Chapter Description: It's Peter's last day at the FBI. Then he gets to score the nominations for movie night. Because of course there would be scoring involved. The Caffreys can't make this simple.

Manhattan FBI offices. December 21, 2006 - Thursday afternoon.

It was the end of Peter's last full day at the Bureau. Friday would be a mere formality, so he was clearing out his office today. He was nearly done, and now he eyed the painting on his office wall. He'd brought a blanket to wrap it in, so it wouldn't be damaged when he took it home.

Should he take it home? It might make more sense to drive directly to Win-Win and drop it off there.

He took down the painting and wrapped it, setting it down next to the box where he'd placed other personal items, including a framed picture of El and a bust of Caesar that had been a gift from Neal. Those would also go to his new office.

There was a knock at his door, and Peter turned around to see Jones.

"Need any help?" Jones said. "You mentioned you'd be packing up this afternoon."

Peter accepted the offer. He'd enjoyed catching up with Jones, Diana, Tricia, Hughes, and Jorge during the going away lunch today. Travis Miller, who'd left the Bureau to work for a tech company, had also attended the lunch.

As they carried Peter's belongings onto the elevator, Jones asked, "What did you think of what Travis was saying about team structures?"

Travis had been excited about something called Agile. It seemed to entail bringing people into small interdisciplinary teams. He'd suggested that instead of having separate units for White Collar, Missing Persons, and Organized Crime, the Bureau should put together small teams of investigators from across those groups.

"I see where he's coming from," Peter said. "Say an embezzlement has occurred. Someone — often a suspect — goes missing, and there might be a mob angle. Do you give the case to Organized Crime, or Missing Persons, or White Collar? Giving it to the wrong group could waste time. If there were teams made up of people across those areas who are used to collaborating, they could bring multiple perspectives to a case at once."

"Yeah," Jones said. "It sounds great in theory. But could you really get them to collaborate? Because most times that isn't how things work around here."

Peter nodded. "It does sound like the setup to a joke. A White Collar agent, a Missing Persons agent, and an Organized Crime agent walk into a conference room. You expect to hear a punchline."

"Exactly. Remember when Agent Rice pulled us into a Missing Persons case, back when Caffrey first joined our team?"

"Or when we worked with Organized Crime on the Samurai bonds case? Not a model I'd want to follow."

"But I get what Travis was saying. If you had people with all those types of experience really thinking of themselves as a team and acting like a team, maybe add in a tech expert, they could be amazing."

"Going to suggest it to Hughes?" Peter asked.

"Maybe. Do you think Organized Crime would go for it?"

Peter grimaced. "Not without evidence that it would work. You might be able to talk Karen into a trial, but you'd need to be careful about who you get from her. It would need to be someone who's actually open to new things, instead of being a malcontent she's simply trying to get off her hands."

The elevator dinged and they exited to carry the painting and box to Peter's car. "Thanks," he said as he closed the door to the backseat.

"Is there a Lambo in your future?" Jones asked, a smile in his voice.

Peter smiled, too. Back in January a case had given both Peter and Jones the opportunity to drive their dream cars. "Win-Win is giving me a raise, but not enough for that. Besides, where would I park it? Street parking in Brooklyn is fine for a Taurus..."

"Not so much for a Lamborghini," Jones agreed. "Need help hanging the picture in your new digs?"

Peter knew he could get someone at Win-Win to help, but his gut told him that Jones wanted an excuse to keep talking. "Sure," Peter said. "Let's go."

When they'd left the parking garage and Jones still hadn't brought up whatever he wanted to talk about, Peter made a guess of what the topic might be. "Have you applied for the lead role in the White Collar Unit?"

Jones shook his head. "It still hasn't been posted."

"That's odd," Peter said. "Hughes is usually on top those things. I'm surprised it wasn't posted in November."

"He said something about delays in HR, and then a hiring freeze."

"Right." Peter knew that often new hires and promotions were put on hold at the end of the year as a way to meet budgets. "So it will be posted in January?"

"He's not getting a clear answer on that. Promised he'd talk to his boss about it at the start of the year." Jones held his hands in front of the air vents to warm them. "I wonder if they have a reorg in mind. Maybe something like Travis was suggesting, combining a couple of units to have teams of generalists."

"It's an interesting thought," Peter said. "Travis made a compelling argument, but I have my doubts about the Bureau embracing something like that. They're more likely..." He trailed off, not wanting to come across as too critical of the Bureau. He didn't like to badmouth his employer, especially in front of a fellow employee.

"More likely to combine teams for cost savings," Jones supplied. "Save money by having fewer manager salaries. Not the kind of team empowerment philosophy Travis was advocating."

"Maybe it leads in that direction anyway, regardless of what's intended. Fewer managers means people end up having to fend for themselves."

"You get people doing management work, without getting the pay or the title." Jones grimaced. "Kind of like my position now. When I stepped in as the acting lead, it was with the understanding that it would be a short-term deal, just until I could officially apply for the job."

They continued discussing variations of what the future might bring for White Collar and Jones' options in each scenario. Pulling into the parking area for Win-Win, Peter concluded, "I wish I had some sage advice to offer, but you've already thought of everything I can suggest."

"That helps," Jones said. "I trust your instincts. If you can't think of anything I've missed, I feel less like I'm dropping the ball."

As they carried in the painting and box, Nirmala opened the doors for them. She also gave Peter his employee badge so that he could return whenever he wanted without an escort. "Henry said you could have it early if you needed," she told him. She directed them to where tools were stored, so that they could find what they needed to hang the picture.

Neal wasn't around. He'd spent the day at Columbia. Henry was out on a case. But Sara stopped by to greet Peter and Jones. "Already joining the tradition of recruiting people to Win-Win?" she teased.

"No, I wouldn't poach from the FBI," Peter said automatically. Then he glanced at Jones. "That is, of course you'd be welcome here."

"But that's not the way you roll," Jones said. "I get it." He stepped away from the picture, confirming that it was staying in place on the wall. "The fact is, I couldn't picture Peter working anyplace other than the Bureau. I wanted to see for myself that he actually fit here." He turned toward Peter. "You do. I get it, now. Especially compared to Organized Crime. On the drive over, it looked like a big burden had been lifted from your shoulders. You're more yourself here, more like you were at White Collar. I felt kind of guilty stepping into your shoes after I saw how tense you were in the new job. Like, I wanted to be ready to step aside if you needed to come back. Now... Well, if they do post your old job in White Collar, I can apply with a clear conscience."

"I'm glad you told me," Peter said, placing a hand briefly on Jones' shoulder. "And that reminds me of one last official task I'll take care of tomorrow before my exit interview. I'm going to write an open-ended recommendation that you can use anytime you apply for a promotion. The Bureau likes recommendations from former bosses, and they especially like it when the former boss is an insider, so I need to write it while I can still sign it as an employee."

"Thanks," said Jones.

###

First thing Friday morning, Peter wrote the promised recommendation, emailing it to both Jones and Hughes.

After the exit interview with HR, he returned to his office one last time to pick up his coat and gloves. With all of his personal belongings removed, the space felt like it belonged to a stranger, and he experienced a sense of calm. Whether or not William had intended to do Peter a favor by cutting his last day short, Peter was grateful that he didn't need to hang around, trying to look and feel useful.

He glanced toward William's office. The man was there, with the office door open. It might have been easier to ignore that, but Peter believed he should officially check in one last time. He wasn't simply going to slink away.

"William," Peter said, standing at the entrance to the office. "I'm on my way out. I turned in my laptop and badge to HR. Karen has my files and notes. Is there anything else you need from me?"

"Nothing," William said.

"I want to thank you for the opportunity to join your team, even if it didn't work out the way I'd hoped," Peter added.

"Did you give HR an earful?" William asked gruffly.

Peter shook his head. It had been tempting, but as Jones would say, that wasn't how Peter rolled. "I focused on the lack of opportunities for promotion locally, and how the tradition of making people move to D.C. to advance can be a hardship for employees. I don't expect it will make a difference to hear it from just one person, but I'm sure they've heard it from others, and when enough people voice the same frustration, that could lead to a change."

He paused. This was his last chance to speak his mind on how things were going in Organized Crime. He might simply reiterate things he'd already told William, but it wouldn't hurt to reinforce those suggestions one more time. "Karen has solid ideas, but she can't implement them in isolation. When she tells you she's facing challenges, I hope you'll support her." Thinking back to recent conversations with Travis and Jones he added. "I firmly believe this group can accomplish great things, if they give up the turf wars and past grievances, and focus on actually acting like a team. But I couldn't wave a magic wand to make that happen, and neither can Karen. If you want things to change, you need to actively support those changes and show the team you mean it. And if you don't want things to change, let Karen know so she doesn't burn herself out trying to do the impossible." With that, Peter said his final goodbyes and left.

###

On his way home, Peter stopped by the video store again. They hadn't had Bride and Prejudice in stock on Wednesday, but they'd promised they could get it from another store in the area. He picked it up now, along with a gift bag perfectly sized for DVDs. At home, he slid the movie among the other gifts under the Christmas tree.

After a round of fetch with Satchmo and a break to complete a crossword puzzle, he opened his laptop. There was a folder in his email app where he'd been storing the movie nominations. Last night he'd written up his own. Not that he'd pick his own entry to win, but he needed to nominate a film in support of Angela's plans for having people guess each other's choices.

Now he built his spreadsheet and read the emails. He knew he'd need to conduct some online research to complete the scoring, looking into the year the movie was released, awards received, and so forth.

He hadn't expected to become so engrossed in reading the nominations. Some made him chuckle, and some touched his heart. After he'd read them all, he called Angela.

"We need to add to your plans for Christmas Eve," he told her. "These notes accompanying the nominations are fantastic. Once we know who picked what movie, we should ask everyone to share why they made those selections."

He also mentioned Irene's desire to have people act out a scene or at least to quote a line from their movie.

"Or sing a song from it," Angela suggested. "There's a piano in the living room, so I can accompany singers. I'm sure Henry will bring his guitar, too."

"We should give people advance warning," Peter suggested. "So they can pick a scene, line, or song and be ready."

Angela promised to handle that, and Peter returned his attention to his spreadsheet. By the time Satchmo insisted it was time for lunch, the scoring was complete and Peter had a quandary, because his nomination received the highest score, barely edging out Irene's nomination. Sure, Edmund had said they wanted the top two movies, thus securing Irene's choice a viewing on Christmas Day, but Peter still didn't feel right about awarding himself the win.

He mentioned it to El when she got home. "Should I nominate something else?" he asked. "The other movies I considered wouldn't receive such a high score."

"And deprive everyone of seeing what is apparently the perfect holiday movie?" El protested. She still didn't know the title of Peter's movie, and she expressed great curiosity about what it could be. Looking at the scoring criteria over his shoulder she said, "Set at Christmas, won three Academy Awards, has a child as a main character, released more than forty years ago. This is exactly what our hosts wanted. Does anyone need to know who nominated it?"

Peter explained about the games Angela was planning. "Then anonymity is out. Well, there's only one thing to do," she declared. "We need to tell Neal, Henry, and Angela. This was all their idea. Let them know what happened. I'm sure they'll feel the same way about it that I do."

And of course they did.

A/N: Peter and Jones driving their dream cars happened in On Ice. The case where Peter's White Collar team worked with Missing Persons happened in By the Book. The Samurai bonds case was in An Evening with Genji by Silbrith.