A/N: Four more chapters guys. I'm trying to write a really explosive finale for you guys so bear with me if the last few updates take a while. Thank you again for your support. Also, how many of you are into AU fics? Or do you prefer canon storylines? Let me know, so I know how to proceed.

Thanks again for all the support.

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Disclaimer: I do not own MacGyver or these characters, just borrowing for free fun.

Moments Like This

Chapter Six- Memory Lane

Riley and Mac are one hour into Fellowship of the Rings when the power goes out. He had to beg her to watch the movie and while she was hesitant, once she got into it, she had really started enjoying it.

"Nooo," she whines.

She's in her robe nestled on the couch with Mac. Her hair is piled onto her head in a towel and Mac's in flannel pajama bottoms with a towel around his neck. They've become so comfortable with each other in the last few days. Riley finds it hard to believe this is the new normal.

"This heatwave is the gift that keeps on giving," he says.

Riley shifts next to him and agree silently. Once she gets over the Lord of the Rings sized sized tantrum she relaxes in the dark. When she was younger it was one of her favorite memories. Jack had built a fire in the backyard and told her ghost stories for half the night. She's smiling to herself at the memory when feels him take her hand.

The warmth makes her smile under the disguise of the darkness.

"Just making you're still here with me," he says.

She nods, forgetting he can't see her then says, "you have a generator, right?" It's a given really but she wishes they can stay in the dark just so he would keep a hold of her hand.

"I have what's left of a generator, it fell victim to that project I've been working on, I can whip one up if you give me a minute or twenty and some light,"

Riley laughs who else but Mac talks about making a generator like it's a stack of pancakes. "I have another idea," she says.

She uses her phone's flashlight to guide them, still joined at the hands, to the deck. Once there she lights the fireplace and they sit. She sits next to him although there is plenty of space. Her bath robe slits at her thigh as she crosses her legs. Mac pretends not to notice when she looks up at him. With the fire dancing and dipping his face goes in and out of darkness.

"Your plan is to sit in the dark?" she hears his skepticism but in the glow of the fireplace she can see a soft smile on his face.

She nudges his shoulder and scowls.

"Didn't you do this as a kid? Tells scary stories when the power goes out?"

He's silent and she realizes her mistake. She forgets his childhood was less than ideal, in fact, both their childhoods were. She just never realized that they have that in common until now.

"I'm sorry, I forgot,"

He shakes his head. "I may not have those memories, but maybe I can make some...with you."

She smiles tenderly, glowing from the fire and from him, "you know when I was a kid, I thought I had really good stories but now-with everything we do. Our missions with Phoenix are way scarier. I still get flashbacks of falling out of the sky on that balloon contraption with you and Jack."

He laughs, "yeah I could see that. That was not fun."

"Right, with your fear of heights," she tries to keep the chuckle from escaping unsuccessfully.

"Why is that funny? You laughing at my pain Davis?"

She shakes her head in quick denial, "it's not that, you're MacGyver it's just hard to think of you afraid of something."

"Everybody is afraid of something,"

"I know that logically but-sometimes I see you as a sorta superhero with all the things you do."

He tries to hide his blush in the shadows of the dancing fire but she catches it anyway. He opens his mouth to protest but she cuts him off, "the fact that you don't think you are proves my point all the more."

They sit in silence for a few moments. They are sitting so close she knows if she blows, it will tickle his ear. It's a comfortable silence, comfortable seems to be their word lately. With Desi away, they've been spending more time together and developed a familiarity you can only know from living under the same roof.

He breaks her train of thought when he turns to her and says, "what is that you're wearing, that smells like oranges?" he says.

Riley tilts her own head down to sniff herself when she realizes it's her citrus body wash. She doesn't know why it makes her blush that he can smell it.

"I think that's my body wash,"

He looks away when he nods and says, "It's good, I like it, I mean."

She's beaming on the inside. She loves that the power went out. She likes just sitting and talking with him. Though she's known him for a few years there's still so much about him she doesn't know and would like to know. The darkness makes everything between them feel more intimate, everything they say has more weight to it in the dark for some reason.

He clears his throat, "so if not ghost stories then what else can we talk about?"

Riley can't help herself, he's basically saying she can ask him anything. It's not every day she has that opportunity.

Boldly, she says, "tell me about your first love?"

He laughs, "what?"

"I'm serious, I wanna know about the first girl Angus MacGyver loved," And how she measures up to her but she keeps the last part to herself.

He relents and says, "Penny Parker,"

"Wait didn't I meet her a few years ago?"

He nods, "at my intervention, yup."

Her head falls back as she laughs, "those were the days huh?"

"His heart was in the right place," he says, referring to pre-Phoenix exposure Bozer.

"So, did Penny feel the same way?"

"she was actually my first kiss but I always knew I liked her more than she liked me." His cheeks looks rosy red as he looks down at the fire, avoiding her gaze. She's always stunned in these moments. He comes off as so coy and innocent, he genuinely has no idea girls will fall at their feet for him.

"So what was it about Penny that you liked so much?"

He thinks for a moment before sagging his shoulders and saying, "honestly, she was one of the only girls who was nice to me, that's all. She was just nice."

"High standards you got there," She knows that wasn't the right thing to say. She doesn't even know why she says it, she's torn up at the thought of him a lonely kid.

When he doesn't respond she says, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be the one to talk. You've seen my relationships crash and burn up close. Guess I was too damaged, too secretive, too something,"

He takes her hand and gives it a squeeze, "I don't believe any of your breakups were your fault, and you can't either. In fact, if we ever cross paths with Billy again he's going to wish he never even met you."

She sighs deeply and leans back, Mac still has a hold on her hand.

"All I know is, whenever I feel like my heart is finally safe with someone the rug gets pulled out from under me. Is that a reflection of me, or the guys I attract?"

He releases her hand only to tuck stubborn strands of hair behind her ear, blue eyes boring into her brown ones, he says, "Any guy will be lucky to have you Riley," Except you, she thinks solemnly. The thought stings her and she pushes it down to get through the otherwise, enjoyable night.

She smiles sadly. "Anyway, what did you like about Niki?" Riley says, trying to keep the vocal fry in her voice to a minimum.

"I actually don't count Niki as an ex girlfriend anymore, she lied to me the entire time we were together and I can't sort through what was real and what was fake…despite what she says."

Riley knows he holds trust in high esteem then why is he with Desi when she's proven she doesn't trust him? Not as a colleague and definitely not as a partner. If he can quit Phoenix over trust issues then why can't he quit Desi?

He says,"I'm damned anyway I go. When I get involved with someone from work it gets complicated. When I date civilians..." His anguish radiates off of him and she feels as though she has absorbed some of it.

"Have you spoken to Nasha since?"

He shakes his head.

"I knew she would never understand what I do completely, plus I put in her enough danger as is."

"Guess you don't have to worry about that with Desi," she baits.

He looks at her directly now, "what do you think of me and Desi?"

She's trying to find a nice way to say dump her like yesterday's trash but instead she shakes her head and shrugs. He gives her a 'get real' look and waits for a real answer.

"You guys just fight a lot. About everything."

He grunts but nods his head. "It's true, sometimes it gets so volatile…I think we mistook that volatility for passion you know?"

Riley nods, makes sense.

"But you love her?" She waits the answer on edge.

He shrugs, "that's what I told her,"

Riley's brows knit together so he clarifies, saying, "I don't know if I said it because that's how I feel or because I felt that's what she wanted-needed to hear it."

She waits a moment and he continues, "while I'm confused about my feelings for Desi, her feelings for me are very real and I'm responsible for that."

She touches his knee, "Mac you take orders everyday of your life at work. Your personal life is the one time you get to have complete autonomy. You shouldn't be a slave to anyone out of duty."

"Thanks Riles," he says but she can tell he's not convinced, not even a little. However, the conversation took a more serious tone than she intended. She's not in the mood to press him and he doesn't seem to be in the mood to be pressed. In an attempt to lighten the mood she says, "what would you do if the world was safe, if you didn't have to go into work tomorrow or the day after?"

She jostles his shoulder, "definitely not work at the Genius Bar,"

She nudges him playfully, "shut up, I'm serious."

"I don't know what I'd do to be honest." He thinks for a moment, "do you think we would still be friends without Phoenix. I mean, when we didn't do so well the first time around."

"That won't even happen again. It's kind of hard to lose touch with your roommate don't you think,"

"I love having you here Riles,"

"I love being here-with you,"

He grins, "I'd go to a carnival with my friends by the way."

"What?"

"The answer to your question. I would go to a carnival with my friends."

"What about you? What would you do?"

"I would tell-" she catches herself, "I'd live without regrets."

He gives her a strange look and she looks away grinning.

"Do I wanna know what that means?"

"I don't know," she tells him honestly but she can tell her subtlety is not as subtle as she thinks it is. Not anymore at least, and maybe she doesn't want to be subtle anymore. It's high time Mac get's a clue.

"Can I ask you something now?" he says and she's terrified of what might come next. Settling her nerves, she nods yes. He smiles softly but doesn't ask her anything, at least not right away. Like he's working up the nerve to speak, he gets up from the fire place and starts pacing the deck. At least that's what it sounds like to Riley, now that he's cloaked in darkness, she doesn't have a lock on his exact location.

Finally, he says, "Did you-or do you love Aubrey? You haven't talked about him since. You even mourned Billy more than Aubrey so I was just wondering..."

She's can't believe he noticed. Truly, she's rarely thought about him since they broke up and she wants to tell Mac that without coming off as pathetic.

"At the time I thought I loved but now I know that was barely a spark," in comparison to how she feels for Mac, "maybe I loved feeling wanted more than I actually loved him." She knows the only reason she had fallen for Aubrey was due to the fact that she was running from Mac and feelings she didn't know what to do with.

Honestly, nothing has changed, except this time Mac isn't allowing her to run away.

"Why'd you ask?" she says. He's quiet for a long time and she whips around to squint her eyes into the darkness. With her back turned, he puts out the fire and she jumps.

"You have to find me to get the answer," she hears his playful tone and knows he messing around but she takes the bait anyway.

She starts moving around the deck in search for the elusive spy. Her hands are flailing in front of her to guide her way but she really has no clue where to he is. It's like he's not even breathing, the only sign of life she hears is her own. Her hands touch the railing and she holds on and uses it to guide her along the length of the deck. When she assumes she's midway she senses his presence and is almost certain he's in front of her but she hears a crackle behind her, somewhere on the deck. She flips around to where the sound came from and but sense nothing.

Her heart is pounding as if she is in the filed on an important mission. She figures in someway, this too is an important mission.

She knows he's close. She can feel her body responding as much. She turns back around and feels like a current is running through her body and that's all the confirmation she needs. She reaches out with a tentative hand and her fingers finds the space between his neck and shoulder. He's so close to her she has the urge to step back and put distance between them but some kind of magnetism pulls her to him. The power returns with a pop from the fridge and the hum of appliances running once again. He's staring at her intensely, his face is relaxed and he's wearing a smirk when he says, "you found me,"

She plays along, "I did,"

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