Mac's gait faltered on the boarding stairs. From behind him, Riley hopped up an extra step to be closer in case he stumbled.
"We were at a hospital. Maybe you should have let one of the doc's take a look at you?" Riley said, like she hadn't suggested the same thing two or three times before they'd left. She placed a hand gently on his back to help guide him into the plane.
"You're starting to sound like Jack."
"I'll never admit to saying this, but it's possible that's not always such a bad thing."
Mac sighed. "I won't admit to it either, but that's one of the things I missed most when I was gone. Jack's voice always in my ear."
"I thought you'd be grateful for the peace and quiet."
"All those years, I guess I'd gotten used to it. Listening to him worry about stuff. Asking me to build things that only exist in science fiction. Telling me when I'm doing something stupid."
"Like now?"
Mac laughed. "Yeah, Jack would have had a fit."
"He still might have one. Especially if he hears you didn't get checked out."
Mac dropped heavily onto the couch with a groan that surprised even him with it's intensity. "Joints are little achy and I have a headache. It's just from the pressure. Those doctors had kids on ventilators. I don't need to take up their time."
"Since you saved all those kids, I'm sure any one of those doctors would have taken five minutes to look you over."
"I just need to sleep it off. "
"Fine," Riley replied, clearly not convinced. Her tone annoyed. She felt like in this moment she understood Jack and his exasperation with Mac's lack of self-preservation. Most of the time she sided with Mac when Jack was insisting on getting him checked out even after some fairly innocuous missions with only bruises as a side effect. But now she understood the worry of watching Mac do something really smart yet incredibly stupid. Usually Jack was there as a buffer. She didn't have to think about the what ifs of what could go wrong, because Jack did. Loudly. Annoyingly. Distracting her, and probably Mac too, from those worst case scenarios. They were too busy being annoyed by his loud, brash and frankly sometimes ridiculous concerns to give thought to their own apprehensions. Riley had a new appreciation for Jack and the many unspoken and often unnoticed ways he took care of his team.
Mac broke off another laugh with another groan, and rubbed at his chest.
Riley fixed him with a look. "You better park yourself on that couch and not move for the rest of the flight or you'll see how accurately I can impersonate Jack."
"Alright, alright," Mac held up his hands in surrender and swung his legs up onto the couch. "Naptime for Mac."
"Referring to yourself in the third person? Now who sounds like Jack?"
Riley watched Mac settle into a comfortable position, wincing and stifling groans until he found it. Mac was asleep before the wheels left the tarmac.
Riley settled into a chair across the aisle and pulled out her laptop. Mac and Jack often slept on long flights home, but she was usually too wired from the missions to do anything more than doze unsuccessfully. Maybe someday she'd reach that same level of experience where she could sleep anywhere but for now she scrolled through her movie queue. She paused for a minute and looked over at Mac's sleeping form, before choosing an older movie she'd seen a few times. She pulled her noise cancelling headphones off, left them draped around her neck and clicked on the closed captioning, just in case Mac woke and needed her. Then she too settled in for the long flight.
She must have dozed off because she woke when she felt the change in cabin pressure as the plane slowly lost altitude. She turned to look out the window. It was hard to tell at thirty thousand feet but the city lights didn't look like LA. She glanced at the clock, mentally calculating time zones and flight times and realized it was too early to be landing.
Mac was still asleep. She debated waking him. She didn't recall the pilot mentioning refueling anywhere. Rubbing sweaty hands against her jeans, she put her computer aside and made her way to the front of the plane.
The cockpit door opened and the co-pilot stepped out. He was new, at least to her. "Oh, Agent Davis."
She didn't correct him. "What's going on?"
"We received a communication demanding that we land in DC, using all the proper access codes except one."
Riley's heart pounded in her chest. She should wake Mac. What if this was a trap or an ambush? Who would know all the Phoenix codes?
"The man who contacted us claimed he was an agent and said he was overriding the flight plan using Emergency Protocol: Carl's Junior."
Riley felt the anxiety leak out of her like a balloon. She let out a laugh of relief. "Yeah, uh, It's an older code, but it checks out," disappointed none of her team was here or awake to appreciate the quote.
"Of course, Agent Davis. We'll be landing shortly then." The co-pilot headed back to the cockpit and Riley sank back into her seat.
Mac slept through the landing, which Riley had never seen him do. She would have been worried if Jack wasn't on the plane before it had even finished taxiing.
Riley shushed him before he could open his mouth, and gestured to Mac's sleeping form.
Jack crouched next to his boy and gently stroked blond hair.
"Matty sent me the initial report. Is he okay?" Jack whispered as turned to look over his shoulder at Riley.
"He said he just needs to sleep it off."
"You believe him?"
Riley opened her mouth to answer, then shrugged. "He had a hard time catching his breath. He-" she paused then continued on. "Did you know he cut his air hose to make some extension tubing?"
Jack let out a frustrated sigh.
Riley continued. "He was a little dizzy, kind of unsteady on his feet. Said his joints ached. But there was something ridiculous like a thousand pounds of pressure in that room, and he said even with the suit he made he wouldn't be protected from all of it."
"He admits to pain and neither of you think to get him checked out. Instead put him on a plane with more pressure changes and lower oxygen levels."
"Unlike you it's not like I can just throw him over my shoulder and make him see a doctor," Riley hissed. "Give me a little credit. I've got medical on standby when we get back."
Jack stood. "Sorry, Ri, I just… it's hard for me when you guys go off on missions and I'm left behind." He reached out and pulled Riley into a hug. "You did the right thing. Outmaneuvering him is the only option when he digs in his heels."
He pulled back from the hug. "You okay?" He asked looking at her intensely.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't in the chamber." A hint of confusion on her face.
"No, but both of you have been going nonstop since Mac came back. And I haven't been there to watch your backs."
Riley smiled. "We've missed you too old man."
Jack pulled her in for another quick hug. Then went on a hunt for the jet's extensive first aid kit. He sat on the couch next to Mac.
"Hey kiddo," Jack patted him gently on the shoulder. "Time to wake up."
Mac shifted with a wince and a groan. Blue eyes fluttered open. "Jack," he said with a sleepy surprised smile. He started to sit up but was stopped by protesting muscles and Jack's hand against his chest.
"Just settle back there, hoss. I think you're hurting more than you're letting on."
"When did you get here?" A puzzled look crossed Mac's face as he tried to piece together what happened during his nap.
"I got a little concerned when a certain blond agent didn't answer his phone."
"Oh," Mac smiled. "You're going to like this. I had to use it in one of my projects. I needed something to keep metal from rubbing on metal and creating a spark. My phone fit perfectly."
Jack cackled. "You… you used your own phone? Destroyed your own phone in one of your creations? And I missed it?"
"I think he turned around to ask for your phone first," Riley tattled.
Mac looked sheepish. "I'm not used to you not being there."
"All these years of 'Jack, give me your phone,' and 'I promise I'll give it back,' and I finally get some retribution and I'm not even in country when it happens."
Mac rubbed his chest again as he let out of small laugh at Jack's antics. "To be fair I probably would have just used yours if you'd been there."
Switching gears, Jack lifted Mac's hand and slipped a pulse ox onto his finger. His own hand wrapped around Mac's wrist feeling his pulse there. "I wish I had been there, then I wouldn't have heard second hand about you trying to drown on dry land again. You want to tell me how you're feeling?"
"Actually dry drowning involves water too. It happens after a water accident…" Mac's voice trailed off at Jack's glare. He sighed. "I have a little headache."
Jack glanced as the probe on Mac's finger. "Short of breath?" He asked, and Mac knew it was a test.
"A little," he admitted reluctantly, knowing the reading had already ratted him out.
Jack rummaged through the kit. "Cannula or mask?"
"Neither?" Mac asked hopefully.
"Oh, see, you lost that option when you went into a compressed air chamber, and then cut your air hose. Me asking you was just a courtesy."
Mac sighed and reach for the cannula. Jack helped him situate the prongs in his nose and the tubing behind his ears. Mac wrinkled his nose at the uncomfortable sensation. "Thanks," he said sarcastically.
"I'm gonna cut you some slack now, seeing as you've got a headache and are feeling generally miserable, but when you get out of medical, you and I are gonna have a nice long, loud chat about things like cutting off your air supply."
"I don't need to go to medical."
"That's the part you're going to focus on?"
Mac rolled his eyes. "Jack, those kids were going to die and I had the tools to save them. It's what I was sent there to do."
"I understand that."
"Then what's the problem?"
"The problem is that you're all too willing to throw yourself into harm's way. You seem to value everybody's life over your own. A mission goes to hell and you're all too willing to sacrifice yourself to finish the job."
"What was I supposed to do? I had a solution and decided it was an acceptable risk."
"Why do I feel like you'll always decide it's an acceptable risk when it's your life on the line?"
The two men stared at each other.
Slowly Jack broke the silence. "There's this little thing they do before a commercial flight, where they review emergency procedures. And one of the things they say, in the event of an emergency, is to secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others. You know why they tell you that?"
Mac looked at him evenly. Jack continued. "You can't help anybody else if you're dead."
"Jack-"
Jack held up a hand to forestall an argument. "I'm not gonna second guess you or the decisions you make in the field."
"Sure feels like you are."
"And," Jack continued, ignoring the interruption. "I sure as hell ain't gonna call you lucky, cause I know what you do every day is more than that. But when you're in that great big brain of your assigning value to things, and determining acceptable risks, can you do me a favor and assign a little more value to you."
Jack's eye continued to scan Mac's face, but Mac dropped his gaze. He was breathing, slow, steady, as if trying to regain control of his emotions.
Riley didn't often get to see these moments. Oh, she knew they happened. Jack threatened Mac with long lectures and stern talking to's when missions went sideways and Mac made decisions that risked his life and threw himself headlong into melees. Jack generally cleared the room or moved himself and Mac to the back of the plane before these discussions took place. She'd heard indistinguishable yelling behind closed doors, or a fury of hissed whispers, the words never reaching her.
She felt like she was intruding on a private, intimate moment. Jack's eyes had a sheen to them.
"There's always going to be missions and risks and people needing you to save them. But Bozer, Matty, Riley and I, we need you to come home at the end of it. Saving the world means nothing if we lose you."
Mac swallowed hard and nodded slowly, as if he didn't trust his voice to respond.
"Excuse me, Agent Davis," a voice interrupted. The co-pilot walked down the aisle toward them and received three identical glares from the passengers. He paused but then continued gamely. "Since the captain and I are unfamiliar with it, we were wondering about the next steps of the Emergency Protocol Carl's Junior?"
"You can resume your previous flight pattern," Jack answered with a scowl. The pilot looked from Jack to Riley. Mac mirrored his actions.
"The situation has deescalated and we can head for home," Riley confirmed, trying to sound professional, to make the situation seem normal.
Once the co-pilot was gone, Mac looked hard at both of them. "You guys made up an emergency protocol?"
"That- uh, that was me," Jack interrupted Riley's stuttering protests. "Like I said, I got a little concerned when you didn't answer your phone. Don't look at me like that. Riley's not used to dealing with you when you're being dumb. Which is another thing we're gonna have to talk about."
The plane began taxiing again.
"What about when you're being dumb? Did they release you from the investigation and meeting with the Secretary of Defense?" Mac asked concerned that Jack might be getting himself into deeper trouble, disappearing back to LA before the SecDef was satisfied.
"I have answered all their questions about six, seven times already," Jack growled. "They haven't asked me anything new in the last three days. This whole thing is a waste of time and if they ever think of anymore questions they know where to find me."
"Jack," Mac's tone worried.
"They have more questions they can come find me," Jack repeated. "This family has been separated for too long."
Riley worked hard to keep her face impassive at Jack's words. She stole a glance at Mac and noted a flush creeping up his neck.
"I've missed my kids."