Hello, I'm just another White Collar fan playing with the beautiful story made by Jeff Eastin. This will be my first ever fanfic story and I'm super nervous and would really appreciate some reviews whether you are loving on my story or giving me constructive criticism. I would love any kind of help readers could give me, and if you like the story please encourage me to continue it because if I don't get feedback then I probably won't have the motivation to continue writing :(
So my story is going to center around an 18 year old Neal and the history doesn't deviate much besides that Kate was the same age as young Neal, and his relationship with Sara never happened :/ As much as I love Sarah and Neal together (not a big fan of his season 5 relationship) her role as an agent for Sterling Bosch is more important, and I don't think an 18 year old could work as an insurance investigator... Neal's case is a little different. My story will include FBI cases along with developing the father/son relationship between Neal and Peter. However it won't be cheesy and both character's portrayals will remain as close to the original series as possible. And there may be a little Neal whump...
So what happens when an operation goes south? Silver tongue Caffrey can't always charm himself out of trouble, especially when the FBI agent, Peter Burke, was the one to blow his cover.
Case Scenario: Mrs. and Mr. Stanton organized to have a case event to show off their recently acquired, precious painite gem along with Mrs. Stanton's many other precious jewelry collections. Although the presented purpose of the event was to be a charity fundraiser, Mrs. Stanton's hidden motive was probably to boast about her extremely rare gem from Myanmar. Unfortunately the advertising attracted undesired attention from a thief known as the Bishop, who was even so bold as to send a warning card in the mail. On the morning of November 1st, four days before the show, the Stanton's received a small white business card with the message "Pretty amber painite, will be mine 5th's night," signed by the Bishop. And in turn, that's where the White Collar division comes in.
The eighteen year old Neal was more than amused with Peter's masterful presentation on the most recent case they had received, but his main interest stemmed from the eccentric character of the Bishop. He leaned back into the chair with his hands tucked smugly behind his head. A wild grin hung on his face.
"Neal, since you're having so much fun with this, why don't give us your input of expertise on the Bishop. Have you ever heard of him?" Peter prodded at the kid in a candy store. His face twisted into an expression of half proud, half bothered that his CI was so excited to delve into a threat on a high profile gem.
The young man's grin grew larger, if that was even possible, and his bright blue eyes sparkled at the adventurous op he was already planning in his head. "Well the Bishop is definitely a notable character," he began, "I have heard of him through my not-so-noble connections underground, but he mostly pulls foreign jobs, and only a few that were big. His warning ahead of time indicates that he's looking for more of a game than a big score; it's like he's upping the difficulty level of a video game. Before, since it was a simple charity casing, the security would be less pronounced and mostly just hired guards, but now it's almost as if he wanted higher stakes," the melodious voice mused. "His personality definitely tends towards eccentric with his cryptic message left on the card. He couldn't just come out and say that he was gonna steal the gem the night of the show, instead he had to pull a Yoda and make it sound poetic," Neal finished his profiling and returned to his slouch position quite pleased with himself.
"So why would he want tighter security? I don't understand, who in their right mind would want to make their theft harder," Diana questioned suspiciously. Neal answered with a shrug.
"What if he needed extra security to pull of his plan? Like having law enforcement there would open some kind of window that wasn't there originally?" Jones stabbed with an unsure face. He didn't actually believe there was a chance it could be true; he was just tossing suggestions.
Peter shook his head deep in thought. Meanwhile Neal was trying to telepathically send him a plan, an inception if you will. The senior agent's head looked to Neal as if he was on the verge of an idea, "Neal, how would you pull this off, a way that would work better if there were FBI agents guarding the event as well?"
The young con man bit his lip sexily while he figured their point of entry. Why would you want FBI present while pulling a heist? On top of the private guards… the Stanton's wouldn't personally know the FBI agents on guard! Neal's face lit up like Christmas lights in December as he opened his mouth to share his epiphany. "What if he planned to use an inside out man?" At that phrase Peter sent Neal a confused glare and Neal took it as a need to explain further, "I'd leave it at an inside man, but it's not; it's someone that is much easier to plant. Because the Stanton's won't personally know all the FBI agents on detail, they wouldn't notice if someone slipped in as a fake agent. If it were my heist, I would have a decoy man approach the exhibit, whether it made of glass or not, and tamper with it in some way to set off the alarm but leave the gem there and run…" Neal trailed toward the end purposely leaving a gap for Peter to jump in and finish the scenario.
An understanding dawned on the charismatic division leader as he finished the ploy, "That's when the fake FBI agent goes to check on the gem and switches it with a fake," he smirked with an heir of victory around him. The Peter and Neal team had figured it out again. Neal let a string of silence hang in the air as he waited for his inception to surface.
"So where is our point of entry to foil this heist?" Jones inquired.
An idea tugged the corners of Diana's mouth into a smile, "The Bishop's gonna need someone who is able to masterly forge a rare gem," she spoke with a suggestive glance at Caffrey. Neal smiled slyly as a masterful forger and conman would.
"And even if the Bishop has already found a forger, we've got one who's better," Peter declared finishing the deal. Neal felt as if he had just won the jackpot; this was another chance to play his favorite game but still be on the good side. "Alright, Neal you work on finding a way into his crew and we will set you up with an alias."
"Already on it," the kid said proudly as he sent a quick text to Mozzie. At the time this had seemed like a simple, harmless operation. Easy in, easy out. But there was more to the Bishop than what was deducible from the card. If only Neal hadn't been so presumptuous...
And that concludes my tiny first chapter; most will be longer but this is just the set up for the very beginning so I didn't want to spend too much time on it. If you are a fan that pays attention to the details, like I am, you will have noticed that the plan for stealing the gem is more than coincidentally similar to Gordon Taylor's baseball heist... and I don't take credit for it so don't sue me ;) But I hope you enjoyed reading and I would appreciate reviews! Thanks!