(A/N): I hope you guys enjoy this one! I don't own anything and any mistakes you find are my own.

"Great work everybody." Peter praised the agents and Neal in the conference room. The team recently took down a huge money laundering scam. "I'll see all your bright and shining faces tomorrow morning for our new case."

They all gathered their belongings and headed out of the office. Peter spotted Neal about to leave the room.

"Neal, hold up." Peter called out.

"What's up?" Neal turned around, hoping he didn't have to stay any later.

"Hughes told me he wanted to see you in his office before you left." Peter almost laughed as he watched Neal's face drop.

"Why? I didn't do anything." Neal automatically jumped to the conclusion he did something wrong.

"Nobody is saying you did."

"Well, do you know why Hughes wants to see me?"

"No I don't. He didn't tell me anything." Peter walked over to the door with his briefcase in hand. "Relax, he's not going to bite your head off. Just go see what he has to say. I'll pick you up tomorrow, alright?"

"Bye. Tell Elizabeth I say hi." Neal let Peter pass in front of him before making the short journey over to the special agent in charge's office.

Peter walked down the stairs and before entering the office, he could see Hughes gesturing for Neal to sit down. Whatever Hughes wanted to talk about seemed important. It must be sensitive information since Hughes didn't bother to mention anything to him about the matter. Peter highly doubted that Neal was in trouble, but with Neal, you never know. The drive home was uneventful. He spent most of the ride wondering what Hughes wanted with Neal.

"El? I'm home." He called out as he entered through the front doors. Satchmo was the first to welcome him home. "Hey, boy." Peter kneeled down and scratched Satch behind his ears.

"Peter?" Elizabeth came from the kitchen. "I didn't think you'd be home this early. I just took the lasagna out of the oven." She met Peter halfway and they exchanged a kiss and went to set the table for dinner.

"We wrapped up another case so I thought everyone deserved a night off."

"That's great!"

The rest of the dinner was spent talking about Elizabeth's newest client. But, Elizabeth could tell Peter's mind was somewhere else. And there was only one reason for that.

"What did Neal do now?" She put down her fork and looked her husband in the eye.

"What makes you think Neal did something?"

"For starters, you've barely touched your dinner. Plus you always get that look on your face when something's up with Neal." Elizabeth explained.

"Since when did you become so perceptive?" he inquired.

"When I married an FBI agent." she smiled. "Now stop redirecting. What's wrong with Neal?"

"Nothing's wrong with Neal. He even told me to tell you 'hi'." Peter took one look at Elizabeth and knew she didn't buy it.

"We should have him over for dinner soon. We've all been so busy lately."

"Yeah." Peter said simply.

"Peter, there's obviously something bothering you." Elizabeth said, somewhat annoyed that Peter wouldn't just spit it out.

"Fine, fine." he waved his hands. "Hughes wanted to talk to Neal before leaving the office today. He didn't say what it was about or anything to me."

"Neal's a grown man, Peter, he can handle things himself. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it tomorrow." Elizabeth stood up and grabbed her plate. "Now either give the rest of your dinner to Satch or finish it yourself." She kissed the top of his head and went into the kitchen.

Elizabeth was right. There was no need to worry. If Neal was in trouble, Hughes would have told him. Besides, Neal would probably tell him about it tomorrow when he picked the younger man up for work. Peter finished the rest of his lasagna and then went to help Elizabeth with the dishes. Whatever Hughes and Neal were up to could wait until tomorrow.

The next morning was normal as usual. Wake up, kiss Elizabeth, shower, breakfast, and pet Satch on the way out the door. Except this morning during breakfast, he was interrupted by a text from Neal. Peter's confusion was not lost on Elizabeth.

"What's wrong now?"

"Nothing. Just got a text message from Neal." he handed her his phone.

TO: PETER

FROM: NEAL

No need to pick me up. See you at the office.

"Peter, it's probably nothing." Elizabeth handed back the phone to Peter. "You'll see him later and then you can question him all about his meeting with Hughes."

"Yeah. I guess I can go walk Satch for a few minutes since I don't have to stop by June's." Peter got up to grab the leash and called Satchmo over.

"Well, I won't be here when you come back. Early meeting with a new client." she added before he could ask. "So I'll say bye now." Elizabeth walked over to Peter and kissed him and reached down to pet Satchmo on his head. "You boys be good now. Oh, and Peter, don't forget to ask Neal about dinner tonight."

"Don't worry, I'll handle it." Peter called out. "Love you."

"Love you too, hon." Elizabeth said as she left for work. Peter soon followed behind with Satch.

Even after walking Satchmo up and down the sidewalk, Peter still made it to the office with time to spare. As soon as he walked out of the elevator, his eyes glanced to Neal's desk, which was unsurprisingly empty. Looking up, he saw Neal walking out of Hughes' office and heading into the conference room to meet up with Jones. Something was going on and he had every intention of finding out. Peter hastily made his way up the stairs and into the conference room.

"Moring, Boss." Jones greeted.

"Hey, Peter." Neal looked up from the file he was reading.

"Hey." Peter said simply.

Jones' eyes traveled from Neal to Peter and back. There was a certain tension forming in the room and knew he needed to get out fast.

"Ah, Diana wanted me to check something. I'll be back." Jones quickly made his way out of the office so that Neal and Peter could chat in private.

"So…" Neal started.

"So…" Peter mimicked. "Mind telling me what's going on here?" he gestured to all the papers on the desk.

"Well, it turns out I wasn't in trouble." Neal smiled. "Hughes wanted to ask me something."

"Which was…?" Peter was wishing Neal would just go ahead and spit it out.

"He wants me to go undercover"

Peter narrowed his eyes. "You always go undercover. What makes this any different?"

"Hughes told me that Agent Tucker requested my expertise on this case." Neal handed Peter a file. "The Channing has recently lost three paintings due to three different robberies in the past six months. Clean jobs, cameras didn't catch anything, and no alarms were triggered."

"Inside job?" Peter flipped through the file.

"That's what Hughes thinks. He wants me to go undercover for a while and build a bond with the employees. They won't know I'm FBI."

"So Tucker will be using you?" Peter said before he could stop himself.

Neal narrowed his eyes. Peter's comment brought back unpleasant memories of working with Agent Rice.

"Tucker knows my track record and what I've done to help out here. Like I said, he requested my help." Neal stated simply.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. Any idea how long you'll be undercover?"

"Don't know. I'm supposed to leave soon for my meeting with the manager of the gallery and if I get the job, I'll go in everyday and keep you guys up to date."

"Could take a while."

"I'm up for a little excitement." Neal smiled. "Well, like I said, I gotta head out."

"Wait, what about your anklet?" Peter spoke up.

"Jones already took care of it." Neal held up his left wrist, revealing a stylish watch. "GPS equipped watch. You'll be able to track me."

Peter nodded. "Well, good luck."

"Thanks." Neal gave a half smiled and walked out. Peter watched the younger man disappear into the elevator. He was still wondering why Hughes didn't ask him about Neal assisting Agent Tucker. Tucker was a younger agent and was moving up in the division, much like Peter had. Peter decided he couldn't possibly concentrate unless he found out what was going on. He walked over to Hughes' office and knocked.

"Come in." he heard from behind the door. "Something you'd like to talk to me about, Burke?"

"Yes, sir, there is. I'm just wondering why you didn't let me know about Agent Tucker wanting Neal going undercover for his case. He didn't clear it with me first."

"Tucker knows how sensitive you are about Caffrey, especially since after the Rice incident, so he came to me. And Caffrey is at the full disposal of the bureau." Hughes explained.

Peter frowned. "But he's under my custody."

"Burke, it's nothing personal. This won't be permanent so there's nothing more to say about this. Now go back to your real agents and do your job."

"Yes, sir." Peter tried not to sound bitter. He walked back to the conference room where the team was already set up, sans Neal.

"You alright, boss?" Diana asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Peter coughed and began to address the room. "All right guys, we have a fresh batch of mortgage fraud cases to look at today." Muffled quips and groans could be heard as he passed out the files.

The rest of the day went by extremely slow without Neal around to distract or strike up a friendly conversation. Peter was glad to be home.

"Peter?" Elizabeth walked down the stairs. When she got to the bottom she frowned and shook her head. "Oh…Peter, you forgot didn't you."

"Forgot about wh—oh." Peter realized he forgot to invite Neal over for dinner. Though, if it was any excuse, he barely saw the younger man today. "Sorry, it slipped my mind. Plus, he's working undercover for Agent Tucker for a while so he might be busy. I didn't really have a chance to ask him this morning."

"So that's what his little meeting was about. He's helping out another agent? See, I told you it was nothing serious." Elizabeth leaned in for a kiss.

"Right. Nothing serious." Peter kissed back.

Elizabeth laughed. "Oh, honey, Neal will be fine. It's only for a little while and then he'll be right back at your side."

"I know." he sighed. "Hmm, I wonder how his meeting went today."

Right after leaving the Bureau, Neal headed straight toward the Channing. He was particularly excited about this case for numerous reasons. Off-anklet, expensive art, and going undercover were just a few. But Peter's behavior at the office was a bit unsettling. It seemed like Peter was actually upset that he was helping out another agent. There really wasn't anything wrong with helping out Agent Tucker, was there? Neal didn't think so, so he happily took the case. Not that he really had a choice. Now that he was a block from the museum, Neal cleared all those thoughts from his head and started preparing himself for the meeting. When he opened the door, he walked right up toward a desk with a young, blonde secretary sitting at it, who just got off the phone.

"Hello, welcome to the Channing. My name is Shelby, how can I help you?" the secretary greeted happily.

"Nice to meet you Shelby. I'm George Devore and I have a meeting with Ms. Yates." Neal watched her type something into the computer.

"Of course. I'll lead you to her office." Shelby stood up and began leading Neal down a hallway to the right. The Channing was a fairly new and well-kept museum. It was low-key so there was no surprise to Neal that it was being robbed. At the end of the hallway, they came across a door that had Hannah Yates scripted neatly on it. Shelby knocked.

"Yes?" a voice could be heard from behind the door.

"Mr. Devore is here for his meeting."

"Right. Send him in."

Shelby smiled before opening the door. "Nice meeting you Mr. Devore."

"Please, call me George." Neal flashed his pearly whites, which made Shelby blush. She gestured inside the office and politely excused herself to go back to the front desk.

"Good morning, Mr. Devore. I believe we spoke over the phone." Ms. Yates got out from behind her desk to shake Neal's hand. She couldn't be much older than himself. Her office was fairly plain, no family pictures sat at her desk.

"Yes, I believe we did." Neal shook back and they both sat down, Yates taking the chair at her desk and Neal sitting at the chair across from her.

"I've had a few other applicants approach me, but after fair consideration, I think you'd be best fit for the job. After looking at your resume and seeing past showroom experience, we'd be thrilled to have you here."

"Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to working here." Neal smiled. So far, so good. He watched Yates open her desk and pull out a note pad. She scribbled something down, ripped it from the packet and handed it to Neal.

"You're first task."

Neal looked at the note and had to stop his jaw from falling on the floor. "Um, excuse me?" There had to be something wrong here. She wrote down 6 types of coffee.

"Is there something wrong?" Yates frowned. "Did you not send in your résumé to become my new assistant? If there is a problem, then feel free to just walk out now. I have many more applicants sitting here on my desk."

"No. No problem at all. I'll be back shortly." Neal got up from his seat and was opening the door when Yates called out.

"Oh, and Mr. Devore, you're welcome to buy yourself something too." she smiled.

"I'll remember that." Neal turned around and walked down the hallway to the front doors. Only after waving goodbye to Shelby and make it did he release a long sigh. He didn't sign up to be someone's errand boy. This case wasn't looking so hot now. And Neal knew that Peter would never let him live this down. He quickly walked up to the nearest coffee shop and stood in line before placing the large offer.

After getting back to the Channing, Neal was greeted with stacks and stacks of papers to be sorted and meetings to be arranged. It was nothing he couldn't easily handle, but it was all just busy work. Neal craved for something that would test his intelligence. He was so into the work that Yates was dishing out on him, he kept forgetting to meet and greet the employees. Thankfully, Yates sent him around to different offices inside the museum which allowed him to case out the building as well as take a look at the blank spots on the walls that used to showcase the stolen artwork.

It was almost 8pm when Yates approached him and tossed him a set of keys.

"Here, we're the last one's here and I'm leaving to go to a dinner party. Lock up for me, will you?" Yates was wearing a tight fitting black dress and sparkling earrings. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a fancy up-do.

"Of course." Neal nodded. "Have fun."

"See you tomorrow. Be here at 8 o'clock sharp or I'll be arranging a meeting with a potentially new assistant." Yates said seriously and then her face lightened. "Goodnight, Mr. Devore."

"Goodnight." Neal stood and watched her leave. This was his perfect chance to scope out the rest of the place and look by some of the higher quality pieces in the small museum. Neal walked around for a good half an hour before he decided to head home. He locked the front door and was just about to hail a cab when he remembered that Agent Tucker wanted him to debrief every day after work. He sighed, seeing as he wouldn't be heading home just yet. The walk to the office was fairly close so he turned and headed toward the last place he wanted to be.

(A/N): I'm probably crazy for putting this up since I've only written a few of the chapters already but I couldn't wait! Hope you all liked the first chapter. A bit slow, but I promise things will pick up. Thanks for reading!