As Shannon listened, he brought a hand up to cover his mouth to cover both his grimace and his grin. His straightness was a continued point of interest in their relationship, but there was no need to bring all of that up right now and he got the impression Jackie wouldn't care how they got to where they were or under what circumstances. As long as Eli was happy.

Some laughter escaped at the mimicry, mostly because Shannon could almost hear it himself. He eventually shook his head and moved his hand away to show his definite amusement at how Eli had turned things around. "Why am I not surprised?" he asked aloud. Of course everyone wanted Eli—how could they not?—but the measure Eli had taken to get them off his trail was elegant in its simplicity and hilarious in the hindsight. "That is so Eli. Let's be glad I'm the sub first or I'd probably step onto all this without a damn clue what it meant."