A/N - Hey all. Finally coming up for air again from my editing duties. Now on to the real work of my summer which is selling my book and writing the sequel. My betas are getting restless because, as you may have noticed, I love me a cliffhanger. Not a lot of action here, just some friendship stuff and a little building of tension for what comes next. Definitely a few more surprises for this one bouncing around the old brain box. Hope you enjoy! ~ J

"Well," Steve said as he breezed into Mac's office, booted Jack's feet off the spare chair so he could sit down, and tossed a manila folder with a green form sticking out of it onto Mac's desk. "Foster's pissed at you."

Mac gave a rueful smile and shook his head, closing his laptop. "Usually," Mac quipped. The twenty or so paper clip sculptures littering his desk just from this morning told Steve his teammate had about had it with desk duty and when he'd gotten Mac's permission to talk with his therapist, it became very clear that anyone who knew him, professionally or otherwise, could see this injury and the long recovery from it was damaging to his mental health. Also, when Jack had called him in and he'd examined Mac's shoulder himself over the weekend, he could find no obvious reason for the complete restriction. Don Foster just didn't like having his professional judgment questioned. Steve had done his best to soften the perception that that's what was happening, saying that Mac had confided his frustration as a teammate and Steve was just following up with his colleague to see what might be done; he also said he knew how Mac could be, working closely with him like he did now, but he didn't think this was his usual avoidance or misdirection. "But, more importantly, did he listen to you and sign the form?"

Steve shook his head and Mac's face immediately fell. Steve held up one hand, "Hold on. He said he might be willing to sign it ..." Mac's face brightened again and Jack grinned. "If …" Mac's smile was already on its way back to a frown. "Look, he thinks you're trying to bypass protocol. He'll consider revising his timeline if you come down and ask him yourself, talk over why you think you're ready, and let him take another look."

Mac rolled his eyes. "Right now?"

Steve grinned. "If you'd like to get the hell out of this office, yeah."

Mac got up, picking up the folder with the still-depressingly unsigned form in it. Then he leaned against his desk with another sigh.

"You good, Mac?" Steve asked.

"I hate doctors."

"All of us?" Steve raised his eyebrows with amusement.

"Present company excluded … Most of the time." Steve laughed, and Mac gave sheepish grin. "But Foster is kind of permanently on my shit list."

Steve got up to go deal with some paperwork of his own. Reducing his hours to spend more time at home with his family while Mac was recovering caused it to pile up in irritating ways. "I can understand why; especially since you're kind of on his too. Stubborn patient plus stubborn doctor equals a minimum of two frustrated people, usually with the byproduct of a frustrated nurse or two. But if it makes you feel any better … I think I've already got him convinced."

Jack got up, too and put a hand on Mac's shoulder. "Let's go, bud."

Mac elbowed him as they started down the hall. "I need an escort to Medical? I asked for this."

Jack grinned. "No. Although you're probably worse than me for avoiding that place … Strike that, you are definitely worse." He chuckled at the mostly playful dirty look Mac threw his way as they got on the elevator. "But I am still your personal security guy … And there are advantages to having me tag along."

"Such as?" he asked, but he was grinning as he realized what Jack was up to. He didn't need a one on one detail in the building, unless they felt like it.

"Such as, Don Foster will do anything to avoid seeing me since the day he decided sneaking up and stabbing me was a good idea. Things'll go a lot smoother for you, I'm guessin', if I just go stand there with my arms folded and look annoyed."

Mac smiled. "I don't actually know how good you are as individual security, but you are one hell of a partner."

"Don't you forget it," Jack clapped him on the back as they got off the elevator and Jack put on his best cold operator face to glare at the disagreeable physician with.

0-0-0

"Good to have you back, Double-Oh-Science," Matty said with a smirk as Mac passed her the appropriate form, looking about as smug as she thought someone as humble as he usually was could manage to look.

Mac flinched, "That's not a thing now is it?"

She smiled. "I'm trying it out. At least you've graduated from Baby Einstein. You almost look old enough to shave today."

He shook his head and sat down at the table, closely followed by Jack, who was chuckling and mumbling, "Double-Oh-Science," under his breath.

Mac gave him a genuine glare. "No. Jack … Jack, I mean it."

"Alright, alright." He shook his head, still smiling. "Now that we're back in the game, what's the plan, Matty? And where's the rest of the team?"

Matty looked down at her computer and then back up at her two operatives. "The rest of the team is tying up some loose ends related to moving back out into the field." Mac grinned at the words into the field, but sobered as he took in Matty's serious expression. "I'm glad you've recovered from your injuries, Mac, but I need you to know that thinking you were going to just head back out willy-nilly on the doctor's say so was putting the cart a bit before the horse."

His eyebrows drew together. "Meaning?"

"Meaning, the threat Miss Carpenter made us aware of relative to the Organization is credible. We've discovered seven different contracts out on you in the last three days."

Mac's expression could be classified as skeptical at best. "And? People wanting me dead is not exactly new, Matty. Staying not dead is just part of the job."

She smiled, almost chuckling. "And you're mostly very good at that. But these are not hits. These are capture and deliver … still breathing is the only caveat to the condition whomever is hiring has attached to these … extremely lucrative is the best way to put it … offers. In fact several of the offers seem to indicate a certain amount of your suffering will be worth a bonus."

Mac leaned back in his chair, running his hands over his face and through his hair, obscuring his expression for a moment, while Jack was so far forward on his seat and his expression so alert he seemed prepared to bolt out of it. Jack asked, "And has anybody picked up these offers?"

Matty nodded, glancing at Mac whose face was screwed up into a thoughtful expression. "Three takers so far. One of them is going by the name Conrad Donnelly, an alias we have successfully tied to Murdoc when we investigated the Dan Connors identity."

"So the bastard is still alive," Jack growled.

"It would certainly seem so. At the very least, someone is operating within the network of identities he established for himself."

Mac swallowed, "Conrad is Nikki's mother's maiden name. You think that's a coincidence?" he asked, glancing around almost hopefully.

Matty was sympathetic. "I think assuming anything about this case is a coincidence would be very dangerous at this point."

Mac was nodding thoughtfully, no longer looking quite so put out about Matty putting the brakes on field missions outside of this case. "So, I'm still on this mission, then? Because if I have to keep playing desk jockey I'm going to wind up losing my mind."

"That was going to be my next topic." She punched in something on her tablet. "You're cleared for the field and that's where your strengths are. But right now, I'm going to ask you to keep in local."

Mac's frown said he wanted to interrupt, but he just nodded.

"I'm going to need you around Phoenix for something I want to try."

She looked so hesitant, the hair started standing up on the back of Mac's neck. "Which is?"

"I think Nikki knows more than we have been able to discover through the methods we've tried so far … And you've played her brilliantly the last two times you've met, in DC and again here at headquarters."

"You want me to interrogate her again, because … I'm willing … It's just not ever been my strong suit … I'm better with machines than people … Which based on how you're raising your eyebrows, you figured out a long time ago …" he trailed off sheepishly.

"I know I told you I would never use you as bait. And I won't which is why you'll keep security and when you're in the field there will be extra back up. We know they're gunning for you and they want you alive … I don't think that bodes very well for you if they catch you."

Mac cleared his throat, "No, I guess it probably doesn't."

Jack was a little more animated. "So they damned well better not get anywhere near him, Matilda."

Matty nodded. "Settle down, Dalton. I don't intend for the Organization or anyone else to get their claws on our boy genius." Mac had the fleeting resentful thought that they'd probably still say boy genius and call him kid when he was forty. Then that was tempered by the thought that if they didn't bring down the Organization he probably wouldn't live that long, and whatever life they let him have would be something he wouldn't want to make it though anyway. "That's why I'm not going to use him as bait or let him too far out of my sight for the time being. But I would like to ask Mac to be an incentive, to be willing to talk to Nikki, to spend small amount of time with her …"

"I can't pretend to still want to be involved with her, Matty. I can't do it," his voice carried some heat. "I … that's too much."

She held up her hands. "And I'm not asking you to. But she's just twisted and obsessed enough that I think we could use that to get her to spill everything even if all we gave her was pictures of you reading the newspaper. It's a technique I've seen used before, to great effect."

Mac glanced at Jack who looked about as thrilled about that as he felt. Then he looked down at the floor for a few minutes before meeting Matty's eyes again. "I'll give it four weeks. If nothing breaks by then, I want to go after the Organization myself. No more of this passive crap. I can't take much more of it."

Matty gave a little nod. "Four weeks. I'll arrange it."