Fic: If a Body is What You Want (White Collar, Neal/Peter/El, Neal/Keller..., NC-17)
Title: if a body is what you want
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing(s): Variations with Neal, Peter, El, and Matthew Keller
Rating: NC-17 (for possible triggers)
Word Count: 500 words
Warnings: suggested non-con
Summary: The smarter thing for Neal to do would have been to ignore Keller's cryptic message... if Neal had actually cared what happens to him.
Author's Note: for the current prompt at slashthedrabble
There was never much hope of his finding Keller if Keller didn’t want to be found, not with Keller telling anybody who’d listen that Neal’s “gone snitch”. Not when the full force of the F.B.I. and Peter Burke’s fury couldn’t bring him in.
So maybe the smarter thing for Neal to do would have been to ignore Keller’s cryptic message. To call Peter straightaway and let the Bureau follow the new lead (to the same dead end…)
If Neal had actually cared what happens to him. If he hadn’t watched Peter suffer far too much for far too long. If El’s absence in their lives didn’t work like a fissure; a tiny crack in a hull depressurizing the world inside.
Neal didn’t hesitate. He offered his life to Keller on a silver platter in exchange for El’s safety.
He can only stare dumbly when Keller doesn’t take it, his heart beating in his chest like a drum.
“Don’t get me wrong… I’d like to kill you,” Keller says, smirking. “Believe me. But Burke’s made my life a living hell since I grabbed his wife. I don’t wanna know what he’d do if I bumped off his pretty boytoy.”
Neal is beside himself. The treasure is gone… And he’s got nothing else to bargain with.
“Calm down, Caffrey. I’ll let the missus go. And you too,” Keller sing-songs as Neal’s stomach drops. Whatever Keller wants more than Neal’s death… It can’t be good. “If you give me what I want.”
“What do you want, Keller?”
In a breath, Keller’s eyes stop smiling; his face becomes sharp. “I wanna send you back to your boy dirty,” he says. “I already got a taste of his broad. Now I wanna ride his little bitch.”
Neal’s hands are bound to the chair he’s sitting in, but he can still move his head and he does. He cracks his skull full-on into Keller’s face and hears the satisfying crunch of the man’s nose. Keller’s curses are a small compensation for what has happened to El, to Peter; what will happen to Neal. But Neal needs them; needs the sharp stab of pain behind his eyes to take his mind off of the things Keller’s saying.
Smiling through the flow of his own blood over his lips, Keller taunts, “Yeah. I’m gonna give it to you good. And you’re gonna ask me for it, Caffrey! You’re gonna do all the heavy lifting. Let Burke get all high and mighty with me after I’ve been all over and in everybody he cares about!”
“I’d rather die.” No matter that he already knows he’ll do anything to save Elizabeth… Neal has to make that clear first.
Keller shrugs. He doesn’t look sorry. “Then El gave it up for nothing. The last words she’s gonna hear… are ‘Neal says hello.’”
Neal doesn’t let him get half-way to the door.
“Keller… Keller!” Neal breathes. Blinks. Steels himself to give Keller what he wants. “Please!”
Keller stops and turns.
And smiles.
[ end. ]
Title: here is where the world ends
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing(s): Variations with Neal, Peter, El, and Matthew Keller
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: discussion of recent non-con
Summary: Every agent has a price. Peter thinks Matthew Keller has just found his.
Author's Note: sequel to the drabble above
Peter knows that, whatever he might say, every agent has a price. For some it just isn’t money. (For a good agent, it’s never that.) For some, it’s professional advancement; for others it’s familial security. But Peter’s never known his own going rate. What would it take to make him set down his badge and do the “wrong” thing?
Peter thinks Matthew Keller’s figured it out.
He was too frazzled while El was gone to think about what he’d do once he got her back. Likewise, too frightened while Neal was gone too to consider it. (‘What if I lose them?’ he just kept asking himself. ‘Oh god, either of them? What if I lose them both?’)
But an idea begins to form as he sits with El in the hospital, shaking with rage and pain and (somewhat sickeningly, because she’s been hurt - hurt like that - but she’s alive, which matters most) relief. It solidifies as El cries with him, curled like a child against his shoulder.
Then she looks up at him, as upset about this as about her own pain - maybe more - and says, “He hurt Neal, too, Peter.” And she repeats it in the face of his shock and horror: “Oh, honey, he did this to Neal too!”
Peter visits Neal’s apartment immediately after leaving Elizabeth to rest.
He has to demand that Neal let him in. Realizes that he should have noticed something off about Neal right away. Neal stiffened at Peter’s touch when Peter tried to hug him after he and Elizabeth were recovered. He blanched when Jones suggested that he let the paramedics check him out, and insisted that he be allowed to go home to clean up before he had to give an official statement.
Neal has blamed himself for Elizabeth’s disappearance since the beginning, and Peter knew that he’d done a piss poor job of discouraging him, so he chalked up Neal’s behavior to more of the same and promised himself that he and Elizabeth would make it up to Neal as soon as possible.
Standing in Neal’s doorway, with no words yet spoken between them, taking in the careful blank of Neal’s expression - the wet sheen of Neal’s eyes - Peter all but crumbles under the weight of how wrong he’d been.
“Oh god, he did…” he breathes.
Neal tries to shut the door on him.
Peter pushes through.
“Peter, no-” Neal chokes, but Peter won’t listen. He captures Neal in an embrace and resists Neal’s struggles - which is probably exactly the wrong thing to do, but Peter can’t help it. He holds Neal. And cries again. And pets Neal’s hair and whispers… something. Everything. ‘I love you’ and ‘I’m so, so sorry’ and ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ and ‘oh, baby’.
Until Neal is sobbing every bit as brokenly as Elizabeth had and clinging to Peter as if he thought Peter wouldn’t really feel inclined to touch him once he knew the truth.
And Peter realizes… that, yes, Neal did think that Peter wouldn’t want to touch him once he knew that Keller-
Every agent has a price. Can be bought to become something other than an FBI agent. Like an angry man with a gun and about a dozen means of disposing of a body.
Even Peter has a price, and he thinks… No. He knows…
He knows that Keller has just paid his.
[ end. ]
Titles from Here, Bullet by Richard Siken.
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing(s): Variations with Neal, Peter, El, and Matthew Keller
Rating: NC-17 (for possible triggers)
Word Count: 500 words
Warnings: suggested non-con
Summary: The smarter thing for Neal to do would have been to ignore Keller's cryptic message... if Neal had actually cared what happens to him.
Author's Note: for the current prompt at slashthedrabble
There was never much hope of his finding Keller if Keller didn’t want to be found, not with Keller telling anybody who’d listen that Neal’s “gone snitch”. Not when the full force of the F.B.I. and Peter Burke’s fury couldn’t bring him in.
So maybe the smarter thing for Neal to do would have been to ignore Keller’s cryptic message. To call Peter straightaway and let the Bureau follow the new lead (to the same dead end…)
If Neal had actually cared what happens to him. If he hadn’t watched Peter suffer far too much for far too long. If El’s absence in their lives didn’t work like a fissure; a tiny crack in a hull depressurizing the world inside.
Neal didn’t hesitate. He offered his life to Keller on a silver platter in exchange for El’s safety.
He can only stare dumbly when Keller doesn’t take it, his heart beating in his chest like a drum.
“Don’t get me wrong… I’d like to kill you,” Keller says, smirking. “Believe me. But Burke’s made my life a living hell since I grabbed his wife. I don’t wanna know what he’d do if I bumped off his pretty boytoy.”
Neal is beside himself. The treasure is gone… And he’s got nothing else to bargain with.
“Calm down, Caffrey. I’ll let the missus go. And you too,” Keller sing-songs as Neal’s stomach drops. Whatever Keller wants more than Neal’s death… It can’t be good. “If you give me what I want.”
“What do you want, Keller?”
In a breath, Keller’s eyes stop smiling; his face becomes sharp. “I wanna send you back to your boy dirty,” he says. “I already got a taste of his broad. Now I wanna ride his little bitch.”
Neal’s hands are bound to the chair he’s sitting in, but he can still move his head and he does. He cracks his skull full-on into Keller’s face and hears the satisfying crunch of the man’s nose. Keller’s curses are a small compensation for what has happened to El, to Peter; what will happen to Neal. But Neal needs them; needs the sharp stab of pain behind his eyes to take his mind off of the things Keller’s saying.
Smiling through the flow of his own blood over his lips, Keller taunts, “Yeah. I’m gonna give it to you good. And you’re gonna ask me for it, Caffrey! You’re gonna do all the heavy lifting. Let Burke get all high and mighty with me after I’ve been all over and in everybody he cares about!”
“I’d rather die.” No matter that he already knows he’ll do anything to save Elizabeth… Neal has to make that clear first.
Keller shrugs. He doesn’t look sorry. “Then El gave it up for nothing. The last words she’s gonna hear… are ‘Neal says hello.’”
Neal doesn’t let him get half-way to the door.
“Keller… Keller!” Neal breathes. Blinks. Steels himself to give Keller what he wants. “Please!”
Keller stops and turns.
And smiles.
[ end. ]
Title: here is where the world ends
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing(s): Variations with Neal, Peter, El, and Matthew Keller
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: discussion of recent non-con
Summary: Every agent has a price. Peter thinks Matthew Keller has just found his.
Author's Note: sequel to the drabble above
Peter knows that, whatever he might say, every agent has a price. For some it just isn’t money. (For a good agent, it’s never that.) For some, it’s professional advancement; for others it’s familial security. But Peter’s never known his own going rate. What would it take to make him set down his badge and do the “wrong” thing?
Peter thinks Matthew Keller’s figured it out.
He was too frazzled while El was gone to think about what he’d do once he got her back. Likewise, too frightened while Neal was gone too to consider it. (‘What if I lose them?’ he just kept asking himself. ‘Oh god, either of them? What if I lose them both?’)
But an idea begins to form as he sits with El in the hospital, shaking with rage and pain and (somewhat sickeningly, because she’s been hurt - hurt like that - but she’s alive, which matters most) relief. It solidifies as El cries with him, curled like a child against his shoulder.
Then she looks up at him, as upset about this as about her own pain - maybe more - and says, “He hurt Neal, too, Peter.” And she repeats it in the face of his shock and horror: “Oh, honey, he did this to Neal too!”
Peter visits Neal’s apartment immediately after leaving Elizabeth to rest.
He has to demand that Neal let him in. Realizes that he should have noticed something off about Neal right away. Neal stiffened at Peter’s touch when Peter tried to hug him after he and Elizabeth were recovered. He blanched when Jones suggested that he let the paramedics check him out, and insisted that he be allowed to go home to clean up before he had to give an official statement.
Neal has blamed himself for Elizabeth’s disappearance since the beginning, and Peter knew that he’d done a piss poor job of discouraging him, so he chalked up Neal’s behavior to more of the same and promised himself that he and Elizabeth would make it up to Neal as soon as possible.
Standing in Neal’s doorway, with no words yet spoken between them, taking in the careful blank of Neal’s expression - the wet sheen of Neal’s eyes - Peter all but crumbles under the weight of how wrong he’d been.
“Oh god, he did…” he breathes.
Neal tries to shut the door on him.
Peter pushes through.
“Peter, no-” Neal chokes, but Peter won’t listen. He captures Neal in an embrace and resists Neal’s struggles - which is probably exactly the wrong thing to do, but Peter can’t help it. He holds Neal. And cries again. And pets Neal’s hair and whispers… something. Everything. ‘I love you’ and ‘I’m so, so sorry’ and ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ and ‘oh, baby’.
Until Neal is sobbing every bit as brokenly as Elizabeth had and clinging to Peter as if he thought Peter wouldn’t really feel inclined to touch him once he knew the truth.
And Peter realizes… that, yes, Neal did think that Peter wouldn’t want to touch him once he knew that Keller-
Every agent has a price. Can be bought to become something other than an FBI agent. Like an angry man with a gun and about a dozen means of disposing of a body.
Even Peter has a price, and he thinks… No. He knows…
He knows that Keller has just paid his.
[ end. ]
Titles from Here, Bullet by Richard Siken.