A/N: Hey, hope everybody is doing well and staying safe! I know I say this a lot, but I really do appreciate any and all reviews/comments. They mean the world to me and I often find myself reading back over them during this hard time! So thank you for putting a smile on this poor deluded soul who thinks she can write's face. I'm not quite sure when I'll get to update next as I'm waiting on my beta to get the next chapters back to me! Thanks to Snowecat for the help! Thanks to BabyGenius for the beta work! As always I do not own MacGyver or Supernatural.
There was no warning. One second Mac was chatting with Sam waiting for his turn to pay at the cash register, the next the building was shaking apart. Mac had grown up in California and it had been drilled into him what to do during a earthquake, but this time he didn't have a chance to put into practice what he had been taught. The floor underneath Mac and Sam fell out from under them sending them plunging to the ground below.
Riley had just finished up in the stall and was headed to the sink when she felt the floor start to move. Being a native Californian, she dropped to the floor and moved towards the doorframe. She swung the door open and held it behind her so she could see what was going on. As she huddled there, the diner fell apart before her very eyes. Through the falling ceiling tiles and the rising dust, she watched helplessly as Mac and Sam plunged through a hole in the floor. Numb with shock, she looked over to where she had been sitting a few minutes ago and saw Jack and Dean kneeling under the table. She let out a little sigh of relief, but it was short lived as the ground gave another violent shake and what looked like half the roof fell on top of their hiding spot. All she could do was hold onto the doorframe and pray that both her old and new friends would survive.
Jack had been describing the best dessert he had ever had, which was his grandmother's triple chocolate cake with her special whipped chocolate icing, when he noticed the orange juice in his glass start to dance. In the time it took him to process that it was an earthquake and not a dinosaur from Jurassic Park, the diner had started to shake all around him. A piece of something fell off the wall and smacked him in the shoulder before he had time to climb under the table with Dean. As a result he basically slid under, pain radiating out from where his shoulder had taken the blow. The two men huddled there as the place started to quake apart. He glanced around trying to find where Mac had disappeared to, but couldn't find him. Hopefully he and Sam had found a shelter. He caught sight of Riley right before there was an even louder tearing sound and something fell on top of their little shelter. Then it was lights out.
Sam slowly opened his eyes. For a few seconds he just watched as dust floated through the air and things dropped from above. All the dust in the air caused him to cough, igniting a burning pain in his side. The pain brought his brain back online and he remembered the earthquake, falling then…nothing. Another cough tore its self from his throat and the pain was even worse. Panting he tried to move, but something was holding his side still. Looking down, he saw a piece of rebar sticking wetly out of his side. 'That doesn't look good,' He thought. Sam rubbed his face to try to see through the gloom better. After looking around, he decided he must have fallen into a basement, storage area, or something like that. He saw the remnants of those cheery lights on a string that a lot of people put in their backyard on the ground amongst the rubble. It was the only light in the otherwise dark and dismal basement.
Looking over the ruined basement he caught sight of some legs. Sam was confused for a few moments before he remembered the other guy with him, MacGyver. Yeah, Mac had been standing with him when they fell through the floor. The more he thought about it, the more was coming back to him. He squinted harder at what he was sure was Mac's legs.
"MacGyver?" Sam tried to yell, but it came out as a hoarse croak. The dust in the air was wreaking havoc on his throat. Sam attempted to clear his throat and tried again, "Mac?" There was no movement. Sam closed his eyes in frustration, he couldn't be dead, he hadn't known them long enough, Sam thought glumly.
Sam called out MacGyver's name louder, and the foot finally started to move. "Hey, Mac can you hear me?" The person on the floor was covered in dust, chunks of rubble, and a few pieces of wood. As the figure started to move, the debris that had covered him started to shift off and onto the floor. It pushed itself up on all fours, listing to the right, and then it slowly brought its left foot up and planted it, gradually coming to a standing position, with the right foot barely skimming the floor. Finally, the figure stood wavering slightly as if on a ship. Sam still couldn't see his face.
"Mac, that you?" The figure clumsily turned to face Sam, favoring its right foot. He could see that it really was MacGyver, but the right side of his face was awash with blood and the way he stood sent alarm bells off in Sam's head.
"Mac, you ok?" Sam asked, forgetting about his own injuries.
Mac wavered for a bit. With a frown he brought his hand to his head and touched the blood. Sam looked harder, trying to figure out where the blood was coming from. He noticed a jagged laceration several inches long close to Mac's hairline, but because of the blood still sluggishly moving down his face and all the dust on Mac's face, he wasn't sure if that was his only injury. Sam was pretty sure he was also dealing with a head trauma from the way that Mac was acting, but without seeing his pupils he wasn't sure. Not thinking, Sam tried to get closer to Mac. When the agony in his side subsided, he laid his throbbing head against whatever was holding him up. He had little hope that he or Mac would be going anywhere soon.
Jack coughed, batting some of the dust in the small confined area under the table that he and Dean were stuck under. When the quake hit both men had quickly scrambled under the table, well Dean had; Jack had slid under after being struck in the shoulder by falling debris. Jack had watched Riley where she sheltered in the doorway of the bathroom, but he hadn't been able to find Mac before the ceiling had came down blocking his sight. Well, Jack supposed it was the ceiling; it wasn't like he could see what had been going on out there, so it could possibly be the outside wall. He wasn't sure, but he was going with the assumption that it was the roof. All Jack knew was that he was trapped under a table and that the piece of debris that had hit his arm dislocated it. He really shouldn't have let Jill dislocate it the first time, because now it kept on giving him problems. Beside him, on the floor, Dean groaned. "You alright there Buddy?" Jack asked in concern.
"Yeah," cough. "At least I will be after we get outta here." Jack heard him fishing around before a cell phone lit up the cramped space. "No bars." Dean lamented. "You?"
Jack wiggled around trying to pull his phone out with his good arm without jostling his bad arm too much. "Nada here." Jack answered after thumbing it on.
"Dislocate your arm?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, it happened a while back, now it pops out more than I would like." Jack grunted, trying to find a comfortable position. "Doc said that if it happened again, I'd be looking at surgery. Yippee." When the roof had come down, trapping them, it had also collapsed the back part of the table, limiting their room under it. Now that they had some light, Jack could see Dean's face. He had a large bruise under one cheek with a nasty looking cut above it leaking blood, "Table get you?" Jack asked pointing at the bruise.
Dean's fingers flew to his face. "That noticeable?" He asked.
"Yep, I'm also used to making sure Mac's okay. Did you hit your ribs too?"
Dean smiled and nodded, "Let me guess, he's always fine?"
"Yep, your little brother like that?" Jack asked.
Another chuckle, "More like me. Sam's pretty good at admitting when he needs help; me not so much. Sam keeps on telling me that I don't play well with others."
Jack stifled a groan as he shifted, still trying to find a comfortable spot to half sit half lay in. "Wouldn't now be a good time to call in some of those friends you were telling us about? Especially that angel. Uhhhhhh, Castingcrowns! That's his name!"
"It's Castiel, and yeah, it would. Hey Cas you got your ears on?" Dean asked thin air. After a pause he tried again, "Wherefore art thou Castiel?"
After a few seconds had passed, "So…what did he say? Is he coming?" Jack asked hopefully.
"I don't know. But seeing as how we don't see him, I doubt he's coming. I guess Heaven has him tied up, maybe literally. He's not exactly their favorite angel."
Jack frowned, "You don't like hear him and stuff? Plus, what's with having a pet angel if you can't get him to help rescue you?"
"I agree, but every once in a while he comes in handy. And he is really good at healing injuries. So do you see a way out? I really need to see a man about a horse, if you know what I mean."
Jack did know what he meant, the euphemism for needing to go to the bathroom amusing him. He tested the piece that was covering the end of the table, but it didn't budge at all. "I think we're going to have to wait to be rescued."
"Son of a bitch!" Dean exclaimed. "Twice in twenty-four hours. How unlucky can one guy be?" But before Jack could say anything Dean shook his head, "Don't answer that."
"I don't know." Jack drawled. "We may be trapped, but we ain't dead. Plus there's this psycho dude that keeps turning up like a very bad penny…."
Dean interrupted, "Oh yeah, Murdoc right? Mac told me a little about him. He didn't sound nearly as terrifying as some of the things Sammy and I've gone up against."
"So the first time we met this psycho…." Jack started off.
When the ground finally stopped shaking and what was left of the building began to stabilize, Riley slowly left the shelter of the door frame. She was going to try to find Mac, see if she could unbury Jack and Dean, then find a way to contact the Phoenix to get them more help if needed.
She carefully made her way across the rubble strewn floor, there were bits of this and that, the ceiling tiles, things that had fallen off the walls, and shattered glass to make her way through until she came to where she had seen Mac and Sam disappear. It looked like the roof had collapsed on top of where they had fallen. She tried pushing it off, but it didn't budge. She briefly thought about seeing if they could hear her, but she had seen them fall through the floor before the ceiling collapsed, so she figured that was pointless. With a sigh she wiped her dirty hands off and pulled her hair up. The night had been slightly cool, but she was now sweating with all the adrenaline pumping through her blood. Carefully making her way to where she had last seen Jack and Dean under their table, she stopped and looked at the destruction. She knew the roof had also fallen over here too, and she took a second to be thankful that it hadn't collapsed on her too.
The section of roof that had fallen in spanned several booth lengths, and Riley could see outside while standing inside the destroyed structure. She looked around at the dust and rubble filled building and saw a foot sticking out from under a section of roof on the floor. Riley rushed over shoving rubble off the still form. It was their waitress. There was blood caked under her head, but Riley had seen Mac and Jack survive worse injuries. She tried for a pulse. Feeling nothing she repositioned her fingers and tried again, still nothing. Grief at the loss hit Riley hard; she sat back on her heels to try to process her feelings. She took a second to regroup, and then pushed herself up, determined for this not to be Mac and Jack's fate. She had left her backpack with her Phoenix linked laptop in the booth with Jack, so she hoped that she could get him and Dean free, grab the laptop, then they could free Sam and Mac and meet the cavalry that Matty would surely send. At least that was her plan.
With renewed vigor, she locked up her grief the way Jack had taught her and made her way carefully over to where she thought Jack should be. A chunk had fallen smack dab on top of where Riley believed the table to be. 'What would Mac do?' she asked herself. He would verify that the position was correct, and then see what was needed to be lifted, and how to lift whatever needed lifting. Agreeing with herself she thought, 'This is easy. I'm MacRiley!' She shook her head, 'That sounded awful. I've been around Jack too long.' She looked around and found a long, thin, but hefty piece of wood. As she picked it up off the floor, the building moaned and shifted ominously. 'Gotta hurry up, the foundation is probably damaged which means it could go at any time.' Taking a fortifying breath, she moved back to where she believed Jack was, and used the wood to loudly tap on the section of roof. "Jack?" She called loudly as she crouched down careful to keep her weight off of any of the roof. "Jack can you hear me?" She waited quietly then heard a faint tapping sound to her left. Riley stood up and hurried over there. "Jack?" She shouted again. "That you?"
Faintly "-ly" floated up through the obstacle blocking them. The relief was immediate. Jack was still alive!
"Hold on! I'm going to try to get you out of here!"
"Kay" came floating back.
Riley studied the area; the roof had landed on top of the table. She could see the bumps of where the other booth stuck up. In the front, another section had fallen, over-lapping with the roof. If she could pry the front section back, Jack and Dean could possibly crawl out. She tried lifting it, but the section was far too heavy.
Undeterred, she looked around to find something to use as a lever. Riley remembered Mac talking about some Arch dude saying he could move the world if he had a big enough lever. So she channeled her inner MacGyver again and scanned the place to see what she could find. It was easy finding a couple of boards, but what to use to lever it up with? She saw a soup can, and then it hit her! A large pot should be perfect for her purposes. She grabbed the boards that looked the strongest and pulled them over to where she would need them. After that first task was complete, Riley ventured into the wreck that was the kitchen.
Most of the kitchen was intact although it was a huge mess. Several shelves were over turned and things spilled on the floor, but the ceiling hadn't caved in here. As she moved around shattered glass and plates she saw a hand. 'Please don't let this be another dead body!" Riley pleaded with a God she wasn't sure if she believed in or not. Careful not to slip in the spills, she crouched down and felt the guy's, whom she assumed was the cook from his stained apron, arm. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt a slow, steady pulse. Remembering her first aid, she turned him on his side into a recovery position, and then continued with the search for a large pot. She almost kicked the very thing that she was looking for. Riley picked it up and looked to her right, where a large rack of various pots and pans had overturned and spilled out into the mess that used to be a kitchen. Carefully making her way out of the kitchen she made sure that the stove and ovens were off on her way out.
Back to the planks, Riley hastily constructed her lever, but soon realized that she had no counterbalance to lift the debris with. Looking around, she saw plenty of heavy chunks of concrete and other debris, but nothing to contain it. 'Why can't things be simple?' Riley asked herself, frustrated. She slowly turned around, trying to get an idea, but just started feeling overwhelmed. Realizing that freaking out was getting her nowhere; she stopped and took a few deep breaths to ground herself. 'I swear that I'll never make fun of Mac or try to hurry him along after this.' She thought. It was then that she remembered seeing a couple of laundry baskets in the kitchen with dirty aprons in them. As quickly as the debris strewn floor allowed her, she hurried back, quickly checked on the cook, and then completed her mission. Dumping the dirty laundry on the floor and frowning when a pair of bright red undies also tumbled out. That surprised her. With a shake of her head and a smile on her face, she quickly made her way out of the kitchen.
On her way back out, she grabbed a roll of duct tape to hold the baskets to the boards. With her plan in place, she set it all up then walked over to where Jack and Dean were trapped. She leaned down, "Hey Jack." She cleared her throat. "I'm not sure if you can hear me, but I'm trying to get you out of there. I'm not sure how steady any of this is, so if you could grab my backpack, and as soon as this big enough to get through, you come on out ok?" Riley strained to hear anything, after a few seconds she heard a few knocks.
With her determination in place, she started the back-breaking work of loading the laundry basket with chunks of the rubble that were littered all over the place. After the first few pieces of rubble, she noticed that the chunks of concrete had cut her hands in a couple of places.
Pushing through the pain she continued, and was rewarded with the section starting to rise. Seeing that tiny bit of progress invigorated her and soon she had it a good two inches off the ground. After a few more painful chunks of debris, she finally saw a dirt covered head wiggle out, followed by a familiar backpack, and another familiar looking head.
Jack climbed unsteadily to his feet holding one arm close to his chest, and grinned at Riley, "Miss me, Darlin'?"
Riley had no words, so she just launched herself at him hugging him close, and reassuring herself that he was really there and in one piece. Jack hugged her back for a second then gently released her, guiding her back. "Careful, I'm not as indestructible as I look." He looked around the destroyed building. "Where's Mac?"