“You’re normally the tough guy. Today, let me be tough for the both of us.” for MacDalton?
They've been in better situations.
Constantly captivated in less volatile environments. Locked in cages and tied to chairs. Even the occasional strapping onto tables and for Jack, even an iron maiden.
Granted, sure, they've also been in worse.
"This ain't no Cairo, Mac," Jack groans in between heavily labored breaths.
He tries, once again, to lift the solid iron bar that pins his chest to the concrete, though there's still the rebar pinning his left thigh down that he'd have to somehow pull out for true freedom.
Mac, meanwhile, is tasting the soured air, tainted with the bitter taste of iron, and the blood smeared on his face that's transfer from Jack, to his hand, to his face that he wiped clean in effort to think better—
That obviously didn't work.
"And I mean, c'mon, I bet you'd love the taste of a nice, crispy Jack-Ka-Bob to settle that starving stomach of yours, huh?"
Mac's stomach does growl and his mouth salivates at the idea.
Unless the meant a different kind of eating, which he'd also enjoy.
"Now is really not the time for cannibalism jokes, Jack."
"Just trying to look at the bright side to this, Boy Wonder. Cause there is none."
Jack bites down on his lip, streams of tears strolling down his cheeks as he holds in another scream that he didn't realize he still had in him.
"Hey, hey, hey, deep breaths, remember? Deep breaths."
"Speak for yourself, you look like you're freaking out more than I am!" Jack squeaks out, staring at the ceiling just inches above him.
"I'm not the one stuck in a coffin trap in a collapsed building!" Mac immediately regrets even the notion of saying this, knowing that would be doing the exact opposite of calming Jack down paired with the fact that he'd really just be matching Jack's panicked energy.
So instead, he takes a deep breath, and kneels down to the open side of this so called "coffin."
"You're normally the tough guy. Today, let me be tough for the both of us," Mac tells him, cupping Jack's cheek in the palm of his hand. "Okay?"
Jack's lips quiver, contemplating his words before he tightly nods.
"We're going to get out of here," Mac asserts, his other hand grabbing for Jack's free hand that's not gripping the rebar that's keeping him literally grounded—though still, the world is tilted and teetering and starting to spin. "I love you, Jack."
"Mmhmm," Jack rolls his lips inward, his voice isn't the only thing shaking, his heartstrings aren't the only supports that are being stretched and pulled to their limits, his vocal chords aren't the only scorched substance that adds more heat to the almost volcanic atmosphere he's trapped in...
And his mind isn't the only thing that collapses as another earthquake shatters their only hope;
