Fic: Lose And You Will Answer To Me

[s2309]

Title: Lose And You Will Answer To Me
Characters (Pairings): Alan Woodford
Rating: R (profanity)
Word Count: 407
Spoilers: S06E06 (Au Revoir)
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: Alan Woodford is a very patient man.
Author's Note: This fic was born out of a conversation with reve_silencieux. We were discussing why Woodford was such an unconvincing villain, and then my brain went, 'Wait, maybe...', and then this happened. Also because of Elr's promptfest. There was one prompt - Woodford: Games - that I really wanted to write for, because it made me realize that barely anyone's written him in any significant way. (sapphire2309, champion of neglected characters. Sometimes I feel like slapping myself.) The only problem was, I didn't know what to write. Which meant that the prompt stayed with me, at the back of my head. And now I know what to write! And now I'll shut up.
No, wait. Title from The Ruler And The Killer by Kid Cudi. Okay, now.
For more finale tags, click here.


He's been waiting for a while now.

And, as much as it pains him to say it, he's been waiting for a chance at revenge. It's a crude word. It's gotten a lot of men into trouble. But he will win, because no one will see him coming. Not him.

Neal Caffrey destroyed the Pink Panthers almost single-handedly. Got them all in a neat row, trotted them over to the Feds like obedient schoolchildren. And then he died, right before he would have been unmasked as the true mole. That arrangement was a little too convenient for Alan's liking.

But he's a patient man. When no trace of Neal Caffrey could be found anywhere in the world, he waited. For days and months that eventually built into a year, he waited.

Men like Neal are weak, predictable. He only waited till the coast was clear, for the legal system to square away the Panthers, and then came crawling back with his tail between his legs to beg forgiveness from everyone he loves, claiming as his reasons a threat that's only barely credible, barely believable. Because even though Alan Woodford has killed men in cold blood, he's not dangerous. He doesn't even know the weight of the gun he's holding.

And that, right there, is his best work.

It's a certain college-boy recklessness he's held on to over the years, like he's just found a gun and discovered how it works, but he's not really serious about it, not even after there's bodies on the floor. He heads a group called the Pink Panthers, for fuck's sake. People aren't going to believe that he's dangerous. They won't see past the rich reckless idiot with the British accent. Not even if they spend their lives manipulating very similar appearances for their own benefit.

But Neal, Neal did, Neal saw past that veneer, just a little bit. He saw something of the threat that Alan was, and made sure that, at the end of it all, he stayed away and protected everyone else too.

And, over time, forgot what he'd seen.

It's a pity that Neal couldn't stay away, because now, he's going to destroy him.

Neal will fall to his knees and beg a man in an orange jumpsuit for mercy, because he lost a game he didn't even know he was playing. And Alan will relish the honeyed taste of revenge on his tongue, and he'll say no.

Comments

[reve-silencieux.livejournal.com]

Okay, now he's dangerous! Love it. Because really, if Neal truly wants to keep everyone safe, he can't ever come back. It was too easy, too convenient a death.

[sapphire2309]

:D Thank you!!! Yeah. I mean, it would've been tragic if it was real, but still, timed a little to conveniently.

[sheenianni.livejournal.com]

You know, I always thought it was annoyingly convenient how the show killed off the "big bads" like Adler or Pratt. I wonder how things would have gone if Adler hadn't pulled that gun on Neal and tried to shoot him. I did see Woodford as a credible threat - he was at least as much a sociopath as Keller (he shot two moles in cold blood with no hesitation, one of them a colleague he had supposedly worked with for years), and given how successful the Panthers were, he had to have some sort of contacts that we didn't see. However, while I wouldn't underestimate him or the Panthers, the show didn't sell me on them being the worst that Peter and Neal had ever faced.

Take Adler... we had seen his far reaching influence even while he was on the run. It seems to me even if he had been caught, the boys would have hardly been victorious. Even Pratt could have been dangerous had James not shot him. Makes you wonder if Neal had any plans for these eventualities, or if he hadn't thought things through and would have then watched his life crumble around him as the baddies extracted their revenge...

Anyway, nice ficlet.

[sapphire2309]

You know, I haven't thought of that. I mean, Adler in prison would still be a thing to fear, of course, and Pratt no less. Woodford somehow doesn't match them in my head, and I'll explain in a bit, but yeah. I don't think Neal would have really planned for those moments, because the only time we really saw Neal carrying through a long-term plan was season 6, and that was after he was manipulated in other people's plans that he was quite helpless to do anything about.

The thing is, (at least for me), despite the fact that Woodford has done all those terrible things, he just doesn't own the screen like a villain of his stature should. I mean, Keller is more frightening than Woodford, tbh, and as a reason for Neal running, Woodford didn't convince me at all. I guess this is another way in which I'm trying to come to terms with the series finale is by building Woodford into a more credible threat, at least to me.

Thank you so much! :D

[dennih23.livejournal.com]

Terrific insight into Woolford, I think the man is devious and violent, he didn't hesitate to kill one of his own members. If he knows Neal is alive, he will go after him, and nothing will stop him.

[sapphire2309]

Agreed, completely.

Thank you for reading! :D

[nywcgirl]

Very nice...

[sapphire2309]

Thank you! :D

[ultracape.livejournal.com]

I thought Woodford was a psychotic killer from the beginning and the people who joined him were just as bad. In fact, I don't believe that Woodford ever came up with "elegant" heists on his own, not without Neal or someone like him.

Adler was a murderer as was Pratt but they were into domination and were after power more than they ever were after riches when it came down to it. Adler stole so that he could have, the same as Pratt. It was never about the money for either of them.

Now the closest villian that I think pulled elegant heists was Gordan Taylor. He, like Neal, would not use guns. Thievery was his business. He respected both his clients and his crew.

As Peter said, he wasn't that tech savey but he knew people and he planned heists so that no one got hurt.

Woodward struck me as a thug with a gun, a smart thug but a thug none the less. I can definitly see him waiting and licking his chops at the thought of torturing Neal.

[sapphire2309]

See that's the thing. I didn't buy Woodford as a psychotic killer. He really didn't seem like he knew what he was doing half the time (or maybe that was just me). I mean, there was a lot of the feeling of look this is the bossman be intimidated but I never really was.

That's the thing you could see on Adler and Pratt. I believed them as villains in a way that I never did Woodford, for exactly the reasons you described.

Agreed. Gordon Taylor is exactly the kind of classy guy that you'd expect for the kind of heists they're trying to convince us the Panthers pulled off. And he doesn't give his crew a ridiculous name, which, let me say, is a MAJOR selling point for me.

Now, yes, definitely. But I think I needed to see what I didn't like about Woodford before I saw him as a true villain.

Thank you so much for reading!! :D

[treonb.livejournal.com]

This is scary. In a good way ;-)

[sapphire2309]

Thank you! :DDD

[hurinhouse.livejournal.com]

excellent study and well written. I have no doubt this would actually happen, if what keller told neal was true.

[sapphire2309]

Thank you so much!

Oh, agreed, completely.

[leesa_perrie]

Okay, now he seems scarily dangerous! *shivers* Good work, even if terrifyingly scary work at that! :)

[sapphire2309]

That's exactly what I wanted!

Thank you so much! :3

[kanarek13]

Wow, chilling... and this definitely makes W a far better villain than the screen did :D

It's a very good plot line to consider, the very dangerous what if. I do want my boys back together and I'm clinging to that head canon, but at the same time there's that grain of doubt that maybe Neal should have stayed dead because there is never 100% certainty that it's all safe.

Awww *iz torn* :D

Brava :D

[sapphire2309]

Awww, thank you!! :D

Ahahaha, i have so many S6 AUs it's ridiculous. and i mean ofc neal's using an alias officially, but he's meeting his old friends and visiting those places and he will be found. IT IS NEVER SAFE.

Don't worry, there's at least one AU in which Neal and co. end up okay C:

Thank you so much!!

[scarym1.livejournal.com]

That is intense. Love the insight into Woodford. He seems like the kind of guy who is very patient when it comes to revenge.

[sapphire2309]

Thank you so much!

Yes, he does, and that's pretty dangerous. He'll have his revenge and no one will even notice that it was him.