Page 149 of Sticks and Stones
His relationship with Will.
And almost his life.
Finally, he spoke.
“I didn’t mean to snarl at him. I’m just angry at myself right now. I was an idiot, and now, we’re all pulled into this.”
Ethan reassured him.
“We are accustomed to being snarled at, Corby, and as for being pulled into a mess, that’s pretty much our jobs. Everything here is back-to-back messes that need to be cleaned up.”
Ethan lifted his chin with gentle fingers, so he was staring into his eyes.
“We’re just not accustomed to watching someone we love suffer, and not being able to save them from themselves or that pain. This is a new thing for us too. Normally, it’s just us we have to worry about, but we made a family here, and as I’m learning, family always has your back.”
He got it.
“I’ll apologize,” he stated.
Ethan stopped that.
“He doesn’t want your apology, Corbin. What he wants is to teach you so you’re never in this position again. He doesn’t want to see you continually getting hurt. We won’t be here forever. We’re going to be here three years, and then, you’re going to have to be able to cover your own ass. We’ll come back to help you if you need us, but at some point, we won’t be here to fall back on.”
Corbin was confused.
“I thought it was two years,” he stated. “Where did three come from? You hate it here.”
Ethan was honest.
“In order to get this case pulled from the local law, we had to promise our boss that we’d do a third year here,” he admitted.
Corbin stared at him.
“You did?”
Ethan nodded.
“Yeah, because our family is here, and sometimes, you have to do the uncomfortable and painful things when you love someone. That’s a lesson I learned myself.”
Now, he felt worse.
“So you’re staying for me? Because I screwed up?” he asked.
Ethan reassured him.
“Not because you screwed up, Corbin. Because you needed us. Like I said, you need to learn how to do this for when we’re back in DC. So, we’re going to stay and teach you all we can so you can be a stronger detective who sees problems before you’re waist deep in them.”
Corbin knew what a gift that was. Honestly, to be the kind of cops they were, and to be at an FBI standard was something he wished he could be.
If he decided to stay on the force, he needed to know how to be better. He needed to know how to be effective.
He needed to know how to be…them.
That was the bottom line.
“We don’t know what your plans are, and you don’t have to have an answer now, but if you decide to stay a detective, you need to be ready to learn. Gene and I are going to teach you everything so that you can do the job, because what happened to you needs to be the aberration, not the norm.”
He didn’t know what to say.
