A/N - I know it's been a while with this one. If you're still with me, thanks for hanging in there. I've been agonizing over how to end it. I was trying to decide if the guys got to know what happened. I sort of decided this made more sense in cannon if they don't. Mac just flaking out to Nigeria makes more sense if he's way round over more than his father. So this is what my internal struggle yielded. I was inspired to finish this as a tension breaker. I've been competing in the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge and turned in a story I'm proud of in Round 3 this weekend. Also my novel Always Darkest just won Best in Fantasy 2018 on iHeart Radio's Book Talk Radio Club this weekend too. What better way to celebrate than to finally bail these poor guys out of the mess I got them into when I was bored on Saint Pat's? Shout out to Gib and DIwells51 for beta reading my project this weekend and beta reading my fics literally whenever I ask!

Mac leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets. The lines in his forehead, around his eyes made him look older. Or maybe that was his eyes themselves. They held a pained faraway intensity that had Jack and Matty exchanging concerned glances as they searched the room.

They'd arrived to find the room booked until the end of the week. It was under the name Sean McCready and the clerk had readily identified a picture of Murdoc and the lovely business traveler from Belfast who paid cash and tipped very well.

"Add another alias to the pile," Jack growled as they filed up the stairs.

Riley was walking and typing as she so often did. "Damn," she said as the arrived at the door. "This one is a gold mine of connections to disappearances all over the UK."

Matty moved to open the door with the old fashioned room key the woman at the desk had given them. Mac reached out and stopped her with a hand settling on her shoulder. "Wait." Everyone turned to look at him. "He wanted us to come back here, wanted us to find this."

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, Blondie."

He put himself between the rest of the team and the door to the room. "Sure it does. Why not let the room get cleaned and rented out. Let the staff destroy any evidence here. Why keep it?"

Jack made a noise that Mac took to be an intense effort to not let loose with a string of words he didn't say in front of "the women folk". Mac had long since stopped trying to convince him that was sexist and just nodded his head, affirming Jack's inarticulate acceptance of what Mac was implying.

"If he knew we were coming back here, what are the odds this isn't boobytrapped?" Mac asked rhetorically.

Jack answered anyway. "Floppity gillion to none, probably. So …"

"So everybody take a walk while I clear this," Mac answered, peering at the doorknob and then squatting down to get a better look.

"Fat chance, Mac," Riley said after sharing a look with Matty.

"Yeah, what she said," Jack agreed with an approving nod.

"I second that emotion, Baby Einstein," Matty chimed in.

"I thought we weren't doing that anymore." Mac dropped down, lying on the floor to get a look under the door, wishing he were a shade less beat up as he did so. "I did get him to stop calling you Matty the …"

"Hey, now, partner, no need to go dredging up the past." Mac flashed a slightly mischievous grin up at Jack and Matty both. Jack squatted down next to him. "Since we're not leaving you here alone just in case Lord Nutbar is right behind that door, what can we do to help?"

"Actually … can one of you run down to the lobby and see if there's any metal hangers in the cloak room? I wouldn't hate a couple of those."

Riley knew Jack was pretty beat up, so in terms of speed she was the next logical choice. "Be right back."

Mac didn't even hear her. Nor did he hear Matty and Jack talking behind him, not even when his name came up. He was too focused on making sure the door wasn't rigged. When Ri returned with a metal hanger, apologizing that there was only the one because most of the ones in the cloakroom were wood or plastic, Mac thanked her absently. He deftly unwound the metal, straightened it out, and began feeding it under the door the long way, hooked end first.

Jack frowned down at Mac's back. "What're you doing now?"

No answer.

"Mac … Mac, buddy … Mac!"

Mac glanced around, suddenly remembering his team was with him. "The door seems clear. I'm just trying to verify there's no tripwire right inside. I think we're good though. Once were in, I'll clear the room."

Matty stepped forward with the key again, but Mac took it from her. "If this is rigged and something happens, you're already injured, Blondie."

"Exactly," Mac said like she was just confirming his plan. "One less member of the team rendered to less than full capacity by Murdoc if this goes sideways."

Neither Matty nor Jack had time to argue with him. He had the door open, looked quickly around, and was inside before either of them could think twice. "No wonder you two are always in trouble," Matty observed as she headed in behind Mac.

Drawing the weapon Matty had brought him, just in case, Jack followed. Ri was right behind them and managed to have the presence of mind to close the door behind them in spite of the scene in front of her.

It was very clear why the 'Do Not Disturb' sign hung from the door knob outside.

The room was a shambles. Furniture was knocked over. The two full sized beds were unmade, everything but the mattress coverings on the floor. One of the beds had a fair amount of blood on the bottom sheet. On the nightstand was a long curved blade with blood dried on it. On the desk were bottles of unlabeled liquids of various colors, syringes. On the other night stand were restraints, gags, and an old fashioned Polaroid instant camera..

From how still Mac was standing, no one thought there was a single detail in this room that he wasn't taking in in minute detail. It seemed he'd forgotten that he meant to check the room for other booby traps though. He was still as stone.

Jack put a hand on his shoulder. "Well, at least I'm pretty sure I know why Elliot needed to glue up half my front," Jack said almost lightly in an effort to get Mac to look around at all.

Nothing.

The young man didn't even breath.

Jack and Matty exchanged a look.

"Listen Blondie," Matty began. He didn't react.

Riley shook her head. She moved forward and just put her arm around Mac's waist. "Hey, Mac, let's sit down a minute, huh?"

He didn't answer. But he did let her move him toward to unbloody bed, and his legs bent like he was sitting down with her on purpose.

Riley tossed a glance at Jack and Matty, but quickly refocused on Mac's profile, not sure if she should say the first thing that came into her head. The lost looks on Matty and Jack's faces said it was kind of the only option.

"When you went undercover to trap El Noche all I could think of was when I was in prison. I … I really couldn't do my job effectively. I still feel responsible that you wound up on your own, that you got hurt. If I'd been on my game that wouldn't have happened. I'd have found a way in and gotten Jack to you faster."

Finally his eyes flicked to her face. "That wasn't your fault. Don't do that to yourself."

Her arm went around his shoulders. "I'm not finished … I kept telling myself to focus, to finish. I kept saying I could get on top of my feelings and have a good cry in my shower after we got home. But I never really got there. I should have had Thornton pull me out. But I didn't think I had a choice. So I stayed. Distracted."

"Distracted Riley is better than Focused Just About Anyone Else on a keyboard, Ri," Mac said, sounding more like himself.

She squeezed him gently. "Thanks, Mac. But my point is, you don't have to stay here and work this scene, feeling like this. Anyone can see your brain is more than half in a basement in LA and another third in memories you can't quite catch ahold of. That doesn't leave much for real thinking or defending yourself if the bastard shows back up."

He wanted to argue, but she was right. The memory of the damp smell, the cold metal chair, the bite of the cuffs, the needle driven deep while those blank black eyes bored into his … It was all too vivid. And his brain was struggling to come up with what had happened … here, on the street, in the bunker from the video, with how they wound up in that room on the the island. But it was all just static with occasional disturbing little flashes.

"I … I'm okay," came out of his mouth almost automatically. He stood back up abruptly. "But you do have a point. We need one of the crime scene teams to go over this place. All we can tell from what's here is it's either where he brought us and drugged us some more and beat the hell out of us or it isn't but he wanted us to think it is. That doesn't get us anywhere."

Matty took a step toward him. "It's not like you to give up so easily."

Mac's eyes flashed. "You tried to convince us to leave, to let you call in another team the whole way here! Now that I've agreed it's suddenly a bad idea?"

"Of course not! What I was about to say is that you're usually like a dog with a damned bone and I'm glad you realize you don't have superpowers and that it's okay to let Phoenix …"

A knock at the door made them all jump. Jack slid between everyone else and the door, gun in hand, but held off to the side so it wouldn't be visible from the hall. "Yeah?" he called through the door.

"Front Desk," a heavily Irish female voice answered.

Jack cracked it open warily. A young woman with short dark hair wearing the hotel's green uniform vest stood there holding an iPad. "What can I do for you?" Jack asked pleasantly, just like he wasn't holding a nine millimeter firearm just out of her line of site.

"Is there someone here called Angus?" Jack just nodded. "This was delivered for him." She held out the iPad.

Jack took it, not allowing his reluctance to do so to show. "Thank you, Miss." Matty quickly took the device from him and passed him a folded bill so he could tip her. After he closed the door, he turned to Matty and Riley who were both looking over the device, but not lifting the cover. Mac's back was to them, looking over the rest of the room slowly.

"Well?" Jack demanded.

Matty was going to speak but the sound of a FaceTime call coming in rang from the iPad's speakers.

Aaaaannndd, that'll be Murdoc, Mac thought. Right on cue.

Matty opened it and was unsurprisingly greeted by the liquid ink reptilian eyes of everyone's least favorite assassin (which was saying something in their line of work). "What the hell did you do to my people, Murdoc?" Matty snapped.

"Well, hello to you, too, Matilda. Since you were so wonderful with him, I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that Cassian sends his greetings as well."

If he was looking for a reaction he was going to be disappointed. "I asked you a question."

Murdoc gave an elaborate roll of his eyes. "We just had a little innocent fun. Isn't that what Americans who find themselves in Ireland for Saint Patrick's Day are supposed to do? Get a little altered? Maybe get in a few fights? Try to blow me up to save a couple of ladies who got in over their heads by crossing me? Well, maybe not that last part, but it added to the charm for me."

"Where are they Murdoc?" Mac asked sharply, stepping into the camera's field of view. "What happened to Saiorse and Ailbe?"

"There he is!" Murdoc said almost reverently. "I meant to ask this while we were having our chat before … I can't remember if I did, and I know you can't … How is that shoulder, Angus? It was a nice clean shot but I was a little worried when you didn't go right back to work."

Matty heard the dry click of Mac swallowing, but felt a swell of pride in him at the slightly defiant but mostly disinterested face he made at Murdoc. "It's fine. Some of your best work. Did I remember to thank you for it when you drugged me this time?"

There was steel in his voice and Murdoc's eyes widened fractionally. His composure remained intact though. "I don't recall if it came up," he remarked wryly. "And before you start shouting at me about the other point, the sisters Howard are just fine. They'll be back at their workaday jobs now that I retrieved my money. Although I imagine they'll have a bit of a hangover after this weekend. I terrible at mixing cocktails. And once you dump a thing directly into someone's blood stream, it really is a bit of a crap shoot."

Jack growled, "Speaking of which …"

"Don't bother, Jackie boy. I'm not going to run down the list for you. Besides our Matilda has a whole department or three dedicated to that sort of thing. I'm sure they'll be very thorough and assuage your concerns, Jack. And won't that be fun for you?" He cocked an amused eyebrow.

"You son of a …"

Mac interrupted. "What do you want Murdoc?"

"Just to see how you're faring, Angus. You performed well beyond any of my expectations during this little exercise, even at less than full capacity." There was real admiration in Murdoc's face, or at least that was what he wanted them to see. "I had to know your little escape in Los Angeles and your capture of our dear Mr. Fletcher wasn't a fluke."

Mac's jaw tightened but he resisted the urge to say anything.

"So tight lipped, Angus. Every time I think I'm going to get you talking, even just about the local sports scene, you clam right up. It's as admirable as it is irritating."

Mac had a split second where he hoped it was true, hoped he'd disappointed Murdoc with his ability to stay silent even when under real duress. Any number of ex-girlfriends could probably attest to his stubbornly quiet streak. Any number of bad guys, too. Instead of revealing his almost desperate worry that he'd given up any important intel, he plastered on a smirk. "Sorry to disappoint."

Murdoc might not have heard the near catch in Mac's voice, but Jack did. "Yeah, only like hashtag sorry not sorry, Señor Psychopath."

Riley motioned for them to keep him talking as she typed a million miles an hour and Jack opened his mouth for another taunt but apparently Murdoc knew what they were up to.

"I'm so sorry to cut this short, but I am on a clock. Reliable babysitters are at a premium, don't you know."

Mac couldn't contain 100% of his anger, his disquiet, try though he might. "Why?" found its way out before he could stop himself.

Murdoc grinned. "I told you, I wanted to see what you'd do. And to be honest I wanted to see what Phoenix would do … what your higher ups would do. What your Oversight would do." He paused.

"We'll see each other again soon. The last time we had some genuine up close and personal time, just the two of us …"

Here Murdoc held up his phone to show the video camera a picture. It was of an unconscious Mac handcuffed to that rough metal chair in that damp and filthy basement in Los Angeles. Mac heard his own sharp intake of breath, knew it was why Jack, Matty, and Riley stepped closer, all peering at him with real worry instead of looking at the screen. He kept his eyes fixed on Murdoc as the killer put the phone back into his pocket.

"I said I wanted to ask you some questions then. I wanted many things, all of which I've since acquired. Well, most of them anyway. The next time we talk I want to tell you things. I think perhaps you'll like that even less."

The slippery smile and shark's dark stare made Mac shiver like someone had dripped ice water down his spine. He managed not to sound as rattled as he felt though. "I'm not interested in anything you have to say Murdoc. Unless it's, 'I'm turning myself in'."

"Oh, MacGyver, you're such a card. Pretending you don't want knowledge I have … What's today again? Wednesday? That's a workday for Daddy Dearest, I believe. I suppose that means …"

"Enough! Murdoc, what is it you really hope to get out of this?" Matty interrupted sharply.

Mac glanced at her, lines of his face deepening in suspicion once again. Matty knew something about his father. He knew that. Murdoc claimed to. Jack and Riley had been digging and he knew it was because they cared about him but something told him they hadn't shared everything they'd found. Seemed almost everyone here knew more about his father than he did.

"Yeah, what?" he said softly, eyes trained on the terrifying insane face leering at him out of the screen.

"What I've always wanted, MacGyver. For you to sleep with the light on until I decide to put out your light for good."

Mac was going to reply but the screen went dark.

Matty waited for a minute, then closed the device and handed it to Riley. "Did you get anything?"

Riley shrugged. "Several possibles, but his encrypted server relay was good."

Matty nodded. "Alright. Let's get a forensics team called in here and then let's get these guys home."

"Home sounds pretty good," Jack agreed.

"By home I meant to Phoenix Medical. Elliot Mathers treating you in a hotel room with his travel bag does not constitute adequate medical attention. And there's no way you guys get cleared for duty again until Oversight sees a tox panel and then clean blood work."

"Oversight can kiss my …"

"And me. Until I see it, Jack. Although I'm not above the judicious application of kissing, asses or otherwise."

As she intended, Jack flushed crimson. "Very funny Matilda."

"What about you, Blondie? Inclined to argue?"

Mac shook his head. "All I care about write now is being back in the right area code."

As Matty made some phone calls he sunk down on the corner of the nearest bed, wishing he was home already. Matty patted him, his hand, his arm, several times on her way by as she paced and talked.

He managed a small smile for her the third time. She was even being nice to Jack, something Mac had questioned her ability to do. He was struggling to trust her since he'd seen her on the 8mm film, despite anything Jack might have said to reassure him. But one thing was clear, she didn't want him hurt, not unnecessarily anyway. He supposed that was something. Whatever lies she was telling, he was pretty sure they weren't the malicious sort. Jack seemed to read this in his face even though they were being pretty quiet, and gave him a reassuring nod a couple of times.

By the time they cleared out, Mac had a while to think. Getting into the car in the way to the airport he'd given Jack a look and tilted his chin at the front seat, then glanced at Riley. Jack had returned the gesture with a half smile and climbed in the front to drive, starting a loud humorous argument with Matty about which of them ought to be behind the wheel. Matty seemed to catch on and turned on the radio after a minute or two to lend Mac and Riley some semblance of privacy.

Riley tilted her head and looked at him with a quizzical expression, but stayed quiet. After a few minutes of riding through the busy, darkening streets, Mac spoke quietly. "Thanks for getting me out of my own head back there."

He wasn't exactly looking at her, but he wasn't not looking at her either. She smiled softly and reached out and took his hand. Surprising her slightly, he let her and returned the gentle pressure she applied. "You'd have gotten there on your own, but I figured you'd suffered enough already. I don't want to rub it in or anything, but you look a little like somebody who pissed off Jack Dalton."

It was exactly the right note to strike, because he grinned a little even though it hurt his split lip. "More like pissed of a grizzly bear," he said as lightly as he could.

"See, just like I said." She shifted a little, like maybe she was worried. "I'm sorry if you felt like I was butting in or being pushy when you were already at your wits end, Mac. I know you're a very private person."

Mac met her eyes. "Sometimes I think maybe I'm too private. I don't want to be the guy who pushes my friends away." He squeezed her hand again even though his own was sore and bruised. "I might not always want to hear it, or even agree with you, but you're one of the smartest most compassionate people I know. If you think you have something to offer … Just …" He finally looked away, uncomfortable but needing to say this. "I want to know what you think."

She blushed a little. She knew Mac liked her, respected her, even, in his own unique way, considered her family, but to know he truly valued her opinion about thing not related to their work meant the world to her. She took a deep breath. "I won't take that lightly. I promise."

"I know." He forced himself to look at her again. "Now I'm going to offer some unsolicited advice. And I hope you take it the way I mean it."

She frowned but nodded for him to go on. "Okay."

He let go of her hand and ran both of his through his hair. Then he looked out the window for a couple of minutes. He sighed. The were coming up on the airport. If he was going to say this, now was the time. If he hung into it, he'd lose his nerve.

"I'm going to tell you exactly what I told Jack after the whole Murdoc thing last fall. I don't want you guys holding yourself responsible for what happens to me," he said plainly.

"I don't … I …"

He made himself look at her again. "You do, though. You told me you do. If you didn't you wouldn't still be thinking about El Noche."

"You still think about it. You talk in your sleep, Mac."

He nodded, jaw tightening just a little. "Yeah. I do. It was … pretty bad. I don't want to freak you out or anything, but it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me though. Even Murdoc … even that basement … those aren't the worst things. And … Honestly, Ri, taking those sorts of risks is my job. Maybe I won't always be able to face it. Maybe someday it'll be one bad guy too many, one betrayal too far. Maybe someday I'll find the straw that will break this camel's back. But …" He grinned for her then and even though it wasn't quite genuine she smiled back. "I haven't found it yet."

"I'm glad," she said, really meaning it. Then she wondered aloud, "What would someone like you do if you didn't do this? Be a science teacher?"

Mac laughed. "That sounds good, in theory. I'd probably get fired pretty fast after the third or fourth time the fire department got called to the school though." Matty was pulling into the rental return when Mac went on. "I think I'd probably do something like join the Peace Corps. Go build schools and hospitals, dig wells or build vapor condensers. Get to know people who don't have anything to do with this life."

"You've thought about it a lot," she observed.

He shrugged. "Maybe, yeah. I mean, after what happened at Lake Como, I was in the hospital for a while. Then when we came home … Jack really thought about leaving the life. I was in pain for a while." Her eyes widened at the admission, the stark vulnerability. "If things hadn't seemed so dire when that canister got put on the market, I would have told Thornton no. It still hurt. I was still short of breath sometimes. I shouldn't really have been back at work. I honestly didn't know if I'd ever get cleared again. As it was Thornton had to bypass a bunch of protocols to make it happen. But, I did go back, and I'm glad. Even when things go sideways, I know I'm where I want to be. And I know I'm with family. You know?"

He found himself suddenly wrapped in a hug. Startled but not surprised, he hugged back and she mumbled something into his shoulder. "I love you too, Ri," he said fondly.

The car rolled to a stop and Jack put it in park as he forced his face into a neutral expression, just like he hadn't overheard every word Riley and Mac said. He and Matty exchanged a quick glance as they got out of the car and there was something in her face, too. Something he didn't know how to label.

Jack had known Matty a long time. He trusted her with his life, and that was good because she'd saved it more than once, and he'd returned the favor. But, although he didn't want to say anything to Mac, he was worried about the video Mac had found, worried that she knew something about Mac's father but was keeping it from them.

It was probably time to show Mac everything he'd dup up. Especially now that Riley had finished decrypting all of it. Jack made up his mind to show the kid everything he'd found as soon as they had a minute to breathe.

The look she gave Mac when the kid got out of the car, wincing with the real soreness that was setting in now that they weren't on the move … He decided he liked the look, that it meant she cared about the kid exactly the way she said she did. That he was, they all were, family.

"Alright," Matty said, all businesslike. "Riley, I'm putting you in charge of getting these two home, and making sure they actually report to Medical and stay there until somebody qualified says the can leave."

Riley sighed. "Sure, no problem, Matty. Want me to see what I can do about Russian election interference, Afghani rebels, and the latest Ebola outbreak while I'm at it?"

"If you have time," Matty answered with a smirk. "I'm going to oversee the incoming team processing this scene and update Oversight on the situation." She glared at Mac and Jack both, but neither thought she looked very serious about it."You two behave. And make sure I know where to find both of you when I get back."

"Yes, ma'am," Jack said lightly. "On my couch would be a good place to look for me if you …"

"We'll be where you expect us to be, Matty," Mac interrupted. "And if they cut us loose, we'll stay together. At my place. Because Boze will be there, too. Okay?"

Matty frowned for just a split second. "What're you up to, now, Blondie?"

Mac shrugged stiffly. "Trying to get a decent meal and a decent night's sleep where even if I don't wake up a place I want to be, I'll at least wake up where I expect?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Fair enough. I guess your job is just to hold them to that then, Riley. Leave the peace talks to State."

She laughed. "That seems more doable."

"Jack?" Matty said to his back as he sauntered toward the entrance to where she'd already told him he could meet the Phoenix flight crew.

"I heardja," he said with a casual wave over his shoulder.

"Dalton," she said firmly.

God, he loved hassling that woman. "Yeah, yeah." He went inside.

"Blondie?"

Mac threw up his hands, as if to say what do you want me to do with him? But then he grinned and said, "I'll do my best, boss."

He followed Jack inside.

Matty returned her attention to Riley. "Do me a favor and keep an eye on them."

Riley nodded, thinking Matty didn't need to bother making that an order. She was planning on sticking to the guys like glue, no matter what nonsense they got up to, until she was sure they were 100% at least. "You got it, boss."

Matty watched Riley go inside and stood there for a few minutes until she got a text confirming they were aboard the jet from both the medic and additional security she'd brought along but had known enough to not throw at the guys until they were ready to walk away from this. She sent a text of her own to the boss, then went about returning to the scene.

0-0-0

"How many times are you going to make me apologize, Jack?" Mac said with mostly affectionate exasperation as he unlocked his house to let them in.

"At least fifty more, plus you owe me … I dunno … a kidney or something."

Mac closed the door behind them, locking up after for good measure. "I'm sorry fifty times and if you ever need a kidney … I'll definitely find you one on the black market. Okay?" he laughed, heading straight to the fridge, grabbing his favorite form of half assed apology, and coming over to where Jack had already parked himself. "And I'm buying the beer for the next month."

"Well, that almost makes up for it."

"I certainly hope so, since all I did was not blow up the infirmary when they said we should stay until the tox panel came back. Which, by the way, you totally should have been expecting."

Jack cracked his beer open using the edge of Mac's coffee table earning himself a raised eyebrow as Mac flopped with an uncharacteristic lack of grace into the chair across from him. "Well, yeah, okay, maybe I did, but I didn't expect you to just be all agreeable about it or for you to just pass out in one of their sorry excuses for a bed and stay that way until they came around with breakfast trays this morning."

"At least I pulled my weight ditching Boze and Ri back at the office so we can get a minute's peace."

Mac opened his own beer with his pocket knife, tossed the knife on the coffee table since he planned on needed it again for more beer very shortly, kicked off his boots under the table, and put his feet up on the table, sinking back into his chair. "Maybe I was still a little full of, what did you call it when you saw the labs … 'that bunch of gobbledygook' from Murdoc."

Jack was genuinely frowning at him now, not just making his teasing put-on disgruntled face. Mac knew full well if they hadn't expected Jack to stay too he'd have been all for Mac having an eye kept on him in the infirmary overnight after what they'd been through.

Mac took another drink of beer before calling him on the expression. "What?"

Jack sighed and sat forward putting down his beer. "I think maybe yo racked out like that because you're about running on fumes, kid."

"Well, yeah. It was kind of a rough week. I have to assume anyway," he said with a laugh to lighten up the moment.

"Not that," Jack said, not letting him off the hook, now that he had an opening. "Fumes was probably generous. I've been worried you're running on empty probably since the Chrysalis mess, Mac." Mac rolled his eyes, but Jack continued. "You've been working non-stop. You took what? Ten days was it? When Murdoc tagged you in that shoulder?"

"It was a flesh wound! And it's not like those supplies were gonna deliver themselves to that Arctic research lab. You just didn't wanna go because you were afraid of another case of frost butt."

That ought to shut him up, Mac thought. Bring up something even slightly embarrassing, especially work related, and Jack was usually a next level ninja master at changing to subject.

"Yeah, well, maybe a little. But it was also just another case of you pushing too far too fast. Like all this stuff lookin' for your Dad on top of work. First Paris, then the cabin, then …"

"You broke into Matty's house!"

"Because I want this to be over for you! Before you wear yourself out and make a really stupid mistake or before it overwhelms you and you call it quits on the whole thing and just go join the peace corps or somethin'"

This time Mac smirked. "I knew you were listening."

"Of course I was listening. You guys are important to me. The most important. I missed out on kids of my own, and if I have ya settle for being a helicopter parent, I'm damned well gonna do a good job!"

Mac sighed, but met Jack's eyes, all amusement and teasing gone. "You do. On both counts. Really." Then he let his face slip into a grin again. "I mean you'd hope so anyway. You've had literally decades to practice this whole old man bit."

"Little shit," Jack chuckled fondly, finally leaning back, acknowledging that they could both stand to relax a little. "Besides, it's not the years, kid. It's the miles."

Mac sighed, an altogether more tired sound than he'd intended. "We've been racking up the miles pretty hard these last few years I guess. Both of us."

"Mmm. Listen, Mac, I've had Ri working on some stuff I found and I think it's probably time you had a look."

Mac's eyes showed his gratitude. "I appreciate that. But maybe …"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe not tonight. Maybe let's just let Ri and Boze bring us some take out and wait on us a little and we just kickback and … I don't know …"

"Watch all the Indiana Jones movies?" Jack offered.

"Leave out Crystal Skull and you've got yourself a deal."

"You got a problem with young Mr. Shia LaBeouf?"

"No. I mean the dead psychic mind control aliens are pushing it but …"

"But?" Jack prompted.

"I hate it when a franchise jumps the shark."

"Huh?"

"It's a well known reference about when the classic series Happy Days had the Fonze water ski over a shark. It means 'goes too far, past the point of believability."

"Okay, But is psychic alien ghosts didn't do it, what did poor Indy do that jumped the shark?"

"They nuked the fridge. And Indy lived! Ridiculous. Even a high school freshman who skips class should know the physics, just the force involved mind you, say nothing about radioactive decay …"

"You're gonna explain the physics now arentcha?"

"Unless you don't want to know."

"Go ahead, kid."

Even though Jack had no real idea what the hell the kid was talking about he let him go on until he tired of the subject and Ri and Boze showed up with food and lectures about leaving half the team stranded at the office thinking they were still at Medical.

Later, after the movies, they were stretched out in deck chairs by the fire and Mac looked more than half asleep and Jack was two thirds past that. Jack sleepily said, "Promise me you're gonna cut yourself more breaks, Mac. If I learned anything else this week, it's that you're too worn out to keep this up. I don't wanna see you snap under the weight of it and go off to Timbuktu or something."

"Timbuktu doesn't exist anymore Jack. Now it's a landlocked country currently called Mali in west Africa."

"Well, don't go takin' off to Africa then. Especially parts of it that don't even exist."

Mac smiled, but let his eyes close. "I'll never take off anywhere without at least telling you, man. I'm never gonna be that burnt out or whatever."

"Good," Jack said agreeably.

After a minute or two Mac added, "Other than being on fire Nigeria was nice."

"Don't start picking peace corps spots on me!" Jack asserted, a little more awake. "If you ever decide to take off anywhere, how 'bout Vegas and how about you take me with you?"

"Vegas is alright, too," his exhausted partner agreed.

"Well, okay then."

They both drifted for awhile. Finally Jack mumbled, "We should at least go inside and sleep on the couches."

"Mmmm. I'm good right here. I feel like being out here, away from stuff. Sometimes …" he trailed off. Then he picked up the thread. "Sometimes I feel like the only time I can breathe is when I'm away from everything."

Even though he didn't, Jack knew Mac needed to hear it. "I understand, Mac."

They both fell asleep out on Mac's deck, both dreaming of the places they felt free.