I woke up to the sound of heavy, laboured breathing beside me. Blearily, I opened my eyes and waited for them to adjust to the darkness of the room. After a few seconds I was able to see, and turned to the person beside me. MacGyver was twisting and turning violently in his sleep, his eyes squeezed shut. I sat up quickly, recognising the symptoms. This wasn't the first time in the last couple of weeks that he had experienced nightmares. Being nearly asphyxiated with nitrogen by El Noche after the mission spiralled wildly out of control had left MacGyver with memories that were far from pleasant.
Suddenly, he started lashing out, trying to push the people in his nightmare away from him. His foot made contact with the side of my leg rather sharply.
"Time to wake," I muttered, debating whether I should switch on the bedside lamp.
A sharp gasp for breath decided it for me, the need to wake him more urgent than a need to turn on the lamp.
"Mac," My voice was a little louder than a whisper. No response.
"Mac," I repeated, placing my hand gently on his shoulder. There was still no response.
I sighed lightly, and took a breath.
"Angus MacGyver," I said clearly, shaking his shoulder a little.
His blue eyes snapped open, darting around to look for the source of the noise. He looked straight past me, no recognition in his eyes. As he started to recognise the room, his breathing slowed down and he turned to look at me.
"Are you with me?" I asked gently.
"Yea," his voice came out hoarse. "Yea," he repeated, "Just a nightmare." He grimaced.
"I know," I said soothingly. "It's going to happen after all that, it's ok."
He groaned, "I know, it's just so frustrating. I have no control. Did I hit you?"
"Nah," I lied, it wasn't a hard kick so I didn't think I needed to add that to his conscience. I raised my hand to brush a stray strand of hair off his face, but he flinched at my movement.
'Right, still stuck in his thoughts then," I thought.
"Mac, how about we get up and grab a drink?" I suggested.
He nodded, already getting out of bed.

A few moments later and we were standing in the dark kitchen, Mac holding but not drinking a glass of water. He stood there in his pyjamas, staring off into the night.
"Hey," I said softly, "What are you thinking about?"
He startled, the water in the glass sloshing out over his hand.
"What could have happened if no one had seen my message," he replied.
I walked over, taking the glass from his hand and setting it onto the bench.
"But they did, and Jack found you," I smiled.
"I know," he replied, "But that doesn't make the thoughts go away."
Despite the dark of the night, I could see a darkness in his eyes.
"Hungry?" I asked.
"Not really," he replied.
"But you could go for an ice cream sundae?" I asked with a smile.
"Yea," there was a smile in his voice, "but only if I can get a banana fritter too?"
I looked over to the fruit bowl, then back at the blonde.
"I think you're in luck."

I started getting the ingredients for the banana fritters, but noticed that Mac was sitting on one of the bar stools staring at his constantly moving hands. I placed the flour on the counter.
"Mac," I said quietly, "I'm going to the loo."
He nodded, but didn't look up.

"Hi Riley," I spoke quietly into my phone, "Did I wake you?"
"Nah, I was messing around with an online game," She replied. "What's up?"
"Mac's been having nightmares," I sighed, "I'm not quite sure what to do."
"I'm not surprised," she said, "That place is horrible."
"Yea, just," I took a breath, "We're having a sorta midnight feast, do you want to come over and talk or something?" I asked. "He's just sitting there, fiddling with paperclips."
"Right, that's too still for Mac," She commented, "Yea, I can be at your place in like 5."

I walked back into the kitchen, and MacGyver barely looked up at me.
"Hey," I put my arm around him.
"You took a while in the loo," there was a faint smile on his face.
"Yea," I conceded, "I got a text from Riley. She was still awake and bored, so I invited her around."
I was a decent liar, but I kept my head resting on Mac's shoulder, just in case.
"Don't mind," he muttered, turning to give me a proper hug, "Just so long as I get my banana fritter."

Five minutes later, Riley arrived as I was mixing the batter.
"Hey, Mac," she said quietly, "How are you doing?"
"I'm not too bad," he responded, "What about you?"
Riley responded with in the affirmative, catching my eye and raising an eyebrow at his lie.
"Where's Bozer for this midnight feast?" She asked.
"He had a late shift, so he's sleeping," MacGyver replied.
"Won't he hear us and wake up?" she questioned quietly.
MacGyver laughed, a genuine laugh. We both turned to look at him, partially in surprise at the outburst.
"Nah, Bozer sleeps like the dead. Nothing wakes him," he replied, "He actually slept through a minor explosion when we were kids."
Riley just looked at him.
"It was a sleep over. I woke up and got a little bored," He shrugged his shoulders.
"Mac dear," I called, "Could you get the ice cream out of the freezer?"
"And anything else you want on the sundaes," I added as an afterthought.
Riley made her way over to the stove where I was standing, placing halved banana slices in the batter.
"What you making?" She asked, standing over my shoulder.
"Comfort food," I replied cheekily. "Ice cream sundaes on hot banana fritters."
"Oooh, nice. You wouldn't happen to have any pineapple to make pineapple fritters too, would you?"
MacGyver was by the cupboard, where he was already looking for sundae toppings.
"Yea, we have a tin of pineapple in here," he replied removing it and placing it by the stove.
"Thank you," I smiled, catching his wrist and pulling him in for a quick kiss.
"Gross," Riley rolled her eyes.
"For that, you are on pineapple draining duty Miss Davis," I put on my most posh accent.
She shook her head at me, but grabbed the tin and made her way to the sink, pouring the juice into a glass.

We sat around the kitchen bench, sundae ingredients spread out like a production line. Each bowl held banana fritter and pineapple fritter straight out of the frying pan. Two tubs of ice cream were also laid out on the bench, one Neapolitan and one cookies and cream.
"Well, dig in," I said, already reaching for the spoon sitting on top of the Neapolitan.
I added a couple scoops of ice cream to my bowl, then moved on to the sauce.
My finished bowl held the fritter topped with ice cream covered in chocolate sauce, crushed nuts, sprinkles, mini marshmallows and crushed up biscuits. The other bowls were similarly adorned.
We each sat at the bench, chatting as we devoured our late night meal.

Once we had all had our fill, Riley got up to leave.
"You could crash on the couch," Mac suggested, as I nodded in agreement.
I grabbed a spare pillow and some blankets from the cupboard, handing them to Riley.
I looked at the mess of frying pans and bowls in the kitchen, debating if I should deal with them now or not.
"I'll deal with it tomorrow," Mac whispered in my ear, "Thornton hasn't called me in."
He grabbed my hand and led me back to the bedroom.
As we both lay back down in bed, Mac put his arm around my waist.
"Don't think I don't know why we had a midnight meal," he murmured, "Thank you."