Jack was pacing on the deck waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, he knew that things had returned to normality for everyone else and they had responsibilities at the Phoenix, but he needed to speak to them. It had almost been another two weeks since Mac had gone missing, that meant that a whole month had gone by without any of them seeing him. It was killing him that it had been that long, and he was starting to lose it a little.
Matty had called him earlier and told him that she couldn't let him have any more time off, he either had to come back in the next couple of days or lose his job. He knew deep down that Mac would forgive him for carrying on, but he didn't have to like it. That's why he was waiting for everyone, they were gonna have one last brainstorming session, make sure all stones had been turned over before they stopped looking.
Jack knew in his heart that they'd never stop looking, all of them would continue, even if it took years to find Mac again.
He sat down by the fire pit, thinking of the last time he had been there with Mac, it had been the Friday before he'd been taken, they'd just finished an assignment and they had the weekend off, they were discussing what they were gonna do.
"A whole weekend dude, what are you gonna do?" Jack asked, picking up his beer and downing the last of it.
"Chores mostly," Mac replied, knowing what Jack's response would be.
"Chores! Are you kidding me?"
"Nobody likes doing them Jack, but they have to be done. I've got so much laundry to do it's gonna probably take me a day to do it."
"Ok man, you do your chores, while I chill out on the couch in my underwear."
"Wow Jack, thanks for that image."
"No problem," Jack said smiling. "Tell you what, I'll come over Sunday and bring lunch and we can go take a drive or something. What do you say?
"Sounds good, I'm sure the chores will be down by then. Maybe before we go you could help me fold the laundry."
"Fold the laundry, shut up, you can fold your own damn laundry. Now pass me another beer."
Jack smiled, wishing that he come over and helped Mac with his chores. He could've slept in the spare room and been there when James had come, then none of this would be happening.
"Hey Jack, you ok?" Bozer asked, walking onto the deck.
"Yeah Boze, just thinking about the last time I saw Mac, telling me he had a whole day of laundry in his future, did I wanna come help him fold it."
Bozer laughed, picturing that in his head. The smile left his face though when he thought about when he gotten home, after the techs had left and the laundry was still in the dryer. Mac hadn't even had chance to get it out.
Soon the deck filled with the whole team, even Matty had come, wanting as badly as everyone else to find Mac.
They soon dived into the investigation, everything they needed had already been at Mac's place for days, Jack was practically living there, using it as his base of operations. Food arrived and the beers were handed out and everyone worked in silence, the odd voice coming when one of them asked a question. A few hours later and Riley's computer beeped, no one took any notice, Riley's rig was always beeping, until she spoke.
"Oh my god, I found him."
"What did you just say?" Jack asked, maybe he had misheard her.
"My programme just gave me a hit, it found James on a surveillance camera."
Everyone froze, not quite believing it was real, Cage recovered first. "How long ago, is it a recent picture or is it something from days ago?"
Riley was typing fast, everyone willed her to type faster. "It was from tonight, a few hours ago, oh my god."
"Where?" Bozer asked, coming over to look at the computer himself.
"Kernville. He showed up on an ATM camera."
"We need to get down there," Jack said, jumping to his feet.
"Jack, we need more information," Matty said.
"No, no more stalling, we know where he is."
"But we don't Jack, he was using an ATM, he could have stopped there on his way to anywhere," Cage said, hating to put a downer on things.
Jack sat back down and put his head in his hands. "So, this is another dead end?"
"No," Riley said. "The footage showed him going to his car, if I can get a plate then we can track it. I'm gonna have to see if there are any more camera's in the area, the ATM one's too small, I can't make anything out."
"Ok, while Riley does that, let's start looking at Kernville, see what places are nearby, how far you'd have to drive things like that," Matty said, picking up her own computer.
Jack nodded, needing something to do.
"I'm gonna make some coffee, I think it's gonna be a long night," Bozer said, getting up. He was buzzing, he couldn't believe they might finally have a lead.
Bozer was right it was a long night, unfortunately it didn't end with a location, they all took it turns to sleep, knowing that they needed to be fresh. Riley refused until she'd narrowed down the search. It was 8am when she sat up straighter, everyone knew that meant that she'd found something.
"What is it Ri?" Jack asked, stopping the pacing he had been doing on the deck.
"I found the car, I've got the registration, running it now."
They all waited, and Riley would have felt a lot of pressure if she'd been paying attention. All her focus was on her search. "Ok, car is registered to a Tony Filmore."
"Who?" Bozer asked.
"It's obviously another car bought in someone else's name," Cage said.
"Ok, can you search for properties in this Tony Filmore's name?" Matty asked, getting her phone ready, she was going to get a team ready as soon as Riley came up with a list.
"This will take a little while guys. Can someone do a search on this Filmore guy, see where he actually might live?"
"I'll do it," Cage said, sitting down.
An hour later and they had the information they needed, there were five addresses registered in Filmore's name but only one was close to where the ATM footage was taken.
"Jack, you take a team and go to that address. Cage I want you to take a team and check out the others, just in case," Matty said.
"I can't believe this might be it!" Riley exclaimed. No one wanting to say what she was thinking, what if they were too late again.
Jack and his team walked up the road to the house, not wanting to pull the car up too close, there was hardly any cover. The team surround the place and Jack looked in the front window, he couldn't believe it, James was sitting at the kitchen table completely alone. He signalled to the team and they breached as silently as they could, he didn't know where Mac was, so he didn't want to risk flash bangs.
There was a lot of shouting and banging and Jack had to stop himself from just putting a bullet in James MacGyver there and then. "Where is he?" Jack asked, his voice quiet but deadly.
Jack didn't think James was going to speak at first and then he screamed. "You can't have him."
"The hell I can't, get him out of here."
Jack walked through the kitchen, his mind focused on one thing, finding his kid. He saw a wet room, no sign of Mac in there, there was a shut door to his left, so he tried the handle and found it locked, he kicked it in and froze. He'd found what he'd been searching for and the kid looked like a shell of who he'd last seen. Mac was restrained so much, and he was trying to shy away as if he thought Jack was gonna hurt him.
He can't see you idiot, Jack thought of course he's scared.
"Oh my god Mac, what has that bastard done to you!"