Matty glanced back at Bozer. The younger man had his shoulder wrapped tight against his side. He was pale, but his face set with serious determination. Matty held up a hand creeping to the edge of the hall as they approached the Jins apartment. The police tape that had sealed the entrance fluttered in pieces from the open doorway. Matty could easily make out two voices.
"Give it to me, Fai. We can be free and set up for life."
"No, Homer we can't do this. People are dying. We have to help them."
"Look it's the only sample, we'd be in control of the bids."
"Bids? Do you realize what you've done? Nana died because of your deals…"
"Fai, listen, that wasn't my fault. The Bosnians-"
"I don't care! I should have never got involved in this. I meant to help all those people not profit off their suffering."
"Oh please, Fai! You were happy enough to take the money…" Matty ducked into the apartment with Bozer on her heels. Jin Fai stood in the small hall between the kitchen and the living room. Matty crept closer with her hands raised. Fai and Chester whirled. Fai held a large test tube with a clear liquid in it, Chester lifted a Smith and Wesson .38.
"Who are you?" Chester demanded. Matty smiled sweetly and walked closer. Bozer walked closer and stepped in front of Matty. Matty threw a glare his way but lowered her arms and stepped away.
"Wilt?" Fai said relaxing her shoulders, "Bozer, I am so happy to see you."
"Fai, I'm glad to see you too. Is that the cure?" Fai stepped back uneasy. Matty studied Chester her eyes narrowing. There was a change in the man's demeanor that Matty didn't like.
"Who are you working for?" Jin Fai said backing away. She held the tube out as if she were going to smash it on the ground. Bozer took a step forward.
"No, no please Fai don't do that. Mac's in trouble, he needs that cure, or he's going to die." Fai's eyes widened.
"Mac? How-?"
"We think Jin Yu accidentally put out a crate of infected water," Matty said. Jin Fai looked at the smaller woman panic on her face.
"What? Others will die!" She turned wild-eyed to Chester, "Homer, we have to give it to them."
"They're lying, they work for the CIA-" Fai's eyes darted back and forth from Bozer to Chester.
"Fai, you know us. You know Mac. Do you think he'd be part of something wrong?"
"Bozer…"
"Look I know, I get it. This secret agent stuff is...scary. You never know who's on your side or what they want, but Fai we've been coming here since you were in high school. You remember how Jack and Mac came over to help your Nana? How we took you to the hospital when you broke your arm? You know us." Fai smiled and nodded. She turned back to Homer. Chester shook his head.
"I'm sorry Fai." He raised his .38 and shot Fai in the chest.
"NO!" Bozer screamed jumping forward to catch the tube of liquid. Matty walked behind Chester and kicked the back of his knee. He fell forward a step then whirled lashing out with the butt of his .38. Matty ducked and slammed him in the kidneys. Chester swore and turned raising the pistol. Chester froze and looked down at his chest which had a small circle of blood appear on his chest. Matty ducked as the snap of a long range rifle came a heart beat later.
"Bozer!" Matty cried. She froze in horror. Bozer sprawled on the floor his hands covered in wet, broken glass.
"Matty! MATTY!" Bozer yelled as it sunk in what had happened. Bozer went to try to grab the clear fluid as it seeped into the carpet. "No, NO, NO!"
"Bozer, FREEZE!" Matty yelled. Bozer froze and looked up, desperation in his eyes. Matty stepped over the dead bodies and bent down carefully lifting a tiny circle of glass filled with liquid. Bozer pushed to his feet.
"Is that enough?" Bozer asked his heart beating fast. Matty didn't spare him a glance afraid to lose the precious few drops of fluid.
"I don't know, Bozer. Get me something to put it in."
"Right." Bozer ferreted around the chaos around them, finally ducking into the bathroom to grab and rinse out a pill bottle. Matty carefully dropped the glass and fluid in it and screwed on the cap.
"Let's go Bozer," Matty said pulling out her phone. Bozer paused looking down at Fai and Chester. "Bozer!" Matty called from the hall. Bozer shook his head sadly and dashed after her. They climbed to the roof and waited as Phoenix sent out a helicopter. Ten minutes later they ran into Phoenix and handed the bottle off to the group of bioengineers and medical staff that rushed to the ad hoc lab Riley had set up.
Matty sighed, dropping her shoulders. She looked at Bozer who looked like he was going to fall over. She tapped him on the hand.
"Why don't you go see Mac?"
"What're you-?"
"There's a lot of loose ends I have to clean up." Bozer nodded and started walking to Medical. "Hey, Wilt?" Boze turned. "You did an excellent job today." Bozer offered a weak smile.
"I'll believe that when Mac gets better," Bozer said softly. Matty nodded and let out a deep breath.
"I understand." She said softly.
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Mac was barely breathing. Riley and Bozer sat on either side of the bed, Jack held onto his friend. All of them waited with anxiety until the next weak breath was sucked in with a rattle. None of them spoke as if they were afraid to scare Mac's spirit out of his body.
The trio looked up at the sound of running feet. Sally shoved the curtain aside. Doc Carl and two other tall men in white lab coats swept in with a syringe full of liquid.
"Is that the cure?" Jack asked sitting up. Doc Carl turned Mac's head to the side and injected the fluid under the jaw aiming toward the brain. Everything stared at Mac as if waiting for him to wake up immediately. "Is that gonna work?" Jack asked. Doc Carl looked at the other two doctors than at the three teammates.
"We weren't able to re-engineer the cure, but we were able to use it to figure out what kind of strain we were dealing with, we gave Mac a dose of Interferon that should start killing the bacteria right away-"
"But?" Jack asked. Doc Carl looked down and absently straightened the edge of Mac's blankets.
"Interferon is hard on patients; I hope Mac isn't too weak."
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Jack took to heart when Mac's breathing became easier. He helped Sally change Mac's bed and clothes. Jack and Sally gently covered Mac with thick heated blankets. Sally chuckled. Jack shot her a questioning look.
"Mac made the blanket warmer, right?" Jack nodded. "We didn't have the heart to tell him that blankets were still burning after all the months he'd worked on it, so we got together to buy fire resistant blankets." Jack laughed. Sally brushed Mac's bangs out of his face; she'd cut off the singed ends. Sally touched the blister on his cheek. She looked up at Jack, tears in her eyes.
"It's what saved him if we'd used regular blankets we wouldn't-" Sally turned way covering her mouth.
"Hey, hey-it's alright, shhh." Jack murmured as he turned the nurse around and held her.
"God, Jack when I saw those flames…" Jack rubbed her back.
"I know, Sally, my heart went somewhere below the floor too. But hey, he survived that, right? He's going to survive this too." Sally pulled away and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. Jack reached over and gave her a box of tissue. She took a handful and wiped her face.
"Jack, after all, he's been through..." Sally said softly.
"And he survived it all. Sally, that's what he does. He's going to be okay, you just wait and see." Sally smiled and sniffed. The red headed nurse turned to check on the plethora of IV bags.
"So this inferioron?"
"Interferon."
"Right, what does it do?"
"I have only a general idea…"
"Ok?"
"It activates the cells of the body's immune system, so it can….hunt down the virus and its toxins."
"Kind of like little Deltas huh?" Jack asked with a grin. Sally smiled.
"Sort of, Jack. If we got the right form of interferon, it'd work pretty quickly. Mac just has to hang in there until his immune system kills the pathogen. Hopefully, he's strong enough." Sally frowned and sighed. Jack put a hand on her shoulder.
"He is, Sally. Never doubt that." Sally smiled at Jack and turned to help the wounded Tac team members. Jack carefully sat on the bed beside Mac. "Now don't you do me wrong, brother. Prove I'm right, ok?" Jack brushed back Mac's hair. Mac's head turned into his touch. Jack leaned forward.
"Mac?" Mac's lips moved, and he mumbled something then was still again. Jack frowned and laid the back of his hand against Mac's forehead. Mac's skin was warmer than it had been. Jack grinned. "That's how ya do it, brother, yeah!" Unfortunately, Mac's temp continued to rise, his face dampened, and his skin slowly grew pinker and pinker. Jack swabbed his face with cold washcloths. Mac occasionally turned his head and mumbled.
Three hours later, Mac's temp was 102.
"That's not too bad, is it?" Jack asked Sally as they rolled Mac onto his other side.
"Normally no, but as weak as Mac is..." Sally looked down at Mac. Sally's eyes had dark circles under them, and she looked exhausted.
"Sally, why don't you go get some rest," Jack said. Sally smiled at Jack.
"I wish I could."
"You know I got Mac, right?"
"Yeah, but with Lenny-" Sally stopped rubbing her tears away. Jack cringed.
"I'm sorry, Sally. Lenny was one of the good ones."
"I know Jack. I know." Jack watched the tired nurse cross the curtain to the other patients. The only one left was Lewis who wandered in to check on Mac every hour or so. Jack looked up as Riley and Bozer entered.
"Hey, guys." His two team mates nodded. They were about out on their feet. "You should get some rest," Jack said worriedly.
"So should you," Riley said with a soft smile. Bozer stared at Mac and seemed to sway on his feet.
"Boze?" Jack said standing up and steadying the younger man. Bozer looked up surprised. "Hey, you ok, bud?" Bozer nodded. Jack led him to the chair and helped him sit down. "Have you guys eaten?" Their blank looks told the whole story. "Ok, that's it." Jack stood and pulled out his phone calling an order for pizza big enough to feed the entire building. Jack found Doc Carl and had him come check Bozer over. Jack made sure everyone ate, including Matty, then pushed the gurneys closer and had more brought wheeled into rows. He gathered bedding and killed most of the lights after making sure Riley, Bozer, and Sally were comfortable and snoring. Jack climbed in beside his best friend and pulled off the blankets. Mac shivered. Jack snugged the kid in close and then drifted off to sleep.
"Jack." Jack's eyes snapped open, and he looked down. Jack frowned. It hadn't come from Mac. Jack rubbed his face and looked up blearily into Matty's face.
"Hey." He said softly. Matty smiled and sat in the chair beside the bed. She gazed at Mac.
"How's he doing?" Jack laid his hand across Mac's forehead. His eyes went wide, and Jack smiled taking in how wet his T-shirt was.
"I think his fever's broken." Jack carefully climbed off the bed. He stretched and glanced at his watch. It was almost dawn. He looked down at Matty.
"How are you, Matty?" Jack asked gently. Matty looked up at him and shook his head. "And before you say anything, I do not have the energy for any rants about it being your fault, seriously." Matty snapped her mouth shut and rubbed at the corner of her eye.
"We think Rijad was the shooter who took out Chester."
"Son of a bitch! I knew I should have finished him off." Jack glared in the general direction of Riley. He ran a hand through his hair. "The question is for who? Chester was playing both sides."
"If I had to guess I'd say the Serbians. They pulled out and left the CIA holding an empty bag."
"I would assume the farm has samples."
"I know." Matty frowned. Jack looked at her suspiciously.
"What aren't you saying, Matty?"
"I think we have a new player."
"Barrister?"
"No, I think there's someone bigger."
"Corydon?" Jack asked. Matty nodded and flipped hair away from her face. "What else?" Matty scowled at him. She hated being easily read.
"We have to assume that either he or Barrister got the formula for the chemicals that Mac fell into."
"If they give that to the Serbs…" Jack's eyes went wide, and he shook his head looking at Mac.
"It could turn into a plague, mass starvation on a global scale sold to the highest bidder." They sat silent a long minute contemplating the ramifications.
"We made a cure though, right?" Jack asked.
"For this strain, and if they can mix those chemicals in with the new pathogen…?"Matty left the thought hanging.
"Well, we'll just have to go back to Wisconsin, get another bunch of the goo…"
"Green Bay hazmat cleaned up the swamp."
"Oh." Jack looked at Mac and met Matty's grim expression. "That means the only sample we have…"
"Is in MacGyver's blood." Matty sighed. Jack paced and ran his hand through his short hair.
"I hate this, Matty! How deep will it go this time? Are we ever going to get free of Valhalla and all the crap attached to it." Jack huffed.
"I don't know, Jack." Matty stood up, "I have to go put out a press release and notify the CDC. We found out a bottling plant near Kosovo. Agents are on the ground shutting it down. I'm hoping it'll stop them from bringing it to market, at least for awhile." Matty studied Jack's face for a long minute. "I'm sorry about Fai and Yu, Jack." Jack nodded and squeezed her hand.
"Yeah, me too."
Matty left Jack sat on the chair and studied his partner's face. Jack yawned then jumped when he saw a pair of sky-colored eyes watching him.
"Damn, son. You're gonna give me a heart attack." Jack said leaning forward. Mac managed a weak smile. Jack sat back and rubbed at the bridge of his nose feeling as if he'd shed a mountain from his shoulders. "I am glad to see you awake; you wouldn't believe how happy. You scared me this time, brother." Mac's eyes slowly sank closed, and he fell into a deep but healthy sleep.