HACKED: a White Collar fanfic

Chapter Eighteen

Blair's POV

I combed my fingers through my hair. About four inches of the end of my dark brown hair was now a few shades darker than my bright blue eyes were. "Thank you so much!" I said to the hairdresser(who's name was Violet).

"Anytime, honey." She replied, smiling.

I got up and walked over to Neal, who was waiting for me. "What do ya think?"

"Looks great but how are you going to pay?" He asked.

"She owes me a favor. I fix her electronics, she gives me free haircuts and the occasional dye job-if I ask nicely."

"Nice. Does Peter know?"

"I'm going to tell him I held her at gunpoint until she agreed to do it and then wiped her memory of me ever being here."

"That's not what I meant."

I laughed. "I know. And I don't think he thought about how I was going to pay for the dye job. I'll explain. I promise."

He raised an eyebrow.

I sighed. "And I won't say anything about taking her as a hostage, even as a joke."

"That's better."

"You think Agent Burke will like my hair color of choice?" I asked. I probably could have gone with a less dramatic color but then again, I was a dramatic person. The blue reflected my personality.

Neal thought for a moment before saying, "I think Peter will definitely have something to say about it."

"Is that good or bad?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"I'm screwed aren't I?" My lips formed into a straight line.

"Yeah, probably."

I shrugged. "Oh well. I guess I actually better get back to his house. Elizabeth should be serving dinner soon."

We parted ways and I unplugged myself from the world and plugged in my earbuds, blasting Winter by PVRIS.

When I got back home, it was silent.

"Hello?" I called out.

To my relief, no one answered. As much as I did want to see what Agent Burke thought of my hair, I was also slightly dreading it. I mean, what if he hated it?

The more I psyched my self out about it, the more I was sure he'd want me to re-dye my hair blonde or back to brown.

I shook myself out of it and tried to think of something for me to do that wasn't illegal. Usually, music or coloring would work, but I didn't want to use up my very last pages of my coloring book so music it was.

I went into my room and played White Noise by PVRIS as loud as my computer would allow it, with me singing even louder.

Most of the time I wouldn't have dared to sing out loud. It's not that I had a bad voice -I had quite a good one in fact- but I hated drawing attention to myself. The type of attention that made people look at you.

When I was Override it was different. Override was a persona that I didn't give myself but grew on me.

Over the sound of my blasting music and me singing, I didn't hear the front door open. I didn't hear the footsteps on the stairs and I didn't hear my door creak open.

"Blair?" Elizabeth was standing there with a surprised expression on her face.

My heart stopped. This would be the last time I sang.

"I had no idea you could sing like that!" She opened the door more.

"And I had no idea you were there." I said quietly. I felt my face flare up. "How much..." I swallowed. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough. It was beautiful."

"Oh... thank you."

"And I love your hair! When did you dye it?"

This brought a small smile to my lips. "Thanks. I dyed it earlier today. Do you think Agent Burke will tolerate it?"

"I think..." She thought for a moment before saying. "I think it'll shock him a little bit, but it will grow on him."

Well, at least Elizabeth was honest about what he would say. She could've easily said that he'd love it.

When I didn't answer, she said, "What do you think about going out for a bit?"

That shocked me a little. "Out where?"

"Anywhere you want. We can go shopping if you'd like."

I frowned. "Why?" I could see her eyes darken in disappointment. "Wait, Wait, wait. Like why would you want to take me?"

She smiled and touched my arm. "Because I want to. And I want to get to know you better. So what do you say?"

This touched me. I had never expected anything like this from the FBI. Maybe the good guys weren't so bad after all. "I'd love too."

"Great! Go get your shoes on. I'll wait downstairs for you." She left the room and I listened to her receding footsteps.

I laughed quietly to myself, grabbed my shoes and headed down the stairs.

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Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter is so late and slightly shorter than most of the other ones. I had a bit of a writers block in the middle of writing the chapter and this felt like a good place to stop.

Also may I say, THANK YOU FOR 2K READS! This is crazy! Thank you all for your support!

Please vote if you like the story so far, and comment as well. I do take constructive criticism.

-Julia Stone