Thanks to only-some-loser for putting up with my sleep-deprived ramblings and telling me to take a nap,


It had been three hours after the latest interrogation had ended when the door to Conrad's cell slammed open. Two guards that the president hadn't seen before were dragging a limp figure in. The older man stood, warily eyeing the guards, but they merely dropped their charge on the floor and turned to leave.

Conrad lunged for the limp body, barely managing to catch it before the man's head hit the ground. Carefully tuning the prone figure over onto his back, the prisoner found that it was MacGyver. He breathed out a sigh- partially of relief that he could see the young man and wouldn't have to be tormented by worries of what was happening to him, and partially of sorrow at the close-up sight of the younger man's injuries.

After a moment, once the footsteps of the guards had faded away, MacGyver's eyelids cracked open. Peering up at a surprised Conrad, he whispered, voice hoarse, "Are they gone?"

Conrad nodded. The blond sat up, grunting with exertion. Taking a moment to recover, he spoke in a low tone. "There aren't any cameras in here, but I don't know about microphones. Talk quietly."

Conrad nodded, a thought striking him. "Why aren't there any cameras?"

MacGyver gave a crooked smile, saying, "I heard one of the guys who brought me in here talking. Apparently, this used to be a storage room and was converted pretty quickly right before you were put here."

Conrad nodded again, understanding blooming on his face. The younger man continued to talk quietly, making it was easy to hear how his voice was strained and hoarse. Conrad thought about the screams he had heard over the last day and a half-the closest approximation of the time he had been here that he could make- and internally winced. The younger man said, "I have a plan to get us out of here, but you have to do exactly what I say, okay?"

Conrad took a deep breath. "I understand."

The blond shot him an assessing glance. After a few seconds, he nodded and said, as if to himself, "Okay, this'll work."

Struggling to his feet, MacGyver walked towards the door, then crouched down and peered underneath it. Then he stood again and, producing something small from the hem of his pants, he began to work at the lock on the door. Conrad watched him curiously, having moved to stand just behind him. "What are you doing?"

The blond glanced up at him, shooting him a small grin. "I'm picking the lock. They took my boots, but DXS agents have lock picks stashed almost everywhere on missions like this. Normally I'd be a bit worried about how fast I could do this, but, if you look at this lock," here the younger man motioned with his wrist while keeping his hands firmly on the lock pick, "It's been installed in a hurry. It's a pretty cheap doorknob model, one that people would normally put on their front door."

Conrad felt a smile growing on his face, encouraged by the attitude of confidence and calm that the agent in front of him projected. "You couldn't do it with a paperclip?"

MacGyver shook his head absently, "Oh, I could, but I don't have one here right now, and this'll go quicker anyway."

True to his word, after a few more seconds, there was a tiny clicking noise and the blond carefully opened the door. Peering out into the hallway, he sighed in relief. "There aren't any guards here. I'm guessing that they thought I'd be out for a while." Quietly, he added, "Luckily for us, I never react too much with sedatives."*

Not bothering to explain his comment, the kid slipped out into the hallway and beckoned for Conrad to follow him. The older man did so, moving as quietly as he could.

They made it through a few halls without seeing anyone, and Conrad commented on the fact. MacGyver looked back over his shoulder, a small frown in place. "Yeah, I noticed that too. We just need to make it to a medical room, though, and then I'll feel better."

Conrad thought that was a strange thing to say, but he didn't comment on the peculiarity of the statement. Instead, he followed the man in front of him and worried about the limp he could see, as well as the aborted grunts of pain that sounded every so often.


It took them another five minutes, but they found a medical examination room. MacGyver's face lit up, and he ducked into the room, motioning for Conrad to follow him. The older man did so, watching bemusedly as the younger man flitted around the room, gathering a handful of tongue depressors and stuffing them in one of the pockets of his cargo pants along with the largest bottle of hand sanitizer that the blond could find. Then he turned to the cabinets and pulled two long, thin cylinders.

Conrad frowned. They looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place where he knew them from. The president was about to ask when MacGyver removed a cap from one end of one of the cylinders and shoved it into his leg, holding it in place for about ten seconds. Then he threw the cylinder that he had just used into the small trash can resting by the counter and shoved the other cylinder into his pocket.**

Conrad watched this with a growing air of alarm. "What was that?"

The younger man looked up at him. His pupils were noticeably wider than they had been just a few minutes before, Conrad noted with alarm. "I injected myself with adrenaline, or, as it's more commonly known, epinephrine."

"Wait," the president said. "Isn't that for allergic reactions?"

The blond shrugged. "Technically, yes. Right now, though, it's the only way we're going to get out of here. We have to get going, though, because we only have about ten more minutes until this thing wears off, and there was only one more in the cabinet."

With that, the younger man resumed the task of leading them through the hallways. They made it in sight of the exit- Conrad only knew it was the exit because MacGyver told him that he had been led through there when the younger man had been captured- when someone finally came around the corner and spotted them.

MacGyver's eyes widened, and he shoved at Conrad. "Run!" He shouted, all pretenses of stealth gone. The older man and his companion both raced for the exit, chased by the guard that had seen them, who was shouting into the radio that had been clipped to his belt as he ran.

The two men barely made it through the door and slammed it shut before the guard reached them. MacGyver, leaning against the door, took out the tongue depressors he had grabbed earlier. Quickly dropping part of the pile in Conrad's hands, he began to stuff a few at a time in the crack along the side of the door."Do the same with yours, sir."

Conrad followed his lead, realizing that these would effectively jam the door, buying them at least a few minutes.

As he finished, trying to ignore the shouts of the backup the guard had called that he could hear through the door, he turned to find that MacGyver had taken the bottle of hand sanitizer and made a trail leading to a large helicopter.

Helicopter? Conrad blinked. He realized for the first time that they were in a small hangar. There were two helicopters in it, and the smaller one seemed to have just come off of being flown, as it was still primed for flight.

Conrad watched as MacGyver finished his trail of hand sanitizer, the line of liquid about twenty feet long. Then, the blond turned and grabbed a cigarette lighter and a stick of gum that were sitting out on a nearby table. Glancing up at the older man, MacGyver called, "Can you fly a helicopter?"

Conrad nodded. "Yeah."

MacGyver smiled briefly. "Good. I used my last dose of epinephrine a few minutes ago. You're gonna have to fly, okay?"

Conrad nodded. Hurrying towards the smaller helicopter, he marveled briefly at the fact that the door hadn't been forced open yet. The many small sticks that had been used to jam the door were doing an admirable job of holding up under the pressure.

Conrad strapped himself into the pilot's seat of the helicopter and began prepping it for flight, taking a moment to thank whomever was listening that their luck extended to the fact that this was an open hangar, with the ceiling able to be rolled back, allowing for flight from directly inside the hangar. The ceiling was already rolled back, presumably because the person that had just flown the helicopter they were about to fly hadn't bothered to close it.

Conrad watched as MacGyver carefully lit the lighter, using the gum he had quickly chewed to hold the button down. Then he set the lighter in front of the door, balancing it carefully so that when the door was opened, it would hit the lighter at just the right angle to cause it to fall onto the trail of hand sanitizer- which would ignite and lead straight to the engine of the larger helicopter.

The older man shook his head, marveling at the ingenuity of the younger man. As the blond straightened and began to dash towards the smaller helicopter, the door began to shake. The depressors were weakening and becoming dislodged. Silently, Conrad urged the younger man to hurry.

As soon as MacGyver threw himself into the helicopter, Conrad took off. They were barely out of the hangar when an explosion sounded through the air, the shockwaves rocking their helicopter, and the president glanced down to see that the hangar had become a fiery mess. He glanced over at his companion to congratulate him, but was met by a terrifying sight.

The blond was slumped in his seat, and his face- or what was noticeable of it beneath the bruises, anyway- was a worrying pale color, and his breathing was shallow.

Grimly, Conrad came to the realization that if he didn't get the two of them back to help quickly, the younger man could be in some very serious danger. Desperately, the older man flew to the east. The surrounding area was heavily wooded, leading the man to believe that it was somewhere in the midwest.

After about thirty minutes, he began to see the woods begin to fade to houses, and soon, he saw a familiar area- the Pentagon. His instincts had been correct.

After he entered the airspace over the Pentagon, a transmission came over his radio. "Unidentified helicopter, please identify yourself."

Conrad could've shouted in relief at that moment. Instead, he grabbed the radio and replied, "This is Conrad Dalton, President, requesting permission to land."

There was a beat of silence, and then, "Permission granted. Land where directed."

Conrad said, "Acknowledged. I have a severely injured passenger with me that requires medical attention."

"Acknowledged."

Conrad followed the instructions relayed over the radio, and in no time was safely landed on the Pentagon's heliport. Also waiting there were assorted military personnel, all armed. Conrad understood- after 9/11, no amount of caution in a situation like this could be enough.

As soon as he emerged from the cockpit of the helicopter, though, everyone visibly relaxed. Conrad quickly went to the other side of the helicopter and began to release MacGyver's restraints. Medical personnel was with him almost immediately, taking over and transferring the young man to a gurney. Conrad pulled one aside and quickly told him. "He took two doses of epinephrine, one right as soon as the other wore off."

The doctor nodded his thanks, then followed the rest of the medical team as they hurried the unconscious agent inside. The military personnel immediately surrounded Conrad, and, before he was asked anything, said, "Tell the DXS that we have a missing agent of theirs by the name of Angus MacGyver."

The officer he had grabbed nodded and ran off to do so immediately.

From there, it was a blur of medics checking him over, being debriefing, and assuring his family that he was safe. Conrad let the relief of being free wash over him, allowed himself to fully feel the reassurance of being in a familiar place.

Allowed himself to acknowledge that everything was going to be okay, for him at least. He could only hope that the same could be said for MacGyver.


*That's right, I'm hopping on the "mac reacts strangely with sedatives and/or pain drugs" train. I'm not even sure where this belief started, but whoever started it, thanks!

**do! not! use! epinephrine like this! what Mac is doing is pretty dangerous and shouldn't be attempted. While it's true that epinephrine is adrenaline, there can also be a lot of dangerous side effects if you use it when you're not having an allergic reaction, and he's only doing it because he has no other options. 0/10 would not recommend.

Still not sorry for the cliffhanger.

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