A/N - Hey everybody! I know I said it might be a little bit, but damned if I can stay away. Also, these little fics are how I reward myself for good behavior. Better for my waistline than the judicious application of way too much beer. I may not get to post quite as frequently/quickly as I have recently, but I expect this one to cook along. Mac and the team are going after the contractors hired by the Organization and hope that bringing them down will lead them closer to whoever has it out for Mac. This takes place a couple of months after Soul of Goodness, near Christmas.

As always, I own nothing, but I sure do love to hear from you guys and what you think of my little corner of this sandbox. Expect the usual action, injuries, some bad language, probably some whump/h/c, and the bromacey feels, because I love it. Hope you enjoy this adventure, especially now that Mac has unpacked some of his baggage and is laser focused on his mission.

Once More into the Breach

Mel looked frantically around the room, hoping something would leap to the fore as a solution, but after spinning on the spot several times, almost to the point of dizziness, it was clear that she was at a loss, and nothing she could see was going to do anything about that locked door. Then she glanced at the timer again, ticking down inexorably. Finally, she glanced at Mac who appeared to be out cold in the chair over in the corner. Damnit it! There had to be another way out of this! She looked around the room again, this time bumping into the desk and swearing under her breath and something fell over with a heavy clunk.

She heard a soft chuckle and Mac picked up his head.

"Do I get to play again now?"

Talk about a shit eating grin. She glared at him.

"Oooo, Jack was right. You do suck the fun right out of this! I should never have agreed to Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock to pick partners! Jack always wins that!"

"Because you always pick Lizard," Mac grinned and then canted his head toward the timer. "Jack and Bozer did this room in 56 minutes, which means you have five minutes to tie and six to lose. And Jack is the sorest winner you ever met, I can promise you."

She puffed out a frustrated breath, blowing her bangs out of her face. "You know where the last key is already, don't you?"

"Am I allowed to ..?" he teased.

"Now! I am not losing to Jack and Bozer."

Mac grinned. "That cylinder that just fell over when you bumped into the desk is a cryptex. There's probably a clue to the code to open it right there too. It's got to be the key."

Mel picked up the wooden cylinder and turned it over. There were five turnable keys like a bike lock carved into, all set to the letter 'A'. "You're right. How do you even know what this is? Come up a lot in the spy business, does it?"

Now Mac was next to her. "Bozer went through a real Da Vinci Code phase for a while. He even had the game on the X-Box. He gave it away because I kept beating him and he hates losing at video games." Mac shook his head. It was about the only game he ever beat Bozer at, but he didn't really mind. "Do you see a clue anywhere?"

Mel started going through the desk for anything that looked like it could be a clue to the five letters. Mac saw it a split second before she did. A yellow sticky note was tucked under the blotter. He picked it up and read it. Then he swore. "This is stupid. This doesn't have an answer!" he said indignantly.

"Huh?" Mel said taking the paper from him. "Sure it does!"

She picked the cylinder back up and quickly dialed in the correct letters. The key dropped into her hand and she rushed over to the door and slid it into the final lock. The timer stopped.

Mel turned and grinned at him triumphantly. "With time to spare!"

Mac was still frowning. "How did you ..? That riddle isn't supposed to have a solution."

Mel shook her head. Mac could be so literal sometimes. She used to find it annoying, but as she'd gotten to know him she'd decided that it was actually sort of endearing. "But it does ..."

"Well, it didn't have one in the book."

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" she asked for effect. "Because one is 'nevar' backward and the other is for words."

"What the hell?" Mac was starting to grin now.

"The cryto-thingy …"

"Cryptex; yeah?"

"The solution was n-e-v-a-r."

"Why do you even know that?"

"I'm a proofreader."

"No, you're a nurse. A mean bossy one when you want to be, too."

"I'm only mean and bossy with lousy patients." Now they were both grinning. "I proofread for extra money. Student loans, ya know?"

"When do you have a chance … you work all the time, Mel."

"You're not the only one with insomnia. Might as well make some spare cash when I can't …"

"Wait," he interrupted, a line that was not quite confused, and almost looked amused forming on his forehead. "What does being a proofreader have to do with you knowing an unknowable solution to a classic riddle that's not supposed to have one?"

She grinned as she opened the door. "In the original manuscript Lewis Carroll spelled 'never' as 'nevar', because he thought it was funny and the proofreader caught it so he took it out. I read about it in a little how-to-be-a-proofreader thing when I was just getting started."

Mac laughed now. "And I thought I had cornered the market on obscure trivia in our little group. I'm gonna have to work harder or Jack and Boze'll revoke my geek card."

Mel laughed as she stepped out the door and nearly ran into Jack.

"You guys took longer than us!" he immediately crowed.

"What was your time?" Mel challenged.

"Fifty seven minutes this week on the aquarium room. And, as you may recall, fifty-six on the room you were in for over an hour," Bozer answered for his teammate looking very smug.

"We were done in fifty-three," Mac grinned and pushed the door back so their opponents could see the game clock.

"Why didn't you just come out? What took you so ..? Never mind. Good for you."

Mac rolled his eyes and Mel joined him, both exasperated and Jack's constant 'gentle nudges' that the two of them ought to be an item. "We were talking about the solution to the last key. Good thing I didn't get one of you yahoos as a partner or we'd still be in there."

Jack smirked. "It was just a limerick, Mac. Those are easy!"

"Not this time it wasn't. It was a riddle that's not supposed to have an answer. But it turns out that badass part-time proofreaders can solve those." He paused and threw another grin at Mel. "So you're buying."

"Nuh uh," Jack grinned now. "Steve and Beth are buying. 'Cause they're still stuck in the dress shop room."

"Oh, that's a hard one. Took us right down to the ten second mark," Mac said and he and Jack shared a look of remembered victory and a night of Todd buying all their beer.

"Are you saying you two are smarter than the good doctor and my beautiful wife-to-be?" Bozer asked, looking slightly disgruntled.

"Of course not, Boze. Beth and Steve are both crazy smart, but this is basically what Jack and I do for a living – or to stay alive, as the case may be." Mac gave a little shrug.

"So the spy game is all rattling around nearly defunct malls that have been filled with tiny houses for low income housing interspersed with Escape Rooms that actually pay the bills?" Mel grinned.

Jack laughed. "No, but the man has a point. It's all creative solutions to undesirable situations and some down-to-the-wire escapes."

"But, you know, with generally more ducking and bullets," Mac grinned.

They started toward the exit nearest the bar down the street where they'd agreed to meet at the end of their hour or so, so that the victors could be congratulated and the losers could open their wallets. "Where are Todd and Riley? Still stuck in the library room?" Mel asked as they walked.

Bozer grinned ruefully. "They were done in half an hour and headed to the bar already. We are never gonna hear the end of it either."

Mac was impressed. "Half-hour? How'd they manage ..?"

"I call BS," Jack grumbled. "I bet the little cheaters hacked the door."

Mac leaned toward Mel and said in his best stage whisper, "When I told you he's a sore winner I forgot to mention what a sore loser he is, too."

Jack dropped back and punched him in the arm, gently … but not too gently. Mac reflexively punched back, so before it could escalate into a very late adolescent testosterone contest, Mel gracefully stepped between them. "You should be warned that if I get caught in the crossfire here, I hold a grudge literally forever. My cousin Nora ripped my favorite sweater when we were eleven and I am still not really speaking to her."

The group's laughter carried them out onto the sidewalk.

As they headed toward the bar, Mel noticed Mac glancing around. She asked quietly, "Is it better or worse not having all that security around?"

He slid his hands into the pockets of his coat with a shrug. "Jack and Matty hate it, but if there hadn't been the breach at Phoenix that pulled most of the team … Dodgson never would have made his play to grab me and we wouldn't have caught him, wouldn't have a line on the other contractors gunning for me."

"So you're baiting them to come after you." It wasn't a question.

Mac shrugged again. "Sort of. Inviting might be a better term." He saw her glance around, suddenly worried. "Hey, don't worry. Your security hasn't gone anywhere, and neither has anyone else's." She looked at him and he tipped his chin up. She looked up and caught the barest glimpse of someone dressed in black moving back from the edge of the roof. "If anyone is dumb enough to come after me in a group largely composed of trained agents, then Todd's sniper buddies will rain down hell on 'em. You're safe."

She smiled slightly and shook her head. "Spies," she snorted. "I didn't realize we were being shadowed."

"Of course." He glanced up and Jack and Bozer were waiting by the door of the bar. He and Mel had fallen behind while he assured her of her safety. "Besides, Matty's only sort of down with my plan. I still have a shadow or two of my own. And let's face it, Papa Bear is never really off duty." He grinned and shook his head as Jack made an impatient 'hurry up' gesture and glanced around the street.

She wrinkled her nose affectionately in Jack's general direction. "Do you really mind so much?"

"Nah; I used to, but I'm not gonna change him. He saved my ass when we met in Afghanistan and he's acted like he's responsible for me ever since. I've kind of felt responsible for him, too. I just have to be sneakier about taking care of him. Like while he was recovering from the GSW he got helping me bag Dodgson. I had to be the stealthiest friend ever. But hey, like you said, I'm a spy."

Jack caught that last as he held the door for the two of them. "You're a slow poke is what you are."

"Yeah, yeah, old man. I'll race you back to the car later."

Jack called across the bar, "Boze, order Mac a tequila. I need him too drunk to run."

Everyone laughed lightly and it was easy to forget why those shadows on the roof were there to begin with.