Art is the Lie

Tag to Episode 8 Packing Peanuts and Fire

The title is part of a quote by Pablo Picasso "Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth." ~ J

Mac knew something was on Jack's mind the minute the zombie apocalypse conversation started. When you walk into work and greet your partner with good morning and instead of replying they instantly want to know your ideal weapon to survive the United States of Zombieland, you have to think things are maybe a little off. Then again, Mac reasoned, they did get into those conversations quite a bit, and it wasn't always a distraction from things going sideways anymore. Usually. But not always.

Then Cage came into the War Room acting strangely. Mac's eyes narrowed a little. "Why are you lying?" he asked. He didn't follow up with his next thought, "And why are you being so obvious about it? Your training is better than that. You want us to know, don't you?" He didn't have to say it though; it was implicit in his tone.

Jack was trying to cut her some slack, or he really was distracted by something, because usually Jack's bullshit meter was even more finely tuned than Mac's. Then Matty called her out the second she walked it. Cage's body language screamed 'up to something', but her eyes were soft and smiling.

Mac just shook his head and turned away. It would sort itself out, and frankly since they were here for a briefing, he had no interest in trying to unpack another of Cage's weird moods. And then Riley came in, acting even weirder than Cage, and Cage was smirking about it. Hmmm. It was pretty clearly bugging Jack, but Matty put a stop to any conversation about it by starting the mission brief.

Even Jack thought it sounded kind of fun, and maybe, just maybe, for a change, not wildly stupidly dangerous. Of course, looks, he thought to himself, could be deceiving. Like his favorite science nerd knowing a whole bunch about art and the world of international art dealership, clandestine and otherwise. How had that never come up? And what the hell else was hidden in that head of his?

0-0-0

The flight to Brussels was uneventful, considering the weird tension in the War Room from that morning, but Riley was definitely not herself. Unfortunately, Jack couldn't seem to get anywhere with her, and Cage was just looking almost smug about it.

Jack tried to pull out of Mac just exactly how he knew so damned much about the world of Operation Artsy-Fartsy before he'd been handed one folder's worth of briefing materials, but Mac had just looked up from what he was reading about their mark with a grin.

"I have more than one interest, Jack. Besides, I would have thought you'd have picked up a little info about it based on the number of time I know you've watched Hudson Hawk."

Jack chuckled and then decided to just pull that up on the company tablet and do a little entertainment-based research on being an art thief. Mac could take care of the boring stuff for them. Of course when Mac and Ri started talking about what they needed to do to get past the security system, Jack felt like maybe he should have paid attention instead if singing Swingin' on a Star under his breath, because it turned out to be pretty irritating and he wished he'd been more mentally prepared for it.

Despite feeling like they were out looking for the Great Pumpkin for a while, Jack had to admit that, as usual, Mac's seat-of-his-pants solution worked pretty well, especially when combined with Riley's assistance over the comms.

Jack thought for perhaps the thousandth time that he really didn't get rich people. This room looked like a museum, and nothing in it was all that great as far as Jack could see. One of the sculptures looked like a stack of his nephews Legos. Mac knew him too well, since without even glancing over his shoulder, he said, "Jack, don't touch that."

Of course, immediately after chastising him for almost touching something like Jack was five years old, Mac asked for his shoelaces and one of his boots. He had the sneaking suspicion he was going to be finishing this already annoying mission barefoot. Then he had to smile at the total Indy move Mac was pulling to accomplish filching this whatever-the-hell blue horse monstrosity they needed.

The feeling of the plan working was a lot like realizing you'd completed a really tough level of a video game on Legendary. There was a definite rush to it. Then Mac got all touchy about the blue horse guy and was handling the thing like it was a new born baby. Jack huffed a sigh and limped, one-shoed over to a chair he spied to wait out Mac's fussing over the package.

Unfortunately, that was the thing that made sitting suddenly out of the question. Mac looked so offended that Jack was almost waiting for him to go full Dr. Jones and yell at him that the damned thing belonged in a museum. He thought again that he really didn't get rich people. Or art either apparently. What he did get was that with security already on its way, he could have his boot back.

Also, he thought, sometimes he didn't get Mac. How did one guy keep so many different things so sharply present and readily available in his mind? And also, how was one human being so enthusiastic about so many subjects? Jack knew he was kind of a simply guy with simple wants and needs, but while he'd always known Mac was complicated, the last few months were a lesson in just how deep that complexity ran.

Then Riley was almost sharp with them about cutting the cameras and comms, a distinctly Matty-like edge in her voice. She didn't like losing communications one bit. Jack couldn't help but be reminded how distant she'd been the last couple of days. He couldn't keep it to himself anymore and brought it up to Mac.

Mac shook his head. "You want to talk about this now?"

He knew it was silly, but he kind of did. He and Mac had some real breakthroughs about personal stuff while under pressure at work sometimes. He laid out what was bugging him. Mac just more or less told him to leave it for later when they had hopefully made it the hell off this estate with limbs and vital organs intact.

When they finally got to a place Mac thought offered an out (albeit an unattractive one), he went to work to get them out of there. Jack saw it as an opportunity to try again to get Mac's opinion on what was up with Riley.

Mac was determined to both refocus his partner on the mission at hand, and remind him, that no matter how much Jack looked at Riley, or him for that matter, as his kids, they were adults and no amount of fatherly concern or affection was going to make it possible for him to put the parental Mr.-Fit-It hat on.

Jack's response was to get a little defensive. "Why wouldn't she want me to know?"

Mac almost laughed when he pointed out that some stories weren't exactly parent friendly. Then he realized he had a perfect opportunity to remind Jack about where those boundaries might lie, for him, too. Jack had been pretty hover-y since the Murdoc incident. "She knows where to find you, and she ain't exactly shy."

He realized almost immediately that his words could backfire on him as it related to his own relationship with Jack because everyone knew how loathe he was to ask for help, even when he needed it desperately. He tried softening that a little with, "If she wants your help, you'll know," as an indication that it was okay for Jack to trust his instincts a little, but over the top prying would get him in trouble.

They didn't have much time for conversation after that. The pool was their only option. Before he could let himself think about the drop, Mac launched himself out the window. Jack quickly followed, almost inhaling water as he gasped at how cold it was.

Didn't that just sum up how things were going about perfectly?