IFshe could help him.
“Can we ask questions, or do you just want us to listen, Corby? That’s Elizabeth, your friend, not Elizabeth, your boss asking.”
He took a deep breath.
Deep down, he was grateful he had people to come to so he could get this off of his chest.
“I need help. If you asking questions does that, ask away. I need to figure this out. I’m so tired of always feeling like part of me is missing,” he said.
What he wasn’t saying was that he felt something for his partner, and that also was part of the issue. He wasn’t sure how to even address that.
How shitty was your luck to be attracted to a man who didn’t like men?
That was an even bigger clusterfuck for Corbin, and he knew it.
Elizabeth went there.
“So, you smelled cologne, and it kicked this all off. Was there anything else?”
Corbin said nothing.
Immediately, Callen saw the hesitation, and knew there was something else there.
“You can trust us, Corbin. What is said here stays here.”
He needed help, so he put his faith in them. If Gene and Ethan trusted them, he knew he could too.
“I’m attracted to him.”
That hung there.
Oh, and that explained a lot. He didn’t have to say who, but they all got the picture.
The‘him’was absolutely going to be Alex Bartlett.
They’d bet on it.
Oh, and Gene wasn’t shocked either.
“To be honest, Alex is very Will-like,” Gene admitted. “He dresses like Will did, and other than his habitual sex history where he bangs anything that breathes, he would remind you of him.”
Corbin explained.
“It’s more than his physical appearance. We were talking to the homeless people before, and Alex caught me off guard. He was gentle, and beyond kind. That’s how Will was. He had a way of soothing a person when they were upset. I watched him handle them, and then, be protective of me when one got angry. It’s messing with me, because I know he’s not gay, and I also know I promised Will I’d die loving him. I took a vow.”
Elizabeth didn’t ask about work.
She could ask Alex all of that in a little while. She was genuinely worried about Corbin.
“It just all hit me.”
Gene rubbed his hand up and down his back.
Because someone had to, he went there.
“Corby, you vowed until death do you part. Death parted you. Maybe it’s time to…”
The look Corbin gave him was one of rage and extreme pain. It made Gene stop.
