They had only the briefest of seconds to appreciate their victory with the peristaltic pump getting the generator back on. Suddenly instead of freezing, too much heat, and worse, smoke, were the concern. Zoe had clearly gotten her feet under her though because she went fact finding and brought Mac back exactly the information he needed to start working the new problem.
When he asked if she could get to the cargo room, instead of even pausing, she took off running like he'd barked an order. She understood the problem and knew the solution was in the direction he'd pointed her.
Mac licked his lips a little nervously. Watching her slip down that hallway toward danger gave him the strangest feeling. He thought maybe that was how Jack felt when he went off and just did something without seeming to think about it and Jack got all protective and annoying.
When she got there, she didn't hesitate either. She summarized the situation verbally and showed him the image of what was stopping her from getting the supplies he told her she needed. Matty was looking at his face while all this was happening with growing concern. He looked like someone might have backed him into a corner.
And when he just picked up a stool and broke half the damned War Room, she barked his name, thinking maybe he'd lost touch with reality. Jack said he could do that sometimes when he was working a problem. Real world stuff went away, and it was replaced with the white board, or calculator, or freaking super computer the kid kept in his head.
When it became clear that he was just trying to work with what he had and couldn't come up with a solution just conceptually, Matty and the others just started moving stuff out of the way along with him. He saw Riley taking out her phone and frowning at it. She'd done that several times over the last hour or so.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
She transferred her frown from her phone to Mac. He sounded almost abrupt with her. "Nothing, Mac. I just can't get a hold of my dad and …"
What Mac really needed was for everybody to go. And he hated to do this to Jack, but one less person in the War Room, even if it was only for a short time while he figured out the carbon filter problem with Zoe, was going to help. "So why don't you just …" he paused and gave her their shared 'when Jack's a big doofus' grin, "You know, boopity boop it … And track him."
She grinned back, thinking his looked a little forced, but this was a lot of pressure, and he was trying. She also knew him well enough to know that he wanted less people in the War Room, but didn't want to say so because that was just the sort of thing that often made Matty get snarky. "You sure, Mac?"
"This isn't a tech problem," he replied, already turning to get back to work.
"It's a duct tape and paperclips problem," she teased, just to remind him that she believed in his skills to solve this, to keep those people safe until the Coast Guard got there. She mouthed, "Is this okay?" at Matty who just nodded and mouthed back, "Go," but tapped her watch to let Riley know that while Mac was okay with her disappearing, Matty considered her on the company clock.
Riley slipped out as she heard Mac say, "Hey, Zoe, that wasn't a half bad idea, actually. Remind me … Do you have any duct tape handy?"
0-0-0
When Jack strode into the room, which he currently had sort of trashed, Mac wasn't sure if he was happy to see his partner, or irritated that there was something to divert his attention away from the problem at hand.
He answered Jack's casual question in a tone Jack recognized as defensive, walls-up, with a nice layer of glib to cover some really worry and vulnerability. "Thirty-two people on a boat in the arctic are gonna die."
Okay, that meant back the hell off, Jack, you can't help me. Jack made his tone purposely light. It was the one that said, 'You got this, kid'. "Well, I would love to help, but Riley and I have to fake a signature on a baseball or her dad's gonna die."
Mac's head snapped around. "What?"
"Yeah," Jack replied, letting him know Jack wasn't much happier about the situation in which he currently found himself than Mac was about his.
Mac shook his head, almost like he needed to clear it, and did his best to kick Jack out to go work his own problem. Then Jack did what he so often managed to with one of his dumb jokes or lame attempts at humor applied to a humorless situation.
He got Mac's brain to stop over thinking the problem and trying to come up with complicated engineering solutions with everything but the kitchen sink. It made him go back to what he knew. And damned if he didn't know physics.
0-0-0
Fortunately, the Jack inspired Force-related solution worked perfectly and only a few hours later the air filters Zoe built with her students under Mac's direction were still scrubbing the air as he'd hoped. Zoe finally looked truly relaxed and her students visible on the video feed were just settling in to wait.
Once the situation was stable on ship, Matty had told Mac he could go. He was still technically on leave, and the consult was basically over. Instead, he sat down in the War Room, facing the screen, planning to wait out the final three hours with Zoe.
She looked like she could use the company, and he knew himself well enough to know he'd just pace and text Matty about the rescue mission's status until it pissed her off. And if she got pissed off at him now that this was over, he wanted it to be because he'd forced her to defend herself about what he saw on that film.
He did feel free to grab himself some paperclips off the table and fidget with them. When he explained the habit to Zoe and said his boss banned it, she made the same face he had probably made when Matty had made that little declaration. The expression said, "That's bullshit!" He grinned and shrugged. "Just something to keep my hands busy."
He tried to sound like it didn't matter, but it still got under his skin a little. What difference did it make if he liked to fidget with paperclips anyway? She didn't seem any happier about his tendency to pace, or tap his feet under the table, or wind his watch, which, he had pointed out a couple of times, were replacement habits that could be avoided if he could just have a couple of paperclips during briefings.
He forgot about that train of thought for a moment when Zoe called him cute. He could honestly feel his neck getting a little warm. That hadn't happened in a while. He pretended he didn't hear the low-key flirting for a second and just affirmed his admiration. "You saved your own life."
The way she smiled told him with was the right thing to say. Then, she started asking him about his own life, his work. He'd used up all the paperclips, so he'd reverted to swiveling the stool back and forth while they talked. He couldn't help but think that Zoe would be just the sort of person who would fit in at Phoenix, and he said so.
He didn't add that he wouldn't mind seeing her at the coffee pot here in the room next door every morning. But part of him wanted to. And her reaction to the idea made him spontaneously offer a visit. Then, feeling a little like he was on the edge of a cliff, he suggested a date he thought his grandfather would have approved of. "We could grab that ice cream."
Her smile was both surprised and extremely pleased. She was more than happy to accept and was already planning a trip to LA in her head when the sound of grinding metal told them both that three hours might be a much longer time than they'd thought.
Mac tried to stay on top of things, tried to both convince Zoe that things were still going to be already and himself. Something inside his head just really desperately wanted for something to be alright, for something good to happen to him.
And he knew it was selfish, but as things slowly fell apart, he cared less and less about why he wanted to save her and her friends, he just knew he would have done anything, anything at all, including what Zoe ultimately chose to do, to know she'd find her way here, and maybe, just maybe get the life she'd planned for herself before it got highjacked by the need to put other people first.
He couldn't do much.
But he stayed with her, talked with her.
Until the end.
Then he turned on his heel and walked out of Phoenix, ignoring Cage, ignoring Matty. He just wanted to be alone.