A/N: So, I was going over my old stories and re-read my story 'When Jack met Mac', and combine it with the fact that I finally got round to buying and watching seasons 1,2 and 3 of MacGyver, this story popped into my head. Oh, also stories I've read about Jack's family and the ranch contributed to the ideas that wouldn't leave me alone til I wrote this. Not sure how long it's going to take, so updates may be sporadic. This picks up a few weeks after the end of that story. As usual, I don't own these guys, only the plot and the OCs. ENJOY!

Jack looked over at the young man next to him. It had been a long time since he had felt this protective of anyone, Diane and Riley being the last ones he had held this close to his heart. Dirty blonde hair sticking up everywhere, sand-blasted and sun-burnt skin visible around the glasses worn over red-rimmed eyes that were currently closed in much needed sleep. He pulled over the hire car to the side of the road and slowed to a stop, hoping to keep his young companion in his slumber. He sat there and waited until the lack of engine rumble and movement woke him.

They had returned home with the wounded and the bodies of the Delta team they had lost over there. Jack had managed to convince Mac to accompany him back to Texas and the family ranch so they could heal, physically and mentally. Jack wanted him awake when they arrived, just in case waking him when they pulled up to the house triggered a reaction from him, as it had a couple of days ago on the base they had been sent to when they returned state side. Jack still had bruises from the punch Mac had landed.

He noticed Mac whimper in his sleep and reached out with his hand to card through his hair, something he had discovered the kid liked back over in the Sand Box. He smiled and allowed himself to get lost in the memory.

FLASHBACK

Bullets whizzed past; hitting the wall of a bombed out house above his head as Jack ducked into a wadi that ran behind it, sending shards into the air, some slicing into his cheek. Dust filled the air like smoke a moment later as a small explosion went off, making it hard to breathe, and see. From the sound that had preceded it, they had at least one rocket grenade launcher. Chatter filled the coms as the rest of the unit reported in after the surprise attack; Jack listened carefully and filed away the intel they shared.

They had been on a hunt, chasing after a group that had been targeting civilians that helped the soldiers. Intel gathered had led them to where they had been spotted just a handful of hours earlier and they were lucky enough that they were able to spot and follow them as they left the area. Mac had been with them about four months by that point and they hadn't been back to the main base for about three weeks.

As Jack was giving orders as to who should do what and where they needed to go to try and get out of their current situation, he suddenly realised that he hadn't heard Mac call in.

"Mac, you copy?" He called out, pausing his spiel of orders. He noted that everyone also quieted their chatter, clearing the comm in case Mac's voice had simply gone unheard. After a second callout, a moment's pause and no answer, his heart freezing in memory as he tired something else. "Anyone have eyes on him?" He himself risked peering over the wall he was hiding behind, trying to see the EOD tech. The enemy renewed their fire at the sight of his helmet popping up, but Jack couldn't see the younger man before he ducked back down. His heart still cold.

"Last I saw of him, he was heading into the house at your one, Jack." Tim answered, his Irish accent heavy. "Said that he'd seen something and wanted to check it out." Jack could hear the same chill in his voice that now filled his own veins.

"And none of you went with him?" He asked exasperated, his Texas drawl coming out thickly.

"You know how fast he is, Jack. It's like a hedgehog trying to keep up with an antelope." Jason said. While he hadn't been a fan of the kid at first, the ice had definitely thawed after Mac had saved his life just three weeks after joining them. The analogy was apt. After getting enough sleep and gaining back the conditioning he had lost after Pena's death and the subsequent bullying, even when loaded down with a standard pack or wearing the EOD outfit, Mac could practically run rings around the lot of them.

Jack sighed and tried to look in the direction Tim had pointed out. He could just make out the partially collapsed building, only what he could see wasn't good. It looked like some of the wall had come down in the latest round of shots, and he couldn't see any movement. "Taylor, get on the horn and get us some air support, something tells me we just stumbled onto their base. Tim, I want you and Jason to grab a couple of the others and try to work your way around and see if you can plug any holes. Don't want these guys rabbiting before our support arrives."

"Copy that Jack, but I have one question." Tim answered, worry in his voice.

"Only one?"

"Yeah, who's going to be watching your back while you go after the kid?"

"What makes you think I'll need anyone? They'll be too busy watching what ya'll are up to." And with that, Jack shouted "GO!" While he waited a beat to see what the attackers would do, he got himself ready for the dash to the house Mac was last seen running into. When he was sure that his team had their attention, he took off. Only a couple of bullets came near him, and he was sure that none of them were aimed at him. He made it through the door and swept the room from the doorway, making sure there wasn't anyone waiting for him.

The only one in there was currently not a threat to anyone as he was half buried by the collapsed wall. All he could see of Mac, was his legs. "Mac!" He cried out, hurrying over and sliding on his knees the last couple of feet as a fresh round of bullets forced him to drop. Slipping his rifle round so it rested on his back, the older man hurriedly dug his younger team mate out of the rubble. As he did so, he tapped his throat mike and called for some help. "I need some help in here, Mac's buried." He paused a moment as his fingers suddenly felt wet. "And hurt." He added as he saw the blood that coated his fingers as they scrapped the floor near the blonde's hip.

He heard footsteps behind him and whipped his pistol from his hip, knowing that he wouldn't be able to swing his rifle around in time. Spinning on his knees, he came up on one and levelled the gun at the door he had come through as a shadow loomed before it was replaced with the figure of Taylor, gun in hand as he entered the room. The two nodded at each other, acknowledging the other as friendly before lowering their weapons and Taylor hurried over to help. Between the two of them, they uncovered Mac quickly and when they did, they found the reason that he hadn't been able to get clear of the wall. He was face up, with the leg of one of the people they had been chasing wrapped around his neck. Next to Mac's hip, was an IED that he had been able to pull apart, if the pieces he saw scattered around it were any indication. Jack quickly put things together.

Mac had no doubt seen movement in the house. Not knowing if it was simply a civilian or one of the guys they had been after, he hadn't said anything and had gone in to assess. He had found the device, disarmed it, but had been clearly been caught off guard (Jack surmised that he hadn't cleared the room) and had ended up in a fight. At some point, the wall had come down on them when the guy had Mac pinned. From what he could tell, the guy had died when a part of the wall had crushed his face; while a combination of Mac's helmet and the guys leg had saved Mac from the same fate. Quickly removing the leg from his neck, Jack checked his pulse, a sigh of relief flowing though him when he felt the blood pumping. A little fast, but given their current circumstances, understandable.

He looked down toward where he had come across the blood and saw that Taylor had found the wound. It was above the knee, but it wasn't spurting, so they didn't have to worry about an arterial bleed. However, it was still a lot of blood. "Radio for a medivac, have them come in after the airships have taken them out." Jack said to his radio man as he took over applying a bandage to the wound. It looked like some of the wall cut his leg. Hopefully his leg wasn't broken. If it was, chances were that he would get rotated out for it to heal.

"Wilco, boss" Taylor said before relaying the instructions. "ETA for them is about ten mikes. Medivac will come in as soon as we confirm it's safe." Jack nodded at that. He stood and made his way over to the wall and peered out. He saw his men scattered out, holding the insurgents in place while keeping a decent distance from them. Nodding at their placement, he calculated that despite the space, it was going to be danger close.

At that moment, he heard the pilot of the first plane come over his radio. "Bloodhound 1-1, Pack Master, we're five mikes out, copy?"

Jack answered, still thinking he was going to have a talking to whoever came up with the mission codenames and call signs. "Pack Master, Bloodhound 1-1 receiving. Danger close, laser targets. Keep the runs short. Direction?"

"Copy Bloodhound 1-1, Danger close, short runs and direction will be one two zero degrees, over?"

"Copy Pack Master, one two zero degrees. Call when you're about to start. Clear." Finishing talking to the pilots, Jack contacted his team, alerting them to the direction the planes were going to be doing their runs in, and to pick a target with their lasers and light them up. He knew that he, Taylor and Mac would be fine, but some of the others were going to need to move to avoid getting caught by friendly fire. A few minutes later the pilot called in stating they were about to start. Just as they did, one of the others called out that they had found a weapons stash, and it was in line with the direction the planes would be taking. From what they had seen, if it went up, it was going to take out a large area, including where Jack and those with him were.

Sharing a quick look with the only other conscious person in the room with him, he knew that one stray bullet would be all it would take. With no time to plan anything else, they gathered Mac up, who didn't wake despite the movement, and hightailed it out the back through a hole created by the RPG from earlier. They had just managed to get around a nearby bend when the second plane was halfway through their run when the stash went off. They heard the sound of the first explosion, but before they could drop to the ground, they got caught in the pressure wave which threw them all.

Jack slowly came too, shaking his head as he opened his eyes. All he could see in front of him was shadowed sand as his helmet kept him from breathing in the dirt. Groaning as he gathered his hands under his chest, he pushed himself up onto his knees. Still shaking the ringing from his ears, he could vaguely hear his teammates asking after him and the others. Upon hearing them call for Taylor and Mac, he snapped his head up along with his sidearm. Looking around, he saw Taylor sprawled a few feet away; only just coming too, if the slow movement of his left hand was any indication.

Mac had been supported between the two of them, and when he looked behind them, he saw the youngest of the team. He was slumped like he had crumpled when Jack and Taylor had been sent flying from the blast. Groaning from the bruises he knew would be coming up after being thrown, Jack stumbled to his feet and make his way shakily over to him. Still keeping an eye out for movement, Jack made his way toward Mac. When he reached him, he dropped onto the dirt like a puppet if the strings were cut, still unbalanced from the blast. Checking his pulse, he released a sigh of relief at the beat he found.

"Bloodhound 1-3, Bloodhound 1-1, we're ok. Ears ringing, but not hurt further. Medivac?" Called out, hoping that his ears had stopped ringing enough to hear them.

"Good to hear you're still going, Jack." Jason called back. Jack watched Taylor as he gathered himself together and made his way over to the pair. "Medivac ETA one five mikes. Just got to go over the area, make sure it's clear for friendlies."

"Copy. We'll make our way to you. Any chance someone could cover us? Mac's still out cold." He wasn't taking any chances; if he and Taylor were carrying Mac and a tango came upon them, their reaction time would be hampered.

"Copy that Jack. I'm on my way."

Jack acknowledged him and between himself and Taylor they got Mac over their shoulders and they started to make their way back toward the road Jack had been on before he went after Mac.

It was on the chopper back to base that Mac started to get restless, despite the drugs flowing through him. Jack had taken up a position beside him as they headed back after the medics on board had done what they could to help keep Mac's blood where it was meant to be. He looked over at the kid and without thinking about it, started to run his hand through the younger man's hair. He had done it before with his sister's kids when they had been feverish. He was surprised when Mac turned into his hand and settled, a deep sigh escaping from him. A muffled chuckle over the headset he had on caught his attention and his head whipped in the direction of the person it sounded like.

"Not a word out of you," static drowned out the name of the man on the other side of the chopper that had snorted. The man held his hands out in surrender before speaking.

"Didn't realise that the kid had gotten under your skin that badly, boss."

"He didn't, it's not…" Jack trailed off at the spluttered laughter that erupted from several of his men on the chopper with him. He took a breath, let it out in a sigh and looked back to the blonde now practically nuzzling his head against Jack's hip, his hand still running through the sweat stiffened locks. "He's almost the same age as one of my sister's oldest. I used to babysit them when they were younger. Mac, should be back home like he is; chasing after girls, getting drunk at collage parties. Not here."

The silence that filled the radios, aside from the general noise from ground control and the pilots, caused him to look up. He could see that they were thinking the same thing. Mac reminded them of someone back home, brother, cousin, best friend. Someone they were over here fighting for to protect, the reason they had joined or stayed.

"He ever mention why he had joined up in the first place?" Tim asked from Mac's other side.

Jack shook his head. "He hasn't mentioned much from back home other than he has a best friend named Boxer, or something."

"Bozer, his name is Bozer." A quiet voice sounded, almost too quiet to be heard over the noise of the chopper. Jack whipped his head to the EOD tech as he lifted his hand from the others hair.

"Hey, there he is. How you doin' kid?" Jack asked his voice rising to be heard, only to quickly place a hand on his chest as he tried to sit up. On his left, he saw Tim do the same. "Hey now, stay down, Mac. You got a couple of cracked ribs from the wall falling on you, or from the guy you tangled with beforehand. Not to mention your leg's cut up something fierce." He saw confusion on his friends face at that. Tim settled a headset over his ears to make talking easier.

"What?" he rasped. A water bottle came into his line of sight from one of the others and he took it and tipped a little into the kid's mouth. The medics had cleared him of internal injuries.

"What's the last thing you remember, Mac?" Jack asked. He noticed that the others had stayed silent, for which he was grateful. What he knew of Mac, he didn't like to be the centre of attention.

"Seeing someone in a building to our left. You were busy chasing after the guys we had been following. I though I saw something in their hands." He brought a hand to his chest as the act of breathing made the pain in his ribs flare up. "He had a bomb, Jack I have too…" He started to sit up again, only for Jack and Tim to gently push him back down again.

"Easy there, Hoss. You disarmed it. It was in pieces when I managed to dig you out. Seemed you got jumped after that. Haven't we taught you anything? You don't go racing into a building without one of us to clear it, man! Especially if you insist on not carrying a gun." Jack sighed heavily enough that it was heard over the headsets. Mac must have caught the sight of his face, the slight amount of fear and worry he felt, he knew showed. He ran a hand over it, feeling the scruff on his chin.

"Mac, you had Jack worried when you didn't answer, bud." Tim said. Jack saw him squeeze his shoulder. "Simon did something similar five months ago, only he didn't make it."

Jack felt a tear slip from his eye as he closed his lids. When he looked up a moment later, he saw that the others had also dipped their heads in remembrance of the teammate they had lost a few weeks before Mac had joined them. He looked back at Mac, who now looked at them all and realised just what he had not only almost put them through again, but what could have happened. He swallowed, nodded and laid back down.

"Three mikes out." The pilot's voice suddenly breaking the silence caused Mac to jerk. None of the others made a move, having kept an ear on what had been said, despite what was unfolding in front of them. Jack simply squeezed his shoulder and lent back against the side of the chopper, keeping his hand in place.

After being cleared by the base Doctors; Jack had reported to the base commander, General Radise before cleaning up and returning to Mac's side. He took up a spot beside the head of the bed, leant back against the chair he had commandeered from somewhere and put his boots on the side of the bed near the kids knee. A small pile of paperwork from the op on a small table beside him, and Jack was reading over everything his men had written. Memorising info, names, making notes on things that needed to be followed up on, Jack kept himself occupied as he waited for Mac to wake. The Doctors wanted to keep him in for a couple of days to make sure that there were no complications from the wound on his leg, or from the cracked ribs, one of which had nicked a lung after his abrupt attempt to sit up when telling Jack about the bomb.

A mumbled sound caught his attention, causing him to drop the folder he was reading into his lap. He looked over and saw that Mac was tossing in his sleep. Knowing it had helped before, he ran a hand through the kids hair. He smiled as he settled again, turning toward the older man. Jack kept carding his hair as he reopened the folder and took up where he left off. It was a little while later that the younger man spoke.

"What are you doing?" Mac asked as he gently brushed Jack's hand from his hair. His face was red as he blushed when he realised what Jack had been doing.

"It seemed to help you settle before on the chopper. Didn't want you to do more damage. I think nicking a lung is enough for the moment." He said as he sat up and poured a cup of water for him when he heard the rasp in his words.

Mac took a drink, "Thanks." He took a moment to look at the older man, who had simply gone back to his folder. "Jack," Mac waited till Jack looked at him, giving him his full attention, "Why?"

"Why, what, Mac?" He was confused.

"Why me? There are plenty of way more experienced EOD techs than me, who would kill to be in this unit. Some did try to kill me."

He saw the younger man shiver from the memories. Jack himself had to shove the flashes of the fight from the night he formally asked him to be part of his team back into the box he had created just for Mac. Still not sure where he was going with this, Jack waited for him to gather himself.

"I don't carry a weapon, at least not one that I'd use to kill with." Jack saw him suddenly realise that he didn't have the pocketknife Jack had given him a few weeks after he had joined them. Jack reached for the table beside him then dropped the item on the bed. Mac looked up at him in gratitude and nodded in thanks before continuing. "I'm a liability to you guys. You said it yourself, one of you have to accompany me when we clear a building. I'm still trying to figure out why you asked me." He took another sip of water, and Jack used the moment to ponder the question.

"First, can I ask you something?" Jack dropped his feet to the floor and set the folder back on the side table with the others. Resting his elbows on his knees, his chin on his folded hands, Jack looked at the kid in front of him. At the other's nod, "Why are you here?" Seeing the slight confusion on his face, Jack clarified. "What made you drop your life back home and join up? Why did you become an EOD tech?"

Mac took his time answering, before heaving a big sigh and starting. "I was at MIT when my Grandpa called me. One of his war buddies had just passed. I knew him, he taught me how to play dominoes. I knew that he had suffered from gas he got hit with in the war. I guess, with knowing what I do, I figured that I could help keep some of our guys from coming back in coffins without adding to the body count over here." He shrugged, took another sip and continued. "So I joined up to learn how to disarm explosives, knowing that they were the biggest threat for them over here. By doing that, I could also help keep the civilians safe too. Maybe help earn a bit of trust for the troops if they could see someone trying to help keep their villages safe." He shrugged again, and Jack could see why. Mac wanted to help everyone, and he guessed he was also trying to prove to someone what he could do. Who that was, he wasn't going to press for, not tonight.

"And that is why I wanted you. Don't worry about the fact that one of us will need to be watching your back every time you defuse something; that need to do good, to show that you don't need a weapon to help; that's why I brought you on. You've made us think differently, look at situations with a new perspective. Granted we might not have time for a lot of those situations, but, when we do, it helps us. You've helped all of us by reducing the number of people we take out, and you've differently helped lessen the number of civilians." He placed a hand on Mac's shoulder and squeezed it. "If it helps, I can be the only one assigned to watch your back, unless I'm needed for something else."

Mac nodded, a small smile on his face. He handed the cup back to Jack, slid down and curled under the blankets; eyes sliding closed before he had finished settling. Jack let out a soft chuckle and carded his hand through his hair, smiling as Mac once again turned into the touch.