" I can't believe you're doing this." Jack husked. He sat against the wall his feet stretched out in front of him with his ankles crossed. He crossed his arms and watched the children playing around him like enemy combatants. Mac leaned forward and rubbed his temples. The winds blasted down on the small building like an eagle on prey. Mac rubbed his cold hands together and leaned forward trying to ease a crick in his back. Child-sized chairs were not meant for long legs. Luckily he'd gotten adept at making them mostly comfortable with his visits to Annabelle Pena.
"Would you have come otherwise?" Mac said with a smirk over his shoulder. Jack glared at him. For a second, Mac thought his partner was going to remind him exactly what the full force of a Jack Dalton punch felt like. The older man sniffed and wiped the back of his hand on his damp sleeve. Mac tried again with a more sympathetic tone.
"Look, Jack, you were getting sick before you took a dive into the arctic ocean."
"Which is totally your fault, by the way." Jack wrinkled his nose and turned away. They both waited but no sneeze followed.
"Look, big guy, I didn't know the penguin was going to swallow the transponder...we did save its life, right?" Jack glared until it hurt. He leaned over and put his head in the palm of his hand. Mac frowned at the slight wheeze he heard in Jack's breathing. He could feel his partner shivering with chills. Mac reached out a hand and placed it on Jack's sweaty forehead. Jack slapped it away.
"What're you doin'? I ain't a kid."
"You do it to me all the time." Mac pointed out. Jack managed half a grin.
"Exactly." Jack laughed. His moist lungs broke into rolling coughs. Mac bent forward and patted the older man's back.
"Easy, big guy. Remember to breathe."
"Wh-wh-what the fuck do you think-I- I'm doing." Jack growled back leaning forward and stretching. He felt as if his lungs were packed with cotton-steel.
"Jack! There's kids…" Mac muttered. Jack looked up at a room full of wide children's eyes.
"Sorry." Jack whispered. He pulled his arms closer and rubbed his arms. Mac noticed.
"Look, a blizzard coming in, we aren't going anywhere for a couple of hours. Let the doctors see you, get some rest then we can go, ok?"
"I can't believe you won't tell me where exfil is." Mac winced at the hoarseness of his friend. His own throat almost hurt in sympathy.
"You would have snuck away in the storm." Mac rubbed his temples clutching to the frail torn endings of his patience. Jack looked at him incredulous.
"What? No, that would be stupid." Mac raised an eyebrow. Jack fought Mac's gaze before collapsing back into a hunched pile of misery, "Yes, alright so I would have. We'd be in the air and on the way home instead of this…" Jack had no words for where they were. Mac chuckled.
The two men had found refuge in the small cement building after walking a mile in blizzard conditions. Mac's ears still rang with the continuous blare of the wind that had attacked them like a savage predator. The building was Trailsafe school, family clinic, and daycare. The tiny fishing community they had happened on had a population of 75. Although the sky out the small walls of the fortress like building looked black with night, school hadn't gotten out yet. Two women and one man ran the combination building. Out of the 75 people, 15 were children. The men and women of Trailsafe were a hardy lot cutting their lives out of this wild inlet of land. In the last communication they'd had with the team, Bozer had informed them joyfully that Trailsafe was the town with the most blizzard days year round.
The older members of the community most of Aleut descent swarmed along the shore braving the wild angry sea to gather fish or whales lost in the churning water as they beached or failed to go back into the surf. The older woman-Gela Tamarind-told the pair that the townsfolk would meet after school in the basement of the community center, the building they were now in, before the blizzard got "too bad." Mac and Jack had both wondered how bad "too bad" was.
Unlike most humans, the residents of Trailsafe were happy. The small resilient natives enjoyed the raging weather the same way people in the lower 48 celebrated a sunny day after a bad storm. Mac supposed it made sense. Their entire economy was in fish or things given them by the sea. Gela's daughter Tatigat told Mac about the wealth swept to them after the Japanese Tsunami in 2005. They had tried to return as many items as they could, but they were a tiny village with few resources. With the frugality of their ancestors who had lived and died on this small rock, they had repurposed everything they had found. Mac respected the hell out of them for it. They had taken in the two men with reluctant wariness. In exchange for whatever medical care they could give Jack, Mac had fixed their generator. Having no oil or gas, they had built a reinforced wind turbine to change the blistering cold gales into electricity. It was an elegant design. Mac was excited just to examine it, helping fix and improve it was bonus in his book.
The grandson of the designer-Theo Travis-was the only man working in the building. Although calling him a man might be a stretch, Mac mused. He was a toothpick thin carrot top in hand knitted clothes that had been patched a hundred times or more. Gela and Tatigat had clearly adopted the kid. Mac liked the three. Theo was a sponge absorbing every nugget of info Mac shared. Mac wondered if others saw him like Theo. He shook his head as another loud gust slapped into the side of the building. Mac shared a nervous look with Jack. No one else was even mildly disturbed. Mac shrugged and forced himself to relax, about the building anyway. Jack's head leaned against his shoulder. Mac didn't like how thick his breathing was. Up close he could see how swollen Jack's jaw was. Mac frowned. Mumps? Tonsils? Infection? Mac shoved aside the possibilities which seemed to balloon off each other in his head. He reached an arm around Jack's shoulders and pulled the older man in closer. Mac looked for the millionth time down the small hall off the other side of the playroom.
He could hear the women's voices talking to each other and on a radio. Theo had gone down another long narrow hall that emptied into a small cafeteria. Mac swallowed whatever the kid was cooking it smelled good. He glanced at his watch. It felt like a century had passed since he and Jack had reached asylum of the community's front door but it had only been 30 minutes. The women had gone to prepare a bed for Jack and tried to radio exfil for the soggy men. Mac's hands still twitched with the need to use the radio himself, to take it apart, boost its distance by…
"We're ready, Mac." Mac nodded and turned to study Jack. Jack's face was red and beaded with sweat. His lips and jaw hung slack. Even though he was breathing through his mouth Mac could tell Jack was badly congested. Mac glanced at Gela who nodded and stepped back. Mac took a deep breath prepared for anything, he hoped.
"Hey, buddy, time to wake up." Mac said easing Jack to sitting. Jack absently swatted in Mac's direction, "Jack? C'mon, big guy."
"G'way." Jack husked. Mac swallowed in sympathy. He took a deep breath and glanced at Gela. Gela nodded and took another step back. Mac grabbed Jack's shoulder and shook it hard.
"JACK!" He shouted into the older man's ear. Jack's eyes snapped open with the same movement as he stood and glared at the room looking for a target. His eyes fixed on Mac and his fists balled, "Jack. Jack calm down. We need to get you to bed." Mac said as he leaned back and unfolded to standing. Jack blinked at him blankly. He glowered at the room.
"Why?" Jack swayed. Mac wasn't sure his partner was tracking or not.
"You're sick, big guy." Mac said as gentle as he could. Jack snorted and took a step toward the door. Mac caught his jacket sleeve. Jack glared at him.
"Let me go!" His voice was dark and full of menace. Mac swallowed and put out placating hands.
"Jack, you're sick, you need…"
"Sick?" Mac could almost see Jack's body expand with the coming blast. Mac winced as Jack's voice squeaked like a broken accordion more with each increase in volume, " I don't get sick, ever. You know that." Jack pulled his sleeve free and turned to the door Gela stepped in front of him. Mac frowned worried for the woman.
"Jack, you need rest. You look like death…" Jack glared at her.
"You've been listening to this one, huh? Well, he's smart but he ain' that smart. Let me tell you something little lady, I'm Jack Wyatt Dalton and Jack Wyatt Dalton don't do sick!" Jack squared his shoulders at his loud declaration. He looked triumphantly at Mac and Gela then collapsed to the ground.