#angsty mac

It's not your fault.

How do you learn to believe a lie like that?

For the april 14th prompt: alternate ending

Because the end to the whole Nikki arc in the first season has made me insane.

/// excerpt ///

Nikki declined Jack’s call before it could even ring once. She picked Mac’s phone off of the shoddy nightstand finger hovering over the button in case Jack tried again.

He did. She declined it again, glancing over her shoulder.

Mac was deep asleep, his bare torso lit up only with the gentle moonlight seeping through the window. He was tangled up in the sheets, arms stretched out as if reaching for something, face lax, hair a mess. He looked cute like this. Nikki savored the view, she knew it might not last long.

Jack left a voicemail. Nikki got into Mac’s phone. She knew his passcode would no longer be their first date — he would’ve had to change it since her betrayal — but it didn’t take her many guesses to find out what he’d changed it to. She guessed Pi first, then the golden ratio, and then got it right on the third guess with Avogadro’s number. Mac, despite all his improvisation and antics, was very predictable.

She stood up, picking Mac’s shirt off the floor and shrugging it on against the crisp coolness of the night. She listened to Jack’s voicemail.

“Hey, Mac. I know you’re uh, probably busy. It’s been a long day, I get that, I hear ya, but I’m gonna need you to come in to work, ok?” Jack’s voice started off, a forced sort of casual. “There’s some things I need to talk to you about in person, about Patty and… and Nikki. She’ll need to come in to give a statement, fill in some details, y’know? I can come pick you guys up, just let me know where you’re at. Don’t worry about it. Bozer said you didn’t head home, so I— I’m not trying to tell you— like this isn’t about— just call me back, ok? ASAP.”

Nikki sighed. Jack, equally transparent. He was a single-minded person, and she knew she was not going to win his trust back. That chance had ended when her dipshit of an accomplice had decided to shoot Mac in the chest at Lake Como. If the injury had been lesser maybe Jack would’ve been able to get over it. She was hoping he’d keep a respectful distance for a bit, long enough for the proceedings surrounding Patty to go through, and for Nikki to get all of her ducks in a row. Jack was practical, and distrustful, but he was also soft-hearted. He wouldn’t want to alienate Mac, and Mac couldn’t help but trust her. She’d thought that sentimentality would shield her long enough. She’d miscalculated, but that was fine. She’d adapt, she’d learned how to from the best.

Mac shifted, rolling partly over onto his side, catching and hugging a pillow to his chest. He looked vulnerable and harmless, but Nikki knew he was far from the latter. If she simply left now he’d probably sleep for another few hours, but she needed more time than that. She couldn’t have him and Jack on her ass, not for a while at least.

She watched Mac breathe for a moment while she thought. His shoulder gently rising and falling with each slow breath, his cheek mushed against his pillow, his mouth slightly parted but not quite snoring. He’d always been a quiet sleeper, something she’d appreciated about him through their relationship.

For the April 15th prompt: emergency contact

Just a tumblr post today (which means it's complete and not a WIP! For once!!) not on AO3 yet because I'm playing around with integrating the scene/concept into a different one of my fics at some point.

Angst warning...

///

Mac figured that grief was the opposite of finding a needle in a haystack. It was wading through a lifetime of hay, and hitting a needle whenever you least expected it.

A day off, a routine medical checkup, and updating all those stupid forms Mac usually only skimmed.

Until Emergency Contact, and Jack Dalton, and a number that was no longer in use.

There was a touch-screen pen tethered to the tablet. Mac took it apart and put it together again over and over again until it stopped working.

He needed to fix it. In his line of work they ran into emergencies plenty often for it to be relevant.

Once he hit adulthood, he made his emergency contact Bozer. It was a no-brainer at the time, but then he’d enlisted. He’d started thinking about Bozer getting a call that Mac had blown himself up, and that he needed to get his ass to the other side of the world to deal with the fallout. He didn’t like the idea of that, it just didn’t seem fair. When he’d gotten paired up with Jack, even while the guy had still hated his guts, he’d thought ‘well, this asshole will have to deal with all the paperwork if I blow myself up under his watch anyways, so he might as well deal with the other stuff too’ and updated his emergency contact info. When Jack re-upped it saved Mac the trouble of changing it all over again.

Then they were working for DXS, so the info stayed the same. Bozer couldn’t be called if Mac got shot, cut open, or blown up in various countries around the world on ‘Think Tank business.’

Then Mac really never thought about it again. Why would he? It was just a no-brainer.

Mac drummed the pen on the plastic chair arm. He’d spent way too long staring at the form, the receptionist was shooting him odd looks.

Now that Bozer was involved in the spy business, Mac could just add his info back onto the form. Hell, he could throw Riley on it too while he was at it.

Mac stopped drumming the pen and started taking it apart again. The receptionist was definitely sending him looks now.

It just didn’t feel fair, that was what was bugging him. From now until the end of time all of Jack’s paperwork — from the dentist, to clinics, to anywhere — would be Emergency Contact: Angus MacGyver, and a number that would be in use until it wasn’t. Sure, it would never be used again, but it would be there.

You go kaboom, I go kaboom.

trynna make an angsty animatic but I have no clue what the fuck the singer is saying