Operation - Getting Married

Everything started with Sara bringing a case to Peter, and therefore the team.

Based on the insurance claims, Sterling Bosch had recently had several clients get married on a whim before their spouse claimed to annul the marriage and run away with their valuables.

It was suspected to be a group of con artists. One would perform as the lure courting the mark and then prompting a wedding.

Another would pretend to be the minister who performed the ceremony. Then, the final one would take the role of a judge annulling the marriage and giving the goods to their accomplice.

Researching, the FBI didn't believe that the ceremonies were real so they decided to have Neal, Sara, Jones, and Diana go into the field as bait to see if they could get one of them approached by their suspects.

Things worked out better than expected as Jones and Diana were both approached while the suspects began trying to play matchmaker with their friends Neal and Sara. This brought all of their players into roles where they could explore the con and collect evidence on the case.

Going through the process, Jones and Diana were subjected to whirlwind romances where everything was played out in a perfect performance. They weren't fooled, but they pretended to be swept off of their feet by their respective dates.

Neal and Sara were more reluctant, but they had to pretend to grow on each other to remain close to the other couples so that they could join them on the dates as many were made couple events.

Within a couple of weeks, the relationships seemed to be getting serious so the proposals were performed.

Reading the situation, Neal suspected that they were getting ready so he prepared his elaborate proposal designed to sweep Sara off of her feet. He had a host of candles lit, a special dinner, and an evening under the stars… or New York City lights on the balcony before hiding the ring in a fancy pastry for dessert.

Playing her role was fairly easy for Sara, it was a lovely setup and all, but she wasn't romantically involved with Neal so she had to use some acting skills to keep the performance.

When they next joined the others, there was the mass reveal of rings on the ladies' fingers and of course, they opened a discussion on weddings. How, when, and where was discussed, but they all had such a lack of concern that they left themselves open to the con.

Stepping up, the two con partners began making suggestions, they could have a triple wedding, or all get married in a row? There was a church nearby that was great at hosting such short-notice events. They each had a friend or family member who'd been married there before.

Pretending to give in, the couples made their plans, and the weddings were set for the following weekend.

Sitting in the office, everyone got teased, but none more so than Neal and Sara since both partners were present to receive joint teasing.

Tossing confetti from the balcony, Jones and Diana enjoyed teasing their counterparts in the operation since they were coming up the stairs to prepare for the final meeting before the weddings would be held the next day.

"Ha-ha," Neal wasn't impressed. "I've had fake relationships before, there is no need for the theatrics."

"Really? There was someone before me?" Sara pretended to be heartbroken as she pulled a tissue to dab at her eyes as if she was crying.

"There was, and ironically, the name I knew her by was Sarah."

This of course got a curious reaction from Peter as he joined the conversation. "We don't have a record of you working with any Sarah?"

"I wasn't Neal at the time." He simply teased, but that left several possible situations open.

"Come on, who was this Sarah?" Sara pressed.

Shrugging, Neal grinned at them all. "I really don't know anything about her other than the name she gave and any story she chose to tell me, which wasn't about anything personal. If she talked professionally it was about the job and little else. Most of our conversation seemed to revolve around things like hypothetical topics… like what if we got caught and needed to escape?"

Frowning, Peter took note to look for an unknown femme fatale involved in any of Neal's known cons, but he was pretty sure they were all performed by Kate or Alex… had they missed one?

Settling into the arranged meeting as Hughes caught up, they went over the details of how security would be run at the ceremonies, what they'd researched about the alleged minister, and how they anticipated getting their people through it without anyone truly ending up married to their suspects or each other.

Nodding along, no one seemed to be too worried; everything they'd researched showed that the ceremonies wouldn't be an issue. The minister that had performed them in the past wasn't real so there was nothing legally binding in the process.

When they'd finished going over everything, Diana and Sara disappeared for their bachelorette party while Jones and Neal took off for their bachelor party.

The celebrations were being held together so the suspects could get integrated into their friends and families searching for additional marks.

Additional research as the case progressed had shown that those connected to the victim couples had also suffered thefts in the months following if they also had sufficient valuables to be targeted.

Partying with his adoptive mother June; Neal pretended to be enjoying himself. June had joined in on the bachelorette party as the welcoming mother-in-law-to-be for Sara while also posing as a potential mark since she was an obvious target.

Peter was performing as Neal's and Jones' friend/coworker and Mozzie was Neal's friend.

Elizabeth had also enjoyed tagging along as an acquaintance who had planned the party and was therefore around to oversee it with some participation.

Finally, the day of the weddings dawned.

Collecting at the church in their respective zones, the brides were in their changing rooms while the grooms had theirs. They were all doing their final preparations for their dresses or tuxes as the other performers who'd be acting as friends or family filled the sanctuary.

At the appointed time, the ceremonies began.

For some reason, a second minister stepped up last minute to join the ceremony as the grooms took their places and the brides began their march.

As previously arranged, Jones and his bride and Diana and her groom each moved to one side where the expected minister was waiting for them. However, Neal and Sara found themselves standing before the unknown man who'd arrived just as they were entering the room.

Unable to make a fuss, they allowed the change despite exchanging some confused glances since this hadn't been in the rehearsal or any of the aforementioned plans.

Still, the ceremony passed without a hitch and soon enough they were all announced to be married couples before they filed back down the aisle.

Meeting their friends and family at the reception, they went through the typical performance of dancing, exchanging cake, and toasting each other.

It was the toasts where things got awkward.

First, a woman entered the room carrying a child claiming that Diana's groom was the father and they were already married therefore he couldn't take a second bride.

Second, a man entered the room flashing paperwork that Jones' bride wasn't who she said she was so the marriage wasn't legal as she'd married him under an assumed name.

Each created a fight which the agents played along with until the marriages seemed bound to collapse before they'd hardly begun.

This had been expected, which was an additional reason why the agents hadn't worried about the possibility of a wedding night with their alleged spouses.

Since the reception dissolved into chaos, it wasn't an issue for Neal and Sara to quietly slip out of sight with the pretense of going away on their honeymoon.

Their performance was intended to return to the loft where they'd pretend to go to their new home before Sara would spend her night in a guest room down the hall.

Only Jones, Diana, and their alleged spouse were present for the fake court case where their marriages were annulled and their spouses were awarded their most valuable possessions.

With the evidence to prove the fraud from beginning to end, the FBI stormed the premises and revealed that it wasn't even a real courthouse let alone a legal judge. The performance had been good enough to fool anyone who didn't have experience with the legal system, but a group of agents saw right through it from the beginning.

Wrapping up the case back at the office, the team was discussing their fake marriages and alleged annulments when Jones cleared his throat.

"Umm, guys."

Garnering their attention with the trepidation in his voice, everyone wondered what was wrong.

"It was real, the marriage was real!"

"What? That's possible?" Diana was quickly reading over his shoulder to see what he was talking about before her posture relaxed, but her eyes wandered to Neal and Sara in dismay. "Ours weren't real as we expected, but that minister who stepped up for Neal and Sara, he was… there is a legal marriage license here!"

No one was sure who paled most, Neal or Sara, but Peter demanded to see the evidence for himself before turning to the couple.

"They must have thought you two make a cute couple… they slipped a legal minister in so that only your marriage would be real." He was bewildered, this wasn't planned, and it was unexpected!

"Do you mean that I'm really married to Neal? My name is legally Sara Caffrey?" Sara was aghast at the idea.

"Hey," Neal frowned at her sensing the underlying insult. "It's not like I planned for this either."

Turning her frown on him, Sara appeared to be considering the possibility.

Putting a hand up, Peter called for their attention. "Neal didn't plan this; we just missed how much they were determined to get you two together because none of the prior cases had anything like it. They always just went after their marks and moved on."

Taking a deep breath, he put his hand on his hip while running the other down his face. "We'll figure this out. I'm sure it could be annulled, a judge should give you an annulment."

The office was quiet around them.

This wasn't a typical situation at all!

Due to the change in plans, Neal had Sara had the additional work of going through the process of compiling their annulment paperwork and submitting it.

Thank you, everyone, for reading, leaving kudos, and reviewing/commenting :D

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