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Something was wrong. Jack could tell something was wrong-- feel it in his bones. Even just pulling into the parking lot of the Phoenix Foundation, Jack was already regretting not picking Mac up for work that morning. Mac had said he wanted to go in a few hours early to get caught up on some lab stuff, insisted that Jack didn’t need to get up early just for him since it would bore Jack anyway. Now Jack was wishing he had ignored the blond, got up early anyway, and drove him into work despite the protests. Maybe then he wouldn’t have such an intense feeling of wrongness gnawing at the pit of his stomach.
Jack could tell himself it felt wrong because he was used to Mac’s presence on the drive to work in the mornings, but that wasn’t it. His gut was saying something bad had happened or was about to happen, and Jack Dalton always listened to his gut. The fact that Mac hadn’t answered his phone just added to the worry.
Entering the Phoenix building, Jack went straight to the lab to look for his partner. There were a few of the regular lab techs there, but no sign of Mac.
“Hey,” Jack said, getting the attention of one of the lab techs-- Janey? Jamie? Jack couldn’t really remember her name, but she had been there long enough that Jack recognized her from the times he would hover around any one of his teammates while they worked there. It was far past the point where asking her name would be awkward, and it wasn’t like they went around wearing name tags or anything.
“Agent Dalton,” she greeted, looking surprised to see him. “What are you doing here?” She asked with a smile.
“You know where Mac went? He said he was comin’ in early to work on some stuff here, but I don’t see him.”
The woman shook her head-- Jamie, Jack’s mind settled on. “Sorry, no,” she said, furrowing her eyebrows, “I only got in a little while ago, but I actually haven’t seen him at all this morning. Have you checked with Director Webber? She may have needed him for something.”
“Yeah, I’ll go check with her,” Jack said, though he seriously doubted Matty would call for Mac and not tell him, borderline-codependent packaged deal and all that. “Thanks, Jamie,” he said the name with only a slight bit of hesitation.
“Sure thing,” she replied, giving Jack a knowing smile. Now he wasn’t so sure anymore that Jamie was the right name, but she didn’t correct him and he didn’t have the time to focus on it any longer. He would have to ask Mac about it when he found him.
Jack went to the war room, probably with a little more intensity than he needed to. One poor analyst had barely looked up from his tablet in time before he was shifting quickly out of the way as Jack stalked down the hall. Even before he made it into the war room, he could see through the glass that Mac was not in there. It was just Matty, dumping an extra box of paperclips into the bowl at the center of the table that had begun to get low.
“Matty,” Jack was already speaking before he had the door all the way open.
“Jack,” she returned. “You’re a little early. Are you that excited to see me or are you just looking for a raise?”
“Where’s Mac?” He asked, skipping over their usual banter. “He said he was coming in early but I can’t find him.”
“Did you try his cell?” She asked.
Jack nodded. “That was the first thing I did; asked ‘bout him in the lab too, but he hasn’t been there all morning. I’m starting to get worried.”
“Before you start panicking, why don’t you call Boze?” Matty suggested as she tossed the now-empty box of paperclips in the trash. “There’s always a chance he decided not to come in early.”
“You think he’s sick?” Jack said, already pulling out his phone and dialing Bozer’s number.
“No,” Matty said. “I think maybe he decided to be normal for once and not come in at four in the goddamned morning just because he was excited about something in the lab.”
“Now that ain’t like him and you know it,” Jack said as the phone rang.
Matty hummed, pulling out her phone. “Riley’s working with some of the computer analysts setting up a new program she coded for them. I’ll shoot her a message too, see if she or any of them have seen blondie around.”
Jack nodded a thanks as Bozer picked up the phone.
“Hey, Jack. Not that I don’t love to hear from you, but I’m kinda driving right now, man,” Bozer’s voice came through. His voice sounded far away-- Bozer was a big stickler on the ‘two hands while driving’ rule, so Jack could only assume his phone was tucked into the cupholder and on speakerphone.
“Is Mac with you?” Jack asked.
“Huh? No,” Bozer gave a little bit of a laugh. “He got a ride from you this morning, didn’t he?” Jack’s stomach dropped. “Jack? Didn’t he?” Matty’s phone dinged, one look at the text and Matty shook her head at Jack. Riley hadn’t seen him either.
“No, Boze,” Jack said thickly. “Nobody’s seen him all day.”
“What?! What do you mean nobody’s seen him? Hang on-- I’m pulling into the parking lot now, I’ll be in there just a sec.”
The line went dead in Jack’s hand. It was one thing to know something was wrong based on a gut feeling, but knowing for sure something was wrong? Well, it would be one of the few times Jack was not pleased about being right.
“I’ve already told Riley to get in here,” Maty spoke up, “I’ll have her track Mac’s phone and then we can go from there.” Jack nodded mutely. “Jack?” Matty said. “Why don’t you sit down, Jack.”
Jack knew it wasn’t a suggestion, despite the soft tone Matty’s voice had taken. So Jack complied, taking a seat on the couch and running a hand through his fauxhawk.
“I shoulda picked him up this morning,” he said, “I felt all kindsa wrong about not, even though he’s gotten himself here plenty of times before. I knew somethin’ bad was gonna happen today, and I just let it. I should've drove him,” Jack lamented, not caring how his Texan twang shone through more heavily the way it did sometimes when he was worked up or overtired.
“Take a breath, Dalton,” Matty said. “We don’t even know for sure that he’s missing yet. All we know is that he’s not here, and Bozer left home without seeing him. But Bozer wasn’t expecting to see him home, so our boy could very well still be at his house-- in his room, in the bathroom... We won’t know anything for sure until Riley can track his phone.”
Before Jack could answer, the door opened quickly. “What the hell is going on?” Bozer asked as he entered. “You can’t just call me while I’m driving and tell me Mac is missing. I could’ve had a heart attack or something. Please tell me you found him hiding somewhere in the building messing with something he knows he shouldn’t be.”
Neither wanted to be the one to tell him no. “Riley should be here in a second to track his phone,” Matty said instead.
“Well that’s not going to do any good,” Bozer said, reaching into his pocket. “I’ve got his phone right here.”
“The hell you have his phone for?” Jack asked. “Didn’t you see me callin’ it?”
“I was driving Jack, not checking Mac’s phone,” Bozer said. “And I found it plugged in on the kitchen counter this morning, so I grabbed it on my way out. I thought he just forgot it this morning when you picked him up.”
“I didn’t pick him up,” Jack said.
“Yeah, well I figured that much out by now,” Bozer answered. “He wasn’t at the house anymore by the time I woke up. But his jeep is still parked in the driveway, so I figured you stopped by and grabbed him early even though he told you not to. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Frustratedly, Jack rubbed his hands over his face. “Yeah. But I didn’t this time,” he said. “I shoulda, but I didn’t.”
Neither Matty nor Bozer had a chance to tell Jack that it wasn’t his fault-- that there was no way he could have possibly known this would happen-- because the door to the war room was opened once again as Riley let herself in.
“Hey, sorry that took so long. You said you needed me?” Riley said, directing the statement at Matty.
“I want you to pull up a sat view of Mac and Bozer's house,” Matty said. Riley didn’t waste any time as she sat herself down next to Jack and opened up her laptop, knowing the tone in Matty’s voice meant now. She was smart enough to put two and two together with the text asking if she’d seen Mac and now the sudden need for a sat view of his house. “Boze,” Matty went on, “when was the last time you saw Mac?”
“Before I went to sleep last night-- he stayed up for a while later I think-- but it was around ten, maybe ten-thirty that I said good night to him.”
“Riley,” Matty said, “I need you to make note of any activity in the area from the past eight to eight and a half hours.”
“You got it, boss,” Riley answered, typing away at her keyboard.
“I’ll betcha anything it was Murdoc,” Jack said with a growl, not missing the way Bozer tensed at the name. “Boze, did you notice anything odd about the house? Any sign of struggle or misplaced items-- anything at all that didn’t seem right?”
Bozer thought for a moment, but shook his head. “No, just that Mac left his phone on the counter, and even that isn’t too out of the ordinary. That stupid George Washinton mask wasn’t out or anything. It’s still boxed up with the Halloween decorations... though it really should be in the trash,” he answered.
“Did anything seem off about him when you talked to him last?” Jack asked.
“Off how?”
“I don’t know, like, weird-- was he actin’ weird?” Jack said, trying to put it into words. “More restless, kinda paranoid? He gets a little jumpy when he suspects he’s being tailed.”
“Not that I noticed,” Bozer said, “I mean, he was restless, but that’s because he was excited to work in the lab today, right? He didn’t seem uneasy or anything.”
“Hey guys,” Riley interrupted.
“You found something?” Matty asked.
“Not yet,” Riley replied, “but I’ve got an incoming video feed from a blocked address here.”
“That’s gotta be Murdoc,” Jack said, voice low.
Matty ignored his comment. “Put it through,” she said.
Riley mirrored her laptop screen to the war room’s and accepted the call. It was too dark and grainy to make out at first, but slowly some of the static cleared and a light was switched on over the other end. The other end’s camera took just another moment to adjust to the sudden light, screen going a brilliant white before finally re-focusing into something more than colors and fuzz.
In the center of the feed’s field of vision, there was a figure slumped in a chair, blond hair hanging limply in front of hazy blue eyes. It was Mac. There was a sign with a bank account number scrawled crudely on it propped up on his lap, his fingers clutching the paper loosely, barely even curling around it. From one hand, an IV snaked up to meet with the bag, but it was clear he had been tied down at the wrists and ankles with rope as well.
“Mac?!” Jack immediately abandoned his seat on the couch and found himself approaching the big screen as if getting closer to it might bring him closer to where Mac was. “Mac, buddy, can you hear me?”
“It’s a one way feed, Jack,” Riley said gently, “he can’t hear or see us.” Jack threw a desperate look her way, but she was speaking again before he could open his mouth. “I’m already working on tracing the IP address.”
Trusting her to do her thing, Jack turned his attention back to the feed. It was just Mac sitting there, pupils blown wide with whatever drug they were pumping into him as he did his best to keep his eyes open and keep a hold of the sign. But after a few moments, there was a noise, someone else was walking into sight-- the frame was aimed low enough that the person’s upper half was kept out of view.
The gun wasn’t out of view, however.
They could only watch from the war room as the person made their way to Mac’s side, pointing the gun at him the whole time. They held out a sheet of paper in front of the blond and pressed the gun to his temple in a silent demand to read whatever was written there.
“We knnn-- we know about your… organi-za-tion,” Mac barely slurred out, over-pronouncing and having trouble focusing on the paper in front of him. “We have your agent.”
Mac’s eyes fluttered and Jack clenched his fist hard, the urge to punch growing as the person nudged Mac with the gun to get him to continue.
“If you want… him to-- to live…” his voice faded out again and there was another nudge from the gun.
“Riley?” Jack asked.
“Still working on it,” she answered shortly, not looking up from her laptop.
“Ten mill’n…” A particularly harsh nudge from the gun had Jack cursing, but it seemed to do the trick in helping Mac focus a little better. The person tapped at the paper with the gun, seemingly helping Mac find his place again, then settled it back against the side of his head. “You’ll send ten muh-- million dollars to this b’nk account number within the-- the hour.”
The person pulled away the paper, folded it up neatly, and pushed it into their pocket. They pressed the gun hard into Mac’s temple, causing his head to loll. The non-verbal threat was clear.
“Dammit,” Riley hissed quietly at her laptop; it didn’t exactly incite confidence, especially as the person on the other end was walking out of frame, presumably to go and stop the feed. “I just got shut out and the loophole in their code I was using was modified, but I think I’ve got a location,” she said just as the feed went dead.
“How sure are you about that location?” Matty asked.
“I don’t know,” she answered with a frustrated huff. “As sure as I’m going to be able to get without access to the feed anymore. But it’s too far to drive and get there in time.”
“Take the jet,” Matty said. “It’ll get you guys there a lot faster.” She was already whipping out her phone again, sending the order to have the jet ready the second the three got on.
“No TAC team?” Jack asked.
“You’re looking at your TAC team,” Matty responded. “You know the teams don’t get here for another half hour. That’s not time you have to spare, so I suggest you three get geared up and get your asses on that jet. And maybe next time wait until everyone’s showed up to work for the day before having an emergency?” She added the last part with a light tease.
“You can tell Mac that once we get him back,” Jack said in full confidence.
---
The air was tense.
Quiet.
It was never quiet on flights; the sound of bored chatter and the hum of a movie Riley downloaded to watch on her laptop as they flew usually filled the cabin. Pen-clicking, fingers tapping on a keyboard, and restless foot tapping. It was all background noise that would never have been noticed except in its absence. Or, when the team was too tired out from the mission they’d be getting back from, varied snores took up the silence, that’s what the noise-canceling headphones were for, after all. Admittedly, Riley didn’t use them as much as she thought she would need to. Just as the others had, she had gotten used to-- even enjoyed the noise filling the dead space in the cabin. It was familiar, reassuring.
But now it was merely a dreadful sort of quiet.
And the quiet gave way to louder thoughts. The Kevlar vests seemed heavier and more uncomfortable. Almost as uncomfortable as the thigh holsters they each had, each with its own gun.
That was something Jack insisted on, the guns. Neither Riley or Bozer particularly enjoyed using a gun. But they could shoot all right, and if it would be the difference between Mac coming home safe and… well, then neither one of them could afford to be adverse to the weapon right now.
They knew Jack wouldn’t hesitate to kill for any one of them; it wasn’t even a question in his mind. There was no life that came above that of his kids. Not even his own. He would do whatever was necessary to ensure their safety, and plenty of things extra in that regard, no matter what. The stony silence coming from Jack was unnerving, almost as if instead of just the absence of noise, he was absorbing all the sound like a black hole. A loud, worried Jack was not uncommon to see. But the deadly quiet-- the clear tunnel-vision on his motive? It was a startling contrast.
It was only ten minutes into the twenty-minute flight, and yet it felt as though it had been hours. When they touched down they would have a short drive from the closest private airport to the location that Mac was being held. It seemed they had gotten lucky with the coordinates. The kidnappers could only take Mac so far overnight, so the trio wouldn’t have a problem making it there within the hour. But until then, they could only wait.
“Ri,” Bozer spoke up, startling Riley, the sudden noise made her practically jump out of the kevlar vest. She could see Jack flick his eyes toward the two for a moment, but then he looked back out the jet window as if he could glare a hole through it. “Sorry,” Bozer mumbled when she startled.
“It’s fine,” she said with a small laugh, mostly to relieve the tension. In all honesty, she was glad to have something to distract from the quiet. “What’s up?”
“You think we’re going to get him back okay, right?”
“‘Course we are,” Jack said first. Firmly, too.
Riley smiled, even worrying about Mac he would try to comfort Bozer and herself. “Yeah, Boze,” she agreed. “We’re going to get him in time, and you know him, he’s tough. Maybe he’ll already have gotten himself out by the time we get there,” she said. She didn't quite believe that last part, but it was good to stay optimistic.
“Yeah,” Bozer hummed, imagining Mac, even drugged out of his mind, outsmarting his captors. It certainly wouldn’t be the craziest thing he’d done. “I can’t believe that they just took him. Right from our house. And I was home, too,” he said. “Can’t help but feel like I should have done something, but I never… I didn’t even hear them come in, or leave with him.”
“Bozer,” Riley said, “don’t blame yourself for this, man. It’s not your fault that these guys kidnapped him.”
Bozer nodded a little. “I know that,” he said, “but still. Now that I’m a trained agent, shouldn’t I have woken up to intruders in our house?”
“Well, that part doesn’t come right away,” Riley said. “It comes with a little experience, I guess.” Riley couldn’t ever remember a time she hadn’t slept lightly-- between Elwood when she was younger, then the constant fear of being caught when she was deeply involved with her hacking persona Artemis37, being an agent for the Phoenix Foundation was just the latest reason she needed to always keep an ear out, even in sleep. And Jack had been the same way for as long as she knew him, always ready to be up and alert at the drop of a pin, Mac too. “You’ll learn the habit eventually, don’t worry.”
“You really think so?” Bozer asked. “If something happens to Mac all because I didn’t hear those people in our house--”
“Hey, hey,” Riley interrupted. “You can’t think like that. You gotta remember, these guys caught Mac off guard, too. They never would’ve been able to take him if he wasn’t blindsided by them, too. It’s not just you. They must have really known what they were doing if they were able to sneak in on both of you like that, right?”
Something shifted on Bozer’s face as a more thoughtful look masked the guilty one. “Never thought of it like that,” he said. “But somehow I still feel guilty about it.”
“I get that,” Riley said, placing a comforting hand on Bozer’s, “just don’t be too hard on yourself about it, okay? Nobody here blames you, and I’m sure Mac doesn’t either.” She squeezed his hand, and he gently returned the gesture. “It’s okay. None of us knew.”
“It won’t be okay until we find Mac,” Bozer said. Riley couldn’t counter that. Before she could even try-- which, really, what kind of argument could she even present to that-- the three could feel the jet begin to descend.
---
The car was there waiting for them the moment they stepped off the jet, and thanks to Jack’s driving (and plenty of ignored speed limit signs), it wasn’t a long trip to the location’s coordinates. The five minute car ride left them with thirty-five minutes still on their hour-long timeline.
“All right, listen up,” Jack spoke as he shifted the car into park in front of the building where Mac was being held. It wasn’t a large building by any means, only about as big as one of the safe houses Phoenix would set up. “We don’t know exactly what to expect goin’ in there. So I want the both of you to stick close, you got that? I don’t want either one of you out of my sight, not for a second.”
Bozer and Riley both nodded, giving an affirmative.
“Good. Matty how’s it looking?” Jack asked, addressing her over the comms.
“You guys are good to go, perimeter looks clear,” she answered. Matty was looking at the sat view of the location from the war room; she wasn’t able to up and leave the Phoenix building, but still needed to be updated and involved (and that need was not just because she was their boss). “Go get our boy.”
“Copy that, boss lady,” Jack said as he and the other two got out of the car and approached the building carefully. “Y’all stay behind me, now,” Jack instructed quietly, taking out his gun. Bozer followed Jack’s lead, feeling safer with it out and in hand, but Riley left hers holstered.
In one swift movement, Jack threw the door open, gun aimed high and shouting for no one to move. Though, that wouldn’t be a problem, there was no one in sight. So much for getting the drop on them.
“What the hell?” Jack relaxed his shoulders the slightest bit and made his way further into the building with Bozer and Riley trailing behind. The building only had three rooms-- three empty rooms. No upstairs, and no obvious entrance to a lower level. The longer they looked, the surer they were that no one was there; it looked as though no one had been there at all recently, in fact. There was no sign of anything amiss, no remnants of a hostage that had been moved. Nothing.
“Talk to me, Jack,” Matty said.
“He isn’t here,” Jack answered in what was just short of a yell. “Damn it! You’re sure this is the right location?” He asked.
“You’re right on top of the coordinates that Riley found,” Matty said. Riley was already pulling out her rig and settling herself into the abandoned desk in the main room with a curse.
“Come on,” Jack said, doing a poor job of keeping calm if the angry pacing was any indication. “You’re sayin’ that the location Ri got could be wrong?” Jack asked.
“I told you that I got shut out of the feed’s code earlier,” Riley said as she typed, “And that I wasn’t positive on the location.”
“Well then you need to get positive about a different one right now,” Jack snapped, louder than he needed to, louder than he meant, but he continued right on. “We got twenty-five on the clock and nothing to go on.”
“I know that, Jack,” Riley snapped back. “For security, I record everything on my rig from downloads to search history, right down to every keystroke. Even without direct access to the feed from before, maybe there’s something I can find in the screen recording; an error, a line I missed, anything,” she said.
“Hurry,” Jack said.
Jack’s desperation was contagious. And even as Riley split her screen, half of it viewing the screen recording and the other half open to a program where she double-checked all her work, her quick typing didn’t feel fast enough. She screwed up somewhere and didn’t know where, and now Mac was stuck in danger because of it. Because of her. Jack breathing down her back didn’t help.
Riley blinked hard a few times, keeping moisture at bay. She didn’t have the time to panic right now, and she especially couldn’t do so in front of the others, not when they were counting on her.
“Jack,” she heard Bozer say, “come on, man, let’s step outside for a sec.”
Bozer could see the way Riley’s eyes glistened as she typed as quickly as Bozer had ever seen her, and knew that Jack’s worried, frustrated pacing and mumbling was only making it worse. It was distracting, but not in the way that helped any of them.
“What? No, that’s not gonna happen,” Jack said. “I gotta be here, I need to know as soon as she’s got it right.”
Bozer persisted. “Come sit in the car with me. Start it up so we can get going sooner. She needs to be able to focus.”
Jack took another glance at Riley, weighing the options in his mind. He clenched and unclenched his fists, his worry over Mac clouding most of the rational thoughts in his brain. Logically, he knew that he wasn’t making it easier on her by losing his patience or rushing her. He knew that. But every time he approached the idea in his head to step back, to stop for even one second, the images of a gun pressed into blond locks and drug-glazed baby blues were right back at the forefront.
“Riley,” Jack said instead, ignoring Bozer, “are you close yet?”
“I just started Jack, you’re gonna have to wait a second,” she replied shortly, swiping a hand over her eyes.
Bozer interjected again. “Jack, seriously, we need to let Ri work.”
“She can work just fine with me here!” Came Jack’s animated reply. His hands flew out when he said it too, to emphasize his words. It was as if there was so much emotion built up inside him that some of it had started to spill out in increasingly more frantic pacing and wild hand gestures that accompanied his words.
“Jack,” Matty spoke up, tone firm and commanding. “Listen to Bozer. Step out. You don’t need to be there right now, go get the car started,” she ordered, her voice not leaving any room for argument. “And Riley?”
“Yeah?” She croaked, not trusting her voice to say much else.
“You’ve got this.” Her voice was much softer on the simple, trusting statement, and it wasn’t lost on Riley as Bozer ushered Jack out.
“Thanks,” she said quietly. Riley took a deep breath, breaking for just a moment to flex her fingers and pluck her comm out of her ear, and got back to work. A few more hard blinks and she could feel herself more in control of the moisture there; her panic was still there-- it would be until Mac was safe, but she no longer felt as though she were on the verge of tears that could fall at one misplaced word. She scoured through the work she’d done and hadn’t found anything out of place, not yet.
She could hear Bozer and Jack talking, Jack loud’s voice carried until the two had gotten themselves out of the building. Riley was glad she pulled the comm out, she really didn’t need to hear what he had to say right now.
“We shoulda had him back by now.” Jack was fuming as he and Bozer went to the car. He pulled the door of the driver’s side open with more force than necessary, got in, and closed it just as hard, continuing on his verbal tirade without even checking whether or not Bozer had gotten into the car with him. He did, but Jack wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t. “The bad guys should be up to the eyeballs in Jack Dalton’s righteous fury right now, but ‘stead we’re camping out in the damn car. Just sittin’ here while Mac’s in danger. Boy had a gun to his head and there’s nothing we can do about it ‘til we know where he’s being kept.”
Jack smacked the side of the steering wheel hard with a curse, took a deep breath, and then smacked it again when that didn’t seem to help calm his nerves.
“What the hell is taking so long?” Jack asked, but not to anyone in particular. Jack drummed his fingers on the side of the steering wheel, not too keen on hitting it anymore-- if he was going to bruise his hand on anything today, it was going to be some kidnappers’ faces.
“I can’t believe I gotta sit here and do nothing while we have no earthly idea where to go from here unless Riley can pull some computer magic out her ass. And that’s not even takin’ into consideration the time. We’ve only got--” he checked his phone, “just over twenty minutes left now.”
Jack took another deep breath, slower this time, and started the car. He was spent, and merely rested his elbows on the steering wheel and pressed his face into his hands with a sigh. “I need him to be okay,” he said, voice muffled by his hands. It was quiet for a few moments, Bozer and Matty waiting to see if Jack would start back up again.
“We all do,” Bozer said finally.
“And, if you’re done with your temper tantrum now,” Matty said, “I need you to try a little harder to focus and keep a cool head. If this were an ordinary op, I would have pulled you by now for being emotionally compromised.”
“This ain’t an ordinary op,” Jack groused, face still in his hands.
“I know, that’s the only reason you’re not on the first commercial flight home right now. You can’t possibly expect to get anything accomplished when you’re too blinded by worry to focus. I can’t have you storming around and shouting at your team just because something went wrong. Something always goes wrong, and I need to know I can trust you to be an adult about that.”
Jack pulled his head away from his hands and gripped the steering wheel tight. “You seriously saying that you expect me to be calm right now?”
“Calm enough not to yell at Riley or snap at Bozer when they just want the same thing you do, yes I do expect that from you. You’re not the only one worried about Mac. We all are. Have a little faith in your team and be patient, you blowing up at everyone isn’t going to help Mac.”
“I know that,” Jack said. “I just get so worried about him--” Jack turned to Bozer, “about all you kids, really,” he amended before shifting his focus back out the windshield. “But right now he’s the one in danger, and I just feel like I’m losin’ my mind whenever one of you is hurt or in danger. If I know Mac, and I do, he’s probably already earned himself a helluva beating for trying to escape. Kid’s gotta be enduring God knows what kinda torture because I’m not there with him. They had him so drugged up I’m sure to keep him from getting away, but that ain’t gonna deter him for long. He wouldn’t stop unless they broke his damn legs and even then it’s like fifty-fifty.”
“Yeah, our boy’s tough like that,” Bozer agreed. “And I get it, Jack, you’ve got a heart the size of Texas and you’re not afraid to show it. You’d take down anything standing between you and Mac. Just maybe reign it in a little when that thing happens to be Riley doing her best?”
Jack nodded to himself. “I gotta apologize to her.”
Jack’s mind went to Riley’s first solo mission. He remembered just how close he had been to punching Mac in the face that night; he’d pushed the blond, even reeled his clenched fist back as if he was going to hit him. He would never do it, and Jack thinks part of him always knew that-- Mac definitely believed Jack wouldn’t, either that or he just wasn’t scared to get hit by his partner to protect Riley. But it had come so close. And with the way things were going on this rescue mission, Jack didn’t want to get to a point where he would do or say something he’d regret.
“And thanks,” Jack added. “Pulling me out here for Ri’s sake, especially when I’m givin’ a whole new meaning to the word jack-ass. I appreciate it.”
As if summoned by the conversation, Riley was on her way out of the building, putting the comm back in her ear as she walked to the car. If either Jack or Bozer noticed the tracks of smeared makeup that ran down her cheeks, neither one of them said a word about it.
She opened the door and slid into the backseat. “I’ve got the location now. We’re way off from where we need to be, I’ll save you the long and short of what went wrong and just tell you: I screwed up. It’ll take forty-five minutes to get there even with the jet, and it’s my fault.”
“Honey,” Jack started.
“We don’t have the time to argue about this, Jack. I got it wrong, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we need to get back to that jet now. If there’s even a chance of making it to Mac, we can’t waste time standing around and shifting blame that’s mine to take. We need to go.”
“Then let’s go,” he replied. They barely had twenty minutes left of the allotted hour, apologies and a talking to about how this wasn’t anybody’s fault could wait. Jack tore down the road, speeding the whole way back to the private airport.
---
The jet was back up in the air in record time, but they all knew they would never make it there before the hour was up. Anxiously watching the clock as the minutes ticked down seemed to be all that any one of them could do.
There were less than ten minutes until the hour was up and far too many minutes of a flight left.
The three merely watched Riley’s computer screen where she had a timer pulled up, counting down every second until they were out of time. It wasn’t productive by any means. And they weren’t having the conversations they knew they should probably have been. It was just silent as the seconds passed by without a care in the world. It wasn’t as if they knew what they were counting down to, but that didn’t make Jack any less pissed off at the moving numbers.
It was at five minutes left that a video call request came in. Riley accepted it immediately and mirrored her screen back to the war room for Matty. Riley didn’t even wait for the grainy image to clear before she was digging around in the feed’s code.
Mac was slumped in the chair from before, but there was evidence that he hadn’t just sat there the whole time. The image quality still wasn’t great, but Jack could clearly make out a fresh trickle of red trailing down the side of Mac’s face from a point at his hairline. There was some blood on his hand, too, and the IV line had been moved from the back of that hand to the crook of his elbow. The bag must have been changed out as well because it looked rather full for an hour having passed. Mac still held the sign with the bank account number and was very clearly still heavily drugged.
The person was there at his side with the gun and a paper, holding the sheet out in front of Mac for him to read. Mac stared at it blankly for a few moments, squinting his eyes and blinking slowly as if trying to get the thing to focus in front of him.
“Time’s up,” he said finally, the two words slurring together into one. “This’s last chance… to-- to...” Mac’s head lolled forwards, and the person frustratedly tucked their gun away in favor of tilting Mac’s chin up. “B’fore we shoot h’mm…” The last sound (which was supposed to be a word) trailed off into a displeased hum as Mac’s eyes fell shut.
“Matty,” Jack said as the person let Mac’s head drop. They pocketed the paper, pulled the gun out again, and pressed it flush with Mac’s temple. Even though Mac’s words were disjointed and clumsy, the message was clear: they were going to shoot him if the ransom wasn’t paid now.
“Do it,” came Matty’s voice, clipped with worry seeping through clearly. “Riley, transfer the funds, I’ll take care of it later.”
Riley did as she was told, the transaction happening as fast as she could make it. And it was only a few moments after that that the person pulled the gun away from Mac’s head again. There was a collective sigh of relief.
The person reached back into their pocket, pulling out another piece of paper for Mac, and had him struggle through giving the address written on it. Riley had gotten the location right the second time. Before they knew it, the line went dead.
“I’m gonna kill those bastards,” Jack said decidedly.
“We’ve got a nice dark hole with their names written all over it here back home,” Matty informed. “Riley, can you start on that bank account number? Find the account holder and we’ll go from there so we can figure out who the hell is behind all this. I doubt they’re going to wait around for you so you can ask face-to-face.”
“I’m on it.”
“Good. Keep me posted. Bozer I want you to compile a list of the most notable places you guys have been to in the past few months. Try to remember if there’s any hang-ups from major recent ops that could incite this kind of response. And set aside the recent ops in which you guys got made. Even if it wasn’t right away, I need to know about it. I’ll have all the information cross-checked with the team’s mission reports when you’re finished.”
“Yes ma’am,” Bozer said, pulling out his phone and getting started.
“In the meantime, I’m going to get in touch with Oversight to determine just how compromised Phoenix is. If we can snuff this out at the source, we may be good. But until we know the extent of the leak, we’re going to have to be careful.”
“Matty, what can I do?” Jack asked.
“You’re doing exactly what you need to be,” Matty replied. “Soon as you touch down you’re going to retrieve Mac and bring him home. Until then, I need you to keep a clear head so you can focus on this mission, got that?”
“That your nice way of tellin’ me there’s nothing I can do ‘til we land?”
“Trust your team,” Matty said. Her non-answer was telling. “I’m going to jump off comms while I get in touch with Oversight. Jack, contact me as soon as you’ve got him, or if something comes up.”
With a resigned sigh, Jack settled in his seat. “You got it, Matty.”
The rest of the flight and a short car ride later, the three found themselves at a seemingly abandoned building; it looked as though it may have been some kind of shop at one point-- one of those mom and pop-type places-- but it looked long since emptied of customers and business.
When they got out of the car and Jack entered the building first, it was empty. But Jack had been expecting it that time; there was no way the kidnappers were dumb enough to stay at the location where they’d left Mac. It only took a minute to clear the place, and another minute after that to find the stairs to the basement level.
Jack creaked the door open slowly and descended the steps, Riley and Bozer following a step or two after him. The basement was dark, too dark to see much of anything at first. Pulling the small hand light off of his vest, Jack clicked the thing on to see better. It was only one room-- not very big, and most likely used for storage more than anything else when the shop had still been open for business.
But there. Towards the back of the small room. A figure with a familiar mop of blond hair was slumped over, tied thoroughly to a chair with an IV still connected to a half-filled bag.
“Mac!” Jack rushed to the other side of the room, dropping to his knees to be eye-level with his partner. Jack tucked his gun away, freeing up a hand to cup the side of Mac’s face gently.
Riley and Bozer busied themselves on either side of Jack, working on taking the IV out and untying the binds.
Jack thumbed over Mac’s jawbone, earning a restless tremble of eyelids in response. “Hey, Mac,” Jack spoke soothingly, willing the blond to properly stir. “It’s all right, we’re gonna get you outta here. You’re gonna be okay.” Mac’s eyes rolled under closed lids for a moment. “That’s it, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes for me?”
Mac’s wrists and ankles were finally free and the IV was gone, thanks to Riley and Bozer. Jack was vaguely aware of Riley asking Bozer to call Matty and Bozer stepping a few feet away to do so.
“You really worried me, so if you could do me a favor and go on and open up those baby blues of yours, I’d really appreciate it, brother,” Jack said.
Another unproductive flutter of Mac’s eyelashes and Jack had enough. He rubbed his knuckles against Mac’s sternum which seemed to do the trick. Mac’s eyes fell open as he groaned quietly.
“There he is,” Jack said, taking in the spacey quality of Mac features. The blond was horribly unfocused, iris a small ring around his wide, drugged pupil. His gaze didn’t really focus on anything in particular, and he wasn’t moving. Jack doubted he even noticed he’d been untied. “Hey, kid,” Jack said, trying to help Mac get his bearings. Hazy blue eyes roamed in Jack’s direction as Mac’s head lolled into Jack’s hand. “I’m right here. You’re safe now.”
Mac made a noise in the back of his throat as if he were working his way up to saying something, but whatever it was, the thought was quickly forgotten. Trying to take the weight of his own head again, Mac shifted in the chair a little, only to give up mere moments afterward.
“Don’t worry,” Jack said as Mac’s gaze drifted off again, losing what little clarity there had been there, “I got you.”
There was another hum from Mac and he opened his mouth, finally remembering what he’d wanted to say. “Jack.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” the older agent said. “Jack’s here.” Mac merely slumped forward; it was all he could do to get closer to his partner. “Okay. It’s okay, bud. I got you. Jack’s gotcha.” It wasn’t long after that that Mac’s eyes fell right back closed.
“Jack,” Bozer spoke up, “I don't want to rush you guys, but Matty wants us to get him back to Phoenix med asap.”
Jack nodded, brushing a hand through messy blond. There was a small point of matted bloody hair that Jack couldn’t hope to run his fingers through until it was properly cleaned out.
“Ri, you mind driving us?” Jack asked-- he had his hands full with Mac and didn’t plan on letting go of him any time soon.
“Yeah,” she answered immediately. “Yeah, of course. I mean no,” she corrected. “Yeah, I’ll drive. No, I don’t mind.”
Smiling at the little fumble, Jack thanked her as he started to gently maneuver Mac into a better position to be carried. He was limp and pliable and far too still for Jack’s liking. Sliding his arm under Mac’s legs, Jack lifted the blond up in a bridal cary, tucking his kid’s head safely into the crook of his neck. Mac didn’t protest, didn’t so much as stir as Jack carried him the whole way to the car.
---
Jack was a patient man. He had to be, really-- it was a part of the job. He couldn’t expect to be a good sniper and not be patient, and there was a reason that surveillance missions were his ‘thing’ as Mac had put it to Riley. A reason beyond the chance to hang out, listen to Willie Nelson, and have a relatively calm mission-- the fact of the matter was that he was just plain good at it. At waiting people out.
But that was when he was not emotionally invested in the thing he was meant to wait out. Sitting keeping watch at the side of a hospital bed, however, no matter how patient of a man Jack Dalton was, always dragged on into eternity.
The car and jet ride back to Phoenix had been largely uneventful. Mac woke up once or twice, not having much to say aside from Jack’s name, and fell right back into his drugged sleep afterward. He had been brought into medical and subsequently hooked up to a new IV, this time not meant to harm. The fluid would simply help rehydrate Mac and flush some of the drugs out of his system. There was plenty of superficial bruising, but nothing that wouldn’t heal. And the cut at his hairline, once cleaned out, wasn’t even bad enough to need stitches.
Hours had passed since they brought Mac in, and Jack sat dutifully at the side of Mac’s bed that whole time, slim, still fingers limply resting in Jack’s warm hand. Tox screens reported that the drugs weren’t life-threatening, and it didn’t seem as though he’d been given enough to overdose, just enough to knock him way off his game and make it hard to get his footing back.
Mac slept on.
Riley and Bozer were in and out of the room as well-- more in than out, but they were both a large part of tracking down and pointing a TAC team in the right direction to deal with the kidnappers. As it turned out, the people that had taken Mac were looking to cash in on El Noche’s four million-dollar promise. As soon as they found out that El Noche had nothing, they decided on a different approach of cashing in. Big mistake, all of it.
Jack was proud of Riley and Bozer, and made sure to say so when things had finally died down enough that they could both join Jack in uncomfortable chairs by Mac's bedside and not worry about having to get back up to report new findings on the kidnappers to Matty.
“You kids did good. I’m impressed and really proud of the both of y’all. Boze, you kept yourself calm and collected the whole time even when I was flyin’ off the handle and kept me in check. Thank you, man, I mean it. You’ve really grown into your role here at the Phoenix.”
“Old softie,” Bozer teased bashfully, a grateful smile broken wide across his face.
“Old nothin’,” Jack said with a scrunch of his nose before turning to Riley. “And Ri, honey, you did great today. I’m sorry for yelling at you, I didn’t mean to. I know that don’t make it okay, but I just wanted to make sure you know that I trust you.”
“But,” Riley started, eyebrows furrowing together, “I messed up. Like, bad.” Her gaze settled on the still-unconscious Mac. Jack could see the guilt in her eyes.
“Hey, look at me,” Jack said, waiting until she lifted her head and met his eyes. “You’re one of the smartest people I know-- and God knows I know a lotta genius nerds-- I trust your skills a hundred'n one percent. I never should’ve yelled at you. I’m sorry.”
Riley’s face softened. “It’s okay.”
“No,” Jack said firmly. “No, it ain’t. If you wanna accept my apology, I’d be thrilled, but that does not make yelling at you okay, you hear me? That’s not acceptable behavior an’ you shouldn’t go around telling people it’s okay.”
“All right, Jack I get it,” Riley said with a trace of a smile. “I forgive you.”
“Thank you,” Jack said, “I love you, darlin’.”
“Love you too, Jack,” Riley replied, not hiding the content smile that found its way onto her own face. Bozer awwed quietly, but Jack heard him.
“Goes for you too, Boze. I love you, buddy.”
“I love you too, of course. You’re definitely never allowed to be separated from Mac again, you’re so much more lovey with him around,” Bozer joked.
“I try’ta be nice and apologize and tell my kids I love ‘em and this is what I get, can you believe it, Mac?” Jack complained lightheartedly, rubbing his thumb along Mac’s knuckles.
“Oh, Bozer,” Riley said, voice exaggerated.
“Yes, Riley?” Bozer asked, looking at her with expectant blinks and a goofy smile.
“I love you,” she said, with a playful shove. And while it doubled as a jab at Jack’s vastly improved mood since finding Mac, she meant it.
“I love you too, Riley,” he returned just as exaggerated, but meaning it just as much.
“Adorable,” Jack deadpanned at the borderline mockery. “You kids really are just too cute.” There was no heat to his words, but the playful sarcasm was there.
Mac chose that moment to make a sound that caught all three agents’ attention. It was almost like talking, but too garbled to make any sense. Mac did it again when there was no response.
“Mac?” Jack said gently. “What’re you sayin’? What do you need?”
“L’vyou...” came the soft slurred voice on the third try. He was trying to join in on Riley and Bozer’s little joke.
Jack laughed a good, deep laugh before responding. “We love you too, man. You think you can open up those eyes for a bit?”
Mac tried, he really did. His eyes cracked open about a sliver, gaze unfocused and roaming. Mac's eyes finally settled a bit to the right of Jack for a few moments, but one blink and he was out like a light once more.
“That’s okay, bud,” Jack said, smoothing down Mac’s hair. “You just rest up, we’ll be right here when you wake up.”