AN: Many, many spoilers for 3.15, K9 + Smugglers + New Recruit. Thoughts on the ep at the end.

MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

LA

'…You know, a little warning would have been nice.'

Mac, sitting on the couch and working on a piece of his new-and-improved security system (Murdoc, The Ghost and Desi had all broken in; it honestly really did need work…despite his sentimental attachment to the existing system built by his grandpa), shot Jack, who was on his laptop screen, a look.

His pointed statement was punctuated by Bozer and Riley, sitting on either side of the blonde, nodding in agreement, the hacker crossing her arms.

Jack, being Jack, just grinned and rubbed his hands together.

'So, you guys met Desi.'

All three young agents snorted, made faces and held up red circular stickers with 'bang' printed on them in a way that was startlingly similar and made Jack's heart ache a little.

'Yup.'

'Met doesn't quite sum it up…'

'More like…'

Jack chuckled, and got himself three looks in return.

'She chased me down at the Gym!'

'She stuffed me in my own trunk!'

'She broke into my house, ate all my chips and lectured me about my security system!'

Jack pointed at the indignant Mac.

'To be fair, brother, I been telling you you need to take a look at that, you know, after Murdoc and The Ghost…'

Mac sighed, and held up what he was working on, something that the rest of them didn't recognize or comprehend, which was pretty par-for-the-course.

'Point taken.'

Jack muttered something about now you listen, before his expression grew more serious.

'Look, I know she's a…she's a bit…well, she's a lot to take in, but I meant it: there ain't anybody I trust more with you guys than Dez.' Jack paused and smiled wryly. 'She's an acquired taste, like those spicy ranch chips she likes.'

Mac, Bozer and Riley glanced at the half-eaten bag sitting on the coffee table next to Mac's laptop. Spicy ranch was definitely a more divisive flavour than barbecue, with the tang and the heat.

Then, they looked back at Jack, wry smiles on their faces.

'Yeah…'

'…we got that.'

'It's going to be interesting.' Mac paused, glancing at the chips again, then back at Jack. 'We invited her over for dinner after the mission yesterday…' Jack, who was a strong believer in every wolf having a pack, would approve of that. '…and she said she promised you she'd go to at least one, but…' He picked up the spicy ranch chips and held the bag up, pointing to it with his Swiss Army knife. 'She dropped these off, and just…left.'

'Wouldn't even stay for chips and a beer.'

Bozer continued after Riley finished speaking, looking rather put-out.

'Not to mention one of my amazing burgers! I even stuffed them and made spicy ranch dressing! From scratch!'

Bozer was very worked up about that. Riley rolled her eyes fondly, while Mac absent-mindedly patted his best friend on the shoulder. Jack, meanwhile, smiled on-screen, adding levity to the moment like he always did.

'Oh, what I wouldn't give for one or two of those with a little extra bacon, Boze…' His expression grew more serious again. 'Look, word from the wise: you can't ever make Desiree Nguyen do anything. Oh, she'll keep her promises and pay all her debts in full, trust me, but on her own terms.' Jack paused again. 'Just…just keep setting another place at the table, okay?' His expression turned nostalgic, and a little sad, and he stared into the middle distance (into the past) for a moment. 'Dez is the loneliest lone wolf I ever met, but every lone wolf needs a pack.'

Mac tilted his head a little to the left and arched an eyebrow at Jack, while Bozer blinked twice, then muttered nicely played, and Riley crossed her arms, quirking one perfect brow at the older man.

'You didn't ask her to bodyguard us just because she could kick your ass, did you?'

Jack pointed at Riley, looking offended.

'Hey, I'll have you know, we're pretty even! Sure, she's got the jump on me by one or two, but we're gonna have a few rematches when I get back, and trust me, I'm gonna square it all up!' Riley raised a teasingly-sceptical brow at him, but shook her head with a fond little smile on her face, holding up her hands in supplication, as Jack smirked a little. 'And you know me, two baddies, one bullet…'

All three young people snorted and shook their heads at that, before looking up and smiling at Jack in a way that was full of affection and long-suffering exasperation.

It'd been a week, and they already missed him like mad.

(He was family, after all.)

Jack smiled back at them and gave a little nod, like he could read that on their faces, which he, of course, could.

A moment later, Mac picked up his doo-dad again and tinkered with it, looking at some wiring instead of Jack as he spoke, faux-casually.

(Since it was Mac, he didn't do that faux-casual very well. Not at all.)

'So, uh, Desi mentioned that she owes you, and I was just a little curious, what does she owe you for? I mean, it has to be pretty substantial…'

Jack had just opened his mouth to say something when they heard someone call out his name off-screen.

Instantly, his face grew serious. Grimly serious.

'Sorry, brother, I gotta go.'

They barely had time to nod in acknowledgement of that before Jack closed the connection from his end.

For a moment after Jack hung up, Mac just stared at his laptop screen, blinking. Behind his back, Bozer and Riley exchanged a glance, affectionate and amused. Bozer mouthed three, two, one…

'Come on, I need to know this!'

Mac sounded plaintive and desperate, as badly as he had when they'd first met Matty and the constant teasing of her and Jack's history and what happened in Chechnya had driven him absolutely spare.

Bozer reached out and patted Mac sympathetically on the shoulder.

He and Riley were totally curious too as to what epic favour Desi must owe Jack, but as they all knew, Mac's curiosity always trumped everybody else's.

Yeah, it's one of my many character flaws. It's also one of my best traits.

Two sides of the same coin.

A few hours later, Mac's phone chimed with a video message from Jack as he worked on installing a panel for his security system by the door, behind the polar bear.

'Look, I know it's gotta be doing that big brain of yours in, son. Those hamsters are probably running overtime on their little hamster wheels.' Jack pointed at him. 'Yeah, yeah, I know, that ain't how brains work. Spare me the lecture, man, I heard it all before.' His expression grew serious. 'Why she owes me a big one…that's more her story to tell than mine, brother. Way more.' A touch of wryness crossed Jack's face. 'Had to promise her I wouldn't tell you guys, actually.' Jack paused, and gave a wry little smile. 'And you know I ain't gonna break that; I wanna stay breathing and all.' His expression grew more serious again. 'Maybe she'll tell you her story one day…just…just keep setting another place at the table, okay?'

Mac nodded, as if Jack were really there, when he finished watching the message.

He understood having a story or two in your past that you didn't want to tell.

He had stories that he didn't want to tell. Stories that he hadn't told even Jack for years. Like Al, or why he didn't celebrate his birthday.

But still…it was going to drive him crazy.

As my grandpa used to say, sometimes it's a curse, and sometimes it's a blessing.

AN: Mostly because I miss Jack, and also because I, like Mac, was very curious about this favour that Desi owes Jack.

Thoughts on 3.15, K9 + Smugglers + New Recruit: I enjoyed that ep, anything that involves a dog…come on! It was a nice, very MacGyver ep, mission-wise.

I also liked the way that they introduced Desi. I think they've done a much better job with her intro than they did with Cage – she has more character established already, I think, and more backstory, Desi acknowledged the fact she wasn't Jack and that the transition was going to be hard at the start and the team didn't all fall over themselves going on about how great she is within the first ep. They talked about her and what they thought of her very honestly and often, which I thought was good - they all thought she was nuts, Bozer had his thing with the chair, Riley had her moment of doubt, Mac was very curious about why she owes Jack, and at the end, because they're who they are, because of what happened on the mission, because of her relationship with Jack, they reached out to her and tried to welcome her. I do like the fact that we already know quite a lot about Desi – she went to Ranger school, she went to college at Michigan because of the GI Bill, she's analytical and smart and by-the-book, loves to plan and is constantly prepared. She's always in agent mode. She's blunt, candid (well, when she wants to be, anyway), snarky, intense and kinda nuts. She's very tough and super-badass, but she has a softer, somewhat contradictory side – she's definitely very loyal and a 'pay-all-your-debts' type, and she seems to be pretending not to care (or pretending not to care too much, because she doesn't want to lose people she cares about), even though she does, and she has her soft moments, like when she was telling Riley about the Afghani interpreter or with Cody. She's also fairly cold and a 'lone wolf' and isn't so fond of guns. I also liked the little touches that they put in – she loves animals, the colour purple, chocolate and spicy ranch chips. That's the sort of thing that helps build a character, in my opinion, and with Cage, I feel that we didn't get to see that until five episodes in with the Bermuda Triangle/Halloween episode. It is also intriguing, why she owes Jack. I think the characters' assessment of Desi (and her self-assessment) were also rather meta – Desi is definitely prickly, and her character's attitude is that she doesn't care about being liked, and they're all convinced at the end that they could 'come to like her' and 'we'll see how it all plays out'. I just felt a bit like they were kinda talking to us!