MacGyver woke up confused and in pain in a hotel room. His head was pounding and all he could think about was how he got there. The last thing he remembered was going to a bar with his buddies, Dan and Kevin, for a little night of drinking and fun. They had quite a few drinks and he supposed he'd had one too many. He probably should be glad that he didn't wake up with some woman, he mused as he carefully sat up.

That thought brought to mind another woman, namely his wife Lanie, and he cringed as he thought about what faced him when he finally got home. Oh was she going to be mad, he thought, and he groaned as he remembered that today was their 13th anniversary. Oh man, he was in for it now.

He wondered what happened to his friends as he stood up to head for the bathroom. His eyes landed on a suitcase that was lying open on the other bed and he wondered who it belonged to. He fervently hoped that whoever it was wouldn't be walking in, ready to beat the crap out of him for falling asleep in his room.

Mac went into the bathroom hoping against hope that he would find some aspirin just lying around, and grumbled when he didn't find anything. There was nothing even close in the entire room, although he didn't know if there would be any in the suitcase. Going through someone else's suitcase just didn't seem right somehow. He did learn that the person who rented this room was in the Air Force, judging by the uniforms hanging on the clothes rack.

He got dressed after deciding to wait until he got home before taking a shower and left the room as quickly as possible. He realized that the hotel was in the downtown district and he stepped out in the street to hail a cab, as Dan had driven last night.

He cursed his friends as he waited for a cab to come by. Why had they left him there? Why was he there in the first place? He had always avoided drinking anything stronger than orange juice in the past, preferring to keep his wits about him, but last night he had thought, why not have just one drink? Famous last words, he snarled inwardly.

Once he hailed a cab down, Mac gave the address and settled back to decide on how he was going to get back at his friends for abandoning him in a stranger's hotel room. He was pretty resourceful when it came to getting even and he had come up with several scenarios by the time the cab pulled up into the driveway of his urban castle. Actually, it was more for Melanie that he lived there. She was the one who wanted to have a house where their children could grow up without having to move from one place to another as she had done when she was growing up. Her father was in the Army and she had moved around quite a bit.

If it had been left up to him, he and his family would be living out in the mountains somewhere near forests and rivers. He had owned a houseboat at one time, and although he loved living there, his wife was appalled when he mentioned living in one. He smiled as he remembered the talking to he got for even thinking it. He truly loved that woman!

He had thought that he would never find someone that he would want to spend the rest of his life with. In fact he had avoided commitments with women for most of his life. Then he met Melanie Summerfield two years after he and his son, Sean "Sam" Malloy, took off to explore the United States, and that was all it took. They had spent a lot of time together over the next couple of months and he realized he loved her more than life itself when he almost lost her in a car accident. It was then he knew he couldn't face life without her and proposed to her in the hospital, actually, he begged her to marry him. He didn't have to beg too hard, he remembered with a grin.

He pulled some money out of his wallet and paid the driver before walking up to the house. It was still early in the morning and he noticed that his neighbor, Bob Riley, had already set his garbage out by the curb. He grimaced as he thought about his neighbor. That guy can be such a pain, he thought as he turned to take the last few steps up the walk. Always finding something wrong with any of the neighbors, and was only nice to Mac because Lanie and Bob's wife, Linda, were great friends.

"Jerk," Mac grumbled as he went to open the front door. He was spared from having to unlock it when it was opened for him and his daughter, Lindsay, bounded out. "Oof. Sorry," she said when she bumped into him, then gaped at him when she saw who she bumped into. "Dad?"

"Hey babe," he said, reaching over to give her a hug. He kissed her hair and let go of her to enter the house.

"What are you doing down here?" She asked with a confused look on her face. "I didn't see you come down."

"That's because I wasn't upstairs in the first place," he replied, then gave her a wary look. "Is your mom in a good mood?" he asked.

"Hey Dad," Pete said from behind his sister. "Didn't see you come down. Ready to go out investigating?" he asked teasingly.

"What? Investigating? Gave that up years ago, remember? I retired, living the grand life of raising two brats and chasing after garbage trucks," he said, as he heard one coming down the street.

"Dad?" Lindsay's face had gone pale and Mac suddenly got scared.

"What?"

"You were upstairs a few minutes ago with Mom," she said, her eyes wide. "Me and Pete saw you."

Mac stared at his daughter as he tried to make sense of what she was saying, then looked at his son to verify what she had said. Pete nodded and Mac pushed them aside to run up the stairs to find his wife.