White Collar Fic: The End of a Long Night

[dizzydrea]

I finally finished watching season three!

I'd put off watching the back half of season two of White Collar about as long as I could. The business with the Nazi treasure was driving me crazy! I hated it, both because it had Neal lying about it to everyone save Mozzie, and because it made Neal out to be someone he wasn't anymore. And the will-he-or-won't-he thing was absolutely ridiculous, because if Neal Caffrey left, that'd be the end of the show. And with season four already confirmed, that obviously wasn't the case.

Okay, I'm done ranting. But seriously, it took me a while to work up the desire to watch the rest of the season. Once I did, I was glad I had. There was some damned fine acting, and despite the loss of trust between Neal and Peter, there's still a certain level of trust between them that I love.

But before I'd even seen Judgement Day, I read the summaries online (I'm a spoiler junkie, so sue me). And knowing what Kramer was up to, I simply had to fix it. Peter going after Neal has been done by several writers this off-season, some more talented than me. But I hope I've approached it with something new. At the very least, I hope I was able to convey the depth of friendship between Peter and Neal, and that despite what they said at the hearing, the team likes having Neal around, and not just for what he can do for their case closure rate.

And then I sat on the story until I'd seen the finale. And then I sat on it some more. Mostly because I wanted to separate myself from the first airing of the finale enough that it didn't seem like I was jumping on the let's fix this bandwagon. Except I totally did jump on that bandwagon, and we're having a hell of a time! /shrugs/ I'll stand by this story, even if it is one of many, because I love the relationship between Neal and Peter, and that was really why I wrote this.

Also, it has been pointed out to me that there is no federal three strikes law, and Neal was never convicted under New York state penal law. To own the truth, I'd forgotten I'd put that reference in the story, and didn't see it when I proofed it right before publication. I'm going to go back and fix it, mostly because it'll just mock me from AO3 if I don't. Being a California resident, I forget that most other states don't have the laws we do. Oops.

I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed fixing-er, writing it. ;)

The End of a Long Night>