Bomb + Doctor + Mattress + Doors
Epilogue
THE PHOENIX INFIRMARY
…THEY HAVE NICER DOCTORS HERE
"I'm glad you're all right."
Mac looked up at Desi from his reclined position on the hospital bed. "Does this mean you're talking to me again?"
"Well, let's play it by ear," she replied with mock seriousness.
He chuckled. "That's fair. Desi…I never wanted to hurt you. When we broke up—"
"Mac, I…don't want to have this conversation here, with you beat to hell and in a hospital gown. I want to do it later, when you're recovered, and when I can throw things at you without feeling guilty about it."
"That's…also fair."
She stared at the floor for a moment. "Fact is…it took you almost getting killed for me to realize that I…don't want to be mad at you. We both got into this with our eyes open, and it just…didn't work out in the end. I don't want to lose you as a friend."
He watched her for a moment, absorbing her words. "Well, I'm torn, because I am happy to hear you say that, but I also think you're letting me off the hook too easy, and I want to talk this out, but I also don't want you hitting me with things right now."
Desi's eyes narrowed. "See, you think you're funny…."
The door to the infirmary slid open, admitting Matty, Russ and Riley. Desi squeezed Mac's arm. "Raincheck on that talk, okay?"
He nodded. "Okay."
She greeted the others and excused herself. Mac watched her leave. As she reached the door, she whispered something to Riley, who looked surprised, but didn't reply.
"You had us worried, Blondie," Matty scolded him as she reached his bedside. "Don't ever do something like this again."
Mac knew better than to say anything other than what he said next. "Yes, ma'am."
"You'll be happy to know that we were able to verify what Russ already guessed," Matty continued. "There was no atom bomb. The NLF suspected they had a mole in the organization, who was feeding intel to Western intelligence agencies. They decided to root him out with a false bomb-making scheme."
"He'd report it to the West, someone would take the bait, and then they capture whoever came and find out who the mole was," Mac said.
"And we were the lucky winners," Riley mused grimly.
"The CIA didn't fully trust the source, and they didn't want to look foolish hunting for WMDs where there weren't any," Matty said.
"So, they punted it to us," said Mac. The spy world was a cynical place, filled with lies and buck-passing.
Matty seemed to share his feelings. "I've already had words with the Deputy Director in Langley."
Russ folded his arms and leaned against the wall near the head of the bed. "My source at MI6 extends her apologies as well, but told me that they did manage to extract their mole. He'll be living comfortably under a new identity any day now. Scant comfort, I suppose, but a brave man has been saved. And, Riley's spyware program was successful, the Tunisian authorities have already rounded up another two dozen members of the cell."
"That is good news," Mac agreed noncommittally. His throbbing head didn't want to hear it right at the moment.
Matty read his mood. She patted his arm sympathetically. "You need to rest. You're off the clock for the next seven days."
"Yes," Russ chimed in. "In fact, you both have earned a paid vacation."
Mac wasn't sure what surprised him more. That Matty had granted them a whole week off, or that Russ was willing to pay for it. They turned to leave. Riley hovered near his bedside.
"Oh," Russ stopped, turning back. He was holding some kind of device in his hand. "I know you've been concerned about your interrogation, Mac, but I have something that might put your mind at ease. This was found in your cell."
"Is that a transmitter?" Riley asked, eyeing the device. "But, I checked the cell for bugs when we first got there, I didn't find anything."
Russ smiled coyly. "It was buried inside the mattress. Our forensics team only discovered it when they X-rayed it."
"How did it hear anything from inside the mattress?" Riley asked.
"Ah, yes, they had a rather ingenious solution to that," Russ replied. "They—"
The answer popped into Mac's head almost instantly. "They wired it to the spring coils inside, turning the entire mattress into an antenna!" He looked at Riley. "They heard everything we said in there."
Russ nodded. "Indeed. There was no way you could have anticipated that. The important part is, you didn't give the good doctor anything, Mac. Not about being an agent, not about your friends. He already had the information before he began your interrogation, and uh, leveraged it against you. Tried to make you think he'd broken you when he hadn't." He glanced between them, giving Mac the impression that he'd heard what was recorded, too. "Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery. I expect to see you both in one week."
He left the Infirmary. Mac stared at the closed door for a moment, then shook his head. "I should have guessed."
"You weren't thinking straight, Mac. Take the good news for what it is."
He looked back at Riley, a smile tugging at his mouth. "Yeah."
It was the first time they'd been alone since getting back from Africa. His eyes drifted down, and he noticed that she was holding his hand again. The memory of the plane ride home had been rolling around in his head all morning.
The semi-conscious mind is a very tricky thing. Sights, smells, sounds, sensations, everything is heightened in that netherworld between asleep and awake, so there is a very strong possibility that I, in fact, only imagined Riley kissing me last night. The question now is: do I bring it up, and potentially look like an idiot in one of my closest friend's eyes, or do I pretend it never happened? If the last few days have taught me anything, it's that life is short, and we never know when our number is up.
"Riles—"
"Mac—"
He grinned. "I'm sorry, go ahead."
She looked chagrined. "No, you go first."
He shook his head, slowly to avoid worsening his headache. "No, I insist. Please."
Riley chewed her lip for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Look, Mac—"
"Ah, Mr. MacGyver," Doctor Perez greeted him as she stepped in front of the bed. "I have some good news."
Mac frowned, sharing an exasperated look with Riley. They couldn't catch a break. He forced a smile. "Great, I'm all ears."
"All of your tests have come back, and while you'll be sore for a few days, we haven't detected any signs of long-term damage. Your CT scan looks good. Get some rest, stay hydrated, and soon you should be good as new."
"That's fantastic news, doc," Riley said.
"However, I strongly advise you to stay with someone, just to be sure. Your body has absorbed a lot of trauma, and there's always a danger that symptoms could develop later."
Mac's eyes widened. "Oh. Okay. But, I'm…free to go?"
Perez nodded. "I've prescribed some pain medication and an antibiotic cream for the burns. You can pick those up on your way home."
He thanked her, and she excused herself.
Mac glanced at Riley, who was staring at the floor quietly. He couldn't read her expression, and he feared the worst. Maybe he had just imagined it….
"I, uh, I guess I'll ask Boze if he wants to do a sleepover," Mac quipped, trying to break the tension. He pushed himself off the bed, groaning softly as his abused muscles protested.
Riley grabbed him to steady him. Her expression had softened. "No. Um, I'll go with you. We're both off for the week, and this way Bozer won't be waking you up when he leaves for work."
It sounded reasonable. Mac watched her, but she didn't give away anything she was feeling. Not for the first time with Riley, he found himself at a loss for what to think.
MAC MAC MAC
HOME SWEET HOME
Riley padded out to the deck on her bare feet. When she got within sight of the fire pit, she sighed softly. Mac was sitting there, for the third night in a row. She glanced over her shoulder at the clock. 3 AM. This time he was reading something in a file folder, instead of staring into the fire like the previous two nights.
"You're supposed to be resting," she said gently as she moved to sit next to him. He didn't look up from his reading. "Can't sleep again?"
He shook his head silently.
"Nightmare?"
He glanced at her. The miserable look in his eyes was visible even in the fire light. "Couldn't breathe. Choking on water. Everything…seizing up until I felt like I was going to break into pieces. Him standing over me. The same as last night."
She could have offered a platitude, or a lame prediction that it would be better soon, but neither of those would have helped Mac's mood, so she opted for commiseration. "You realize that both of us have a comprehensive psych eval coming next week, right? Matty didn't say it, but there's no way she hasn't already scheduled one."
"Oh yeah. Definitely."
She smiled. "Do you know what you're gonna say?"
Mac smiled back, faintly, and the tension in his face seemed to melt a little. "Been rehearsing the lines all day."
Riley nodded toward the file. "Whatcha reading?"
He handed over the file without hesitation. "Matty got the CIA to release it to me."
She glanced over it, eyes settling on the official US Army photo paper clipped to the front page. "This is him."
"Unredacted," Mac said grimly. "Doctor Ian Page, MD."
Riley skimmed the file. "Dishonorable discharge, insubordination, torturing a prisoner, lying to investigators, showed no remorse at his court martial, left U.S. for South America in 2013…jeez, Mac he's worse than I thought. Freelance torturer? Implicated in eleven hostage deaths since 2014?"
"It's all there," Mac nodded, watching her read. "He told me the truth."
"It's crazy how one mistake totally changed his life," she mused.
"It was no mistake," Mac rumbled. There was a trace of venom in his tone that she'd rarely heard from him. "He chose to go down that slippery slope."
"Hm?"
He shook his head. "Just something he said to me."
She looked up at him, then very deliberately closed the file folder. "Mac, you're never going to be able to sleep if you keep reliving this."
He shrugged. "Can't do anything but relive it."
Reaching out, she placed her right hand on his knee. "You need to focus on something else. Anything else."
He stared into the fire for a few long moments, then arched an eyebrow. "Okay."
She watched him questioningly. After a few failed starts, he turned to her. "I want—I need to talk about what happened on the plane."
A feeling of trepidation bubbled up inside her, but she let him speak. She'd brought this on, after all, and now she had to face it.
"It did happen. I didn't imagine it…right?"
Reluctantly, she shook her head. "No."
Mac looked more nervous than she's ever seen him, which, deep down, made her love him even more. He continued slowly, cautiously. "I thought you wanted to keep that door closed? I mean, I guess we decided to keep it closed."
It was time to admit it. She didn't want to lead him on, it wouldn't be fair. "We did, but, the past couple of days, I started to think it was a mistake."
He watched her, but said nothing. He appeared transfixed, as if he were afraid to move or even breathe. She pressed ahead before she lost her nerve. "When we were in that hellhole, and I heard you…screaming down the hall, I really thought that I might never see you again. And, because of that, I realized…that I couldn't bury my feelings anymore. I mean, I don't know if that makes any sen—"
She was cut off when Mac suddenly leaned over and kissed her. She was startled at first, but quickly melted into it. They held it for long time, only breaking off when they began to run out of oxygen.
"I hope…" Mac stammered, looking like a schoolboy caught peeking. "I hope that wasn't overstepping." He watched her for a moment, then panic flared in his eyes. "It was, wasn't it? I've ruined everything haven't I—?"
Riley put her hands around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. "I guess turnabout is fair play, right?"
They kissed again. Mac was a good kisser, even with a still-healing lower lip. She pulled away, reluctantly, watching the reflection of the fire in his eyes. He didn't move a muscle, and Riley could see those mental gears moving again.
"Would...would you like to go on a picnic with me? Under the stars?"
Blinking in surprise, Riley huffed a laugh. "A picnic?"
Mac nodded, and she couldn't quite decipher the look on his face. "Yeah. I know a place."
Riley grinned. "Are you asking me out on a date, Mac?"
"If the door is open."
It was.
"I'd love to."
END