A/N: I would have had this up earlier, but my finger had a slight mishap when I was assembling a clothing rack thus making typing difficult, thankfully it's mostly better! So there might be some medical stuff later in the chapter, if you are a medical person and I've gotten something wrong please let me know! I wanted to get a medical beta, but never got a response, so let's cross our fingers and hope that I got everything right, lol! There is one more chapter after this. A huge thanks to Axxonly for the wonderful Beta work, and as always I don't own MacGyver. Also I always try to reply to your wonderful reviews, but for some reason FF isn't sending out notification about PM's so if you haven't heard anything you might wasn't to check your box!

In desperation Riley tried one more time to find Mac's pulse before initiating CPR. She pressed harder and finally felt it! Feeling the faint pulse beneath her fingers was the best feeling ever, but just because he had a pulse now didn't mean that Mac still couldn't die. So she dug into his pocket pulled out his knife, and sliced off the arm of her shirt folding it into a bandage. The thud of Jack's boots reached her as he slid down beside her.

"He's alive?" The hope in Jack's voice broke her heart, and caused a fresh wave of tears to run down her face. She could only nod, not trusting her voice.

"Matty we need help, NOW." The last part was growled.

"I'm relaying the information to Bozer and will have ex-fil plans to you in a minute. You keep Blondie alive." Matty commanded.

Riley pressed her makeshift dressing to Mac's throat her worry increasing when he didn't respond in any way, and looked around for something to secure it with. Jack pulled a mostly used roll of duct tape out of Mac's pants and securely tapped the dressing down.

"Bozer's on his way to pick you up. There is a military medical facility not far from your location; it will be quicker to take him there. I'll have them on standby. Webber out."

After securing the wound at Mac's neck, Riley cut off the other sleeve, and they used that as a bandage for the wound on Mac's side. While it was also sluggishly bleeding there wasn't as big a puddle as the neck wound.

Riley sniffed and tried to wipe the tears off her cheek. Jack looked at her grabbing her arm. "It'll be ok Ri. Mac's as strong as they come." Riley drank in Jack's confidence, and nodded, still not trusting her voice. They heard the revving of a motor. "Ok, when we move him out to the van I'm gonna grab his chest, and I need you to grab his legs. Try to keep his legs elevated higher than his chest. Understand?" Riley grabbed the backpack that she had left on the floor and swung it on her back, moving down to Mac's feet. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three. Lift."

Riley lifted Mac's feet careful to keep them higher than his head. When Jack lifted Mac's torso, Mac let out a moan.

Bozer came running in, "Shit man, that's a lot of blood."

"Yeah, let's move." Jack grunted as they quickly but smoothly walked out the door. Jack slid Mac into the back, then jogged to the driver's side door where Bozer had climbed in. "Get in back with Mac. I'm driving."

Bozer didn't hesitate; he climbed though to the back where Riley was closing the doors. "How's he doing?" he quietly asked Riley.

She shook her head, more tears silently slipping down her cheeks. "At first I didn't think he was alive Bozer." With a sniff and another swipe of her hand she said. "Jack said to make sure his legs were elevated."

Bozer nodded, "To help keep shock away." Jack gunned the engine and soon they were bumping away. Riley could hear Matty giving Jack directions, but tuned it out to concentrate on Mac. "Now we need to keep him as warm as possible." Bozer struggled out of his jacket and laid it over his friend's prone body.

Riley grabbed Mac's normally strong and lithe hands, to let him know she was with him, when she noticed that the tips of his fingers were turning blue. Before she had a chance to say anything they hit another aggressive hole, Mac moaned as his body bounced.

"Can you not do that!" Riley hollered at Jack.

"Do you want Mac to die?" He yelled back. "'Cause I don't, so hold on."

Riley grabbed another coat that was lying in the back and stuffed under Mac's head softening the bumping a little bit for her injured friend. The ride seemed to take forever and just a second all at the same time before Jack pulled to a screeching halt at the hospital's emergency entrance. As Matty had promised there was a swarm of people waiting for them. The team of medical professionals flung open the back doors and efficiently transferred Mac to a waiting gurney. Jack had jumped out of the van to follow Mac and Riley brought up the rear not knowing what else to do.

"He was shot twice. Once though the neck the other through his lower right flank. There was a massive pool of blood when we moved him, and…." Jack trailed off. "He's AB negative,"

The nurse closest to Jack turned around, "Are you sure about that?"

Jack didn't shrink back from her penetrating stare, "Yes, we've served together. He's AB negative, and I'm O negative. I can give if I need to."

A look of understanding came over her eyes. "We'll take good care of Agent MacGyver. What don't you both find a waiting room? We'll come get you when we have news."

Jack stubbornly shook his head. "I'm going where he goes until surgery." It was not a question, it was a demand.

The nurse must have recognized a losing battle when she saw one. With a sigh, "Stay back we need room to work." She hurried into the room that Mac had been wheeled into.

There was a hive of activity around his hospital bed, with multiple people talking at the same time. "He's AB negative, Cindy run down to the blood bank and see if we have that in stock. Grab all that you can. He's going to need it."

"BP is in the toilet."

"Line going in."

Suddenly the heart monitor came to life and even to Riley's untrained ears she knew it was way too fast. "Shit, he's tachycardic. We need to find that bleeder!"

"Line's running wide open. Where are we on the blood?"

"I'll check." A nurse broke off to use the phone.

"Check the neck for the bleeder."

"Shit, fuck, yeah, it's the neck. Get me a…."

"He's coding!"

Riley had a death grip on Jack's hand, and clutched his arm to her chest, tears flowing down her cheek, watching the medical team work on one of the people she had come to think of as family. She tried not to sob out loud when she realized that Mac's heart had stopped.

"Shocking!" Everybody but one nurse stepped away. Mac's body twitched, and the wail of the cardiac monitor continued.

"Hit him again."

"Shocking!"

This time the cardiac monitor started beeping again, but thankfully not as fast. "Fix that bleeder now! After that we've got him a room booked for surgery."

The nurse that had gone for the blood came running back in. "I grabbed the only four units they had then grabbed three more of O neg." She said as she handed a couple of blood bags off to another nurse who quickly got it going.

"I've just about…"

"He's coding again!"

"Shit!"

The shrill wail of the cardiac monitor struck horror in Riley's heart, as she clung to her lifeline, Jack was clinging to her also.

"Shit, we've got to get this blood in faster!"

"Shocking."

Then came the calmer cadence of a normal heart rhythm.

"Get that neck stitched!"

"And…it..is… done!"

At that the team threw all essential items onto Mac's bed, and they raced out of the room off to surgery. The same nurse as before walked over to them. "You ready for that waiting room now?" She asked gently.

She gave them directions on how to get to the surgery waiting room, but stopped Riley from heading after Jack. "Sweetie do you want to come with me and get cleaned up a little?"

Her confusion must have shown. "You kinda got blood all over ya kid." Jack explained. "Go with the nice nurse, get cleaned up. I'll find Bozer and then we'll all wait together, ok?"

Riley nodded and the two parted ways. She didn't realize just how bloody she was until the nurse led her into a large bathroom and gave her a pair of scrubs to change into. When she looked into the mirror she saw streaks of Mac's blood on her face where she had wiped away her tears. His blood was on her shirt, on her hands, and on her jeans. Biting back the urge to break down sobbing she instead changed her clothes, washed her face and hands and put on a brave face, a brave face that trembled and was very scared for her friend. She would have plenty of time to break down later.

The nice nurse had also taken the time to grab all three of them coffees and escorted her to where Jack and Bozer were sitting. The nurse set the drinks down, and quietly slipped back out. Jack stood up and wrapped her in a giant hug, which went a long way to putting everything right in their world. They waited, and waited. Jack walked off to update Matty a couple of time, but was always back quickly. Finally a doctor came in to talk to them.

"Hello Agents, I'm Dr. Spencer, I was lead surgeon for Agent MacGyver's…." He was cut off by Bozer.

"Mac." Bozer stated. "Just call him Mac."

Dr. Spencer nodded and continued. "Mac was shot twice as you know. The neck injury was the most pressing, as it nicked his carotid artery, causing major blood loss. We lost him a couple of times as you know, due to hypovolemic shock, but we were able to get him back. The other injury didn't give us any problems. Right now we are trying to keep his blood pressure up, and are worried about his kidneys. It appears that he is in acute prerenal kidney failure." The doctor took a breath. "We are also concerned about his brain, with the amount of blood that he lost, and the fact that we lost him a few times, well it's a game of wait and see. I'm sorry I wish I had better news." She sighed and stretched. "I need to go update Director Webber on her agent's condition." She stood up. "I have every reason to hope that Mac will be ok, so don't give up on him. A nurse will be down here in a few minutes to take you to his room. Director Webber directed us to make sure that you had access to Agent MacGyver at all times." With that she left the room.

A couple of hours later saw the three of them situated in Mac's ICU room. He was in a large room with glass doors and large windows so that the nurses could keep an eye on him at all times. When Mac had been in rooms like that before he called them patient fishbowls, but now he was just lying there. Jack sighed, "how about ya'll got get us something to eat? My appetite is coming back, and I don't want to pass out from manly hunger." Bozer rolled his eyes, but trotted over to grab the money Jack was holding out. "Hey Riles, go with Bozer to make sure he don't spend all my money on something gross like, Funyons." Her expression didn't change, but she trailed after Bozer leaving just him and Mac.

Scooting one of the two visitor's chairs over to Mac's bed Jack plopped down in it, and grabbed a hold of Mac's slack hand. "Listen up Bud. You are starting to worry the others. I've done this song and dance with you before, but they haven't, so anytime you want to wake up is fine with me." Jack paused the raw emotion making his voice crack. "I'll be honest Angus, I thought" Jack stopped to bite back the tears. "You were dead, and that shook me more than I want to admit, so you need to wake up and show these doctors that you and your big brain are going to be fine." Jack swiped at the renegade tears that escaped. "Even if your kidneys are messed up, we'll deal with that too."

Jack stopped then to really look his friend over. Mac was starting to get some color back, he wasn't as chalky white as he had been, and he had lost that blue tint, but he was still very pale. Looking down at where he was holding Mac's hand, Jack noticed that it was a bit swollen, like his great-Aunt Bessie used to get when she'd forget her pills. He made a mental note to tell the nurse when the next one came in. Mac was only on a nasal cannula, he still had the heart monitor, which showed that his pulse was still higher than normal and blood pressure was lower than normal, an IV running two lines, one for blood and another for whatever meds they were giving him, and he was tethered 'down there' as Jack liked to say. Seeing that Mac's hair had fallen onto his face again, Jack reached up to brush it aside, and realized that Mac felt like he might be running a temp.

Jack was about to summon a nurse when one walked in, "How's he doing Agent Dalton?"

Jack frowned at the formal title, "It's Jack."

The nurse smiled, "Then call me Tommy I prefer it to Nurse Thomas."

Jack smiled wanly. "I think he's runnin' a fever and his hands seem swollen to me."

Tommy nodded and grabbed a thermometer running it across Mac's forehead. "100.6, not great." He scanned into the laptop sitting beside Mac's bed, typed in his vitals, looked at Mac's arms and feet, and tapped on the keyboard some more.

"Well?" Jack asked impatiently.

Tommy sighed turning to look at Jack, "Well it could be several things, with him going into septic shock from the hypovolemia, some of the symptoms of that are fever, rapid heart rate, and low blood pressure. However, those are also symptoms of infection, or the swelling could have to do with his kidneys. I'm going to grab some blood, and see what it tells me, but I'm thinking we need to up his antibiotics, and possibly start him on some diuretics since his urine output isn't what I would like it to be. I'll be right back to draw that blood

Then it was a waiting game, Bozer and Riley came back with snacks, Tommy did the blood draw, and they waited, and waited, which, by now, had become routine. Finally Tommy came back with some answers.

"We are going to start him on some diuretics which should help with the swelling and the urine output problems. There are signs of an infection, so we are going to go ahead and get a PICC line set up and administer some heavy-duty antibiotics." Tommy leveled with them. "It's going to take a while to get the PICC line inserted, and we need to keep a sterile field. So now is the time to go take a break."

Jack could feel Riley and Bozer's eyes on him. "I think I'll take a little walk, and stay the night here." He got nods of agreement from the other two.

"In the morning Riley and I will switch, so you can go get some actual rest." Bozer stated. "And don't argue with me or I'll call Matty."

Jack was about to argue with him, but quickly realized that Bozer wasn't joking around. So he nodded his consent, and gave the kids hugs as they left.

Later, as Jack was stretched out in the recliner that they brought in for him, he prayed for Mac in a way that he hadn't for a long time. A peace came over him, and he was able to finally close his eyes and rest.

A/N2:See no real cliffhanger this time! Let me know what you thought, because reviews are a balm to this writer's soul!