Okay… Here we go again… Hope you're having a good time reading this…

'Having fun wasn't exactly as fun when you knew one of your best friends was in pain. That was for sure.' Coop thought as he prepared to pick the next guy to go on his team for the volleyball match they had managed to piece together.

"Randy." He added a 'come here' gesture, and Randy did just that, falling in beside Coop and Boxer.

Jack picked a guy named Diego, who placed himself next to Pete.

"Hey… Pick Jess." Box prompted with an elbow to Coop's side, "She's pretty good…"

"We both know Adam is better…" Coop countered, but waited with picking his next player until Box had the chance to explain himself.

"Well, Jess is better looking…" Box shrugged, "And it's bad manners to pick the only girl dead-last."

Faking a cough to cover the fact that a fit of laughter caught him off guard, Coop nodded. "Okay, we would have just as much chance of looking at her on the other side of the net, but you make a good point…"

Box offered up a playful shrug.

"Okay, Jess… Will you do me the honor of playing for my team?" he smiled, as he gestured for her to join them.

"Sure." she nodded and pretty much skipped over to the three other players.

"Okay, Adam, that means you're with us!" Jack called out and waved him over.

Playing was a distraction, but it wasn't honest fun. At least not for him. But, it worked as a distraction if nothing else.

MACGYVERxDELTASPECIAL

"Alright, that's a tie. Tied at 7 everybody!" Charlie called out from where he was standing by the net. The poker game wasn't before later, and even though the others wouldn't let him play and he also realized he wasn't up for it, he could always enjoy watching a decent game. Then he continued, "And it's Pete's serve!"

He held an arm out to gesture to Jack's team and Pete who was ready to serve.

"What do you guys think? A good ol' fashioned sun-serve?" Pete teased as he winked to Jack and the other players on his team. "Poor fellas ain't going to see the ball before it's too late…"

"You choose." Jack grinned back, wiping sweat away with his forearm, "We're going to leave them in the dust either way…"

"Sir, yes sir…" Pete grinned back as he rolled the ball in his hands a couple of times before he was satisfied and ready to serve. "Everyone ready?"

No objections came, and the volleyball was sent sky-high. The players on Jack's team could see it arch beautifully, before it headed for a spot right on the other side of the net, right beside Cooper, unfortunately.

Cooper managed to bump into the ball and send it to Boxer, who returned it to him so that he could deliver a perfect smash right across the net.

Jack caught it and passed it to Adam, Adam sent it to Pete. Cooper blocked the return, but Diego made sure it didn't hit the ground.

Charlie watched as the ball flew back and forth over the net, both teams played like their lives depended on winning. He loved it when you could get so incredibly caught up in a game, it made it all the more fun, even to watch.

He winced in sympathy as his little brother tossed himself after the ball, just to end up a few inches short of where the ball landed, probably tearing up the scrapes along his elbows in the process. That would explain the kid's expression and sharp gasp anyway.

"Sorry kid…" he chuckled as his younger, yet taller brother pushed himself off the ground and dusted himself off with a sour expression. "Better luck next time…"

The glare that was directed towards him was definitely worth it.

"Okay, it's 8-7, Pete has the ball!" he grinned as Coop picked up the ball and threw it over the net a little more forcefully than needed.

His smile quickly disappeared when he saw his little brother wincing and reaching for his shoulder for a quick second.

"Hey!" he called out, eyes locked on the tight expression Coop had, "You good there?"

"Yeah. Yep…" Cooper tried to convince him as he forced himself to straighten back up, "Just a twinge, nothing more…"

The answer came a little quick for Charlie's liking, so he signaled for Pete to hold on to the ball as he walked over to his younger brother.

"You sure? Cause I've seen you lie about stuff like this for years man…"

"Promise, nothing more than a twinge." Coop held up his right hand like he was making a pledge, "It's not even bruised…"

"Dude, all of you are bruised…" Charlie rolled his eyes, "Shoulder included…"

"It's not bad…"

"Okay, come to think of it… You've been playing awfully right-handed, haven't you?"

Coop simply shook his head.

"Come on…"

"No…" Coop shook his head again, "It's totally fine."

"Okay, if it's so fine then… Stretch your arms as far above your head as you can…"

Seeing his brother trying to find a good way to get out of doing just that was almost laughable, but it also told him that his little brother probably should get his shoulder checked out if he hadn't already. And that he probably shouldn't be playing volleyball anyway.

With a surrendering sigh, Coop let his head drop as he raised his arms.

"That's not straight up… That's barely up…" Charlie sighed, folding his arms as he looked at his younger brother. "What did you do to it?"

Coop let his arms drop back down again, and looked away.

"Hey. Look at me."

Coop didn't.

"Look at me, and tell me what happened to your shoulder."

Coop still didn't make a move to meet his eyes, so he reached out with his good hand and forced him to look his way.

"What happened to it? Did you land wrong? Hit it on something in the Humvee? What happened?"

With a shaky breath Coop shrugged his right shoulder, "Broke Dunc's leg…"

Charlie blinked a couple of times as he tried to figure out just what had happened and how, before he looked at Coop's shoulder. "So, you let the doctor take a look at it then? Since you managed to BREAK his leg in three places…"

Coop swallowed before he nodded, "Yeah."

"Really? What did he say?"

"Nothing."

"No hints that you should take it easy for a while? No orders to ice it?" Charlie narrowed his eyes, "Nothing?"

Cooper's eyes shied away again.

"Cooper Erik Lea…" Charlie sighed, "Did the doctor, or did he not, take X-rays and a function test of that shoulder of yours?"

Coop's hand darted up to rub at his neck, "He did not…"

"Well, then he didn't take a look at your shoulder dumbass!"

"He did though…"

"Yeah? How?"

"Looked at the missing skin, figured it wasn't that bad…" Coop shrugged again, "Got the option if I wanted to walk out of there looking like a kid that had found his mom's pads or not… Figured I would be just as fine without seven or eight large-ass bandages all over…"

"You know… Sometimes I wanna beat some sense into your stupid head so damn bad…" Charlie growled, his left hand running up to press against his forehead. "That's it, your team is down a man, and you're going to the doctor again. I'll follow you."

"But…"

"Nah-uh…" Charlie shook his head, "I promised Mamma that I'd look after you when you broke the news that you made this team. You know she'd have me killed if she found out I didn't make good on that promise."

Cooper chuckled a little, "She wouldn't kill you…"

"I'd wish I was dead, anyway… Our Mamma can be one scary mom…"

Coop shrugged, the nodded. "Yeah. That's right."

Okay… This one was kind of a short chapter in this story, I know, but I needed a little break before the next chapter. In other words, my attempts at making a smooth transition failed, so I decided to skip ahead a couple of hours.