Not by blood, but by fire and water

Chapter 13

It's fine, Mac. I'm fine," Jack persisted.

'That's way too much blood,' Mac thought, ignoring his partner.

He pulled up the shirt expecting to see the knife wound bleeding again but instead he found the majority of the bleeding coming from an oversaturated cloth, held on by a belt.

Jack saw betrayal flash in the kids eyes before it morphed into anger. "Mac, I just-"

"Stay here and keep pressure on that," Mac interrupted, cutting off Jack's explanation. "I think I saw something in the last room I can use to slow the bleeding."

Mac jogged back the way they came.

"Fuck," Jack mouthed quietly, letting his head fall back and rest against the wall.

Fresh worry and a fair amount of frustration hastened Mac's steps. He found the flannel shirt he had seen earlier, then did a quick look around the room for anything else that could be useful.

'Why didn't he tell me?' After taking one last look around the room, he rushed back to his best friend.

Mac rounded the corner and saw his partner on the floor. "Jack! No no no no no no."

He sprinted to his side. It looked like he had slid down the wall, his chin was tilted towards his shoulder and rested on his chest, his left arm lay relaxed at his side. His right arm lay palm up in his lap and covered in blood.

"Jack don't do this to me," His stomach was in his throat as he checked for a pulse under his friend's jaw. Jack was cool to the touch.

He let out a choked sob of relief when he felt the weak, but present beats on the tips of his fingers.

Mac reached under the older agent's arms to pull him sideways and away from the wall so he could lay him flat.

Jack moaned softly, but didn't waken.

Mac lifted the shirt and loosened the belt, quickly adding the thick shirt to the soaked cloth. He cinched the belt tight.

Jack moaned again and feebly tried to push Mac's hands away. Mac caught Jack's hands easily.

"I'm sorry buddy, I know it hurts, but it has to stay, okay," Mac explained.

Jack nodded his understanding.

Mac released his injured arm, then checked the capillary refill time on Jack's left hand, by pressing down on the nail beds and counting how long it took to fill back up with blood.

It took four seconds, Jack was most likely in stage three of hypovolemic shock. This was bad, if Jack got to stage four, the damage could be irreversible and he would die.

Anger bubbled up inside him, he latched on to the front of his partners jacket and lifted him to a seated position.

"What the hell were you thinking!" Mac screamed at his friend, still gripping the front of his jacket and pulling him close. "You should have told me you got shot!"

Jack grimaced from the rough treatment and the pain he heard in the kid's voice.

"Mac… I…" Jack started, a loud noise, coming from beyond the door at the end of the hall, cut him off.

Mac scrambled to help his partner stand, ducking under Jack's injured arm to steady him as they walked towards the door.

Mac twisted the doorknob slowly, while Jack stepped in front of his partner, lifting his arm off of his shoulders and using it to usher Mac behind him.

They stepped into what appeared to be a large warehouse full of crates and boxes.

"Well it looks like we found his storage facility," Mac whispered. Just then they heard voices at the far end of the warehouse.

The agents crept closer until the owners of the voices they heard came into view.

Concealed behind a row of wooden boxes, they sized up the new obstacles before them. Both men were armed, their handguns holstered at the hip. One of them loaded a truck, while the other one spoke into a walkie. "I can't get anyone to answer," the man shouted.

Jack blinked hard, desperately trying to force his head to clear. He felt like he was going to black out again and the idea of leaving Mac unprotected had his already racing heart picking up speed.

Mac looked at his partner, Jack leaned heavily on the crate in front of him, his breathing was shallow and fast, like he couldn't seem to catch his breath and he was so pale.

"Hey man, how are you doing?" Mac whispered, his expression openly showing his concern.

Jack realized belatedly that Mac was talking to him and turned to look at him. His vision started to swim and he reached out to his best friend to steady him. His body betrayed him further by choosing the same moment for his knees to buckle.

Mac caught him and lowered him to his knees, then knelt in front of him.

Jack lowered his forehead to rest on Macs shoulder and waited for the room to stop spinning. Mac put his hand on the back of Jack's head.

It killed him to see Jack in such bad shape.

There was a very real possibility that he could lose him and he couldn't bare to think about it. Jack was so many things to him; best friend, partner, brother, and father.

"I'm going to go find Mr. Sinclair!" he heard the man shout, bringing him out of his thoughts.

One armed bad guy was definitely more manageable than two. Hopefully when the other bad guy "found" Mr. Sinclair he didn't call for reinforcements.

"I'll be right back," Mac declared.

"Not without me," Jack argued, shaking his head.

"Jack, you can barely stand."

"You go, I go," Jack fired back resolutely.

He had seen the look Jack was giving him many times before and knew that he would be unable to convince his partner to sit this one out.

"Alright, alright." Mac conceded, helping Jack to stand.

The agents stealthily made their way near the man still loading the truck. Mac waited until the bad guy picked up another crate, to make his move. He stepped in front of him cutting off his path and Jack flanked him, holding the gun to the man's head and disarming him.

"Are there any-" Mac was interrupted by wood splintering near his head.

The gunfire was deafening inside the warehouse, "Down!" Jack shouted, diving for cover. Mac quickly followed, not needing any persuasion.

To be continued...