Every End is a Beginning Chapter 21: Defibrillator, a macgyver fanfic

AN: Warning on this episode for torture. This is definitely a dark episode; the darkest of the whole season.

At about 16,500 words, it's also the longest episode of this story. Strap yourselves in!

(And to the Guest who said they can't wait for the last chapter – this isn't actually the last chapter! I've done a 22 episode season, as seems to be normal for most TV shows, so there's one more after this! But thank you for your enthusiasm!)

JACK'S CAR

ON-ROUTE TO A JUNKYARD

Jack glanced over at Mac as he drove them to the junkyard where they believed the gang of arms dealers that Mac and Jack had been chasing for the last 24 hours (Mac had barely had time to finish texting his dad a photo from Penny's Halloween party and a quick happy Halloween message before he'd been summoned to work for this mission) had secreted some of their wares.

It was just the two of them in the field for this mission, since it was LA-based and was relatively straightforward. Riley was coordinating and digging through the gang's online presence and financials back at the Phoenix (since she could work far more efficiently there), while Bozer was down in the labs working on a prosthesis for another team going out on a more urgent mission in less than two hours.

Jack glanced back at the road and spoke, deliberately casually.

'You know, Rowena told me yesterday that Alex asked Beth out two days ago.' Mac shot him a look, clearly seeing where the conversation was going, which Jack ignored. 'She shot him down. Well, she shot him down nicely, but still shot him down.' Jack made a face. 'Guess it isn't really shooting down maybe…errr…forced to make an emergency landing?' He shrugged. 'Anyway, point is, what's taking you so long to make your move, brother?'

Mac sighed internally, pulling out a paperclip, which rapidly took the shape of a stethoscope.

'Your terrible analogy is not helping.'

Jack glanced over at his partner, essentially ignoring Mac's snarky comment.

'If you say it's because you're scared she's gonna go all Nikki on you, I will whoop your ass.'

Jack spoke almost-completely jokingly, because he was quite sure that wasn't the problem, but wanted to triple-check.

Mac shook his head firmly and immediately.

'That's not it, I promise.'

Jack turned and gestured at his partner as they waited at a red light.

'Then what is it? What's stopping you, brother? If you think it's because she's not into you, I'm telling you-'

Mac huffed out a sigh, interrupting Jack, and stared down at the paperclip shape in his hands (his second one; the stethoscope had been shoved into his pocket already). It was an ECG line.

'It's not that either.'

Jack turned to him, an eyebrow raised and hands held out as if to say then what is it, man? Then, he put his hands back on the wheel and turned back to the road as the traffic lights changed.

Honestly, I don't really know.

It's not that I don't have ideas, it's just that I don't really know why.

Mac had been arguing back and forth with himself in his own head about the various reasons why he should and should not ask the Phoenix's doctor out since around the time of the mission to Australia.

It was the fact that his last relationship had ended really, really terribly. Though, as the other half of his brain pointed out, that was because your last girlfriend was crazy and evil. Beth was crazy, but it was in a good way, and she definitely wasn't evil. She would be terrible at being evil. He supposed that he had thought that of Nikki once upon a time…that was usually where he tried very hard to cut off that train of thought, because that train of thought just led in circles and technically told him that he shouldn't even trust Bozer or Jack, which was just absurd.

It was the fact that he was very much aware that he had issues because of that, and that frankly, Beth would probably be better off with, say, Alex. A voice that sounded a little like Jack and a little like his grandfather admonished him for that; reminding him that A, everyone had issues; Beth herself was not without them at all (between growing up a genius who'd won nine science fairs, being an ER resident and nine months with the MSF in Aleppo…), B, he was selling himself short, and C, and most importantly, that wasn't up to him to decide. It was up to her to decide who she did or did not want to date and not up to him to decide that for her.

It was the fact that Mac had not forgotten being nine years old and being beaten up by Donnie Sandoz, or being that weird, awkward, shy kid who got excited by weird things and had skipped two grades, or being skinny and dorky and fourteen and being shot down cold by Darlene Martin. It was the fact that, sometimes, despite everything, he still saw himself as awkward and dorky and weird. The other half of his brain pointed out that Beth probably wouldn't be anywhere near as interested in him if he didn't have a brain that got excited by weird things and spat out even weirder things, like his spaghetti-machine-spaghetti-machine.

It was the fact that he knew very well that Beth had her own reservations about having a…something…with one of her patients (even if they worked for an extremely covert agency and he wasn't always an active patient – wasn't an active patient all that often, honestly). Though, he also recognized, she'd come to embrace being friends (and embrace becoming very close friends) with her patients, and he was as sure as he could be (He wasn't so good with this sort of thing, but Jack was, usually. He was, admittedly, feeling a little bit more certain– just a little bit; he'd been near-completely certain before this conversation started.) that she recognized this connection that they had, saw it the same way that he did, and she hadn't pulled away. Not in the slightest.

(Sure, she hadn't made a move – he had a feeling that she never would, considering her doctor's ethics and the fact that she knew all about his history with Nikki and the aforementioned being a genius who'd won nine science fairs before she'd turned sixteen and everything that came with that, but she hadn't pulled away, had simply let this connection keep growing as these sorts of connections did when given the chance.)

It was the fact that there was a voice in his head that sounded like his grandfather, and also, somehow, like Jack, which kept telling him that there was something special there. Something really, really special there. That she might be the right one. After all, somehow, despite her hesitation and concern about growing too close to her patients, and his issues with attractive women, they'd been comfortable with each other, connected in some way, even when she'd still called him MacGyver.

(The more pessimistic and reticent part of his brain didn't have any decent responses to that, beyond saying that if that was the case, it was better not to rush things. Better to let this something grow a little more first.)

They pulled up to the entry of the junkyard, and Jack turned off the car, then reached out and put a hand on Mac's shoulder, staring into his eyes for a moment. Then, he nodded, a gesture tinged with sadness, and squeezed Mac's shoulder.

'Just don't keep dragging your feet forever, thinking she'll always be there, okay? 'Cause that way lies pain, brother.'

Jack spoke with great finality. He'd walked that road, after all.

Mac simply nodded.

'I promise, Jack.'

Jack nodded back, with a tiny little smile, then opened the car door.

'Well, good chat, but now we gotta get back to work…'

JUNKYARD

Jack searched through the somewhat haphazard piles of scrap metal and rusty appliances and God-knows-what-else that littered the dusty junkyard.

He and Mac had split up to hasten the search, since there were no signs of life or activity at the yard, at least according to the very limited surveillance camera footage Riley had of the area (there were very few security cameras and many blind-spots).

Then, he heard a shout. A scream, in a voice as familiar as his own.

Desperate and fearful.

'Jack!'

It registered that Mac's voice hadn't come from his earpiece, but had carried over the junkyard. The former CIA agent instantly started running towards the source of that sound, tapping his own earpiece as he did so.

'Riley-'

'I'm sending you to the last spot I can pin Mac's phone as being. Next left, then right after 100 feet…'

The hacker was on the ball as ever, having heard Mac's cry through Jack's earpiece. Her voice was steady, but Jack could hear the worry in it, and he ran faster, ignoring the protests of his lungs and legs, pushing down that horrible, horrible feeling that had settled in his gut.

Jack skidded to a halt at what Riley said was the last place that Mac's phone had been.

There was absolutely nothing there, but about 50 feet ahead of him, he could see clear signs of a struggle as he jogged forwards.

Tyres kicked out of their stacks, scrap metal thrown around…but no sign of Mac. No sign of whoever must have attacked him.

Jack swore as he stopped in his tracks, his eyes falling on the only sign that his partner had ever been here at all.

Mac's phone and earpiece.

Completely destroyed.

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'…We can rule out Murdoc; he'd kidnap someone else to force Mac to come to him, not kidnap Mac-'

Jack cut off Thornton as she addressed Matty and Sarah (the latter's left arm in a cast and sling; it'd been broken in their failed attempt to arrest Kirk Russell before he'd fled to Australia) on the screen. As he spoke, Bozer looked over from where he was standing with his hands on Riley's shoulders in a gesture of comfort as the hacker conferenced with Viv and Lil, typing frantically as she did so (there was absolutely no trace of anyone entering the junkyard to ambush Mac or leaving with him, but they were going through the very limited surveillance footage for the third time with a fine-toothed comb, just in case). Beth, in contrast (she'd been summoned to the war room by unspoken agreement between them all), did not look up from where she was sitting on the couch and staring at the bowl of paperclips on the table.

'-Come on, Patty, we know it's The Organization! Who else would it be?' Jack punched one of his hands with the other in frustration. 'We're wasting time, we need to-'

Quite suddenly, Thornton reached out and grabbed Jack's shoulders with both of her hands, forcing him to look at her.

The action surprised him enough that he stilled, and when she spoke, her voice was much gentler than he'd expected.

'Jack…' Her gut, every one of her finely-honed instincts, told her that The Organization had taken Mac. But rationale and training told her that no possibility could be ignored. '…a wrong assumption could prevent us from rescuing Mac before it's too late.' She paused for a moment. 'He's one of our own, but we need to put that aside for a moment and approach this like we always do.'

After a moment of staring at her, Jack drew in a long, shuddering breath and nodded jerkily.

Thornton nodded back, and squeezed his shoulders gently, before removing her hands and stepping away, turning back to face Matty and Sarah on the screen.

UNKNOWN LOCATION

SOMEWHERE IN LA?

When Mac regained consciousness, he was in a dark, concrete room. His arms, shoulders and upper back were sore, since he'd been essentially hanging from the ceiling, to which his wrists were shackled, while he'd been unconscious. The chains were barely long enough to prevent his shoulders wrenching, even when he stood up straight. His ankles were also shackled to the floor, and he could tell that his jacket, shoes, belt, Swiss Army knife, paperclips, phone and earpiece were all gone.

There were four armed guards at the door, and a man in his sixties, with thinning grey hair and wire-framed spectacles and wearing a pristine white lab coat, standing before him, another two guards flanking him.

The lab-coated man smiled at him, a predatory, dark smile.

'Hello, Mr MacGyver. It's simply lovely to finally meet your acquaintance.'

I am absolutely terrified. Who wouldn't be, in this scenario?

But there's absolutely no way I'm giving them the satisfaction of seeing that, no matter what.

Mac scoffed.

'Yeah, can't say the same of you, I'm afraid.'

The man simply shook his head, as if Mac was a small child whose bad behaviour had disappointed him.

'Manners, Mr MacGyver.' Then, he paused for a moment, tapping his chin and pretending to consider. 'Oh, I'm sorry, where are mine? I haven't introduced myself, have I?' He turned back to Mac. 'I am Dr Popovich.' That name matched his vaguely Eastern- European accent. 'Do you know who I work for?'

Mac rolled his eyes.

'Well, I'm sure you guys actually have a name, but since you don't have the courtesy to share it, we call you guys The Organization.'

Dr Popovich smirked.

'Oh, we don't need a name, Mr MacGyver. We're The Organization after all.' He leaned closer to Mac. 'We've been watching you, Mr MacGyver. Sending a few challenges your way. You…have promise.' The lab-coated man leaned back a little, a deceptively pleasant smile on his face. 'So we have a proposition for you. We could use somebody with your skill-set…'

Mac threw his head back as best as he could and laughed, then straightened up again and shook his head at Dr Popovich, still laughing.

'You want me to come work for you?' Mac gestured to the room in general with a hand, at least, gestured as best as he could. 'I'm telling you, you've got to seriously re-work your recruitment pitch. Far less kidnapping and imprisonment, more talking up your dental plan.'

Dr Popovich stepped back, that disappointed look reappearing on his face, as well as a hint of savagery in his eyes, leashed and controlled, but still there, that Mac knew did not bode well for him.

'You are…flippant…now, Mr MacGyver.' He gestured to one of the silent men flanking him, who handed him a knife. A very sharp-looking knife. 'You won't be soon.'

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

Riley swore loudly, then repeated the action again, making Bozer, who'd been rubbing her shoulders and staring into the distance, jump, and Beth, who had been concentrating on filling out supply orders for the infirmary on her tablet, seemingly relying on the work to keep her calm, to look up. From the screen, they heard two other female voices echoing Riley's language, one of them, Viv's voice, swearing up a blue streak.

As Viv and Lil walked into view of the camera on Matty's tablet, appearing on screen with Matty, Matty, Thornton, Jack, Sarah, Bozer and Beth all turned to the analysts.

'That arms-dealing gang you and Mac were chasing?' Riley gestured to Jack with her chin as she continued. 'They're really The Organization.'

Viv continued, as the looks on Jack, Sarah and Matty's faces turned murderous, Bozer looked like he was going to throw something, Beth shook her head and put her head in her hands, and Thornton's eyes grew colder than the Arctic in winter and harder than diamond.

'We didn't find the link earlier because it's four layers deep.' She threw a hand out in frustration. 'The gang's a front for another gang, which is a sub-section of a small, unsuccessful, fledgling terrorist organization, which is really a front for The Organization.'

They all exchanged a glance, shaking their heads, running hands through their hair, starting to pace around the room or swearing under their breaths.

It was Thornton who spoke, her voice harder than ever, a hint of restrained anger in it.

'This is their endgame. This is what they've been leading up to.' That theory they'd had, that The Organization had been testing them, testing Mac? They could now consider that proved. The Organization had taken him, and it was clear that this had to run beyond simple revenge. They'd been testing him. In Tahoe, Nikki had tried to get him to join her, join them. They wanted him to do something for them, probably multiple somethings. 'We're in deep. Maybe deeper than we've ever been. We need more intel.'

They all knew how cunning and clever The Organization was, and with how complex and difficult their 'tests' had been…

From the screen, Matty shook her head when Bozer looked up at her, a little hopefully.

'None of the moles are going to do us any good.'

It'd become clear that the moles had all been very low down in The Organization, largely kept in the dark. They hadn't given up much useful intel.

Jack shook his head.

'One of them might.' His eyes hardened and he practically spat out the next word. 'Nikki.'

Everyone reacted to the mention of that name. Fire blazed in Sarah's eyes, Matty's entire posture and expression grew hard-edged, Lil muttered obscenities under her breath, and Viv and Thornton's eyes grew hard and icy with a touch of cold, leashed anger. Bozer clenched his fists, Riley cursed and crossed her arms, and the look in Beth's eyes was an odd mixture of sorrow and sympathy and a fierce, protective anger.

Then, Thornton nodded, as did Matty, the former speaking.

'Jack, you and I will go interrogate Nikki.'

Matty continued, pulling out her phone as she spoke.

'I have some favours I can call in.' She gestured to Sarah, who was already pulling out her own phone. 'Sarah, can you cash in a few?'

The woman nodded, shooting Jack a look that clearly said watch your back (an expression of concern), as she followed her boss out of view. Lil and Viv hung up, returning to their computers to conference with Riley. Bozer pulled up a chair and sat down beside her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly on autopilot, and Beth returned to staring at the paperclip bowl. After a moment, she shook her head, and picked up her tablet, took a deep breath, and resumed filling out supply orders with great determination.

Jack and Thornton stared at each other for a moment, a silent conversation passing between them, then both of them nodded in wordless agreement.

Thornton turned to Bozer, Riley and Beth.

'You three are not to leave the Phoenix until further notice.'

Her tone brooked absolutely no argument. All three of them stared back at her for a moment, before nodding.

They all knew, even Beth, why The Organization had taken Mac.

Thornton and Jack exchanged a glance as they made their way out of the war room.

And though they suspected that Bozer, Riley and Beth knew this too, Jack and Thornton also knew that they understood most clearly that Mac would withstand any torture The Organization threw at him, but that he'd also do practically anything for them if they were to torture his loved ones.

Thornton gave a little nod as she stalked towards the motor pool, Jack right beside her.

She knew that she and Jack, especially Jack, fell into that category too, but she also knew (just like Jack did) that they were less likely to be successfully kidnapped by The Organization than Bozer or Beth or Riley, especially when they were together and had each other to watch their backs, and that Mac would at least manage to hold out a little longer against them being tortured compared to the three younger Phoenix employees.

Not because he loved them less, at least, not because he loved Jack less, but because they weren't, at the end of the day, civilians who'd fallen into this life.

They'd chosen this life, eyes wide open, and they'd been hardened and forged in the fire of this life, in ways that even Riley, with her years in prison, or Beth, with her time in Syria, hadn't been.

Maybe, Thornton thought, as she glanced over at Jack, who was checking his gun as they walked, eyes harder and colder than she'd seen them for a long, long time (since he'd met Mac), they were harder in that way than even Mac (only three years a soldier and still, despite all that had happened, a little sheltered – or maybe wilfully blind - to some aspects of the world of lies and spies).

He, after all, was still innocent in a way that she didn't think she'd ever been, and that Jack, good man (one of the best she'd ever known) though he was, hadn't been for a long, long time.

She hoped (prayed) that he wouldn't lose that.

With a glance at Jack, she walked a little faster.

UNKNOWN LOCATION

SOMEWHERE IN LA?

'…Gallium…Germanium…Arsenic…'

Mac gritted his teeth and concentrated on reciting off the Periodic Table, forcing one word out after the other, as Dr Popovich methodically thwacked his abdomen, and then his lower back, alternating between the two, with a baseball bat. He was surprisingly strong for a rather thin man in his sixties, but each hit was careful, precise and showed restraint; he clearly wasn't trying to cause Mac serious injury, just pain.

He let out a hiss of pain as the latest hit fell just over one of the myriad of cuts that now decorated his body (as best as he could tell, several were still oozing blood slowly, but none were deep enough to need stitches).

Dr Popovich withdrew the baseball bat and handed it over to one of the men that Mac was now thinking of as his minions, then leaned a little closer to Mac and smiled at him.

'Have you changed your mind yet, Mr MacGyver?'

Mac scoffed.

'I'll join you when hell freezes over!'

Dr Popovich looked at him as if he were a misbehaving child again, and motioned for the baseball bat again.

Mac took a deep breath, just before the first thwack connected with his stomach again.

'...Selenium…Bromine…Krypton…'

PHOENIX CAR

ON-ROUTE TO MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON

Jack crossed his arms and glanced over at Thornton, who was driving, having refused to give him the keys.

After having spent most of the trip staring out the window and lost in his brain, he now conceded that he was in no fit state to drive.

'How're we going to do it?'

Nikki had been imprisoned for well over a year. She hadn't talked, despite being subject to countless interrogations.

Well, that wasn't quite true.

She'd talked plenty (Matty and Sarah – they hadn't allowed Jack or Thornton to do the interrogations, at least, not until now, since they were too close to it all – now knew a lot about things that they did not want to know anything about at all), but hadn't given up anything of use.

Now, they had to make her give that up.

By any means necessary.

Thornton glanced over at him, making eye contact for a beat, before turning back to the road. She spoke after a pause.

'Nikki has one weakness: Mac.' She swallowed. 'She got caught because she made a gross miscalculation-' What happened in Tahoe hadn't required her to be there. The Organization's 'foot soldiers' could have taken Mac then, without Nikki being there in person. She could have kept up her cover, but she'd chosen to reveal herself to Mac. '-almost certainly because of her feelings for him.'

Jack pursed his lips.

'He rejected her real strongly that night, Patty.'

Thornton nodded in agreement, then after being silent for a beat, spoke again.

'It's not just that, Jack.' She glanced over and stared into his eyes for a beat, before turning back to the road. 'You know that.' He did. 'Nikki always had power over Mac. She revelled in that power.'

Jack swallowed and nodded.

That was so, so true. Nikki Carpenter remained, Jack was quite sure, the only person to turn Mac's brain to mush.

(Jack had seen Mac interact with Penny, his only other ex-girlfriend. He'd seen him interact with Frankie, the first woman he'd loved, and Viv and Katarina, and he'd heard enough about Cindy and Mac's two dates with her to have, he felt, a good sense of their interactions. For months, he'd seen Mac and Beth become friends and inch towards being more. None of them could turn Mac's brain to mush.)

(They could make it stutter or slow down, but not turn it to mush.)

(Jack thought that was a very good thing, and was completely certain that Mac would agree.)

His voice was hard and utterly devoid of the affection he'd once felt for the woman (hadn't really felt, honestly, since that day at the airstrip, more than two years ago) when he spoke.

'We can use that to break her.'

It would be cruel. There'd be deception and threats and words wielded like knives.

(There was a reason why this hadn't been used yet, at least not to its full potential, not even by Matty.)

(Nobody believed that Nikki's feelings for Mac – both that love she'd had for him, before what had started on Lake Como, when Jack had believed that the woman was the right one for this partner, and its twisted remains – were really lies.)

Jack found that he didn't care.

Not after what Nikki had done to Mac.

Not when the stakes were so high.

UNKNOWN LOCATION

SOMEWHERE IN LA?

'…1…6…9…3…9…'

Having finished the Periodic Table, Mac had now moved on to the digits of Pi.

Similarly (but rather more twistedly and sadistically, Mac thought), Dr Popovich had moved on to a new torture implement.

The lab-coated man held up a hand, and his minion withdrew the cattle prod (thankfully, a relatively low-powered one). Then, he addressed Mac, who was taking slow, deep breaths, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

'Well, Mr MacGyver?'

Mac stared at him for a moment, then gave a little smirk.

'Pretty sure it's still hot in hell.' The smirk widened a little. 'I guess you'll find out one day.'

Dr Popovich shook his head and gestured to his minion, who poked Mac with the cattle prod again. Mac recoiled as best as he could, given his restraints, as the electric shock hit him.

'…9…3…7…5…1…'

MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'Your Organization has taken Mac.'

At Thornton's words, genuine surprise flickered across Nikki's face (at least, what looked like genuine surprise, though neither of them were all that inclined to believe it, both being intimately familiar with the fact that Nikki was an incredible liar and actress – Jack's gut was undecided as to whether she really was surprised) before it grew blank again. She shrugged as best as she could, given that her wrists were chained to the table.

'I'm in prison. What does that have to do with me?' A slow smirk grew across her face. 'Though, maybe you've missed me. It's been a while, hasn't it?' She glanced at Jack, who was standing behind Thornton, who was seated at the table across from Nikki, the smirk widening a little. 'I must say, this location lacks the…gravitas…of our previous reunions, doesn't it?' Jack seethed internally at the references to that day at that church and Tahoe, as Nikki dropped that smirk and clasped her shackled hands together, raising an eyebrow. 'I don't know anything.' She scoffed, staring at her nails. 'And even if I did, do you really expect me to break down in tears over my ex-boyfriend and tell you everything?' She smirked again. 'You know me better than that.'

Jack, his hands in his pockets, turned sideways and leaned casually against Thornton's chair. The Phoenix's Director seemed to know where he was going (of course she did, she was who she was, after all), because she simply elegantly folded her hands and sat with a neutral expression, a mere spectator.

'You know, he's got a new woman now.' His tone was casual, conversational. Nikki's eyes narrowed. 'New girlfriend. She's very smart.' Jack glanced over at the blonde woman. 'Smarter than you. And very pretty.' He smiled, small, soft and slow. 'And kind and sweet and fierce, all at once, he says.'

Most of that wasn't actually a lie.

In fact, from Jack's point of view, the only lie in there was that Beth wasn't actually Mac's girlfriend. At least, wasn't yet.

(He'd borrowed the kind and sweet and fierce thing straight from Mac, who'd described the Phoenix's doctor as that while half-asleep on the way home from Russia, after being examined by her for any injury over video-call and ordered to eat, drink some of the chamomile tea in the medical kit and sleep.)

Nikki smirked, but Jack was positive that he'd touched a nerve. There was just something about the way that she was sitting, the look on her face, the notes in her voice…she could, he supposed, still be playing them, but his gut told him that this was definitely genuine.

'Oh, like Mac could ever forget me. They say you never, ever forget your first. And I was first.'

Part of Jack snorted internally.

What she was referring to, yes, Nikki had been first.

But she hadn't been Mac's first girlfriend, or even the first woman he'd loved. Maybe that had helped, at the end of the day. Helped Mac to break that spell she'd had on him.

(Jack was certainly very, very happy that Penny and Frankie were very much not evil and very much good people. He thanked his lucky stars that Nikki hadn't also been Mac's first girlfriend and first love.)

Externally, Jack scoffed.

'Oh, yeah, of course he can't forget about you. We all know Mac doesn't ever forget.' Jack's expression returned to that soft little smile. 'I just ain't ever seen him look at a woman like he looks at her.'

(That was also true – Jack had not seen Mac look at anyone, male or female, the exact way he looked at Beth when she got all excited and curious about their new idea for Sparky or his spaghetti-machine-spaghetti-machine or this fascinating new medical research paper she'd read in her favourite journal. The closest he'd seen was how had Mac looked at Frankie when she'd shown them the home she'd made for herself in the Tombs and the DNA sequencing recipe she'd invented, and it wasn't quite the same – that had had some awe in it; these looks that Jack was referring to conspicuously didn't.)

Jack smirked, as Nikki, he was sure, positively glowered.

'And you know, not forgetting has its perks.' The smirk widened. He was sure Nikki was seething now. 'She compares real favourably to you, in any which way you look at it.'

Finally, Nikki snapped, lunging across the table as far as she could at Jack.

'You're lying, firstly.' She smirked darkly. 'And secondly, you really think an adorable little thing like her could satisfy him?'

The after me was implicit.

Jack had to swallow down his anger as Nikki slumped back into her chair and fell stubbornly silent, glaring murderously at both him and Thornton (mostly him), having just realized what she'd been taunted into revealing.

He'd been raised never to hit a woman.

(He did, obviously, in combat – though he often didn't really think about the gender of the people he was fighting. He was pretty pro-gender equality in that sense, in general, really, but the notion still didn't sit all that well with him.)

At that moment, he really wanted to break Nikki's nose, for her insults to both Mac and Beth.

Meanwhile, as soon as Nikki had finished her declaration, Thornton stood and turned to leave. She shot Jack a look, sharp and sympathetic and as comforting as she could be, all at once.

She started making her way to the door without another word.

Her message was clear.

They'd gotten what they'd come for.

Intel.

Nikki had some way of knowing what was going on outside her prison.

That was a lead.

A better lead than they'd had before.

A better lead than what Riley, Viv, Lil and Bozer, back at the Phoenix and Matty's headquarters had found, working off what little they'd gleaned from the junkyard and combing the internet and everything that Matty's team had gathered during their mole hunt and what Matty and Sarah's called-in favours had granted them.

And they were going to chase this lead with everything they had.

With one last glance at Nikki, who gazed back at him with just as much anger as he looked at her, Jack stalked out of the room.

He hoped he'd never have to look at that woman's face again.

Except maybe to throw darts at it.

UNKNOWN LOCATION

SOMEWHERE IN LA?

'We the people…of the...United States in order to…form a more…perfect…union…'

Mac gritted his teeth again as Dr Popovich carefully, methodically, pressed a lit cigarette to his skin, holding it there just long enough to burn and hurt, but only leave the barest of marks.

After another two repetitions of that searing pain, the man looked up at him, an eyebrow raised.

'Mr MacGyver, what do you say now?'

Mac did his best to adopt the look that Jack called his Mr-MacGyver's-Science-Class face (he'd never tried to do it deliberately, and now wasn't the easiest time to try – he was pretty sure he didn't do a very good job, but Dr Popovich didn't care, obviously).

'You know, Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' He gave a little smirk, the best he could manage, anyway. 'I think you need to get checked over by a shrink.'

Dr Popovich shook his head at him yet again, again looking at Mac as if he were a wayward child, and then returned to his methodical torture.

Mac gritted his teeth again and focused on forcing the words of the US Constitution's Preamble out.

'…establish justice…insure domestic…tranquillity…provide for the common defence…'

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'…Why'd he do it?'

As he and Riley sat in the war room (Beth had returned to the infirmary to keep herself busy), Bozer looked away from the screen on the wall, which showed Thornton and Jack interrogating one of the guards at the prison where Nikki (and Murdoc, before he'd escaped) was held. Once they'd known that Nikki had contact with the outside world, Riley, Lil and Viv had done their magic (with a little help from Bozer), and determined that this guard had been passing her messages, orally and in code, that he'd been given, already encrypted, on a burner.

They'd cracked some of the code, and so far determined that The Organization had drip-fed Nikki information.

For example, they'd told her about Beth, and something about finding another way to recruit Mac, since her way had failed spectacularly.

(That sent shivers down their spines, despite the fact that they'd known, deep in their hearts-of-hearts, that that'd been The Organization's endgame ever since Mac had disappeared from that junkyard – it had never been to just do one thing for them, or even a few things - because whatever that way was – and none of them could even think of what it might be, because they couldn't think of a better way to make Mac do anything than love, which clearly hadn't really worked - it could not be good.)

Riley shrugged.

She and Bozer both knew very well that the guards at that prison were heavily, heavily vetted. Matty, Thornton, Jack and Sarah knew and trusted quite a few of them personally, and the prison's guards had been swept carefully for moles very early in Matty's mole hunt.

'Money? Blackmail? Ideology?' She shrugged again. 'There's a lot of possible reasons, Bozer.'

He nodded a little glumly, slouching down on the couch beside her. Riley reached out wordlessly and took his hand, rubbing little circles on it with her thumb.

'And how'd they know about Beth? And you know, her and Mac's thing?'

That, Riley had an answer to. She, Viv and Lil had been working on that.

'Not every organization we've worked with since she came on-board had been cleared of moles when we worked with them.' She sighed and gestured to her laptop. 'We're pretty sure they found that out when we worked with the Office of Naval Intelligence in Russia last month.' She gave a very small, very wry smile. 'Remember when Mac had to call Beth about the frozen dead guy in the lake?' Bozer nodded as it grew clearer to him and Riley continued. 'Anybody with half a brain and decent social skills who heard and saw that conversation could tell that they're well on their way towards being something.' The ONI agent that they'd worked with had definitely been privy to that conversation, and had much more than half a brain and very, very good social skills – he was a very sharp profiler, after all. 'Obviously, Bryant wasn't a mole, but if he went back and gossiped with one of his co-workers, who gossiped with another one of his co-workers, and so on and so forth…'

She trailed off, and Bozer nodded.

Eventually, the gossip could have made its way to the mole in ONI that had been the last one caught by Matty's team, and with a tiny bit of information about the people involved, The Organization's knowledge and some digging and educated guesses (after all, Beth was a real person – she hadn't been erased from existence when she'd joined the 'think-tank'), they could have learned, as Bozer said, about Beth, and his BFF's and the doctor's thing.

Riley and Bozer's attention was pulled back to the screen, when the guard suddenly burst into tears, sobbing about how he hadn't wanted to do it, but he'd had to, to save his hometown.

He started talking, through his tears, about how they'd threatened his beloved hometown, since his parents were deceased and he had no partner or children, threatened to unleash a heavily-modified strain of the flu, to cause a mysterious, deadly and near-untraceable outbreak.

Thornton glanced up at the camera for a brief second, then pulled out her phone under the table, and seconds later, Riley's phone beeped. She pulled it out, and she and Bozer read the message.

Verify. Send CDC. Ask Matty to send Hippocrates too.

Riley nodded and sent a reply, with a gut feeling, as she looked up at the screen, that the guard was telling the truth, and that Thornton and Jack thought so too.

Yes, boss.

She started typing, calling Viv and Lil as she did so, and wordlessly, Bozer got up, heading, she knew, for the break room to get her a cup of coffee.

That made her smile, just a tiny bit.

He really was the best.

UNKNOWN LOCATION

SOMEWHERE IN LA?

'…all men…are created…equal, that they…are endowed…by their Creator…'

Mac winced involuntarily as Dr Popovich sliced him with that knife again (it seemed to be a favourite of his; either that, or he'd run out of different torture tools to use on him, so had to start repeating them), the new cut running perpendicular to one of the older ones. He did his best to look down at the man.

'You know, your logic is terrible. Torture me until I agree to work for you? You seriously think I'd be anywhere near loyal?'

Dr Popovich simply laughed darkly, a sound that was truly terrifying.

'Oh, we'll break you, Mr MacGyver.' He held the knife closer to Mac's face for a moment, smirking just as darkly as his laugh. 'Then we'll remake you into exactly what we want.' He resumed his methodical slicing through Mac's skin. 'We tried Miss Carpenter's way, now we're trying my way…' He gestured to one of his minions. 'Prepare Phase Two.'

That does not sound good.

That does not sound good at all.

As Bozer and Jack – and Han Solo - would say, I have a bad feeling about this.

A really, really bad feeling about this.

He allowed himself to close his eyes for a moment, to send up a prayer of some sort that his friends would come for him soon (because he knew, he knew as well as he knew the square root of 256 or the Third Law of Thermodynamics, that they were searching with everything they had, had known that all along, and that had provided him with fuel for his stubborn insolence and constant defiance and helped him to show as few signs of pain as possible and given him undying hope).

Then, he opened his eyes and gritted his teeth and forced his mind back onto the Declaration of Independence.

'…with certain…unalienable rights…that among those are…life, liberty and…the pursuit of happiness…'

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'Got it!'

Riley's shout was echoed by Viv and Lil over the screen.

The blackmailed guard knew very little, not even knowing the meaning of the messages he'd had to pass to Nikki (he didn't have any idea what the code actually meant), and had been given the burner phone by The Organization, which they used to contact him.

The phone was encrypted and geo-blocked and had absolutely everything possible done to it to prevent it from being hacked or its calls and texts traced, but Riley, Lil and Viv working together had managed to crack it, and found that all the text messages originated from an old doctor's practice on the outskirts of LA.

They'd 'borrowed' some satellite time to get imagery, which had confirmed that The Organization had taken Mac there, and also shown that it didn't look like he'd been moved.

Thornton, standing by the screen, and Matty, on the screen, both nodded, and the taller woman spoke.

'Good work.' She walked over to Jack, who had stopped suddenly in his pacing as soon as Riley had spoken, and was now staring into the distance with rising hope in his eyes, and put a hand on his shoulder. 'Jack, we're going to get him back.'

She meant it, both ways.

'Wilson's a good medic, but he's not a doctor. I am.'

Beth stared down Thornton and Jack, eyes fierce and resolute, arms crossed.

Mac's imminent (and they all firmly believed that it was going to be imminent) rescue was a very, very big operation, given that the place seemed to be positively swarming with Organization operatives.

Jack was leading one Phoenix SWAT team, Gonzales another. Matty, Thornton, Viv, Charlie (who'd been pulled off the Penas' protection detail once Matty had a moment after the news of Mac's abduction) and Sarah were going as well (though Sarah – after a shouting match with Matty – was staying with the vans, on account of her broken arm). Riley was going to coordinate the entire operation from one of said vans, which Bozer would drive (they genuinely believed he would sneak out with them, which would be more dangerous, so were taking him along on the condition that he did nothing but drive a van and stayed firmly inside the van), and Matty, Sarah and a couple of other agents would stay to help protect them if necessary.

They knew they'd need a medic, and were taking Wilson, an ex-Pararescue, and thus medic with combat skills.

Jack opened his mouth to protest, because nine months in Aleppo and self-defence training with him and Mac and Patty wasn't combat experience, and they all knew that The Organization knew what she meant to Mac, which, Jack thought, probably made her the hottest target of them all, even if it couldn't be called love yet.

Bad guys always went for the love interest, after all.

However, before he could say anything, Beth cut him off.

'Would you have taken Dr Farnham?' It was a question posed as if she very much knew the answer, and that that answer would have been yes (which was true). 'I'm the Phoenix's doctor. This is my job. This is what you hired me for.'

Jack still really wanted to protest, despite knowing that she was right, but Thornton, standing beside him, nodded.

'You're wearing a vest and staying in the ambulance-van.'

Beth nodded obediently.

'Yes, boss.'

Thornton glanced around, at Matty, Viv, Lil, Sarah and Charlie on the screen, Jack beside her, Bozer and Riley on the couch and Beth standing across the war room.

She nodded again.

'We leave in ten.'

OLD DOCTOR'S OFFICE

OUTSKIRTS OF LA

(NO LONGER UNKNOWN LOCATION)

As Dr Popovich prepared the IV line to insert into his project's arm, all alone in the room, except for his project (he had secured the door and ordered all The Organization's men out; this part of the process was critical and he did not want any disturbances and he thus needed to be alone for this part), he heard gunshots.

Silenced gunshots, and much closer than he'd have expected them to be given how heavily guarded the place was.

He looked at his project, who was nearly unconscious, but the blonde managed to open his eyes and give a very, very small smirk.

Dr Popovich swore.

Part of him desperately wanted to continue the process, because this project was going so well, but he had only just gotten started and had no hope of finishing it before those Phoenix Foundation agents (it could only be them, after all) got here.

And if he were captured or dead, his projects, his goals, would never come to fruition.

He would lose all the progress he'd made on this particular project, but another opportunity could be generated.

The Organization would guarantee it.

(This project, when it was finished, would be a masterpiece, after all.)

Getting out of here alive and free was more important.

He tucked the IV bag (it contained a special mixture of his, painstakingly created and just as painstakingly kept secret, even from his bosses, and he was not going to let it fall into enemy hands, especially these enemy hands) into his lab coat pocket.

Then, without looking back at his project (best not to explicitly tell him that they'd find themselves in this same position sometime in the future, after all), he opened the door to the room carefully, looked around, saw it was clear, and slipped out, closing the door firmly behind him.

PHOENIX VAN

NEAR OLD DOCTOR'S OFFICE

OUTSKIRTS OF LA

Riley felt sick to her stomach and simultaneously relieved that Bozer, sitting in the driver's seat, ready to drive at a moment's notice if necessary, wasn't seeing this, as she watched the footage on her laptop screen.

The facility had no surveillance cameras inside, save this one.

It'd taken a lot of work for her to get into it, but she now had hours and hours of video footage of Mac being tortured by this clearly very sadistic man in a lab coat.

Riley addressed the teams over her comm, as Matty, who'd been conversing with Sarah over her phone (Sarah was with Beth in the ambulance-van), came over and saw what was on Riley's screen. Her face grew thunderous with anger as Riley spoke.

'There's a man, sixties, white hair and balding, in a lab coat. Do not let him get away.'

Matty continued, the rage on her face growing more tempered, controlled and harnessed, but no less powerful and dangerous.

'Trust me, Thornton, we're going to enjoy breaking that SOB.'

There was a silence for a moment, before Thornton's voice echoed over their earpieces, restrained, leashed anger in her voice that told them that she very much understood what they'd implied.

'Acknowledged.'

OLD DOCTOR'S OFFICE

OUTSKIRTS OF LA

Two of the SWAT team busted down the door, and then Jack led them into the room.

He'd barely gone a step inside when he stopped entirely in his tracks. He'd been expecting this, had known that they'd find him like this, but it was still…

Mac was chained in a standing position in the middle of the room, barely conscious. He was bloodied and bruised and clearly beaten…and were those cigarette burns?

Jack swallowed the bile that was rising in his throat and that burning rage, that desire to find that man that Riley had described as having done this and rip him limb from limb with his bare hands, and let his worry and concern for his partner take control.

He forced himself to move towards Mac, as two of the SWAT team worked on freeing him from his restraints, and Wilson started examining him, and addressed everyone over his earpiece.

'We found him, he's conscious but in a bad way.' He paused for a moment, allowing some of his anger to seep into his voice. 'You gotta get that SOB.'

Thornton responded a moment later.

'Jack, you, Doc and Wilson get Mac back to the infirmary or to hospital, whatever he needs, ASAP. Take Bozer with you.' There was a pause. 'We can handle it from here.'

Jack nodded.

'On it, Patty.'

He came closer to his partner, reached out hesitantly, as if to touch him to check that he wasn't a dream, but stopped at the last moment.

Mac, clearly very, very weak, managed to raise his head and smiled at the older man.

'Jack.'

His tone of voice was expectant, as if he'd always, always known that Jack would come for him, that they'd all come for him.

Jack still wanted to rip that lab-coated man limb from limb. He still also kind of wanted to throw up.

But now he also wanted to smile and cry, because Mac had so, so much faith in him, in them.

He compromised by returning that smile and reaching out to ruffle Mac's hair gently.

'We're here, brother, we're here. You're gonna be okay, buddy, you're gonna be okay…'

Thornton stared down the lab-coated man, her gun aimed at his head, as he stared right back at her, holding a gun aimed at her head.

The man smiled, an almost-saccharine smile that was also very, very creepy.

'Oh, you couldn't kill a little old man, could you? Especially one who's a doctor…'

She replied, her voice strong and as cold and cutting as a knife.

'Real doctors heal, not hurt.'

At that moment, just as she finished speaking, a shot rang out, and Dr Popovich fell to the ground, clutching his left knee.

Thornton nodded at Viv, who was standing in the doorway behind the man and lowering her gun, having circled around to get him from behind, approaching while her aunt kept him occupied. Then, Thornton walked over to him, kicking his gun to Viv, and picked him up by the collar with surprising strength.

She stared into his eyes, letting him see that fury, that rage, that she'd been keeping so tightly leashed since Mac had disappeared from that junkyard. That anger that she'd carried within her ever since Nikki Carpenter turned out to be not-dead, since The Organization had first shown itself.

'You are alive right now for only one reason: I need what's in your brain.'

She meant it wholeheartedly.

PHOENIX AMBULANCE-VAN

NEAR OLD DOCTOR'S OFFICE

OUTSKIRTS OF LA

Jack, Wilson and Mac, the former two mostly-carrying the latter, who had insisted on walking (or, at least, doing the closest to walking that he could), approached the ambulance-van, in front of which stood Beth, in a bullet-proof vest as ordered by Thornton, a gurney by her side.

There was a very pained expression on her face, Jack noted, as she laid eyes on Mac (a couple of stray thoughts crossed his mind – the thought that Mac really was dragging his feet, had dragged his feet when it came to a lot of things about this woman, probably because his subconscious had always recognized that connection they had, but also the thought that this woman would wait a long time for his partner to feel completely sure that he was ready for a relationship). Then, she closed her eyes for just a moment, and took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, there was that calm, caring professionalism in them.

She jogged forward several feet, meeting them halfway to the gurney, and after a small, reassuring smile at Mac (and Jack), she started talking rapidly to Wilson in a conversation full of medical lingo.

Mac glanced over at her as she conversed with Wilson, a soft, somewhat-relieved little smile on his face, something that Jack very much noticed, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell completely unconscious.

Glancing at one another, Jack and Wilson quickly carried him over to the gurney and lifted it into the van, as Beth hurried into it and started methodically pulling out medical supplies.

Wilson climbed into the back with Beth and closed the door, as Jack ran over to the passenger side and got in, nodding at Bozer, who was seated in the driver's seat, already ready to go.

Without a word, Mac's best friend started the ignition.

PHOENIX AMBULANCE-VAN

ON-ROUTE TO PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'I don't know how she does it, man.'

Bozer glanced over at Jack as he drove. The older man was staring out the window and Bozer could see the wetness in his eyes. He himself was only not sobbing and completely broken down because he was concentrating on driving, for his best friend's sake.

Jack swallowed and spoke, still staring out the window.

'Training. That always helps.' He was silent for a moment. 'And sheer strength of will, Boze. Knowing that you've gotta keep yourself together and do your job, for their sake.' He glanced over at Bozer. 'Like how you're doing it now.' Like how Jack had, earlier, back at that old doctor's practice. 'Like how you did it when that fake Zodiac Killer took Riley.' Like how Jack had kept himself together, back then.

It was always easier to keep going when you had someone (or, more accurately – someones) to keep going for.

INFIRMARY

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

Beth stepped out of Mac's room in the infirmary and walked up to where Jack, Bozer, Riley and Patricia (who'd returned to the Phoenix with Mac's leather jacket, Swiss Army knife, belt and shoes about twenty minutes after Jack and Bozer, after Matty had assured them that she'd personally oversee Dr Popovich's imprisonment – he wasn't being kept at the Phoenix, which was a very good thing for both him and them – Jack didn't know if he'd be able to resist punching the man's lights out a few times if he were accessible) were sitting, looking every bit the worried family (which she supposed they were).

She managed a very small, reassuring-doctor smile.

'Physically, he'll be fine in about two weeks.' They all relaxed ever-so-slightly. Jack ran a hand through his hair and let out a slightly-shuddering sigh of relief. 'He has bruised kidneys and pulled muscles in his arms, shoulders and back, as well as a large number of cuts and bruises and minor burns. He's dehydrated and exhausted and he was electrocuted multiple times.' Beth swallowed, and they could all see the flash of protective anger in her eyes. 'That man knew exactly how to inflict immense pain without causing permanent injury or scarring.' Her eyes flickered closed for a moment, and she took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again, they'd returned to their previous doctor-y look. 'I'd like to keep him sedated for the next 36 hours; that will aid his recovery and spare him the worst of the pain.' She shrugged a tiny bit awkwardly and gestured to the four of them. 'You're really his next of kin, so…'

Jack, Bozer, Riley and Patricia all glanced at each other for just a moment, then Jack turned back to face Beth and spoke for them all.

'He trusts you, Beth. Completely.' He gestured to the door of Mac's room. 'If that's best for him, do it.'

Beth gave a small, rather serious smile, then gestured to the door of Mac's room.

'You can come see him for a few minutes, but then you're all going to have a shower and get a bite to eat before you come back.'

They all nodded, and trooped into his room, and gathered into a little half-circle around his bed, none of them with any words as they stared at the blonde lying there very still and very pale, an IV in his arm and a nasal cannula in his nostrils, hooked up to beeping monitors.

Beth followed a moment later, with Mac's belongings in hand, and put his Swiss Army knife down carefully on one of the infirmary's little nightstands by his head, then pulled two hooks out of one of the walls and hung up his belt and jacket, putting his shoes on the floor below them.

Then, she walked back over to the door and opened it.

'I'll be back in five minutes.'

She wasn't sure if Jack, Bozer or Riley heard her, but Patricia at least managed a nod of acknowledgment.

Beth gave a tiny, sad smile, stepped out and closed the door behind her.

True to her word, five minutes later, Beth slipped back into the room, a book in her hands.

Bozer, Riley, Jack and Patricia hadn't really moved, all still staring at Mac, a myriad of emotions in their eyes (sadness and sorrow and anger and fondness and affection and love and worry, and something that made it seem as if they were drinking in the sight of him, as if to prove to themselves that he was really there – really safe – and that they weren't dreaming), though Bozer and Riley were now holding hands, seeking and offering comfort, and Riley's other hand was on Jack's shoulder.

They all looked up at her, and Beth gestured to the door, her expression and voice very firm.

'Showers, food and water for all of you. I'll let you back in in half an hour.' Her expression and voice softened. 'I'll stay with him until you get back, I promise.'

Patricia nodded, glancing back at Mac, before walking towards the door. Riley and Bozer stared at Mac for a moment longer, before, with a gentle tug on his hand, Riley led her boyfriend towards the door. Jack stared at Mac for a couple of breaths, before staring at Beth for almost as long, then looking back at Mac again, swallowing and closing his eyes for a moment, then walked over to the door, following Bozer and Riley, who'd paused in the doorway, waiting for him, out.

Beth pulled a chair over to Mac's bedside, sat down and watched his face for a moment. Then, she closed her eyes for a beat, taking several deep breaths, then opened them again, and held up the book in her hands with a wan smile.

'I'm reading this again. Well, for the ninth time, but I guess that's not really relevant, though again is typically used to refer to the second incidence of something, I think…' She huffed out a breath. 'I'm talking to myself and I've put a foot in it.' She looked over at Mac again. 'Though, I guess I am talking to you…I wonder if it counts if the other party is unconscious?' She thought for a second, brow furrowed, then shook her head, kicking herself internally, and opened the well-worn copy of The Martian. 'I don't know if you can even hear me, the literature is pretty divided, and it's all anecdotal anyway, but if you can…well, some of Watney's spirit should help, and, well, it's The Martian. You love The Martian.' She looked up at him again, brow a little furrowed. 'Who doesn't love The Martian?' Shaking her head as if to get herself back on track, she looked back down at the book and started to read out loud. 'Log Entry: Sol 6…'

Jack slipped back into the infirmary (he'd ducked out to go to the bathroom – it was just past midnight now), and then his brow furrowed in concern as he heard sobbing.

He glanced over at the door to Beth's office, which was slightly ajar, as if she hadn't quite managed to close it properly.

The sobbing was definitely coming from there.

Jack sighed sadly, shaking his head with both sadness and fondness, making his way over to the office, making his steps deliberately a little louder than usual, so as not to startle her. The sobs stopped, mostly, though there was the occasional, slightly-muffled one, as he neared.

He nudged open the door gently, to find Beth sitting on the cot in her office (for when she had to monitor patients overnight, or just when she had to grab a nap – the Phoenix's doctor's hours weren't standard office hours, after all, and it wasn't even like an ER where they had set shifts – she worked when needed, as needed), trying to stem her tears.

She looked up at him, wiping her eyes, and her voice was a little shaky as she spoke.

'It's…it's not wrong, is it?' She took a deep shuddering breath. 'I mean, I'm his doctor…' Jack crouched down beside her, as she looked down for a moment, then back up. '…but we have special circumstances, and, well, I'm already compromised whichever way you look at it, you're all my friends, feelings don't really go away even if you ignore them…' She shrugged a little helplessly, trailing off and looking up at him, seeming to desperately want confirmation.

Jack offered her a small, but soft, gentle smile. A reassuring one.

'No, it's not wrong.'

It was probably, in many ways, a complicated issue.

But to Jack, it was simple.

He didn't think it was wrong, not in the slightest.

(Maybe it was partly because of all his life experiences, the heartaches and the lost loves and the knowledge that he'd never have a wife or little Jacks.)

(Maybe it was partly because of that deep wish he had for Mac – and Bozer and Riley, though they were looking like they'd get there someday already – that wish that they'd get that white-picket-fence happy ending, in the traditional, not roundabout, way, unlike him.)

But mostly, it was because he knew so, so well, that the Phoenix really was special; the lives its employees lived completely unlike the lives of ordinary people.

There weren't many people out there who understood what they did and what they went through, and with the high pressure and frequent danger and all the secrets they had to keep, it was natural that they all bonded with each other.

It was natural and healthy and very much not wrong (even if it might have been wrong, if they lived normal lives) for them to grow to love each other.

Platonically. As family. Romantically.

Besides, Beth was right.

Jack knew that romantic love was different from platonic love.

But he also believed that while the bonds were different, they could be equally as strong.

People could (and would) do just as much for their loved ones, no matter which way they loved them, in his experience.

Beth had grown comfortable with the very close friendships she was developing with them, those nights sitting around the fire-pit at Mac and Bozer's. She'd decided that when it came to platonic love, it was worth the extra difficulties that came with treating your loved ones with a doctor.

Romantic love wasn't a big leap from that.

And she'd proven today, to all of them and to herself, that she could compartmentalize very, very well.

And perhaps most importantly, Jack thought, she was also right about feelings not going away even if you didn't do anything about them. Even if you tried to ignore them.

His own love life was proof of that.

Beth stared at him for a long moment, then nodded, and stopped fighting her own tears and sobs, letting them pour out, allowing herself that catharsis.

Jack smiled wanly at her, a little proud (he was pretty sure Beth was going to become another one of his surrogate sort-of children; he was accumulating quite a lot of them…), and held out his arms.

'Come here, kiddo.'

The kiddo was very, very deliberate. He called her Doc at work, and Beth the rest of the time, but he hoped that kiddo would make her a little more comfortable about seeking comfort.

She immediately leaned forward and let herself be enveloped in his arms, burying her head in his shoulder.

Jack patted her back gently, feeling a little better himself.

Mac really was on to something with that oxy-stuff.

Oxycontin?

Oxycortin?

Something like that.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Bozer woke, for no discernible reason.

He opened his eyes, blinking a little sleepily, and found that Riley, lying on the cot beside his and facing him, was very much awake, propped up a little on an elbow and staring over at Mac, her eyes a bit unfocused.

She started a tiny bit when she realized he was awake, and he reached out automatically for her hand, and just as automatically, she took it and wound her fingers around his.

'You wanna talk?'

His voice was soft, barely more than a whisper, and gentle and simply, in Riley's mind, comforting.

Riley let out a long breath, then tightened her hand around his just fractionally and gestured at Jack, who was sitting in a chair by Mac's bed with his back to them (he seemed, from his posture, to be awake, but not terribly aware of anything except his partner), with her head, then whispered back.

'You know, there was a moment, just a moment, after he threw my dad around to protect my mom, that…that I thought that Jack was Superman or Captain America, or…you know, a superhero.' She glanced up at the unaware Jack, and then Mac, who was still in a way that he never really was, and then looked back into Bozer's eyes. 'Then, you know, pretty much literally just after I met him, Mac hung onto a plane while it was taking off and somehow managed to force it to land.' Riley fell silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts, then snorted. 'Of course I know they're not superheroes. No crazy costumes or names, for one.' Bozer gave a little smile at that. 'And they're heroes, but they're not super, and…' She trailed off, gesturing with a little nod of her head at Mac, and then, when she spoke again, her voice was even softer and plaintive and vulnerable, a side of Riley that very few people ever had the privilege of seeing (and it was a privilege; she let so few people in, after all, hid so much behind snark and sass and those very strong walls of hers, that had kept her going through so much). '…I don't have much family. I don't want to lose any of you, and I don't want any of you to lose yourselves.'

Bozer just nodded sadly (he was also very touched, and did his best to try and communicate that to his girlfriend with his eyes and expression and demeanour), lifting her hand and pressing a quick kiss to her knuckles, a gesture that brought the tiniest of smiles to Riley's face (it was something she found very sweet, even if she'd never admit it out loud).

'Hey, Mac's really, really strong. He's one of the strongest people I know, and he's got us.' Bozer gestured to the room at large (Patricia was asleep on a cot on the other side of the room, as was Beth, the doctor having shifted into the room at some point while Bozer and Riley were asleep – she'd been in her office last they recalled). 'And he's got everyone else, you know, Matty and Charlie, Penny, even if she's not gonna know anything about this, and…' Bozer trailed off and got himself back on track. 'He's gonna be okay.'

Bozer himself was, of course, worried about his best friend.

He was, honestly, beyond worried.

But, he also knew, deep down, that Mac would make it through, because that's what Mac always did.

Mac fixed things.

He'd fixed himself before.

He'd do it again.

(With help and support from his loved ones, of course.)

Bozer was very, very sure of that.

He squeezed Riley's hand, looking deeply into her eyes for a moment.

'He's strong, just like you. Mac's gonna be alright.'

Riley squeezed his hand in return, and smiled a small, soft smile at him.

'He's strong like you are too, Bozer.'

They were all strong people.

And the fact that they all had each other was a significant contributing factor to that strength, in Riley's mind.

Just before dawn, Patricia slipped back into Mac's room after having had a shower.

Her eyes immediately fell on the Phoenix's doctor, who was sitting on her cot, making a paperclip chain from the paperclips in the kidney dish beside her.

Beth had been checking on Mac when she'd left the room; clearly, she'd finished her tasks and had found something else to occupy herself.

Patricia walked a little closer, sitting down on her own cot beside Beth's, and simply raised an eyebrow with a little smile, gesturing with her head at the paperclip chain.

The younger woman shrugged a little awkwardly, and gave an answering wan smile, gesturing to Mac with her head.

'Mac's on to something with the paperclips; keeping your hands busy helps.' As she spoke softly (Jack had finally dozed off in his chair by Mac's bed, and Bozer and Riley were still sleeping), she added another paperclip to the chain. Patricia's smile widened a little, and then Beth glanced up at her boss, and gestured to Jack (who'd just given a snore) with a nod of her head and a slightly-wry and moderately-serious look on her face. 'I'm not going to be able to persuade him to sleep in a cot, am I?'

Patricia simply shook her head.

'Unfortunately, no. Jack Dalton is possibly the most stubborn agent I've ever dealt with.'

Beth nodded, as if she'd anticipated that answer.

'I'll start preparing for the treatment of his inevitable sore neck and back, then.'

Patricia's smile widened a tiny bit more, and her expression grew wry too.

'He's going to be very…Jack…about it.'

She didn't need to explain to Beth what that meant.

(It'd mean plenty of complaining and also bad jokes about massage therapists – complaints and jokes played up for their benefit, to lighten the mood, because that was Jack.)

Beth just smiled and nodded in response.

'How is he?'

As Bozer, Riley, Patricia, Jack and Beth ate a quick, cold breakfast in Mac's room in the infirmary, Matty called them on Riley's laptop, Viv, Sarah, Charlie and Lil appearing on the screen with the Phoenix's former Director.

Riley handed her sandwich off to Bozer, and obligingly turned her screen so that they could get a look at Mac, while Beth swallowed her mouthful of sandwich and started speaking.

'There's no signs of infection, he's not dehydrated anymore and the healing process is progressing as I'd expect. He's as well as he can be.'

The mole hunters all smiled; wan smiles, but smiles nonetheless, before Matty's eyes filled with a fiery sort of anger again, as did Sarah's. Viv's eyes grew hard and cold, and Lil crossed her arms. Charlie's expression changed to something that Jack very much recognised from his time in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the two former soldiers made eye contact for a second, sharing an understanding.

It was Matty who spoke, voice full of fiery determination and restrained anger.

'The Organization is not going to get away with this. We're going to take them down.'

She and her team had taken down the moles.

But their mission wasn't over yet.

They hadn't disbanded after the mole hunt was over, because they still had a job to do.

Take down The Organization.

It was a big task, but they weren't going to rest until The Organization was taken down.

Especially after this.

The two teams stared at one another for a moment, mutual understanding and determination and protectiveness and anger passing between them, before they all nodded, and Patricia spoke, voice a bit softer and gentler than usual.

'We'll call you back when he wakes up.'

Matty nodded, and replied, her own voice also rather gentle.

'When we've got an update, you'll be the first to hear it.' She got several nods in return, and some wan smiles, and then she continued. 'Take care of yourselves.'

That was said firmly, though far from being devoid of affection or care.

It was Jack who responded, the wan smile on his face widening a tiny bit.

'Same to you guys.'

They all stared at each other again for another beat, and then with a last nod of acknowledgement, Matty hung up.

Wordlessly, Beth sat back down on the edge of her cot and turned her attention to finishing her breakfast; Mac was due for another check-up in ten minutes. Bozer handed Riley back her sandwich as the hacker put her laptop down, and Patricia pulled another sandwich from the little stack beside her and tossed it to Jack, who caught it on autopilot and bit into it, still on autopilot.

The Phoenix's Director eyed the former CIA agent with a hint of concern in her dark eyes, then glanced back over at Mac, and with a small, internal sigh, turned her attention back to her own breakfast, glancing at her phone as she ate.

Despite the fact that part of her really didn't want to leave, wanted to stay and keep vigil like the others, she would be heading off after breakfast.

She had a job to do, a job that (unlike Riley's or Bozer's or Jack's), couldn't be put on hold until Mac was at least awake, if not mostly physically recovered.

The coerced guard's hometown needed attention.

Dr Popovich had to be interrogated.

(It was, she admitted, easier to pull herself away from the young blonde agent who'd somehow managed to break through all those defences she had and worm his way into her heart – which in hindsight shouldn't have surprised her, because keeping Mac out of – or in - anything was nigh impossible – to deal with that man.)

(Vengeance – flawed and problematic though it could be – was sweet.)

And the Phoenix didn't stop just because one of its agents was down.

She still had a whole agency to run, and while Andi was doing an admirable fill-in job and clearly making sure that her workload was filtered, given how few unread emails she had, she still had to do her job.

No matter what.

It was the price one paid for the corner office.

Beth slipped back into Mac's room, having just finished removing Cal from Cartography's stitches (his calf had healed up nicely, though he was going to have a scar – which he thought was pretty cool, and had babbled on about for quite a while).

Bozer and Riley had cajoled Jack into playing a game of cards with them, though the older man's mind was clearly very, very elsewhere, because he was losing terribly (honestly, Bozer wasn't heaps better, and Beth was pretty sure that Riley was simply so much better at Go Fish than the two men that she'd win even if distracted).

The three of them, Beth knew, weren't going to be leaving Mac's sick room unless absolutely necessary (to use the bathroom or maintain the standards of hygiene that she insisted that they maintained – she'd decided that making them leave to get food or drink was a battle not worth fighting, and simply brought it to them).

She was also convinced that if she didn't have a job to do (a job, like a doctor's job, that required putting aside personal feelings sometimes to be able to do it, putting aside personal feelings and wants and desires for a while because you had a job to do that had to supersede those), Patricia would be right there with them, sitting by Mac's bed and keeping vigil.

Beth gave a little smile as Riley declared victory, then, with nearly no hesitation (the infirmary was all in order, the supply orders for the next six weeks were all done, and she had her phone on her and had set up the infirmary's considerable tech to alert her if anyone entered; if needed, she'd be out of Mac's room in a flash and ready to do her job…and she was human, not some kind of doctor-robot, and even Sparky had his moments, like when he stubbornly refused to call Riley anything but Miss Davis…), she walked over to the trio playing cards, and gestured to Riley with a hand and a slightly-wider smile.

'Deal me in?'

When he woke sometime in the middle of the night, Jack stretched and shifted in his chair, trying to ease the ache in his back and neck. The discomfort was probably his own doing; he could (and probably should) sleep in a cot, but he found himself unable to tear himself away from this chair beside his partner's bed, even if he was going to be aching for a while after Mac woke up.

'I'm getting too old for this.'

From the other side of Mac's bed, Patricia, who was sitting straight, hands folded on her lap, quirked an eyebrow at him with a small, very wry smile. She gestured at Bozer, Riley and Beth, asleep on cots, and then at Mac with her head.

'Don't let them hear you say that.'

Jack made a face.

'I'm not old. The kids are just-' He cut himself off as he realized what he'd just said and made another face. Patricia's smile widened a little, and her eyebrow rose a bit more. After a moment, Jack sighed and his face grew more serious. He gestured to the blonde on the bed, and then to the three other young people, still relatively-peacefully asleep. 'Since when did adults start becoming kids?' His face scrunched up a little. 'Or is that kids becoming adults?' He shrugged, and waved a hand. 'Doesn't matter, you get my point, Patty.'

The dark-haired woman simply nodded, and her voice and expression was part-wry and part-serious when she spoke.

'When we started getting old, Jack.' Jack gave a little snort, but nodded nonetheless, and Patricia continued, her voice rather firm. 'After this, you're giving Nate a call.' She glanced over at Mac, something soft and sad in her eyes that kind of made him want to give her a hug (Jack was a hugger, even if Patty was definitely not one), then looked back up at Jack. 'We're all giving Nate a call.'

Jack nodded, the two older agents making eye contact over Mac's bed, something akin to affection and fondness and protectiveness and a bit of sadness and anger passing between them, then, the Texan spread his hands out and gave a little smile.

'Well, you're the boss, Patty.'

To emphasise that point, he gave a jaunty little salute.

Patricia simply shook her head, with a small smile and clear fondness in her eyes (at least, clear to Jack).

Jack Dalton was ridiculous.

He was an incredible agent and a very good man, but he was ridiculous and occasionally a pain in the neck.

But he was also a friend.

A close friend.

He…mattered.

At about five in the morning, Riley woke up suddenly for no discernible reason, and with a bit of a groan, sat up in her cot. She glanced over at Bozer, who was still sound asleep, and then looked up and made eye contact with Beth, who was in the middle of braiding her hair into some kind of elaborate coronet style.

The doctor smiled rather sheepishly at Riley, and the hacker got the impression that she might have waved awkwardly if her hands weren't otherwise occupied.

Riley returned the smile with a little one of her own, then quietly got up, noting that Jack was asleep in his chair by Mac's bed (he was going to be insufferable about his sore back and neck later, she just knew it), and that Patricia was also sleeping (at least, Riley thought she was sleeping – her breathing was slow and even and her eyes closed and she was rather still, but if anybody could pull off faking being asleep so convincingly, it'd be her) in her cot, facing the door.

Stepping quietly over to the door, she slipped out.

When Riley returned from the bathroom, Beth was finishing up braiding her hair, fixing the last couple of bobby pins in place.

Riley sat down on the doctor's cot beside her, and smiled and gestured at her elaborate hairstyle.

'Could you do mine?' Her smile widened a little, and became a bit more of a smirk. 'We should be stereotypical girlfriends at least once.'

(They weren't very good at being stereotypical girlfriends.)

(They both hated rom-coms with a passion. It was easier to convince Bozer to watch a rom-com than either of them – he had a deep and abiding love for Love, Actually. While Riley painted her nails, Beth never did since they were so impractical for a doctor – though she'd painted Riley's for her once; she had really steady hands and was an excellent manicurist. Neither of them, however, were adverse to eating ice-cream on the couch while watching superhero films.)

Beth gave a little snort of laughter as she shifted a little and started separating Riley's somewhat sleep-wild hair into sections.

'I thought we did that when we went shopping before you all got sent to Australia.'

Riley made a sound of acknowledgement (she'd have nodded if not for the fact that she couldn't exactly do that at that moment) and then smirked, not that Beth could see her face.

'You should totally have bought that dress.'

She didn't have to specify what dress it was. Riley had been a very staunch advocate of Beth buying that little black bandage dress she'd worn when they were dressing up as each other.

Beth's face scrunched up slightly in response to that statement, as she started braiding. Riley's curly and slightly-wild hair was a bit harder to braid than her own, mostly-straight hair.

'It was much more you than me…since that was what we were going for, after all.'

Riley's smirk widened a bit more. (Sure, she and Bozer and Jack were trying to keep the teasing and significant looks on the down-low, but since Mac was unconscious and Beth couldn't see her face, and it was five in the morning and they were all worried and a bit stressed, Riley figured she could have a free pass.)

'It looked really good on you…and it was an awesome date dress.' Beth's cheeks flushed a little at that, and Riley's voice was a bit more curious and probing when she continued. 'Do you even have a date dress?'

The doctor actually had to think for a moment about that.

'I have a couple of nice dresses, and I'd wear them on dates, though I'm fairly certain none of them are what you'd call a date dress…they're not really like that dress…'

Riley really would have shook her head then if she could, and did her best to put her head-shake into her voice instead.

'When we get time, we are going shopping, and we're going to get you a date dress that suits your style. Or a couple of date dresses.' Her smirk widened. 'I think you're going to need them.'

Still a bit pink-cheeked, Beth kept braiding Riley's hair as she responded.

'As long as we can go see X-Men: Dark Phoenix or Wreck-It Ralph 2 as well.'

Riley grinned.

'Sounds like a plan.'

As Beth finished off the last of Riley's new hairstyle, Bozer sat up in his cot, rubbing his eyes blearily. He blinked at the two young women, then grinned, then sort-of pouted.

'I missed the hair-braiding? Come on!'

Beth gave a little snort of incredulous laughter, and Riley chuckled, shaking her head fondly, before leaning over and stage-whispering into Beth's ear.

'He's really good at hair-braiding.'

(Hair and make-up was kind of his thing, along with film-making and cooking, of course. In high school, he'd practiced a lot on Penny, and once or twice, Mac, either when his best friend was asleep or after he'd won a bet he'd made with the blonde.)

Bozer glanced over at his best friend, then turned back to face the two young women, hands toying with his blanket.

Wordlessly, Beth reached out and handed him the kidney dish, which now contained a long paperclip chain. With a grateful smile, Bozer started undoing the chain.

'Keeping your hands busy really does help.' He glanced over at Mac again. 'I always used to think my bro was, like, crazy, 'cause of his paperclip thing. Not that I don't still think he's crazy, but…' Bozer sighed and glanced down at the paperclip chain in his hands, then back over at Mac, and after a moment, he swallowed and spoke, voice very soft. 'I've been worrying about that crazy-mad-scientist-genius-puppy since I was eleven years old.' He shook his head, a wry look on his face. 'You have no idea how relieved and happy I was when he left the Army and picked up a job at a think-tank; you know, since I figured he wasn't all that likely to get blown up working at a think-tank, at least, not more likely than usual, with what he does with toasters and vacuum cleaners and all…'

As he spoke, Riley reached out and took his hand, and Beth rummaged around in the bag she had beside her cot and pulled out a chocolate chip muesli bar, which she handed to Bozer.

'…and then it was just…boom…and of course, I'm proud of him, who wouldn't be, 'cause he's Mac and all, but…'

After they'd all eaten a very early breakfast and she'd checked the monitors and washed her hands thoroughly, Beth carefully removed the IV line from Mac's arm, then took out the nasal cannula as well.

Jack, who was still sitting in his chair by Mac's side, though he'd moved it out of her way to let the doctor do her work, cocked his head to the side in an unspoken question.

Beth moved the IV pole out of the way, then answered.

'I'll have to reinsert the IV later, but I thought it'd be better for him to wake up without it, considering…'

She didn't need to explain further. Jack nodded with a little smile, which widened as Beth gestured that he could move his chair back.

Wordlessly, Bozer and Riley took up seats on the other side of the bed, and Patricia stood against the wall at the bed's foot, as Beth, an eye on the monitors, busied herself updating Mac's chart again.

The first of his senses to return was smell.

There'd been a very, very brief moment of panic and fear (what if Jack's appearance had been a dream? Or, more likely, a hallucination? What if…what if he was back there and…), but it disappeared almost instantly as he smelled the scent of the three-in-one soap/shampoo/conditioner used in the Phoenix's showers, and that light, yet distinct, sterile smell of the infirmary, and, he was quite sure (even if he was never admitting this out loud), just a hint of the hand lotion that Beth used to stop her hands from cracking.

The sensation of touch returned next, almost instantaneously.

He was comfortably warm. He felt clean. He was also, much to his displeasure, wearing a hospital gown. There wasn't the uncomfortable sensation of an IV in his arm, or a cannula in his nostrils or an oxygen mask on his face.

That helped.

He could hear voices, familiar voices, though he couldn't quite make out the words; they seemed fuzzy, or a bit distant.

Those familiar voices really helped.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, glad to find that the room wasn't too bright.

He was greeted by a very, very welcome sight.

Bozer and Riley sitting on his left side, Patricia leaning (or leaning as much as she ever did, with her perfect posture and all) against the wall at the foot of his bed, Jack by his right side, and Beth standing behind the older man's chair.

Mac smiled.

I'm going to be okay.

Despite…despite what happened…I'm going to be okay.

I just know it.

'…Boze, there's at least ten flaws in that argument.'

Bozer was attempting to convince Mac that he'd actually woken up several decades in the future, a la Captain America.

Thornton's phone buzzed yet again, and she took it out and glanced at it, looking very serious and business-like.

Then, she addressed them, interrupting Mac, Bozer, Riley and Jack's conversation.

'I'm sorry, but I can't hold oversight off any longer. We need to go for debrief.'

Beth immediately looked up from where she was preparing a new IV bag for Mac, and locked eyes with her boss, something fierce in her eyes and the tilt of her chin.

'Mac's not going. Tell oversight that he's not going to be medically cleared for debrief for twenty-four hours.'

Jack, who was just about to stand up to follow Thornton out the door, albeit unwillingly, suddenly had the mental image of the rather stuffy and very dangerous and powerful members of oversight being scolded by the furious little doctor and covered in Dora the Explorer Band Aids.

It was both a highly amusing and highly disturbing image.

Thornton, meanwhile, nodded in understanding and agreement.

'They had the sense to not order him in for debrief with us.'

She glanced at Jack, then Beth, then Riley and Bozer.

If oversight attempted to drag Mac through an exhausting and unpleasant and painful debrief within the next twenty-four hours, they were going to have a fight on their hands.

With another nod, she turned on her heel and swept through the door, knowing that Jack, Riley and Bozer would follow.

With a last glance and a couple of waves at Mac and a few sighs and complaints, they did.

As the door clicked shut, Beth finished preparing the IV bag and line, and looked over at Mac, gesturing with her head towards the door, with a soft little smile on her face.

'For all practical intents and purposes, they haven't left you since you got here.'

He returned that smile, and stared at her for a long moment. (It was probably awkward, but he found he didn't really care.)

'You didn't either.'

It fell more on the side of 'statement' than 'question'.

She looked into his eyes for a moment before she responded.

'I…I couldn't leave you.'

They were, he supposed, dutiful words.

Since she was the Phoenix's doctor and he required medical attention, they were already true in that context.

But there was more than duty in her voice.

There was another silence, not uncomfortable, per se, but pregnant with something, then Beth held up the newly-prepared IV line and bag.

'This has to go back in your arm, Mac, I'm afraid.'

He sighed and nodded, and she put down the bag and pulled a sterile alcohol wipe from her pocket.

He found that even though he didn't want to watch the IV going into his arm, he also didn't want to look away from her, and compromised by staring at the top of her head as she worked.

She'd braided her hair into some kind of elaborate style, almost certainly, he thought, to keep her hands busy, given that Riley's hair was in a similar style and that there was a very long paperclip chain in a kidney dish on his nightstand right next to his Swiss Army knife, with a few loose paperclips here and there. (She'd probably put them there because she thought he might find the ready access to paperclips comforting in some way, and she really wasn't wrong.)

He had a sudden desire to unravel the braided crown she'd made of her hair, partly to work out the pattern behind it, how the locks of her hair interacted to form that style, and partly so he could have his hands in her hair.

He pushed that desire away (it was very, very inappropriate right now), and was instead suddenly assailed by a series of memories.

Flashes of the 36 hours he'd been informed that he'd spent unconscious in this bed.

He remembered Jack singing (terribly, as expected, but also a lullaby, which was very unexpected – Mac hadn't thought that Jack even knew any lullabies), and Patricia apologizing, and Bozer telling him all about how he was going to replicate that amazing not-birthday-just-using-you-as-a-guinea-pig eight-layered chocolate cake he'd made for Mac's thirteenth as soon as Mac was well enough to eat a huge slice of it, and Riley describing her pretty elaborate plans for a new gaming rig that she wanted his help with.

He also remembered…

'…In other news, today is Thanksgiving. My family will be gathering in Chicago for the usual feast at my parents' house. My guess is that it won't be much fun, what with me having died ten days ago. Hell, they probably just got done with my funeral. I wonder if they'll ever find out what really happened. I've been so busy staying alive that I never thought of what it must be like for my parents. Right now, they're suffering the worst pain anyone can endure. I'd give anything just to let them know I'm still alive. I'll just have to survive to make up for it…'

As Beth straightened up, the IV back in his arm, and moved the pole closer to his bed, Mac sought out her eyes and blurted out the thought, the realization, that had just crystalized in his brain.

'You read to me.' She stilled as soon as those words left his mouth. 'You read me The Martian.'

Her cheeks pinked a little and she shifted a bit (he supposed that it made an awful lot of sense for her to react this way; reading to one of your patients would probably be considered crossing some kind of line, though it was very acceptable line-crossing by Phoenix perspectives), but nodded.

'…Yes…I…I thought you could do with some of Watney's spirit, thought it might help keep nightmares away or something like that, help you get better in some way.'

He smiled up at her, a broader smile than he probably should have had, considering what he'd just been through, but it'd come very naturally.

'Well, I do have an excellent doctor looking after me, I'm sure I'll be better in no time.'

She shook her head at him with a wry smile.

'Flattery will not get you out of here any faster, Mac. You know that.'

If my life was a romance novel, this would be the moment in which I say something witty about flattery getting me a date with said excellent doctor, which would naturally lead to me getting said date, and if it was a certain kind of romance novel, us making out in this infirmary bed and getting caught by Jack and Bozer and Riley and Patricia when they return from debrief.

But my life is definitely not a romance novel.

He knew she couldn't read his mind (despite the fact that from time to time, she claimed – like most of his loved ones - that she could see the cogs turning in his head – probably, he thought, because of his apparently-distinctive thinking-face), but somehow, she seemed to have some kind of inkling of what he might be thinking, because they ended up looking at each other for a moment.

A moment that bore quite a similarity to those moments from romance novels, as far as he could tell.

Then, it was broken by Beth stepping away and pulling out a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade, which she handed to him with a rather firm look.

Obediently, the smile on his face not disappearing, he took it, opened it and had a sip as she spoke.

'We need to get some food into you. Would you prefer dry toast or saltine crackers?'

He swallowed his Gatorade and looked up at her, affecting a hopeful sort of expression.

'Any chance of me convincing you to let Bozer make me tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches?'

Mac's absolute favourite comfort foods were tomato soup, prepared according to the Jackson family secret recipe (which Bozer, of course, knew), and grilled cheese sandwiches.

His mother and grandfather had prepared those for him whenever he needed comfort or cheering up, and sometimes, just because.

Beth shook her head firmly with a sympathetic little smile.

'Sorry, Mac. That's probably a couple of days away.' She raised an eyebrow at him. 'You know that.'

He gave a little shrug and a smirk.

'Never hurts to ask.' He took another sip of Gatorade. 'Toast, please?'

She shook her head, still smiling, then made for the door.

'I'll be back in a few minutes.' She narrowed her eyes at him. 'No escaping.'

Ambivalence describes the state of having simultaneous conflicting reactions, beliefs or feelings towards something.

It's true that I hate being stuck in the infirmary.

But I also really want to stay on her good side.

And not that I'm ever going to admit this out loud, but attempting to escape the proximity of a beautiful and intelligent woman, who is very much not evil?

I'm not that crazy.

MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

Mac smiled as he took a bite of the first triangular half of the grilled cheese sandwich on the plate in front of him, having already drunk a third of a bowl of tomato soup.

He was sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, and Bozer was humming to himself as he made a second grilled cheese sandwich. There was a stack of assembled but un-grilled sandwiches (a literal stack; it was a foot high and Mac's best friend was assembling even more as the sandwich in the cast iron grilled) on the counter by the stove. Beth was sitting next to him, sipping on her own bowl of tomato soup, and keeping a careful eye on him (she'd been doing that practically constantly for the last three and a half days, since he'd woken up).

Riley was sitting on the couch, grinning proudly as she drank her own bowl of soup and watched Jack play a game on her laptop (she'd coded a game that allowed you to throw darts at Nikki's face), the older man whooping occasionally and completely ignoring his bowl of soup, which was sitting on the coffee table. Patricia was watching while she drank her own soup with no small hint of amusement, and Mac quickly roughly calculated the odds of her actually playing the game (they weren't half-bad).

The smile widening a little, he glanced back down at the second half of the sandwich on his plate, and nudged the plate towards the young woman beside him.

Beth looked down at the sandwich half, then back up at him, looking rather reluctant to take it. (Mac figured that she thought he needed the food, which was true, but Bozer was making a near-mountain of them, and this was getting cold, since he could only eat one half at once anyway.)

'The last time I tried to eat both halves of a sandwich simultaneously, I was fourteen and had made an ill-advised bet with Bozer.'

With a little smile and no small amount of curiosity in her eyes, Beth took the sandwich half and bit into it, chewed and swallowed.

Then, she raised her brows at him.

'You can't leave it there, you've got to tell me that story now!'

Swallowing his own mouthful of sandwich, Mac shook his head with a wry look.

'I dug myself into that hole, didn't I?' She nodded sagely, and he drank some of his tomato soup before he continued. 'Well, I guess I should preface the story by emphasizing that I was fourteen and Bozer was sixteen and we were a bit stupid at that age…'

AN: This was a rollercoaster to write, was it one to read as well?

I suppose if the X-Men reboots exist in this universe, Lucas Till must also exist. (Similarly, since CSI exists in this universe, so does George Eads.) Pretend that nobody has noticed the uncanny resemblance in this universe (unlike most of my other universes), please?

You could also consider the bet that Mac lost that he mentions to Beth as the bet that Bozer used to force him to ask Darlene Martin to Prom.

We've got one more episode left, before this story comes to a close (but not an end – every end is a beginning, remember?), and I'm pretty sure most of you can predict what's going to happen…

Next episode: 2.22, Bobby Pin. Murdoc is back, and this time, it's all personal. He's after Mac, and of course, the best way to get to Mac is through the ones he loves…and Mac will do anything to protect his loved ones. Anything.

Again – please no spoilers for 2.02, Muscle Car + Paperclip. (Though – I'm always up to discuss just about anything MacGyver, if you'd like to have a chat about the ep, either say so in a review and I'll PM you after I've seen the ep, or PM me in 24 hours – I'll have seen it by then!)

Thoughts on 2.01, DIY or Die. I definitely enjoyed the episode, it was definitely the show we know and love! The take on what's going on with Mac's dad is definitely fascinating; I'm glad it's going to be a (pretty big) storyline on the show. (I think Mac's dad is going to turn out to be some kind of secret agent who had to leave to protect his son, which will make for something very interesting, albeit a bit cliché. Either that, or Mac's dad is a bad guy and runs The Organization…which would be even more interesting – that was actually the original plot for Every End is a Beginning…)

Thoughts on Samantha Cage: I'm on the fence about her. I really do like her as a character (she's badass, she's got a strong sense of right and wrong and she's not afraid to stand up for what she thinks is important, no matter what – be that sacrificing her career to save a friend and a teammate or calling out Jack) and I liked her in that episode, but I have some concerns about the direction they might be taking her character. I don't want her in the field with Mac and Jack all the time (because they're Mac-and-Jack – their dynamic is most of the framework around which this show is built!), and I have some reservations about her potentially becoming Mac and/or Jack's love interest (I may well be reading this wrong, but a character telling another in their first episode that they never date people they meet at work feels like it's setting up said character to change their mind…) Anyway – point is, I've got my reservations, but who knows? Maybe I'll really like her after a few episodes.