I woke up and blinked into the darkness, trying to figure out what had woken me. I felt the bed shift beside me, and loud gasping sounds were coming from the blonde beside me. Turning over, I saw my partner twisting in the bedsheets, writhing like he was trying to get away from something. Abruptly, he stopped breathing, holding his breath. I froze, not sure what to do then he let his breath out in a rush and started gasping for air. I sat upright, realising that he was having a nightmare.
"Mac," I hissed.
He kept gasping and choking, still trying to get away from the people in his dream.
"MacGyver," I said more loudly, hoping he would hear me and wake up. I got no positive response, and I was starting to worry he was going to hyperventilate.
"Angus," I tried his first name, knowing that he never used it and hated it. "Angus MacGyver, wakeup!"
This time I did get a response, Mac sitting straight up and opening his eyes. His breathing slowed to a more normal pace, and he looked around the room.
I relaxed and smiled at him.
"Hey, everything okay?" I asked softly.
His eyes fell on me and widened.
"What are you doing here?" He hissed. "Keep away from me."
I saw that his eyes were glazed over, and then he started moving away from me.
"No, no please, no," he pleaded.
My heart broke hearing him, and I realised he still hadn't woken up. There was nothing I could do, he thought I was someone else and I couldn't wake him up.

Hurriedly I got up and moved away from MacGyver, heading towards the bedroom door.
"Bozer," I called out as I swung the door open.
Inside the room, MacGyver was still mumbling and had started hyperventilating again.
"BOZER!" I shouted more desperately for our housemate.
This brought his oldest friend rushing from his room, still pulling on a t-shirt.
"What's happened?" he asked in a rush.
I pointed into my shared bedroom. "Mac, I think he's having a nightmare or panic attack." I said brokenly.
Bozer rushed into the room, and I stood in the doorway.
"I couldn't wake him," I said, "I think his brain twisted me into Nikki," I said bitterly.
His friend nodded, then knelt down by MacGyver, who was huddled on the floor.
"Hey, Mac," was all I heard before I turned and walked into the kitchen.

I filled the kettle and set it to boil. As I placed the kettle down, I noticed my hands were shaking. In fact, now that I was alone in the darkened kitchen, I realised that my whole body was shaking slightly. I leant against the counter, taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. After a few moments, my hands had returned to being mostly steady. I took out three mugs from the cupboards and placed them by the kettle, before turning to the cupboard. Rifling through the shelves I found a packet of chocolate chip cookies and a packet of Oreos. Grabbing both, and the drinking chocolate, I turned back to the now boiled kettle. I prepared hot chocolate for both the boys, and a cup of earl grey for myself.
I couldn't hear any noise from the direction of the bedroom. While that wasn't necessarily a good thing, it did mean that no one was shouting at least. Cautiously, I made my way to the door of my bedroom. There was murmuring from inside, voices low but calm. As I looked around the doorframe and into the room, I saw Bozer and MacGyver sitting on the side of the rumpled bed talking.
"We good in here?" I asked gently.
Both heads turned in my direction, one looking exhausted and the other looking slightly worried.
Mac opened his mouth to reply, a croak coming out instead.
"Yea, it's all good," Bozer replied for him.
"Awesome," I replied, "I'll be right back with hot chocolate then."
With that, I returned to the kitchen to retrieve the drinks and chocolatey cookies.

A few minutes later, we were all sitting on the bed with our drinks clutched in our hands. Mac and I were sitting with our backs to the head board and Bozer was sitting towards the foot of the bed, legs crossed and facing the two of us. The two packets of cookies were laying open and half eaten between us.
"Can opener?" I asked gently, referring to the codename we had given Mac's mission in the super max prison.
He nodded, looking down at his mug.
"Man, that's nothing to be ashamed of," Bozer reminded him. "What that dude did to you, anyone would have nightmares."
Slowly Mac looked up from the drink he had both his hands wrapped around. He looked at Bozer and then me, blue eyes clouded in memory.
"When I was stuck in the trunk, I couldn't get past the fact I might never see either of you again," he admitted quietly.
I took one of my hands off my mug, and wrapped it around the blonde's shoulders.
"But you did your thing, and you got out," Bozer reminded him, "And now those sons of bitches can't hurt anyone else."
Beside Mac, I nodded in confirmation.
"I will admit," I told him, "I was scared as hell the whole time you were in there. Especially when Jack couldn't find you after you broke out."
We were all quiet for a moment, before Bozer spoke up.
"This is all sweet, and depressing," He stated. "And to fix that we all need another cookie."
He picked up the Oreo packet and shoved it at us, shoving one in his mouth so that his cheeks puffed out like a squirrel.
That definitely broke the sombre mood, making both me and MacGyver laugh at his ridiculousness, and I felt the remaining tension in Mac's shoulders dissipate.