AN: Warning on this chapter for human trafficking and (implied) sexual exploitation of minors.
CHEZ DALTON
LA
With a grin with a touch of a smirk in it, Jack, wearing dark-wash jeans, a black dress shirt and his best leather jacket, unlocked his front door, as Diane, in a little black dress with bold gold jewellery, stood very, very close to him, their sides brushing, with a cat-that-ate-the-canarysmile on her face, running a hand up and down his arm in a way that was deliberately seemingly-idle, but was definitely not idle at all.
The door unlocked, and Jack turned the tables on her by tugging her through the doorway and spinning her around, dropping his keys somewhere on the floor, not that he cared at all. Diane laughed musically, in a way that made her seem twenty years younger, then pulled him towards her and kissed him.
Two very pleasant seconds later, they were interrupted by a deliberate throat-clearing.
Instantly, Jack was on alert, and shoved Diane behind him, hand going to the back of his boot, where he had a knife hidden, as always.
(He also cursed himself internally for letting himself get so carried away, so distracted, that he hadn't noticed the presence of another person in his apartment.)
(Then again, it was his apartment. It had a state-of-the-art security system built by Mac; he'd upgraded after Dawn had stolen his precious flatscreen.)
(And Diane was so very easy to get lost in, get lost with.)
In the shadowy, dark living area (they hadn't bothered turning on any of the lights), a figure got up from one of Jack's La-Z-Boys, hands up.
Diane had pulled out her phone and turned on the torch function, and she pointed the light at the figure.
(She was no soldier or spy or secret agent, and she certainly didn't have a black belt in any martial art, but she had sharp wits and street-smarts and common sense.)
(And she'd done lots of self-defence classes.)
Both she and Jack relaxed as they recognized the man in Jack's living room…and then exchanged a glance. An uncomfortable glance.
A why-did-this-have-to-happen-to-me glance.
Elwood Davis, looking very much like he agreed with that sentiment, spoke, raising a hand and waggling his fingers in greeting.
'Hello, Jack. Hello, Diane.'
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly feeling a lot more sympathetic to what Mac had gone through the week before when Nikki and Allie had shown up at the Phoenix.
'Hey, Elwood.' He paused. 'You should probably stop letting yourself in…'
Mac's security system had been programmed to recognize Elwood as a friend and thus let him into Jack's apartment. He stopped by from time-to-time; Elwood had won respect from Jack with the Baseball Incident, and even though it was a bit weird, it seemed to make Riley happy that they got along. It also seemed that Elwood viewed Jack as a model of a 'good man' and someone who could help keep him on the straight and narrow.
(Jack would not pull any punches if it looked like Elwood would do anything that'd hurt Riley or Diane ever again.)
(Both figuratively and literally.)
Diane eyed her ex-husband coolly for a moment, before walking towards the kitchen to get herself a drink, and one for Jack.
(She accepted that her ex had changed, really, this time. That he was trying to be a better man. She trusted her baby girl's judgement.)
(She accepted that Riley was building a relationship with him, and supported that. She was happy for her baby girl.)
(She even accepted the friendship of sorts that Elwood and Jack had. Jack was a good influence on Elwood, and since that'd help prevent him from doing something that'd hurt her daughter again, of course she was fine with it. Elwood needed more friends who weren't crooks and conmen.)
(Besides, she wasn't Jack's keeper. They'd found each other again in their forties; they had entire, separate lives independent of each other, something which they'd agreed to respect as they wove their lives together again.)
(Still, she could never, ever be friends with the man.)
(Not after what he'd done to her.)
Elwood watched with something sad, something hurt, something regretful and full of self-loathing, as Diane handed Jack a drink, pointedly giving him a quick peck as she handed it over.
But there was also acceptance in his eyes.
Diane had always deserved far better than him.
PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS
SOMEWHERE IN LA
'…All I'm saying, man, is that sometimes, you gotta let the Wookie win.'
Jack pointed sagely at Mac as the two of them walked into work. The blonde made an incredulous, exasperated gesture with his hands, his expression matching.
'A, this situation is not even a correct application of that concept, and B-'
Whatever B was, Mac didn't get a chance to say it, because Beth happened to walk by, saw Jack and immediately bustled over and started talking to him.
'Jack, I've been trying to get a hold of you, I sent you five texts…' She trailed off as she noticed the phone in Jack's hand, brow furrowing, thinking about loud. 'Well, at the very least, you can't have missed my last message because Mac commandeered your phone again…'
Mac had the good grace to give her a sheepish little smile, rubbing the back of his neck, before shooting his partner a look.
Jack steadfastly ignored him.
'Umm…uh…he did use it for a little something-something yesterday.' He turned from the doctor to Mac. 'Brother, you do something to it that could've messed with my reception or deleted my messages or something?' He turned back to Beth. ''Cause I haven't got anything from you, Doc.'
Mac shot Jack another look, crossing his arms. Beth raised her brows very sceptically, clearly not believing Jack's excuses, and narrowed her eyes at him.
(Mac hid a smirk.)
Yeah…I admit I'm looking forward to this.
A, it is nice to be on the other side.
B, schadenfreude. I'm only human.
And C, since when have I not loved getting one up on Jack?
Jack, however, was saved from being scolded by the fierce little doctor by his phone ringing.
He glanced down at the caller ID, and immediately answered.
Matty's voice rang out over Jack's phone.
'Dalton, Baby Einstein, get your butts to Reception now.'
Jack immediately started heading back out towards the Phoenix's reception, clearly not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Besides, Matty's tone brooked absolutely no argument, even more than usual.
Mac started jogging backwards in the same direction, though not before glancing over at Beth, who had a wry, exasperated and slightly concerned, all at once, little smile on her face.
'I'll make sure he comes to see you.'
Her smile softened and widened a touch.
'Thanks, Mac.'
He gave a quick nod of acknowledgement, turned and jogged a little faster.
Matty would not be happy if she judged him to be 'late'.
You know, I don't reckon it's true, but there's probably enough evidence in my life to suggest that in women, scariness is inversely proportional to size.
Mac caught up to Jack just as they walked out of the double doors and into Reception.
Well, caught up in a loose sense.
He very nearly collided with his partner, only skidding to a halt (he'd run part of the way, because he really, really did not want to be late) as Jack stopped in his tracks.
He took in the blonde woman standing in the room, dressed in (ironically) that same brown jacket they'd seen her in last, her hands up.
Mac watched the older man's face cycle through several emotions (shock and denial, hurt and pain…) before settling on something angry. Seething.
'You got a lot of nerve showing up here, Dawn.'
The sort-of ex-conwoman, in a gesture that was clearly a concession to honesty (to that…friendship…that she had with Jack), gave a little nod, before speaking.
'I need your help.' Something that looked like a pained plea crossed her face. Something that did tug on Jack's heartstrings (he'd always worn his heart on his sleeve, after all), even if he knew he absolutely shouldn't believe it. (Dawn was a master actress, a consummate liar, who'd played him like a fiddle twice already. Played them all.) 'They need your help.'
'Last week, I stumbled upon another ring of counterfeiters turning ones into Benjamin Franklins.'
Mac, Jack, Matty, Bozer and Riley all sat and stood around the war room, Mac toying with a paperclip that was rapidly taking the shape of a dollar sign, as Dawn explained why she'd come to the Phoenix and surrendered, despite being on several Most Wanted lists.
(Though not as many as she should have been on.)
(Matty had pulled some strings.)
(She'd made sure that all official records showed that only $4 million had been recovered in Peru, and that the liquidation of Julian's substantial assets included a $1 million donation to Barberry Children's Home.)
(None of them could even seriously contemplate taking the money from the orphans.)
(And honestly…if there was ever a reason to steal $1 million from the US government, that was it.)
Her motives were good.
Her means were…questionable to say the least.
And she lied to us and betrayed our trust again.
She lied to Jack and betrayed his trust again.
Yeah, it's complicated doesn't even really begin to describe it.
Jack muttered just a little too loudly for it to have been to himself.
'You mean you were scouting out your next mark or marks.'
Dawn crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow at him.
'A girl's gotta make a living. Figured y'all be happier if I stole from the bad guys.' Dawn's expression grew serious again, something nearly haunted appearing in her eyes. 'Turns out that these bad guys weren't just counterfeiters. They're using their fake bills to fund another…operation.' She tapped the screen, and a whole series of pictures of teenagers, mostly girls, appeared. A few were missing persons posters, but most of them were random social media photos or from Social Services case files. 'They lure them in with the promise of a better life.' Dawn tapped the screen again, and the image changed to several shots of two of the girls who'd been in the previous photos, eyes lifeless and scared. They appeared to be working as waitresses of a sort in a very dodgy-looking bar, though they all got the (very unpleasant and horrifying, even after all they'd seen in their line of work) feeling that they weren't there to bus tables. Dawn swallowed as she stared at the pictures, which had clearly been clandestinely taken, presumably by her, for a moment. 'They don't get it.' She turned and looked at them, making eye contact with Matty first, then Bozer, then Riley, then Mac and then Jack, holding the latter's gaze the longest. 'I couldn't let them get away with, I couldn't not help those girls…'
After a moment of holding her gaze, Jack looked away, and at Matty instead.
(It wasn't that he was convinced she was lying.)
(He was convinced she was telling the truth, this time.)
(Dawn was no monster.)
(Far from it.)
(In fact, Jack believed, she'd have grown into a very good woman if not for her honestly horrible childhood.)
(He hadn't been able to help that swell of respect for her that he'd felt, just then.)
(Oh, he had no delusions that Dawn was going to go quietly off to trial and then prison at the end of this.)
(None at all.)
(But, he believed, she was willing to give herself more trouble and hassle and put up with him being furious with her – which he still was – by popping up on the radar again instead of keeping her head down to help those kids.)
(Still, he wasn't trusting her again.)
(He refused to.)
(It was the principle of the matter.)
Matty eyed both Dawn and Jack for a moment, as if weighing them, before speaking.
'Riley, I want everything you can find on these dirt-bags. If they order Uber Eats, I wanna know about it…'
'…Monique Quinn, seventeen, from Seattle. Parents are divorced…' Riley's nails clacked on her keyboard as she ran down the identities of the girls that Dawn had managed to photograph. '…she and her mom have a restraining order against her father…' Riley swallowed reflexively. '…after her mom was hospitalized four times over three years.'
Dawn, who was looking over Riley's shoulder as Bozer dug through a money trail that Riley had managed to dig up, glanced at the young hacker, with sympathy (or, perhaps more accurately, empathy) in her eyes, but absolutely no pity.
(Dawn would hate pity.)
(She figured Riley would be exactly the same.)
Riley didn't like Dawn. She was bad news for Jack in her book. Trouble, with a capital T.
Besides, Jack and her mom had each other again, had just worked things out, and they were happy, so very happy, and that was all Riley had ever wanted for them.
She didn't want a spanner to be thrown into the works now.
Still, she got the sense that the two of them understood each other, had something in common.
Which they also shared with the trafficking-and-counterfeiting ring's victims.
So, she gave a little nod of acknowledgement, of thanks, to the older woman, and kept working, just a tiny bit even more motivated than before.
'…and Julia Lopez, sixteen, lives in foster care in San Diego…has since the age of four.'
Riley glanced up at Dawn, saw something flash through her eyes that confirmed her earlier suspicions, and offered her that same glance, that empathy with no pity, that Dawn had given her earlier.
The (ex?) conwoman actually looked the tiniest bit surprised for no more than half a second, before she gave a little smile and a nod.
Her laptop chimed, and Riley pulled up the results of one of her nifty little programs, and showed Dawn the picture of the man (along with a very long rap sheet) that'd come up.
The blonde woman gave a terse, almost-angry nod.
'Yeah, I've seen him 'round the girls. And seen him rough them up too.'
Riley, too, shot the man on the screen a glare, and with vehemence, began digging out a list of known associates.
They were taking these bastards down.
Ten minutes later, while Bozer was taking a bathroom break, Riley turned to Dawn again.
'I know you're here for the right reasons. You're doing the right thing.' Her eyes hardened. 'Keep doing it.'
The or else you'll find your prints and DNA linked to every open homicide case in the country and I'll erase your existence with a few keystrokes went unspoken.
(It didn't need to be said again.)
Dawn crossed her arms, leaned against the desk with faux-casualness.
'I'm still not conning Jack. Y'all can calm down; I didn't last time, and I'm not gonna.'
Riley raised an eyebrow at her.
'Last time, you stole $1 million.'
'From the US government, sweetie. And it was for a good cause.'
Riley refused to let her expression soften (even though it'd have taken a much colder person than her to not admit that Dawn's 'redistribution' of the money had probably done more good than returning it to its rightful owner), and crossed her own arms instead.
'You still hurt him.'
That made Dawn look away for a beat, before she looked back at Riley, studied her expression for a moment, then gave a small smile.
'I don't steal from other women, Riley.'
The hacker snorted.
'You're a thief and a conwoman. Stealing is pretty much your job description.'
'I don't steal another woman's man.' She paused, something sardonic crossing her face. 'At least, not if he doesn't want to be stolen.' Riley snorted again, and Dawn sought out her eyes, something a little sad, a little wistful, maybe a touch regretful, in her own blue ones. 'Jack's not gonna let himself be stolen.'
(That, Riley acknowledged, was true.)
(Jack was a flirt. He was a lover of women, all women. She full well knew that he'd carried a torch for more than one lady at a time.)
(But, at the end of the day, Jack was faithful. He wasn't going to cheat on her mom; Riley knew that.)
(But she did know that he cared about Dawn, possibly more than he should, and probably always would.)
(Jack, she was well aware, was a cuddly, soft teddy bear, despite his closer resemblance to an actual bear in terms of the whole I'm-a-really-badass-ex-Delta-Force-ex-CIA-covert-operative-who-is-Wookie-level-protective thing.)
(She could really, really hurt him.)
(Again.)
(And that was something Riley wouldn't stand for.)
She let all that show on her face, holding Dawn's gaze for a long moment.
'Great to know, but that's not my point.' Riley waggled her fingers and gestured to her laptop. 'Just remember…it'd only take a couple of keystrokes.'
Dawn held her gaze for a beat, then nodded, in acknowledgment, acceptance, and, Riley swore, respect.
Jack was just washing his hands when Mac walked into the men's bathroom and leaned with very affected casualness against the door.
Jack looked incredulously at him.
'Seriously, brother?'
Mac shrugged, a touch of a smirk growing on his face.
'Turnabout is fair play, Jack.' His expression grew softer, more serious. Concerned. 'You okay?'
Jack shook his head, but there was something soft, fond on his face, in his eyes. Then, he grew more serious, looked up and into the mirror, bracing his hands on the sink, for a long moment, before turning back to his partner.
'I got all the woman I want, and all the woman I can handle, brother. And Dawn's trouble. Exciting, yeah, I'll give her that, but I got plenty of excitement, and I don't reckon I want that brand of excitement anyway.' He shrugged. 'And she ain't the settling-down type, and settling down, man, I gotta admit, that's got its appeals.'
For a second, Mac looked a touch incredulous and exasperated, because that was exactly what he'd told Jack on the plane to Lima the last time Dawn had been around.
(Safe to say, that time, Jack had been on the other side of the fence.)
Then, he shook his head with exasperated fondness and reached out and clasped Jack's shoulder.
'Glad to hear.'
'…We've got an address for part of their counterfeiting operation.'
Riley continued as Bozer finished speaking.
'They're due to make a delivery of $5 million in counterfeit cash at 7 PM tonight, to pay one of their recruiters for a shipment.'
The last few words were said with great revulsion and barely-restrained anger.
Matty nodded, and turned to Jack, Mac and Dawn.
'Go. Get everything you can out of those SOBs.'
Mac, Dawn and Jack all nodded seriously, even as the latter gave a little salute, and immediately headed towards the garage.
WAREHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN LA
Mac grabbed a handful of the fake cash from the huge stack on a pallet in front of him, and flung it in the face of the low-ranking member of the syndicate behind him, blinding the man temporarily, before kicking the back of his left knee to cause him to stumble and punching him with just enough force to knock him out. The man crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes, and Mac turned his attention to the other counterfeiter who was trying to sneak up on him, shoving the pile of cash on the pallet into the man, which made him stumble. Meanwhile, Jack clubbed the third counterfeiter on the head with the butt of his gun, quickly disarming the man (why only one of them was armed, they didn't really know – Mac had theories of course – but they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth), then head-butted the man whom Mac had shoved the money at, causing him to drop to the ground, unconscious, too.
Mac and Jack were just about to start securing the three unconscious criminals when they heard a voice cry out.
A female voice.
A familiar female voice.
They exchanged a glance, and took off running in the direction of the voice.
(They hadn't tried to leave Dawn in the car. She'd never have listened. Besides, they weren't inclined to let her far out of their sight either.)
(She was supposed to have waited in a quiet, isolated and rather hidden corner of the warehouse while they took out the counterfeiters.)
(It wasn't as if she had any combat training, after all.)
Mac and Jack skidded to a halt in front of a pile of duffle bags stuffed with fake Benjamin Franklins, to find that the fourth counterfeiter was in the middle of falling unconscious at Dawn's feet.
She lowered her fists and rolled the man onto his side with her foot and smirked at them.
'Y'all missed one, boys.' Jack still looked shocked. Mac was muttering to himself about how he really should have realized that it was highly probable that Dawn had far-better-than-average self-defence capabilities. She rolled her eyes, smirk widening a bit, and got to work cuffing the man's wrists together with his own belt. Very competently. 'I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself.'
There was something in her voice that suggested she'd had to learn to take care of herself. In order to survive.
Jack shook himself out of his shock, eyeing her with a mixture of respect and sympathy, and grabbed the unconscious man under the armpits to drag him back to the others. Meanwhile, Mac jogged back off towards where they'd left the other counterfeiters to secure them, though not before giving Dawn a rather impressed smile and nod.
The blonde woman moved to help Jack drag the guy (he was big, and heavy), not bothering to even try and be gentle.
(She might not be able to handle a bunch of thugs with guns, but one unarmed guy?)
(That she could do.)
(She'd had no choice but to learn. The hard way.)
By the time Jack and Dawn got the fourth counterfeiter back to the area where they'd left the other three, Mac had finished securing them (they were all tied to chairs using their own belts and shoelaces).
He was also, for some reason, winding the clock that'd been hanging on the wall forward several hours.
Mac finished changing the time on the clock, double-checked something on his phone, and then held the clock out to Jack.
'Put that back up.' He turned to Dawn. 'Can you start trashing the place?' She raised an eyebrow at him. 'Like you were searching for something but having a lot of trouble finding it.'
Jack, doing as Mac had told him to do (his partner was crazy, but his crazy got results, as his record attested), nonetheless made a face.
'Brother, what bizarre idea have those hamster wheels of yours thrown out now?'
Mac was now rummaging around in the small kitchenette. He made a noise of satisfaction as he pulled out a packet of herbal tea bags and some artificial sweetener and set them on the counter.
'A, that is not how the brain works, Jack!' He ducked under the sink, found a bottle of some kind of orange cleaning fluid, and jumped up, a little smirk on his face. 'B, we're going to travel into the future.'
Jack pointed at him.
'We're bringing back a hoverboard, okay? That's non-negotiable, man.'
Mac rolled his eyes, and gestured to the clock, which showed that it was, apparently, 7:30 PM, before turning again and grabbing a series of containers.
'We're only going forward six hours. Inventing a hoverboard, at least, a Back-to-the-Future-style hoverboard, in six hours is impossible.'
Jack crossed his arms.
'Didn't that professor of yours say that impossible wasn't a thing?'
Mac had filled the containers with water and was now dropping tea bags and cleaning fluid into the water in seemingly-specific amounts.
'Go and pull down the window shades, Jack.' He held up one of the containers and shone his Swiss Army knife's flashlight through it, making a noise of satisfaction at the colour of the light that passed through. 'Professor V said that impossible was not a scientific term. His point was not that nothing is impossible...'
Meanwhile, Dawn, busy trashing the place as instructed, just listened and observed, shaking her head occasionally, a little smile on her face.
There was a touch of something wistful in her eyes too.
(She'd always had to take care of herself.)
(She'd always been on her own.)
'Oh, the Sleeping Beauties are finally awake!'
Jack crossed his arms and smirked sardonically as the four men, all securely bound to chairs, finally stirred. Dawn, perched on the edge of a huge stack of cash on a pallet, smirked too, while Mac, leaning against a table, falsely casual, gestured to the windows. There was soft, slightly-pink/orange light filtering under the shades.
He and Jack watched as all four of the men's eyes widened, growing fearful and panicked, before one of them shook his head.
'You gotta be bluffing us, there's no way we've been out for hours…'
Mac, however, just gave a little smirk and held up a small bottle of clear liquid, opening it and wafting some of the sickly-sweet fumes towards them.
'I might have overdone it a little on the chloroform…'
The man gulped.
With near-identical looks on their faces, Jack spoke first, then Mac, the two of them synchronized perfectly without having to even glance at one another.
'You're late for your delivery, boys.'
'Your bosses are not going to be happy about that.'
'Ours hates it when we're late, and she's actually got to worry about little things like the law.'
'Yours…well, they don't have as many restrictions, do they?'
The man who'd called them out as bluffing straightened himself up as best as he could.
'We're not telling you anything.'
That was spat out derisively. Mac and Jack exchanged a glance, then shrugged.
'Well, if they ain't got any useful intel…'
'The boss won't let us take them with us.'
'Guess we'll just have to leave 'em here for their bosses to deal with.' Jack scratched under his chin thoughtfully. 'How long you reckon they'll have before they come to take out the trash?'
Mac, too, tapped his chin thoughtfully.
'Well, taking into account LA traffic at this time, plus the average soil density and texture in the Greater LA area, assuming average fitness levels-'
One of the men (who'd been looking the jumpiest and most frightened) cut Mac off.
'Alright, what do you want to know?'
The one who'd called their bluff earlier glared at him, while the other two avoided the gaze of the glarer. They seemed to agree more with their colleague who wanted to talk.
Dawn spoke up, getting up off the pile of cash, her voice cold, cutting.
'Where are the girls?' She paused, fury building. 'Oh, sorry, you probably don't know what I mean. What do you call them, a shipment?'
The guy full of bravado (he probably fancied himself their leader) snorted.
'Oh, come on, you don't ask about the money, you don't ask about our boss, you wanna know where some runaway chicks that no-one's gonna miss are? Your priorities are messed up, woman!'
Dawn pounced on him.
Mac and Jack exchanged a quick glance, and with some reluctance (he had to admit, even though he was very much against violence, this guy probably deserved it), Mac pulled Dawn off him.
Jack, meanwhile, had fire and anger and fury in his eyes…and, Mac realized, as his partner glanced at the (ex?)-conwoman, it wasn't just directed at the revolting individual that Dawn had quite literally left her claw marks on.
Without a word, Mac tugged Dawn back towards the quiet, isolated nook of the warehouse they'd left her in an hour ago.
Jack, meanwhile, cracked his knuckles.
'We gonna do this the easy way, or the hard way? I'm giving you a hint, pick the easy way; you just got a taste of the hard way, gentlemen…and let me tell you, that taste was just the amuse-bouche…trust me, you don't want the entrée.'
Mac, whose grip on Dawn had been slackening as they'd gotten further from Jack and their prisoners (and she'd stopped fighting against him as much), let go of her when they reached that nook, and she immediately turned away, still breathing hard, but much calmer than she'd been.
'This…this is personal for you, isn't it?' He paused, shifting a little, simultaneously worried and sympathetic and a touch horrified, as well as awkward and unsure. 'You…you see yourself in those girls.'
Yeah, probably not the most tactful or smooth thing to say…but it is the truth, I think.
And I'm not really very good at this sort of thing.
Dawn gave a very bitter snort.
'Oh, you have no idea, Mac, how close I was to being one of those girls.'
(Once upon a time, she'd been young and vulnerable and struggling to survive. An easy target. Easy prey.)
(She'd bet her bottom dollar that once upon a time, Riley had been young and vulnerable and struggling to survive too. Maybe not quite so literally as Dawn had been for a while, but fighting all the same.)
(Riley had been drawn into the dark web, into black-hat work, clearly.)
(Dawn…well, she was pretty good with computers, but she couldn't hold a candle to Riley.)
(It'd never have been the dark web she'd gotten caught in.)
There was something in her tone of voice that told Mac to absolutely not press any further.
He was quiet for a moment, before speaking again, voice resolute.
'We'll take them down, and rescue those girls. I promise.'
Dawn finally turned around at that, met his eyes for a moment, then nodded with a very small, very wan smile.
(She took Mac's promise seriously. She knew they were just words, and words were cheap and empty and couldn't be trusted …except when they came from the mouths of people like Mac. Or Jack.)
(The sort of person that she'd known far too few of in her life.)
Jack, his phone pinned between his shoulder and his ear, talked to Riley and Bozer back at the Phoenix while he finished locking the still-restrained counterfeiters in the warehouse's bathroom.
(It was the only room with a lock.)
(He'd used a trick that he'd picked up from Mac over their many years of working together to jam the locking mechanism so it couldn't be unlocked from the inside.)
(The syndicate members were apparently very low-ranking and didn't know much, they'd sworn up and down.)
(He believed them, but he'd used every trick he knew to get absolutely anything of use out of them.)
(He wasn't Cage or Matty, but Jack was a pretty good interrogator himself.)
(Now, it was up to Riley and Bozer to use that intel and get them a location on the girls and the syndicate leaders, ASAP.)
'…Got that, Ri?' Jack gave a little smile as she replied in the affirmative, then whirled around, pulling out his gun, as he heard footsteps behind him, to find Mac and Dawn twenty feet away. Jack's eyes grew set, and he closed that distance in several quick strides, gesturing vaguely but with great force. Anger. 'What was that, Dawn? You could've messed up our whole op!'
'Y'all heard him!' As Dawn gave Jack as good as she'd gotten, Mac took a step back, really not wanting to get drawn into it, mind racing as he tried to think of the best way to defuse this situation, stat. (He'd rather take a bomb. Much easier problem to solve.) 'If Riley had been one of those girls, if he was talking 'bout her, you'd have gone all yippy-kay-yay, mother-'
Mac tried to step between Jack and Dawn, who'd gotten almost-literally into each other's faces, holding out a hand to each of them.
'Guys, this really isn't the time…how about we, um, deal with this later?'
'No, we gotta deal with this now before she messes up again, 'cause clearly, she ain't got her emotions in check-'
'I haven't got my emotions in check?'
Mac winced and kicked himself internally as Jack and Dawn's yelling and gesticulating grew more intense.
(He had a sneaking suspicion that he might have just made it worse while trying to make it better.)
(His track record in these situations was pretty poor, admittedly.)
He hesitated a moment as he backed away, wondering if he was doing the right thing, but also at a complete loss as to how his presence was going to help, and really worried about making it even worse while trying to make it better.
Besides…Jack and Dawn did need to have a private conversation.
He didn't think the timing was ideal (they were in the middle of a mission, one with a tight timeline – they had to find those girls before they were moved), but then again, Riley and Bozer were busy running down the intel that Jack had extracted, they couldn't exactly make a move until they had a location (or two) for them, and Jack did have a point, sort-of.
This tension between him and Dawn?
It had to be resolved, and the longer it went on, the more likely it would blow up in their faces, which really could have a negative impact on their ability to do their job.
To do as Mac had promised Dawn they would.
He slipped away, completely unnoticed by the other two, and got to work stripping the bad guys' HQ of anything he thought might come in handy.
Breathing hard, Jack and Dawn stood almost nose-to-nose, having, somehow, run out of things to yell at each other.
After a long moment, they each took a step back, some of that anger and fury and fight seeping out of both of them, replaced by softer looks of remorse and hurt.
'I…I shouldn't have said that, 'bout Riley. And I should have kept my cool earlier.'
'I'm sorry for…' Jack gestured vaguely. 'Losing it at you.' He hesitated, glancing over at her. 'I mean, pretty obvious this hits home for you.'
He admittedly sounded quite like he was fishing.
The silence between them stretched thin, before Dawn looked away from him, voice growing quiet, confessional.
'I was one of those girls, for a very short time.' She swallowed, chancing a glance up at Jack, and was relieved to find that along with the expected sympathy in his eyes, there was something best described as respect, for her strength. 'I got myself out. Not everyone gets the chance.'
'These girls are gonna get it. Promise.'
Dawn managed a small smile, something lightly teasing in it.
'You're too late, Mac already did.' She paused, expression growing serious again. 'And since we're clearing the air…I'm not gonna steal you or your heart, Jack.' Her expression grew teasing and wry again. 'No promises on anything else.'
Jack studied her for a brief second, a soft little smile appearing on his face, then gave a snort and shook his head.
'You're never gonna change, are you?'
Something a touch bitter, a touch wistful, with a dollop of wry humour, but, above all, raw honesty, filled her voice.
'A leopard never changes her spots. Not even in retirement.'
'…We've tracked down the syndicate's HQ, and where they're keeping the girls.'
Bozer, on Mac's phone screen, spoke, followed by Riley, who was sitting next to him.
'Gonzales' team is standing by.'
They all knew that it'd have to be a simultaneous raid; take out the HQ first, they'd lose the girls, save the girls first, and the syndicate leaders would be in the wind.
Mac, Jack and Dawn didn't even have to exchange a glance, Jack simply spoke.
'Riles, send us the location for the girls, Gonzales and his team can take out the big-bads.'
SYNDICATE HQ
SOMEWHERE IN LA
'…Alpha team, ready.'
'Beta team in position.'
'Gamma ready to go, boss.'
Sitting in the van, imagery from a very stealthy scout drone (a Phoenix invention) on her laptop, Riley listened as Gonzales' team prepared for the assault.
'Riley, we good to go?'
'Yeah, Alpha team, you'll have hostiles on your left on entry. Beta, you're clear for now. Gamma, your entry corridor splits fifty feet in.'
'Got it. On my signal. One, two, three…'
ANOTHER WAREHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN LA
Twenty feet from the warehouse's side entrance, Mac and Dawn hid behind two stacked pallets of concrete pavers, ears pricked.
As the very first loud bang from the flash-bang grenade cannon that Mac had put together rang out in the vicinity of the warehouse's front entrance, they ran towards the side door, Mac already pulling out a couple of paperclips to pick the lock.
Meanwhile, out the front of the warehouse, Jack grinned as he drove the modified forklift (it resembled an improvised tank, being covered with sheets of corrugated iron as 'armour') into the door, a la battering ram.
(Mac had also weighted and reinforced the forklift.)
(It only took four rams before the door gave way and he drove into the warehouse.)
Through a specially-placed hole in the forklift's armour, he fired off several shots, hitting several of the bad guys guarding the warehouse in the shoulder or the knee, before ramming into two others with the forklift.
At the same time, Mac's really awesome flash-bang grenade cannon kept firing, confusing and startling the men.
Jack's grin widened as he drove into another guard.
'Woo hoo! Best idea ever, man!'
Mac and Dawn, taking advantage of Jack's very loud and very attention-grabbing distraction, which had drawn all of the guards to the other side of the warehouse, scurried through the building, until they came upon a shipping container from which banging noises were emanating.
Mac immediately got to work picking the lock, and in less than twenty seconds (he was really motivated, just a little more than usual), pulled the doors open, to reveal eleven teenage girls, sitting close together in twos and threes for comfort and possibly warmth.
They were also all shackled by their ankles to the container's walls, which made his stomach turn.
And the girl sitting closest to the door was holding a sharpened plastic spoon and seemed very ready to stab him with it if she thought he was going to hurt them.
Mac raised his hands and waved somewhat awkwardly instead.
'Uh, hi. I'm MacGyver…' He gestured to Dawn, who had a very mama-bear look on her face, angry and fiercely protective and somehow soft and caring, all at once. '…and this is Dawn. We're here to help, I promise.'
He reached into his pocket and grabbed two paperclips, passing them to Dawn, and crouched down by the girl with the sharpened spoon, keeping his movements slow and non-threatening, before gesturing to the shackle around her left ankle.
'Can I?'
He waited for her to nod before getting to work picking the lock with the paperclips he'd turned into lockpicks earlier, as Dawn repeated the process with the next girl on the other side of the shipping container.
Mac really still kind of wanted to throw up. He also would not be averse to handing out knuckle sandwiches to the syndicate members with Jack right now, and really, really wanted to throw the syndicate's leaders into a concrete box for a very long time.
However, he cajoled a little smile onto his face, sought out that light in the darkness that'd gotten him and his family through so much, hoping it'd be a comfort to the girls.
'I really like your spoon…'
SYNDICATE HQ
SOMEWHERE IN LA
Riley watched with grim satisfaction as Gonzales' team brought the syndicate members out. Gonzales himself was dragging a silver-haired man dressed in an extremely expensive suit who had something very cruel and arrogant in his eyes none-too-gently.
As they came closer, Riley realized he was wearing a tie pin with an eagle and a lightning bolt on it.
Her eyes grew colder, fuller of fury, as she made eye contact with the man, tilting her chin up and crossing her arms.
This was Jupiter, the syndicate's leader.
She took comfort (cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless) in the fact that Matty would ensure that he got what he deserved.
THE OTHER WAREHOUSE
SOMEWHERE IN LA
Mac, Jack and Dawn watched as the last of the girls was loaded into an ambulance by EMTs, wrapped in a shock blanket and sipping a bottle of water, as local FBI loaded cuffed syndicate members, their (many) wounds dressed, into their squad cars.
Dawn turned to the two Phoenix agents, something very honest and heartfelt in her eyes.
'Thank you.'
Mac and Jack glanced at each other, then at her.
'No need to thank us.'
'Not for this.'
As Jack drove them back to the Phoenix, Mac stared out the window, re-shaping a paperclip without really looking at it.
It rapidly took the shape of a sharpened spoon.
Maybe I'm an optimist. Maybe I'm an idealist.
Honestly, I probably am.
But I firmly believe that we are all stronger, more capable, braver and more resilient than we think we are.
It's not going to be easy for those girls.
But I firmly believe that they'll put themselves back together again, that they're going to be a lot more than okay one day.
PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS
SOMEWHERE IN LA
As Gonzales frog-marched him towards the interrogation rooms, Matty made eye contact with Jupiter, face breaking into a smile that absolutely didn't reach her eyes.
She was looking forward to breaking him in interrogation later.
But first, she'd leave him to stew and soften up a bit first.
She headed for the elevator.
Matty walked into the war room to find Riley, Bozer, Mac and Jack waiting for her.
She put her hands on her hips and addressed her employees.
'Where's Dawn?'
'Little girls' room…' Jack paled, as the realization dawned on them all. 'Oh, damn it!'
Matty raised an eyebrow at him.
'Well, what you are you and Baby Einstein doing sitting around?' She pointed at the door. 'Go!'
JACK'S CAR
SOMEWHERE IN LA
(AND STUCK IN TRAFFIC)
(MAC'S GOOD. REALLY GOOD. HE'S NOT MAGIC.)
'…Well, what were we supposed to do? Go to the bathroom with her?'
Jack gesticulated rather wildly as they waited for the lights to change.
'Well, you could have not told her how I took out the Phoenix's security system with a gum wrapper once…'
Jack shot his partner a look. Mac just raised his hands innocently, the expression on his face clearly saying hey, just pointing out the facts.
'It was a funny story! And that was back when I thought she'd really turned over a new leaf and changed her spots!'
Riley's voice echoed out from Mac's phone, which was resting on his lap.
'Mac, Jack, I've got her at CHMC-LA.'
They exchanged a glance.
That was the hospital the rescued girls had been taken to.
PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS
SOMEWHERE IN LA
Bozer, Riley and Matty watched the screen as the only footage of Dawn Riley had been able to track down since she'd left the Phoenix played.
As six of the rescued girls, looking more alive, lighter, happier, than they appeared to have in months walked out of the hospital in front of her, the conwoman looked up, straight at the camera, smiled and waved.
CAR PARK
CHMC-LA
LA
There was no sign of Dawn at the hospital. There was also no sign of six of the girls. The other five refused to say a word and claimed they had no idea where they'd gone.
(Neither Mac nor Jack believed them, but they also really didn't want to interrogate the girls, not after what they'd been through, not for this reason.)
(They didn't believe that Dawn was up to anything nefarious, after all. She cared about those girls just as much as they did, honestly, perhaps even more.)
(They'd be safe with her.)
(Staying on the right side of the law was another matter.)
They did, however, find the Phoenix vehicle that Dawn had stolen, parked without a scratch.
There was also a note on the dashboard, pinned under the windscreen wipers, in handwriting that was very familiar to Jack.
Yes, they're with me.
They've got nowhere else to go. Nowhere where they want to go anyway.
So we're going to look out for each other. Watch each other's backs. Be a family.
I've never had one before, but I've seen a really good example.
Jack sighed and shook his head, running a hand through his hair, the smile on his face wry and fond and exasperated and a little sad and wistful all at once.
He held the note out to Mac.
'Mama Leopard and her six cubs. They're gonna be trouble, aren't they?'
Mac nodded wryly and gave a half-shrug.
'At least they won't be the really bad kind of trouble.'
PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS
SOMEWHERE IN LA
'…Trail's cold, boss.'
'Riley?'
The hacker shook her head.
'Same here.'
Matty pursed her lips, but both Bozer and Riley noted that she didn't look quite as disappointed or angry as they'd thought she might have, once upon a time.
'Jack, Blondie, get back here.'
A slightly-mischievous smirk appearing on her face, which made Riley and Bozer exchange a glance, she pulled out her phone and sent a text.
'…Seriously, brother, how can you be good at everything except charades and driving?'
Mac shrugged as he and Jack walked towards the war room.
'I was taught to drive by MIT engineering students.'
Jack snorted as they walked through the war room door, and then stopped in his tracks when he realized who was waiting for them there.
Matty, Riley, Bozer…and Beth, who was shooting him a very firm look.
He rubbed the back of his neck.
'Oh, hey, Doc…'
He shot Matty a betrayed look (she was, of course, utterly unapologetic), then turned to the doctor, who was narrowing her eyes at him.
'We need to talk, Jack. Privately.'
He sighed and waved a hand.
'Eh, just say it now, Doc. Matty's worked it out already, and Mac and Boze and Ri will get it out of me later anyway.'
He sounded very resigned.
Beth's expression softened a touch, growing more sympathetic, and she tapped her tablet screen, and held up a page of blood test results to him.
'Your cholesterol levels are beginning to edge towards high territory. Now, this is quite normal for your age group and isn't something to be terribly concerned about, and you are far from needing medication, but in order to avoid future health complications and the need for said medication, I strongly recommend that you make some changes to your diet. It really boils down to eating more plants.' She tapped her tablet a couple more times, as Mac, Bozer and Riley exchanged a glance, suppressing smirks, because Jack really was getting old, wasn't he? 'I've just sent you some dietary recommendations, complete with peer-reviewed references.' She turned a little and narrowed her eyes at the three younger agents. 'I'm sure Bozer will be happy to teach you to cook more delicious plant-based foods, and Riley could write an excellent algorithm to evaluate the suitability of recipes you find online, and Mac can explain the literature to you if you wish.'
Bozer, Mac and Riley all nodded obediently, Mac and Bozer's expressions growing a touch sheepish, Riley completely unapologetic, as Jack smirked a little as the tables turned.
Meanwhile, Matty's expression grew into something halfway between an amused smile and a knowing smirk.
She'd totally called this months ago.
MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE
LA
As Mac lit the fire-pit (supervised by Matty - last time, he'd tried to use some new fire-lighting thing he'd designed and nearly lost his eyebrows, so they weren't taking any chances) and Riley packed Mac's self-opening, walking Esky with beer from the fridge, Bozer (rather patiently, as per doctor's orders) taught Jack how to make an excellent chickpea curry.
(He'd finally sweet-talked Mrs Patel from four doors' down into giving him her recipe, by mowing her lawn for the tenth time and promising to feed his roommate – whom the elderly woman thought was far too thin – plenty of said curry.)
She always gives me boxes and boxes of food whenever I mow her lawn or weed her garden or fix her washing machine or her dishwasher or the backyard gate for her.
I mean, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, because Mrs Patel is an excellent cook…
But the human stomach has an absolute maximum capacity of four litres.
CHEZ DALTON
LA
Jack, his stomach full of excellent vegetarian food, opened the door to his apartment, and immediately caught sight of the figure sitting at one of the bar stools, lit by the light of his own phone.
Clearly, Elwood was taking some lessons from last time.
Though, not all.
Jack threw his hands up in exasperation.
'Thought I told you to knock next time, man!'
Elwood shrugged.
'Diane's singing tonight, you're not there, so figured it was safe.' Jack continued to eyeball him, and Elwood held up his hands. 'A buddy of mine works security there, all on the up and up, promise.'
(Elwood's buddy – who was a crook turned straight, just like him – owed him a favour. Several favours, actually. Elwood had asked him to keep an eye on his ex-wife, make sure no one gave her trouble.)
(Still, he never actually went to the jazz club where Diane sang once a week himself.)
(He missed hearing her sing.)
(But he knew he wouldn't be welcome.)
(And the pain of regret and of guilt was a heavy burden.)
The two men stared at each other for a long moment, the silence stretching thin, before Jack broke it, crossing his arms, voice firm.
'We ain't looking for your blessing. You lost that right years ago.'
Elwood swallowed, something sad and guilty and regretful in his eyes, but nodded just the same.
'You always were the better man, Jack.' He paused, something wry yet, somehow, profoundly sadder, more regretful, in his eyes. 'And I learned the hard way, no-one can tell Diane what to do. She's always made her own choices. And she's usually right.'
Jack looked seriously at him for a moment, nodded in acknowledgement, before something wry and teasing appeared on his face, and he pointed at Elwood sagely.
'Oh, that's why marriage didn't work out for you, brother. Rule number one: she's always right.'
Elwood gave a sardonic chuckle, shaking his head, and Jack headed over to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of iced tea. He tossed one to Elwood, who opened it and raised it in a toast.
'I'll drink to that.'
AN: Hope you guys thought I did alright with Dawn – I find her to be an interesting and fun (exciting!) character to have around, even though I firmly think she's trouble and no good for Jack. I interpret her as a thief, a con-woman and a liar who will never, ever change, but is far from being evil and even not really bad (an honourable thief-type character, if that makes sense?) She has a very strong sense of morality (but pretty much no respect for the law), and plays for her own team, but will play for the good guys for the right cause (the ones that really matter), and would never, ever play for the really bad guys (Murdoc, The Organization etc.). So, in this universe, Dawn and her little band of 'adoptees' will become a family, being a reasonably minor thorn in the side of law enforcement, pulling a lot of Robin Hood-type crimes and helping out others who were in their situation. I also hope that you guys like what I did with the Jack/Diane/Elwood situation – I do find it a little hard to deal with the fact that Jack and Elwood are kind of friends, but at the same time, I do kinda see why it'd happen; this was my attempt to sort of delve into it and explain it in a way that makes sense to me! And Jack's cholesterol levels are going to becoming another running joke with me, I just know it…
I've had a very, very tough week (growing bacteria is terrible – I woke up at 4:50 in the morning to get into the lab at 6 am, spent all day on my feet taking measurements and they refused to grow for me), but I guess things can only really go one way from here, right? Anyway, here's hoping for Take 2, on Monday, going well!
There's no Detours chapter to go with this episode, but here's the preview for the next one, which I really am hoping to get up next week (giving myself most of the weekend off from science, so will have plenty of time to write):
3.07, One to Two. When Jack is injured, he's forced to stay behind in the infirmary while Mac heads out on a mission with fellow Phoenix agent and badass science nerd Alex Lucas, causing him to fear that it's the beginning of the end of their bromance.
(Or, it's my fic and I'll make meta jokes if I want. :P)