By the time everyone's food arrived, everyone except Viz that was – she'd said she was sticking to whisky and that's what she was going to do – they'd covered all the bases of what happened as far as they knew it, as well as what everyone had been up to since the last time they'd seen each other.

Wynnie seemed mildly disappointed when she delivered another round of drinks and heard Miles talking about his wife, but she barely missed a beat in renewing her flirting with Mac now that it was clear Viz had no interest in him. Her frequent visits to the table made it more difficult to keep the conversation going around things they wanted to cover, but Mac said, with a self-deprecating grin, that he appreciated attention from a woman who didn't appear to be hell bent on killing him.

When she put down his dinner plate in front of him, Jack said he wasn't so sure she wasn't. "What is that godawful mess?" He pointed at several scoops of amorphous mush of varying colors on the plate.

Mac laughed. "Well, I've never tried any of it. I just told her to bring me the most Scottish thing on the menu."

"Which means?" Jack prompted.

"It's um … Haggis for one. I think that's the brown stuff," Mac allowed. "And this is … tatties? Which I think are just mashed potatoes … and this sort of pinkish orangy stuff is called neeps. I honestly don't know what that is." He paused, frowning at it, and then just scooped up a bite. "It's turnips with a lot of butter," he answered with a relieved sigh. "It's really good."

"I'll stick to my burger, thank you very much." Jack just shook his head.

Mac shrugged, and started shoveling in his dinner, like he hadn't eaten in days. Then it occurred to him that he really hadn't had much. He glanced up at Jack and grinned when he saw the look of approval on his partner's face.

Miles was the one who commented on it though. "You must be starving, pal. I never even see you eat normal food with that much gusto."

Mac laughed. "You got to used to seeing me choke down MREs, man." Then he shrugged and said honestly, "We had a rough wake-up. I've just barely slept off the worst of whatever knocked us out, I think. Didn't feel like eating much. Now I kind of want to eat everything."

Miles nodded, taking a bite out of a very safe looking beef sandwich. "You guys okay in general though? Elliot brought his kit."

Mac shrugged. "We both definitely got knocked around … Which you already noticed. And Jack got a pretty bad cut." Jack threw him a glare and Mac hurried to add, "But it's starting to heal up."

"Sure it is. So, lemme just text Elliot that he maybe should meet us in your room just to be sure you don't really need any patching up."

"We're fine," Mac said, swallowing too much food with beer that had gotten warm. "Well, maybe he should have a look at Jack. It was a pretty bad cut."

Miles grinned. "And maybe if you slow down and sit still for five minutes he could help us figure out exactly what happened to you, too. That's what he does, professionally, when he's not skirting the law with us, you know."

"On dead bodies," Jack supplied. "He figures what happened to corpses, Eggs."

"And he's one of the best." Miles smirked. "He investigates corpses, he doesn't make them, Jack. And professional preferences aside, he still went to med school. He's more than qualified to take care of you."

Mac laughed. "My first inclination is to just stay here in the pub and have another beer, but you make a decent point." He looked at Viz who was clicking away on her laptop like there wasn't a noisy bar around her. "How you coming on that VOIP set up?"

Without looking up, she replied, "We can put in the call whenever you want."

"Call?" Jack frowned.

"Yeah, to Matty," Mac answered. He'd forgotten Jack had been in the bathroom when he had the idea to call in.

"You sure about that, bud? We are going to be in deep, the absolute deepest, smelliest pile of …"

"That's why I don't want to put off calling any more, now that Viz is here to help. Besides, I imagine Riley and Boze are about losing their minds right now."

"Jesus, I hadn't thought of that. We should go make the call," Jack was already getting to his feet now that he was thinking about how the rest of their team might be feeling about how they'd dropped off the map.

Mac stood, too. "I'll just go settle up. Meet you guys outside."

Mac headed toward the bar as Miles tucked a generous tip for their server under his glass. Then, he, Jack, and Viz started toward the door. They stopped by the exit and Miles grinned. "Well, our boy's game has improved beyond all measure."

They all glanced toward the bar where Mac was currently chatting with Wynnie. "That shy smile thing he does has always gotten him the girl, even when I should have been more than adequate competition," Viz huffed.

"That's not game," Jack said with fondness. "That's just Mac being Mac. People can tell when you're just tryin' to talk them out of their clothes, Viz."

She gave a throaty chuckle as Mac turned to join them and Wynnie grabbed him by the arm, spun him back toward her, and kissed him like she really meant it, completely out of nowhere. When Mac disengaged and finally turned to leave a few moments later he saw the group by the door had watched his whole exchange and he blushed furiously.

That didn't wipe the grin off his face at all as he breezed past them out into the light rain.

Jack caught up with him first. "Here I was all worried your face had to hurt from whatever the hell happened to us. Clearly, it's gonna be much worse off from that smug-assed smile you're wearin'."

"Yeah, well, worth it," he said, grin spreading. "She invited me home with her."

"Damn, son, what're you doing out here with us then?" Miles asked.

"Business first," Mac said with a little head shake. The rain felt good. His face was hot. "But I gotta tell you, I think I really like Scotland."

When they got up to the room, Mac let them in and flicked on the light. Even though he'd been half-expecting it, he startled when he saw Elliot sitting at the foot of Jack's bed. "Elliot! Why do you always do that, man?"

Elliot adjusted his glasses and smirked. "Because I can."

For a guy who looked vaguely like an overly bookish accountant, Elliot brought the word 'clandestine' to a new level. Of everyone Mac had ever run across, Elliot was probably one of his more useful connections. And honestly, as bizarre as he could be, Mac just plain liked the guy. "Yeah," Mac chuckled. "You can. Probably just about anywhere."

"I hung out in the West Wing of the Whitehouse once. Just to prove to myself I could do it."

Jack snickered. "I'd call bullshit, but you've probably got selfies to back yourself up."

"I do," Elliot smirked. "Eggs says you guys maybe need some patching up." He nodded toward the duffle bag sitting on the stand by the door. "Brought a little bit of everything in my kit, since we didn't know exactly what we were getting into with you guys."

Mac just unzipped the bag and started rifling through it.

"You do remember I'm the one with actual qualifications for dealing with, not to mention determining causes of, injuries, right?" Elliot asked, sounding just a little condescending.

Mac decided to just let it go. "I do. I'm actually more interested in one of your other skill sets at the moment." Mac pulled a theatrical make-up kit out of the bag and tossed it to Elliot. "I need to call my boss. And I don't necessarily want to explain the whole situation. Think you can make me look a little less like I took up MMA?"

Elliot squinted at him. "Probably. That eye is going to look swollen no matter what we do to it, but … Make the video call in a room with low light, keep your face moving, animated … She might not notice. Matty the Hun doesn't miss much though."

Jack looked taken aback. "You know Matty?"

Elliot stood up, opening the makeup kit and indicating Mac should sit. "Everybody worth a damn in the business knows Matilda Webber. And the smart ones know enough to be afraid of her. But then I never pegged either one of you boys as all that bright."

"Hey now, you can disparage my brains, but you leave Mac's right out that. He's the smartest guy I've ever met and that includes you, Dr. Mathers."

Mac chuckled. "Don't take it so personally, Jack. Elliot's just an asshole. But he gets the job done. That's why we like him." Mac flinched away a little as Elliot started working on covering up the fading bruises on his face.

"I love you, too, Mac," Elliot grinned. Mac rolled his eyes, as Elliot started to pay more attention to what he was doing. "Although I suppose since you're covering up … yeah, some of this is blast injury … But you also tangled with a pers … persons …" He dropped the makeup sponge. "Let me see your hands."

Mac puffed out a long breath. Should have known Elliot couldn't deal with things in a one job at a time kind of way. He held up his hands for inspection. "Well?" he asked, not sure of what the answer might be. He still felt pretty sore all over, but that didn't mean a fight, or at least it didn't mean a fair one.

"You got your licks in," Elliot said, dropping his hands and picking up where he left off, making Mac Matty-presentable.

Mac nodded. The fact that he hadn't just been blown up and beaten, just a victim of something, made him feel quite a bit better. He hadn't acknowledged that the thought was bothering him, but it had been. Quite a bit. "Good." Elliot stepped away, looking over his work. "I think you'll do."

"Thanks, man." He stood and took Viz's laptop from her. "You're sure this is going to be secure?"

She glared at him. "If you trust Elliot's work I damned sure hope you trust mine by now, Angus."

He glared back. Wynnie saying his name with her accent had been cute. Viz using it just to get a rise out of him was something else though. "I trust what you can do, Viz, but our team's tech expert is …"

"Artemis? Oh, she's good, I'll give her that. But I've got over a decade on her. Phoenix won't know where you are from this call." She paused, frowning at him. "Although, I'll be honest, Mac, Miles and I are always happy to see you, both of you. And we owe you big for bailing us out in Lisbon that time. But … why don't you want your team to know where you are, to send back up? We thought you'd gotten burn noticed when you called."

Mac and Jack shared a look. "Matty will call us back in. She'll insist. That woman is actually more protective than Jack, if you can believe it."

Miles laughed. "I'm not sure I do believe that, but … Viz makes a good point. Why not just go in?"

"Because …" Mac trailed off. He didn't know quite what to say.

"It's personal," Jack supplied. "Whatever happened … It started with us just tryin' to have one normal night in a nice town, just unwinding after work, having a beer, chatting up a couple of ladies who seemed normal levels of interested in us … And it got highjacked. If it had happened on the job … Maybe I wouldn't be so pissed off and freaked out … But it didn't. So I am."

Mac nodded slowly. "That's it. That's it exactly." He headed into the bathroom with the laptop, thinking that the shower made a nice neutral backdrop for his call. He turned back to the group before closing the door. "This guy, Murdoc … He's been a real problem for a while. This is the second time this year he's responsible for me waking up kicked to crap and not remembering everything. There's no way for me to take that other than personally."

0-0-0

When Mac came back out about fifteen minutes later, he looked a little surprised, and more than a little upset. He cleared his throat. "Come up with anything interesting while I was gone?"

Jack knew Mac was buying a minute before telling them what Matty said so he just grinned. "Just that Elliot has cold hands and he should definitely stick to corpses patient-wise." He scratched at the edge of the tape of the new bandage Elliot secured over the long cut on his chest.

"Corpses definitely whine a lot less than Jack," Elliot agreed. In response to Mac's silent question he went on. "Knife wound, not caused by debris. Attacker was taller than Jack, strong, fast, but some limited movement on the dominant hand. I'm guessing from a recent injury."

Mac nodded slowly, crossing the room to hand Viz back her laptop. He sat down on the bed next to Miles. "Um … Thanks guys. For the papers, and the money, and getting here so fast."

"Welcome," Miles said with a small knowing smile. "And we should get the hell out of here on the double, right?"

Mac actually smiled. "Yeah, probably, unless you want to meet the rest of Team Thunderstallions. Who are already en route to the local airport from Dublin."

Jack cracked up. "How did you even know that's what I call …"

"Jill told Bozer. He thinks it's hysterical. Also she seems to think if she remembers the stuff you say, eventually you'll get her name right." He gave Viz a wry smirk. "Artemis says hello."

"Goddamn it." Viz started jamming her laptop back into her bag.

Miles and Mac stood at the same time. Mac extended his hand, and though Miles took it, he used it to pull Mac into another brief embrace.

Mac smiled and said, "So I think this makes us even for Lisbon, Eggsy."

Miles shook his head. "Not a chance, Hollywood. We're never gonna be even for Lisbon. Say nothing about you hauling me out of that jeep before I could bleed out. Could've lost a hell of a lot more than my leg that day, man."

Mac just shrugged. "Maybe we could just get together sometime. Have a beer. Tell lies about when we were in the Army. Jack has some really good ones."

"I do not lie about …"

"I was there for a lot of it Jack," Mac managed a grin, but Jack sensed his tension just under the surface of these pleasantries.

"Sounds good, man. And maybe I'll leave the petting zoo home."

"That'd be nice," he grinned at the mock offense Viz and Elliot took at their conversation.

"Is there anything else we can do, Mac?"

He shook his head. "Get clear. Make sure you don't have a tail. Let us know when you're safe home. The usual way would be good."

"Sorry you got busted, man. But I'm glad you didn't get burned."

"Same," Mac said with a little nod. He saw the trio out, then sunk back down on the bed opposite Jack.

"So … Busted, huh?"

"Ri was through Viz's security protocols in under two minutes." He sighed.

"How much trouble are we in?" Jack squinted like the answer already hurt.

Mac frowned. "None. Not really anyway. Matty was weirdly understanding. Concerned, but understanding."

"So, instead of ordering us in, she's sending a team?"

Mac nodded, still frowning. "Yeah, um, they should be here by midnight from what she said."

"Who? And more importantly why?"

"Just … um … Just her and Riley I guess." He paused again. "She has video she showed me a clip of."

"And?" Jack prompted.

"There's an underground bunker in it. Murdoc leaving. She fast forwarded, then there's us running out, right before it blows. We got caught in the blast a little."

"Where?"

"Belfast, I guess." He paused again.

"That's good, right? Some evidence of what happened?"

Mac nodded. "Murdoc sent Matty a text. On her personal phone." He and Jack both swallowed hard. "It just said, 'This isn't over. M'."

"Well, ain't that some shit."

"Pretty much." Then he half smiled at Jack. "Piled just as deep as you predicted."