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Summary: Neal knows that love can be a many splendored thing. But he also knows that this, the love they share, with all the wonderful implications for the future, has to be the best he has ever encountered.
Notes: Set post-series. Written for Round 4 of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
wcpairings, for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sheenianni. One of her prompts was “Neal/Sara, Neal has June meet their first kid. Sara and June share tips and exchange stories about the joys and challenges of living with retired con men. Bonus points for background Mozzie.” I decided to include some more characters, but my muse kidnapped the original idea and turned it into this. Companion to my story “All In,” this time telling the story from Neal’s POV. Betaed by the awesome sherylyn. Hope you like it, sheeni! The image below is "The Dream" by Pablo Picasso and is mentioned in the story.
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Chapter 1 – The Wonders Of Life
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Sitting against the headboard of their bed, Neal Caffrey let his gaze and mind wander. It was the middle of the night, but with all the positive and, at least to him, unexpected events happening recently, his brilliant mind had some trouble catching up.
First of all, Neal all but literally came back from the dead. Exactly two days after the first (and last) anniversary of his “demise,” he’d contacted Mozzie. And even though the other man didn’t hold back with his grudge and anger about Neal’s deception, he agreed to pass a message to Peter and Elizabeth.
In the days following this “first contact,” Neal had several long phone conversations, not only with Mozzie, but also with Peter and Elizabeth. And every time the call was ended, Neal realized that, somewhere along the way, he had lost most of one of his more notorious traits back in his heyday as a con man – the ability to read people, even across the miles. Try as he might, he couldn’t tell anymore what Peter, El or Mozzie really were feeling about his comeback in their lives or how much of their conversations were an act on their account.
But now, the only thing he felt about these conversations caused him to chuckle. Ever since he chose to be a con man, Mozzie introduced him to what the shorter man called “Con Man 101.” And part of said training was that, no matter what was happening or how bad a situation would turn out, they should never, ever apologize for anything. Well, let’s just say that Neal broke “protocol” a lot in all these phone calls.
Neal came back to the present, and the best and most surprising thing that had happened to him recently, which was currently fast asleep next to him. Sara Ellis was back in his life – and more importantly, back in his heart.
They met about two months before Neal touched base with New York again, so to speak. And once again, in some kind of déjà-vu, a famous, invaluable painting was their common item of interest. Only this time, it was a painting by Pablo Picasso, and Neal wasn’t about to steal it. Instead, he was, together with the whole security staff at the Louvre, to provide the most effective protection for it. And Sara? She was there since the owner, a casino magnate from Las Vegas, had insurance with Sterling Bosch.
The minute they both entered the room and locked their gazes, the world stood still, for both of them. Neal still couldn’t tell how they managed to keep up their professional acts, but somehow, they did, not giving away anything that would let the others in the room think that they had some kind of history together.
“Papa?”
TBC
Notes: Set post-series. Written for Round 4 of
wcpairings, for sheenianni. One of her prompts was “Neal/Sara, Neal has June meet their first kid. Sara and June share tips and exchange stories about the joys and challenges of living with retired con men. Bonus points for background Mozzie.” I decided to include some more characters, but my muse kidnapped the original idea and turned it into this. Companion to my story “All In,” this time telling the story from Neal’s POV. Betaed by the awesome sherylyn. Hope you like it, sheeni! The image below is "The Dream" by Pablo Picasso and is mentioned in the story.Chapter 1 – The Wonders Of Life
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sitting against the headboard of their bed, Neal Caffrey let his gaze and mind wander. It was the middle of the night, but with all the positive and, at least to him, unexpected events happening recently, his brilliant mind had some trouble catching up.
First of all, Neal all but literally came back from the dead. Exactly two days after the first (and last) anniversary of his “demise,” he’d contacted Mozzie. And even though the other man didn’t hold back with his grudge and anger about Neal’s deception, he agreed to pass a message to Peter and Elizabeth.
In the days following this “first contact,” Neal had several long phone conversations, not only with Mozzie, but also with Peter and Elizabeth. And every time the call was ended, Neal realized that, somewhere along the way, he had lost most of one of his more notorious traits back in his heyday as a con man – the ability to read people, even across the miles. Try as he might, he couldn’t tell anymore what Peter, El or Mozzie really were feeling about his comeback in their lives or how much of their conversations were an act on their account.
But now, the only thing he felt about these conversations caused him to chuckle. Ever since he chose to be a con man, Mozzie introduced him to what the shorter man called “Con Man 101.” And part of said training was that, no matter what was happening or how bad a situation would turn out, they should never, ever apologize for anything. Well, let’s just say that Neal broke “protocol” a lot in all these phone calls.
Neal came back to the present, and the best and most surprising thing that had happened to him recently, which was currently fast asleep next to him. Sara Ellis was back in his life – and more importantly, back in his heart.
They met about two months before Neal touched base with New York again, so to speak. And once again, in some kind of déjà-vu, a famous, invaluable painting was their common item of interest. Only this time, it was a painting by Pablo Picasso, and Neal wasn’t about to steal it. Instead, he was, together with the whole security staff at the Louvre, to provide the most effective protection for it. And Sara? She was there since the owner, a casino magnate from Las Vegas, had insurance with Sterling Bosch.
The minute they both entered the room and locked their gazes, the world stood still, for both of them. Neal still couldn’t tell how they managed to keep up their professional acts, but somehow, they did, not giving away anything that would let the others in the room think that they had some kind of history together.
“Papa?”
TBC
