A/N: Sorry for the late update, everyone! I really wanted it to be ready before last Friday, but alas, that didn't happen. I had a cold last week and my brain was only working enough for me to go to classes and then crash. Thank you for your patience and support!

I am a full-time college student. I am going to try to update this story on a regular basis, but I'm not sure how successful I will be at that. Finals are coming up quickly, so I probably will not have as much writing time as I want in the next few weeks. I will promise, though, that I will not stop writing and updating until this story is finished. I want to find out what happens just as much as you guys do! Thank you so much for your continued patience and support!

Another BIG shout-out to my sister who Beta'd! Love you!

IMPORTANT: I just heard that CBS has plans to cancel MacGyver! This is unacceptable. If any of you wish to take action, please sign my fellow writer MacRiley Edits' petition to #SaveMacGyver: { : /www. change p/cbs. -save. -macgyver.} [Just copy and paste the contents of the braces without the extra spaces. Sorry, won't let me leave the URL!]

In a Dark Room

Not Ideal

"Riles!" Mac called, urgency in his voice.

Riley stirred, her brain fuzzily trying to remember where she was. Instead of the warmth of their blankets around her, she felt a cold hard surface. Instead of Mac's arms around her, she found his hands in hers, but they were bound behind her back with thick rope.

"What…?" she asked, still disoriented.

"They gassed us, Riles. I'd wager a guess that we're in a cell of some sort."

She woke up completely at that. Right, the mission was to find a former member of Matty's team…or at least someone who knew that teams' SOS codes.

"Do you have your knife?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, I think they took it while we were unconscious. Your backpack and rig are gone too."

Riley sighed in frustration. Unbeknownst to her husband, she had bought a spare Swiss Army knife and phone that she kept in her backpack along with her rigs. She also kept their favorite granola and chocolate bars as well as a complete first aid kit. Now they had no tools at all.

"Any ideas, Mac?"

"Working on it," was his reply, as she felt his hands rubbing up against hers, obviously working on something to get them out of their bonds.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Taaapppp. Taaaappp. Taaaappp. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Shhh!" Riley said when she heard a sound coming from the wall, "Is that morse code?"

She felt Mac pause and listen as the message was repeated again.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Taaapppp. Taaaappp. Taaaappp. Tap. Tap. Tap.

He sighed deeply. "It's an SOS in morse code. I think whoever is in the next cell over is the person we were sent to rescue."

The tapping increased, this time, the message was different.

Riley felt her husband squeeze her hands.

"Yes. He said yes. We're coming to get you, buddy," he called softly so that their captures wouldn't hear.

—

The Phoenix Foundation

With Two Very Upset Babies

"Parker, I need a temporary war room set up in the Medbay," Matty told the agent as she and Bozer passed her in the hall with two crying babies.

"On it," Parker responded, tapping commands into her tablet.

"I need someone to check up on my goddaughters," Matty announced as soon as she and Bozer had crossed into the Medbay.

"What seems to be the trouble?" Dr. Uccello asked as she pointed them in the direction of a private room.

"They seem to be feverish and they're fussy because of it," Bozer responded, gently bouncing Jackie in a futile attempt to calm her.

"Okay," the doctor said, reaching into a drawer in the room and retrieving an infant thermometer that Matty had insisted the Medbay was stocked with the moment Riley told her she was pregnant. Matty couldn't afford to lose her two best agents who were also her family, so she made sure that the MacGyver twins were well-cared for when they were at HQ.

Dr. Uccello gently took Charlie out of Matty's arms and lay her in the middle of the gurney in the room to take her temperature.

"Definitely a fever," she said as she replaced Charlie's diaper.

"Next one," the doctor declared as she handed Charlie back to Matty and took Jackie out of Bozer's waiting arms.

"Two for two," the doctor declared as she redressed Jackie and handed her back to Bozer. "I'll be right back with some acetaminophen for them. In the mean time, I'm going to send a nurse your way to weigh them so we get the correct dose."

Matty took a deep sigh a relief. "Thanks Doc."

Dr. Uccello smiled. "My pleasure."

As soon as the doctor left the room, Parker entered it with a team of people with portable TV screens in tow. Parker then tapped a few commands onto her tablet, and the war room was all set up in the Medbay.

"Thanks Parker," Bozer said, relieved to once again be seeing the visuals of Mac and Riley's heat signatures even though he knew that they couldn't communicate with them.

"No problem," Parker said as she exited the room.

After they got some acetaminophen into the twins, the little girls quieted down.

Bozer sighed. Finally.

"See, Jackie?" he said to the now-sleeping baby in his arms, "You're going to be just fine. And so are your parents." I hope.

—

A Little Tied Up At the Moment

Still Trying to Get Out

"I'm thinking," Mac said after Riley asked him about their escape plan for the third time in the span of fifteen minutes.

She sighed. "Sorry Mac, I'm just stressed."

She felt Mac sigh against her back. "I know, Riles, I am too. But we just have to keep going."

Riley squeezed his hands. "Nothing's more dangerous than the bomb at your feet," she responded, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. She was more worried for her children than she was for herself. What if they didn't get out of here? What if…?

Stop. Don't go there, Riley. She chided herself. Calm down. We always get out. Besides, who's better at getting out of these situations than Mr. Can-Do? No one. You're in the best hands. Your husband's hands.

Suddenly, the door to their cell slammed open and they were left blinking in the harsh light that streamed in.

Three armed men in masks marched into the cell, surrounding the MacGyvers and pointing their rifles at the agents.

An unarmed man in a red mask walked in behind them with an air of confidence about him.

"Look who we have here!" he said, clapping slowly. "After all this time, someone finally shows up! About time!"

"And who do you think we are?" Mac asked. Riley could tell that he was just as surprised as she was.

"Nuh-uh. I ask the questions here, and you answer them," the man said, slowly pacing around the chairs, sizing them up.

Riley glared at the man, mentally burning a hole into his forehead.

"What makes you think we'll tell you anything?" she asked.

"Oh, just the fact that a few days ago, an unauthorized transmission was sent from the room we found you in, and here you are! Now, I want to know who you are and who sent you."

Riley just glared at him.

The man stroked her cheek in a disgusting imitation of the gentle gesture that Mac often did.

She winced, making her discomfort known. The man simply grinned. "Now, are you going to tell me what I want to know, or…?"

"Get your hands off of her!" Mac growled from behind her.

Bang!

Riley took a sharp breath as her mind struggled to process that she had just been shot in the leg. She bit her lip through the pain, and tried not to give her captures any satisfaction from hurting her.

"You have one hour," the masked man said, "before you either tell me everything what I want to know or I shoot her again.

Then he nonchalantly turned on his heel and slammed the door.

"Riles?" Mac asked, breathing hard in anger.

Riley groaned a little. "I'm okay."

Mac nodded swiftly before again rubbing the rope that was binding them against a sharp nail he found sticking out of the back of Riley's chair.

After a few minutes, the pressure against their hands was gone.

"I'm free," Mac announced and came around to check on Riley. After untying her, he took off his outer layer shirt in order to tightly bind the wound that was sluggishly bleeding.

"How is it?" he asked her, gently brushing her hair out of her face and cupping her cheek with his hand.

"Ugh," she groaned, leaning into his touch. His hand was the only one that would ever feel right to her.

"I think it's worse than childbirth."

Mac smiled, recalling her loud complaints in the Medbay during labor before she got her epidural.

"Well, if you look on the bright side, we will have matching scars after this," he said, attempting to both lighten the mood and hide some of his concern.

Riley glared daggers at him. "Not. Helping."

"Yeah, I know, sorry. Let's get out of here."

Riley nodded before accepting Mac's help getting on her feet.

He then pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and started to pick the lock.

Riley smiled to herself despite the pain. She had long ago given up on trying to get Mac to ask for a bobby pin, and she had gotten in the habit of always having at least one in her hair at a time, whether or not her style required it.

"Got it," Mac said upon hearing a satisfying click.

Riley winced as they eased their way into the abandoned hallway that was the prison area of the compound building. Their fellow prisoner couldn't be very far away.

They came upon the door almost immediately after exiting their own.

Riley leaned against it as Mac attempted to pick the lock.

"Mac," she said, giving her husband a significant glance when the door gave way under her body weight. It was unlocked already.

Mac furrowed his eyebrows and gently opened the door, trying not to make any sound that would alert their captures.

And there at the edge of the cell was the man that they had been tasked to rescue. He was thinner than any human being should be and the rest of his appearance was a mess- he had obviously been there for a very long time.

There was also something unmistakably familiar about him- something that Mac couldn't seem to place. He shrugged it off and, kneeling next to the man, began to gently untie his bonds and his gag.

"We're here on behalf of the US government, we're here to rescue you," he said, beginning his customary 'rescuing a prisoner' speech, but before he could continue, he felt the man's arms wrap around his body in a hug and he felt sobs wrack the poor man's emaciated frame.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you, hoss," the man said, his voice unmistakeable.

"Jack?!" Mac asked, pulling back and taking a good look at the man before him.

"It's me, Mac."

"Jack," Riley called from where she was leaning against the doorframe. With Mac's help, Jack stood up and slowly made his way over to his pseudo-daughter's side.

"Hi honey," he said, taking her into his arms and giving her a huge bear hug.

"It's really you," she sobbed, momentarily forgetting the excruciating pain that was the bullet hole in her leg.

Mac stood in stunned silence, still not quite over the shock that his old partner and brother in arms was not only alive, but standing right in front of them.

"We've got to move," Mac said as soon as his brain kicked back into mission-mode. They were still in danger.

"Can you walk, Jack?"

Jack looked at him, a mask of curiosity on what little of his face that Mac could see with his beard obscuring it. "Of course, man."

Mac nodded, "Okay."

Then he disappeared around the corner and into a nearby janitor's closet.

"What's he doing, Ri?"

Riley looked into the face of the only man she had only considered father, still in shock and awe that he was actually alive after all this time.

"I'm finding supplies to get us out of here," Mac said, dragging a cart and other janitorial supplies into the cell. He then dumped the supplies onto the ground and grabbed Jack's pallet to place on the bottom of the cart. Then he unscrewed the top shelf and took it off.

"Riley," he said, helping her limp her way into a sitting position on the cart.

"You're hurt!" Jack exclaimed as soon as he saw Riley wince.

"Yeah, our host decided that he disliked mouthy guests," she responded, gritting her teeth through the pain.

"Jack, I need you over here," Mac said, waving his partner over.

"Okay, I need you to copy what I'm doing so you can make these on your own," Mac said, demonstrating how to build a small chemical grenade.

"Okay, I got it," Jack said, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, "Why am I doing this part?"

"Because I'm going to go find our stuff that they took, or at least find a different first aid kit," Mac responded, "And besides, there's no one I would trust more to look out for Riley."

Jack nodded. "Okay, hoss. But hurry back and don't get into more trouble."

Mac smiled. "Don't worry. Now that we've found you, there's no way we would ever let you go again," he said, hugging his old partner.

Jack hugged him back before Mac went to say goodbye to Riley.

"Be safe," she said, hugging him.

"I will," he said before placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

Mac only looked back to relish in the gobsmacked look on Jack's face.

A/N: So many of you asked me if the mystery man was Jack. I'm so pleased to confirm that he is! Also, I feel like if I decided to make the man NOT be Jack, I would have several angry readers on my tail!