#mac has magic

I’m working on a much longer Magic Mac fic and I’ve just breached the 10k mark (and still going ).

First person to give me a number between 1-24 gets to pick which page I give you a little snippet from.  (Might be a short snippet if its especially spoilery but I thought this might be fun).

Written for @macgyvercairo Day 2 prompt: Fever.

Set in my Mac has magic universe but again, this stands alone.

Read on AO3 or under the cut

Mac’s skin was prickling, the itch of his magic just under the surface, and he was hot.  Baking in the Cairo heat, burning in the Afghanistan desert, blistering in the scorching sun, hot. He rolled his head on the ground, his throbbing head aching in a repetitive beat.  His magic churned in warning, leaving an uneasy feeling in his gut.

Someone moved in front of him, asking him a question before shining a bright light in his face and Mac jerked his head away, screwing his eyes shut with a groan.  Damn, was this some kind of interrogation?  He could hear some kind of conversation going on around him, but the voices didn’t make sense, fading in and out, sounding familiar yet incomprehensible.  He felt a scratch on his arm and he wrenched it away.  “No.” He mumbled, the word sticking in his mouth and he tried to twist away even as more hands stopped him.  “No!”

Panic flared and with a crushing pop the lights went out.  Struggling, Mac sat up, digging his hands into his eyes as his magic spiked, crackling and sending sparks flying around him.

He didn’t know what was going on.  He didn’t know where he was.  But he wasn’t safe, that much he knew.

Cornered and alone, he instinctively raised his hand, shoving everyone in the room back until they hit the wall, pinning them against it.  His arm started shaking, he didn’t know what they’d done to him, but he wasn’t going to be strong enough to hold them there for long and he scrambled to his feet, leaning against the bed as he swayed.

“Mac,Mac,”

He frowned, his head was swimming but that sounded like Jack’s voice?

“Jack?”

“Yeah, bud.  I’m here.”  Jack appeared in the corner of his eye, moving cautiously as he approached.  “Where are you, kid?”

“I’m…” Mac didn’t know.  His head hurt, his legs shook and he was too hot but he didn’t know where he was, he didn’t know the answer.

“Okay, that’s okay, don’t worry about that.”  Jack said.  “What matters is that you’re safe, Mac.  Okay?  I’m with you now and I promise, you’re safe.”

Jack was safety.  Mac knew that.  Jack was safe like Bozer was safe, except Jack could also take out four men with two shots.  And Jack understood the darkness more than Mac ever thought he would.  Jack could protect him.  If Jack said he was safe, then he was safe.

“How about you let these folks go, Mac?  Just let them leave, I won’t let them come near you.”

Mac wavered, he trusted Jack.  But what if it was a trick?  Was Jack really here?

“You’re safe, Mac.”  Jack repeated, he was nearly close enough to touch now.

“I’m safe,”  Mac whispered, as his legs gave out, falling against strong arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, kid.” Jack said softly when Mac opened his eyes, as he brushed back Mac’s hair and replaced the cool cloth on his forehead.  “You with me this time?”

Mac blinked slowly, there was more clarity in them than Jack had seen for hours but Mac was still rocking a significant fever.  And he confirmed Jack’s hypothesis when he muttered.

“This time?…with you every time.”

“Guess not.” Jack chuckled.  “You realise you said that out loud, right?”

“Oh.”

“How’re you feeling kid?”

“Mmmm.”

“That’s not an answer, dude.  I need some words.”

“Hot.”  Mac whispered.  “Did we finish the mission?”

Jack tried not to let the disappointment show on his face.  He’d been hoping they were past this, the confusion and the lost look Mac would get on his face.

“Yeah, mission’s done, bud.”  Jack answered, patting Mac’s shoulder, judging from the look on Mac’s face he couldn’t remember what the mission had been anyway.  But Jack could.  He remembered how Mac spiked a fever on the flight home and it had only gotten worse when Jack had hauled him into medical.  Something to do with Mac’s magic, burning him up from the inside and the only treatment his doctors had suggested was to ride it out.

“When’s ex-fil?”

“Mac, do you know where you are?”  Jack carefully worded the question and Mac opened his eyes fully, his gaze locking onto Jack before sliding away to take in the rest of the room.  It was entirely empty apart from the bed and a chair for Jack, but at least Jack could see there was some recognition in his eyes.  Mac stretched out his arm, where an IV was attached with an excessive amount of medical tape and his fingers picked at a loose edge.

“Don’t do that, bud.”  Jack cautioned, gently relocating the fingers.  “Took me ages to get that in, you don’t want to experience a round two.”

“I’m in medical?”  Mac frowned.  “’s empty?”

Jack sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.

“Yeah, you were brought in with a fever of 104.  You didn’t know where you were or what was going on.”  Jack swallowed at the memory.  “You blew the monitors, and I was the only person you’d let near you.”

Bright eyes immediately turned worried.  “Did I hurt anyone?”

“No, no, Mac.” Jack quickly reassured him.  “Everyone’s fine.  You knocked some things over, got a little pushy, that’s all.”

Okay, maybe Jack was playing it down a lot.  It had looked like a small explosion had gone off in the room by the time Jack had got there.  Sparks lighting up the dark with Mac drenched in sweat and breathing hard in the middle of a bed, absolutely terrified and using his magic to protect himself from the people who wanted to help him.

And that was the humbling thing, Jack had been exempt from all this.  The only person Mac trusted,  the only one he’d allowed to touch him.

Speaking of touching it was time for another vitals check.  Jack slipped his hand around Mac’s wrist until his fingertips found his pulse and counted the steady beats.  He’d been doing the regular checks and reporting the numbers back to the nurses ever since Mac had melted the cardiac leads Jack had tried to attach earlier.

“What are you doing?”  Mac’s sleepy voice asked.

“We’re doing it old school, since you trashed the monitors and wouldn’t let anyone else near you, you’ve had good ol’ Nurse Dalton doing vital checks all night.”

“I can fix the monitors.”  Mac muttered as he fumbled with pushing back the blanket pooled around his waist.  It took worryingly little effort for Jack to still his hands and tug the blanket back up.

“Maybe later, Mac.”  Jack said, noting as he finished with taking Mac’s temperature that it had increased slightly since last time.  “Going in the wrong direction again, bud.”

“Sorry.” Mac whispered, trying to stay awake.

“It’s alright. Just close your eyes, Mac.  Get some rest, yeah?  I’ll be here when you wake.”

Written for @macgyvercairo Cairo Week Day 1 for the image prompt.

Set in my Mac has Magic universe during the Sandbox era but this stands alone, all you need to know is that Mac has magic, Jack knows, and magic users are banned from military service so Mac has to keep the magic secret.

Also on AO3

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“Are you going to tell me why we’re here, now?”  Mac asked as Jack cut the engine after going off-road and driving to this secluded area with nothing but a cryptic ‘you’ll see.”

“How many of those things have you made this last week?”  Jack replied with his own question, shifting in his seat and nodding at the paper clip sculpture starting to take shape in Mac’s hands.

Mac bit his lip, closing his fist self-consciously over the metal.  Jack had never acted like it bothered him before.  “I dunno.”  He replied with a shrug.  Except he did know, he’d gone through two large boxes in as many days, he just didn’t want to admit it.

“Well, I do, a lot.  And I know you use your magic to help bend the things into impossible shapes and I also know you do that partly because you need to bleed off your excess magic when you haven’t been able to use it in a while.”  Jack paused, his voice softening.  “I know that’s gotta suck, having to keep it hidden all the time.”

“Yeah.” It was all Mac could manage past the lump in his throat. He knew Jack was observant, scarily so sometimes, but he’d never realised Jack paid so much attention to him. That he even cared that much.  No one had ever noticed before how he used his magic to complete some of the more trickier designs and how he used it to siphon off his magic, to stop it from boiling over and slipping out accidentally.

“So,”  Jack gestured to the empty view out the windscreen, “ain’t nobody gonna see you here, have at it, do your thing.”  Jack finished, wiggling his fingers, his own shorthand for Mac’s magic.

Mac stared, barely moving, still trying to process that a man who’d had him in a headlock when they’d first met just a few months ago, now cared enough to find a space free from prying eyes, safe for Mac’s magic to be let loose.

“What?”  Jack asked, his self confidence at his surprise for Mac fading from his eyes.

“Nothing man, just… no one’s ever noticed before, I, uh… thanks.”  Mac slipped the paper clip he was still holding into a pocket.

“You’re welcome.” Jack said sincerely, as if he knew how much this meant to Mac.

Mac stepped out and walked to the front of the humvee, barely holding back an eager smile as he dropped to a crouch and placed his hands on the ground, his fingertips digging into the sandy soil.  He closed his eyes, trusting Jack to watch his back and dropped the barriers around his magic on a long exhale.  Like a coiled spring finally allowed to stretch, his magic burst free and although Mac channelled it into the ground, the air still tingled with a static charge.

Standing, he opened his eyes, lifting a layer of dust as he rose that he sent spiralling into a whirl.  With a twist of his hands, the dust settled into a shape of a horse, complete with the form of a cowboy twirling a lasso, eliciting a chuckle from behind him.  The horse did a lap around them before rearing up on his back legs, triumphant and blowing away on the wind.  Reaching out again, he focused on the ground, on every seed lying dormant and poured energy into them until bright bushy green foliage erupted all around them, turning the area lush and filling the air with the smell of cut grass.

“Damn, kid.” Jack sounded proud and Mac glanced back to see awe in his eyes.

Smiling, Mac’s eyes glistened gold and flowers burst into bloom all around as he summoned colourful sparklers in the air.  Popping off tiny bangs of colour, and showering them both with sparks.  It was beautiful and fun and a thousand miles from the destruction and pain they saw every day.  But it was also a risky thing to do, even in the middle of nowhere and Mac reluctantly stopped the mini explosions with a satisfied sigh and a roll of his shoulders.  That had felt good.  His magic felt settled now, no longer a swollen river threatening to break the banks.

“You done?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, I’m done.”  Mac said, turning to return to the humvee.

“You gonna clear that up then?”  Jack gestured around them with amusement, it was more than a little suspicious, the little oasis Mac had created.

With a fond eye roll, Mac casually glanced back, the plants disappearing in a puff of fire and smoke.  And as he walked past Jack he fished out his paper clip from his pocket, his magic quickly extending and manipulating the length of silver metal into a cowboy on a horse before handing it over.

“Thanks, Jack.”