Tumgik
#macdalton fic
jackspaperclip · 1 year
Note
Hiiiiii I have so many questions about your macdalton sandbox fic I dunno where to start. Do you have any bits you'd share?
Hiiii, I'm literally kicking my feet rn
I am amazed that there aren't more sandbox fics, I grew up in the military and there are many gay soldiers
It's snips of Mac and Jack together in the sandbox, realizing their feelings for each other, Jack believes he cant act on those feelings but he can get close
' 11 IEDs later they were finally on their way back to base for the night.
"We're not lost, just uh gotta talk with you for a sec" As Jack pulled over, he could see Mac tense up out of the corner of his eye. "You know how some soldiers do each other favors?"
"Sure?" Jack didn't need to look at Mac to know that Mac didn't understand what he was getting at.
"Personal favors?" Jack took his hands off the steering wheel and looked at Mac. Mac was red opening and closing his mouth trying to find words. "You can't tell anyone, I walked in on McGarrett and Williams last night"
"Really?" Mac looked at him wide eyed
"Yeah, they didn't even notice me" Jack laughed
"You didn't like? stop them?"
"What would that do? They were just blowing off steam"
"Huh Garrett and Williams?"
"Yeah"
"Don't they argue all the time?"
"Like an old married couple"
"They must trust each other"
They stayed silent for a moment, Jack told himself fuck it and placed a hand on Mac's knee
"Jack?"
"Do you trust me?" '
17 notes · View notes
frozenmemories1987 · 6 months
Link
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: MacGyver (TV 2016) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Characters: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) Additional Tags: Smut, Fluff, Humor, Roleplay, Kinktober, Established Relationship Summary:
Jack has his own idea of what kinktober means.
3 notes · View notes
thepinkcrayon · 1 year
Link
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: MacGyver (TV 2016), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Greg Sanders/Nick Stokes Characters: Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Greg Sanders (CSI), Nick Stokes Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Kid Fic, Babies, Fluff, Domestic Fluff Summary:
Greg and Nick have a new baby girl.
Jack's infatuated.
7 notes · View notes
telltaleclerk · 7 months
Text
New MacDalton Fic
It's been a while. But the responses to that post from the other day, and some chatting with @frozenmemories1987 got me on a MacDalton kick again. So I wrote a little get together fic. Nothing fancy or long, just something fun.
8 notes · View notes
enbyboiwonder · 3 months
Note
any combo of these for the fic writers ask? ❤️👻🏷👓😎💛💌 (also, hope you're doing well!)
I think I’m doing probably so-so (though I was doing better before this disgrace of a website reloaded the tab when I was 95% finished answering this and I had to restart from scratch—I am salty). I dunno how long it’ll last, especially since it’s not simply a periodic downswing, but oh well. I think playing Neverwinter Nights (and fantasizing about if not always writing Hero/Tomi fic) might be helping though, or at any rate, it ain’t hurting.
Send me fanfic author questions!
❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?
The reason it took me so long to answer this—at least, before this sorry excuse of a website decided to delete everything I’d written because apparently autosaving to drafts is a thing for every type of post except ask responses—was that I had to go back and reread all (well, almost all; some of them I’d rather like to pretend don’t exist and either A. I’m still undecided on whether to orphan or not, or B. I can’t orphan them because they’re part of a series) the fics on my account. Is it weird that my fics don’t really stick in my head that long? Even when I don’t all but block them out. Anyway, it might be…
He feels safe—god, he feels like home.
from Don’t Tell Me Where the Road Ends (MacGyver 2016, macdalton). It’s not anything fancy or eloquent or anything, but idk, I still like it.
Or maybe…
He watches with poorly concealed amusement as Chika seems to work his way through all five stages of grief and back in the span of about two seconds.
from The Shape of Soup (2.43, yunichika)
(Yeah, I had difficulty choosing, so the rest—and the rest of the questions—will be going under the cut for length vvv)
Or even…
Somewhere along the way, his admiration has turned from jealousy to want—from wanting to be him to just wanting him.
the line that birthed not to remain as just a wish (2.43, odaoki)
Or possibly, since I feel like I should have one that is imagery-type/more poetic/(would it be conceited to call it eloquent?)…
His whole body is alight with the fizz of cider close beneath the surface of his skin, overflowed from the cavity of his chest to spill down his limbs and climb up his throat, pooling and sparking in all the places that Mao touched him like senkou hanabi, like miniature fireworks all their own, the brightest of all where Mao's fingers are still tangled with his, and it's wonderful and overwhelming at once.
from candy-apple red (Girls Blue, kisaragi/mao)
👻 What is your wildest headcanon?
I don’t think I have any tbh? My headcanons all tend to be more the run-of-the-mill type and/or generally accepted fanon and/or stuff extrapolated from them being clearly ADHD and/or autistic. They’re small things, like Yuni liking spicy foods but being unable to handle sour stuff while Chika loves both, or Nao liking space but not particularly caring for sci-fi, even sci-fi that’s set in space. In fact, both of those I came up with while writing the fics they show up in lmao (Lemon Squash and 流星群, respectively. Though, technically, Chika liking lemons—with the sort-of implication that Yuni doesn’t—showed up in The Shape of Soup, but that was just lemons.)
🏷️ Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?
I don’t think I’ve ever gone into a content tag outside of when I was trying to see how to do something while attempting to write smut. It’s never really worked out. Even when I think I’ve figured something out, it all flew out of my head as soon as I opened my own fic. At least I prefer writing non-smutty fics, or this would be a much bigger problem than it is lmao
No, usually what I’ll do is just go into a ship (or character) tag and filter out any tag I come across that I don’t want to read.
👓 What helps you focus when you write?
Music, though that’s also just a general thing. Typically I’ll just listen to whatever I’m already listening to (which for the past few years has mostly been the 2.43 OST), but if I’ve got a specific song or set of songs in mind for a fic, I’ll generally listen to that instead. Sometimes when I’m rewriting a canon scene or writing something that includes one, I’ll just leave the show playing in the background once I’m done with it. (That’s actually how one of my 2.43 rewatches happened lmao, though I guess it only half counts.)
Of course, sometimes my brain will focus on that instead…
Yeah, I haven’t figured out how to reliably hack my ADHD. Mostly I just hope I’ll slip into hyperfocus (and then hope I’ll manage to finish it while I am, but that only very, very rarely happens. Normally I’ll come out of my daze to find I’ve added like 1600 words and I’ve got no idea how to write the missing bits).
😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?
It depends on my mood tbh. Also how much I hate canon (though it can make for some delicious angst, depending on why I hate it). But most of my fics end up being canon compliant, or at least not canon uncompliant, so I guess when it comes to writing, it would be that? Though I do also accumulate my fair share of AUs (but then, most of those are Canon AUs of one sort or another…)
💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?
I’m not so sure I’ve learned anything, and certainly not anything impactful, except that I have zero idea how to describe emotions. That, and it’s obnoxious af when people use epithets for the POV character. I can’t believe I used to do that. It makes me what to crawl into a hole and die in shame. Like, what someone/something is referred to in the narrative is how your POV character thinks of them! Your MC can’t be “the other man”—he’s the man! Everyone else is “the other” in reference to him! (That’s probably also why I’ve gravitated more consistently toward referring to the POV character by their given name, though I’ll still use surnames sometimes—and not just when we never learned their given name.)
💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?
I tend to prefer writing Pre-Relationship/Feelings Realization/Getting Together/First Kiss stuff over Established Relationship stuff, but I’m not so sure any of those are tropes. Wait, what does count as a trope. Cuz I also love Fluff (particularly the sappy stuff—I’ve had several turn out way sappier than originally intended) and Angst and Hurt/Comfort about equally, but I feel like those are closer to genres than tropes…
Hmm, well, I do love Character x Their Significant Annoyance (A finds B annoying/frustrating/exasperating/baffling/etc. but is still inexplicably fond of them anyway), and I feel like a lot of the fics I’ve written are for pairings with that dynamic, so let’s just go with that, shall we?
I’m also a sucker for tropes in the Fake Dating to Real Dating/Didn’t Realize They Were Dating/Practice Kissing area, though I haven’t finished very many of those, and I also love Crossdressing (particularly sticking unfeminine men in women’s clothing and/or guys just casually wearing women’s clothes), but I haven’t finished any of those, either. Granted, some of those involve smut, which could explain it, but it’s not like all of them do. Half or less.
Plus there’s The Italicized Oh, and I love sticking those sorts of moments into my pre-relationship fics, even if there is no actual italicized “oh.” Just—the yearning. I’m an absolute sucker.
3 notes · View notes
erinsworld · 1 year
Text
It's Snippet Saturday!
When you go looking for a WIP and can't find it because you can't remember the title you assigned it and have to search using keywords you think you might remember using in the fic, you know the WIP has been sitting for far too long. 🤦🤷
Untitled Tag - “You took someone very special to me from this world, and I will be there every step of the way to make sure you rot in a cell.” – Riley Davis to Anya Vitez. MacGyver; Season 5, Episode 5
She makes her way out of Los Angeles, takes the top down and pops a mix tape into the deck as she cruises down Route 66.
The open road stretches out in front of her. The sky is a cloudless sea of blue above her, the sun warm on her face and she feels his presence in every guitar riff that blasts through the speakers and in every growl of the muscle car’s engine.
Riley makes it to DC in three and half days. The time is two hours better than the summer she was 15. Just the two of them on a road trip she thought she would loathe, instead was one of laughs and adventures, self-discovery and the real meaning of family, and her first lesson in the Jack Dalton School of Defensive Driving.
Less than a year later he was gone from their lives. Riley had locked those memories away after that. Boxed them up and buried them deep.
Now he’s gone from her life again. She’s locked those memories up for a different reason now. Boxed them up, holds them close for safe keeping.
“Beat your time, old man,” she whispers brokenly up at the star-filled night sky that twinkles through the windshield.
She wishes with all the shattered pieces of her heart that he will once again waltz right back into her life, a smile on his face, mischief dancing in his brown eyes and an outlandish tale on his tongue.
Untitled MacDalton - As much as what drew me so deeply into Macgyver was (and still is) the found family, bromance and brotherhood, there's a part of me that wants explore the deep connection that Mac and Jack have in a different way. This is a snippet of one of the few, unfinished, MacDalton's that are sitting in my computer.
Tan skin against white sheets, Jack's sleep warm body is loose and relaxed, pressed close against Mac's own. His breathes are deep and even, warm puffs of air tickling against his shoulder where Jack's head rests. The lines on his face, evidence of a life lived to its fullest, are smoothed out and Mac wonders when the last time that Jack had this.
When was the last time that he felt safe enough that he let his guard down? Let his walls fall, leaving him vulnerable and at the complete trust of another to keep him safe?
That Jack lies beside him, oblivious, at ease, and free of care, has given that gift to Mac a mere few hours after the long years they spent apart touches deep into Mac's very soul and he has to momentarily squeeze his eyes shut against the tears that well behind his lashes.
17 notes · View notes
rai-knightshade · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
I posted 19,561 times in 2022
10 posts created (0%)
19,551 posts reblogged (100%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@wanderingnightingale
@parttimetrickster
@nodesiretogrowup
@spacesapphist
@thepondstogether
I tagged 2,620 of my posts in 2022
#zelink - 375 posts
#shirbert - 317 posts
#self reblog - 61 posts
#malec - 42 posts
#usamamo - 39 posts
#goncharov - 30 posts
#🥺🥺🥺🥺 - 21 posts
#unreality - 18 posts
#yes - 17 posts
#skyward sword - 16 posts
Longest Tag: 139 characters
#(i know he apologized in his acceptance speech but iirc the broadcast specifically mentioned he didnt apologize to chris rock specifically)
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
I see you liking every single thing on my YJK blog and now I have to stan
Tumblr media
Have a baby Jaina with her aunt Mara
THANK YOU 😂😂😂 i was reminded of my childhood love of the Young Jedi Knights via a crossover with a completely different fandom And i may have fell down the rabbit hole last night 😅 thank you for keeping this fandom alive i was almost certain i was the only person left who remembered/cared about the EU/Legends kids, especially the ones who weren't Solos and Skywalkers 😓 they are PRECIOUS and i LOVE THEM
1 note - Posted May 20, 2022
#4
crash
1 note - Posted April 1, 2022
#3
Hey! 👀+💕 for the asks!
Current ask game!
👀 Do you have any words/phrases you use habitually? 
I really like word "hence", I heard it once in like third grade and I basically made it a core part of my personality from then on. Not sure how often I use it in fic tho.... Other than that, I think I use a lot of -ly words as descriptors; wryly, ruefully, brightly, etc. A bit basic I'll admit but they get the point across and I don't have to dig out a thesaurus to understand what a character is expressing.
💕 What is the WIP that you are most excited about?
Well as mentioned in the tags of my og reblog, I've only got one WIP that I'm actually working on right now! The working title is "rest your head close to my heart, never to part (baby o'mine)", which will probably stay the title cause I always use song lyrics 😂 I'm usually inspired by music to write so it's only natural, I think. It's a fic for Anne of Green Gables, specifically the Sullivan tv movie continuity remixed into the original book continuity. Set 8 years after the third movie and with zero regard for any supposed "fourth" movies you may have heard of, it centers on the eldest Blythe child, Dominic, and how he comes to a sudden realization about himself in relation to the rest of his family, and how his question of "where did I come from?" Is answered.
Or, "so you forgot to mention to your firstborn that he's adopted and now he's asking Questions™ because he's realized he's the blonde sheep of your black-, brown- and red-haired family, what do you do?" But in fic form 😂😂😂.
I'm excited to see it finished cause I've been working on it for weeks, and because it's the first fic I've written in... A year, I think? So to get it written out will be an amazing achievement for me! I'm not sure how it'll be received cause it's a) the most self-indulgent fluffy-ass piece I've ever written--even more so than my Bradyverse, which I didn't think was possible--and is explicitly canon to the Anne movie that literally only me and like 5 other people like 😅😅 but who cares it's family fluff time!
Thank you for the ask Zelmo!!
1 note - Posted February 16, 2022
#2
⏰ What time of day do you prefer to write? 📌 If all your fics/WIPs fell off a ship and were drowning (go with it), and you could only save one, which would it be?
Time of day: whenever I've got a free moment tbh 😂😂 which currently tends to be the evenings as I work the morning shift 5 days a week. I've written or edited during my lunch times before tho so it's far from a hard and fast rule. When the inspiration strikes, it strikes!
Pick one WIP to save: well considering I only have one WIP that I'm currently working on (sorry professors!macdalton au, hopefully I'll get back to you one day), I'd say it's gonna have to be that one, titled "rest your head close to my heart, never to part (baby o'mine)". Even if it wasn't my only wip tho it'd probly be the one I save cause it's also one of the longest-taking wip I've ever had (the Brady verse doesn't count that was less one full wip and more a bunch of little snippets) and the fact that I'm still not done even tho it's been weeks is like. Torture. So I *will* finish this goddamn fic if it kills me. Wouldn't be the first death in the series at least (tho to be clear, nobody dies in this fic. It... Just happens to be about the mc finding out he's an adopted orphan, so. Clearly somebody had to die along the way. Multiple somebodies, even.)
Thanks for the ask!
1 note - Posted February 15, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
He didn't even punch him, he slapped him.
So I've seen now! (I didn't watch the Oscars this was entirely secondhand.) Honestly like. It smells like bullshit to me man idk talk to me when somebody like, fully assaults someone on stage in a full on brawl or some shit THEN maybe we can talk about losing Oscars. Not a (honestly very easily justified) slap.
3 notes - Posted March 29, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
3 notes · View notes
Link
Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: MacGyver (TV 2016) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Angus MacGyver & Matilda "Matty" Webber (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton & Matilda "Matty" Webber (MacGyver TV 2016), background Matty/James, background Riley/Sam, background Bozer/Leanna - Relationship, background Desi/Russ Characters: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), Matilda "Matty" Webber, Phoenix Team (MacGyver TV 2016) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Sexual Bondage, So many cliches, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Hurt/Comfort Summary:
Matty ambushes Mac on a Sunday before he’s had his first cup of coffee. This is kind of unfair but Mac is a spy and his boss knows she has to take advantage of his weaknesses if she wants to catch him unaware.
“You’re going on vacation,” Matty states, voice hard and leaving little room for argument.
“Whut?” Mac blinks, trying to make sense of the fact that she’s standing in his kitchen at half past seven on a Sunday morning. Behind him, the coffee machine makes a pathetic noise before shutting down, and he remembers that he was supposed to repair that yesterday.
In a world where soulmates recognize each other by their first words, Mac takes a vacation that goes downhill fast. In the end, it takes the combined effort of the Phoenix team to save the day and Mac's soulmate.
13 notes · View notes
jackspaperclip · 1 year
Text
A lil snip of one of the fics I'm working on
Their cover stories are real au
"I don't know a thing about tile, well I do know how to make a bomb out of mastic"
"Well you definitely know how to break them"
"Maybe you could teach me something" Mac puts a hand on Jack's arm, Jack takes the invitation to turn face to face with Mac.
"If I didn't know better I would think you broke those tiles on purpose to get me here" Jack lowers his voice, slowly putting his hands on Mac's hips.
"Good thing you know better" Mac closes the space between them.
2 notes · View notes
frozenmemories1987 · 6 months
Text
Fanfic Writer Ask Game
Tagged by @jencsi <3
1. How many works do you have on ao3? 182
2. What's your total ao3 word count? 318.659
3. What fandoms do you write for? My top fandoms are CSI, Spartacus, MacGyver and The 100
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Learning to Fall - MacGyver Eternal Tethers - Spartacus Unspeakable Beauty - Spartacus Red Handed, Red Rimmed, Bare Skinned - Spartacus Soft Kisses and Whispers of Love - Spartacus
5. Do you respond to comments? Mostly
6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I prefer fluff and smut but I guess Absent Heart (Spartacus)
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of my fics have happy endings, really can't tell. One of the fluffiest might be Five Weddings (CSI)
8. Do you get hate on fics? I've gotten a strange comment about MacDalton being platonic but that was on a piece of art and not an actual fic
9. Do you write smut? Absolutely
10. Do you wrote crossovers? What's the craziest one you've ever written? My Mandy/Jill series (Mandy from CSI and Jill from MacGyver) And I've done that odd little The 100/Spartacus crossover once
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of
12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not that I know of 
13. Have you ever co written a fic? Yes, multiple times and it's always been a blast
14. What's your all time favourite ship? Nick x David (CSI) and Lugo x Auctus (Spartacus) and actually all my ships from Spartacus
15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Well there's the sequel to Savages East of the Rhine, my Spartacus Brothel AU, Duro adopting Varro & Aurelia's kid after they die and a number of Star Trek Discovery wips... and then some 
16. What are your writing strengths? Tough. I think I'm good at getting into a character's POV, making the reader feel like they're right with the character. I also consider myself a fairly decent smut writer. I've been praised for my canon language skills in Spartacus fic, which I pride myself on. Generally dialogue, I always put great effort into making the characters sound in character and close to canon.
17. What are your writing weaknesses? World building, plot, getting from a to b. I tend to visualize scenes but then I need to get the characters there and I often struggle with "greater picture" parts.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I've used some German phrases in a fic where there was a German character. I don't feel comfortable using a language I'm not fluent in (English is already my second language) but if the show has a conlang or a character uses phrases in their native tongue a lot I'll try to incorporate that. Might wanna try to find a native speaker to proof read though.
19. First fandom you wrote for? CSI
20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Please don't ask me that, there are so many. I'm probably most proud of Savages East of the Rhine though
Okay, that took forever. Tagging my friends @telltaleclerk, @stormkpr, @kallisto-k, @guggi04 and @obscureenthusiast in this
6 notes · View notes
thepinkcrayon · 1 year
Link
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: MacGyver (TV 2016) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Characters: Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Additional Tags: Spanking, Dom/sub Undertones, corner time, no shock collar used on screen, Crying, Anxiety Attacks, Paddling Summary:
Mac STILL can't get it through his head to worry about his own safety. Jack feels like he needs to up his game. It does not go as planned.
2 notes · View notes
telltaleclerk · 1 year
Text
Guess who's writing a MacDalton Christmas fic bitches! ;)
@paigewinchester67 knows all about it.
22 notes · View notes
dirtyrottenraskel · 3 years
Text
hear me out: character a & character b break up, and it’s messy as shit right
they block each other on everything but spotify
cue character a making a bunch of angry passive aggressive playlists and character b has secretly been listening to them bc they miss character a
B U T here’s the kicker
character a can see character b listening bc spotify is a snitch & will tell u what ppl u follow are listening to
and time and space from each other has only made the yearning worse
so character a starts making apology playlists and character b keeps listening to them, and makes one of their own like “missing you” or smth sappy like that
and character a makes a collaborative playlist titled “dear character b” and all the songs spell out like take me back, if you’ll have me - or smth sappy like that
and character b shows up at character a’s house with flowers with a tag that have a spotify barcode to a playlist called “come back to me, my love”
4K notes · View notes
heavenssexiestangel · 9 months
Note
Hii 🩵
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖
hiii Peonie!!!
5 fics mmmh my fave fics. mmmh
Okay. In no real order tbh
Firepit + Love Confessions (MacDalton, MacGyver 2016). I went to re-read and I don't even remember writing it, to be honest, but I know it's one of my most loved in that fandom. And re-reading it? I love it too.
Mac + Torture + Jack + Rescue (MacDalton, MacGyver 2016). LMAO I should go on a self-reread of my MacGyver fics tbh
Of Hamantaschen & Gifts (Debriel, Supernatural). Nuff said. I loved writing this
Love and Gunpowder (Michean, Supernatural).
Stay the Night (Gadreel/Dean, Supernatural)
1 note · View note
ilkkawhat · 2 years
Note
Please for the prompts? Mac and Jack with "They won't take you away from me ever again."
[GOOD MORNING EVERYONE ENJOY THE ANGST]
They buried an empty casket.
Mac knew it was empty when the news came, when his dog tags were swung in front of him like a pendulum, when his mother called him with an unrecognizable voice underwater in a sea of tears.
He knew it was empty and had to pretend that it was real, that he had just lost his best friend, just lost the biggest mistake in his life in not following him, not going kaboom when he went kaboom.
He even had to pretend that there weren't sandbags in the casket that he helped carry to its rest, right next to his senior that he conversed with very often, to keep him from being lonely while his son was away on a suicide mission, and to tell him the truth of what that mission was.
He had to act so stoic at the wake. At the funeral. At his house afterwards. Had to watch as the rest of his team—his family mourned the idea of a man that they just buried in the ground.
And even on their revenge mission, Mac had to pretend that he was dead, even with all of the clues that obviously pointed out that he was very much alive.
He had to pretend his hopes weren't ridiculously high, however. Especially when he started seeing people on the street who looked just like him, when Riley stopped wasting time on tears and became an unstoppable force, when even Bozer threw life ending punches with just one fist, when Matty took all her anger out on Mac, chastising him for his dumb calls and dumb references and dumb attitude because she knew, too.
That he was just pretending.
He even allowed himself to have a sliver of fun in the facade, paying homage to the fallen soldier in the best way he could when he found himself face to face with the entity that supposedly killed him.
Two guns, two pieces of duct tape.
One battle cry that would call out to him, bring him back home.
Mac had to pretend that was it. Took a joyride with Riley in her inherited GTO, moved all the boxes out of his apartment, helped his family settle all of his affairs while he was opening separate bank accounts under his name—well, a code name, because Matty and Riley would whip anyone's ass that tried to steal his identity.
He had to pretend that he was taking a vacation when he flew solo, and when he landed, he didn't have to pretend anymore.
He found him under the rubble of the explosion that supposedly killed him. He knew the first responders had been tipped off, bribed into saying there were no survivors, collecting a few jars of dust as the "ashes" that were sent to the soldier's home country.
But all the while, that team that should have been dead was very much alive, and rose like a phoenix out of those so-called ashes.
And then Mac had to start pretending again, while the reason he came here was wheeled to the ER on a stretcher. He had to pretend he wasn't crying, had to pretend that he wasn't afraid of what he found, had to pretend it would all be okay.
He had to pretend to be innocent when he made the call to the Phoenix, telling them where he was and what he found.
He had to pretend that he recognized the man wrapped up in bandages, tied up in tubes, his breathing hissing out of the pump that kept him alive. He had to pretend that the heart rate monitor wasn't going to flatline, that he had hung on this far, and would make it out of this.
He had to pretend he wasn't so drained, so exhausted from everything that had happened, and almost fell asleep.
Almost.
He didn't have to pretend when scorched fingertips wiggled, when a pair of foggy eyes opened and met his, when he heard the voice of this mystery man that confirmed everything he had hypothesized.
"Mmmmmmaccccccc..." a long moan, an attempt to break the silence that had bricked its way between them since he walked away out of Mac's life.
"Jack," Mac couldn't hide it anymore, the floodgates opened and he, as firmly and yet as gently as he could, cupped Jack's hand between his own, a few teardrops melting into the bandages and hopefully didn't sting Jack as much as it stung him.
He waited until Jack was fully conscious, when Jack was able to say more than one word, when he was able to even hear more than one word, before Mac told the man that he loved more than anything in the world how he found him, and made a promise to him that he wished he would have made years ago.
"They won't take you away from me ever again."
40 notes · View notes