Patricia Thornton sat in the arm chair facing the deck, managing to make it look like a throne. James sat off to the side on the edge of the smaller sofa. Jack stood behind the large sofa with his arms folded over his chest, his jaw tightening more by the second. Mel, feeling the tension crackling in the air, excused herself to go to her car, saying she'd be back shortly. Mac, tried sitting facing Thornton and his father, but found after a moment that he simply couldn't tolerate sitting, so instead of trying to force himself, he stood. He looked first at his father, who he couldn't help but think looked absolutely subordinate to Thornton. Funny sort of impression for a man who supposedly recruited her to give, Mac thought absently. Unable to think of anything else to say, Mac simply opened his hands in an invitation.

"Explain."

James glanced at Patricia and she lowered her eyelids, a regal almost nod. As his father opened his mouth to speak, Mac was vaguely aware of Jack uncrossing his arms and taking out his phone, either to answer or send a text. Finally, James found his voice. "After you called me, to warn me … I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't believe it could really have been Patricia who recruited Andi Lee for the Organization."

Mac's eyes flicked to Thornton. His voice was hard. "Ms. Lee was Thornton's personal assistant. Hired and given security clearance by her five years ago."

"Mac, I've known Patricia since you were a child. She worked for me … she …"

"She keeps being caught up in suspicious activity. And while where there isn't always necessarily fire where you find smoke, if you see it in your house, you better go looking," Mac snapped.

James looked away. Mac had a point … but … he couldn't accept that. "Mac, just hear her out. When I was worried you might be going after the wrong mark, I placed a want ad. One we used to use, a long time ago, to tell the other it was time to come in, and within a day, she called me … And … you just need to hear what she has to say."

Mac's eyes narrowed, but he gave a curt nod. "Fine. I'll hear you out. But the first thing I want to know is how you just breezed in here past my security."

James cleared his throat. "I, um, went through your pre-screeners …" he trailed off, glancing at Patricia.

Patricia gave Mac a sly smile. "I wasn't known as the most successful clandestine operative in U.S. history for nothing, Mac."

Mac nearly gave an involuntary shiver, bothered by that smile for some reason. And he could hear Jack's grumbling under his breath from across the room. Security was going to get the ass chewing of a life time. Mac thought, for just a second, that for a change he might want to do some chewing of his own.

"And you thought it was acceptable to violate my security to pass on this information instead of calling Director Webber?"

James was looking up at Mac, a curious expression on his face. Patricia had assured him that this was the best way to proceed, knowing Mac like she did, and he'd agreed, thinking that she was probably right, there was a certain tentativeness to Mac in the presence of people he seemed to consider authority figures. Patricia was accustomed to being one of those. She was also used to a Mac who regularly, willfully, bypassed protocol for expedience and effectiveness. But whatever had happened since autumn had clearly broken that spell somewhat. James glanced at Patricia and saw she was unfazed by Mac's apparent lack of appropriate deference.

"Since it's your freedom on the line, I thought you deserved to hear the unvarnished story," Patricia replied smoothly.

"My freedom?" he asked carefully.

"Well, certainly, you've drawn the appropriate conclusion by now," Patricia said, the barest hint of condescension in her voice.

Mac gave her a tight smile. Jack nearly smirked at the almost imperceptible narrowing of their former boss's eyes. It was strange. Jack had always liked Patty, but now he felt like they were in a corner facing down an angry cobra. Something was obviously tripping Mac's spidey senses too, because he just said coolly, "Why don't you enlighten me?"

"You've seen the analysis of the chemical they designed to drug you with, I'm sure. Their plans to keep you and Jack both alive. The drug is very similar to what the Agency experimented with in the 70's for …"

"Brainwashing," Jack finished. There was cold fury in his tone.

Mac glanced at Jack, who nodded imperceptibly to anyone else who might have been looking for it. Satisfied that they weren't on their own in uncharted waters here, he sat on the arm of the couch furthest away from his father and former boss. "Okay. I'm listening."

Patricia shifted position gracefully and pinned Mac with her liquid dark eyes. "This has been building for a long time."

Mac simply nodded, waiting for her to go on. Not offering anything of himself. Not yet.

"When I met your father, I was still in college. My fiancé was involved in something dark, dangerous, and it got both of us into a great deal of trouble. James saved my life the night it all came to a head. But my fiancé died in the resulting warehouse fire. Or so I was led to believe."

Jack mostly watched Mac as Patricia unfolded a tale of deception and intrigue, one that had the Organization shadowing her every move, made them hyper-attentive to the people she showed an interest in, cared about. It was all down to her not-actually-dead fiancé who suspected her and James of having an affair, which James jumped in indignantly to protest. Mac could tell his father hadn't been privy to that facet of the story and the idea that he would have cheated on Ellie, or even cheapened her memory by being with someone in a committed relationship offended his honor-driven sensibilities. Jack finally felt a true stab of affection for the man. And he thought with an internal smile that he sometimes found Mac's sensibilities to be old-fashioned for someone so young, but having met Harry and now getting to know James, it made a lot more sense than it used to. The slight wrinkle of Mac's nose told Jack that his young friend smelled bullshit. In fact, the crease in his father's brow said that upon this hearing of Patricia's story, he wasn't as enthralled as he had been when she contacted him back east.

There were a few moments of silence as Patricia trailed off, looking quizzically at Mac, as though she wasn't sure why he looked so skeptical. Mac closed his eyes for a moment, like he was listening to something. He looked at Patricia, getting slowly to his feet and crossing his arms. He asked, as though he genuinely hadn't already drawn his own conclusions, "So how do you suppose they got such detailed files on all of us … such ammunition?"

"Well," Patricia said, one corner of her mouth quirking up, as though she found his confusion charming. "Andi Lee undoubtedly …"

"Didn't have the clearance to get into our personal and medical files, nor could she have tapped into Phoenix's agent database and gotten the Organization into things like my therapist's files. That was supposedly a failing of cyber-security but Riley says no. That breach had help."

"Well, I'm sure I don't," Patricia began.

Mac's eyes flicked to Jack, hoping his partner was as prepared here at home as he always was everywhere else. "I'm sure you do. Just like I'm sure you've known your fiancé didn't die for a long time. And like I'm sure you've been stringing my dad to keep him out in the cold for over a decade. And like I'm sure you're furious that he came in, and we've got your number."

Mac's voice had gained heat as he spoke. And Patricia had a second where she couldn't believe this … child – for that was what he was in the spy game, a fledgling agent who was much more talented and intelligent than his age could explain … could have see through so much careful construction. She was so overwhelmed by her own miscalculation that she missed Mac's eyes flicking to the space behind her. The events that followed took less than three seconds but, to everyone present, they seemed to draw out for ages. At Mac's challenge, Patricia had leapt to her feet, dipping down and drawing a small firearm from her ankle, in a smooth practiced motion. Matty and Mel had appeared from behind the partition where they had been hiding instantaneously shouting for their friends to look out, and Jack and James both dove at the players closest to them, one of them knocking a threat to the floor and one of them getting their friend out of the way of what would probably have been a fatal shot.

In the aftermath, Mac and Jack were picking themselves up off the floor as security streamed in through several entrances. Mel was suddenly at their sides, helping them both to the couch. Mac's ears were ringing and his head was smarting from its brief connection with the edge of the coffee table, but he was almost immediately trying to get to his feet to go over to where his father was peeling himself off the floor, assisting Matty in wrestling Patricia into handcuffs and speaking to the security detail that had, belatedly joined them.

Mel's hands were firmly on both his shoulders. "Hey. Sit. You hit your head. I saw it."

Mac frowned and attempted to shrug out of her grasp. "I'm fine. I need to …"

"Sit still and let me take a look at you, damn it!" she ordered hotly, peering into his eyes, and wishing she had her kit.

He glared up at her for a second. "Bossy and mean," he asserted, but even as he said it, he could feel a smile starting to tug at the edges of his lips.

Her grey eyes flashed. "Or maybe you're just stubborn and ridiculous and all I am is worried about someone I care about!"

The tone was so heated, so unclinical, it made Mac draw a surprised breath. "I … Sorry," he apologized, suddenly sincere. "I think I'm okay though … But … go ahead." He was suddenly still enough for her to look in his eyes and check his pupils. She pulled her keychain, which had a tiny flashlight attached to it, and flashed it in his face. He flinched, not from pain, or anything other than surprise, and then just forced himself to be still so she could evaluate him for a head injury. Her face relaxed after a minute. "I think you're okay. I don't have to ruin your Christmas any more than it already has been by dragging you into Medical."

Mac nearly bit his lip at his surprising feelings from seeing the relief in her eyes. "Well, that's good," he smiled up at her, holding eye contact for just a little longer than he normally did. "I was having a pretty great Christmas before they showed you, you know."

Jack finally whined, "So was I, but unlike my partner, I'm actually injured. She shot me!" he huffed.

Mel grinned at Mac as she got out of his way to go look Jack over. "Hey," she asked, "Do you guys keep a field kit here?"

"Yeah," Mac nodded. "Be right back." He jogged toward the spare room where Mel had already planned on sleeping to grad the decently stocked kit they kept for emergencies. He handed it off, with a sympathetic glance at his partner, and then he attended to what else was going on in the apartment. He focused in on Matty who was looking at his father seriously, but with a slight smile on her lips.

"James, I'm going to need you to go in and cooperate with questioning. I am hopeful that it will turn out to be a formality," Matty said crisply.

The elder MacGyver nodded. "Yes, ma'am." He half-looked at Mac as he realized his son had approached them. "I'm so sorry … I truly believed …"

Mac patted him on the arm. "It's okay, Dad." He paused. "You said she would break the case. And she did. Besides, nobody really got hurt."

"Hey! I'm not nobody!" Jack protested from the couch where Mel was using their kit to patch up his arm and spare him a Christmas trip to the infirmary. "Sssssst," he winced from her cleaning the slight bullet graze with alcohol. "Hot damn, Woman, be gentle!"

"I am gentle. You're just a big man baby!"

"I take it back," Mac actually smirked. "Jack got hurt. His feelings, mostly."

Now Jack grinned. "That's better!"

Mac smiled at his father. "Come back by when they cut you loose later? You can crash on the couch if you want, have some leftover eggnog, if Jack and Mel don't drink all the bourbon."

James nodded. "I'd like that ... I'm so sorry, Mac."

"Dad, I said it's fine. She let you believe she was your friend for decades. Of course you trusted her." He paused for a second, then pulled his dad into a brief hug. "Merry Christmas."

James smiled, and it got all the way to his dark eyes, crinkling the edges pleasantly. That was the man Mac remembered from all those early science experiments in the garage, those holidays, especially those Christmases when his mom was still with them. He felt his eyes misting over a bit and blinked several times and swallowed hard to drive the feeling back. He could see his father was thinking about the same things. James just gave him a nod. "Merry Christmas," he said in a quiet, slightly horse. voice and he turned to leave with Mike from the security detail.

Mac glanced at Matty. "Should I go in with them maybe?"

Matty was having none of that for Mac or his team this evening. "Tactical will take care of that." She raised her eyebrows, almost daring him to argue and try to take responsibility. Instead, Mac just shrugged his acquiescence. "We were going to have a little Christmas party and I don't mean to let my predecessor ruin the holiday." Matty waved her hand toward the door in a dismissive gesture. "Now I heard there is some truly phenomenal eggnog in here." Mac moved to go get it out of the refrigerator. "Oh, don't trouble yourself, Mac. I'll just take the stuff already on the counter. No ice."

Jack chuckled, then winced as Mel finished taping down the bandages on his upper arm. "Good choice, Matilda." They locked eyes for a second. "Thanks for comin' over. I don't think I've ever been happier to see ya."

She smiled back as Mac handed her a glass and she sat down next to Jack on the big couch as Mel got up and moved to throw odds and ends from bandaging him up into the nearby trash. "Thanks for having me. I hate a boring holiday. Speaking of … I didn't miss Die Hard did I?"

Mel came back, giving Jack a grin, and sitting on the small sofa, where there was clearly only room for one more, and only barely that. "We got interrupted. But I guess we sort of got to have our own version of Die Hard, live action-style."

Mac laughed more lightly than he would have expected from himself, and he set a tray of eggnog down on the coffee table, handed Mel and glass, took one for himself, and then, after a moment's consideration, sat down next to her. "We should start it from the beginning. Jack says it's bad luck to not watch it all the way through."

Jack grabbed the remote and his own cup of eggnog. If he already had too much alcohol in his system to take a pain pill for the bullet graze anyway, he was going for cowboy pain relief. "Oh hell, yeah. Let's get this holiday back on track."

As they watched the movie, Jack and Matty both stole occasional looks at Mac, wondering if he was really okay with everything that had happened. Both of them felt like he hadn't been able to catch a break in better than a year and a half, although his innate resiliency seemed to ideally armor him for that. About midway through the movie, they both noticed that Mel had twined her fingers with his and all he had done was edge slightly closer. They shared a smile. It had been a rough couple of hours, but there was something to be said for the forced honesty of a high stress situation. There really was. It didn't necessarily mean anything other than he appreciated having a friend close by after yet another stressful event in a long line of them. But then again, maybe it did. Matty's smile grew when instead of paying attention to his favorite movie, she noticed Jack was texting with someone and caught a glimpse of the picture thumbnail of his conversational companion. She wondered how much Sarah had revealed to Jack. She and Sarah had a long talk while the team was in Austin. She had a feeling life might be getting both more complicated and simpler in the coming months. And that was okay with her. She'd navigated stormier waters in her day.