Hello Dear Readers! For those who are intently hooked on The One that Never Got Away, I have decided to take a small break while I am currently unhappy with how Chapter 15 and 16 are turning out and revamping them until they please me. Until then here is my first ever one shot of MacGyver.
As we know Ed's has left the show and Jack's character has hinted at the new overwatch and it is going to be a girl and...Rena is a girl! For those of you who don't know who Rena is, she is my OC and I use her often because she was inspired by a mix of characters from Hawaii 5-0 and MacGyver, both have been proven to exist in the same universe with Flashlight from season 1 of MacGyver.
In this Jack has now left and the weekend has gone by giving Mac time to process the fact that Jack is gone but he still has hope that he will come back. When he comes back to work on Monday a stranger is already in the War Room and he finds out this is Jack's handpicked agent? The duo already runs into major issues when Mac was drugged and Rena has to find a way to keep them both alive and get back to Riley and Bozer while trapped in a jungle of terrorists with a nuclear weapon.
"A::[example.]" Is speech in Arabic.
"S::[example.]" Is speech in Spanish.
Jack was gone. He was really gone. Mac had told himself over and over it could only be a few months at best but a nagging voice told him if he was lucky Jack would come home alive in a handful of years. It had taken Jack twelve years to find that SOB in the first place, now years later he could only have gotten better.
"Hey, Mac!" Called Boze from down the hall. If Mac had to guess he was probably in the kitchen trying to find something to bribe Mac with so he'd eat. "I made bread last night! It would be some really good toast."
He was right, Boze's famous Bribing Bread. As much as Mac loved Bozer's bread, he had a sickening feeling going into meeting his new overwatch and didn't really want to push his luck by eating something. "Not hungry."
"Man Mac! You gotta eat something!" Boze kept yelling down the hall not realizing that Mac was behind him.
"No, I don't. I'll be fine." Boz jumped when Mac magically appeared behind him grabbing an apple and shaking it in Bozer's view. "If I get hungry I'll have this."
"Nah man. I know you have been grabbing that same apple for two days and putting it back whenever you think I'm not watching."
Mac frowned, he'd been caught. He knew he hadn't been stealthy and he could have thrown the apple away in the neighbor's trash can if he'd really wanted to get away with it but he didn't want to waste the poor apple. "You've been watching me?"
"Of course! I'm worried Mac." Boze shook his head. "After Jack left he texted me with one request." Bozer pulled out his phone. "And I quote, 'Make sure our blonde is taking care of himself, that means eating and sleeping and forced trips to medical after he gets a paper cut.' End quote. I was gonna do it anyway but now…"
"Now Jack has made a big deal about it." Mac shook his head. "I'm grown Boze, I don't need-"
"Name the last time you ate real food Mac or got more than a cat nap on the couch." Bozer's brown puppy eyes looked at his best friend with concern.
"Last night I had.." Mac stopped when he realized he'd forgotten to eat the day before. "I slept in my bed."
"Did you sleep or stare at a wall?"
"I'm-"
"Don't you dare say you're fine." An alarm on Bozer's phone went off. "Damn we're gonna be late for work. Matty is gonna kill us. This conversation isn't over."
"It's fine. We don't need to-"
"I'll tell Matty. She'll force you to medical and they'll have that big nurse you don't really like hold you down while they shovel food in your mouth and give you all the good sleeping meds."
Mac glared at Bozer as they headed out the door. He knew his friend was only concerned but he really didn't like the prospect of being forced to do anything.
The trip to Phoenix was uneventful but the moment they pulled into the parking lot they noticed a four-door silver Honda sitting in Jack's old spot. As Mac finished parking his Jeep and looked speciously at the Honda, tempted to hit it for some unknown reason. With a sigh, he fought his temptation out of care for his Jeep and stepped out of it. Checking to see if the Honda still had anyone in it he went over to Bozer's side.
"Mac, you are being a grade A creeper right now."
"I'm just curious."
"You were getting awfully close to that silver paint job though."
"I'm just not used to parking next to a car that's not Jacks." Lie.
"Jack's is longer, Mac." Mac rolled his eyes in an attempt to hide the fact he'd been caught in his lie. Mac didn't typically lie, but for some reason, he didn't want anyone to know that it bothered him. He'd be getting a new overwatch he couldn't trust yet and he'd lost Jack for, only God knows how long.
The pair made it up the building with Mac purposefully walking slowly like a child who tried to postpone getting shots even though it was necessary. Eventually, they made it to the War Room and Mac quickly scanned it and his eyes caught a thin girl...His new overwatch was a kid?
"Bozer, did you oversleep again?" Matty said being playfully mad, not addressing that Mac was also along with him.
"Sorry, Matty." Bozer took the lack of her mentioning Mac as a silent message that this was going to be a delicate situation. Introducing Mac to new people was not exactly a mutual greeting. On one hand, Mac was an easily likable person, on the other Mac tried to see the best in people but never trusted them. Matty could see that Mac was already judging Jack's replacement with contempt like she had sent Jack away herself.
"Guy's meet Sirena Petrona, Jack handpicked her for this position. Sirena, meet Riley, Bozer, and MacGyver." Matty said point to each one respectively.
"Hi," Riley said waving.
"Nice to meet you." Bozer smiled and reached forward to shake her hand.
Mac stood back silently, looking at her with a million questions zooming through his mind. She gave him a slight smile, but it just made her look younger.
"I'm sure you have questions for her so let's get some out of the way now."
"How old are you? Seventeen? Eighteen?"
"Twenty-three." She corrected.
"How do you know Jack?"
"A few special ops with my dad back in his old Delta force. My dad was a Seal, but I went for Delta as soon as I could. A few months back Jack and I were in Brazil together and about a week or so ago he asked me if I wanted to substitute for him." Mac stopped his barrage of questions he had planned when he heard the word 'substitute' instead of 'replace' like he was expecting. She was good with words and was always going to say the right things, Mac noted. Not to be trusted.
Although that was the last thing you usually day about your overwatch, it kept running through Mac's mind like his fingers over the paperclip he'd been working since he could grab one from the bowl.
"Don't worry. I have your back."
Mac mumbled something and yawned and then Matty glared at him. "Have you been sleeping?"
"Yes I-"
"No, he hasn't. He's been distracting himself with his projects and not bothering to take care of himself." Bozer interjected.
"I'm fine, I'll sleep on our way to whatever mission we have planned."
"Well, unlike you Mac, the terrorists have been sleeping. No missions today. Just Sirena."
"That's going to be-"
"Watch what you say, Mac." Matty gave him the look.
"It's going to be boring today." He covered up.
"Would you rather get shot at?" Matty now stood with her arms crossed.
"No. But I mean what is she going to do?"
"Well, why don't you ask her?" Matty gestured in Rena's direction.
"What are you doing today?" Mac asked barely turning to her.
"As I recall, I was promised a tour via one Mr. MacGyver and then continue my research on the way an unconscious body should respond to the electrical current with the added pressure of a reverse magnetic pull. My theory is a brief moment of consciousness so that soldiers can tell us what has happened to them and we can treat them with a better knowledge of what they went through. At least, that's my theory."
"What's is backed by? I mean I don't doubt there's a scientific method behind it, but what are you basing this off of?" Mac was lost in thought and completely forgot that he'd been forcefully volunteered to give a tour to Jack's replacement.
"Well, I'm-"
"Nerd talk stays in the lab guys!" Matty interrupted with a smile that they might have something in common if they see eye to eye on at least one thing. Or so she hopes.
"Let's get the tour over with." Mac yawned again and the pair headed out. Leaving Matty, Bozer, and Riley to bet about what Mac was going to end up doing first, pass out in a project and wake up in medical or wake up with Thomas, the janitor, over his shoulder.
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"And this is our lab. Well one of them." Mac looked at Sirena. She looked younger than she was but her eyes told him of the horrors she'd already seen. He'd noticed a few times she'd been kind of jumpy when someone new walked by or any loud sounds suddenly surprised them. He guessed it was probably some form of PTSD. It was sad. Such a young person had already seen so much.
When Mac came back from Afghanistan he was also pretty messed up. He had refused to eat, sleep, or go outside much. Of course, Jack saw this, he couldn't hide anything from Jack. When Jack saw Mac refusing to take care of himself, Jack had stepped up his pizza and beer game big time and slowly Mac was able to get back to his normal self. Mac wondered if Sirena had anyone like that or if she was forcing herself to be in a stressful situation.
Mac shook off those ideas.
"So, when we go on missions what is the main strategy?" Sirena asked.
"Well, usually we just improvise our way there and our way home."
"Seems like it works well enough. I mean it's always gotten your team home."
"Yeah. Yeah, it has. But we've had our close calls." Mac had a flash memory of being shot at and stabbed. He shivered and grabbed at his shoulder unconsciously.
"What do you work on with your time here at Phoenix?"
"Well, just...a lot of things." Mac stopped and looked at the mess of projects all over the lab. Sirena could definitely tell which side of the lab was his.
"Is that a makeshift micro transmitter with an axis port?"
"Kind of. It's something Riley asked for to cancel out anything that would mess with our comms."
"Has it been successful?"
"Well, sort of...no. It's has had the opposite effect." Mac rubbed the bridge of his nose with the frustration that small drive has caused him, he was too tired to worry about that right now.. "I stopped working on it a bit ago. I'm not sure if there is something we can do about the interruption of our signals besides secure them better."
"Hmm... I have no help I could advise with that issue." Sirena laughed. "I heard you were really smart and so far it's true."
Mac frowned. He had wanted to smile with her but something was wrong. She wasn't Jack.
Bozer and Riley walked in the lab at the exact moment each of them received a ding from their perspective phones. Matty was demanding them in the War Room.
"Guess the terrorists got enough beauty rest," Bozer said before whipping around and back heading towards the War Room. The rest followed at his heels.
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The mission was simple, well as simple as getting an object of nuclear warfare out of the clutches a super aggressive and pissed off terrorist organization that has killed their own people for not being willing to be suicide bombers, but hey! What could go wrong? Mac stood and wished he still had Jack and not a newer, less experienced, and younger agent. Mac sighed. He had done missions without him, would it be much different?
They were on the plane heading to an undisclosed location to the outside world, and as far as the pilot could safely take them into enemy territory. Mac had promised he'd sleep on the way to the mission but even a cat nap was disturbed by the heavy amount of turbulence caused by the storm.
Mac began to doze back off when the plane jumped again and he heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Shit," Sirena whispered under her breath. She held her head.
"You okay?" Bozer asked.
"Yeah, thanks. Just hit my head." She rubbed her short hair and pressed her eyes shut. Mac watched her labored breathing as she struggled to keep calm.
"Not a fan of flying?"
She paled. Mac knew it was probably hit a touchy subject. "My team and I went down in a storm. Three of us died upon impact. Jack pulled the rest of us out." Sirena looked down at her hands and waited for the next bump to drag her out of her daze.
"Sorry." Mac looked forward at Riley who just sat there imagining Jack rushing into a burning plane to pull another team out of a plane.
"Get any sleep, MacGyver?"
"Not really but I'll be-" Before Mac could say 'fine' Riley and Bozer had him in a deadlock stare.
Sirena laughed at the bond between the team. "You guys are so close." With Sirena still looking down, no one realized that the laugh was covering up a tear.
The plane jumped again and Riley's laptop flew from her hands and slid to the floor.
"Damn it!" Riley said struggling with her belt to get her rig.
"Keep your seat belt on," Sirena said sternly. "MacGyver, look."
Mac watched the laptop slide towards the front of the plane unusually quick.
"My god!" Mac undid his belt and ran towards the cockpit of the plane to check on the pilot.
"What's going on?"
"We are going down." Sirena jumped and ran after Mac. The pilot had been unconscious, Mac was checking his pulse.
"He's dead," Mac said. Sirena was already pushing the pilot out of his seat and trying to take over. "You fly?"
"Enough." Sirena smiled at him. "I can improvise. Now go make sure you guys prepare for the worst."
Knowing she was talking about a crash landing he asked: "Water or land."
"Looking like a jungle."
"Right." Mac ran to the back and instructed Riley and Bozer switch sides and to hold on to anything secure and after telling Sirena which side of the plane not to crash on he joined his team sitting on the left of the plane.
Life and colors seemed to swirl around Mac before he even felt the plane's impact. He couldn't tell who was who and where they were. He felt his stomach lurch to his throat and then black snakes squirmed their way into Mac's vision.
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"Riley...bring that over...We need to get away...find us...MacGyver?"
"Mac...man...up...need you…"
"We need to run...got him? Here…"
The whole world began to spin. Did it ever stop? Colors and voices flashed in and out of view.
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"Riley, I need that medical kit. Can you bring it over here?" Sirena brushed the hair away from Mac's face and began to test his responses. "We need to get away from the plane. If we landed too close they will find us." She felt a small shift under her. "MacGyver?"
"Mac! Come on man. Wake up. We need you and that big brain." Bozer pleaded with his roommate to wake up.
Riley looked puzzled into the deeps of the jungle. She heard yelling but not in English and she assumed that it wasn't very friendly. She grabbed her laptop and the medical kit and ran back to the group. "We need to run." Riley held out a portable gurney. "You guys got him? Here, this way." She said as she loaded Mac onto the gurney and led the way down the side of a trail.
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It was dark and painful when Mac started coming to his senses. It was hot, very, very hot. Mac groaned as he rolled over. He didn't realize it until he'd already rolled over on his side, his arm hurt like hell.
He cried out and immediately Sirena was over him rolling him back on to his back. "Arm...hurts…" He panted through the pain.
"Yeah it's probably broken," Sirena moved to grab his arm and he cried out again and this time she cupped his mouth. "Shh. It's okay. It's okay. I know it hurts, just breathe." She calmed.
"What's going on?" He swallowed the lump of pain down.
"Plane crash landed and we are being followed."
Mac's eyes widened. This wouldn't have happened with Jack. He thought to himself.
Mac tried to sit up but fell back down and only a gentle hand kept him from falling limply against the jungle ground. "Hey, stay down for a bit. Okay?"
"Gotta-"
"Rest." Firmly said by the determined small figure.
"...Have to go." Mac slurred, he was tired, so tired. A firm hand stayed on Mac's chest keeping him down.
"Rest. You hit your head hard guarding Riley against that shrapnel." Sirena laughed. "Bozer, right. Yeah, Bozer. Anyway, he was freaking out. Not knowing what to do. Here I am, sitting in the pilot's seat trying to keep the plane from nose-diving and you take your seat beat off to go get a damned laptop."
"Did I save it?" Mac smiled and quickly winced at the pain his head gave him.
"In one piece Agent MacGyver."
"M-Mac." Mac gasped at the pain. "It's just Mac."
"Well, in that case, call me Rena." She smiled.
"Rena got it." Mac screwed his eyes shut trying to get the world to stop spinning.
"Now rest." Mac didn't know why he told her to call him Mac but he thought for a moment it might be okay, that everything might be okay.
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Mac bolted up and pain rushed over him like a tidal wave pushing him back down with all its force. He began to cry out but then was silenced with a firm hand muffling what they could.
"Shh. I know. It's okay, breath." Rena coaxed him slowly back into a relaxed state. "Listen, Mac."
Mac's eyes shifted to her the sun glaring bright behind her. Mac winced as she moved to block out the early morning sun. "What? Where's Riley and Bozer?"
"Scouting. I was keeping watch and they wanted something to do. Matty will recognize that we are missing soon but they didn't want to take the chance that soon would be too late."
Mac tried sitting up, this time slower and with Rena's help. "Not safe."
"They will be back soon." Mac glared angrily at her.
"Was it your idea to send them?"
"No. Riley and Bozer sat and talked about it before running it by me." Rena was confused at his question.
"Did you warn them against it?"
"I told them that if they must go to stay close and remember that there are trained killers out there."
"So you didn't tell them not to go?" Something was going to go wrong he could just fell it. He needed his team back ASAP.
"Mac they are agents. If that-"
"You are our overwatch." Mac blurted. He was mad at her, he knew there was no reason but he just felt like everything was going wrong.
"Correction. I am your overwatch and a member of their team. I will protect all of you but when it comes down to it, I was assigned to you. Plus you were the unconscious and defenseless body on the ground. If they wanted to leave or felt like that was the best course of action, they were going to do it anyway. I can't just leave you here wounded."
"Fine. If anything happens it's on-"
"Don't you even say that!" Now Mac wasn't the only one being angry. "Don't you even dare. All of this," Rena lifter her arms to the air. "This is not on me. It has been an unfortunate event. Don't blame people."
Mac closed his eyes to get the world to stop spinning and waited for Rena to calm down. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Let's just find some way out of here."
Distant popping sounds went off and a faint cry of a woman in the distance came to the ears.
"Riley!" Mac looked frantically in each direction to tell which direction it was coming from. Another few pops went off. "No!"
Rena bent down to the ground. "Shh. Stay low." Rena turned Mac over on his stomach and became covering him with large leaves.
"What? Where are you going?" Mac said a little too loud.
"Shh!" Rena pressed her lips with her finger and pointed in the suspected direction of the bullets. "Stay here. I'm going after Riley and Bozer."
"Don't just-" But before Mac could finish Rena had already dived into the vibrant greens of the jungle and long since disappeared. Mac sighed and did what he was told.
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Men dressed in full TAC gear roamed around the jungle shouting in their native language. Rena didn't quite recognize it but it was on the tip of her tongue. It was Ar...Am...Ad... Her focus snapped to a group on the left and the other four walking away in the right. She couldn't let any of them go. They each had heavy duty military grade guns while Rena examined her small pistol and the three clips in her belt and one in the gun. "Damn it." She whispered. "TAC gear and heavy artillery? Where are Riley and Bozer?"
In that moment she saw one Miss Davis on the ground with a bullet in her leg. She was tied up and gagged, but the bleeding hasn't been stopped. "Amateurs." Rena sneered.
A hand was placed on her shoulder and she whipped around and got her supposed attacker in a headlock and held the gun to his temple. Her attacker was…"Bozer?" That would make sense why Riley was still alive. If they caught Bozer they'd either use her as leverage or execute her.
"Where's Mac?" He gasped out as she released him.
"Shh. Hiding," Rena examined her surroundings once more and counted the seven men standing around Riley's fallen body. "You should take cover too."
Bozer's eyes widened and he ran to take cover under a hefty tree with lots of ferns and exotic plants.
Rena screwed a silencer on her gun and began to use the vines to climb the nearest tree that would support her weight. Bozer poked his head out to watch her frightened.
Rena was in position and soon enough Bozer counted six pops one after the other. Bozer kept his cover as he assumed that there was one left. A low pitch growl came from the area Riley was at. "Bozer! Grab Riley, let's go!"
Bozer scurried over to Riley's side and looked up at the seven men laying on the ground. "Hey, Sirena?"
"Yeah?"
"There were six shots and seven men."
Rena just pointed at one of the terrorists who was holding his leg and arm. He'd been shot twice.
"How?"
"Through and through on two of the others." Rena walked straight up to the man speaking Arabic. "A::[You are a long away from home my friend.]" Rena's accent thickened as she spoke Arabic.
"A::[You are a stupid American.]" Rena only barely dodged the spit that came flying out of his mouth.
"A::[Well, if I am so stupid, you will bleed out.]" Rena looked at Bozer. "How is she?"
"I-I'm al-alive for now." Riley stuttered through the pain. "Where's M-Mac?" Shock.
"Hiding." Rena looked at the TAC gear of the six dead men and began to take rolls of gauze out of there vests. The only had gauze. Guess it was a patch and go or die. "Bozer. Catch."
Bozer caught it and Rena pointed down at her leg. "One GSW to the leg. Bring her over here and I'll show you how to do a field dressing."
"Okay." Bozer scooped her up and sat her a good five feet away from the terrorist and any dead body. "Now what?"
"Copy my movements," Rena began to tear off a small part of the gauze and packed the man's leg wound with it. He cried out and Rena became angry at the sound.
"A::[I will tell you nothing!]" The man shouted.
"A::[Shut up! If I wanted information, I'd have it already!]" Rena snapped back. And pressed harder on the wound and turned to Bozer. "Your turn, but a bit nicer."
Rena tended to the bullet wound in the man's upper arm and she heard Riley muffle back a scream.
"Sorry, Riley!" Bozer moved to comfort her.
"Don't. She's already lost too much blood and we have to move soon. More time you waste the worse she gets." Rena motioned to Bozer to pick up more gauze and wrap the wound tight. "It's not much but it will have to do until we get something stronger and tighter."
As tight as they could the pair wrapped their respective patients until the blood temporarily stopped seeping through the gauze. "A::[She dies, you die. I die, you die. He dies, you die. If I lose anyone I will make it a slow and painful death.]"
"A::[I will never speak.]" The man spat.
"A::[I rather you only scream.]" There was no light in Rena's blue eyes, she was a viper ready to strike at any moment.
"She's going to bleed out if we don't get her back soon." Bozer and Rena examined the pale Riley now dangling from Bozer's grip.
Rena hauled the Arabic man to his feet and watched him stagger a few feet before she caught him and repeated the process. Eventually, she ended up half dragging him through the jungle to find Mac already working on some sort of first aide.
"Mac?" Rena asked. "I thought I said-"
"Riley!" Mac stood and tried to make a run to his teammate before he fell to his knees dizzy.
Rena tossed the man to the side and ran to brace Mac. "You okay?"
"Hmm? Yeah. What happened to Riley?"
"'M 'kay." Riley managed.
"She has one GSW to the lower leg, she was gagged and bound but not stopped from bleeding out. She's lost a lot of blood and er need to work fast."
"What about him?" Mac said pointing to the man
"I need nothing you Americans have!" The man shouted.
"You heard him. He bleeds out and eventually dies." Rena dead-eyed the man and he tried to spit at her again. "A::[If I were you, I'd kept all the moisture you have.]"
The man became silent. "We can't seriously let him die right?"
"I killed six of his comrades, Mac. I doubt if we let him go that anything good will come of it."
"Why'd you-" Mac was confused and angry.
"Riley. She saved Riley." Bozer said quietly, still holding the barely conscious woman.
"I kill when it's necessary. I save whenever I get a chance." Rena examined everything that had made. "Set her down. Mac can I have a hand?"
"Yeah, what do you need?"
"Is there any natural coagulant? Any plants that will stop the bleeding enough for an exfil?"
"Yeah. There's a…" Mac stopped when he realized it was best to just go and grab the plant. "I'll be back."
Mac ran off searching around the bottom of the larger trees. Bozer looked at Riley's blood all over his shirt and hands.
"I-I...she…" Bozer began to shudder uncontrollably.
"Agent Bozer." Rena looked up at him from over Riley's body. "That's not helping."
"Right. What should I do? You needed something to tie the wound with?"
"Yeah. How about bringing me those." Rena pointed towards the vines Mac had cut down. Bozer ran and grabbed the vines and brought them back. "Have you ever done this before?"
"Once. One Mac. He was shot close range on a camping trip we took."
"W-wilderness surv-survival." Riley corrected. "Camping has comforts."
Rena began to unwrap the wound and Riley began to hold her breath.
"And s'mores, Ri. You can never forget the s'mores." Bozer realized what she was doing. "Breath Ri."
"Keep breathing Riley."
"Hurts." She breathed out.
"I know. I've been shot many times. It never gets any better."
"Thanks. I was worried about that." Riley had the starts of a smile before her face scrunched up as Rena dug the small strip of gauze out and reapplied pressure with her hands.
Mac rushed back this some strange looking paste he'd already put together. Rena shifted to allow Mac to work on the leg with a better angle. "We're almost done, Riles."
Rena could tell something was wrong with the way Mac's hands were shaking. He probably had some sort of concussion and also needed to have his own arm looked at. She admired the was Mac was willing to work through his own pain in order to help Riley.
"Now the hard part?" Riley laughed at Mac but he knew she meant getting to a hospital.
"That bit is going to be harder than the wilderness survival training." Mac looked worried at his friend who had stopped looking at him and began looking past him.
Eventually, Riley had her wound packed, pressured, and dressed. She had already passed out due to shock, blood loss, pain, or a combination of the three. Mac ran his fingers through a small strand of hair and looked at her pale face. "We're going to get you to a hospital, okay?" He knew she couldn't hear him, but he did it anyway.
"Why don't we look at your arm Mac?"
"No. Him." Mac pointed at the barely conscious man who was stationed up against a tree a few feet away.
"It looks like this first aid kit will only go so far. He already refused help."
"Don't care. Help him." Mac raised the leaf of paste and a roll of gauze to Rena.
"Fine." Rena shuffled over to the man. "A::[You're lucky that my team is caring.]" She unwrapped the wounds and took the gauze out.
"A::[Daughter Merriam?]" The man looked up with a smile. Not a malicious smile but a fatherly smile.
"A::[No your daughter is not here.]" Rena packed the man's wounds with the strange paste and took a vine and cut it in half and tied off both of his gunshots before watching the man pass out.
"Now may I take a look at your arm?" Rena kneeled beside Mac who was checking Riley's pulse.
"I'm fine really." Mac began to stand up when Rena grabbed his left arm and lifted it. Mac choked back a cry of pain and looked Rena dead in the eyes.
"Not fine." Rena glared at him. "Let me wrap it up at the least."
"If you do that I won't be able to use it as much."
"Good! You're putting a strain on it. Just let me wrap it."
"I said no. I don't need a doctor!"
"Then why did Jack ask me to do this job?" Rena crossed her arms and stood up straight.
"Wait...Are you actually a field medic?"
"Yes! I thought you looked over the files?" Rena bent back down to try and examine Mac's arm that he now cradled away from her.
"I didn't really get a chance. So you went to medical school?"
"Ph D. in medical practices. I could have become a head surgeon at the age of nineteen." Rena slightly smiled. "But I felt that I should give our soldiers a fighting chance to come home. Went in to become a soldier instead."
"Prodigy?" Mac smiled.
"You could say that. Now let me see your arm."
Mac eventually gave in. Gasping when she felt around his arm and finally crying out in pain when she set in back in place. She gently wrapped it and made a makeshift sling out of vines and some of the leftover gauze. "Try not to move it if you can help it. We'll have to get it x-rayed when we get home. Okay?"
"Yeah sure." Mac held his left arm and wished for immediate freedom. The gauze rubbed up against his slick skin and made it irritated. "Hey, so what's our-"
Riley began to shift around and Rena dashed to her side to keep her still enough not to move her leg too much. "Hey, hey."
"Hot." Riley shook her head hoping to get some relief from the hot weather plus possible infection.
"Yeah, it is. First thing I'm doing when I get home is taking a nice cold shower and blasting the AC until I can't take it anymore." Rena smiled wiping way some of the sweat that had beaded up against her tan forehead. She looked so pale. "You've lost a lot of blood and have been shot in the leg. Other than the obvious how do you feel?"
"Dirty." Riley laughed and began to sit up.
"Take it easy Riley." Bozer steadied her with a hand.
"Alright now that we are all awake, What's our plan?" Mac asked trying to find a way to stand up from against the tree he was leaning against without using his left arm.
"Mac and a plan?" Riley laughed again examining Rena's handy work on Mac and herself. "You did this right Doc?"
"Yep. How's it feel?"
"Hurts, but fine." Riley tried to stand but everyone immediately gave her the look that Matty gives and she stopped.
"The plan: Mac is going to make some crutches for dear Riley and our beloved tag along. Bozer is going to get a gun and not shoot himself. He and Riley are going to stay here and out of sight, Mac and I are going to go scrap the plane for as many parts as we can get and bring him along." Rena paused to gesture to the still unconscientious man. "When Mac and I whip up some radio and get ahold of Matty to send us a exfil, we'll come back to get you guys."
"Nice plan but what happens if we get caught?" Bozer asked looking down at Riley's leg.
"How good is your aim Bozer?" Rena handed him a gun with a silencer pre-attached and a clip.
"I've never…"
"Word of advice. Protect who you love, kill when they threaten that."
"I don't know if I...I can…"
"Hey," Rena put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that, but be prepared to protect her," Rena pointed to Riley. "Or him," to Mac. "Or yourself."
"Got it." Bozer turned the gun over in his hand and had a flashback of his little brother...so much blood. Bozer blinked away the tears.
"Mac, think you can whip up two or three crutches?" Rena asked.
"Yeah." Mac nodded and began to look at the fallen branches.
"Hey Rena," Bozer called back.
"Yeah?"
"If I can...I mean if it comes to it, I'll protect you too."
"Means a lot Bozer. Thanks." Rena gave a sweet smile in his direction.
Everyone turned to the direction of the low pitch groan coming from over in a bush. "A::[What?]" Rena dashed to his side and spoke softly near his ear. The man didn't seem alarmed or scared, but definitely uneasy.
About two hours later it was dark again and Mac had managed to make his third crutch usable. Several times in those three hours had Rena scolded him for using his left arm to brace the crutch. Each of them was scratching at the skin that had been assaulted by the tiny indigenous devils with wings, including the Arabic man.
"He's not from around here?" Bozer assumed, scratching his neck.
"No. Probably trying to take over a native tribe here to use for soldiers or slaves." Rena set down the handful of wild berries that she had gathered near the man's tired hand. "Carissa macrocarpa is otherwise known as num-num."
"I will not talk!" The man shouted.
"A::[Just eat. Will give you strength.]" Rena nudged the berries closer to the man.
"A::[Poison!]"
"A::[No, completely edible.]"
"A::[I do not need.]" The man said harshly.
"A::[I will leave them here.]" Rena got up and walked away and went back to the group. "He will eat them. He has lost a lot of blood and is hungry."
"And you sure these are edible?" Bozer asked skeptically at the red plum-like berries.
"Yes, for the millionth time." Rena shook her head and looked at Riley who had barely even touched her share of the fruit.
"I'm just saying, a fruit named num-num?" Bozer shook his head. "Sounds like the perfect poison for kids."
"Good thing you're not a kid, Boze," Mac interjected as him and Bozer started their own conversation about childhood.
"Hey Riley, are you okay?" Rena whispered to Riley.
"Yeah, just not really hungry."
"You should still eat okay?"
"Yeah sure."
After they tied the man to a tree they went to most of them went to sleep, Rena sat up and stood to watch over her charges. No one was going to hurt them as long as she had something to say about it.
"A::[Can't stay awake for long.]" The man teased. "[We own these trees. You will never hide.]"
"A::[Go to sleep, you're going to be our guide tomorrow.]"
"A::[You will die here.]"
"A::[You remember what I said about one of us dying right?]"
The man became silent and sounds of the night went on loop as Rena watched the stars from a small opening in the ceiling of leaves. The air was thick and heavy, sweat dripped down Rena's forehead from just sitting still in the night. She was being smothered by the air, but that was okay as long as Mac and the others could keep breathing.
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In the morning Mac, Rena, and the man left the other two to loop back around for the plane. "Sorry," Mac said.
Having Mac apologize for who knows what caught Rena off guard. "For what?"
"The way I have been acting lately." Mac sighed leading the man further into the trees and bushes. "It's just with Jack gone…"
"I know how easy it is to get attached to that man. Hell, God knows I did. I tried my very best to hate that man."
"Hate him? Why?"
"For not leaving me to die with my team. My team from home consisted of four people including myself."
Mac's eyes widened. "I thought that three people died? And Jack pulled out the rest of you?"
"We had two teams combined into one. Out of my home team, I was the only one alive, but in a way I feel like I died back there with them, you know?"
"Yeah, I know the feeling," Mac remembered back to Pena and how it was supposed to be him instead.
"I wished for the first couple days that I was dead. I began spacing out and wasn't thinking properly. One thing leads to another and I was kidnapped and being forced to fix up some big shot general, who the moment he was feeling better, pointed a gun to my head. Jack came in at the right time and shot him. I thanked Jack for saving me, but it was half-hearted. I wanted that general to pull the trigger and Jack knew it. He tore into me in front of everyone, and I mean everyone, including the bad guys. I was mortified, he had gone from worried father to... well worried and pissed father. But it was just what I needed to snap everything back into position up here." Rena tapped her head.
Mac smiled then quickly frowned whipping around at the direction of his left shoulder. He grabbed at something and his eyes went into full panic mode. A dart. "Rena?"
"Mac?" Rena's eyes were wide. She grabbed Mac and ran for cover. He assumed they had at least two full minutes before the drug or poison to affect. She hoped it was something that would flush out of his system easily. Rena's eyes scanned for the Arabic man who was still standing out in the open. "Let's go." She whispered to Mac.
"Right." A shot rang out in the air and Rena barely looked back to see the man drop to his knees.
"Miriam?" He whispered as his body face planted into the hot ground.
"Shit, this is bad Mac."
"Yeah, we need to find others." Rena assumed he meant 'find the others' but didn't take time to correct him. He was already getting tired so she began to think they didn't even have two minutes.
"We need to get back to the plane and get the parts, Mac."
"'M kay." Mac's eyes began to droop close.
"No, stay with me." Rena guided Mac through more thick trees and stopped leaning against one.
"Too tired." Mac began to slump back against the wall of a tree and his head lolled to the side.
"Shit. Shit. Shit!" Rena swore under her breath.
She needed to act quick before they were caught and executed. Rena ducked under Mac's good arm and threw him over her shoulder awkwardly. For such a well-built person she'd assumed that he'd weight more, but Mac was surprisingly lightweight, just awkward to carry. She made a run for the nearest thick set of trees and bushes and didn't stop running. She felt the sting of branches and leaves cutting her face and arms, the lower branches slapping her in the calves and knees.
Eventually, she came to a spot she recognized. Everything smelled burnt a foul. The plane. Rena set Mac down inside of taller bushes and used the big branches and leaves to hide her sleeping partner. She unholstered her gun and scanned the area, it was quiet. No one appeared to be around. "Damn amateurs, making my job easy." A cracking sound from behind her drew her out of her daze of the wrecked plane. In a flash, she turned around to see yellow eyes staring her down. "Nice kitty. Big kitty." Rena said looking away briefly and looking back to avoid the challenge a staring contest brings on. Just as the cat made itself appear it disappeared back into the greens and browns. "Damn cat, making my job stressful."
Rena's attention was brought back to the plane which still seemed undisturbed. Rena bent down and picked up a rock and threw it at the plane, it made a clunking sound and bounced to the ground. Still, nothing. "Where are they?"
The sudden realization of where all the terrorists could be dawned on her. An injured hacker and a newer agent. "Shit. Mac?!" Rena ran over to the bush where she carefully tucked away Sleeping Beauty and checked his pulse, slow and steady, but there. "Not poison. Okay, it's up to me now. Damn it, Mac, our first mission together and you sleep through most of it. Don't you think you can get out of all the hard work by doing this to me." Although her words were pointless, it made her calm down a bit by trying to intimidate an unconscious person.
Terrorists or not, it was now or never. Rena dove into the plane and grabbed some of the communication pieces and went to work "MacGyvering" her way to an exfil.
After a while Rena found herself with one heap of junk slapped together and a lot of what she hoped were spare parts. "I bet you'd get this correct on the first try." Rena looked back in the direction of the bush where only Mac head stuck out and back at her masterpiece or a radio.
Rena clicked the button and hesitantly spoke into the mic piece. "Matty? Hello? Did I get the number correct?" Rena listened to the static for a long while and frowned.
Just as she was about to open the radio back up and take it apart again she head: "Who is this?" From an unfamiliar voice.
"Depends on the location you're at?"
"A think tank named the Phoenix Foundation." Said the voice.
"Thank god! This is Agent Sirena Petrona, the plane that Agent MacGyver, Agent Davis, Agent Bozer, and I went down. Mac is hurt and has probably received a high dose of tranquilizer and is currently unconscious with a possibly broken arm and a concussion. Riley has been shot in the leg and the whole mission has been butchered. We need an emergency exfil to this location ASAP. May I ask who I am speaking with?"
"Agent Leeanna. What is Bozer's current state?"
"Fine, just scratches from what I can tell."
"And you?"
"The same condition as Bozer," Rena sighed in relief. "We don't have much time. Riley has a fever already. Bozer and her are by themselves and the terrorists weren't at the crash site, which leads me to believe that Bozer might have to use the gun I gave him."
"Sirena this is Matty speaking now."
"Hey Matty, we were unable to retrieve the weapon. Sorry I failed you."
"You only fail when you don't come home. This was out of our hands. I'm just glad we haven't lost someone yet. You bring your team home to us."
"That's my job. How's that exfil coming."
"Can you hold out for two hours?"
"Yeah, I'll try."
"Stay alive Sirena."
"Will do boss lady."
With that, the radio cut out. Rena sighed looking back at the peaceful face in the bushes.
Okay, from a medical standpoint, how long will that tranq last? Big cats are indigenous to these parts, so it was probably for them. So let's say that cat is four times Mac's weight and normal tranqs last for about an hour? Three hours? Damn, Mac will be out most of the day, if he doesn't overdose. No stop. Okay, you just can't rely on Mac waking up any time soon. Rena shook her head digging Mac out of the bushes and placing him back over her shoulders and trying to stealthily make her way back to Riley and Bozer.
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Bozer sat down next to Riley in the bushes trying to keep hidden the best they could.
"I'm not sure it feels right in my hands Ri." Bozer looked concerned at Riley who had gone a few shades paler from when the trio left.
"I know what you mean Boz. I've had to kill before and it's not pleasant. But it was either me or him." Riley whispered back with her eyes closed and leaned against a tree.
"Sorry." Bozer had almost forgotten what Riley had to go through with those men she'd either killed or came close to killing. "I didn't mean to…"
"'S fine, Boze," Riley said trying to curl further into herself but being stopped by pain.
The pair sat in silence before they saw two figures walking back into the opening.
"'Bout time. Riley, they're back." Bozer began to stand before Riley caught his arm and forced him back down.
"That's not them," Riley whispered, only opening her eyes halfway.
"You're right." Bozer crouched back down towards Riley.
As they were watching two men in the clearing they froze when they heard the familiar sound of a gun getting prepped to be fired.
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Rena was almost back when she heard three shots not too far in the distance. No! Everything in her body screamed for a break but she kept pushing and running. She needed to get to them. Even if they were shot, could she save them? This was going to be Brazil all over again. Riley and Bozer will die because they were shot, Mac will die from an overdose and it will be all her fault. Matty asked her to bring her team home, Jack asked her to protect his kids and she kills them on the first day! Rena's mind was racing just as fast as she was racing against time. She was getting closer to the clearing she had left not too long ago so she decided to hide Mac in bushes once again and un-holstered her gun and ducked behind a tree.
Rena's eyes widened at the sight. Bozer was...he…
"Bozer!" Rena dashed to hold Bozer as he stared off into the distant with empty eyes. She grabbed the gun from his limp hands and turned the safety on.
"I...They tried to...I killed them all." Rena held him to her shoulder and rubbed his back as he processed what had just happened.
The clearing had two bodies in it and another body sticking out of the bushes. Riley used her crutch to stand up holding a silver canister. The nuclear weapon?
"Sirena…" Bozer began.
"Yeah?" She whispered.
"Where's Mac?"
"In a bush. He was hit by a tranq."
"He was what?" Bozer's eyes widened.
"He seems to be okay. The worse will probably be he wakes up with a killer headache." Rena stood up from where she was and walked over to steady Riley and the weapon.
"Guess we got lucky," Riley stated.
"Yeah, these guys we amateurs." Rena grabbed the canister and led Riley to where Mac was hiding watching Bozer sulkinglydistance.
After sitting in silence it seemed like it was not soon enough before a familiar sound of a chopper began to hum in their ears.
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The gun clicked behind them Riley and Bozer froze and Bozer turned to see the man hold the gun against the back of Riley's head. He saw the man slowly and deliberately squeezing the trigger and he smiled at Bozer.
Bozer jumped into action shooting the man directly between the eyes and watching the smile fade from his face as he fell forward. The other two men turned around and raised their guns to Bozer but before they could act, they each had a new hole in there face that shouldn't have been there. They both also fell to the ground.
Bozer couldn't breathe, he saved himself and Riley but he felt like a monster. Those men could have been fathers, brothers, uncles, sons. He just took someone's family away. There were never coming back. Bozer wished that they had pulled the trigger on him instead now. He couldn't breathe.
"Bozer, breathe." Bozer looked around the green trees of the jungle to find the familiar voice. "Leeanna?"
Bozer shot up gasping for air. Leeanna was rubbing his back. They were in the chopper, alone.
"Breathe babe. It's okay. Wanna talk about what happened?"
"I...I...No I can't." Bozer put his hands in his face.
"It's okay. We'll talk when you ready.
"Where's Mac and Riley?" Bozer stood up and walked towards the exit.
"Medics already took them away." She began to follow him. "They'll let us know when we can see them."
"Sirena?"
"With Matty, talking."
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Rena sat looking outside the plane. She was excited. This was going to be her first tour in Brazil. From what she heard, Jack Dalton was the best person to work with.
Peter laughed. "No way! She wouldn't do that!" Darrion, the new kid who was getting along just fine, butted in. "Let's ask Rena."
Peter's face turned bright red. "It's not...I never-""Dude, do you see the way she looks at you?!" Rena made the team explode in laughter. "She and I were talking about you, like last week! She is totally interested! When we get home you should totally make a move.""I...I don't…" Peter's face said it all, even if he couldn't admit it.
"Ha! You guys crack me up. You are all acting like seniors in high school." Jack Dalton had a huge grin on his face.
Darrion cleared his throat and mumbled something to Mark.
"What was that?" Jack held his hand to his ear. "I'm gettin' old gotta speak up.""I said: 'At least we aren't close to being a senior citizen.'" Now all eight of them were laughing together. Rena swore she almost saw heard the pilot laughing too.
Then the plane jumped violently and threw everyone around. Everything began to switch directions and the plane took a nosedive. The next few moments were a blur.
There was an explosion. Heat, so hot, hurt's so back. Then there was waved of cold water racing up her body. Tugging and pulling. Yelling and shouting."Come on kid!" Rena cracked her eyes open. She was sitting in chest-high water being dragged away from three familiar, floating and limp figures. "Peter!" Rena cried.
"You awake now? We crashed, we gotta go!" It was Jack. Jack was leaving her team behind."I can go get them! Peter! Peter wake up!" Rena kicked and flailed.
"There dead! The got hit with an explosion from the back of the plane. Let's go!" Rena stopped fighting Jack when she heard the word 'dead.' She wanted to refuse to accept it. She wanted to help them. She was a doctor for crying out loud! But she knew dead meant dead. If she could save them she wanted to stay with them, but Jack dragged her out of the graveyard of her teammates. Soon the bright light of the open skies shown in her eyes.
"Sirena! Are you with me kid?"
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"Sirena?!" Matty snapped her fingers. The bright sterile light of the Phoenix medical.
"Yeah," Rena's focus snapped into play. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine," Matty sighed and saw the painful look in her eyes. "I was saying thanks."
"For what?"
"Bringing them home alive."
"It was all luck."
"Don't tell Riley that. Getting shot in the leg isn't exactly lucky."
"When did the doctors say she'd be released?"
"Well, she performed well in surgery and woke up after the anesthetics so probably a week or so."
"And Mac?"
"Mac did have a broken arm, but he still hasn't woken up yet, so they will probably keep him for a week or more as well. It will drive him crazy to have his arm in a cast and be laid up in bed for two weeks. We will have to have guards posted at his door and we will have to seal off his window to prevent him from escaping again."
Rena laughed but quickly noticed that Matty wasn't laughing. "Oh, you're serious."
"Unfortunately, yes." Matty glanced down the hall to a room Rena presumed to be Mac's.
"Yeah, he kinda fought me on treatment when we were in the jungle. He wanted to use his broken arm and got frustrated when I kept stopping him."
"He's an exercise and eating healthy will get rid of the plague kind of guy."
"Well, now he has a doctor as his overwatch and won't get away with it anymore."
"Good luck with that."
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After Mac woke up around 3 p.m. the next day he immediately tried to run for it. Rena surprised him by lifting him off of his feet honeymoon style and carried him back to his room.
"Come on. I'm fine."
"Nope. It's not because I don't believe you or trust you. I just want a place where you can avoid me or my questions Mac."
"What?"
"I mean, you don't know anything about me and I don't know anything about you really. Like why you fought three nurses over an oxygen mask when you woke up."
"They make me feel claustrophobic and remind me of…"
"El Noche?" Rena filled in the blank and judging by Mac's tense reaction she got it right. "Sorry, I read your missions folder."
"It's fine. Why don't you start telling me about you first and I'll match what you share."
"Okay fine. I am twenty-three and I graduated high school at the age of thirteen in a very private and international location, went to medical school by the age of fourteen and started practicing medicine at the age of eighteen. I have a six-year-old daughter named Macalynn, who I call Mac for short. She is staying with my fiance who is in Japan with her mother. I decided at the age of nineteen that joining the Delta forces was the best chance for me, even if my dad called me a sand rat. My dad died last year and my old team died in Brazil in a plane crash."
Now it was Mac's turn. For the next few hours, the pair exchanged questions and answers about fears, strengths, weaknesses, and so much more.
"You know Jack said I would either love you or hate you."
"And?"
"Welcome to the family." Mac smiled there on the side of the bed welcoming his new sister into the mess of a family that, even after he was gone, Jack still kept finding ways to add new people in it.
A/N: So this was just my OC being an OC and I kinda hope Mac's new overwatch is better constructed than Rena is, but here it is! Hope you guys enjoyed! I will be taking back up The One That Never Got Away soon, hope you can all be patient with me.