MacGyver was sitting at the table on the porch of his houseboat, letting the sea breeze ruffle his hair. He was musing, as he often did. What was Murdoc up to? He wasn't about to make the first move, Murdoc was an imposing enough foe without provoking him. But he had to do something. Phoenyx needed him to do something...

Phoenyx...

She was the kind of girl he had only dreamt of. She was an angel. If ever he ended up settling in one place, giving up the nomadic life of adventure he so loved, it would take someone like that.

But he couldn't make a demand like that on her. He couldn't ask her for anything more than the friendship she was willing to yield. She was having enough of a difficult time with life as it was, but to have to struggle with something like love...

It doesn't have to be a struggle, Mac reminded himself sternly. It was only a struggle when you wanted to move on, when your itchy feet started begging to move forward...

But if she reached out, if she asked for more than his friendship, he would always be there. That much he knew. If ever the time came that she needed someone to be there for her, someone to love her, take care of her, he could be it. But only if she asked.

Mac sighed as the breeze died down a little. A seagull cried overhead. The water lapped idly against the sides of the houseboat. Only if she asked...

Starstarstar

Something was up. I knew it. I hadn't seen Murdoc in three days. I knew he was spending time with my sister, but three days without pestering me to know what was up, why I wasn't at breakfast, dinner, why I wasn't coming to fall at his feet and beg him to take me, stuff me full of lies, and make me "feel better..." That was odd. I began to wonder if he had gotten wind of MacGyver's presence. When that happened, I half- expected him to go mad. He was bent, after all, on killing him. If he found out about me... that would just fuel the fire. Fuel the fire... how ironic. I had crawled out of one, only to find myself smack in the middle of another. My sister and I had survived one devastating blaze, only to be caught up in another. Only this time, the blaze wasn't filled with smoke, but with jealousy and passion. One just as destructive as the other. And I began to wonder, would we, could we survive this one as we had survived the first. And if we did, where would we go? To MacGyver? Would he survive the raging flames? I knew he was resourceful, but could he escape the ravaging fire of impassioned hate?

Even if he did survive, I could never ask him for something like that. He had already aided me so much, more possibly than he would ever know. To ask him for more would be impossible. To ask him to risk death for me, then continue to demand if he survived... I could not. No matter what my heart told me.

I was beginning to see something in those dark eyes. A light shone there, that had not been there before. Whether or not I had helped kindle it, it was there nonetheless. Yet another fire burning, another addition to the recurring theme that seemed to define my life as of late. But I could never ask him. I could never demand such a high price for aiding me. He was a nomad, an adventurer. I could never live, not knowing where he was, if he was even alive. He was a friend, and I could never place so high a demand on someone so close. If he felt the way I did, he would come around in time. But I couldn't press it until he asked.

"Please ask..."

Starstarstar

"Phoenyx... May I come in?" Murdoc was standing at her doorway, looking unusually sheepish.

"If you must." Phoenyx snorted. He nodded in reply and entered, head bowed.

"I would like to talk to you, if you aren't busy." He was still looking at his feet, an unusual change from the confident arrogance that plagued him. He sat beside her on the bed, but made no move to be consciously affectionate. Phoenyx was stunned.

"I want to know something. Your sister told me you were behaving strangely. She's worried about you. You shouldn't do that to her you know."

He moved like a tiger, pinning her to the bed, with an enormous, jagged dagger poised at her throat.

"Who told you I was a murderer?" He grinned nastily. "They were right on the money, you know. But you shouldn't have told your dear sister. Pity the innocent are so... innocent. She, of course told me everything about your little conversation the other night. Well, poor thing. I, of course told her you've been feeding her silly stories because you're jealous of the attention. Good thing she bought it too, I really would hate to have to kill her. And that's a first for me. Regret, I mean. So, what do you have to say for yourself? Who told you? Or are you just so clever?"

At that moment, the door swung open.

"...Phoenyx?"

Murdoc's face turned a shade of grey Phoenyx wasn't sure was even possible until that day. His dagger slipped from his grip, narrowly missing Phoenyx's throat. He turned ever so slowly.

"MacGyver..."

"So now I know..." He whispered softly.

Starstarstar

Murdoc fled from the room before anyone was even sure how he had gotten out. MacGyver flew to Phoenyx's side, carefully swept up the dagger, careful not to touch the handle, and laid it on the bedside table. It glinted nastily in the lamplight.

"So I see he found out about me..." Mac said darkly.

"Mac, what do I do? I can't have him around my sister now! If I refuse anything he says, he'll kill her!"

"Just... sit tight. The only thing I can tell you to do for now is... do whatever he says. Don't make him angry, just do what he asks, and I'll figure something out. There has to be a way to get rid of him. I mean, cockroaches are hard to kill, but even they aren't impossible."

Phoenyx looked dully up at Mac. Whatever he asked. Murdoc had been waiting for this day to come for a long time, and she had just handed it to him on a silver platter. How could she even bear having to follow his every whim?

"I... don't think I can do that, MacGyver..."

"You have to try. I'm sorry it has to be that way, but you have to try, just long enough for me to get some sort of plan."

"MacGyver, you don't understand. I can't. You don't know what he would ask me... I can't do that."

Mac looked puzzled. He was vaguely aware of what he was sending her into, but he hoped he could save the situation before it was too late. But why she would be so unwilling to cooperate, even if it meant her sister's life... He had never seen someone so stuck to their beliefs, or worse, their fears. Any other thoughts as to why she would refuse to cooperate had not even occurred to him yet.

Phoenyx's green eyes grew dull with defeat. This was it. She would have to tell him now. Despite what she knew was the right thing to do, she knew she had to tell him.

"I can't do whatever Murdoc asks of me... Because I love you. You're my best friend, and I... I just can't do it! It would kill me, and..." She dropped off, looking pitifully at a spot somewhere around the tip of his nose.

Mac looked at his feet. One hand strayed to the laces of his sneakers, and he picked at it awkwardly. He bit his lip and slowly cast his eyes upward, to meet hers.

"I'm sorry." Was all he said. He reached out, taking her hand.

"I'm sorry I have to send you into the fire, but there's nothing I can do anymore. I won't make you go, but if you care about your sister, and I know you do, you have to put that aside and do what you know you have to do. You couldn't help her getting tangled in his web, but now it's up to you to get her out. I can't do that for you."

"I know..." Phoenyx said softly. "And I know I have to do this, but... I just wanted you to know first."

Mac nodded in silence, then turned away to think.

Starstarstar

I didn't want to think about what I was about to do. I had gone out of my way that morning making sure everything was perfect. Getting ready to set a trap. I knew full well that I was the bait, but I just kept pushing it aside. Pushing it down until it would pop back up again, like a beach ball you try to hold underwater. Eventually it gets the best of you and... Splash! It flies out of the water and hits you in the face. My thoughts were doing that to me now. Just when I thought I had them under control, there they were again, laughing in my face.

I finished painting my nails. Flame red, the bottle said. Flame red to fan the fire burning in Murdoc's desperately jealous, angry heart. Flame red to finally ignite the sparks in his eyes.

MacGyver would think of something. He would lure him away, then we could deal with our lives. I sighed as the gnawing pain returned to my heart. To save us all, I had to give away my soul and break his heart. And you thought there was no price to pay for playing games with people's hearts.

Finally, I was ready. I would go find Murdoc, see if we could have a little talk. See if perhaps whatever won him over in the first place could be rekindled, burning away his anger. I strode to the door, put on my best face of feigned confidence, and stepped out into the hall.

It didn't take me long to find him. As usual, he was lurking somewhere in the halls between my sister's room and my own. I smiled charmingly, and approached.

"M-Murdoc?" My voice faltered, but I pulled my composure tighter, and as he turned, I looked into his eyes. It was the first time I noticed how dark and deep they were. "I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?"

He seemed stunned to see me there. Here I was, this angel standing before him, though I didn't know it then, giving him everything he had ever asked from me. I watched his eyes widen.

"What did MacGyver tell you to ask me?" he asked warily.

"MacGyver? I don't want to talk about him... I want to talk about you... and me... I think we may have had a little... misunderstanding... last night." I rested a hand lightly on his shoulder, gently pulling him back down the hall toward my room. He followed me, willingly, but a spark of mistrust still lingered.

"Are you sure this has nothing to do with MacGyver?" he hissed as I beckoned him into my room.

"MacGyver and I are... through. I had spoken to him a few times, he seemed interested, but when he saw you, lets just say he respects you enough to leave me alone from now on." I looked him in the eye, despite the urge to look at my feet. I couldn't stand to hear the words coming out of my own mouth. I banished the extraneous thought, and turned my carefully blanked mind on Murdoc.

He was scrutinizing me now, looking me up and down for signs of deceit. I had to admit, I was behaving more than a little oddly around him, but I had to do what I had to do.

"Sit down. Make yourself comfortable." I watched him take a seat, cautiously, at the end of my bed. I sat beside him, as close as I could make myself get. "I was thinking about what you've been trying to tell me lately, and I realized how terribly selfish I've been. It's not fair to my sister, and it's not fair to you for me to be so distant. I've decided to take you up on your offer. Perhaps we could have dinner sometime, just the two of us, to try and work out some plan to make sure Robyn is well taken care of from now on."

I knew he was fighting against his better judgment when he looked up at me. I knew he wanted to take me up on that offer so badly, but I also knew he was waiting for me to slip up. Waiting for me to give away some clue that I was lying to him, some clue that I was still in contact with Mac.

"Yes..."

"Thank you. I know I said some terrible things to my sister about you, but... I didn't know you before. I want the chance to get to know you now."

Murdoc simply nodded mutely. Somewhere in the depths of his brilliant but twisted mind, the gears were turning. If he knew I was the bait in some enormous trap, he showed no sign. He rose to leave, looking a little dazed.

"I'll see you later tonight then?" The question was so childlike, I was almost taken by surprise.

"Of course." I smiled. A ghost of a smile fluttered across his face, and he turned and beat a hasty retreat.

I sighed. Part one was over, and it had gone remarkably better than I had ever imagined it would.

Starstarstar

I showed up at the restaurant where I was supposed to meet Murdoc fifteen minutes early. I watched him come in, looking unusually nervous, spot me, then approach, a tiny smile flitting across his face. I returned the smile, still bewildered at how quickly he had trusted me, and how quickly he had seemed to forget that he was going to kill me. It seemed to me that a tiny white light, weak and frightened, had sparked in his eyes, and he was doing everything in his power to keep it alive.

He was speechless when he saw me, and for good reason. He had never seen me like this before. Of course I had put on a pretty face to convince him to talk to me, but he had never seen the likes of me now. I was standing before him, dressed to the nines, and looking like... someone from a television show, someone from a fairy tale, waiting to find their prince. My heart twisted in my chest knowing that my prince was at home, wracking his brain for a solution to our mutual new problem.

"Phoenyx... You look like an angel..." He finally stammered, taking a seat. I closed my eyes, mustered all the patience and courage I had in me, and began the act again.

Starstarstar

He had no idea what to make of the creature who now stood before him. She was an angel, pure and simple. It looked to Murdoc as if she had just descended from heaven on enormous white wings. She was radiating light, in her eyes, in her smile. How could this creature be false? He hoped to god she wasn't false. Funny, he thought, I never believed in a god, yet here I am praying... She brushed his hand, only an accident, as she reached for water. He almost died from the shockwaves that shot up his arm, and then ran themselves ragged through his spine. He had no idea how calculated every step of the seduction was. How planned and practiced they were. He couldn't know that everything Phoenyx had planned banked on the sole hope that somewhere inside the black void where his heart should be, Murdoc loved her. But every step was a lie. Every smile, every laugh, every sincere look she gave. She was a brilliant liar, and that was all. But Murdoc's mind would not allow him to believe that. Not for one instant. Sense could abandon the most sensible of men, and surely it abandoned Murdoc now. He had given all up for abandon, and was now falling, hard and fast, for the angel that now filled his eyes with light, and his heart with fire.

Starstarstar

MacGyver was sitting once more on the deck of his houseboat, this time staring up at the stars and wondering what in God's name had possessed him to send the one woman he cared so much about essentially to her death. If this charade wasn't flawless, the consequences would make themselves painfully clear in no time at all. He would go looking for her, only to find her gone, pictures of her last moments on earth plastered across her room. She would wonder where he was, and why he had failed, let her down.

"It's my fault, and I know it... but how do you stop a killer who can only be hindered by his own faults? The only fault I can find is Phoenyx, but I can't exploit this time we've bought much longer..."

In his heart, he knew that Phoenyx would have to do it. She would have to become everything that Murdoc had dreamed of, and then break his heart. But he couldn't admit that yet. If he couldn't come up with another way, who could? But the fact remained, if anyone could drive Murdoc away, it would be Phoenyx revealing her lie. He would still see her as an angel, still be unable to harm her, and his only choice would be to diminish, disappear. At least that's what Mac would keep telling himself, until he almost believed it. He would keep driving this into his skull, so that he might hold on to hope, as opposed to hearing, over and over in his head, "She's going to die and it's all my fault, she's going to die and it's all my fault, she's going to die and it's all my..."

A shooting star passed overhead, filling Mac's eyes with the memory of glittering light. He didn't want to reckon with the fact that soon Phoenyx's light might only be a memory too.