A/N: Hi guys! I love this show, it's my first foray into Macgyver fic and I'm really excited! I got this idea from a different fic where Dad Jack brought broken stuff for Mac to fix on the plane so he wouldn't take apart the TVs onboard. I thought why stop with just Mac? Riley, Bozer, and Cage must have their airplane quirks too. And I love how Jack always messes up Jill's name on purpose to rile her up. I think they could be good friends if they spent more time with each other.
"Where'd the fruit cups go?" Jack muttered to himself, rummaging through the fridge in the break room.
"Uh, Jack, whatcha doin'?" Jill asked as she entered the room. "Aren't you supposed to be on a plane right now?"
"I have ten minutes," he said taking out the various lunchboxes, water bottles, pop cans, and a lone, unwrapped, half moldy chunk of cheddar cheese. Jack wrinkled his nose in disgust, chucking it in the trash.
"And I'm looking for Cage's fruit cups and Bozer's pudding cups. I found the pudding cups ten minutes ago."
"Can't Cage and Bozer bring their own snacks for the trip?" Jill asked confused, they were all grown adults after all.
Jack smirked, "Well June-"
"Jill," she tiredly corrected with a half grin, knowing he started doing it just to get on her nerves and now because it was so ridiculous it made her smile.
"None of them remember to bring food, even though they always, and I mean always, get hungry on the flight if it's longer than an hour, and none of them like the airplane food."
Jill was about to respond when Jack yelled in triumph, half disappeared into the fridge and emerged holding a four pack of fruit cups in lightly sweetened coconut water. "Eureka!" he exclaimed, then frowned slightly in horror, "I've been spending to much time with you nerds." Jill rolled her eyes.
He placed them in a backpack. Jill took a few strides over to the table and peered into the bag. Sure enough there was a four pack of chocolate pudding along with the elusive fruit cups, Ritz crackers, Veggie Straws, twizzlers, cheez its, chocolate chip cookies, gummy bears, and beef jerky in one pouch, spare power cords and various other computer parts in another, in the last and biggest pouch there were at least ten broken appliances, a radio, a very expensive microscope, a bunsen burner that had somehow been split in half, and four different headphones, two phones with smashed screens, and a mouse.
"Riley and Mac?" she asked pointing at the back two pouches.
Jack nodded rolling his eyes, "Mac may be a genius, but the kid gets bored ten minutes into the flight. And if he doesn't have something to keep himself busy he starts taking the plane apart, non-essentials obviously, or other electronics things, that usually belong to Riley. So the projects keep him busy and away from Riley's bags."
He shook his head and laughed, "the first time Mac took apart Riley's back up laptop, oh you shoulda seen her she was pissed. I forgot his "Plane Projects", and naturally, he got bored. She scared Mac so bad he wouldn't go within ten feet of her for the entirety of the mission and a good week and a half afterward."
"So the spare computer parts are for when either Mac takes her's or she loses/forgets them. She almost always forgets to pack a charge cord in her carry on."
"And the food?" She asked with a smile, it reminded her of herself packing toys and snacks for her five-year-old daughters on long trips to Grandma's house.
"You know Bozer, the kid can't stop talking, no matter what. But when he's hungry his voice takes on this high pitched screechy sound and he speeds up so almost no one can figure out what he's sayin', except Mac. So to avoid hearing loss, I started addin' pudding packs and chocolate chip cookies to the bag. Cage isn't too bad, but when she gets hungry it's almost the exact opposite of Bozer. Usually on plane rides she reads, prepares for the mission, or talks to one of us. But When she's hungry she kinda shuts down, stops talking, and just stares out the window. It's strange and I don't like to see her like that. But she hates junk food though, so it took a few experiments to figure out what she liked. But one fruit cup and a bag of veggie straws and she's back to herself."
"Riley can't focus on anything without her twizzlers, and Mac's like a bird, it's a struggle to get his to eat real meals. He's a pecker, likes little things he can pop into his mouth and keep working. And the crackers, gummy bears and jerky are mine." She wrinkled her nose at the last part. Beef jerky and gummy bears, gross. Jack zipped each compartment shut, and slinging it across his back. "What? I get hungry too." he defended at her look of disgust.
"Do they know?" She wondered, she didn't think so. The four wouldn't react well to Jack bringing a "Keep the Kids Busy" bag if they knew.
Jack snorted, "No no. No way. Mac would die of embarrassment, Riley might kill me, Bozer would make outrageous requests and, Cage... I'm not sure how Cage would react. I sneak the food into the fridge on the plane. Mac thinks there's a lost and found box on the plane where he gets the stuff from, it's actually mostly from the lab, I wonder what he thinks someone's doing with a bunsen burner and microscope on a plane? And I sneak the computer parts into the compartment where Riley keeps her stuff."
"You're such a dad," Jill said with a laugh as they exited the breakroom, walking quickly through the building.
Jack eyed her with one eyebrow raised to his hairline in bewilderment. "Excuse me?"
"You just described exactly what I pack to keep my kids entertained, and behaved on long car rides. Just replace barbie dolls and Disney movies with broken things and computer parts."
"No no, it's not to keep them well behaved or entertained, it's too keep me sane!"
"Same here, without the toys and snacks in the car, I'd be in the looney bin by now, or the ditch."
"Huh, never thought about it like that." Jack shrugged, then froze, "Oh my God, I'm the father of four adult, reckless, scary smart, slightly insane superspy children."
"You're just figuring this out now?" Jill said with a laugh, she figured it out the moment she saw him interact with Mac and Riley and Bozer. Always making sure they had what they needed, or offering advice, even when they didn't want it. He always had their backs. He chased off every Phoenix agent that even looked at Riley for a second too long. He bugged Mac to eat and sleep when he got too into a project and always listened to Bozer's ideas, even if they were far-fetched and crazy. He went out of his way to make sure Cage felt welcome to the team and became extremely overprotective after she got shot by Murdoc.
"Dad? Really? I always thought of myself as the cool crazy Uncle."
"You got the crazy part right." She grinned at him, he stuck his tongue out at her.
"I gotta run, don't want the plane to leave without me. They might make the pilots jump, without parachutes."
"Seeya Jack."
"Toodles Juniper!" He wiggled his fingers at her with a cheeky smile as he ran out to the plane.
"It's Jill, you jerk," she muttered with a laugh.
A/N: Sooooo?! Whaddya think? I hope you enjoyed reading this, feel free to leave a review and favorite/follow!
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K9KID OUT!
