Jack had kept up his usual steady stream of light affectionate teasing while they prepped for the mission. When he stopped outside the evidence room though, he looked around almost furtively, making sure no one else was coming. "Give me a sec," he said quietly to Mac.
"Um, okay …" Mac replied dubiously, wondering what the hell Jack was up to. Then he smiled a little. Jack had to spend half his life wondering what Mac was up to, and it was usually when people were shooting at them, so he should probably just give his partner the benefit of the doubt.
Through the door, which Mac was amused to note, Jack violated protocol to leave cracked open almost certainly so he could hear if anything was going on with Mac, Mac could hear Jack flirting with the ex-FBI agent, and near retiree, who kept the Evidence Room under lock and key and made sure the less police protocol minded among the agents here, followed procedure and didn't break the chain of evidence.
She was practically old enough to be Jack's mom. Well, that wasn't fair, but she could definitely have been his babysitter, like the one parents left their kid with because they had an infant and the sitter had a car for emergencies, but she had taken an obvious shine to Jack. It made Jack practically squirm every time they went in there, so Mac wondered what he could want badly enough to go in there and actually encourage her.
Then, a few minutes later, Jack slipped out of the room, a little red in the face but grinning. "Go, go, go. Let's head down to Tactical, bud."
Mac fell into step beside Jack, who was really walking a little faster than Mac felt up to, but he kept up any way, lest Jack take it into his head to suddenly agree with Dr. P and Matty about where he currently belonged.
When they got to the locker room though, Mac sunk down on the nearest bench. Jack was immediately at his side, looking altogether ready to pick him up and throw him over his shoulder and take him right back the way they came, and then carefully wiping the look off his face for a casual, "Hey, bud. You doin' okay?"
Mac glanced up, brushing his hair out of his face with the hand that wasn't attached to the arm that was making it possible to count his heartrate without finding an artery. "Yeah, I'm good." Then he grinned when the protective expression slipped past the more 'just checkin' on my buddy' look Jack was trying to hold onto. "I'm fine, Jack. It's just … Still feel a little … woozy, I guess. It's getting better though. Fast."
Jack cocked a skeptical eyebrow. "You sure, Mac, because we can just go in there and do what we do strike and fade style while you get your bearings and maybe have another nap. I'd be back before you knew …"
"Jack, I need to go." Mac forced himself to stand, to be on even footing with Jack. "I need it."
Jack gave him a soft smile. "I get it, kid. So long as you stay behind me, we got no problems then."
"Jack, I …"
"Alright, alright … I realize I may not be able to be a human shield while we're out there all the time, but if you're goin' today, would you at least wear that new flexible body armor stuff Cage has been harpin' on everybody about?"
Mac narrowed his eyes. "Is there enough to go around yet?"
"No, sir, there is not. It's experimental. But I know you won't wear the good stuff. Tactical will." Jack paused. "I don't like you goin' out there with less than 100% of your brain on duty, Mac." Mac met his eyes for a second. "Please?"
Mac rolled his eyes, happy to find that hi headache was almost gone. "Fine. You have some for me, I assume?"
Jack grinned, pleased to see Mac so agreeable about doing something that could even slightly protect him. He opened his own locker and pulled out the flexible, almost light vest. "Sure do."
Handed it to Mac who dropped it on the bench and started unbuttoning his shirt. Jack made himself busy making sure his weapons were clean, functional, and he had plenty of ammunition. He could see Mac dressing out of the corner of his eye and bit his tongue when he realized that just the time since he'd woken up and the doc had a look and now had allowed where he'd struck the pavement, to blossom into several dark bruises.
Mac kept glancing at him, like he was waiting for him to say something as he zipped into the new vest, but Jack just kept quiet. Then as Mac was pulling on his shirt again the fabric caught the bandage on his arm and he swore. One of the words that meant he was serious. Jack stopped pretending to look at stuff in his locker and turned around.
"What's up, kid?"
"Bandage keeps pulling and … I'm just whining."
"Hurts?" Mac shrugged. "So, what's stoppin' you from peelin' it off? Doc's not around to yell atcha."
"But you are," Mac said with a grin that said that's what helicopter parents did, while it almost begged him not to.
"Kid, I have watched you superglue a dirty knife wound shut in the middle of a warzone. You wanna lose the band aid after somebody did a shit job poking one of your veins? That's a far cry from any of my business. In fact, that's mostly every time you've ever gone to Medical and they've gotten stabby. Ever."
Mac grinned, and it made Jack relax almost immediately. That was pure Mac; a little wry, a little embarrassed even, but affectionate, and a little grateful. He peeled the tape and gauze off his arm, wincing as it pulled out most of his arm hair, and tossed it in the trash, rolling his sleeves down just a little further and then finishing buttoning his shirt. "You ready?" he asked, thinking to himself that he was starting to really sound normal.
Jack nodded, checking a text. "Almost," he smiled. He fished in his pocket and took out a small evidence bag with Mac's Swiss Army knife inside. Then he tore the plastic, took out the knife, and chucked the baggie in the garbage. "Thought you might want this."
Mac was surprised to be getting the knife back. He assumed it was just gone when it hadn't been on him in that sub-basement. He reached out and took it, then gave Jack a look somewhere between grateful and worried. "Does Colton know you have this?"
"She don't care what I took out of active. And it don't matter 'cause that was in the 'Kidnapping MacGyver comma Angus' file and hey here you are, so Evidence don't need it anymore."
Mac shook his head grinned. A tool for every situation. Suddenly going after Murdoc felt much less impossible. "Thanks, Jack. I'm …" No, now wasn't the time for that talk. That was going to get all emotional. Later. At the firepit. Because he was sure Jack was going to be staying over, at least for a few days. He'd say his sorrys then. "Just, thanks."
Jack patted him on the shoulder. "I gotchu, kid." He nodded toward the exit. "Let's go get him."
0-0-0
The core team shared on of the large SUVs on the way over. Mac sat in the back, next to a window for the ride. He was resting his head against it and his eyes were closed, not sleeping, or even sleepy really, just exhausted and mentally preparing himself for going back in there. Jack was sitting by the other window, just giving him some space to order his thoughts and get his game face on.
Matty and Riley were talking in the rapid, finishing each other's sentences way that had become increasingly common in recent months. Bozer was in the middle row of seats along with Cage, both reviewing the plans they'd gotten for the abandoned tunnels. Jack could have been doing that too. But he was quietly keeping an eye on Mac.
He raised his eyebrows at Cage when she made her way into the back where Mac and Jack were sitting and sat between them. She swallowed hard and the face she made at Jack said she was feeling badly about something, but he couldn't for the life of him imagine what. She shifted in the seat. Mac didn't open his eyes. Cage cleared her throat. Jack smiled at how awkward it was. That was very out of character for Cage.
This time Mac opened his eyes and sat up all the way. "Hey, something come up in the blue prints?"
She cleared her throat again and Jack became very busy looking at something on his phone.
"I wanted to apologize," she began.
Mac frowned. "For what?"
"For … during the memory exercise …"
"You pushed. That's your job. You got me where I needed to go. No apologies necessary. Thank you, actually." He didn't smile, but his eyes said he meant it.
"No, I meant … when I … I touched your neck … It's meant to be a grounding technique, but you obviously …"
This time Mac did smile. "Don't worry about it. I've got a pretty big personal space bubble on my best day and I … I wasn't in a good place for … anyone in it at that moment. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Still, I'm sorry."
Mac smiled again. "Actually, it made me uncomfortable as hell. It was just what I needed to get my head back to where I needed to be, to why I was feeling like that."
She looked horrified at the idea that touching him could've made him feel that level of discomfort. "Then I definitely owed you that apology."
Mac shook his head. "I didn't mean it like that." She looked like she didn't quite believe him. "I meant, I'd had enough of being fussed over and you were the next in a long line. And I don't know you that well, so that's difficult for me anyway. But you reminded me that people who care what happens to me were just trying to help, and the guy who made me need it was still out there. It wasn't grounding I guess, but it was focusing."
"So, you don't mind me touching you then?" she smiled.
Jack had to interrupt. "I'd hold my horses if I was you, Cage. I mean, he didn't hitcha, but it takes our boy a while to warm up. I think he'd been to Christmas at my Nana's house before he ever let me give him a real hug."
"Screw you, Jack," Mac chuckled. Then he looked at Cage seriously. He chose not to answer her direct, if slightly flirtatious feeling, question. He was so not going there. And there was something about her that he couldn't quite name. He wanted to like her, wanted to trust her even. But something kept that from coming easily. He wasn't going there either. Instead he just chose to reassure her of her place on the team. "I'm just saying it wasn't anything personal, my reaction. You did a good job."
She gave a short half nod of appreciation. "I'm supposed to be good at reading people … And I misread you, misread the situation. So, I'm still sorry. Is there anything I can …"
Mac shook his head, but didn't tell her to stop apologizing. He had some apologizing of his own to do, and he knew, based on how he felt, there was no way he was going to stop just because Jack brushed him off about it. Which is definitely what Jack was going to do after everything that happened since he got back. "Just hold up your side bringing in Murdoc. That's all I need right now."
"That I can promise," she said with a little heat.
Jack's brow wrinkled as he looked at her. He had some real trust issues with Cage. He felt like he was caught in a constant game of one-upmanship with her that he hadn't agreed to play. But … that sounded like she was taking this all just a little personally. And he liked that she cared enough to apologize for putting Mac through her recall activity, even though it had obviously been necessary. He was just going to treat this as 'Situation Normal' and hope the usual filler for the rest of one of his favorite acronyms didn't make themselves necessary to use.
"Good plan. 'Cause if you're really on the team now, and not just gonna bail for another agency …"
"I'm not," she said defensively.
Mac shook his head. "Jack's teasing. It means he … Well, I'm not going to speak for him, but he doesn't tease people he hates.
"Oh," she said with another reserved smile.
Jack nodded approvingly at both of them; Cage because she clearly gave a damn what they thought, and Mac because he sounded entirely like himself now.
"It means you're in his crosshairs, too. Not a good place to be."
"So, let's flip that weapon so he's the one staring down the barrel of it," she offered with real determination.
"Oh, yeah," Jack grinned. "That's exactly what we're gonna do. But I'm not taking him quick and clean."
"Gut shot?" she asked, smirking.
"If he's lucky," Jack smirked back. Then he looked apologetically at Mac. "Sorry, kid, I know that violent stuff, isn't exactly your …"
"You want to drag him down into that room where he had me and keep him for a week, I think I'm okay with that, Jack."
"Well, now. That's a plan I could get behind."
Then the SUV slowed to a stop and Jack knew he was going to need to be in full game-faced operator mode as well as maybe helicopter dad mode when Mac paled three shades at the prospect of getting out and going in there, even though he wanted it, needed it.
Mac gripped the handle to open the car until his knuckles went white, then he just opened the door. He cleared his throat. "Let's get this over with."
