And the relief that follows

Reunion

Peter continued to stare at Neal while Neal simply looked back at him.

"I'm sorry Peter." With a sigh he tried to come up with what to say, but before he could come up with anything, Peter was moving forwards.

Grabbing him in a bear hug, Peter couldn't fight as a few tears ran down his face. "I'm just glad that you're actually alive."

Slipping his arms around Peter's back, Neal returned the hug. "You have no idea how good it is to be alive."

For a few moments they relished the presence of their best friend before Peter pulled back to let the others greet Neal as well.

Taking a deep breath, Neal tried to regain some of his lost air before the next agent could squeeze it out of him again.

Refusing to let go completely, Peter stood at a proximity close enough to Neal that their shoulders remained touching. While he worked to regain his composure, he also needed that physical reassurance that Neal really was alive.

Looking around the room to distract himself for a moment, he took in the basics of the bathroom and bed before looking back to Neal. He needed the reminders that this wasn't a dream.

After the main agents had given Neal their hugs and they were ready to leave, Peter was about to lead Neal out of the room when the man stopped him.

"I can't go with you yet." He held his ground and refused to move forward any further.

Heartbroken, Peter asked. "Why not?"

Tilting his head, Neal looked at him closely. "You didn't look too closely at the room did you?"

Taken back, Peter felt like he had been slapped. "What?"

Reaching out to him, Neal put a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder. "I know that you're surprised and happy to see me again, but I can't leave just yet." Putting his hand up, he silenced the words Peter was about to say. "What am I supposed to do Peter, gnaw my leg off? I'm welded into this thing and it's cemented into the wall." He swung his leg around to reveal the manacle and chain that was keeping him in place.

Inhaling deeply, Peter was horrified. "They welded you in?"

This time it was Neal who pulled Peter into a hug. "Yes Peter. I'm alright though." When he felt Peter calming down again, Neal released him but kept him close as it wasn't going to be pleasant being cut out of the manacle.

Chuck had been waiting outside with the necessary tools for freeing Neal and, when Jones signaled him, he brought them in. Walking into the room, he set down a pile of things before grabbing Neal into a hug of his own while jabbering at him in some unknown language. After he had gotten the initial personal words out, he switched to English. "It's good to see you alive again, and we have a lot to talk about."

Ruffling his hair like he was his little brother, Neal smiled at Chuck. "It's good to see you too. Am I going to get told off again?"

Moving to start setting the gear up, Chuck answered while he worked. "Yep, you'll also get thanked."

Following Chuck's directions, Neal moved over to the bed and drug Peter to sit next to him. "Thanked?"

Glaring up at Neal, Chuck reminded him of his past actions. "Yes, thanked. You saved my life, protected my father, helped save my entire family's lives when I needed you, and that isn't even all of it. Besides, my whole family knows the truth of you now so they want their chance to talk to you too."

Speechless, Neal didn't know what to say to that.

Smiling up at him, Chuck reassured Neal before giving the final instructions. Then, Chuck started to cut the chain before moving to break off the manacle and, despite Chuck's efforts to be careful, he still hurt Neal with the violence necessary to complete his tasks.

Leaning into Peter, Neal looked for the support he needed to get through.

For Peter, it was miserable as he watched Neal go pale and sweat while he clenched his teeth through the pain. He had been given something to bite on, but his hands were still in a death grip on Peter's. Talking quietly about whatever came to mind, Peter tried to give him something else to think about.

When the work was done, Neal fell into Peter in exhaustion.

Pulling him into a hug, Peter held him close to his chest with one arm while he ran a hand through his hair comfortingly with the other. "It's alright Neal. It's alright…"

Office

When the teams returned to the office, Neal was sheltered in the middle of the group as they weren't going to let him go.

Walking onto the White Collar floor, Diana was the first person to greet him.

"It's good to see you a free man again Neal. Do we get to know the rest of who you are now?" She gave him a hug of her own.

Before Neal could answer, he had a dart sticking to his forehead.

Giving Chuck a 'What was that for?' look, he questioned why he was just shot.

With a smirk, Chuck just shrugged and blew on the gun's barrel like it was smoking. "I owed you for that too."

In response, Neal just rolled his eyes and accepted it. He had shot Chuck in that location before after all.

Looking on, Peter had mixed feelings. Why was Chuck shooting Neal in the forehead with a Nerf gun? Then he thought about all of the times that Neal annoyed him and he wondered, why couldn't he do that too?

In response to all of the questioning looks, Neal gave them a brief explanation. "We went to college together and played Gotcha a lot…" Then he shrugged as the team moved to the conference room to debrief.

Debriefing

Neal led the meeting for a while as he told the team everything that he had been doing in relation to the joint case. Since that was basically known, it didn't take him long to complete.

When he finished, Diana brought up her question again. "Do we get to know the rest of who you are now?"

Looking uncomfortable, Neal tried to avoid answering. "Not quite yet Diana."

"Oh come on, we have known you for years. Why can't you share that information yet?" She pressed.

Trying hard not to look at Peter, Neal gave her some more information. "Because Diana. Not even my biological family knows who I became or where I went in life. Shouldn't they get the chance to know before everyone else?"

"Especially considering…" Chuck's input was cut short by Neal's glare and something jabbered in their code language. Shrugging, Chuck replied and their conversation seemed to have dropped for the moment.

"You're Bryce aren't you?" Peter had figured it out despite the effort to keep it secret.

"Yes, come on Peter, we need to talk." With that he led the way over to Peter's office.

Brothers

"What happened to you Neal? One minute, your right there with mom and dad… and the next you're gone for thirty years!" He had questions that needed to be answered.

Directing him to sit down, Neal took his usual seat as well. Once they were both settled, Neal started into his story.

"I don't remember much. Mostly, the early memories are vague dreams that I presume are you and our parents. Then the first thing that I remember clearly is being found in a DC alley by a kind police offer who took me home to his wife. When my identity couldn't be found, they got permission to adopt me.

The story I told you about my father being found dirty on my third birthday was true, but he wasn't my biological father like I led you to believe. As a result of his actions, my adopted mom and I were placed in to Wit-sec where you already know the story of my life until I was eighteen. That's where things go in a different direction than what I told you.

After learning that my identity wasn't real for the first time, my plans changed and I went to college at Stanford. For four years I studied accounting and engineering, Chuck became my roommate and best friend, and I was recruited to the CIA our junior year.

Going into the agency, my background check revealed that I was found abandoned, adopted, and placed in Wit-sec. Researching further, it was finally connected who I actually am, but due to my new connection with the espionage world, the powers that be decided not to reveal that to the world at large yet.

Working for the agency… a lot has happened and I can't tell you much of anything. The short of it, is that I am an intelligence officer of the CIA with a level six clearance and task forced or contracted with two more agencies. I work as the agent in charge for a joint project with the NSA and have spent over ten years contracted to play Caffrey for the FBI. Since I have literally been killed in action twice, and have faked it once, my official files are in the process of being moved to my real name. From what I have been told, I will now be doing… tamer work." With a shrug Neal continued. "Apparently, I am too valuable to lose so the bosses want me to do work that is less likely to get me killed again."

Sitting back in the chair, Peter tried to take it all in. His little brother was a high ranking, triple agency task force agent with a very high clearance level? He didn't expect that, but the day seemed to be full of surprises. Realizing that Neal was waiting for him to respond, he tried to come up with something. "I… I don't know what to say." Then he started to smile. "So, my best friend is my baby brother who just happens to outrank me… I guess it's not a good idea to pull rank on the work front when I want you to behave."

Laughing at the unexpected comment, Neal smiled in return. "Nope, but you do still have older brother rank so not all is lost."

Walking around the desk, Peter grabbed Neal into another hug. It appeared that he was going to squeeze the stuffing out of Neal if he kept those hugs up.

Smiling despite the lack of air, Neal returned the hug. "It feels great to finally be able to tell you everything. You're the first person that I have actually done that with."

"Mozzie doesn't know?" Peter questioned as he pulled back and tried to clear his eyes of more tears.

"Only you and my boss… and Chuck the know-it-all of course." Neal shrugged.

"Of course. I assume how he is such a 'know-it-all' is above my pay grade as well?" Peter was curious even though he didn't expect much of an answer.

"Yep, but at least you can get to know him for his non-government related aspects. Chuck is an open book if he feels comfortable with you."

Looking forward to many conversations, Peter directed Neal that they should return to the team to put them out of their misery.

Reveal

Walking back into the conference room, everything went quiet. They had been gossiping and sharing their various speculations to pass the time until the other two agents returned.

Chuck was ignoring everything as he sat fiddling with his phone.

Looking over his shoulder, Neal realized that Chuck was playing games on his phone to entertain himself away from the drama of the team.

Rolling his eyes, Neal just shook his head at Chuck. "Do want to bring them up to date Peter?"

"Sure." Peter took the conversation. "When I was a kid, I had a younger brother."

There were gasps of surprise as the team took a leap of intuition.

Holding his hands up for them to let him finish, Peter continued his story. "When he was two, we were on a trip to New York City when he disappeared. One minute he was with our parents, and the next he was gone. I still don't know what happened between his disappearing in New York and how he ended up in DC…"

With a shrug, Neal carried the tale. "Beats me, I was two. Anyway, you all know that I was raised by the Bennetts, went into Wit-sec, and eventually picked up playing Caffrey. What you don't know, is that I actually went to college with Chuck majoring in computer engineering and accounting. During our junior year, I was recruited to the CIA. From there, I have been task forced with the NSA and contracted by the FBI making me a triple task force agent. For the record, I hold a level six clearance and can say no more about my career with the government."

Diana raised her hand and asked her question before anyone else could. "What is your real name then?"

Grinning, Peter answered that one. "Bryce Neal Burke."

"So what now?" Jones asked.

"I don't know entirely. Depends on what the bosses define as 'tame.'" Neal just shrugged.

"Does that have anything to do with why I couldn't find your files when I looked for you?" Diana asked.

"Yes, when you looked me up, the bosses were in the process of moving my information into a joint new file under my real name. Due to the timing, it gave the appearance of me not existing."

With the mysteries cleared up for her, Diana tried to settle back and duck out of the conversation. To her consternation, the team turned to her with questions.

"How did you know that he was alive?" was the unanimous question.

"Uh… I thought he was a ghost for a while because he was a reflection on a building, a shadow on the wall, and when I tried to block his exit at the coffee shop he seemed to disappear into thin air. Then I found him leaning on my car and he started showing up at my place… Once he started doing that it was obvious that he was real and alive."

Suddenly understanding, Peter cut in. "That's why you had to tease me about him isn't it?"

Finally able to vent a little, Diana told them off. "Do you have any idea how hard it was not to tell you that he was alive while I watched him play with Theo on the floor?"

Leaping to the next connection, Peter turned to Neal. "So you know, don't you?"

Grinning with pride, Neal nodded. "At first I thought you had figured me out… then you started talking about Neal not eating his food and battling Satchmo to clean up the mess." He paused to throw an arm acrossed Peter's shoulder. "I'm honored that you would name him after me."

Throwing his arm back around Neal, Peter tried to shrug it off. "I named him after my best friend and little brother." It wasn't a big deal to him.

Watching the brothers reconnecting, the office settled back and enjoyed having the teams together for the first time.

Family

That evening when Peter was heading home, he insisted on dragging Neal with him. He had called ahead to warn Elizabeth so that the situation wasn't going to be a complete surprise, but he still wanted her to see Neal for herself.

Walking through the door, he had Neal set his bag down so that they could go through the introductions first as a means of reuniting him as a part of the family.

Satchmo was the first one to race in and greet Neal. He had to check him over and get a thorough petting before the dog was satisfied.

Following up behind, Elizabeth came carrying little Neal to meet his uncle.

It was awkward for a few moments as Neal looked abashed and didn't know what to say.

With the tears running down her face, Elizabeth moved forwards and wrapped him in a one armed hug. "Diana and I had a long talk this afternoon. I am so sorry Neal. You protected us, but those actions left you with no one to turn to. You know that I was angry with you for putting us through that, but I never stopped to think what it put you through. Thank you Neal!"

For a few moments, Neal simply stood there and held Elizabeth in return. Then Peter shifted Satchmo so that he could move to support his wife and brother too. Standing in the middle of what was essentially a family group hug, Neal had never felt so welcome or at home before in his life.

As the tears welled up in his eyes, Neal was glad for the distraction of little Neal as the baby squirmed and decided to kick out with a tiny foot. Catching it lightly, Neal smiled at the baby. "Hey Neal. It's not nice to kick your uncle."

Giggling at the attention, little Neal cooed at big Neal and waived his hands around.

Laughing, the adults stepped back and tried to compose themselves.

Then Elizabeth shifted the baby in her arms. "Would you like to hold him Neal?"

Bobbing his head, Neal accepted the baby. "It might also help to get into the habit of calling me Bryce. That would make it less confusing which Neal you're referring to as well as help cement my identity as Bryce Burke."

Nodding, Elizabeth took note of that as she passed the baby over. "This is going to take some getting used to, but I am honored to have you as a brother in law Bryce."

Taking the baby into his arms, Neal looked over his head. "Not as much of an honor as it is to call you sister."

Smiling, Elizabeth remembered why she ultimately liked Neal so well. Kissing him on the cheek, Elizabeth stood on her toes to reach. "You're still such a charmer. How could you and Peter be brothers when you're such a flirt and he isn't?" She teased.

"I guess the same differences that made him White Collar and me Black Ops." Neal shrugged. Then he turned his focus to little Neal. "When you get older, I'm going to have to teach you all kinds of things…"

"Bryce…" Peter's tone said that he knew what Neal was alluding to. "You were listening to that part of my conversation with Diana too weren't you?"

Looking over at Peter, Neal turned his attention to his older brother. "Since I was sitting on the floor for the rest of the conversation, I would assume that I was present for that part as well."

"No need to be snarky about it." Peter reprimanded

"It's not 'snarky' to point out common sense Peter. I know that you weren't there, but still, if I heard the part where you talked about Neal, it isn't unlikely that I heard that part where she teased you about me teaching Neal stuff to annoy you."

Stepping in before the conversation could turn into an argument, Elizabeth changed the subject. "How about we settle in for dinner and carry on a conversation less likely to turn into an argument. After all, this is the first time that we have been all together."

Corralling the boys into the dining room, Elizabeth directed Neal to tell her the rest of his story as she was obviously missing some things.

Night

During the night, Peter and Elizabeth both found themselves standing at the door to the nursery in order to reassure themselves that Neal really was alive. Fortunately, they were there when Neal started having a nightmare.

He started hollering and Peter was right by his side in an instant. "Neal… Bryce. Wake up! You're alright Bryce, wake up!"

Opening his eyes with a gasp, Neal looked up at Peter and then over to Elizabeth. "I'm sorry to wake you up." He leaned up and rubbed his eyes as he tried to clear the sleep from his vision. Looking around the room, he reassured himself that he was safe and not where ever he had been in his dream.

"We were already awake Bryce." Peter told him.

Catching on to the implied meaning, Neal smiled at him. "Should I be worried that you were both watching me sleep?"

Looking away in embarrassment, Peter tried to down play it. "We just wanted to make sure it wasn't a dream." Then he distracted Neal by asking about his dream. "What were you dreaming about Bryce?"

"Remember when I said that I had been killed twice for real?" At both of their shudders, he took that as them remembering. "Sometime those situations haunt my dreams…" Continuing to rub his eyes, he said a little more before he went quiet.

Wrapping Neal in another bear hug, Peter tried to help him calm down. "Fortunately, you survived, you're alright, safe, and here with us."

"Unless… you… suffocate me… that is…" Neal quipped breathlessly.

Loosening his grip, Peter apologized. "I'm sorry Neal. Have I been doing that to you all day?"

Patting him on the arm, Neal was getting his air back. "Don't… worry about it. Today has had a lot for you to deal with."

Watching from the door, Elizabeth loved to watch the two interact as brothers. It broke her heart to know all of the things that Neal had been through, but he had his family to help him through it now.

When little Neal decided to join the party, she lifted him out of his crib and joined the others on the air mattress. It was a midnight family conference filled with love and laughter.

Despite the oddity of the situation, Elizabeth looked forward to a future where Neal was going to be around, where she could watch Peter interact with his brother, and where they were all going to be a family.

Thank you for reading, reviewing, following, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite! I hope you all enjoyed this story and appreciate those who took the time to share their thoughts. For those who enjoy seeing the brotherly plots, I have a series in the works and more ideas in the wings so there will be more eventually (I'm slowly progressing on a few tougher plots at the moment though) :D

A huge thank you to those who cast their votes for the next story! (This round had the most input :D) Based on the votes, 'Living Legends' will be next followed by 'Time Incongruous', so I hope to see you all back for a secret and some time traveling fun ;)