PHOENIX PIZZA
BOSTON
2009
'…for the last forty-seven weeks, Jack Dalton has ordered a large meat-lovers pizza every Friday at the average time of 6:23 pm, with a standard deviation of three minutes.' Mac paced through the kitchen of the pizza place he worked at to supplement his MIT scholarship, genuinely worried. 'It's 6:41 pm on Friday, and he hasn't called yet. Ergo, something must be wrong.'
Mac's co-workers, his childhood best friend Bozer, who was studying film at MassArt, Riley Davis, a friend from MIT who was studying computer science, and Leanna Martin, Bozer's girlfriend and a pre-law student at Harvard, all exchanged a glance.
They were all familiar with Mac's crazy brain and the crazy things it noticed and computed. They were also familiar with what happened when Mac got bored (being a pizza delivery boy wasn't exactly intellectually stimulating, even if you didn't have Mac's genius-level IQ), and weirdly stalking their customers (unintentionally) was pretty harmless.
And they were all familiar with Mac's general concern for his fellow humans.
(Mac's grandpa had told Bozer, once upon a time, that the only thing bigger than his brain was his heart, and Bozer agreed 110% with that sentiment.)
(His bro was totally the world's smartest, goodest-good-boy Golden Retriever puppy.)
Eventually, after a glance at the two girls and a silent conversation (Bozer was an expert in the Care and Feeding of Angus MacGyver, and the girls – especially Riley – were learning), Bozer spoke up, reaching out to pat his best friend's arm.
'Bro, we love you, but…'
Leanna continued, raising her shoulders and gesturing.
'…don't you think you're making a few leaps?'
Riley took the ticket that the POS system spat out and pinned it up, glancing at him.
'That's crazier than usual, Mac.'
He glanced at the ticket, looking up the address on the mental map of Boston he had in his head.
'Well, the order's for the house behind Mr Dalton's…' It was a sizeable order, probably for a small party of some kind. '…so I'll stop by and check on him.'
Bozer grinned as he washed his hands to start making the pizzas.
'I'll put together one of his usual.' He shot Mac a significant look. 'You know, since he probably just forgot or something…'
Riley and Leanna exchanged a glance, full of affection and tinged with a bit of amusement and exasperation. Riley walked over to the till and punched in the employee discount code, then rang up a large meat-lovers.
The boys were too nice for their own good, sometimes.
JACK'S RESIDENCE
BOSTON
TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER
'…Mr Dalton?'
Mac, carrying a large meat-lovers after delivering the big order to the BU pre-med students having a low-key pizza party, knocked on their regular's front door.
It opened under his fist, and immediately concerned, Mac opened the door further, senses on high alert.
The house seemed normal (though, were those framed stock photos on the walls?), at least until he got to the living room at the back.
The living room was a mess.
And Mr Dalton was lying on the area rug in the middle, unconscious, and bleeding from what looked like two gunshot wounds to his abdomen.
Eyes widening, Mac ditched the pizza, ran over and knelt by the unconscious man's side. He seized some trinket from the coffee table (later, he'd note it was a silver Beowulf ring), tossed it at the glass French doors, breaking a pane, and yelled loudly as he pressed hard onto the wounds to try and stem the bleeding.
'Help! Call 911! He's been shot!'
His hands were covered in blood, but it wasn't working. Cursing, brain going at a million miles per minute, Mac pulled out his belt and got to work on a tourniquet.
He yelled again, hoping that someone had heard him. Mr Dalton needed real medical attention, but he also needed someone to try and keep pressure on his wounds just as badly, so he couldn't ensure both.
A few heads popped over the fence. Mac recognized two of them as the pre-med students who'd received his pizza delivery mere minutes ago.
Their eyes all widened as they took in the scene, before acting quickly. One of the girls, a blonde with glasses, whipped out her phone, while two of the boys boosted a second girl, a small brunette, over the fence. She ran over to the broken glass door, broke it further using a chair on the back deck, climbed through it, and crouched down next to Mac, who was pulling his makeshift tourniquet tight, applying additional pressure using his hands.
Her fingers went automatically to Mr Dalton's pulse point, and concern flickered across her face, and a touch of nervousness. It disappeared quickly behind focused calm, and she shifted and leaned down to start CPR.
By then, a couple of her friends had made it over the fence too, and the two boys crouched down on either side of the girl. One of them, with curly brown hair, spoke.
'EMTs are on their way, Jill says ten minutes.'
The other pre-med boy was focused on counting the number of CPR cycles, and had gotten into position to replace his friend if necessary.
Trusting that the pre-med students had the situation in hand (he had never actually performed CPR, and had gotten a C in Biology…), Mac got himself out of the way, before jumping up and starting to move furniture, clearing a space for the paramedics.
MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE
LA
TEN YEARS LATER
Mac, now an engineer at a biomedical company, raised an eyebrow at Jack as the older man opened the two pizza boxes at the top of the twin piles on his deck to reveal large meat-lovers pizzas, all kept warm with Mac's giant, jacked-up heat lamps.
'You're supposed to be watching your cholesterol levels.'
Jack gestured between the two of them and Bozer.
'Hey, this stays between us. What the docs don't know can't hurt 'em.' Mac opened his mouth like he wanted to say that the docs (especially a certain doc) would definitely know if Jack's cholesterol levels rose, but decided against it. Jack grinned, in a way that was soft and full of love and affection. ''Sides, I ain't giving this up…' He gestured at the pizza, then at Mac. 'Saved my life!'
It really had. If Mac hadn't noticed such a pattern and cared to investigate, Kovac's men would have ensured that Jack was in the ground with his old man.
Bozer grinned proudly, clapping his BFF on the arm affectionately, before pointing at the blonde.
'And it's totally appropriate for the occasion!'
Bozer was totally putting this into the movie he was writing about his BFF's extraordinary life. The symbolism of eating meat-lovers pizza on his bro's Stag Night was so incredibly amazing, given how he'd met the soon-to-be Mrs MacGyver.
Later, Bozer grinned as he ferried snacks from the kitchen to where the guys had gathered outside.
By the fridge, Jack was pulling out chilled beers and tossing them to Mac, who opened them with his Swiss Army knife, then slid them along the counter so they all clustered neatly together.
As usual, the two of them were bickering while operating completely in-sync.
'…yes, lycopenes have cardio-protective effects, but that does not mean that the tomato sauce on pizza negates the negative impact of the excess of processed meat!'
'But you told me that yourself, man-'
'I did not! I simply gave you a layman's summary on the latest research on-'
Bozer grinned wider.
You simply couldn't write a better unlikely bromance.
AN: With thanks to I'mcalledZorro.
