Neal's loft, Manhattan. Wednesday afternoon. July 14, 2004.

Neal tried not to look as doubtful as he felt about Peter's intention to go undercover as Urban Legend's business manager. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked.

"Of course," said Peter. "This way I can keep an eye on you and help with the case."

"Last time you went undercover was in St. Louis, back in December." Neal left unsaid his opinion that he'd pretty much saved the day. Roland Villiers probably would have gotten away, if not for his help.

"Don't forget my work at the airstrip this spring, pretending to be Robert to save you and Henry. Robert certainly hasn't forgotten it."

Neal didn't like the sound of that. Being the center of Robert's attention was rarely a good thing, but he put that aside to point out, "It was my plan at the airstrip, though."

"Is that what this is about? You think I'll meddle with your plan?"

"Yeah," Neal said. "It's bad enough that I'll be fighting Henry for control. A couple of weeks ago he agreed to go along with my plan instead of his original approach and it wasn't easy for him, but now he's smarting at having been rescued and will want to reassert his authority as the big brother. If all three of us are trying to run the show, the Masterson con is doomed."

"It's an FBI case," Peter said. "Ultimately the success or failure is my responsibility as the team lead. I need you to trust that I'm smart enough to realize you and Henry are the music experts. I'll provide guidance to make sure we get a clean arrest and a conviction, but that doesn't mean I'll constantly be in your way."

Neal slumped back in his chair. "An FBI case, but Julia Winslow is providing valuable input. Graham will consider it a Win-Win case. Now it's a four-way tussle of the alphas."

"We managed to work together on the Highbury case," Peter said bracingly. "We can make this work, too." He stood up. "C'mon. Let's give this a try. We'll see if you and Henry can handle a joint briefing." As they reached the door to Neal's loft he added, "And one more thing. We need to be on the same page on our terminology. This isn't a con. It's a sting."

"But a sting is just another word for a..." Neal trailed off at Peter's unyielding stare. Best to save his energy for more important arguments, he decided. "Right, let's get down there and start the sting."

They found Graham and Noelle in the music room, where Henry was wrapping up the story of saving Shannon Hunter, meeting her father Lawson, and then working for Lawson's sister Miranda Garza. He'd just finished describing how Miranda made up the pseudonym Shawn Legend to help Henry get work as a musician, and how he'd then brought Neal to Miranda. If Henry hammered home the point that he'd rescued Neal and had been the leader of Urban Legend, that was okay with Neal. He'd always been grateful for Henry's help, and realized that his cousin's pride was at stake here. It would be easier to deal with Henry as equals: They had each saved the other. Everyone knew that now, and therefore Henry wouldn't feel a constant need to prove he wasn't weak because he hadn't been able to escape Enscombe on his own.

"That's why you didn't call on your twentieth birthday," Noelle said. "You were in the hospital. We'd always at least talked on your birthday, and not being able to contact you at all scared me." She shook her head. "I was in such a panic I even called Robert to see if he could find you with Win-Win resources and confirm you were all right. He called back with a condescending diatribe about how you were too old to be a mama's boy and I should back off. He said it looked like you'd gone out with friends and had been too drunk and then too hungover to talk. He... He made me feel like I was being ridiculous, and smothering you."

"That's why I saw Ford in the hospital. Robert must have realized something was going on and sent him to check up on me. I panicked and was too drugged to explain why at the time, but Lawson got the gist. He helped me hide by registering me under his son's name in the hospital."

"You didn't come to us for help because you knew we'd use Win-Win resources," Graham said. "Everything would have gone into a file, and Robert would have had access."

"I couldn't take the chance," Henry said. "You weren't ready to hear how dangerous Robert was. And I suppose I wasn't ready to admit how much he scared me."

Wanting to keep the discussion on track, Neal jumped in with a description of how they had filled in for other musicians and performed on their own to road test Miranda's songs. Henry mentioned their work recording demos and acting as backup in recording sessions for songs that had gotten on the radio.

"When we were getting started as Urban Legend," Henry said, "Stan Masterson bought a failing record company and started offering contracts to a bunch of singers. For a few months it seemed like we were always running into someone celebrating how they'd made the big time. Some really did hit the jackpot, and remembered us when it came time to record their albums. But a lot of people started to realize that a Masterson contract was often more a curse than a blessing. He was signing them to take them off the market, so they wouldn't compete with artists with a similar sound that he wanted to support. The non-compete clause was a killer. He was driving them out of the music business altogether. Some tried to scrape by on the fringes of the music world. Some tried to fight back, and Masterson's lawyers stomped on them and then put out word that these musicians were troublemakers who should be avoided. Friends of ours we'd been celebrating with when they first signed contracts were in the depths of despair. A few were so despondent they talked about killing themselves, and I tried to point them to professional help or suicide hotlines. Most of them rebounded, but not all."

"That's part of what drove you to get your master's degree," Neal said.

"I took a good look at what we were doing with our lives. We couldn't make the big time in music. We couldn't sign a contract under names that had no social security numbers, and we couldn't sign as ourselves and stay hidden. I wanted a better life for both of us. Going back to school was a start. Settling in campus housing in Chicago gave us a steady home base for the first time. You did more painting than you'd been able to do when we were constantly on the road. I convinced you to cover some of my classes, and you realized you had what it took to handle college. Took you long enough to enroll, though."

"I'm not officially enrolled," Neal said. He wanted to turn the conversation back to Masterson Music, but first had to answer questions from Graham about having applied to Columbia. "I don't think I can go," Neal said. "We've got so many balls in the air with this case, and I still haven't figured out how I would pay for a school like Columbia, anyway."

"Ah," said Graham. "You haven't talked to Noelle, then, have you?"

"Dor and Dressa covering it?" Henry guessed. "They wanted to pay when Columbia accepted me. They were even willing to pay when I picked the University of Texas, but the scholarship covered almost everything."

"I'm not taking their money," Neal objected.

"I told them you'd say that," Noelle said. "They would be willing, but I knew you wouldn't be comfortable with that yet."

"Yet?" Neal challenged.

"You're in their wills, sweetheart. Someday you'll inherit money from them. You can give it all to charity if you want, but the money will be yours eventually. Hopefully that will be long after you finish school, of course. So in the meantime, I submitted your name for a scholarship."

"It's too late," Neal said. "I already talked to the financial aid office. All scholarships for the fall semester had already been granted before I even took the entrance exams."

"True. However, this isn't a scholarship from Columbia. You see, when Robert was fired, he was divested of all his shares of Win-Win. Because he had wronged several people using the data and authority he once held in Win-Win, I recommended that the board place the cash value of Robert's shares into a fund to make reparations to the people he harmed. Your scholarship is from Win-Win. You'll need to sign an agreement that you won't hold the company liable for Robert's actions as an employee, and then the money is yours. It will cover your tuition, plus a stipend toward textbooks and other supplies."

Neal stared at her in surprise.

"Take it, kiddo," Henry advised. "It will make Robert too angry for words."

"His money going to tuition for me." Neal had to smile. "For a degree in art. After he conned me into using my art skills to forge those bonds and then blackmailed me over it. It's like the best punishment ever." Neal had to laugh. "It's perfect."

"You should take it," Peter urged. "No one can say you didn't earn the money. And it would set my mind at ease to know you aren't chasing after some risky scheme to get that kind of cash."

"You know, when we ran into each other in St. Louis, I thought I was embarking on a self-directed master's program, studying to become a renaissance criminal. Less than eight months later... Who'd have believed I'd wind up working for the FBI and going to Columbia?" He looked at Peter. "I'm afraid I'll mess it up. You really think I can do this?"

"I know you can," Peter said.

"It's definitely going to be all you," Henry added. "I can impersonate you as a singer, but no way could I cover an art class." Then he paused. "Well, maybe if it was a lecture..."

"No," Neal insisted. "I'm not having you jeopardize my GPA."

And with that, everyone was laughing and hugging Neal, congratulating him and assuring him that he'd take Columbia by storm. "I'm so proud of you," Noelle whispered. Hearing those words in a voice that matched his mother's choked him up. Fortunately the briefing was temporarily suspended for a series of toasts: to Neal for getting into Columbia, to Columbia for being wise enough to recognize his talents, to Noelle for convincing the Win-Win board to be altruistic, and to Peter for recruiting Neal and setting him on his current path.

###

"What happened next?" El asked over dinner. Peter had brought home takeout and was catching her up on what had been a truly eventful day.

Peter paused to drink some water before he answered. He was trying to hide the fact that Neal's accepting the scholarship and the subsequent toasts had left a lump in his throat again as he described it.

El didn't seem to be fooled, however, as she demonstrated by leaning over and kissing him. "You're a good man, Peter Burke."

He cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, after we got through the mushy stuff, it was time to show that I'm a good agent. I outlined a plan for the FBI to issue a statement that Robert Winslow is wanted for a series of crimes, most recently kidnapping. His accomplice has been arrested and isn't being named because he's cooperating with the investigators. However, we will splash the names and photos of the kidnapping victims that we rescued."

"As much as Henry and Angela have been traveling and performing recently, they're bound to be recognized as Urban Legend."

"Right. Angela agreed to come back to New York tomorrow. She and Henry will be on hand to welcome home their grandfather, the retired ambassador being credited with significant contributions to the recent peace accord negotiated in Geneva. It will be an international story. Someone in The New York Times owes Neal a favor that he's gonna call in. We're guaranteed press for Urban Legend that will make Masterson Music pay attention."

"The group's website will be swarmed by people who want to hear their music."

"You got it. Neal and Henry called Theo Guy and Miranda Garza to line up performances which will be listed on the site. We expect the venues will be packed."

"Won't Masterson be scared off by the fact that Neal works for the Bureau?" El wondered.

"They aren't going to find out. At first, Neal won't be performing, adding to the curiosity about who he is and what happened to him. That keeps Urban Legend in the news even longer. People may speculate about the cousin named Neal who disappeared at the age of three, but Henry will say they never saw him again, and of course neither Henry nor Angela used their real first names. We're going to claim Neal Legend is one of the distant cousins who grew up in those Caffrey caravans. He took the name Neal in honor of the boy who dropped out of their lives so long ago."

"You know..." El paused and started over. "I realize you don't like to involve FBI spouses in cases, especially me. I understand," she added before Peter could interrupt. "It's distracting and potentially compromises the agent emotionally, but I have a couple of ideas that would be perfectly safe. First, you remember Lisa, one of my college roommates? She works for a major radio station in Boston and is already a fan of Urban Legend. If I told her that I know them, I'm sure she'd want to arrange an interview with them for her station. She could provide fantastic promotion if they have a performance in Boston."

Peter grabbed a sheet of paper and started writing it down. "Yeah, that's exactly what we need. What's your other idea?"

"When Neal re-joins Urban Legend, it should be a big event. And I happen to run an event planning business."

He turned that around in his head, and didn't see anything inherently dangerous about it. "The Bureau won't have much of a budget," he warned.

"Perhaps not, but the exposure would be invaluable to a new business like mine."

Satchmo interrupted their discussion to remind them that he needed a walk. El took him out while Peter called Neal to let him know about Lisa.

"Great," said Neal. "We've got a lead on a group scheduled to perform in Boston on Friday who lost their opening act."

"You and Henry having any conflict over who's in charge?"

"Not yet. So far we've been in agreement on almost everything. I thought it would help if it's clear that he's still the leader of Urban Legend, so I'm careful not to challenge him on that. He picks the songs and has final say on performances. I'm the liaison to the FBI, which puts me in charge of the case. At least, that's the theory."

"And I'm the business manager," Peter added. "I noticed how hesitant you were about that. You know, I do have a master's degree in accounting, and in the end this case is gonna come down to contracts and money. The lawyers and accountants are the ones who will figure out how Masterson Music is bending the law and taking advantage of performers."

"They're only taking advantage of the performers they want to drive out of the business. I'm worried about how this is going to play out if Urban Legend is signed because we're expected to be a big success. How will we get the evidence we need?"

"I guarantee you that Masterson isn't cheating just some musicians. What Julia Winslow uncovered goes across the board. They're underreporting international revenue, and underpaying their artists for sales of albums overseas. And that may be just the tip of the iceberg. I talked to Julia this afternoon and she has some theories that I've got Tricia looking into."

"Welcome to the crew," Neal said. "You're right. We've been too focused on getting Masterson's attention to think through how we'd catch him in a crime. None of us are experts in law and accounting. Now we've got accounting covered. Do you think we can bring an attorney with us when Masterson offers us a contract? Maybe Mrs. Hughes, since she's an expert in that area of the law?"

"Good instinct, but Ilsa Hughes is well-known in the music industry. You want to bring in someone who seems non-threatening, but who can meet with Ilsa in advance for prep."

"Yvette," said Neal. "Miranda's daughter is in her last year of law school. She told me she wanted to help if she could. She's eager to prove she's over her crush on Henry. She's young enough that Masterson would assume his lawyers would eat her alive. She's persistent enough to learn everything she can from Ilsa and apply it once we're inside Masterson's office."

"Anvil-girl?" Peter remembered Neal's story about the girl who'd crushed him when she used him as a substitute for Henry.

"That's right. Don't worry, Peter. We got over the initial awkwardness when I was in Austin. And I'm focused on Sara, now."

Peter withheld judgment on that. It still sounded awkward, but a law expert they could trust and who would be unknown and unintimidating to Masterson sounded perfect. "See if she's willing to help and free to travel when the time comes. We could always use Jones."

"Yeah, not picturing Harvard-Law Jones as someone who'd be willing to work for a bunch of amateur musicians. He'd go for the big-money clients."

Peter chuckled at the thought of Jones trying to play down his legal chops.

"Mozzie's back, by the way. As Urban Legend's agent, he wants to meet with you and coordinate on some of the plans."

Peter stopped chuckling. He hadn't considered that the group's agent and business manager needed to work closely. "This will be interesting."

"He confirmed that Robert's plane went down on the intended island, and a distress call was placed. The Coast Guard will send a boat to pick them up, but it's several days' travel out there from the nearest port. The pilot confirmed they have about ten days' provisions, so the rescue mission is going to wait out a particularly nasty storm in the north Pacific."

"I'll talk to Agent Yoshida in Seattle. He'll monitor their progress and let us know when Robert's about to return to the mainland. We'll coordinate on the precautions to take, and I'll try to be there in person when Robert arrives if I can."

Neal didn't have to say he wanted to be there, too. That would be an argument for another day.

Instead Peter took the conversation in another direction. "I heard Noelle saying she was proud of you. I hope you know I am, too."

"Thanks, Peter."

"Not just for getting into Columbia. I'm also proud at how mature you were when Henry and Angela were missing. Up until the last minute, you didn't run off on your own. You kept engaged with the case, making good arguments and working to get evidence of what really happened to them. I've been waiting for the right time to tell you that I recognize the level of trust you showed in disclosing the Legend identities. I know it wasn't easy for you. Has Henry given you a hard time about it?"

"Not yet, but I'm getting the impression that in the future he may be more secretive, rather than risk that I'll share what I know with you, and then have you share it with the Bureau."

"Being shut out like that, it's gonna hurt," Peter said.

"Yeah. But it's worth it to have him here, safe. We barely got to them before Jason Ford was going to give him that dose of heroin." He cleared his throat. "I asked Tricia what she learned from Ford, and she told me an analysis of the syringe showed there was enough to be lethal if Henry didn't get to a hospital right away."

Peter nodded. That revelation had been enough to break Ford. He was providing a wealth of information to the Bureau now. "Everyone talks about how much you and Henry have in common. You both want to save the world, or at least feel a huge sense of responsibility for the well-being of everyone you care about. But in the last few days we've seen a big difference. In my opinion, you're more mature than he has been recently."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when the chips were down, you came to me, told me about Urban Legend, and asked for help. I don't think Henry's able to accept help, or to accept that he needs help."

"Funny you should mention that. Noelle and I are conspiring with Graham to keep on Henry's case about getting therapy. Graham said he might make it a condition for going back to work at Win-Win."

"Oh that sounds familiar," said Peter. "When your flashbacks were getting bad I gave you a similar ultimatum as I recall. Start therapy in order to stay at the FBI."

"He's got a lot to work through," Neal said. "More than he's told us about, I'm sure. Hopefully things won't get as bad for him as they did for me before he gets serious about seeking help."

A/N: The sting/con lines come from the "Burke's Seven" episode.

Neal's flashbacks and the rescue on the airstrip are from the story Caffrey Flashback. The masters in being a renaissance criminal and the arrest of Roland Villiers are from the first story in this series: Caffrey Conversation. My thanks to Silbrith who thought to take Neal down a different degree path starting in her first story in this AU: Complications. Additional thanks to Silbrith for creating the character of Agent Travis Miller and letting me borrow him.

The tuition solution was hinted at during Neal's birthday party in Flashback, when Graham said, "I promise, there will be justice. Noelle tells me she already has some ideas about how we can make things up to you. I have a feeling the next Win-Win board meeting is going to be a doozy."