Schrodinger's Dad
By: Ridley C. James
A/N: So, this is a tag for Episode 2:09, CD-ROM + Hoagie Foil. Slight spoilers. There were a few things that bothered me about this episode, the biggest was Cage being there when Mac woke up and Jack was off trailing Riley or something-I just don't seeing him doing that before he was certain his partner was stable. Have I mentioned lately that every episode written by Nancy Kiu makes me just a bit crazy because she seems intent to make a point that Jack would choose Riley every time and I don't agree and she obviously loves Cage-sigh. This is just a little attempt to explain the inconsistency and character smear because even though I have two other stories in the works, I just couldn't let it go like that. I'm sure others out there will take more time and do a much better job with this one but if there is anyone else out there who is struggling with the changes this season, I hope this helps.
RcJ
Jack was feeling a whole lot like the 'gramps' that the ass hat on the cell had called him. The kids were running him through the mill that was for damn sure and he was beginning to understand why his Nana Beth was fond of saying the surest way to find yourself one step closer to the grave and the waiting arms of Jesus was to have children. If it wasn't Riley putting her heart on the line once more with her old man, it was Mac putting himself in the line of fire over and over again. His lone wolf tactics to investigate his father's whereabouts were bad enough but toss in Mac's tendency to place everyone's life and safety a notch above his own and Jack was definitely going to be old and haggard before his time.
"Some of that is my own damn fault, I suppose." Jack said to no one in particular as Mac was still out cold and there was presently no medical staff buzzing around checking Mac's vitals and fretting over his oxygen levels like a few hours before. Jack checked the watch he was wearing. Mac's dad's watch. He'd taken it before the kid was whisked away from him in the ER bay to ensure nothing happened to it. Jack vowed to handle Mac's prize possession with more care than he'd taken with his partner lately.
Jack ran a hand over what little hair he had left and shifted in the uncomfortable chair. He took solace in the fact his best friend wasn't in a private room, or worse in ICU. Mac wasn't hooked to any noisy machines forcing him to breathe, nor were there visible wounds-the self-inflicted one bandaged and hid beneath blankets. The image of Mac stabbing himself in the leg still brought a gut-wrenching reaction so visceral that Jack quickly reminded himself that there had been no muscle damage and despite obviously hurting like a bitch, the damage was minimal and the adrenaline had kept the kid moving long enough to get himself out of the deadly situation.
"I might pretend to be clueless about a lot of things especially when it lets you get all nerdy and hyped about something that brings you out of this 'dad' funk you've been in, but I've been schooled in most things sinister, brother." Jack leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he continued his one-sided conversation. He was vetted on a lot of topics like organophosphorus nerve gases such as Soman, Sarin, and VX because in war a man needed to know the enemy's resources and what was in their arsenal. Jack hated the chemical warfare shit almost as much as the sneaky IED's.
Mac might have regaled him with the inhibiting properties of cholinesterase at cholinergic synapses but Jack had witnessed firsthand the symptoms in a village, where kids lay twitching and foaming at the mouth far too gone for an antidote. The idea of his kid suffering the same fate had nearly had him putting a bullet in that glass, releasing certain death to his tactical team and Cage. Fear of the seizures and respiratory failure that VX could bring had blinded him to everything else but saving Mac from such a fate. Common sense had not been enough to fight off the panic that had besieged him in that terrible worst nightmare moment of being separated from his best friend when Mac was facing a direct and dire threat, but Cage had been the voice of reason and for that Jack begrudgingly sent up an additional note of gratitude to the Big Guy.
He'd been silently offering thanks for the last hour that his desperate prayer for Mac to be okay had been apparently been answered in spades. Not only had they gotten Mac to the hospital in record time, where the staff was ready with the oxine detaching agent and atropine needed to halt the effects of the gas, but Matty had showed up in person. Never had Jack been more appreciative of Matty Weber's scary, ball-buster bravado than when she sent medical staff scrambling to save one of her people.
"You'd have been impressed with our boss, brother." Jack told his sleeping partner. The fact was Jack had maybe called their director out, going so far as to insinuate that if Mac didn't make it, he'd never forgive her for making the risky call to let that gas go the first time around. That wasn't a bluff. It might have been uncalled for and unjust, but Jack couldn't help to feel that their director often put objectives over the best interest of the individual. He dug the palms of his hands into his eyes with a heavy sigh. "Just more proof that although I like stirring the bees in her bonnet, we should not legitimately get on her bad side. Ever."
Mac shifted on the bed and Jack moved closer, resting his hand over Mac's to let him know he was there. The biological agent-specialist and neuro guy Matty had promptly called in had assured Jack that Mac would be fine and the residual effects would be minimal and quick fading. Still, Jack needed to see his best friend awake and talking before he'd take all the well-meaning assurances from the medical staff, Cage and Matty to heart.
"Hey, bud, you back with me?" Jack tightened his fingers, feeling Mac's overly warm skin beneath his touch. His partner shifted, tossing his head about with a soft grown before his eyes opened with a fair bit of alarm. "Easy there, tiger."
"Jack?" Mac's voice was weak, and sleep roughened.
"Who else?" Jack gave a grin he hoped hid any residual fear that might have etched itself permanently in more lines on his face during the frantic car ride from the water plant to the hospital. When Mac blinked, looking dazed and more than a little afraid himself, Jack pulled his chair even closer. "You're okay. Everything's fine. Just take it easy."
Mac licked his lips, looking around the curtained off area they were in. He seemed to gain some of his bearings as he blearily focused on Jack, frowning. "That's so not your everything's good face."
Jack snorted. "Hey, I'm just coming off a pretty bad scare so cut me some slack. We old gramps types don't bounce back so quickly as you young whipper snappers."
"Sorry." Mac shifted, a hand coming to his head as if it were hurting. The doctor had warned lingering headaches would be one of the side effects Mac could expect in the following weeks.
"Why are you apologizing, bud?" Jack watched his partner carefully, torn between calling a nurse and needing a moment with his best friend. He was joking about the scare to some degree, but he'd come all too close to losing Mac-again. He wrangled one of his trademark grins into place. "It was Cage's crazy driving that nearly pushed me over the edge. Do they drive on the wrong side of the road in Australia because when she gets in a rush I think she forgets she's in the states and reverts back to old hat."
Mac rolled his eyes, providing Jack with more relief than all those earlier guarantees from the guy in the white coat and MD after his name. "Her driving cannot be worse than yours."
"Says the dude who was out for most of the trip." Jack removed his hand from atop Mac's, resisting any further big brother moves, especially the one that would have had him grabbing the kid in a bear hug and holding on for dear life. "You gave my gray hair gray hair when you passed out on me. I gave you a direct order not to do that, and in the field you're supposed to at least pretend I'm in charge."
"Do you want me to say I'm sorry now?" Mac yawned, rubbing his eyes with his now freed hand.
"I'd rather you spare me the hollow apology and instead promise me you won't pull anymore solo suicide missions."
"It wasn't like I had a lot of choice."
"Yeah, I know." Jack didn't add that he was proud as hell of the kid, or that he thought him just about the bravest most heroic man he'd ever known for fear of encouraging more selfless acts. "I just don't do helplessly standing on the sidelines very well."
"Really?" Mac's mouth twitched, a hint of dimple showing. "Just like with the whole you not doing bored well, I hadn't really noticed."
It was Jack's turn to give an exaggerated eye roll. "Good to see your smart ass receptor wasn't detached by the doctor's miracle cure."
"The oxine and atropine don't work that way…" Mac started, his exasperated professor face in place.
Jack raised a hand to cut him off, not wanting the kid to tire himself out anymore considering he looked ready to drift off again at any time. "No need to get the nerd juice flowing, kid. Let the giant melon rest. I followed your physician's play by play just fine without you translating."
"Did he happen to say when I can go home?" Mac perked up a little at the thought of escaping. He pulled at the hospital gown he was wearing. "Can you bring me some clothes seeing as how I'm sure they had to trash mine?"
"I can and will but they want to monitor you overnight and that's not up for debate so…"
"Okay." This time Mac interrupted Jack. "That sounds fair."
"Since when do you not put up a stink about staying in one of those gowns for longer than what you-emphasis on the you- who despite being crazy smart isn't a doctor-deem absolutely necessary?" Jack wasn't sure if he should be worried about the lack of an argument or simply grateful he wasn't going to be enduring a knock down drag out round with the kid.
"Since I really thought I'd messed up." Mac looked at Jack, a hint of rare fear once more coloring his face. "I thought…well, let's just say I wasn't sure my improvising was going to be healthy for me this time around."
"You thought you were going to die." Jack had experienced those inevitable brushes with mortality, the ones he called 'Icarus flying to close to the sun' moments. It wasn't pleasant to be reminded of one's humanness and legitimate frailty, especially when you got your wings scorched and tail feathers singed.
"I did." Mac nodded. "And one thought kept going through my mind."
"Let me guess. You wished you'd hooked up with that hot model and her best friend in Barcelona because I told you that would totally come back around to be a lifelong regret when it happened, brother. Or maybe it was something not so selfish and you thought about how your best friend was going to have a front row seat to your gruesome demise and would never recover from letting you die on his watch?" Jack hoped to coax a smile or maybe more of good old Mac exasperation, but only managed to put a deeper frown on the kid's pale face.
"I kept thinking that I lied to you when you asked me about who I would chose to have dinner with if I could pick anyone living or dead."
"You're reconsidering the cat guy?"
Mac's brow furrowed further. "You knew who Schrodinger was the whole time?"
"See my note about the tiger and his stripes. Riling you up calms my nerves, kiddo. Cute joke about the guy being both dead and alive by the way." Jack leaned forward again, resting his elbows on the bed this time. "So, who would you really choose?"
"My dad. I kept thinking how I should have chosen my dad, because I'd give anything to sit down at a table with him and have him answer all these damn questions I have before it's too late."
"Then why didn't you just tell me that?" Jack tilted his head, not really surprised by the revelation considering he himself would chose a sit down with his old man any day over a meet and greet with both Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Toss in Princess Leia decked in her gold bikini from Return of the Jedi and Jack would still go for another conversation with his dad. "I mean aside from the fact Riley and Matty were eavesdropping and you knew I was just shooting the shit?"
"Because I couldn't answer the other part of the equation. I don't know if he's dead or alive, Jack." Mac seemed to be getting agitated, his eyes filling with water which clung to his lashes and that Jack shamelessly prayed didn't slip past the kid's hard fought defenses, because his nerves were already too raw, his emotional dam pushed to capacity. He didn't trust himself to keep it together if Mac broke down. "My dad is like Schrodinger's cat to me. Until I pry the lid off all these secrets and open the box to finally get a good look at him, he's both and neither dead or alive."
"Hey now." Jack returned his hand to Mac's, this time gripping his partner's to ground him. "My money is on your old man being alive and prowling about. I don't know much about how Schrodinger's atom theory works, but I do know a live trail from a cold one. There's too much evidence of him still moving around, not to mention tripping us up. If he were already dead, how would the watch have suddenly turned up and why burn down the cabin?"
"I know," Mac nodded, using his free hand to wipe away any trace of his momentary weakness. "It's just that I am really tired of the not knowing." He looked at Jack then, giving the older man what he'd hoped for earlier in the form of a half grin. "I don't exactly do dealing with unexplained phenomena very well."
"I hadn't noticed." Jack smirked, his heart swelling at his partner's blatant attempt to make him feel better. Sometimes he was caught off guard by how much more he could care about the kid. "But we're going to find your dad and then you'll have a chance for a long awaited sit down steak dinner and some beers if you decide that's what you want, just like Riley is getting her go around with Elwood."
"Riley's having dinner with her dad?" Mac asked around a wide yawn. He shifted in the bed, but Jack noticed he didn't pull his hand away. It still gripped Jack's as if he wasn't even consciously aware that he needed to be tethered.
"So I hear through the grapevine." Jack wasn't sure of Elwood's motives, but he hoped to hell the man had heeded his warning.
"You mean the grapevine named Matty?" Mac blinked, rubbing his eyes again.
Jack shrugged. "Turns out that despite the fact the woman likes keeping me in the dog house, she and I can actually co-helicopter-parent quite well. Go figure."
"You should go check on her." Mac made letting go of Jack look casual, as if fidgeting with the blanket required all ten fingers.
"Who? Matty?" Jack frowned, recognizing the moment Mac's defenses kicked into high alert. "Her and Cage are currently working on getting our suspects to give up their boss, Chandra. It's true I'd hoped for a notch above the kind of woman who might eat her young if they pissed her off for my own children, but hey, she's at least fierce. Needless to say, she isn't the stay home and twiddle her thumbs kind of mom."
"No, but you are so the follow your kid and stake out her date kind of dad." Mac gave him a somewhat sleepy but knowing look. One that spoke of a willingness to take the backseat, a familiarity with being looked over if something more important arose. "It will kill you if you aren't around when Riley meets up with her dad."
"I might resemble that remark," Jack confessed.
"Well, you are nothing if not consistent," Mac pointed out, glumly.
He raised a brow at his best friend, all too easily bringing to mind Mac's comment about Jack's earlier incident of helicopter parenting Riley that had supposedly kept him from asking for help with investigating his dad's cabin. "Then you should realize I am also the stay by the bedside of my sick kid kind of guy. I'm not going anywhere until I'm sure you're okay. Elwood and his screwed-up attempt at fatherhood will have to wait. You're my priority at the moment."
"You said it yourself, Jack. I'm good. Everything's fine here. Riley might really need you."
"That your way of politely telling me that you don't?" Jack didn't believe it for a minute. For all of Mac's bravado he was just as susceptible to being hurt as Riley was, only Jack had a feeling whatever secrets Mac's old man was harboring could do more than physical harm to his partner. All the more reason for Jack to stay put by the kid's side, proving he was in Mac's corner for the long haul.
"No. I need you, big guy." Gone was the glimpse of vulnerability, hidden under Mac's typical veneer. "I need you to pick me up some clothes and check on getting me out of here so we can get to work on finding my dad."
"Speaking of that," Jack gestured to the table beside them, figuring broaching the subject of any sibling rivalry might be too much in the wake of what they'd all just experienced. "Jill sent you something from Phoenix with specific directions you get it as soon as you were awake."
"The film?" Mack perked up.
"I think so."
Jack watched with exasperation as the kid attempted to push himself up in bed. Mac winced at the movement, seeming to think better of the action and merely nodding for Jack to give it to him instead. "Can I see it?"
Jack didn't oblige the silent beckoning, or cave to the pleading gaze. "It's not going anywhere. It will still be here when you're back to 100 percent or at least after you've rested up a bit longer." Seeing the budding disagreement, Jack rushed on. "Just so you know, kiddo, when we do find your father and you get your sit down meal with him, I'm so going to be staking out that meet up as well."
Mac gave the film one last fleeting look before settling into the mattress once more looking spent. Jack guessed the compliance was born more from the kid's current physical limitations than any acknowledgement that Jack might actually know best. The stubborn look that crossed his face before he yawned again was all the proof Jack needed.
"As if I ever doubted that, Jack." Mac narrowed his gaze. "I wasn't even counting on you staying outside the place because you're more afraid of Riles than you are me. I expected you to be hiding behind a menu, at a table across the room."
"Good. Glad to know we're reading from the same playbook." Jack folded his arms over his chest. "That way they'll be no secrets between us, bud."
"Right." Mac yawned again, his eyes fluttering as if their weight was suddenly too much for him, although the struggle on his part to stay awake was valiant. "No secrets between us."
"Never." Jack didn't figure he needed to mention that if James MacGyver so much as messed up and heaped anymore pain on Mac, he'd make the beat down he gave Elwood Davis back in the day look like a boyhood tussle on a schoolyard playground. His partner knew him well enough to expect as much. As Mac had said, Jack was nothing if not consistent.
"Is that my dad's watch?" Mac reached out and wrapped his fingers around Jack's wrist.
"I didn't want anything to happen to it," Jack explained, starting to undo the band.
Mac stopped him. "Keep it until I get out of here."
"Will do." Jack thought about offering to take the film as well, but figured the kid probably wanted it close by considering what he'd gone through to find it.
"Thanks, Jack." Mac breathed, his eyes closing once more. This time he didn't manage the monumental feat of reopening them, his fingers going lax, slipping away from Jack's wrist.
Jack stood, tucking the kid's hand under the blanket before pulling it higher around his partner. He indulged in briefly resting his palm on Mac's head, sending up one last silent thank you that his best friend had survived and was obviously on the mend just as the others had predicted.
"Love ya, bud." Jack slid his hand over Mac's hair, the profession coming easy now that the kid's breathing had evened out in much needed sleep and there was no chance the words could be used against him by one clever genius who already had too much ammunition in his arsenal as it was.
Jack would go find those clothes Mac would need when he was released and check in with Matty, but he'd also call Cage on his way out and get her to come take his place. He might want to keep a check on Riley because he knew damn well how unlikely it was that a tiger would manage to change its spots, but unlike Elwood Davis and James MacGyver Jack would never abandon his post. Mac would always have someone watching his back. Jack would make sure of that.
The end…for now.
PS. In the grand scheme of things a tiny show is of mild concern, but if anyone else feels the same way I do about the turn of the show, it sure would be nice to have some back up when the writers and Peter Lenkov are live tweeting on Fridays or maybe on other forms of social media. The only voices they hear are the ones clamoring for more Bozer stories, Cage, and Jack as Riley's dad. Trust me there are several who repeat this over and over along with endless praises for the stories we've been given this season. I'm all for holding your tongue when there is nothing nice to say, but I also think it is the greasy wheel that gets oiled. No one says anything about Mac, who in my opinion has almost become a B-story line in his own show. I don't think we should complain or criticize or dis any character ever, (although I so want Cage to disappear) but I would love if some of you all might positively tweet for some more Jack and Mac. I'm not sure it will make any difference at all as they seem to mostly like to hear only praise for what they are offering-they respond to that quite nicely-but I feel we should at least try. Thank you!