Chapter Text
Neal is teasing Peter about his dad when Peter asks.
“What about yours?”
It’s an innocent enough question. It’s not Peter’s fault that thinking of his dad causes a hot ball of anger to make its home inside his chest right next to his heart where it will hurt the most. “My dad?”
“Yeah. I don’t know much about him,” Peter says, hands in his pockets.
There’s a reason for that, he thinks. If I can’t think about him without wanting to hit something, what makes you think I can talk about him? “Oh, I thought you knew everything about me.”
“Well, there’s a big gaping hole before your eighteenth birthday.”
“Enjoy the mystery,” Neal says.
“Oh, come on. You don’t want to talk about him?” No, not particularly.
“What do you want me to say?” He doesn’t mean to let his irritation show, but this is a sensitive topic.
He never properly mourned his parents. From the moment he returned from their funeral, he forced himself to shove it down and lock it away. There had been no time to fall apart when he spent every moment as a teenager mastering different fighting styles and studying criminal psychology and devouring law books. He’d also managed to get the hang of forensics before he entered high school.
But Peter is still pushing, and he won’t quit until he’s satisfied. “Start small. What did he do for a living?”
Neal stops. Peter is a few paces ahead of him before he notices. “My dad was a doctor.”
“A doctor?”
“A surgeon.” Neal clarifies. “You said start small. Have a nice day.”
“You--”
“Nope,” he says as he walks away with a smile on his face.
“You met with Wilson yesterday.” At Neal’s expression, Peter sighs. “Neal, whatever he’s asking you to do…”
Neal feels indignant on Wilson’s behalf. “He’s got nowhere else to turn.”
“Oh, God, Neal. Don’t do it.”
“Look, Wilson’s trying to make good with his son and I can help him. The system failed him.” Peter won’t agree, but Neal doesn’t need him to. He can be stealthy. He can even hack the anklet if he needs to. Nothing is holding him here except for his need for a vacation and his loyalty to Peter.
It had only taken him a short amount of time to respect Peter. The agent’s adherence to the law is something you don’t often come across in Gotham, but it is more common in New York. Still, what made Peter stick out had been the simple fact that he cares about the victims. Too often people get into law enforcement just to wear the badge, but Peter doesn’t care about that. Even if Peter had never become an agent, Neal could see him helping people in other ways.
Even if Peter isn’t good with words, he still has empathy for those who were wronged. That’s what sets him apart from the rest.
In this case, though, Peter is wrong. Foreign bureaucracies can be complicated, and Neal knows Peter wants to help, but it starts to get tricky when other agencies and governments are involved. Luckily, Neal has the resources to work around the law, and he would travel to Burma tonight if it means he can help Wilson’s son.
His suit is in a hidden compartment in his closet. If he can get there without Peter catching on, all he has to do is loop his tracking data and he can then call a Batplane and be in Asia by this time tomorrow.
“You’re rationalizing and you know it. Nothing gives him or you or anyone the right to go around the law.”
Neal understands where Peter is coming from, but Peter doesn’t have kids. He might understand from an intellectual standpoint, but he doesn’t get it. “It’s his son. That gives him the right.”
Peter shakes his head. “I don’t agree with that.”
It doesn’t matter what Peter thinks. Neal messed up with Jason. He can admit that. In retrospect, there are one hundred things he could’ve done differently, but it’s too late now and his relationship with Jason is damaged because of it.
For that reason, he will help Wilson. He doesn’t know if he can ever repair his and Jason’s relationship, but he can help Wilson repair the relationship between him and his son.
“It’s what a father should do.” It’s what he should’ve done.
“Alright, look,” Peter says. “Obviously there's more to the story with your dad. I don’t know how badly it messed with your head—“
“You’re right. You don’t,” Neal says. He's angry now, and he doesn’t care if Peter knows. “If this were your son, or my son… I know what you would do.”
Peter looks at him, pensive. “One wrong move inside the Burmese consulate and they will extradite you. You’ll end up in a Kabaw prison. I can’t protect you.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Okay.”
They’re standing there, watching a touching reunion when Neal is struck with images of his dad. Seeing the two embrace is unearthing memories he hadn’t known he’d buried.
He doesn’t know why he does it. It’s highly out of character for him to share something so personal, but he turns to Peter and says, “You asked me about my dad. He’s dead.”
Peter freezes. “Oh, shit, Neal. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“You couldn’t have known. It’s okay.”
“But still,” Peter says. “I shouldn’t have pushed.”
Neal shrugs. “I don’t like talking about him. He and my mom both were murdered. It… happened in front of me.”
Peter looks horrified, but stays silent. He isn’t good with words, but he knows when someone just needs to talk. Neal is grateful for it. He’s never really talked about it with anyone, but Peter is a friend, possibly the closest he’s had since Clark. Maybe one day he’ll introduce the two.
But that day is not today. Or even anytime soon. Clark and Peter are from totally separate worlds. Neal for that matter, is also incredibly out of place among the FBI.
“I didn’t know how to deal with it for a while. I had someone, but he wasn’t… what I needed. That wasn’t his fault, though. He did the best he could,” Neal explains. Alfred did try. Therapy was considered, but quickly rejected. When Bruce had asked him to teach him to fight, Alfred tentatively agreed because he knew it was what Bruce needed at the time. Bruce will forever be grateful for that.
Peter notices the look on Neal’s face and smiles. “This man means a lot to you,” Peter comments. It isn’t a question. Neal holds Alfred in high respect and even people who don’t know Alfred can see it.
Neals nods slightly. “He does. He’s all I had for a while.”
“What about now?”
Neal tears his eyes away from the reuniting father and son and looks at Peter. Truthfully, he doesn’t consider himself to be alone anymore. He’s always been rather isolated, even among his peers. Much of that is self-inflicted, but now he’s around people who go out of their way to include him.
Of course, he has his kids, but they were the ones who created this cover for him. That doesn’t exactly imply that they want him around.
Just for a little while, B. You need a vacation, so pretend this is a mission. Go clean up the white collar division of the FBI in New York, Tim said.
And here he was. Years later and the ‘mission’ is still ongoing. Bruce hadn’t realized how much he needed the break, but it has been worth it.
“Now… I—“
His words are cut off by a massive boom. Peter and Neal both spin around, spotting a giant cloud of smoke a few blocks away.
“What the—Neal!” Peter exclaims. He glances behind him, turning his head left and right. Neal is nowhere to be found.