New Fic: Being Human

[jackwabbit]

Being Human

Fandom: MacGyver (2016)
Rated: G
Category: Double Drabble. Matty and Jack Friendship.
Time Frame: Season Two, Right After “X-Ray Plus Penny”
Spoilers: Nothing specific, but knowing the events of “X-Ray Plus Penny” helps. Or just assume Mac has gotten himself into (and out of) trouble, Jack still blames himself, and Matty’s not having it. The usual.
Summary: Jack is tough as nails. Matty is tougher than that. And yet…
Disclaimer: I own several Swiss Army knives, and I think I have a paper clip around here somewhere.
Note: Companion piece to “Filed Away,” but can be read alone.

---

“So. Mac’s safe. You ready to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

Raised eyebrows and a stare were the only answer.

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.”

“I mean, not really?”

“Jack…”

Jack looked away, shook his head slightly, then huffed out the smallest snort.

“We fought, Matty.”

Matty nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“He’s just a kid, and we fought, and then…”

And then the tears came.

Matty didn’t argue that MacGyver wasn’t a child or make any of the other roughly twenty logical arguments that came to mind.

She just held him.

She held him as he babbled incoherently using words like “what if” and “lost” and “fault”.

She held him until he was done; until he’d put himself back into some semblance of order and was pacing the office while looking anywhere but at her; until he mumbled “appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this” at nearly the same time as she said “this stays between us, then?”

And never had two human beings been so grateful that the office glass was set to opaque.

Because a crying Jack Dalton and a comforting Matty Webber were indeed human.

But that didn’t mean they had to like it.