AN: Canon-compliant with Season 1, not with Season 2. This won't make sense if you're not familiar with the Every End is a Beginning AU. This is set the Christmas after it finishes and references the chapters The Gentleman Inventor and Last First Date in Somewhere in the Middle.

MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

LA

As they worked on the egg nog on the deck (Bozer had commandeered the kitchen and was being a little territorial right now, so Mac had to improvise with the grill), Mac glanced over at Beth, who was carefully cracking eggs as he put the finishing touches on the grill modifications.

'Beth, can I introduce you to my dad…well, uh, re-introduce, I suppose…as my girlfriend tonight?'

Mac's dad was coming in from Tahoe for Christmas, and he'd mentioned Beth quite a few times since Thanksgiving in their phone conversations, and though he'd never outright asked if she was Mac's girlfriend, Mac got the sense that his dad was trying to hold back, out of respect for the fact that he was twenty-six and the fact that given their history, he accepted that there were some things Mac wouldn't want to talk to him about.

(That there would probably always be a bit of distance between them.)

Mac was very, very aware that his and Beth's relationship was definitely, definitely serious. Definitely a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, a 'partners' relationship, not just two people 'seeing each other' or 'dating'.

I know I can be oblivious, but I also have an IQ over 160, and given the whole Murdoc-tried-to-kill-her-to-get-to-me-because-he-knows-I-have-feelings-for-her thing, and the associated events…well, that's definitely the proverbial writing on the wall, and I have excellent reading skills, and so does she.

Still, he thought it was important to get labels and terminology straight.

After all, it had only been four days since their first date.

Beth looked up from the eggs, cheeks a little pink, and smiled brightly at him.

'I'd like that very much, Mac.' She smiled at him a moment longer, and then gestured to the grill. 'Uh…Mac, I don't think it's supposed to be smoking…'

AN: Adorably-awkward!Mac is adorably awkward. That is all.

Tomorrow's ficlet: 'But if it's just egg nog …you're being nice to me.'

Any guesses who says that and to whom?