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Surprisingly, it was not one of the boring days up at the FBI building for Neal Caffrey. There were things going on, a case to be solved, and just enough work that Neal could keep his mind off other, less legal activities. As much as he ever stopped thinking along that train of thought, anyway. But for right now, Peter was up with a witness that Neal's presence kept agitating (how was he supposed to know George Langely's old poker connections would end up flipping on this guy?) and Neal was left dithering around at his desk. Waiting for a new lead to present itself. Currently, their witness was the only chance they had at catching up with their real suspect, but until they could get him to say something or otherwise frighten him into going underground to be followed...

Well, it left a lot of entertainment to be desired.

With not much else to do, Neal made his way to the coffee machine and eyed the rest of the room in speculation. Everyone had something going on today, but there were a few agents who were easy to distract in the office today. They were hard workers, capable of catching up on any work he'd make them lose, and Peter rarely ever called him on it since the fear of getting in trouble for stopping to chat tended to make them work more efficiently anyway. He was just about to make his way over, extra mug of coffee in hand, when he spotted the stairwell door opening. Black hair popped out on top of an attractive face, glanced around in abject confusion, and then shut itself back in.

"One of these things is not like the other," Neal muttered to himself, making a quick drop of the mugs at a random agent's desk as he made for the office doors. He waved behind himself when Jones spoke up ("Grabbing some real coffee today!"), and hurried his way into the elevator to let himself off at another floor and slip into the stairwell behind the stranger.

Threaded | Flat

"So you've said." Neal shook his head, taking a long sip of his drink as if to wash the memories away with the bitter aftertaste. "This isn't my first rodeo with memories popping up everywhere. Glad to hear it for Jasper, though. Immortality's not all it's cracked up to be."

"But how long have you been dealing with them, a year, maybe two? I've been dealing with them since I was twelve. They get less rough if you stop fighting them, which I know you're instinctively doing since they aren't yours and don't seem to fit right," Eli explained calmly as he grabbed his coffee and drank it without batting an eye. He really was immune to most awful coffees.

"He wasn't built for it in the first place. Though most of us really weren't in the first place. Strike one against our great and powerful Creator."

"Three years," Neal said. He was most definitely not going to be petulant about this. Having memories such as these in his head since he was twelve... Neal would have gone insane from it all. Then again, he had only really been receiving the flashbacks and powers with any intensity since—well, since about two years ago. "Sorry, but no can do. No way I'm just going to accept all this going on in my head without my say so."

Neal rolled his eyes, giving Eli something of a joking smile. "Gee, thanks."

"So not really long enough for things to get settled into your head properly," he replied thoughtfully. Really, the only people he knew that had the memories for that little were Denise and Harvey and both had handled their memories pretty well considering everything. "It's not so much accepting as acknowledging them and understanding what they are."

"You're welcome, gramps."

Edited 2014-01-28 06:26 (UTC)

Neal merely shook his head. "I'm working on that," he said. "Speaking of working, why don't we see what Peter's dug up?"

As if to end the topic of his poor coping skills in regards to his memories, he poured out another cup of coffee. Nodding up toward the office, he made his way back without much else to say. If he was right about his suspicions of where Elijah was really from, then... well. Mozzie was certainly not going to find out about the multiple world theory being true from Neal.

"Knock knock," Neal said in the doorway to Peter's office. He waved the extra mug around a bit and placed it on the desk — over anything incriminating such as a wallet if necessary. "Brought you something. You got anything for us?"

He wanted to open his mouth and argue that he wants to help, but he knows when a topic's closed and instead stayed silent, drinking his coffee as he followed Neal back up to Peter's office.

Peter, thankfully, was aware of Neal and Eli returning and had covered everything from the wallet so that Eli continued to be unaware. "Nothing promising yet, but I need to talk to you, Neal. Alone."

Neal frowned. Whatever Peter had found in the wallet was definitely of concern to him. There couldn't have been anything else to inspire such a reaction, not unless Peter had taken a phone call when Neal hadn't been looking. No, this was about whatever Eli was hiding amidst the rest of his truths and Neal was very interested in whatever Peter had dug up.

He tilted his head back to Eli. "You mind? We've got a conference room just around the corner. You can make yourself comfortable, or... go bug the rest of the agents," he added mischievously. Given Peter's expression, he doubted he would get called on such a small thing when Eli left, which just made it all the more worth it.

"I think I'll stick to behaving and sit in the conference room," he said before heading out and going to sit in there. And plug Trigger into anything resembling a phone line so he can gather information on where he ended up.

Once Eli was out of the office, Peter handed Neal the two licenses and watched his face. "I want to see what you make of these before I show you what else I've found in the wallet you stole." Sure the wallet was helpful but he didn't approve of Neal stealing it in the first place.

Neal waited until Eli was both out of sight and earshot before turning back to Peter. He sat down at the desk and began to inspect the licenses. What hit him first were the dates: over ten years expired and far too early to have been distributed to someone of Elijah's age. It was the fact that they were very, very genuine that made him set them down and sit back. He frowned.

"These are the real deal, Peter," he said slowly. "Nothing I can see about them would indicate forgery. Which, considering what's on them..."

All Peter could do is nod in agreement as he took out the picture of Shannon from Eli's wallet and held it out for him to look at. "If that was the only thing, I would have thought that they were really good forgeries, but this brought more more questions."

Eli, meanwhile, was distractedly scrolling through Trigger's screens to find out the information that he needed. The date was the easiest for him to find and it's the latest he's ever been to. What he's most curious about is Neal and he nudges Trigger to peek through the FBI database to find out what exactly is going on with him and what he's doing here.

Neal immediately leaned forward at the photograph, taking it from Peter to hold and inspect for himself. That was definitely his face in the picture, his body and everything that was Neal, but it was wrong. He had never worn clothes like those, nor had he dealt with a German Shepherd before. Glasses were sometimes part of the con yet that pair looked less to be forming an identity and actually something being used.

It made his stomach clench and his throat run dry. Instinct had him flipping over the photo to see what else might lie in wait. Shannon and Lacey? 1987? It would end up coinciding with the dates on the licenses... and absolutely nothing else. Either Eli was trying to set them up for some sort of con by establishing those dates or...

"I might know what's going on," Neal said after several moments of fumbling for his voice. "Maybe. One of those should-be-crazy things."

He picked up the other photo and showed it to Neal. "This photo was also in his wallet. This man right here is Jasper Keaton while the other man I had to get a little help from those licenses to find out who he is." It was then that he put the photo down and turned his computer screen for Neal to see. "Marcus Delacroix. He was a small time journalist in Chicago back in the 70s and 80s until he retired and died of cancer in that late 90s. The thing is, he never married nor had any kids and there's no one in his family named Eli or Elijah."

The obvious thought was on his mind and he rubbed in temple to soothe the headache that was starting to come on from dealing with the peculiarities of what Eli had metaphorically dropped into his lap. "Neal, if you say time travel, I don't care how crazy the rest of your life is, I'm locking you back up." There was only so much he could deal with after all.

Neal studied the photograph just as intensely as the last. The child was obviously Eli from an earlier age, but most of his attention was drawn to Jasper. That was Benjamin, huh? He certainly looked happier, and Neal couldn't help the slight upward twitch of his lips at that. Even if Jasper was a stranger, echoes of Benjamin remained and the echoes of Nate responded in kind. A terrible father who had no idea what to do, but who loved his children in his own way. It was absolutely foreign to be confronted with the feelings yet Neal wasn't quite averse to them, either.

When Peter suggested his own theory, Neal glanced up and tutted. "Time travel? No, that wouldn't make sense," he scolded lightly. "I'm thinking... alternate reality. One where Elijah was born and where... apparently I was born earlier if we're believing that date, and—I know it sounds crazy, all right, Peter?"

Peter could always tell when Neal was tapped into the other memories and emotions he had buried in his mind. It wasn't always obvious like when he had flashback, but instead subtle like a wrong emotion for a certain situation or individual. He knew that the picture of Jasper pulled something out, but it didn't appear to be a bad thing. That was a good thing since Neal needed less of the painful flashbacks and more of the good.

"An alternate reality," Peter sighed heavily. It could never be a sane answer with Neal, could it? "It's about as crazy as you being a human lighter." Which wasn't really all that crazy these days.

It was indeed a good thing. Foreign, but he liked the feeling accompanied with the knowledge that Jasper was doing okay in life. Aside from the kidnapping, but Neal still held faith that Eli would find him. He had the sudden clarity that if Eli was here looking for Jasper, chances were they were just a needle in the haystack. Who knew where Jasper had ended up?

"So you believe me," Neal said slowly. He was always glad when Peter went with the insane things he came up with, it was just sometimes hard to reconcile it with the hardass nature of Peter as an FBI agent. "He's said a couple things I don't think he meant for me to hear that only makes it more likely. Jasper Keaton was kidnapped, by the way, so chances are they're..." He made a vague motion near his head. Running around through realities.

"I believe that you wouldn't tell me anything that crazy unless you thought there was some truth to it," he answered carefully. It wasn't as if this was one of Mozzie's paranoid theories that Neal had latched on to, so Peter thought it was a pretty safe bet to go along with it. "If that's the case, then there's a pretty big chance that we might not find anything helpful to him. What else has he said to you?"

"Nothing super relevant to the case," Neal said thoughtfully. "Just some little insights here and there on himself. He did say a friend of his might show up soon." Here, Neal paused with pursed lips. Even saying the name seemed like it would cause something to burst and he was reluctant to bring it up directly. "Not sure what I think of the friend, to be honest, but it's someone else I apparently recognize."

"We'll keep an eye out for that friend of his. If he shows up, we'll deal with him." By we, Peter means himself and Diana. If the look on Neal's face was any indication, he didn't want to be around this friend of Eli's and Peter wasn't going to force him to be anywhere near him if he didn't have to be. "For now, we should see if Elijah would be willing to fill in the blanks so we can help him out."

While Peter might not trust Eli, he'd help him out because he gave Neal answers, even if they were something out of a book or one of Mozzie's conspiracies. He wasn't going to return the favor by denying him help looking for somebody he probably considered family, if that picture was anything to go by.

Neal nodded in agreement. He already knew he wouldn't be dealing with Eli's friend at any rate, and he trusted Peter to take care of that side of the investigation. Working on Eli's side of it was much more likely to bear fruit, even if Neal was slightly resentful about the idea of accepting any part of Nate as himself. Considering how Nate only ever seemed to rear his head in ugly situations, there was no reason for Neal to want to just let it be.

"Did you find anything else?" he asked. "'Cause if not, I should probably... you know, slip this back before he realizes it's missing."

"No, I didn't." And he was already putting everything back into Eli's wallet as they were talking, remembering what order everything was in so Eli wouldn't notice anything amiss once he got it back. Once everything was put away, he handed it back to Neal. "Go check on him. I'll catch up in a minute."

Neal took it, slipping it into an easy-to-access pocket for now. He would go about setting it back into Eli's pocket when the opportunity presented and not a moment earlier. Definitely no good to draw attention to himself and that was one of the first things you learned when pickpocketing.

"Got some other lead to follow?" he guessed as he stood. He didn't wait for an answer as he was already on his way out the door and toward the conference room. "I'll keep him busy."

He considered knocking, then decided against and simply walked in and took the state of Eli before he made his presence wholly known. "Knock knock, Elijah. Getting comfy? Me, I'm surprised how nice the chairs here are. They definitely know where to put their money here."

Peter responded with only a nod before Neal left to deal with Eli. He left his office to double finger point at Jones and Diana. He needed them for this part.

Eli, surprisingly, didn't look to be getting up to something, but one glance at the screen said he had been, somehow watching a baseball game on it. He waved lazily with his left hand from his seat, feet perched on the table and looking as if he owned the place. "Yep, I was kinda surprised by the chairs. The FBI sure knows where to spend their money, don't they?"

Neal made note of the finger point from the corner of his eye, then paid it no more mind. He was sure Peter would let him in on it when he was done and, even if he didn't, Neal had ways of poking around and figuring out what exactly Peter was up to.

"Baseball, huh?" he asked, coming to give it a brief look over Eli's shoulder. That thing on his wrist wasn't like any smart phone Neal had seen before, but if the kid was streaming sports off it, it couldn't be too much different from what he knew. "Trying to get some shut-eye after all that jetlag?"

"I'd be insulted if I didn't know better," he said with a slight grin. It's easier to see Trigger on his right wrist, parts of it lit up in a bright blue. "Unlike you, I happen to be fond of the sport and I'm catching up. Still can't believe the White Sox finally won a World Series though. My dad would be ecstatic to hear about it."

He swiped a finger along Trigger's lights and it shut off, the big screen turning off as well. "So, what did Agent Burke have to say to you? You're not in trouble or anything, right?"

"Know better?" Neal repeated. "You hardly know me." He took a chair opposite to Eli and propped himself up similarly in order to get comfortable. When in Rome... or, well, when Peter wasn't around. Seeing as Eli was apparently not from around then, Neal did find himself wondering where he got such a fancy toy.

"Not in trouble," he confirmed. "Just had to tie up some loose ends with another case. Classified stuff."

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