You can run, but you can't hide
A/N: Once again a big thank you to Court for the nice reviews! You should make an account on here. I hope you like that I have them together now :)
"I'm just saying." Mac tells Jack from behind me on his deck around the fire
"Why do you do this every year, dude?"
"Prove he's not real." Mac says and Cage walked out with a tray full of cups
"Santa is not real, okay? You nerd. And please, spare me your math that claims to support his existence. It's annoying." Jack told him and Cage handed me a cup
"Thank you." I tell her and she sat down
"You're not a grown man who believes in Santa, are you?" She asked Mac
"I'm a grown man who cannot rule out the existence of Santa. Two different things. 'Cause if you think about it the rotation of the Earth, different time zones, and the latest research into Einstein-Rosen bridges..."
"You've been on this Santa kick forever." Jack pointed out
"When I found out that Jack didn't believe in Santa, I derived some equations to help change his mind, but the math only confused him more." Mac explained
"Okay, so you know what this doofus does, huh? He breaks into my apartment dressed as Big Red, sets up a tree, and crams a bunch of gifts underneath there." Jack mentioned
"Yeah, but he caught me before I could finish."
"Well, be honest, Jack. Did you think it was Santa? Even for a moment?" I asked him
"If he took a year and went on a juice cleanse, yeah." He answered and I laughed
"I had a pillow under my coat." Mac said
"You looked pregnant."
"So it didn't, it didn't really work?" Cage asked
"No, man, I thought he was an intruder." Jack tells me and her
"He almost shot me."
"Yeah, you're lucky you didn't get shot, okay? Now, listen, even if the Red Reindeer Rancher is real, breaking and entering is still a felony. In some progun states, it's best just to leave those gifts right there on the front porch. Know what I'm saying?" Jack asked
"What about you?" Mac asked Cage
"Oh, like, do I believe in Santa?"
"Yeah."
"I have yet to see proof, but I keep an open mind." She says
"Come on. Okay Val?" Jack asked me
"Oh I totally believe he's real." I said and Jack groaned
"Come on are you just sayin' that because your dating this nerd?" Jack asked and I look back at Mac and smiled then looked at Jack
"That has nothing to do with my beliefs." I tell him and Mac kissed my temple then my phone chimed. I read the message and sighed then set it down
"What's up?" Mac asked me and I glanced at him
"Oh um, I asked for permission to take Cassian to see Santa but umm..Matty denied it, said it was to risky." I tell him and looked at the fire
"I'm sorry." He says
"It's ok. I just...I wanted him to experience that and get out for a day but I understand why Matty said no. It is to risky." I said and Mac pulled me to him
"You guys hungry?" Riley asked us as her and Bozer walked out
"Ah, yeah, bring on the eats." Jack replied
"This is so lovely, guys. I haven't been home to see my sister in years, so this is my first Christmas in a long time with, um.." Cage started to say
"Family?" Jack asked her, "Go ahead. You can say it. If you don't, they're gonna make you. They made me. That's what we are, after all, as crazy as it sounds." He says and I nodded
"I will drink to that." Mac said raising his glass
"I will, too." Jack added and we all picked up our glasses
"Cheers, guys." I say and we al clinked our glasses then I looked at Mac and he gave me a quick kiss then the door opened and Matty walked out
"Hey, there she is." Riley says and Matty sighed
"What's wrong, boss?" I asked her
"I'm sorry, guys, but Christmas is on hold."
"What? Why?" Bozer asked
"Because we have a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Mac asked her
"Murdoc?" I asked as well and she shook her head
"N, not that, he's still in the wind," She told me and I nodded, "You know that bomb that you built last week?" She asked Mac
"Which one? The one he exploded in Angola when our cover got blown or the one in L.A. when we, uh, went with the bad intel?" Jack asked her
"Los Angeles. It appears that our intel was even more incomplete than we realized. That building wasn't empty." She tells us and I sat up, "The maintenance man, a civilian named George Ramsey, died when a section of the wall collapsed on him."
"I'm sorry. Are you saying that I killed a civilian?" Mac asked and I held his hand
"No, no, wait a minute. Val and I cleared that building, it was empty. Don't start playing the blame game..." Jack started to say
"The game's already started, Jack. The LAPD has a warrant for your arrest, Mac. They're on their way here now." She tells us and I feel my heart sink and Mac squeezed my hand
"What? No, this is crazy." Riley pointed out
"So how do we get Mac out of this?" Bozer asked Matty
"I don't know."
"You don't know? Well, guess what, that's not good enough." Jack told her
"I assure you, Jack, that calls will be made. But right now, this is happening. And we all need to maintain our covers."
"Don't-don't-don't worry, Mac, we'll get you out of this. You hear me? I promise." Jack says to him and Mac took his hand away and put it on my back and I looked at him then the doorbell rang.
"Angus MacGyver?" Someone asked as Mac opened the door
"Yes."
"You're under arrest for the murder of George Ramsey." The guy told him and another one walked in and handcuffed Mac and he looked at me as we all stood there watching and I feel Jack out his hand on my shoulder, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed for you by the court."
"Mac can't say anything. Okay, no matter what the cops throw at him, he cannot reveal that he's a covert agent working for the U.S. government. Murder charges are bad, but violating the Espionage Act? Way worse." Matty tells us walking into the war room back at Phoenix
"I covered all of our digital tracks and scrubbed all the cameras. What evidence could they possibly have?" Riley asked
"You tell me. You're the tech nerd in this mod squad. Can't you use that thing to crack LAPD's system? At least find out what they have on our boy?" Jack asked her
"What do you think I'm trying to do, Jack?"
"Well, what's taking you so long? You cracked the damn NSA quicker than this." He told her
"Yeah, the NSA was one system, and it was up to date. The LAPD is at least 20 different systems, and some of them are ancient. I'm trying to teach myself Fortran. If you knew what that was, you'd be as frustrated as I am."
"Okay, look. We know that whatever the cops have on Mac, it was enough for them to find him and arrest him. We need to go back..." Matty began to say
"What we need to do is go in there and get him right now, forcibly, if need be. He did the same thing for me two weeks ago. I owe him one." Jack said cutting her off
"Yeah, Jack, he did in Yemen, after you were arrested under a cover ID. Mac was arrested under his own name at his own house." I tell him
"Whatever. Riley, crack the LAPD network and at least see what evidence they got against Mac and just erase it! Right now, just do it." Jack says to her
"Erasing all the evidence is not gonna make this go away. They're gonna wonder how this happened."
"Oh, come on, y'all. Seriously? Do you know how many rescue operations we've planned in this very room? This is Mac we're talking about here. Busting him out's gonna be no different than any other mission." Jack pointed out to us
"Except it is different, Jack." Matty told him
"How?!"
"Because there's no exfil at the end of this. Okay? We can't just break Mac out and walk away." She says
"And the LAPD is not the enemy. They're just doing their job." Cage added
"Yeah, and so was he, Cage. Just doing his job. And listen, everyone single one of us got him in this hot spot, and we're gonna get him out. Now, Riley, pretty please with sugar on top, will you work faster?" He asked her and she nodded, "Matty, with all due respect, go work the phones. Please."
"Okay." She says and walked out then he faced the screens
"Can somebody help me bring up the action reports on this thing? Or I'm gonna rip it right off the wall right now. Please." He said and I walked over and brought them up, "How can you not want to go in there and bust him out?" He asked me
"Because, it's not the right way to do things Jack, yes it sucks but we need to just use our brains and think like him in order to help him." I tell him and put my hand on his shoulder then walked away.
"I'm telling you guys, Val and I swept this building from top to bottom before Mac detonated that bomb. The place was empty. I swear." Jack tells us
"We heard you the first time, Jack, but the fact remains, it's a big building. Maybe you two missed someone." Bozer says to us
"Well, even if we did, Ri, you would've had them on thermal, right?" Jack asked her
"I wasn't using thermal." She told him and he gave her a look, "We didn't know we were gonna have to do any of this, remember?"
"Wh-What I remember is Mac didn't kill anybody. So, there's a good explanation for how this guy died, period." Jack says
"Look, I wasn't there, so I can be fresh eyes," Cage pointed out, "You want to just walk me through everything that happened, starting with when you first got the call for the mission? Where was Mac?" She asked
"With me. We were in the lab." Bozer told her
Bozer POV...
"I see fear in your eyes. Don't worry. This will be over soon." I tell Mac as we looked at each other
"Oh, I'm scared..for you. I know how much you hate to lose, so.."
"Said Venus right before Serena beat her, like, a dozen times." I said
"You wish you were Serena."
"I've won every game today. I am the Serena Williams...of ping-pong." I tell him and served the ball
"Curious. Normally, MacGyver applies backspin to his shots to ensure victory," I hear Sparky mention, "But not today. Is an injury the reason you're not playing at full capacity?" He asked Mac who glared at him, "Apologies." Sparky said and the ball goes past me and I look at Mac
"Brah."
"What?" He asked
"Have you been letting me win?"
"Of course not." He told me and I saw him look at Sparky then back at me, "All right, yes. A little bit, but only 'cause I was trying to cheer you up after Leanna." He told me
"Is this why you been insisting we hang out every night?"
"Look, I've been at this spy thing a long time. After you lose someone, distractions can be a great thing." He says
"Yeah, okay, but bowling, putt-putt, horror movie marathons? I mean, come on, y-you didn't have to do all that."
"Points on your bro game, MacGyver." Sparky tells him
"Shut up, Sparky." I said and turned him off
"Hey, man, just trying to be there for you. You go to spy school, you meet the girl of your dreams and then you have to say good-bye to serve your country. That can't be easy."
"Yeah. It's been, uh it's been rough." I lied and his phone chimed, "Let me guess. Matty, War Room, now."
"Add a few more exclamation points and you hit the nail on the head." He says and we walked out of the lab
Val POV (Flashback)...
"That is a G36 assault rifle. German-made, highly lethal. The CIA is tracking a shipment of these that were stolen from a plant in Berlin last week." Matty tells us
"Oh, yeah, I know this gun." Jack says standing up and walking over to the screen, "The firing rate on this bad boy is incredible. There's-there's hardly any recoil. It's made of fiberglass, reinforced plastic. It's light, strong. Extremely deadly. She's a growler."
"Do you need a moment alone with the video, Dalton?" Matty asked him and he looked at all of us
"Mm-mm."
"Can I continue?" She asked
"Yeah, go ahead."
"Can you move?" She asks and he moved back over to the chair, "We just received intel that the shipment is gonna be sold on the black market, right here in our very own backyard."
"I'm still trying to ID the seller, but we do know the weapons are being held in a warehouse outside of L.A." RIley added
"And since these guns are on U.S. soil, the CIA can't legally retrieve them." Bozer says
"Which is why they've come to us." Mac adds
"Exactly. We believe that the sale is going down within the next 48 hours. Our mission is to recover the guns before the deal goes down and these weapons hit the streets, aimed at civilians and law enforcement." Matty told us
Now...
"If I sound hoarse, it's because I just finished yelling at the CIA." Matty told us walking into the room, "Officially, they won't accept any connection to this op."
"Okay, then fun and games are over. It's time for Oversight to bring in the sun-glass squad. You know, the ones with a get-out-of-jail-free- 'cause-I'm-a-secret-agent card? Those guys." Jack says
"I already asked, Jack, and the answer is no. These are the risks that we take when we choose to operate on U.S. soil. And if the charges stick and Mac goes to jail, we have to let him." Matty tells us and I sighed closing my eyes
"Let him?! Go to jail?!" Jack asked out of anger
"How can this be happening? The LAPD can't possibly have enough to charge him with murder." Riley pointed out
"What do you mean, Mac doesn't get a phone call? The suspect always gets a phone call." Bozer pointed out
"I know, right?" Jack agreed
"No, not right. Not when the charge is domestic terrorism. The Patriot Act allows law enforcement to suspend the rights of suspected terrorists indefinitely." I tell them
"And it sounds like they have enough to make these charges stick." Matty added
"Okay. So, now do I have your permission to go bust him out of there?" Jack asked her
"If you want Mac to spend the rest of his life on the run from the entire U.S. intelligence agency, then go for it. But if you want to clear him of these charges, we need to prove that he didn't kill George Ramsey."
"How? You just said the LAPD has all this evidence." Bozer says to her
"Maybe they're looking at it wrong. Maybe we can use the same evidence to clear his name once we get access to it." Cage pointed out
"I think she's talking to you, Riley. Let's go." Jack said and snapped his fingers at her
"Guys, I'm typing as fast as I can."
"Then type faster. Okay, the longer that we let Mac sit in there, the longer the cops have to fit the evidence to their story and paint Mac as a terrorist." Matty said
"Val, isn't there someone at Homeland you can talk to?" Jack asked me
"I thought of that already, but they wouldn't be able to do anything without me having to blow Mac's cover." I tell him and he sighed
"I am telling you the truth, Matty. We cleared that whole building before we found those rifles." Jack says putting his hand up to me, "That place was empty."
"Tell that to the dead guy they found in the rubble."
"Dead guy? What if the victim was already dead inside the building when Mac, Val and Jack got there?" Riley asked bringing up a good point
"Yeah. Yeah, that might explain why me and Val missed him." Jack mentioned
"It's a good theory, but we need proof." Bozer says
"Okay, let's go over every detail of what happened in that warehouse. Maybe we can find some." Matty adds
"Okay, let's start at the beginning. Where were you guys?" Cage asked us
"I was in the van, knocking out all the security cameras in the area." Riley told her
"I had eyes on the street, looking out for any surprise visitors." Bozer says
"Me, Val and Mac did a sweep of the warehouse exterior." Jack adds
Flashback...
"I don't believe you." Jack says to Mac as we walk next to the warehouse
"Why would I lie about that?"
"Because, dude, you make up stuff all the time." Jack tells him
"Excuse me? Ten lords a-leaping. That's the tenth day of Christmas."
"Mm-mm, I doesn't sound right." Jack says
"Okay, sing it." I tell him
"On the first day of Christmas My true love gave to me, the dumbest song ever made. I'm not gonna sing it. It's stupid. You know what? Christmas was just made up by Mattel to sell Hot Wheels, anyway. Santa's just a bloated brand ambassador."
"Actually, "Christ's Mass" was first celebrated in Rome in 336, about a thousand years before Mattel started making Hot Wheels." Mac explained to him
"That-that proves two things: one, brainwashing works, and two, you make stuff up, dude. It do I-I don't care. Just let's get on with the B&E. Hurry up." Jack tells him and Mac began to work on the door while I stood there keeping watch, "Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge? That's a lot of birds, man. That's a disappointing first four days. If you're my true love, give me them five rings on the first day. I'll wear one, pawn the other four. Get the whole family whatever they want for Christmas."
"Are you still talking?" I asked Jack and Mac got the door opened then Jack and I went in first holding up our guns then Mac walked in and the door started to close
"Hey, whoa, whoa, wait, wait." Jack says and ran back to the door catching it with his foot, "Dude, what's the matter with you?" He asked Mac
"What? What are you doing?"
"I'm propping the door open." Jack said
"Why?" I asked him
"So we can sneak those guns out through the same entrance we came in, kiddo." He says to me and I rolled my eyes, "You're not the only one who can think up stuff on the fly, all right? I got a brain on me." He says to Mac walking past us
"All you did was grab a cinder block..." Mac started to say and looked at me, I shrugged as we kept walking, "You know what? Great job."
Now...
"What did you see when you got in?" Cage asked Jack
"Nothing special. Just a regular old warehouse. Val and I swept the building, clearing it room by room while we searched for those guns."
"But then, new players entered the game." Riley adds
Flashback...
"Guys, I got an 18-wheeler inbound, with an escort. Two sedans. They're still a ways out, but they're definitely headed our way." Riley told us
"It must be transport for the weapons. The deal we thought was happening in 48 hours? I think it's going down now." Bozer mentioned
"Mac, Jack, just grab the guns and get the hell out of there." Riley tells us
"Love to, Riley. Really would. Just one teensy little problem." Mac said
"Yeah, the deal isn't just sooner than we expected, it's bigger. Way bigger." Jack added and we look at all the crates that had our guns in them
"This is way more guns than we can just grab and go." I point out, "I don't suppose you can make a forklift out of any of this stuff laying around, could you?" I asked Mac and he chuckled then looked around
"You know what? I could build an explosive to melt these down, rendering them useless."
"Ooh. I love that idea." Jack tells him
"But the blast could damage the structural integrity of the building, bringing it down on us."
"I hate that idea." Jack said
"With the amount of time we have, I don't see any other option."
"All right, well, you do your thing, kid. Me and Val will see if we can buy us some time, yeah?" He says to him and we separated
Now...
"So Val and I went to barricade the door with the cinder block, you know, to try slow those bad guys down while Mac cooked up the boom-boom sauce." Jack explained
"What did you do after you barricaded the door?" Cage asked
"Well, yeah, that's that's the thing. When we got there, the door was closed. Somebody must've moved the cinder block." Jack says and I think back and remember it not being where he put it
"Why didn't both of you mention this before?" Cage asked us
"I don't know, Cage, it didn't really register. We were trying to keep those guys at bay. I was planning on passing out a lot of knuckle sandwiches." Jack defended
"Cinder blocks don't just move by themselves, Jack." Matty tells him
"I know."
"Someone must've entered the warehouse after you did." She adds
"Someone like George Ramsey." Cage pointed out
"Or whoever killed him." I add
"Well, we need to find out. Riley, how's it coming with the LAPD hack?" Matty asked her
"Yep, hang on. Finally found the right computer. Just need to find his case file, and..." Riley said and put the image up on the screen
"That's him? That's the victim? That's George Ramsey?" Bozer asked
"Yeah. Why?" Riley asked him
"I've seen that guy before."
"Where?' Matty asked
Bozer POV (Flashback)...
"I'll help you, Jack. Headed to the back door now." I tell him in as I backed up and when I turned around a guy on a motorcycle almost ran me over and I looked at him
Val's POV (Now)...
"But if George Ramsey was driving away when the building came down, then...then Mac didn't kill him." Riley says
"Means someone else did, and they got his body and put it in the warehouse." I added
"But who? And why?" Matty asked
"Well, that's what we're gonna figure out. That's how we're gonna save Mac." Jack says
"Webber. Dalton here. Hey, our boy figured it out. He confirmed he didn't do it." Jack tells her
"Okay, but Mac can't exactly serve as an expert witness at his own trial. In order to clear him, we have to find the real killer."
"Yeah, well, how are we supposed to do that? It's not like we have a ton of leads." Jack says
"Actually, I might have one." Mac tells us, "All right, I-I never really know if I'm gonna find what I need to make well, whatever it is I need. But this time, I got lucky. Too lucky. Matches and aluminum foil are everywhere. But sodium hydroxide? Doesn't exactly grow on trees."
"Neither does tin foil. N-Not to nitpick, but that doesn't grow on trees." Jack said
"I was in a hurry, calculating exothermic reaction rates in my head, so I didn't really think about it at the time. But along with sodium hydroxide, I also found cold medicine and nail polish remover, which can only mean one thing." Mac mentioned and it came to me
"You know, Mac, as much as I love it when you launch into a lecture I barely understand, but we're kind of on the clock here, so what's the point?" Jack asked him
"Methamphetamine, Jack." I tell him and everyone looked at me, "Nail polish remover, cold medicine and sodium hydroxide are all key ingredients in the synthesis of meth." I explained
"Bingo" Mac says and I smiled
"Wait a minute, now. What you're saying is, our bad ass group of international arms dealers is really a not so bad ass group of low-rent methamphetamine dealers?" Jack asked
"No. Not low-rent. Not anymore. The meth business in the U.S. has changed. A recent run of DEA busts left a manufacturing hole that the La Ola Cartel stepped in to fill." I tell him
"It's weird that you know that." Jack mentioned and I gave a light laugh
"When I first dug into the warehouse, I hit a nest of shell companies, which led me to warehouse owner H. Ruiz. But searching just "H. Ruiz" turned up over 20,000 hits. Now that I know those shells are tied a Mexican drug cartel, I can search H. Ruiz in the DEA database, and.." Riley tells us and an image pulled up on screen, "here's Hector Ruiz. A lieutenant in La Ola, and owner of the warehouse in question.
"If the cartel owned the warehouse, then George Ramsey worked for them." Cage pointed out
"And maybe he was more than just a maintenance man. Maybe he kept an eye on all of their contraband." Bozer added
"But when we broke in.."
"He knew he was outnumbered, so instead of protect the stash, he bugged out on his bike." Jack says finishing for Riley
"Almost running me over in the process." Bozer says
"So the cartel killed him as punishment for fleeing, and then dumped his body in the rubble." I pointed out
"Oh, hell, yeah." Jack sighed
"What?" Mac asked him
"Oh, this is all starting to make sense. Now all we need is proof to convince Joe Thursday out there. Hey, I tell you what. Matty, I'm gonna come back to the Phoenix, then you, me and Val are gonna go have a heart-to-heart with this Hector Ruiz fella, yeah?" Jack asked
"Good idea, Jack."
"All right." Jack said and hung up
We get to Hector's house and start searching it room by room, "Clear. Clear." I hear JAck say
"Clear!" I yelled to him and checked another room
"Hector's not home, boss." Jack told her when we walked back over to them
"Toss this place. I want to know where this guy is right now."
"Okay. I got some kind of weird printer here." Bozer tells us as we searched the garage
"That's an ID card printer." Riley told him, "With the right software, you can make a.." She say sand stopped, "Uh-oh."
"What is it?" I asked her
"Guy made himself a fake police ID."
"We need to get to Mac." Bozer said
"We can't do that without breaking cover." I pointed out
"I don't care. Mac's life is more important. Jack, Val go save our boy." Matty tells us
"Yes, ma'am." Jack said and we left
"We're charging Ruiz with the murder of George Ramsey and three FBI agents. And we got an anonymous e-mail, detailing both the cartel's methamphetamine and arms dealing operations. Which suggests the blast that brought down their warehouse was just another meth lab explosion." The one detective tells us
"And as for you," The other said to Jack, "We could charge you with impersonating an officer of the court and obstruction of justice."
"Who, me?"
"But we're gonna give you a warning instead." He tells Jack
"You're free to go." The other one tells us
"That is a Christmas miracle." Jack says and I smiled
"One last question, though," The detective says to us
"Yep."
"What is it you do, exactly?" He asked
"I sell bathroom tile." Jack told him and I roll my eyes
"I work at a think tank." Mac and I say at the same time
"Merry Christmas, Mr. MacGyver." The detective tells him
"Merry Christmas, Detective Greer. Turner."
"Hey." Mac said walking up to me as I leaned on the railing of his porch
"Hey yourself."
He put his hand on my face and pulled me into a kiss, "You okay?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Because of what happened." He said and I wrapped my arms around his neck
"Eh, I think I've known you long enough to know that you would never do anything like that. I wasn't worried."
"Hmm so much faith." He tells me and I giggled then he kissed me again then pulled away and reached into his back pocket, "Merry Christmas."
"Mac," I said and grabbed it from him, "I thought I said no gifts."
"You did, but it's our first Christmas together and I wanted to get you something special." He tells me and I smiled then reached into my back pocket.
"Well it's a good thing I didn't listen to myself then." I say and hand him his present and he chuckled.
"Go ahead and open yours first." He told me and I unwrapped it revealing a box then opened that and saw a simple necklace with a purple jewel at the bottom.
"Mac..it's beautiful." I said pulling it out of the box
"No, the person wearing it is." He says and took it from me then turned me around putting it on my neck then I faced him, "Plus um..it has a tracking device in it." He tells me and I looked at him confused, "After what happened with the nerve gas thing and how we didn't know where you were I just..I don't that to happen again. Are you mad?"
"I'm not mad, I get it. Thank you, I really do love it. Now you." I tell him and he opened his pulling a pocket watch out of the box
"Wow...this is.."
"It's my grandfather's pocket watch." I said and he looked at me
"Val I can't..."
"No. Don't, it's fine. He gave me that when I left home and went to college, but I don't know a part of me feels like you should have it instead." I told and he smiled, "Just don't take it apart because then he'll kill you." I said and he laughed
"I won't, but it's great Val, I love it, and..I love you." He says and I looked at him shocked, "I know it's only been two months but I've felt it for some time now, and if you're not ready then..." He said but I cut him off by kissing him
"I love you too." I tell him and he pulled me to him, I wrapped my arms around him as he tightened his arms around me deepening the kiss.
Cage POV...
I unlocked my front door then shut it setting my keys down and went over to my pantry grabbing out a tube of wrapping paper when I hear someone whistling, "Mac?" I asked but didn't get an answer, "Are you seriously trying to repeat what you did with Jack?" I asked walking back to my kitchen and saw someone standing by my tree, "Mac?" I asked and he walked into the light and I tensed up, "Murdoc."
"Ho ho ho." He says and I reached my hand back to grab a knife off my counter but he shot me twice in the stomach and I fall to the ground then he walked over and knelt down next to me, "Last time I shot you, you were wearing a vest." He tells me and touch my wound holding up his hand, "Not this time. I'll leave you to die now." He said standing up, "Oh and tell my dear Valarie Merry Christmas for me. I hope she enjoys her gift. Your dead body." He says and walked out and I rolled over slowly making my way to my counter and felt for my phone then it fell and I dialed it.
Mac POV...
"Heard the good news about Hector." I said to Matty walking over to her from outside as Val went over to Bozer
"Only you can get arrested for murder and end up taking down a major cartel, Mac." She told me and I smiled, "I got you something." She pushed a wrapped gift towards me and I picked it up shaking it.
"What is it?" I asked
"Open it up."
I pulled the wrapping off, "Paper clips."
"Hey. I know that I put the kibosh on your sculptures when I took over, but, if they help you to think I think it's time to let MacGyver be MacGyver."
"You sure? With everything that just happened, I.." I stopped and looked at Val and Bozer as they laughed at the gift she gave him, "I don't know. I'm beginning to wonder if the way that I do things..."
"Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there. I know that I had my doubts about you at first. But you convinced me to ignore them. All of them. And I am so glad that you did. Because now, there's no one that I trust more than you, Mac." She tells me and I chuckled softly
"That kind of trust we should probably be honest with each other, right?" I asked her and she nodded, "Matty I was wondering if I could ask a favor."
"What's that?"
"I know you told Val that she couldn't bring Cassian to see Santa, but do you think there's something else we can arrange? I know it would mean a lot to him, and her." I tell her and looked back at Val
"I'll see what I can do." She says with a smile then Bozer and Val walked over
"Mac this gift wasn't under the tree yesterday and it's for you." He told me handing me it
"This is from my dad."
"How do you know?" Val asked me
"This wrapping paper, he used it on the last gift that he gave me. I just, I know. Um If you guys don't mind, I-I, uh I need to do this alone." I tell them and started to walk away then Val's phone rang.
"Cage?" She asked then paused and we all looked at her, "Cage?"