AN: This is tag to 3x07 is an AU where Mac ends up getting captured by Joseph and his men. The ending is a bit abrupt, but I hope you like it anyway, and please leave a review!
Mac wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do. That in and of itself was nothing new. He rarely ever had a fully formed plan, just a basic idea of what he wanted to happen was much more common. This case was no different. He wanted everyone to be able to get away safely with the hard drive.
"Bozer, run!" he shouted at his friend, who had the hard drive. Mac grabbed another one, just in case they needed a decoy, and followed Bozer as he ran out of the house, gunshots and accented shouting echoing around the hallways. As they usually seemed to do whenever there was a firefight, everything seemed to happen rather quickly. Jack was shooting back, complaining about running out of ammo, and Bozer was trying to act like he wasn't as freaked out as he was. But then Riley and Abina drove up in a massive truck and they were all running for it. Riley was pulling away and Jack and Bozer had just jumped up and Mac was almost there.
Then everything went to hell.
Mac fell to the ground with a shout, his leg on fire. He'd been shot. He shouted at them to go, and he could see Jack trying to get out and run back to him, but luckily, Riley was able to pull completely away before he could. Mac thought he saw tears in her eyes. But it didn't matter. Since they had him, and they saw him holding a hard drive - they didn't know it was the decoy - they weren't following his friends. They were able to get safely away with Dragonfly, and that's all that mattered. Mac tried to push himself up, but was stopped by a firm boot on his back.
"Your friends left you. You Americans are so selfish, only caring about yourselves." The man - Joseph, Mac assumed - let out a mock sigh of disappointment.
"And I guess you're so different," Mac grunted, getting pushed further into the ground for his trouble.
"Take him inside," Joseph commanded his men. "And be sure to make him... comfortable." Mac could practically hear the man's sadistic grin, and knew that this did not bode well for him.
Two of the men pulled Mac to his feet and started marching him forward with crushing grips on his arms. They didn't seem to care about the pain walking caused him, and only got angrier when he stumbled. No matter how many times he'd been shot, GSWs always hurt like a bitch. They pulled him up the stairs and into the house, quickly tying him to a chair. Mac couldn't help but think of El Noche's compound in Mexico, although he tried to force those memories out of his mind. Thinking like that wouldn't help.
Joseph slowly strolled into the room, as if he didn't have a care in the world. He walked like he was trying to act bored, but Mac could see the anger simmering just below the surface.
"We have the hard drive you stole," he started, holding up the decoy. "But we still don't know why you stole it. You are going to tell us, one way, or another." Joseph lunged forward with a kick that landed square on Mac's chest, knocking the wind out of him, as well as possibly cracking some ribs. The only reason the kick didn't knock the chair over with its force was the men still holding onto it.
Mac tried to suck in a breath before the next blow. He knew Jack was going to come back for him, he just had to last long enough. Jack was coming. Jack was coming. He always did.
To say that Abina was scared would've been the understatement of the century. She was absolutely petrified with fear. But that fear wasn't even for herself. It was for the men that shot Mac.
She was glad that Riley had the sense to pull the truck away and leave Mac there, despite the pain she knew it caused the young woman, but they couldn't help Mac at all if they all got captured or shot. But Jack didn't seem to see it that way. He began cursing up a storm the moment they pulled away, desperately trying to get out of the truck and back to his friend. She tried to hold him back, as did Bozer, and she knew that the only reason they were successful was because Jack didn't want to hurt them. If they had been people he didn't care about or know at all, they could be dead for standing between Jack and the boy that didn't even look that much older than Abina herself.
They'd called their boss and informed her of the situation, and she seemed almost as hellbent on getting Mac back as Jack did. Mac had never said so, and he had referred to the woman as "Matty", but the way she talked about them needing to save them, Abina couldn't help but think of a mother scared for her child.
Jack, Riley, and Bozer were all holding themselves together with rage, and that terrified Abina. Jack especially seemed to be willing to do literally anything to get Mac back, and the things he said he would do to the men who had shot him almost made her throw up. She didn't have a very strong stomach, but the idea of ripping out someone's intestines and using them as a noose to hang them with would make anyone queasy. And maybe Jack would really do it too, if it was too late to save his friend. They were going to do everything they could, of course, but still...
"Joseph is not a merciful man," she hesitantly started. Abina had a feeling that they wouldn't take what she was about to say very well. "It is possible that your friend is already dead for what we've done."
"No!" Jack shouted, causing her to flinch in surprise. "We're getting him back, and he's gonna be okay. I'm not lettin' him die. Besides, I would know it if he were gone."
Riley and Bozer looked at him sympathetically.
"How could you possibly know?" she asked.
"I'd just know," Jack muttered, turning away from her and back to the plans he was drawing up for the rescue mission. They were trying to get some help from the Ghanaian police, but it was hard to find people who weren't under Joseph's thumb.
But Jack never gave up, and that evening, they were preparing to storm the house and get MacGyver back. Abina would not allow herself to be left behind, but she did compromise and agree to stay in the van with Riley.
"Mac is lucky to have someone like Jack who loves him so much," she said to the woman, who was bouncing her foot on the ground and biting her knuckles in her nervousness.
Riley smiled. "Yeah, Jack would do anything for Mac, anything at all. He's been trying to prove to Mac for years now that he's never going to leave him like most people in his life have, yet he still doesn't seem to get it." Riley shook her head and sighed. "Mac still seems to think that he might do something and suddenly Jack is gonna leave him, that Jack won't love him and want to protect him anymore. We just want him to see that that's not true." Riley shrugged her shoulders and went back to biting her knuckles.
Much sooner than Abina had expected, the doors of the van slid open, and Jack and Bozer were there, Jack carrying someone in his arms. It was Mac. Between all the blood and bruises, it was hard to recognize him, but it was definitely Mac. There weren't many people in Ghana who had that mop of messy blond hair. His shirt, which had once been light blue, was now half gone, and what little remained was stained with blood. His pants were much the same.
"Get to the hospital, now!" Bozer shouted to Riley, who immediately moved to the driver's seat and began to pull away. The rest of their rescue team would find another way back.
Abina moved over as quickly as she could to make room for Jack to lay Mac down. He did so carefully, as if he were laying down the most breakable thing in the world. When Jack removed his hands from Mac, they were stained with blood.
"Is he..." Abina started to ask. Since they were going to a hospital, she would like to assume that Mac was still alive, but with the way Jack was with him, it was possible that he was already dead and Jack just couldn't accept it.
"He's alive," Jack breathed out, not even looking at her. "Come on, buddy," he continued, staring down at Mac's bloody face. "You're gonna be okay. Stay with me." He held Mac's hand in his larger ones, and Abina felt the need to look away, as if she were looking on an intimate and private moment between the two friends that she should not be privy to. Still, she prayed the young man would be okay, for both his sake, and Jack's.
A few long hospital hours later, they were finally allowed to see Mac. Abina liked the look on Bozer's face as they walked through the halls, as if he were surprised by everything he saw. It made her smile, despite everything. Most outsiders were surprised by Ghana. Yes, there were some parts that were definitely underdeveloped, but much of the country had the same amenities as America. Most of the world didn't know that. Riley looked like she already knew, and Jack looked like he had only one thing on his mind, which he probably did. His partner.
The moment they arrived at the door to his room, Jack ran the last few steps and collapsed into the chair next to the bed, gently taking Mac's hand in his.
"I told you you'd be okay, bud," he said, even though Mac was still unconscious.
"He lost a lot of blood, and he will likely have some permanent scarring, but he should be completely recovered in a few weeks," the doctor said with a small smile before turning to leave.
Abina could see that Jack was struggling to control his rage. She had noticed the moment the doctor had said that Mac would have scars of this. Apparently Joseph and his men had tried to get MacGyver to talk about who he was working for by beating him and cutting him again, and again, and again, and again. Of course, Joseph was dead now. Jack had told her himself that he'd killed the man for what he did to Mac. But still, even with him dead, Jack still had a lot of anger about what happened to his young friend, but at least the boy would be okay.
"I'm not leavin' you, kid. Never," Jack said, not taking his eyes off Mac, even as the rest of them filled in the space around the bed.
Mac was even paler than he'd been when Abina had met him. He had a lot of painful looking bruises that stood out in contrast with that pale skin. All the blood she had seen earlier had been wiped away, but his arms were wrapped in several thick layers of gauze, and there was a bandage covering his eyebrow as well. She couldn't see under the hospital gown, but she would assume that there was plenty of gauze on his chest, torso, and legs as well. He had one leg elevated, but it wasn't casted. Apparently the bullet was a through and through, and missed the bone completely.
"He will be fine. This is a good hospital, and they will take care of your friend," Abina said, trying to reassure Jack just a bit.
"I'll take care of him," Jack muttered in reply, barely loud enough for her to hear it. He still didn't look away from his partner, and Abina had a feeling that that wouldn't change any time soon. She wondered what it was like to love and be loved like that.
Riley and Bozer had to fly out to bring the hard drive they had been sent to retrieve back to their boss, but Abina ended up deciding to stay. Seeing the way Jack was with Mac had made her realize how important it was for the young to have someone to look out for them. She needed to be there for the younger scavengers, and keep them safe. She couldn't do that in America.
Even after Jack and Mac left several weeks later, Abina felt herself thinking of them often. Their love for each other had greatly impacted her, and she hoped that wherever they were, they were okay. Joseph had been wrong with everything he had always said about Americans being selfish. At least, he was wrong about these ones.