Freedom in Flames
When Mac steps out onto the deck for the last time, the fire is crackling. His friends have all left—even Bozer, who is spending the night with Leanna—and so Mac is alone, staring into the flames and remembering.
He remembers the first time he stepped foot on that deck, just after he returned home from Afghanistan for the last time. He remembers that DXS had just recruited him and Jack was with him when he unlocked the door, was with him when he dropped a few logs into the fire pit and lit the first of many fires.
He remembers the day Bozer moved in with him, determined to start a film career and willing to pick up his entire life and head to LA to live with a friend who was gone more than he was there. Mac remembers spending just one night with Bozer before he had to leave on a mission, remembers realizing on the flight back that he had to come up with an explanation for his dislocated shoulder and black eye that he supposedly got at a convention in Miami. Remembers how much it hurt to lie time and time again.
He remembers the first time he brought Nicki over, how the two of them sat practically on each other's laps and barely listened to Jack's stories and Bozer's jokes, just enjoying their closeness and the warmth of the fire and the Los Angeles skyline. He remembers the first time the two of them sat there alone, kissing until the flame died out.
He remembers the months when he avoided the deck like the plague, unable to force himself out that door for fear of losing himself in the memories of the woman he thought he loved. He remembers how much it hurt to find out she never really loved him back.
He remembers going out there for the first time to burn all of his pictures of her, remembers Jack and Riley joining him—Riley's first visit, and Thorton's, too, when she stepped onto the deck and told them that DXS was gone, that they were going to be the ones to create a new organization. He remembers staring into that fire and watching Nicki's picture burn, feeding the fire and making it greater. He remembers when he realized that it was time for him, for DXS, to do the same thing—and thus the Phoenix Foundation was born.
He remembers the terror that struck him when Murdoc's body shattered the window and the rail as Mac's improvised bottle rocket launched him out of the house before he could kill Mac and his two closest friends. Remembers Jack telling him about the George Washington mask that Murdoc left behind, Mac's Swiss Army Knife stabbed through the eye. He remembers sitting on that deck when Matty told him he was going to be arrested, staring into the distance after Zoe died, looking out the window when the Ghost wired the entire house to explode.
He remembers endless games of charades, trading stories long into the night, eating shrimp and paperclip cake on his birthday and making his own snow on Christmas. He remembers the millions of times he laughed on that deck with his friends around him and the millions of times he stared over the railing with tears in his eyes and Jack standing silently at his side.
The deck holds a million memories for Mac, both good and bad. But all things, good and bad, must one day come to an end.
Mac's house was never his, always his grandfather's in his mind and his words. But the deck belonged to Mac, to his friends, to his family. It was a place where he could be himself without fear of judgment, where his family could be safe and happy, where he could be safe and comfortable. There was a sense of ease, of freedom, that came over him every time he looked into the warm flames that were present almost as often as Mac's closest friends.
But now when he looks into that fire, Mac only sees the chaos behind it, the anger within it, and the destruction it leaves in its wake. The deck is no longer a safe haven, transformed in an instant into a reminder of the innocence Mac held. It's still a part of the house, a connection to the grandfather he trusted and the father he couldn't. It hurts, letting this place go, but it's necessary. It's time for Mac to make his own decisions, away from the invisible influence of his father that he now knows has been hanging over his head his entire life.
It's time for Mac to take control of his memories.
With that thought in mind, Mac takes a deep breath to steel himself and picks up the ever-present bucket of water that rests in one corner of the deck. With a swift motion, he tosses the water into the fire pit, dousing the flame.
The last embers of the fire die out, and Mac walks off of the deck for the last time.
As the lights in Mac's grandfather's house go dark and the front door closes and locks, a thin stream of smoke wafts upwards toward the stars, freed from the dark oak that held it at bay by the fire of a million memories.