Chapter Fifteen: Rainy Day
Early Friday morning
Cra-a-ack!
Bombs! was MacGyver's first frantic thought as the noise jolted him out of a sound sleep. Then his conscious mind began to be aware of the steady pounding on the roof. No…rain…thunder…
Before he had had time to relax, the door to the bedroom was flung open with a second, smaller crash, and a small, terrified figure launched itself onto the bed. "Mr Mac!"
"Whoa, baby!" MacGyver exclaimed, his arm coming around her automatically as he tried once more to collect his scattered thoughts. *
"The thunder'll get me, Mr Mac!" Cassie half sobbed, burying her face in his neck.
"Shh, baby, thunder never hurt anyone," MacGyver soothed, grateful he had realized what the crash was before obeying his first instinctual urge to fling himself under the bed. While taking shelter was a perfectly reasonable response to a bomb going off, he never would have been able to make Cassie believe he wasn't hiding from the storm. He could only hope she couldn't feel his still-pounding heart.
Lightning flashed, followed several seconds later by another crack of thunder. Cassie's scream was half muffled against MacGyver's neck as she clutched at him frantically.
MacGyver glanced at the clock as he stood with Cassie in his arms. It was barely six, but he realized he had gotten all the sleep he was likely to.
"Look at the trees dancin' in the wind," he murmured, moving in front of the window but well back from it in case it happened to be shattered by a flying branch.
Cassie peeked with one eye, the other still hidden against MacGyver's neck. "D-dancing? Like the fireflies?"
MacGyver chuckled. "Well, not quite the same; trees are a lot bigger than lightnin' bugs, so they dance different. I love watchin' a storm." From inside a sturdy house, he added to himself. Having his tent blow away had been less fun, and being in a plane with his friends Jack and Mike had been downright frightening.
Cassie whimpered and buried her face again as a flash of lightning was followed by another rumble of thunder.
"Hey, hey, it's all right!" MacGyver assured her. "How high can you count, Cassie?"
"A-a hundred, 'cept Dylan says I skip."
"Then you can help me figure out how far away the storm is," MacGyver told her. "Next time you see a flash of lightning, count until you hear the thunder." He wouldn't have suggested it if he hadn't already known that the storm was moving away; the crack that had woken him must have been almost right overhead, while the last several had each been slightly further away.
Lightning flashed again almost as he spoke, and he counted softly along with Cassie. When the thunder came, she was so interested in counting that she flinched only slightly. "Seven!" she crowed.
"That means it's a little over a mile away," MacGyver calculated.
"How far's that?" Cassie demanded.
"About the same as if you walked to the fort and back thirty times."
Cassie relaxed slightly. "That's way far away."
MacGyver smiled, grateful for a six-year-old's poor grasp of distance. A mile and a half was still fairly close for a storm, but he saw no need to inform Cassie of that. "Yes, so ya think you can leave me alone long enough to get dressed?"
"No!" she whimpered, clinging to his neck.
"Okay, baby, okay. How about sitting on the bed in here; can ya do that?"
"O-kay," she agreed reluctantly.
MacGyver deposited her in the center of it, then grabbed his clothes and stepped behind the open door as a screen.
He dressed quickly, knowing that if another thunderclap came, Cassie would run for the shelter of his arms without regard for his modesty. Moments later he emerged buttoning his shirt and tucking it into his pants. He sat on the edge of the bed to put on his shoes, and Cassie quickly crawled over to lean against his back.
"All right, c'mon," he told her, twisting in a sudden motion to pull her into his lap, then standing with her in his arms. "Time for you to get dressed, too, an' then ya can help me make breakfast."
He carried her down the hall and set her down outside the room she shared with Cindy. "Okay, go on, an' I'll wait right here for ya."
"Don't move!" Cassie warned solemnly.
"I won't," MacGyver promised, leaning against the wall as if he intended to stay there all day. Satisfied, Cassie disappeared into the room.
MacGyver heard drawers opening and closing, and fabric rustling as she dressed.
"Cindy, will you button me?"
"Why are you wearing that dress?" Cindy's reply came through a yawn.
"'Cause I want to," Cassie answered stubbornly.
"Ma's not gonna be happy if you get it dirty," Cindy warned.
"I won't get it dirty!" Cassie insisted.
Cindy sighed impatiently. "Oh, all right," she gave in. "Come on up and I'll button you."
MacGyver heard her scamper up the ladder to Cindy's bunk, and a moment later she danced out of the room, twirling to show off her yellow dress.
"Hey, sunshine," MacGyver greeted her.
"Can I wear it, Mr Mac, please? I won't get it dirty, I promise!"
"Sure, ya can wear it for now. If we do something messy later you can change — or maybe wear one of my shirts to cover it up."
Cassie beamed and spun around again, then jumped to MacGyver's side at a rumble of thunder.
"Hey, you've got your shoes on the wrong feet," MacGyver pointed out. Kneeling, he quickly switched them for her, then stood and took her hand. "C'mon, let's see what the boys think of this storm."
"They like thunder," Cassie told him.
"Yeah, I can imagine they do." He wouldn't admit to Cassie that it was his last lingering concern about Dylan that had him tapping lightly on their door before pushing it open.
Both boys stood at the window, watching the storm.
"Good thing we're not at the fort, huh, Mr Mac?" Dylan commented, turning at MacGyver's entrance.
"Yeah, those walls wouldn't do much to keep out the rain in a wind like this," MacGyver agreed. "An' you two better come away from that window in case a branch breaks it."
"Bet the roof is gonna blow off," Derrick said sourly, not moving.
Cassie whimpered, looking up fearfully, and MacGyver smiled down at her. "He means the roof on the fort," he assured her. "This one might lose a shingle or two, but it's not gonna blow off." Stepping forward, he put a hand on each boy's shoulder and gently pulled them back from the window. "An' if the roof on the fort blows off, you can make another one."
"No, we can't, 'cause we can't reach, an' you're going home tomorrow."
"Bet your father could help ya."
Derrick twisted his shoulder free. "Sure he could, but he won't."
"Ya tried askin' him?"
"No, but he's never interested when we talk about the fort."
"I think you'd be surprised," MacGyver told him.
"Yeah," Derrick agreed sarcastically, "sure would."
"Want me to talk to him?" MacGyver offered.
Derrick shrugged. "Can if you want, but it won't do any good."
"It's all right, Mr Mac," Dylan said earnestly. "We're never in the fort in the rain, so we don't really need a roof anyway."
"Yeah, that's right," Derrick agreed.
MacGyver smiled and ruffled Dylan's hair, reassured that he was fine. A seven-year-old wouldn't be nearly as good at dissembling as Ramone had been; if he was still hurting, MacGyver would have been able to tell. "You boys get dressed, but stay away from that window while it's blowin' so hard. Cassie an' I are gonna go down an' start breakfast; come on down when you're ready."
oOo
"Can we go outside, Mr Mac?" Cindy asked as they ate breakfast.
MacGyver glanced with a raised eyebrow at the rain still streaming down the windowpanes.
"Ma lets us play in the rain," Cindy added, looking at him with a half hopeful expression.
"Yeah, an' if it was a gentle shower, I might let ya," MacGyver told her, wondering whether their mother really let them, or was just powerless to stop them. "But Cassie would wash away in this, and it's still thundering."
Cassie giggled at the wink he gave her, then looked doubtful. "You said thunder wouldn't hurt me!"
"Nope, but where there's thunder there's lightning, and you should never play outside if there's lightning. If ya want some fresh air we can go out on the porch; maybe even have a picnic lunch out there. How about it?"
Their replies were enthusiastic, and after helping him with the dishes with only some reluctance, they eagerly trooped out to the wide side porch.
With some ingenuity, MacGyver managed to keep the kids occupied all day with only occasional squabbles. In the afternoon, he enlisted their help to make a big pot of soup.
"I like cooking!" Cindy declared. "Ma never lets us help in the kitchen."
MacGyver glanced sideways at her. "Would you have wanted to help if she had asked ya?"
"Well…probably not," Cindy admitted. "But cooking with you doesn't seem like work!"
"How about washing dishes?" MacGyver teased.
Cindy wrinkled her nose. "I wish we could toss them in the fire like we did when we were camping!"
But she helped Derrick put them away willingly enough after dinner, as MacGyver washed and Cassie and Dylan dried. *
"Mr Mac, can we light a fire in the fireplace and have another singalong?" she asked, accepting MacGyver's hand to jump down from the counter she had been kneeling on to reach the cabinet.
"Yeah, let's!" Dylan agreed enthusiastically while Cassie jumped up and down clapping her hands and Derrick looked at him hopefully.
"Sure," MacGyver agreed, glad the guitar was in the house and not out in the jeep. "But Dylan and Cassie hafta get ready for bed first. Cassie, I think it's your turn for a bath; Cindy, why don't you help your sister?"
Cindy made a face, but reached for Cassie's hand. "Come on, Cass, let's go," she sighed.
As the girls disappeared upstairs, the boys followed MacGyver into the living room, where he knelt and laid a fire in the fireplace. From the stack of wood beside the fireplace and the reasonably fresh ashes in the grate, he knew the fireplace was used fairly often and he didn't have to worry about the chimney being blocked.
"Can I light it, Mr Mac?" Dylan asked eagerly.
MacGyver grinned at him. "Sure," he agreed. "Then ya need to run upstairs and put on your pajamas. Derrick, could you get my guitar from the bedroom?"
"Sure," Derrick agreed. He ran up the stairs after Dylan, returning moments later with the black case. MacGyver settled on the sofa with the instrument, strumming idly as he waited for the rest of the children. Derrick watched with undisguised interest, and MacGyver smiled at him. "Wanna try?"
"I don't know how," Derrick hesitated.
"Here, I'll show ya. Your hands are still a little small for a full size guitar, but you can get some of the chords." *
By the time the others came down, Derrick had been able to pick out a simple tune under MacGyver's direction. His face was flushed with half embarrassed pleasure as he handed the guitar back and sat crosslegged in front of the fire with the other kids.
After nearly an hour of singing with her siblings, Cassie yawned and climbed onto the sofa, curling up in the corner.
MacGyver smiled at her and transitioned into slower, quieter songs. Tired himself from waking so early after a restless night, he found his own eyes drifting shut as he played.
Suddenly he started, his hand hitting a discordant note on the strings. "Huh? What?"
Cindy giggled. "You fell asleep playing, Mr Mac!"
MacGyver grinned sheepishly. "Guess I'm more tired than I thought. How about we call it a night, huh?" He found himself yawning as he bent to put the guitar away.
"Okay," Dylan agreed, scrambling to his feet. "Guess you'll hafta carry Cassie."
"Yeah," MacGyver agreed, grateful he had had her get ready for bed beforehand. He lifted her gently, and she stirred but didn't wake as he settled her against his shoulder.
Next chapter coming next week!
* Illustration for this scene can be found at
www . deviantart . com [slash] femalechauvinist [slash] art [slash] Crack-of-Dawn-885692446
www . deviantart . com [slash] femalechauvinist [slash] art [slash] Washing-Up-885692510
www . deviantart . com [slash] femalechauvinist [slash] art [slash] Guitar-Lesson-885692567
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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