To Guest Reviewer Karenskatz: I'd say sorry for leaving you hanging, but I ended the chapter there on purpose, so I guess I'm really not! Yes, I definitely plan to finish; I actually have the whole thing written already, and I'll be posting a chapter a week (on my day off; usually Wednesday or Saturday) until it's done, so keep checking back! Barbie
Chapter Eleven: Aesop's Fables
"Mr Mac, Cindy fell in and disappeared!" Derrick exclaimed as MacGyver burst around the bend and ran unhesitatingly into the stream.
Why had he ever let them fish out of his sight, he wondered desperately. Because he knew they played down here by themselves all the time, that was why. "Where, Derrick?" he demanded.
"A little to your left," the boy called, sounding surprisingly unconcerned, if MacGyver had taken time to think about it.
But he was too distracted to notice, his thoughts only on desperately scanning the creek bed for Cindy.
Suddenly she surfaced beside him, grinning, with a splash that soaked him to the waist. "Got you, Mr Mac!"
MacGyver stared at her in openmouthed astonishment for a moment, then grabbed her shoulders and yanked her to her feet. "Are you all right?" he demanded.
Her smile faltered and disappeared. "Of course."
"You weren't in trouble at all?"
She shook her head, dropping her eyes from his gaze, and twisted her shoulders in his grasp. "You're hurting me, Mr Mac!" she whimpered.
MacGyver gave her a brief shake, not loosening his grip. * "'No false alarms,' Cindy!" he reminded her. "What about your promise, huh?"
"I-I had my fingers crossed," she whispered.
MacGyver pushed her away from him in disgust so that she wobbled and almost fell in for real. "That's a cop-out, Cindy! You cross your fingers when you make a promise, people are never gonna believe a word you say. And you!" he added, turning to the boys as he splashed toward the bank, not looking to see if Cindy was following him. "Did you know she wasn't really in trouble?"
"Yeah," Derrick admitted, not meeting MacGyver's eyes.
"I didn't make you climb a tree, Mr Mac!" Dylan protested, nearly in tears.
MacGyver ignored him, directing his next reproof to the older two. "You kids ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf? Huh? Did you?"
"Yes," Derrick muttered.
"He pretended a wolf was attacking the sheep," MacGyver went on as if he hadn't heard. "Got the men out on a false alarm night after night, till they finally stopped believin' him. Next time he called, there really was a wolf — but no one came out to help, an' it got all the sheep."
"You'll scare Cassie talking about wolves," Cindy said boldly.
MacGyver stared at her incredulously, wondering if she had gotten the point of his story at all. "Next time you call, Cindy, ya might really need help — an' it'll be just too bad, because I won't believe ya. Now everyone get back to camp; we're packin' up and goin' home."
"But you said we could stay — and fry any fish we caught for lunch!" Cindy protested. "Were your fingers crossed?"
"That's enough disrespect out of you, young lady! If you wanted fish to fry for lunch, I guess you shoulda been tryin' to catch one instead of foolin' me. I also said I could call this trip off at any time if ya weren't good — an' I didn't have my fingers crossed then, either. Now move it, missy!"
She scowled, rubbing her shoulder as she started slowly back to camp. MacGyver watched without sympathy, knowing she was playing up the pain. Even angry, he could never be cruel to a child, and he knew his grip hadn't been hard enough to hurt for more than a minute or two.
"Mr Mac?" came a timid voice at his side.
MacGyver looked down to see Cassie looking at him with wide eyes, and forced a smile for her. "C'mon; let's get my fishin' pole an' start packing up."
He stamped out the fire and gathered the supplies without a word, in no mood to turn the kids' sleeping bags back into backpacks even if it meant carrying everything himself.
There were no games this time as he ushered the three of them ahead of him across the lawn with Cassie holding anxiously to his hand.
"The three of ya get up to your rooms," MacGyver ordered shortly when they reached the house.
"What about Cassie?" Cindy challenged.
MacGyver raised an eyebrow. "Cassie was with me the whole time; she doesn't have anythin' to do with this one. Do ya really want her punished for somethin' she didn't do? Huh? Do ya?"
"No, sir," Cindy muttered.
"Change out of those wet clothes an' leave them in the bathroom, then don't come out of your room again until I say."
Cindy started up the stairs without a word, carefully waiting until she was out of MacGyver's sight before turning and sticking out her tongue in his direction.
"It looks like it's just the two of us," MacGyver commented, turning to Cassie with a smile. "What do you want to do?"
"Will you color with me?" Cassie asked eagerly.
"Sure," MacGyver agreed. "I'm gonna go change out of these wet pants; get your coloring book and crayons and meet me in the dining room."
"Okay!" Cassie agreed, darting ahead of him up the stairs.
When MacGyver returned, Cassie had the coloring book spread open on the table to two blank pages. "You do that one, and I'll do this one," she told him.
"You got it."
Cassie sighed happily. "No one ever wants to color with me," she confided. "Dylan will sometimes, but only if Derrick an' Cindy won't let him play."
"I like coloring with you."
Cassie paused to smile up at him before choosing a crayon for the next part of her picture. "Cindy's mad," she remarked.
MacGyver's jaw tightened. "Yeah, I'm not so happy myself." But it wasn't in him to stay angry for long, and the coloring was soothing. It had been far too long since he had taken the time for anything artistic, he reflected, shading a yellow dress into orange shadow.
So the item passed in companionable silence, until MacGyver suddenly wondered if things were a little too quiet. "I'm gonna go check on them upstairs," he decided, pushing back his chair.
Cassie quickly scrambled down. "I'm coming, too."
"C'mon, then," MacGyver agreed, holding out his hand. Cassie took it and eagerly climbed the stars at his side.
MacGyver knocked on the boys' door first, and receiving no answer, pushed it open and poked his head around. The room appeared to be empty, and MacGyver frowned as he went to try the girls' room, suspecting already that there would be no one there; it was far too quiet for them all to be in one room.
"Could they be in the attic?" he mused aloud. The stairs weren't pulled down, but the kids were smart enough to figure out how to pull them up after themselves, and he was sure he would have seen or heard them if they had gone down the main stairs.
"Nuh-uh," Cassie told him. Running into the empty room, she pointed toward the open window. "They went out there and down the tree," she explained matter-of-factly.
MacGyver raised his eyebrows and went to look out the window, craning his neck to see the tree and wincing at the stretch to the nearest branch. "They oughtta have their windows nailed shut," he muttered, pulling his head back in and closing the window with a little more force than necessary. * "Have you ever gone down that way?" he asked, turning to Cassie.
"Of course; Derrick helps me."
MacGyver shook his head, marveling that she could be so timid about the dark but completely unafraid of heights. He reconsidered now Cindy's motivation for wanting Cassie sent to her room; maybe she hadn't wished her to be punished for what she hadn't done, but had simply wanted her included on their next escapade. MacGyver could appreciate that reason more than the one he had initially attributed to her, but it didn't make him any more pleased with her actions.
"C'mon, Cassie," he said shortly. "It's lunchtime, an' apparently the others aren't interested in eating."
MacGyver didn't have much appetite himself, and was in no mood to fix more than sandwiches, despite the only bread being the white kind he normally wouldn't touch.
When the kids decided to show up, he would have to come up with a punishment that kept them in his sight the whole time, he mused, spreading cream cheese savagely across a slice of bread. It wouldn't be any more fun for him than the kids, but apparently it was the only way to make sure they took their punishment. What they really needed was a good spanking, but while he wasn't against corporal punishment — it hadn't hurt him any — he didn't believe it was his place to give it. It was their father's job, but apparently he had given them far too little discipline of any kind. Or maybe he didn't spend enough time with them at all, and they were subconsciously trying to gain his attention in the only way they knew.
He cut the sandwiches in half, put them on plates, and set one in front of Cassie without a word. She picked it up and bit into it with her wide eyes fixed on his face.
At a shrill scream from outside, both of them turned toward the window.
"Mr Mac! Help!" came Cindy's faint cry.
MacGyver half started to get up, then shook himself and picked up his sandwich.
"Mr Mac! Cindy's calling you!" Cassie pointed out.
"Let 'er call; I told 'em I was done fallin' for their tricks."
Cassie bit her lip, twisting toward the window as Cindy shouted again and then a third time.
Despite his attempted air of unconcern, MacGyver's gaze kept flicking to the window. Once more he thought of the story he had told the kids, only this time he looked at it in a new light. It was usually used to point out the folly of raising false alarms, but it could as easily serve as a warning to those in the place of the villagers, that every alarm should be regarded as potentially real no matter how many false alarms there had been in the past.
At Cindy's third call, he laid down his sandwich with a groan of disgust. "Aargh! C'mon, Cassie, let's go see what the 'trouble' is. But this is seriously the last time!"
He started out at a walk; even if something was really wrong, it would do Cindy good to wonder if he was coming. But if something was wrong, there might not be time to waste, and without meaning to he sped up until he was running, leaving Cassie far behind.
Next chapter coming next week!
* Illustration for this scene can be found at
www . deviantart . com [slash] femalechauvinist [slash] art [slash] Deep-Trouble-882850562
www . deviantart . com [slash] femalechauvinist [slash] art [slash] Incredulous-Outlook-882850614
I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!
Please note that I have only minimal internet access, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. (But they are much appreciated, even if you're reading this story long after I originally post it!) If you have questions regarding my MacGyver alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie