The whole affair ends after a total of three hours. The Reyes cleanup crew arrive in the nick of time as Mac and Tony dust themselves off and get out of the basement.

Mac steels himself for a moment, foot throbbing like hell and heart hammering against his chest. His lips twist a little as he struggles to keep pace with Tony's lithe legs up the stairs.

The asshole, Mac glowers. As they leave the area with all their adrenaline rush leaving their bodies, Tony replaces his earpiece.

"G? G??" Tony tries but to no avail. The silence is unnerving on the other line. There is nothing but the sounds of static getting louder and louder.

Mac tries on his own earpiece."G?"

"I told you both to be careful." Instead of the robotic voice, it's the familiar sound of a girl he knows breathing heavily into the receiver. She sounds restrained, as if trying to keep herself in check.

"I'm sorry." Tony wants to point out it isn't entirely his fault but saves that conversation in favor of chiding her. "Giselle, your voice changer isn't on again. You know you're supposed to keep it on when we're on a mission." Tony pockets the USB and wipes his cheek as he speaks.

On long missions like these, Mac remembers the times he forgets Giselle is the G they speak to. He can imagine her standing among the monitors while immersed in her own work, special black gloves on her hands as electricity flows around her. She would look ethereal with that glow around her. G merely shuts them down coolly as she has always done. The sounds of static only grows. "I leveled an entire fucking power grid for you."

"So that black-out was mostly you?"

"All of it." G practically growls into the speaker. "Anything to keep you safe."

Mac pretends to hope it was directed at him. That that small delay between Tony getting pummeled by Vasquez and the bullet hitting his foot wasn't just a stupid coincidence. He looks at Tony and the fondness he knows is mirrored in Giselle's eyes to remember life isn't fair.

He glances at Tony whose eyes are now glazed with concern and a little bit of fear. He holds the rings held together by a chain. He kisses both the thick golden one and the wrap around shaped almost like a lightning bolt.

"Hey," He pats Tony's shoulder reassuringly. "Let's go home?" There's hell to pay for botching the mission but it can wait for tomorrow. For now they're all tired. He's pretty sure they both want to go home.

"Of course." Tony relaxes a bit and it's all Mac can hope for at the moment as the dead air between the two of them continues to grow. They walk to the entrance together quietly.

"I'll deliver Tony back home." He says proudly. That's all he's good for anyway. "Don't worry, Giselle."

Tony rolls his eyes like it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard.

"I messaged Chuck about the current status of the mission." Oh shit. "They sends their regards and for the clean up orders as the floor is messed up now."

"Messed up being an understatement." Tony mumbles and Mac elbows him before they can both giggle..

"We'll be home in an hour. Do you want us to get you anything?" Tony smiles almost appeasingly.

"Anything not-rice." G says after a small pause. Tony relaxes a little more with that small budge on her part. "I'll see you two at home. Love you."

Tony smiles before turning off his earpiece. The innocent tone hits Mac straight through the heart. It shouldn't though. Right?

Tony makes a vague sound and Mac looks at him curiously. "Sus naman. Di ka naman nagsagot sa kanya."

"Fuck off, Kiko."

They kick Vasquez on the way out as the clean-up crew fix his body to something more visually pleasing than the mangled mess Tony left it in before Mac had to restrain him. The chunks of pink flesh hang out of every stab mark jaggedly riddled across his body. Keys never make clean stab wounds but they sure make you bleed. The satisfied look on Tony's face is only challenged by how simply the USB fits in his hand.

Mac groans because the landlord will probably yell at them now, he thinks as he gets into the car and Tony goes shotgun.

Everything is silent save the sound of mainstream pop on the radio. Even its beat seems vastly muted with the sounds of the city barely awake or getting there. The cold air sticks to their skin as Mac rolls the window down. It's too stuffy to have a good conversation, after all.

"Are you okay?" He starts.

"Yeah. It's not as bad as it looks." Tony looks up, not really looking at Mac before they settle on fiddling with the radio again. "You?"

"Barely stings." Mac says as his foot screams bloody murder. "Although, you're a really bad liar."

A beat of silence.

Suddenly, Mac lightly punches his shoulder and they both burst in a fit of giggles. Tony laughs aloud, he knows when he's been caught. "You aren't any better, just so you know."

Mac switches tracks now the the air around them seems to calm. "Giselle is fine, you know. If she couldn't handle it, she would have called us to come home."

Tony stared at him evenly as they turn into the main road. "She did call."

"Yeah but she wanted take out which buys us time."

Tony tries a small smile as they're greeted with a barrage of neon lights. "As if five years isn't enough time to wait-"

"Dude." Mac glares at him. "Too close."

"Mhm." Tony laughs. "Of course it is. Not like you'll ever get close enough."

"Give your approval and maybe I'll have enough confidence."

Tony sits up on his chair. "No way."

"Uhuh." Mac relaxes a little more. "And you wonder why I can't make a move."

"I'm not saying you can't, Chan." Tony rolls his eyes as they turn into the fast food district. "Just that you're not ready."

"Thanks." Mac said through closed lips, overreacting being crestfallen. "My poor Geeniebear wait for me." He says with the theatrics of a heartbroken man.

To that, Tony glowers and hits him lightly with his fists as the pull into the drive through of the cheapest fast food they could find. "Call her that again and I'll strangle you."

Mac watches Tony's shoulders sink lower while they laugh. For a moment, he imagines Giselle's on top of it. Her bright eyes and brighter laughter.

She'll be okay, Mac says to himself. And so will we.