Hey hey hey! Chapter 4 is here!

Longer AN at the bottom :)

Not mine

As MacGyver and Jack were thrown back to the floor, someone else rummaged around on the shelves, finding old rags that they brought over to the prisoners.

"Don't think you can stick that in my mouth," Jack said, leaning back in disgust. "Who knows how old that thing is, or what kind of infections I could get from it!"

"Listen," Carter said in annoyance. "An infection is going to be the least of your worries when we're done with you. Actually, it'll probably be your last worry by the time we're done with you," he added as an afterthought, earning a small chuckle from his men.

"Glad to see my death amuses you," Jack shot back. Opening his mouth though had given the lackey the perfect opportunity to shove the rag into Jack's mouth. Jack's face took on a look of pure disgust as he shook his head and moved his jaw around, trying to dislodge the gag any way he could. MacGyver was in a considerable amount of pain after being tossed to the floor and landing on his leg wrong, so he put up no fight when the rag was shoved into his mouth, though he did also make a disgusted face at the taste of the old piece of cloth. Hope and Faith knew better than to try and resist, though they did make several comments about how ashamed the men's mothers would be of them before they were silenced.

"So what are we doing?" one of the men asked. Carter scratched his head with the butt of his gun, then looked up the stairs at the door leading to the barn.

"Get anything you can to block the door from the barn," he directed. "We aren't letting those cops get down here. One more thing," he said as his men began to scuttle about and grab things to keep the door closed, including the cayenne pepper-soaked mop. "Christiansen said nothing ties back to him, but I'm not losin' my life for him," he said. "If that means using these guys as hostages so that we can get outta here, that's fine by me. Let Hunter's money stop a cop's bullet!"

His men all nodded in agreement, and MacGyver and Jack shared a look.

Well, at least that gives us a small opportunity to get out of here alive.

Jack looked at his friend, taking in all the small details of Mac's countenance. The young man's face was still pale, a slight shimmer of sweat glistening on his face. He was dragging in deep, ragged-sounding breaths through his nose. One glance at the bandages on Mac's leg showed Jack that they needed to get the wounds stitched up soon; the bandages, which had started out white, were now mostly red. Jack could also see dirt on the bandage, and he realized that the kid's leg was more than likely getting dirt in it as they sat there on the dirty cellar floor. His mouth slanted, thinking of how badly the kid's leg had to be hurting, and how badly they needed to get him somewhere that someone could properly take care of it.

"Hold it!" Carter suddenly called out. His men stopped what they were doing and looked at their leader. He crouched down next to Hope and pulled out a knife. MacGyver and Jack began yelling through their gags, but Carter simply sawed through the ropes around the woman's ankles, then motioned at her with his gun. "Stand up," he ordered. She stared at him in slight confusion, and he sighed. He leaned over and grabbed her bicep, pulling her to her feet, though not as angrily or as roughly as he could have. "You're coming with me on a quick trip," he informed her. Not caring about her shaking her head, he pulled her towards the stairs. "Get that unblocked," he barked at his men, who quickly began moving the few items they had managed to put in front of the door.

Once the stairway and door was clear, Carter placed the gun against the woman's head, earning a small whimper from both her and her sister, as well as death glares from MacGyver and Jack. Carter pushed the door open and walked into the barn. "Keep the door closed, but be ready to open it and re-block it as soon as I get back," he instructed before moving out of sight. He didn't move out of earshot though, and as everyone listened, they heard him begin talking with the cops outside.

"Afternoon," he called out. No one could hear the officer's response, but they were able to hear Carter's side of the conversation just fine. "Arty, huh? Good to know! No, I don't think we need any food. I just came to let you know that we've got more hostages where this one came from, and if we even think we hear someone trying to get in, I won't hesitate to kill every single one of them."

There was a pause, and Jack strained his ears, trying to hear anything the cops were saying. All he was able to hear was a disjointed muffle, then Carter's reply. "Demands?" he asked, sounding somewhat incredulous. "Yeah I got demands. How about you let us take these people and just leave?" Another pause, then Carter replied. "Alright, how about I leave you some hostages as a sign of good faith?"

Jack and MacGyver shared a glance. Was he seriously talking about letting Faith and Hope go? Jack figured since the cop had probably already seen his face, or identified him via the vehicles outside, Carter assumed they were already busted, and he just wanted to make as clean a getaway as possible.

"Can't do that either, huh?" they heard Carter respond. "Well then I guess we've reached an impasse. I'm going to take this sweet little lady back then, and when you've had time to think my offer over, you know where to find me. But remember: Any attempt to breach, and my men and I won't waste a moment. We will kill every single hostage we have."

With that, the conversation was over, and Carter suddenly reappeared at the top of the stairs, still facing towards the police. As soon as he was inside, his men shut the door and barricaded it just like they had been ordered, and Carter walked with Hope down the stairs. They reached the bottom and he had her sit down again, right next to MacGyver. One of his men hurried over and tied her legs up again, then stood up and walked over to talk with Carter in hushed tones.

MacGyver looked at Hope with probing eyes, silently asking her if she was alright. Her eyes were wide and scared, but she nodded slightly, indicating that she was fine. MacGyver wasn't sure he fully believed her, but he decided he would let it go for now since he couldn't do anything about it being tied up.

"Well," Carter said, breaking apart from his little powwow. "Looks like we may be stuck here a while. Might as well get comfortable," he said, leaning against the wall.

"What is Hunter gonna do?" one of the men asked worriedly. "He's gonna flip out when he finds out we've been cornered."

"Leave Hunter to me," Carter assured his men. The next several minutes passed by with nothing happening besides hushed conversations between different members of the squad. MacGyver actually had no way of knowing how long everyone stayed where they were, but he felt like it was at least twenty minutes or more. Near the end of that time, Carter got on the phone with someone, speaking in such hushed tones that MacGyver and Jack couldn't even hear what his side of the conversation was about. He hung up after another few minutes, then beckoned for his men to gather around again.

"Hunter says no loose ends," he informed them, glancing over at their hostages.

"So we just kill 'em now and then what?" one of his men asked crankily. "We can't get outta here with all those cops outside!"

"Would you give me time to figure things out?" Carter snapped. "Like I said: I'm not dying for Hunter. He's not worth that much to me." The men continued talking, lowering their voices so that once again, the two agents couldn't hear what was being said. Finally Carter looked over at his hostages.

Carter walked over and crouched in front of them. "Now," he said. "I am very curious to know how you two found us out," he stated. "Who are you two? Who do you work for?"

When the two agents didn't answer, Carter remembered he had gagged them. "Right," he said, reaching over and yanking the disgusting pieces of cloth out of their mouths. "Silly me. Now how about you answer my questions?"

MacGyver and Jack shared a glance, but once again refused to answer. At their silence, Carter sighed and put his hand on Mac's knee, right above where the bandages ended. Mac drew in a deep breath and stared straight ahead, trying to think about anything but the man with his hand precariously close to his injury. The wound had begun pulsing as soon as it felt pressure near it, and Mac tried to keep his breathing even so as not to agitate himself.

"Hey!" Jack growled as he watched Carter slide his hand down closer to his friend's wound, causing MacGyver's breathing to hitch slightly.

"Just tell me what I want to know," Carter pressured, staring at Jack with a hard look in his eyes. Jack stared at him for another moment and Carter's eyes went even colder than before, his hand slipping to rest on Mac's bandaged wounds. The young man couldn't help the yelp that escaped his mouth when the wounds were agitated by his touch, and Jack finally spoke.

"Alright!" he said angrily. "I'm not gonna try to convince you that we weren't here for you guys, because you're too smart for that," he said. "We're journalists, and we have an inside source that let us know that Christiansen may have been accepting money and bribes," Jack explained. He hoped by telling Carter that they were there to spy on Christiansen would help get him off their backs and buy the journalist story. "I mean, if you'll let us go, I promise we won't print the story," Jack added. Carter scoffed.

"Journalists don't carry around three guns and sat phones," he pointed out. Jack cursed internally.

"Maybe I just really like my protection," Jack snarked back.

"Or maybe," Carter said, scrunching his face up like it was hurting while he was pretending to think hard. "Maybe you two work for the FBI. I know people have had their eye on Hunter for a while, but we always thought they didn't have enough evidence to come after him."

"Maybe he's not pretending. Maybe it actually hurts him to think," Mac grumped inwardly, trying anything to distract himself from the pressure being applied to his wounded leg. He felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, and he clenched his jaw, trying to ignore the pain in his limb. His leg had begun twitching and shaking under Carter's hand, and Mac's breathing was becoming more ragged by the minute.

"Ya figured us out," Jack said sarcastically, pretending to praise Carter. "Maybe we found the evidence we need to bring him down!"

"I doubt that," Carter sneered. "We're extremely careful with how we handle any money that passes between us," he stated.

"Well then," Jack said, giving a painfully fake smile. "I guess we have no real evidence against you or Christiansen. Why don't you just let us go? It'd be our word against his," Jack offered.

"See, I could do that," Carter said, nodding his head in acknowledgement of Jack's suggestion. "Or I could use you four as a way to get out of here," he finished, standing up. As he stood, he pushed off Mac's leg, and Jack saw all the color drain out of his partner's face. He watched the young man squirm as he tried to instinctively bring his arms around to the front so he could grab his leg in an attempt to stop the pain.

"Get them up," Carter ordered, pointing at the two women. The men hurried to untie Faith and Hope's ankles. Carter snapped his fingers and one of his men handed him a familiar looking red knife, which Carter used to saw through the ropes on Mac's ankles. Carter slipped the knife into his pocket before reaching down and grabbing at Mac. The young man was pulled to his feet by the front of his shirt, and Carter grabbed the young agent's shoulder, intending to guide him towards the staircase that led up to the barn. Carter placed gun against Mac's head when the agent hesitated moving.

"He can't put any weight on that leg!" Hope insisted.

"Just let me help him up the stairs!" Jack yelled at the same time. Someone else had cut the ropes on his ankles, but aimed their gun at him to prevent him from actually getting up.

"Shut up!" Carter yelled over the both of them.

"Jack, I'll be fine," Mac said through clenched teeth. He put a bit of weight on his leg, hissing quietly and withdrawing his leg from the floor as the pain fired up. He took in a couple of deep breaths, grit his teeth, and once more slowly lowered his leg, putting a small bit of weight on it at a time. He finally believed he had the ability to limp along, and Carter nudged him with his gun.

"Walk slowly; no sudden moves and no one gets hurt," Carter warned in a quiet voice.

"Yeah, cuz I'm gonna be trying to sprint away," MacGyver said sarcastically.

"Shut up," Carter said again, shoving Mac towards the stairs, which caused the blond to grunt in pain and lean on the railing, trying to catch his breath.

"You like saying that," Jack observed as he was finally hauled to his feet. Carter didn't reply; he simply continued to follow behind MacGyver. The blond eyed the stairs with apprehension from his position against the railing.

"Look, can I just help him up the stairs? Just let him use me as a crutch?" Jack offered. Carter's eyes took on a murderous glint and he turned towards Jack while shoving his gun into Mac's back.

"Or I could just kill him now, how about that?" he asked angrily. "That way we wouldn't have to worry about a gimp slowing us down!"

"You'd have one less shield," Mac reminded him quietly. Carter took in several deep breaths to calm himself down, and Mac looked over at Jack. "Seriously Jack," he insisted. "I'll be fine." MacGyver turned back to look at the stairs looming before him. He knew Carter would say no to untying his hands, so the only way he could think of to get up the stairs was to turn his back to the railing, grab said railing with his bound hands, and hop sideways on one foot up the stairs.

He was sweating by the time he had made it up four stairs, and his arms were shaking with exertion. He still had six more steps to go, and he could tell Carter was getting impatient. By the time he got up the last step, he was shaking, both from exertion and from pain. Carter spun him to face the front, grabbing his shoulder again and making him walk forward, gun pressed against the back of the blond's head. MacGyver heard rustling noises behind him and he assumed the rest of the men were getting the women up as well.

"Eyes forward," Carter hissed into Mac's ear. "Don't look back, just keep walking."

MacGyver limped along the floor of the barn, doing what Carter ordered and keeping his eyes staring straight ahead of him. His leg was aching, begging him to stop moving, but Mac knew that wasn't an option.

"Curtis, get over here and open this door!" Carter ordered. One of the men hurried over and unblocked the large barn door, pulling it open. MacGyver heard the cops shouting to each other about 'having movement,' and he prayed he wasn't about to get shot. Right before they walked out into the open air, Carter shoved the rag back in Mac's mouth wrapped his arm around Mac's neck, pulling the kid closer to him and moved his gun from the back of MacGyver's head to his temple. MacGyver could feel the oily metal of the gun dig into the side of his head, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it without getting himself or his friends killed. "Let's go say hi," Carter whispered pleasantly before forcing Mac out the door into the bright light.

So? Thoughts? No one kill me please! *hides behind bullet proof glass BEHIND a large wall*

Haha so when I posted this, I swear the story was almost done XD It ran away, dragging me behind it. Don't worry, you'll still get another update on Friday, I've gotten most of it written now, I promise, and I'll work at this one until it's done. *pinkie promises all of you*

Also, I've sorta deviated from the plot of the original episode by now...hope that doesn't bother anyone?

Let me know what you think!