Sins Of The Father

Sorry it has been so long since the last chapter; I've been crazy busy! Let's see where this sister mystery takes us today, OK? Come with me!

After a few minutes Mac regained enough composure to be able to let Jack go and pull away from their embrace. He was not really embarrassed for he knew Jack would not really judge him poorly for allowing himself to be comforted by the older man; he was just ready to figure out what the hell was going on? Who sent the doll? No one knew of his sister, not really, no one except his father and him; not even Bozer knew of her, it was a secret Mac had kept all to himself. He stood up from the lounge chair he had sat in without really realizing it, and walked back inside, into the kitchen, sniffling and still trying to keep his emotions in check; he felt more than saw Jack follow him inside. Mac picked up the box the doll had been delivered in and flipped it over and over in his hands. Perhaps if he looked at it long enough, it would share its secrets? Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair, sighed and threw the box back down on the counter; then turned towards the deck and started to walk outside.

Jack stood by Mac as the blond genius checked the box the doll had been mailed in over and over; obviously the kid was looking for answers, none of which the box was going to provide him; he then watched as a frustrated Mac threw the box on the counter and stomped out towards his deck. Jack remained in place and rubbed a hand on his chin in a pensive gesture; he looked out towards the deck and saw the boy was sitting by the fire pit, unmoving. He turned his attention back to the box, took out his phone and started a text to Riley; he asked her to see if she could check the labels on the box he was about to send her a picture of, and figure out who sent it or any information that may prove useful. Jack put his phone back in his pocket once he was done, walked over to Mac's fridge and took out two beers and then headed out to join Mac on the deck.

Mac looked up at Jack as a beer suddenly appeared before him, he nodded at the older man, took the beer and took a big swig of it before putting it down beside him on the floor. Mac was seated cross legged on the deck's floor, staring at the amazing view of Malibu's geography visible from his home, not really seeing it. "I'm sorry" he blurted out. He put his head in his hands and continued, "I'm sorry I did not tell you about her, Ashley was…is…a hard subject to talk about…" he turned to face his friend, tears threatening to start pouring down again. "My family started to spiral downward once she died; it was very hard on all of us", he told Jack, "eventually…eventually things settled down to some sort of 'new normal' I guess, so I pretended; we all did maybe? That it had never happened; maybe…just maybe it had been a terrible dream from which we had awoken and we continued to live our lives as if it had not really been the devastating event it was"

Jack sat beside his friend after handing him the beer. He sat in silence while the boy talked. He knew Mac needed to talk about it, to bring the secret out from the dark hole it was buried in so that he could function; so that he could then focus on what was the main thing at hand right now, who sent the doll? Jack turned towards the blonde once he had stopped talking and it was evident he was not going to say anything else without prompting and spoke. "Mac, listen to me", he said as he grabbed the boy's chin and turned it towards him to make sure Mac as listening; Mac blinked at him, Jack continued, "I can't even begin to imagine how had this was…is…for you, losing a sibling must be earth-shattering, I get that, and I'm not trying to trivialize that" Jack waited for a sign the boy was listening, when Mac nodded slightly, he continued. "Right now though, I need you to think about something else too though, he put his hand on the back of Mac's throat and squeezed, a gesture he often used when he was trying to keep the boy focused and grounded in the present, "I need you to think who, if this is such a well-kept secret, could have had that doll and sent to you?" "Why would they send it to you?" Again Jack waited for signs that Mac was tracking; the blonde put his head back in his hands, shaking slightly, he mumbled something that Jack did not understand so he asked, "What was that Mac?"

Jack was asking Mac something he knew needed to be asked, hell, he just asked himself the same question a hundred times over since opening the box: "who could have sent the doll to him?"; Mac looked at Jack with sadness in his eyes that made the older man flinch when they locked eyes. Mac cleared his throat and said, "My father", Mac cleared his throat again, and took a deep steadying breath before continuing, "When Ashley died, um… that doll had been in her room at our house, I remember dad taking it and holding it as he sobbed the day of her funeral"; Mac closed his eyes, suddenly feeling very tired. "The doll was on a shelf in my parent's room after that, at least for a while" he said rubbing a hand on his forehead trying to quell the massive headache that was now making it hard to think, "I remember my mother was not pleased with it being in their room, Ashley was after all, proof that my father had had an affair, and although my mother never treated Ashley poorly, she was still not willing to keep a constant reminder of her husband's…um… indiscretions… in their room I guess" Mac squinted at his partner, the headache now a full-fledged, room-spinning, light-hurting, nauseating migraine that was going to make life very unpleasant for him for the next several hours; "I remember that dad took the doll and placed it in a little box then I don't know where he put it, I never saw it again after that" Mac pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, unable to stop a groan of pain from escaping as both his head and his stomach decided to assault his body at once; he swayed as grey spots invaded his vision; suddenly he felt a pair of strong callused hands on his arms and heard Jack's voice ask him if he was OK? "No" was his response.

Jack again listened as the boy spoke. Jack was trying to figure out if the kid's father sent Mac the doll, which according to Mac's story, he would be the only one who would know where the doll was and its significance, why would he do that? Why hurt his son like that? What the hell was the point? Suddenly Jack's reverie was stopped by Mac's pallor; the kid was suddenly looking pale and sweaty. He was squinting up at him as he spoke, like he was in pain, and then the kid actually groaned and swayed, starting an obvious down-ward decent that would have made the kid's head hit the deck, literally, had Jack not reacted quickly and instinctively and grabbed Mac by the arms; "Mac!" he said, "Are you OK?" Jack swallowed hard at the boy's monosyllabic response of "No"; "Dammit!" Jack cursed as he started to help the boy down into a lying position; when he found Mac's father, and he would, he was going to kill him!

To be continued…