Episode 2x23 MacGyver + MacGyver spoilers within

DATE: ONE DAY AFTER MAC QUITS

LOCATION: MAC'S HOUSE

The clock on the wall ticked steadily as Mac lay on the couch, staring at the ceiling and listening to Jack move around in the kitchen. A peaceful almost-quiet lay over the house, broken only by the ticking of the clock and the soft humming of the air conditioning unit. It was shattered when the doorbell rang, jarring Mac out of the light doze he had fallen into.

He knew this was coming, knew his father wouldn't stay away for long, but he had hoped. Hoped that the man would simply stay away. He must be good at it by now, the blond thought bitterly as the doorbell rang again. Slowly, he hauled himself to his feet. He knew he looked not-quite-his-best, wearing an old pair of cargo pants and an old hoodie that was baggy enough to fit Jack. Still, he couldn't bring himself to care, not when he was about to face the man that had abandoned him for fifteen years.

He trudged to the door slowly, socked feet barely making a noise against the floor. Mac slowly pulled open the door to reveal exactly who he thought would be there. The man on the other side of the door raised an eyebrow as he looked at Mac. His disapproval was clear, but again, Mac couldn't quite find it in himself to feel any particular way about it. "Not expecting company?"

Mac answered as he turned away from the door. "No one important."

He heard James follow him in, and turned to face him in the entryway. "What do you want?"

His father shrugged. "I wanted to explain myself again. To try and make you understand why I had to leave. You have to understand that I didn't have a choice. I did it because-"

Mac cut his father off, suddenly feeling so, so tired. "Get out of my house."

James raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

James took a step towards Mac. "Do you understand what you're saying, son?"

Mac lifted his chin, staring the man straight in the eye. He wasn't ten anymore. He was twenty-five, and he had spent fifteen years wondering why he wasn't good enough for dad to stick around. What he had done wrong. Why he was enough of a mess for his father to leave and not look back. "Yeah. I want you out of my house and out of my life."

James laughed. It was a low, ugly sound. "Wow. You know, I thought you would be grateful that I left when you found out why. I did it for you. I had to leave and you know it."

Mac bared his teeth in a grin. The expression did not reach his eyes. "What, because I reminded you too much of Mom? Because I was such a reminder of what you lost? Because you couldn't look at me without getting, and I quote, 'so angry'?"

James threw his arms out to the side. "You've memorized my reasons, so tell me why you're too stupid to get it through your thick head that I did it because I cared about you?"

"I was a child!" The shout rang out, echoing in the sudden silence. Mac breathed in deeply, a sharp inhale, raw and ragged. It hurt his throat as much as his father's words hurt the left side of his chest, and, as he stepped forward, he pointed a finger at James. "I was a child, and you blamed me for something I couldn't control. I was a child, and it was your responsibility as a father, as a parent, as a decent human being to care for your child, not blame them for something they had no say in!"

James took a step forward, forcing Mac backwards. "You don't understand, Angus. I lost my wife. You have no idea what that what that was like."

Mac fired back. "And I lost my mother, and then I lost my father, and then people just kept leaving. I joined the army and I wondered if you would be proud of me, and then the closest thing I had to a father died and you weren't there. Did you even go to your own father's funeral, or were you trying to protect me then, too?"

James stepped forward again, backing Mac into a corner. "Don't talk to me like that, boy. You don't know how much it hurt me, how hard it was for me to do this for you, how much I sacrificed for you-"

Mac cut him off, his voice deadly quiet and venomous as a snake's bite. "Bullshit."

James frowned. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You didn't do it for me, and you don't get to sit there and pin everything on me to ease your own guilt. You don't get to tell me that it was my fault, that I'm the one to blame. They were your actions, your decisions, and you were the adult in the situation. Your actions are your own and you don't get to dictate the consequences now that you're ready to pick up where we left off."

James opened his mouth but Mac kept talking. "I'm not finished. I don't care if you thought that you were entitled to come back and have my forgiveness- if that even matters to you at this point- but you don't even care that you're just repeating what you did the first time you left. If I do something to make you mad, are you going to leave again? Or are you just going to push me farther into a job that you know could have killed me multiple times, so that you can be close to me without actually reaching out? Was this your way of punishing me for looking too much like Mom? Is this all my fault, too? Or, I'm sorry, am I inconveniencing you right now? Maybe we can continue this conversation in another fifteen years. You know, if I'm not dead from another job that you'll manipulate me into joining."

James cut in. "Look, son-"

Mac gritted out, "Don't call me that. I'm not your son."

James raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Angus, you know how biology works as well as I do. I'm your father, without a doubt."

Mac shrugged. "Maybe biologically, but not in the ways that count. You haven't been there for me, haven't helped me through pain and heartbreak and kept me company when I was sick or hurt or laid up in the hospital or almost dead from a job you led me into. No, we both know that was someone else."

James laughed. "What, Dalton? You know he's going to leave you, right? You're going to do something stupid and he won't be able to stand being around you and then he'll leave, just like you deserve."

"See, that's where you're wrong. I've done plenty of stupid things, but he's never- he's never left. He signed up for another tour in hell to protect me, and, you know, do something that you'd never understand."

Jack stepped forward from the doorway. Mac wondered how long he had been standing there. The older man placed his hand on Mac's shoulder, thumb rubbing against his shoulder blade for a second as he faced James. "I'm not leaving, and you know it. You heard Mac. Get out of here."

James turned towards the door, pausing halfway there. "You know you're not welcome back at the Foundation, either of you, don't you? Not after this."

Mac shrugged. "The farther away from you I am the better."

James smiled, jagged and sharp-edged, as dangerous and cold as broken glass gleaming in the winter sunlight. "We'll see how you feel in a few weeks."

Mac didn't say anything. He watched his father walk out of his life a second time, then turned, and, without a word, walked to living room and sank down onto the couch. The clock on the wall caught his eye, and he blinked, nonplussed, as he saw the time. Had it really only been twenty minutes since his father had first rang the doorbell?

Jack sat down beside him, close enough that the cushions dipping beneath his weight tilted Mac a few inches closer to the older man. Jack slung his arm around Mac's shoulders, his presence solid and comforting. "How you feeling, kid?"

Mac huffed out a breath. "Honestly, angry. And exhausted. And frustrated with him. And confused. But- a little more free, I think."

He felt more than saw Jack nod. "We'll work through the rest. And we'll do it together, 'cause I'm not going anywhere without you."

Despite his churning emotions, Mac smiled. "I know, Jack."

Jack was right. They'd work through it, just like they tackled any other problem: as a team, because that's what brothers did.

so i'm not officially back or anything, but the season finale made me so angry at james macgyver and the reasons he gave for him leaving (and i think the show did a good job at least making mac say it wasn't right for him to be the person blamed for his dad's leaving) and i needed this scene, so. here it is. let me know what you thought/rant with me in the comments.

also, i'm on tumblr! find me suaimhneas-peace to talk to me about macgyver and other stuff.