Complicated
If he had a dollar for every time someone told him "It's complicated", he'd be a very wealthy man.
"Why don't I have a mom and a dad?" he'd asked over and over again.
"It's complicated."
"Why do I have to leave this foster home?" he'd asked more than once.
"It's complicated."
"Why don't have I have a first name?"
"Why am I stuck in Russia?"
"Why can't you just send a chopper and pull me out?"
"Why does this Romanian family want to kill me?"
"It's complicated."
It was everyone's favorite stock answer. Whenever he asked a question that someone didn't want to (or couldn't) answer, they'd always default to "It's complicated."
But that was okay. He could do complicated. Complicated was fine.
Complicated meant that there were a lot of moving parts. And while that meant that there were a lot of things that could go wrong, it also meant that there would be a lot of ways to solve the problem. And it meant that people would have spent a lot more time on a plan. There was nothing worse than hearing a four-star general lean back in his creaky leather chair and say, "Don't worry boys – this one'll be easy."
It was when things got easy that you had to worry.
Easy meant that you'd underestimate your opponent. That you'd go in without a Plan B. You'd think it was going to be no worries, and then suddenly you'd be stuck behind enemy lines with nothing but a knife and a dead radio and six hours to make it out before you'd find yourself staring down the business end of an AK-47 trying to answer questions in rusty Czech.
Of course, that was work. Relationships were different. Complicated was harder to define when romance and sex were concerned. In fact, complicated was at a whole new LEVEL when romance and sex …
"Mr. Callen – I am talking to you," Hetty said.
G looked up and saw his team watching him in confusion, with the NCIS: Red Team just as confused via video link.
"Are you alright, Mr. Callen?" Hetty asked, looking a bit concerned.
He glanced at Special Agent Summerskill up on the screen and then over at Hetty.
"It's complicated."
