Hey hey hey! Finally, the first chapter of the retelling is up! *Jack impersonation from the first episode* Who loves ya, babe? ;D
So if you've seen the classic episodes, I hope I can do this ep justice. If you haven't seen it, I hope it's a good first experience! XD
PS, the first chapter here is suuuuper long...it just didn't have a good place to end it until the end of the chapter, so it's a little over 4200 words I think...didn't think that would bother anyone too terribly ;)
Lemme know what you think!
I don't own either versions of MacGyver.
"Keep running!" Jack yelled at his partner as the two of them crashed through the woods.
"Come on, Jack, I was thinking I was going to stop and let the small, private army of Hunter Christiansen catch up and kill me. You're a spoilsport!" the young man shot back at his partner as he ducked a few low-hanging branches.
"Shut up," Jack panted somewhat grumpily at his friend.
Hunter Christiansen was a politician MacGyver and Jack had been sent to Colorado to observe and gather proof on. The Foundation had been following Christiansen for a while, gathering intel and trying to prove that he was dealing with known drug dealers and gang members to get his office and power. In exchange for their help, the law would turn a blind eye when it came to their...less than savory dealings. They would have just had Riley trace the money electronically, but it seemed that Christiansen only dealt in cash with them, and then he had it laundered so it became legit money that they couldn't trace back to the gangs.
Jack and MacGyver had followed Christiansen to a secluded spot in the woods, where they saw him meeting with a few leaders of the gangs and a few high-ranking drug dealers. While they were straining their ears to hear what was being said, MacGyver and Jack heard them mention the kidnapping of Christiansen to up the sympathy points for the upcoming election.
While the two agents were distracted by what they were hearing, two of the drug dealers had snuck up behind them. They had been grabbed and dragged forward, and were brought face to face with the corrupt politician.
Twenty Minutes Earlier
"Sir, what do we do with them?" the man in charge asked. Christiansen regarded the two agents with annoyance.
"Dispose of them. Once word of my disappearance gets out and they don't return to work, I'm sure whoever these men work for will send out a search party. They'll find their bodies and they'll think they died trying to protect me," he said. MacGyver scoffed to himself, knowing full-well that Patricia Thornton wouldn't believe any such thing. The two agents were shoved forward, being forced to walk, but before they had gone half a dozen steps, Christiansen spoke again.
"And Carter," Hunter said. Carter turned to look at the politician. "Make sure none of this connects back to me in a negative way," he warned.
"Yes sir," Carter replied.
MacGyver and Jack watched as Christiansen walked away, and Carter came towards them. Two men were holding their arms behind their backs, so they were unable to do anything as he went through their pockets, pulling out their cell phones and Mac's swiss army knife. He also confiscated their backpacks, which had their sat phones and emergency supplies. One more search left Jack without his gun, as well as his backup, and the backup to his backup weapons. Once Carter had confiscated their belongings, the two were pushed forward once more, their arms still tightly held by thugs.
"Come on," Carter said, jerking his head. MacGyver and Jack were led deeper into the woods, the trees growing thicker and thicker. "Make it quick," Carter ordered. "We've got more planning to do." He turned and strode away, leaving Jack and Mac in the hands of three of his men. The men holding the agents tightened their grips, trying to stop their prisoners from struggling.
The last man, who wasn't holding either of the agents, pulled out his gun and checked the magazine to see how many rounds he had left. While he was distracted, Jack stomped down on the foot of his captor, leaving the man in enough shock and pain that he let go of the older American, who promptly turned around and buried his fist in his captor's esophagus. When the man bent over with a wheeze, Jack's knee was introduced to his forehead, knocking him flat on his butt.
Mac took advantage of the distraction by yanking his arms out of his own guard's grip, which had loosened slightly when he started watching the fight between the duo next to him. As soon as Mac's arms were free, he turned and slammed his palms over the man's ears. The man dropped to the ground in agony, and the two agents took off running, zigzagging through the trees to avoid the bullets being fired in their direction.
"GET UP!" they heard Carter roar. "Go after them!"
MacGyver and Jack kept running, putting more and more distance between them and their would-be killers.
Present
Mac looked behind him, trying to see if he could see any of the men following them, not watching where he was going. MacGyver was trying to look around to find anything that might be able to help him and Jack, who was about twenty feet ahead of him.
You know, people always say that there's a small moment of time when you get hurt before the pain sets in. Whoever said that was a liar.
While he was looking over his shoulder, he failed to notice the small bit of metal poking out from under the leaves. He put one foot down, and several things happened and once. MacGyver heard a CLANG, and simultaneously felt an inexplicable, agonizing pain at the bottom of his calf, just a few inches above his ankle.
He let out a surprised shout of pain as he tripped and fell to the ground, clutching at his leg. He shut his mouth and had to bite down hard on his cheek to stop his agonized yells so that he wouldn't give away their position to the men hunting them. He vaguely heard Jack yelling his name, but everything was fading in and out as he fought with the burning feeling his leg was experiencing. His vision greyed out for a minute as he felt another tremor vibrate through his leg.
"Mac?" Jack asked in concern as he hurried back to his friend. The older American felt his stomach drop as he saw the blond on the ground, his face contorted in pain as he grabbed at his leg, which had a large trap biting the limb. "Aw crap," Jack muttered, hurrying to his friend's side and kneeling down next to him.
"Can…can you get it off?" Mac asked through gritted teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to ride out the pain. Jack quickly glanced over the trap, seeing the levers on the side.
"Maybe," he said. "I need you to set your foot flat on the ground bud," he said in an apologetic tone. Mac slowly moved his leg so that his foot was flat on the ground with his knee bent, all the while biting his lip as he felt every single movement cause the metal teeth on the trap to bite deeper and deeper into his leg. He tried to compartmentalize the pain, but it was overriding every single command his brain was giving.
"Okay, hold still," Jack warned before he began pushing down on the levers on either side of the trap. When he first started, there was an agonizing moment of fiery-hot pain that raced up and down his leg, and MacGyver couldn't help the groan of anguish that escaped his throat. Thankfully, soon after that the pain began to lessen. Mac looked at his friend and saw the trap slowly beginning to open.
Finally, Jack pried the jaw of the trap open, and MacGyver quickly pulled his leg out, wishing he had moved just a tiny bit slower as his vision blacked out for a moment due to the shocking amount of pain he felt. Jack tossed the metal monstrosity to the side as he hurried to his friend's side.
"Mac?" he asked in concern.
"We….gotta...go," Mac finally got out. He began pushing himself to his feet, but Jack put a hand on his shoulder.
"Whoa kid," he said. "Take it easy! We can't have you traipsing through the woods with open wounds like that," he said, pointing down to Mac's bloody pant leg. "Those wounds get infected and we got a big problem on our hands," he insisted.
"Jack, if those guys catch up to us, an infected leg isn't going to mean much, because we'll be dead!" MacGyver argued.
Jack knew the kid had a point, but he wasn't going to give up that easily. "At least let me wash it and wrap it so we don't get any dirt inside?" he offered.
Mac considered his partner's offer for a second before responding. "Just wrap it for now. We can worry about cleaning it when we get out of here," he insisted. "Besides, those guys took the backpack that had the water bottles in it. What would you clean it with?"
Jack looked like he wanted to argue, but first, his friend had a point about what he would clean the wounds with. Second, he knew pushing Mac too far would result in nothing, and Jack was just going to take the half-win. He knelt down and pulled off his shirt, leaving a simple white tee underneath.
"Holy crap, why is it so cold? Jack complained as goosebumps began appearing over his skin.
"Because it's Colorado in the fall," MacGyver said helpfully. Jack gave his friend an exasperated look as he finished tying the makeshift bandage around Mac's calf.
"Thank you, Captain Weather," he snarked as he stood up. "You're lucky," he said as he held out his hand to help the young man to his feet. "I think the trap was old; the springs looked worn and rusty, meaning it didn't shut as hard or as tightly as it could have, otherwise we would have a much bigger problem on our hands," he explained.
"Lucky me," Mac grumped. "It's not as bad as it could have been!"
The blond reached out and grasped his friend's hand, and Jack slowly lifted MacGyver up, a guilty pang echoing in the older man's gut every time he saw the kid lose more color in his face, or wince when the his leg was jostled, which was often. Once his partner was upright, Jack slung Mac's arm over his shoulder, ignoring the kid's protests.
"Jack, I can walk," Mac insisted as the two of them hobbled along the unbeaten path.
"Uh huh," Jack mused sarcastically, not even bothering to look at his friend as he answered. "Maybe if we had time to spare, I would let you demonstrate how you could keep up with me if I were in a wheelchair, but right now we have several angry kidnappers on our tail and I'd like to get us out of the woods," he said.
"Jack," MacGyver moaned, half from the physical pain he was in, half from what had just come out of Jack's mouth. "Was that pun intentional?"
Jack thought about what he had said, a grin splitting his face. "No it was not. But I'm taking credit for it anyways," he said proudly. MacGyver rolled his eyes, but stopped insisting he could walk. He didn't want to admit how much pain his leg was actually in. It was a miracle the trap hadn't snapped his leg like a twig.
"Where...are they?" Mac asked, sweat shining on his face after almost twenty minutes of walking.
I'll be the first one to admit that Jack and I were in deep trouble. We were out in the middle of the Colorado woods with a group of men coming after us to kill us. They got our sat phones and cell phones when they caught us, and even if we had our cells, there was absolutely no service whatsoever out here, so we really wouldn't have been able to call for help.
"I'm not sure, but isn't that a good thing?" Jack asked as he glanced back, making sure there wasn't anybody creeping up on them from behind. "I've always thought it was a very good thing when you're not being chased by homicidal kidnappers."
MacGyver didn't answer; he was too busy drawing in one deep breath after the next, trying to focus on anything but his leg. He zoned out and was simply focusing on putting no weight whatsoever on his injured leg, relying heavily on his friend to help him so he didn't fall down. He didn't realize Jack was trying to talk to him until the older man stopped walking.
"Mac?" Jack asked. MacGyver shook himself out of his zoned state and looked at his friend.
"What?" he asked, sounding slightly confused.
"I said it looks like there's a road up there, just a little ways. " Jack repeated, pointing off to the north. "Let's get over there and see if we can wave anyone down, find anyone who can help us."
"Sure," Mac said, not really opposed to anything at the moment. The two of them began walking again and after ten minutes, they finally made it to the side of the road. Jack looked up and down the stretch of asphalt, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders when he saw a car driving towards them. He waved his hand around like a crazy person until the driver pulled over.
The doors opened and two old women, probably at least in their late 60's or early 70's, got out of the car.
"Hey there," Jack greeted. "You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone, or know of anywhere that has a phone, would you? My friend and I could use a little help," he explained, gesturing slightly at his injured friend.
"Oh my lanta, what happened?" the driver exclaimed, hurrying over to the two men.
"Got his leg caught in an animal trap," Jack said. He looked over at his friend, noticing that the kid's head was drooping further and further down, his chin almost touching his chest. His breathing was abnormally slow, and Jack didn't like the fact that Mac's face had taken on the color of an eggshell.
"Oh Faith," the other woman said, coming over to them as well. "Those stupid poachers! Why, you're lucky your leg wasn't broken!" she informed Mac.
"So I've been told," the blond muttered tiredly.
"I'm Hope," the second woman continued. "And this is my sister, Faith," she added, pointing at the driver of the car. "We're the Lacey sisters, and we live just a few miles down the road. We don't have cell phones; that's too techy for us, but we have a landline that you can use, and I'll get your leg bandaged up in no time!"
"Hope's a nurse," Faith said proudly as she hurried over to the car and opened the back doors. Hope slipped Mac's other arm over her shoulder, and MacGyver protested slightly, not wanting to hurt the frail-looking woman.
"Now you stop that," she ordered, slapping his hand lightly as he tried to pull it away. "You need all the help you can get; that wound looks like it's bad," she added. MacGyver still tried to protest, but stopped abruptly when Jack flicked him in the forehead.
"What the…?" he asked, looking at Jack with an annoyed and confused look on his face.
"Just be nice," Jack mouthed, glaring at the kid. Mac glared back but relented, allowing the little old lady to help him to the car as well.
Getting into the car was a challenge in and of itself, because no matter how he sat, Mac's leg had some amount of pressure applied to it, and he just had to keep telling himself to breathe through the pain that he was feeling. Finally he was situated and Jack got in on the other side. As soon as his door was shut, Hope put the car into drive and pulled back into the lane.
"Now what were your names?" Hope asked as she looked in the rearview mirror.
"I'm Jack, and this is MacGyver," Jack introduced.
"Well don't you worry," Hope said. "We'll get you home and get your leg patched up in no time," she assured them. MacGyver looked down at the bandage over his leg, wincing as he saw blood seeping through it rather quickly.
"You wouldn't happen to have something to stitch the wounds shut with, would you?" Jack asked, also looking at his friend's leg. Hope turned back to Jack, then craned her neck to look at MacGyver. Jack felt slightly uncomfortable with having the driver's eyes off the road for so long, but he didn't see anyone else coming, and she soon turned back to the front.
"Oh my," she said, putting a hand to her chin. "We may need to call Leo," she said to Faith.
"Leo?" Jack asked. He was getting slightly worried about his friend. Mac's face had lost all of its color, and he winced or drew in a sharp breath every time the car hit a bump or a hole in the road.
"Leo's our friend," Faith explained.
"He's also a doctor," Hope clarified. "We'll call him and have him bring over what we need to help you, Mr. MacGyver," she said, reaching back and patting Mac's good knee.
"'Preciate it," Mac said quietly.
Soon they were pulling up to a quaint little two-story house, painted yellow and white. Faith pulled the car right up to the porch and turned off the car. Jack got out and hurried over to his friend's side of the car, gently helping him get out and draping his arm over his shoulders once again.
"Okay, steps are gonna be a little hard, bud," Jack warned. "You're gonna need to lift your bad leg up as much as you can, and then I'll help you hop up. Got it?"
"Got it," Mac said, gritting his teeth. The two men made it up the stairs one painstakingly slow step at a time, but finally they were on the porch and heading into the house.
"Now you just sit down right here," Hope insisted as she patted a large blue recliner. Jack gently lowered Mac into the chair.
"What were you boys doing out in the woods?" Hope asked as she fretted over Mac, getting him settled into the chair.
"Project on...endangered species," Mac grunted out. Jack raised an eyebrow behind the old ladies' backs, impressed with how quickly his young partner had come up with the excuse.
"Oh, a fellow animal lover!" Faith gushed.
"Yeah, and we really should be getting our findings back to HQ, shouldn't we, bud?" Jack asked, not trying to be subtle at all.
"He's right," MacGyver agreed, struggling to sit up. Hope pushed him back down, gentle but firm.
"Oh no you don't," she said. "You're not going anywhere until we can get that leg bandaged and get a doctor out here," she insisted. The two ladies hustled into the kitchen, leaving Mac and Jack alone for a few moments.
"Jack, we have to leave," Mac insisted.
"I know that!" Jack said. "But you're in no condition to go anywhere, my friend," he added sympathetically.
"If Christiansen's men catch up to us, Faith and Hope are going to be in danger!"
Jack considered his options for a moment and opened his mouth to respond, but just then Hope came back into the room with a wet cloth and several bandage wraps.
"I just got off the phone with Dr. Fife," she informed them. "He says he can be out here in two hours!" She beamed at the two of them, completely missing the slightly alarmed looks that were exchanged between the two men.
"Two hours?" Jack clarified, hoping he had heard wrong.
"Yes. Apparently the poor man has just been bombarded with people who have come in sick with the flu, and it's almost an hour's drive from here to town," she said. "But Leo said that I should make sure the wound was cleaned and bandaged, otherwise infection could set in." In addition to bandages, Hope also came in bearing over-the-counter painkillers, which she handed to MacGyver, giving him a glass of water and staring him down until he swallowed the pills.
"Smart man, Leo," Jack muttered, staring at his partner. Mac would have made a face back, but just then Hope began cutting away the pant leg surrounding the wounds, and he had to grip the arms of the chair to brace himself against the onslaught of pain. He saw spots dancing in front of his vision as she laid the hot, wet rags across his leg.
The next thing Mac knew, he was waking up. He glanced wildly around and saw Jack sitting across the room in another chair. He looked around more calmly once he saw his friend, trying to remember where they were.
"Hey," Jack said as he stood up.
"Did I...did I pass out?" Mac asked in confusion.
"Yeah. Right after she started cleaning out the wounds," Jack replied. MacGyver glanced down at his leg and saw that it had been heavily wrapped.
"How long was I out?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.
"Just about forty minutes," Jack assured him. MacGyver nodded, glad it hadn't been longer than that.
Looking at my now-bandaged leg though and seeing the steadily growing red spots, I knew that I needed to have the wounds stitched closed soon.
"Did you call Thornton?" Mac asked, sitting up a little and wincing as it pulled on his leg slightly. Jack shook his head.
"Not yet. Faith and Hope have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off and they asked me to help them out with some heavy lifting," Jack explained. "I just now got away, and I saw you were starting to come around, so I figured I would wait here and let you wake up to a familiar face."
"I gotta be honest, when I woke up and saw your face, I thought I was having a nightmare," Mac informed his partner sarcastically.
"Aw c'mon man, my face isn't that scary!" Jack insisted, making a face at his friend as he stood up and walked towards the kitchen, going for the phone.
"Hey, where are Faith and Hope?" Mac asked, glancing around as he looked for the nice old ladies while Jack grabbed the landline.
"They said something about needing to grab something from the barn," Jack replied as he walked back into the room with the phone. "Hey, is Patty's number 7869 or 7689?" he asked as he went to punch in the number to their boss.
MacGyver looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Are you saying you don't know her phone number and I do?" he asked snarkily.
"Hey, with all this technology today, it's hard to remember numbers because it's so easy to put them in your phones," Jack defended.
"Yeah, but isn't it supposed to be millennials who can't remember anything because we're too wound up with technology?"
"Yeah well you're not a regular millennial, are you?" Jack shot back. "Would you just tell me what the last four numbers are?" he asked, slightly exasperated.
"7689," Mac clarified with a grin. He watched as Jack punched in the numbers and put the phone up to his ear.
The front door opened and Faith and Hope walked in with some blankets in their hands, as well as an old crutch that looked like it wouldn't hold up to the first bit of weight that was put on it.
"We brought you some blankets to keep warm," Faith said as she draped one across Mac's lap. He tried protesting, but he knew it wouldn't do him any good, so he just sat there, picking at the wool fabric as the two women fussed over him. "We also found this crutch Grandaddy kept in the barn," she added as she set the ancient looking walking aid next to Mac's chair. MacGyver smiled and nodded at the sisters, grateful when Jack began talking so that he wouldn't have to respond. Faith and Hope beamed at the young man and walked out of the room to get more supplies for their wounded guest.
"Heya Patty," Jack said, a relieved look crossing his face when their boss finally picked up her phone. "So uh, things went a little sideways," he stated. He listened for a moment, then continued talking. "Well, we ran into a bit of a snag," he explained. "We stumbled upon Christiansen and some men meeting and talking about planning his own kidnapping, and we were grabbed. Mac and I got away, but while we were running, Mac-" Jack broke off, pulling the phone away from his and giving it a strange look. "Patty?" he asked, talking into the phone again.
"Jack?" MacGyver asked, a sinking feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. "What's going on?"
"I dunno man," Jack said, punching a few buttons on the phone. "The call just dropped. I'm not getting anything," he informed them.
"Is everything alright?" Faith asked as she and Hope came back in with a glass of water and more blankets. MacGyver opened his mouth to reply, then shut it when he thought he heard something moving outside.
"Jack," he hissed. His partner looked up from the phone, and Mac gestured towards the window. "See what's going on out there," he instructed.
Jack crouched down slightly and peered through a crack in the curtains before drawing back quickly, biting back a curse.
"What is it?" MacGyver asked. Jack looked at his friend.
"We got company."
Aaaaand now I really gotta run to class otherwise I'm gonna be late XD Lemme know what you think! (Also, if you caught inconsistencies, let me know. I Switched the sister's roles around a couple times, and while I think I caught everything, no one is perfect!)
Have I ruined the classic ep yet? ;)