Four Years Ago

Once again, MacGyver woke up after passing out due to his injuries, though this time when he woke up, he didn't hear anyone around him. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sun outside was at what looked like high noon, or right after, and Mac realized just how long he'd been out. Pena was going to be livid at the young man for not having made contact or returned to base, but Mac figured that he would be able to explain his way out of too harsh a punishment.

Mac looked around the house and confirmed that there was no one in the small house with him, but he noticed that his arm had been secured in a sling to prevent him from moving his shoulder. The young man began to sit up slowly, so as to avoid jostling any wounds; his shoulder throbbed, but it wasn't nearly as painful as it had been when the bullet was still inside and the wound was open, exposed to sand, dust, and everything in the air.

When he was finally in an upright position, MacGyver began to get up off the bed, testing his weight on his injured ankle. He was pleased to find that his ankle could take a lot more of his weight than it had the night before, though it was still obviously injured. When he was finally back on his feet, he took a few experimental steps. He still had a limp, but the pain was minimal compared to what it had been before, and Mac knew that he'd be able to function just fine. Finally, Mac began to try and figure out where his hostess and her nephew had gone.

Voices sounded from what Mac figured was the backyard of the property, so he stepped out the door and wandered around to the back, where he found Aadela and Atar with their backs to him, taking care of their animals. A few chickens ran around MacGyver's feet, clucking at each other, and Mac tried to do his best not to trip over the animals, though it was difficult because they kept trying to get under his feet as he walked.

Aadela must have heard his footsteps, because she turned her head and looked directly at him, a warm smile spreading across her face. "You are awake," she observed as she stood up, holding a pail of goat milk.

"I am," Mac agreed.

Aadela turned to her nephew and spoke to him in Arabic, holding the pail out to him. The boy took it obediently and went back towards the house with his pail. Aadela turned back to her houseguest after Atar relieved her of the pail. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she brushed her hands across her clothes, drying them off.

"Better," Mac replied. It was true; he still felt like he'd been hit by a vehicle, but now it hurt more like he'd been hit by a regular sized car instead of feeling like he'd been crushed by an eighteen-wheeler semi.

"I am glad." Aadela smiled at MacGyver, who returned the expression, but before they could continue their conversation, a cry from the house drew their attention. They both looked over and saw Atar running at them, no longer carrying the pail of milk. Aadela hurried over and met him halfway, grabbing her nephew as they met. She cupped his face in her hands as she spoke to him, trying to figure out what was wrong. The boy babbled, but MacGyver didn't know any more Arabic than he had the night before, so he understood nothing of what the boy was saying. Atar kept gesturing back towards the house though, so Mac decided to go see what had gotten the boy so worked up.

MacGyver didn't even have to go inside the house to figure out why Atar was so freaked out. The blond heard screams and shouts, so when he reached the actual structure, he didn't go inside; he just inched along the side of the building until he could see around the corner. The other village members were screaming and running away as a group of men ransacked all the houses in the village. Another man stood back, watching, and Mac knew without a doubt that he was the man in charge. Mac also knew exactly what, or who the invaders were looking for: him.

The blond turned around, coming face to face with Aadela. Her expression was one of panic and fear; she obviously knew what the intruders were there for as well, and for a moment, MacGyver wondered if she was going to yell and draw attention to him. However, before Mac could do anything, the woman lunged forward and grabbed Mac by his good arm and pulled him out of sight, back into the house. Atar was already inside, watching the ongoing events through the slit in the curtains.

"Who are those men?" Aadela asked MacGyver. Her eyes were hard, but Mac could still see the fear underneath her tough expression, and he wished he could tell her better news.

"I don't know," he admitted. "It's the truth. I was sent on a mission by the military, and I'm pretty sure that this is the man that mission was against." The two of them stared at each other for a moment, the sound of the raid still going on outside. "I can help you," Mac continued, knowing he had to do something to get the men away from the village and the small family who rescued him.

"How?"

"I need two things. First, I need to call for backup."

"Your radio is broken," Aadela reminded him.

"I know, but I think you have some things here that can help me fix that, at least well enough to get a message out to my team."

"Alright," Aadela finally agreed after a moment of consideration, still unsure, but willing to help the strange American her nephew had brought in. "What is the second thing?"

Mac felt the same familiar feeling that he got whenever he was about to do something crazy rise up in his chest, but he felt more confident about this plan than he did about the majority of the other crazy schemes he'd come up with. "Do you have any cayenne pepper and vinegar?"

0-0-0

Present Time

MacGyver's story was once again interrupted, this time by a flight attendant bringing the meals they'd ordered. Mac hadn't realized how hungry he was until he smelled the food, and his stomach reminded him it had been hours since he'd eaten last; his worry over Atar had sort of dominated everything else.

While Mac and Jack were eating, Riley made her way up to their seats, stealing a bit of Jack's food, against his protests. After chewing and swallowing the pilfered food, she asked, "So do we have a gameplan for when we touch down?"

Mac checked his watch. "We've still got a good chunk of time before the plane lands, and once we do touch down, it'll have been twenty-seven hours since the video was sent out. That gives us nine hours to find Atar."

"Atar?" Riley asked. Mac had forgotten that she hadn't been there for the story he'd been telling Jack, so he gave her the watered down version to catch her up. "Got it," she said. "So the person that this Habib has is Atar, the kid who rescued you after you'd been shot?"

"Right," Mac confirmed.

"What about Aadela?"

Mac had been having the same thoughts; there hadn't been any mention of the woman in Habib's video, and the blond was hoping and praying that Atar's aunt hadn't been harmed. "I don't know," he confessed. Jack could see his partner's brain whirring, and he guessed what he was thinking about.

"Hey," the older agent said, clapping a hand on the blond's shoulder. "It'll be good; we'll find Aadela and we'll get Atar back safe and sound," he promised. MacGyver nodded, but Jack could tell that his assurances hadn't stopped his partner's worrying in the slightest.

"Anyway," Mac continued, ignoring past the sympathetic looks his friends were giving him. "It's about a four hour drive from the airport to Ak Toba. Once we reach the village, we'll only have about five hours to come up with and execute a plan, give or take a few minutes."

"You think Habib is gonna be that punctual with his deadline?" Jack asked. Mac gave his partner a level stare.

"The man works with bombs; timing is kinda critical in that line of work," the blond pointed out.

"Fair enough," Jack muttered, picking up his sandwich and taking a huge bite out of it. "So whaddya wanna do when we get to October?"

"Octo-it's Ak Toba, Jack," Mac corrected, rolling his eyes at his partner's mispronunciation. Only Jack Dalton, Mac thought to himself in amusement.

"Eh, potato potahto." Jack waved his hand dismissively, though he could see the humorous look in his partner's eyes. "Do we have a plan?"

"In the video, Habib said to come to the place where I ruined his life. I can only assume that means the building where I burned all the explosive materials."

"So we go there, we find out where he's keeping Atar and get the kid out, kicking some serious bad guy butt while we're there," Jack proposed.

"I don't know if it's going to be that simple, Jack," MacGyver argued. "Believe me, I want it to be, but something just isn't sitting right with me about this. He's too confident."

"Which makes it perfect for us," Jack argued. "When bad guys get cocky, they get sloppy, and when they get sloppy, they're just too easy to take down!"

"I didn't have a lot of interactions with this guy," Mac admitted. "It's possible that he could just be overconfident and easy to take down, but I'd still rather have some sort of plan in place."

"Okay," Jack agreed. "Riley here can get us access to the cameras on the compound, can't you, Ri?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard," the hacker confirmed.

"Perfect. See, Riley can get us eyes and ears in there, and then it's just a matter of getting in and getting the kid out. Easy peasy. Besides, if things go wrong, you're the best improviser I know," Jack added. "If I was in the kid's shoes, there wouldn't be anyone else I'd rather have coming for me." The older agent's voice was sincere, and Mac smiled gratefully at his partner. His stomach rumbled again, and Mac finally decided to take a bite of his food. There was a vacant seat next to Jack, so Riley plopped herself down next to the other two agents, deciding to pass the duration of their flight with her friends.

Once they were finished eating and the flight attendant had taken their trash away, Jack prodded Mac in the arm. "So you were telling us how you were about to beat Habib and his men back when they were invading the village?"

"Right. So I was able to build a radio with some things I found around the house, and once that was done, I tried to make something to let the the newcomers know that they were unwelcome, but I wasn't fast enough."

Hey guys! I'm sorry it took a few extra days to get this chapter up, and I'm sorry that it was a shorter chapter this time! The start of the new year has been kinda crazy, but I'm good now, meaning hopefully chapters should be coming every three-ish days now! :D

Anyway, what did you guys think? There were some parts of the chapter that I just didn't know what to do with, so if you guys can think of ways to edit the rough parts, let me know :) Once again, I welcome constructive criticism, but flames are ignored.