Page 84 of Pain
"Shouldn't you be telling me?" Xander glanced over, wondering what Bryon was up to. None of them ever went in without the rest of the team ready.
"I haven't talked to Carter or Matt. Wasn't sure how close they are." Bryon twisted the cap on his water bottle.
"I'm guessing tomorrow or the next day." Xander tapped the file with his finger. "The guy is on blood thinners. It could be dangerous."
"You saying you don't think we should go in?" Bryon asked.
"No, I think we should, but I'm going to have to work fast, and with his age and medical issues, there is no telling if he'll recover from this." The thought of the man dying didn't bother Xander, but the team needed to be careful that they didn't get a reputation as murderers. That wasn't what they were about. Deaths happened. They all had had a sting go bad, but they tried hard to keep the death toll down. That wasn't what the team was about.
Bryon nodded. "So, we need to talk."
Xander sighed. He'd been waiting for this. He gave Bryon an exasperated look. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"You know the rules about dating team members." Bryon stared at him.
Xander rolled his eyes. "We'll be okay. We don't really work together. It's not like I'm dating Dyson or Kasey. Matt and I exchange information. Our paths don't cross. I could see worrying about it if I was dating Dyson, but Matt's in the office."
"It's the rules." Bryon tried to sound authoritative.
"So, you're going to quit seeing Becca?"
"Who says—"
"We all know, Bry. Anyone who has eyes sees the way you two look at each other. We know she spends the night here from time to time, and funny how the guest rooms are never used on those nights." Xander wasn't going to be called out for something when Bryon was breaking the same rules.
"It's different," Bryon objected.
At least he wasn't denying it. "How?"
"She isn't here all the time."
"Neither am I."
"But she's…" Bryon shook his head. "You're right. It's not different."
Xander smiled, inwardly enjoying that he had put Bryon in his place. "What's the issue with Matt and me dating? We keep it professional when we have to. I'm not pulling him off the computers and doing him up against the wall. He doesn't distract me from the stings. If anything, he gets the rough end of the deal having to sit here and wait for me to check in every night I go out. If we want to spend our nights together, what does that hurt the team?"
"I just don't want anyone distracted."
"We're professionals. Most of us have done this for years. We aren't thinking about what we had for dinner or where we're going on our next date when we walk into a sting. We are focused on what we are there to do. The kids come first, they always have and always will. Every single one of us would give our lives to save the kids. We put our lives on the line each time we go into a sting, or when you guys hack a computer. We all know we could end up in prison for a long time, yet we do it. If I'm not professional enough to stay focused and do the job right, then I don't belong on this team." Xander stood. "You handle this how you want, but I'm not making a choice here. I won't choose the job over Matt or Matt over the job. You make that call and let me know if I still have a job." He hurried out the door to his car, pissed off that the conversation even had to come up.
By the time he got home, he was still mad. He was sure Bryon wouldn't fire him, but the fact that he was dating Becca, yet thought he could tell everyone else not to date within the team, rubbed him wrong.
"Didn't expect you home so soon." Matt stood in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher.
"Had a fight with Bryon. Faith with her grandma?" Xander came over, wrapping his arms around Matt and kissing him softly.
Living together had been easier than Xander thought it would be. Having Matt and Faith around hadn't disrupted his life like he thought it might. In fact, it added to it. He loved hearing their laughter and watching them interact with each other. He loved how Faith had made herself at home, even going as far as decorating her new bedroom by helping Matt and him paint her walls with zebra stripes.
Matt didn't know it, but it was one of the ways Faith was learning to stop her panic attacks and recover from her bad dreams. She would count the stripes. It started with just her stuffed animal, but she'd told Xander she needed more, so they'd come up with the idea to paint stripes across her walls. With her love for zebras, Matt never thought anything about it.
"She is. They're having fun. Called about an hour ago." He brushed his fingers down Xander's cheek. "I figured that a fight was coming. I thought Bryon might come to me first." Matt sighed. "What did he say?"
"That we were a distraction to each other and it wasn't good for the team."
"But we don't work together."
"That's what I said, then he said it didn't matter, and I brought up how he's seeing Becca, and that was no different. I think he'll back off now, but I left the choice to him. I told him I wasn't going to stop seeing you, and it was up to him if he kicked me off the team because of it," Xander told him.
