Author's note: I'll try to update a couple of chapters a day, I enjoyed writing this, the first thing I've done in ages. Please review if you can. Thanks and enjoy
When Mac woke up again it was a similar experience to the first time, he was lying on something soft and when he opened his eyes he was in the same basement as before. He sat up, no blanket this time, blinking a few times to stop the dizziness that overcame him. His neck hurt where the needle had gone in, he certainly hadn't been expecting that, something to factor in next time. He half expected to find James sitting on the stairs waiting for him to wake up, but he was alone.
He picked up the water bottle which was still there from earlier and took a drink, he then got up needing to relieve himself, it was a wonder he hadn't wet himself when he dropped to the floor upstairs. As he started walking towards the bucket, he noticed that it had been moved closer to the mattress, that wasn't the only thing that was different, the chain he was attached to was now shorter. He sighed; he would test it in a moment, but he guessed that it meant he would no longer be able to reach the stairs. He supposed if he were keeping someone prisoner and they had attempted to escape that way then he would have done the same thing, not that he had a habit of keeping people prisoner in cold basements.
He had just made the attempt to reach the stairs, yes, the chain was now too short to reach, when the door opened.
"I wondered what you would use first to pick the lock, a nail was a good choice, got that manacle off pretty quick." James said, speaking almost as if he was proud.
"The needle was a nice touch, certainly wasn't expecting that." Mac replied, sitting down on the mattress.
"Well I didn't think you'd be interested in a drink while you were trying to escape. It was the fastest way to stop you and get you back down here."
"How long was I out?"
"A couple of hours, it wasn't a high dose." James leaned against the wall by the stairs. "I don't want to have to keep drugging you Angus, but I will if I you give me no choice."
"Let me go and you won't have to worry about it."
"You and I both know that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Why don't you just agree to stay here where it's safe and you can come upstairs. You can have your own room, plenty to eat and drink."
"Ok then, lead the way." Mac thought if his father were serious then he could pretend to be happy to stay, then escape when he let his guard down.
James laughed. "You agreed to that far too quickly, which means you'll try and leave the minute my back is turned. I obviously can't have that, so I guess you'll be staying down here for a while longer."
"I won't try to escape, if you let me come up, we can talk, you can tell me about the people who are trying to kill you. Maybe I can help."
"Kill me?" James asked, looking confused. "No one is trying to kill me Angus." He began to walk up the stairs. "Why would you think that?"
Before Mac could reply he'd gone through the door. He laid down, suddenly dizzy again, had his father made the whole thing up to get him here. But if he had then why was he here and why did he keep saying that he had to stay where it was safe? He was so confused and the drugs still in his system weren't helping. He decided to get some sleep before he made another escape attempt, actual sleep rather than drug induced. Maybe things would be clearer when he woke up.
Back at the Phoenix Foundation, Jack was pacing in the war room, him and Cage had finished their talk with the neighbours, and it hadn't revealed anything new, so it was back to waiting. Jack hated waiting, he needed to be doing something, anything, especially when one of his kids was in danger.
"Jack please stop, you're making me nauseas," Riley said, looking up from her rig. "I know you're worried, we all are."
"I can't just sit around Ri. I can't be useful here, I can't do the digital thing like you can, I can't look through evidence like Boze, I need to be doing something."
"I know Jack, believe me I know, but until we have some sort of lead there isn't anywhere for you to go. At the minute we can't even narrow down an area to look, for all we know they're not even in the country anymore!"
"Do you really believe that?" Jack asked, finally sitting on one of the sofas.
"Honestly, I've no idea. Technically there's been plenty of time, Mac could literally be anywhere," Riley replied, her voice breaking slightly, tears in her eyes. "Oh god Jack what if we can't find him."
"Hey hey kiddo, we'll find him," Jack said, getting up and sitting beside the girl he thought of as a daughter. "We won't stop until we find him, no matter where he is and how long it takes, now put those tears away and do what you do best."
Riley leaned into Jack, getting her emotions under control, she knew he was right, if only they had some sort of lead, something she could work with.
As if the universe was listening Matty and Cage walked through the door, Matty touching the glass to close off the room. "We have a problem."
"Is this to do with Mac?" Jack asked, not knowing what he'd do if she said otherwise.
"The techs managed to lift some DNA off one of the mugs, it wasn't what I was expecting and I'm not sure what it means."
"Whose DNA was it?" Riley asked, already logging into the server to get the information up herself.
"James MacGyver, Mac's father."
Jack and Riley both froze the instant Matty said that name, Jack recovered first.
"That son of a bitch, he took Mac!"
"Jack, we don't know what happened, maybe Mac went with him willingly," Matty answered, the way she said it meaning she didn't quite believe it herself.
"No way. You don't believe that, do you?"
Matty paused, knowing that she needed to come clean with her team about what she knew about Mac's father. If Mac had been kidnapped by the man, then they needed all the facts.
"Mac would have contacted us by now if he'd gone with him, even if it was just to let us know that he was ok, he'd know we'd be freaking out," Jack said, after waiting for Matty to speak.
"I know." Matty replied, walking up to the screen that was the heart of the war room. "In order for us to find Mac, there are certain things about James's past that you need to be filled in about. I just hope you can forgive me for not telling everyone about this sooner."
Jack and Riley looked at each other, both uncertain what Matty could possibly know about Mac's father and then back at the screen as it filled with information. Cage sat off to the side, already knowing what Matty was about to tell the others.
"James MacGyver is ex CIA, I worked with him for a while when I was first starting out."
"Are you serious!" Jack exclaimed, jumping up and starting to pace again. "You knew all this time and you never told Mac."
"It was trying to protect him Jack, I didn't want him knowing some of the things his father did."
"He went bad?" Riley asked, trying to take in as much information as she could.
"Not exactly, he did some bad things and he went dark over ten years ago, but it was because he was sick."
"Sick?"
"He was never officially diagnosed, but after a number of psych evals and looking back over ops he was assigned, it was determined that he had some sort of multi personality disorder." Matty herself sat down after this, looking distraught. "Before anyone could get him any help, he went off the grid and no one has heard from him since. Some say it was the pressure of too many years as a field agent, some say he always had it and hid it well, it's hard to say. A lot of people believed that he'd died, not thinking that he could stay off the grid so long with that many problems, but obviously that's not the case."
"And now Mac is with him," Jack said, running his hands down his face. "What do you think it means, that he's taken him now?"
"I've no idea. Unfortunately, we've no way of knowing how badly he's deteriorated. I suppose seeing as he knew where Mac lived and has taken him with no trace, he must still have most of his faculties still intact. Beyond that, I can't say."
"Even though we now know who took Mac, it still doesn't get us any closer," Riley said, hating to say those words. "If James has been dark for ten years he knows how to hide. I don't know how we're gonna find him."
"We need to learn all about him, go through his files, speak to whoever we need to. There must be some clue," Jack replied, walking up to the screen.
"I'll get anything we need, some of it will be classified so it mustn't leave this room, but if it helps us find Mac, we need to have it." Matty got to her feet, pulling out her phone. It was time to pull in a few favours.
Mac was currently sitting trying to come up with a plan to escape, the only thing he could think that he might be able to use to pick the lock for a second time was a spring from the mattress. The only problem was mattresses weren't that easy to rip apart with your bare hands, he had tried a couple of times, looking for any weak spots but didn't have much luck. Looked like he was going to have to find something to cut it with, perhaps next time he was brought some food he could use the plate.
Confident of the plan all he could do was wait, which wasn't exactly what he did best. He sat for a little while, going over the plan in his head a few times, making sure that it was as good as it could be. He then paced, which was harder to do than before, the chain being that much shorter. He finally sat down again, knowing that he'd need energy to complete his plan. He thought that it was probably evening, he was starting to feel hungry again and figured that soon his father would bring him down some dinner. Providing it was on a plate and that it was left as it was before, he would be getting out of that basement before the day was through.
If it were evening then he thought that maybe if he left the escape attempt for a few more hours, his father would be asleep, and it would be a lot easier. All he needed now was for the door above him to open, he was slightly worried that there would be no more visits until morning, it wouldn't be the first time his father had made him go to bed without any dinner.
Another hour past, or it seemed that way, Mac was about to give up and try to sleep again when the door opened. His father walked down the stairs with a bowl, setting it in front of his son, along with another bottle of water, he then went and lent against the wall like he had the previous time.
"Eat it while it's hot," James said.
Mac looked down at what he'd been given, it was a bowl of soup, there was a plastic spoon, guess his father didn't trust him with a metal one. It wasn't a plate, but it was ceramic so it would do just as well. He picked it up and started eating, wondering why his father was standing there watching.
"Did you stay just to watch me eat?" Mac asked, putting the bowl down and drinking some of the water.
"I thought we could talk a little, I haven't had any company in a while," James replied, fiddling with something in his hand.
"What did you want to talk about? What about what you've been up to all these years?" Mac was trying hard not to sound too angry; he didn't want anything to affect his escape plan.
"I worked for the CIA for a while, but we parted ways years back. Since then I've been just trying to stay alive, there are a lot of people who want me dead Angus."
"I know the feeling."
Mac had finished the soup and put the bowl down, praying that James didn't take it away and leave. He went to pick up the water bottle again but found that his eyes were getting unfocused, he blinked a couple of times, realising too late that his father had hung around to make sure he'd eaten the drugged food.
"Why?" Mac managed to ask, before his body slumped onto the mattress.
James came over and arranged his son into a more comfortable position, picking up the bowl before answering. "Because I can't leave you awake while I'm asleep, I know you too well Angus, I know you wouldn't be here when I woke up."
Mac felt his eyes closing, realising he was stupid not to factor this into his plans. He would escape, it would just have to be later than he'd planned.