Jack stayed on the floor in the room with the cameras for a while, letting all the emotion of the last few days out, he had tried to patiently watch the tapes, hating what was happening to Mac but knowing he couldn't stop it, tried to hold his tongue as much as possible. He wanted to kill James MacGyver so badly, he didn't think he'd ever wanted to kill someone so much in his life.
The team had left him, Riley hugging him before they went, tears running down her face, he wanted so badly to comfort her but all he could think of was Mac. He'd talk to her later, make sure she was ok.
He heard Cage talking to Matty, giving her an update, he was glad she had done it, he didn't think he could look at their director at the minute. She was the one who made them go home, she'd been the one that made them wait to breach the properties, if they had come even an hour earlier, they would have stopped James from taking Mac to god knows where. Now that was it. They weren't gonna find another lead like this one, James wasn't making any mistakes, he and Mac were gone, and he didn't ever think they were coming back.
As Jack walked in the kitchen he heard the others talking.
"If Mac had been ok in that footage I wouldn't be as worried as I am now," Bozer said. "Yeah Mac would still be missing, but if his dad was treating him well then it would have made it easier."
"We all wish what happened was different, we just have to hope that Mac stays strong until we can find him," Cage said.
"We ain't gonna find him!" Jack exclaimed, coming up behind them. "James is too smart."
"Jack! How can you say that," Riley cried, walking around the others.
"It's true Ri, and you know it."
"So that's it then, we just stop, except we'll never see Mac again, give up on him."
"No, of course not."
"Mac needs us Jack, he's alone and he's scared and he's expecting us to come for him. We have to come for him."
Jack gathered her into his arms as she cried, rubbing his hand up her back, knowing that she was right.
"Matty wants us to bring the recordings back to Phoenix, she's going to have someone watch them who can read lips, maybe that will give us some clue, James knew there was no sound, it's possible something slipped in without him realising." Cage spoke up, filling the awkward silence.
Jack nodded, it made sense. He pulled Riley away from him, looking at her. "We won't give up."
Riley nodded back, making her way back into the room with the cameras, she needed to gather everything up she could.
A few hours later and they were back in the war room, all of them looking defeated, Jack had to admit he felt sorry for Matty, she looked terrible.
"It wasn't your fault Matty," Jack said quietly.
"Wow Dalton, I didn't think I'd hear you say that. But you're wrong, it is my fault."
"You made some tough decisions; I'm not saying that they were right decisions, but I understand why you made them."
"I agreed with everything you said Matty," Cage said. "Going home so we could get fresh eyes, narrowing down the search before we headed out, even the order of the raids. It's hard now because any of those decisions could be the reason we didn't find Mac. But that's not necessarily the case. If we hadn't come back with fresh eyes we might have missed the lead altogether."
"That's true," Bozer spoke up. "I was so tired everything was fuzzy, the only reason I had that thought about the identity was because I was wide awake."
"And if Bozer had asked that question before we all went home, I probably would have brushed it aside, not thinking it was important," Riley added.
"And if we'd hit all the places on the list without narrowing it down, we still could have been too late, you don't know what's gonna happen when a team goes in until it happens, look what happened with those squatters," Jack said, feeling better himself about his actions.
"Ok guys you win, it wasn't my fault. I still feel terrible though, to know how close we were." Matty stood up. "There's a tech going over the footage you brought back, I made sure it's someone who doesn't know Mac well, hopefully that will give us something. What about the car?"
"Still haven't found it," Riley said, pulling out her rig. "Either James has it with him or he's abandoned it somewhere that I haven't found."
"Well keep looking, we know where they were, and we know when they left."
Riley nodded, typing, her eyes already focussed on the search.
"I know you won't want me saying it, but I want the three of you to go home and get some sleep. Before you start complaining, there's nothing for you to do until we get another lead. Riley has to stay because of her skillset but the three of you need to go."
"That makes sense," Cage said, getting up. "What time do you want us back?"
"No earlier than midday, unless I call you."
Cage headed out and Bozer followed, Jack staying where he was.
"Jack?"
"I'm not sure I can sleep in a nice warm bed, when I know Mac been sleeping on a cold floor!"
"If it makes you feel better, sleep on the floor, might not be good for your back though," Matty said, smiling slightly. "It's not going to do Mac any good if you suffer too."
"I know, it's just hard." Jack sighed, getting up and walking out the door. "You call me with any leads, no matter how small."
"Of course, Jack, you have my word."
Matty turned back to the big screen, looking over a few things, Riley typing in the background.
"Was it really that bad Riley?" Matty asked, after a few minutes.
"It was horrible," Riley replied. "What James has been doing to him, it's like he doesn't realise Mac's his son or something."
"In James warped mind maybe, he thinks he's protecting him. And the only way to keep someone like Mac safe is to put him in a room he can't get out of."
"If he'd just locked him in a room and kept him there, then maybe I'd agree, but there's other stuff going on. He's hurting him, drugging him, playing weird psychological games with him. It's not right."
"I never said any of it was right, just that James may think it is. Whatever the reason he needs to be found. So, you keep up the good work and hopefully when the others get back we'll have something."
Unfortunately, when the others got back there was nothing new. The tech had gone through the footage, writing out all the dialogue that she'd seen, a lot of it was hard to interpret as they didn't have both sides of the conversation. Nothing seemed to give them any clues as to where they might have gone. Riley didn't have any luck finding the car either and with her search running on its own she was sent home to rest herself.
Matty was reading through the material the tech had given her, when Jack walked in, feeling slightly sick at some of the things that were happening.
"What are you reading?"
"It's the dialogue from the recordings, most of it is Mac, there are a couple of phrases from James, but he doesn't come into view of the camera much."
"Can I read it?"
"I don't know if that'd a good idea Jack, you can probably imagine what some of this is."
"I know Matty, that's the problem, my mind was playing those images of Mac over and over, but there was no concept to some of it, no reasoning behind it, if I can find out some of the things that were being said, maybe it'll help."
Matty nodded, hoping she wasn't making a mistake, there was a phrase in there that she knew Jack wasn't going to like, and she knew he would blame himself for it.
They sat in silence for a while, Matty looking through some files and Jack reading, occasionally he would sit up or his breathing would quicken but so far he hadn't said anything.
"Oh Mac," Jack said, leaning back and putting his arm over his eyes.
"What is it Jack?" Matty asked, thinking she already knew.
"Where are you Jack? That's what he says before going to sleep one night. He expected me to find him Matty, I'm supposed to protect him, and I failed. He needs me and where am I, nowhere to be seen."
"He won't blame you Jack."
"He won't, but I will. I am. If we don't find him I don't know what I'll do." Jack looked over, so much pain in his eyes. "We have to find him Matty, I don't think I'll survive if we don't.