Chapter Text
“Where are we going?”
Neal smiles at the giggle in Morgan’s voice. When he stopped her after work, asking her to trust him much like she did him for his birthday, Morgan had been skeptical but still put her hand in his.
Neal is still baffled by how much trust she places in him.
The weather was cooperating thankfully. Though it was a chilly early December evening, the sky was clear, a few stars defying all the light pollution to blink down at them.
Neal glances down at his anklet. It was still green but he’d have to be quick. The marshals were getting a bit suspicious with all the late investigations he and Peter were supposedly doing.
Thankfully, dinner was to be at Junes, Elizabeth happily playing chef as Mozzie played sommelier.
Hopefully, they’d have something to celebrate.
They arrived before a familiar statue. Neal once felt pain looking at it, a memory long scarring and a possibility long abandoned.
He’d come here early after meeting Morgan’s family, getting a ring that once would have been on another woman’s finger.
Maybe in another life, it would’ve been. Neal didn’t know, he was content with this one.
He’d pawned it and now something new was burning in his pocket.
He turns to Morgan, who looks at the little girl with a violin in a mix of confusion and curiosity. Her dark hair caught New York’s many lights and turned them to golden sunlight against the strands.
She turns to him, mouth quirking in a smile like she couldn’t help it, like looking at him brought her too much joy to contain.
“Neal, what is this?,” she asks gently. Neal squeezes her hands, both in his, and wordlessly gets down on one knee.
Morgan’s eyes widen, Neal letting go of a hand before she could say anything.
“This isn’t a proposal, not officially anyway. When I do that, I want to be able to take you to meet someone and show you who I was, who I really was, because I want that place to be the site where I become something better because I have you. Right now, I just want to promise you, as sincerely as I can be to one of the people who know me best: I love you, Morgan Abbas. I will stand by your side with pride as you change the world, one bit of kindness and sass at a time. You are so brightly yourself it’s intoxicating. I could paint you a thousand times and still not do you justice because you gave me that last push to realize that I can be someone real. All those years ago, when we met and you saved me, I couldn’t stop thinking of you, how you didn’t know a single thing, yet you trusted whatever it was that told you to help me. I never got over that faith, that easy trust, especially because I never saw it again. It wasn’t until I ran right back to you that I knew how that felt. Now I have a life, a life that’s so much brighter because you’re in it. Everyone, Peter, Elizabeth, Mozzie, June, taught me hard work, care, cleverness, and wisdom. You taught me love as it should be and I will happily spend every day learning that, over and over again, if you’ll have me.”
Neal’s free hand held the ring that’d been hiding in his coat pocket, shining diamond and sea pearl. Morgan gasps, tears already freezing on her cheeks. Neal smiles and reaches up, using his other hand to wipe them.
“I want this to showcase my promise to you. That one day I’ll stand proudly at your side, firm with your hand in mine to take on whatever the world throws at us. I’m standing my ground because you taught me how.”
Morgan let out a giggly sob, leaning down and giving Neal a loving kiss, her forehead against his.
“I promise you, Neal George Caffrey, that one day we’ll stand side by side, everyone we love cheering us on, you a free man with your hand in mine, and come Hell or High Water, I won’t let go.”
Neal let out a wet chuckle. “So that’s a yes?”
Morgan pulled away a bit, shaking her head.
“Yes, you ridiculously romantic idiot, of course!”
Neal laughed, slipping the promise ring on her right hand before scooping her up and hugging her tightly.
Morgan returned the hug, looking at the stars and whispering her thanks.
Hesitation was never in Morgan’s vocabulary. She jumped in, eyes closed and feet first, consequences be damned.
And now, she had someone who’d dive alongside her into whatever life had in store for them.
They’d celebrate at Junes, then by themselves, and days and weeks and months would pass until they’d fulfill that promise.
In the meantime, they both had many tricks up their sleeves and under their hats to keep the days interesting and their smiles bright.
The separated and, with one last kiss, they were off, the stars and city seeming a bit brighter now that they had each other to light the way.
The End