45Happy Birthday KeJae!
Part 1
When Peter joined the FBI, something unusual came up in his background check. It wasn't enough to keep him from getting the job. Or so they told him.
What Peter didn't understand was why it required another meeting. And with WITSEC there as well.
The WITSEC officer looked like he could pass for a prison guard.
They handed Peter a file.
"What's this?"
"Information on Bryce Larkin."
The name meant nothing to Peter. He opened the file and was greeted with a picture of a little boy. The boy's birth name was 'Neal Caffrey'. Caffrey, like the name Peter's sister had after she married her husband. That had not turned out well.
"I know all this," he said, passing the folder back. He had been made aware when his sister died and her son had been placed in the program. He had been told that he would never see Neal again.
"We're looking to remove Bryce from Ellen's care."
"What?" Peter had left Neal with Ellen because she had seemed ready to care for him! Peter had been stupid and still in high school, nowhere need ready for a child he didn't have to take in. "What did she do to him?"
The WITSEC agent's face went from shock to understanding. "Oh no! Nothing like that! She cares for him, except she keeps triggering exposure risks because she's attempting to investigate what happened. We have to keep moving them and we're worried for the boy's safety."
"If she agrees, I'll take him." Peter had promised his sister as much. Now that he had a job with the FBI and Neal was now a little older, he was certain that he could make it work to Neal's benefit. Leaving Neal with Ellen had been a tough decision even though, looking back, Peter knew it had been the correct one. He had been a child himself when his sister died.
They couldn't change Neal's name back. Even though he was going to live with his uncle, he was still in the WITSEC program. So Peter Burke got his small flat ready for a child and circulated the rumour that he was becoming a foster parent.
Finally, the day came. Peter's heart was pounding in his chest whenever he thought about it. The doorbell went off and he opened the door to Ellen and Bryce.
He hadn't expected the wave of nostalgia when he saw Ellen. He greeted her with a hug, like they were old friends.
"We really should meet up for a drink now that you're drinking age," Ellen commented as she let him go and pushed Bryce forward. "Bryce, this is your Uncle Peter. He's going to be looking after you from now on."
Bryce gripped Ellen's pants and looked at Peter with narrow blue eyes. "No, I don't want to. I promise to be good Ellen, don't give me away."
"That's not what's happening dear," Ellen said softly, kneeling down to wipe the growing teardrops from Bryce's eyes. "You remember me talking about the bad people who killed your dad? I'm going to go after them. Your Uncle Peter will make sure you're looked after with food and school while I'm doing that."
"Noooo," Bryce moaned, wrapping his arms tightly around Ellen.
Peter had no clue what to do. Maybe they should leave the kid with Ellen if he was going to act like this when separated? But the decision had already been made and the officers from WITSEC weren't going to just let him change his mind right now. So he had to find a way to get Bryce to calm down. "Did you know that your Uncle Peter is in the FBI? He was hunting down criminals just like your dad." Peter winced at the second mention of the dirtbag who married his sister.
"I'm still hunting down criminals." All he had done was switch from Organised Crime to White Collar. It was less dangerous and Peter had to think about Bryce now too.
"Yes, Uncle Peter's criminals don't wave guns around to get what they want. They're more insidious."
"What does that mean?" Bryce asked, eyes dry now that his focus was on something else.
"It means they use more creative plans to get what they want. Sometimes they spend months worming their way to what they want."
Bryce had a thoughtful frown on his face. "What does that mean?"
Ellen laughed and picked Bryce up. She 'umphed' and wobbled a little as Bryce was getting too big to carry. He was in school after all.
"Maybe Uncle Peter can tell you a story about the criminals he's caught?" Ellen suggested as she walked Bryce into the house.
"I don't know if they're good stories for children," Peter commented. Ellen smirked at him.
"We can make them interesting. I'll teach you."
Peter never did master that skill. However, as Bryce grew up with him, Bryce automatically learned the stories of the criminals Peter caught as he mulled over cases at home.
Maybe it had been a bad idea to misappropriate FBI resources to learn more about Elizabeth Mitchell. While her workplace had been the site of a crime, she had only been a witness and was cleared of all suspicion. But, she was smart and Peter like smart.
"What's that?" Bryce asked. The now-teenager pushed his weight down on Peter's shoulders as he tried to figure out why Peter was looking at a picture of a woman holding a sign.
"Kiddo, you're crushing me."
Bryce started laughing. "If that's all it takes to bring the great Special Agent down, then I have a career as a future criminal!"
"Oh please no," Peter responded half-heartedly. While he didn't approve of Bryce's desired career path, he certainly didn't want to see his boy become a criminal.
"But, seriously Peter, who is she? That's the case file for that jewellery robbery, right?"
"Right. She's a witness."
"A witness the FBI took a photo of holding a sign. She loves Italian, right?" Bryce's face lit up as he connected the dots. "Oh! You've been talking about an Italian place lately. Maybe you should take her?" Seeing Peter's face go red, he laughed. "You want to take her, don't you? Go ahead! One of us should be getting some!"
Peter sighed at the attitude of teenagers. "Don't be so crude. She's smart and I enjoyed talking to her."
"My point stands, take her out for dinner or something. She's obviously into it!"
Peter sighed. "What about you?"
"What about me? I'll boot up the computer and game all night-"
"I'll be home by 11 and you better be in bed by then."
"Spoilsport. Wait. Did you already ask her out?"
"No. I'll do it tomorrow."
It was almost Bryce's 18th birthday. Peter had no idea what to do with the teenager. He was almost like Peter had been back then; so confident that he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He was so confident that he could make a great police officer but that didn't stop both Peter and Ellen from worrying. He couldn't be a police officer; his coworkers would eventually piece together his history and that would be the end of his career. Cops weren't kind to the kids of dirty cops.
Peter and Ellen had many fights about that as well. Peter hated that she spun the narrative of James Bennett Caffrey; known just as 'James Bennett' at work. A narrative that painted Neal's father as a well meaning but in over his head cop who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ellen insisted that was the case. Peter suspected otherwise. But he couldn't voice his thoughts to Bryce. Their relationship had been strained through the existing fights about whether Bryce should become a cop and when Peter was going to introduce him to Elizabeth. Peter didn't want to add another fight on top of that.
Peter and Elizabeth had been dating for a couple of months and Peter was waiting until after Bryce's 18th to introduce them. Bryce didn't like that, thinking that Peter was putting his own life on hold because of him. Peter wasn't having any luck convincing him otherwise.
Peter woke up on the day after Bryce's 18th birthday feeling like something had changed. Maybe it was because Bryce was now able to make the decision to go back to being Neal if he wanted.
However, things had changed. Peter found a note from Bryce on the table. Bryce had left. In the note he mentioned learning the truth in his letter before saying that he was going to travel for a bit and try something new.
What had Ellen done?
Peter grabbed the letter and made his way to Ellen's place.
He pounded on Ellen's door until she opened it.
"You'll disturb the neighbours," she said.
"What did you say to Bryce?" Peter demanded to know. Truthfully, he could care less about the neighbours. Ellen could deal; Bryce was more important.
"I told him the truth. That his father wasn't the hero he thought he was." She couldn't even look him in the eye.
Peter was furious. "You mean the lie that you told him? I kept the secret because of you and you decide to just tell him? And now he's run away."
"I didn't want him to run away. I just wanted him to have all the information before he became a cop."
"Do you really think he's going to be a cop now?" Peter huffed. "Where would he go?"
"You raised him. Where do you think he would go?"
Peter's fists were clenched and he was almost ready to hit her if it would get him answers. She was just as defensive and he knew that, if she believed he was going to hit her, she would hit first.
"He would still be here, if you hadn't raised him on stories of his heroic father!"
"You weren't there! I had to raise a squirming toddler who didn't understand I wasn't his mother! What would you have told him?"
"Nothing! I didn't know his father! But at least I wouldn't have lied to him! At the very least, you shouldn't have told him like that. I deserved to be there." With that said, he stormed off. He had half a mind to not tell her if he did find Bryce. After all, he could call the marshals and ask. Peter was an FBI agent, there was no running from him. He would eventually catch up.
Peter found Bryce quickly. In Bryce's defence, he wasn't trying to hide after he was settled at Stanford.
Stanford! Giddily, Peter wondered how Bryce had managed to keep his admission there secret.
"You didn't have to fly all the way out here," Bryce said when he opened the door to see Peter standing there. He didn't even seem surprised to see him.
"I think I did. Don't leave like that again," Peter said in warning. "I was frantic."
"I can guess. How'd you find me?"
"The marshals."
"I figured they would tell you." Bryce opened the door. "Well, come on in."
The place was filled with young men, all at various stages of their intellectual journeys.
"I'm proud of you. Getting admitted here can't have been easy."
"To be honest," and Bryce lowered his voice so that no one else would hear and get offended, "I was just going through the motions. I had the scores needed and my career counsellor suggested it."
"I told you track was a good thing to have on your resume."
Bryce laughed and it felt the same as always. "I know! And you were right."
"Still can't believe you kept it from me."
"Sorry. It just happened." Peter doubted that. There had to be some kind of conscious thought from Bryce. However, he decided to let it go. In a way, Peter had gotten what he was after. Bryce wasn't aiming to be a cop anymore.
Bryce took Peter up to his room. It was a two-bedroom room with the other side looking messy compared to Bryce's perfectly ordered side.
"What's your roommate like?"
"Chuck?" Bryce lit up. "He's pretty cool. You know that Zork game I used to play on your computer all the time?"
"The one I couldn't get a hang of?"
"That's most of my game library, Uncle. It was the text-based one. Anyway, Chuck's a fan too."
Peter nodded, glad that Bryce seemed to have a friend he was getting along with.
El met Peter at the airport when his plane landed.
"How'd it go?" she asked him. Peter had a grin on his face and he shook his head in a fond way.
"He got me. Not only is he not on the run, he's happily working toward becoming a game programmer."
El was surprised. "I thought you said he wanted to be a cop."
"I did. It seems he met a friend who made him rethink his goals. Now they're looking at maybe starting a company when they graduate."
"That won't be easy," El mused. "But if anyone can do it, your Bryce can."
Peter agreed with that. He felt light at the thought of Bryce making it in a job that wouldn't have him risking his life around people who didn't care about him.
Time continued on. Peter married El, El finally met Bryce before the wedding and Peter purchased the little townhouse what would become their home. Even if Bryce wasn't about to move back in.
He did leave them a parting gift before heading back to Stanford. The golden retriever puppy had almost given Peter a heart attack as it leapt onto his bed in the morning.
Over a year later, Hughes pulled Peter into his office.
"As you know, I have some friends at the NSA."
Peter nodded for him to continue. After all, he had no clue what this had to do with him or any of the cases he was working.
"The NSA and the CIA have joined up for a group task. Each agency assigned one agent. You know James Bonds?"
"Of course." Peter had taken the case from another, less enthusiastic agent.
"He's the CIA agent."
Peter's internal thoughts screeched to a halt. A singular curse word echoed in the silence of his head.
"What do we know about him?" Information first. Action later.
Hughes pulled out the file and opened it. "You're really not going to like this." He passed Peter the file. "Recruited at Stanford. A B Larkin."
"B Larkin?" Peter felt a familiar feel. It was similar to the feeling he got when he learnt that Bryce had forced a bus pass so he could get to and from school without bothering him. "Sorry Hughes, but I'm taking some of my vacation days."
"I thought as much. Do I need to contact the NSA and get the FBI added to this inter-agency case?"
"Not yet. Let me talk to him first." Peter picked up the files. "Can I take these?"
"Sure. The usual confidential requirements apply."
"Good thing this B Larkin has a security clearance almost on par with mine."
