NASA MISSION CONTROL

HOUSTON

1970

'…if you're just joining us, astronauts Jack Dalton, Caleb Worthy and Robert Reese are trapped over 200,000 miles from Earth, and are attempting to use the Lunar Module as a lifeboat to survive the return journey…'

NASA engineer Angus MacGyver, the youngest engineer employed at Mission Control by three years, listened to the radio broadcast with a rather grim and very focused expression on his face, as he ran schematics and numbers and half-baked ideas through his mind, toying with a paperclip all the while.

His colleagues in the room with him all had similar looks on their faces; next to Mac, his friend Charlie Robinson was staring at schematics for the LM. At the blackboard on one wall, Michael Taylor and Alfred Pena were scribbling with chalk, while Alex Lucas stared at the equations and diagrams they were producing and discussing, a look of intense concentration on his face as he solved a Rubik's cube without looking.

The door opened, and in strode Matty Webber (otherwise known as Matty the Hun behind her back), Flight Director, and Jim MacGyver (who happened to be Mac's dad, with whom he had a complicated and rocky relationship they were working hard to rebuild…with mixed results), Flight Controller and senior engineer.

Jim was carrying a LM lithium hydroxide canister for scrubbing carbon dioxide (which was round) and a CM canister (which was square).

He was followed by Jill Morgan and Riley Davis, from the Analysis and Computation Department, both women carrying boxes containing, among other things, a flight plan, a space suit and an assortment of plastic bags.

All the items that the astronauts on the Odyssey/Aquarius had with them.

Jim put down the canisters, and Riley and Jill tipped the boxes out on the table. The Flight Controller looked around the room.

'We need to work out how to put a square peg in a round hole…using nothing but this.'

His eyes lingered on his son for a moment.

If anyone could work out how to do this, it was him and Angus.

Probably mostly Angus, he admitted to himself.

TWO DAYS LATER

Mac watched, his breath caught in his throat, along with the rest of the Western world, as the Odyssey re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

He was exhausted, and probably also starving, but he hardly felt it.

(He had slept the bare minimum, possibly less, over the last couple of days, drinking huge quantities of coffee. He didn't really remember eating, but was fairly certain that he'd at least ingested three sandwiches, an apple, two bananas and four chocolate bars.)

(Those had been items that he'd been essentially ordered to scoff down while working by Michael's daughter, who had somehow barged her way into NASA by sheer force of will – multiple times – to feed her dad and his co-workers.)

If the parachutes didn't deploy properly, if the heat shields had cracked…

He finally exhaled as the CM came into view, parachutes fully deployed, drifting gently into the Pacific.

When Dalton's voice came through the radio, that burden that'd been sitting on his shoulders, pressing on his mind, since he'd been summoned to work late in the night four days ago, lightened considerably.

THREE DAYS LATER

Robert Reese grinned and reached out to grasp Mac's hand, pulling him into a hug, which the young engineer returned.

He had come far too close too many times in the last week to never seeing his good friend again. Never getting to eat his incredible shrimp gumbo or have the twins tell Uncle Mac all about their latest fly-fishing trip with their dad again.

'We can never thank you enough, Mac.'

Reese gestured with his head to Dalton and Worthy, clearly meaning the three of them.

Mac shook his head. Gossip spread fast; 'the mailbox' that'd adapted the lithium hydroxide filters was generally being attributed to him, rather than the whole team of engineers who'd worked so hard on it.

He might have come up with the 'breakthrough', having a lot of experience in (and a general fondness for) improvising using whatever you had on hand, but he could never have done it without them.

'Just doing my job.'

Worthy smiled at him, reached out to shake his hand.

'Doesn't mean you don't deserve thanks.'

Dalton, too, reached out and shook his hand firmly.

'From what I heard, we owe you big time, brother.' Dalton paused. 'I've heard people talk about you. Never thought some weird nerdy little engineering wonder kid would save my life…'

REESE FAMILY RESIDENCE

HOUSTON

ONE YEAR LATER

Mac smiled as he sat down in the Reeses' living room, a beer in hand.

The smell of Robert's amazing gumbo permeated the air, and he and Rose were sharing a smile over the pot in the kitchen.

On the living room floor, Beth (Michael's daughter who'd practically force-fed him during those terrible, long and slightly blurry days) was smiling as she braided Cassie Reese's hair into a French braid like hers.

(Just about everyone was already teasing them about the story they'd tell their kids one day about how they'd met.)

Sitting on the couch were Caleb and Olivia Worthy with their infant son, along with Al and Rachel Pena. Jill was making adorable faces at the baby between glances outside to where Alex, Bozer, Riley and Charlie were playing basketball with Kyle Reese and Annabelle Pena.

Meanwhile, Diane Davis' musical laugh echoed through the room as Matty told her a doubtlessly-embarrassing story about Jack, who looked put-out enough that Diane leaned over to kiss him on the cheek in apology.

There was a knock on the door, and when Robert yelled out 'come in', it opened to reveal Mac's dad, holding a six-pack of beer in his right hand and a pie from Mama Colton's in the left.

He and his son exchanged a glance, Mac giving a genuine, warm smile, something that Jim returned, albeit a little smaller and more reserved.

'You and your old man really have made progress.' Jack, plonking himself down on the arm of Mac's armchair, shook his head and took a swig of his beer, a little like he couldn't quite believe his eyes. Mac didn't blame him. The general opinion at NASA was that Jim MacGyver was an emotionally-distant asshole firmly convinced of his own intellectual superiority over everyone else. Seeing the guy smiling in a way that could only be described as warm and actually affectionate had to be a bit of a trip. 'I'm real happy for you, son. And real proud.'

Rebuilding their relationship had required Mac to be the better man, to forgive his dad for all his sins and let go of his well-deserved anger.

Mac smiled back at the astronaut, reaching out to clink his beer to Jack's.

'Thanks, Jack.'

Jack, Mac had realized soon after meeting him, said a lot of nonsense.

But he was also a very wise man, who always had a little bit of 'Jack wisdom' ready to dispense to his loved ones.

And those wise words and pieces of comfort and just being there had helped Mac rebuild his relationship with his dad in a way that even he, with his gargantuan vocabulary, couldn't adequately describe out-loud.

Still, Jack smiled back at him in a way that made Mac think that he got how much that simple thanks had in it.

AN: I watched Apollo 13 again, simply because it was on TV. This came out of my brain the next morning…