Threads of Trust || Neal Caffrey

Prologue

Before Story Notes! IMPORTANT

Avery is the past adoptive sister of the Burke family. The show never mentioned Peter's actual family so I'm making it up as I go along!

Neal Caffrey is an FBI Agent! And he's not fully like the person in the show (he's not a conman ... yet).

I know in the show I think Neal is like, 38 or something but I'm going with 33 for the purposes of my story. Avery will be 29.

White Collar Fanfic | Threads of Trust | Prologue

Avery Daniels; convicted of Bond Forgery and suspected of counterfeiting, art forgery, racketeering and security's fraud. This got her a four-year sentence and yet there were only three months left, but surprisingly, she didn't want to wait until her release date - she needed to get out ... now.

Megan Lowe, the secret she's kept from her brother and pretty much everyone whom she didn't know closely. One guy was the only one who knew actually, apart from her of course. A few weeks ago was the last time Megan was seen and the last visit always replayed in Ava's head - after realizing everything that had happened, something just didn't fit right, the situation didn't feel right. All those years ago, Avery made a promise to herself and Megan - she would protect the younger girl and so far, she hasn't done such a great job. Ava landed herself in prison because of it.

Avery brushed through her newly darkened and cut hair, she had just completed drying and staining the strands with a coffee ground dye in order to darken it. Naturally she's a blonde, strawberry blonde to be exact and in this place - she could stick out like a sore thumb, especially during her escape attempt. There were still a few more party tricks up her sleeve to stop everyone from being alerted about her fleeing.

For the past nearly four years, Avery's been a model prisoner, she only became one because if an escape was likely to happen - she didn't want to be under extreme lockdown and right now, she's in the best position she could possibly be. Her plan was already worked out and it had been for weeks - but now she had a true incentive to put it into action.

Once her face was clear of stains and dirt, she retrieved a plastic bag from inside the toilet tank. After much surveillance (secretly), Ava knew that no one ever came into this staffroom toilet and it was connected to a hallway that would lead her in the right direction. The fact that no one came in here was a very good thing, it's given her probably an extra half-an-hour to make herself different in appearance.

Opening the dripping wet bag, she retrieved a nearly used up eye liner and a very small bottle of mascara - for someone with Ava's type of skills, it was easy to grab these items off the guards, especially when most of the population was female - except for the warden, he's a man.

After applying the very little make-up, she reached into the bag again and pulled out a set of guard clothing - the last piece to make her appearance completely different. With this uniform and her newly dyed and cut hair not finished - she'll be unrecognisable upon first sight. They won't be expecting this change so nothing will happen - they'll still see her as her blonde self with no make-up. Gotta love the art of what so little can do to an appearance.

And then everything was done - she was ready to initiate her plan.

Looking into the mirror; Avery saw someone with dark hazel eyes that were filled with experiences only certain people could know or understand. Her dark hair was naturally wavy but with all that length off, it felt different. The strands used to drop down to the point of her elbows and ever since arriving in this place - she's been growing it. Her uniform was like any other guards clothing and the plastic bag was obviously keeping it dry while in the toilet tank, hidden out of plain sight. Quite a few times she's seen new guards and trainees wandering around - that's basically who she's going to become now, for the next few minutes anyway.