A/N: This vignette follows immediately after Silbrith's latest story (Witches' Sabbath), which is a crossover between TV shows White Collar and Supernatural.
In Silbrith's story, White Collar canon criminal Curtis Hagen has escaped from prison, seeming to vanish into thin air. Neal and Peter work with Supernatural's Sam & Dean Winchester to understand what happened.
I had two inspirations for this story. The first is the fun of a road trip with Neal and Peter, so the story opens with them driving back to New York. My second inspiration is the many fantasy novels I've read featuring wizards. Enjoy!
Agent Peter Burke's car, Connecticut. Monday morning. May 16, 2005.
They were driving through New Haven when Peter had a sense of deja vu. "Remember the last time we were here?"
Neal had been fiddling with the radio, again, and he stopped to look up at the town. It took him a moment to recognize it, and then he smiled. "The School for Wizards case," he said, referring to the popular novels.
"That's what you call it?" Peter asked. He'd almost forgotten about that aspect of the case. Neal's disguise, including a pair of glasses, in combination with performing a magic trick at dinner, had convinced a couple of kids that Neal was an adult version of the series' main character. Peter hadn't read the books, but his wife was a fan and they'd watched the movies together. "I'd go with a different series. I haven't read the Lemony Snicket stories, but based on their titles, I'd call the case A Series of Unfortunate Events. Too many things went wrong. First you ended up in the hospital, and then your cousin did. I was beginning to think..." Peter almost joked that he'd felt cursed to hang out in hospital waiting rooms on every visit to Connecticut, but he stopped. He couldn't joke about curses, not today.
"No hospital trips this time," Neal said. "That's an improvement."
Peter couldn't think of this latest trip as an improvement at all. "Are you going to tell your family?" Peter asked.
"About yesterday?"
Peter nodded.
"Nah. They'd probably think I was kidding if I described what we witnessed. Or they'd want to put me in therapy."
"Stress manifesting as hallucinations?" Peter suggested as a potential diagnosis.
"Yeah. What about you? What are you gonna tell Elizabeth?"
Peter felt a churning in the pit of his stomach. "It was different last time, you know? When we met the Winchester brothers in New Jersey last month, what we were investigating was more annoying than frightening. When I got home, I described what I experienced as a virus. That seemed more believable. Anyway, El laughs so hard whenever she sees the pictures of me from that trip, she doesn't have breath left to ask why Mozzie told her I was cursed."
Neal grinned, with good reason. The photos of Peter under the dorkiness curse represented a gold mine of blackmail-worthy material. So far none of the photos had made it into the office. Neal had abided by his promise to keep those events secret.
"Before we left New York, I told her we were researching prison video footage of Curtis Hagen disappearing into thin air."
"Like the Flying Dutchman disappearing into the mist," Neal added, referring to the name the White Collar team had for Hagen.
"She thought it was fascinating," Peter said. "She'd probably enjoy it if I told her the escape was like something from the School for Wizards movies. She'd laugh and think I was spinning a tale for her entertainment. But what if I managed to convince her it's true? We saw this weekend that there are real witches and demons out there. Bad guys with incredible powers." He didn't mention another aspect he found equally upsetting, that the witch they had encountered displayed a disquieting interest in Neal. "Should I expose El to that?"
Of course Neal said Peter should spare her the knowledge. Neal and secrets went hand-in-hand. Usually Peter encouraged more openness, but today he truly understood Neal's side of the argument. This time it did feel like keeping El in the dark was protecting her.
"Too bad the only magic tricks I know are sleight-of-hand," Neal said. "I wish I could solve everything by muttering some Latin and waving my hands."
The resulting thought of wanna-be witch Chloe Bishop made Peter shudder. The romance author had inadvertently caused the dorkiness curse by muttering some mispronounced Latin, but fortunately her latest attempts to perform spells had proven unsuccessful. "I don't want to deal with another amateur spellcaster." After a pause Peter added, "Tell me you aren't planning to take lessons from Chloe."
"I promise. I'm holding out for my invitation to the wizardry school."
Peter snorted. "Of course you'd want the infamous invitation that must be kept secret from your family. The last time we came to Connecticut, it was about three weeks after you'd traded your confession for immunity, and I naively thought we knew most of your secrets as a result. As far as I was concerned, the only mystery left was whether that trouble-making friend you kept mentioning was real or a joke."
"My wizardry school roommate," Neal quipped.
"Little did I know you had a whole treasure trove of secrets you were still hiding." Peter reflected on the things he'd learned about Neal's past and family over the last year and a half. "We're beyond that now, right? Full disclosure?"
"I don't want to keep you in the dark," Neal said.
Encouraging, but not a promise to keep Peter informed, either. He let it go for the moment, as they were reaching heavy traffic that required his attention. It wasn't long until Peter dropped Neal off at his loft and then drove home to Brooklyn. By the time he arrived, El had already left for work. She wouldn't be back until that evening, after her rehearsal for a community theater production.
Having worked through the weekend chasing down their best lead on Curtis Hagen, Peter had Monday off. He stayed occupied with tasks around the townhouse. As long as he kept busy, he could block out thoughts of witches and demons.
Before El got home, he'd worn himself out tackling more household chores than he would have believed possible. She dashed upstairs to change out of her costume. He sat on the sofa with a beer in one hand and the TV remote in another, cruising through the channels until he found a baseball game.
He tried to concentrate on the game. The Chicago Cubs were playing. He listened to the commentary about the team and their record. It was closing in on a century since they'd last won a World Series. It took dedication to be a fan of the Cubbies. It was like the team was cursed...
Damn. His mind kept returning to spells and curses. Peter turned up the volume on the game in hopes that it would drown out his troubling thoughts. He wanted to forget what he'd seen in Connecticut, even if only for one night.
Unfortunately it felt as if the witch had cast a spell on him, refusing to leave him alone. If he wanted to capture Hagen he'd probably have to find the witch again. But how? What did he know about witches beyond what he'd read in high school? The Crucible. Macbeth. Until this weekend works of fiction had been his primary sources of information about them.
He still hadn't decided what to tell his wife. And what was he supposed to put in his report tomorrow regarding what he'd learned about Hagen's supernatural prison escape? If he told the truth, everyone but Neal would think he was losing it.
###
Tuesday afternoon, Peter wondered where the day had gone. So far he'd been too busy to write up a summary of what he'd learned over the weekend. What could he say that didn't sound like a fantasy? When he tried out explanations in his head, they reminded him of that latest movie in the School for Wizards series. El's sister had given them the movie for Christmas. He vaguely remembered it featured the search for a wizard who'd escaped from prison. Maybe he should watch it again to see if it provided any ideas for finding an escaped forger aided and abetted by a witch. He hoped that Hagen would be easier to track down than the movie's elusive wizard had been.
Deciding his report might be easier to write with help, he walked down to the bullpen to find Neal. The kid did have a way with words. Maybe the magic touch of a reformed con artist was what Peter needed to craft an explanation that his boss could believe.
"Looking for Neal?" Diana asked.
Peter nodded.
"He said he needed something from the evidence room. I think he called it a hex bag." Diana raised a brow, inviting further explanation.
"Thanks. And, you don't want to know." Heading toward the evidence room, Peter wondered what Neal wanted with the hex bag. It had been discovered at the prison from which Hagen had escaped, and it had already been thoroughly examined. That's what had sent them looking for Hagen in Connecticut in the first place.
Peter turned the final corner, and stopped short. The door to the evidence room was shut, with a note that the guard was on a break. Neal stood facing the door, eyes closed, and seemed to be mumbling something. He made a gesture and suddenly the hex bag appeared in the palm of his right hand.
Neal tossed the bag up in the air and caught it, in much the same way he played with the rubber band ball at his desk.
On impulse, Peter quickly turned around and stepped into an open room off the corridor. He stood to the side and watched as Neal walked by. The kid had a satisfied grin and started whistling a vaguely familiar tune.
When Neal was gone, Peter took a deep breath and sat down.
What was that?
Was it something Neal had learned from the Winchesters? But if they could do stuff like that, why hadn't they used those skills fighting the witch who'd tried to kill them on Sunday?
Or... Was it something Neal had already been able to do?
Peter never would have taken the idea seriously a year ago, but now he saw Neal's criminal past in a whole new light. The list of cons and thefts Neal had pulled off before joining the FBI had always seemed incredible. How did someone so young get away with so many complicated crimes? Yeah, the kid was smart, bordering on genius even, but it still strained credulity to believe everything he had supposedly done. It was almost easier to accept that Neal had a magical ability to make items poof out of locked rooms and into his hands.
Peter had to shake his head at the level of coincidence. In an unorthodox attempt to track down a cybercriminal, Diana had started writing fanfiction based on the Cthulhu Mythos, and her stories described evidence poofing out of police custody. Little did she know that it wasn't fiction, after all.
So much for not keeping secrets anymore. This one eclipsed all of the others Neal had reluctantly revealed. But rather than blame Neal for not trusting him, Peter had to admit the challenges the kid would have faced if he'd tried admitting he was a wizard. Back when Neal first joined the team, Peter would never have believed something like this. He'd have chuckled and told Neal to stop joking around. But after what they'd witnessed recently, Peter realized he had to be open to more possibilities.
Should he let Neal know what he'd seen?
Yes, they should talk about it, Peter decided as he walked back to his desk. Not in the office, though. Maybe they could grab some takeout after work and talk someplace where they wouldn't be overheard. Peter needed to know how Neal had learned to use magic. Was it a skill a person had to be born with, or could the whole White Collar team be taught to do these things?
Would that be legal?
Peter thought back again to Neal having been mistaken for a wizard on a case last year. He claimed he'd entertained the awe-struck children with sleight-of-hand tricks, but had it been real magic instead? Would he have dared to show his true skills to those little girls, knowing they wouldn't be believed if they told anyone?
At the time, Jones had joked about getting a photo of Neal in the glasses he'd worn for the case, and doctoring the image to add the School for Wizards uniform. Had Jones ever done it? Peter imagined getting a copy of that photo, handing it to Neal and saying, "We need to talk."
What else was Neal hiding? Did he know of magical creatures like the ones in the movie, which could help them capture Hagen and his accomplice?
###
He heard that song again, the one Neal had been whistling. This time Peter remembered it was the theme from the School for Wizards movies.
Where was it coming from?
He opened his eyes, and stretched.
"Do you want to switch back to the game?" Elizabeth asked. He'd fallen asleep and she'd started watching that movie he'd been dreaming about.
"No, this is good."
Just a dream. Neal wasn't a wizard.
Right?
Peter wondered if there was a way to ask Neal without opening himself up to merciless teasing. Probably not. He put an arm around his wife. "I told you about the case where Neal was mistaken for the main character in these movies, didn't I?"
El paused the movie. "That was right after he started working for you."
"I was dreaming about it. I mean, that he really was a wizard."
"Well, that would explain a lot. He's already a gifted artist, and a skilled linguist, and the pride of his fencing team. How unlikely is it that he's also a virtuoso thief and con artist? It's almost easier to believe that he used magic to do some of the things in that big case file you used to bring home."
Exactly. He should have trusted that El would get it. He relaxed. Tonight he'd take a break from worrying, and tomorrow morning he'd tell El the highlights of his adventure in Connecticut. "Have I mentioned recently how lucky I am to be married to you?"
"It's always good to hear." She leaned in for a quick kiss. "Now, hush. I want to watch the movie."
A/N: I wrote this near Silbrith's birthday, and in her honor almost every reference to past stories is to ones she wrote. The exception is that the previous trips to Connecticut & Neal being mistaken for a wizard were in my story By the Book. Neal's role on his fencing team is featured in Silbrith's The Queen's Jewels. Diana's fanfiction is mentioned in several of Silbrith's stories, and you can find the actual stories in her Arkham Files series. The dorkiness curse occurred in Whispers in the Night. Hagen's prison escape and the search for him are described in Witches' Sabbath.
Happy Almost Birthday to Silbrith!
The next story in this series is Echoes of a Violin by Silbrith. See my Table of Contents document, Caffrey Conversation chapter, for the full list of stories in order.