Jack didn't think he'd ever seen Mac look as smug as he did when he came back through the door of their room.

He'd gotten Jack his requested order, plus a fresh squeezed orange juice. For himself, he'd gotten one of the weird green smoothies he liked, a tall black coffee, and a fruit salad with Greek yogurt, all of which was now spread out over the table next to Jack's bed, almost like he was hoping staff would come in and see it, or if not that specifically, to make it clear he wasn't getting back in bed (which he'd stripped and thrown the linens into the bin when he'd gotten back), or eating any food from in-house.

Jack worked on his breakfast for a while, which was harder than he'd hoped doing so one handed would be, but he hadn't anticipated the sausage patty wanting to slide off the cream cheese. Mac wasn't eating, just occasionally sipping his coffee and absently watching the news on the TV, although the volume was off.

Now that he'd sat for a few minutes, Jack noticed Mac looked sort of pale again, and he had a line forming between his brows that said the headache he'd brushed off before he left was back with a vengeance.

Jack knew if he said anything direct, he'd get shot down, or Mac would clam up, or even worse, would hide things he might otherwise have been okay talking about just to be left alone. He decided a Mac fishing expedition was in order. He knew his partner would be loath to own up to his little trip to the coffee place having set him back, but he figured if Mac really wasn't okay, he might let something slip if Jack went about things carefully. He took another sip of the orange juice. "I still can't believe you got in and out so smooth. Especially after you slipped out of here after … you know … So, nobody saw you, for real?"

Mac grinned. The white flicker of his smile set off his bruises, but even that couldn't rob him of his genuinely sunny appearance when he grinned like that. It made him look even younger than he was, but he either didn't know it, or he didn't care. "I mean, maybe if somebody was really paying attention to the security cameras before I—"

Jack almost dropped his juice. "You did something to the cameras?!?" he demanded, louder than he intended. "Do you want to get fired!"

Mac rolled his eyes. "No! What I wanted was a decent breakfast." He laughed lightly at the expression on Jack's face. "I did lift a hat from our buddy Andrew to obscure my face before I hit the elevator though."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Where'd you get the hat from?"

Mac's easy smile morphed into a smirk. "Nurse's station."

Jack swallowed hard. Mac might have a serious save-the-world-boy-scout complex, but Jack had also noticed, including on their first meeting when the kid had picked a fight with someone who outweighed him by forty pounds and had a hell of a lot more experience and training (not to mention a temper), that he had a real reckless streak, too. It was when the two traits met that Jack usually had to worry. But the idea that the kid had gone on a breakfast run on the down low because he felt he had something to prove after things went so south in that place, or worse, just because he was bored, sort of bothered him more than usual. They were both way too dinged up for that.

"Please tell me you didn't do that while he was sitting right there."

Mac took a sip of his coffee. "Nah. I assume he was off performing unnecessary lab work on some other agent," he snorted. "I put it back while he was sitting there though."

This time Jack put down his plastic cup, hard. The top popped off, but fortunately it was empty. "Jesus, Mac!"

"His back was turned, taking a call." Mac flipped his hand dismissively. "Do you want to know why I did it, or would you like to sit there freaking out for a while?"

Jack gave him a long look. "Okay, I'll bite."

"I don't mind someone just doing their job. But I do mind the idea that any grown ass man gives a damn what someone writes in their chart. That's like threatening a kid with, 'This will go on your permanent record.'"

Jack chuckled. If he'd ever been worried about his permanent record, high school and college would have been a lot less fun. "And maybe you didn't love his tone?"

Mac shrugged. "That's an understatement. He's worse than his boss."

Jack frowned thoughtfully. "So, what's that got to do with you running all over town this morning?"

"Someone is going to figure out I wasn't in the shower when you buzzed them earlier."

Jack shook his head."Because you didn't just go get some sweats, you got your I'm goin' out to breakfast clothes, right down to your beat ass old jacket, and you've got a picnic spread out all over the place here," Jack observed. "Which you haven't had any of, by the way."

Mac shrugged. "Not all that hungry right now, I guess," he said.

"What about your smoothie?" Jack pressed.

Mac gave another one shouldered shrug. "It seemed like a really good idea when I ordered it." Then after a second, like he realized maybe not wanting anything he'd ordered was a little fishy, he added, "They put too much ginger in it though." He took another drink of his coffee, hoping it would help with the headache that had come back with a vengeance on his supply run. "They're gonna review the security footage when they realize I wasn't where they thought I was. So, somebody might be pissed that I left. But they're gonna be more pissed at him for letting it happen. He's sitting right there, practically across from this room."

"You looking to get the guy fired?"

"They're not gonna fire him." Mac shook his head. "But this seems like a good way to make sure he knows I'm no one to cross."

"So, this was a Mac-prank." Jack relaxed a little and his grin came back again.

Mac gave a little tilt to his head. "It was this or a glitter bomb, man."

Jack laughed. "You remember that time you made that foam thingy with the glue in it after that guy took your Swiss army knife to clean his boot treads that made the glitter stick to him and he flunked inspection?"

"He had it coming."

"I guess maybe he did, but–"

Mac sighed at the look of concern his partner couldn't quite keep out of his eyes. "I don't like the power dynamic they try to maintain down here. Like the whole 'standing orders' thing. It's just a way to make people feel powerless." Mac hadn't meant to say anything like that, especially not in the tone it had escaped his mouth in. Then he leaned back in his chair like he couldn't possibly be more comfortable than he was and said in a tone that implied it was just like any prank that might have been played in the barracks to break up tension, "I like them to know I'll always find a way to level the playing field."

Mac had unintentionally confirmed that he was more struggling with what was going on inside his head than with the injuries they incurred in the Vortex of Death. In fact, Jack suspected that until he was feeling like a free man, Mac might not even be able to process that he was, in fact, not insignificantly injured.

One corner of Jack's lips lifted again, like he was just teasing a little. "That what gave you this breakfast craving to begin with?"

"Maybe." Mac figured the time had come for a subject change because Jack looked a little like he was getting ready to bestow some wisdom. "I called Elliot while I was out. He says he won't let us become his patients the hard way, by the way." He flashed another grin, feeling like maybe Jack was having second thoughts. "No room in the cooler."

"That's good. Although with the way things were going back in—"

"We decided we weren't going to say it, didn't we?"

"I guess we did." Jack hoped Mac had started to process that he'd done a good job in a bad situation. And this seemed like a good chance to remind the kid that Jack, at least, thought so. "Well, with the way things were goin', I'm awful glad we didn't wind up on a slab, 'cuz without you thinkin' fast like you always do, that's what woulda happened."

Mac just shrugged, not entirely sure he felt as sure he'd handled things as well as Jack clearly did.

"What else did he say?" Jack asked, having the feeling that Elliot had probably told Mac to stay right where he was since he'd gotten himself blown up from the way Mac wasn't exactly looking at him when he said Elliot's name.

He frowned slightly, putting down his coffee. "To just shoot him a text when we get cut loose." Mac looked at the clock again, then looked at his phone to verify the time. "But someone … They should've been in by now. At least to offer breakfast and do that thing where they pretend like they can't talk to us about getting out of here because supposedly no one's free to do a discharge. It's after 9."

What he didn't add was that he'd barely bounced back from being a short-term captive in England when Farhad's men grabbed them. It brought up … everything else.

Now he felt like a prisoner here, too.

It was the real reason for the headache-and-nausea-inducing trip up the street.

To know he could come and go as he pleased.

Jack read all that in Mac's suddenly closed-off expression. Those troubled blue eyes could rarely conceal what was really going on with the kid. "We could just page the nurse's station and try to get the ball rolling."

Mac's expression … tightened, was the only word Jack could come up with. His eyes flicked from the door, to Jack, to the food and drinks he'd acquired, then back to the door again. Finally, they settled on Jack again and the older man couldn't tell if Mac consciously smoothed his features at that point, or if something actually clicked in his head on its own to cause his mission-ready-nothing-bothers-me game face to slide into place. "Not a bad idea. You wanna get dressed first so they get the full message?"

Jack made a face and waved his arm. "Gotta lose the IV first, man."

"If you don't want to wait for someone in scrubs, I could do it for you."

Jack shook his head, annoyed that the movement made him dizzy. "I think you're getting too good at that. I'm not sure I should encourage you to practice more."

Mac laughed like the situation they were in hadn't been caused by damn near getting killed because their intel had sucked and their tech backup hadn't let them down seven ways from Sunday.

Jack was familiar, too familiar, with Mac's tendency to blow off his feelings, to push himself like he needed to know he could be on top of any situation. But this seemed to take all that up a notch. Mac went over to the cabinets on the far side of the room and rifled through them for gauze, tape, and alcohol swabs. "Think of it as me saving the staff some work."

"Mac, you don't need—"

Mac spun, blinking in a way that told Jack it had made him dizzy, but he just leaned his back against the counter like it was an intentional move. "You wanna get outta here or not?"

"Well, yeah, 'course I do, man, but—"

"If we're both dressed and ready to go, they can't really argue. But you know damn well unless we make it clear we're leaving no matter what, they'll just…"

"Just what, Mac?"

Mac shrugged fractionally. "Pull more crap like their 'standing orders.'"

Clearly the kid needed to get out of here, and Jack had a feeling that if it wasn't the two of them together, and it wasn't authorized, Mac was going to wait until Jack was asleep and leave just like he did to go get breakfast. And not only that, but if the staff decided to hedge their bets and put someone on the door, Mac might decide that he didn't care if he was afraid of heights and just go out the damned window.

So, what he said instead of literally anything he was thinking, was, "Alright, man. You make a good point."

Mac flashed a smile that could only be called relieved, and started gathering up the supplies he'd gotten out of the cabinets.

The door opened as he was about to bring things over.

He put the stuff down and positioned himself in front of it so fast, (hands innocently in his pockets and ankles crossed like leaning against the cabinet was just a casual occurrence), that Jack almost laughed. Although he had to admit, Mac's "innocent" face had gotten a lot better since they met.

DXS's head nurse, who at about five foot four had a reputation for being scarier than the largest field agent in the company when she was irritated, breezed into the room.

She stopped by the foot of what was supposed to be Mac's bed, and looked around the room. When she saw that the bed had been stripped, and its intended occupant was dressed, nowhere near it, and across the room from a bunch of food from the neighborhood cafe, her eyes narrowed. But she said, quite pleasantly. "Good morning, guys."

"Morning," they said almost in unison, neither of them exactly looking at her.

"Sorry no one brought you your breakfast. Apparently everyone is afraid to come in here." She waited like she was expecting one of them to say something.

Jack managed a look of total surprise, but it was hard because he almost laughed again at the way Mac shifted and was now kind of looking at the ceiling.

"Huh," was all Jack said.

Mac said nothing at all, but gave the impression that he was fascinated with the rest of the room.

Her expression was unreadable but her tone stayed pleasant. "I just got in so I could do some paperwork before I cover the mid shift and figured I'd better come make sure you weren't starving to death."

She paused again.

This time neither Mac, nor Jack, looked her way.

"But I see that's somehow been taken care of. Like magic." Something that might have been a flicker of a smile almost quirked her lips, but it was so spare it might as well not have been there. "So which one of you went to Hogwarts?"

When they still didn't say anything, she looked at Mac, her expression demanding eye contact. When he gave it to her, Jack noticed a slight smirk reminiscent of when he'd first met the kid, and a tilt to his chin that couldn't quite be called haughty or defiant, but had shades of both.

"I'm guessing from your current attire and the fact that Andrew is ready to quit after dealing with you that it's you."

Mac thought about denying it. Just to see if he could get away with it. Then he just shrugged, ignoring the way it hurt his chest and ribs. He was leaving, and if he could make that clear to Sully (who had honestly seemed pretty reasonable last night), they could be home before lunch. "We were hungry. And we're planning on getting out of here anyway. Since no one brought us anything, I figured I'd save us a stop on our way home."

Her eyes closed for a split second. "You do remember that you both got blown up and between the two of you needed literally a thousand stitches, and one of you needed surgery?"

Max shrugged again. "I was EOD and Jack was my Overwatch." He grinned. "Getting a little blowed up has been a regular day for us for a long time now."

Jack jumped in then, too. Mostly because he could see she was getting pissed and trying to hide it and he figured if someone was going to get written up and bring down the wrath of the D.O., it would be better if it was spread between them. "Just a day that ends in 'y' there, Ms. Sullivan."

She took a long slow breath. "Dr. Foster is on duty this morning and he's absolutely refusing to come anywhere near you, Agent Dalton. And he blames both of you for his misery."

Mac snickered. He couldn't help it. It just came out.

"What's so funny, MacGyver?"

He looked away briefly, trying not to smile, but it was too late. The expression was stuck. "If Foster not wanting to be in the same room with either of us is the logical result of last night…" He suppressed another laugh. "I might be kind of glad we got blown up."

At that, Jack met Mac's eye and started laughing a little bit, too. "Wouldn't be the first time I sent some punk to the dentist, but it might be the best one, I'll give ya that, kid."

She rolled her eyes. "You two more than live up to your reputations, you know."

One of Mac's eyebrows went up. Jack recognized the expression. He was pretty sure it meant that someone who thought they were in charge was going to get an earful.

Then Mac opened his mouth and confirmed it.

"Do we really? Because I feel like if everybody here is so intense about it, maybe you should just be better prepared. Or better yet, maybe you should be reasonable instead of throwing standard protocol at situations that are anything but standard."

Her mouth dropped open, just a little. "Listen, Mac," she began in a placating tone. "Thornton and Oversight have—"

"No medical training that I'm aware of," Mac interrupted. His feet uncrossed and planted more squarely on the ground, and his hands came out of his pockets. His shoulders squared and no one, not even Jack who knew him better than just about anyone, maybe even better than Bozer, would have known he was injured. "And if your Attending on duty doesn't want to take another trip to the dentist, you can help him out and have him sign the forms and get us out of here yourself."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Not an idea. A plan." He gestured at the stripped bed, his clothes, and the door. "One I've already taken steps to execute."

"I can see that. But you're going to have to wait until shift change for another doctor, because…"

Mac gave what could have been interpreted as a perfectly friendly smile. But Jack didn't interpret it that way.

"Look, Sully, I know how this game is played. And I understand if Thornton and her boss, … bosses … whatever Oversight is, are breathing down your neck about anything. Thornton is kind of intense and Oversight, which I guess could be anything from one person to the whole DOD, seems like kind of a control freak. But we're not waiting all day. We want out of here."

"Dalton hasn't really said a word." She looked at Jack, her eyes a combination of pleading and ordering him to be the voice of reason.

Jack hesitated for a second and the way Mac's eyes flicked to his, uncertain if he was going to be backed up or not, and then to the door in a way that said if they didn't get out of here soon, he'd probably do something that would get him fired, made Jack's mind up really quick. "He's been taking care of the talkin' for both of us just fine. Besides, I'm his Overwatch. Where he goes, I go."

"Of course you'd say that. Because you know neither one of you should be unsupervised! And I don't want to get in trouble because DXS's newest international man of mystery is a reckless kid!"

Mac's eyes flashed, but he just made a dismissive face. "You're not even that much older than me."

She widened her eyes like she couldn't believe he was still giving her a hard time. "At least I'm old enough to have a fully developed prefrontal cortex!"

"Right now, Sully, since you're using it to be more worried about getting in trouble than to just do your job, I think that might be overrated." He swallowed visible. That was really rude. But I'm not wrong. He did force his face to be apologetic for a moment. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." This time he offered a more genuine smile. "I just need to get some space, okay?"

She frowned at him for a long minute. She was very aware of everything that had happened in the last eight months or so, even before she came on here. And she had absolutely no doubt that he hadn't intended to look or sound vulnerable a second ago. But he did. She huffed a frustrated sigh and threw up her hands. "Fine! I'll figure it out."

Mac grinned and handed her the supplies he'd already gathered to take out Jack's IV. "Thanks. We really appreciate it."

She took it, but huffed, "Unbelievable." She widened her eyes at him for emphasis. "I swear if I get fired I hope they find someone with a lot less patience, who can't find a decent vein to save their life."