When Riley got home, she took a long shower, washed away everything from the last six months, and went to bed. Of course she wanted her sleep to be long and full of oblivion, but her dreams were full of nightmares from the mission. In her dream, she watched as the child she was trying to protect died in her arms, and the teenager standing next to bozer was killed by a GSW to the head. What they had seen was brutal, and a lot more than they signed up for, but of course that's a given when Murdoc is involved. Unfortunately, everything in her fridge was spoiled, and very much so past its expiration date. Tossing everything out, she deep cleaned her apartment, until it was dust free and spotless. Ordering a pizza, she sat on her couch with her feet on the table as she started a movie.
Once her Pizza was there, she tried to get back into her movie but it was hard. Her attention was elsewhere. Giving up, she turned the movie off, and put the pizza in the fridge. Looking at the state of the fridge- it was now clean but extremely empty, she decided now was as good as any time to go grocery shopping. Grabbing her coat, and putting on some shoes, she grabbed her wallet and headed out. Her car was small, it was an older Honda civic, but she liked it. It was old enough to not be hackable, but new enough to were it was still in good condition. It was black, and blended in pretty well, which was another reason she liked it. Starting it up, she then drove to the grocery store which was a few blocks over. After parking, she got out and made her way into the store where she started with produce. Grabbing some vegetables, but not too much since she knew she'd be called in for a mission and she didn't want it to go bad, she carried on to bakery where she bought some bread and her favorite kind of cookies. She then wandered into the frozen section where she bought a lot of frozen dinners, before ending in the isle with the chips and soda.
Making sure she had coupons, that may or may have been hacked to give her a bit more of a discount, she checked out. Her total should have been close to 70$, but she got it for 48$ using coupons and reward points (that she may or may not have hacked to give her more). After all, the government paid her, but not that well. Once her trip was completed, she went home where she unloaded her groceries and tried to clear her head again. When it wasn't working. She hacked into Mac's records and looked at what his paperwork had said.
There was no evidence of the suicide attempt that he talked about, which meant it was undocumented. There was mention of the accident, and his condition, and that he had a 65% recovery rate, meaning his back would potentially heal, but he wouldn't necessarily be able to walk again. And the most troublesome thing for Riley, was that his record said he was going to be forced to retire, or change fields. It made her angry. There was a likely chance that Mac didn't know this, as he hadn't had contact with Matty for awhile, and she was starting to suspect why. She saved her findings elsewhere and then got the hell out of the network and hid the fact she was there. With the information she had, she wanted to yell, fight and scream at Matty. Mac may not be the same, but he's still Mac, and it wasn't fair. She couldn't just not tell anyone, but she didn't know who to turn to. Obviously she couldn't go to Matty without giving up her intel, but Jack was too sensitive at the moment, Bozer was an option, but too close to accidentally tell Mac, and Mac was an obvious no since it regarded him and he probably didn't even know.
Riley was stuck in between a rock and a hard place, and it was somewhere she didn't like. Pulling out her computer, she began searching everywhere she could think for something to prevent this.
The five day break lived up to actually being five days, and the team was happy. Mac came with when the reported to the war room. They were given their next case, and as unhappy as Matty was, she knew she couldn't see Mac away. So, she'd given him a rather small position in the case. Luckily this case was more geared towards gathering intel and going under cover than anything else.
The case was a ripped of 21 first jump street, or in their case 22 jump street. Mac was lucky, he managed to get selected to be a 'student' at UCLA. Bozer was set up to be a grader, and Riley worked in the admissions office, that left Jack as the janitor, which was the only option left. He definitely was not pleased, but Matty told him to shut up or get out of the war room, she was not having it today, her patience worn thin.
Unfortunately for Mac, he was not posing as a science major that focused on physics or chemistry, but rather an anthropology major. He wasn't excited for it, but he knew it was apart of the job. For the most part, he blended right in, and no one questioned it. It took about two days for them to figure out the operation that was going down, and a day to figure out how to take it down without causing a scene. Riley had hacked into cameras so that none were recording where they needed to be. Jack had cleared the area due to a 'situation of the sticky kind, and a flu bug'. Needless to say, no one wanted to catch the supposed flu bug.
Things were going smooth until they weren't. Somehow, someone knew Mac wasn't who he said he was, and things did not go according to plan. Rather, this guy picked a fight, and was trying to kick Mac's ass. Thanks to Sam and his NCIS training and connections, Mac got trained in how to fight while confined to his wheelchair. The guy he was fighting was ruthless, 180 lbs of muscle and attitude and no moral. Mac was losing the fight. Jack finally got to him, and he fought the dude, but the dude knocked Jack's gun away. Mac looked at the gun, and as much as he hated the idea, he knew he only had one choice left. So he quickly grabbed for the gun, held it, turned the safety off and waited for a clear shot.
When Jack heard the sound of then going off, he thought someone had shot Mac, or shot him but when the guy on top of him stopped fighting, and fell over, he knew neither of them had been hit. When he turned to Mac and saw him holding the gun, and how pale and shaken Mac was, he quickly went over to his partner to calm him down.
"It's alright Mac, what you did was necessary. He was not going to give up the fight any time soon, and you had to do what you had to do. He's still breathing, I'll call an ambulance, and it'll be fine." Jack tried to calm Mac down. Mac was hurting but he hid it behind his facade of calmness once he calmed down. The paramedics did a once over to his face, he had a split lip and a black eye, and his ribs were sore but he appeared fine to them. He hid the fact that his back hurt and he was having a hard time keeping the pain from the muscle spasms out of his face. Once they were allowed to go, they were suggested that they both go home and come back in the morning.
Mac went home, and retired to his bed almost instantly. He'd not fired a gun in a very long time, and he hated it. His ears were ringing, and his hands trembled slightly. How he managed to convince Jack he was okay was beyond him. Once settled in bed, he let his walls come down. The day had been stressful, and made him realize a lot of things, one being he was not fit for the field. That was the most heavy thing he was feeling at the moment.
Another muscle spasm ripped through him and he did everything he could to not cry out in pain. It felt like his insides were being ripped apart and set on fire. He waited for it to pass before reaching for the bottle of whiskey. With it in hand, he chugged it until the pain was numbed. With his body numb, he fell into a deep sleep, one without nightmares and dreams.
The next morning he woke up with a pounding headache and upset stomach. Getting up, he slowly walked to the bathroom using his cane. His legs were shaky, but he really had to pee. Once he'd taken care of the urge, he walked back to his room. Unfortunately for him, another muscle spasm mixed with the already unstable condition of his walking, he took a tumble down, and fell pretty hard. Bozer had already left for work, and he could tell because the house was quiet and when Bozer was around, there was usually a TV on or some music playing from somewhere. His final thoughts before unconsciousness took him, was that he was going to be late for work.
Mac was late for the meeting, and Jack knew it was unlike him. The longer Mac hadn't showed up, the more concerned Jack got. Finally, after two hours of Mac not showing up, Jack decided he was going to go and check on him. It reminded him too much of the day Murdoc had kidnapped him, and it was still an open sore for him. As he got in his car, he was laced with more and more worry since Mac wasn't answering his phone. Millions of thoughts ran through his head, he drove on autopilot, knowing the way there like the back of his hand while asleep. Getting there, he saw Mac's car still there, but that didn't mean much since Mac didn't drive much.
As he walked up, his anxiety grew more and more. Knocking on the door he got no response. Going in with the key he had, he called out to Mac but got no response. As he cleared the living room, kitchen and Deck, he headed for the back of the house. Just as he'd gone down the hall, he'd found Mac passed out on the floor, laying on his stomach, cane underneath him and his limbs flailed out. He was more than grateful that his partner had a pulse, even if it was fast and thready. Pulling out his phone, he called Matty and told her that he found Mac passed out and was going to call for medical help. She insisted on using Phoenix resources, and sent a medical team to go retrieve him. Thanks to the bad guys always shooting at them, Matty had allocated resources so that they had their own private ambulance and paramedics team.
Within a few minutes they were there and loading Mac onto a backboard and into their ambulance. They started an IV and checked his vitals. Everything came back within normal range. Once back at Phoenix, the medical team ran intensive tests to find out what happened. Within two hours, they saw that he had a concussion from the apparent fall, and his spinal cord was once again bruised. The damage was done, and now it was only a matter of time to see how it healed once again, but also how Mac would take the news.