#erinsworld

How about some army days Mac and Jack. We all know Mac left MIT to enlist, which was a year or two post high school. So how about Jack finding out (maybe purely by accident or sneakily using his skills & connections) that Mac's 21st birthday is coming up and making sure Mac celebrates or making the day special for him?

Of course my friend !!

Jack was acting weird, had been for the last few days, and Mac didn’t know what to do with him.

And a picture of my crazy little boy Luke for you.

such an esteemed fellow! and sorry you've had stressful weeks, friend 🫂

prompts

“To say goodbye to a good friend.”

Jack let the words hang in the air as he stooped down to pick up the tv remote, and shut the television off. Mac immediately shut down, he knew that he would. The couch was calling to both of them, to sit, to talk. 

But Mac had no words to offer. Just daggers.

"This is not who you are, I know you better than that."

"Do you, though? Do you really know me, Mac?"

“Of course I do! You’re my best friend, and you wouldn’t...You wouldn’t leave you can’t leave us—leave me,” Mac shakes his head, shaking away the stinging in the corners of his eyes. 

“You left. You. Left.” Jack jabs the words into Mac’s chest with a finger. “You left all of us and didn’t even bother saying goodbye!” 

He laughs absurdly, wiping his stubbled chin with a shaking hand as anger surges through his bloodstream.

They’ve been dancing around these feelings for a while, their feelings of betrayal.

Mac having walked out of the Phoenix without a word, not even to his roommate, vanishing without a trace until Jack was able to find him through a satellite after he ghosted him for the second phone call. 

Mac having gone to “rescue” Jack, who didn’t need rescuing, he knew exactly what he was doing, only to spend most of their time together blowing him off, making fun of him and not in the way of their light, teasing banter. Making him feel like an outcast in a group full of young people that he just “didn’t understand.” 

Jack having tried to repair their relationship before it was lost completely with a “manniversary” that went so horribly wrong, and when Mac asked for another one, Jack shot it down. Because he couldn’t go through it all again, and also realized...it wasn’t worth it.

And now, Jack leaving, with nothing but excuses, claiming that he needed to do this alone, that Mac couldn’t come, that this was the only way.

“So at least I’m giving you what you never gave me. An explanation. A send-off.”

Jack squeezes his eyes shut, not really wanting to say the words, but feeling he has to, to make Mac understand—

“A break-up, because I would never dare lead you on if I manage to find someone else, someone to give me what you took away.” 

That did it.

Mac lunges forward, pressing Jack against the wall, with his arm barred across his neck. Jack’s breath hitched and his eyes widened with each rugged hiccup, and what infuriated Mac the most was that he wasn’t even fighting back. Their noses just barely touching, Jack was damn near turning blue while his eyes burned red and his ears wriggled in the struggle. 

“I would never do that to you. I never did. I ended things the only way I knew how...you gotta understand that. But I guess you can’t, since you’ve never been abandoned. On your own, with nobody else there for you. You had Riley. You had Bozer. You had Matty and yes—I know you two have a much stronger relationship than either of you let on. You could have gone back to Diane. I let you go back to her, just as you let me go away. You found me on satellite? You could have come to visit. Could have...could have...”

Jack straightens up as Mac relents, coughing up the large, thick object stuck in his throat that he’s almost certain is his heart. 

“Could have what?” Jack wheezes. 

“Could have rescued me.”

“From what?”

“...myself,” Mac’s lips quiver, he turns away. “But...you didn’t and here I am, ‘Monster Mac’ who loves ‘em and leaves ‘em. And...and I thought with you, I...we could have...we could have prevented this. Could have fixed it. And instead...I just made it worse.”

“Duct tape and paperclips can’t fix this, Mac,” Jack agrees. “But doesn’t mean it’s impossible.” 

“It is, if you’re going to leave. Cause that’s it. This is it, you’re not coming back.”

“What, you won’t let me?”

“Jack you said it yourself, this mission...it’s dangerous. And I need you to understand...I just need you to understand what you’re signing up for, what you’re taking away from me—”

“Ah, yes, cause it’s all about you. All about what you want. What about me, man? I’ve carried your ass since day one without a single complaint—”

Mac scoffs and rolls his eyes, turning away, but Jack roughly grabs him by his shoulder and spins him around, two hands gripping his collar with a light shake.

“—and in return, you just brush me off. Mock me. Make me feel so fuckin’ stupid cause I can’t keep up with you, cause I ain’t as smart. You make me feel like I’m not part of the family anymore. Whatever family it is that you’re telling me I’m leaving, cause I don’t know any of them, let alone you.” 

Jack points an accusing finger into Mac’s face, and Mac wants to just break it. 

“Fine. Go then. That’s what you want, isn’t it?” Mac nods, his eyebrows raising, calling Jack’s bluff and Jack groans as he drops Mac from his grasp, and starts to pace the room. 

“It’s not,” Jack finally says, stopping and crossing his arms. “But if that’s what you want...”

“It’s not,” Mac repeats. “It’s not what I want, Jack.”

“Then what? The clock’s ticking, I don’t got time to keep wastin’ in this stupid argument—”

Mac lunges again, this time tackling Jack to the floor, splitting open the buttons on his shirt, clawing at Jack’s body while Jack tries to fight him off—he rolls them over, Jack grabbing Mac’s hair, lifting his head up to butt into his, their eyes meet before their lips and though no words need to be spoken, Mac speaks them anyway.

“I want you to stay,” he cries out breathlessly.

I’ve already answered this one, so I’ll just copy paste my answerer here:

Oh, that’s a very evil one. So Jack is an infamous assassin and he gets hired to kill Murdoc. So when he gets to Murdoc’s house and kills him, he finds Mac chained up in the basement and rescues him, nurses him back to health, and becomes very overprotective of him...

At the time, it seemed like the most logical decision to spend the night at Jack’s apartment.

The mission went sour enough that neither Mac nor Jack were left unharmed, and explaining a sprained wrist and a bruise on his cheek to Bozer was something Mac didn’t want to do at 11 PM. So after driving Riley home, Mac elected to spend the night at Jack’s house.

A great idea to avoid a concerned roommate.

An awful idea when it comes to Mac pretending to be okay around Jack.

Because as it turns out, although conscious Mac is able to put up a good enough show that Nikki’s death and consequential betrayal wasn’t having any effect on him, unconscious Mac can’t do the same. Seems obvious after the fact.

Whatever the case may be, this is how Mac finds himself gasping awake in the middle of the night, right hand moving instinctively to brace the scar over his heart. It aches worse than it did the first month.

“Hey, hey hey. It’s okay. You’re okay, now.”

Shit. Quickly pulling his hand away, Mac pushes himself up on the guest bed. After running a hand through sleep-tousled hair, Mac cringes. “Sorry.” Somehow, he’s able to stutter out the word between heaving breaths. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s okay, man. We both know I’ve woken you plenty, too.”

Mac nods, but honestly, it doesn’t make him feel much better about the whole situation, least of all waking a partner that he knows needed the sleep.

Sitting himself on the edge of the bed, hip sinking into the mattress, Jack frowns. “Why didn’t you tell me the nightmares were back?”

Swallowing, Mac looks away. The answer is simple. Actually speaking it out loud? Not as much.

“You know I ain’t gonna judge you, man, but you gotta tell me these things.”

With a deep sigh, Mac pushes his head into the pillow. “It’s not that they came back.”

“What the hell just happened, then?”

“It’s that the nightmares never left.”

Mac stands, one arm outstretched in a universal ‘stay back’ gesture, while the other is splayed flat against the wall for stability. In the otherwise silent room, his breaths are heavy and loud.

“Hey bud,” Jack starts, taking a few easy steps forward, stopping when Mac’s breathing quickens. “’S just me. Do you, uh, do you know where you are?”

It takes a few moments, but eventually Mac actually sees the person that’s in front of him. “Jack?”

Putting on the best smile that he can, Jack nods. “Yeah, kiddo. It’s just me, ’ol Jack.”

“Why are you here?”

“We’re in the Phoenix, Mac.” Jack has to swallow back his fear. “Got back from the mission, remember? Turned out to be quite the fuss on ex-fil, but we got you back. You’re safe now. Safe and sound and probably tired, right?”

Mac nods back. It’s not much of a surprise- the kid looks about as miserable as Jack’s ever seen him. “Probably be a little nicer for you if you got back on the bed. Good place to rest- certainly nicer than the floor, which, no offense buddy, will be the place that you’re headin’ unless you get a move on.”

After a few more nods, Mac frowns. “Jack?”

“Yeah?”

Slowly, he lets his outstretched hand fall. “Are you sure?”

“Sure about what, bud?”

“We’re- we’re uh, safe?”

“Yeah. I promise. You’re safe, kiddo.”