A Family Affair: A MacGyver Story

By Judybear

So Pete has this great idea to maybe play cupid with Mac, but of course, whenever MacGyver is involved, things don't go exactly according to plan!

Chapter 11:

(Mac's POV)

Sometimes people will just knock you for a loop. I mean, Elly was usually a very intelligent … person. I'll admit it! But sometimes I had to question her sense of priorities. Like right now. We were out in the woods, at night, on foot… and she handed me some maps! Now what was I supposed to do with them? What would you have done? Next thing I knew she was tapping my arm. OK. Now I'M the one feeling stupid. She was handing me a Mini-Mag – a little flashlight with an adjustable beam. "Here!" she said.

"Thanks" I answered her, impressed once again.

Since these were her own maps, I asked her, "Ah-I don't suppose one of these maps has footpaths and trails marked on it?"

She riffled through the maps before handing me one, "This one has game trails marked on it. It isn't finished yet but it might help?"

She was somethin' else! All I could say was, "Yeah." I tore my eyes away from her to look at the map and immediately saw a pattern. "Here! We can make our way to this dry creek bed and follow it toward the river."

Knowing what I did about Elly, I decided it might be better for both of us if I could lighten her load a bit, so I found a way to pack most of what we would need into my pockets. They were big enough and I wouldn't mind the extra weight. I left a few of her things in her pack before strapping it onto her back. She gave me a funny look, testing it's heft, but I just shrugged my shoulders and she was satisfied with that. Funny how we were starting to communicate non-verbally. I kinda liked that. I slung my pack up, locked wrists with her, and we headed out.

Once we hit the dry creek bed things went pretty smooth and we were making good time when I heard something that made my skin crawl. I stopped, listening, and Elly gave me a questioning look, "What?"

"Sh-h", I told her. "What is that?" It sounded like water gurgling.

"It sounds like the river," she offered.

This just didn't feel right. We hadn't come far enough yet. Suddenly I caught a whiff of something that smelled like burning rubber and turned to her with alarm, "Out of here! NOW!"

"What? Out where? Why? What's wrong?"

I started to climb up the side of the gully we were in, but when I turned to check on Elly she was getting nowhere, "I can't, MacGyver!"

I went back for her. It was obvious she wasn't gonna make it on her own, so I dropped my pack, grabbed onto a low branch and reached down for her. We were able to lock arms and I half cajoled, half pulled her out of the ravine. My arm was hurting like blazes but I daren't let her know or she'd probably put some more of that stuff on it!

I took a swig from the canteen and handed it to Elly. She slowly took a drink, but then couldn't get the cap back on. I took the canteen back and secured it to my belt while watching her. "Elly? You're trembling. What is it?"

"I… don't … know…. Gotta keep moving…."

Well, I had to get a sample of whatever that was they were dumping, so I wet a handkerchief and tied it around my face, then took out a sample bottle, some tongs, some rope and a pair of gloves. "I'll be right back," I told her and headed up the bank a ways.

Sure enough, there it was! Junk pouring out of a culvert – oily stuff, frothing, smelling like rotten eggs – some kind of sulphur compound was my guess. I wrapped the rope around a handy dandy tree and let myself down to within reach of the stuff. Using the tongs around the bottle I was able to snag a good sample of the stuff and was on my way back up when I lost my footing and then my grip on the tongs. I reached out with my gloved hand and caught the bottle and finished my climb back out.

Boy! That was some stuff they were dumping! I got the cap on the bottle and tightened it securely before I noticed that some of that stuff had eaten its way right through the glove and was making a fine meal of my hand! I wrapped my mask around the bottle to keep it from burning anything else. Since my mask was wet, I wrapped my burning hand around it, hoping that would stop some of the acid's action.

By the time I got back to Elly my eyes were burning and I was gasping for breath, "Water, Elly! The canteen!" Smart gal! She handed me the open canteen and I poured some of the water on my hand.

"MacGyver! What happened?" I couldn't speak. Poured some of the water on my face, rinsed out my mouth and throat and then swallowed some. Meantime Elly had dug out the Aloe vera and was globbing it onto my burning hand. I expected it to burn but it felt nice and cooling! "Turn around," she ordered me.

"What?"

Elly was undoing her shirt, "I said turn around!"

Never question a lady when she's unbuttoning something! "Yes, Ma'am!"

About a minute later she said she was done and I turned to see her fastening the front of her jacket, holding her shirt. She then cut the sleeves off and rolled them together and gently nestled them into my palm and closed my fingers around it. Then she used some of the rest of the shirt to wrap the whole affair with. "We've got to get you to a hospital!"

"No time," I managed to croak out. "There's a house just ahead near the river. We can call from there." I took Elly's trembling hand, "Still trembling?"

"Yeah. Come on."

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See? Now, whatever happened to 'simple'? R & R