"It wouldn't surprise me. Testing, observing. Probably waiting to see if the rest of us actually get these powers." Until the cheerleader had burned a hole in his jacket for offering her a moment of comfort, G had to admit to himself he'd begun to wonder if they existed. They'd been there for two months almost and nothing. "Those powers change the game in a lot of ways."
G rolled his eyes. "Yes, little kids are just horrible." He took a moment to plug the second string of lights into the the first, then shift to look up at Sam from here was crouched on the floor, elbow supporting his weight where it rested on his knee. "It was different. But, yeah, I know it's not the same as your own kids. But, it's the closest some ever get. It's...even at fourteen, you know there's more to it. That little girl with the blonde pigtails holding a crappy little plastic doll you managed to salvage from a secondhand store for a lousy two bucks isn't just seeing a nice kid in ripped jeans who gave her a present. For however long you're in the same home, you're as close as she has to a big brother, responsible for her happiness, for taking care of her." Even if it wasn't Christmas when you gave her the doll and twenty years later you couldn't even recognise her.
"And now I'm having my own pity party," he huffed irritably, exasperated at his own lack of emotional control. "Don't worry about it. You have every right to be thinking of the kids now. You're their father. It's what you're supposed to do. Just forget I said anything." He didn't have that life any more. His life was the team and Sam was the one who'd actually lost something, not G.
Standing, he turned to glare at Sam when he poked at G's issues with the cheerleader. "There is no deal. She doesn't want to be liked; I'm happy to oblige her. It'll save me having to stitch up my jacket." Oh, there was more to it, of course. She reminded him of too many people he'd known over the years who had everything and still asked for more, who were so wrapped up in what they wanted they couldn't see past it to anyone else around them. It had grated on his last nerve to hear her call herself a captain in the same breath as she complained about herself without ever giving a thought to her squad or the girl whose life she wanted to usurp for herself.
Not to mention her attitude toward Hetty, what she'd said to Deeks. There was nothing in the world that could make him like her after that. Other people could try making a place for her. But, there wouldn't be a place for her in G's mind so long as she behaved like that toward the few people he already let in his life. "Trust me, the only thing I find hot in connection to her is the literal fire she set to my arm."
He raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know what you sent Deeks out shopping for on his own? And I don't think decorating is bad. I just don't get the point." Still, he smirked. "But fine. I won't tell you what I got you. Only to save Hetty the headache of having to find another partner who could survive working with me."