HIIIIIIIIIIII! ... Wow. Okay, yeah I just started this with a lot more energy than I'm feeling right now... Oh well, here's the next chapter. I really hope y'all like it because there's a little but of a twist in there and if it wasn't a twist for you and you totally saw it coming then I am so glad for you, but I didn't. Hope you like the chapter! Enjoy!
Jack's fist slammed into the man's nose, blood spurting from the now broken area of the man's face, "I'm gonna ask you again, bud," he snarled, "where is James Macgyver?"
"I already told you, man," the terrified criminal whimpered, "I don't know. The boss only tells us our new locations when we actually move, never before."
"Yeah, see, i don't believe you," Jack growled, his voice low and angry as he grabbed a hammer off a nearby bench and slammed it on the chair in between the man's legs, "so you're going to tell me what you know or else some pretty lady is going to be very disappointed."
The man winced, "I'm sorry man, i don't know anything!"
Jack could tell that the slime ball in front of him was lying and it made him crazy with anger, "don't lie to me, man, it only makes me angry," he brought the hammer down again, closer than before, "I'm not gonna ask again. Where is he?!"
"Yo lady," the man implored Matty, who was standing a little ways behind Jack, "control your man here!"
"I don't think I will," she replied coldly, knowing better than to step between her agent and this man right now. Jack was already mad enough at her, she didn't need to add something like this to the record, "although what I will do is suggest that you tell him exactly where James is."
"I don't know," the man screamed as the hammer dropped down another inch closer, "please, I don't know, man!"
"You're lying," Jack snapped, "don't make me ask you again!"
"I don't know," the man cried, "just leave me alone, dude!"
"Fine, have it your way," Jack huffed, lifting the hammer.
"Okay, okay, okay! I know where he might be," the man screamed, "just stop! Please, just stop!"
Jack grinned maniacally, "that's much better," he glanced back at Matty and smirked, "no where is he?"
"Macgyver has a safe house outside of the capitol," the man admitted, "a few of the packages had DC addresses. He might be there."
"What's the address?" Jack demanded, forcing himself to silently congratulate his victory silently. One step closer.
***Line Break***
"Hey Thomas," Mac looked up as Thomas King entered his room, "what's up?"
"Jack sent me a couple questions from Matty and she wants you to answer them," he explained, scrolling through his phone.
Mac yawned, but nodded, "okay, shoot," he'd grown much more comfortable with the Sierra-November group. They were all kind and hadn't treated him with any sort of contempt or pity, which was nice. He was by far the most comfortable with Thomas, but Meredith was cool too. He wasn't quite sure what to make of Vincent or Lucia yet, but they seemed okay.
"He wants to know if James ever mentioned DC?" Thomas read off his phone, glancing up at the blond curiously.
"The capitol?" Mac scoffed, "he mentioned it all the time. Typically though it was in a rant about the government or the president," his brow creased as he thought harder, "although he did mention it a couple times outside of that context."
"What did he say?" Thomas questioned, watching Mac carefully.
Don't tell anyone anything, Angus! I did not raise a traitor! Mac flinched as his father's words hit him like a brick. His mind slammed his searching to a stop as his training came back into play.
Thomas watched as the younger man flinched, his jaw clenching and his eyes squeezing shut against some invisible enemy. He yearned to offer some words of comfort, but he wasn't sure what to say that could possibly help. Jack would have known exactly what to say, but Thomas wasn't Jack. he had no clue how to help Mac with his fear. The blonde could vaguely hear his heart monitor freaking out as his panic toyed with his heart.
Mac clenched his jaw as James' words reverberated through his head. Do not betray me, Angus! I will not stand for betrayal!
"What is going on here?" Mac's flighty panic was pierced by Dr. Reyes' voice, "Macgyver, are you alright? You need to breathe."
Mac opened his eyes to meet Dr. Reyes' kind, chocolaty brown ones, "I'm okay," he gasped out, sitting up completely, "just... give me a second."
"You need to leave," Reyes snapped as Thomas, who immediately jumped up to comply with the man.
"He can stay," Mac decided on a spur of the moment, glancing at Thomas, "I'll answer it, just give me a second."
Thomas nodded, slowly settling back into a chair, "alright, Mac, take your time. It's okay."
Mac took a deep steadying breath as another voice entered his mind. Breath Mac. Just breathe, kiddo, you're okay. Jack's calm southern drawl filled his consciousness and Mac was able to calm down. Jack had repeated those words so many times to Mac that the blond could hear the exact inflections in his friends voice. The calm that laced his worry. It was calming for Mac and so he drew on that, forcing James' words to the back of his mind. They hovered there but Jack's words kept them at bay.
"Okay," Mac calmed himself, "I'm okay."
"You sure," Dr. Reyes studied him carefully, "you don't have to answer the questions yet if-"
"I'm okay," Mac interrupted, wincing at his rudeness, "sorry."
"It's just fine Mac," Reyes smiled at him, resting a hand on Mac's arm, "I'll be just outside if you need me."
Mac nodded before turning his attention back to Thomas, "sorry about that-"
"Mac," Thomas broke in before the inevitable string of apologies, that he'd had become well acquainted with, followed, "you're fine. I get it, I've been there. Just answer in your own time."
That was another reason that Mac liked Thomas most, he didn't offer or give pity. He took it as it was, accepted it as fact, and moved on. Mac liked that in a person, "okay. So, he mentioned a couple of times that he had big plans for DC, but I'm not sure what they were. Just that he really doesn't like the president or the Vice. He's always talked about how..." Mac trailed off as a memory suddenly smacked him in the face.
"Shoot!" he yelled, throwing himself out of his hospital bed, "where are my clothes? Thomas, where are they," the young man yelled as the monitors started going crazy.
"Take a breath kid," Thomas leapt out of the chair, reaching towards the kid, "easy, what's wrong?"
"I have to talk to Director Webber," he sapped, yanking the monitors and IV's off himself, "and only to her."
"Okay," Thomas grabbed his arm, choosing to ignore the flinch from the younger man, "okay, Mac, you have to take a breath. I'll call Matty in and you will lay down. You can't be running around, you'll get hurt."
Mac's eye darted between Thomas's face and his arm, "I..."
Thomas gently dropped his arm, "just calm down, Mac. It would probably be better that you keep all the blood inside your body. Jack would kill me if I don't keep you from bleeding out."
"I need to talk to Matty," Mac growled, but allowed Thomas to guide him back to the hospital bed.
"I'll get in contact with her," Thomas promised, "but you have to stay here."
Mac nodded, "okay. I can do that."
Thomas studied him, "alright," he glanced over at the door, "I'll be right back. I just have to talk to the others really fast. I'll be back in a minute."
Mac nodded, watching his bodyguard exit. He waited until the door was shut completely before grabbing the nearby clipboard off the wall. He scribbled something down for Matty before grabbing his clothes off the chair. He threw them on and winced as the fast movement aggravated his injuries. He bolted to the window and yanked it open. He was halfway outside before Thomas opened the door.
"Mac, stop," he yelled, running towards the door, "don't do that!"
Mac pulled a small vial out of his pocket and threw it on the ground in front of the guard. It exploded, bright flames flashing in Thomas' eyes. The man ducked away, momentarily blinded by the lights.
Mac ducked out the window and dropped lightly to the ground. He shot across the compound grounds, well aware of the bullets peppering the ground behind him.
"Mac?!" Jack's voice rang out behind him, "cease fire! Cease fire now!"
Mac spun to face his partner, his heart wrenching at the look on Jack's face, "I have to go, Jack. What he has planned... I have to stop him," he called to his partner.
"You don't have to stop him by yourself, Mac," Jack assured the boy, stepping closer to stop him from getting himself hurt, "just come back. You'll be okay."
Mac stepped back, matching Jack's distance, "Jack, you can't help me with this one. I have to stop him. I can't let anyone else get hurt."
Without another word, and knowing Jack would come after him but couldn't stop him, Mac spun around and disappeared into the woods surrounding Phoenix.
***Line Break***
Matty stared at the small dot on her screen that displayed Jack's position. she desperately wished she'd taken Nicki up on her offer to sew a tracker into Macgyver's jacket. She hadn't expected him to run, but he had. Thomas King was in the infirmary arguing with a doctor about his eyes, and his team was hovering nervously around him. His eyes would have zero permanent damage. Whatever Mac had concocted had worked the same as a light grenade, blinding him for just the right time frame for Mac to get away. She glanced down at the coffee table as her phone lit up with a call.
She sighed, her boss had been against this entire mission from the beginning. He hadn't wanted anything to do with the Macgyver family, and rightly so. She understood where he came from, but she also knew that he held a deep bias against said family. She swiped right with her thumb and lifted the phone to her ear.
"Matilda," he was not in a good mood, "why is my assistant in my office telling me that Angus Macgyver has escaped custody?"
"Protective custody," Matty corrected, "and apparently, Agent King's line of questioning brought something to light in Macgyver's memory and, according to Agent Dalton he 'cannot let anyone else get hurt'. It appears that he has dropped off the map."
Her boss cursed, "so he's gone dark. Gone rogue?"
Matty sighed inwardly, "seeing as he's not an agent, sir, it's impossible for him to go rogue. However, yes, he has gone dark. We're monitoring every payphone and air wave in every cardinal direction within a 10 mile radius of the compound and we'll know when he makes contact."
"More than likely," he huffed, "Senior has had someone on the inside keeping tabs on young Macgyver. He probably knows that his son has left custody and will pick him up before the kid can ever try to make contact. Matty, I want this escalated into a man-hunt. You are to find Macgyver before his father does, do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Yes sir," Matty snapped, "crystal. Is that all?"
"No," her boss replied, "I will be joining Dalton's team in the search. he is the most likely one to find Macgyver, seeing as he knows him best. I want to be there when we catch the slimy little ******* and put him away. Understood?"
"Sir, with all due respect," Matty protested, "he's hardly a criminal. He's scared of his father, as many people are. He doesn't want anyone to-"
"Do I need to pull you off of this case, Webber?" he demanded, "because it sounds to me like you have become emotionally invested in this mission and that will not be tolerated."
"I'm fine, sir," she spat the title, sometimes she really hated the man she worked for, "I can take point from here. I will inform Dalton that you are joining him."
"You do that, Webber," he replied before hanging up on her.
Matty gripped her phone tightly, trying to resist the urge to throw it through a wall. Instead she dialed Dalton's number, "Jack, you have incoming."
"How many?" came the crisp, battle-ready reply.
"One," she sighed grimly, "Walsh."
***Line Break***
Mac dodged through the trees at a breakneck pace. He needed to get somewhere where he could change his hair color and he knew a few people around here who gave out fake ID's and passports. They also laundered money for his father. All he had to do was tell them he was on a mission and needed papers and they would give him everything he needed to get to Washington DC undetected. He caught a branch and flung himself up into a tree as footsteps pounded behind him. He hid in the dark foliage of the tree, hoping that whoever was after him didn't spot him.
"I could have sworn he was right here," Jack. Jack was still out looking for him, but he wasn't the only one. There were several men with him, one of them vaguely familiar, Mac couldn't quite lace it.
"Well, he's not, Dalton, so where next?" Mac froze as the voice sliced through his consciousness. Jonah Walsh.
Jack was working alongside a man who would kill Mac on sight. The man harbored a vendetta against the Macgyver family ever since James had turned. Several members of Mac's family, including his Aunt and a couple great uncles, had been killed by Walsh. Mac curled in on himself and watched the agents through the trees. There was no way that Jack knew who Walsh was to the Macgyver family. There was absolutely no way. Mac didn't understand how he, himself, wasn't dead yet. He had been recovering right under Walsh's nose. As if the man had been allowing him to live. It made no sense. Whatever Walsh's reasoning, Mac knew he had made the right decision in leaving. Walsh was dangerous and cruel to any member of the Macgyver family. Mac waited until the men had moved o before slipping out of the tree and running in a different direction.
"There," he heard Walsh yell, followed by a spray of bullets flying his way.
"Hold your fire!" Jack yelled, "we're here to bring him back, sir, not kill him."
"All units, fall back to my position," Walsh snapped, ignoring Jack's protests, "open fire on Macgyver if you see him. He is armed and dangerous. I repeat. Open fire on Macgyver."
Mac ran faster, his injured, exhausted body propelled on by fear of the man behind him. He stumbled as his stitches pulled causing him to reach for his side and break his balance. The men behind him were gaining. He was just so tired...
Jack could see Mac now. The kid was struggling, but he was still going. That gave him some hope that the kid would live to the other side of this.
"He's waning," Walsh yelled behind him, "shoot him now!"
Mac dodged behind a tree, his blonde hair disappearing behind the trunk. Jack skidded to a halt, feeling tears of desperation well up in his eyes as bullets tore through the air around his partner. Walsh was going to get Mac killed. Walsh was going to kill his little stubborn, skinny ass, blonde-headed, burger-named, big-hearted, genius Wunderkid. But not while Jack still had breathe in his lungs.
"Everyone hold your fire!" Jack yelled, combating the other man's order, "all due respect, sir, but you don't make the calls in the field. I do. Macgyver left with just the clothes on his back. He is not armed but he is scared. Our orders are to bring him in. Not kill him. Hold your fire."
"That is insubordination, Dalton," Wash snapped back, "I could have you fired!"
"Then fire me," Jack growled, "without the confines of a contract, I can just shoot you and move on."
"Dalton, go back to the War Room and wait for me," Walsh commanded, "I'll deal with you there. The rest of you, terminate on sight."
Jack had heard those words directed at people his entire career, but never had those words sent such horrified chills down his spine. Never had he heard those words directed at someone he loved and cared about as much as he did Mac. And Mac was way more important than any job. Making up his mind right then and there, Jack shot. Not at Mac, but at the people shooting at Mac. He hit there weapons and their Kevlar, taking care to not do anything but incapacitate them.
"I will have you fired, Dalton," Walsh screamed as Jack advanced on Mac's position.
Jack flipped him the bird, "no you won't! I quit!"
He slipped up next to Mac, firing at the men around them with sniper precision. The blond stared at him in shock, with face twisted with pain.
"You go kaboom, I go kaboom," Jack reminded him, tugging the blond towards where he knew there was a small hole in the security teams, "come on. Let's get out of here."
From up in the War Room, Matty watched as Dalton's dot blipped out of existence. She nodded her thanks to Nicki, who stared solemnly at the screen. Matty turned to the window, looking out at the darkening woods.
"Alright, Dalton," she sighed, "you and Mac..." she sighed, "go save the damn world."
Okidoki y'all! I really hope you like it! Honestly, I had forgotten about Walsh until I rewatched it a few days ago and decided, 'hey, why not add him to the story!' Hope y'all enjoyed! Leave a review or a suggestion about where you would like to see the story go from here! And yes, Jack did actually just quite the Phoenix. I know, shock! I tried to go with the story line that they worked two different angles but I couldn't bear to keep them apart for long because it just didn't feel right. But for real, Jack would totally demolish their teams to save Mac. It's not like he'd just stand by and let them kill him! So, going rogue is clearly the best solution! Like, duh! Just for those of you wondering, there is some Riley coming up in the next chapter so get ready! Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! Can't wait to update! Love y'all! BYYYYEEEEEEE!
storyspinner16