Murdoc felt MacGyver's forehead with the back of his hand and recoiled at the amount of heat he felt. He instantly went to the bandage and saw that it was soaked through with blood. He must have pulled his stitches in the ordeal earlier. Darn! How did I not notice? Chastising himself, he pulled away the bandages to reveal the nasty hole. Blood was escaping from it and spilling over.
Knowing what he had to do, he sterilized a needle. After threading it, he exhaled before jabbing it into the puckered skin. He took the needle in and out pulling the skin into a closed position. After finishing it off, he prepared a compress. It was going to be a long night…
AN UNLIKELY ALLY
Two days later, Murdoc was relieved to find that MacGyver's fever had finally broken. MacGyver was starting to look like himself again. His face had more color to it, his eyes were more alert, his vital signs were practically normal, and his wound was healing. He looked quite in contrast to Murdoc who had not slept the past few days. His hair was unkempt, his eyes were dark, and he lacked the energy and health that MacGyver had gained. Nevertheless, he remained steadfast in his vigil, watching over MacGyver.
"Well, the princess has finally awoken from her slumber," Murdoc said with a forced grin, poking fun at MacGyver.
"Have I been asleep that long?" MacGyver asked looking around.
"It's been two long days since your little accident when you pulled your stitches. You've had an infection this whole time. But your fever's broken, and I think you will live."
"You mean you…"
"Saved your life? Yes, I suppose I did. Although I do apologize. I was never trained to stitch properly. I'm afraid they look pretty nasty."
MacGyver examined the mound of bandages and carefully undid them to see Murdoc's handiwork. He was surprised to see that he was no longer bleeding, and a neat row of stitches lined his side where the gap had once been. "Doesn't look that bad to me…" His voice dropped off, as he rubbed his head. "Uh, thank you, Murdoc."
The two men sat in silence for a moment before MacGyver spoke up. "Why am I here again?"
Murdoc took the next several minutes to fill MacGyver in about his contract and subsequent forced retirement from H.I.T., Dmitry's involvement, and everything that had happened leading up to the present moment.
"So, you want my help to stop Dmitry?"
"Yes, and in return, I will turn over all of the information and files that I have on H.I.T."
"You've said that before, Murdoc."
"And this time, I really will give you all the files. H.I.T. has gone too far. I am done with them annoying me. Might as well have them locked up in safe hands."
"And what about you? Will you turn yourself in after all this is done?"
"Now let's not get ahead of ourselves, MacGyver. We must catch Dmitry first. And it won't be easy."
"I see." MacGyver nodded and gently pushed himself to a more upright position on the cot. "Well first we need to take care of Pete."
"How do you mean?"
"If Dmitry can't find us, sooner or later he'll use Pete as bait, right? I'm assuming Pete's information was in the file?"
"Right, of course. How should we get Thornton out of the way? There's really no safe place that he could go to escape Dmitry…"
MacGyver pointed with his finger. "Unless…unless we brought Pete here."
"You know, Pete's never going to find this place. And he'd never trust me enough for me to bring him here."
"Exactly, that's why you'll have to kidnap him."
"Kidnap? Pete Thornton?" Murdoc smiled. "This should be fun."
"But Murdoc, we don't have time for all your fancy preparations or whatever it is you do prior to a kidnapping. Just find Pete, use some of that harmless gas stuff or whatever, and bring him here. Okay?"
"Right, I'll go right now." Murdoc grabbed the keys from the table and was just about to go out the door when he stopped suddenly and removed a gun from a pocket in his coat. You might need this," he said, offering the weapon.
MacGyver stared at the gun and didn't move to take it.
"Oh right, you don't believe in using guns." He stuffed it back inside his coat. "I don't know what good this'll do but here." He pulled a small red object from his pants pocket and tossed it toward MacGyver.
MacGyver caught it and ran his thumb over the familiar scratches and marks that covered his faithful Swiss Army knife. "Need anything else in case Dmitry gives a surprise visit?"
"What kind of stuff do we have around here that I could use?"
"There's not much. Look's like a box of matches, a rubber band, an old flare, and a bit of string."
"Bring it all over here."
"Alright," Murdoc said, shaking his head. "Sorry there isn't any duct tape to go with that."
MacGyver smirked and accepted the handful of objects. He set them on the bed beside him.
"I hope it doesn't come to this, but just in case." Murdoc pulled a grenade out of the backpack and added it to MacGyver's pile. MacGyver looked at it disdainfully. "Just as a precaution."