Prompt from Amy L. on FF. Set a few weeks after episode 17, "Flashlight." Contains, like, one sentence that gives very little spoilers for that episode. Warnings will be put up with the chapters.
Hey, everyone! I've been pretty absent over the last week because I was on spring break and visiting family- without my computer. However, with lots of time in the car, I was able to write the rough draft of this- 6k words on my phone. Rip.
Anyways, I hope y'all like it!
The title of the story comes from the Irish word for family.
This story is completely written and edited, will be updated on Saturdays and Wednesdays, and has five chapters.
Warnings for this chapter: violence, gunshot wounds, but nothing worse than what's in the show.
A strange, heavy knock came from the front door, causing the woman in the kitchen of the diner to frown. Hastily, she dried her hands on a towel, muttering to herself, "Now who could that be, at this time of day?"
She glanced at the clock as she left the kitchen to confirm that she hadn't lost track of time, but her instincts proved correct. It was only seven in the morning. Her instincts, cultivated through years of dangerous work in her profession, screamed at her to be cautious.
hadn't lived this long doing what she did by ignoring her instincts.
She grabbed a gun that was standing by the front door and readied it, clicking the safety off and double-checking that it was loaded. As she did so, she called out, "Just a moment."
Putting her eye to the peephole, she saw the top of a blond head. Readying herself, the woman swung the door open and pointed her gun at the stranger, who had moved- or perhaps dropped down- to sit on the doorstep.
He raised his head, blue eyes glazed over with exhaustion and pain, and said, "Mama?"
Then his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed.
12 hours earlier:
Mac finished drinking his coffee as he pulled into the parking garage of the DXS. Matty had called him in, said she had a mission, but it was solo.
While it was uncommon for any agent to go into the field by themselves, situations did sometimes call for it. MacGyver himself had only gone on a few missions by himself, but he was confident that he would do well.
Mac walked into the War Room with with a curious expression plastered to his face. Matty was waiting for him there, looking over a folder of papers. As he walked through the doorway, she looked up and motioned for him to take a seat.
As he did so, Matty began to speak. "Like I said, this is going to be solo on the ground. However, Riley will be running surveillance, and I'm sure Bozer and Jack'll find some reason to be in here as well.
"You're going to Louisiana, around sixty miles north from where you met the Coltons." Matty stared straight at Mac as she mentioned the family's name. "I'd prefer not to get them involved in this."
Mac nodded, and Matty continued. "A warehouse that we've been watching is closing down- it's run by the company Hydrolectica, and they've been acting suspiciously for a few months now.
"Your job is to go in there, download the contents of the computer of the highest official they have there, and get out of there without getting caught. If you do get caught, we're going to have to disavow you."
Mac shifted a bit at that- he hadn't forgotten the entire ordeal a few weeks ago where they had been disavowed. It was an experience that he wasn't keen to repeat. Matty was silent for a moment to allow her words to sink in, then finished, "Your plane is waiting in the hangar. Gear up, then head out."
As Mac rose to obey her, the woman turned back to the screen on the wall, examine the map she had pulled up as she said, "And Mac? Good luck."
Mac smiled. This was going to be a simple mission, in and out, one that he had done a hundred times with Jack.
What could go wrong?
6 hours ago:
Mac mentally cursed as he ran through the trees, clutching the flash drive in his hand. He had made it in without a hitch- it was the getting out that was the problem.
Mac had planned to go in while the guards were changing and to get out when they were changing at a different place. However, a guard had come on shift early- a random fluke that the young agent couldn't possibly have planned for.
It really sucked when he had to deal with it, though.
Mac ran through the forest, struggling to find a possible hiding place as he tried to avoid the bullets whistling around him.
His luck held out for a few moments more- and then there was a sharp, sudden, fiery pain in his side and he collapsed momentarily and there was something wet against him and agony and painpainpain-
Single breath in. Single breath out. The mission comes first.
Mac pushed himself to his feet, one hand still holding the flash drive tightly, the other plastered against his side. The blond put one foot forward. Then the other. Then the first again.
Mac heard a voice in his head, one that sounded like Jack. It urged him to find a place to hide, to find safety.
It was probably good advice, Mac realized. He wondered if his team really was talking in his ear, and he reached a hand up to touch his radio, only to find it gone.
Distantly, in the part of his mind that wasn't a white-red-black-pained blur, he wondered if they had realized that his radio had fallen out.
So much for help from that quarter.
Mac realized that he had stopped walking and forced himself to look around. When he had fallen, the guards must've thought that he was dead. When he got back up, they had- judging from the noise that distantly reached his ears- realized he was alive.
However, with some modicum of luck carrying him, the blond had made his way into a small patch of heavy bushes that hid him almost entirely from sight before getting shot, but now provided him with an excellent view of the people that were currently trying to find him so that they could kill him.
Thinking fast, Mac brought the flash drive up to his mouth- and then he swallowed it. He would probably regret that decision later, the young man decided dryly, but right now, he needed two hands for what he had planned, and, if he was caught, he would prefer to not have the drive in a place where it could be found.
Carefully, attempting to make as little noise as possible, Mac traipsed through the forest, looking for a suitably tall tree. He found one quickly and began to climb, fighting past the pain in his side to do so.
Once he was high enough in the branches that he couldn't be seen from the ground, the blond rested in the fork of two large branches. He felt a pang of thankfulness that the leaves were thick in this tree, but he was distracted from his luck as his side gave a twinge of pain when the blond tried to move so that his bright hair would be less easily seen from the ground.
Five minutes later, as the guards passed underneath his tree, Mac held his breath and prayed that they wouldn't find him.
Something went right. They looked up, but didn't see him.
As the guards moved out of sight, the adrenaline that was coursing through the young man's body began to fade. Mac was tempted to just rest his eyes for a few moments, but knew that if he was to implement his plan, he needed to hurry and try and stop the bleeding from his side.
Working quickly, Mac tore a strip a cloth from his shirt, folded it into a pad, and tied it to his side with another strip of cloth. It held, just barely.
Then, with a fast peek through the branches to ensure the guards weren't close by, Mac dropped to the ground.
He stumbled, grunting at the sudden pain, but forced himself upright and began to jog back in the direction that the guards had come from.
After a few minutes, the jeep entered his line of sight. However, behind him, the man heard the sounds of people talking, loudly and angrily.
Mac went into a dead sprint, knowing that if he was caught, he wouldn't make it out alive.
The shouts became louder when the guards saw him, but it was too late. Mac vaulted into the jeep and found, to his relief, that the keys were still in the ignition.
Starting the car and moving as fast as he could, the blond shifted the jeep into drive and shoved his foot to the pedal.
He was safe, for now.