Work Text:
"Willpower, Mackey. Willpower."
- JD
***
"Blue?"
"Hmm?"
"At some point, we're going to have to have a chat about the difference between being a scientist and a cop, yeah?"
The office lights are dim, casting hazy shadows onto the floor as alternative rock plays faint over Evie's speaker. Mackey smacks JD in the shoulder. "Stop it." She softens her eyes as best she can and leans forward on the desk with a loose smile on her face. "What he means to say is that we're glad you're safe and in one piece. The whole scientist versus field agent thing can wait until another day. Sound good?"
Blue sheepishly nods, their tattoos blurring as they rub their arms. "Yeah."
"Good."
Mackey bobs her head to where Doc is butchering 'Eagle Rock' and attempting unsuccessfully to boogie. "Do me a favor, then, and get over there."
"Over there? Like... sing?"
"Yeah. You're a good singer. We hear you humming sometimes."
Blue's face lights up almost immediately. "Oh... well, I guess? Just a hobby though." Their fingers tap against the table- jittery- but they don't fully move until Mackey urges them forward.
"Go fix whatever that is. Please. I beg of you."
"The singing is fine," JD joins in. "It's the dancing that needs to stop, 'cause my eyes are burning. Literally in flames right now- see?" He swivels his finger from Rosie's dancing silhouette towards his face. "Literally burning."
Mackey cocks a brow. "Literally?"
"Literally."
"You do know what that word means, right? That it's actually real. You're saying that your eyes are truthfully on fire."
"Maybe they are..."
Blue scampers away, the call of the microphone and Doc's beckoning hand are clearly too much of an experience to pass up, and as they leave, JD easily fills their spot. The distance decreases between him and Mackey until they're shoulder to shoulder, and for a teensy moment, her chest lifts- a calmness. His touch to hers... but the moment quickly passes, courtesy of a holler from across the room:
"Yeah, nah. Don’t listen to her Sarge. Using literal in the metaphorical means you're cool!"
And the party of two becomes a group of four.
Evie is already half-way to the desks by the time Mackey registers it, courtesy of Dee's raised hand and the promise of free beer. "Lit-erally. Lit. Erally." She parses the word out and grins, toothy and bright. "That's what the kids are saying these days, at least."
"Yeah. In America," DeShawn counters. He pops her top for her.
Evie tisks, "you're just jealous of my lit-ness. I'm like a lightbulb, Dee. Float like a bee, sting like a butterfly."
"Okay, see? That's nonsense. You're speaking nonsense and that over there- a finger to where Rosie is flapping his arms like a bird- is punishment enough for today."
"Punishment?!" JD gasps. "Look at the man."
He tips his beer slightly to indicate with the bottle neck to where the second chorus is being thoroughly and painfully ruined.
"Grinning like a shot fox. Dragging Blue along, too... eh. Fair dinkum. Painful on the ears- yeah- but wouldn't say it's punishment."
"Shot fox? Fair dinkum?" Dee shoots Mackey a look. "This ain't English. This is a freaking hoax."
"Nuh-uh. You're the hoax," Evie counters. "With all your metaphors and long, boring words."
"Oh, so it's okay for you to say 'ambo' but when I say ambulance, suddenly I'm committing crimes against humanity?"
"No, duh."
He cuts her off. "You think you're funny."
"Please. I'm hilarious."
"No, you're not."
"Yes I am."
Mackey interrupts, "go prove you have perfect pitch already, Dee, before I assign extra paperwork on that Wellness retreat from last month."
Evie snorts. "Oof. And the man. is. down." But all it takes is a firm, "to the both of you-" and she immediately changes her tune.
"Right..."
She takes DeShawn's hand and mouths 'play along' which DeShawn easily humors. "Oh wow! Would you look at that, a karaoke machine."
"Wow, crazy-"
"I know... just like, apparated from nowhere."
"Who says things like apparated?"
"I dunno. Hot people?"
The two of them drift away in tandem; their arms linked together like paper cutouts. Except they yank each other from side to side, more like a slinky: each end never letting the other rest. Their connection is endearing. Maybe not healthy, per say. Also, a little codependent, as evidenced by their far too many side quests and near-death experiences, but it's a work in progress.
Strengthens day by day, which is enough for right now.
Mackey takes another sip of beer. It's getting there, she concludes, and JD, with his eyes large and mouth open, funnily enough, is also getting there.
"Wait," he says. "Wait, hold on."
"Holding."
"Do you see what... Evie. She just... and Dee, they aren't- oh." He coughs, looks at Mackey with prominent smile lines all over his face. "Right. Yeah. So, I'm the last one to figure it out, then, aren't I?"
Mackey smiles back just as hard. "Third to last."
"One, two... wha?" JD breaks out into a self-deprecating laugh after he connects the dots. "Oh. This is going to be bad, isn't it."
"Terrible."
"Awkward."
"So awkward."
"And when it hits 'em, it's gonna hit 'em all at once."
"Team therapy 101." Mackey hums, placated. "And when it does, I get Dee, you get Evie?"
"... eh, I guess that's fair. Bet she'll come to terms with it first."
Yeah, right. "How much?"
"Mmm, ten bucks?"
"Fifteen. And you have to call me the GOAT. Out loud. With everyone present."
JD whistles. "Done."
"Shake on it?"
"Nah. Tap on it."
"Fine." They clink bottles as a promise- more binding than a handshake- and each take another swig. Then another, then another. Oh, so we're doing this then? and Mackey tilts her head back farther. She downs what's left of her bottle in five swallows, two less than the amount it takes JD, and the burning in her throat is nothing compared to the satisfaction in her chest.
She burps, punches her sternum with a fist and coughs out, "I win."
"Yeah," JD counters, also coughing. "But I took it better."
"You took it like crap."
"I took it"- cough- "so well. You're just jealous- got any water around here? Is there"- sputter- "any water in this place? Where's the water?"
"Check the fridge."
JD shoots her a thumbs up, still coughing up a lung, "right, smart-" and as he disappears behind the slab of wood separating the lab from the office, Mackey beats her chest once more. She takes a large gasp of air- ughk, never again- and lets the music lull her attention away from the fizz disintegrating in her gut.
Dee hollers over the howling, "you good?"
Mackey nods in lieu of a response, too busy catching her breath to answer, but DeShawn accepts it all the same. "Alright. Cause if you were dying, I think JD would cry."
"Oh, god. Yeah. He'd be a sobbing mess." Evie points her microphone towards Mackey's face and though her tone is comedic, for a split second, her eyes go heavy and serious. "Don't die anytime soon, Boss. Capiche?"
"What about me?" DeShawn asks incredulously.
"Eh. You've got like twelve lives. You're fine- now are you going to serenade me or not?"
"I don't have perfect pitch."
Evie elbows Dee lightly. Enough to form complete contact but not enough to hurt. "Yeah, and I don't care. I'm getting my money's worth, so come on, sing. Mackey? JD- you too."
"Oh, Macka doesn't sing. Not allowed," JD says, arriving with another two beers in hand. He hands one to Mackey without looking, eyes fixed on Doc Roy's waving hands. "She's got the earworm, and those buggers are difficult to get rid of."
"Oh, right." Dee grin is lopsided. "You've got this."
"I've got this."
"She's got this, he's got this, they've got this, now can we please go get that?"
"Yeah, yeah- I'm coming." He follows Evie back to the karaoke screen, kicking his feet as the music fades away. JD whispers, "willpower," and when the familiar guitar riff of 'School Days' creeps out of the silence to echo throughout HQ, Mackey's eyes go watery.
They're just a little wet, of course... probably allergies, if she's being completely honest with herself, but she doesn't wipe the tears away.
What was it that she told JD all those weeks ago? Something about Australia not being on her bucket list and her designation not being a kindness? Pieces of the conversation filter through her ears, in time with the music, and she closes her eyes for a brief moment.
"Which is a shame, the bucket list thing. Considering we're great and cultured... and all that."
"... being here. It's not like how I thought it would be."
"Why? Because we don't live in mud huts and fight kangaroos?"
"... you definitely fight kangaroos-"
"We definitely fight kangaroos."
The laugh doesn't wrench itself from her lips like it did all those months ago- when she went racing down a dock and almost ended up in the water- but instead, practically tumbles note by note. Kind of like when Trey was first learning to walk. A tired, satiated relief after years of guilt and worry.
"Hey. You good?" JD asks.
He's shoulder and shoulder with her again, soft against her skin, and Mackey bumps his elbow with her own.
"Yeah," she says, still chuckling. "I'm... I'm good."
This time, amidst a chorus of chaotic voices, with her team to her front and her heart bubbling with fondness, she finds she's closer to meaning it.