AN: This episode's opening is dedicated to StBridget on AO3, who requested I do something with a little snippet out of Resonant Frequencies ages and ages ago.

This episode is also my personal favourite of all the episodes to date, and should be considered the 'mid-season finale' plot-wise. (2.11, Ski Jacket is the chronological mid-season finale.)

Thank you all for your support to date, especially the comments/reviews which really make my day! Hope you enjoy!


MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

LA


Mac and Bozer exchanged a glance, then looked back into the kitchen at Jack and Riley, who were both partially covered in flour and each determinedly attempting to make a pie, shooting glares at each other as they did so.

It had started with a little teasing and banter on the plane ride back from their latest mission…and had descended into an absurd competition that Mac and Bozer had been roped into designing.

Some kind of makeshift pentathlon.

The first round was who has superior upper body strength? That had involved both Jack and Riley hanging from a bar out on the deck, and had been won clearly by Jack. (Sure, Riley trained with Thornton and had less body weight to hold up, but Jack was ex-Delta Force, after all.)

Round Two was a computer-based challenge. Obviously, Riley had won that.

Round Three was a series of brain teasers prepared by Mac. Riley had won that conclusively too.

Round Four was a marksmanship competition using a couple of Bozer's Nerf guns. They'd been purchased for a movie project about a year and a half ago, and Mac and Bozer never threw anything out (you never knew when it'd be useful, after all). Mac had found them while cleaning up for the Christmas party, which was nine days away. (With his line of work, he knew he had to do things like cleaning when he had the time, because you never knew when you'd be called into work. Besides, his dad was coming for Christmas, and Mac hadn't seen him for thirteen-and-a-half years, and he wanted everything to be just perfect…). Jack had won; even though Riley was a pretty decent shot, she was absolutely no match for Jack.

Round Five was pie-baking. Bozer had picked that; Mac privately thought that on one hand, it'd be an excellent tie-breaker, since Jack and Riley were both terrible cooks, so it'd be an even contest, but on the other hand, the fact that they were both terrible cooks (he really didn't think either of them could bake a pie successfully) might mean that the whole thing just ended in a tie.

Currently, if the rather unpleasant smells emanating from the kitchen were anything to go by, judging this was not going to be fun.

I've eaten some fairly unpleasant foodstuffs in my time.

MREs are seriously awful.

Still, I'm a little worried that these 'pies' are going to be even worse.

The two best friends looked at each other again, then gulped.

'Not my brightest idea, man.'

Mac just nodded.

'Yeah, definitely not, Boze.' He shrugged. 'At least we're in it together.'

Bozer just smiled at him in response (they'd been through a lot together, and gotten through pretty alright – and there was definitely causation there, not just correlation), then both young men winced as a particularly horrid smell assailed their senses.


Mac and Bozer stared at the two things in front of them that were supposed to be pies, but honestly looked absolutely nothing like a pie should and smelled absolutely nothing like pie either, sitting on the kitchen counter in front of them.

They both looked at each other, gathered their (considerable) courage, picked up their spoons…and then Jack's phone rang.

The older man took his phone out of his pocket with slightly-floury hands, glanced at the caller ID and answered with a serious expression.

'Patty?'

He listened for just a second, then put the phone on speaker. Their boss's voice, very serious and accompanied by the rapid click of her shoes on the floor, rang out.

'Mac, Jack, Bozer, Riley, there's been a security breach at Heliconia Biotech. They contract with the DoD and they've detected an intrusion in a lab where they work on highly-classified projects.' They heard a car engine start. 'Andi is texting you the address, I need you four here in fifteen minutes.'

Mac's phone beeped, and he pulled it out and glanced at the address. If they left right now, he could get them to Heliconia Biotech in fifteen minutes, though Jack would complain about his backseat driving.

Their expressions all very serious and without so much glancing back at the 'pies', the four Phoenix agents headed out the door, Mac grabbing a handful of paperclips as he did so.

Of course, a security breach at a highly-classified biotechnology lab isn't a good thing.

Not at all.

Though, I admit I am really, really glad I didn't have to eat those 'pies'.


HELICONIA BIOTECH

LA


Mac, Jack, Riley and Bozer all got out of Jack's car as soon as he pulled up to the building, and jogged towards Thornton. A Phoenix SWAT team, led by Agent Gonzales, was currently making their way inside. Their boss handed them each an earpiece and pointed towards a Phoenix van, and then an area where lab-coated, nervous scientists were gathering.

'Riley, we've got a mobile command centre in there, get into the security cameras and direct traffic. Bozer, they've evacuated the employees, go help with the headcount.'

With serious nods, Bozer and Riley jogged off to do as instructed, as Thornton nodded to Mac and Jack.

'You two, with me.'

She pulled out her gun, and Jack did the same, Mac falling into step behind them as they made their way into the Heliconia Biotech building.


'Boss, we've got a problem. We can't get the door to one of the offices open…'

Gonzales's voice rang out over their comms, and Mac, Jack and Thornton paused in the middle of the corridor.

They heard Riley's voice next.

'Gonzales is only about 200 feet away, just make a left on the next corridor to the right, then another left.'

Thornton nodded at Mac.

'Go.'

With an answering nod, the blonde jogged down the corridor indicated by Riley, as Jack and Thornton continued to make their way through the building.


Jack and Thornton came upon a lab that had all the lights off, unlike every other lab they'd passed and cleared, which were all well-lit.

The door was also ajar.

They glanced at each other.

This might be a trap.

This might also be the result of a panicking scientist or scientists rushing out of their lab.

Either way, they had to clear the area. Standard SOP.

Jack nodded at his boss and mouthed 1, 2, 3, and then he burst through the door, followed by Thornton.

The moment they entered, the lights came flickering on…and some kind of white powder sprayed down from the ceiling, covering them both.

Eyes wide, Thornton quickly reached out and slammed the door shut, and as she and Jack made eye contact, tapped her earpiece and spoke, her voice calm and collected, belying the fear that she and Jack were both beginning to feel, that chill down their spines and that feeling in their guts that told both of them, experienced as they were, that whatever that white powder was, it was not good.

'Riley, call Doc.' She swallowed and glanced at Jack. 'And tell Andi she needs to call the CDC.'


SECURE MEDICAL FACILITY

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Mac paced in front of the glass, a paperclip in his hands that he was furiously unwinding and shaping.

On the other side of the glass, in a 'room' of sorts (it was a giant glass box, essentially, completely contained within the room that Mac was pacing in) that was completely sealed off, with a couple of airlocks for entry/exit, Jack and Thornton, clothed in scrubs, were sitting on two twin beds about fifteen feet apart, being examined by Dr Farnham and a couple of CDC experts, who were all wearing biohazard suits.

Mac made eye contact with Jack, who, in typical Jack fashion, smiled and waved, though Mac could see the fear in his eyes, clear as day.

Whatever that white powder was…it's not an enemy that Jack can punch or kick or shoot.

And that, I know for sure, scares him.

More than a guy standing in front of him with an AK-47 ever will.

The blonde swallowed, did his best to manage a smile for Jack in return and turned away.

'Riley-'

The hacker, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the room with Bozer crouched down next to her as they stared at her computer screen, shook her head.

'Phoenix and CDC techs are still doing analysis, but they've determined that it wasn't anything that Heliconia was working on.' She swallowed, and wordlessly, Bozer reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, his own face very, very grim. 'Ritchie's taking a look now, going through his bioweapon database…'

Mac crouched down, putting his head in his hands and letting the paperclip clatter to the floor. Bozer reached out and put his other hand on his best friend's shoulder.

'Hey, bro, they're gonna be okay. You ever know anybody as tough as Jack and Patricia?'

Bozer's voice was firmly resolute, and Mac bit back the thoughts that were threatening to spill out of his mouth, thoughts that he absolutely hated he had.

Jack and Patricia were likely infected with an unknown pathogen or poisoned with an unknown toxin.

It wasn't one that Heliconia had been working on, and, he could read between the lines, wasn't one that CDC or Phoenix experts recognized on sight.

Sure, Mac wasn't a doctor, but he knew more than enough to know that whatever the odds were, they weren't good.

Instead, he gave Bozer a very small, very wan smile that was the best he could manage, and stood again as they heard a tap on the glass.

Dr Farnham and the CDC experts were in the airlock, getting out of their suits and in the middle of a decontamination cycle. Thornton and Jack were tapping on the glass to get their attention.

Mac, Riley and Bozer walked up to the wall; there were microphones in the 'room' to enable them to communicate, but since the speakers were embedded in the base of the quarantine 'room', it was easier to hear them if they were closer.

'Mac, Riley, Bozer, go back to the Phoenix.' Thornton's voice was serious and business-like. 'You can get more work done there.' Her voice and expression softened somewhat. 'You're not doctors and there's nothing you can do here, but there are things you can do to help, and you can do them better at the Phoenix.'

It was true.

None of them, not even Mac, could do any good here. They certainly weren't doctors or experts in toxins or pathogens.

But they could identify who had broken in to Heliconia, and what had been taken and why they'd done it, and there was a very good chance that that would enable them to identify the white powder. The two events surely had to be linked.

And they could do that much better at the Phoenix, with all their resources at their disposal, than sitting here in a medical facility with just Riley's laptop and their phones.

But by staying here…they could at least be here.

Jack tried for a teasing smirk.

'Not helping my health by having to stare at your moping miserable faces.'

Mac huffed out a breath that might have been a weak attempt at a laugh, and Bozer managed a tiny smile, while Riley shifted her weight to her left leg and bit her lip, eyes not leaving the two on the other side of the glass.

Bozer glanced between Mac and Riley, the concern on his face growing ever-greater, and reached out and grabbed Riley's hand and his best friend's jacket sleeve, pulling them away.

'Come on, boss said we need to get back to work, we don't wanna get fired…'

Neither Riley nor Mac showed any signs of amusement at Bozer's attempt at a joke, but they did allow themselves to be led away, towards the door.

As they reached the door, Jack shot Bozer a small, grateful smile, and Patricia gave him a nod of acknowledgement. Swallowing, Bozer just nodded back, and left the room, pulling Mac and Riley with him.

As the three younger agents left, Jack and Patricia just exchanged a glance, a long look full of affection and worry and a fear that they'd tried their hardest to hide earlier, when Mac and Bozer and Riley had been here, but found they no longer had the strength or even inclination to.

Then, wordlessly, Jack slumped onto his bed, while Patricia sat down, graceful as ever, on the edge of hers.


Thornton looked up at Dr Farnham as the doctor finished putting the IV line into her arm.

They hadn't identified what the white powder was yet, but they had worked out that it was bacterial, so she and Jack were being started on a course of broad-spectrum antibiotics, as well as glucose and salt solutions.

'I apologise for the inevitable delay in the start of the search for your replacement.'

Just the day before, she'd promised the Phoenix's doctor that they'd begin searching for a new doctor for the Phoenix the next day, today (even if it was only a little over a week until Christmas), because they both knew that it would be a very, very long search. They had a lot of criteria to fulfil and a lot of background checks and vetting to perform.

Dr Farnham simply smiled a small smile back at her, though he made no attempt to hide his disappointment at the fact just the same. The Phoenix's doctor was guileless; that was one of the things that the Phoenix's agents liked very much about the man, and something that enabled them to trust him with their health and sometimes their lives.

'This is definitely not your fault, Thornton.'

She gave him a very small smile in return as he turned to insert an IV into Jack's arm. The former CIA agent looked up at him, brow furrowed.

'You're leaving the Phoenix, Doc?'

Dr Farnham shook his head with that same little smile as he found a vein.

'I'm retiring, Jack, as soon as a new doctor can be found. I'm 65 and I've worked for the DXS and then the Phoenix for 25 years.' He paused for a moment, the smile growing wider, softer and more affectionate, clearly unconsciously, something unusual for the normally very-professional, slightly hard-edged, ex-military doctor. Jack suddenly flashed back to when he'd realised how old Doc looked, when he'd been back in Rising Star and asking him for a favour. 'I owe my wife a nice, long, fancy vacation, and my daughter's got a toddler and my son's got a baby on the way, and I'd like to spend time with my grandkids.' He paused again, his expression growing more wry and more professional again as he inserted the IV into Jack's arm. 'And I'm not so up to the demands of this job anymore.' Being the Phoenix's doctor was a demanding job that required work at all hours, just like being a Phoenix agent. 'This is a young person's job.'

Jack nodded slowly.

The Phoenix hadn't hired anyone new since Tahoe, with their paranoia (quite reasonable paranoia) causing them to not consider any non-essential hiring, and fortunately, no essential hiring had had to be done.

Until now.

There was absolutely no way the Phoenix could function without a doctor, after all.

He made eye contact with Thornton over Dr Farnham's shoulder, a question in his eyes.

'I intended to tell you all tonight.' They'd planned a campfire dinner at Mac and Bozer's tonight, which clearly wasn't going to happen. 'Doc's official retirement announcement is going to be made at the start of the new year.'

Jack nodded, completely believing her. Having a new doctor, a new person brought into the Phoenix, someone new that they'd have to trust – that was going to be hardest on those who'd been closest to Nikki's betrayal: him, Patty, Bozer, Riley, and most of all, Mac. As a result, he felt it was only fair and very important that they got forewarning. Especially Mac.

He shook his head, raising his right arm, which had the IV in it, and gesturing with his left to the glass around them, a wry little grin on his face.

'Well, this really threw a spanner in the works.'


PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Bozer paced along the length of the war room, as Riley sat in one of the armchairs, her laptop on her lap, and Mac in another, a paperclip in his hands that was taking the shape of an IV bag.

Jack and Thornton were on screen, both sitting on their beds at the medical facility.

Bozer ticked off what they'd worked out on his fingers.

'…So as far as we know, there wasn't anybody at Heliconia who wasn't meant to be there…'

Mac and Riley both nodded, and the hacker spoke.

'We've gone over all the security cameras, running facial recognition, and there's nobody on them who isn't Heliconia or Phoenix.'

Mac ran a hand through his hair.

'And Phoenix techs scrubbed all the entry points for DNA, and there's no trace of DNA that doesn't belong to a Heliconia or Phoenix employee.'

Bozer turned around when he reached the wall, checking off another point with his fingers.

'And Heliconia's 100% sure that nothing was stolen?'

Riley nodded.

'Or moved, or damaged.' Riley gestured to her laptop. 'And all the security camera footage backs that up.'

Bozer turned around again.

'But a secure lab was broken into.' Mac just nodded, reaching for another paperclip, as his best friend turned to the other four, his hands flung up in confusion and brow furrowed. 'Why in the world would anyone break into a super-secure lab and not steal anything?'

Mac, Jack, Riley and Thornton all exchanged a glance, and Riley shrugged helplessly, Mac threw down another paperclip (this one shaped like a question mark) and Jack made a face.

'That's the million dollar question, man.'

As he finished speaking, he rubbed his head and winced, as if he had a really bad headache. Next to him on the screen, Thornton gave a very involuntary shiver.

Mac, Bozer and Riley just exchanged a very concerned glance.

We need to find out who broke in to Heliconia and why.

We need to find out what that pathogen is, and we need to find out how to cure it.

And we need to find out fast.

We need to.


'…I've never seen anything like this. Ever. If this is out there…'

Ritchie trailed off, looking rather panicked. He wrung his hands as best as he could, considering he was wearing a biohazard suit.

Mac, Riley and Bozer exchanged a glance full of worry as Ritchie cut the connection from his lab, then Bozer flopped down into a chair, as Mac tossed yet another paperclip shape onto the pile that was rapidly accumulating as the paperclip bowl (which never seemed to empty even the slightest, as full as it usually was) grew noticeably emptier.

'Human element. Motive. Jack likes to go on about it…' Mac and Riley were more scientifically-minded and tended to like to focus on evidence rather than speculate, but Bozer was a storyteller at heart, and the importance of motive was something he got. '…why would somebody set up a sprinkler-thing full of mystery bacteria in a lab at their workplace?'

Mac answered, his voice flat.

'Revenge on a co-worker, because they're jealous of a co-worker, workplace romance gone wrong…'

Bozer nodded, pointing at his best friend.

'Exactly, bro.'

Riley nodded, and looked up at Andi, who had poked her head in the door just as Bozer started talking about motive.

'Andi, can you please get people running thorough backgrounds on all the Heliconia employees, keeping an eye out for any reasons why anyone might want to hurt anyone else? Focus on anyone who might want to target somebody who worked in that particular lab.'

Andi simply nodded.

'Right away, Miss Davis.'

She turned on her heel and walked out.

Andi normally called Riley by her first name, but since Thornton was out of commission, seemed to have decided that Mac, Bozer and Riley, especially Riley for some reason, were in charge and decided to address her accordingly.

Mac shook his head, tossing down yet another paperclip shape, this one looking like some kind of blob that reminded Bozer of a bacterium, and reaching for another paperclip.

'Assuming that the security breach and the bacterial attack are linked, it makes no sense if someone was trying to target a co-worker. Why put everyone on alert, risk missing your target and/or getting someone else, and having it discovered?'

Bozer and Riley both looked at him, Bozer shrugging a little helplessly.

'Maybe it was a coincidence?'

He didn't sound very convinced.

Mac just shook his head.

'The odds of that are…' He shook his head again. '…So small as to be negligible.'

Riley pursed her lips, lost in thought as she stared at a spot between Mac's head and the wall. Then, she started typing furiously, and a map of LA came up on the screen. She zoomed in on Heliconia Biotech, then got up, tapped the screen in a particular pattern, and circled Heliconia with her finger. A red circle appeared around it.

'What if it wasn't someone at Heliconia who was the target?' She reached out and drew a blue circle around the Phoenix Foundation's headquarters, then blue circles around several other buildings. Then, she turned to Mac and Bozer. 'These are all the agencies in a forty-mile radius with a high-enough security clearance for the DoD to call in for the breach at Heliconia.'

She jabbed her finger at the circle around the Phoenix's headquarters, as Bozer picked up her train of thought.

'We're closest. Makes sense we'd be called.'

Mac stood, very, very grim faced, as a flash of anger passed across his face.

'We were targeted, by someone who knows that the Phoenix isn't a think-tank.'

Another flash of anger crossed his face as he, Bozer and Riley spoke simultaneously.

'The Organization.'


'…We haven't had any chatter about anything like this…'

Matty, on screen, looked grim and concerned, and there was more than a hint of sympathy in her eyes. Beside her (she'd called them over as soon as they'd finished explaining what had befallen Jack and Patricia), Viv, too, looked worried, but with something else, cold and set, in her eyes that reminded them of her aunt, while Sarah's eyes also held angry helplessness along with the expected worry.

If Jack had been taken prisoner, Sarah would probably be beating up bad guys by now.

Unfortunately, she can't fight bacteria for Jack.

And unfortunately, neither can I.

Their former boss continued.

'But we'll do a full investigation into Heliconia and its employees.' They were all quite sure that the suspect or suspects was within Heliconia, since no trace, digital or DNA, of anyone who shouldn't have been in that building had been found with a very thorough search. Matty turned to Viv and Sarah. 'Starting right this minute, this is our number one priority.' Both women nodded seriously, and with a last glance at Mac, Riley and Bozer, stepped off-screen and started speaking to the rest of Matty's team. Matty, meanwhile, turned back to the trio at the Phoenix, her expression softening. 'We'll get back to you as soon as we can.'

The three of them nodded in thanks, Bozer managing a small, grateful smile for Matty, and Mac spoke for them all.

'Thanks, Matty.'

She just nodded, growing more serious again, and hung up.

Mac, Riley and Bozer just turned to one another, and then Mac pulled up the plans for the Heliconia building Riley had gotten him, and started analysing it, while Riley focused back on her laptop. Bozer stood.

'I'll go make us some coffee.'

Caffeine is going to be necessary.

This is going to be a long night.

It's going to be nothing but long nights and long days until Jack and Patricia are okay.


SECURE MEDICAL FACILITY

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Jack and Patricia lay in their respective beds, feverish yet suffering from chills at the same time, and sore all over.

Still, Jack turned his head and spoke, a smirk coming to his face with some effort.

'You know what's good about being sick, Patty?' The woman turned her head to face him as well, each of them noting that the other's eyes were quite red, and simply arched an eyebrow at him. 'Pretty nurses and sponge baths.'

Patricia shook her head as best as she could, as if she'd completely anticipated that response (which was probably true), something that resembled fond disapproval in her eyes.

At least, that's what Jack thought it was.

Patty was hard to read at the best of times, and it was much harder from this angle with a headache that felt like someone was jackhammering in his brain and when her eyes were all red to boot.

He started shivering with a grimace, very much involuntarily, as a particularly bad bout of chills hit him.


PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA


At 3 in the morning, as he, Riley, Bozer and half the Phoenix burned the midnight oil, Mac ran a hand through his hair and picked up a paperclip, shaping it into an anvil.

He stared at it for a long, long moment, then spoke, his voice soft.

'If it's The Organization…' He swallowed, and Bozer and Riley exchanged a worried glance over the coffee pot and her laptop respectively. '…then…' Mac swallowed again, a note of guilt growing ever-stronger in his voice, as he tossed the paperclip anvil down on the table. 'They're planning something, and I'm pretty sure it's got to do with me.' He got up and paced around restlessly for a moment, as Riley and Bozer exchanged another, even more worried glance as Bozer put down the coffee pot and Riley put down her laptop. 'That camera in Buffalo was pointed at the bomb, all the divergence from the plan we found was related to the bomb, and then Tahoe…' Mac turned and faced them, anguish clear on his face and his voice heavy with guilt, as he sunk onto the couch, looked down for a moment, then back up. 'It's because of me, it's my-'

Bozer almost-flung himself onto the couch, and put an arm around his best friend's shoulders.

'Bro, it's not your fault that crazy-creepy-vengeful people are crazily-creepily-vengefully obsessed with you.'

Mac looked up at him, considered for a long, long moment (he knew Bozer was right, he really did, deep down, but it didn't really help much, unfortunately), and worried his lip for a beat, before he looked down again and spoke very, very softly.

'If…if Jack and Patricia aren't okay, I…I don't know how…I don't know how I can-'

Riley cut him off, her voice fierce and resolute and vulnerable all at once.

'They're going to be okay because we're going to make sure of it.' She paused, taking in a sharp breath, and wordlessly, Bozer reached out with the arm that wasn't around Mac's shoulders and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over it in a soothing pattern. 'And because they have to be okay.'

She slumped onto the couch beside Bozer, who let go of her hand to rub her back instead.

Sitting there, in the dark of night, doing his best to comfort his best friend and the woman he was dating, Bozer prayed that Jack and Patricia would be okay.

Not just because they were his friends too, but because he wasn't sure if Mac and Riley, strong as they were, as many times as they'd been hurt and broken and had still managed to heal, would be okay if they weren't.


At 7:30 am in the morning, while Mac, Bozer and Riley were halfway through their fifth pot of coffee in the last fifteen hours, Matty called them back.

She looked very tired, much like them, and shook her head as she dashed their best lead.

'It's not The Organization. We've got no links with any of the Heliconia employees, and there's no links between any of them and any emerging terrorist organizations either.' The Organization did like to hide behind other names, other supposed organizations, after all. Riley crossed her arms, her face set, Bozer sighed and Mac put his head in his left hand (his right was holding his cup of coffee), then looked up at Matty again as she continued. 'In my professional opinion, you're looking for someone acting alone.' Her expression softened. 'Good luck. I'll have Viv, Lil and Sarah keep looking and coordinate with the Phoenix.'

They nodded in thanks (though, Viv and Sarah would probably insist on continuing to try and find out who had done this to Jack and Patricia, no matter what Matty's orders were), and Matty hung up, with a last, small, wan but encouraging smile.

Mac drained his coffee, then put the cup on the table and started pacing around the war room.

'If the Phoenix was the target and it wasn't The Organization, then why localise the pathogen release?' The Organization, he knew, played a long game and had very complex, convoluted plans. He didn't know what game they were playing or what their plan was, but he knew that, and a long game would more likely involve infecting just a couple of Phoenix agents, instead of a larger number. Bozer glanced at Riley, who was also lost deep in thought; Mac sounded like he knew the answer to his own question, something he confirmed immediately. 'Maybe Jack and/or Thornton were targeted.'

Bozer rubbed his chin.

'Well, they've gotta have made a lot of enemies…' His brow furrowed. 'But how could anyone target them? Like, how'd the bad guy work out that Jack or Thornton or both of them would check out that lab?'

Mac and Riley's eyes met over the coffee table.

'Logic.'

'And patterns.' Bozer's brow remained furrowed as Riley spoke, and she continued. 'Thornton's the best spy in the business, but she still has some routines.'

Mac nodded and started writing on the screen with his finger, annotating a map of the Heliconia building.

'Jack and Thornton often take point, and they usually work alone, or with a partner, or, at most, with a small team.' He divided the building into two unequal parts, using the main entryway as the starting point for the line, and pointed to the larger, left-hand side. 'It made sense for Gonzales and the SWAT team to take that side, which left me, Jack and Thornton to take the other.'

He pointed to the smaller right-hand side, which was where the lab with the pathogen sprayer had been. Riley nodded in agreement.

'So anyone who is familiar with the layout of Heliconia, basic SOP and how Jack and/or Thornton operates, and has decent reasoning skills could have pulled off that targeting.'

Mac nodded, grabbing another paperclip from the now half-empty bowl. (There was a very large pile of paperclip shapes next to the bowl, and Bozer made a mental note to make sure that it was refilled at some point today.)

'It's not much, but it's something and it's better than what we had half an hour ago.'

Riley and Bozer both nodded in response, and then the hacker picked up her phone.

'We'll see if Jack and Thornton are up to looking through the employee photos, see if they recognize anyone…' She paused for a moment, closing her eyes briefly. 'Doc promised us an update at 8 anyway.'


SECURE MEDICAL FACILITY

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Jack and Thornton, sitting up (propped up on pillows, but still sitting up) in bed, watched the screen in front of them, as Riley, from the Phoenix, flicked through the Heliconia employee photos.

They were both feeling much better this morning, and everyone was cautiously optimistic as a result.

It'd been a horrid night, and they weren't feeling back to normal, of course, but it did look like the worst was over.

Suddenly, Thornton sat up a little straighter.

'Riley, stop.' She looked a little closer at the screen, which showed a picture of a Latina woman who looked to be about thirty in a lab coat. 'Can you run de-aging software on her? Take off sixteen years.'

Riley's voice rang out.

'It's running now. Employee records show that's Dr Mariana Sanchez. She's thirty and has worked for Heliconia since graduating with a PhD in microbiology from UC Berkeley at twenty-six.'

Thornton shook her head, as the de-aged image of Dr Sanchez popped up on the screen. She stared at the image for just a moment, and her eyes closed briefly, then opened as she nodded.

'I'm certain that's Luciana Hernandez. Her father Carlos was a Colombian drug lord, I was part of an op to take him down, sixteen years ago.'

There was a note of something in her voice, and Jack glanced over at her, and they locked eyes for a moment. He saw that something in her eyes, too, before she looked away.

'Patty, I get the whole why now thing, but why you?'

It wasn't unreasonable that it'd take sixteen years to enact revenge on her (she was the best covert operative in the business, after all, and Luciana Hernandez did have to grow up first too); what didn't make sense was why go to all this trouble (it was a lot of trouble) to take down one US government operative involved in her father's takedown.

She looked up at him for a long moment, then back down again and spoke.

'Luciana wasn't supposed to be there.' The something was very much still in her voice, and Jack swore he heard a quiver in there too. 'Her being home sick from school was the first thing that went wrong.' He was dead certain about that quiver now, as she looked up at him, sadness and sorrow and a touch of something like regret in her eyes. 'It was a six-membered team. Why me? Because I'm the only one who survived that op.' Jack swallowed reflexively, but before he could speak and offer what condolences he could, not very helpful as they were (as he knew from experience), she continued, that sadness and sorrow and hint of regret carrying into her voice. 'She knew how to target me because…we split up. My fiancé and I took point and…' Her voice grew very small. 'Her father's henchmen killed my team. Her father killed my fiancé…I killed him.'

Jack really wanted to get up and give her a hug, but firstly, he couldn't get out of bed, and secondly, he liked his body parts where they were and in the state they were in, so he simply offered her a nod and a look that spoke volumes. She nodded in return, a sense of gratefulness to it, and he addressed their friends back at the Phoenix.

'Mac, Riley, Bozer, you guys got that?'

It was Mac who replied, no shortage of sympathy and sadness to go with the worry in his voice.

'We got that. We'll find her.' He paused for a moment. 'Someone wise once told me that you're not to blame if someone crazy and vengeful is obsessed with you and acts accordingly.'

A ghost of a smile touched Patricia's face.

'Thanks, Mac.'


A few minutes later, after Mac, Riley and Bozer had hung up, promising an update as soon as they had one, and after a couple of minutes of quiet while they processed, Patricia turned to Jack.

'I'm sorry, Jack.' There was clear guilt in her voice, as she rubbed her right arm with her left. 'Luciana almost certainly assumed that I'd be alone…' She looked away, down at her hands for a moment, before looking back up at him. 'If not for me, you wouldn't be here, in this situation…'

Jack tilted his head to the side, jokingly considering her for a moment and rubbing his chin, before smirking.

'Well, you do give off lone wolf vibes, Patty.' That earned him a little shake of her head, which he counted as a win. His expression turned more serious. 'We're friends, Patty, and friends stick together through everything, even possibly-Ebola.'

That earned him an actual, though small, grateful smile, matched by a soft look in her eyes.

'We don't have Ebola, Jack.'

Ebola was a virus; they had a bacterial infection.

Jack shrugged, a wry little grin on his face.

'I nearly failed high school biology, how'd I know?' His face turned much more serious as he locked eyes with her. 'I've got your back, Patty, always, just like you've always got mine.'

Her smile widened a little bit, and Jack's grin, too, widened.

Possibly-Ebola or not, that was definitely a win.


PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Mac looked up from where he was researching Luciana Hernandez/Mariana Sanchez, who'd disappeared twelve hours after the Heliconia Incident (just long enough after that it wouldn't be suspicious), trying to work out where she'd gone.

He'd been going through her academic record, and was partway through the Introduction of her thesis.

'Riley, call Ritchie and Doc. Now.' There was great urgency and fear and worry in his voice. Riley nodded, and got up to step over to the screen, as Mac continued. 'Mariana Sanchez's PhD thesis is on leptospirosis; it's a two-phase illness, the first phase matches their symptoms, there's an asymptomatic phase and then…'

Bozer looked over at his best friend, face very worried.

'Do we wanna know what the second phase is?'

Mac swallowed.

'Meningitis.'

'That sounds bad.'

Mac nodded grimly.

'It is very bad, Boze. Inflammation of the membranes covering the brain.'

At that moment, Ritchie came up on screen, and then, a moment later, Dr Farnham.

Riley blinked, a little surprised for a moment (she hadn't yet called the doctor, though she had called Ritchie), as Mac and Bozer looked up at the screen.

Dr Farnham spoke immediately.

'They've taken a turn for the worse, tell me you have a lead on what this is.'

His voice was clipped with worry and urgency.

Mac swallowed and nodded.

'Leptospirosis.' Mac glanced back down at the PhD thesis in front of him, then back up. 'Likely a hyper-virulent strain with an accelerated life cycle, it's almost certainly a unique, modified, engineered strain.'

The doctor swore under his breath, seeming to be kicking himself internally. (Mac didn't blame him or Ritchie or the CDC in the slightest; leptospirosis was hard to diagnose normally, and this strain had, from Jack and Patricia's symptoms, and how they'd acquired it, been heavily, heavily modified.) He nodded in agreement with Mac.

'Alright, that gives us a lot more than we had.' There was indistinct shouting in the background, and one of the CDC experts came up behind him. 'I have to go.'

Dr Farnham abruptly hung up, and glancing at one another, Bozer, Riley and Mac turned to Ritchie, who was worrying his lip and wringing his hands.

'Nobody's ever weaponised leptospirosis before…and I've never seen anything like this.'

The implication, that finding a cure or a treatment plan that had worked previously was unlikely to say the least, was clear to them all.

The Phoenix's biological and chemical weapons expert took one look at the three of them, the worry and the fear and yet that determination in their eyes, and lifted his chin a little.

'I'll keep researching.'

Bozer was the only one who could find his voice.

'Thanks, Ritchie.'

The older man nodded once, then hung up, and Mac, Bozer and Riley all turned to each other, not having any words to say.

Eventually, Mac found his voice after staring at the newly-refilled paperclip bowl intently for a moment, and stood as he spoke.

'I wouldn't create a bio-weapon without creating a treatment, just in case.' He paced around for a moment, hands fisting and un-fisting at his sides repeatedly. 'She has a PhD in microbiology, she wouldn't develop this strain without…building in a susceptibility to a certain antibiotic or developing a new antibiotic to treat it or creating a star-shaped peptide polymer to target it…'

Bozer and Riley glanced at one another, worried and concerned and fearful.

Mac was rambling, and sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Then, they both nodded resolutely.

Maybe they were grasping at straws.

But this was their best hope.

Jack and Patricia's best hope.

And they couldn't lose hope.

They just couldn't.

'We find her.'

'And we get that cure.'


SECURE MEDICAL FACILITY

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Feverish, more feverish than he was sure he'd ever been, Jack, with great effort, turned his head to face Patricia's bed.

'I'm sorry, Patty. For believing that you were Chrysalis and not digging…' He'd already apologized before, but it felt very, very necessary to say this, for some reason. 'I know, I know, the young 'uns believed it too, but…they haven't known you as long and they don't know you like I do.' He hadn't known that, hadn't realized it, not really, until he'd said it. He paused for a moment, the two of them staring at each other, softness and some kind of depth in their eyes, for a few beats, then tried for the best approximation of a charming grin that he could manage. 'If I die, will you sing at my funeral?'

She stared at him for a moment, and he swore there was some kind of wry smile on her face, and that it wasn't a fever-induced vision.

'If I die, will you promise not to sing at mine?'

His response was to blurt out the first words that came into his head.

'You have a sense of humour.'

She managed to raise an eyebrow at him.

'Yes, Jack, I have a sense of humour.'

He blinked.

'I'm hallucinating. Pinch me.'

She just shot him an exasperated look, and then his vision started to go all blurry…


PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA


Mac paced in front of one of the Phoenix's interrogation rooms, counting his steps in base-7 numbers, in an attempt to at least occupy part of his brain.

They'd tracked Luciana Hernandez/Mariana Sanchez to a little apartment on the outskirts of LA, that she owned under yet another alias, and Gonzales had taken a SWAT team to capture her.

Mac, Bozer and Riley had desperately wanted to go, but Gonzales had talked them down, told them to stay at the Phoenix, where they could prep for interrogation, keep in touch with Dr Farnham, and keep touching base with Ritchie and the CDC experts, and let him and his team do what they did best.

He was right, of course.

But still, I hate just waiting here.

He heard clear, distinct footsteps behind him, and turned to face Riley, whose face was very set.

'They're here.'

He nodded in acknowledgement, his own face growing very grim, very set.

Almost dark.


'…I'm sorry your partner got caught up in it. He didn't do a thing to me. I assumed she'd be alone, given, you know, what happened sixteen years ago.' Luciana Hernandez leaned back in her chair as far as she could, given that her wrists were chained to the table, and tilted her chin up at him defiantly. 'But I am not going to apologize for making that woman suffer and I am not going to apologize for killing her.' She smirked darkly at Mac. 'There's no fail-safe. There's no cure, no treatment. I never bothered.' Her glare turned even darker as helpless anger bubbled up in Mac. 'She killed my father. The only family I had. If I died trying to get my vengeance…what does it matter?'

Refusing to believe her, Mac put both his palms on the table and leaned down, very close to her face, barely-restrained anger in his eyes and his voice.

'I don't believe you.' His voice grew a little harder, a little darker. 'I'm usually a nice guy…but if you go after my family…'

He let the implicit threat hang in the air for a moment.

Luciana Hernandez just smiled darkly back at him, uncowed.

'Well, then you and I understand each other perfectly.'

He knew, for sure, in that moment (had, probably, known as soon as she'd made that simple declaration of she killed my father), that she was telling the truth.

She'd never bothered trying to cure, trying to treat the disease she'd created. Never tried to neutralise that weapon, never tried to disarm her own ticking time-bomb.

Because she didn't care about what happened to her.

All she cared about was getting revenge on Thornton.

Avenging her family.

Her own life didn't matter.

About us understanding each other perfectly...I…I don't know if she's right.

I'll do everything I can to make sure I never find out for certain.

But…I don't think she's wrong.

That anger, that darkness, inside him threatened to boil over, and he heard Riley's voice in his earpiece, eerily reminiscent of their boss.

'Mac, get out of there now.'


Watching the interrogation over the cameras in the room, on the screen in the war room, Riley and Bozer exchanged a glance.

They had to make sure that Mac didn't do something he would regret forever, wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself for.

They both let out a breath that they didn't quite know they'd been holding when the blonde obediently left Luciana Hernandez's interrogation room.


Mac slumped to the floor in the empty interrogation room three doors down from Luciana Hernandez's.

He put his head in his hands for a moment, trying to calm his raging temper, trying to tamp down that anger he felt at her, and, most of all, at his utter helplessness.

After a moment, he pulled a paperclip from his pocket and started savagely cutting it into tiny pieces using the wire cutter of his Swiss Army knife.

I knew, deep down, that it was unlikely she'd have a magic bullet, a miracle cure.

There almost never is one with diseases like this.

No, it's usually antibiotics and IV lines, glucose and salt solution and maybe dialysis…and watch and wait and hope.

And that doesn't sit well with me.

Not at all.

I'm a fix-it, do-something, find-a-solution kind of guy.

But this time…there's nothing I can do.

I'm not five anymore…but I still can't help.


'Bro?' Bozer poked his head into the interrogation room. 'Doc's got an update for us.'

Mac looked up at his best friend, who was now examining the bits of paperclip on the floor around him with no small amount of sadness and concern.

Bozer walked into the room and held out a hand to him, which Mac took, and allowed Bozer to pull him off the floor. The shorter man enveloped him in a tight hug, which somehow made things a little bit better.

Oxytocin is a wonderful thing.

And Bozer gives great hugs.

Always has.


'They are very ill.' Dr Farnham was as frank as ever. 'But we've put together a treatment plan, and they're receiving the best care possible. They were both very fit and healthy prior to infection. I can't give you any numbers, but they have a fighting chance.' His voice softened, growing almost-fatherly. Or grandfatherly. 'Have hope.'

Mac, Riley and Bozer all glanced at one another, Riley reaching for Bozer's hand as Bozer put a comforting hand on Mac's shoulder and gave a very wan smile.

'Hey, it's almost Christmas. Maybe we'll get another Christmas miracle.'

Mac and Riley gave very, very wan smiles in response.

Last Christmas, I moved the Earth, Jack got through electrocution perfectly fine, Riley started to believe in the magic of Christmas again, Patricia kissed Jack – on the cheek, but still – and Bozer moved Christmas for us, because we spent it in a Chinese prison.

It makes absolutely no sense…but maybe there are such things as Christmas miracles.


SECURE MEDICAL FACILITY

SOMEWHERE IN LA


'Mac?'

The blonde turned around at the sound of Riley's voice. The hacker was sitting up, her lower half still tucked inside her sleeping bag and her hair very messy from sleep.

The two of them and Bozer had taken to sleeping in the room that Jack and Patricia's glass quarantine room was contained within, as the three sleeping bag-covered cots in the room and assortment of snacks and travel mugs of coffee cups beside them attested to. In fact, they were spending all their time in the room. (Andi was running the Phoenix, though they were still doing some work on their laptops, and Mac had brought along the household assistance robot that he and Alex had been given as part of their cover for the mission in Taipei; with some work, it could actually be useful, and the Phoenix did occasionally need to do something think-tanky if it was going to maintain its cover…)

We can't do anything to help.

But we can be here.

And that's going to have to be enough.

The blonde, sitting on the edge of his cot, shrugged.

'No change, Riley.' She nodded, as if expecting that (that's what they'd been told constantly by Dr Farnham and the other medical professionals for the last two days – it was better than another turn for the worse, of course, but it wasn't they're getting better, it wasn't they're going to be okay), and his expression softened a little as Bozer let out a snore. 'Go back to sleep.'

It was the middle of the night, after all.

She didn't lie back down, but instead crossed her arms and looked him up and down.

'Mac, when was the last time you slept?'

He shrugged and looked down.

'I've gone without sleep longer before on missions.'

Riley stared stubbornly at him, noting that that definitely wasn't an answer.

Eventually, Mac sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

'Thirty-nine hours ago.'

She nodded slowly.

'And how much sleep did you get?'

Mac sighed again.

'Two hours.' Riley shot him a look that really was reminiscent of Thornton. Mac's brain idly, randomly and crazily (the lack of sleep really must be getting to him) wondered if Thornton's fighting lessons with Riley also included a side of facial expressions tutoring. He sighed, and pulled his sleeping bag over to himself and grabbed his phone. 'I'll try and get some sleep.'

He set his alarm for two hours later. He'd sleep two hours, and then return to keeping his vigil.

He put down his phone and got into his sleeping bag, then started reciting off the digits of Pi in his head and deliberately calmed his breathing, trying to lull himself into sleep.


Mac woke 7 hours later, to the sound of Matty yelling.

'Jack Dalton, you still owe me a cheese Danish!' She put her hands on her hips. 'You are not allowed to die!'

Beside her, Sarah was watching Jack with eyes full of concern and that same helpless anger, while Viv's dark eyes watched her aunt, too much emotion in them to be read (that same helpless anger, worry, sorrow and perhaps guilt and regret…), her face conspicuously missing her usual flawless eyeliner.

Mac looked over at Riley and Bozer, who looked completely unapologetic at tampering with his alarm, and found that he couldn't be annoyed at them in the slightest.

We're family.

Family cares, and family looks after one another.

Even if sometimes, we show it in…interesting…ways.

Like by making a big fuss over a cheese Danish.

Though, I'm 96% sure that Matty doesn't really care about the cheese Danish.

I say 96% because…well, cheese Danishes are really delicious.


Five days before Christmas, in the middle of the night, Mac, Riley and Bozer were woken by a smiling Dr Farnham.

'Doc-'

The Phoenix's doctor simply pointed to the quarantine room, where Jack and Patricia, looking very pale and weak still, but fully conscious for the first time in days, were being examined by a couple of doctors and nurses. As they watched, Jack waved at them, surprisingly energetically, and Patricia smiled.

Mac felt himself smiling in return, as Bozer whooped and danced around, pulling a not-really-protesting, grinning Riley with him.

He turned to Dr Farnham, whose smile widened a little.

'They're out of the woods, they're going to be fine, Mac.'

He turned back to face the glass wall, and Jack smiled and mouthed can't get rid of me that easy, brother at him.

Mac's smile widened further, as Dr Farnham stretched, his back cracking, muttering something about being too old for this and looking forward to retirement.

Even the little stab of panic that that news brought (someone new, a stranger, being brought into the Phoenix that he'd have to trust, and trust very much) couldn't dampen his mood.

Jack and Patricia are going to be okay…

And it's almost Christmas.


MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

LA


An hour before everyone was due to arrive for their Christmas party, Mac was frantically vacuuming, while at the same time, trying to put away all of his (and Bozer's, but honestly mostly his) various unusual belongings. He'd planned to do more cleaning, but with Jack and Patricia being infected with leptospirosis and being in hospital, he hadn't had the time.

What kind of normal, self-respecting, successful, and someone-to-be-proud-of twenty-five year old owns a jury-rigged children's arcade game made out of a gumball machine and a vacuum cleaner? Or a scarecrow? Or a pancake-making toaster and an automatic iron and a kiddie-pool-hot-tub, most of which he made himself?

As he was shoving the gumball-machine-vacuum-cleaner arcade game into his bedroom, Jack came up to him and put both hands on the younger man's shoulders, gently forcing him to stop what he was doing and look him in the eyes.

'Mac, he's your dad. He loves you. He ain't gonna care and he's gonna be proud. Real proud.' Jack squeezed his shoulders tighter for a moment, then smirked, jerking his head at the living room. 'Besides, this is pretty neat and pretty tame for a bachelor pad.'

Slowly, after a moment, Mac smiled back at the older man.

'Thanks, Jack.'

What for never really had to be specified between them.


Mac grinned as he carried a couple of bowls of potato salad out onto the deck, where Bozer was tending to the pastrami by the grill (there'd been no fire this time), Riley was pouring drinks, and Jack and Patricia (both still a bit wan and pale from their illness, so firmly and insistently barred from doing anything) sat by the fire pit, Jack playing a familiar Christmas carol on Mary-Ellen's guitar and Patricia singing along softly.

He headed back inside to the kitchen to pick up the coleslaw, which Penny had just finished making (she was now starting on a garden salad). His ex-girlfriend-still-friend was giggling and a little pink, probably because she'd had some of Matty's extra-special egg-nog (Viv, Sarah, Charlie and Lil would all have been welcome too, but they had their own families to spend Christmas with), which she was making a second batch of right that minute, while chatting with Diane, who was perched on a barstool by the counter, peeling carrots.

Just as he was about to pick up the coleslaw bowl, the doorbell rang, and palms suddenly sweaty, Mac walked over to the door and opened it…and laid eyes on his dad for the first time in thirteen-and-a-half years.

The two of them stared at each other for a very, very long moment (His dad, Mac thought, looked shorter and older than he remembered, which he supposed made a lot of sense; he should have expected it, but it still shocked him…at the same time, all James MacGyver could think of was that his son had grown so, so much).

Then, Mac smiled, a little awkwardly, but broadly and very genuinely nonetheless. It was a smile his dad returned.

'Hi, Dad.'

'Hello, Mac.'

His dad had always called him Gus when he was a kid, but after the first couple of letters they'd exchanged, he'd started calling him Mac.

Mac felt that it sat well, that he preferred this new form of address.

I guess it kind of symbolises a clean break.

Building a new relationship, perhaps, not restarting a broken one.

Not making the same mistakes and causing the same wounds again.

Then, after another not-altogether-awkward moment, his dad hesitantly reached out and hugged him.

'Merry Christmas, Mac.'

His head over his dad's shoulder (the fact that he was tall enough that his head now sat over his dad's shoulder when he hugged him was another little shock all on its own), Mac's smile widened.

'Merry Christmas, Dad.'

When they broke apart, Mac gestured inside.

'Come meet my friends.'

His dad's smile widened.


Merry Christmas indeed.


AN: Are you all mad at me for making literally everyone suffer? Also, I know that Christmas is very early in this season; I originally wanted this to be episode 11, to fit in with the first, actual season, but I couldn't fit the plot for the second 'half' of the season into 11 episodes, so it instead occupies 13 episodes. What did you guys think? I'm hoping that I got the ~emotion~ of this episode and the characters' reactions fairly right!

Personally, this episode is my favourite so far. I can't put a finger on the why, but it is! My favourite moment might be Matty yelling at Jack that he's not allowed to die because he owes her a cheese Danish, TBH. (Thanks again, helloyesimhere! Cheese Danishes are mentioned at least once more in this story as of halfway through 1.17, so there's a lot of thanks in that thank you!) I have never actually eaten a cheese Danish but am assuming that they are delicious.

Leptospirosis is a real disease, though I have fictionalized aspects of it – the modified strain that they talk about is entirely fictional and I'm not sure that such a strain could even be created.

I know it might seem weird that Riley, Bozer and Mac are in charge of the Phoenix in Thornton's absence, but I based that off the fact that at the start of Large Blade, it did seem that Riley was giving quite a lot of orders and she mentions that she and Bozer got to boss around the CIA. I'm also assuming that Mac and Co. are very, very well-regarded by the other Phoenix agents/are considered 'star' agents, as Carter mentioned last episode. Also, if you're wondering why Mac and Bozer's guests are helping make Christmas dinner, it's because, 1, it's a family sort of thing, so they're all working on it together, and 2, there was a really, really, really bad gastro outbreak (*wink, wink*) at the Phoenix, and Jack and Patricia have been very sick so Mac and Bozer barely had time to do any prep, and need all the help they can get, and of course, everyone's very nice about it!

Next episode: 2.10, Barbed Wire. Mac's past has returned to haunt him again. The Ghost is back, and Thornton's finally found the Phoenix a new doctor. In Jack's mind, neither development is good for his partner's well-being.