From the minute his friendly questioning use of Cage's name was met with silence, Mac knew in his gut it was Murdoc. And no matter what was happening, if it was Murdoc, Mac was responsible.
He was out the door and in his Jeep so much as a glance around for his jacket, even as Matty was still on the phone with 911. Jack had been adamant that he wait for backup, but Mac hadn't listened. So Jack followed quickly behind, along with the rest of the team
Fortunately, the fact that he didn't have the opportunity to lecture Mac on the way over to her place about waiting for at least the first responders, if not for a Phoenix security team, hadn't been a concern, because they'd gotten caught in traffic and the ambulance had arrived first. The UCLA Medical Center was the closest hospital with a trauma unit that was up to Matty's standards so that's where Cage was taken.
Following the ambulance had seemed the natural thing to do. To all of them. They'd finally convinced Cage that she was really family; they weren't going to let her go through this alone, even if she didn't know they were with her. This time Jack had given him a hard look and told him he was driving. He didn't add that it was because he thought Mac looked dead on his feet and too upset to pay good attention behind the wheel.
Of course, they did what family always done in those situations. They sat in the waiting room, in the world's most uncomfortable chairs, sharing the world's most uncomfortable silence.
From the outset, Mac was full of nervous energy. He couldn't tolerate the looks Jack and Matty were both giving him every time he moved, which he had to admit was quite a bit; he couldn't seem to keep still. So he tried avoiding their eyes. They resorted to throwing those concerned looks at each other over his back, know exactly what was going through their favorite blond genius's head.
Then the call came in, confirming Murdoc was behind it, and he was, once again, in the wind. Mac had gotten immediately to his feet, ready to go out and join the Phoenix team at her apartment in their search. Matty had forbidden it. She had one agent in critical condition and she wasn't about to expand that list tonight. Also, didn't he remember what happened the last time he'd taken off on his own when Murdoc was involved?
Mac was furious. He was old hat at being angry and feeling helpless to do anything about a godawful situation in waiting rooms like this one. Only when he'd learned to hate it, he'd been small enough to swing his feet from the chair. Since his feet had been touching the floor for about two decades now, he just stayed on his feet and began pacing.
At first Matty tried talking him down, but it just seemed to irritate him more. He was grateful for the quiet, small headshake Jack gave their boss. Jack hadn't argued for the opportunity to leave, but he hadn't sided with Matty about staying either. What Mac didn't know, was that Jack was itching to go out on the Murdoc hunt himself, but he knew if Cage died in surgery, Mac would find some way to blame himself. He knew he couldn't say that out loud. So, he'd just stayed quiet for a change.
Eventually, Mac acknowledged Matty's apologetic glances with a nod and a small half-hearted smile. Not too many minutes later, becoming increasingly distressed by the reminder of the Christmas tree in the corner that this was Christmas Eve, he forced himself to try sitting again, but away from the rest of the team. The closeness just seemed to be making him more restless as the hours slipped past.
The genuine care for her team stamped clearly on her features made Jack feel badly for Matty. He knew from experience that Matty was taking having a team member down as personally, if not more so, than Mac. And he also knew that some of Mac's anger at her for putting the brakes on them leaving head been because she knew how exhausted Mac had to be after his ordeal with the local police. Jack stretched out a hand to Matty who, uncharacteristically took it, and squeezed back when he offered the gentle pressure of quiet reassurance.
Eventually Mac had himself focused enough to rejoin their closer sitting arrangements. Bozer offered him his seat, sensing the being pinned between Matty and Jack was making him twitchier, saying he was going to get them some coffee.
Even though they knew it, and knew roughly when to expect him back, since Jack had already made several coffee runs, they all still jumped and looked toward the door for news when he returned. Bozer just looked a little sheepish and started handing around the coffee. He wanted to say something to make himself and anyone else feel better, but even he could think of nothing, and he was probably the best on the team (including Jack who would probably throw down over the concept) at lightening things up.
As Christmas Eve night gave way to Christmas morning, Jack stood up to stretch, more as an excuse to look at how everyone (especially Mac) was doing. Then, he disappeared for a few minutes. When he came back, he had the strange familiar box that Mac said must be from his father. Mac gave him kind of a funny look, but went off into the corner and opened it anyway.
He frowned at the contents of the box for a while, got up and silently passed it to Jack for inspection. Then Jack frowned at it for a while. He asked Mac if he wanted it back. Mac just shrugged and glanced at the double doors off the waiting room again. He didn't want Mac to forget this strange gift that he had to hope was another clue, so he took it back it to the car. Hey, it had killed an hour and kept the kid from looking like he wanted to simultaneously burst into tears or throttle someone for about an hour. That was better than nothing.
It was well into morning when the doctor finally stepped through the doors to give them news. Jack thought the kill or cry face was firmly back in place, but when the doc passed on a message from the recovery room, Mac's face split into a momentary smile. The relief moved through the group like a secret, slow, and somewhat different for each person there based on their own experience and relationship with Cage.
Mac found himself hugging Bozer particularly hard. Since Murdoc had abducted Mac that Fall, he'd had nightmares. Bozer assumed they were brought on by memories of his captivity. And some of them were. But the ones that really plagued Mac, even more than the occasional dream that Murdoc had killed Jack in Paris and that's why he was underground for so long, was that Bozer was home when Murdoc's henchmen arrived. He could very easily have been in a waiting room just like this one that day, hoping against hope that he would not be saying goodbye to the guy who had stood by him since they were kids.
Instead of just pulling him into a hug, Jack stepped in front of Mac, a little but away from the rest of the group, who were already chatting about how to keep Cage's Christmas from being depressing because she was in the hospital and unlikely to leave any time soon. Jack cocked an eyebrow. "How you holdin' up, kid?"
Mac smirked. Jack recognized it as his defense mechanism expression, but didn't call him out. "I'm not the one who just had major surgery after a point-blank gut shot, so you know, all in all, not bad."
That was his defensive tone, too. "You know what I mean," Jack said, firmly, not playing twenty questions, but not back off either. When Mac didn't say anything further, Jack pressed, "This is not your fault, bud."
Mac shrugged, then looked his partner in the eye. "I know that …" He paused. "But I'm going to make sure nothing else like this happens. To anyone on the team."
The way his eyes moved from Jack to Bozer, to Riley, Jack knew that Mac was thinking it could have been any one of them. That was fine, Jack thought, because he'd been thinking about how close he'd been to losing Mac the last time Murdoc came into their lives.
When the nurse came out shortly after with the news that Cage would likely sleep for several hours before she was up to much in the way of visitors, Matty ordered everyone to go home and get some rest, too. Mac had been about to argue when she informed him that Jack was to drive him home and that if he gave her any lip she was officially changing Jack's job description to 'bodyguard' the way he'd always wanted it. Mac finally acquiesced when Bozer said he'd drive the Jeep and be right behind them.
Matty and Riley were headed back to Phoenix together because they knew Cage would want some of her own things during her hospital stay and they honestly didn't know how long her apartment was going to be a crime scene. The contents of her go-bag from her locker would have to do for the moment.
The plan was basically shower, shave, open their presents for each other, then gather up Cage's gifts and see if she was awake and ready for company at dinner, so that maybe she could still have a reminder of a merry Christmas.
When they got out of Jack's car, just as Boze was coming up the driveway, Mac sighed heavily.
"What is it, kid?" Jack asked.
Mac glanced at him. "Just … I don't even need a Christmas miracle like you want Jack … I'd take a Christmas break … like even a thing where everything goes wrong, but the worst thing that happens is Bozer's pastrami gets burned."
Jack snorted a little laugh. "I know what you mean, kid." Jack shook his head. "Seems like work's been screwing up our Christmases since not too long after we met."
Thinking of their first holiday together actually made Mac smile. They'd still been very new to each other and were just figuring out how to get along, but that holiday, more than any of the other little things that shaped their relationship, was probably what had gotten Mac to finally trust Jack, and it was when Jack realized that he cared enough about Mac to want him to trust him, to want Mac to think of him as a friend.
Not two minutes later, Jack realized that it was the things Mac had learned back in that godforsaken place all those years ago that was standing between them and being turned into mist.