AN: I hope this makes everyone's weeks better after the devastating news the fandom received :\ I don't really feel like talking about it anymore, but all my thoughts are on my tumblr, bands-space-and-monsters-oh-my. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review :)

He would never say so to Mac, but Jack was terrified. He saw those dead bodies in the cell with his partner, and he knew they had been dosed with basically the same thing that Mac had, and they were dead. He would not let his partner join them. But what could he do to stop it? Mac was losing his senses faster than the Cowboys lost games in 1960, and he was powerless to stop it. Jack didn't know if the effects of the drug would progress at a steady rate or not, but Mac was already blind. What was he supposed to do when the kid went deaf? And what was he supposed to do if it was irreversible? The kid was incredible, but he wasn't Helen Keller.

"The ground is about to slope down a bit, okay?" he said. Jack wasn't surprised when Mac gripped his arm a little tighter in response. The kid had been uncharacteristically quiet - they both had, really - and Jack could guess what he was thinking about. If Jack was freaked out about the whole situation, then he could only imagine how absolutely terrified Mac must have been. The kid was also so observant to the world around him, and with his sight robbed from him, he must feel pretty helpless. Jack would be the first one to say that Mac was never helpless, never, but that didn't mean that Mac didn't think that. "How you holdin' up, kiddo?" he asked, although he wasn't expecting a truthful answer on the first try.

"I'm okay," Mac muttered in response. Jack glanced back at him, his sightless eyes were downcast, and his head hung long. The kid must have sensed Jack looking at him, because he quickly reached up to wipe away the remnants of tears. He was so damn scared.

Jack sighed. "I know you're not, but that's okay." He needed to find a good distraction while they slowly made their way to where exfil would have been. Jack was always good at distractions. "So tell me some weird facts about squirrels," he said. "There's a hell of a lot of squirrels here, and I've got nothin' better to do than listen to a lecture on squirrels." Just as Jack had planned, Mac let out a small chuckle and smiled. Mission accomplished.

"Well," Mac started with a deep breath. Jack could practically hear his smile as the gears started turning in his brain to come up with the most obscure facts he knew about the little animals. "They vary in size a lot, like, they can be anywhere from seven centimeters to a full meter long. It's crazy. The Indian Giant Squirrel is thirty-six inches of fluff, really. Squirrels are hoarders too-"

"Just like you!" Jack interrupted. He almost playfully punched Mac in the shoulder, but stopped himself just in time. Mac was finally smiling, his mind off their situation, and Jack didn't want to freak him out with physical contact that he couldn't see coming.

"Jack," Mac groaned in response. "I'm not a hoarder, I just keep things that might be useful one day, which really is everything, because the only limit to anything is the human imagination, and maybe physics, but there's often a way around that too. And anyway, I meant that they hoard nuts, and even organize them. They can even detect their food under a foot a snow."

Mac continued to spout off random facts about squirrels for a solid ten minutes. Jack provided a lot of useless commentary, knowing that it would make things feel a bit more normal, and not like they were being hunted in the forest by chemical weapons dealers who were hellbent on dragging Mac back to the facility to finish their drug tests on him.

Jack immediately stopped in his tracks when he heard something that sounded a bit like voices to his left. "Mac, stop, I heard something," he whispered. The kid ran into him, but Jack didn't mind. He could feel Mac's hand shaking as he gripped his arm. There could be a threat out there, and Mac couldn't even see it. Jack pulled Mac over to a tree that was cluttered with fallen branches, and made him sit down under some good cover. "You stay here, I promise that I will be right back."

"Jack, no, don't leave," Mac panicked, reaching out blindly with his other arm to grip Jack's pant leg. Jack crouched down and took a hold of Mac's hands in his own larger ones.

"I will not let them find you, okay? I'm gonna go take care of whatever bad guy is out there, and then I'm coming right back, I swear." Jack squeezed Mac's hands before placing them on the trunk of the tree he was sitting up against, just so he still had something there to ground him. "I'll be right back."

"But Jack-"

"I have to, kid. When have I ever not come back? When have I ever broken a promise to you?"

Mac was silent, and hung his head. "Don't make this the first time," he muttered, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the tree trunk.

"Never, kiddo." Jack slowly stood up, quickly messing up Mac's hair with his hand to get him to smile. The blond reached up to swat at Jack's hand, and Jack made sure he hit it. "I'll be right back."

Painstakingly, Jack stepped away and out from under the cover, telling himself over and over again not to look back, because if he did, he would stay with the kid and hold him tight and tell him it would be okay, and as much as he would love to do that, that strategy would not work. He needed to be proactive when he could, and right now was a time when he could and should.

Jack's Delta senses had already told him that it was a person he'd heard and not an animal. He'd already heard several deer, but he hadn't told Mac about them. As much as Jack made fun of Mac for having the legs of a newborn deer, the kid really did love the animals for their graceful countenance, and, if he were being honest, for their sweet faces. That was another resemblance that he wouldn't tell the kid about, unless he really wanted to embarrass him. He didn't tell him because he didn't want to make him upset that he couldn't see them.

Slowly, Jack crept closer to where he'd been when he heard it, and stood still and silent. There it was again, and it was more than one person. That was fine by Jack. He took cover, creeping closer and closer until he could see them. There were three men, all in the uniform of the weapons dealer. They carried AR-15s, and had bulletproof vests. That meant only headshots would take them out. Jack sighed. He didn't enjoy killing people, but he would do anything to protect his kid. Sometimes the lengths he would go to for that boy scared him, but three more bodies were nothing new.

Jack crouched down, obscured by foliage, and lined up his first target. The pistol he was using wasn't his favorite make or model, but it would get the job done, and it was fully loaded. He sighed again, shaking his head as his finger made its way to the trigger. Anything for Mac.

Less than a minute later, Jack was standing over the bodies of three dead men. After the first one went down, the second two freaked out and started looking around for the shooter, but they were too late. This was the part of the job that Jack hated, taking lives when they have the chance to even defend themselves, murderous criminals or not. After Afghanistan, and what he'd had to do, Jack could understand why a kid as haunted as Mac would refuse to use one ever again, despite the fact that he was an excellent shot.

But, there was still more these dead men could give him. They were all a lot bigger than Mac, but that was better than nothing. Night was coming, and Mac was only wearing the gray pants and shirt that he'd found him in the facility in. He would be damned if he let his kid freeze.

Jack quickly made his way back to where he left Mac - extra clothes and shoes in hand - and was relieved to see that the kid was still there, but it looked like he was almost hyperventilating.

"Jack, is that you?" Mac asked, his voice breaking. Jack hadn't been aware that he'd been making that much noise, but it made sense that without his sight, Mac would be paying closer attention to the things he heard.

"Yeah, kid, I'm right here," Jack replied, setting the clothes down and crouching in front of Mac. The kid held his hands out in front of him, searching for his partner, his breaths still coming far too quickly for Jack's liking. "It's okay, bud, it's alright," he said. He gently took Mac's hands in his, but the moment he made enough contact for Mac to know where he was, the kid launched himself at Jack, expertly wrapping his arms around the man and burying his face in his shoulder. It was a move he had done countless times before when he was scared out of his mind and Jack was the only thing keeping him sane.

"I- I heard the shots, and shouting, and I thought that- that maybe you-"

"Hey, hey, it's alright, kiddo, I'm okay. I don't have a scratch on me. I promised I would come back to you and I did." Jack reached up and gently ran his fingers through Mac's hair. Maybe Mac was being uncharacteristically clingy, but the kid had every right too. He'd been captured by the enemy and experimented on, really, and now he was losing his senses one by one. He had every right to be clingy. "I've got you," he whispered. "It's okay."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Mac said, quickly pulling away and leaning back up against the tree. "I didn't mean to freak out, I'm sorry, we should get going." Mac made to stand, but Jack stopped him with a hand on the kid's knee.

"Wait a second, I've got somethin' for ya," Jack said. Mac just looked at him, confused. "You need some warmer clothes, so I swiped some from the bad guys. They'll be big, but it's better than what you've got. Here's the jacket." He handed Mac the jacket in the way that would be easiest for the kid to put in on himself. He probably didn't want any help. Once he successfully put on the jacket, Jack handed him the pants. They were large enough to fit comfortably over the pants he was already wearing and still be too big. Jack helped him to shove the ends into the massive boots to make them just a little bit more comfortable. He didn't say anything about it, but the kid's feet were cut up from the forest floor, making Jack cringe. That had to hurt.

"Thanks, Jack," Mac muttered. Knowing the kid couldn't see it, Jack rolled his eyes. What did he have to do to get the kid to see that he wasn't a burden? Maybe he hadn't said anything directly, but Jack knew that exact tone of voice. Mac was thinking about how much of a burden he was to him, and Jack wouldn't stand for it. But, he also knew that now wasn't the time. They had to get moving.

"Alright, kid. Let's get goin'." Jack gripped Mac's hand in his and helped him to stand, then gave him a moment to rest his hand on Jack's arm the same way he had before. They carefully made their way out from under the dense forest cover that had hidden Mac well, and kept walking. The exfil location was probably only a mile away, but they had no way of knowing when they were getting help. Exfil was long gone, they knew that much already. They just had to hope that there would be enough signal at the location to send an SOS to Riley back at Phoenix, assuming she didn't already know something was wrong. They had missed exfil multiple times, so that wouldn't be quite enough to let them know that something was seriously wrong, but after long enough, they would figure it out for themselves. Jack just hoped they could do that in time.

Dr. Zeigler paced back and forth. This was a disaster. If he didn't get his hands on that boy soon enough to watch the rest of the progression of the drug, production could be set back months. If this drug was a straight improvement of the last one, then the boy should have lost his sight by then, and should lose his hearing within a couple of hours, but there was no telling exactly how the drug would progress. Would the drug kill the boy? He was young and strong - he wasn't sure how old the boy was, but he looked like he was still a kid, not quite yet a man - and was the perfect test subject. Hopefully, he would survive, and be able to be used for the next batch. Dr. Zeigler hadn't had a specimen as perfect as that blond boy yet. All of the other subjects had been too weak to handle the drug, and had died of shock in the last stage. That wasn't supposed to happen. The drug wasn't supposed to kill them. It was supposed to be a method of incapacitating enemies, who could then be interrogated once the drug wore off in a few days.

However, due to the excruciating pain the drug caused, his employers had requested a second version of the drug that was more slow acting that could be used as an enhanced interrogation method. Zeigler had seen the video in the lab, he saw the boy screaming in pain when he lost the first sense. It wasn't that the sense of smell was so crucial to the drug, but it added fear, which was essential to the version of the drug that would be used in interrogation. Once the first sense goes, the subject will know what's going on, and be terrified. That was the goal.

But then that man had burst in and taken the boy away. That wasn't part of the plan. He needed to be able to see how the drug progressed, or else he'd have to find a new test subject, and after the blond boy, no one else would be good enough. The boy was simply perfect, in the absolute peak of health with a stunning physique. No one else could come close to being as good of a test subject.

"Doctor."

Zeigler was stirred from his thoughts by one of the lieutenants coming up to him. "Well? Have you captured the boy yet?"

"Not exactly," the man quietly replied. "We haven't seen him yet, but three men were taken out by shots to the head. It had to be the man who took him from us."

"Then get back out there, and find him," Zeigler seethed. "That boy should be the last lab rat we ever need, at least for this serum. I intend to use him until he dies, but I can't do that if he gets away!" he shouted. "Now, send all available men to get out into the woods, and find him. I don't care what you do to the man, but I need that boy back here within the next hour, or you'll be the one I test the drug on next. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant replied, turning on his heel and leaving.

Zeigler sighed. If he couldn't get that drug finished on time, he was history. His employers would kill him. None of this should have been a problem. He usually finished drugs to perfection with plenty of time to spare, but this one was proving to be quite difficult, and he'd never had a test subject escape before.

Oh well. The boy would be caught again, and for his escape, Zeigler would show him the meaning of pain.