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Sitting along the ambulance doors, Desi winced a little while the paramedic disinfected her wound around the collarbone. The middle aged female paramedic noticing it, smiled and commented: “Almost done, darling. Let me patch you up and you’ll be good to go.”
Mac leaning against their truck, giggled at her little catastrophe of a struggle. Desi always made kicking-ass look so effortless, you would think she had no pain receptors at all. In her mild-pitiful state though, his beau still managed to transmit a death glare. Mac switched up to a grin instead — signalling for her to come over after she was given the green light to leave.
Desi gave her thanks to the on-site medicine staff, Matty had brought them in earlier than the usual mission as the hostages they rescued were pretty, shall we put it, delicate. Pacing towards Mac, she reached out to tug at his right ear a little.
“How dare you chuckle” Desi playful rolling her eyes, sparing Mac’s ear.
“Nah, I would never. Feel better?” She caught the sarcasm but nodded, and let a breath of relief out. On the bright side, Mac was free from even a slightest scratch. It wasn’t that the boy genius towering over her right now was fragile, he was certainly most capable of protecting himself, but y’know, he could forget to. Which is why he has the rest of the team to be his eyes and ears, but particularly, he has her.
Exfil was half an hour away, and here they were, situated in this beach house neighbourhood. Spotting something in the distance, Mac got an idea. (Uh-oh?)
He extended his hand to Desi, like a boy asking his prom date for a dance.
“May I?”
“Well, yes, you may.” Mac intertwined their fingers and hand in hand, they hiked up a minor cliff that seem to be a marker of the midpoint of the beach. They had wrapped up this mission after lunchtime hours, and the beach was spotless. Everyone was either at work or school. The air of tranquility after a mission was something hard to come by, with crowds coagulating curious to see Mac’s improvisations and to figure what the commotion was about — but today, Mac and Desi had the privilege to not deal with that.
Reaching flat ground on the cliff, they sat down at the edge, while the lower part of their bodies hung freely like the winds gracing their presence. Both of them sat side by side peacefully, letting the events of the day sink in.
“Working on this job means I do, hear, see a lot of things, but salvaging trafficked children never fails to bother me, man, I just...”
“Looks like someone has a soft spot for kids, eh?” Desi nudged him gently, but knew it was more than that. In particular, regarding his history with Oversight.
“Well, don’t think I didn’t catch how sweet you were with that sobbing 5 year old girl, what’s her name again? Um, Sasha?”
“She was shaken up so badly. And the name's Sabrina. You can’t seriously be jealous of a 5 year old, Mac.”
Mac chuckled, “Please, I get more of that at home. But really though, I thought you might hate this mission. Seems like kids have an effect on you too, huh?”
Desi shrugs and admitted; “I guess.”
She entered a state of reverie, glancing off into the magnificent view in front of them.
“I was taking a degree in early childhood in university. Went on a lot of practicals. Didn’t finish it though.” Retracting from her thoughts, Desi casually blurted within the comfortable silence.
A look of enlightenment bequeathed upon Mac, he only responds by subtly nodding, acknowledging the newly relinquished information.
“Why did you quit?”
“Ranger school, and yada-yada.. It was a good time studying it, but just wasn’t for me, you know? My favourite part of the course were practicals, got to spend time and interact with children.”
“Woah, Desiree Nguyen handling and caring for living, breathing, fragile children? Now that would be a sight I’d like to see.” Mac teases, observing and looking out for any micro-expressions on his girlfriend’s face. It seemed that Desi really enjoyed her time in university. Imagine how different things would be today if she hadn’t quit. She wouldn’t have known Jack and owed him, let alone be the one beside Mac today. Desi would be teaching in preschools, working like normal people do, from 9-5. Probably had a family by now.
Mac was eternally grateful. Desi leaving university for ranger school was the only reason he was lucky enough to call her his. Right now, today, and always.
“Hey! I’ll have you know I topped the classes for practical assessment scores, sugar.” Mac had no doubt. He watched Desi care for victims of natural disasters, and the team members. The tenderness she showed for Riley when she got shot in the leg during a stakeout. Her persistence in helping manage Bozer’s concussion after he got ambushed by falling construction equipment during the aftermaths of an earthquake. Desi took a bullet for Mac last month, thankfully hitting no vital organs. Mac was busy coming up with a swinging taser using a huge bundle of cords, she had her gun stolen and the comms were cut. She stepped in front of Mac as the Chinese mafia boss and his group of bootlickers was just about to execute him behind his back (and the darn boy had no idea); Desi‘s always looking out for others, always giving.
He pondered over what life would be like to have little Macs running around.
Probably gonna need more Desis in the world then. He loves Desi, he does. Starting a family was always an end goal for Mac, and always will be. Staring blissfully at the beautiful inside-out woman beside him right now, he smiles. One day.
Mac and Desi got a text simultaneously. From Matty, it read: “Where on planet earth are you guys? The exfil’s not gonna come to you, children. You go to exfil. Now get your butts in gear and come home! Game night today, remember?”
Picking themselves up, Mac and Desi made their way downwards the mini cliff.
“So much for chilling. I really wanna nap on the Phoenix jet. And oh, could we get some croissants after we touch down?”
“Anything for you, babe.”