AN: This is probably one of the most fluffy and ridiculous things I've ever written, but it needed to happen ever since it was mentioned that Mac and Jack went to Disney World together. I'm setting this between their time in the Army and DXS. A couple things that are mentioned in this are going to be further explored in an Army fic that I'll be writing sometime this year. The title is taken from the song Little Wonders by Rob Thomas. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review!
Jack would never forget the look on his kid's face the moment they stepped onto Main Street, U.S.A.. His blue eyes lit up and he smiled so widely that Jack thought it would get stuck that way - not that that would be a bad thing, Mac needed to smile more these days. For just a moment, it looked like he might cry, but at least they would have been tears of joy.
It had taken a lot of effort to get Mac to agree to go, but Jack was glad that he hadn't given up. He had always wanted to take his own kids to Disney World one day, but as the years went by and Jack got older, he realized that that may never happen. But to take Mac, who was basically his kid, was just the same. And Mac was smiling like a kid, looking all around and never even blinking, as if he might miss something if he did. It was everything Jack had ever wanted for his kid.
Jack had first thought of the idea while they were still in Afghanistan, and he had sworn to himself that he would make it happen once he pulled Mac out of the hole the terrorists were keeping him in and got him home. He didn't bring it up to him until they were in Texas, at the ranch, where Mac recovered. At first, Mac had refused, saying that Jack didn't have the money for that, and he was too old to go anyway. Jack, of course, had insisted that no one was ever too old for the magic of Disney World, and he'd already booked everything, so there was no backing out. Eventually, Mac had admitted that he'd always wanted to go as a kid, but his dad had always said it was stupid, so they never went. Hearing that made Jack's blood boil, but he put on a neutral face for his kid. Getting angry about the boy's dirtbag father wouldn't help him. What Mac needed was rest, and fun, and joy, and happiness, and wonder, and magic. Disney World was all of that.
Mac had clearly been trying to hide his joy and anticipation ever since their flight landed, but now, there was nothing he could do to hide from Jack how excited he was. And Jack was more than happy to be there with Mac, watching him look all around, trying to take everything in. He'd cleared everything off his phone that he could, just so he would have as much space as possible to take pictures of Mac in the Most Magical Place on Earth.
"I know they're using false perspective to make everything look taller than they really are, but this all just looks amazing," Mac said, his grin never falling. He pointed to the buildings on either side of them as they walked down Main Street, U.S.A., and to the castle, where his eyes were fixed.
"Of course you know that," Jack replied with a laugh. His kid was so darn smart, even when it came to stuff like this. He looked over at Mac, and saw him looking at Cinderella's Castle with such wonder in his eyes that Jack's own almost filled with tears. For a kid that lived on logic and reason, Mac had such a deep heart for magic and wonder. How the boy's father could have deprived him of this, knowing full well how much Mac would have loved it, Jack would never understand, especially since money hadn't been a problem for the man.
Jack let Mac take a few steps ahead of him - a rarity, since Jack preferred to be in front of the kid in order to better protect him - and snuck a picture of him with the castle in the background. That was probably going to be his new phone background.
"Where do you wanna go first?" Jack asked. He wanted Mac to pick everything they did. This whole trip was about Mac, and getting him pure happiness.
"Tomorrowland?" Mac suggested, turning to him with a hopeful grin. Suddenly, all Jack could think of was a much younger Mac, begging his father to take him to Disney World with that same grin. How anyone could refuse it was beyond Jack. Even now, the kid still looked so young, younger than his twenty-one years. If he ever wanted to get a drink while they were in Orlando, it would take some time, because most people would probably think his ID was fake. He did not look his age, and that was okay with Jack. Typically, the younger Mac looked, the happier he was - Jack tried to force out the memories of finding him in the hands of terrorists, looking so young and hurt and absolutely terrified. But for now, Mac was smiling, and his eyes were bright with joy.
"Anywhere you want, kid," Jack replied, resting a hand on Mac's shoulder as the two turned to the right, across the bridge to Tomorrowland. Mac's eyes were still darting all around the place, never taking even a full second to look at something. There was so much for him to see, and Jack was content to spend forever letting him see it all.
Jack took him to the Peoplemover first, so he could get beautiful views of all of Tomorrowland, and Cinderella's Castle. Throughout the relaxing ride, Mac rattled off fact after fact about Walt Disney and the man's vision for the future. He talked about the things old Walt was right about, and the possibilities of what he wanted being possible in the near future. Sometimes, he would stop in the middle of sentence when presented with a particularly spectacular view, then start again immediately with a smile once the ride turned. The kid didn't see that Jack would take pictures of him while he was wide-eyed, but Jack would cherish those pictures forever. When the ride went inside Space Mountain, Mac fell silent once again. Jack knew the kid was a little bit afraid of the dark, but it was all okay when he saw all the stars along the walls, glowing softly and lighting the track in the most beautiful way. He let out a little gasp of wonder, and Jack wished he could see his face, sure that it would be one worth remembering.
They slowly made their way throughout Tomorrowland, and Jack loved every second of it. He may have screamed on Space Mountain, but the kid laughed, and it was the most beautiful sound in the world. Despite Mac's general aversion to guns in real life, he did remarkably well on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, but maybe that was because it involved lasers, and Jack knew how much the kid loved lasers. Jack still won, but not by as much as he thought he would.
They took all the time in the world moving through the park. Mac's happiness was the most important thing to Jack, and he would be sure that the kid got to do absolutely everything. He made him try all the best food, and take ridiculous pictures. The whole day, Mac's eyes never stopped shining with pure light. Jack wasn't sure if he had ever seen the kid so happy before, but he wanted to keep him that happy forever.
By the evening, they had made their way all the way around the Magic Kingdom to Adventureland. Both of them loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but it was the Jungle Cruise that they would truly never forget.
"The whole thing is puns," Jack said with a smile as the two made their way onto the boat. That made the ride the best one in Jack's opinion, and he knew Mac would love it too, even though he wouldn't say it.
"This should be great," Mac replied sarcastically. But he did enjoy it, puns or no puns. Throughout the ride, Mac made little comments to Jack under his breath about the rivers, providing all the facts about them that Jack never asked for, but would never refuse, since they made Mac so happy.
But the most interesting moment of the ride came when they came upon the hippos. Jack wasn't exactly sure what happened, or that it was entirely his fault, but one moment, they were going down the river, all nice and calm, and the next, a hippo - animatronic or not, hippos were incredibly dangerous animals, Jack remembered what Mac had told him about them - came up out of the water right next to him. He was a former Delta, with reflexes that often acted before his brain did, so when a hippo, one of the most dangerous animals in the world, popped out of the water right next to Mac, Jack's instincts kicked in to protect his kid. The fact that the hippo wasn't real didn't even cross his mind until a few seconds later, and that was a few seconds too late. All that mattered in the moment was that a very dangerous animal had appeared right next to his kid, so he had to protect him.
Jack immediately stood up, and in one fluid motion, grabbed his electric lasso from the small of his back and swung it over to the hippo, hooking it around the animatronic beast - since he couldn't carry his gun in Disney, he'd convinced Mac to make him an electric lasso that he promised only to use in a potentially life threatening situation. Before he could remember that it was only animatronic, Jack turned the lasso on and pulled it with everything he had, breaking the hippo free from the track and crashing it into the boat.
The adults on the boat were shouting in confusion and fear, and a few of the younger kids were crying. Water began pouring into the boat where the hippo crashed through. The skipper was shouting instructions to the passengers, but his eyes were glued to Jack in complete confusion. Mac looked at him the same.
Jack smiled shyly. "Sorry about that," he said. "Trauma from my childhood and all that." The skipper still just stared at him. The man's eye was even twitching. Jack turned off the lasso and folded it back up, slipping it back into its place.
"What on earth was that?" Mac whisper-yelled at him as they made their way to the ride's emergency exit, conveniently located within reach of the boat, wet shoes squeaking along the way. Water was still pouring in.
"You know how dangerous hippos are, man," Jack replied, looking at Mac seriously. "I remember everything you told me about them, so when I saw one just pop out of the water, right next to you, I didn't think, I just reacted." He shrugged. Jack knew he messed up, but now, it was all he could do not to laugh. His feigned look of innocence turned into a smile, and Mac's look of utter befuddlement changed to match.
"You're crazy, man," Mac said with a laugh, slapping Jack on the back. They were back to the ride's loading area. "You know it wasn't a real hippo, right?"
"Yes, genius, I figured that out pretty quickly, just, not as my first thought."
"No, your first thought when you saw the animatronic hippo was to lasso it," Mac replied, trying and failing to contain his laughter.
"My first thought was to protect your scrawny butt from a very dangerous creature," Jack said, his tone turning serious. Protecting his kid was not something to joke about.
"We're not in Afghanistan anymore," Mac muttered. His smile fell and he looked to the ground where they'd stopped. "I'm not your EOD specialist, and you're not my overwatch. There's not- there's not IEDs to defuse, or- or Taliban around every- every corner-"
"Hey, hey, hey," Jack interjected, stopping Mac's upcoming panic attack in its tracks. This wasn't okay. The whole reason he took the kid to Disney World was so that he wouldn't have to think about what had happened to him back in the desert, so maybe his nightmares would go away for a while. He was nervous enough about how the kid would react to the fireworks show that night, and this was not going to help. Jack put both his hands on Mac's shoulders, and ducked his head to catch the kid's gaze. "You're right. We left the desert behind. I got you away from there. You're safe now. You know that, right?" Mac gave the smallest of nods, barely meeting Jack's eyes. "You're safe. I need to hear you say it."
Hesitantly, Mac looked up, and looked at Jack with those big blue eyes full of nothing but trust that Jack wasn't sure he deserved. "I'm safe. I'm with you, so I'm safe." He nodded again, this time like he meant it. "I'm safe," he repeated. Mac let out a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, which he hadn't cut since leaving Afghanistan. It was getting shaggy, but the kid seemed to like it. Jack figured it had something to do with Mac needing to have that level of control over something, especially after what he went through in the hands of those terrorists. If that was what the kid needed, then Jack wouldn't say anything, not even to make fun of it.
"Yes, I will always keep you safe. Afghanistan or not, I will always protect you," Jack affirmed, slowly letting his hands fall off Mac's shoulders. The kid seemed okay now. He made brief eye contact with Jack again before nodding.
Someone cleared their throat to the side. "Excuse me," the man said. Both Mac and Jack turned to look. It was the skipper from the boat Jack destroyed. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but clearly there's a reason you did that to the boat, even misguided. You're not just insane," he said.
"Yeah, I am sorry about that," Jack said, cringing.
"I respect what you've done for this country, so don't worry about it, but you can never come back to the Jungle Cruise again, okay?"
"That is more than fair," Jack said with a smile, clapping his hands together.
"Please leave," the man said, straight faced.
"You got it!" Jack said, laughing and flashing the man a thumbs up. He swung his arm around Mac's shoulders and walked away, trying to control his laughter. That was crazy, but hopefully it would be a good memory that Mac would never forget. The kid was laughing again next to him, a smile stuck on his face. "Now let's go find some baba ganoush."
After finding the most delicious baba ganoush that Adventureland had to offer, Jack staked out a nice spot to watch the fireworks from. He was hoping that neither one of them would have any problems with the show, since they knew the exact time the fireworks were to begin, and they wanted to watch them. It wasn't as if they were going to be blindsided by sudden explosions in the air. Still, Jack kept his arm around Mac's shoulders as they stood on the border between Adventureland and Main Street U.S.A., just to give the kid a little bit more safety and security, just in case.
Exactly when Jack knew they would, the fireworks started, and Mac didn't even tense up. They were going to be fine. The music began to play and the lights on the castle changed to all sorts of colors, even playing scenes from classic Disney movies on it. After a few minutes, Jack tore his gaze away from the beautiful explosions of color in the sky to look at his kid. The boy was crying, but he had the biggest smile on his face as he stared up at the sky. The show was beautiful, magical even, but it was looking at Mac so happy that brought tears to Jack's eyes. He had grown to love that kid so much, and seeing him here, now, so happy and at peace, was all that Jack wanted for the kid for the rest of his life.
Mac turned to look at him, happy tears still in his eyes, and said, "thank you, Jack. Thank you so much." He wiped some of his tears away, but just continued to smile. "Thank you for everything." Mac turned fully towards Jack and wrapped his arms around him, burying his face in Jack's shoulder.
At first, Jack was shocked, since Mac was very rarely the one to so openly initiate this kind of physical contact, but he would never deny the kid exactly what he craved. So he wrapped his arms around his kid, holding him close. He rubbed his back a bit, then moved a hand up to his blond hair, and started running his fingers through it. Jack could feel Mac melting into his touch. The fireworks continued in the background, with beautiful music overlaying it. With tears of joy rolling down his face, Jack couldn't think of a more magical moment. Everything was so perfect. He just wanted to hold onto the kid forever. "You're welcome, kiddo," he finally said.
After a long, beautiful minute, Mac stepped back just enough to be able to still see the fireworks, a smile still wide on his face. He was still half-hugging Jack, half-leaning against him, but Jack would let him stay there as long as he needed.
With the fireworks, and the music, and his kid pressed up against him, Jack knew that he truly was in the Most Magical Place on Earth.