After six long boring weeks on mandatory leave, Jack Dalton was finally cleared by Phoenix medical to return to work. His bones were long healed and his injuries merely scars to add to an already extensive collection.
It Was a Friday night, and the team was celebrating Jack's impending triumphant return to work with steak and drinks at a local tavern. Unfortunately for Jack, his mandatory respite from work was also a break from drinking... anything and everything interesting to drink like alcohol and caffeine. His celebrating was limited to one beer. As much as the rest of the team wanted to hold back for Jack's benefit, he encouraged them to partake in as much as they desired.
Their incomplete team had had a rough time for the last month without Jack around; they completed missions without major incident, but it didn't feel right. It wasn't the same without Jack. The kids took down two bottles of rosé before their entrees even arrived . They didn't want Jack to feel left out as they pounded back beer after beer or split a bottle of Jameson, so the wine was a new and unique choice for the group. Silliness and laughs were abundant as the younger agents recalled their last mission they had just finished the debriefing for as Jack was being cleared in Medical.
Bozer could barely get his sentence out through the giggles, "and Mac was trying to distract them while Riley finished hacking into their system, and he didn't have anything to build a bomb or whatever thing to go boom," he laughed so hard that he snorted, eliciting more giggles from everyone else, "So he straight up went and pulled a StarLord."
Jack's eyes widened as he took a final pull from the beer he'd been nursing the whole time. "Are you shitting me?"
"No! He did it all! Singing, dancing, he did it." Bozer finished his glass of wine and started to move his shoulders and hips in the seat. "Ooh child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh child, things'll get brighter."
Mac blushed as he recalled his most uncharacteristically Mac improvisation to date. Jack looked him straight in the eye with the proudest most genuine smile that reached all the way to his eyes. "I am so damn proud of you right now." Jack beamed, wiping a pretend tear from his eye. "My boy!"
"You shoulda seen it, Jack." Bozer continued, "it was straight out of the Jack Dalton playbook."
Jack placed his hand on Mac's shoulder, giving it a fond squeeze. "My boy!"
Directly across from Jack at the round table, Riley chimed in, "and it actually worked. I wish I'd seen it with my own eyes too."
Bozer laughed, "maybe he'll reenact it for us now. "
Mac shut them down with a chuckle, shaking the empty bottle of wine, "It would take another two bottles of this for me to ever do that again. Thank goodness Jack is back to handle the non explosive diversions. Mac and Jack leaned in sideways for an embrace complete with sturdy back pats, grateful to be able to work together again .
The entrees and another bottle of wine arrived, indulgent carbs and red meat filling their bellies and souls. As their plates were emptied, all four phones started buzzing simultaneously. The work week was over, they had the rest of the night off, there was no way they were being summoned to the Phoenix.
"WAR ROOM! NOW!" was the only context given via text message. The gang asked for to-go boxes and the check.
The team piled into the GTO, Mac riding shotgun, leaving their other vehicles at the restaurant for safety reasons as Jack was the only one actually ok to drive.
The privacy glass in the war room was already opaqued, and the team entered reluctantly with the three younger agents trying to sober up quickly with large bottles of water. Director Webber impatiently waited for the team to take their seats, blinking deliberately at their feeble attempt to hide their intoxication.
"Sorry Matty," Mac apologized, "we were released for the day."
"No need to apologize, Blondie. The only one I need sober is Jack, and I take it he begrudgingly followed doctor's orders to only have ONE beer."
"Yes, ma'am." Jack looked ashamed; as if he were a party pooper for doing as he was asked for once.
"Well then, let's get started. Meet Chester and Maryanna Hilderbrand." their photos slid onto the screen, a blonde woman in her twenties and a fair skinned male with eyes clear and icy blue like Mac's. His hair was shaved into a dirty blonde mohawk, accompanied by a smile that would melt the coldest of hearts.
"They've been deep cover for seven years, infiltrating one of the deepest darkest terror organizations on our own soil."
"Home grown terrorists are the worst kind." Jack added quietly to no one in particular.
"This group is responsible for the most heinous racially and culturally motivated attacks in our country. Their activities and recruiting are impossible to track because while these terrorists live normal lives with normal jobs. They are so secretive that we don't even know a name for their organization. Their terrorist activities are completely off the grid. These people know how to do everything without electronic communication or any digital footprint relating to their illegal activities. These are neighbors, coworkers, contractors, friends, and no one is the wiser."
Matty tapped things into her tablet and a letter slid onto the screen. "About a year ago, we received this handwritten letter, mailed from a post office near where they were stationed, stating they wanted out because they had a baby on the way. They indicated that they'd obtained names and dates of future terror strikes.
In this letter, they informed us that there was an attack planned for next week at a church but that there were also three other attacks planned around the city at the same time, for which we have no information."
Bozer thought it sounded pretty cut and dry, "So we warn them and protect them. Secretly notify other places and people that could be targets, synagogues and schools. What do they need us for?"
"As I was saying, the Hilderbrands have compiled a folder of dossiers, targets, dates, and recruiting information. All hard copy because these homegrown terrorists keep tabs on everyone. They monitor all members' phone activity and digital footprint, making sure everyone stays in line for the public eye, and no one is discovered or outed as a member."
"Last night, the Hilderbrands made digital copies of all of the dossiers and files to backup their hard copies. The files were immediately moved to portable storage and deleted, but not before the terrorists found out."
"An hour ago, local PD discovered Chester's body burned inside his home and Maryanna down the road, in their vehicle with a bullet between her eyes and her car on fire with their ten month old in the back seat."
"Luckily a passing motorist discovered the burning vehicle and pulled the infant from the back seat, unharmed. The fire department determined that the fire originated in the office of the home and an accelerant was used. All of the intel they collected over the last seven years was destroyed."
The team, on the edge of their seats wondered how they came into play in this mess.
"About thirty minutes ago, we received an encrypted message from an unknown sender, presumably Maryanna with a last ditch effort to get us the info. Nothing was in the message but the words 'diaper duty.' That's where you guys come in."
More confused than ever the team urged Matty to press on by leaning forward, staring intently at her .
"Mitch from IT, who we should totally be giving a raise at this point, decrypted the message and brought it to my attention after cross referencing PD and Fire activity in the area, putting all of the pieces together. We believe the
portable media may be on the baby."
"That's great," Jack announced "get the baby, find the drive, save the day. Is the baby
in protective custody? Foster family? DFCS?"
"As a matter of fact," Matty walked to a vacant chair in the corner of the war room,
lifting a plastic car seat basket from behind it and carrying it to the table in the center of the room.
"This is Clarence Liam Hilderbrand, and he is your charge for the next week."
"That's a terrible name, poor kid." Jack was immediately on his feet reaching for the sleeping infant when Matty slapped his hand away .
"Never Wake a sleeping baby!" she scolded as Jack sat back down with mock offense. "This is a perfect mission to get you back in the swing of things after your extended leave of absence."
He rolled his eyes in disgust as if she were blaming him for being kidnapped and tortured, obviously a defense mechanism for her trying to hide how shaken she was by Jack's previous ordeal, "Well why us? This sounds like a homeland security kind of deal. It's literally a babysitting gig."
"Well they were our agents. And do you think civilian foster parents will be able to handle this?
The terrorists will undoubtedly figure out that the baby is somehow key to getting this intel and will try to track him down. Foster records are easily
uncovered by the most novice hackers. Leaving this baby in the care of your... inebriated yet capable team is the best option for the baby and the safety of the citizens."
The sleeping baby waas buckled into his car seat and covered with a tiny green knitted blanket. They smelled of smoke from the vehicle fire, but the child was checked by the fire department to make sure he was ok. The rest of the team had gathered around Jack oohing and aahing over the adorable tiny person left in Jack's charge. He sat cross legged on the floor in front of the table to get a closer look.
The baby's very fine and sparse blonde hair was brushed to one side, his pale skin still undamaged by the sun. The green monkey printed on the pacifier started to bob up an down as little Clarence stirred and sucked on it for comfort. His chunky little arms reached above his head in a deep stretch, knocking his blanket to the table as his legs went straight out, adorable tiny toes spreading apart with the stretch like a cat's.
"Aaaw!" Riley couldn't contain her adoration.
The baby noticed the sound and opened his eyes, taking in the five strangers and his new surroundings. His green eyes broadcast betrayal, and in slow motion, his pacifier dropped as his mouth opened wide in a silent wail. Jack reached for him, first looking to Matty for approval. With a nod, he took his cue to unbuckle the infant and free him from his car seat capsule.
Jack held him at arm's length, gauging the baby's reaction to being picked up by a stranger. He didn't cry any louder, so Jack took it as an OK to pull the child in close up against his chest. Jack patted his bottom with his right hand while supporting acroos his back with his other arm, simultaneously bouncing up and down and shushing quietly into the baby's ear.
"You wanna move?" He asked the infant, not expecting an answer, but started walking around the room anyway, shushing and speaking quietly with an inflection they'd only heard him use with puppies and Mac when he was sick.
While they were all painfully aware of Jack's annoyingly stong paternal instinct, they'd never seen it in action in quite that way before. Everyone was in awe, except of course for Matty, who'd somehow known that this was an ideal soluton; it was clear that the baby was in good hands, calling to question their strange and mysterious past once again.
Within moments, the infant was nuzzled into Jack's neck and sleeping again, gripping Jack's shirt sleeve with his chubby little fist.