AN: This chapter is a bit longer again, over 8000 words. Thanks for bearing with and continuing to give a great reception to the last few shorter episodes!
MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE
LA
Jack sat back on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table with a comfortable sigh, as Bozer started Die Hard, then sat back himself and bit into his slice of pizza (there were two pizza boxes lying on the coffee table, and Mac's self-opening and now-walking – he'd done some work on it last week – Esky was by the couch).
They and Mac (who was in his room chatting to his dad – he'd told them to start the movie without him, since he didn't know how long he'd be, and he'd long memorised it anyway) were having a boys' night in, since Riley was having dinner with her mom.
John McClane had just arrived at Nakatomi Plaza when the door opened and Riley, looking very lost in thought, walked in, ignoring Jack and Bozer's surprised and concerned calls of her name, and sat herself down on the arm of the couch next to Bozer, stole his beer and drained it.
Bozer reached out and rested his hand on his girlfriend's.
'Riley, is everything okay?'
Jack put down his pizza slice and his beer, having suddenly lost his appetite.
'Is your mom alright?'
Riley eyed off Jack's beer, and Jack picked it up again, holding it closer to himself, to prevent her from stealing it (he had the feeling that she probably shouldn't have more alcohol right now…). The hacker rolled her eyes at his action, then sighed and squeezed Bozer's hand, looking down, then up again.
'My mom's got a new boyfriend.'
Fifteen minutes later, Mac walked out of his bedroom to find Jack struggling for words, drinking beer and not paying very much attention to Hans Gruber's takeover of Nakatomi Plaza, Riley chewing determinedly on a piece of pizza and staring at the television, but not really watching, and a rather concerned-looking Bozer glancing between the two of them, silently rubbing circles on his girlfriend's back.
I missed something really big, didn't I?
PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS
SOMEWHERE IN LA
'This is Jeremy Howard, PhD.' Thornton tapped the screen, and a picture of a man of about forty, wearing glasses and a lab coat appeared. 'He was an electrical engineer with DARPA in Arlington until last night, when he stole a USB of classified schematics.' Mac, Jack, Riley and Bozer all nodded seriously, as their boss continued. 'You are heading to Arlington, where you will recover the USB and arrest Dr Howard.' They all nodded again, Mac putting down a paperclip in the shape of a USB. Thornton gestured with her head towards the door. 'Wheels up in thirty minutes, get your go-bags.'
PHOENIX JET
ON-ROUTE TO ARLINGTON
'…Dr Howard is married, and he has two children.'
As Riley spoke, Jack looked up thoughtfully.
'Somebody kidnap or threaten them to make him go rogue?'
Riley, still reading something on her laptop screen, shook her head, as Bozer, reading over her shoulder, did the same.
'Unlikely, he's estranged from them. Walked out four months ago.'
Bozer looked up at Jack and Mac.
'And seriously, Mrs Howard has said some real nasty things about him to her friends since…'
Riley continued.
'It looks like their marriage has been in trouble for a while; they started going to marriage counselling a year ago.' Her nails clacked on her keyboard for a moment. 'And Mrs Howard is fond of social media; she's got a routine and checks in at the same few locations every day. According to this post, she and her kids have just arrived at their favourite park, and their car's GPS confirms that.' She looked back down at her screen, then up again. 'And there's no record of anything that could be considered a threat to Dr Howard or his family.'
Jack and Mac both nodded, as the latter toyed with a paperclip, and Jack replied, looking back down at his own briefing packet for a moment.
'Alright, so not protecting his family. So we're thinking he went rogue for money?'
Bozer shrugged, Riley gave a little nod and Mac's paperclip took the shape of a wad of cash, as the blonde spoke.
'Based on the information we currently have, it's the most likely explanation.'
Riley continued, her fingernails clacking on her keyboard as she spoke.
'I'm looking through his financials right now; he hasn't received any payment yet, but…' She trailed off, and looked more closely at her laptop screen. '…For at least the last year, he'd frequented the same diner, until four months ago, when he changed diners.'
Bozer crossed his arms, leaning back a little in his seat.
'One does not simply change favourite diners.' Jack pointed at him and nodded in agreement, as Bozer continued. 'That's definitely worth checking out.'
Riley, Jack and Mac nodded in agreement.
I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but people are creatures of habit.
Bozer's right; one does not simply change favourite diners.
There has to be a reason, and that reason might just give us a good lead.
As he said, it's definitely worth checking out.
JEREMY HOWARD'S NEW FAVOURITE DINER
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
Jack walked into the diner, ignoring Bozer, Riley and Mac, who were sitting in a booth that just happened to have an excellent view of just about everywhere in the diner, in particular the door, and eating club sandwiches and fries.
The three younger agents had scoped out the diner, and unfortunately, had not noticed anything suspicious occurring, so it was time to try the second part of their plan.
Jack walked up to the counter and smiled his most charming smile at the older woman behind the counter, currently cutting up a cherry pie, whom he guessed was the owner.
'Afternoon, ma'am.'
She smiled back at him.
'Afternoon, young man.' She plated up a slice of pie and put the rest of it back under a glass cloche on the counter, before ringing a bell. A waitress, tall, blonde and in her mid-twenties, her nametag proclaiming that her name was Ana, bustled over and picked up the plate of pie, taking it over to a man in an expensive suit. 'What can I get for you, dear?'
Jack pulled out his phone and brought up a photo of Dr Howard.
'I went to school with Jeremy, and…' He looked sheepish and uncomfortable and regretful. '…I wasn't very nice to him, and I want to apologize, so I looked him up, but…' He affected a deflated posture and expression. '...he refuses to take any of my calls or respond to my emails, and my conscience has been keeping me up at night and all, and I just wanna tell him I'm sorry…' He spread his palms out flat on the counter. '…so I've been trying to track him down. One of his co-workers told me he likes this place.'
The diner owner shot him a sympathetic look.
'Oh, dear, that's very good of you.' She nodded. 'Yeah, Jeremy's a regular now. I haven't seen him in the last couple of days, but he always sits in Ana's section…' She gestured to a section of the diner. '…she might know where you might be able to find him; they seem pretty friendly; chatty, you know?'
Jack nodded, and smiled charmingly at her again.
'Well, thank you very much, ma'am, much obliged.' He eyed the cherry pie. 'I might stay for some grub, sure smells good in here.'
The woman smiled widely at him, and Jack, with a last little nod, got up and sat down in Ana's section, just as his phone buzzed.
He took it out and glanced at it. It was a text from Mac.
Ana the Waitress reacted when you mentioned Howard. She seemed suspicious and put on alert.
Jack pretended to laugh, and shook his head, putting his phone back into his pocket.
He agreed. Ana the Waitress seemed like she was definitely hiding something.
Reacting to a mention of Dr Howard, with suspicion and alertness?
Dr Howard always sitting in her section?
The two of them seeming 'chatty'?
Well, they could be having an affair.
Or, she might be somehow involved in the theft and intended sale of the USB of classified schematics.
(Or both.)
Either way, she'd have information that they needed.
Jack smiled up at Ana the Waitress as she walked up to take his order, putting in an order for steak and eggs.
(They'd skipped lunch and he was hungry.)
Fifteen minutes later, the diner owner brought Jack's steak and eggs over with an apology.
'I'm sorry, dear, Ana went on a quick break, you know, have a drink of water, get some fresh air, go to the bathroom, she was only supposed to be ten minutes, but she's not back yet…' The diner owner shrugged a little helplessly. 'She's usually one of my most reliable waitresses, I don't know what's gotten into her…'
Jack smiled at the woman, then pretended to have gotten a text message. He pulled out his phone with an apologetic look, and shot off a quick text to Mac.
Ana's done a runner.
Mac, Bozer and Riley had left a few minutes ago, heading back to the car to start digging into Ana the Waitress.
Then, he grinned and turned to the diner owner, dropping some bills on the table to pay for his meal and a tip and standing.
'That's the co-worker. He talked to Jeremy for me, says he's willing to meet up. I gotta go.'
Jack rushed out the door, as the diner owner called out behind him.
'Would you like that to go, dear? Oh, well, I guess that's a no…good luck, dear!'
CAR
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
'…Next left, then right after the lights…'
They were pursuing Ana the Waitress, whose full name was Anastasia Petrova, through Arlington, chasing her motorbike.
She'd managed to leave the diner without Mac, Bozer and Riley noticing, not passing the parking lot at the front of the diner and presumably leaving through the back, but Riley had found her motorcycle registration when digging into the waitress, and from there, it'd not been too difficult to find her on traffic cams.
She'd had a head start, but they were making up ground, though Thornton would have to get Jack out of a lot of speeding fines.
Bozer gave a fairly high-pitched yelp as Jack made a particularly sharp turn.
'Seriously, man, you're driving like Mac here!'
In the front passenger seat, Mac huffed out a breath, then, as he spotted Ana's motorbike and the road ahead of them, his I've-got-an-idea face appeared and he seized the take-away box containing a slice of cherry pie that was sitting at his feet, and pulled out his Swiss Army knife.
'Jack, get us as close alongside her as you can.'
Mac opened his window with his elbow as he worked on some strange contraption on his lap.
Jack groaned internally.
Mac was going to hang out the window of a moving vehicle again, he just knew it.
His partner was really going to make him go grey.
He floored the accelerator.
Ana Petrova glared at them as her motorbike sputtered, courtesy of Mac, and banked hard into an alleyway, obviously hoping that the size of their car meant they wouldn't be able to make that rapid turn.
She didn't count on Jack's driving skills.
ALLEYWAY
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
A moment after Ana Petrova's bike, their car screeched to a halt in the alleyway's entrance and they all rushed out.
Ana's motorbike lay dumped in front of them, and the woman herself was running down the alley.
Jack, Bozer and Riley took off in pursuit, as Mac glanced around quickly and noted a coil of rope next to a skip (someone – likely from the outdoor equipment store on the west side of the alleyway – was clearly throwing it out), and seized it (it was definitely from the outdoor equipment store; it smelled a bit fishy), tying a strategic knot as he ran after his teammates and the waitress.
Thirty seconds later, Jack, Bozer and Riley came to a stop in front of a struggling, but firmly lassoed Ana Petrova, as Mac jogged up behind them.
Jack glanced from the waitress to his partner.
'Brother, I'm taking you to a rodeo and entering you into the roping competitions.'
Mac snorted.
'I'd have to learn how to ride a horse first.'
Jack reached out and put an arm around his partner, as Riley secured Ana's wrists with her shoelace-choker (she'd kept it after their mission in Taipei, partly because it was useful, and partly because it did look pretty awesome, even if she said so herself), and Bozer took and pocketed the woman's phone.
'I'll teach you, man.'
Mac just shot Jack a look.
'Not happening, Jack.'
PHOENIX SAFEHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN WASHINGTON D.C.
Sitting her down on a dining table chair, Jack pulled the paper bag that the take-away container of cherry pie had been in off Ana's head.
Meanwhile, Riley got her laptop set up, and Bozer turned on the lights and checked the supplies in the cupboards of the safehouse's kitchen, as Mac activated the security system and started making his usual improvements and additions.
(At least there were no expense reports when Mac 'altered' Phoenix property.)
(Besides, Thornton herself had directed them to this safehouse – it'd been in their briefing packets; with the amount of covert activity that happened in the Arlington-DC area, the Phoenix kept a permanent safehouse or two in the region – she'd wave through any 'alterations' that Mac made.)
The blonde woman blinked a couple of times, adjusting to the light, then stared into the distance, resolutely quiet.
Jack sat down, backwards, on a chair in front of her.
'Alright, Ana, who do you work for?'
They were quite sure that she wasn't having an affair with Dr Howard. At least, not just an affair.
People having affairs didn't usually go to that much effort to run from people who were clearly digging into it.
People having affairs also didn't usually stay so calm and not spill the beans immediately, tearfully and emotionally after being essentially kidnapped by mysterious strangers.
No, she was definitely involved in the USB theft, and given Dr Howard's diner habits, she was probably a co-conspirator or a contact.
The woman turned to him, staring defiantly into his eyes, but refused to say anything, remaining stubbornly silent.
Following a gut instinct, Jack's voice softened a little.
'If you or your family are being threatened…'
No, it wasn't that. She wasn't being coerced; her eyes hadn't softened in the slightest, hadn't shown any worry or fear when he'd said that, simply hardened and grown a little more defiant, arrogant.
She wasn't going to talk.
Jack had a couple of sneaking suspicions, but he wasn't going to share them out loud with their prisoner. He stood and motioned with his head to Mac, who'd just re-entered the room, presumably satisfied with the security system, and the blonde agent nodded in return, sitting himself down on the chair that Jack had just vacated, turning it the right way around before he sat, to keep an eye on Ana. Jack got up and whispered to Riley, who was just starting to go through Ana's phone.
'I reckon she's a Russian spy, or she's with the Russian mafia.'
Riley glanced up at him, and he nodded grimly.
Both possibilities were extremely unpleasant and did not bode well for them.
Both possibilities meant that it was obvious that Ana wasn't going to talk.
Either way, this was going to be one tough mission.
'…Ana works for an Odessa Russian mafia boss.' Riley indicated her laptop screen to Jack, Mac and Bozer (they'd locked Ana in the special room in the safehouse meant for the purpose of keeping and interrogating prisoners; Mac was currently leaning against the door, while Jack and Bozer sat next to Riley on the dining table). 'Dr Howard is meant to meet her boss tomorrow night, presumably to turn over the USB, but I haven't managed to find out where yet…' Just at that moment, her laptop made a beeping sound, and Riley gave a little smirk. 'Well, this could be it…' Ana's boyfriend was a key, trusted enforcer for said mafia boss, and Riley had used Ana's phone to get into his phone, assuming that at some point, he'd have to be told where the meet was going to occur. Her smirk turned into a triumphant little smile, as an address appeared on her laptop screen. Jack and Bozer both reached out automatically to high-five her, and she held her right hand up to Bozer and her left hand up to Jack, eyes still not leaving her laptop screen. 'Got it. Red Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Arlington.'
Jack's eyebrows shot up, as did Bozer's.
'A Chinese restaurant?'
'I thought we were dealing with the Russian mafia?'
Riley shrugged, nails clacking on her keyboard.
'Owners are Russians…'
Jack and Bozer's expressions got even more confused.
Mac straightened up, a paperclip dragon starting to form in his hands.
'There are about 15,000 ethnic Russians who live in China and hold Chinese citizenship.' He shrugged. 'I suppose that some of them, logically, have to be interested in the restaurant business.'
Jack made a face, as Bozer shrugged, as if saying I guess that makes sense.
'Still think it's weird.'
About half an hour later, Riley sat at the dining table, digging further into Ana Petrova, Dr Howard and the Odessa Russian mafia. Jack sat in an armchair, perfectly positioned so that he had a good view of both Riley and the door of Ana's cell.
Bozer and Mac had headed out to scope out the Red Dragon Chinese Restaurant. (They were very sure that Ana had not managed to relay anything about them to her boss, having gone through her phone very thoroughly.)
After a while, Jack broke the near-silence (all was quiet, save for the sound of Riley's typing), a little hesitantly.
'How're you…adjusting?' He paused, as if not sure if she'd understand what he was referring to, and then continued, explaining further. 'You know, to the big news and all…'
Truth be told, he had a little bit of adjusting to do as well. He and Diane had tried again, after the Collective Incident, after that Christmas, but whatever they'd tried to restart had well and truly died the day he'd gotten Sarah's wedding invitation in the mail, and realized that he was not over his former partner, not at all, no matter what he'd thought.
He'd let Sarah go now, really had, just like he'd let Diane go too.
He was pretty sure it was for good now.
(They were always going to be special, but, he thought – he hoped – they'd be special in the way that Penny was special to Mac and Bozer, and Frankie special to Mac.)
Riley snorted.
'No need to dance around it, Jack. My mom's got a new boyfriend. That's just a fact, it doesn't need euphemisms.' She hesitated a moment, fingers dancing across her keyboard, but not actually typing. Then, she looked over at Jack. 'I ran a background check on him. A really thorough background check.' A wry expression appeared on her face for a moment. 'I'm not going to be fooled again.' The wry look disappeared, and she toyed with her shoelace-choker for a beat. 'He's clean. He's a good guy…' She snorted and looked down, sounding a little sad to Jack. '…unlike most of my mom's exes.' She glanced back up at Jack, a half-wry, half-soft smile on her face. 'Present company excepted.' She fell quiet for a couple of seconds, looking down, then looked back up at him, crossing her arms. 'It's just…' She shrugged, not quite able to find the words, and looked down again.
Jack watched her for a moment, then spoke, his voice soft.
'It's always hard for children when their parent starts dating someone new.'
Riley looked up and stared at him for a long moment, then made a face of disbelief.
'That sounds like you read it in a book.'
Jack rubbed the back of his neck.
'I did.' It was his turn to look down, then back up. 'I read this book when you were twelve, and me and your mom hadn't been dating very long and I was trying to get through to you.' He and Riley looked into each other's eyes for a long moment, the young hacker's eyes soft and affectionate and a little bit sad and above all, touched. Then, Jack shrugged, a little smile appearing on his face. 'The book was about teenagers, but I figured that it probably applies pretty well to adults…'
A similar little smile appeared on Riley's face, and she glanced down at the floor for a moment, fingers dancing across her keyboard, then looked back up at Jack.
'Oh, yeah? You know, I'm going to prove you wrong about that, old man.' She looked into his eyes for a beat. 'If you start dating someone…I'm going to be perfectly cool with it.'
Jack was the closest thing to a father she'd ever had. (And the only surrogate father she'd ever want – maybe that was part of the reason why she was a bit iffy about her mom's new boyfriend. She didn't want a stepfather. She wanted Jack, because he understood and cared and didn't judge and believed in her and when he didn't understand, he tried, tried so hard, and he'd always been like that, even when she'd been much harder to love, when she'd been younger, before her transformation or reformation of sorts.)
The older man's eyes looked suspiciously damp (just a little bit, but still), and he smiled back at Riley, one of those affectionate, loving smiles, and the young woman found herself returning the gesture.
Then, Jack pointed at her, the smile becoming a bit more like a smirk, but not losing that affection.
'I'm gonna remember this conversation, Riles. And I'm not gonna let you forget it if it turns out you're wrong…'
Riley smirked too, but her eyes didn't lose any of their softness either.
'Oh, I know you won't.'
CAR
ON-ROUTE TO RED DRAGON CHINESE RESTAURANT
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
'I'm worried about Riley, man.'
Bozer had been worried about his girlfriend ever since she'd come to his and Mac's place on their boys' night in.
Mac glanced over at Bozer, and simply nodded.
'We all are, Boze.'
His roommate nodded and continued, staring out the window as Mac drove.
'I mean, I know it's probably just an adjustment, and I know she's gonna be okay, because she's really tough and all, but…' He sighed. 'I still worry.'
Mac glanced over at him again, then spoke after a moment of hesitation.
'We worry about our loved ones…that's just the nature of love.'
Bozer nodded, glancing back at Mac, then back out the window.
'Yeah.' He was silent for a moment, then glanced back at the blonde. 'All we can do is be there for her, you know, be supportive and listen and be a shoulder to cry on and make comfort food…' He sighed again. 'But I really wish I could make it all go away.'
There'd been more times in his life than Bozer liked that he'd had to just be there for his loved ones, be supportive and listen and a shoulder to cry on and feed them comfort food, despite having that wish to make it all go away. (Not because it was a burden, but because of what it meant for his loved ones.) When Mac's dad had left, when his grandfather had passed, when Mac had come home from war, when he'd been hurt badly and his girlfriend had 'died' in a car accident on a work trip, after the attack on the Phoenix (after Riley had killed Horn) and after Tahoe (and he'd been even more limited in that period, having been stabbed and all).
Mac just nodded sadly, as his best friend perked up, with maybe slightly forced cheer (only slightly forced - Bozer was simply cheerful by nature), but cheer nonetheless.
'Hey, at least we know for sure she's not upset because she wanted Jack and her mom to get back together.'
Riley was always very insistent that she did not want Jack to be her actual stepdad, despite having admitted to both Mac (albeit rather unintentionally in an elevator in a classified building in Shanghai, at least the first time) and Bozer (much more intentionally) that Jack was the closest thing she'd ever had to a father, the father figure in her life.
She was equally insistent that she believed that Jack and Patricia would make an excellent couple and that it would happen one day.
Mac shook his head with a smile.
'I still don't see it at all, Boze.'
Bozer shot him a look, shaking his head.
'You're just blind, man, blind.' He snorted. 'Though, I shouldn't be surprised.' He pointed at Mac. 'I love you, bro, but you're a little hopeless at this stuff, especially when it involves your love life.'
Mac nodded, and gave a half-shrug, sheepishly and a little sadly.
A, he's not wrong. Not wrong at all.
B, what love life?
PHOENIX SAFEHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN WASHINGTON D.C.
A couple of hours later, as Riley was neck-deep in Dr Howard's financials and Jack had just finished taking another (futile) crack at Ana, Mac and Bozer returned, the former dropping a couple of large Beltway Burger bags on the dining table, and the latter scrubbing his hands thoroughly at the kitchen sink.
Jack looked at the burger bags in surprise. (Riley wasn't really paying attention; she had her headphones on and was really, really deep in Dr Howard's credit card history.)
'Not Chinese food?'
Bozer mimed being sick and Mac just shook his head resolutely as he spoke while washing his hands.
'The restaurant seems clean, we didn't see anything suspicious.'
Bozer shuddered.
'It might be clean in a doesn't-seem-run-by-the-mafia way…but it was not clean in any other way.'
Mac nodded in agreement.
'They need a visit from an inspector from the Arlington County Public Health Department. Urgently.'
Jack, too, made a face, then reached into the nearest Beltway Burger bag, and started handing out dinner.
He deliberately waved a cheeseburger in front of Riley's face.
'Come on, Riles, time for eats!'
Riley shot him a look that was part exasperated affection and part you-are-an-embarrassing-dork, but took off her headphones and took the burger from Jack anyway with a small smile and a grateful nod.
As they got stuck into their own dinner, Mac and Bozer shared a smile and a knowing look.
At 7:30 the next morning, Riley, who'd been up quite late the night before digging through Dr Howard's financials (they'd all tried to help, especially Bozer, but this was really her domain) with consultation from some Phoenix analysts, and had woken at 6 in the morning to continue her task, suddenly pulled off her headphones and spoke very seriously.
'I've got something.' She typed frantically for a moment, then turned her laptop screen to face Bozer, Mac and Jack, who were all suddenly paying rapt attention to her and not to their breakfast. 'Every single week, Dr Howard goes and purchases a candy bar from this old-school candy store. It's ten miles from his workplace and fifteen from his house, and he's been doing this for years.' Riley shrugged. 'He must really love these candy bars, because he hasn't missed a week in the last four years.' She pulled up a map, quickly getting directions from the safehouse to the candy store. 'Assuming he still needs his chocolate fix when he's on the run and selling stolen tech to the Russian mafia, he's going to be at the candy store in an hour.'
They all glanced at each other, then Mac and Jack stood, the older man speaking.
'Mac and I will go catch the chocoholic doctor; you two stay here, keep digging and keep an eye on our guest, okay?'
Bozer saluted, and Riley nodded, and then Mac and Jack made their way towards the door.
'Reckon we can get salt water taffy there, brother? 'Cause I've got a sudden craving…'
'A, we are working, Jack. B…if you still have a craving when we get home, maybe I'll re-create my automatic taffy-puller and talk Bozer into making salt water taffy again...'
Or maybe not.
Last time didn't go so well.
Some might describe it as a disaster, actually.
Still, the taffy was delicious.
It was just hard to get off the ceiling.
OLD-SCHOOL CANDY STORE
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
The aisle (if it could be called that; the candy store was tiny) that Dr Howard's favourite candy bars were kept in was, handily, near a small storage closet and out of view of both the register and the street.
Mac and Jack were simply chatting and reading descriptions of candy bars, pretending to try to decide what bars to buy, when Dr Howard came in and made a beeline for the bars he always bought.
Seconds later, before he really knew what was happening, he was shoved into a storage closet.
Mac had only just closed the door behind them when the scientist realised what had happened to him, and the first thing he did was cry out in anguish.
'You've killed them!' He cried out again and struggled futilely against Jack. 'You've killed them!'
A horrible, horrible realization formed in Mac's mind, a few seconds before it started to grow in Jack's.
Sometimes, I'm wrong.
I think this is one of those times.
Mac and Jack both swallowed as they glanced from the paused video on Dr Howard's phone, showing a woman in her early forties holding yesterday's newspaper in one hand, her other arm wrapped around a crying boy of six or seven, with a little girl, no older than three or four, sitting in her lap, desperately holding on to her mother's shirt, cheeks stained with tears, to the scientist himself, who was sobbing himself.
Jack pulled out his phone, intending to call Riley to tell her the news and get her to double-check Dr Howard's story (though, they were both very inclined to believe him, with the video before them and his raw grief and anguish which seem so genuine to their experienced – and somewhat suspicious and paranoid, after all they'd gone through – eyes), but it rang, with Riley's caller ID appearing, before he could. Jack put his phone on speaker and answered.
'Riley-'
'The check-ins and social media posts by Dr Howard's wife, the GPS tracking? That was all faked, Jack. Faked well, but faked.' She paused for a moment. 'Digital signature looks like Odessa mafia work; Jack, I think his family-'
'-Was kidnapped as leverage.' Jack paused, glancing at the still-sobbing scientist. Mac had crouched down and was trying his best to offer the man some comfort. 'We know, Riles.'
Mac glanced helplessly at the distressed Dr Howard, then looked up at his partner, his eyes hardening a little and growing very resolute, very determined. Mac looked back at the engineer.
'Dr Howard, we are going to save your family.' He put both hands on the man's shoulders. 'I promise.'
CAR
ON-ROUTE TO PHOENIX SAFEHOUSE
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
'Four and a half months ago, the Odessa mafia started threatening me…started threatening my family to get me to steal plans for them.' Dr Howard glanced at Mac and Jack. 'You wouldn't have found any record of it; they were very careful and only ever threatened me in person.' He sighed and looked down, toying with his hands. 'I had to keep my family safe, prevent them being used as leverage, so…' He sighed again, sounding a little regretful. 'I picked fights with my wife, so that it'd seem real when I left. Even to her.' He sighed again, more regretfully. 'It…well…we were having problems already, with my job on top of all the everyday things, you know, raising kids, paying the mortgage, just being married…'
Dr Howard's job was mostly classified, though nowhere near as much as their jobs.
Mac and Jack exchanged a glance. They both very much understood Dr Howard's impulse to protect his family, and the strain that having what you did for a living be classified put on relationships. (Though, Jack supposed, he probably understood that a bit more than Mac, and he had more of inkling about the everyday things that Dr Howard as referring to as well – for a short, but fondly remembered, period of his life, he and Diane and Riley had been a domestic little family, after all.)
Dr Howard sighed yet again, this time, a more frustrated sigh.
'Obviously, my plan didn't really work.'
Three days ago, his wife and children had been kidnapped, and he'd been given a burner phone and the first of three videos, telling him that his family would be killed if he didn't steal the plans.
This morning, he'd received the third video, reminding him that they'd be killed if he didn't deliver the USB of plans to the mafia boss at the Red Dragon tonight.
We are not going to let that mafia boss get his hands on the plans.
But we are also not going to let Dr Howard's family be killed.
I promised him we'd save them.
I don't break my promises.
RED DRAGON CHINESE RESTAURANT
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
'This is unacceptable!'
A minute after Dr Howard had entered the restaurant, just as he was getting seated and just as the man they'd identified as the mafia boss, with two big, brutish men, presumably his enforcers (one was definitely Ana's boyfriend), was walking in, Mac and Bozer stormed into the restaurant, dressed smartly and carrying clipboards. Mac also had a couple of bottles of cleaning supplies.
As Bozer waltzed around, dramatically making a scene and demanding to speak to the manager, Mac checked off boxes on his clipboard and carefully inspected the floor, spraying a bit of cleaning fluid on it, scrubbing for a moment, harrumphing, then checking another box on his clipboard. He then got up and turned to a man who looked to be the most senior waiter.
'Good evening, sir. My colleague and I are from the Arlington County Public Health Department.' He flashed an ID that had been obtained after Matty had called in a handful of favours on Thornton's request, when they'd concocted their plan. The man paled. 'We were here yesterday on a surprise secret inspection, and we have found at least twenty-four code violations…'
The entire restaurant, as Bozer ranted and raved and Mac calmly explained, had come to a halt, with everyone staring at the two of them, and some diners, despite the protestations and assurances of the waiters, getting up to leave.
In the chaos, the mafia boss ground his teeth as he was stalled from making his way across to the other side of the dining room were Dr Howard sat, as the engineer looked at him, eyes darting away every now and then, increasingly nervous and fearful, playing the part of a terrified, coerced man who'd just been presented with an unwanted obstacle to getting his family back perfectly.
Mac figured he probably wasn't acting, as he continued listing off violations of the Arlington County Public Health Department's code (which he'd memorized ten minutes ago) that he and his colleague had found on their surprise undercover visit.
Just like I'm, unfortunately, not lying either.
WAREHOUSE
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
Jack and Riley quietly snuck up on the door of the warehouse, as shouts and footsteps sounded in the distance (Thanks to a favour called in by Matty, which had also led to Ana being taken off their hands by the FBI, NCIS had received an anonymous tip that stolen Navy merchandise of some kind or the other was being stored in the warehouse two doors down – all the warehouses on this lot were owned by a shell company ultimately owned by the Odessa mafia – and their raid had 'conveniently' drawn most of the guards away from this warehouse, which they'd determined via some of Riley's computer magic was where Dr Howard's family was being held.). Riley pulled a couple of bobby pins out of her hair, picking the lock, earning a grin from Jack, who then put his business face back on as he burst through the door, his gun at the ready.
The three guards left in the warehouse were taken completely by surprise. One dropped to the ground almost-instantly, floored by a bullet in his knee, while a second had time to pull out his gun, but soon joined his colleague on the ground, clutching his shoulder. A third had simply rushed at them (there was a gun on a table over a map about ten feet away, which they assumed was his), and fell, whimpering, after a couple of well-placed, quick, precise and surprisingly-strong punches.
Jack glanced over at Riley, who was cuffing the man, with a smirk, which Riley returned, then eyed the man with a hint of sympathy.
On one hand, he deserved what he'd gotten, keeping a woman and her two small kids prisoner and all, but on the other hand…he'd been on the receiving end of that punch combo a couple of times, courtesy of both Thornton and Riley, and while they'd been pulled punches during sparring…they still hurt.
Then, as Jack dealt with the two other men, Riley hurried over to the locked door on the other side of the warehouse, from behind which she heard faint cries for help, and started picking the lock.
She opened the door, and held her hands up to show she was unarmed.
'I'm not going to hurt you…' She stepped inside and indicated Jack with a jerk of her head. 'I'm Riley, that's Jack, and we work for the government. We're here to rescue you…'
As the woman nodded, then smiled slowly, as if she couldn't quite believe it, pulling her two children even closer and dropping a kiss on her daughter's head, Riley tapped her earpiece.
'Mac, Bozer, they're safe.'
RED DRAGON CHINESE RESTAURANT
ARLINGTON
VIRGINIA
'…See, this upstanding gentlemen and his sons just want to have dinner with a friend, but no, they're risking severe food poisoning at the very least!' Bozer gesticulated to Dr Howard, the mafia boss and the two enforcers, who were seated together at a table at last, then at the restaurant's owner and the chief waiter. 'This is absolutely unacceptable; how dare you treat your patrons like this! I will…'
The mafia boss's teeth ground further; he looked very annoyed at the scene that Bozer was making, which was preventing him from getting his hands on the USB (he obviously couldn't demand the handover when two local government officials were around) but just as they'd been sure of, he didn't gesture for his enforcers to drag Bozer away, for example. They'd known he wouldn't dare attack a public official so openly, it simply wasn't worth it for a man who skirted around the edges of the law, hid all his illegal dealings in the grey areas and the shadows.
Mac, meanwhile, was trying to talk his colleague down and apologizing to the mafia boss, his enforcers, Dr Howard, the restauranteur and his staff.
'I am so, so sorry, he gets like this when he's had a bit too much caffeine, and he's very passionate about our work…'
At that moment, they heard Riley's words over their comms, and immediately set in motion the next portion of their plan.
Mac, from the mafia boss's side of the table and with a bottle of cleaning fluid in his hand, reached out to pull Bozer away, and his co-worker immediately started struggling, and the resultant little scuffle between the two of them, which was watched, wide-eyed, by the restauranteur and the wait staff, and even one of the mafia boss's enforcers, led to the top of the cleaning fluid bottle flying off (Mac had done his thing to it earlier in the car), sloshing the mafia boss and his two enforcers with the liquid inside.
All three swore loudly in Russian, and glared at Mac, who had instantly stopped struggling with Bozer. As Bozer herded the wait staff and the restauranteur away, Mac pulled a lighter from his pocket and smirked darkly, eyes hard.
'It smells a bit like gasoline, doesn't it? That's because it's xylene, one of the chemicals that gives gasoline its distinctive smell.' The three Russians, who had clearly noticed the smell and the implications for them, had gone very still. Mac held the lighter close to the mafia boss's also-xylene-soaked chair and moved his thumb ever-so-slightly, not enough to trigger a flame, but still a clear movement. 'Xylene is very, very flammable.' His smirk widened and his eyes grew darker as he leaned closer to the boss. 'If my thumb slips…well, I'm sure you get the picture.'
The boss glanced up at him and spoke, not quite cowed, but definitely recognizing Mac as some kind of equal and according him the relevant respect.
'What do you want? Money? Power? I can give it to you-'
Mac chuckled, just as dark as his earlier smirk.
'Oh, no. I just want you to do absolutely nothing.'
He gestured to Bozer with his head and Mac's best friend started zip-tying the hands of the mafia boss's enforcers.
When the second enforcer twitched as Bozer bound his wrists, Mac simply held the lighter up, near his boss's head, and the man stilled.
As Bozer bound the compliant boss's wrists, they all heard the wail of approaching sirens, then moments later, local FBI entered the restaurant and with nods at Mac and Bozer (they'd been briefed by Thornton), took the three mafia members off their hands.
As he was about to be hauled off, the boss looked up at Mac, confused and a little scared, Mac was sure.
'You are law enforcement?' He gestured with his head towards the lighter. 'And yet you would set me and my men on fire?'
Mac shook his head firmly.
'Oh, no. Never.' He gestured to the discarded cleaning fluid bottle on the floor. 'There's xylene in there, but the concentration's far too low for it to be flammable. Though, the concentration is high enough to get that gasoline smell; xylene's detectable by the human nose at very low concentrations; even 0.5 ppm will do.'
The mafia boss's face contorted in anger as he realized the bluff that Mac had just pulled off, and he tried to lunge at the blonde, but was pulled away by two FBI agents.
Bozer walked up to his best friend as the FBI led the men away.
'Bro, you should totally audition for the next Bond villain.'
Mac gave a little chuckle, shaking his head, then he and Bozer turned to Dr Howard, who was looking up at them with hope and relief and worry in his eyes, all at once.
They both smiled at him, and Bozer pulled out his phone to call Riley.
'They're safe.'
Dr Howard sagged with relief, then looked up, making eye contact with Bozer, then Mac.
'Thank you.'
There was a lot in those two words.
I promised him.
PHOENIX SAFEHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN WASHINGTON D.C.
'…Sixteen members of the Odessa mafia have been arrested for various offences, including kidnapping, false imprisonment and assaulting federal agents, and the classified schematics are back in the proper hands.' Thornton graced Jack and Riley with a small smile. 'Good work.'
She hung up, and Jack and Riley looked back over at the couch in the living room, where Mrs Howard was sitting, her son tucked into her side and her daughter on her lap. Beth had done a video consultation on them, and concluded that aside from being a bit malnourished and dehydrated, and in shock and with some scrapes and bruises from their ordeal, they were physically alright. She'd said that a proper examination by a doctor would be needed, but it could wait a couple of hours. Both Howard children were now chewing happily on the strawberry and yoghurt muesli bars that'd been in the medical kit.
Both Phoenix agents smiled, just as the door opened and Mac, Bozer and Dr Howard entered.
Dr Howard stared at his wife and children for a moment, before his daughter, only three and not entirely aware of what had happened, with half a muesli bar still in her chubby toddler's hands, walked over to him and flung her arms around his legs.
'Daddy!'
Dr Howard let out a slightly-hoarse laugh, and picked the little girl up, and took the piece of muesli bar she offered him with a smile. Then, his son came up to him and flung his arms around his dad's waist, and a moment later, Mrs Howard came up to them. She poked her finger into her husband's sternum.
'You are an idiot.'
Jack and Riley had explained everything to her.
Then, her expression softened and her eyes got a little teary, and she put an arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to his cheek, joining the family hug.
Mac, Jack, Bozer and Riley, who'd all shifted away to try and give the family a little privacy, simply exchanged warm smiles.
After a long moment, Dr Howard put down his daughter, and let go of his wife, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy bar (he'd bought it at the candy store upon Mac and Jack's instruction, since they needed to make it seem like he was going about his usual routine). The Phoenix agents watched as he divided it into three pieces, and handed a piece each to his wife and his children.
Jack stared for a moment, then shook his head and addressed Dr Howard as the man looked up at them.
'Wait, you don't eat those things?'
The newly-reinstated DARPA engineer shook his head.
'No, I don't really like chocolate.' He glanced over at his family and smiled affectionately, gesturing with his head to his wife. 'But Mel adores them, and the kids got her sweet tooth, so…'
He shrugged simply and smiled at his family as they enjoyed their chocolate, smile growing wider as he did so.
Mac, Jack, Bozer and Riley exchanged a glance as their own smiles widened too.
Love isn't just about grand gestures and bold declarations and defending your loved ones.
Love, my grandfather told me, is about the little things.
Listening. Comforting. Just being there. Hugs. Kisses. Handholding. A hand on their shoulder, or even ruffling their hair.
Little gestures, little gifts, like bringing home a favourite chocolate bar every week, without fail. Picking up a little present just because you thought of them. Making their favourite dinner. Buying their favourite ice-cream flavour. Picking up more Honey-Nut Cheerios, even if it's not your turn, just because.
The potential energy stored within a miniscule Uranium nucleus is huge. Fission of a single atom of Uranium-235 generates 3.24 10-11 J. That might not sound like a lot, but trust me, it is.
My point is, like an atom of Uranium, these little gestures pack a lot of power.
They do say big things come in small packages, after all.
MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE
LA
Mac stirred the soup on the stove, then grabbed a spoon from the cutlery drawer and had a taste.
Riley was having a long lunch and probably even longer chat with her mom and Diane's new boyfriend. Bozer had gone to pick her up, solely for moral support reasons, and Jack had said he'd had to go grocery shopping and run some other errands, but that he'd be over for dinner with beer.
Thus, Mac had decided to cook dinner for them. (Sure, Bozer usually cooked, but Mac could handle himself in the kitchen very competently – it was just applied edible chemistry, after all – and with Bozer having been so worried of late, and since he probably wouldn't be back with Riley until fairly late, he thought the only right thing to do was to give his best friend a break.)
He smiled as he swallowed the spoonful of soup. His mother and grandfather's secret-family-recipe tomato soup, traditional Jackson family comfort food that he'd had countless times as a boy, was coming along nicely.
Mac glanced over at the casserole dish in which bread for French toast, Riley's favourite breakfast food (and everyone knew breakfast food was the best food), was soaking in preparation for cooking, and then got to work putting the bacon, one of Jack's favourites, whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner, on the baking tray.
Bacon, French toast and tomato soup sounded a bit odd as a dinner menu, but bacon and French toast were delicious together, and tomato soup went really well with bread, and Mac was sure he could make it work.
Just as Mac had finished putting the bacon in the oven (he'd just gotten a text from Bozer saying that he and Riley would be back in 20 minutes), the door opened, and Jack walked in, beer in one hand and a box of paperclips in the other.
He put the paperclips down on the countertop beside Mac, and moved past him to put the beer in the fridge.
'I picked up some paperclips for you while buying the beer, brother, they were on sale.'
Mac grinned, putting a hand on Jack's shoulder.
'Thanks, Jack.' He hesitated for a moment, his expression softening and looking into the older man's eyes. 'Are you…are you okay with Diane moving on?'
Jack stared at him for a fraction of a second, then shook his head with a little smile. There was a tinge of regret, sadness, to it, but nothing that made Mac feel worried about the older man.
'That ship sailed a very, very long time ago, Mac, and trying to catch up with it by helicopter James Bond-style failed. Badly.'
It was Mac's turn to stare at Jack for a moment, then, satisfied by what he saw there, no longer concerned, the blonde gave a wry smile, raising his brows.
'I think your analogies are even worse than your puns, Jack.'
The older man looked very put-out and started protesting that both his analogies and puns were excellent, thank you very much.
Mac smiled and shook his head.
Jack was alright. He was okay with Diane moving on, because he'd let her go too.
Still, Mac resolved to let Jack succeed in stealing a piece of bacon off the tray when Mac took it out of the oven.
(He often tried and never succeeded because Bozer, or occasionally Mac, was rather vigilant about it, but Mac figured Jack deserved a break this time.)
It's all about the little things.
AN: This episode developed more feels than I intended it too. (It was always going to have a lot of feels, but I did not intend for it to have this many…) Anyway, hope you guys liked it!
Like the feels, Mac and Bozer as restaurant inspectors just kind of happened, but it is honestly one of my favourite scenes in this episode, the others being Jack and Riley's little talk and the end scene.
And yes, 'one does not simply change favourite diners' is a Lord of the Rings reference. The Russian-run Chinese restaurant is a sort-of NCIS reference – there's an episode of NCIS in which the team are rather shocked to find a Russian man with a Chinese name running a fortune cookie business – and Beltway Burger is the burger chain that frequently appears in NCIS.
I am also very slowly establishing a list of things that Mac cannot do. So far, the only thing (according to my memory, anyway – feel free to correct me) that the show has established he can't do is garden (well), if you don't count things like 'be evil' and fly/walk on water/be bulletproof/teleport etc. (You could also put something there about being slightly hopeless with/awkward around/not very good at flirting with women, I suppose…) Now, Mac's pretty amazing, but that's just ridiculous for any human being, so I've been slowly adding things to that list: driving (sort-of – their teasing of him is kind of a 'friend group joke', and it's probably sort-of canon that Mac is not a terribly good driver based on what happened in Fish Scaler), singing, dancing and horse-riding.
Next episode: 2.15, Chair. After getting food poisoning, Jack is forced to stay behind at the Phoenix when the team gets a mission. He gets a taste of the Director's chair, while Thornton returns to Colombia for the first time since that fateful mission went very, very south…hopefully, this mission goes better.