Okay y'all so I recently rewatched season 2x12 and I picked up on Mac's little line form the army flashback (when he told Jack, 'I didn't think you were coming") and I decided there had to be a story behind that. yes, I know there's the whole his mom died, his dad left thing, but it is literally Jack's job to protect him so I decided there was more to that than initially met the eye. So here y'all go. The missing scene from 2x12! Enjoy!
"I didn't think you were coming," 21 year old Angus Macgyver stared in shock at the man standing in front of him.
"Of course I came," Jack Dalton rolled his eyes, watching his young partner through his scope, "now I mean it. Next time you wait for me."
"Okay," Mac laughed weakly, glancing over at the three dead Taliban soldiers, "okay, I will."
"Good," Jack snapped, "now get to defusing that bomb, city boy."
"Will do," Mac replied, turning all of his attention back towards the IED.
Jack kept up a steady stream of chatter over the comms and, oddly enough, Mac found his hands steadier than they usually were. Something about the constant drone of Jack's voice soothed his nerves. It made him uncomfortable to realize that his job relied so heavily on his partner already. He shook his head out of his thoughts and focused on the bomb. It was a standard DIY internet worthy IED, nothing too fancy. Mac had it disarmed within seconds and he made his way back to the Humvee. Jack quickly joined him and the two clambered into their vehicle.
The ride was oddly quiet. Mac didn't mind silence, but when Jack was quiet it meant he was thinking, and that did concern him. He glanced over at his partner and frowned. Jack stared at the road as if it had offended him. He was thinking really hard about something, and Mac found that he wanted to know what was up.
In truth, Jack was upset. He had told the kid for weeks that he would always back him, but the kid still expected him not to show up. He knew the kid had trust issues, but he had no clue they ran this deep. Jack had proved countless times over that he could be relied upon, yet the kid still refused to fully trust him. It both infuriated him, and made him sad. He would be gone in just a few weeks and one day this nerdy little bomb tech was gonna get an over-watch that would accept the kid's habit of pushing people away. And that person wouldn't show. Mac was going to get himself killed if he kept pushing away his fellow soldiers.
"Hey," Mac spoke up, curiosity finally getting the better of him, "what's up?"
"Nothin' Carls Jr." Jack's worried frown disappeared and he grinned over at the young blond, "just thinkin'."
"And that," Mac teased, "is why I'm worried. I thought we established that I'm the thinker."
Jack raised an eyebrow at him, schooling his expression to look insulted, "and what exactly are you insinuating there, ya runt?"
Mac fixed Jack with a playful, but steely, expression, "throwing me off the scent won't work, Dalton," he called Jack out, "now what's going on? Did I do something wrong?"
Jack waved his hand at the blond, "naw, kid," he assured the boy, it was honestly saddening that every time something was off, the kid automatically assigned the blame to himself, "it's just..." he paused, "well, I thought we'd gotten past the whole 'I'm bringing your butt home no matter how stupid you are' thing."
Mac looked surprised, and confused, "huh?" his brow wrinkled into a frown, replaying their earlier conversations and trying to figure out what he was talking about.
Jack just barely stopped himself from smiling fondly at the kid. He looked awfully young with his face screwed up like that, as if he had a puzzle in front of him that he couldn't solve. It was almost endearing... Jack shook those thoughts away. The kid was his mission. He could not get attached. Then he glanced over at Mac's preciously confused expression again and sighed inwardly, too late.
"Did you really think I wasn't coming?' he finally asked, watching Mac's expression carefully.
The kid's face instantly cleared and an alarmed look crossed his face microseconds before he schooled his features into a neutral expression, "oh, sorry," he apologized, "I didn't mean..." he hesitated, stumbling over his words, "that wasn't... I just..." he took a breath then continued, "I went against orders. You no longer had an obligation to follow me so..." he hung his head, not meeting Jack's eye, "I guess I just expected you to leave."
Mac jolted as the Humvee swerved to the side of the road. Jack pulled the vehicle over and turned in his seat so that he was looking straight at Mac. The ex-delta force soldier looked frustrated.
"Look Mac," he snapped, "I don't care how stupid I thought you were acting, you were following your instincts," he sighed, "and I can't fault you for that. But I told you weeks ago that I didn't care how harebrained, or wild goose chasey you got. I'm in it to win it over here, and that means I'm always gonna show up. I've told you that, and showed you, over and over and over again," he sighed, "so why won't you trust me?"
Mac looked shocked, almost like he couldn't breathe. He swallowed hard a few times and looked away. he was silent for several minutes, and Jack grew worried that he had overstepped his boundaries with the sensitive young blond. He had pushed to hard and now Mac would never let him close again. Mac's long hair flopped in front of his face, obscuring it from view. Jack sighed inwardly, great. Now he had ruined any chance he had of getting to know this kid. Mac wouldn't ever open up to him. His question would forever go unanswered and he would never understand his little blond wonderkid.
His Kid? Jack almost reeled back physically. He hadn't realized how tightly he was wrapped around Mac's finger. How much he'd grown to care for the kid. His kid. Jack groaned silently. Yeah. He was attached. He looked over at Mac, who still hadn't said a word.
"I'm waitin' kiddo," Jack pressed, deciding to risk it.
Finally, Mac looked up, "look," he sighed, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," he apologized, "I just..." he trailed off then groaned, "look," he said, his tone suddenly sharp and guarded, "I've just quit expecting people to show up, okay? It hurts less when they don't," he added silently, almost to himself.
Jack stared at the blond with a mixture of frustration and pity. This wasn't a kid who had trust issues, okay maybe he had a few, but that wasn't his problem. This was a kid who had had too many people leave him. Too many people walk out on him and never come back. Jack frowned, okay but that didn't explain this completely.
"Okay, kiddo," he said gently, using the same voice he used around wild colts, "I get that, but it's my job to protect you. You should know I'm not walkin' off when you need me. I've shown you over and over again that I won't."
"yeah, well-" Mac cut himself off, turning back towards the door, "the last guy didn't show," he muttered.
Jack felt an icy hand clutch his heart, "what guy?" he questioned, Mac didn't answer, "Macgyver, what guy?"
Mac sighed, crossing his arms over his chest in what Jack recognized as a defensive posture, his voice was quiet when he finally spoke up, "there was a guy in between you and Pena," he whispered, and Jack suddenly realized that this was something he didn't reveal to just anybody, "he was supposed to be my over-watch...I knew there was a bomb in the area but he wouldn't listen. He radioed in that we were done, but I ran off to find the bomb that I knew was there," Mac's glance darted towards Jack, knowing that the same exact situation had just occurred earlier, "he didn't follow," Mac shuddered, "I found the bomb and disarmed it in time to meet a Taliban patrol on the way back to the truck..." Mac's arms tightened around himself, "I was outnumbered and didn't carry a weapon... They..." he trailed off, not meeting Jack's eye, "they had me at one of their compounds for almost three weeks..." he muttered, "when I finally got out and got back to my base, I found out that he had fed the upper chain some story about a firefight. He claimed he'd lost me in the panic but that I'd told him over comms to leave. He'd taken our food, water, and truck back to the base. The captain in charge of our unit was glad I was back but the guy already had another partner so I was a floater for a few weeks then got paired with you," he glanced fleetingly over at Jack, "that's why I didn't expect you to show up... because he didn't."
Jack was fuming with an angry, overprotectiveness that he barely realized he'd had for this kid until now, "what happened to him?" he demanded.
"To who?" Mac questioned, looking and sounding very confused.
"To the guy who left you for dead in a Taliban infested town," Jack snapped, "what happened to him?"
Mac shrugged uncomfortably, "I dunno, last I checked he was still in the sandbox at my old location. Why?"
"He's still serving?!" Jack was seething, no one who abandoned their partner like that deserved to be in the United States Army, "how in the hell did he not get discharged?!"
Mac looked away again, his whole body tense, "I never told anyone," he whispered, "I just wanted it to go away," he added quickly, "so I put in for a transfer and got sent here."
Jack sat rooted to his seat in shock, "why didn't you tell anyone?"
Mac shrugged, "I dunno, Jack, it didn't feel worth the fight."
"Worth the- Mac!" Jack exclaimed, "you could have been killed! he took your food and your water! If you had gotten back you would have had almost no way to survive out in the desert. You would have died, MAc! And you didn't think it was worth the-ugh!" Jack gripped his seat and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to control his raging anger. Finally, he calmed himself down enough to open his eyes.
"Jack," Mac whispered, "I disobeyed a direct order from my superior. I deserved-"
"No," Jack snapped, waving a hand in Mac's direction and effectively shutting off that line of thinking, he took a deep breath and continued in a calmer tine, looking Mac straight in the eye, "Mac, you did what you felt was right, despite everyone else telling you it was wrong. In doing so you not only saved lives but were willing to sacrifice your own. You did not deserve to be abandoned to a group of terrorists on foreign soil. No one deserves that, least of all someone who saves countless lies on a daily basis," his tone softened, "you should have told someone."
Mac shook his head, "i shouldn't have disobe-"
"Mac," Jack grabbed the blond's shoulders, turning him so that he had to look at Jack, "you did nothing wrong," the delta told him, his heart fracturing slightly at the look in Mac's bright blue eyes, "you saved people that day, sacrificing your well being in the process," he tilted Mac's chin u, forcing the blond to meet his gaze, "I won't leave you when you make that kind of decision," he promised, "you need to stay alive. People like you are few and far between. That soldier had no right to leave you and you should never, ever blame yourself for what happened."
Mac stared at him, conflicting emotions warring across his young feature, "Jack, I-"
"You saved people," Jack said firmly, "you saved people that day and you saved people today," he released his young partner, "and I won't ever leave you to make those kinds of decisions on your own. You go kaboom, I go kaboom. Got it?"
Mac nodded, watching Jack with surprise and wonder in his eyes. It killed Jack to see someone so surprised at a person showing a sense of solidarity. He resolved to never leave Mac's side... He turned his head away. he'd be leaving in just a few weeks. Then, something inside Jack stirred. A kind of protectiveness and call that he hadn't felt since his delta days. He knew he was meant to be here. With Mac, in the field. He turned the engine back on and pulled back onto the road, allowing some silence to fill the car. This time, however, he found that it was a comfortable kind of silence. Almost companionable. he grinned to himself, oh yeah, he was hooked on this kid. A thought flitted across his mind and he glanced back over at his partner, who was smiling quietly.
"Out of curiosity," he said conversationally, "what was that asshole's name?"
"Jack," Mac warned, "don't-"
"Now don't get your panties in a wad," Jack dismissed Mac's suspicions, "I'm just wondering."
Mac regarded him suspiciously, then sighed, "his name was Links. Abraham Links. Why?"
"Pure curiosity," Jack waved Mac's question away, changing the subject he started humming 'Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi. It worked, Mac was groaning and shaking his head. Jack grinned, humming louder and louder until he finally burst into the chorus. He drowned out Mac's laughing protests with his horrible karaoke version of the song, relieved to flip the switch in Mac's mind to something more fun.
***Line Break***
Two weeks later, Jack was waiting for Mac when he got back from his shower. The over-watch silently handed him a letter and turned away, busying himself with something else. Mac slowly looked from Jack to the letter, wondering what it's contents would be. He slid it out and read it over carefully. He re-read it twice and pinched himself before he realized it was real. He read it one more time for good measure.
Private Angus Macgyver,
You are required to testify in court against Corporal Abraham Links. Corporal Links has been charged with desertion and you are needed at his trial. He faces two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Your testimony is needed to bring this matter to a close.
We understand that you were a victim of heinous acts upon your person as a result of Corporal Links' actions. We apologize that his actions were not brought to our attention sooner, but we wish to act upon it now. We await your response.
Sincerely,
Major Eli Wilkes, United States Army
Jack stayed silent while mac read the letter, waiting for his response. He heard his name spoken in a strangled, shocked voice. he turned around slowly, hoping to God that Mac wasn't angry. He faced his partner and saw with surprise that Mac's eyes were wet with unshed tears. Jack approached Ma slowly and placed a hand on his shoulder, looking his partner straight in the eye.
"I told you I wouldn't abandon you, Mac," he said quietly, "does this prove it?"
"Jack," Mac sobbed, closing the distance by wrapping his arms around his partner and nodded, "thank you."
Jack ran a hand through Mac's hair affectionately, "your welcome kid," he smiled to himself, resting his chin on Mac's head and allowing the kid to hug him for as long as he needed, "you're welcome.
AWWWW! I love Jack's Papa Bear moments with Mac! But yeah, I decided to write a bunch of army one-shots about Mac and Jack. I miss the boys and am dying for them to team up again so I figured this was the best cure for my need. I hope you guys enjoyed it because I actually really enjoyed writing this one! Note to self: Don't mess with Mac unless you want Big papa Bear Jack to ruin your entire life forever ;) Can't wait to update! Love y'all!
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