Riley picked up her head with a jaw cracking yawn. She brushed the hair off Mac's forehead. "Mac. Hey, Mac …Wake up."
He groaned and curled tighter into the couch cushions, simultaneously prohibiting her from brushing at his hair again and trapping her hand.
"Mac, come on, if I don't move my legs are never gonna have feeling again. I slept sitting up. This whole keeping you company on the couch thing is no good for my circulation."
"You didn't have to stay again," Mac mumbled, releasing her hand and scooting down the couch with his pillow so she could get up to stretch.
She patted his arm on her way to her feet. "Don't be silly. Someone had to keep Jack and Boze from actually smothering you."
Mac snickered, coming slightly more awake in the very early morning light. But immediately closing his eyes again when he remembered it was Tuesday and why he needed to be up so damned early. Delaying the inevitable more serious conversation, he joked, "Good thing his mom couldn't make it, or there'd have been no stopping it."
"From everything you've told me about her, that's probably true."
Finally, Mac made himself sit up. Slowly. "She's one of my favorite people on Earth, but man, can she fuss."
"Like mother like son, I guess. I never appreciated what you meant about him turning into a Mama Bear until this weekend."
"Be glad you've never been on the receiving end," Mac grinned. "I love the guy, but I'm kind of glad he got called in for mission support for Stephan's team last night."
Riley nodded, not so much agreeing with him as just looking at him with thoughtful approval. "You look better today. Sound better, too."
A line formed across Mac's forehead. "Yeah. I feel fine. Good even. That broad spectrum antibiotic seems to have really done the trick."
Riley sat back down facing him. "What's on your mind, Mac?" Though she asked it like she already knew.
He shrugged, not quite sheepishly. "I was just thinking maybe I keep getting tonsillitis because we've been throwing the wrong meds at it. Maybe it hasn't ever really cleared up."
"Okay…."
"I mean, I feel better this morning than I have in months."
"Go on," she prompted with a slight smile.
He returned the smile even more sheepishly than he'd shrugged. "Just maybe surgery isn't necessarily the answer."
Her eyebrows went up and she couldn't help her knowing smirk, but she stayed quiet.
"Maybe I just need a full course of these antibiotics to really knock out the infection and it'll be all good."
"Do you really think that? Or do you just not want to do this today?"
Mac puffed out a noisy breath and squinted. "Kind of both, to be honest."
Jack breezed in from the kitchen, carrying an oversized coffee mug. "No way, José. No gettin' cold feet this morning."
"God, that smells good."
"None for you," Jack admonished, obviously feeling a little bad that he'd brought it along. He'd at least scarfed down his breakfast bagel out of Mac's line of sight. "You didn't have anything after midnight, right?"
Riley jumped in. "I sat right next to him all night so he wouldn't…like…sleep-drink."
Mac glanced at the clock. "I fell asleep around 11, so I haven't had so much as a sip since then." He folded his arms.
"Good." Jack dipped an approving nod. "That's what you were supposed to do."
"My point is that the antibiotics Dr. Ellis prescribed are working great. And my throat doesn't hurt at all."
"So? Getting to your throat not hurting all the time is the whole point."
"Don't be deliberately obtuse. You know I hate when you do that."
"So now I'm a triangle?" Jack teased with a grin.
Mac good-naturedly chucked one of the pillows from his couch nest at his partner. "Asshole." But he said it with a smile.
Jack jumped up when it managed to spill his coffee. "Ow! Damnit Mac, you spilled hot coffee all over my—"
He stopped and cleared his throat.
"Serves you right." Mac grinned broadly. "You know exactly what I meant."
"Yeah, I do … but…."
"But what?" Mac frowned.
"Whadaya think Oversight will say about it? Or Matty for that matter?"
Mac shook his head with a sigh. "As far as Matty is concerned, she hasn't taken it upon herself to try to make any non-mission related decisions for me. I'm sure she'd be perfectly happy to have me back at work. Because she, unlike some people, isn't a ridiculous mother hen."
"Body guard," Jack corrected.
Mac clenched his teeth. He hated it when Jack put it that way, but he knew he was being baited off topic. "And as for Oversight, it's none of his damned business."
Jack shook his head, "You know he's just gonna pull you from the roster."
"So because he's going to be unprofessional, I should let him dictate my decisions?"
"I'm not sayin' that—"
"You kind of are," Riley said, frowning. "Which makes me suspicious of your motivations."
"What's that s'posed to mean?" He damned indignantly, finally sitting back down with a grimace at the feeling of wet jeans.
"She means don't use my dad as an excuse to nudge me in the direction you think I should go!" Mac didn't quite snap, but his tone was definitely impatient.
Jack gave one of the gentle sort of smiles that set off his deep brown eyes and million sun-dried wrinkles. "Bud, you know, you gotta know, I wouldn't do that."
Mac's arms refolded. "Maybe."
"Not on purpose anyway. Just … we're all worried about you, kid."
Mac puffed out another long breath. "I know, I know. I'm tired of being sick, too, I just—"
He didn't even trail off, just stopped, half way through his sentence.
"Just what, Mac?" Riley asked, putting a protective arm around him.
"It's…it's nothing."
Jack got up and sat on his other side, his arm crossed over Riley's to pin Mac between their comforting weight. "Water's wet. The sky's blue. And when Mac says it's nothing, it's definitely something."
Mac snorted. "Old Satan Claus is gonna kick your ass for copyright infringement you quote that movie so much. There's gotta be a movie that doesn't star Bruce Willis that you could quote every once in a while." Jack didn't rise to the movie debate bait, just sat quietly.
Mac wriggled out from between them and stood. He paced fir a minute before flopping down in the chair across from them. He didn't look at them when he finally said, "I … I guess this surgery can make your throat and sinuses swell … um … make it feel like it's hard to breathe … and I … that feeling … um…." Mac's hands shook visibly, so he stopped fidgeting with the paperclip he'd fished out of the chair cushion and dropped them to his lap.
"El Noche," Riley said, feeling suddenly cold.
Mac nodded slowly.
"And O'Neil?" Jack asked.
Mac's eyes flicked to Riley who didn't know that story, but he nodded again and croaked, "Yeah."
"Well, no wonder you've been putting it off," Jack said softly.
Mac shrugged again, but didn't speak. His face was burning with the shame of his admission. It felt so damned irrational. His father would have snapped that he was being as irrational as he had been when he was five. Mac was so sure of it, he could hear it like Oversight was there to say it. But neither Jack, nor Riley's expressions said they thought he was being irrational at all.
In fact, Riley got up, sat on the arm of his chair, and picked up one of his hands in both of hers. "If you decide you can't go through with this, maybe Dr. Ellis could help in other ways. Like with this new antibiotic, like you said."
Mac chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Elliot did say Ellis is one of the best."
Jack responded to the demanding look Riley gave him over Mac's head. "Yeah, And if you ain't sick with it, it ain't really anything to Oversight is it?"
Mac smiled slightly. "I'm sure he'll think it is."
"Well, that's what you keep me around for, ain't it?"
"Guarding me from our boss?"
"If that's who you need to be guarded from, then yeah," Jack said lightly. "But I meant distracting comic relief when he buts into your personal stuff."
"I appreciate you guys." Suddenly, Mac stood. "I'm gonna go shower with that nasty pre-surgery soap. Then, I hope the two of you are still on board to keep each other company in the waiting room."
"Of course we are, Mac, but," Riley began, and it came out as a question.
"New antibiotic or not, the doc didn't sound optimistic that this won't just keep coming back. And no amount of wishful thinking really stands up to an expert medical opinion."
"So, you suddenly just decided to listen to medical experts?" Jack asked with plenty of humor.
Riley laughed. "Steve and the rest of Medical will be thrilled."
Mac flushed slightly and shook his head. "I'd like to pretend this has nothing to do with Oversight, but if I don't go through with this and I get sick again, I'll probably have to quit again over his 'I told you so.'"
"So, it's really time to test those tonsils?"
"I guess it is."