Title: Family Matters
Summary: Normally he can just shrug off a case but on the way back the shooting of Antonio Cayetan shakes Matt a bit more personally than expected. Jack decides to call him on it. Based on eppy 1.06 'Love Interrupted' my missing Matt/Jack broment
Disclaimer: Same as always. I own nothing but my muse and my love for all things #TeamHenny/Simmons and #CMBB
A/N: OMG am so loving this new CM spinoff! I am sooo in love with Daniel Henney (seriously he's perfect!) haha I wanted to write a little post-eppy piece based off the brief convo with him and Jack after the shooting and on the ride home. I love the friendship him and Jack have and hope they expand upon that even more.
NOTE: "Words in italics and double quotes taken directly from the eppy." Just italics are thoughts and 'single is a past convo.'
He'd been in tense situations before; hostage takings of all kinds, some having a somewhat happy ending but the majority having the all too sad ending. Today was…"FBI! Drop your weapon!" He remembered busting into that room…his senses instantly being assaulted by the smells of sadness, despair and death. He watched the two women fall to the ground just as they bust through the door; the other woman on his left looking at them in silent panic.
He looked at the angry desperate glance on Antonio Cayetan's face; every heartbeat in the room keeping the same time, every mind sharing the same thought – please let your daughter go free. Jack's gun had remained raised until he watched Antonio reach for the poisoned baby bottle and put it into his daughter's grasp – or tried to.
"You're not a man…you're just a coward. You're weak!"
Having heard Jack purposely rile up an opponent he knows what he's doing here – trying to get Antonio to raise the gun at his unarmed frame; knowing one of his skilled team members would ensure his safety before Antonio confirmed his demise.
That had fallen on him.
"You are weak…you are weak!" Jack continued; his eyes darting from the gun in the murdering father's right to his left holding his daughter captive against his chest – the laced bottle still in her grasp.
"You're not a god…you're a fraud…a fake…you're just a failure…"
Jack's voice was thick with accusatory anger and Antonio's emotions were on par, rising and then threatening to surpass Jack at least in agitated emotion. But he remains ready…knowing at any second he'll hafta make a split decision – shoot Antonio for trying to shoot Jack or forcing the poison liquid into his daughter's tiny lips.
The former is the way Antonio Cayetan chose to meet his end. Antonio shouted at Jack to stop; his body started to stand upright a few seconds later, the gun rising and a bullet about to leave the chamber.
Bang!
But that's where he had come in – one shot and the tense situation had been remedied. Jack was safe. The daughter was safe. The latest kidnapped bride and the two others – all safe. They would be going home, trying to reunite with their families and then put together the missing and changed pieces of their lives.
XXXXXXXX
"That was one for the playbooks," Matt quipped as he turned back from their currency wall and looked at Jack with a relieved expression.
"Just glad you're a good shot," Jack looked back with a small smile.
He leaned back in his chair as his mind recalled the brief conversation that he and Jack had before they took their seats for the flight home from Belize. He pulled his wallet and gazed at a picture of him and his youngest daughter and squeezed his eyes shut; his mind hearing her voice calling to him as she remained trapped in the arms of a madman.
"Long flight and you're normally not this quiet," Jack stated as he plunked down into the empty chair beside Matt. "What's going on?"
"Can't get that little girls face out of my head. Her mother was killed…the only two other women she knew are now being reunited with their families, one of them pregnant. He probably told her a sibling was on the way and she…she now has no one. I made her…an orphan."
"Matt, that was Antonio's choice, not yours. He could have grieved for his wife and went about his life the way others who have faced similar situations have done and still do. He damned his daughter's future, not you."
"Still tough to come to terms with."
"Will be for a while yet, that's only natural. But Tillet said that one of the female officers would take her in until they find someone for her to stay with permanently," Jack explained with a heavy sigh. "At least she won't be totally alone."
"Okay."
"You know…you did the right thing."
"Yeah…he was going to poison her," Matt agreed with a tight lipped smile. "And…shoot you."
"But…"
"Just what you said…he couldn't protect his family…he was weak. I think about that…my girls. I see my youngest in his grasp and I hear your voice telling me I failed to protect them."
"Matt…" Jack tried once more.
"I sometimes worry I don't do enough – for my family. That's what really matters. That, that one day will come when I fail them and then…will someone label me weak?" Matt looked at Jack with a heavily furrowed brow.
"All parents have that fear. We see the worst of people at the worst times in their lives. I'm sure before his wife died, Antonio was a caring, loving father. Something inside him just…snapped."
"That in itself is scary," Matt sighed as he leaned back in his chair and stared absently out into the belly of the large transport plane.
"You're a good father and a good agent," Jack lightly praised as he stood up and clapped Matt on the shoulder. "But even still…not everyone who loses their mate, partner…whatever goes off the deep end like Antonio did. Being wary of even the smallest bit of darkness inside us can help us to deal with it before things take a very bad turn."
"Let's hope it never comes to that."
"Let's hope," Jack agreed before he excused himself to go and make a call to his daughter.
Matt pulled his wallet and looked at the picture of him and his youngest once more; his mind hearing her sweet laughter before she threw her arms around his neck and kiss him on the cheek.
'I love you daddy.'
His closed his eyes for a few brief seconds recalling Antonio's insistent rebuttal that he was protecting his family. But Jack was right – others had lost people they love and they seemed to be able to pick up their broken pieces and carry on as best they can without having to destroy the lives of others.
Matt closed his wallet and pulled his phone, willing his mind to focus on something else; anything that would take his mind off their latest case and his expert shot that made an adorable little girl an orphan. It was Antonio's decision…not yours. He's to blame…not you.
"Hope it never comes to that," Matt echoed in the stillness of the space beside him. A few seconds later his lips offered a small smirk as a silly smiley faces appeared on the phone screen before him, an accolade for the level he just completed with success.
It was the fear they lived with every day…that the next case could be personal…could be related to them.
THE END!
A/N: so….going into a new fandom is always scary…but I hope those of you reading liked it a little and please do review before you go and thanks so much!