It started off as a normal day, well as normal as a day at Mac's house is. Matty had given the team the day off and had promised not to call unless the world was ending.
Mac was busy fixing his bike when he heard his phone ring. Looking at it he saw it was Matty, welp there goes my day off. Bozer had been in his room when she called so he went to tell him that they all had to come in.
"Hey, Matty called us in, I guess the world's ending," he told Bozer. Mac really needed a day off from saving the world, again.
Bozer decided to drive this time because Mac drove last time. When they walked in, Mac caught Riley's gaze and raised his eyebrows to see if she knew anything, but she just shrugged. So he went to go stand behind Desi but Matty stopped me before he got there.
"Mac, take a seat please." Something was off in her voice. Mac didn't notice it when he first came in that her eyes were red and puffy.
So, Mac went to sit down in front of the bowl of paperclips and let his hands go to work on it.
Matty went over to the glass and double tapped it to fog it, that was nothing unusual. Then she had her tablet and put up a video of a smoking building. It looked like a bomb went off in the middle of it.
Matty took a deep breath as if pulling herself together. "At 1400 hour I received a phone call from Jack's team that Kovac was killed in this building," Matty's voice cracked ever so slightly, nobody would have heard if they weren't paying full attention to her, but Mac was.
Bozer started to say something, but Matty continued. Mac knew what she was about t0 tell the team but he had to hear it, or he wouldn't believe it. "He wasn't alone when the blast went off, there was another casualty, Jack Dalton. Now I don't know all the details yet, but I know they are bringing him home in 2 days."
The paperclip fell from Mac's hands and landed on the floor, he could see Matty's mouth moving, but didn't hear anything else. It was like I was in a wind tunnel;heI couldn't hear anything, didn't want to.
There was no way that Jack was gone, he had tried to call Mac the other day, but he had missed it. His head was going in all directions trying to process what Matty just said.
Something drew him out of his head.
"Mac are you there? His team is bringing him back in 2 days."
Mac had to get out, he couldn't breathe. He shot up startling Matty and all but ran out of the war room. He needed to get fresh air as he ran past Bozer. He called Macs name as he ran past him, but couldn't stop.
Mac got out the front door and stopped and took long, deep breaths. He looked around and went to the side of the building away from people. He leaned on the wall and slid down it as the tears started.
Mac didn't know how long he sat there holding himself together when he heard footsteps, they came next to me and sat down wrapping their arms around him. At that moment Mac knew it was Riley, her familiar touch gave it away. She didn't say anything, she didn't have to.
Mac broke the silence first. "He always made me promise that if I go kaboom, he goes kaboom and he broke his promise," he looked at Riley not knowing what else to say.
"I know Mac, I feel like it's not real, like he's going to walk around the corner any second now." More tears started flowing from both their eyes.
More time passed in silence before Bozer came out and took them home. That night they sat by the firepit telling stories about Jack. "You know, I bet he's up there drinking a beer with his dad, talking about Die Hard," Mac said.
"He's probably also telling us to get our shit together and plan a kick-ass party for when they bring him home," Riley chimed in.
