Llhaven over at wanted a fic like this. Hope I fulfilled it! Full prompt at bottom.

Warnings: not a lot, just that it plays fast and loose with canon ages. Mac is almost 20, Jack is around 27. This is set in a slightly alternate universe where MacGyver still trained with the army and worked with them as an EOD, but he never actually was /in/ the army. I'm gonna say it was a requirement that the DXS had for him because they realized his potential.

Jack stared at his phone worriedly, his chin rested on one fist. In front of him, Patricia Thornton paced. The two adults both worried for the same reason.

Every year, there was a competition held in September open to any of the recruits that had been working for the DXS for less than a year. The challenge was to make it from a drop point in the Rockies to a small cabin that was thirty miles away. The recruits had to work together to make it to the cabin, and every year, the goal was to beat the current record. The record was held by the group of the year that Jack had done it, a fact that he was very proud of.

The terrain was rough, but manageable for all the recruits that wanted to join in. This year, there were four recruits doing the challenge. MacGyver, Edward Jinnie (a twenty-three-year-old man that was fresh out of the army), Janine Snith (a thirty-year-old woman that had worked in the CIA), and Olivia Laurent (a twenty-one-year-old woman that had joined up straight out of college).

The contest was held in September for a couple reasons: first, for some reason, there were the least amount of missions that required the DXS to take care of them. The analysts at the DXS had tried to explain this weird phenomenon in every scientific way they could, but in the end had only been able to come up the slightly weird explanation of, "Maybe all the bad guys are just enjoying fall." (Sometimes Jack wondered what, exactly, one had to do to become a DXS scientist. He could've come up with that explanation.). Second, the weather in the Rockies was normally suitable for such a hike. It took, on average, two days and got a little chilly at times, but was, overall, the perfect time of year for a two-day trip.

This year, however, an enormous blizzard had come out of nowhere*. Its projected path, coincidentally, was straight through where the recruits were. By this time, it would've already hit them. The problem was, the DXS and the local forest rangers both couldn't get anyone out to find the recruits, as the storm was still going on.

Thus, the current situation for Jack and Thornton. They were waiting for the call to come through from the rangers that the storm had ended in the part of the mountains that the recruits were in so that the DXS could dispatch people to help find the recruits.

Jack glanced at the muted weather station that was currently playing on the TV. No change in weather. The man sighed, trying to calm frayed nerves. There was nothing he could do but wait.

Four hours earlier:

MacGyver stopped for a moment, staring up with concern at the rapidly graying sky. The temperature had been plummeting all day, and he was worried about the weather. It was the second day of their two-day hike, and they were only about seven miles away from the cabin. They were also on track to beat the current record, something all were excited about.

This excitement had contributed, at least a bit, to the fact that the four of them had decided against calling for a pick-up when they realized that the temperature had begun dropping quickly the previous night. Jinnie, especially, had been extremely against it. The rest of them had been a bit more cautious, but had ultimately decided to try and make it to the cabin before the temperature got dangerously low.

MacGyver, still staring at the sky, suddenly realized that his group had gotten a bit ahead of him. He hurried to catch up, falling into line at the back of the pack. After another few minutes of worriedly scanning the sky, he decided to speak up. "Um, guys? Do you think we should maybe call for pickup?"

Snith, who was right in front of him, turned to him with a confused expression on her face. "Why?"

The young man shrugged. "The sky's starting to look a little concerning, and the temperature keeps getting lower."

Jinnie, walking at the front of the group, stopped and turned to face the younger man with a snort. The older male was very imposing and he aware of the fact. He had been a football player in college, and he knew how to seem intimidating. To add to the fact that he was significantly broader and more muscular than the blond, Jinnie also had a good two inches on the him, as he still had a bit of growing left to do. The brunet towered over the younger male imposingly, saying, "What, you scared now that it's a bit cold and the sky isn't perfectly blue?"

MacGyver bristled at the condescending tone, but kept a reasonable tone. "No, I'm saying that maybe we should be worried about a blizzard."

This time it was Snith who scoffed. "Look, kid." MacGyver felt a twinge of resentment rise in him at the derogatory nickname. Jack called him 'kid' sometimes, but it always had a much different ring to it. Snith continued, "I know- everyone knows- that you got into the DXS even though you're only nineteen. Just because you're freakishly smart, though, doesn't mean that everyone else is an idiot. Maybe you should just let the adults worry about what's going to happen with the weather, okay?"

MacGyver forced out a short reply, embarrassment painting his neck red. "Fine."

Jinnie smiled condescendingly at the teen as he said, "Anything else you're worried about, kid?"

The blond shook his head, knowing that if he tried to reply while this embarrassed, he'd only end up stuttering so bad that he wouldn't be able to get out a response and would only succeed in making himself more flustered. Jinnie nodded, his smile disappearing. "Good. Let's get going, then. We've wasted enough time here."

The group began to move again. Silence reigned for another half-hour as they trekked through the wilderness and covered around three more miles. However, when snow began to fall in large, thick flakes that were swirled by the fierce wind that had begun to blow fifteen minutes previous, MacGyver couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Jinnie," the teen shouted to be heard over the loud wind, "We have to stop!"

Jinnie ignored the younger man. MacGyver shouted again, this time more urgently. "Jinnie, if we don't stop, we're going to be in more trouble than we already are!"

With an audible growl of frustration, the brunet stopped, turned, and stomped over to the younger man. MacGyver could barely stop himself from taking a step back at the sight of the scowl of frustration on the other man's face. "What, MacGyver?" He growled.

The teen pointed at the snow that was swirling around the group, as Laurent and Snith had drawn closer to the two males when they had stopped. "This is turning into a blizzard. There's no way we can make it to the cabin. We need to find shelter around here."

Jinnie looked furious. He opened his mouth to reply when a huge gust of wind blew into the group, hitting MacGyver square in the back. The wind was strong enough to make him stagger a few steps forward- straight into Jinnie's broad chest. The blond pushed himself back hastily, and looked up to see a brief flicker of amusement cross the older male's face. However, the laughter in his eyes vanished quickly when another gust of wind hit, blowing Snith at an awkward angle. She tripped over a rock that was in her path and went down hard. The blonde hit the ground before any of the group could catch her, and when Laurent turned her over, there was a thin trickle of blood coming from her temple.

Jinnie looked up at MacGyver, who was staring at the older woman. "Okay, we have to go to shelter."

MacGyver waited for the man, who had established himself as the leader of the group from the start, to state their next action. When the blond met the brunet's eyes, though, he saw a blend of emotions. There was fear, anger, and, most of all, sheer terror.

Not good.

MacGyver swallowed, darting a glance at Laurent. She looked scared as well. Okay. The teen tried to remember everything that Jack had told him about the trail. The man hadn't wanted to give away anything too important, but he had told his partner that there was a large cave about three miles away from the cabin. Good, MacGyver thought, We can go there.

He swallowed again, not giving himself time to panic. If that happened, they would all be dead. He said, "There's a cave around here. That's our best bet for shelter. Um, we're about three miles from the cabin," Continuing to talk himself through the directions that Jack had given him ("Go past the huge crooked tree for a quarter mile (they had passed it a little under a quarter mile ago) and then turn right and it's just past the huge boulder with a tree growing through it."), the blond led the way through the storm. Jinnie and Laurent supported Snith between them and followed the young man.

They made it to the cave without too much trouble, other than the intensifying storm. When they reached shelter, MacGyver was relieved to find that the opening was parallel to the direction that the wind was blowing, meaning that most of the snow would stay outside of the cave. He helped Laurent and Jinnie set Snith down on the ground, watching as they made the woman as comfortable as they could with the two blankets that she had in her backpack.

As Laurent and Jinnie got their own blankets out and huddled together for warmth, MacGyver stood and looked around the inside of the cave. He found, to his surprise, a somewhat sizeable stash of dried wood, as well as a few leaves. He brought the firewood over to where the group had set their backpacks down, and Jinnie began to help him when he realized what the younger man was doing. Together, they were able to start a small fire. However, Laurent looked over at them with a grim expression plastered firmly to her face. "This isn't enough to keep all of us warm in these temperatures."

MacGyver let out a miniscule sigh. He had been hoping that it would be enough. "We're going to have to make it bigger," he said reluctantly. Jinnie frowned. "But we barely have enough to make it through three hours as it is. If we make it bigger, we'll have enough for maybe an hour and a half."

MacGyver's gaze snapped up to the older man. He was looking at the teen with a belligerent expression on his face, but the blond could still see hints of fear shining through his facade. Jinnie was just as scared as MacGyver was. The younger man said, "Yeah, but having a lot of firewood left won't matter much if we're all dead."

Jinnie dropped his eyes after a moment, silently acknowledging the sense of MacGyver's words. The man turned and grabbed some more wood, throwing it on the fire. All three sighed as the intensified heat finally chased away some of the chill that had enveloped them, and even Snith seemed to relax a bit.

They sat quietly for an hour, the firewood getting dangerously low. Finally, the last piece of wood was tossed on the fire, and the three looked at each other. MacGyver stood quietly and walked to the cave entrance, looking out over the snow that had accumulated as high as his waist. The storm was beginning to show signs of abating, but not nearly fast enough. The teen returned to his seat and huddled close to the fire.

After another ten minutes, even the embers of the fire had lost all warmth. All four of the group were now huddled together, knowing that their only chance of surviving was to share body warmth. After a few minutes, MacGyver felt himself slipping into a peaceful doze, the warmth that filled his bones lulling him to sleep...

He shook himself awake as, out of nowhere, Jack's words from three days ago came to him. The man had been talking to him about the hike, and had said, "I know it probably won't happen, but if it gets cold enough out there that you're in danger of hypothermia, do not let yourself fall asleep, no matter what."

MacGyver let out a shout that startled the other two conscious companions. Jinnie turned an aggrieved gaze on the younger man. "What?"

MacGyver shook his head, his words slurring a bit. "Can't fall asleep. Hypo- hypo- hypo-"

The teen's teeth were chattering, the clicking preventing him from finishing the words. Jinnie and Laurent seemed to get it, though, by the way they were looking at each other with wide eyes. A thought hit all three of them at the same time, and they turned, all at once to look at Snith, who was still unconscious. She was in more danger than the rest of them, as she was already unconscious. The trio moved closer to Snith, trying to include her in their cocoon of warmth.

MacGyver glanced towards the opening of the cave. The storm was gone, leaving only blindingly white snow in its place. He made a decision.

The blond extracted himself from the cocoon of blankets that he had pulled around himself. He laid the blankets over Snith, leaving the blond in only his thick jacket, cargo pants, and hiking boots for warmth. Then, turning to Laurent and Jinnie, he said, "I'm gonna- they won't be able to- to find u- u- us." He could barely force the words out between rapidly chattering teeth. The teen waved the four flares he had retrieved from each hiker's backpack. The DXS had given them to the group in case of someone getting lost, and MacGyver could only think of how grateful he was for that fact as he continued, "I'll sig- sig- signal them."

Jinnie nodded, Laurent doing the same. The teen turned and headed out the cave entrance, forcing himself to try and get up over the now-chest-high snow. As he left the relative warmth of the cave he heard the murmur of Jinnie's and Laurent's voices start up. They were obviously ensuring that they wouldn't fall asleep.

MacGyver was able to walk on the top of the snow for a short time, but soon found that, even though about a foot down in the snow the material was hard-packed and easy to stand on, the uppermost foot was powdery enough to kind of stick together, but not enough to provide a solid enough surface for him to stand on. As a result, he was left struggling through snow a foot high as he tried to make it into sight of anywhere that might be civilized enough to mount a rescue.

He had been walking for seven minutes when he slipped and fell. He lay in the snow for a moment, seriously considering just giving up. The snow wasn't that uncomfortable, and maybe he could just close his eyes for a moment...

The teen was jolted into awareness by the sound of helicopter blades. He turned over onto his back and saw a helicopter hovering over where the cabin was. Fumbling with the flare for a moment, barely aware of what he was doing, the blond managed to shoot it into the air.

He heard a shout come from the cabin, but it became apparent after a moment that they hadn't seen the flare when the helicopter began to descend. MacGyver repeated his actions with the next two flares, waiting a minute in between each, but had the same result with each. As he was about to set off the last flare, a man came out of the cabin. He was walking towards the helicopter, which had landed. MacGyver placed his hopes and his finger on the trigger of the flare, and then shot it off.

This time, there was a louder shout, and the helicopter took off within a minute. MacGyver fell back onto the snow, his gaze drifting lazily as the thump of helicopter blades filled his ears. Blue eyes were covered by eyelids, eyelashes clumped together with snow brushing pale cheeks.

Jack was walking to the helicopter when he saw the flare. He dashed to the helicopter holding the paramedics who were about to disembark and warm themselves briefly before heading back out to continue the search. Jack shouted for them to stay on the helicopter while he motioned for the pilot to take off. He directed the man where to go, pointing out the small speck on the snow that rapidly grew into a supine body. The helicopter was set down twenty feet from the body, and Jack rushed out to it as soon as the helicopter had hit the snow.

The man's heart jumped into his throat as he realized that the body was MacGyver. Jack fell to his knees beside the teen and tapped his cheek in alarm. "Mac. MacGyver. Angus!"

The blond's eyes opened lazily, staring up at his partner with dazed indignation. "St'p it. Don' like that name."

Jack let out a small chuckle before saying, "Come on, buddy. Let's get you home."

Jack stood back and watched as the paramedics lifted his friend onto a stretcher and began to take him back to the helicopter.

Another pair of paramedics had spotted the young man's tracks and rushed off to follow them back to wherever the other three had been taking shelter, leaving Jack with no doubt that they would be found quickly and taken to the DXS medical center with his partner.

Jack had waited for six hours beside his friend's bedside before the younger man awoke. He had slipped into a contemplative doze when he heard, "Jack. Jack, I-. Where're the others? Jack. Jack!"

The older man grabbed the younger's hand. "Hey, hey. It's okay. I'm here. Y'all're safe and back home. Well, in the DXS med bay, but still. Safe."

From the looks of it, though, the agent's attempt at humor had gone straight over the teen's head. He said, "I wasn't sure if we were gonna make it, Jack. I was scared."

Jack looked down at the kid, his eyes blown wide by the drugs he was on.

It only made him seem even more young. Jack sighed. "I know, buddy, I know. But you did it, you got everyone back. That's what counts."

Angus blinked once, slowly. "But I was scared. I was- I was- so terrified. You. You wouldn't have been scared."

Jack rubbed his friend's hand soothingly. "Hey, hey, it's okay. You should've been scared. I would've been too."

The older man felt like he had been punched in the gut as he watched the blond regain his composure. This was the side that only came out when MacGyver was so out of it that he didn't know what was happening. This was the side that he didn't show anyone.

Stupid kid was too hard on himself.

Jack watched his friend calm down, soothed by Jack's words. The younger man had clutched his hand sometime in the past few minutes, and was showing no sign of letting go. Well, Jack thought as he watched his friend fall asleep, I guess I'm staying here for a while.

In a thought that he wouldn't admit to anyone, he decided, I don't mind.

There would be more guilt that enveloped MacGyver, more times that he would need a few words of comfort, but for now, all that mattered was that he was there. Jack watched his friend sleep and smiled.

*After research on blizzards, I realize that this scenario is highly unlikely. The National Weather Service would've forecasted this blizzard. However, for the sake of fanfiction and fun reading, we're going to say that it was a very odd, one-time event that would never be repeated. Thanks for understanding.

Just so y'all know, I was seriously considering breaking Mac's ankle. I didn't, so he got off easy on that front. Not sure how I feel overall about this story, but it might just be because I've been going over it for a while between writing and editing.

My favorite part, though, is when Mac is blown into Jinnie's chest. There's just something about that picture that brings a smile to my face.

Full prompt: what about a scenario where Mac has to 'hold things together' (take care of the problem, lead the group, be the 'adult' in the group) because he has to (maybe others aren't there, are injured, something...). And then the 'after' time when he can finally 'let down' (fall apart?) once everyone is safe. What would that look like on Mac? How would Jack, Riley react.

It didn't have Riley, but I hope that it was satisfactory anyway, Llhaven!