The elevator doors opened, and he stepped off onto the grey office carpeted corridor where he starts to stroll to his office at the end.

"Mac!" Mac heard the familiar voice call out.

"Nope!" He exclaimed as the smaller man almost ran to keep up with him.

"I tried to call you, but it said your new number was out of service. What happened?"

"I used it to make a sonic wave." He said, evenly.

"Gee, Mac, that was a top of the line cell phone. The newest model."

"Well, being the boss has its advantages. I can instantly destroy any instant way to contact me."

"Yeah, about that-"

"No!"

"You don't even know what it is yet!" The man exclaimed as they entered Mac's office who realizes his secretary isn't at her desk.

"I don't need to know, Jack." He said, finally looking Jack Dalton in the eye. "In regard to you and me, you can guarantee the answer is a blanket no."

"You're the boss now, Mac!"

"Let's see if you understand this then. No, Nien, Nyet, Non, Nee, Nay, Dash dot dash dash dash."

"Come on-" His friend pleads in what he hoped was a cajoling tone.

"You can guarantee every time you ask something neither me nor the Phoenix Foundation will come running. I'm not some kid anymore who will help you out of a tight spot out of some deep brotherly bond we used to have. That ship has sailed, Jack." Mac marches into his office, with Jack hot on his trail, absently wondering where his secretary was hiding.

"But Mac-"

"Arrrgghhh!" He said, putting his fingers in his ears making a "Lalalala" sound closing his eyes in a vain attempt to ignore the man.

"Mac-Mac" he heard through his hands but continued to hum until Jack pulled at his shirt.

Mac opened his eyes, his hands immediately dropped when he saw his secretary looking in.

"I'll mark you down as a preliminary 'yes'." Jack tried again as Mac waved his secretary into the room.

"I said no, Jack." Mac reminded him.

"A maybe then." Jack insisted, as she handed him a small stack of newspapers.

"No, no - oh, what's the use!" Mac exclaimed, giving up in frustration.

"That's the spirit!" Jack exclaimed as Mac sits at his desk and opens the first newspaper tuning the other man out. Jack rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you get the papers in from Minnesota. What are you expecting to find, nothing ever-" but he paused at the stricken look on Mac's face. "What is it?"

"Susan Miller is dead." Mac's face dropped as he laid the newspaper on his desk.

"Susan Miller?" Jack exclaimed, recognizing the name. "My god!" Jack said, seeing the picture of the blonde woman from their youth.

"This is why I get the paper from Minnesota." Mac admitted softly.

"This is clearly murder." Jack said, standing beside Mac and perused the article over Mac's shoulder.

"I dated her in middle school. My first date was with her." Mac smiled painfully at the memory. "She was sweet as hell; how could anyone do this to her?" He said quietly. "Funeral is tomorrow."

"Well let's go to Minnesota, buddy," Jack suggested softly. "Pay our respects."

"Yeah, yeah, let's do that." Mac agreed, solemnly, staring at the photograph, deep in thought.

MacGyver tried to slip quietly into the back of the memorial service for Susan, but covert operation was never Jack's strong point, hushed sorry's and pardon me's blew Mac's cover right out the window as several of Susan's family followed the sound of the commotion with their eyes.

Mac tried to shrink down his six-foot plus frame, but it didn't work as word spread that Mac was in attendance. He watched quietly as the service continued.

"So, you and Susan dated huh?" Jack whispered to him quietly.

"In middle school, it was juvenile really. We never really spent any time alone together. There was a group of us." He said quietly, a slight smile on his lips as he thought of Susan before he shrugged. "But it was nice. Someone to hold hands with, put your arm around, have a first kiss with, and it wasn't as if you expected it to last forever, but it was just someone there to be sweet on."

He took a deep breath and looked over at Susan's grieving husband. "She developed an interest in Brad towards the end, and I didn't want to hold her back from having what she really wanted so we broke up."

"Nice, simple, no complications." Jack observed.

"Yeah, afterwards we were friends for a little while too, before I started dating Ellen."

"Mmm, you dodged that bullet." Jack said quietly.

"Nearly didn't." Mac continued. "Ellen didn't want me talking to ex-girlfriends." Mac admitted. "As far as I knew whether Ellen spoke to Susan-" he paused and shook his head. "I dread to think."

They sat silently until the end where they paid their respect to the family. Mac came face to face with Brad.

"MacGyver." Brad smiled the best he could. "I'm glad you could make it. She would have loved that you came."

"Brad, I am so sorry." Mac told him genuinely. Jack standing by his side. "She was always sweet."

"Yeah, yeah." Brad nodded. "It's why the picture hurt so much."

Mac looked up and confused and concerned. "Picture?"

"The sicko took pictures of the moment she died. Left them right there in the room she died in." Brad informed him, his voice broke, tinged with emotion, Jack's face dropped, and Mac swallowed heavily.

"The papers didn't report it, but I thought everyone knew." Mac was now white as a sheet and breathing heavily. Brad looked at his old friend. "Mac? you okay, man?"

"He's fine, just fine." Jack said, stepping up and shuffling Mac along. "Thanks Brad, nice to see you again, sorry about the circumstances." He called behind him, guiding Mac out of sight. "Mac." Jack started.

"It's him. After all this time." Mac whispered to himself.

"Come on Mac, he died." Jack countered.

"We never saw a body!" Mac argued back.

"Mac, come on. Think about it. He always killed with a purpose, a reason. Susan was-"

"She was my ex-girlfriend!"

"One you had in middle school. Mac, come on, how would he even know?"

"It's him. I know it is." Mac said, firmly as an uneasy feeling came over him.

"You always got emotional with him, Mac, and it's not the way to deal with it. Come on, think logically-"

"You can't throw logic at him, Jack!" Mac snapped back. His hands curled into fists just as his cell phone went off. Angrily, he pulled out his phone and looked at the Caller ID. "Department of Homeworld Security?" He repeated for a moment, a question in his voice. "General-O'Neill, yes! Put him through!"

"Who's General O'Neill?" Dalton asked.

"Jack! Thank God!" Mac exclaimed, ignoring his friend.

"Who's General Jack O'Neill?" Jack repeated, interrupting Mac as he tried to talk on the phone.

"Wait, wait, wait." Mac pinched the ridge of his nose. "Another murder of one of my old friends?" His face dropped again, and he looked at Jack in distress. "Amy Austin?"

"My God!" Jack gasped, his hand coming up to his mouth, recognizing the name.

"Was there a picture?" Mac asked, pausing for a moment. "What the hell does 'it's classified' mean, Jack?" He almost shouted down the phone.

"Plane, sure. Airfield-" Controlling his emotions, he nodded as he listened to the phone instructions. "Yah, yah, Jack." He said into his phone. "Yah, yeah. Sam's coming for me. No that's perfect. Thanks, Jack." He hung up the phone. He stared at the closed phone for a few moments and then looked at Jack. "We, umm, we need to get to Brooten Airport."

"Okay, okay Buddy. Let's go. I'll drive."

They crossed the airfield and were approaching a hangar where Jack saw her first. Mac had spent the trip to the airport staring out his passenger window, deep in thought. Not answering any of Jack's questions. Arriving at the airport, Mac told the airport attendant that they were waiting for a Lieutenant Colonel Sam Carter and was directed to a hangar in the distance.

"My god, I think I've seen an angel!" He exclaimed.

Mac looked up at the sound of his friend's voice and smiled at the sight. He saw her walk around the plane and open the hood, looking inside of it.

"Ummmm Jack-" Mac started to say but realized his friend wasn't listening to him. She did have angelic qualities about her but there was no way Jack would survive the flight if he started hitting on her.

"Let me handle this." Jack proclaimed as he strutted over to the blonde. "Excuse me, sweetheart." The blonde paused and Mac cringed. Her head poked out of the engine, her clear blue eyes scrutinizing him as he continued to call out to her, his swagger reflecting his arrogance. "Why don't you stop worrying your pretty little head and let me take care of plane?" He told her as they got closer.

She scoffed in response. "I think I can handle it."

"Ummm Jack-" Mac tried to interject but was waved off.

"Mac, please!" Jack continued after hushing his friend. "Let me show you, honey, before our pilot comes. You wouldn't want to upset the boss."

"I am the pilot." She told him flatly.

"No, sweetheart. We're looking for a Lieutenant Colonel Sam Carter." He told her.

There was an uncomfortable pause before Sam turned her attention to Mac and asked him. "Tell me he's joking?"

Mac shrugged before sighed deeply. "Jack, this is Lieutenant Colonel Doctor SAM-antha Carter."

Jack looked flabbergasted for a moment, before he gave her one of his most charming smiles. "And you use Sam-"

"So, I can strain out the misogynistic halfwits before I meet them." She said, rolling her eyes then she smiled at Mac. "Hey." She smiled, reaching out for a hug.

"Hey Gorgeous." He smiled the best he could, but Sam could see the strain in his eyes. Sam was silent for a moment and then nodded. "Thanks for coming for me."

"Well, I am an Air Force officer." She said with a marked look to Jack. "Any excuse to be in the air for once but bringing you back to the mountain was certainly a good incentive." She admitted before she brought her hand up to his cheek and stroked it gently. "Mac, I'm so sorry." She said quietly.

He nodded as her hand moved away and said, "Well, let's be sure we can do something about it." He looked at the engine then at Sam. "Pre-flight check?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I heard a rattle on the engines," She told him as Mac started to look himself. "Turns out there was a small leak on the oil line."

"You've done a great job. I can barely tell it's a patch." Mac admitted. "You must have cleaned it out, started again with it?"

"Yep." She grinned. "I hate it when someone else does my pre-flight checks. I want things up to my standard when I fly it, unfortunately there wasn't time today." She said, turning around to look at him directly. "Speaking of which, we should get going." She told them. "Hop on."

Sam gave them space as Jack whispered to Mac. "You might have warned me."

Mac grinned and with a shrug said, "Nah, it's more fun this way."

The trip over to the Springs was relatively quiet. Being an Air Force plane, the flight only took an hour and a half before she touched down at Peterson Air Force Base and taxied the plane to a hangar where General Jack O'Neill was standing casually waiting for them.

"Sir." Sam said with a cute little salute as she approached him.

Mac grinned, looking at the hardware on the jacket and asked in jest. "They actually promoted you?"

Jack grinned back at his cousin. "What can I say? Last resort."

"Jonny O'Neill, as I live and breathe!" Jack Dalton exclaimed.

"Carter, I see you met the reason I didn't go by 'Jack' O'Neill in my younger years." He said to her. "Hello Jack."

"A General!" Dalton exclaimed. "I can't believe it."

"Didn't like the association with the name." He said in a low voice to Sam.

"Can't imagine why, sir." She replied sarcastically with a grin on her face.

"Hmmm, I can imagine." O'Neill replied. "Mac, I have transport for us." O'Neill said, waving at the official looking car behind them.

"What about me?" Dalton asked. The three of them all exchanged looks before he continued. "Oh, come on! I've come this far. You can't leave me out now."

"Well," O'Neill started to say. "I wish it were up to me."

Sam ducked her head smiling at his response. He frequently acted less powerful than he actually was to avoid the confrontation.

"I'm afraid it's up to Colonel Carter here." O'Neill claimed.

Sam closed her eyes and only slightly shook her head to let Jack know she knew he was shifting blame, but she'd take it. She opened her eyes, her bottom lip sucked in behind her teeth, then she looked Dalton up and down and shook her head. "Nope."

"Oh, come on!" Dalton protested as he turned his attention to her. The two other men had identical looks on their faces, trying not to be too amused at the current situation as they heard Dalton's protests. "I'm an asset!"

"Carter?" O'Neill asked her.

"He and Mac have encountered the suspect several times together, and to be fair, he can fly." Sam observed. "But, historically, according to Mac's reports and ones recorded by The Phoenix Foundation, he is a constant liability, frequently putting Mac in danger and he has no unique skills needed in this mission… Sir, there's no reason to read him into the program."

Nodding, O'Neill replied, walking off casually towards the car. "I'll pass."

"Hey Jack, wait up!" Mac called after him who slowed down his pace then he turned and shrugged innocently to Dalton before he continued to follow his cousin towards the car.

"Airman." Sam shouted to a passing soldier, who came over quickly to her. "Make sure this man gets back to LA."

"Aye Sir." He acknowledged.

"He knows a little about planes." Sam said, with a slight smile to the Airman. "Good luck with that."

"Yes, Colonel Carter." He said with a grin, knowing the staff from Cheyenne Mountain were said to have a sense of humour about them. He also knew from a conversation he had with General O'Neill earlier that Colonel Carter had served with him there so there was no doubt she shared his humour after serving with him for so long.

Sam headed off towards the car and the two cousins with a grin.

"Samantha, darling, I thought we had something special." He called after her which Sam ignored, her mind fully on the upcoming mission as she personally acknowledged to herself of the emotional impact on Jack's cousin of what was to come.

The airman shook his head at this guest. Colonel Carter could kick his ass if she wanted to.

Chapter End Notes

So I wanted to make it clear in case people aren't following.

In these stories in particular Jack (O'Neill) and Mac are cousins, and spent at least part of their high-school years raising hell together right so...

We know Mac and Jack (Dalton) according to the (ORIGINAL SERIES) 1985 met in high school.

Now I went off the idea that when moving from middle school to high school you would know some of (if not all of) then same people from middle school. So where its not a sure bet Jack Dalton would know a girl from Mac's middle school, likelihood is he did. If not its likely the same town where local high-school would know each other anyway. The same would be true of Jack O'Neill. He would recognise the girls name from high school.

Now onto the Jacks. In my head Jack O'Neill didn't particularly like Jack Dalton, Dalton would probably rub O'Neill up the wrong way and without any real bond between them O'Neill wouldn't care much to be associated with Dalton least of all through his name. So he went by Jon or Johnny in high school, then when he was in the military slowlywent with Jack because he did actually prefer the name. But Jack Dalton would remember him as "John or Johnny" and would immediately put the 'General Jack O'Neill' together with the younger cousin he knew as 'Johnny' (probably didn't remember his surname). So that was my thinking!