HACKED: a White Collar fanfic

Chapter Three

Blair's POV

I wandered around the city, trying to keep my nerves at bay. The whole thing had set me at edge and I couldn't talk to anyone about it. The only person I had was Carter, but we weren't on good terms at the moment, He'd only say "I told you so.". I didn't have any other friends because I liked to keep to myself. After all, why have friends when music, Netflix and ice cream is just so much better? People let you down. Ice cream doesn't. Problem solved.

Also I probably should get a new computer. I know that Neal saw my IP address and would try to track it again. He's not stupid and neither am I.

I noticed a few blocks back that Neal Caffrey was tailing me. I was slightly surprised that it wasn't Jones. So instead of going to the Apple Store, I headed to Ralph's Italian Ices, the best Italian ices in New York. Then I headed towards home.

I was trying to figure out how to stage my computer breaking in a believable way when a girl tripped right in front of me. Perfect. I'll pretend to take my computer out and, BOOM, drop it and break it. It's going to be really embarrassing if I drop it and it doesn't break.

I guess I should help her up. I reached my hand out to the girl who tripped, who took it gratefully and stood up.

"Thanks." She fiddled with her sweatshirt hem.

I smiled. "No problem." And we both continued on our ways.

I quickly grabbed my computer in my room and proceeded to trip down the front steps to my apartment.

This probably wasn't my brightest idea. My computer was completely smashed from me falling on top of it but on top of that, I rolled a few feet. I can definitely feel at least some bruising.

Well I had originally planned to have been walking when I tripped, not on the stairs.

I laid on the ground for a few moments, catching my breath, and clutching what was left of my laptop, which was in pieces.

Conveniently, Neal appeared a few feet above me and reached his hand out to help me up.

I took it and stood up. There was a price of my hard drive stuck in my arm. I hadn't noticed it until now. When I pulled it out, the cut it had created started to bleed. I cursed, it ripped my sweatshirt arm, and placed my hand on it to stop the bleeding.

"Oh my god. You're bleeding." Neal said, removing my hand from the cut. His other hand moved close to my pocket. To close for comfort. Later I'd have to see if he dropped a bug in my pocket.

I feigned surprise. "Is that what this red stuff is? Are you sure it's actually blood?" I gasped dramatically. "Not the blood!"

Neal sighed and ignored my sarcastic comment. "This might be too deep for a bandaid."

"I appreciate the help but I'll be fine." The blood was trickling down my arm. "Listen the cut's not big, I'll be okay."

"I'm not worried about the size of it. It's how deep it is that worries me."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine."

"Can we at least talk to your parents to see if I can take you to a doctor?"

What do I say now? "Uh. They're at work. We can go talk to my friend though." Carter's got to have sympathy for this.

"Okay, sure. We should get something to cover it for the time being."

"I'll get something from my house. I'll be right back." I ran up my steps and grabbed a cloth from my small kitchen. I ran back to Neal. "This'll work, right?"

He tied it around my bicep. "Yea that's fine."

We headed to Starbucks, with me leading the way.

"Carter!" I called out. Nobody even looked up. Typical New Yorkers.

Carter came out of the back room. He saw Neal with me. "What did you do?"

I knew he was asking about my hacking tendency but I completely overlooked that because Neal was right there. "I tripped and a piece of my laptop got stuck in my arm." I gestured to the price of cloth wrapped around my arm. "Mr. Caffrey helped me up and stuff. He also offered to take me to a doctor but since my parents aren't home, I came to you."

Carter looked at Neal. "I appreciate you offering to do that. But I can take her."

"Are you sure?" Neal raised an eyebrow and gave his charming smile. "I mean, you got a Starbucks to run and I wouldn't want her cut to get infected."

Carter paused, considering what Neal said. "Are you sure you have time to take Blair?"

"Yea, Of course."

"Alright. If you don't bring her back here in two hours, I will hunt you down. Understand?"

"Yes sir." Neal flipped his hat onto his head. "Come on Blair."

The blood was soaking through the cloth so I grabbed an extra few napkins from one of the tables and left with Neal. He brought me to an Urgent Care, who provided a couple(like two) stitches on my arm and said to come back in a week to change the bandage, then left me at my house.

Once Neal has left I shifted through my sweatshirt pockets and found a small, circular, thin object. A tracer.

Instead of smashing it, which would've sent an alarm out to the FBI, I placed it back in my pocket. I might as well play the game that I don't know I'm being tracked.

So then I now went out to buy a new computer and stopped at Starbucks to let Carter know I was alright.

"New computer?" He asked me.

"Yep. Cause, you know, my old one got crushed and stuck in my arm."

He chuckled. "It's a nice one."

"I know. That why I picked it."

"How's your arm?"

"Hurts. But I'll be fine." I rolled my sweatshirt sleeve up to show the bandage. "See?"

"I'm glad your alright." He moved my hair away from my ears and leaned in. "Now lay low. Don't be stupid and let yourself be caught." He whispered.

I shuddered. I hated people whispering in my ears. It's a complete violation of privacy and Carter knows that. But telling me to not be caught by the police out loud is something that really should be whispered so I forgave him anyways. "Okay Carter."