The Challenge of Elizabeth Burke

It’s Father’s Day, so I’m writing about Elizabeth Burke. Odd choice? Perhaps. She did set up Neal’s first Father’s Day with Peter early in Caffrey Disclosure, so that’s part of my angle.

The strong marriage between El and Peter is an element I loved from White Collar and kept for my AU, but I soon hit the same challenge that plagued the show’s writers: How do you keep her relevant and involved in the stories without pulling silly stunts?

Warning for spoilers for stories in the Caffrey Conversation AU.

One way to achieve it is to give El a career more conducive to involvement in her husband’s cases. Silbrith is taking that route with the spinoff Arkham Files series, and you can read about El’s new role in the Elizabeth Wayland Burke post. However, that didn’t occur to me for the Caffrey Conversation, so I kept her canon job.

In my first story in the AU, Elizabeth is only starting to think about opening an event planning business, and I use that. Her first official event is Neal’s birthday party in Caffrey Flashback, and she holds a party for Peter’s team in Caffrey Disclosure. Those two events keep her involved with Neal’s family and with the White Collar team.

Also in the first story, El acts as a sounding board and counselor for Peter. She’s the one who recommends that Peter talk to Neal about why he’s a criminal – that’s right, the “Caffrey Conversation” was her idea. She also gets involved in the conversation, talking to Neal about what he’s doing and why. Her involvement goes further as she meets Neal’s family and connects with them. Neal’s grandmother talks about her efforts to keep Neal’s grandfather from turning into a stuffy old man, and that’s something El can relate to. She doesn’t want Peter to turn into a stuffy old FBI manager, and she takes inspiration from Neal’s exuberant family. El encourages Peter to embrace his crazy side, occasionally meeting Neal half-way in his wild schemes.

In an inspired moment, Silbrith decided El needed a hobby and got her involved in community theater. That move introduced us to costume designer Janet. Since then, El has reached out to Janet several times to help Peter. For instance, Janet came to the rescue when the team needed to go undercover at a gaming convention in The Woman in Blue. El involved Janet again when Peter needed a disguise to meet with Neal at Columbia during a case. This has built on a joke I started in By the Book, where we learned that Elizabeth is a fan of Jane Austen. Peter isn’t into costume dramas as such, but does appreciate the movies that put his wife in a romantic mood. Peter would prefer to avoid costumes, and El teases him in Caffrey Disclosure by suggesting they should go to a Renaissance festival someday. Poor Peter’s horror was a fun moment.

Going back a moment to El’s romantic spirit, another role I gave her was that of matchmaker. In canon she sometimes commented on Neal’s romances and flirtatious character. In the AU she goes even further. She’s the first to suggest that Noelle Caffrey Winslow and Peter’s brother Joe Burke make a good couple, and the end result is a marriage connecting the Caffrey and Burke families – and a wedding where El’s professional role of event planner is easily relevant. She also offers advice to Neal’s girlfriend Fiona about what it’s like to be involved with an FBI employee. The budding romance between Mozzie and Janet is another plot element that keeps Elizabeth involved.

I also magnified another canon element: El’s love of music. We know from the TV show that she’s a jazz fan, which is the source of Satchmo’s name. I pulled on the music element first in Choirboy Caffrey, when Peter describes a case involving a group called Local Devastation. In that phone call, El is able to provide perspective about a group of musicians Peter had never heard of. In Caffrey Disclosure we learn that one of El’s college roommates works in radio and had introduced El to many styles of music. As the story progresses, we see Elizabeth slowly uncovering something Peter was blind to – the fact that Neal and his cousins are posing as the group Urban Legend. Elizabeth is there as Peter learns the truth, and encourages Neal to open up about why he kept his musical skills a secret.

Although I don’t think of El as a mother figure to Neal the way that Peter is a father figure, I do think it’s in her nature to be a nurturer. She recognizes Neal’s need for family and connections to keep him grounded, and works to help him gain and keep those connections. She’s also the one who arranges for Neal and Peter to spend Father’s Day together. So, Happy Father’s Day, everyone. If you’re not able to enjoy the day with your own father or father figure, I invite you to join Neal and Peter.

Father's Day chapter of Caffrey Disclosure on FF.net
Father's Day chapter of Caffrey Disclosure on AO3