A/N ~ If you've been around me much at all here on ffn, you'll know it's a tradition for me to write a fic with Jack prominently featured for Gib on her birthday. This year, she's also finally going to stop running into burning buildings and giving her friends grey hair. At least in any kind of official capacity. So, instead of a one shot birthday fic, I've decided to go back to the beginning. I'm going to dive in to every episode. Starting here. With The Rising.

Jack's back.

Happy birthday, and beyond.

Still I Rise

Mac pulled up outside the palazzo. He was glad the team had needed to split up to get here. He could hide what was going on in his head over the comms. But in person Jack would have called him out by now. He felt legitimately a little nervous. Thornton didn't often take a team when she did missions. The fact that she had tonight would very much be a feather in the cap of his team. Well, if everything went according to plan.

He took a deep breath and pulled on his game face. If the plan went to Hell, he'd figure something out. That's what he did. That was probably why Thornton had tapped his team anyway. They had a reputation for making it up as they went along and pulling missions back from the brink. Considering he was one of the youngest agents in the history of DXS, he didn't mind.

He squared his shoulders and got out of the car. He looked around. They'd maintained radio silence since he'd had to pass through a number of security checkpoints that were scanning for surveillance tech. Now, after a quick assessment, he figured it was safe to get back in touch with the team.

He'd met Nikki quite a while ago. And they'd certainly attempted to start a relationship a number of times. But they hadn't really gotten serious until after Cairo. It was quite a novelty to have a girlfriend who was cleared for every piece of information about his job. He hadn't decided yet, if he liked having his girlfriend on his team. It blurred some lines, made it hard to focus on the mission sometimes. Let's face it, Mac, she makes it hard to focus on much of anything. And you like that about her.

He couldn't deny that was usually true. There's been a time in his life when asking out a beautiful girl had only ever happened on a lost bet and hadn't ended well. Nikki was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever known. And she clearly liked being in the field with him. She'd been very interested in his cover for tonight, asking Thornton very pointedly if she thought Alan Green should have a date.

Distracted from the mission for a moment again, Mac grinned and looked up. "So, how do I look?"

They flirted back and forth until Jack sighed audibly and pulled Mac's focus back to the mission, with a good-natured, "Guys, you know this is an open channel and I can hear you, right?"

Mac felt his face heating up. He had totally forgotten Jack was listening. Jack didn't say too much about Mac's relationship with Nikki. But he got the idea that his partner thought it was a bad idea. Jack had mentioned more than once, that he might have been a skinny science nerd once, but now he was a grown assed secret agent, who was more than a little cute in the face if the way the women they worked with were any indication. Mac didn't see it.

Still, he appreciated Jack getting his brain back on track. Jack sounded more nervous than Mac felt though, so he did his part to keep the mood relaxed. Mac didn't like catastrophizing. Jack had a tendency to do that sometimes.

"Relax," he smirked as he moved toward the door. "It can't be worse than Cairo."

Mac grinned a little as the banter between Nikki and Jack returned to that of colleagues rather than the slightly competitive edge for his attention it had sometimes. As he made his way into the party, his pre-mission nerves faded into the background. Jack had his six, and not only was Nikki an eagle eye on the mission with the satellite feed, once he put on his glasses, she'd be like having superpowers.

Thornton had gone ahead of them to do recognizance. Their intel had been extremely limited. They knew DXS needed boots on the ground here, but exactly what that was going to look like, none of them had been sure. When Thornton filled him in on where the suspected weapon was being held, it took more of an effort to keep his game face in place. He wanted to get through that heavily guarded door about as much as he'd actually wanted to chat about Cairo a few minutes ago.

Still, if things went really south, Jack was only about a minute away, Nikki was keeping eyes on everything and gathering intelligence on everyone at the party, and … Hey, that's not a bad idea …

He ditched his jacket and slipped into the role of a waiter with practiced ease. He couldn't help his grin broadening a little when Nikki was impressed with his Italian. She'd agreed to go to Rome on a vacation together the next time they got some time off. If this mission was successful, Thornton had already agreed to a couple of weeks. Mac had some real motivation to make that happen. He was ready to talk about moving in together and Rome was just romantic enough to encourage her agreement.

His solenoid worked perfectly. And he slipped inside the now unguarded room.

Things went smoothly.

For a few minutes anyway.

Then things started to look more like he was used to. He became entirely focused on fooling the handprint scanner between him and his objective. He did flush a little when Nikki said, in complete seriousness, that she always watched his six. He was grateful that she didn't add she'd rather have a handful of it. Although, he would be more than okay with the topic coming up again once they were on the flight home and his partner was snoring on one of the couches.

Mac swallowed hard when he cracked the safe and found he was dealing with what was almost definitely a biological weapon. Jack was already low-key freaking out a little. He could hear it in his voice. If he was honest, Mac would have rather dealt with something nuclear, too. Bombs he understood. Bioweapons … not so much. He wasn't a biology guy. Even a all. Still, this one looked secure. And it appeared he'd already dealt with all the measures that might alert the host that his payoff was about to take a trip to Vienna. It's self-contained refrigeration was fully charged, too.

Unfortunately, when he lifted it … things went from kind of okay and improvising is all it would take to well, shit. The alarm started blaring. "Ooops."

"Oops like I just stubbed my toe, or oops I just started the zombie apocalypse?" Jack asked, checking his weapon and getting ready to run in and deal with either.

There wasn't any time to answer before Mac was running out of the building, dodging bullets. "Jack! Start the boat! Start the damned boat!"

Just once I'd like a mission to go like it's supposed to. Instead of feeling like a scene out of Indiana Jones, Mac thought as he leapt into the boat.

He was almost ready to mentally grasp victory when their escape derailed.

Jack swore under his breath. "I think we got a problem here, Mac. Check it out."

The engine sputtered and Mac could see the fuel gauge dropping rapidly. "They hit our fuel line!" Mac was no where near panicking. But for a minute, his brain couldn't come up with any solution other than getting caught. Well, getting shot. These goons didn't look like they cared about taking prisoners. Only getting back that canister.

Jack knew the look. So, he fell back on a strategy he'd first developed in Afghanistan. He opened his mouth and said something ridiculous. "So, break out the chewing gum."

Mac threw him a familiar look. Jack didn't grin but it was an effort. Even more than watching Mac's back, keeping him out of his own head was a job Jack took very seriously. Not that he could say that to Mac. The kid would just get defensive.

Mac's rolled his eyes and Jack knew his partner's brain was actually back on the problem. "It's gonna take more than chewing gum to fix it." He glanced back down at the fuel gauge. "We're gonna be out of fuel in about forty-five seconds." Mac looked around, not quite chewing his lip, then tried to pass the canister to Jack. "Here, hold this."

They both ducked as more gunfire rained around them. "No!" Jack snapped, shaking his head emphatically. He'd die for the kid if that's what the job called for. Hell, he very nearly had more than once. But Jack Dalton would be damned if he was gonna be patient zero in the goddamned zombie apocalypse. They'd had too many close calls with biological crap from right out of the gate as it was.

Mac looked momentarily furious. "This really is Cairo all over again."

"Hey, Cairo was your fault, man."

Mac's eyes shot daggers Jack's way. So maybe Cairo had been a little his fault, but if Jack hadn't been screwing around and acting like a twelve year old to begin with, he wouldn't have had to try something desperate. "Hold this and get out of my way."

Mac shoved the canister in Jack's hands.

"Ah!" he half protested. But Mac was already moving around with a determination that said a new plan was already under way. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast."

Mac didn't answer him, just kept working. Finally, he pulled off his tie and wound it around the boat's wheel. Then he killed the lights.

Mac just grabbed the canister. Jack couldn't even make out his face anymore, but asked, "Why are we going back?"

"We're not! Jump!" Mac gave him a light shove in the direction of the edge of the boat.

"What!?" He might have argued with the plan, but Mac had already flung himself into the black water.

Jack followed a second later. He gasped at the icy water. He'd have guessed it was maybe 45 or 50 degrees. A hell of a lot colder than the Pacific in spring and Jack already thought people who went to the beach this time of year were fairly nuts to begin with. Mac included. Although he noticed Mac hadn't done as much surfing since he and Nikki became a thing. He'd mentioned it once or twice, but Mac just brushed him off. Jack decided to just be glad the kid wasn't recreationally trying to catch pneumonia half the time.

"Come on!" Mac said, sounding pretty breathless himself.

They swam in the opposite direction of the boat as quickly as they could. Still, when it collided with the security guys a few seconds later, they had to dive down under the surface of the water to avoid the fireball and the raining debris. Jack was pretty sure there were some body parts coming down, but he tried not to think about it.

When they resurfaced, Jack treaded water, looking around the darkness at the many lights on the shoreline. "Where the hell are we?"

Mac stuffed the canister into his shirt so he'd have both arms to swim with. The water was freezing, so even wanting to get to exfil aside, the sooner they got to the van, the better. "No idea. Nikki?"

Nothing.

Jack tried tapping his ear piece. "Nikki? Thornton?"

"They must've fried when we went under."

"Or when we jumped into this ice box."

He could hear Mac's grin. "Quit your whining. You're gonna need to air to keep up with me, old man."

Mac started swimming in the direction of one particular cluster of lights.

"You figured out where we are?" Jack asked, following with long sure stroked that pulled him even with Mac pretty quickly.

"Not really, but I think that's the bridge Nikki was planning on parking near."

"That looks about a mile away. We're gonna freeze our…"

"Like I said, save your breath. I'll race you."

Mac didn't wait for Jack to respond, just started pulling through the water with this almost silent efficiency only someone who'd spent a lot of time fighting currents in the ocean back home could possibly have.

"Call me old man, ya little shit," Jack grumbled, and determined to catch up.

Besides, swimming would not only get him to shore faster. Hopefully the work out would keep him warm.