Jack paced around the room asking everyone to double and triple check their work before they submitted the information as a false lead. Jack was the guns, he was the muscle. Without the action what good was he? He couldn't hack into cameras like Riley. He couldn't boss around people like Matty. He couldn't analyze people and their tactical decisions as well as Kage. Damn, even Boz was going more than him. Boz had taken tasks with Matty running telephones with Jill and making calls just to hand them over to Matty once she was done yelling at the last person on the phone. Everyone was doing something, but Jack was freaking out on anyone who even suggested him to take a short nap or eat.
"Hey, Jane?" Jack corrected himself. "Jess? How are things going on your end?"
"Jill." She corrected him for the millionth time. "Not good. Matty has one operative back on there way from Russia on the senator's case, but her team is wasted and exhausted. She might not be any better. And there's this other thing."
"What?"
"The attendant is dead. Found dead at 7:22 by a customer asking about pump seven."
"Shit!" Jack shook his head. The only guy who could give a positive ID was dead. "Ri, how about those cameras, I know they bad but we gotta try. Murdoc must've called in some sort of favor or debt to get this done. Keep him from spilling anymore to us."
"The whole store lost power about forty minutes before the customer even arrived." Riley typed away. "That's why he was asking about pump seven. He wanted to know if there was another way to get gas."
"I have the agents name if you want it, Jack," Jill informed.
"Ok, Jen," Jack waited for the correction he knew should be coming, but when Jill finally gave up he continued. "Send me her fill, will ya?"
"No can do, Matty says her security clearance only grants her the first and last name of the agent."
"Jack," Matty had been put on hold. "Jill is right. They won't even give me so much as a middle initial and this agent is coming from our sister agency in Los Vagas."
"I need to know who we are working with Matty!" Jack was furious that their own sister union would give them such little information to go on.
"She volunteered Jack," Matty took a deep breath in. "But not for free."
"What does that mean?"
"Her daughter Macalynn, 4 years old has been kidnapped as well. She says if we promise to help her get her Mac back, she guarantees to get ours back."
"You spoke to this lady?" Jack sounded unsure.
"Yes, Jack," Matty wanted to put all of Jack's worries to rest. "Her director who apparently has a high enough clearance to gain access to all of my teams' files, even if I can't touch one of his, says she's a deadly mix between yours and Mac's styles."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means, Jack, she might not be smarter than blondie but she sure in the hell is up there." Matty's voice shook. "And she has one hell of an aim and a slightly worse temper."
"Matty, I don't want anybody who has a temper around our boy!" Jack almost broke. This was the agent he'd be throwing at Mac? What if her temper broke and she took a wrong shot and got him killed? "He has Murdoc to deal with and-"
"Shut up, Jack. She has been the only agent who has even looked in our direction."
"Give me the information on that kid of hers. Unless her kid is above your clearance too." Jack sneered.
"She already sent the file straight to us with your name on it."
"Why'd she send it to me?"
"Because you're the muscle, Jack." And with that Matty hung up the call and Riley, who had been listening in, pulled up the digital file of one very young Macalynn Petrona.
Jack began looking over the file, happy to finally do something that might be productive to find his partner, his best friend, his ki-.
No, he's not mine. Mac is looking for his dad. All I can do is be there to support the kid and get him out of whatever hellhole Murdoc has him in. Jack thought. He looked back on the small child with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Even in her official records pictures, she was smiling a great big, genuine smile. It reminded him every bit of Mac. He didn't stop the tear from inching its way down his scruffed face, and it didn't go unnoticed by Riley, who was the only one still in the War Room.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mac didn't know when he lost consciousness or even how long he'd been out for, but what he did know was that a lot had changed since then. They were now in a black Sadan, he had a foul taste in his mouth, his hand's hand been tied together and to his lower torso with a blanket over them, he was leaned against the back window of the passenger side, and Murdoc was sitting next to him with another bottle of water and an empty plastic cup.
"You threw up. It was quite gross." Murdoc informed. "So I thought you might want to rinse your mouth out."
Mac just glared at him remembering the last time Murdoc had him drink something.
"Relax, I mean for you to use this to rinse your mouth out." Murdoc moved the bottle closer to Mac. "What you do with the rest of it is your choice."
"What's in it?" Mac looked down at the bottle.
"Water."
"What else?"
"H2O?" Murdoc also grew puzzled. "You don't think I put something else in it do you?"
"It's hard to believe that you didn't."
"Well, I left it sealed just to show you I didn't"
"Injections." Mac pointed out.
Murdoc squeezed the bottle firmly. "No water came spuing out."
"Resealed."
"Honestly, MacGyver! You give me way too much credit." Murdoc laughed. "I don't have time for that. But that will be something I must try with Jack and his favorite beers."
Mac was shooked. No. Not Jack. "You better not."
"It would be your idea if I did." Murdoc ushered the use of the water again.
"Fine, but I can't reach it." Mac looked down at the blanket that covered his lap.
"Now, you really think I'd allow you to have your hands free?" Murdoc's eyes showed no emotion but he contorted his face to show something similar to a human confusion. "No, no. Tilt your head back."
Mac reluctantly agreed. The taste of bile was very disgusting and he'd do whatever it took to get rid of the taste. Murdoc would allow Mac to keep small amounts of water in his mouth at a time and spit it out into the cup. Once Mac decided he could live with whatever was left behind he began swallowing the water from the bottle. Murdoc saw what was happening and allowed more water to flow into Mac's mouth
Murdoc carefully watched from the side as he saw Mac's throat bobbing up and down and the small drizzles of water find their way down his cheeks like tears. The beauty of holding possibly the worlds most precious asset in his hands made hard for Murdoc to allow the moment to continue to be any more silent. "That's a good Boy Scout."
These words made Mac cough up the little liquid that was still in his mouth. "What the hell?" He choked out.
"What?" Murdoc found nothing wrong with what he had said.
"Nothing," Mac said knowing it was better not to keep a conversation with Murdoc for long. He'd drive himself crazy if he did that.
"Now, let's get going then."
"Where to?" Murdoc gave Mad a dirty look. "Worth a try."
Murdoc left through his side of the door and as the door was still open he moved a small lever in the upwards position, probably the child safety lock if Mac had to guess. Murdoc shut the door and as he did Mac tried in a quick and desperate attempt to open his. Nothing. All it earned him was another dirty stare from Murdoc. "Worth a try, Angus?"
"Yes," Mac whispered.
"If it had earned you a bullet or possibly the loss of some fingers, would it still be worth the try?"
"Depends if it worked and how far I got."
"You will never get far from me Angus."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Three inpatient hours later, Jack stood not ten feet away from the mother of Macalynn, outside the Pheniox, because Matty ordered him to go get fresh air or she would send him home with armed guards. When Jack had said those guards would be better spent finding Mac she gave in a glare that would make most people quit and neede therapy.
She was a slender 5'6", the woman, who looked about seventeen but swore up and down she was almost twenty-one, still left Jack unconvinced. She had a short sandy blonde pixie cut, practical for the field she would add, but looked as if she had cut it last night due to needing a fresh new look for the tiring operation she'd just finished. She looked exhausted and had a bruise on the left side of her collarbone that looked just the right shape to be a size thirteen shoe print. Jack guessed that underneath her hoodie and black jeans she probably had more of the same sized injuries, if not worse. Her eyes were probably supposed to be the same as her daughters vibrant baby blues but due to jet lag and lack of sleep that many agents get had, they turned a dull grey color.
Jack offered her a quick med check down in the medical lab of Pheniox but she politely turned down the offer. They made their way up to the War Room, but before that Jack thought he'd try his hand at "pleasant conversation" that was more like a small interrogation.
"So-"
"Sirena," Sirena filled Jack in.
"So, Sirena, Rena if I may," Jack tested the boundaries, but she looked too tired to care about the man she just met trying to shorten her already short name by two letters. "How is it at the age of twenty do you manage to have your entire identity so classified, that the one person with the highest security clearance I know, can't even access your middle initial?"
"If you know that it is classified," She began. "Why ask?"
"Just curious," Jack admitted the truth after on hard glare. "Okay, fine. I'm worried."
"About?" Her voice was soft and calming but from what little Jack had heard, there was a snake hidden somewhere in her vocals.
"My partner." Jack couldn't hide anything, not even from the woman he'd met three minutes and thirty-two seconds ago.
"He means a lot to you, as most partners often do." They stopped walking. "But he must mean more. From the file I skimmed, he is somewhere in his mid-to-late twenties, and you are a bit older. Not only are you listed as his bodyguard, but on any mission, he goes on he ends up getting hurt worse when he is not with you. And your agency has made a special note of your codependency."
"How the hell do you know so much?" Jack stood there.
"I have a temporary security clearance that rivals Ms. Webers, I thought I would use this as much as I could to learn the dynamic between his team and him."
"And?" Jack looked in her grey eyes and noted that the blue was slowly returning to them. "What did you find out."
"Ms. Samantha Kage is the newest member of your team. Riley Davis hacked into some rather confidential files and landed herself into a supermax prison until the Pheniox foundation found uses for her skill sets after Nikki-"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it." Jack shook his head and they once again picked up their journey to the War Room. "What I meant was-"
"You guys have a very close relationship, well you Wilt and Riley do. I haven't seen much evidence about the close relationship with Samantha."
"Look Kage is a good person but…"
"You don't have the super close relationship like with Riley, Angus, or even his roommate Wilt."
"Bozer, Riley, Mac, Kage, and Matty," Jack took a deep breathe in. "Are my family and I just want to protect them."
"I'm sorry." She looked down. "I'm not sure if I got ahead of-"
"No, no. Don't go getting sappy on my this early. I know you're just doing your job analyzing everything." Jack smiled and added. "Besides I heard you're a badass."
She gave a slight smile that reminded him of the picture he'd seen before of a younger her, but this smile had seen some unpleasant things. Things that he knew a twenty-year-old mother should not have seen. "So how old were you when you had Macalynn."
"I had Mac when I was sixteen almost seventeen." A flicker of pain came across her face that was quickly erased by her next statement. "But she is the smartest little girl in my whole world, and I will not stop until I get her back."
"Same here Rena." Jack put a hand on her shoulder carefully not to put too much pressure on an existing bruise in case there was one. "Same here."
Note: Guys, I do read your comments and I thank you for your support and the push that you guys are giving me! Let me know where you think Mac is going. Who has Macalynn and what you think of my OC. Help me fill in some missing plot points! C'ya soon!