Prologue

When Neal was a child, he loved climbing trees. One memorable summer, the big oak in an abandoned garden near his home became his favorite place. The man who was responsible for it kept a dog on the property to keep people away, but Neal bribed it with treats and pats. Near the trunk of the tree was an old forgotten garden stool. Standing on it, Neal could jump high enough to reach the lowest branch of the tree. From there he would climb as high as possible. There was one fork on which one could sit fairly comfortably, watching the people on the street without getting seen. Neal often took his drawing materials with him, making sketches of everything in view: the people, the old elegant house, the dog. When he got hungry, he just had to climb a little bit lower. A couple of bramble bushes were growing so close that Neal only had to reach out to pick some fruit. Sadly, when the autumn came, the oak stopped being such a good hiding place. The following spring, the house and the whole garden had been torn down in favor of a planned apartment house (which never was finished because the main investor went bankrupt).

Neal's climbing abilities had come in handy a couple of times on one heist or another. But while he wasn't exactly afraid of heights, climbing along the spire of a New York skyscraper was not his favorite thing to do. Carefully he eased himself forward, trying to find a safer position. The cold wind was tugging on his clothes and he felt as if the whole skyscraper was moving under him. La Fontaine's fable "Le Chêne et le Roseau" came unbidden to his mind.* He knew that skyscrapers weren't totally static - they couldn't be - but he had been never been as aware of this as now.

He mentally thanked the architect for seeking his inspiration in art deco and adding a lot of ornaments to the spire. The protruding pieces of metal were difficult to navigate around, but they were also good to cling to. While Neal moved forward on the slippery stones, he cursed Peter in his mind. This was entirely his fault.

A/N: *The fable is about a quarrel between the oak tree and the common reed. The oak tree is convinced that he is much stronger, because he is big and unshakable. Finally the oak tree is uprooted by a powerful storm, while the common reed survives because it is able to bend to it without breaking. There is also an older version of it by Aesop.

The idea to this story started last year, when I had a longer talk with Tee-Jay about the show. She liked the concept I had in mind, but I was lacking the time to write it, partly because I had signed up for the fic-exchange. But then I drew her name by chance. I started to write it for her seeking inspiration at Collar Corner and answering quite a number of prompts in it, but then the mid-season finale came around and I had the problem that I had no idea where to fit this one into canon. Thankfully I now have found the perfect place for it: After "Upper West Side Story" but before "Neighborhood Watch". This is quite a big writing project and I'm not sure how often I'll manage to update, but the chapters will be fairly long. It's dedicated to all the folks at Collar Corner (especially those who took their time to talk my ideas through with me) and to mam711, who still has her work cut out by beta-reading for me.