Re: Robert/Thomas
"You're her family," TJ pointed out, knowing that didn't really mean shit considering his own family held no compunctions against ripping into anything and everything each member held dear. But, it didn't take a genius to see that Savannah's family wasn't like that. It seemed more...normal?...for them to keep silent rather than start World War III. In TJ's family, it seemed there was always a battle, no picking. Or maybe that was just TJ, since he never really had figured out how to fit into the world he'd been born into.
"I'm suddenly very glad you were never on my security detail," he said, laughing. "My parents would have been through the moon at the thought of putting a GPS tracker on me. I wouldn't have minded being able to just pop out of some places, Secret Service none the wiser. Getting laid at boarding school would have been so much easier." So would getting high, but TJ was coming to learn that most people here really didn't understand how far down that road he'd really been. They had Vail's rumors, that first month when TJ and his family had first arrived. But, they'd mostly known the man he was since coming back and while he was still struggling, no one needed to know how close he'd been to not being able to turn himself around.
"Depends on whether that nine in the morning was getting up time or bedtime." He shrugged. "It wasn't much later as often as I'd like. Even the party boy in the family has to be up and presentable for the photo ops, the briefings from aids before appearances, contractors coming to the club with contracts to sign." And it was the best way to hide the extent of the partying. A few pictures from clubs on Page Six, a slew of proper photos with his family, smiling and waving and doing 'good work'. The average person was far too trusting of their media consumption. Show them enough pictures of one version of Thomas Hammond and they considered the rest rare aberrations or symptoms of troubles requiring sympathy. "But, yeah, theoretically, I can shoot them now." Having never had to draw a gun on a person in his life, who knew if he was actually capable of pulling the trigger.
Raising an eyebrow, he still grinned devilishly. "Now that is something they need to start focusing on in the training here. It wouldn't suck half as much if they took manicures into account." Taking a pull from his beer, TJ looked around the room. "Not so much like her, but more not contradicting her to outsiders. United in public, disagree in silence...or private, if necessary." He was tempted to say that he didn't know what he felt like half the time, so it would be hard for Callen to understand. But, again, no point in putting that much of himself out there for the world to see. "Thanks. I told Travis once, not long after we left the school, you were probably one of the few people worth talking to around here for that reason, actually."
TJ sighed. "One family is all I need." And that was the problem, really. Savannah saw family as this great thing to be coveted. TJ spent half his life trying to avoid most of his. Chuckling, he shook his head. "Spin is my brother's department, usually because of me. I've been given to understand Dom's already explained my reputation to everyone when I arrived. So, I'm sure that isn't a new revelation. Now, the banging your head against the wall? That I understand entirely after just one night. I guess if I can survive talking her out of a little nighttime rock climbing of the literal sort, I can manage to play up the fact I look like I went twelve rounds with the Hulk under my clothes. I'm going to remember that offer, though. It's not that I don't appreciate her concern, but sometimes help is better done from a distance. There are a lot of things she can't help with because I have to do them myself or it's just putting a band-aid on an amputated limb."