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Jack thought he was a pretty reasonable guy. He liked to think he was the bigger person in more than a literal fashion. There had been lots of times in his life where he could’ve retaliated, but just walked away.
It changed once he enlisted, more so specifically when he met Mac. Guys Jack had talked to had said it was funny, how their relationship turned out; Jack being a larger, heavy set guy, and Mac being an oversized bean pod with legs. Mac attending MIT before joining, Jack joining straight out of high school. Jack being more outgoing and brass, Mac mainly keeping to himself.
Textbook opposites. Water and oil.
Though if someone was meeting them for the first time, they’d never guess that.
Jack was teased over his protectiveness of Mac after the initial month after the first sixty-four days; snapping at guys who threw off handed insults at Mac, taking the blame of things that went wrong in the field, quite literally throwing anyone down that seemed to have any sort of problem with Mac.
But it was mainly only when things got out of hand. Mac was a soldier and could very well defend himself against things, but most of the time he just ignored anything and everything around him, telling Jack to ignore it as well.
And Jack did, for the most part.
Because he was the bigger man, and respected Mac’s decision on his own matters.
The current situation he had been witnessing for the past few days, however, was making it extremely difficult to just turn the other cheek.
It started with a rumor, a few words thrown around by some guys that worked in intel that had spread through the base in a few hours. It wasn’t something completely unheard of or some sort of new plan or deal or anything of that sort. They were set to be getting a transfer of a new, temporary command officer.
Truly, it wasn’t anything worth really worrying about. They had officers come and go through their base all the time, usually for some sort of training or information exchange. Sometimes they were so busy that they didn’t even have the time to actually catch a glimpse of the officer that was there.
That time was different.
An officer was going to be on leave for a month to attend to personal matters stateside. It wasn’t the time that they would be gone that was the problem, but their replacement had nearly no experience with EOD units. Sure, spending a day or so here or there, but never actually in command, merely a bystander that required more respect on their name.
The teams were told the temporary CO wouldn’t be sending anyone out, but rather taking over for a secondary officer— who was in turn taking over for the one that was leaving.
“Hold up now, new CO is here to replace Rutledge because he’s gotta do whatever back home, but he’s actually taking over for Hayes so Hayes can take on all of Rutledge’s job because the new guy doesn’t know how EOD functions?”
“In a nutshell, yeah.”
“Well why don’t they just give us a guy that knows what he’s doin in the first place?”
They hadn’t actually been given an answer to that.
Mac and Jack had been out when the CO had arrived, nor had they particularly cared about seeing him when they got back. It was a thing of it didn’t matter either way, seeing or not, it was going to happen. He’d most likely make rounds just to show his face, but other than that, they actually doubted they’d interact with him; no more than a respectful greeting every day at the very least.
But then it was different.
“I thought tomorrow was supposed to be the start of the heatwave. Why’s it already hittin triple digits?” Jack complained.
“We’re in the desert. It’s nearly triple digits every day anyways.” Mac wiped his brow. “We’re lucky we even get any sort of weather to begin with.”
They’d just gotten back to base, heading straight for the barracks to try to cool off in whatever shade was given.
“See now I know yer brain is fried because I didn’t just here ya say we’re lucky that we got this heat. Don’t know the last time we got any sorta rain or anythin.”
“A few months back it rained for a few hours I think.”
“That was hot rain though. I’m talkin actual rain, dark clouds, no end in sight.”
“You want a monsoon?”
Jack shrugged. “I wouldn’t say no to it.”
“I think you would if I told you that it’s so dry here that the ground wouldn’t immediately absorb the water and we’d most likely flood.”
“Yeah man, but like, rain.”
Mac rolled his eyes. He agreed with Jack on the wanting rain, but knew it wouldn’t happen anytime in the near future. For that moment, he was just excited for a cold water and rest in the bunks.
“Bout time you two got back.”
But that water and rest would have to wait just a bit longer.
“Nuh uh, we ain’t even been back ten minutes, sir. It’s hot as hell and if I feel dehydrated then I can only assume how he feels.” Jack thumbed to Mac.
“Calm down Dalton, I won’t keep you more than three.”
Mac thought it was funny and a bit strange on how, more or less, Jack had some sort of weird friendship with nearly every commanding officer. He got away with a lot more informalities and had a whole different type of respect for them. Caleb Hayes was one such man that didn’t necessarily care if he was addressed with proper formalities or not.
“Just wanted to formally introduce our new temporary CO, Staff Sergeant Gabriel Navarro. He’ll be taking on all my work while I cover for Rutledge starting tomorrow.” Hayes nodded to the man before turning to him. “Dalton and Macgyver are our number one EOD team and tend to lead field drills when they’re off rotation. They pretty much got everything memorized.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Mac nodded at him, keeping his face neutral.
“Good thing we just got put on our rotation then so we don’t gotta lead anythin durin the damn heatwave.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Can I ask where yer comin from, sir?”
“Bagram, though I feel a bit cheated seeing as there’s a heatwave and you all still have tents with no AC.” He laughed.
“Closest thing we got to indoor AC is the Humvees, and even then they ain’t nothin to write home bout.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if it gets too overwhelming.” He glanced at Mac for a brief second. “I don’t want to keep you two from, what I’m sure is much needed rest. No telling what tomorrow will bring.”
“Got that right. Nice meetin you, sir.”
With that, both groups went their separate ways.
“He seemed nice enough. Bet we won’t be seein too much of him after that though.”
“One can only hope.” Mac mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Let’s just get to the bunks. If I stay in the sun any longer, I’m going to lose my ghostly complexion you’re always talking about.”
“That’d be good for ya. No more eggshell white; get ya one of the tans you Californians are known for.”
***
The next few days were relatively normal. Mac and Jack were on standby, ready to go out at any call that came in, and only had to actually venture out twice. Seemed like the enemy didn’t want to venture out in the heat either.
They also took on the liberty of helping the guys who had been on their full unload. It was hell doing it normally but during the heatwave just made it that much worse, and everyone was grateful for any help they could get.
Things started shifting after that, specifically for Mac. Whenever he finished a task at hand, Navarro seemed to be there, dubiously checking everything to make sure it was up to standard. At least, that’s what he said. More often than not, he found the most minuscule thing, and pulled rank on Mac.
“This is out of alignment.”
“You’re out of formation.”
“I don’t tolerate sloppiness in my unit.”
“I am your commanding officer you do not talk back to me.”
Anyone that was in the vicinity whenever Mac was dished out a punishment sent Navarro a puzzled glance before sending Mac one of pity. No one could do anything when someone pulled rank, mainly out of fear of some sort of retaliation, but they could all see him taking it too far.
Mac didn’t do anything about it though; always just took his punishment without a word and tried to avoid the temporary officer the rest of the day.
But Jack wasn’t going to stand for it any longer.
“Ya wanna explain what the hell that was to me?”
“It wasn’t anything.”
“Wasn’t anythin? Mac it’s damn near 109 and the man made ya deck out in full gear, run the course, and do hand to hand all in one go. That don’t look like it was nothin.”
“It’s fine Jack.”
“It ain’t fine! Ever since he got here, he’s been ridin yer ass more than anyone else here. I ain’t the only one to notice either.”
“Jack—”
“Ya need me to remind ya? First day, he made ya run cuz ya weren’t standin perfectly. Next day, he made ya run cuz yer shirt got pulled up even though everyone else’s were untucked as well.”
“Okay—”
“And then he pays us a visit in bunks, nitpickin every little thing he can bout yer stuff, don’t even pay anyone else any time at all—”
“I know, Jack!” Mac huffed. “Navarro and I went to school together. We didn’t, uh, we didn’t exactly get along.”
Jack crossed his arms. “Just cuz y’all had some qualms in school doesn’t mean he’s got the right—”
“He does as our CO, even temporarily. What am I supposed to even do about it? Tell on him? Hey, our CO’s being a bully can you make him stop?” He sighed. “It didn’t work when I was thirteen, it’s not going to work now.”
Jack’s expression softened. Mac had opened up about a lot of things in his life in the time they’d been together, most of the things others hoped to avoid in their whole life. Mac had experienced them, and he was only recently twenty-one, and his life had pretty much been hell the whole way. Their ass of a CO seemed to be Mac’s past literally reentering his life and drug up old memories mac probably wanted to forget.
But Jack wasn’t going to have it. He silently promised Mac he would make his life easier. And if he needed to get in a full brawl with their CO, he wouldn’t hesitate.
“He’s only here for two more weeks. After that I won’t have to worry about seeing him again.”
“That don’t mean ya need to suffer through it. The heats bad enough but you also gotta jackass breathin down yer neck.”
“I can handle it.”
“I’m not sayin ya can’t, but you shouldn’t need to. You should only have to worry about bombs yer disarmin and if ya got enough sunblock on. Ya shouldn’t have to worry bout yer own guys tryin to stab ya in the back.”
“I know.” Mac ran a hand through his hair. “Our full starts tomorrow, so we shouldn’t even be here long enough for him to say anything to me. I’ll be okay.”
Jack huffed and shook his head. “Fine. We’ll let this week play out as if nothin’s changed. But if anythin, and I mean anythin goes wrong or he tries somethin, I’m goin above his head and gettin it settled.”
***
Being up and out just before the sun was something that was normally dreaded, no matter how often it happened. That morning appeared to be the worst one yet.
Mac had pretty much passed out the second he was comfortable on his cot, and while that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, he wasn’t what Jack would call a heavy sleeper. Being in the army for any amount of time tended to change the aspect. Jack woke up at heavy creaks, or when someone got up for some reason, and he would normally hear Mac maneuver on the bunk because he’d also been woken up. Even if there wasn’t any sort of disturbance, Mac would move and rotate to get comfortable again.
But that night held silence. There was no creak or movement from the bunk above Jack when he woke from a thump outside, or when it was actually time for them to get up and leave. Mac slept like he hadn’t in days. And it pained Jack to have to wake him so they could leave to patrol.
“C’mon bud. Rise and shine. Gotta get goin before the big ball of fire has a chance to warm the inside of the Humvee.”
Mac merely moaned and pushed himself up.
“Yeah I know. We’ll make sure to park in all the shady spots we can; make sure we got some completely frozen waters too in case of anythin.”
Despite how tired he seemed, Mac got ready faster than he normally did, and Jack all but assumed he knew the reasoning for it. Realistically, they shouldn’t have needed to interact with the reason at all in the remaining time he was there because they were on their full, meaning out at dawn, back at dusk, sleep through the night and repeat. But Jack didn’t blame him for wanting to be out of the vicinity as soon as possible.
“Okay, we got a cooler full of cold things, a cooler full of frozen things, water for the truck if it overheats, and whatever snacks I was able to round up last minute. Anythin we’re forgettin?”
“Why we agreed to serve in a place that’s hot normally that’s experiencing a heatwave.”
Jack snorted. “Someone’s cranky. Come on, I’ll blast the AC and you can nap on the way to the first place.”
It was like any other time they had to go out. The only real difference between working a full and being on active call was they moved continuously while on full; going through one quadrant each day, to every smaller and larger town just to check, even if there wasn’t any call about anything. And the only major difference between that full and any others they did was the high end triple digits. That would make anyone cranky.
It was when they made their first stop that Jack decided to push the whole matter, trying to understand it better.
“What’s his beef with you anyways?”
“Honestly I don’t know. I was a sophomore at thirteen; took a lot of advanced and AP classes because the regular curriculum was too slow for me. Since I skipped a grade, and my weird lanky teenage body, I was picked on a lot, despite Bozer being there most of the time to tell people off. Most of it was lite, friendly teasing from classmates, you know— just calling me a nerd or whatever. That never bugged me because there wasn’t any malice behind it; even the teachers threw it around once in a while when classes did especially good on tests or whatever.
“I don’t know how your school was but to keep everything balanced or whatever, you had to take a mandatory elective each year. I guess so it wasn’t just all work all the time, but I took an art class that was basically just do something and you’ll pass. Navarro and I were in the same class each year, me being a sophomore and him a junior, and— I dunno, I think just my presence bugged him. I never interacted with him, but he used to always sit by me, act interested in whatever I was doing before wrecking it right before it was due.
“The art teacher was really nice and always said not to worry because she was good at keeping track at what students were doing because everyone was doing something different, though I’m pretty certain I was the only one soldering metal and wires together to make a little statue that waved at people.”
“She didn’t do anythin to make it stop?”
“She couldn’t do more than give him warnings and tell him to stop. I think she might’ve had a talk with him and his parents about it, but the whole boys will be boys thing.” He wiped the sweat running down his face. “There were a few times where I kinda lost it; made him get deliberately shocked when he touched what I was working on, but, yeah, I dunno why he hates me so much.”
“It wasn’t even the classic jock hates nerd?”
“Nope. He didn’t do any sports or anything. Kinda makes me wonder how he came to the army in the first place, let alone be our commanding officer.”
“Sounds like ya pulled the short stick, brother.”
Mac scoffed. “Story of my life.”
The more Jack learned about Mac’s life before the army, the more he felt he had an obligation to Mac, to show him that yeah, it was full of rough patches and was hard to get through some times, but there were still things that could be enjoyed. Mac was only just an adult adult, and the hardships he’d had to face in his life wasn’t fair. He didn’t deserve to lose his mother and grandfather, or have his dad run off on him, or be picked on just because he was smart and took advanced classes in school.
His life up until that point, the one where he was literally hovering over a bomb, had been more than rough patches. Mac had been walking a path that was overgrown; one with fallen trees and boulders, slippery muddy ground, with the path completely disappearing at times.
But he kept going.
Mac got through all the obstacles on his path, even making his own at some points if he had no other choice. In the time they’d been together, Jack never saw Mac even have the thought of turning around and heading back down the path he was traveling, even though it had been smoothed out from his initial travel.
And that’s what Jack admired about him. No matter how difficult or impossible the future seemed, Mac pushed forward, pushed the boundaries; molded whatever he could to suit his needs and help others along the way, to make it easier for people that might head down the same path he was on. The sad thing was Mac shouldn’t have had to do any of it, not at his young age. Someone else should’ve forged an initial path for him to travel before it branched off into one he would have to discover on his own.
So Jack decided it would be him. Even if he was just a few steps in front of Mac, he would try to smooth the path as much as he could.
“This one’s pretty much done; just need to set it somewhere easier to pick up for whoever’s coming.”
“Anyone in particular? Think we should make Nolan and his tech come get it?”
Jack could feel Mac roll his eyes. “That’s why he takes your pillow all the time you know.”
“Yeah and it’s nearly worth it every time.”
“Let’s just get going on to the next and hope it’s easy. I can feel my skin getting burnt beneath my clothes.”
***
Mac wasn’t looking good.
The never ending sweat coming from his brow despite every vent in the Humvee pointed at him was worrisome. Being in the sun, having to defuse two heavily complicated IEDs in the middle of the road with zero shade, during a heatwave, and in his bomb suit wasn’t how they wanted to spend the afternoon.
But sweat was good. Sweat meant Mac still had water in his system, that he wasn’t completely dehydrated. Lack of sweat would’ve been a very big problem. His bandana was soaked through, and Jack didn’t see the point of hounding Mac about the lack of his helmet. He was overheating, and Jack nearly dumped a thing of water over his head, but it would do so much more if it was actually in Mac’s body instead of just saturating the outer layer.
“We’ll be back real quick; half hour at most. I’ll see if I can snag us some of them army popsicles to help with the heat.”
“If you manage to get actual ice cream somehow, I’ll build you a working rocket.”
“Don’t go gettin my hopes up now.”
“You don’t believe I could do it?”
“No, I definitely believe ya could, but I dunno if I’m gonna be able to get you that ice cream. I know I’m capable of miracles but it’s a stretch even now. Like I could get them but they’d be all melted before I actually got them to ya.”
The drive back was full of Jack pushing nearly every bit of water they had at him, and telling of summers at the lake; how it was a Dalton tradition to go down every summer with nearly every Dalton family member and take it over.
“Not really though, but there were just so many of us that I swear if we all laid out across the water, we’d be able to touch both sides.”
Mac’s eyes had been closed the whole time, exhaustion keeping a hold over him. Him holding and drinking whatever Jack gave him was the only real indicator of him still be conscious.
Pretty soon they’d rolled to a stop, and Mac hadn’t realized their drive was already over. The sun was close to setting but the heat still made it feel like it was the middle of the day. The only good thing was, even though they were in a heatwave, it still got significantly cooler during the night.
“You stay put. Imma go see if I can get ya a Gatorade. It’ll help with the salt ya lost.”
“Wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon.”
Jack snorted humorlessly. “I’ll ask one of the guys to keep an eye on ya, make sure you don’t go faintin or nothin.”
“You’ll be gone for like five minutes. I’ll be alright.”
“Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before.”
Mac smirked slightly as he felt the Humvee rock slightly as Jack got out and shut the door, keeping as much cold air in it as possible. He opened an eye and watched as Jack had indeed gone over to one of the guys and gestured back to the Humvee. He was going to be teased over it. He knew that for a fact.
His eye closed again and he just sat, trying not to think about how hot he felt, or how the air was slowly warming up, or how tired he was, or how sick he felt. He had been stripped down to his ACU undershirt and pants to help at all, but feeling his shirt slowly drying didn’t help in the least.
He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and nausea forming in his stomach. He knew symptoms of heat stroke and exhaustion, he just wasn’t sure which one he thought he was experiencing at the moment. He wasn’t going to push himself, more than content with waiting for Jack to return, because he wasn’t going to risk standing and falling face first into the ground.
“Macgyver.”
Or at least, he didn’t want to.
Mac cracked his eyes open, seeing Navarro standing outside of the Humvee. There went his hopes of staying as cool as he could for as long as possible.
He opened the door and gave a respectful nod. “Sir.”
“Are you playing games here?”
“Sir?”
“Stand at attention while I’m addressing you, soldier.”
Mac could hardly keep his eyes open, let alone stand at attention for however long it would take for Navarro to dish out another punishment. Nonetheless, he exited the Humvee and stood in front of it. He managed, for a moment at least, before the rigidness of his body began to slack once again. He could feel the dry sweat coating his person, no new taking it’s place. That was bad. He knew that was bad, but given his current situation that wouldn’t be over in a minute—
“Is this funny to you?” Mac straightened up immediately at Navarro’s ask. “Seeing what you can get away with because we knew each other? Well guess what? There isn’t anyone for you to hide behind anything, because I’m top of the food chain here.”
Mac could feel stares of guys around them pretending not to see or hear what was going on. He even saw some of them just straight up standing still and frowning at the commotion.
“I meant no disrespect sir. I only—”
“Did I say you could speak?” Navarro’s eyes settled into a glare. “I know EOD works differently, but I didn’t expect insubordination.” Mac’s brow raised in confusion. “You failed to do your maintenance yesterday.”
That made him frown. “I wasn’t scheduled for—”
“You were expected to relieve Diaz at 20:45 last night, yet I was informed that you went straight to bunks and left him to finish by himself.”
“No one told me—”
“Don’t try to shift the blame on to someone else for your own shortcomings. You should’ve checked with your CO to make sure your schedule was clear.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Mac started, sarcasm heavy in his tone. “That’s not how it works here. EOD techs are given their schedules and are notified by their COs if something was changed, or another squad member if the change had to do with them.”
“Are you implying that it was my fault you failed to comply with your work last night?”
He knew it was a bad idea. A voice in the back of his head was telling him it was a bad idea, but Mac was too exhausted to pay attention to it. “Well it was someone’s, but it wasn’t mine.”
All the words after that was just noise. Navarro was seething. Every word was shouted inches from his face, gestures with his hands and arms became extremely more animated. Mac could feel an extreme amount of stares on them as more eyes were drawn over by the increase in yelling. He couldn’t be bothered with any of it. He was tired and had a headache. It was a miracle he was even able to keep himself standing for so long.
The shouting quieted for a moment as another voice took over, one of normal volume, speaking just behind Mac. He knew who it was but couldn’t place who at the moment. All his focus was going into keeping his eyes open and legs underneath him.
It went back and forth for a minute before Navarro ultimately backed down and left. Mac felt like he could finally breathe and let himself sag and lean against the Humvee.
“You can never catch a break can ya?”
Mac cracked a small smirk, side eying another Staff Sergeant for more or less coming to his rescue.
“One of my boys saw the commotion; said it would be better if I butt heads with him than one of them. Gotta say Macgyver, seems like it would kinda suck to be you if I’m being completely honest.”
That got a snort. “You don’t know the half of it.” Mac shook his head slightly, regretting the motion immediately. Black spots played in his vision and he shut his eyes. “Sir?”
“What’s up? If you’re worried about repercussions, don’t be. All the guys around saw what happened, and just between me and you, that Navarro guy acts like he’s got a golden spoon up his ass.”
“Thanks but, uh, I think— I think I’m gonna pass out.”
He didn’t hear if there was a reply or not.
***
Mac was— cool. There was still a disgusting amount of sweat more or less encasing his person, but he was cool, or at least cooler than he had been. He was also horizontal, which kind of threw him off because last he remembered, he was vertical, or at least somewhat vertical.
He pushed himself into a sitting position, having something slump into his lap and a blanket slide down from his shoulders. An ice pack, and a cooling blanket. He must have been in med. There was a vague memory about what happened however long prior, but his head was still encased in a fog.
“Nice to see you conscious.” Mac turned at the voice, seeing Doc Roe on an opposing cot with a book. “Gotta say, would be nice if you just come to say hey once in a while without being in a life threatening condition.”
Mac let out a small snort. “Didn’t know you cared so much.”
“I’m a doctor Macgyver. Of course I care.”
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Making rounds making sure everyone’s staying hydrated. After what happened with you, an order came down from the top suspending any outings until the temp drops back to bearable standards.”
Right. What happened to him; passed out after getting reamed by Navarro. He took a glance around the room, frowning slightly.
“He’s not here. Dalton that is.” Doc Roe said, cracking open a Gatorade for Mac. “I know it weird for him not to be playing nursemaid, but believe me, if he could be here, he would be.”
“Uh, where is he?”
“In the guardhouse.”
Mac nearly choked on the sip he took. “What?”
“I don’t know the whole story, but apparently he went toe to toe with Navarro; was winning too before guys pulled them apart.”
“And? What else? What’s gonna happen to him?”
Roe shrugged. “Turner came by earlier to see how you were doing; said he was going to sort everything out and neither you or Dalton need to worry about it, though I’m pretty sure Dalton’s gonna be stuck in the guardhouse for a few days at the very least. And before you ask, no, you can’t see him, not until someone comes by to get your official statement on what happened.”
The information was hard to absorb, purely because of the fog that was very slowly clearing in Mac’s head.
“I can send word that you’re awake and want to get everything over with. Everyone knows how weird you two get when you’re separated for long periods of time. Honestly it would be in everyone’s best interest.”
Mac nodded. “Please.”
***
It didn’t take long for an officer Mac wasn’t familiar with to enter the med tent and begin questioning the events that had happened over the last few weeks. Mac didn’t leave out any details that happened during the events. There was one question at the end that threw him for a loop.
“Why did you not report the incidents to a higher ranking officer, Specialist?”
“I— didn’t know that was an option, sir.”
“Why not?”
Mac didn’t have an answer.
“Macgyver, you’re damn near the best EOD the army has seen in years. I’d like to think people trust what you say in bad situations, especially if it’s one in the goddamn camp. The whole situation could’ve been avoided if you’d spoken up after the first incident. But I think I understand the reasoning behind it.” He gathered his things. “You’ll be allowed to see your overwatch as soon as the good doctor gives you the okay to leave.”
Needless to say, Mac didn’t wait for Doc Roe to give him a clean bill of health.
He headed to the guardhouse, the guard outside giving him a nod before letting him enter. He saw Jack, sitting in a chair with his eyes shut and head leaning against the wall behind him.
“How’s he doin?”
Clearly, he was expecting anyone other than Mac himself.
“He currently thinks you’re an idiot for brawling with a commanding officer.”
Jack’s eyes opened and he was out of the chair in a second. “Mac!”
“Hey.”
“Are ya alright? Yer noggin still in one piece?”
“I’m fine, Jack.”
“Well excuse me for worryin when I heard ya collapsed because some asshole thought it was a good idea to berate ya after comin off a difficult day when ya had been sufferin heat exhaustion that apparently turned into heatstroke. Don’t you dare say yer sorry for it neither. It wasn’t yer fault in the first place. You ain’t got nothin to be sorry about.
“When I got into med to see ya, Doc said yer temp was nearly 104 and despite everythin I was makin ya drink, ya were dehydrated. It wasn’t just from yesterday either. Ya had symptoms since Navarro showed up and yesterday just pushed ya over. So— I may have overreacted a touch, but I’d do it all over again if it meant keepin you from havin to go through all that.”
The pure concern that was seeping from Jack’s every word hit Mac in the chest like a brick.
“It’s not that I don’t— appreciate what you did, but this is a pretty big thing Jack. Assaulting a CO is going to be more than a slap on the wrist and a warning. You could go to prison.”
“Brother if they think they can try to ship me away back to the states, they got another thing comin.”
Mac stayed with Jack the whole day and well into the night. The only time someone joined them was to bring them water. Jack tried to make a private escort Mac out so he could get some much needed rest, but Mac merely said he was comfortable there and wasn’t going to move.
It was some point during the night when someone actually came to stay.
“Evening.” Sergeant Turner, First Class, was one of the people that was most respected out of everyone in the unit. He listened to complaints that were brought up, tried to make accommodations if needs be.
“Evening sir.”
“You two just can’t go a hot second without causing a ruckus can you?”
“Where’d be the fun in that? We got an image to uphold. If nothin happens, the boys might think somethin’s gone wrong.”
“Yeah yeah, then the real shit show would start.” He rolled his eyes. “I know you’ve both been waiting for any news on the whole incident, and let me just be blunt in saying you’re getting off easy with no more than a slap on the wrist.”
Jack eyed Mac and smirked.
“The overall consensus was, Dalton— you’re staying here for the remainder of the week. We can’t just have you go on your merry way after assaulting a commanding officer, even though the majority of everyone that gave testimonies thoroughly thought he deserved it.”
“Damn straight he did.”
“We went over his dailies and I don’t think there was one where Macgyver’s name wasn’t followed by insubordination for some incompletion of a task or a detail so minuscule that he’d have to be looking for it. It was ruled it was extreme bias with intention to purposely make you fail. Those plus everything others had told us about your general daily interactions with him put it all into perspective. He didn’t even have business talking to you or others from your squad in the first place.”
“What’s going to happen to him?”
“He’s going back to his own unit and will probably be under review after his CO gets ahold of our reports. Honestly I don’t know why it was him that got sent here anyways; there’s other EOD units we could’ve requested someone from, purely out of the fact that you two get loaned out so much.”
“So we’re yer bargainin chips.”
“More or less.” Turner shrugged. “That the basis of everything. It’ll all be finalized within the next few day if either of you have anything you want to add to the reports.” He nodded to them. “Dalton, think of this as a one time thing. There’s no guarantee that, if this happens again, we’ll be able to get you out. Macgyver, get some rest. You’re pale enough as it is.” With that, he left.
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, letting the information fully sink in.
“Well, least we don’t gotta worry about our full durin the heatwave. Think that might be the only good thing that came outta this.”
Mac snorted. “That and something else.”
“What else?”
“I don’t have to build you a rocket.”