Fanfic Short Stories

White Collar: Joyeux Noel, Joyeux Neal

Summary: Set during the final season and after the finale. Neal is depressed, but he seeks help and has a Joyeux Noel.

When Sara moved to London, Neal told himself that he should leave her alone. She deserved a chance to move on, to find someone new, someone better.

Around the time he dreamed up the idea to take on the Pink Panthers as a means to barter for his freedom, Neal bought a burner phone. He kept it in a locker at the edge of his two-mile perimeter, so that it wouldn't be tracked to his loft address. He texted Sara to see if she was willing to talk, and then he called her.

He asked how she was doing, and even chuckled at some of her stories.

Then she asked about him.

He almost brushed it off. It would have been easy to do the polite thing and say he was fine and then end the call. Instead he said, "I'm toxic." And he nearly gasped at the shock of saying it out loud. He'd thought the words so many times — after Siegel's death, after Peter's arrest — but he'd never voiced it.

"You're in a toxic situation," Sara corrected immediately. "Once I moved away and got some distance, I realized how messed up it is. I just don't see how you can get out of it."

"I'm literally in a job where the only ways out are to go to prison or to die," Neal agreed.

"What would you do if you could quit?" Sara asked.

It had seemed an impossibility for so long that Neal didn't have an answer. "I'm not sure."

"You wouldn't go back to the island?" she asked, referring to the place he and Mozzie had run to when they'd tried to escape.

"That was Mozzie's choice. To me it felt more like a long-term vacation than a home. I missed so much about being here. The bustle of New York, the food, the fashion, the art. I craved it when I was away."

"Where else makes you feel like you do in New York?"

"Paris," Neal said, not even needing to think about it. But he did need to think about her next question. He wasn't entirely sure what he would do there, if he were truly free to choose.

"Tell me the next time you call," Sara suggested.

He sighed a breath of relief at hearing that he was welcome to talk to her again.

*

While Sara waited for Neal's next call, she had to admit she was still in love with him. That "fake" proposal at the Empire State Building had squeezed her heart and made her reluctant to get seriously involved with anyone else.

But as she'd said, he was in a toxic situation and being part of that wasn't healthy for either of them.

Was there another option?

He waited nearly two weeks to call again. This time Neal explained he'd made a deal with the FBI. It was dangerous, but if he succeeded and survived, he'd finally win his freedom.

That if shook Sara, but she told herself she'd worry about it later. "Still thinking about Paris?" she asked.

"It would be a good place to make a fresh start," he said.

"And what would that fresh start look like?" She held her breath, wondering if he'd describe a heist or a crime spree.

To her delight, he talked about possibly working in an art gallery, helping new artists gain exposure. Then he mentioned working as a guard at the Louvre. He said, "Just imagine, being surrounded by all of that magnificent art while I'm working. And I could give the security team a few pointers."