Chapter Text
"—wake up! Jack!"
Someone was pulling his vest and Jack's hand instinctively grabbed whoever was touching him, raising the gun he was still holding into his other hand.
"About time," Jules scoffed at him. "You good?"
Jack lowered the gun, recognizing the familiar face: Julian Levy, his second in command in the operation to track down and stop Kovac. "Yeah, good…" he coughed in the dust settling around them, letting him go.
Jules patted on his chest. "Come on," he stood up and offered a hand to help him to the same.
Once back on his feet, Jack could see large cracks in the walls that were not there before, and the smell of smoke lingering in the air. Looking around, he sighed, relieved, seeing the rest of his team was all right, all five slowly standing up. "'The hell happened?"
"An explosion?" Jules shrugged at him. "It was just ahead… Let me take a look."
Jack watched him make his way through the rubble to a broken window. He then turned to the others and asked, "Where's Charlie?"
The others looked between them, and Amara shook her head. "I left him in the van outside. He should be okay."
Jack scrolled the dust from his chest to grab the radio. "Charlie, this is Dalton, you copy?"
There was static sound for a moment, then a voice made it through. "Charlie here, good to hear from you, Captain."
"Can you tell us what happened? We were walking down the corridor and hell got loos here."
"It's the building in front of us!" Jules yelled, turning to him, "Half of it got destroyed."
"The building you were heading exploded, Captain," Charlie also explained via radio. "I was still working on the door… I had no time to unlock it for you all."
Jack moved next to Jules to look at the smoking remains of the building. "It was still locked?"
"Affirmative."
"Did Kovac escape the building? Did he run off?"
"The drones didn't catch anyone leaving the area, Cap," Charlie said. "If he was still in there—"
"Can you check again?"
"Yes, sir."
Jules studied him. "He might have decided to give up…"
"Someone like Kovac doesn't give up like that," Jack said. "That was a trap for us, not him."
"Everyone can make a mistake," Amara said, reaching them, her ponytail reduced to a messy bun.
"Not him." Jack insisted, then used the radio again. "Charlie, you still there?"
"Yes, sir, I just… I was watching the recordings and…"
"What?" Both Jules and Jack asked.
"Someone got there before you… A man. I don't know how, but—"
"A man was already here?" Amara asked.
"A soldier?" Jules added, "One of us?"
"No, he…" Charlie sounded confused. "He seems to be a civilian…?"
Jack frowned even more, "Who the hell would—" his eyes suddenly widened. <em>No, it can't be… It's impossible</em>
"Do you have a description?" Amara asked.
"Yes. White male, pretty tall, looks young. Blonde hair—"
Jules flinched when Jack slammed the radio against his chest as he ran off. "What the— Jack? JACK!" He shared a confused look with Amara.
"We should follow him. Something's not right," she said, turning to the others, "Come on, we're not done here yet!"
"I sent you a photo of the man," Charlie said. "I should have seen him… How did he get so close without the drones noticing him?"
Jules grabbed his phone and opened the file. He was confused at first, then sighed, "Shit," before running after Jack.
The closer Jack got to the exit, the more dust he was surrounded by.
He ignored it, pushing through the smoke, and then through a cracked wall that finally allowed him to walk outside. Looking slightly to the left, he got a better view of the destroyed building and started running again.
He kept repeating to himself that the man Charlie described must have been someone else— someone he didn't know, someone who was also after Kovac… That man couldn't be Mac, right?
It can't be him! Why would he be here? He didn't tell me—
Since when Mac respects the rules?
Jack kept running until he reached the large, metal door they found blocked just a while before, that's how they ended up looking for another way in… None of them even considered someone might have been there before…
What did he do? Why did he lock us out?
Jack found the door still locked, but there was a breach in the wall next to it, and he quickly passed through, finding himself into the destroyed building: it was clear that was the center of the explosion— if he had learned something from working with Mac, was see the signs…
It couldn't be him!
Jack carefully walked ahead; looking up, he found a large hole going through at least three floors— the explosion must have happened above…
Jack could feel his heart pounding inside his chest as his eyes scanned the first floor. As he carefully stepped through the rubbles, he froze seeing a hand coming out from beneath a large piece of pavement.
He quickly ran towards it, doing his best to lift it, but it was too heavy, so he started moving the smaller pieces from the person stuck down there— and he almost sobbed as blonde, dusty hair became visible.
"Oh no… No no no…" He started moving debris as fast as possible until Mac's face came to light, covered in dust and with a line of blood running on the side of his face and down his neck.
"Oh God— Mac! MAC!" Jack gently patted his cheek, removing all the debris he was able to move. "I got you, hold on… I got you…" he tried pulling the largest piece again but to no avail. With an angry sound, he decided to focus on his friend, kneeling next to him, holding his free hand. "MAC! Come on, wake up!"
Jack tried pulling him out, but he was stuck down there, and Jack was too scared to hurt him even more. He then quickly checked his pulse, and found it, even so weak. "Not like this, please— Mac, don't do this to me, man, COME ON!"
Mac didn't move for a long moment, but then, his eyes opened even so slightly, the blue still shining, even in the dust.
Jack felt a tear falling down his face. "There you go… Stay with me now, ok? We'll get you out."
Mac coughed a bit and then nodded.
Jack tried to contain a sob, shaking his head as anger and fear kicked in, "What the hell were you thinking?! I told you to stay away! I warned you about that psycho! Why are you here?!"
Mac coughed again, "Bomb…" he said, eyes closing again. "Trap…"
"We know it was a trap! We could handle it!"
"Not this…" Mac weakly shook his head, his blue eyes finding him again. "Not this time."
Jack shook his head in disbelief. "So you locked us out? You wanted to stop him by yourself?"
Mac smiled weakly, "Stop… The bombs…"
"Yeah, great job you did here," he scoffed.
"You're alive…" Mac closed his eyes again. "'s ok…"
Another tear fell down Jack's face, but he didn't even notice. What he did notice were Jules and Amara standing just a few feet away. "Tell Charlie we need an emergency extraction, now!"
Jules nodded and quickly grabbed the radio to give instructions.
Amara walked towards Mac, instead, checking his head.
"Should we try to get him out?" Jack asked.
She shook her head, looking up and then back down at Mac, "I think he fell down… Better not move him yet and wait for the medics. Do you have some water?"
Jack nodded and, always holding Mac's hand, grabbed his small flask and give it to her.
Amara soaked an old tissue and used it to clean Mac's face, also checking the wound on the side of his head. "He's lucky being still alive…"
"We are, too," Jules said, walking to them. "With an explosion like this, I don't think we would have made it back home for Christmas." He then looked at Mac and sighed, "The kid saved the entire team."
Jack kept staring at Mac, holding his wrist, making sure he could feel the pulse. "You talked to Charlie?"
"Help is on the way," Jules nodded. "He's going to call the closest hospital too, to keep them ready."
Jack looked up at him, "What about Kovac?"
"Dead…" Mac said, and all three looked down at him. "He was— one of the bombs…"
The three soldiers shared a look, and then Jack took a deep breath, looking sadly at Mac."Then, I guess our mission is over. We're going back home."
Mac's eyes opened a bit, looking back at him.
Jack nodded, "We're going home."