Re: Brian and Mike
Rolling his eyes, Brian reached for the towel he'd ignored when he got out of the pool at tossed it at Mike's head. "Yes I know Jedi Masters. I can even remember seeing them in the theatre during the original release." Reaching for his beer, he tossed the remainder back and set the empty back down. "I'm pretty sure we can probably rent the movies from the hotel and watch them on a real television," he added, chuckling. "First rule of criminal behavior: only do what you have to do or you'll get caught. You have much to learn, young padawan."
Brian snorted. "Nah, you're still lucky; you're just not getting lucky."
He thought for a minute and then shook his head. "Maybe. But, truth is, my sergeant was right. I never wanted it to be Dom. Until Race Wars, when all the shit hit the fan, I was still holding out for it to be anyone else. And, like I said, a few assholes make it a bad situation for everyone. I didn't feel the bond in LAPD, but it's the Feds I'd blame for fucking everything up, rushing to get their collar no matter what corners they had to cut, going back on the deal. If I was going to bother holding on to that kind of shit." He'd made the same mistakes there, thinking he could fix things from the inside, go straight, when he should have known better, should have known they weren't going to get a fair shake. It was why he'd left Bakersfield. Why he'd been so tempted to stay in Miami with Rome. You got your lot in life handed to you as kids and the black marks followed, no matter how much you tried to shake 'em, no matter how much the good outweighed the old mistakes. He'd finally made peace with that.
Glancing towards Deeks and Marks, he shrugged. "Is what it is. Like you said, we made our choices and ended up here. I have my family, my team. I wouldn't mind a friend, possible future or any other qualifiers you want to tack onto that," he teased. "But, I got no beef with any of them. If we get home and they get between me and my family, then we got a problem. But, as long as they don't fuck with my family, no problem. They can talk Brothers in Blue all they want. It doesn't bother me. I couldn't find what I needed there. If they did, that's good for them. I found it elsewhere. S'all good."