Spoilers: The Stringer (MacGyver S7)

Father Squared

Mac spent the next few weeks learning his new limitations caused by his head injury. He was wrapping up his life as MacGyver, fulfilling the final days of his contract with the Phoenix Foundation by exposing a Chinese labor camp, when he was presented with the surprise of his life.

His son. His very grown up son, whom he had never met and never even knew existed. Sean A. Malloy. SAM.

Well, wasn't that just a kick in the pants? Here he was, thrilled that he was about to become a father, when he could have had the opportunity nineteen years ago. He had been preparing himself to be a father to a baby, he wasn't ready to be a father to a teenage adult. Not that the boy had needed him in his life so far.

Oh crap, what was he going to tell Sara? How could he tell his son that he was going to disappear again, now that they had finally found each other?

The bad guys were finally vanquished and the illegal labor camps exposed, so there was nothing to distract him from getting to know his son. He did the only thing he could think of doing at the time. They hopped on their motorcycles and headed off across the country for some father-son bonding, though Mac already had their destination set for his home with Sara. He wasn't going to let her go through her pregnancy alone.

He was grateful that his son didn't blame him for not being there for him and his mother. If he had known, he never would have left his own son to grow up as an orphan.

Like father, like son. His kid was a survivor.

The first night of their cross-country voyage they camped out under the stars, like the free spirits they were. Mac tried unsuccessfully to start up a conversation, unsure where to begin and how to tell his son about his other life. Thankfully, Sam took the initiative.

"You don't mind me calling you dad, do you?"

Mac grinned up at the sky. "I don't mind. It's kinda nice, actually."

"You know, you didn't have to give up your job for me."

"I didn't."

"Oh?" Sam sounded amused and maybe just a little disappointed.

"Don't get me wrong, I would have. But this was in the works even before you showed up."

"Can I ask, why?"

"Look, Sam, there's a lot you don't know about me, and I'm sure there's a ton of stuff about you that I'm just dying to know and I hope you'll tell me all about it. But I think we need to ease into this a little, you know?"

Sam smiled knowingly. "Sure Dad. Get to know one another before we share our deepest darkest secrets."

"Exactly."

"You have secrets, Dad?"

"Sam," he said warningly, but in good humor.

"Right. Little things."

They spent the next hour chatting about the little things, nothing too deep or personal, but more than they would tell a complete stranger. The following evening Mac waited for his son to initiate the conversation again. They would have one more night together before he'd be home with Sara, and he was hoping to save that little tidbit from his son until tomorrow.

"So you never got married?"

Mac snorted, realizing his plan was just shot down. "Moving on from the little things?"

"What? It's a simple question."

"Oh, if only it were," he muttered under his breath.

"What's that supposed to mean? Look, I know you loved my mother. I could see it, the way you looked at her picture. I understand why she did what she did, and it wasn't your fault. I wouldn't hold it against you if you fell in love with another woman besides my Mom. Does that make it any easier?"

"Not exactly, no."

"Oh. Bad experience?"

"No."

"Oh, come on, Dad, give me something."

Mac sat there quietly for a few minutes, tossing a stick into their small campfire. "I'm married, Sam."

"You are? But I thought…then why didn't I…You didn't know how to tell her about me, right? Is this going to be a problem?"

"No, it's not like that. I'd love for you to meet her, and I'm sure she won't have a problem with you being my son. Actually, we've got a kid on the way. Guess that'll make you his big brother."

"Really? Wow. When's the baby due?"

"A few months. Kinda ironic, huh? All my life, I've wanted to be a father, and suddenly, here I've got two kids."

"Yeah. Ironic. So why was that so hard to tell me? On second thought, why are you here with me instead of with your wife and unborn child? You aren't skipping out of raising another child, are you?"

"No!" he denied vehemently. "No," he repeated, more quietly. "I just wanted to spend some time alone with you. I have to get back to work in a couple months, and I just wanted time to get to know my kid. And, we're kinda headed for home, anyway," he admitted guiltily, hoping Sam would understand.

Sam didn't even seem to care about their predetermined destination. "Back to work? But I thought you quit."

"I, uh, I have another job. My work with the Phoenix Foundation was only part-time."

"Oh. So how'd you get so much time off? Seasonal work?"

"Not exactly."

Sam laughed at his father's cryptic answers. "Meaning?"

"I kinda, sorta, banged up my head a few weeks ago. There was some brain damage, and I'm trying to figure out what's missing. I've relied on science my whole life, depended on my brain and knowledge to get me out of all kinds of trouble. That's one of the reasons I had to resign from the Foundation. I've lost my edge in that department."

"Oh God, Dad. That's terrible. You don't seem like you've had any brain trauma."

"My motor function and speech are fine. It's mostly just the higher thinking, if you want to call it that. Physically, I'm great, and I've got instinct and strategy still working for me, street smarts, if you will. I'm still quick on my feet when I need to be. It's the science and advanced knowledge that's gone, and my memory's not so great anymore. I think we shared a natural instinct for understanding how the world works. The intelligence factor. Physics, chemistry, math. Imagine you didn't have that anymore."

"I don't think I can. That must have been hard for you."

"Took me a while to accept it, but I've learned to deal. Sara helped me through it. I can relearn a lot of the basics, but some things..." he trailed off with a shrug.

Sam was quiet, watching his father's expression. "Sara. That's your wife?"

Mac grinned. "Yeah. We've only been married about half a year." He scratched his head, thoughtfully. "I think. Five months? Something like that."

Sam laughed. "You know, that's really something you should know, if you're in that newlywed stage. Women like it when you remember anniversaries."

He scowled indignantly. "My son, giving me advice about women? And for your information, I can remember my anniversary date just fine, I just don't know how many months it is from December."

"Oh crap. Seriously?"

Mac frowned in embarrassment. "It's a number thing."

"I'm sorry. So that's what you mean, figuring out what's missing. Learning what you know and what you need to relearn."

"Something like that. I guess I'm lucky, in a way. My past, my history, it's all there. Friends, family, growing up, traveling the world, I remember all that."

"I guess it's something. Does Sara know what you're doing right now? Have you told her about me?"

He flinched guiltily. "Not yet. There's some things I have to work out. Things about me that you need to know."

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing."

"I never meant for it to be. My life, what I do, it's not exactly what you'd call typical."

"A special agent who never uses guns? I'd say it's atypical, yes."

He smirked. "That too. I meant what I said about guns, Sam. You understand that, right?"

"I get it, Dad. And for what it's worth, you're right. I'm glad you told me before I got myself killed."

"Yeah, well. That's what Dad's are for, eh?"

"I wouldn't know."

Mac didn't know what to say to that.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"Nah, it's the truth. I don't know what I'd do if I suddenly met my birth parents. I don't think I'd really accept them as my parents. I hope you'll give me a chance to be the father I never was to you."

Sam looked at him curiously. "You were adopted?"

Mac glanced around nervously as though there might be someone watching. "I really want to trust you, Sam, but there's things I haven't even told my wife. This could get me in a lot of trouble, but I just don't know how to make this work if I can't tell you the truth."

"Make what work?"

"You and Sara. I want you both in my life, but with the way things are, and who I am, that won't work. I managed it with Pete but I can't ask the same thing of you. You and Sara are the best things in my life right now, I don't want to…screw it up."

"You won't. I won't let you. I've been looking for you for too long to give you up now. So what's the big secret, Dad? You might as well tell me. I'm a journalist. I'll figure it out sooner or later."

Mac laughed quietly at his son's passion. "Damn O'Neill curiosity."

"O'Neill?"

"Yeah, O'Neill. For crying out loud, I can't believe this. I've kept this secret my whole life, now suddenly two people know the truth. I just hope Sara will understand if she ever finds out. I should have told her before I married her, that really would have been the right thing to do."

"Dad. You're rambling."

"Right. It's just…I've gone my whole life protecting myself, it's a little hard to lay my life in anyone else's hands."

"You're not helping your case any. I'm actually starting to worry a little."

"Sorry. I'm going to start at the beginning, okay? It's not you I'm worried about, I think you can handle what I'm about to tell you just fine. But you need to know how serious this is."

"Whatever it is, I'll do what I can to help. If you don't want Sara to know about me…I guess I can live with that."

"No. I want her to know you." He paused to get his thoughts in order, figuring out exactly what needed to be said. "Okay. The beginning. The day I was born, my parents died in a car accident on the way to the hospital."

"So you never knew them. Obviously, someone managed to save your life."

"Yes. He became my father. He took care of me for a while, but eventually he knew I needed more human contact so he sent me to Mission City, Minnesota. I was…adopted by Ellen MacGyver. Her husband had passed away a few months before, so we kind of completed each other's lives, in a way. She had given birth to a child about a year before I was born, but he died a couple months later. She let me take his identity."

"You mean you assumed his identity?" Sam asked in disbelief. Or was that awe?

"Yes, I did. You have to understand, they never would have let her adopt me. She was a grieving widow and I had no identity whatsoever. No birth certificate even. Officially, I didn't exist. So I became MacGyver."

"Geez, Dad. That's quite a story. But why is it so hard for you to tell your wife about it?"

He cringed, looking down into the smoldering embers of the fire and mumbled, "Because with her I'm Jack O'Neill."

Sam stared at his father, not sure he understood that correctly. "Excuse me?"

Jack looked up and met Sam's gaze. "Because I'm also Jack O'Neill. She's married to Jack O'Neill. She doesn't know MacGyver even exists."

"You…You're leading a double life? For crying out loud, Dad, what were you thinking?"

"You don't understand, Sam."

"Then explain it to me. Is this why Mom felt you could never commit to her?"

Jack flinched. "I don't know. But it's who I am, Sam. I never pretended to be something I wasn't with your mother. I am who I am, no matter which name I go by. I had to do it. It was the only way to protect my friends, and family."

"Why? Who is Jack O'Neill? What does he do?"

Jack sat up straighter, looking straight into his son's eyes. "I'm a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. Special operations."

Sam's eyes went wide in shock, his mouth partially open in protest. "What?" he gasped.

Jack softened his gaze. "It's the truth. I never meant to hurt anybody. The Air Force and Jack O'Neill was my professional life, MacGyver was my private life. It wasn't until I met Sara that I even considered that one identity could have both. When I married her I knew I would be giving up MacGyver. But now that you're here, I'm going to have to ask you if you can accept me as Jack O'Neill. If you can't…then Sara will have to accept me as MacGyver. I can't be both anymore. I'm still your father, whatever you decide. Just…don't leave, okay? I'm not a bad guy, Sam. Whatever I've done, I had a reason, whether it makes sense to you or not."

He took a deep breath, stunned by his own emotional confession and barely able to meet his son's eyes, but forcing himself not to flinch and look away. He could see Sam considering his options, weighting the facts, and he hoped his son would take into consideration that he had told him the truth.

Finally, Sam spoke. "So you're with the Air Force. Special operations, that would mean you use a gun."

"Yes, I do. To protect my team. But when I was off duty, when I came home and got to be MacGyver, working for the DXS or the Phoenix Foundation, I never touched them. By choice. It was a way for me to learn to look for alternative options to violence without putting other people at risk, so that I could eventually apply them to my job with the Air Force. What I do, it's important to a lot of people, Sam. It hasn't been easy, but it's been worth it."

Sam was still staring at him in disbelief, but he was beginning to understand just how important both lives were to his father. "So Sara doesn't know about MacGyver."

"No. I introduced her to Pete but he played along for me, called me Jack." He looked down at the ground, ashamed that he had made Pete lie for him. "I don't want her to get hurt. I've made a lot of enemies as MacGyver, a lot of the people I care about get hurt in the crossfire."

Sam could see the distress in Jack's eyes, and he hated being the cause of it. "You know, I hardly know you as MacGyver, Dad. You may as well be Jack O'Neill to me."

Jack whipped his head up to meet his son's gaze. "You're okay with that?"

"You did it to protect your family, right? Pete mentioned you've had contracts out on your head."

Jack nodded. "Another reason I'm giving up that life. I don't want to put Sara or the baby at risk. Or you."

"Nobody knows about me anyway. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you've got to be able to adapt and take what life gives you. You're my father. That's all I need to know. So technically I've got O'Neill blood rather than MacGyver, what difference does it make? You're just going to have to tell me all about Jack O'Neill, and my stepmother."

Jack smiled at the ground, overcome with pride and love for his son. He knew exactly how Thor felt, now. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going to hug the stuffing out of you, okay?" He didn't wait for a response before kneeling beside Sam and throwing his arms around him, embracing him tightly. He could feel Sam laughing against him and returning the embrace, and he brought his hand up to Sam's head and ruffled his hair affectionately, kissing him on the forehead.

When they finally pulled away Sam smirked at him and said, "So Lieutenant Colonel Jack O'Neill is an affectionate teddy bear. I guess I can live with that."

Jack grinned down at the ground. "Sorry. I'm just…I'm just so proud of you, and the man you've become. And you're my son, for cryin' out loud, I have a right to be as affectionate as I damn well please."

This caused the grin on Sam's face to widen even further. "And defensive, too."

"Oh, blow it out your ear."

Sam laughed, falling over onto his side and hugging his stomach to control the spasms while Jack swatted at his arm playfully. "Oh God, Dad. I haven't laughed so much in a long time." He sobered up a little, sitting up again. "You could get in a lot of trouble if the Air Force found out about your double life, couldn't you?"

Jack sat back stiffly. "Yes, I could. I'm very careful, Sam, I've been covering my tracks for over twenty years. That's something I didn't lose with the trauma."

"And they're letting you stay with the Air Force?" Sam asked with wry amusement. "Because you do realize how many clichés I could come up with regarding military grunts and…"

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed, unable to hide his smile. "Just because I'm not a genius anymore doesn't mean I'm not smart. There's more to human understanding than conventional science."

"Yeah, I know. Everyone is good at something, if they want to be. And it's obvious you've got the motivation to do great things."

"Backatcha. You make one heck of a photojournalist, Sam. I'm really impressed."

"Thanks. So."

"So."

"I guess I'll get some sleep now."

"Yeah. Good idea. You know I…" he hesitated.

"What?"

"Nothing. G'nite, Sam."

"Night, Dad."

--

They pulled up to the current O'Neill residence late the following afternoon. Sara heard their motorcycles and stepped outside to meet her husband. When Jack saw her he yanked his helmet off, tossed it on the ground carelessly by the bike, and ran over to her, wrapping her in a big hug and kissing her thoroughly, running his hand over her stomach without thinking.

"Nice to see you too, Jack," she laughed when he finally let her breathe. "I've missed you, and so has the baby."

"Yeah?" He lifted her shirt and looked at her stomach critically.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, trying to pull her shirt back down, looking around in embarrassment at her husband's behavior in such a public place. That was when she saw the other man, leaning casually against his parked bike, watching them with amusement and affection. "Jack, who's your friend?"

He pulled back, looking at her straight in the eye, before glancing over at Sam. "Um, there's something we need to talk about."

She could see his unease, and knew he was going to have trouble telling her whatever he needed to say. "You aren't in trouble, are you?"

"No. Nothing like that. Maybe we should go inside." He held her gently by the arm and prodded her towards the front door.

"You want me to wait out here while you tell her, Jack?" Sam asked.

"Um, yeah. Maybe that would be a good idea. I'll come get you in a couple minutes, okay?"

"Take your time." Sam knelt down by the bike and began inspecting it, checking to make sure everything was still in good working order.

Once the door was closed behind them, Jack led Sara to the couch and helped her sit down, sitting on the table in front of her and clasping her hands.

"Who is he, Jack?"

"Just hear me out, Sara. I don't want you getting upset."

"Then tell me."

He rubbed his thumb nervously over her hands. "He's my son." Before she could accuse him of lying to her he began to explain at a rapid pace. "I swear I didn't know about him, Sara. His mother never told me she was pregnant when she left, and I never saw her again. I ran into him a couple weeks ago and he recognized me from an old photo his mother gave him, and seeing as I knew his mother…well there's no doubt that he is my son."

"Jack. Breathe."

He suddenly realized that was some great advice, and he took a moment to calm his nerves. "Sorry. I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea. I swear I didn't lie to you about him before, I honestly didn't know. And I didn't abandon my son either. I need you to know that."

"Yeah. I get that, Jack. It's okay, I understand. I'll admit, this is quite a surprise, but I'm learning that nothing is ever black and white with you. You remember his mother?"

He took a moment to read her expression, seeing no recrimination there, though the question could have been interpreted as distasteful. "Yes, I do. At the time, I loved her. She died in China about ten years ago."

"Then…who took care of him?"

"A couple friends of his mother took him in until he was old enough. He didn't know my name, so he couldn't try to find me. He's a survivor, all right. I wish I could have been there for him, I never would have…" He looked down at the floor, unable to meet her gaze any longer as anger and sorrow overwhelmed him.

He felt her hand on his chin, lifting his face up. "I know. You would have done anything for your son, if you'd known about him. And I'm not upset that you have a past, Jack. This is your son, for crying out loud, I'm not going to get in the way of that, okay? He's family, as much as the child inside me now is. He's welcome to stay here. What's his name?"

He barely comprehended the question, as he nearly lost the ability to speak. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Sara, overcome with feelings of love and devotion for her. Her amused smile finally shook him from his stupor and he shook his head slightly. "Sam. Uh, Sean A. Malloy actually, but he goes by his initials."

"Why don't you go invite him inside, Jack. You boys must be hungry after riding all day, I'll get you some lunch and something to drink."

"Right." Jack responded as though in a trance, and obediently got up to retrieve Sam. After taking just a few steps he rushed back and helped Sara to her feet, pulling her into another hug and kissing her shoulder because it was the only part accessible to him at the time. "I love you."

"I know." She chuckled. "I'm a lovable person. Now go get your son in here before I tell him what a weeping baby his old man is."

"He already knows. I'm a blubbering fool when it comes to family."

"I've noticed. There is one thing I have to ask of you, Jack."

"Anything."

She made him look at her face, her expression serious. "I know you'll want to do some father-son bonding, but I need you here. I don't want to go through this pregnancy alone and soon you'll be back at work. I don't want to have to compete against two Sam's, Jack. Uncle Sam takes too much of your time as it is. Be with your son, learn how to be a father, but don't shut me out. And I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but that's the way it is."

He couldn't help but smile at her defiant tone. "This is why I love you, Sara." He kissed her forehead sweetly. "Always putting me in my place. We're a family, Sara. You, me, Sam and the little guy, or gal, inside you. Family bonding. We'll figure out who our son is together, okay? Matter of fact, how about you go invite him in and I'll get us something to eat?"

She smiled down at the floor. "And that's why I love you."

--

Five months later Charles Tyler O'Neill was born. Jack O'Neill held his son proudly, completely in awe of the tiny human life that he had helped to create, and would love unconditionally for the rest of his life. Beside him stood Sam Malloy, equally proud of his new status as a brother, and laying in the bed beside her three favorite men in the entire world, Sara O'Neill smiled contentedly.

High above Earth, aboard his Asgard ship the Biliskner, Supreme Commander Thor watched the touching scene before him in the form of a hologram, wishing he could be there to share this moment of joy with his only son. As he watched, he saw Jack look up towards the ceiling with a knowing smile, then turn to look directly at him with unseeing but deliberate intent, knowing exactly how Thor would have set up the hologram. He shifted slightly, turning the tiny boy in his hands so Thor had an unobstructed view of his second grandson.

But the thing he would remember most was the absolute happiness and sense of peace he recognized on his son's face. He would never forget that.

TBC