Mac was freezing. It was a chilling drizzly damp that got into your bones. Every bruise from the beating he'd taken ached and he was pretty sure, not positive but willing to concede the possibility, that if the devil himself showed up and offered him a couple of aspirin and a hot coffee he'd probably cheerfully exchange it for his soul.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman, Emma, shiver. The tall skinny guy, Sid, had been fighting chattering teeth or a while. While Mac didn't especially want to say anything, since every time he'd opened his mouth it seemed like Gio or Anton decided it made him an attractive piñata substitute. But if he didn't say anything and things got dire and they panicked, that would probably be worse. He sighed quietly. "You know, we should really stop and build a fire to dry those clothes out before you all become hypothermic."

Unsurprisingly, Gio gave him another shove and snapped, "Just keep moving."

Mac shook his head but kept his mouth shut and trudged on. He already hurt all over and the really challenging terrain was in front of them. He didn't think he could mentally face another asskicking and still get them over what was ahead. And not being able to help them was as good as pulling the trigger himself. He had to give his team time to get help.

He cringed inwardly when they reached a tall unstable looking rock fall. He eyed it dubiously, then reached out to touch the rocks, almost flinching when he found exactly what he expected. "What's the hold up," Gio snapped.

Mac explained the problem with the ice on the rocks like he expected the group, and their leader to be reasonable. Given the looks of trepidation on most of their faces, he had a split second of hope that they weren't going to bull ahead and do the stupid thing. Then When he suggested using another route (which would cause them to have to double back and hopefully put them closer to wherever his team was) Gio demanded, "Will that take longer?"

Mac glanced away, almost anticipating another beating just for stating the obvious. "Well, yeah … a little."

He couldn't hide his frustration at their determination to do things the wrong way, the dangerous way, out here. Amateurs who thought they knew better than their guidebooks or, worse, their guides got people hurt, sometimes killed. More than once Mac had been a search and rescue volunteer in the mountains around Los Angeles and more often than not the emergency was caused by somebody trying to cowboy their way through something they didn't have the knowledge or skill for.

He did his best to tamp downnon his flash of temper before he said something that would make Gio decide he was more trouble than he was worth. He just bit down on what he wanted to say and asked for what he needed to assemble some makeshift crampons for the group to at least try to get them over the rocks.

He'd been grateful for his gloves as they'd marched along, but between those and the fact that they wouldn't untie his wrists, construction was a frustrating process. He hoped his imposed lack of dexterity didn't create any fatal flaws in their improvised gear.

Finally in frustration at watching him, Giovanni cut his hands free. He was so relieved to just be able to work toward some semblance of safety, he knew it was written all over his face. Gio took it as another flash of escape plotting and shoved him up against the rocks, hard. "No games, kid, or you are not makin' it out of here. You get me?"

Mac's eyes got a cold look. One that told the crook he was more than some kid off for a weird family getaway in the mountains. "I know I'm not playing any. If you could take this as seriously as whatever it is under that X, we might just make it there alive."

It resulted in another shove, but just one aimed at setting him back to work. That he could deal with. After he made sure they had the traction devices secured to their shoes, Mac was explicit about them needing to follow him. As far as bouldering went, this wasn't a particularly challenging climb for someone with experience, even with the complication of the ice. For these guys it was easy to see how it could turn deadly.

When Sid fell, it didn't even surprise him. Annoy, sure. But not surprise. Somebody not listening on a hike was pretty much what he was used to from taking student groups out for Phoenix community outreach projects. The difference was he never took those kids anywhere dangerous, and help was always just a phone call away.

Gio refused to stop the party so Mac could really do something about the bad sprain (and probably break, which Mac kept to himself because he didn't feel like picking any teeth up off the ground). Mac practically stomped off into the woods without the leader's permission to implement his back up plan of making a splint and a crutch.

Thoughts of a not too long ago helicopter crash, and injured pilot and an injured Jack flitted through his head. Even mostly one handed, Mac would have given about anything for his partner to be with him now. Then the gnawing worry that Jack had been hurt worse than he appeared clawed its way back up to the forefront of his thoughts. That's not helping, he growled at his brain.

He finished gathering what he needed, ignoring the other members of the group who'd followed him and headed back toward the injured man. A gunshot rang out and he flinched sort of instinctively. He knew what he was going to find well before he came out of the trees and saw Gio standing over a bloodied body.

Jack stumbled for about the fifth time in as many minutes. The pull on the cut across his stomach made him suck in his breath. Riley was on his elbow, holding his arm, before he'd even finished bending double with the pain of it. "Hey, maybe we should sit for a minute?"

Jack grimaced as he forced himself upright again. He could feel the wound seeping again. It was clearly not as shallow as his occasionally overly optimistic brain had wanted it to be when Riley helped him glue it. "Pretty sure those guys aren't lettin' Mac sit. So we can't afford to either."

Riley's disapproving little head shake and eyeroll was the vision of her mother and Jack told her so with all his affection for both of them in his voice. "It never got her anywhere with me either, honey," he said with a slight chuckle. "You can holler at me all the way to the nearest emergency room when we get off this mountain. But I'm here to tell you the only way I'm climbing off it at all is when we get Mac back."

"I'm with him Ri," Bozer said, catching up to them. "Jack's already told us these guys looked armed and desperate."

"We got any glue left, Ri?" Jack asked.

"A little," she hedged.

This time Jack took it and dealt with the weeping wound himself. Unfortunately this "treatment" emptied the bottle. He leaned against a nearby boulder, waiting for it to dry a little, hoping that would make a difference in keeping the cut closed this time.

"At least we know Mac was more or less okay when they passed through here. He's still leaving all kinds of sign, even if one of those assholes wasn't throwing cigarette butts all over," he said, hoping to assuage at least a little of the younger team members' concern. He was worried sick, too, but he'd learned you couldn't count Mac out even when things were dire. The guy had swam almost all the way to shore with a bullet in his chest at Lake Como. He'd gotten himself back from Murdoc, hell, more than once. He'd … Well, worked miracles. Often. And Jack couldn't help him the way the kid deserved if these guys got panicky or hopeless.

Bozer surprised him by picking right up on his forward thinking vibe. "And they can't be all that far ahead of us. It's raining some but these tracks are still pretty crisp," he said, pointing.

Jack grinned and slapped him on the shoulder. "Good eye, kid."

Bozer absolutely beamed. It made Riley smile, too. Getting called 'kid' was high praise coming out of Jack, since he usually reserved the word for Mac. Riley knee Jack loved her like a daughter, and he liked Boze, trusted him as a teammate. But Mac was different. There was some of that brothers in arms stuff she'd observed in other people who'd served together, some just long-standing friendship and familiarity, occasionally even the same protective parental feeling she got from Jack, too. But it was more complicated even than that.

She didn't know how to describe it really, but … Jack saw Mac as a friend, a colleague, a brother, sometimes even as his kid. And he took the idea of being Mac's Overwatch like a literal Wookie life debt. But … she thought she maybe landed in the difference in Jack's relationship with Mac from all the others in his life. She'd even been a little jealous of their relationship a few times.

Jack respected Angus MacGyver in a truly unique way.

He thought enough of Mac to let him be completely himself, even when that individuality pained Jack personally. And Jack knew Mac felt the same way. Jack has been the only one Mac said goodbye to in person when he'd left for Nigeria. That was … special.

She found herself giving Jack a one armed hug. He hugged back but gave her a funny raised eyebrow look. She decided not to try to argue him into resting or anything else that might slow them down. "You lean on me if you need to, old man," she said, forcing her lips into a teasing grin. "Let's go get …"

A gunshot in the distance stopped her cold.

They all looked wildly at each other for a second.

"Mac!"

All three Phoenix agents broke into a run.