Chapter Text
It had been two weeks since Riley had faked her death and went deep undercover. Two weeks away had made it clear that faking her death was the best option. The organization she infiltrated wouldn't hesitate to take her out and anyone else remotely close to her. She saw it within her first week. Omega, the man in charge, held a man's eyes open and made him watch a live feed of his family's home being blown up then seconds later shot him in the head in front of everyone; showing just how replaceable everyone is and how no one, absolutely no one is safe. Riley had immersed herself into this organization. The mission was to gain Omega's trust enough to get him locked away in a black sight and have his operation disbanded. Now that she was in it was time for her to check in with Matty about what was going on. On a secure network, Riley video called Matty.
“Hey matty, it's been two weeks and I think it's going to take a while for me to gain Omega's trust. Any whiff of unloyalty he snuffs out. My first week here he killed a guy and his entire family.”
“Riley, I know this is difficult but you can handle it can't you?” Riley shook her head. “Just stay the course and now that you're settled in we will check in every Friday whenever you get the opportunity to. Do you have any intel about this Omega dude?”
“So far all I have is that he's really scary and is working on something that could crash any and everything electronic. It's like he wants the world to go back to the Stone Age. He’s building a super code.”
“Do you have a timeline of when you think he’ll attack?”
“No, but I know he’s far off, maybe a couple of months. There's no way for me to feed you information about what he's doing without him finding out. Our best bet is to stop him before he can send off the code. And from the many variants of code, he has us all writing I'm assuming he's going to have to plug into a major mainframe, I'm just not completely sure which one yet but if he wants to cause as much damage as I think it would probably be NASA's.”
“Ok well, I'll inform all major interconnected systems of an oncoming threat. Hopefully, they'll beef up their security.”
“Ok, hey…matty how is he?” her voice, heavy and layered with pain.
A look of concern crossed Matty’s face but she quickly corrected it but not fast enough for Riley not to notice. Suddenly Rileys’ chest felt tight. Waiting in anticipation for whatever Matty has to say.
“He's fine... Well, he's pretending he's fine as he always does. But Riley, he will be ok.”
“What if can we never recover from this? What if he hates me when I get back? Matty, even though it was the right decision making ol’ dude think I had no one it still doesn't sit right with me.”
A swift look of guilt flooded Matty's face before she found the words to reply. Even though she told Riley, Mac was fine. He was in fact not. He was completely broken in a way Matty had never seen before and she's been secretly watching over him his whole life. Matty being all-knowing knows how they feel for each other just adding another layer to her guilt for two people she cherishes the most but she has to put work first. So she took a deep breath and lied.
“Look riles, all of us could be in danger if we didn't do what we had to. So if Mac can't understand that then he's not the man we both know he is. Just keep in mind he's fine and doing the best he can to cope with this “loss” just like everyone else.
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8 weeks of check-ins go by. Riley feeds Matty information about what's happening with Omega and his plan. Matty fills Riley in on the things she's missing out on back in LA leaving out the fact that she hasn't seen Mac for the past couple of weeks and only knows he's alive because she has Bozer to check in on him. Bozers report does not ease her guilt only adds to it but she cannot tell Riley anything because she needs her to stay focused on the task at hand. They're so close to apprehending Omega and disbanding his whole operation.
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The time has come Riley has filled Matty in.
“Yes at midnight on Wednesday omega himself will break into NASA and hack into their mainframe which if he's successful would crash all satellites in the sky after transmitting a virus that would keep spreading until all electronics no longer function.”
“Got it, there will be a team there to capture him before he can even stroke a key. Your x-fill will come for you Thursday just in case he isn't apprehended and we need you to stay undercover.”
“Uh, Matty, do you really think that's a good idea? Because if he finds I was the one to snitch on him, I'm dead.”
“More than likely he will be in a black box so deep and dark before your x-fill even lands”
“Ok, Matty see you soon.”
The day had finally arrived. Like Matty said Omega had been captured and his layer had been raided. Everyone was arrested including Riley or as they knew her Zeta to keep her cover intact in case she needed to go undercover again someday.
The reunion.
It was a long 12-hour flight home. The whole time Riley was going over how she would approach everyone. “Hey guys, not dead, just did a little stent undercover. No, that won't work. Look who's back from the dead folks ME! No, that won't work either.” she mulled it over a little bit longer.
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“Hey, guys, I know what we did wasn't the best way to handle me going undercover but it was the best way to keep you all safe and my life here free from lurking danger. I am so sorry I had to put you all through this and I hope you can forgive me for deceiving you and making you grieve for another lost loved one. I'm so sorry again.”
The room filled with silence. Bozer, Russ, and Desi just stared at her in awe. For 3 months they all had been working just to keep what happened out of their minds only for it all to just be a lie. Mac not being in the room didn't go unnoticed by Riley.
“Riley, we’re just glad that you aren't actually dead.” he took a few steps toward her and gave her one of the biggest and longest hugs he could muster. “It's been hard here without you. I've missed you,'' he whispered into her ear.
“I missed you too boze more than you could ever know.” tears now streaming down her face.
“Yeah, Riley we all missed you, and your absence was truly felt.” Russ rang from the back corner of the room
“Really glad to have you back Davis,” Desi said while heading out of the room while staring Bozer and Russ in the eye indicating for them to follow her out of the briefing room.
“How do we explain what happened to Mac to Riley?’ desi proclaimed.
At the same moment, Riley turned to Matty and asked where Mac was. The happy smiles faded from Matty's face quickly and turned serious.
“Ok, Riley here’s the thing.” She paused “ Mac has umm completely gone dark and off the rails, I haven’t been able to directly contact him for a while now Bozer says he’s just held up in his house in complete disarray”
“Matty you told me he was fine”
“Yes, I had to lie to you so you could focus on the mission!”
“You could have told me I could handle it”
“Sweetie I know even you don’t believe that lie.”
Riley let out a chuckle. “You're right I guess, but I need to go find him. We have some things to discuss.” Riley's voice dropped.
“When you're done telling him you love him let him know I love him too Riley.”
Riley stopped in her tracks and let out a loud “Huh.”
‘Im Matilda Webber and I know everything. Thought you'd know that by now.”
Riley let out a sweet smile and headed out the door.
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Riley drove through the streets of LA taking it all in. She missed home so much. She missed him more. Making her way to his home in the hills of Los Angeles. Again working on what she'd say to him once she saw his face. “Hey Mac, it's me, back from the dead..woooo” she shook her head no. “Angus buddy guess what, I'm alive!!” oh god no. “Hi I love you don't be mad at me.” she shook her head again.
She pulled up to his house and sat in her car for a couple of minutes trying to gather her thoughts. Still unclear about what exactly she wanted to say to him. She finally exited her car. Pacing back and forth at Mac's front door working up the nerve to knock.
Knock knock knock. No answer. She knocked again. Still no answer. She tried the door knob and the door was unlocked. She swung the door open and peeked inside. “Mac!” she called out. Her calls still went unanswered. She searched for him. Kitchen nothing; living room nothing; his room nothing. She had never seen his house this destroyed and she lived with him during quarantine. There were bottles of beer and take-out bags everywhere. The place hadn't been cleaned, maybe, since she left. She made her way through the trash and headed toward the deck and that's where she saw him slumped over in front of the fire pit surrounded by beer bottles and empty liquor bottles. Shattered glass lingered in between the bottles. She had never seen him like this. His hair was long and unkempt. His beard was unruly. His body looked frail. She walked over and touched him. His body did not react. She reached for his face and caressed it. “Hey Mac, wake up,” she said softly. The sound of her voice made his body perk up with a little life. “Hey Mac, wake up.” this time with a firm voice.
His eyes popped open and a smile crept across his face. The words “Finally… heaven” slipped off his lips before he reached up and kissed Riley. In his drunken stupor, he thought he was either dreaming or dead. Either or felt like a good thing to him. He missed Riley so much in his core that the only way he could numb it was by drinking. Nothing in the world felt right since she had died. Any moment sober was too much pain to bear. Going to work seemed pointless when his world was already lost. His last and final mission cost him everything and there was no way to get it back. But when he felt her lips something inside him had awakened. How could this dream feel so real?
“Mac Wake Up!” the voice he never thought he'd hear again rang through his head like an alarm bell. He perked his body up and opened his eyes to see the love of his life standing there in shock from this kiss.
“No no no Riley you're dead I saw you fall. You can be here no no no.” he jumped and moved so quickly he nearly fell back over.
Riley moved to catch him. She could feel how his body was withering, she was now feeling heavy with guilt but she took the weight of his body and helped him inside.
The silence made the air in the room thick and full of lingering questions, emotions, and feelings. Neither of them knew where to start. Both of them were full of burning questions.
After 10 minutes of sitting in silence, Mac was the first one to speak.
“I'm going to go take a shower, I feel disgusting, I know I look it, and maybe when I get out we can have a conversation about all of this?” Mac said, laced with confusion.
In a low voice, Riley replied. “Sounds good.”
While Mac was in the shower, Riley couldn't sit in anticipation so she decided to start cleaning up his place. First the living room. Pizza boxes and Chinese food take-out containers were piled up into one corner of the room and glass bottles and cups were piled into another. Now the kitchen; dishes were loaded into the dishwasher. All food containers were thrown into the pile with the others.
“Hey, you don't have to do that.” Mac's voice made her jump. She turned around stunned. Mac had shaven and sort of looked like himself.
“I know, I just couldn't sit still with everything looming over my head, ya know?”
“I get that… Do you wanna sit?”
“Yeah.”
There they sat again in silence on the couch but this time Mac was more alert and couldn't help himself from staring at Riley. The way the light bounced off her olive skin to the curvature of her lips and the way her eyes glistened when she flipped her hair in just the right way. He thought he would never lay his eyes on her beauty again. He thought this couldn't be real. For 3 months he lived in his own hell loop. He'd wake up and for a split second, he'd forget Riley wasn't on this earth anymore. Every day he clung to those few seconds before the darkness crept in and a new bottle opened up to drown them out. He prayed for a day like this, her sitting next to him. Her skin under his hands. To see her smile, to hear her laugh. And here she was in the flesh. The peace he was searching for at the bottom of a bottle was no longer needed.
Riley, deep in thought. Should she bring up the mission first? Should she tell him she heard everything he said at her doorstep? Contemplating on exactly how she would begin to talk about everything weighing on her conscience.
“I've missed you. So much Riley.” Mac's voice broke her train of thought. “I prayed for this. For you to come back to me but I never thought it would actually happen.”
“I've missed you too and I am so sorry I put you through all of this.” she paused. “Matty and I thought for the safety of everyone I love and care about it would be best to fake my death to go deep undercover for an uncertain amount of time.”
“You both could have told me.”
“I wanted to. I really did. But being there only confirmed that not doing so was the right move. That guy was batshit crazy and I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you…. Or anyone because of me. I'm so sorry and I know you must hate me for this.” her voice cracked.
“Hate you? I could never hate you.” he moved closer to her and grabbed her hand. “If anything this did make me realize just how much I could NEVER hate you.”
“Hey, Mac, I umm, need to get something else off my chest…. I uh, I was getting the last of the things I needed from my apartment… when I heard you outside…” her voice trailed off when Mac let go of her hand and stood up angrily.
“Waitttt you heard me outside your door and you still decided TO LEAVE.” he started pacing.
“I had to for the Mission”
“The Mission… fuck the mission…. You had made me believe you were dead and then listened to my hurt, my pain, my confession and you still left.”
Riley stood to comfort him when he pulled his body away she took two steps back to allow him space. Space to feel every emotion he had buried in alcohol. Mac continued pacing his living room fuming.
“I could understand faking a death, we've all done it. And I could understand the no contact for a mission we've all done that too.” his voice echoed while talking to himself out loud.
He finally turned to talk to her. “You just left after you heard me confess my love to you..”
Riley walked toward him and took his hands. This time he didn't flinch away. She looked into his eyes, holding her eyes there for a moment before she finally spoke.
“You don't know the strength I had to muster not to open that door. Every fiber of my being was begging for me to let you in and let you know that I was ok. I was standing there with my hand on the doorknob hearing you say things I wished for so long to hear. I just couldn't risk your safety because I could have lost you for real and that would’ve destroyed me. Completely.”
Mac looked at her with pain in his eyes that slowly began to soften as her words began to sink in. “things she wished for so long to hear” he thought to himself. His anger started to dissipate as reality started to set in. “how could she leave if she is in love with me too? I guess I would do anything to protect her too if I had to.” his internal thoughts ran wild.
He couldn't muster up the power to speak out loud so he dropped her hands and pulled her body into his. Their bodies melted into each other.
Riley dreamt of their reunion. In her months away she pictured this going horribly wrong. He'd scream and tell her to get out. Tell her that he hated her and that he never wanted to see her again. For a minute there she thought her worst fears were coming true and that she was about to lose the one person she loved more than anyone else. His embrace eased all her fears and for the first time in months, she felt safe.
“Remember Riley, I told you once that you mean the world to me…”
“Yeah”
“I really meant it. I didn't know to what extent until you “died” and now that you're back I never want to lose you again. Ever.”
“I just need you to know how sorry I am. I would never intentionally hurt you. I could never do that.”
“I know riles. I know. I'm just glad to have you here. In my arms. Might develop some kind of super super glue so you can never leave my side ever again.” he giggled.
Holding each other like they both only hoped for. Mac took the opportunity to retry that body awakening kiss.
His hand left hers and trailed up her arms until he reached her neck. Both hands wrapped around her face as he caressed her cheeks and looked into her eyes taking her face in. He slowly leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Fully conscious this time lit a fire through his body. He felt more alive than he ever did. He thought he loved Desi but kissing Desi didn't feel like this. His body eased, his mind was blank, and the only thing he wanted was to keep kissing Riley. His kisses became more ravishing like he was trying to inhale her. Moving her body toward the couch. Still inhaling each other's essence. Mac shirt fell to the floor followed by Rileys. Lips barely parting to remove their clothes. In this moment there was nothing they wanted more than each other