Thanks so much for all of the wonderful reviews I've received and I'm glad everyone's enjoying the little Neal I've created. Right now the story will be settling in to Neal's adoption and will focus on his childish antics, but later there will be the return of Mozzie and some conflict developing!

If any of you have cute ideas or suggestions of any adventures Neal should get into, feel free to leave it in a review and maybe I can work it into the story.

"Caffrey," The little boy said quietly one morning at breakfast. Peter and Elizabeth both stopped eating their waffles to stare at Neal.

"What? Who's Caffrey?" Peter asked with a puzzled look on his face.

Neal had finally decided to tell them his last name. The young boy had enjoyed the last couple days more than he imagined he would and felt that the Burke's deserved the tiny bit of trust the boy placed in them. He didn't necessarily want to leave this new home, surprisingly he liked it more than the streets, but he didn't want to become a bother. He entrusted the Burke's with deciding what to do with him, which was very hard for the tyke to give up control. "It's my last name," the small voice answered.

Elizabeth let out a tiny gasp and joy leapt in her heart as she could sense that they had won over a little bit of the child's trust. But part of her was also upset when Neal released this detail; she didn't want to give him up.

After El dressed the boy in one of his new outfits, Neal played quietly in the living room with some of his new toys. He was lying on the floor with his navy blue sweater over a white stripped button down shirt and new light brown khaki pants. In front him was a ring of toy dinosaurs as if they were his army and he was their leader.

Peter and El discussed in hushed whispers over in the kitchen. "Honey, now that we know his last name we need to talk to social services in order to decide what's best for Neal," Peter's voice said only audible for his wife to hear.

The motherly figure shook her head, "No, I know what's best for him and that's for him to stay here with us!" Her mind was made up and she would not have it any other way. Come Christmas day, the boy had effectively weaseled his way into her heart and El would not give him up. She had longed for a child of her own although they could never have one, but now an opportunity had literally come knocking on their door and she wasn't going to pass it up. That poor boy needed her just as much as she needed him, and she knew her husband had fallen in love with the child as well.

"El you know we can't just keep him, what if he has a relative willing to take him in?" Peter countered. He was just as fond of little Neal as Elizabeth was, but he couldn't let his feelings cloud their decision.

"If there was a relative willing to take him in then don't you think they would've done it by now? No one just lets their nephew or grandchild wander around on the streets, they would have filed a missing child report!" She said in a harsh whisper. A glance at Neal told the couple that the child was still oblivious.

"Then what do you want to do? Adopt him?!" the senior agent asked with an exasperated sigh. In the heat of the moment, he wasn't actually serious, but his wife's answer made him stop and rethink.

"Yes," she said simply. Peter's brown eyes widened as he was caught off guard. Adopt a child? Could they? Should they? He mulled over this idea in his head for a while. The man genuinely enjoyed the litter pitter patter of footsteps around the house, and the way Neal's head barely surfaced above the table seemed to fit in so well with their family. Another glance at the boy snuggling into Satchmo who was bigger than the child pushed Peter into a decision.

"Okay fine, we will try. But we need to ask Neal what he thinks about this." Elizabeth's face lit up with hope and the couple made their way over to the child playing on the floor. Suddenly, the two adults stopped short as they saw what Neal had done. On a small patch of the wall towards the bottom trimming, a color pencil sketch of a TV screen displaying a triceratops was etched onto the wall. Neal and his crowd of dinosaurs sat in front of it.

"Neal?! What have you done?" Elizabeth gasped.

The boy whirled around to face them and looked up with innocent baby blue eyes. "Th-the dinosaurs were getting a mission from their leader. They needed to see him up on the big screen so everyone could hear and watch," he said as a simple excuse. The small boy could see the anger in Peter's eyes as the man crouched down and pulled the boy over by his arm.

"Neal, that was a very bad thing you did. You can't draw on our walls; you can only draw on paper!" Peter commanded with a hint of frustration in his voice. He made strict eye contact with the little boy and saw the child's eyes becoming wet and his bottom lip started to tremble.

"P-please don't hurt me! I'm sorry! I swear I will never do it again, just please d-don't hurt me," Neal pleaded pitifully as tears threatened to spew from his glossy eyes.

All anger gone from the gentle woman, Elizabeth dropped down to Neal's height, "Oh sweetie, we're not going to hurt you. I promise we will never hurt you, we just want you to understand that what you did was wrong." The boy nodded his head in shame.

"Good, now you are going to help us scrub this off the wall and then you are going to go sit in time out," Peter finished calmly yet firmly. His frustration had left him when the little boy pleaded not to be hurt. Who could lay a hand on such an adorable boy? It pained him to think that someone had hit Neal before, and he realized that maybe he and El were right to decide to keep him. How could they know what the child had been through? Maybe he had lived with a relative and been abused; whatever the child's story was, the adamant man knew that he would never let anyone hurt Neal again.

After Elizabeth and Neal had finished scrubbing the drawing off the wall, the little boy sat facing the corner. He pouted at his current situation and angrily thought that if he were out on the street then there would be no time out. The boy was grateful that neither Peter nor Elizabeth had hit him, but he still did not like the thought of being punished. At the same time, he was so ashamed of what he had done, but in his reasoning, the dinosaur leader had to communicate with his underlings! He didn't want to be a bad boy, he really didn't, because if he was trouble then Peter and Elizabeth would send him away.

Neal was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hardly noticed Peter sit down next to him until the man spoke, "Neal?" The little boy turned to face him so he knew the kid was listening. "You're a smart boy, and I know you feel bad about what you did, but I want you to think about something else." Neal looked at him with a confused expression. "What else could you have done if you wanted to draw the dinosaur leader?" Peter said trying to teach the boy a lesson.

The boy's little face scrunched up as he thought about the strange question. "I suppose I could've drawn it on paper and taped it to da wall," he said as he realized where Peter was going with this. The older man nodded proud that the little boy had caught on so quickly.

"See? If you had thought before you acted, then this could've been avoided," he said gently. He wanted to propose other solutions to the child in case of future events. Neal nodded with understanding. No one had ever explained something like this to the boy; no one had ever taken time to guide him along the right path. His previous parental figures had simply yelled at him and given him a slap letting him know that there was something wrong in his methods. This time there had been no physical punishment and no yelling, yet he understood better than ever what he had done wrong and knew how to fix it. "Okay buddy, your time outs over." As soon as Peter finished the sentence the antsy child jumped up from his spot eager to move around after sitting still for so long. Elizabeth caught the child who had seemingly just been released from prison and pulled him up to hold him around her waist.

Neal was a bit shocked at being lifted into the woman's arms, but didn't struggle much. She looked at him with eyes almost as blue as his own, "Neal, Peter and I have something we want to talk to you about," she said gently. Peter nodded as he joined the child and his wife in the living room.

Neal was set on Elizabeth's lap as he looked up at the couple. The dinosaur fiasco seemed to be over, so what could this be about? To answer his questions, Peter spoke bluntly, "Neal, we want to adopt you." The little tyke stared with his mouth in the shape of an 'o' and an unreadable expression on his face.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to let me know what you think in a review! ;)