Mac hadn't been kidding when he said he was going to treat their unplanned detour to Norway as a touristy vacation. He kept Alexei occupied, taking him to all the local sights and getting him to Snapchat his brother so he could enjoy some of Oslo, too, even if it had to be vicariously. They saw all the museums, the Botanical Gardens, the Norwegian Royal Palace, visiting the Munch Museum and the Vigeland Sculpture Park almost daily. At night Mac suggested all manner of diversions for the group; the opera, the ballet, music festivals, guided tours. On the weekends he led everyone around to sample best street food he and Lex had found over the course of the previous week. When he wasn't doing that, he visited Kolya in the hospital, keeping him entertained with stories of Alexei blossoming in a place that valued its young people and welcomed people in, and sneaking in a fair amount of the good street food they'd discovered. He video chatted with Bozer, and since his best friend had, in the rest of the team's absence, started seeing Beth, the cute blond girl with glasses who also worked as a tech in the lab, they mostly talked about whether or not it was too soon for him to be thinking about moving in with her and how Mac would feel about not having his roomie around to make waffles every morning. Mac spoke of their mission very little, always seemed to be elsewhere when they had conference calls with Matty, and didn't complain once about wearing the sling he'd left the hospital with as prescribed, nor did he mention getting back to work. Jack watched all of this with quiet interest. He's seen this behavior on Mac before. If he kept his body busy and his mind occupied constantly, he didn't have to deal with what was going on beneath the surface. And maybe he wouldn't dream. It hadn't been working as well as Mac thought. He and Jack were sharing a room. Every night Jack heard the pained and sometimes hunted way Mac mumbled in his sleep.

0-0-0

Despite lining them out in person for going off-script and destroying the entire camp and needing to get the team plus twenty other people out of Chechnya at the last minute, their debrief made it clear that Matty was very pleased with her team. She congratulated all of them on what turned out to be a successful mission and asked if they all felt comfortable making the personnel arrangements more permanent when missions dictated it. Everyone was agreeable, especially Jack, who said he was more than happy to add some fire power to the team and they almost always needed a Bandaid. Matty blew what Steve thought of as his 'cover' by informing them that he wasn't just a medic but a full-fledged doctor who had been a field surgeon in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jack had asked incredulously what the hell he was doing out in the field instead of setting up a cushy practice somewhere warm and getting rich and fat. Steve's response only solidified his place on the team. "I move fast and bore easy, Dalton."

Matty then asked to speak to the team individually for a few minutes each. Mac had volunteered to go first. He said he'd had about all the sitting he could take and he wanted to head down to his office and make sure someone had kept his plants alive while they'd been stuck overseas. Jack wound up hanging around and speaking to Matty last. After the last time Chechnya had been involved in their relationship, he wasn't eager to get the backside chewing he was bound to get for letting Mac rewrite the endgame and then get shot, even though such a lecture was probably richly reserved. Instead, after Todd closed the door behind himself, and Jack took his seat at the table, he found Matty smiling at him. "You did good, Jackass."

He gave a small nervous laugh. "I thought you were gonna be mad at me."

"Are you kidding me?" she asked, knowing full well why that had been his expectation, and wanting, very much, to change that today. "You seamlessly integrated two new and very necessary members into your team, performed a very important humanitarian mission that, while it wasn't the original objective, needed to happen. And you got everyone home in one piece. Not too shabby."

Jack smiled, almost shyly. "Does that at least start to erase how bad I screwed up our trip to Chechnya?"

She narrowed her eyes in the way they had all come to understand was playful. "Mostly."

"How about those privileges you mentioned?"

At that moment, Steve knocked on the door. Matty waved and he stuck his head in, "Hey, if you guys are almost done, Mac wants all of us to go get a beer together."

"He's been missin' that fire pit of his I guess." Jack smiled. He liked the idea of Mac settling back in at home. Maybe he'd start to open up a little and sleep better.

"Oh, not at his place," Steve said. "At that place up the street you like, Dalton. The karaoke joint."

Jack frowned. "This was Mac's idea?" Steve nodded, not sure what was up. "Mac suggested going where the people are and that he will voluntarily listen to me sing karaoke?"

"Um, yeah. He's bet Todd fifty bucks that he won't sing 'Don't Go Breakin' My Heart' with you. And I'm here to tell you that if you buy him a couple of tequilas you could get him to be Cher to your Sonny on 'I Got You Babe'."

"Sounds like fun," Matty said, effectively dismissing Rodgers. "What's wrong, Jack?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, Matty. Mac's just not himself. I can't really put my finger on it, but …"

She shook her head affectionately. "Don't go all Big Brother on him, Dalton. You guys just got home." She got up, indicating the door.

Jack followed. "I'm doin' my best, boss. Now, about those privileges …"

Matty smiled. "Buy me a beer, Jack. Then we'll talk."

0-0-0

The bar had been noisy and crowded, filled with a lot of enthusiastic karaoke singers that were really feeling a beautiful Friday night. Mac won fifty dollars when Todd chickened out of singing with Jack, and everyone won some tremendous entertainment when Bozer hopped right up on the stage to fill in. Eventually Todd had enough tequila in him that he did a very humorous falsetto version of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and it was on social media before he had even stumbled off the stage. Mac ate wings, drank beer, laughed, and said all the right things, looking completely at home. Riley had the fleeting thought that it looked more like one of the defensive adaptations she had observed on a mission, but he bought her another beer and then she got a video call from Kalei so she never had a chance to ask him if he was okay and it slipped her mind before she could mention to Jack how off he seemed. Bozer was so caught up in showing off for Beth, who seemed to really appreciate his antics, that he didn't notice Mac's look of relief when he let his roommate know he was staying at her place for the weekend. He wanted his head on straight before he had to go back to work on Monday and a weekend by himself to just kind of let down after this long and difficult mission sounded like heaven. Sometime in the middle of 'Don't Stop Believing' which was, quite possibly, Jack's favorite karaoke song, Mac grabbed his jacket and slipped out the door, finally ready for some time alone so he could sort out the turmoil in his head. When Mac got home, he found his door unlocked and the lights on. Hand on his new cell phone and ready to call the police if he needed to, Mac eased the door open, expecting to find a very inept burglar. The blue eyed blonde who turned around in her seat on the couch was equally unexpected and unwelcome.

"Hello, Mac."

"Nikki?"

"Where the hell have you been?"