Prior to working at DXS, Mac had only ever flown on military transports or Coach on commercial flights. Even when he'd come back from Afghanistan via the DXS jet, he'd been pretty beat, medicated, and too in his own head to take in the luxurious accommodations. Even on the few missions he'd been on since graduating from the required clandestine services training, he'd either had to fly commercial or flown on other organization's aircraft.
At the moment though, Mac was appreciating just exactly how interested in providing a comfortable trip Thornton appeared to be. He didn't really love to fly, and the handful of Advil he'd downed was only just taking the edge off the pain in his torso, and the only times he'd ever really slept in the air he'd been injured and medicated.
But the couch was extremely comfortable, the meal the crew served them had been exceptionally fine, and he was exhausted from their last mission. At least the Advil has dulled the rest of the aches Carlisle's men had gifted him with. After he finished his third run through of the building schematics and other briefing materials Thornton sent along, he decided it was time to follow some advice Jack had been giving him since their first mission. He curled up on his side and closed his eyes.
He lay under a soft blanket, dozing pleasantly, listening to the sound of Nikki's fingers flying over the keys of her laptop and the gentle drone of Jack telling amusing (and potentially embarrassing) stories about their Army days since she was a captive audience.
Mac contemplated opening his eyes and calling bullshit on Jack's very one-sided retelling of their first meeting, but decided it wasn't that important. If they were going to inspect an infectious disease research facility for illicit activity, he needed all his faculties. Which meant, frankly, he needed some rest. He pulled the blanket up a little further around his head to muffle their conversation and let the drone of the engines and his general exhaustion lull him into a fitful sleep.
When he bolted upright a couple of hours later, Jack was leaning over him, clearly about to try to wake him. His blanket was on the floor, so he knew he'd been thrashing. He was sweaty and flushed, too. Then he realized Nikki was staring at him with wide eyes from across the cabin and the heat in his face increased by at least an order of magnitude. Before he even opened his mouth he vowed silently that he was never going to fall asleep in front of her again as long as he lived.
He was determined to brush off whatever they'd seen. Besides was was not about to contemplate, say nothing of confess aloud, his dream of stumbling through endless hallways, unbroken by doors or windows, or the sounds of torment in all to recognizable voices that seeped through the cracks. And nothing, not the pain or torture or Jack and Bozer's most relentless hovering, would get him to admit (even to himself) the faces and voices of the monsters that chased him there.
He sat up fully, swinging his feet off the couch, and running his hands over his face and through his hair. Jack casually sat down next to him, blocking the view between him and Nikki, though whether that move was intentional or not, Mac wasn't sure. Jack opened his mouth to say something. Mac forestalled conversation by bending to retrieve his blanket. Mother Nature cooperated with his efforts to save face by shaking the jet with an epic bout of turbulence. As he was sitting back up, Jack finally spoke, loud enough for Nikki to hear.
"Turbulence almost knocked you off the couch, kid. Figured you wouldn't want that jostling you awake so I was gonna poke you myself. Sorry I didn't move faster. That's no kinda alarm clock."
Mac flashed him a quick grateful smile. "I appreciate that."
Nikki leaned forward over her laptop. "You don't get airsick, do you? I have some stuff in my purse."
Mac tried to think of something to say that didn't give him away while also acknowledging and declining her offer, but Jack beat him to it. "He's not likely to refund his lunch in here, Nik. Unless he spends too much time lookin' out the window. He just don't care much for flying. Our boy here's afraid of heights."
"Oh!" She laughed a little and Mac flushed brighter. "I had no idea …" The jet jostled again. Nikki reached for her bag. "I do get a little air sick. Ugh." She went back to work after swallowing some Dramamine.
"Where are we at?" Mac asked smoothly, letting Nikki here the total lack of concern he'd effortlessly faked.
"Over the Atlantic at the moment, kid." Jack paused, eyeing Mac's annoyed expression and dropping his voice so Nikki wouldn't pick it up. "Sorry I outed you on the heights thing, bud. I was just gettin' the vibe you didn't want her to know you were havin' one of your nightmares and it was all I could think of."
"It's okay." Mac's face relaxed. "You read me right. And it's not like the heights thing is all that easy to keep under wraps on missions anyway."
"How come you're worried about her knowing about your dreams?" Jack thought he knew but he also thought it wasn't a good thing and wanted Mac to maybe think about that for a minute.
Mac shrugged. "I mean, she'd ask questions and she's not cleared for …" Jack's expression called bullshit. "Fine … I don't want to talk about any of that stuff with her."
"Yeah?" One of Jack's eyebrows went up in a familiar expression. "I don't wanna pry, but …"
Mac shook his head with a little smirk. "Yes, you do. You always do."
"Well … now … hear me out." Mac shrugged. "You really wanna be sharing a bed with someone who you don't want to know about your life?"
Mac blushed crimson. "What makes you think I'm 'sharing a bed' with anyone?"
Jack smirked. "Your face every time you look at Nikki, that's what."
Mac's half smile said he was embarrassed that Jack knew, with his own transparency, but that he was pretty pleased with the fact itself, if not that it had gone public. "I mean, okay. Sure," he admitted. "But just because we've … you know … Doesn't mean I want her to know all my deepest darkest secrets." He glanced around Jack to be sure Nikki wasn't listening to them. "Don't look at me like that. You told your last girlfriend you sell bathroom tile," he scoffed.
Jack shook his head. "Fair enough. Just … I know how you are and …"
"How am I?" Mac asked a little defensively.
"If you've … I'm gonna just say been close like that with her, you're already half in love …"
"I'm not … What makes you say that?"
Jack grinned. "You're just … Mac. You've got this sense of honor and … you quote your grandad all the time … you sound a little old fashioned. And then there's …"
"What?" Mac asked, cocking an eyebrow, but not quite managing to be annoyed. Everything Jack was saying was true, even if he didn't want to admit it.
"Anytime we went on leave … Every chick from babysitters to their grandmas were throwin' themselves at you. You coulda pulled down more ass than a toilet seat at the Super Bowl."
"Jack!"
Jack chuckled at the slightly offended tone and the smack he'd just gotten on the arm. "See, kid, that's kinda what I'm talkin' about. You never did. Barely let any of 'em buy you a drink. You don't take anything about relationships lightly." He paused. This part was serious and he didn't want Mac to take it lightly or dismiss it because he'd been teasing him a little bit. "So if you're holding yourself at a distance from her, Mac, since you know she's read into the life, you maybe wanna slow down and ask yourself why."
Mac frowned at him. "You don't like her." He sounded more like the idea bothered him than that it pissed him off.
Jack shook his head. "I like her fine, bud. I just … something tells me she might not be real good for you."
"Like what?" he demanded.
"My spidey senses are tingling is all, kid."
"Nope. Not good enough. Specifics. What makes you think we're not gonna be good together."
Jack chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. "I don't know exactly, Mac," he admitted. "But like … the other day when you invited her over for dinner so she could get to know Boze and Penny and we all went swimming …"
Mac's frown deepened. What could Jack be talking about. That had been a great night. They'd all gotten along great and had a nice time and … Nikki had looked amazing in that bright pink bikini and … "What about it?"
Jack sighed. He was probably making something out of nothing. But Mac was different around Nikki. And it worries him. A lot. "When we were all hanging out around the fire pit after, she commented on the scar on your knee."
"So what?" Mac shrugged.
"She said it was gross."
Another shrug. "It is a pretty gross scar. The surgery one isn't so bad, but the permanent road rash is kinda nasty."
"She must really not like the one from that bullet graze."
Mac shrugged again. "So what?" he asked again. But he knew what Jack was going to say.
"So after she said something you went and got dressed. You sat there in jeans and long sleeves while the rest of us hung out in swimsuits and even when we went back in the water."
Mac swallowed. That maybe wasn't great. "Maybe I was cold."
"Okay. Maybe you were. All I'm sayin' is, make sure it's good for you, that it's what you want. And not just parts of ya, kid." Jack tipped him a wink and laughed to break the seriousness of the moment.
Mac gave him a shove, laughing. "Jesus!"
"What're you two doing over there?" Nikki called, sounding amused.
"Nothin', Nik," Jack said with a charming grin.
"Jack's just reminding me what a gutter brain he can have sometimes."
"I don't even want to know," Nikki smirked.
Mac combed his hands through his hair again with a little sigh. He lowered his voice again. "I'll think about what you said."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. If you promise not to bring it up again."
Jack nodded. That was as good as he was gonna get. "Pinkie swear, Carl's Junior." Jack got up to go grab a drink.
Mac gave him a little nod and picked up his work tablet again. "Grab me a coffee while you're up, wouldja? I'm not getting back to sleep with the way this tin can is shaking anyways."
"You bet, kid. Better get caffeinated before we hafta go stop the zombie apocalypse."
Mac laughed. "You know Terminus does more than bio-research, right?"
"What else do they do?"
"All kinds of cutting edge research. Zombies are the least of your worries when we land, pal."
"Like what? Specifics," he said, mimicking Mac's earlier comment.
He grinned. "They're deep into AI. Half their lab work is done by robots."
"Sonovabich," Jack sighed. He headed toward the beverage cart mumbling about the robopocalypse.