The day before, Peter had agreed to store their surveillance equipment at his home overnight. It was late, and they all wanted to go home. Jones had given him a lift and helped him carry the stuff inside.

Now, he was sitting and fiddling with things, wondering what he had been thinking. His car was still at the office.

"Honey, if you can pick him up after school, it would help a lot," the scanner buzzed.

"Car 14, can you please return to the station? Car 14, return to the station. Reporting a 10-50, Court and Degraw."

"Court and Degraw?" El asked, coming down the stairs. "That's right around the corner. What's a 10-50?"

"Noise complaint. This scanner picks up anything within a couple of blocks. Probably those hipsters with the band."

"Oh, hipsters. Are you gonna arrest them?"

No, it was not a federal issue, but something for the New York Police Department.

"Well, until they start skimming off album sales, they're out of my jurisdiction." He moved to turn the scanner off but then realized something. "Honey, you're working from home today. Oh, this surveillance equipment is from the Lebowski stakeout. I was gonna take it in, but the car's at the office."

"It's okay. Satch and I can live without a coffee table for a few hours."

"Yeah, and I guess the bureau can live without an IMSI GSM scanner for a few hours."

He put the scanner down.

"Oh, sexy tech talk, Inspector Gadget," his beloved wife said, moving closer.

"You like?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if I'm late tonight, I'm probably dealing with a wireless XD5 Intel motherboard thingy problem."

"Mm. Very hot." She gave him a kiss. "Have a good day."

"You too."

Peter left for a walk to the office.

He called Neal when he got closer to where his pet convict lived, but Neal was already at the office. It was hard to blame him for that. There were always things to do at the office for Neal, and he knew some agents gave him their own boring tasks just out of spite. Still, his young and ambitious protégé turned up at the office first thing in the morning. It made Peter happy.

As he walked in the morning sun he felt bored. He liked to walk because it cleared his mind and helped him problem-solve. Though, at the moment, he had nothing to solve. The previous weeks had been so standard that it made him stressed because he had too little on his hands.

When he got up to the office, he said his hellos to his colleagues, sat down by the desk, and hoped his internal email would tell him about something grand and new. No such thing.

Agent Westley knocked on his door frame.

"Yes?"

"Caffrey's case report, sir."

"Excuse me?"

"Neal Caffrey's case report, sir."

"Why did he send you?"

"He didn't." Westley dropped the report on his desk. "Anything else?"

"No…"

Peter watched the young agent leave. He picked up the report. Agent Westley had not impressed him as much as he had hoped, but he had not seen that conversation coming. It made no sense.

Until he saw the report.

He rose with the papers in hand and walked down to Neal's desk, where the young man with a far more questionable background than Agent Westley sat and did the crosswords.

He smacked the report down on the desk in front of Neal.

"Agent Westley didn't graduate from Quantico so that he could write your case reports."

Neal leaned back in his chair, facing him.

"Peter, I know how important those reports are," he said with a serious voice. "You always say, 'if it happens in the field—'"

"It happens in the file," Peter finished. He was not interested in games and wanted to move the conversation forward.

"Yes. And writing them takes practice. I gave those reports to Westley as a gift."

Peter stared. Neal must be equally bored to come up with that excuse.

"A gift?"

"One he can invest in his future."

Peter felt he had a lot of things to say about that. One was that Agent Westley had not even been in the situation the report was about. But his phone rang, and it was Elizabeth.

"Hey, El."

He saw Neal returning to his crosswords in the corner of his eye.

"Hey, hon. How're you doing?"

"Hey, what's up?" There must be a reason for her calling.

"I know this sounds ridiculous, but I… I think there's gonna be a robbery today," El said at the other end.

"A robbery? Why?" At least Neal's focus moved, Peter noted.

"Well, when you left this morning, you forgot to turn off the scanner. And I overheard a conversation with two guys, and I could swear they were planning a crime."

"What did they say?"

"Ugh, something about not wanting to go back to prison. You know, doing it right this time?" That was interesting, and from the scanner, it was somewhere close to home.

"Well, that's not your normal neighborly gossip." Neal now dropped his crosswords.

"No, and whatever they're doing, it's gonna be on 47th and Park at noon," she said, and Peter grabbed the pen Neal held in his hand. "Look, it… it could be nothing."

"Or it could be something," Peter returned as he wrote the information down. "I'll look into it."

"Okay. Will you let me know?"

"I will. Thanks, honey." He hung up.

"47th and Park. Everything okay?" Neal asked.

"El may have given us a lead," Peter grinned and pulled the note from the pad. "I'll tell you about it on the way. And pay attention, 'cause I'm gonna need a report."

Neal saw Peter's disappointment when nothing happened. He understood it well, as he felt the lack of action, too. They took another turn, crossing to the other side and back again.

"12:44," Peter said.

"Yep," Neal agreed. "Maybe they saw us and called off the job."

"Seems unlikely. Maybe El misheard."

"Over static, 'noon' sounds like a lot of things," Neal speculated. "Soon."

"Balloon."

"Saloon."

"Well, a lot of people chatting about saloons these days."

"And 'I'll meet you at balloon' makes complete sense." It didn't really, but Peter did not seem to notice.

"Yeah," his handler answered, lost in a thought. There was a heavy sigh. "She's still shaken up after what happened with Keller."

"That could be," Neal agreed and felt a pang of guilt. "Look, I'm impressed at how well she's handled it, but you can't blame her for being a little—"

"Paranoid?"

"Yeah," he agreed, though that was not what he had in mind, but he saw Elizabeth approaching them on the sidewalk. "And curious." He winked at Peter so he would get what was coming.

"Hi!" She smiled at them. Peter swung around.

"Honey. What are you doing here?"

They kissed and hugged.

"Well, I didn't want to bother you with a call, and the suspense was kind of killing me, so it's way past noon."

"It is," Peter agreed. There was a pause where her eyes moved between the two of them.

"No robbery?"

"Nothing."

"No? See, those guys were definitely talking about a crime." Neal sent a glance at Peter, and Peter glanced at him. "I saw that look."

"What look?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I know what I heard," Elizabeth stated. "And whoever said it lives close to us."

"Well, Peter speculates the robbers may have seen us and called off the job," Neal said.

"That's exactly what I said," Peter lied.

"You know, we can check in with these store owners, take a look at the security cams…"

"Yeah… Okay. I don't need your pity. I'm… I'm gonna go."

"No, honey, honey, let me have an agent take you home." Oh please, Peter, Neal thought. She is not a mental case in a wheelchair.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'll... I'll see you later."

"That didn't go too well, did it?" Peter sighed.

"Why should it?"

"What?"

"We almost questioned her sanity, blaming what she heard on stress. No one wants to be questioned like that."

"She didn't hear that, did she?"

"Don't think so. But you've still got your body language," Neal pointed out.

"Yeah, and that look."

"Definitely."

"So what do you think?" Peter asked.

"Out of experience, I can tell you that many people plan crimes that, for one reason or another, never take place."

"Like what?" There was that curiosity in this voice, wanting Neal to spill his secrets.

"Well, the Giza pyramid is still there, isn't it?"

"You planned to steal a pyramid?"

Neal sent Peter a look.

"No."