AN: College has been sooooooooo busy lately, so apologize that this is going up so late, and that I haven't gotten a chance to get the next chapter of Forbidden up either. Bozer + Booze + Back to School is probably one of my favorite episodes of all time, at least when it comes to happiness and humor and the team being adorable. That also means that writing a tag was incredibly difficult, since there was very little I would add or change (other than having Jack have gone undercover as a campus janitor, but I wasn't about to rewrite the whole episode lol). That being said, what you get here is a tiny little introspective ficlet as a tag to 3x03. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review!
Jack had looked at the kid - what was his name, Victor? - and all he could see was Mac. All he could see was his kid in a life that he could've easily ended up in had things gone differently. The similarities between the two were obvious - father out of the picture in one way or another, deathly sick mother, and a terrible life. Yeah, all of the details were different, but still. Mac was all Jack could think about. So of course he was gonna let the kid go, Billy's bounty be damned. That kid needed someone to help him and love him, and he wasn't going to get that in prison. Jack would do anything he could to help that kid. He should've given the boy his contact information, should've told him that he could help, that he wanted to help.
He mentally kicked himself. It was too late now to think about all of that. There was nothing he could do. Now, he could only look after his own kid, and make sure that he knew that he always had someone in his corner.
Jack hated it whenever he wasn't sent out on the mission with Mac. It was his job to look out for him, to protect him, and he couldn't do that if he wasn't out on the mission too. But he understood that Mac was capable, and that the kid had a team with him who loved him almost as much as Jack did - no one loved him as much as Jack, he was sure it was impossible for anyone to love someone as much as Jack loved Mac - and would defend him with their lives. That didn't take away from the fact that no matter what, Jack's number one job was always to look out for Mac and protect him in any way he could. Luckily, this mission had gone well, and Mac hadn't needed much protection. But that wasn't always the case, and Jack preferred to play it safe rather than sorry.
Still, looking at the kid across from him, holding a degree in his hands, Jack didn't know if it was possible for him to be more proud of the boy - he thought that all the time, yet Mac still managed to surprise him. The blond may not like to talk about it, but Jack knew how disappointed he was that he was technically a college drop-out with no degree. He knew that Mac had always wanted several degrees, including a doctorate and several masters and bachelors and associates and all of that other stuff. No, Mac didn't talk about it, at least not when he was sober. There had been a night when Mac had received word that an old MIT friend of his had gotten a Ph. D., and the boy had become overwhelmed with memories of his childhood and adolescent dreams. Of course, Mac didn't regret dropping out and joining the Army, not at all, but still, Jack knew how much he had wished to be able to have the best of both worlds. Jack knew the kid was embarrassed whenever he had to admit that he didn't actually have degree whatsoever, that he dropped out of college, even though he had no reason to be embarrassed at all. The kid was a damn hero, degree or no degree, and Jack just wished he could see that.
But the emotion on Mac's face as he gazed at the degree nearly brought tears to Jack's eyes. The boy had wanted it for so long, and finally, even in an unconventional way, he had it. He finally had a degree of some sort that he could proudly display like all of his MIT friends. Jack could see Mac turning away to wipe at his eyes, making Jack just about lose it himself. Because just this once, those tears were from happiness, and not sorrow or fear. Mac was deserving of every good and wonderful thing in the world, and finally, freaking finally, he was getting some of the goodness back. The kid was always putting goodness out into the world, showing everyone love and saving lives and asking for nothing in return, and he was finally getting some of what he was owed. This was a good day, and Jack wanted nothing more than for Mac to be able to live it forever.