Jack cursed as he headed down a long corridor in search of MacGyver. He and the kid had been forced to split up, in order for Mac to enter the office of Juan Pontero, the head of a Columbian drug cartel, who had branched out into buying and selling arms. Pontero had managed to appropriate a bio weapon and was putting it up for sale in a private, international auction. Which would be very bad, so it was Jack's job to distract the guards at the compound by making them chase him so that MacGyver could steal the weapon. To be honest, Jack was seriously tired of bio-weapons.

Now he was on his way back to collect his partner so they could go home. "Tell me you have the weapon, Mac," Jack stated over his comm.

"Got it," MacGyver replied, after a moment's hesitation.

"Where are you?" Jack's MacGyver senses were tingling. He knew something was off.

Another long pause before Mac said, "I'm exiting the east end of the building."

Jack was not happy to hear that. "You're running behind schedule, Mac."

"I know that, Jack." MacGyver hesitated again before blurting out, "Remember that mission in Capri a couple of years ago?"

"Um..." Jack searched his brain, back tracking until he hit upon the correct memory. "Yeah, I remember. The one where you got stabbed and didn't tell me about it and I yelled at you..." Jack broke off as dread washed over him. "Mac...?"

MacGyver interjected, "I'm telling you this time, so you can't yell. It...it might be kinda bad so I'm moving a little slow."

Hearing that just about made Jack's heart stop in his chest, but at the same time it made his feet mover faster. "I'm on my way, Mac! Don't you dare die on me!"

"I'm not dying, Jack," MacGyver countered, oozing sarcasm even as he panted for breath. "I'm just bleeding." Which probably wasn't the smartest confession he could have made at this moment.

"Dammit!" Jack pushed himself to go faster. "Riley, you hearing this?"

She almost snarled in reply. "Of course I'm hearing this! What can I do to help?" Riley had never, in all their mission, heard MacGyver confess to being hurt, so she knew it had to be bad. Which terrified her.

Jack had two requests. "Locate the nearest Doctor or medical facility and move the van to the east gate and meet us there."

"Be there in two minutes," Riley replied, fingers already flying over the keyboard. She snagged the location of the closest medical facility, which appeared to be a private clinic, and sent the address to her phone's GPS before sliding behind the wheel of the van and starting the engine. A moment later she was on her way to the East gate.

"How are you doing, Mac?" Jack asked, all the while praying he didn't run into any interference. The silence that followed was deafening and Jack was ready to panic. "Mac? MAC?"

"I'm here, Jack," Mac replied, in a hushed voice. "I have company so be careful."

Jack turned a corner and saw the guards MacGyver spoke of near the open front door. He also saw the van heading towards them out of the corner of his eye, so he didn't hesitate. Jack fired two shots, nailing them both, then he was hopping over their bodies and flying through the door. "Where are you, buddy?"

MacGyver crawled out from behind the hedgerow to the left of the front steps. He had the bio-weapon clutched in one hand, while the other hand was pressed to his side. His blue shirt was soaked with blood. "Hey, Jack," he offered in greeting. "Thanks for the rescue."

"Anytime." Jack was relieved to see the kid still standing and bantering a bit, but at the same time he was terrified. The last time he'd seen Mac that pale and covered in so much blood was when he'd been shot. That mission had also involved a bio-weapon and Jack vowed to himself to nix any future missions dealing with Bio-weapons. Apparently they were cursed.

"Riley's here," Mac said, stating the obvious, as the van pulled up to the gate. He felt a bit loopy from blood loss.

Jack got to MacGyver just in time to catch him as the kid's knees buckled. He looped Mac's good arm over his shoulder and pretty much carried him to the van. When Riley opened the side door, Jack settled Mac onto the seat before climbing in beside him. "Did you find a doctor?" he asked Riley.

She nodded, her eyes locked on MacGyver's bloody hand pressed over his abdomen. There was so much blood. "I found one about twenty minutes from here."

"Make it in fifteen or less," Jack beseeched her, as he searched for the first aid kit. He found it and grabbed a couple of gauze pads. "I need to open your shirt so I can stop the bleeding, bud. So you have to move your hand."

"Okay." But the hand MacGyver moved was the one holding the bio-weapon. "You need to wrap this and put it somewhere safe."

Riley tossed her backpack over to Jack. "You can put it in there." She then turned to focus on driving them out of the compound and onto the main road so they could get to the doctor ASAP.

Jack took care of the bio-weapon before focusing all of his attention on MacGyver. "I have to stop the bleeding." He nudged Mac's bloodied hand aside so he could lift the kid's shirt. The wound was about two inches long and seeping blood. "How deep?" Jack asked, even as he firmly pressed the gauze over the wound.

"Maybe three inches," MacGyver replied, after he caught his breath. The pressure Jack placed on the wound made it hurt like a bastard and he had to resist the urge to shift away from him. He knew he had already lost a lot of blood, so he was going to have to suck it up, but he really hated being stabbed. Although he was starting to feel a bit floaty, so he let his eyes drift closed.

"Stay with me, Mac," Jack ordered. "Eyes on me." He was terrified that if the kid passed out he wouldn't wake up again.

Hearing the fear in his friend's tone, MacGyver forced his eyes open. He even managed a wobbly smile. "Don't worry, Jack," he said softly. "I'm good. It didn't hit anything vital."

Jack, being Jack, couldn't resist arguing that point. "And how do you know that? Did you suddenly develop x-ray vision and forget to tell me about it?" He was happy that Mac was conversing with him. It was a good sign.

"Something like that," Mac allowed, before he did a full-body shudder that made him wince. "Cold..." he whispered, when Jack eyed him with concern. "I'm going into shock." Which never ceased to be the weirdest feeling.

"For someone who once told me he got a *C* in biology, you sure seem to know your biology," Jack stated, even as he searched for, and found, a blanket. Shaking it out, he quickly smoothed it over MacGyver.

Riley had been focused on following the GPS directions to the clinic, but she got side-tracked by Mac and Jack's conversation. "Wait...Mac...you got a *C* in biology and yet you operated on Ralphie like a professional. Even the Doc was impressed with your surgical skills. He was seriously stunned that Ralphie was alive."

MacGyver wasn't sure how to take her last statement, so he focused on explaining his grade. Even though he wasn't quite sure why he felt the need to explain. "Yeah...well...I got a *C* because I didn't do any of the homework and that was fifty percent of our grade. I only took the tests, because the teachers made me take the tests, but Biology doesn't interest me all that much.

"So what did you get on the tests?" Riley prompted. "One hundred plus plus?"

"Pretty much." Mac felt a ripple of pain that made him shift and hiss in pain. He had to breathe through it before he could continue. "I...uh...I always got the extra credit questions correct."

Jack chuckled, because that was so very much a defining characteristic of his friend. If MacGyver was going to do something, even something off the wall and out of the box, he was going to give it one hundred percent and then some. "You must have made a lot of enemies from blowing the grading curve."

MacGyver was about to respond when his phone rang. "Bet it's Thornton," he mumbled, shifting and wincing again as he fumbled to reach the phone in his pocket.

"I'll get it." Jack stilled him with one hand on his shoulder, while the other reached into MacGyver's front pocket. He didn't answer it though, he just handed it off to Riley. "Catch Patty up for me," he requested.

"On it." Riley answered the phone and filled Thornton in. She assured her they had the bio-weapon, then stumbled a bit over explaining that MacGyver got stabbed.

There was a moment of silence before Thornton asked, "How is he?"

Riley had to be honest. "There's a lot of blood, but he's talking and we're almost to the clinic."

"Send me the address and I'll have the pick up team meet you there," Thornton ordered. "They'll take the bio-weapon off your hands and one team will stay for when Mac is ready for Transport. Keep me posted." With that she signed off.

"Thornton is sending the pick up team to the clinic to meet up with us," Riley informed Jack.

MacGyver heard the words but they sounded somewhat distorted and muted, as if he were hearing her from under water. He was feeling floaty again and he really wanted to fall asleep.

Jack noticed and realized he had to keep MacGyver talking. "So how did you get stabbed? Because I know I've warned you about letting the bad guys sneak up on you."

"You forgot to warn me about the bad guy's daughters," MacGyver shot back. "Pontero's daughter walked in as I was leaving. Did you know she carries a knife in her boot?" Vaguely, Mac remembered that they had been black suede, thigh-high boots with five inch heels.

"Did not see that coming," Jack confessed, half amused, even though a part of him wanted to go back to the compound and rip Pontero's daughter a new one for hurting the kid.

MacGyver chuckled, only to break off as pain rippled through him making him catch his breath. "Neither...neither did I. Obviously." The floaty feeling was stronger than ever now and and Mac was tired of fighting it. Instead he willed it to wrap around him and, a heartbeat later, he felt himself fade into black.

Jack noticed the moment MacGyver lost consciousness and he felt himself panic. "Riley! How much further?"

"We're here." Riley hit the brakes, bringing the van to a screeching halt. She flung her door open and ran around to the side.

"Go tell the Doc we're here and what happened," Jack ordered, as he slid open the side door. He got out then he, carefully as possible, gathered MacGyver into his arms. As always, it surprised Jack that the kid was heavier than he looked, but at the same time he was still too much of a light-weight. "Hang in there, Mac," Jack beseeched him, as he carried him over to where Riley was holding the door open.

A woman with a dark pony-tail was waiting for them. "I'm Dr. Ramirez," she said, introducing herself to Jack.

He was relieved that she spoke perfect English. "Nice to meet you. My friend has lost a lot of blood, you have to help him."

"Bring him into the exam room." Dr. Ramirez led the way. The moment Jack laid MacGyver down on the exam table, she went to work. She snapped on gloves and studied the wound, reaching for an instrument and suctioning out the blood. "Looks like an artery was nicked." She grabbed a towel, pressed it over the wound and asked Jack to put pressure on it. "I'm going to give him a local then laser it to seal it."

"Pretty advanced technology for such a small, out of the way, clinic," Jack commented, mainly because he wanted something to focus on besides the fact that MacGyver was too pale and still for his liking.

Ramirez had gathered the necessary items and she quickly administered the local before nudging Jack aside and efficiently sealing the nick. It seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. "The bleeding's stopped," Ramirez announced. "I'm going to do an X-ray to ascertain the exact damage and we'll go from there. Do you know his blood type?"

Jack did and he told her and she surprised him again by announcing that she had two bags she could give MacGyver along with fluids that would help him. He found himself relaxing and the panic subsiding when he realized that Ramirez was a good doctor and that Mac was in good hands.

Twenty minutes later the pick up team arrived and Riley gave them the bio-weapon. Two hours later, after Ramirez assured Jack that the knife hadn't hit anything vital and that MacGyver was now stable for transport, they were on a plane home. The Doc had given the kid a shot for the pain and to keep him asleep for the majority of the six hour plane ride, so that he would rest.

MacGyver being MacGyver, he woke up about an hour later. Jack was ready for it, so the moment the kid stirred he moved to sit on the side of the couch MacGyver was laid out on and pressed a hand to the slim shoulders so Mac wouldn't shift around too much or try to get up.

"Jack?" MacGyver felt like he was weighed down, his limbs heavy and lethargic, even as he forced his eyelids to open. He blinked to bring his friend's blurry visage into focus.

"Right here, bud," Jack replied. "You need to stay still and rest, you hear me? Doc Ramirez fixed you up and you were right, nothing vital was hit, but you lost a lot of blood and she said you're going to be weak for a couple of days and you need to sleep, eat and take it easy."

MacGyver frowned. He was totally confused right now. "Doc Ramirez?" he echoed.

Jack grinned. "Yeah. Nice lady. Riley found her and she stopped the bleeding and gave you blood and fluids and now we're on a plane and about five hours from home." Jack shook a finger at MacGyver. "Don't get any bright ideas about going home, home. Patty has your hospital room ready and waiting for you. We're heading straight there the moment we land."

"We'll see about that," MacGyver mumbled, more to himself than to Jack. Then he remembered something. "You can't yell at me later, Jack. I told you I got stabbed this time. " It was vital importance that his friend remembered that. Even though, right at this moment, Mac wasn't really sure why it mattered so much. It just did.

"That you did, bro," Jack conceded. "I'm proud of you for that, but do a favor and try not to get stabbed ever again. I swear you about gave me a heart attack."

MacGyver nodded, or at least he thought he did. If not, oh well, he was too tired to try again. Instead he let his eyes closed and he didn't even notice when he drifted off to sleep again.

Jack was relieved when the kid dozed off, instead of panicked. MacGyver needed the rest. Moving back to his seat, where he could keep a good eye on his friend, Jack pulled his phone back out. He was feeling like a game of angry birds. He got back up to smooth the blanket over Mac's shoulders, then he sat back down and got comfortable.

He did intend to have a few words with MacGyver later though. "Next time, kid, don't get distracted by the pretty," Jack muttered, as he worked his way through level one. "Just because they're girls, doesn't mean they can't kick your ass."

"You got that right!" Riley piped up, from her seat further down.

"Don't listen to her, Mac," Jack countered, loudly enough for Riley to hear. "They may hit hard, but they still hit like girls," he taunted. Jack realized, too late, he should have listened to his own advice when a full water bottle hit him on the back of the head. "Game on, sweetheart!" Jack huffed, as he rose from his seat with the intent of retaliating in kind.

Blissfully, MacGyver slept on.

THE END