Hello friends! Here is chapter 3 :D

Okay, disclosure, I was watching MacGyver while editing this, so it was a little difficult for me to concentrate on, so let me know if you spot anything that needs to be fixed XD

Also, thank you to everyone who has followed, favorited, reviewed, or read the story! I appreciate you all greatly!

Enjoy!

Present Time

"Wait, come on dude, you can't stop there," Jack complained as MacGyver paused his story and unbuckled his seat belt. The blond and Jack had taken a few pauses in the story to order food and drinks, but the blond hadn't paused at such a critical part in the story yet, and Jack didn't want to wait to hear what happened.

"I'll be back in like, two minutes," Mac replied, giving his friend an exasperated look that was only partially real. Jack watched as the blond made his way towards the back of the plane, pausing for a moment to speak with Riley. The hacker pulled her headphones off her one of her ears to speak with her friend, and after a few moments of conversation, Mac straightened back up and continued towards the back of the plane where the restrooms were located.

Jack sat there for a moment as he waited for his friend to come back, but after about thirty seconds he grew fidgety. He signaled one of the flight attendants, and when she got to his seat, the older man ordered a couple of drinks for him and his partner. The flight attendant walked away and Jack touched the screen in front of him, choosing to check out how far they'd come, along with how far they still had to go. He sighed when he saw the numbers; they'd only been in the air for a little over three hours, meaning they still had almost twelve hours left in their flight. Finally after another few minutes, Mac came back and sat back down, strapping his seatbelt back on; Jack gave his partner an odd look.

"What?" Mac asked when he noticed his partner's stare.

"The 'fasten seatbelts' sign is turned off," the older agent pointed out.

"And?"

"So why are you strapping yourself back in?"

"Do I have to have a reason? And do I have to explain that reason to you?"

"Okay, geez, calm down," Jack said, slightly shocked at how snappy Mac sounded.

"I'm sorry," Mac said after a moment. "I'm just worried, I guess."

"You got nothin' to be worried about, Mac," Jack said, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder. "You got good ol' Jack Dalton and Riley Davis as your backup!"

Jack knew the expression MacGyver's face had taken on, and he stopped the blond before he could speak. "And don't say that you're worried about us gettin' hurt. Neither of us had to come along, but we did. You ain't forcin' or draggin' us anywhere, so you can just stop that sorta thinkin' right now."

Mac shut his mouth; that had been exactly what his argument was, and while Jack's argument didn't stop him from worrying about his friends and the fact that they were coming with him on the rescue mission, he knew he wasn't going to dissuade either of them from coming with him the rest of the way once they touched down. Besides, he figured. They were already on the plane, and there wasn't much he could do about it now, so the blond simply looked at Jack and nodded. The older agent looked surprised, but a please smile plastered across his face as he realized he'd won an argument with MacGyver, or at least gotten his point across.

With that happy thought, Jack asked, "So are you gonna finish telling your story?"

"Right," Mac said, straightening in his chair slightly and turning to face his partner. "So I'd passed out right in front of the teenage boy, and when I woke up, I had no idea where I was."

0-0-0

Four Years Ago

Mac heard voices above him, speaking a language he didn't understand. He kept his eyes closed, deciding to try and figure out as much as he could before alerting whoever was around him that he was awake.

There was a woman's voice, along with a voice that he kind of recognized. After a moment, he realized the second voice was that of the teenager from the river bank.

Still unsure of where he was, but hoping he could trust whoever these people were, Mac opened his eyes slowly, though the room he was in wasn't very brightly lit, so it didn't take his eyes very long to adjust. The two people had their backs turned to him, and MacGyver took the opportunity to look around and visually explore his surroundings. He realized that his vest had been removed, leaving him in his black shirt and black cargo pants. His pack took a minute to locate, but he finally spotted it in a corner.

After looking at his surroundings, Mac took stock of his body; his ribs were definitely bruised, but he didn't think any of them were broken or cracked, which was a miracle. His ankle had a homemade splint wrapped around it to keep it steady, and while his shoulder still felt like it was on fire, he could tell that someone had placed a bandage over the wound.

Finally, Mac decided to try and sit up, though his body was extremely sore, and he let out an involuntary groan as he moved, alerting the two strangers to the fact that he was awake. The woman, who looked like she could the boy's mother, grabbed a poker from the fireplace and pointed it at the American, speaking extremely fast at him in a foreign language. Mac couldn't understand what she was saying, but he figured that the gist of it was that she wanted him to stay where he was, so he slowly put his hands up and laid back against the wall the bed was next to, grimacing as his shoulder protested at the applied pressure.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Mac tried assuring the scared woman. She tilted her head as he spoke. "Do you speak any English?" he asked.

After a few seconds, the woman spoke. "You are American?" Her accent was definitely Middle Eastern, but MacGyver internally sighed in relief as he realized she did speak English, at least enough to hopefully understand him.

"Yes," he confirmed. "I promise, I'm not going to hurt you," he said again.

"What are you doing here?" the woman asked.

MacGyver wasn't sure how to answer; the mission he was on was secret, but he had a feeling that this woman wasn't going to buy a lie. "My name is MacGyver, and I'm with the U.S. military," he finally admitted.

"What are you doing out here?" the woman asked again, placing more emphasis on the last two words to show she wanted to know why he was in their particular area.

"I...I can't tell you," MacGyver replied apologetically. "I can promise you though that I mean no harm." The woman looked skeptical, but her lack of impaling Mac caused the blond hope that she believed him, at least a little bit. "Can I...can I ask where I am?"

After considering the blond critically for a moment, the woman replied, though she was somewhat hesitant. "You are in the village of Ak Toba." She seemed to take MacGyver for his word that he wasn't going to hurt them, because she continued speaking. "My name is Aadela, and this is my nephew, Atar. He is the one who brought you here," Aadela added, shooting her nephew an exasperated but caring look. Mac looked over at Atar and gave him a small smile.

"Thanks, bud. And hey, sorry for scaring you," he added. Atar didn't say anything, but he did nod and give MacGyver a small smile in return. The blond looked back to Aadela.

"I'm sorry for causing such an imposition," he said sincerely. "I'll get out of your hair now," he continued, moving slowly to stand up, not wanting to startle the woman into skewering him with the poker still pointed at him. While Aadela didn't move from her position, she still refrained from impaling him, so Mac took that as a win, and as permission to continue moving.

He put a bit of weight on his injured ankle, testing to see how much it could take; while it did throb, it supported at least part of his weight, and he figured it would have to do until he could get back to base.

"Wait," Aadela said as he began limping forward. She lowered the poker slightly, though Mac could tell she was ready to raise it at a moment's notice. "Your shoulder is not good," she said.

"I know," Mac replied, trying not to make his reply sound too "duh"ish. "But you bandaged it, and that should be fine until I get back to my base.

"No," Aadela insisted. "The bullet is still in you. I only cleaned the blood away from your wound before wrapping it," she explained. Mac looked down at his chest and realized that there was indeed no exit wound for the bullet. "If that bullet moves around much more, it may do serious damage," the woman continued.

Mac wanted to tell her that he'd be fine, that he'd make it back to base okay, but she was right. If the bullet moved while it was still inside him, it could get pushed further away from the opening, requiring a more extensive surgery to get it out, and he also ran the risk of it nicking an artery.

"Sit down," Aadela instructed, motioning to a chair.

"Hold on," Mac said, making his way to his pack and fishing around for his radio. Or what was left of his radio. The small device was in about half a dozen different pieces, and Mac let out a frustrated sigh. So much for calling for help.

"You wouldn't happen to have a radio, would you?" he asked.

"No." Aadela shook her head. "I am sorry."

"It's okay," Mac replied. "I think I can build one, I just need a few things to do that…" He began wandering around, trying to see if he could use anything to make a radio.

"Mr. MacGyver," Aadela said. When the blond looked back at her, she raised her eyebrows at him. "I need to get that bullet out now," she reminded him.

"Are you...can you do that?" Mac asked, slightly nervous about having the bullet removed by someone untrained.

"Most, if not all women in villages like these have learned how to perform small surgeries like this for when the men come back wounded. We do not have much money for doctors in the big cities, nor a way to get there in enough time. I can do it," she assured him.

MacGyver still felt a bit of skepticism, but he finally limped over to the chair Aadela was motioning for him to sit in. He swung one leg over the chair and sat down, leaning on the back rest while his hostess began removing her makeshift bandages from his shoulder. Mac couldn't stop the hiss that escaped his lips as the bandage pulled on some of the dried blood stuck to his skin, pulling at the wound. Aadela muttered an apology, but Mac simply shook his head.

"Not your fault," he assured her, though his voice was strained.

"Here," Aadela said after a few more moments. MacGyver turned his head towards her and saw her holding out a piece of wood. "Bite down," she instructed as he took it. Mac nodded in understanding and stuck the piece of wood between his teeth, clamping down on it as he prepared for the pain.

He heard Aadela say her nephew's name, and then the pounding of feet as the boy went somewhere. Soon Mac heard Atar coming back, and the sloshing sound informed Mac that the boy had been sent to get water.

The sharp smell of alcohol soon entered Mac's nose, and he briefly heard Aadela say, "This is going to hurt," before she poured something on his wound. The alcohol stung the wound, but it was a moment later, when Aadela began going after the bullet that the pain really hit the EOD specialist. Mac heard the wood splinter as he bit down with everything he had; he felt like the woman was digging around for hours, but it was really only a few minutes until she successfully extracted the bullet. She brought it around and showed it to the young blond, who stared at it blearily.

"It is whole," she informed him. "There are no broken pieces from what I can see."

"'S good," Mac muttered around the wood. He reached up and went to take the wood out of his mouth, but Aadela put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Wait," she said. "The wound is deep, and now the bullet is gone, it won't stop bleeding on its own; it needs to be cauterized."

Aadela began speaking rapidly in Arabic at her nephew once again as Mac tried to get off the chair, insisting that he could hold out until he got back to base.

"Mr. MacGyver, please," Aadela said, switching back to English as she moved to stand in front of him. "Let me help you; I do not think you are a bad man, but you will be a very sick man if we do not get that wound cleaned and cauterized now." Her voice was firm, and though Mac wanted to argue with her, he couldn't. He thought about trying to find a way to create something to help with the procedure, but his mind was so fuzzy from the pain that he figured he'd probably do more harm than good if he tried, so he just sat back down meekly. "Here," Aadela said, handing a rag to Mac. "Press this against your wound as hard as you can while Atar and I gather the rest of the supplies."

MacGyver did as she instructed, though the wound was in an awkward place for him to reach, and it was painful as the blond tried to keep a steady pressure on the wound. It took a few minutes for Atar and his aunt to gather everything together that was needed, but finally the woman was ready.

"Wait, wait," Mac stopped Aadela before she could begin cauterizing his wound, pulling the wood out of his mouth. "I think it would be best if you restrained me," he explained as she looked at him with confusion. Her confusion turned to understanding, and Mac continued. "In my pack, there should be a roll of duct tape," he explained.

"Duck tape?" Aadela asked curiously.

"It's uh, silvery sticky stuff; thick tape," Mac explained. Aadela spoke to Atar in Arabic, and the teenager hurried over to the American's bag. He began rifling through it and finally brought out the roll of duct tape that MacGyver always kept on him, and Aadela got a look of understanding in her eyes.

"Ah, sharit lasiq," she translated for Mac. The blond nodded interestedly, committing the translation to memory. Atar brought the tape over to his aunt, and she proceeded to wrap a layer around Mac's wrists to make sure that he didn't jerk away and injure himself or anyone else when the hot metal touched his skin. When the American was secure, Aadela stood in front of him.

"Are you ready?" she asked, her eyes wide and sympathetic. Mac took in a deep breath and responded,

"No, but you're right. This can't wait."

Aadela nodded at the blond's permission, and she walked behind him again, but not before offering another piece of wood to her patient once more. Mac opened his mouth and bit down on the wood once again, and he braced himself for the pain he knew was coming.

The only thing that seemed to last longer than any pain Mac had endured so far was the waiting, the anticipation for the pain that he knew was coming; it felt like an eternity before he finally heard Aadela walk over, and he could smell the scent of hot metal behind him. The woman didn't give him a warning before letting the metal descend, which in hindsight, Mac was actually somewhat grateful for. However, the moment the metal touched his skin, the only thing going through the American's head was a dizzying array of colors; the pain was so much that after a few seconds, the blond's head drooped forward on the chair's back, and he was once again unconscious.

Aadela bit her lip as she watched the young American slump forward, but she didn't stop applying the heat until she was sure the wound was closed. As soon as she was finished though, she motioned for her nephew to help her clean around the wound, and then they moved their new houseguest back onto the bed. As he was laid down, the older woman reached out and removed the wood from MacGyver's mouth, noticing that it had been bitten nearly in three pieces. She felt terrible for the pain she'd just put the young man through, but she kept assuring herself that it had to be done.

Once she made sure the young man was taken care of, she and her nephew went about the house, doing their everyday chores while they waited for the newcomer to wake up once more.

0-0-0

Present Time

"That's where you learned the Arabic word for duct tape?" Jack asked somewhat incredulously. "Why am I surprised?"

"What?" Mac held his hands out in an innocent gesture. "You never know when you're going to be out of country and in need of good old duct tape! It's saved my life more times than I can count," he added.

"Not as many times as me," Jack muttered under his breath, pretending to pout. Mac chuckled and rolled his eyes at his partner's dramatic expression.

"You're right, you've definitely saved me more times than duct tape, at least while we've worked together," Mac agreed, stoking his partner's ego slightly. Jack looked a little offended at the last part of Mac's sentence, but then Mac reminded him, "I have been using duct tape to get both in and out of trouble since I was two."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Jack said, waving off his partner's response, though Mac knew Jack wasn't actually mad or upset. "So then what? The bomber dude caught up with you?"

"Yeah," Mac confirmed. "Ak Toba was the only town close to that stream Atar found me at, which is where I'm assuming he figured I'd go, so he just followed his instincts and found the village."

"Okay, that's something else," Jack interjected. "I don't even know who he is."

"His name is Didar Habib," Mac answered. "He was a small-time terrorist, mainly focusing on small things like car bombs and destroying foot bridges, but he was gearing up to hit a large city. That was what the stuff I found and destroyed was for. After we caught him, he was taken to an American prison in Afghanistan, but apparently he managed to get away," Mac added in a slightly darker tone, one that Jack wasn't used to hearing.

"Whoa, you caught him? Spoiler alert," Jack teased, trying to lighten his partner's mood even just a little bit.

"Jack, my entire being here is a spoiler alert, seeing as how if he'd caught me, he would have killed me," Mac pointed out, though he knew that his partner was simply trying to lighten the mood somewhat, and Mac appreciated it. "Anyway, yeah. I woke up and no one was around, so I decided to get up and see what I could find."

Okay, what are your thoughts?