Sketchy.
Calmer heads had to step in to stop this from escalating any further. They all knew who the two‘big dogs’were in the family, and they just happened to be the two who could burn it to the ground with their tempers.
This was not the ideal time for this.
“Okay, fam. Let’s stop this right here,” Callen said. “This is divorcing territory, and really, we can’t sustain that right now. We have a million and one issues, and this shouldn’t be one of them. We have to stick together.”
Only, Ethan and Elizabeth stared at each other, and neither looked ready to relent.
That’s when she said it.
“I haveNEVERdoubted you, Ethan. I didn’t doubt you when you decided to become the head of the FBI. I didn’t doubt you when you wanted to quit. I didn’t doubt you when you took a break or when you went back to school. I didn’t doubt you when you decided to stay inDamascus. All of those times, I was scared, but I had faith in the man I married because by being my husband, you deserved it. If you don’t have that for me, we have nothing. It’s already too late.”
Ethan opened his mouth, and Gene was right there to stop that. He knew what it was like when Ethan went off the rails, and if he did, Elizabeth was spent enough she might never forgive him for doing it.
“Don’t,” he said to his man, as he put his hand on his arm to get his attention. “Words hurt, and you can’t put them back in the box. She doesn’t need to deal with this, too,” he whispered.
Finding some control, he closed his mouth.
“You should say what you called to say, Director,” Ethan said, instead.
And it was just about as bad as if he said he didn’t trust her anymore.
Yeah, their world was falling apart, and she had no idea how to make this better.
She wouldn’t let this break her. There was too much on her shoulders. She was worried about her kids, her grandson, her friends, and them.
The weight of it all was crushing. The day Timothy passed this shitshow onto her, was the day he damned her.
Focusing on her ME, she reined it in.
Temporarily.
“Doctor Monroe, the city ME, is sending you the bodies, Christopher. Our facility down there processed all the evidence, so you should have access.”
He was shaken.
Watching Elizabeth and Ethan get pissed at each other was a scary thing. They were the foundation of this whole relationship.
Elizabeth continued.
“I’m going to need you to redo all of the autopsies. I know I shouldn’t have to do this, but I can’t trust anything anymore,” she said. “I need to make sure we’ve extracted every possible clue he’s left me, and a city ME…while highly recommended, isn’tMYME.”
Chris was worried, but not about that. He’d do a million autopsies to save his family.
It was eroding in front of him. What the holy fuck was Ethan thinking?
Jesus.
H.
Christ.
This was a bad time to scatter her focus when she was out there playing sick games.
He stayed calm.
For her.
