A/N - Happy premier eve all!

Despite the relative earliness of the commute, traffic was brutal. The GPS said it should only take about forty minutes to get to the filming location Jack had given him. But it was almost an hour before Mac slid his Jeep into park.

He'd sort of thought Jack might be bullshitting him about this job, but it was pretty clearly a movie set. It looked to Mac like loosely organized chaos, which made sense given what Jack had told him about the company being a start up.

He wasn't sure exactly where to find Jack so he started walking around. He bumped into enough people who weren't watching where they were going that he was starting to feel legitimately awkward. He narrowly avoided getting run over by some random piece of camera equipment on wheels. Just as he'd dodged it he heard an explosion and caught a tower of flame out of the corner of his eye.

"And somehow, I think I just found Jack," he chuckled to himself. He took off in the direction of the smoke at a light jog, now more mindful of the fact that he had to watch where he was going and where everyone else was going, too.

When he rounded the corner of the building between him and what he hoped was a special effect, the first thing he noticed was Jack standing at the craft services table, chatting up a bottle blonde in a bikini. The rest of what he saw made him pick up his pace to go get Jack out of here.

"Mac! Buddy! What're you doin' here?" Jack called good naturedly when he caught sight of Mac approaching him.

Mac stood across the table from Jack, a supremely disappointed expression on his face. "You swore you weren't doing …" he dropped his voice and cast a furtive glance around. "Adult film," he finished in almost a whisper.

Jack broke into a spontaneous laugh and he had about a second to think that was the most normal he'd felt in months before he realized he needed to do some fast talking to stop Mac from leaping to any further conclusions. "Mac, why would I lie about that? Ain't nothin' wrong with…"

"If this isn't porn what's with all this?" Casting propriety to the winds, Mac waved at the strange scene around them.

"What, the tank? I told you this is a war movie!"

"Why's it on fire?"

"Duh. War movie."

"So if this is a war movie … why are there about thirty mostly naked women climbing all over this tank fire?"

"Mostly naked?" Jack laughed. "Bikinis ain't mostly naked."

"If you say so … But why would bikini girls be in a war movie?"

Jack shrugged and grinned. "USO show? How do I know? But they're real decorative."

"Can't argue with that, pal."

A pretty blue eyed blond with carefully coiffed ringlets walked by a moment later and eyed Mac appreciatively. Mac just swallowed hard. She didn't really resemble Nikki. In fact under normal circumstances he would have been extremely flattered because objectively she was even prettier. But all it did was remind him that the pretty blue eyed blond who he'd been a whisker away from asking to move in with him was gone. And that the canister that had caused her absence was being used to hurt innocent civilians.

Jack was looking right at Mac when the girl walked by making eyes. Mac paled at least two shades. "Hey, kid, you eat breakfast? There's some killer donuts over at craft services."

Mac shook his head, almost like he didn't hear him, so Jack just put a hand on his shoulder and turned him back the way he came and started leading him toward the food.

Mac just shook his head when offered a donut. "Jack, I need to talk to you."

"You finally decide to take me up on that offer of some work here? I've always said you have a face for the movies, kid."

Mac made a face. "No. But it is about work."

Jack tipped his chin toward the parking lot, and the two started in that direction.

When they were out of earshot of the small crowd near the food, Jack stopped and faced Mac. "Everything alright?" he asked.

"Um … not exactly." He glanced around to be sure no one was close enough to hear them.

"This is about DXS?"

"The virus surfaced in Greenland, Jack."

"Virus? You mean…"

"The one Nikki died trying to protect, yeah. And it's bad, Jack. Really bad."

"Like zombie apocalypse bad?"

Mac sighed. "Worse."

"And Thornton wants you to come back and try to get it back?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I told her I would."

"You really ready for that?" Jack gestured at Mac's chest vaguely, but he meant kind of everything else, too.

Mac gave a little headshake. "Doesn't matter. This is a chance to not just save the world, but to get the guy who …" His voice caught and he stopped and took a breath. "To get this guy," he finished. "And I need your help."

Jack's mouth felt dry. "There's other good people at DXS who could be your security, Mac. You want somebody who isn't gonna let you down."

Mac frowned. "You haven't let me down! And there's no else at DXS that I trust as much as I trust you to watch my six." He looked directly into Jack's eyes. "If I'm gonna do this, I want my Overwatch with me."

Jack shook his head sadly. "I quit, kid. And I wasn't exactly nice about it. I doubt Thornton would have me back."

Mac grinned. "She sent me."

"What?" Jack asked in real disbelief.

"I told her I'd come back if she reinstated you."

"And that worked?"

"She wants me back. Said I'm the most valuable asset in her arsenal."

"Oh sure, some kid with a silly hamburger name is more valuable than ole Jack," he said with an affectionate grin, and a little bit of hurt.

"I said we're the most valuable ops team. She couldn't disagree."

"You sure she's really in board?"

"She's so on board if it'll get me back through the door, she said Oversight has authorized her to do whatever it takes to ensure mission success."

"We should ask for a raise," Jack said with a grin.

"After we stop the apocalypse," Mac said with an easy grin. That was Jack saying yes.

"Sounds good, kid. Can you give me a lift. I road in with one of the PAs this morning."

"Yeah. Let's go."

"Meecha at the Jeep, kid. I gotta go quit another job."

Mac felt strangely buoyant as he headed for his car. For a guy who was about to go after dangerous international terrorists in possession of a doomsday virus he was suddenly in a great mood.

He had his partner back.

What could go wrong?