A/N: Last chapter! I hope you've enjoyed my little story. As always massive thanks to my wonderful beta Bkworm4life4 and I don't own MacGyver!
Mac didn't really pass out in the traditional sense, but the dizziness got to be too much, then his legs betrayed him and wouldn't hold him, so down he went. He did manage to somewhat catch himself so that he didn't hit his head against the floor, then he let himself roll onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. He could hear someone shouting from what sounded like far away. It sounded like Jack and something about a medic, Mac drifted then Jack was hovering over him. "Glad you could make it." 'Does my voice really sound that weak?' Mac thought, as he tried to push himself up, hating to appear weak in front of Jack and everyone else who were coming in. But Jack laid a hand on his chest gently holding him down.
"Whoa there Hoss. Just stay down there for a little bit. You're a sight for sore eyes." He grinned down at Mac. "Well I should say you're a sore sight for my eyes."
Rolling his eyes at his friend, Mac gave him a weak smile, "I'm feeling a bit better, honest. I just got a little dizzy, so can I at least go sit in the chair?" Mac gave Jack his best pleading face.
"Fine," Jack sighed. "Sonny, could you?" He motioned at Mac. A large bearded guy with the Texas flag on his vest appeared on the opposite side from Jack.
"Howdy there, need a hand?" The guy Mac assumed was Sonny asked.
Jack answered, "If you'll get his right side, I'll get his left and we'll help him over to that chair."
"He is awake and can speak for himself, you know." Mac muttered, a harsh cough breaking off any other objections, but neither man paid any attention to him. They grasped his arms and helped him stand up, balancing on his good leg. The world spun sickeningly around him, and while he hated to admit it, he was glad that they were there supporting him.
"Go ahead and sit down." The third guy had brought the chair over to Mac so that he wouldn't have to walk. Mac sank gratefully into the chair. A water bottle was pushed into his hand. "Drink." This came from the same guy who had brought the chair over. "Jason Hays, leader of Bravo team. We've got our medic on the way to come look at you."
Mac nodded and took a sip of the water, and it felt like heaven on his parched throat. He didn't want to drink too much and throw it up so he just kept sipping on it. "Thanks for the assist."
Jack smiled his usual cocky grin, "I was going to come get you by myself, but they insisted on coming with." Sonny snorted at this as he marched a still whimpering Lazlo out into the hallway.
Mac took another sip of the water muffling a cough as not to worry Jack, "You get Brutus?"
"The redwood in the hallway?" Jack asked.
"Yeah."
"He'll be out for a while. any others that you know of?"
"Not that I am aware of, I'm sure there were more, but the two of them were the only ones that I ever saw." Mac answered wearily.
The clatter of boots in the hallway announced the arrival of several more guys, and two of them came into the room while Jason left. The first one who entered was slightly taller with dark hair and beard and was carrying a bag, while the other one was clean shaven with a mop of blonde hair. Sonny stepped up beside him, "I'd like to introduce you to our infamous medic, Trent and his lovely assistant Goldilocks."
Goldilocks flipped Sonny the bird and Sonny left to join Jason in the hallway chuckling the whole time, turning his attention to Mac he introduced himself, "I'm Clay."
"Mac."
"So Mac can you tell us what's wrong?" Trent asked as he set his bag down beside them and knelt down so they would be on the same level. As he talked he pulled out a penlight and started flashing it in Mac's eyes.
"Don't you dare say you're fine." Jack interjected before Mac even had a chance to speak. Mac huffed, Jack then addressed Trent and Clay. "Check him carefully. He has this bad tendency to say he's fine when he's dripping blood all over the place."
"Do you see any blood dripping?" Mac asked sarcastically. Jack responded with a glare. Mac turned his attention back to the medic. "I know I'm dehydrated. I most likely have walking pneumonia and an infected cut on my side, and probably a concussion. But the concussion is at least a week old, so I'm mostly over the worst of it." Mac paused to cough and took a drink. "And my left leg is messed up."
Trent nodded, then turned to Clay, "Go grab my other bag from the SUV and bring it back here." With a nod Clay way gone.
"So think he'll make it?" Jack asked dryly.
"I'm hurt, not in critical condition Jack." Mac answered with a glare and another harsh cough.
"Well infections and pneumonia can really do some nasty stuff if not treated properly." Trent said as he began to unpack the medical supplies he needed and an IV. He must have read the resistance on Mac's face to the IV because he said, "You admitted that you were dehydrated and while I'm glad that you are drinking that water, what you really need is this IV, plus I'm going to be administering some antibiotics and pain relief and I'll need the access for that."
Mac bit back his objections because he knew that Trent was correct, even if he didn't want to admit it. As a sign of good faith he presented his good arm to Trent. Jack leaned down and poked at a spot about halfway down Mac's forearm, "That's where they can usually hit a good vein." Mac shot him a dirty look, but Jack ignored it and continued on. "I keep telling Mac here that he just needs to get an x tattooed there so that everybody knows." Mac couldn't stop the eye roll this time even if it made his dizziness worse. Trent even snorted a laugh while he was getting the IV set up and Mac's arm clean.
"You might feel a slight pinch." Trent warned as he slid the needle in.
Clay appeared back in the doorway with a bigger bag, as Trent taped down the line. Trent opened the new bag pulling out a few bottles and a syringe and eyed Mac before filling the syringe. Mac figured it was the aforementioned antibiotics and pain relief. He wanted to say that he didn't need the pain meds, but he knew that cleaning out the cut on his side was not going to be fun at all and he would need all the pain relief that Trent could give him. So, he fought against his natural instinct and let Trent inject the contents into the IV unchallenged, even though he did register the look of surprise on Jack's face. Once Trent was finished he asked, "So where is this infected cut at?"
Mac attempted to talk, but was cut off by a coughing fit, so he just lifted the side of his shirt to reveal the gash on his side.
"Oh Bud." Jack, winced in sympathy.
"Yeah, I'm going to say that's infected." Trent said as he gingerly touched it. It was still hot and red looking, and now had something draining out of it. "I'm going to have to get this cleaned up as well as I can before…" He trailed off. "So where are you going after this, back to the safe house? If you're going back there then I can do all this when we get there."
"Does Matty have exfil waiting?" Mac asked turning to Jack.
Jack nodded, "We have a plane waiting to take us back to LA as soon as we are ready to go. Once we are back he can receive medical attention at the Phoenix."
Trent nodded, "Ok so I'm just going to do a light clean up of this so that it won't get any worse, but it's going to need debridement." At Mac's nod he continued, "So I'm going to wash it out then pack it with medicated gauze, then secure that with a bandage. I'm going to be honest, this isn't going to feel good." Mac bit his lip and nodded. Just the light prodding Trent had done was sending little bolts of agony through his system. Another coughing fit hit him and he doubled over with the force it. He felt Jack's hands steady him, then another hand slipped into his.
"I know how bad this hurts, man. Go ahead and squeeze. Just channel all that pain you're feeling into squeezing my hand." It was the blonde guy, Clay as he knelt down beside Mac. He nodded and with the first wipe of the cloth over the cut he gripped Clay's hand hard. "So uh, does Jack give you stupid nicknames like Sonny does to me?"
Mac bit his lip and tried not to pull away as Trent hit a really sore area, "Yeah," gasped then taking a slightly deeper breath. "My first name's Angus, so the first six months we were paired together he called me Carl's Jr."
"Slowest bomb nerd, with that silly hamburger name in the Army." Jack said gripping Mac's shoulder to steady him.
Jack's touch helped to ground him, so he took a breath and added, "Our boss likes to call me Blondie or Baby Genius."
Clay chuckled, "Yeah, I get Blondie too. Let's see along with, Covergirl, Frodo, Fabio, Captain America, I actually like that one. But don't tell him that. Oh, the lost Jonas brother, Ken doll, Bam-bam, and Wonder-boy. I'm sure there's more."
"Mac here's also a wonder kid." Jack supplied.
With a sigh that had nothing to do with the pain he was in Mac corrected Jack, "Wunderkind Jack, wunderkind." He bit back a moan, that turned into a cough.
"Tomato, to-ma-to." Was the reply.
Clay grinned at Mac, "Wanna hear something funny?"
"Sure?" Mac gasped.
"Sonny's scared of water."
"Am not!" Was hollered from the hallway. "I'm just not fond of open oceans."
Clay gave Mac a commiserating look, "He totally is scared of water."
Between Clay distracting him and Jack's reassuring grip on his shoulder, he was able to make it through Trent cleaning up his side. Mac felt spent once the ordeal was finally over.
"All we have left is to check out your leg." Trent reassured Mac. Mac managed an exhausted nod.
"So what kind of food do you want waiting for us?" Jack asked as he pulled up the other chair right beside Mac's but out of the way of where Trent and Clay, who were opening up the leg of Mac's filthy pants, were working. "You know Bozer's gonna wanna fix ya a five course meal. I can just hear him exclaiming at how skinny you've gotten and how his momma would say you need fattening up." Mac smiled, he could just hear Momma Bozer's voice saying that. "And Riley not to be outdone by Bozer would have rigged some cool electronic feature or else she would throw in with Bozer and they would have cooked enough to feed the whole neighborhood. You remember that one time when Bozer did feed the whole neighborhood?" Jack prattled on, but between his voice and the drugs finally kicking in Mac felt a lot more relaxed until Trent pushed on a sore spot causing Mac to yelp and attempt to draw back his injured foot.
"Sorry," Trent apologized. "So you'll have to follow up with your doctor, but I don't think anything is broken, but an x-ray can tell you that for sure. I'm going to go ahead and put a splint on it, to stabilize those ligaments, then once you get on the plane you can put ice or heat on it." As Trent was finishing up Jason walked back in.
"So apparently your boss is one scary lady." He started out with.
Both Jack and Mac laughed at that. "You have no idea man." Jack agreed, "She's not called Matty the Hun for no reason."
"Anyway, she invited us to fly back with you, so we'll be flying back to the States with you and handing over our prisoners to the CIA here." Jason tapped his phone, "so let's get all loaded up."
Jack and Clay helped support Mac for the journey back to the SUV's, then up into the plane. Once they got Mac situated on his usual couch, Trent came over switched out the IV bag for a fresh one and injected some more meds into it. He must have upped the pain meds or given him a slight sedative because Mac drifted off almost immediately, and slept all of the way back to the US. When they landed in L.A. Jack gently shook him awake. "Hey Hoss, we're back."
Slowly sitting up Mac carefully rubbed his face. Looking around he realized that the SEAL team was no longer on board, "So what did he give me, and where did they go?"
Jack smirked at his friend, "He just gave you something to help you get some much-needed rest, and they got off when we landed to re-fuel. Don't worry I got your new besties contact info, so you and Goldilocks can set up a play date while Sonny and I do some manly things. You ready?" Nodding Mac offered his hand to let Jack help him up. Once upright he tried out his leg, and found out that it would support him and didn't hurt half as bad as it used to. In fact he was feeling quite a bit better.
"So, think we could skip Phoenix medical entirely and just go home? I'm feeling a lot better." Of course he ruined that statement by having a coughing fit. "I promise?"
"Nice try Bud, but we've already got you a reservation at medical. How would they feel without seeing your smiling face today?"
"They would be thankful that they didn't have to deal with your helicopter hovering self." Mac shot back.
"Ah, probably," Jack admitted. "But I believe there's some people who are waiting to see you." They had reached the door and Jack pointed out the Phoenix SUV that was parked beside the plane with Bozer and Riley standing beside it.
"Hey guys," Mac greeted them as he hobbled off the plane on onto the tarmac.
Bozer held out his arms to hug Mac, then seeing the condition he was in, stopped and just patted him on the shoulder gently. "Glad your home roomie. You had Riley worried there for a bit."
Riley rolled her eyes, "Don't let him fool you. He was counting the days until your rescue. I think he may have sprouted a grey hair or two."
Frowning Bozer patted his head, "I do not have grey hairs!"
"All right you two, we need to get Mac here to medical." Jack said as he ushered Mac towards the waiting vehicle.
"Bu-" Mac started to say.
"IF you are about to say anything other than sure Jack, let's go Jack. I will taze you and drag your twitching body to medical. Trent literally put gauze into your side, which looked horrid by the way. And while I'm glad that your cough isn't as bad as it was, you still need to be looked at." Jack was giving Mac his serious don't even try to argue with me face.
"Fine," Mac said reluctantly as he coughed into his elbow and then limped to the waiting car. The ride to the Phoenix was quick and they were soon pulling up to the entrance closest to medical. One of the team's favorite nurses, Justin, was waiting for them with a wheelchair. "I can-," Mac started to protest before he was cut off by a cough as Justin glared at him.
"Sit in the chair." Justin commanded.
With a sigh Mac complied, although he was feeling much better he was still tired. Logically he knew it was only because he had gotten fluids, some antibiotics, and a little rest. He also knew that if he didn't get more treatment he would get worse. But the other part of him just wanted to go home and curl up in his bed and sleep it off. Jack followed behind them as Justin pushed the wheelchair while Riley and Bozer left to update Matty. Once in the examination room Mac climbed on the bed without too much fuss as his side was starting to hurt again. Justin pulled out his tablet, "So this is what was relayed to us by the medic. Stop me if we have anything wrong or are missing anything." Mac nodded. "Acute dehydration, pneumonia, infected cut to the side, malnutrition, possible ligament damage to the leg, possible past concussion, and more bruises that we know what to do with." Justin looked up at Mac.
"Sounds about right." Mac agreed tiredly, as a coughing fit doubled him over for a second. He was still exhausted and since the painkillers had worn off he was starting to feel rough again. Every ounce of him wanted the familiarity of his own room and his own bed, but he knew they would most likely keep him over night, and to be so close, but yet so far away sucked. Maybe, just maybe if he behaved they'd let him go home.
As if reading his thoughts Justin said, "I know how much you detest being here, so we are going to do our very best to get you home tonight, but I'm making no promises." Jack, who had taken a seat beside the bed snorted a laugh. Both men shot him a look. "First thing we're going to get a new IV going, draw some labs, and get some of the usual readings."
"First could I get a bathroom break real quick?" Mac asked embarrassed then added, "And maybe a shower? I'm disgusting." For the past two weeks all he had was a literal pot in the cell with him, which was never emptied, so he was glad to be able to actually use a toilet and have running water to take a shower in.
"I'm not sure…." Justin started to say.
Mac pleaded his case, "I haven't had a shower in over two weeks, I know I reek and I feel gross. Please…"
"It was so bad that the SEALs were even commenting on it." Jack interjected.
Rolling his eyes Mac ignored Jack and continued, "I just need to feel clean, and I promise to use the shower stool so I won't fall over."
Justin nodded, "Okay, but only if you promise to do a few things. First you need to give me a urine sample and let me draw a blood sample really quick. Second you have to promise to keep the door cracked. I know Dalton will be lurking outside in case anything happens." Mac nodded and started to slide off the bed. "But before any of that let me get your vitals."
Sitting still on the side of the bed Mac let Justin get his vitals and the blood samples, then he slowly limped into the small bathroom. From past visits he knew where everything was located. "Hey Hoss, just holler if you need me. And if you start singing, I'm going to record it and send it to Matty," he paused, "and Bozer and Riley too."
That got a smile out of Mac. Balancing on his good leg he started the shower running, then slowly undid the splint on his leg, and eased his filthy clothes off, dropping them into the garbage can. He hated to be so wasteful, but he never wanted to see them again, not to mention that there was no bringing them back. Before stepping into the shower he caught sight of himself in the mirror above the sink. There were bruises everywhere. They were all in various stages of healing; some were the ugly dark purple, while others had faded to a yellowish green, while others were still red. He looked awful. The various cuts on his face didn't help with his appearance either. He checked to make sure the loose tooth from earlier was still ok then with a sigh stepped into the warm shower. It felt heavenly on his tired and sore body. A wave of relief hit him so hard that he had to sit down on the stool. Pausing he enjoyed the warm water cascading down his back, even after the water boarding he still enjoyed his shower. "Doin' ok in there hoss?" Jack called to him.
"I'm good." Mac coughed and spit the mucus down the drain. Relaxing time was over, so he quickly lathered up and washed his hair, then the rest of his body. The water going down the drain looked positively filthy. He repeated the process until the water draining was fairly clean. Stepping out of the shower he noticed that Jack had set out a fluffy towel, a hospital gown, and some new underwear which he was very thankful for.
"Justin said to leave the leg thing off." Jack hollered into the room.
Mac stepped out of the bathroom feeling worlds better, even his cough had gotten slightly better. The hot water vapor had opened his chest up making it easier for him to breath.
Justin reappeared once Jack got Mac settled back on the bed. Just by having the shower he felt much better, but his energy had pretty much disappeared. "I'm going to get another set of vitals, and then we'll discuss your treatment plan." Mac nodded his acceptance and held out his arm for the blood pressure cuff. Once Justin was finished he said, "Well it's a lot better than what I was expecting, as were your blood and urine samples. So, in just a second the x-ray tech will be in to get some images of your chest and leg to see if anything is fractured. Then I'm going to examine that wound, then Dr. Lam will be in after that to treat it and examine the leg and tell us what the x-rays found. Sound good?" Before Mac had a chance to ask Justin said, "And yes, we're still going to try to get you out of here tonight, if you keep cooperating."
That perked Mac up, "I swear I'll be a model patient."
Justin laughed and was about to reply when a swift knock followed by the door opening and Kat Jewell, the large x-ray tech, rolled her machine in interrupting him. "Hey Mac, glad your back."
"Hey Kat," He paused for a cough. "It's good to see you too."
She smiled, "Jack, Justin, if you guys wouldn't mind stepping out for a minute." Once they stepped out Kat was able to quickly snap the x-rays of his chest and leg. Once she was finished she bade Mac good bye and was out the door as Justin and Jack re-entered the room.
"Okay Mac, let's get that side taken care of. I'm going to restart the IV, and get some pain relief going, because this isn't going to feel good." Justin warned. Jack moved around to the other side of Mac and stood beside his shoulder placing his hand on Mac's shoulder as a reassurance that Mac was sure he would need, as he had earlier. Once Justin was finished with the IV he peeled back the gown just enough to expose the bandage. "The SEAL medic did a good job." He remarked as he gently removed the top bandage, then the packing. "Yeah, this looks awful. I'm going to go ahead and administer a few shots of lidocaine to deaden the area. You're going to feel a few pinches."
Mac hissed when the first shot went in, Jack's hand tightened on his shoulder. The second one stung just about as bad and it was hard for Mac to hold still, sweat was starting to bead on his upper lip. He was almost at the end of his rope, but he managed to let Justin know before another coughing fit doubled him up. "Okay, only two more." Justin apologized. The last two didn't hurt as bad as the first ones, and Mac relaxed a bit against the bed. "Okay, while that's working, I'm going to get Dr. Lam. Just hang tight."
The door hadn't even completely closed before Jack was asking, "You doin' okay Bud?" Mac lethargically shrugged. His energy levels were almost depleted, he was clean, he was laying in as comfortable a bed as a medical setting would allow, safe, and most importantly of all medicated, so he half dozed as he waited for the doctor.
"How are we doing Mac?" Dr. Lan asked as she breezed into the room. "I see you haven't lost the big buffoon yet."
"And I see you still have the bedside manner of a snapping turtle." The two friends laughed.
Mac struggled to be more alert, but the pain medicine had hit him hard and was making him drowsy. "Hey Doc."
"So, I looked at your x-rays, and there are no breaks in your legs or ribs, there is just some deep bruising there, but you do have a mild case of pneumonia. It would be what some would call walking pneumonia, so we'll give you some antibiotics for that. Be sure to take the whole script even if you start feeling better, because it could come back worse if you don't. I'm going to hold off on the cough suppressants because as long as you are coughing something up then you need to keep coughing." Mac made a face. "Not fun I know, try to keep sipping on something cold." She had a seat on the stool that Justin had been sitting on. "Let's get a look at this little cut here. It needs a bit of cleaning up, then I'm going to put in some stitches." Thanks to the lidocaine Mac didn't really feel anything so once again he dozed, and before he knew it Dr. Lam announced, "OK, we're done there and it looks good to me. Justin will finish dressing it while I examine your leg." The two traded places. "You awake now Mac?" She asked gently.
"Yeah, I think so," He said, but a large yawn slipped from him.
Dr. Lam chuckled, "Let's get this finished so you can get some sleep. Let me know when something hurts, all right? No tough guy acts. I need to know what's affected." Mac nodded in understanding, and the examination passed quickly. "I'm pretty sure that the foot is just sprained, but it was aggravated by you having to continue to use it. Justin is going to wrap it up good, and I want you to ice it and then switch to heat for a couple of days. Then once the swelling has gone down a bit more we'll get an MRI to confirm. But for now stay off your feet, keep it elevated and get some rest."
"Yes, ma'am."
She made her way to the door, "And Mac?" Once she had his attention, "I'm going to let you go home as long as you assure me that you'll get some rest and someone stays with you to keep an eye out."
"Scout's honor," Mac swore.
Jack laughed, "You flunked outta Scouts."
With a laugh Dr Lam said, "See you later." Then she was gone. It didn't take Justin long to finish up bandaging up Mac's injuries and then bring him the prescriptions.
"Okey dokey, you just have to get dressed and then you're free to go." Justin announced. While Justin was getting Mac ready for discharge, Jack had run up to Mac's locker and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes for him to change into, and acquired a set of crutches to keep Mac from putting any weight on his foot. The two of them slowly made their way to Mac's Jeep, which was the vehicle that they had driven in to the Phoenix all those weeks ago. Once Mac was secured in the passenger's seat Jack pulled out.
"Once we get home, you're getting some of that soup Bozer's made, then it's meds and straight to bed for you. I figured I'd get the meds and anything else you might need while Bozer's fattening you up."
"Sounds great," Mac said tiredly. He knew Jack expected him to put up some kind of fight, but that plan sounded perfect right then. A few hours later, Mac was feeling content. He had had some soup and was finally laying in his bed enjoying just how comfortable it was. The pain pills were doing a job of numbing any pain and soon he was sound asleep.
A/N 2: Thus ends another story! Let me know your thoughts! Thanks for coming with me on this ride, I'll update my other story (Love, Lies, & Deception) starting next week!