The man headed out, and when the door was closed, Ivan went to stand in front of it.
Elizabeth sighed.
Oh, Callen knew that sigh, and it wasNOTa good one. In fact, it was the opposite. The shit was going to hit the fan. He’d bet on it.
“What?” he asked.
She was to the point.
“I had a meeting with Alex a couple of days ago, to make sure he meshed with Corbin as his partner.”
Uh-oh.
“And?” Gene asked.
Elizabeth explained.
“Well, he said to me, and I quote,‘he’d won the partner lottery, and working with Corbin was amazing. He finally felt like he was back to being on a team, and he saw this lasting a long time’.”
They cringed.
“I also told him he could be his permanent partner, since they worked so well together. I reassured him that he was going to have Corbin as his partner. Period.”
Oh, boy.
“Well, he’ll be okay,” Gene said. “Shit happens. If anything, the FBI prepares you for that.”
Oh, if it was only that simple.
Elizabeth cued them in.
“Alex had a rough life before the FBI. He has abandonment issues. When I put him with Noah, he thrived. It gave him permanency, and he needs that according to his psych profile. When I moved Noah to work with Lawless, it was a hit to Alex in a deep way that we won’t understand. He lost it a little, and was not in good shape for months after. Alex is co-dependent in a way. He needs his person to thrive, and without that stability, it’s a freefall. Now, I have to tell him that Corbin isn’t his partner, and we watch the tumble begin.”
That was an issue.
They were already low on staff, and losing Alex, one of their most seasoned investigators, would be damn difficult to the team.
“He’s been calm, not drinking like an idiot, or out trying to find his worth in sex,” she said. “He’s been on time, and happy. To him, his partnership allows him to focus on something other than love, and his past. He uses thatpartnership to fill a very specific void, and I suspect he was in love with Noah.”
Uh, that was an issue.
“Noah is gay. Alex is not.”
She pointed at Gene.
“You don’t have attraction to women, but how do you feel about me?” he asked.
They got it.
Love came in all shapes, sizes, and circumstances. None of them saw this relationship coming before it hit them.
“So, he was in love with Noah, and that same feeling is what he feels for Corbin?”
She nodded, and pulled out her phone.
There was a way to figure this out, and she knew who to talk to.
The man who administered the team psych evaluations every single year.
