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Marcus shouldn’t be surprised that he got stuck with the shit job, that's what being in command is. But there had been too many drunken nights on leave talking to a surprisingly sober Shale about a concern that they all had that not a single one of them had dared to put words to, no matter how close they are.
The boss, the kid, Alex and his worryingly close relationship with Gregorovich. They knew what happened on leave and they had seen the way Alex tracked the man’s every step, looked at him like he hung the moon and stars. It had all the signs of crush and Alex was at the age where that was a very strong possibility. It didn’t spell anything good for anyone, but particularly for him.
It needed to be addressed.
He had considered delegating it to Adams but it had taken one look from his Second to reconsider. There's downsides to such a long friendsh - working relationship. He corrects.
The next logical step had been Shale, he’s closest to the boss outside of Marcus himself. Shale was, unsurprisingly, not impressed. “I will if you order me, but don’t think I won’t look the other way in the next op if someone’s getting a little too close.”
He wouldn’t. But Marcus gets the message. It’s his team. Passing the buck is just going to strain that and Alex won’t be happy and if something happens because of it Gregorovich will be worse. Fine.
He still shoots Jarek, the only openly gay member, pleading looks but gets a laugh, a laugh in return. Marcus needs to just suck it up. Sooner rather than later. They’re not quite at the end of the op where everything is bound to go to hell as per standard operating procedure but they’re close enough that it’ll give the boss time to cool down once the dust settles.
Best to get it over with.
Walking into the room that Alex takes over for an operation is always intriguing. Compared to Gregorovich’s meticulously organized stacks of papers, Alex’s system is an exercise in controlled chaos and occasionally pushing the laws of physics. Oddly similar to the man… child… Second himself.
Something in his stance must have given him away because before he can even open his mouth, Alex is cutting across “What’s wrong?”
Demand, order, question all in one, and all Orion. That’s not who he needs to talk to right now.
Marcus knows to respect Orion, but Alex is still the scrappy kid who got robbed of getting to grow up without world ending consequences hanging over his head and that's who Marcus is looking for, because he's who's going to get hurt chasing after Gregorovich. Even in the best of circumstances, Marcus knows they'll have a powder keg on their hands and Alex pulling back from everyone. He can’t have that.
Marcus relaxes his posture, nods at the stacks of paper currently making a bid for the floor, and asks if he has a moment to step outside. No 'sir' tacked on the end and it's as good as a warning for a personal request that Marcus can give.
Alex takes the hint, he’s become sensitive to these things. There is a certain hesitance, though, as he gets up and walks over to him. Marcus supposes it’s fair, he basically gave him the SCORPIA version of “we need to talk” and no one likes to hear that, least of all from someone who you’re supposed to get along with for at least another two months.
They take it to the porch. Marcus hasn’t exactly told the team he was going to talk with the boss today but he’s sure they’d all be grateful for him getting it over with because he knows they’ve been walking on eggshells around him for a while now.
Marcus gestures at the seats, and steels himself. This is the mix of business and personal that he detests but... it has to happen, not just for the team, but because Alex deserves someone to try and talk some sense to him, even if he doesn't listen. At the gesture, Alex shoots him a wary look, but settles on one of the 'less uncomfortable than usual' wicker chairs. Not wanting this to take too long, then.
Marcus takes a breath and begins. "We don't have to acknowledge that this conversation ever took place after we get up. But it's one that has to happen, and I hope you'll hear me out." Orion outranks him, plain and simple. But Marcus thinks he's earned Alex's respect.
Alex's face folds into composure once again at that - he can only imagine what the boss had been thinking. Knowing him probably the worst a 'we'd like a reassignment' talk that Alex had once hinted at when a particularly difficult operation was over and he had asked if they would prefer another area of the business. Gregorovich would never allow it, they wouldn’t either if they had any say, but it had been enough to show that the kid was concerned.
“I know things haven’t been easy for you. I don’t know all the details but I can take a guess at what’s happened behind the scenes....” he hesitates at that, searching Alex for any sign that he knows where he’s going. He gets an even look in return.
Alright.
Just rip the bandaid off.
“You’ve spent a lot of time with Mr. Gregorovich, not just training and operations. Outside. Down time.” Alex’s expression breaks for the first time, there’s a defensiveness Marcus can see building.
Not good.
“I’m not saying anything happened.” He hurriedly intercedes, it calmed the boss. Slightly. “But… you haven’t really been around a lot of other people and I can get where you would get… attached to him.”
“Marcus there’s nothing....”
“Alex don’t bullshit me. I see the way you look at him like he walks on water.” At that Alex freezes and a million things run across his face, his hand tightens on the arm rest, knuckles turning white, Marcus wonders if he’s gone too far, then Alex relaxes.
“Yassen taught me everything I know,” he begins quietly “I would be dead without him. I respect him but I don’t....” he looks uncomfortable. “It’s not like that. It’s more...I don’t know like a mentor or whatever.” There’s a lot of words that can go into ‘whatever’ but Marcus thinks he can feel confident that none of them are ‘lover’. Probably a million other things he doesn’t want to acknowledge and try to put into words because Gregorovich and Alex’s relationship is as complicated as both of them are.
Marcus doesn’t really care about the title or how Alex feels about the man so long as it’s not something that’ll get him hurt or worse get taken advantage of. “Okay. Good.” he nods. Alright, he can work with that. He does a lot to protect Alex, protecting his heart is just one more thing he can cross off the list, he guesses.
Alex nods back, clearly looking for the escape hatch in this conversation, but Marcus isn't done yet.
He takes a breath, and starts his next point. The one he'd really wanted to press off onto Adams, and been soundly denied. "I also know you came to SCORPIA young, and that for a long time, you didn't get much down time between jobs."
Or have the freedom to spend it how you want, but that was a topic for a different day.
"I'm glad things are stable between you and Gregorovich, but you should know that it's not just him that I'm willing to speak about." After nearly choking on those words, Marcus adds on, "If you needed to talk to about...” What? Sex? Jesus . He can’t even imagine what would happen if Alex tried with anyone. Gregorovich would be a nightmare and a half about it. But it needed to be out there “...anything like that. You can talk to any of us, whoever you feel the most comfortable with.”
Obviously the thought occurred to Alex that Marcus had spoken to more than just him about this, because the flush that had been creeping up his neck was now turning red.
“Okay. Fine. Whatever. Are we done?” Alex has never sounded more his age than he did right then. Marucs would enjoy it if he wasn’t just as flustered and annoyed at having this conversation as Alex was.
Marcus is willing to take his wins and run - a trait that had served him well, climbing the ranks. It was what came in handy to him now.
"Yes. Thank you for your time," he says. Brusque and returning to professionalism.
Standing up was an exercise in brushing wrinkles out of their clothes and avoiding each other's eyes. Marcus had said his piece, and now he washed his hands of all this mess.
"I'll have the latest munitions requests into you today from Shale," is his peace offering.
Alex nods jerkily then hesitates and Marcus, who had been about to bolt through the door, freezes as well, years of military and paramilitary experience picking up that the Boss has something else to say but that he needed time to get his feet under him.
“Thanks,” Alex murmurs softly, but doesn’t move to elaborate for what.
He didn’t need to.
That the kid saw the gesture for what it was and not just a painful exercise for both of them was good enough for him.
“Anytime,” Marcus says with a firm look. If they were closer, he would have clasped him on the shoulder. Instead, he let Alex disappear back into the house first, and then glared at Adams who was standing far too innocently in the kitchen.
Adams saluted him back with a tilt of his water bottle.
"Are we going to have to give a very suicidal shotgun talk?" He asked. There had been... whispers of that, on nights when their leave ran a little long and the drinks were more generous than usual. Marcus had halfheartedly quashed them, knowing it was lightly meant. No one wanted to threaten Gregorovich with anything less than IBM anyways.
"Everything's good."
Adams plainly didn't believe it, and honestly neither did Marcus. But it was obvious that Alex did, and that was where they were at for now.
They would pick it up in the future, if it came to that.