Season 02 Episode 17: Bear Trap + Mob Boss
Jack sat on a chair, his arm lying on the table. Alex scratched his forearm with a tiny needle to make an allergy test about special herbage, pollen and grass from the area around Tschernobyl. Matty wasn't happy about the explanation from her team that Jack nearly derailed the mission at Ukraine because of his sneezing. At least the risk was too high to get problems with another unwanted allergic reaction. Mac waited outside the open door to the examination room and went fidgety up and down. Jack followed his moves with worry.
„Do you want to tell me, what's wrong with him or are we remaining silent?" Alex voice wasn't mean or intrusive. Her calm question accepted a further silence if Jack decided so.
"That's complicated." Jack answered evasive. Alex noticed that he was not really reluctant to hear her opinion on Mac's problem.
"You can try," she encouraged him. "With 'complicated' I'm common quite well since I work here."
Jack smiled. That was a good description of the work for all different fields at Phoenix.
The small secluded mountain village was hard to find. It wasn't at maps and besides the ones living there, nearly nobody would know where it was or that it even existed. The inhabitants were friendly, but scared. The war went on far too long and their natural isolation forced them to travel to the nearby cities to buy some of the essential foods to survive. Before the war started they were nearly self-sufficient, but their fields and animals were more and more collateral damages by both fighting parties. Near their village was a very important mountain road and the fire struck not only the road. Exactly there Mac and Jack were ordered to a mission, to disarm a few mines and bombs that stopped a military convoy. Mac was sweating in the sun while working on the explosives, while Jack took his place in the shadows of the rocks for a wide view over both sides of the road. When Mac finally called his typical 'done', Jack wanted to go down to him, but the inhabitants grabbed him and dragged him to their village. They intended to exchange him for the promise of the Americans to protect their houses, fields and animals and to get some food for their sustained loss. Mac followed them, when his overwatch didn't show up on the road. He found the village, the people and the captured Jack.
After a long discussion, bargaining and the tradeoff of his wristwatch he always wore, Jack was free again. Even in that situation the men and women stayed friendly and did it without using any violence.
On their way back to the camp Mac time and again went with his fingers over the now uncovered skin of his wrist.
"The watch was important for you, right?" Jack stated more than asked.
Mac nodded. "Bozer gave it to me as gift right before I went into the aircraft to Afghanistan. He said, it should show me how long it lasts until I come back to the US and we can have a beer together again."
Jack knew what that special friend meant to Mac. "You should have never given it away!"
"Sure, I should." Mac answered instantly. „But you must confess me one thing: We will keep our promise to the people, we will save them with our soldiers and protect their village. I don't want to be a liar. Bozer never lied to me, that's why I always saw the watch as a sign that I come back in one piece. That was his promise to me. I want to honor it."
Jack looked thoughtfully at the young, blond soldier.
"Okay, leave that to me. I'll talk to our Lieutenant. You shouldn't be sorry for the exchange."
And they could keep their promise.
Jack tried to explain Alex that Mac was lied to by someone whom he trusted. He didn't mention Matty's name, but he had the feeling that the nurse knew it.
"Bozer is Mac's most trustful friend. When Mac had to lie to him about his work and that lie was revealed it hurt Mac more than Bozer. Mac knows, how it feels to be at the receiving end of a lie. He was badly disappointed by people around him. I wish it wouldn't be the case right now."
"Is it sure that this person is lying to him."
"Unfortunately yes. That we're sure of. Why, is the most important question and that is unanswered until now."
Alex thought a bit about that, while Mac went from left to right and back. Again and again without noticing the glance at him or recognizing what he was doing.
"He should ask that person. What he's doing right now is not very helpful. He's spinning himself crazy."
"He wants to ask, but- how?"
"Like he's doing everything. He has to be just himself, than it will work. He doesn't have to pretend to be someone else and after asking he'll be relieved."
Jack looked at the hallway. "I hope he doesn't make a rashly decision. This time he should really think twice about it."
Alex disagreed. „I fear as longer he thinks about a strategy as more and more he gets lost in his own mind. He has to be brave soon and talk to that person."
Jack sighed and Alex knew how hard it was for him to force Mac. It doesn't matter how to look at that situation, it always seems to end fatal.
