Hey hey hey! Thank you all SO MUCH for the reviews, follows, and favorites! You're the best!
So, you know how most people take work off for Christmas and Holiday breaks? Yeah, not me. I decide to go work 40 hours a week, along with a concert or play almost every single night for the first four nights XD this is literally the first time in days that I've been able to sit down and have time to myself. Crazy life.
So, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. There are different things that I like and don't like as much, but I'm not sure if that's just because I've read it more and know what's coming? That being said, it's only had one or two read-throughs, so it's probably pretty rough. Sorry about that...
Nope, still not mine!
Jack glanced around, making sure no one was following him as he slipped into one of the smaller offices and shut the door quietly. He turned around to face MacGyver, who was also in the office.
"What?" Mac asked as Jack walked towards him.
"What? What do you mean 'what?'?" Jack asked, holding out his hands.
"I mean, what was so important you had to pull me out of bed and get me to work almost an hour before anyone else is supposed to be here?" Mac groused.
Jack raised his eyebrows. "Says the kid who set off fifteen different alarms around my house, starting this whole prank war!"
"Touche," Mac muttered.
"So?" Jack asked, looking expectantly at MacGyver.
"So...what?" Mac replied, looking confused.
"Dude!" Jack exclaimed quietly. "How are we going to get Riley, Bozer and Patty back for the nasty pranks they pulled at the party?"
Understanding dawned in Mac's eyes and he nodded. "Right. I was thinking about that. I think we should split up and go after them one on one," he explained.
"There are three of them and only two of us though," Jack reminded his young partner. Mac nodded.
"I know. So either one of us can take on two, probably Riley and Bozer, while the other one takes on Thornton. Or maybe once we've pranked the first two, we team up and get the last person back," Mac suggested.
"Well Bozer should be easy to prank," Jack mused. "All you'd need to do is switch his sugar out for salt!"
MacGyver stared incredulously at his older partner. "Are you serious?" he asked. "You realize Bozer would catch onto that in an instant! He's probably expecting something like that! Besides," he continued. "Even if he didn't realize what we had done, Bozer is the one that makes most of the food in our house. Eventually we'd end up eating something that has the 'sugar' in it, and I'm not in the mood to have a cookie made with dough that's got a cup and a half of salt in it," he pointed out.
"I know," Jack said with a wink. Mac glared at him.
"We called a truce, Jack!" he said in indignation.
"Yeah, we did," Jack conceded. "That doesn't mean that I don't think it would be funny to watch you eat a cookie with that much salt in it!"
MacGyver gave his partner an unamused look before he continued talking. "I think we should have one of us prank Riley and Bozer, then the other one get's Thornton," he offered.
"Nose-goes on Patty!" Jack said, immediately putting his finger to the tip of his nose.
"What are you, five?" Mac asked sarcastically. Jack kept his finger adamantly stuck to his nose as he replied.
"I don't wanna go after her!" Jack protested. "You're the one that started this!"
"Fine," Mac conceded. "How about we Rock-Paper-Scissors it? Loser tackles pranking Patricia," he compromised. Jack stared at his partner a little warily before bringing his hand up.
"Two out of three?" he asked. Mac nodded his agreement and they began.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors," they said in unison. Mac's Rock beat out Jack's Scissors.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" Jack's Scissors came out and cut into Mac's Paper. The two partners stared at each other in grim determination as they started the last round.
"Rock...Paper...Scissors!"
"Yes!" Jack whooped, letting out a relieved sigh as his Paper appeared and covered Mac's Rock. MacGyver sighed in defeat.
"Okay," he admitted defeatedly. "I'll get Thornton, you get Bozer and Riley."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Jack crowed as the two of them made their way out of the office.
"Just do me a favor, will ya?" Mac asked as they entered the hallway, noticing agents starting to arrive for the day. "Leave Riley's electronics alone!"
Jack watched from around a corner as Riley walked towards the restroom. She stopped as she observed the caution tape "X-ing" out the door, along with the sign behind it.
"DON'T OPEN. DEAD INSIDE."
Riley chuckled, and Jack heard her mutter, "Really guys? That's the best you can come up with?" Jack watched her rip the tape off the doorframe and ignore the sign on the door. Jack silently slipped out from his hiding spot, creeping towards the young woman while she wasn't looking his way.
She pushed the door open, then gave a short exclamation of surprise and jumped back slightly as she saw a humanoid figure sitting on the toilet.
"I am so sorry, I didn't realize someone was in here! I'm so sorry-" she kept exclaiming as she bowed her head and backed out of the restroom quickly. She turned to walk in the opposite direction, just as Jack hoped she would.
"Eeeeennnngggghhhhhh," he said, doing his best impersonation of a zombie as he held his arms straight forward, grabbing for the girl as she turned around. His voice was slightly muffled through the gory zombie mask he had on, but he could see and hear just fine.
Riley shrieked and jumped again, pressing herself back against the wall next to the bathroom. Jack couldn't keep his cackle of laughter in anymore, and soon he was bending over, his hands resting on his knees and supporting the rest of his weight as he continued guffawing.
"Your...face!" he panted as he ripped the mask off, discarding it on the ground. He wiped the tears away from his eyes as he straightened back up, ignoring the brilliant flames coming his way from Riley's eyes. Her hand had involuntarily gone to her chest as she tried to calm her racing heart.
"Not cool, Jack," she said as she recovered, walking towards the older man. She slugged him in the shoulder as he continued to chuckle. He rubbed the sore spot, watching as Riley stalked over to the bathroom door and yanked it open again, once more revealing the humanoid figure. She looked closer this time though, and discovered that the thing she had thought was a person was in fact a Resusci Annie doll with a blonde wig on. She grabbed the large doll by the wig and dragged it out of the bathroom. The hair came off in her hand and Riley flung the wig at the older man, who caught it with ease. Without another word, Riley stalked down the hallway, deciding it would be safer to use the bathroom on the third floor instead.
"Just make sure Bozer is the first one to take a shower," Jack insisted over the phone. MacGyver sounded confused and slightly concerned, but finally agreed when Jack reminded him it was all for the sake of the prank war.
"Okay," Mac finally said. "Dare I ask what you're doing?"
"You'll know tomorrow morning," Jack assured his friend. "Speaking of pranks," he added. "When are you going to pull your prank on Patty?"
"I'm just finalizing the details," Mac replied. "I need to make sure everything is in it's...proper place," he finally said.
"Whatever that means," Jack muttered as he hung up the phone. He set his alarm clock for five in the morning, then rolled over and went to bed.
Jack crept into Mac's house early the next morning, grateful that his friend had kept his word and left the door unlocked. He snuck into their laundry room and grabbed a pair of Bozer's boxers from the laundry basket. He slipped into the kitchen and stuck the garment in the freezer, snugly in between a bag of frozen peas and an ice pack for injuries. He shut the freezer and moved on to the next part of his prank.
Sneaking to the room he needed to be in, he waited for the text he knew was coming. Finally his phone buzzed and he opened it.
"Boze is just going into the bathroom," read the text. Jack smirked as he closed his phone, waiting just a few more minutes before switching the hot water valve off.
"Five...four...three...two…" he whispered. Before he got to one, he heard the yell of surprise as Bozer was suddenly doused in a nice cold stream of water. He heard the water turn off, and he quickly turned the hot water back on. He dashed to the kitchen as quietly as he could, grabbing the boxers from the freezer and throwing them on Bozer's bed. He started to run for the front door but he heard the bathroom door opening. He froze in panic for a moment, then ducked behind a corner and pressed himself against a wall as he heard the young man hurry into his room.
His phone vibrated, and he opened the text from his partner. "Wow, that was cold, Jack," MacGyver commented. Another message appeared under that one, reading "Yes, that pun was intended." Jack groaned silently as he smacked his face with his hand; Mac was always making bad puns! He was about to shoot back a response when he heard a string of curse words coming from Bozer's room.
"REALLY?" Mac's roommate yelled. "FROZEN BOXERS? WHO DOES THIS? THAT'S JUST NOT COOL!"
Jack grinned evilly to himself as he read the latest text from MacGyver. "Wow. You have problems," it read. "I would get out of here if I were you. Just...stay out of Thornton's office." Jack's eyebrows raised as he read the last part of the text. He snuck out the front door as quickly as possible, then hurried for his car he had parked about a block away. He couldn't wait to see what Mac had done to Thornton's office.
When Jack walked into the Foundation, he was greeted by the sight of his boss standing in front of the conference room. He immediately stopped, seeing his boss's face. It wasn't angry; in fact, it was just the opposite. It was as calm as calm could be, and that's what scared Jack the most.
"Heya, Patty," he greeted cautiously.
"Jack," she replied. They stood there, Jack feeling extremely awkward while his boss continued to stare at him with her calm eyes until the door was pushed open again, and MacGyver, Bozer and Riley walked in together. Mac hung back a little as he watched his boss's face. Jack could tell that he was wary of the eerie calmness Patricia was exuding.
"My office," she finally said, turning around and leading the way down the hallway. Bozer and Riley looked curious, while MacGyver and Jack were more hesitant to follow.
"What did you do?" Jack whispered to his partner as they slowly made their way to Thornton's office. MacGyver grinned a wide grin that didn't reach his eyes, which were filled with slight panic. Jack's question was answered as they reached their destination.
Patricia Thornton's office floor had been covered with paper cups filled to the brim with water, each cup having been placed in such a way that there wasn't enough room between them for someone to walk in between. Jack turned with wide eyes to his partner, who grinned sheepishly at him.
"I'm beginning to regret this decision immensely," Mac admitted. Patricia's eyebrow quirked upwards, and a ghost of a grin flitted past the corner of her mouth.
"Man," Jack complained quietly. "You probably just got us assigned desk duty for a month!"
"Not quite," Patricia cut in. Jack looked at his boss with consternation. "You and Mac are too good in the field to give you desk duty," she explained. "But I do need this cleaned up," she continued. "Mac, how many cups of water are there in my office?" she asked as she looked at the young man.
"One hundred and fifteen," MacGyver muttered after a moment.
"Alright. You and Jack have the day to get rid of this water," she instructed. "But you aren't allowed to dump it out," she added. Jack looked at her.
"Wait...are you saying what I think you're saying?" he moaned. A grin split Riley's face as she realized how Thornton wanted them to clean up the cups of water.
"I'd get started if I were you," Thornton said as she turned and walked away. "Oh, I've instructed the cleaning crew to not give you buckets of any sort, and I'm putting Bozer and Riley in charge of watching you to make sure everything gets cleaned up."
"Oh, I can do that!" Bozer cackled, rubbing his hands together gleefully. After a few moments, Mac and Jack both bent down and picked up a cup of water.
"Well this backfired miserably," Jack muttered before he dumped the contents of the cup into his mouth.
"You guys should have known better than to go up against Thornton," Riley berated in a light tone as she watched the two men slowly make their way through the office, drinking cup after cup of water and tossing the empty cups in the trash bag Bozer had gotten from the supplies closet. "But don't even think that this makes us even," she added, pointing a finger at them. "I'm still planning payback."
"Wouldn't dream of robbing you of that opportunity," Jack drawled sarcastically. He looked at his partner in crime. "Maybe from now on, we should consult each other about the logicality of the pranks we want to pull," he suggested. "That way the other one can tell the first person how stupid their idea is!"
"Oh come on," Mac insisted. "This really was a good idea! I just...probably should have done it to someone besides Thornton," he admitted.
"Patricia is not one to take anyone's crap," Jack agreed. "She just turns the prank around on you. I wonder if anyone has ever actually successfully managed to prank her," he mused. The four agents became lost in thought as they all tried to imagine someone succeeding where MacGyver had failed.
So...Like I said, not sure how I like it. What did you all think? I honestly had such a hard time coming up with a prank for Bozer, I have no idea why...
PS, I've finally got a direction I want my other stories to take, and the ideas are coming a lot easier than they have been, so hopefully I'll be able to get a chapter of one of them up soon!
Thanks again for all the support you've shown me and my stories!
I may not be able to post again for a few days, depending on my work and Christmas and everything, but I'll try! It's my goal to write every day, which I've been pretty good at; I just hope I can be as good at posting as I am at making sure to write every day XD
Let me know what you think? :D