Chapter Fourteen: The Phoenix Family

MacGyver Household…

A few days Later…

And so, things were beginning to come to an end. James was dead and buried. There was funeral but no-one attended. I didn't let him be buried with my mother. He didn't deserve that. I refuse to think of my father. That's Jack. He was the one that would be there for me, forever.

The Phoenix family sat outside, gathered around the firepit in Mac's backyard. The past few days had been hard on them, Mac especially. With Oversight dead, a lot was going to happen in the foundation. It looked like they might have to shut down thanks to the scandal that broke in the world of espionage. Matty was trying hard to find some sort of solution to that problem but had so far been unsuccessful. If she couldn't think of something soon they would have to been disbanded and no one wanted that.

Tonight, however, was not a night for business. The problem was still there but they needed to take time together to heal from the whirlwind of hurt and destruction James MacGyver had left. As Jack had said, what will be will be. If they were disbanded, it would be a shame. They all loved their jobs and the work they did. But while work was what brought them together, it wouldn't be the thing to keep them apart. Their dysfunctional family would thrive. They would be there for one another.

"How are you doing Mac?" Matty asked as she roasted another marshmallow on the campfire.

"So-so," Mac replied tilting his hand to match his answer. "One minute I'm glad he's gone the next I'm angry at myself for thinking that."

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel if he was honest. James had never been a good father to him. Even before his mother died, which Mac remembered little of, to begin with, James had been cold and unemotional. His grandfather while nowhere near as bad as James was similar in that he wasn't 'touchy-feely'. It had been one of the things that surprised him when he realised Jack was the complete opposite.

"There's no right way to feel, you know," Jack reassured him as though he had been reading Mac's mind. Or maybe he just knew his boy. "That man wasn't your father. He didn't deserve that title. I'm only sorry I pushed you into speaking to him."

Mac sighed. Jack had not been the only one to say sorry for pushing him. Bozer had also given his apologies. Mac didn't blame them. He knew the advice they had given had come from a good place. They had wanted him to have a good relationship with his father because they had good relationships with theirs. Their parents were nothing but loving and supportive so Mac could understand why they would push him. It was because they had a happy childhood, and he could hardly blame them for that.

"When does your therapy start?" Riley inquired.

While each member of his family had suggested therapy, it had been Riley that had first broached the subject with him. She had seen a therapist to help her deal with her father and later, she had also seen one to help her with the trauma that came with being in prison. She still saw her therapist regularly and wasn't shy about talking about it. In her mind the more she talked about how she was seeing a therapist the less it was stigmatist.

"Next week. I have Doctor Arnold." Mac replied. He was nervous about seeing a psychiatrist. Not because he thought it was a bad thing but because he wasn't exactly eager to talk about his childhood to a stranger.

Matty had arranged it. Being employed at the Phoenix was a pretty stressful job and often your stresses were directly involving sensitive information that the usual, run-of-the-mill therapist wouldn't have the clearance to know about. So, so that Mac could talk about these things, the therapist he (and by extension Riley) saw was employed by the Phoenix. It was a brilliant solution. Agents could share classified information and get full use out of their sessions.

"Oh, you have Arnie? He's brilliant!" Riley declared clapping her hands together with glee.

I have heard about Arnie from Riley. She has never been shy about seeing him. She doesn't always tell us about her sessions, but I know enough to know he had helped her. I only hoped that Dr Arnold would help me too. There is no easy fix to trauma like ours but at least it was a start.

Bozer handed another beer to Mac and examined his best friend with an appraising eye. He was glad that Mac was getting the help that he needed. The talk they had in the car when they'd driven to the foundation after Murdoc's escape only highlighted Mac's insecurities. Bozer hoped that with a good deal of time and love Mac would begin to realise that his worth was not solely made up of how useful he was.

"Hey, Bozer! Remember that bet we had that year I started doing debate club?" Mac laughed eager to move the conversation away from his trauma and onto a happier memory from his childhood.

"Of course, I do! Mr-I-Bet-I-Can-But-Really-Couldn't!" Bozer laughed back.

"What's this?" Jack questioned; his interest piqued.

"You tell them, Mac, you're the one who started it!"

Mac rolled his eyes and turned to face his family and cleared his throat.

"So, it was when I was 13. We had to do two extra-curricular activities and Bozer and I were trying to choose what we should do." He began.

Mission City, 2005

Under the big Oaktree

"You should join the drama club with me," Bozer suggested.

Mac pulled a face.

"OK, so not drama club. Poetry?"

"No."

"Music?"

"Definitely not. Sammy Bryson goes to the Music club. He's still angry about his French Horn."

"Well, you did explode it – accident or not. Are there any clubs that sound appealing? Which clubs are left anyway? I'll be surprised if there are any!"

Mac looked down to see the two choices that were left. In his hand was a list of all the extracurricular clubs that their school had to offer. Mac had been striking off the ones that he did not want to attend. They were now left with two options.

"There's Basketball Club and Debate Club. Urgh."

"Well, Debate Club doesn't sound so bad." Bozer mused out loud.

"Are you kidding me? I don't like talking to people, you know that."

"So, go to Basketball Club then."

"That's held by Coach Matthews and after The Great Incident of 2004, I don't think he would want me there either."

"Well, you have to pick something."

Mac looked around and saw a basketball that someone must have dropped. It gave him an idea.

"I bet I can get that basketball to hit that bin," Mac suggested suddenly.

The bin in question was not that far away. If he reached forward and stretched his arms he could probably touch it with the tips of his fingertips.

"Oh, and what happens if you don't?" Bozer smirked.

"Well, the Basketball club will probably be better than the debate club. I hear that Coach Bailey will be doing it to and she likes me. So, if I lose I will join the debate club. I won't though."

"Are you sure about that?" Bozer laughed. He had seen Mac's skills with a ball, and they left a lot to be desired.

"Of course!" Mac declared "It's all much math and physics after all!"

Then Mac lobbed the ball full force towards the bin. He had worked out the equations in his head and was quite certain that he had pelted with enough force and in the right direction that it would hit the bin. It didn't. It missed the bin by a country mile and instead hit the window leading to the principal's office. As soon as it made contact it smashed it and sent shards of glass into the air.

"Err Mac…" Bozer whispered.

"Run!" Mac hissed, grasping his friend's hand, and fleeing the scene of the crime before anyone could connect them to it.

Once they were a safe distance away from the smashed window and yet another detention, Mac and Bozer allowed themselves to get their breath back. They could hear the principal shouting with anger and the pair let out simultaneous sighs of relief.

"That was close." Mac declared.

"Yeah, it was." Bozer agreed before looking back at his friend. "Hey, Mac?"

"Yeah, Boze?"

Mac was slightly worried that Bozer would be angry at him not nearly getting them in trouble. Again. He needn't have worried. Bozer was rather amused by the whole affair.

"Guess that means you're joining the debate club."

Mac swore.

Back in the present day...

Who thought that was funny?...

The family laughed at the tale.

"I guess I overestimated my abilities." Mac chuckled "They had a big assembly about that window too! They never found out that it was me though. I was almost tempted to tell the principal the day I left but I didn't. I wouldn't put it past him to hold grudges."

"It was funny how things turned out though wasn't it? Because if I remember correctly, you ended up being captain of our school's team AND won us loads of trophies." Bozer pointed out nudging Mac slightly.

"Did you really?" Riley enquired. "That's interesting!"

"Blondie's full of surprises aren't you?" Matty smiled fondly. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. After looking down to see the caller ID she frowned and made her excuses.

The three remaining members of the Phoenix Family laughed together as each member shared a funny tale from their childhood.

You see, even in my childhood, it wasn't all bad. I had fun times. There just, didn't involve James. Bozer was involved in my favourite tales but they were still good memories.

Bozer told them about the time had got stuck up a tree on a school trip. The teachers ended up having to call the fire brigade out to help him out. This resulted in him getting the nickname 'Kitty' for two years for obvious reasons. Despite holding up the school trip and being the cause of an early end to it, the rest of the students had not blamed him. In fact, he was seen as an unofficial hero because the trip had been so mind-numbingly boring that the thought of going back to school was actually a pleasant one. When it transpired that they had even managed to escape the bleep test in PE, everyone had cheered.

"I remember that! Did Mrs Foster almost faint when she saw you? I thought they were going to have to call an ambulance for her! Seeing Mr Fryer fanning her with his clipboard was just as funny as the excitement it caused."

"That's easy for you to say, you were stuck up there!"

"Why did you even climb that tree in the first place?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Because Derek Hayes threw Daniella Taylor's backpack up there and Boozer had a crush on her!" Mac explained much to Bozer's annoyance.

Riley then told them a time where she inadvertently started a murder investigation when a nightmare she had was too realistic. She had been up far too late watching horror movies and almost started a nationwide man-heart for a fictional murderer.

"Mom wasn't best pleased but luckily the police saw the funny side," Riley explained. "I wasn't allowed to watch horror films for like a year afterwards. I'm just glad that they decided to take a teenager seriously. I mean, what if I had seen a murder and they just dismissed it? It's better to be safe than sorry."

"I'm just glad you didn't see someone getting murdered and that no one was actually hurt." Jack declared. It definitely would not be a good thing if a teenager witnessed that. It would be enough to scar an adult for life let alone a child.

"That too!" Riley waved off. "Now, Jack it's your turn. Actually, where's Matty! She's been ages?"

"Maybe she's sorting out the foundation. If she's gone this long she'll want to be left alone," Mac suggested.

The trio looked at each other and accepted that explanation. Jack decided to start sharing a story from his childhood. He had lots of them to tell, many of them already heard and all of them long. Jack wasn't one to get to the point when it came to his storytelling. He needed to build a pre-story scene for context and then usually went off on so many tangents he usually forgot what the original point was.

This story was about how one of the horses was an escape artist who somehow managed to get out of her stable every day. They had discovered that it was actually Jack's dog Sundance that had been letting the horse out. The two of them had somehow come up with an alliance. Just as he was wrapping up the story, Matty finally returned.

"Matty!" Jack yelled out "You're missing all the best stories. Wait 'till you hear about the time-"

Jack stopped himself when he noticed Matty's appearance. The normally stoic women looked worried. She was shaking. She never shook.

"Matty?" Jack asked his voice full of concern. He was immediately sobered and on his feet. He guided his friend to a nearby chair.

"What's wrong?" Mac questioned. "You're scaring us."

Matty took a big swig of the beer Jack held out for her. God, she needed that. She looked at each member of her team, her family, in turn, aware that the joviality of the evening would be abruptly stopped by what she had to say. She turned her head to face Jack again. He would be the one most affected by this, he was the one she would speak to directly.

"That was the head of cybersecurity back at the foundation," Matty stated, allowing herself another drink to calm her nerves. "When the Phoenix got hacked the second time, Murdoc helped himself to another two files and sold them to an unknown party. The first was your personal file Jack and the second…"

"Matty? The second?" Jack prompted.

"The second file was Tiberius Kovac. He's back Jack and he's alive."