How To Take Care Of A Sick Ex-Con Man | White Collar [COMPLETED]

Dinner & A Call, step 2

<image brightened up by me>

In the previous chapter...

(...) "That's the spirit!" Peter chuckled again, punching Neal's shoulder gently as he presumably, went to go make «dinner». Neal rubbed the spot where Peter had punched him playfully as it did hurt him a little...

WCWCWCWCWCWCWCWCWCWC

After Peter Burke had tried to make dinner for the two of them and dramatically failed to do so as he somehow managed to set the microwave on fire, Neal was forced to make dinner for the two of them so that they wouldn't starve. The man had felt like a failure as he couldn't even make canned soup for them in the microwave and was forced to let the sick boy deal with the matter of food. He sighed in disappointment and defeat. He couldn't even do the simple task as opening the can with a can opener, how could he even take care of Neal then? Or call himself an FBI agent for a fact?!

So many questions ran inside the older man's head as Neal had already cooked dinner for them. 'Maybe he isn't so sick after all...' he thought as he watched Neal, literally, make art with the food in front of him. He did seem much better as all of the coughing and sniffling had stopped. 'Maybe I was mistaken... and Neal was right after all...' but would he admit it to the man openly? Never, was the answer.

"All done!" the boy smiled as he presented Peter with a fancy dish that he knew nothing about and couldn't even pronounce the name of. He was just glad to have something to eat, anything even if «when all else fails», he could just order a pizza. The man facepalmed in his mind. Why hadn't he thought of that before?! 'Which is probably what I should have done...' he thought as he took a bite of the neatly prepared dish.

Suddenly, the agent's head shot up in surprise. "Wow." he grinned earning a wide toothy smile from Caffrey. "This..." he gestured to the meal with his fork, not breaking eye contact. "This is amazing! Wow!" he said again stuffing more of it in his mouth. "I knew that you could cook really good, but this..." even his eyes smiled. "This is DELICIOUS!" the man was overwhelmed. Neal chuckled. "Well I'm glad you like it."

"Like it?" the older man replied shocked and pretending offense. "I. LOVE. IT." he said downing the dish in almost one go. "Even more than El's cooking?" the boy teased with a smirk. "Wow there cowboy. You know I can't compare it with that." he said in his defense. Both of them laughed at the comment. Neal seemed to be happy again and not at all sick in any way.

'Maybe I was mistaken...' Peter thought again as his phone suddenly rang pulling him out of his own thoughts. He swiftly picked it up and answered with a simple "Hello?" "Hi honey!" It was the sweet sound of his wife's voice on the other side of the phone. "Oh, hey honey." he replied with a smile excusing himself in front of Neal to which he only correspondingly nodded. "How are you?" she asked politely. "I'm good. How are you?" he asked in his «try not to feel guilty» voice although there was nothing that he should be guilty about.

"Honey, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly, not at all suspicious. The married man sighed. He was frustrated that he didn't tell his wife about this although he didn't need to, but he always wanted to tell her and let her know everything honestly. "It's Neal..." he started as he always did. "Oh no. What is it now?" she asked with the slightly annoyed tone that she always had when she figured that there was something wrong and that it, as always, concerned Neal, the «trouble magnet». "Is he okay?" she added with her worried mother-ly tone.

"Well..." he stole a glance at the boy who was still eating his dinner and looked generally fine. "Yes...and no... kind of..." came the unsure reply of her husband. "Honey, you're confusing me..." she said. "Is someone in danger?" "No! No! I don't think so... Well, not in any real danger as in-" "Peter." the said man sighed. "I suspect that Neal is sick and wanted to take care of him since there's no one else who would and I know better than to trust him to take care of it himself." he explained sending Neal an uneasy and worried look which the ex-con man didn't notice.

"There. Do you feel better now?" Peter could hear the smile playing on her lips. "Not really. No..." both of them laughed softly as Neal raised his head slightly glancing at Peter who kept on smiling. The boy returned the smile and shifted his attention back to the food in front of him. "So what are you gonna do about it?" Elizabeth asked curiously making the agent sigh again. "I don't really know..." he took another glance at the young male. "Well I'll let you figure it out then." "Goodbye honey." he smiled "Bye honey!" and ended the call. Once again, he sighed looking at his phone for a moment, then sitting back at the table. "So how's Elizabeth?" Neal asked curiously, trying to come up with a new topic for «small talk»...

WCWCWCWCWCWCWCWCWCWC

Author's note: Chapter 2 is a bit shorter. Decided to add a few appearances of Elizabeth. Btw for the sake of the plot, let's pretend that Mozzie and June went somewhere together or something 😂 I'll do my best to try and update as much as I can. Vote and comment, if you'd like and don't forget to archive the story so that you get notified about the next chapter! Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more <3