Page 5 of Watch Over Me

"Yeah," James whispered, closing his eyes. It was as if he'd been waiting for permission, because less than a minute later his breathing slowed down and evened out, and Eddie caught himself staring at a man who was sleeping, which was creepy.

He took a gulp of coffee—made to his taste,thank you, James—and turned to his monitors. There was still nothing going on with Jeremy and Martinez, so Eddie busied himselfwith taking care of James and Ryan's equipment.

If he glanced at James every once in a while, then, well. There was nobody here to see it.

* * *

He did, however, work with a bunch of people whose job it was to be extremely observant.

They also knew how to strike and use the element of surprise.

"Why are you whispering?" Martinez asked an hour later through the comms after they exchanged the sit-rep.

Eddie groaned inwardly.

"I have a sleeping guest in the office," he admitted after a moment of hesitation, hoping against hope they would let it go.

And Jeremy might have, given a chance, but Eddie really should have known better when it came to Martinez, who chuckled and said, "Say hi to James when the Sleeping Beauty wakes up."

"I'll also tell him you think he's beautiful," Eddie threw back, trying for a distraction.

"It will be a shock to him, I bet," Martinez deadpanned. "Not like he has a mirror or anything."

"You think everyone we work with is hot," Jeremy said with a sigh.

"Because they are. Kalei may deny that the hotness level is a factor during the hiring process but come on."

And maybe because of the late hour, because of having heard it enough times that it burned into his brain, or because of James sleeping right there next to him, resembling a statue people would gawk at in a museum, Eddie found himself humming in agreement.

"Therearea lot of hot people in this company."

"There aren't that many," James muttered before blinking his eyes open.

Then he looked right at Eddie with those baby blues of his, open and unguarded, and Eddie never had a chance, did he?

His poor heart.

He turned the mic off to keep Martinez and Jeremy from overhearing as he asked softly, "You awake?"

"I am now." James sat up and stretched his arms, forcing Eddie to turn away unless he wanted to embarrass himself. "What was that about?"

"Martinez went off on a tangent again," Eddie said, deciding to dump the blame on the man who had started this whole thing in the first place.

"He's good at those." James rubbed his eyes before checking the time. "Damn, I thought I'd only close my eyes for a few minutes. Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for. I suggested it, remember?"

James ran a hand through his hair. "I remember."

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah. I guess I really needed to crash for a bit."

Eddie nodded. He'd seen it over and over among the field agents, but it happened to him every once in a while, too, when the situation on the op turned south. The adrenaline crash was hard and, for him, nearly impossible to power through.

Still, he had some helpers around here somewhere.

"A-ha!" He pulled a protein bar from the back of his second drawer and handed it over.

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