Chapter Text
Mac was used to it, as horrible as it was to say. It wasn’t the first time he was kidnapped, far from it, but he could only hope it was the last. He was used to being bound, gagged on a few occasions. The fear that sat in the pit of his stomach had diminished over the years, because he knew that his team would find him.
But that time was different. The amount of fear that had its hold over him was nearly the same as the very first time he was kidnapped. It wasn’t the people that took him, or where he was being stashed, not even the threats they made against him.
Mac was absolutely terrified because Bozer had been taken along with him.
They were on opposite sides of a room, arms and legs firmly bound to the cold steel chairs they were sat in, and a gag tied so tight around their mouths that they couldn’t fully shut them.
Mac could handle it, he was a spy, even had training from the army about how to handle being tortured, but Bozer couldn’t. Bozer was still new to everything, still adjusting to the whole spy life style. The thought of having training to deflect torture probably never crossed his mind.
But he was there, sitting across the room, looking at Mac with such an intense and fearful stare that it made a panic start start to form in his gut.
What if he couldn’t get them out? What if the team found them too late? What if they started focusing on Bozer instead of him?
He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if anything happened to him.
Each day was just as bad as the one before it. Each day Mac was taken away to be questioned, and he was a little more banged up every time he was returned to the room Bozer was left in. Nothing that he hadn’t experienced before, sadly, but that time he couldn’t lie to Bozer about why he had trouble breathing, or how he got a black eye.
That time Bozer didn’t think Mac accidentally inhaled dangerous chemicals, or ran into someone and accidentally got punched in the face, or even have to think he was out of town instead of recovering from a stab wound at Jack’s. That time, Bozer could see everything, could see the dangerous life Mac actually led.
And it terrified Mac to the core.
Bozer first finding out about the double life Mac led was a hurdle they both had to get over, and then actually being recruited by Phoenix was right after. That was something Mac accepted; Bozer would be relatively safe while working in the labs. He wasn’t a field agent; no real danger besides a chemical spill or something. But then they got grabbed as they were leaving, and the safe bubble Bozer had been in had been popped, and he was currently being given a first had experience of what that job truly held.
And Mac would never forgive himself if anything happened to the man that had been his brother since childhood.
So Mac let the kidnappers do whatever they wanted to him. As long as it would keep Bozer safe, he would endure whatever they threw at him.
***
Bozer would be lying if he said he knew the day would turn out as such. He knew his life was going to change once he learned about Mac’s actual job, he just thought it would take longer than a month into knowing.
He would also be lying if he said he wasn’t terrified. Being kidnapped and restrained in some weird, isolated room was definitely different from the few bullies he had in school.
But he was with Mac. And apparently, Mac was used to being kidnapped and held captive. So that meant he must have already had a plan on how to get them out and he was waiting for the right time
Deep, deep down, Bozer hated him, hated Mac. Hated learning what Mac’s actual job was. Hated being all too up close and personal. Hated saying yes when offered the same exact job. Because Bozer didn’t have a plan. He didn’t ever indent on having a plan that had anything to do with being kidnapped and restrained with the man who was most definitely his brother, because he shouldn’t have had to need a plan like that in the first place.
All he should’ve ever had to plan for was dinner, or an emergency trip to the hospital on a very bad day, and he couldn’t even have a plan for that because apparently Mac got hurt on the regular, and had his own secret emergency plan that involves lying to him every time he got injured.
He understood though, hatred being turned to hurt that he’d still soon get over, because Mac lied to him for him. For his safety. So he wouldn’t have to be put on some sort of blacklist, not never be able to see Mac again.
Because that was always the basis of every plan mac ever made. Protect the ones he held dear. And he continued to do that, even when it was just the two of them, bound to steel chairs in a dark, damp room.
A day passed, then two, and the third night was just around the corner, and the fear that was set in Bozer’s being had multiplied, because every day, several times, their captors had entered the room and none too gently asked for information, usually by hauling Mac up and dragging him from the room.
And Mac just let them.
He didn’t struggle, or put up a fight, or try to fight back in any way. Every instance when he came back, he was shoved back down into the chair and his bindings look they they were tighter than before, and Bozer could see rough red patches on any bare skin as a result of whatever was happening while he was out of the room, and it horrified him to see his best friend just letting it happen.
But Mac was unfortunately used to that, so maybe it was all part of his big plan.
It saddened him, in a different sort of way. It brought him back to days of their childhood, to the day when he first saw Mac getting picked on. He didn’t fight back and just let the other boys do whatever they felt like.
So Bozer kept quiet every time someone came in the room, even though he was screaming on the inside. If Mac had a plan, he didn’t want to mess it up.