Mind Games + Rope + Rock + Paint Can
A year after his captivity in Tunisia, MacGyver is confronted with a nightmare from the past.
"Dad!"
His father was across the bridge, sitting on top of a pile of explosives and barrels of fuel. MacGyver tried to get to him, but he was too far away, and no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't get closer.
"Dad!" His father couldn't hear him.
It was too late. His father connected the wires….
Mac jolted awake, jackknifing off his pillow with a gasp. He looked around, expecting to see the fiery wreckage, but all he saw was his darkened bedroom. Turning, he looked over his shoulder and down, finding Riley staring up at him silently, obviously concerned.
"Did I wake you?" He asked groggily, wiping the sweat of his brow with one hand. He looked down at her, again. "Stupid question. Sorry."
Riley pushed herself up on one elbow. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, just…give me a minute." He rubbed his eyes, trying to wipe away the afterimages of the nightmare.
"Second one tonight," she observed quietly.
Mac nodded. "Yeah…happens sometimes. I'm sorry, I should have warned you."
He had a lot of nightmares. His dad's death, Jack's, Afghanistan, Charlie, Peña, Murdoc, the doctor in Tunisia, the list of things that haunted Mac's dreams seemed to get longer every year. Riley gave him a sympathetic look, reaching out to brush her fingers across his back.
"I'm not worried about me. You want to talk about it?"
Swallowing thickly, Mac ran his hands through his damp hair. She was the only person with whom he ever shared details of his nightmares. "Saw my dad. I, uh…I couldn't get to him. He's been on my mind a lot. I guess it's all those old case files we've been going through this week."
He slid back under the covers and wrapped his arms around Riley, drawing her closer. He kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry I woke you up."
"I don't mind."
Mac smiled regretfully, glancing at the clock. "You should it's…ugh, five minutes to six."
"It's fine," Riley said, wrapping her arms around him in turn. "Besides, what led up to Dream Night was pretty good."
Recognizing her attempt to get his mind off his nightmare by changing the subject, Mac played along, feigning offense. "Just 'pretty good?'"
Riley hummed as she tightened her arms around his torso. "Great."
"Just 'great?'"
She laughed. "Fine. It was fantastic."
Mac narrowed his eyes, pondering that for a moment, then nodded. "I can live with 'fantastic.'" He smiled at her deviously. "If you want, we can try for 'spectacular.' Least I can do for disturbing your sleep."
Riley shook her head, looking up at him doubtfully. "Mac, we have to be at work in two hours, and at the coffee shop before that. We don't have time for 'spectacular.'"
He glanced at the clock again, calculating. "Hm. How about 'terrific.' I think we can manage 'terrific.'"
She considered that for a long moment. The look in her dark eyes turned lecherous, bordering on indecent. "We do have about twenty minutes."
MacGyver laughed, and pulled her close. "I don't think it'll take more than ten, but I like your attitude."
MAC MAC MAC
"I do not snore." Mac asserted categorically. He sat next to Riley, across the table from Desi, at the small coffee shop they'd begun frequenting down the street from the Phoenix. They'd come a long way from not speaking at all after their break up a year earlier, and it was all to Riley's credit and hard work. She'd been the one to put her closest friends back on good terms. The three of them had been meeting for morning coffee twice a week for the past three months.
"Are you kidding?" Desi shot back over her coffee. "Your neighbors complain about it!"
Smiling and shaking his head, Mac set his coffee down and poked the table. "You have zero empirical evidence to back that up."
Riley leaned over the table, stage whispering. "All you have to do is tickle his side and he stops."
Desi's eyebrows raised. "Really?"
"And furthermore," Mac continued his spirited defense, until Riley's words caught up with him. "Wait, is that why you do that?"
"Yeah," Riley rolled her eyes. "Why else would I do it at four in the morning?"
"I thought you were flirting!" Mac sputtered.
Riley shook her head. "Nope, sorry babe."
Mac threw up his hands in surrender. "I'm going to get another coffee." As he withdrew from the table, he yelled over his shoulder. "I don't approve of the two of you being friends! You outnumber me!"
They laughed, watching him walk back to the counter. Desi sipped her coffee. "He looks tired."
"Two nightmares last night." Riley didn't go any further into it. Mac didn't like everyone knowing his troubles. Desi was aware of his nocturnal issues from her time with him.
Desi shook her head. "That's, what? Four this week?"
Riley picked at her cup. "Five. Digitizing all his dad's old case files has really gotten to him. I told him I could do it by myself, but…."
"You know Mac," Desi shook her head. "Once he gets something in his head there's no talking him out of it."
"Tell me about it," Riley muttered ruefully. She glanced at her watch. "We better get going."
Desi noted the time as well. "Right. I'll see you inside."
Mac returned to the table with his drink, watching Desi leave. He gave Riley a playful side eye, feigning hurt feelings. "Riles, I really appreciate all the hard work you've put in to get me and Desi to be friends again—"
"A sacrifice that I am honored to make," she retorted proudly.
"But, do all of our coffee dates have to devolve into the two of you making fun of me?" Mac finished, putting his arm around her shoulders and giving her a pouting look. She could see in his eyes that he didn't mean a word of it, so she answered accordingly.
"It keeps her from throwing things at you."
"She threw something at me yesterday!" Mac protested.
"You broke her phone. Again."
"She needed a portable spectrometer, I don't know a better way to—" He broke off laughing when Riley tickled his side, proving her case. "Stop it!"
She swiveled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Do you really care if we make fun of you in the morning?"
He grinned. "No. I can take it."
Riley grinned back. "Good."
Mac's eyes got that devious look in them again, and he lowered his voice. "You know, we didn't…quite make it to 'terrific' this morning."
"No!" Riley shook her head, laughing and swatting his chest. "You're going to make us late! Again!"
"I promise, we'll make it on time." Mac swore.
MAC MAC MAC
THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION
SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES
"You're twenty minutes late! Again!" Matilda Webber called out as they turned the corner.
"I told you…." Riley murmured, low enough so only he could hear.
"Oh, uh, that's my fault, Matty," Mac stammered, glancing at Riley guiltily. "I, um—"
"Can it, Blondie. Inside. We need to talk," she ordered, gesturing into the War Room.
Mac gave Riley's hand a loving squeeze, and her a worried glance, then dutifully followed. Bozer was walking the opposite way in the hall and stopped. "He in trouble again?"
Riley shrugged. "I don't know. Sounds like it."
"He blew up the centrifuge."
She waved that off. "That was last week; she's already yelled at him for that. I'm going to get a cup of coffee, I'll see you in the lab later."
"Didn't you just come from the coffee shop?" Bozer asked, eyeing her strangely.
"Oh, uh, I knocked mine over in the truck."
MAC MAC MAC
Matty whited out the windows as soon as they were inside. Mac stood at parade rest, as he usually did when Matty seemed to be in a bad mood, and waited for her to speak. She walked over to the wall monitor, then turned to face him. Her expression was tense.
"Mac, yesterday a wanted international fugitive turned himself in at the FBI's L.A. field office. He claims to have information on criminal organizations in five different countries, and he's willing to give U.S. law enforcement that information…if he can deal with one person and one person only: Angus MacGyver."
"Me?"
"I told the Bureau that I'd consider it," Matty said noncommittally.
MacGyver frowned. "Okay, who is it?"
"Mac, I'm going to tell you what I told the FBI. You are under no obligation to speak to this man. None."
He was starting to feel worried. Mentally, he ticked off all the people that might have Matty so concerned, Murdoc, Andrews, Mason…but the first two were in prison, and Mason was in the wind the last he'd heard. "Who is it?"
Matty activated the monitor, bringing up a file and a photograph. "Doctor Ian Page."
Mac's world seemed to contract when his eyes focused on the monitor. Ian Page. The man who'd tortured him in Tunisia the year before, and haunted his nightmares for months after.
"You can see why I didn't want to give the Bureau a firm answer until I talked to you," Matty said.
"Yeah," Mac breathed. His mind involuntarily flashed back to that day in Sidi Aïch. A lot of that day was a blur, but he remembered the Doctor and much of the nine hours of his interrogation with brutal clarity. He sank into a chair, staring at those icy blue eyes on the screen. He couldn't look away.
Matty stepped in front of him, reaching out and touching his hands. "Mac, just tell me you don't want to talk to him, and the FBI can just drop him in a Supermax and you will never have to see him again."
Forcing his brain to work, Mac furrowed his brow. "You said he has information?"
"There is no reason to believe he's telling the truth—"
"He didn't lie to me," he muttered quietly.
"Mac—"
"Matty, I'll do it."
She wasn't easily convinced. "I've read your report. I've read your psych evaluation. I know what he did to you and I know he's still in your head…."
"I have to talk to him," Mac said firmly.
"Why?" she asked, watching him closely.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then met her gaze. "Because, if I don't, he'll always be in my head. I need to do this."
Finally, she nodded. "All right. But, cards on the table? If you get in there and it looks like you can't handle it, I'm pulling the plug, and the good doctor will be dropped in a dark hole somewhere for the rest of his life."
Mac knew her well enough to know that she was already picking out that dark hole, regardless. He nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Matty."
MAC MAC MAC
"I don't know…."
Ian's bright blue eyes bored into his. "Angus, don't make me hurt you again…."
"Please…I don't know…."
"If you won't talk, maybe Riley will…."
"No!"
"Mac."
MacGyver jolted awake. His eyes darted back and forth, trying to get his bearings, before focusing on Riley's concerned expression. Her face was just inches from his on the pillow. "Riles?"
She reached over and brushed the hair out of his face. "You haven't had that dream in a while."
He reached up, taking her hand, and kissed it gently. "I'm so sorry. I keep waking you up."
Riley frowned slightly. "First, don't apologize. Second, now will you tell me what's been eating at you all day? You barely said three words after that meeting with Matty."
Mac took a deep, shaky breath. "He's back. He's in Los Angeles."
She studied him for a moment, clearly connecting the dots without his having to explain. "The Doctor?"
"Yeah."
"What's he doing here?" From her expression, Mac could tell she was already assuming the worst.
"Matty said he turned himself in to the FBI, but he'll only deal with me."
"She didn't agree to that, did she?" Riley asked, alarmed.
"I agreed to it," Mac replied, closing his eyes and steeling himself for her reaction.
Riley's tone was hard, but at least she didn't shout. "Are you out of your mind?"
He favored her with a self-depreciating grin. "Maybe. Pretty sure Matty thinks I am."
She started to reply, but MacGyver stopped her. "Riley, I—"
The alarm on his phone started blaring. It was 6:00 AM. Mac groaned. "Oh, come on!" He'd really been hoping to go back to sleep. Silencing the alarm, he looked back at Riley dejectedly. "Maybe continue this discussion over breakfast?"
MAC MAC MAC
"I don't understand," Riley said for a second time.
Mac looked up from his breakfast plate, not that he was eating anyway. He hadn't had an appetite since getting up. Patiently, he folded his hands in his lap. "Don't understand what?"
"I don't…I don't understand why you would agree to meet with that man. After what he did to you—"
"I'm going to meet him because of what he did," Mac said simply. At her look, he shook his head. "Riles…Matty's right. He's been in my head for a year. How long was it after Tunisia before I could sleep through the night?"
"Too long," she agreed solemnly. "Which is why this is a bad idea. He just popped back up on the radar, and you're already having nightmares again."
Mac sighed, staring at his hands. She didn't get it. He had to face Page, or he might never be able to move past what the man had done to him.
Apparently sensing that she'd lost the argument, Riley reached over and took his hand in hers. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
He laughed sardonically. "I'm sure I don't want to do this. But, I have to."
She nodded, then pulled him into an embrace. "All right. I've got your back."
"Thanks," he said into her shoulder.
"But I can't promise I won't shoot the bastard this time."
MAC MAC MAC
MacGyver sat in the interrogation room, keeping his hands folded in front of him on the table. Matty, Russ and Riley were watching and listening from the room's hidden video feeds, but only Riley was tied in on a private channel to his earpiece.
"Just remember, in this room, you are in charge."
"Yeah, I got it," Mac replied quietly, keeping his voice steady. It was easier said than felt. As the time got closer, he began to get nervous. He kept reminding himself that, this time, he was the interrogator, not Ian. Riley's voice in his ear was helping, a little.
The door opened and two Phoenix agents led the prisoner inside. There was a bag over his head to keep their location secure. His wrists were cuffed and chained to shackles on his ankles, and he wore a standard issue FBI prisoner jumpsuit. The guards seated him at the table opposite MacGyver, and pulled the bag off his head, then stepped outside.
Ian Page blinked a few times, eyes adjusting to the lights. When he realized who was on front of him, he smiled, fixing his gaze on Mac as if they were old friends. "Hi, Angus. Long time, no see."
TBC