Hey people!

I thought it might be time for another Macgyver story since quite some time has passed since my last story concerning everyone's most favorite blond genius.

This is going to be a multi chapter fic, so don't worry, I'll do my best to continue this as regularly as I can.

Have fun reading chapter one.

################################################################################

If anyone asked him, he'd always tell them that Egypt was a terrible place to be. Everyone at Pheonix was well aware that Jack Dalton would rather die then ever set foot into that place ever again. It had even been accepted, that he and Mac stayed away from work on Cairo day. And even if Matty always acted harsh around the matter of Jack's paranoia concerning the topic, she still always tried not to force them back into that dreaded country, sending other teams there if possible.

Of course, the terrorists they were hunting right now didn't know and didn't care about that. And unfortunately, there hadn't been any other Pheonix agents available for this mission.

And so, despite putting in as much effort as possible to stop it, Jack, Mac, Riley and Bozer found themselves inside this forsaken places borders.

Riley and Bozer had made fun of him during the entire flight to Alexandria, even Mac had joined them in the beginning, but as they neared their target, even the blond genius had started to quiet down considerably. Of course, the young man didn't like this places either, the only difference here being that he wasn't as vocal about it as jack was himself.

Surprisingly enough, things hadn't gone to hell right away.

The mission had been simple enough. Locate the terrorists, find out their plans and report.

They had gathered the required information rather quickly and everything seemed fine. They'd managed to find enough proof and had managed to not get caught in the process. Riley had copied every singe file those people had tucked away on their computers, Bozer had stood watch from afar and had informed them about any movements in the camp they had infiltrated and Mac and himself had sneaked through every corner and tent they could manage in order to find out, with what exactly they were dealing with here.

To their relief, those people didn't possess anything more then normal heavy weapons. Nothing nuclear, biological or chemical.

Everything had gone exactly as they had planned. Riley had gotten back to Bozer and their car, even before he and his partner had made it out of there.

He'd watched his kid go through some explosives when it happened. They had planned for everything but THAT of course, and in hindsight, he didn't know how they could have missed it.

Just as he complained again about being in this damn country again, something big and furry jumped out behind the stack of crates, Mac had just started looking at.

Before Jack could shout out a warning, his partner had already been buried under a mountain of golden fur, sharp fangs and finger long claws. It took the ex Delta a full five seconds to identify this monster at what it was and to process, that the kid was actually being attacked by a lion.

When the first pain filled screech came from his partners mouth, Jack was violently ripped from his daze.

"MAC!" Damn it, why didn't the Pheonix train her agents for something like this?! Crazy people had crazy pets, why hadn't anyone though of that up until now?

Without thinking, he drew his gun and fired a well aimed shot at the beast's head. Thankfully, the bullet hit its mark perfectly.

With a few last hectic movements, the animal collapsed on top of his partner.

The tiny bit of the rational part of his brain that was still working told him to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. All the shouting and the gunshot were sure to make their presence perfectly obvious for their targets.

"...-ck? Jack, Mac, do you copy?" Riley's panicked voice cut through his train of thought as he hurried over to where the giant cat was still burying his partner, who had gotten suspiciously still and quiet.

"Copy, but make it short!" He couldn't help but to snap at her. They didn't have time for pleasantries right now.

"Is everything okay? We just heard a gunshot and people have started moving all over the place!"

Was she seriously asking that right now? "No damn it, nothing's fine! Start the car, we're coming out in a minute." Without waiting for a reply, he cut the connection. Talking wouldn't help his partner right now at all.

Putting all the strength he had to use, he carefully but quickly rolled the dead lion off his partner, who was groaning in pain as the weight that was lying on top of him shifted and finally rolled off of his chest, where it had efficiently prevented him from breathing freely.

The first thing Jack noticed was the blood. Mac's shirt was stained red in multiple places, reaching from his chest and stomach to his left shoulder.

Knelling down besides the younger man, Jack carefully tapped his face. "Hey Mac? Come on, say something, please!" He could clearly hear the panic in his voice. His hands were shaking as well. As much as he hated to have his kid suffer even more, he needed Mac to wake up. It was a miracle that no one had found them yet.

After what felt like forever, pain filled blue eyes opened as Mac seemed to try to make sense off the situation. "J'ck?" Coughing, the blond tried turning on his side, but ceased the effort shortly after since moving seemed to aggravate his injuries quite a lot.

He could have cred with relief. "Hey there buddy, sorry to do this, but we've got to get out of here." Gritting his teeth, he forcefully pulled the blond genius to his feet. Sadly, this seemed to be to much for his ailing partner. It took less then a second for Mac to cry out in pain and surprise and for his knees to start buckling.

"Sorry man, but we've gotta move!" Pulling his Kid's arm over his shoulder, he started to drag his injured friend out of the tent they had been in as fast as possible, while holding his gun at the ready with his free hand, trying to ignore the pain filled whimpers he could hear coming from Mac with every meter they managed to get further away from their enemy.

"Almost there bud, you're doing great." Ducking behind every crate, car and tent he could find for cover, they somehow managed to get out. Jack tried not to worry about the blood his friend was loosing, leaving a scarlet trail behind.

"J'ck, wha-… h'ppened?"

Jack hated seeing his partner like this, hurting and confused. He could tell the kid was doing what he could in order to support his own weight, but in the state he was in, there simply wasn't much he could do.

"This damn country happened! I told you it was a bad idea to come back here again."

"Cai...ro?"

"Yeah man, consider this at least as screwed up as Cairo was. Once we get back, I'll make sure we're never entering Egypt again!"

He could hear Mac grunt in agreement.

"Good, then we're clear about that. Oh, and I'll force Matty to have every agent of hers undergo special training in case they have to deal with another madman's pet."

By now, the only thing separating them from Bozer and Riley were a few dunes and about a hundred meter of uncovered ground. Jack was aware that this could very well get dangerous fast, but what choice did he have, right? He needed to get his kid some help, or at least a first aid kit.

Taking a deep breath, he lifted Mac off the ground and slung him over his shoulder like he was a little kid, completely ignoring the weak protest he could hear come from the younger man. Then, he started sprinting, praying to every god he could think of that they weren't spotted and that he wasn't causing Mac to much pain with his actions.

He could feel his legs protest against the added strain of carrying his barely conscious partner while running through the desert and up some massive piles of sand. His lungs felt as if they were about to explode any second now, but still, he kept pushing on. They simply couldn't allow themselves to get captured.

He could hear people shouting behind him.

Thankfully, he had just made it over that last dune that was separating him from the rest of their team. As he had ordered, the engine was running and both junior agents were already sitting inside the car, Riley behind the wheel and Bozer riding shotgun. Without even slowing down, he ripped open the back door, dropped Mac on the seat and climbed in right after.

"Oh my god Jack, what ha-"

"NOT NOW, just DRIVE Riley, we need to get out of here!"

The young woman hit the gas as fast and as hard as the car was able to manage. Bozer still stared at his best friend, pure horror on his face as he laid eyes on all the blood that was covering Mac's torso.

"Jack…" The poor boy wasn't even able to find words for what he was seeing right now.

"Bozer please, not now. Keep on the look out for any pursuers, okay?" He didn't have time to play babysitter for their favorite lab tech right now. Not while his kid needed him so badly.

Combing his fingers through Mac's soft, golden hair, he started to take a closer look at his partner.

"Hey man, you still with me?"

Just as Mac seemed about to answer, Riley hit a particularly rough spot of on the road and instead of the answer he'd hoped for, his partner only moaned in pain.

"That's a yes then? Can you please open your eyes and talk to me? I need to know hoe badly you're hurt, okay?"

It worried him, how much effort it seemed to take Mac to do how he was told.

"That's it buddy, good."

"'m okay."

Of course he would say that. Jack was sure his partner would even claim to be fine if his head had been separated from his body.

"Okay, yeah I know that already, but can you please tell me how you feel besides being okay? And also, what you consider 'okay' is still, after all those years, a complete mystery to me." He knew his attempt at humor was sad at best, but right now, he needed to calm down. His hands were shaking and he was breathing to fast. Cracking a joke or two was just his way of dealing with stress. "Mind if I take a look?"

After Mac shook his head, apparently not in the mood to fight him on this, Jack carefully reached out to get the plain blue shirt his partner was currently wearing off of him.

Before he could even ask for it, the scissors that had been in the first aid hid were handed to him wordlessly.

"Thanks Bozer."

The other nodded. "Sure, but could you please tell us now what happened?" The would be actor's voice was calm, but Jack guessed that this was only due to Bozer trying to keep his cool in this situation. "I can't see anyone pursuing us, so you can relax a bit."

"Relax? Are you fucking serious right now? And I told you earlier that I'll tell you guys later!" How dare that wanna be spy tell him to relax if his partner had just been mauled by a frikkin lion!

"No Jack, now you listen to me! If My best friend is bleeding out in the back of our car, I would at least like to know why!"

Before he could answer, Riley decided to butt in as well. "He's right Jack, I also need to know if we need to find a hospital rather then getting to exfill or if Pheonix needs to send a medevac. Oh, and Matty wants to know what happened as well."

Using their terrifying boss as an argument was brutal and definitely a low blow, but it worked.

"Okay, but make sure to get boss lady on the phone first, I don't want to have to explain this more often then I have to, got it?"

Only a few seconds later, Director Webber's lovely voice could be heard through Bozer's phone.

"Finally! I've tried getting a hold of you for way longer then I'm comfortable with!"

"Yeah, sorry about that Matty, we've had… kind of a thing happening here."

"Yes Dalton, I figured as much. What did you do this time?"

Jack really wanted to strangle that woman sometimes. "Wasn't my fault this time. And for the record, we gotten the information you wanted, so the mission was kinda successful."

"I sense that there is a 'but' coming?"

Jack bit his lip. Why on earth did they need to do this right now? He couldn't concentrate on taking care of Mac while everyone wanted a detailed report about this!

Thankfully, he was spared from answering since his partner chose this very moment to somehow be lucid enough to recognize what was going on around him.

"Matty?"

There was a short pause before she replied and Jack suspected that their boss could clearly hear that something was wrong with her agent just from the sound and tone of his voice.

"Hey Blondie, finally decided to join in on the conversation?"

"Sorry."

"Okay, could anyone please tell me what happened and why Baby Einstein here sounds as if he's about to keel over?!"

"I'm fine Matty!"

"Quiet Blondie. Jack, what happened?"

Taking a deep breath, he started his explanation. "Well Matty, you see… Everything went according to plan, we had all the data, Riley was already back at the car and Mac and I were busy taking a look around. We found a tent that was used to store their weapons and we were just about done with making sure they didn't have anything too dangerous lying around in there, when…"

Man, he really wished he wouldn't have to continue. He still could see the moment that monster had come out of seemingly nowhere inside his head, replaying over and over. They would probably think he was joking anyways.

"Dalton?" There was a warning in Matty's voice, one Jack had learned never to ignore.

"Yes well… you see.. When Mac was just about done with inspecting their stash of explosives he was kinda attacked by… those terrorist's pet lion."

He could almost see the gears turning in his teammates heads.

"WHAT?!" It was almost comical how the three had all spoken at the same time.

"Stop screwing around with me Dalton, if you're going to lie, then try to at least make it believable."

"He's not lying Matty."

Everyone fell silent. If Mac confirmed something like this, even Matty couldn't argue.

"They seriously had a tame lion stashed away there?" Riley looked as if she'd either start laughing or crying every second now.

Bozer and Riley stared at Mac, completely stunned and even the great Matty needed a second to digest this piece of information.

Finally, she seemed to have gotten over her shock. "How bad?"

He couldn't quite keep the annoyance out of his voice this time. "Well, I was just about to check that, but everyone kept pressing me for information. What I can tell you is, that he's conscious, seems to know what's going on and has lost, and is still loosing blood."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned back to Mac, who thankfully still seemed to be awake.

It didn't matter if he pissed off Matty right now. Riley and Bozer could very well finish the conversation with her on their own. His attention was need elsewhere.

"You holding up kid?"

After recieving an affirmative nod, Jack finally started cutting away Mac's ruined shirt. Finally, he could start to assess the damage that had been done to his partner.

As far as ha could tell, the kid's left shoulder was the worst. It looked as if the lion had sunken it's fangs deep into this particular piece of Mac's body. Aside from that, there were multiple claw marks scattered over the blond's ribs and stomach. Thankfully, his back hadn't suffered the same treatment. Somewhere behind him, Jack could hear Bozer take in a sharp breath. He'd have liked to do just the same, but for Mac's sake, he tried to stay as calm as possible. Some of those wounds were deeper then others, still weeping blood. Those would surely need stitches later on.

Painful looking bruises had started forming around those wounds as well, speaking volumes about how much strength had been applied while inflicting them.

The only good thing to be said about all of this was that he didn't see any internal organs or bones, so that was a plus, right?

"Well kid, that's doesn't look as bad as expected, now does it?"

"See Jack, I'm fine. Let's just go home now."

He couldn't believe how smart, and yet how stupid his partner could be at the same time. Sighing, he shook his head. "Well Mac, I don't want to burst you bubble, but 'fine and 'not as bad as it could have been' are really not the same thing where I'm coming from."

Turning towards his other teammates, who had by now finished talking with Matty, and were watching them silently (or at lest Bozer was, since Riley was still driving), he opened his mouth.

But before he could even voice his question, the first aid kit was flung into his waiting hands without further comment.

Of course, having done first aid in the field multiple times already, Jack was well aware that this next part was really going to suck. And one look at his partner's pale face told him, the smart young man knew as well.

"How do you want to do it?"

Mac looked at him, his bright blue eyes showcasing the pain he currently was in perfectly. "Just do it Jack, I'll be fine."

Nodding he offered his partner a piece of cloth. "So you don't bite your tongue."

Biting down on the strip of fabric, Mac nodded, signaling Jack that he was ready. The former Delta could see the fear and apprehension in his friends eyes as they followed every movement the older man made, watching the bottle filled with disinfectant wearily.

Choosing not to delay the inevitable any further, he quickly uncapped the small bottle and started pouring the clear liquid over his friend's wounds.

Instantly, every bit of color that may have still been left on Mac's face disappeared completely. The blond bit down hard on the make shift gag in order not to scream in pain as Jack continued to pour more and more of the dreaded liquid over every wound he could find. When he'd finally finished, tears were leaking out of Mac's eyes and Jack could hear a quiet whimper with each breath his partner took.

Blood and disinfectant were by now covering a considerable part of the back seats surface, making it look like straight out of a horror movie.

Carefully, he pulled the kid's head onto his lap and did his best to calm him down by stroking his hair gently.

"Shhhshh, it's okay, you did great, it's okay now, I just need to put some bandages on there, then you're good as new kid, promise."

Instead of answering, Mac simply turned into his touch, still breathing heavily. It almost broke Jack's heart to see his friend like this. He never reacted well when one of his kids was hurting, but to be the one to have caused part of it simply tore him apart.

Gently he used the back of his free hand to wipe the tears off of his partners face.

Jack didn't know how many minutes they sat there like this, but after some time, Mac finally seemed to be able to breathe normally again.

"You ready to finish up and get home?"

Shakily, his partner nodded. "Never gonna fly to Egypt again Jack."

The hoarsely whispered sentence managed to drag at least a small smile out of Jack. "Yeah man, you've got that one right. Egypt sucks big time. And I still think we should ban air travel for this entire region."

Mac grinned tiredly. Apparently, his partner remembered the conversation they'd had when they'd last flown over Egypt just as well as he did.

He could feel some of the tension leaving his body. "Do you think you could move a bit? Wrapping those injuries would be a lot more easy if you were sitting up for a minute."

"Sure, might need some help though."

Jack gladly obliged, making sure to move slowly and evenly as he assisted his partner with moving enough for him to be able to finish treating the younger man's wounds. Once this was done, he made quick work of bandaging his friend's torso and then helped Mac lay back down, the geniuses head preciously pillowed on his lap.

At first, Mac had protested against this, but had soon started to accept the fact that Jack's leg made a way better pillow then the old car's hard and uncomfortable seat he was currently resting on.

It worried Jack a bit that Mac had accepted his help as quickly as he had. The kid seemed downright exhausted. Of course, that was to be expected after a day like the one they'd had so far, but still, it worried him either way since Mac was normally not as tame when it came to anything concerning medical treatment. What if he had misjudged the severity of his partners injuries? What if there were internal injuries he'd missed? His kid could be bleeding out internally right this minute and he wouldn't even notice!

Looking down at the now somewhat restlessly sleeping young man on his lap, Jack finally started calming down. Like this, he would notice if Mac got worse right away.

"Jack?"

The soft voice from the front of the car startled him slightly. He'd almost forgotten that he wasn't alone right now.

"What's up Riley?"

The dark haired woman exchanged a look with Bozer, who still looked pale as hell. "Well, … We were wondering if there was anything we could do to help and if we need to find a hospital. Whatever you guys just did back there sounded really bad and I can smell the blood all the way over here, so…?"

He thought about her words for a moment. Getting Mac to a hospital sure would be nice, but after today and with the terrorists still in the picture, they simply couldn't risk it.

"Thanks sweetie, but right now it would be best if we got to exfill as soon as possible. If we come across a place where we can get some drinkable water, that would be great though."

"You sure that's all?"

"Yeah, I've done everything I can for him right now. And as bad as things might look, I think he got lucky. This will take a while to heal, but I couldn't make out any internal injuries, so with some rest he should be fine."

He could see the tension melting from Bozer's and Riley's backs. He could imagine hearing Mac in pain like this without seeing what was happening and without being able to help at all must at least be as painful as being the one to have to patch up such injuries.

"Okay. We'll inform Matty to have the jet ready as soon as we are there."

"Okay, Thanks Bozer."

"Sure man, is Mac really okay?" Since the dark skinned young man was still fairly new to all of this, it didn't surprise Jack to hear his voice sound as frail and scared as it did right now.

"Yeah, he's pretty tough, so don't worry, okay?"

"No kidding?"

"Come on Bozer, he's had way worse then this and always came out fine in the end. As long as he rests and heals up properly, he'll be good as new in a few weeks."

However, this didn't seem to ease Bozer's mind one bit. "What do you mean with worse?! Isn't getting attacked by a damn lion bad enough?"

Sighing, he nodded. "One would surely think so, but for us, this is maybe crazy, but not the worst that's happened. You know how he works and how crazy his plans can get from time to time, right? Well, we've been doing this way longer then you have and as bad as this sounds, he's gotten hurt before, and you can bet your ass that this won't be the last time either. As much as I'd like to never have to see him in pain ever again, there are just some aspects of our job, we aren't able to change or avoid."

"I see." There was something bitter in those two words.

"Everything okay?"

Bozer shook his head and shrugged at the same time. "It's just… He's been doing this for years now and I've never even noticed when he was hurt. What kind of friend does that make me?"

Looking at Mac's sleeping, pale face, Jack smiled gently as he continued to stroke his partners soft hair. "Listen Bozer, I think you are and were back then, exactly the friend he needed, okay? In our line of work, normal stuff barely happens at all and to have a normal person like you on board does more for someone like him then you could ever imagine, so please don't worry to much, okay?"

"Okay, but still… I'm just wondering about, what else I've missed in his life, that's all."

"Don't be so hard on yourself man, if there is stuff you don't know, you can bet you ass that there is a very good reason. You know how he can get and how good he is at hiding secrets. And I can tell you, hiding stuff from you never was easy. You wouldn't believe what we've had to do in order to hide the fact that he'd been shot at lake Camo, and didn't have an accident."

"You know Jack, I'd really like to hear about that." Judging from the sound of Bozer's voice and the fact that Riley was grinning from ear to ear right now, he'd managed to lift his younger colleagues spirits at least a little bit.

This was probably the first relaxed and calm moment during this entire op.

Sadly, it was gone as fast as it had come, when a bullet hit their back window, shattering it to pieces, just as he was about to start the entertaining stories about their efforts in keeping Mac's job a secret from his roommate.

"Everyone DOWN!" Jack immediately used his body to cover Mac and protect him from further harm.

Of course now would be when the terrorist had finally caught up to them.

################################################################################

So then, first chapter done.

I really hope you like this story so far, I've tried going for something a bit more unique. So far, I haven't found another story with a lion attack or anything close to it. Please tell me what you think and follow this story if you want to know what happens next.

I'd really appreciate to hear your thought on this, so feel free to review.

See you guys next time!

nahesa