Thank you to all the reviewers, favorites, and follows. Thank you to my wonderful beta who makes me consider a refresher course in English and punctuation. English isn't even her first language y'all, she's amazing! Any remaining mistakes are mine.

Mac came to, with a stiff and sore neck. He rolled his head gently to one side with a wince. He had no idea how long he had been out, but it felt like several hours.

"Jack… Jack, can you hear me, big guy?" Mac asked. Worry for his partner increased with every unresponsive second. "Jack, please wake up." Mac pled.

Mac threw his body weight to the side closest to his partner. The chair scraped on the concrete as it inched closer to his friend. Mac's broken rib protested with every inch he gained. Finally he was close enough to touch Jack's hand.

He felt the reassuring, strong, and steady thrum of his friend's pulse. Furrowing his brow when he also felt heat radiating from the older man. Jack always ran pretty warm, but not like this. He felt unnaturally hot in the cool cement room. "Shit" Mac said under his breath. His skin was showing an unhealthy pallor in contrast to his usual tanned complexion. Jack had an infection brewing. 'That's not good.' Mac thought to himself.

The younger agent looked around desperately trying to see anything that could help them escape.

Mac laid eyes on the bloody knife on the table in front of them. He looked down at his metal chair and sucked in a breath anticipating the pain to come. He threw his chest forward and then his hips. The metal chair legs scraped forward a couple inches. He bit back a groan the movement caused his broken rib. He would just have to suck it up because this was the first glimmer of a chance the agents have had in the hours? days? they've been held captive. Sweat began to bead on his brow with the exertion. A few minutes later, he looked back towards Jack to gauge his progress. Damn! He had only made a couple feet, he still had five to go.

Throwing his body weight forward and up, he inched closer to his goal. Leaning forward to replicate the move, he heard a moan behind him. Mac jerked his head towards his partner, "Mmc," Jack moaned.

"Jack…," relief flooded his tone. "Hey big guy, ya with me?" Jack replied with another pained moan.

The last few moments before Alex had turned out the lights replayed in Jack's mind just before he returned to consciousness: Mac taking a beating while Jack was powerless to do anything about it, the kid had taken a vicious hit to the face and spit out blood.

"M-Mac," With awareness came the pain, he hurt everywhere. Raising his head hurt, but he had to look the kid over. He pried his eyes open, to search for Mac. He found his friend in front of him, relieved to see him mostly intact. "Hey, brother. What did I miss?" He asked, his brow furrowed in pain and confusion.

"Not much really. If I can reach the knife from the table over there, I might be able to cut these restraints." Mac said, resuming his slow trek across the room. "How are you feeling by the way?"

"Peachy." Jack replied. Mac stopped to look back at his partner. His expression conveyed just how Mac felt about his answer. "I'll be better when we both get out of here." Jack conceded. Accepting his partner's answer as the best he was going to get under the circumstances, Mac faced forward and got back to work.

"About the deal you made earlier, bud, you do know that I'd never leave you behind, right? Never." If Mac felt like he could make such a deal then Jack felt like he had failed to let the kid know just how important Mac was to him and he couldn't let him go one more second not knowing.

Mac stopped, hanging his head briefly before turning it to look at his friend again.

His partner's piercing brown eyes gripped his attention and refused to let go. "I know I always say that protecting you is my job, but you became a lot more than "just a job" years ago. You're my family and I love ya, kid. I'd never forgive myself if anyth…" his voice broke on the last word, unable to finish. His words became thick and his piercing eyes shone with emotion. "I can't lose you Mac." one tear escaped and streaked down his face.

Mac swallowed the lump in his throat. Not for the first time, he found himself wishing that he could put words to his feelings as easily as Jack seemed to. Mac's eyes were drawn to the dried blood that covered Jack's left side, from shoulder to waist. He looked at the other knife wound and immediately squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head back around. He felt directly responsible for those knife wounds. The one by Jack's hip looked awful. The blood stained, the already dark jeans darker, halfway down his thigh.

Jack saw what had grabbed Mac's attention and the moment the guilt crashed into the kid. "Hey, don't you go thinkin' that any of this is your fault. You hearin' me, Hoss?"

"It is my fault." Mac argued, he lowered his head and shook it from side to side.

"That's bullshit Mac! Don't you dare blame any of this on yourself! None of this is on you! If you gotta put the blame on someone, blame me. If I hadn't let my guard down after the mission we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Jack, none of this is your fault either. Okay?" Jack nodded, but wasn't convinced.

"Hey, how long do you think we've been here?" Jack asked, changing the subject.

Resuming his trip across the room Mac answered, "Maybe two days." 'The worst two days ever,' Mac thought to himself.

They had been through some tough scrapes before, but nothing quite like this. "I think this mission officially passes Cairo as the suckiest." Jack stated. Mac nodded his head in agreement.

Mac looked back at his partner at the sound of his friend's low chuckle, "What are you laughing about?" he asked, perplexed.

They had been in the city of Batman, Turkey, when they had gotten ambushed. The city had been named after a nearby river, not the superhero.

"I was just thinking if now, instead of Cairo, we would say, 'We don't talk about Batman'." Jack said, flashing his trademark smile. Mac couldn't help but grin back at his partner's infectious smile. Only Jack could pull him out of his own head in a situation like this.

Mac was nearly there, just a couple more feet to go. Once at the table he should be able to reach the knife, then cut themselves loose. He could see the knife, covered in Jack's dried blood.

Hearing distant voices, he shot a panicked look towards his partner. No no no no! He scooted as fast as he could to try to get back to his place next to Jack.

His heart raced, if Sinclair discovered this flaw they would be screwed.

As the footsteps got louder, Mac realized he wasn't going to make it back to where they left him. Just then the door creaked open.