Page 46 of Mac
"Hey, how's your day?"Mac pulled up a chair to the table where Tuck sat and joined him.
"It's going," the president didn't seem fazed by Mac's two-day absence, but Jailbait stepped up just a few seconds later.
"What can I get the two of you?"
"Can I bother you for something to eat?"Mac asked."I couldn't get away from the shop until just now and I'm starving."
"Sure, no problem.Want anything to drink?"
"Coffee would be good.Thanks."
"And you?"She turned to Tuck.
"Just coffee."
"Coming right up."She spun on her heel and disappeared.
"Busy day?"
"Catching up."Mac shrugged.He'd known it would be a busy day but had forgotten his stash of food in the office had run out last week and he hadn't replenished it.Normally he had things like granola bars and a big bag of almonds in the office he could get into when he didn't have time for lunch, but things had been busy and he hadn't replaced them, more than that, he'd forgotten he needed to."Anything new on the other situation?"Mac didn't want to say too much, not while there were people who might not know as much as he did, namely the retirees at the bar and Jailbait, but he still wanted to know if there was anything new.
"I've got Gizmo looking into things, but nothing solid yet."
"You'll let me know if you find anything?Anything more than what we already know?"
"You know I will."Tuck sat back and watched Mac for a moment."I understand you had a rough couple of days."
Mac lifted one shoulder and looked away.He had an unexplainable interest in the basketball game on the big screen across the room."It's not been the easiest but there's not been any danger, so I guess I've had worse days."
Tuck was quiet so long, Mac turned back to look at him, half expecting there to be some problem, instead he found the president watching him, wearing a look of interest.
"Why?Did you hear something else?"
"Not really, only that there was something wrong with your girl, then you called, and you were worriedand had Jake cover at the shop for two days.I take it things worked out all right?"
"Yeah, everything's fine."Mac fell quiet until after Jailbait returned with his food, two cups and a pot of coffee.Neither Jake nor Mac took anything in their coffee, so she didn't need to worry about carrying that too.
"Anything else?"she asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
"No, this is great."Mac looked down at the plate, his mouth watered.
"We're good, thanks."
She walked away and Mac looked back to the president."What do you know about migraines?"
"Not a lot, I've known a couple of people who get them occasionally but not many.Why?Is that what was wrong?"Tuck frowned."I didn't know they were something that showed up this late in life.Are you sure there's not something else wrong?"
"Not me," Mac shook his head, wondering why the other man thought he was the one with the headaches.He shook his head."No, it was Elyse.She had a headache bad enough she took more of her special medication than she normally does.She ended up sleeping more than twenty-four hours, she did get up a few times but only to use the bathroom and when she was up, she didn'tact like normal.She was almost a zombie.Not hearing or reacting to me at all."Mac shook his head."It was too weird.I was worried about her, not sure what was wrong.Turns out she'd taken more of the medication than she normally did, because her headache was worse than usual, and apparently that's a side effect."
"I've never seen that."
"I hadn't either, hadn't even heard about it but Kinard couldn't find anything wrong and told me it could be the medication the first time he came, then after she'd woken up, when he checked her again, he said all was fine and that's most likely the cause."Mac looked away again."I'd rather deal with a chase or a shoot-out than spend another day like that one.At least then I have the illusion of a little control."
Tuck chuckled."It's not control, it's that you have something to keep you busy and you're not thinking about the possibilities."
Mac looked up and met the president's gaze for a moment."You may be right."He hadn't thought about that, but it made sense.At first the time with Elyse hadn't been too bad, mostly because he'd not yet realized there was an issue.It wasn't until almost noon he'd realized there was a problem.That was the first time he'd tried to wake her and gotten no response.It had been odd, but he'd assumed her sleeping so long was because of her headache.He hadn't been entirely wrong, but he'd also not known what she'd taken, nor how much.He wanted to tell her not to take any more of that stuff, but several things stopped him.
He was in no place to tell her what to do, and if he did tell her, and she listened, did he want her hurting as bad as she obviously had been?Not taking the medication wasn't an option he was satisfied with, but he didn't know any alternatives that would help.He sighed and went back to his lunch in silence.Tuck said he had something to take care of and left Mac to his thoughts.
