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“Can’t believe you convinced us to do this.”
“It’ll be fun!”
“I can’t believe you went through the trouble of finding something this specific and in each of our sizes… you swear you didn’t use Phoenix resources for it?”
“Nope!” Bozer held up a bag for both Mac and Riley. “At most I was browsing for this fabric on a computer on a break, and maybe using the supplies from costume, but otherwise it was all me.”
“I haven’t been to a mall in forever, let alone Sears.” Mac said. “I thought they all went out of business.”
“We’re going to JCPenny. That’s where the photo store is.” Riley corrected. “I’ve seen this popping up online a lot. The videos and pictures that come with it are hilarious.”
“Yeah. They’re all so embarrassing and bad. I’m sure Jack will love it.”
“Add on the cowboy hats and semi questionable fabric choice— you know he’s probably going to ask for wallets of these.”
“He can decide which one he likes best and do it.”
“We have two hours before we’re supposed to meet him at the house.” Mac checked his watch. “That should give us enough time for this and head back to pick up food.”
“The lady I talked to said it shouldn’t take more than an hour for everything. All the poses are set along with one we can do ourselves.” Bozer said. “Everything is printed right there too so we don’t need to make any detours anywhere.”
“Okay. Let’s get this done.”
***
Jack had been sitting on Mac’s couch for twenty minutes— Mac, Bozer, and Riley nowhere in sight. He checked to make sure it was the right date and time, and texted all of them to make sure nothing was wrong, and they all told him they were just running late. He understood Bozer and Riley, seeing as they had to drive from different locations, but Mac lives there and could’ve easily asked one of them to pick up the food. Jack himself would’ve picked up the food if anyone told him what they were getting.
He didn’t think anything was wrong, but there was definitely something going on that he clearly wasn’t in the loop with. He didn’t mind too much— everyone was entitled to their privacy, but he couldn’t help being antsy about it.
And with the week they had, he didn’t think anyone would blame him.
A rough mission that never seemed to get better, where everything that could go wrong did, where they got split up for two days without any communication— the only upside was no one got critically injured. Scrapes and bruises overall. Jack himself had fractured his wrist, which he didn’t count as critical. He just had to visit med and have a brace for a few weeks and he’d be fine.
That was actually going to be the first time in a long while that they were all able to meet up, and Jack would be lying if he said he wasn’t excited for it. Besides the last week, they’d been slammed with cases, and training people— Mac doing his science thing, Bozer making disguises, and Riley updating their and other organization’s systems. He was able to see them whenever their paths crossed at work, which wasn’t that often, and in complete honesty, he was missing them.
Thankfully, or not— Jack really could care less how long he needed to wait for them— it was only another five minutes until the front door opened and the sound of three sets of feet thundered it.
“Jack? You still here?”
He knew there was nothing to worry about, but knowing they were all in the same place, safe and sound, made relief flood his system.
“Bout time ya got here. I was about to go pokin around in all yer science stuff, see if I could make myself invisible.”
“Sorry, mishap with the food.” Riley called. “Medical emergency. We told them not to worry and we just went elsewhere.”
“Only we couldn’t agree on what elsewhere was.” Bozer added. “So we got a little bit of everything; Chinese, fried chicken, pizza, and a few six packs.”
“Hell yeah man, buffet at home. My favorite.”
They carried the food out to the deck and set up the fire pit and soon fell into their regular routine. Jack was sure their laughter could be heard well down the street. He didn’t think that night could get any better.
Then Mac cleared his throat.
“So… besides trying to get back to our normal hangout times, we actually got you something.”
He pulled out a manila envelope, holding it out.
Jack raised a brow, taking it slowly. “What’s this now?”
“We might’ve noticed you haven’t been your typical cheery self the past few weeks, and figured you needed somethin a little— extra.” Bozer shrugged good naturedly.
“It was his idea.” Riley pointed to Bozer. “So if you hate it, it’s also his fault.”
“No way. Jack loves all of my ideas. I think this really outdoes nearly all of them though.”
Jack looked between the three of them, then at the envelope.
“Go ahead and open it.”
He carefully bent back the small metal prongs, flipped up the top, and pulled out a small thing of pictures. It took mere seconds for him to start laughing hysterically.
The photo was of Mac, Bozer, and Riley kneeing— all in matching frill lined button downs, blue jeans, boots, and cow print cowboy hats. Bozer had been in the front, hands on his knee, with Riley behind him with her hands on his shoulders, and then Mac behind her in the same pose, all with stoic expressions.
“What the hell is this!” Jack could barely get the sentence out.
“Look at the next one.”
The one after had them all standing, one hand on their sides and the other out in front of them— holding lassos. The one following that had them all tangled up, and then the next had them laying their heads on top of each other— Mac being on top so he wore all three cowboy hats. After that had Mac and Bozer on their hands and knees with Riley kneeling on top of them in the shape of a triangle.
Tears had been streaming down Jack’s face with how hard he was laughing. “I can’t believe— you guys really—! Please tell me these were outfits you made and not just costumes at the studio.”
“Oh yeah, we still got them, don’t you worry about it.” Bozer said, laughing along.
Jack moved to look at the other pictures that were there and was outright cackling at them. Never in all the years he knew them did anything like that cross his mind.
When he got to the last one, his laughter quieted down.
It was one similar to the previous one with the lassos. They weren’t posing, or they were trying to but too busy laughing at each other. They all had huge smiles on their faces, pointing and no doubt saying how ridiculous each other looked. They all looked so carefree in that moment, and Jack was able to keep it forever.
It was definitely his favorite.
“This is…” He sniffled. “I don’t remember the last time I laughed this hard at somethin. Thank you.”
“You deserve it, Jack.” Mac smiled.
“Yeah.” Riley said. “You do so much for all of us without asking for anything in return. This is the least we could do.”
“And honestly this ain’t even make up a percent of what you do for us, so, whatever you need, you just ask.” Bozer added.
“Nah, this is perfect.” Jack smiled. “All I need is the people I care for, and now I got it even more permanently.”
“Well I’m glad you like them, because it was a fifty- fifty shot of getting us in cowboy getup, or John McClane, but we figured that if this ever came around again, you could join us and we all dress of as him.”
“Hell yeah man. That sounds awesome.” Jack sat staring at the envelope.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothin, I’m just tryin to think which one mama would like the best.”