Jack watched his former partner carefully. Mac was thin, too thin, and had a large purple bruise flowering out across his collarbone. His blonde hair, which had always been well kept, was dirty and matted. He was twitching nervously and Jack found himself wishing he had a paperclip for the kid. He glanced around the War Room and slid a small piece of metal off of the report on the table. He held it out in his palm and offered it to the blond.

"Use it kid," Jack smiled gently, noting Mac's slight flinch away from him but taking no offense to it, "you need to get rid of that nervous energy somehow."

Mac grinned weakly, "thanks Jack," he accepted the paperclip and quickly set to work fiddling around with it.

Jack took the opportunity to study the kid. Mac's face was kept turned down, as if he wasn't used to looking people in the eye anymore. His eyes were kept downcast, a clearly submissive sign. He kept his arms in close to his body, almost a natural defensive posture. He was poised on the edge of his seat, ready to move in an instant. Jack frowned, it was a complete transformation from the confident young blond he'd known in the army. His father must have done a number on him. Jack's frown deepened as the protective urge surged through his veins in a comfortingly familiar way. Waiting for Matty, he decided against approaching Mac with questions, knowing the blond had a tendency to shut down conversations about his home life. Instead he elected to putting his arm on the back of the couch behind Mac, resting it there in a wonderfully familiar way.

He hadn't realized how much he'd missed the kid. Mac had definitely been the brightest spot in the sandbox for Jack. The kid had never failed to cheer up his fellow soldiers, whether it was by distracting them with baffling statistics and science experiments or sitting with them when they needed someone to talk to. His cheerful smile had brought Jack more joy than he'd allowed himself realize. He had missed Mac. A lot. Jack slid closer to his friend and wrapped his arm closer, sighing quietly in satisfaction now that he finally had his kid back.

***Line Break***

Matty watched her agent closely. In all honesty, she didn't trust the boy. he was the son of a world famous criminal and just happened to come to them with information when they had just lost his father again. Matty had kept her suspicions to herself for Jack's sake but she knew she'd have to come forward with them at some point. She didn't relish the conversation she needed to have with her top operative. He was clearly attached to the boy.

Jack was sharing the War Room couch with the kid, who looked nervous beyond belief. Jack was sitting very close to the boy, his arm behind the kid's neck. The blond was leaned slightly towards Jack, probably not even realizing he was doing it. He was fiddling with something in his hands, it glinted in the light and Matty recognized it as a piece of metal. Matty sighed and shook her head, the kid was twisting metal. An odd nervous tic, no doubt. She mulled over what had happened that night.

Mac had snuck inside the Phoenix compound undetected and hid in Matty's office until she'd shown herself. She'd found him sleeping in the corner of her office behind her desk. She hadn't missed the clear panic in his eyes at waking up to a gun in his face. He'd quickly explained who he was and why he'd come. Matty had run background checks and several reports relating the two Macgyvers had come up. She had questioned him thoroughly, and found his story to be legitimate. He had told her that he would only help with Dalton as his backup, which had made her initially suspicious, but she had run the necessary checks and had found the connection.

Matty had already had tech support set up a fake identity for Jack, but Matty wasn't going to let him leave that easily. She sighed and then composed herself. Matty walked briskly into the War Room, noting the way Mac jumped, slightly leaning closer to Jack who tightened his arm slightly. An instinctively protective movement on Jack's part, almost causing Matty to question her decision. Jack was emotionally engaged in this case, there was every possibility he could compromise himself. Matty decided to ignore the nagging in the back of her head, Jack could handle himself.

"Alright," she snapped, "how long does your father expect you to be gone, Mac?"

The blond thought for a moment, "well, I told him I was gonna track down a buddy of mine so he doesn't expect me back for a couple of days," he sat forward, "Jack's gonna be safe right? I don't want him to do this if-"

"Can it kiddo," Jack rolled his eyes, "i can handle myself. Besides, now that I know where you are there is no way I will not come blasting my way inside the second you don't answer a text."

Mac raised an eyebrow at his former over-watch, "blasting your way? That's a bit reckless, Dalton."

Jack smirked, "right, I'm the reckless one," he stared at Mac, "Bubblegum?"

Mac flushed scarlet and looked down, "that was a low blow, Jack."

"Oh no," Jack grinned, gently cuffing Mac over the back of the head, "it was completely acceptable."

"Boys," Matty broke in, "as delightful as this banter is, we have business to attend to," she turned to look at Mac, "you have to make sure that Jack gets in good with your father so that we can get the information we need," she glanced over at Jack, "you have to let whatever happens, happen."

Jack stiffened, his grin dropping instantly, "what are you saying, Matty?"

Matty sighed, he was not going to take this well, "I'm saying-"

"That if he tries to hurt me," Mac broke in, "you have to let him."

"aw hell no," Jack snapped, launching himself to his feet and shifting in front of Mac, "there is no way in hell that I'm gonna let Mac's daddy beat up on him. Absolutely no way."

"Jack-" Matty started.

"No," Jack interrupted, glaring daggers at Matty, "there's no way I'm letting it happen."

"Mac," Matty sighed, "would you give us a moment?"

Mac nodded, not wanting to be in the room when Jack lost his temper. He quickly exited the War Room and watched through the window. Jack was pacing and yelling, his face bright red with anger. Mac sighed, he'd known that Jack wouldn't be able to protect him, but he'd also known that hearing it was worse than the realization. He sighed, at least Jack would be with him. He could trust Jack to stitch him up and help him heal. Jack could also keep the other gang members off of him. His dad, mac could deal with, it was when the others joined in that he had issues. He subconsciously rubbed the large bruise that spread over his left side, a reminder to never fail his father.

Mac had received it after refusing to kill a man on the gang's hit list. He'd even had the gun to do it with. Mac shuddered, he hated guns. They were cruel, unfair weapons. His father relied heavily on guns. He felt that peace belonged to the person with the bigger fire-power. Mac and James disagreed strongly on that point.

Anger radiated off of Jack as he stood face-to-face with his director. she had told him to let people hurt Mac. He felt his blood boil at the thought.

"Matty there is no way in he-" Jack's voice echoed around of the sound proof War Room, "he's my kid and I ain't lettin' no one touch 'im!"

"He might be your kid," Matty snapped back, "but right now he's Macgyver's. I will not have my top agent getting his cover blown because he can't keep his emotions in check!"

"This ain't got a damn thing to do with my emotions, Matty," Jack growled, "and you know it! Jack is my partner, and I don't let no one mess with my partners! No matter how high a horse they think they have!"

"If you step in it could blow the whole operation out of the water," Matty argued, knowing that usually jack never wanted to blow an op. Usually.

"Go to hell, Matty," Jack replied shortly, "no one's hurting Mac on my watch. I don't care who they are."

Matty barely contained her anger at her agent. She understood his reaction, but at this point, she felt he was being very overprotective. She guessed that it had something to do with them serving together. She didn't know how right she was.

Jack's mind was flashing through all the times some hair-brained idea of Mac's had landed one of them in the infirmary. Broken ribs, injured legs and wrists, the two of them had been through it all. And every time one of them got hurt, Jack had to convince his young partner that he wasn't bailing on him. And that he never would. Jack had had the same conversation with the kid so many times, but one kept popping up in his mind. They'd been captured by a bunch of Israeli soldiers. They had taken the two soldiers into a room and threatened Mac with all kinds of torture. Jack had been gagged, tied, and unable to stop the threats. When they had tried to hurt the blond, however, Jack had surged up on his feet and knocked them away.

Jack could still remember the look of pure haunted terror that had entered Mac's eyes when one of the soldiers had slapped him. Then Jack had swore to himself, and to his partner, that he would never ever let anyone lay a threatening finger on Mac, ever again. No matter who they were.

Seeing that he was never going to back down from his case, Matty finally just swore and called Mac back in. She supposed she had to hand it to the kid, if he'd wormed his way into Jack's heart like that there must've been something really good about him. Still, Matty couldn't shake her suspicions. She didn't know why, but she didn't trust him.

"You are to try to keep your father from hurting you," she snapped, "seeing as I can't do anything about Jack's motherhenning nature."

"Tried to get a handle on that during the war, ma'am," Mac smiled slightly at his partner, "but he's as stubborn as a bone-headed mule."

Jack grinned and ruffled the kid's hair, "I see you haven't forgotten some of the fine country language I taught you."

"How can I?" Mac grinned back easily, feeling more relaxed after getting used to his surroundings and Matty, "you drilled them into my head."

Jack slung an arm around the kid, "well, it's a good thing i did, otherwise you wouldn't have a good way to describe me."

Mac raised his eyebrow at his partner, leaning slightly towards him. He'd missed Jack. More than he'd realized.

Matty sighed at her agent's antic with the boy. She quickly briefed them on what was going to happen and how it was all going down. She noticed Mac stifle a yawn as his eyes started drooping. It occurred to her that he probably hadn't slept well on the floor of her office. He needed sleep. She didn't trust him, but she also wasn't a monster. The kid was innocent for now, he was also human. Her suspicions were starting to fizzle away, the longer she spent around the kid. His blue eyes were innocent and his face was open and honest. There really wasn't a threatening thing about him. She realized that slowly he was worming himself into her heart too. And it had only been a few hours. She needed to get away before she became attached.

"Well," Matty shut all the tablets down, moving to do the same with the screen, "time for you two to get going. The jet will be ready to go in a few hours. Meanwhile, you two get some sleep."

"We can crash at my place," Jack offered, as they exited, "unless you want to crash with what's his face... umm. Bo-somethin'."

"Bozer?" Mac questioned, feeling the familiar ache at the mention of his friend, "no, I can't crash with him. Don't want him in danger."

"What about me?" Jack mockingly accused, a fake hurt look on his face.

"Nah, you're fine, 'm not worried about you," Mac joked easily, surprised at how quickly all his confidence came back when Jack was around, "you're a big tough delta officer. And your hardened by the criminal underworld," he snarked, referring to the undercover persona.

Jack squeezed his partner's shoulders, "my place it is then," he grinned, leading Mac to his car.

"This old thing still works?" Mac questioned, disbelief lacing his voice, "how old is she, 17?"

"Close," Jack smiled, patting the car's hood affectionately, "she's 20. And still purrs like a kitten."

Mac shook his head in slight disbelief, "she's a death trap. A twenty year old death trap."

Jack laughed, "naw, she's alright. My daddy and I built her up. She's safe."

Mac's face shaded guiltily at the mention of Jack's dad, "I'm sorry about him, by the way, I know you two were close at the end."

They both slid inside the car, "it's alright," jack smiled sadly, "it's only because of you that we got close at all, so thanks. Besides, he'd be happy that I got you back. He wanted to meet you, or at least read your letters."

Mac looked away, "I should have written you back. Every time you sent me a letter I thought about it. But then dad would just say something offhandedly about his hatred of all things army and I decided against it. I didn't want you in danger."

"I know, kid," jack replied, "but I didn't want you in danger either. Don't think I forgot all those nightmares I had to talk you out of. Or all those conversations we had. I knew your dad was back, and I knew something was going on, but on the few you did write me, you didn't leave a return address."

"I didn't want you to find me," Mac admitted as they pulled out, "I knew you would if you had an address."

Jack allowed for a few moments before admitting something to his friend, "I thought something had happened to you when you stopped writing," he sighed, "thought your old man had finally snapped. I used the Phoenix database to try and find you. hen it couldn't, I thought you were dead."

Mac looked up at him slowly, "I'm sorry, Jack. I didn't think about that."

Jack smiled gently at his former partner, "just don't disappear again, you got it?"

Mac studied his partner's eyes, "okay, Jack."

The two me sat in a comfortable silence the rest of the way to Jack's apartment. Jack unlocked the door and herded his friend inside.

"Your room is the one o the left," he smiled, propelling the kid that way, "there should be some clothes in the drawers. I don't know if they'll fit you, but we can try."

Mac nodded and smiled back, squeezing his partner's shoulder, "thanks for the bed, Jack."

He slid into the room and stopped in the doorway. The room was sparsely decorated, but whatever was in it screamed Mac's style. Definitely not Jack's. It was painted a light tan color. There was an MIT banner spread across one wall, and a pair of dog tags hung off of a nail above the dresser over a picture. Mac crossed over to the dresser to get a closer look, one of the dog tags was Jack's but the other was one of Mac's. The picture was one of both men smiling in their army fatigues. It was the same one Mac had seen in the case file on the table at Phoenix. Curiously, he opened the drawer and found several sets of clothes. All his exact size. He looked around the room and saw a slightly over sized hoodie draped over a chair next to a desk. He lifted it and smiled. It was the Dallas Stars hoodie that Mac had gotten Jack while they were overseas. He'd gotten permission to ship it to their base for Jack's birthday. Jack had worn it every day that they had free. Jack hadn't been kidding. This was Mac's room.

"I set it up when we came back," Jack admitted from the doorway, "I just never took it down," he smiled ruefully, "I come in here sometimes when I can't sleep."

Mac didn't know what came over him. Whether it was his relief at being some where safe, or the completely overwhelming feeling of knowing someone actually loved him. Whatever it was, Mac found himself rushing over to Jack and throwing his arms around his friend, trying to hide the tears that had sprung to his eyes. Jack stumbled back a few steps but quickly reciprocated the embrace, knowing how much his friend needed it, and also willing to admit how much he himself had missed him. He kept Mac held close, satisfied. He finally had the kid back. And he was never gonna let him go.

HOORAH! I finally got the next chapter out! Sooooo sorry it took so long to get this updated. My computer keeps glitching and the internet is on the fritz. This was a whirlwind to write, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll try to update sooner next time. Please leave a review, also, suggestions are welcome! Love y'all!

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