Bearing Accidents With Dignity and Grace (Not Really)

Sorry I Shot You...

Just to let ya'll know, title comes from this quote by Aristotle: "The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."

Mac hated being undercover. Yeah, sure, maybe the royalty gigs were a little fun, but the undercover work he was doing right now was horrid.

He was a terrorist. Plain and simple (at least for other people), he made bombs and was looking for hire. The former bomb maker that worked there, well, there is nothing to be discussed. Literally. The bomb he messed up on is the one that Mac was sent to retrieve.

And the worst part? He is completely and utterly solo. No person on the entire Earth except Matilda Webber knows he is undercover. And she can't even communicate with him; the searches for The Association are too extensive.

That is how he got here. Standing in front of a bomb, a big one at that, light shining on it from the window. He was wearing a very uncomfortable camouflage uniform (if you can even call it that). His hair, oh, his beautiful, gorgeous, blonde hair, had been dyed and put up. Call it a requirement of the terrorist group.

The only warning he got was the slight movement of the light from the window before he collapsed. A burning hot pain was felt in his shoulder before he even saw the blood on his tan shirt.

Uh-oh. That might be Phoenix. His suspicions were confirmed when he glanced out of the window and saw a familiar face in one of the TAC uniforms. I can't let them know one of them shot me! Mac quickly got his go-bag that was in that room and used the first-aid supplies (Hey, you never know when you will get shot) to patch the wound. It worked, so he shoved his new clothes on, putting the bloody uniform in his bag. He quickly got his coat on as a Phoenix agent entered the room. But not just any...

"Hey, Jack," Mac said, doing his best to sound normal.

Jack looked completely and utterly baffled, "Did I shoot you?"

Mac did his best to mirror Jack's confused expression, "Did you wake up this morning asking that to random people?"

Jack tilted his head, shifting the rifle in his arms, "If you weren't in here before, then who was?"

"I was in here, like, 5 seconds before you came in. I have no clue what you are talking about," Mac replied, hoping his partner would believe him.

Jack only responded with a huff and jogged out of the door, probably looking for the person he shot. Mac let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding and sat down on one of the chairs. Jack didn't even know the bomb was a bomb.

Before Mac could call Matty to give a quick run over of what happened, Jack came in, breathing hard from running, "Dude. What is with your hair?"

Mac smiled, "I have gone through, like, 8 haircuts these past few weeks. I wanted to try a different style."

Jack lifted his eyebrows, a disbelieving look on his face, "Now, brother, I understand that you wanted to change your hair, but dying it 50 different colors?"

Mac exhaled loudly, still grinning, "Don't you have a person to catch?"

The older agent rolled his eyes and went out of the room, hopefully permanently so Mac could get the phone call to Matty over with.

"What's up, blondie? How did it go?" Matty asked.

Mac debated what to tell her, then settled on the truth, "I didn't know the raid was happening and Jack, well, um, he sort of, kind of, shot me."

He could practically feel Matty's facial expression of disbelief over the phone, "How does your partner of forever manage to shoot you?"