In White Collar, Neal Caffrey told Peter Burke that his birthday is March 21, and if you follow the White Collar Closure twitter account you’ve seen they are gathering signatures for Neal’s birthday card.
(Warning for spoilers for several of our Caffrey Conversation stories.)
I gave Neal a surprise birthday party near the end of my story Caffrey Flashback, where Neal and friends and family sing and dance and eat a great meal and swap stories. Thinking back to that chapter, I’m reminded of the differences between canon Neal and the version of him in our AU.
The most obvious difference is his age. With the first story in the Caffrey Conversation series set in 2003, all of the characters are younger. Peter’s first day as manager of the White Collar team is also Neal’s first day working at the Bureau. Therefore we have a version of Peter who knows he has a lot to learn about leading a team. With less experience, he makes more mistakes but is also more flexible about admitting to his mistakes and learning from them. That makes him a better boss for Neal.
Younger Neal is introduced in the AU at a time he’s looking to make changes in his life. He sees that the most obvious direction is to dive even further into a life of crime, honing his skills in that area to carry off even more daring heists. But he’s open to suggestions, and agrees to confess in order to gain immunity and work for Peter.
Neal’s doing the same job he had in canon, but with major differences. In canon, Neal suggests working for the FBI, and it’s a con from the start – a way out of prison so that he can search for Kate. There’s always the question of how much Neal has reformed, or even wants to. Circumstances often chafe and make him want to rebel. In the AU, Peter recruits Neal, and it’s clear that Neal is trying to become the law-abiding citizen Peter wants him to be. Of course, old friends and enemies will try to tempt Neal, but he’s in a better position to handle those situations. The other big difference in his FBI role is that our Neal doesn’t have to wear a tracking anklet (except for a brief time in one of Silbrith’s stories). He has greater freedom, and also is able to travel. I’ve enjoyed taking Neal to St. Louis, Connecticut, Austin, Seattle, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Honolulu, and I’m certain Silbrith will expand his horizons even further.
Our Neal is perhaps more playful, and also more vulnerable. The canon version of Neal probably learned to close himself off in prison. Not that AU Neal is wide-open. Our Neal still has lots of secrets.
One of the ways we’ve explored Neal’s secrets is through family. His grandparents and Noelle have shared secrets Neal doesn’t even remember, about his parents and his earliest childhood. His cousin Henry acts as a mirror image of Neal: sometimes exactly the same and sometimes an opposite. He’s able to prod Neal into saying or admitting things Neal might otherwise keep secret. Henry also knows a lot about what Neal was doing in his late teens and early 20s, and I’ve used him to start conversations with Neal and/or Peter to share information with them and to get them to share what they’re thinking. Getting both Neal and Peter to open up more increases the trust between them to a level that doesn’t always exist in canon.
The connections Neal builds with his AU family are both a blessing and a curse. It’s great for him to have the support of these people who love him. Even as they bewilder him, they use their smarts, their money and their connections to help him. If it weren’t for his family, he wouldn’t have enrolled in college. They’re causing him to put down roots and to explore where he came from and who he is. They also worry him. Neal has worked with dangerous people in his past, and he feels a need to protect his family from those people.
When I decided to turn the original Caffrey Conversation into the start of a series, I wanted my version of Neal to have more options available to him. Whereas in canon Neal’s only options were to obey Peter or return to prison, I wanted both Neal and Peter to know that he has alternatives. The first alternative I introduced was the company Winston-Winslow (Win-Win). Neal’s cousin Henry described his plans to open a branch of the company in New York and hire Neal to help run it. When we meet Henry, he explains that he’s a year or more away from realizing that goal, but we know the option is going to be there and that Henry is willing to step in if he feels the FBI is abusing its power over Neal. Now that Graham Winslow has been won over, he's willing to recruit Neal into Win-Win immediately.
Silbrith is taking this idea of options even further. When Neal graduates from Columbia he will have many opportunities available to him, so that he won’t be dependent on the goodwill of Peter or Henry. He could work in art authentication, or in recovery like Sara, or become a full-time artist, or consult for the FBI or work for Win-Win, or other options we've yet to explore. He truly can go in whatever direction he wants. That freedom is the best birthday gift we could give Neal.
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