the bustier covered in diamonds. Neal whistled.

"Wow, it's, uh... beautiful," Mozzie said.

"Looks very comfortable," Sara said with a smile.

"You cracked Carlisle's safe to get this, right?" he asked Scott.

"Yeah."

"Can you do it again?"

"Safe has an electronic keypad. My black box does everything."

"Including taking the art out of safe-cracking," Neal sighed.

"The art was programming this thing, which I did myself."

"We need to get you into Carlisle's office so you can put the bustier back."

Scott nodded to this.

"Then we could anonymously tip Peter that the diamonds could be found in Carlisle's private safe," Mozzie continued.

"Peter moves in, arrests Carlisle, who stole the diamonds in the first place," Sara followed.

"It wouldn't even be planting evidence," the kid said.

"We'd be returning it," Neal said.

"Just like you never stole them at all," Sara smiled at Scott.

"I'm not sure the Suit will see it that way," Mozzie said though.

"No. We should not let Peter know about this."

"The problem is," the kid said, "they'll have an eye out for anyone who looks like me."

So they would have to help the kid get in undetected. He looked at Sara.

"How big is that gray area you were talking about?"

"Hey, Peter," Neal answered his call.

"Any word on the street where Scott might be?"

"No, the streets don't seem to know where he's disappeared to," his pet convict answered at the other end of the line.

"We need to catch him soon. We catch Scott, we might be able to bring Carlisle down, as well."

"I'll keep my ears open."

Peter blinked. It was not exactly enthusiastic.

"You got something more important you're working on?" he asked.

"No. I'm sorry, Peter. I'm just distracted right now," the kid said. "I'm with Sara," he added with a whisper.

"At home?" Peter asked while he pulled up Neal's tracking data on his screen. It said Neal was at home.

"Yeah." So far, so good.

"Neal."

"Yeah?"

"I like the two of you together. She's a good influence on you."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Don't be a bad influence on her."

"I'll do my best." Neal hung up. Yeah, he had been a bit overly fatherly there. He looked at the screen. Then backed in time. A bit odd walking pattern. Neal had a habit of creating strange patterns on a regular basis, so maybe he was just seeing something that was not there, but this did not feel like one of those odd-on-regular-basis patterns. This felt like an odd-odd pattern.

He checked what was along the route and checked if anything unusual had happened there. An ATM machine had gone berserk, but Neal had not been near it. Close, but not close enough. Still…

It happened not long after Carlisle had left his office and their little chat.

An hour went by. And two. Neal was still at home.

"You still checking Neal's anklet?" Diana asked, coming into his room.

"He's at home. Been there a while."

"Why don't you drop by?"

"Because he's up to something." He was pretty sure of it. He had said he was with Sara, and Peter trusted him as far as they were most likely in the same place. But he had also said something else. On Peter's question about if the street had heard something about Scott, he had answered: 'the streets don't seem to know where he's disappeared to.' Which, in Neal's way of expressing himself could mean that he knew.

"Something to do with Scott?" Diana asked.

"I think so. I'm gonna let it play out."

"You think he'll lead you to him?"

"I have a feeling he's working on some kind of plan." Impossible to tell of what kind. But if Neal knew where Scott was and did not just tell him, knowing Neal, it was most likely he wanted to help a fellow con man in some way. If his gut feeling was right, it was not helping Scott disappear.

"Maybe more than one," Diana said and placed a file on his desk. "Couple of weeks ago, a Degas popped up on the black market."

"On the list?"

"Not sure. It was pulled after a couple of hours. No details beyond the artist. But how many new Degases are there?"

Peter unlocked a drawer in his desk and pulled out the art manifest. Yes, there was a Degas on the list. He looked at Diana's info in the file.

"Showed up the same time D.C. Art Crimes came to visit. Probably coincidence."

"Probably." Diana got the irony.

"I'm gonna move this." He held the art manifest. "To be safe." He did not want Neal involved, and he sure did not want to help him get the information he needed if he really had that treasure.

What was he doing, really? He watched his pet convict most likely cook up a plan including a suspect, and then holding back information from the FBI. He suspected the same man holding on to a stolen treasure beyond imagination. Was his mind clear? Was he doing the right thing?

"Diana?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"Am I still a good guy? Am I still a good federal agent?"

"You're thinking you're giving Caffrey too much slack?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Diana thought about it for a moment.

"Isn't there a saying about straining out a gnats but swallowing camels?"

"I guess."

"Well, I think you strain out the camels and may swallow the gnats. Caffrey is helping you, us, to catch some pretty bad guys. He may be a gnat, but the camels are worse. If he'll turn into a camel, I know you'll cuff him and put him back in prison."

Neal Caffrey had been a 'camel' when he chased the guy for years. Now, yes, if they could not look upon him as a 'gnat' he would not be working for the FBI.

"I think that saying was about hypocrisy, right?"

"My point is, Peter, that we every day have to leave the gnats to catch camels because we need to prioritize. The only difference here is that Neal is your friend and my colleague. Which, I think, makes us more aware than we would otherwise. But that does not mean that he can do anything. He can probably do less than any other person doing the same thing."

"Thanks."

"Any time, boss."

Diana left. Peter was not so sure she was right. The kid had done many things that other people would not get away with. Peter had talked Fowler into not pressing charges! Not to mention… Had Neal ever done anything without breaking some law? And Peter had looked the other way.

No, he had not looked the other way. He had tried to teach the kid what was right and what was wrong. And he felt he saw progress. The kid listened and learned.

He had to keep an eye on this plan of his and follow his movements.