Sorry about the long wait ya'll, but my muse abandoned me, and I got bogged down with homework. Everything's been busy, and I have had to put this on the backburners for a bit, but I'm stilll working on it; the updates will just be a tad bit slower.

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They were currently cruising at a high altitude of 30,000 feet when something occurred to Mac.

"Hey Jack…"

"Yeah?"

"Are you AWOL? I mean, you didn't tell your CO where you were going did you?"

There was a slight pause as Jack reflected on what happened the last few days. 'Jeeze it seems like so long ago.'

"No."

Mac was a bit taken back at the ramifications. He wasn't military but that doesn't mean he didn't know how they worked.

"Isn't that bad? Can't you get court-martialed or something?"

"To be honest, I hadn't thought about it. They probably just think I've been kidnapped, and then I wouldn't be trialed. I would just show up and say 'Hey I escaped, I'm back' and life would go on like normal." He really hadn't considered what Hammond and SG-1 might be going through. He had been more concerned with Mac. Now he felt a little bit guilty, he should have done something to tell them he was fine and they didn't have to start a search. Maybe he should have left a note?

"You would let them believe you were in danger?" Mac sputtered, "Jack! You've told me about your 'team', I know that you care a lot about them. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe they might be worried about you!" Now Mac was angry, he knew Jack wasn't dumb, but sometimes he could be really dense!

"Would you rather me have told them about us? What would I say? 'Hey Daniel, Carter, but I can't come to work today because I've got to save my twin brother that I've kept secret from you from an egotistical senator who wants him dead'! I had to make a choice, and if I had to disappear for a few days to save your butt, you damn well know I would!"

All of MacGyver's anger fled when he heard the anguish in his brother's voice. He knew that right about now, some serious guilt would be settling in. It was up to him to try and find a way to resolve the situation, otherwise it would just fester. There was no way Jack would ever be able to do anything that had to deal with emotions.

Silence reigned in the small, cramped cockpit.

"I bet they're looking for you." Mac heard a sigh from the front seat.

"I know. I know they're looking for me."

Another pause.

"Maybe you can convince them to stop. Your CO…Hammond?…sounds like a reasonable guy. He'll probably let ya off the hook if you explain things to him."

"You mean if I tell him." Jack turned his head to stare out at the clouds he passing, he always got a calm feeling when he flew, that is, when people weren't trying to shoot him down, and considered what Mac had said.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Major General George Hammond sat at his desk staring out into space. His second-in-command disappeared three, he looked at his watch, four days ago. Then, out of the blue yesterday he was checked into a hospital in Los Angeles, California, of all places; but before his team shows up, he disappears again, being led out of the hospital by a Mr. MacGyver, identified by a Detective Murphy aiding SG-1. 'What in Sam Hill is going on?' he thought.

He sighed a long soul cleansing sigh and once more looked at the file in front of him. As soon as he had heard of this new person he had ordered a background check to try to find answers, but unfortunately it left him more unsettled. There clipped onto the manila folder with a paperclip was a picture. A picture of someone he would have sworn was his missing officer. But it wasn't, unless Jack O'Neill was MacGyver…a past identity? Alias? Then who was the other man on the videotape? There was no way that they could be the same person. So what then? Brothers…no, twins? There was no mention of a twin brother in O'Neill's file or records, but it wouldn't have been the first time the man has lied in an official report. Hell, even he himself had omitted certain…happenings…from his reports. But to keep something like this a secret…

He had Walter run a detailed check on MacGyver, and he came up with no trace of a link between the two whatsoever, so they must have been extremely thorough in deleting evidence.

He just couldn't get his head around it. Men ransacked the colonel's house and the first thing he did is fly to LA to visit his brother? Why? What happened to make the colonel completely forget about his duty to his country, his planet?

There was a knock on the door and he barely had time to say, "Enter" before Sgt. Walter Davis swung it open. According to his body language, he clearly would have done it with or without answer from the General. His eyes were wide with surprise, relief, and curiosity.

"Sir, Colonel O'Neill is asking to speak to you on line two." Ah, that would explain the surprise, since he now felt it as well. He muttered his thanks to the non-com and hurriedly picked up the phone,

"Colonel?"

"Sir…" Jack had no idea what to say, he hadn't really planned that far.

"Where are you?" Hammond had about a million questions floating around in his bald head, but that was the first one that slipped out.

"D.C. sir," They had gotten in the rental that Jack's friend had supplied and were currently in a small area just outside of DC appropriately named Crystal City for all the glass office buildings, but he wasn't going to pinpoint his exact location over the phone.

"And may I ask why?"

Jack knew that it was an order thinly masked by a request.

"It's personal sir. I called to tell you that I'm okay; you don't need to authorize a rescue/strike force to come get me. I did this on my own free will…. sir." All he needed right now was for Hammond to send his team. "General…George, I've got a bunch of leave piled up. I'm just taking a few days, maybe more." He sounded tired and Hammond knew that there was no way he could deny him, so he decided instead to try and get as many answers as he could from his officer.

"Who's MacGyver, Jack?"

As he heard his brother's name uttered by his CO, he felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. His most well kept secret was now known, out in the open, blowing in the wind, plastered on billboards, and there was no way he could shove it back down under the rug. His knees felt weak as if they would buckle under him at any minute, leaving him in an ungainly heap on the floor.

Mac watched as his brother visibly blanched. His eyes, full of fear, gazed at Mac before they were quickly diverted elsewhere, namely the floor.

He swallowed hard before he answered,

"Off the record," he whispered into the receiver.

"Of course son,"

If he told him, there would be absolutely no going back. It's not that he didn't trust Hammond, he trusted him with his life, it was that if one person knew, it greatly increased the chances of someone else knowing. He had already told Pete Thornton. Two in as many days was a lot, seeing as they were (roughly) the only ones who knew for over thirty years.

"MacGyver…Mac," he wasn't really sure how to tell him so he uncharacteristically just blurted it out, "Mac'smytwinbrother."

Oh.

First of all, that explained to Mac why he had seen a rare emotion in his brother's eyes. They were both very protective of each other, and regretted having to disclose any information that could possibly bring harm to the other.

Second of all, it explained to General Hammond why he had a picture of a man that looked just like O'Neill, except a tad younger and with slightly longer hair.

"There is no record of a living relative nor a next of kin in any of your files,"

"I know sir. We changed them. General," he sighed, "please don't tell anyone. We've kept this a secret for a long time, and we would really like for it to remain that-"

"Jack!" Mac interrupted with a warning tone in his voice.

The older sibling turned and spotted where Mac was pointing. Across the street, a dark SUV with government plates pulled up to the curb while at another corner another conspicuously government vehicle pulled up.

Jack abruptly hung up with a quick,"Got to go sir,"

"Who the hell is it Mac?"

"I don't know, they just showed up,"

Possible guesses of their identities were running through both their minds. NID, Trust, more contract killers, people sent by Kinsey, any number of people. Jack left the phone booth, with Mac following, and headed into the nearest door he came to, which happened to be an old antique shop.

The bell jingled as they entered, and Mac looked over his shoulder through a large picture window, keeping an eye on the vehicles while Jack occupied himself with the owner who came to greet them.

"Hello, is there anything that I can do to help you?"

"You're doing it already, we're just having a look around," strange how some things could have double meanings.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The General looked at the phone in his hand in shock of the brusqueness in which Colonel O'Neill had cut him off. The only reason why he would do that was if he suddenly became preoccupied and had to deal with an unexpected situation. 'Screw leaving him alone,' he thought as he picked up the telephone and called the only people he knew that O'Neill would have to let help him: SG-1. After all, the Colonel hadn't finished his request, and he hadn't agreed to anything besides it being off the record.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Carter swiped her key card through an electric sensor that flashed a green light and opened the door into the adjoining hotel rooms that SG-1, Detective Kate Murphy, and Peter Thornton were using as a temporary HQ for the search for two missing men. A search that was about to take them back across the country. Daniel and Pete looked up at her entrance.

"Hey Sam, any luck?"

"Yes and no. The General called me with some knew info,"

"General Hammond? What'd he say?" Daniel was sitting against the headboard on one of the beds and looked up from where he currently had his nose in a big book with a worn leather cover. Pete had files spread across the only desk in the room; he had been working on personal stuff for The Foundation. Teal'c was in the next room over, meditating, while Murphy was off speaking to whomever she could get a hold of, searching for any clues to her friend's location.

"Apparently Colonel O'Neill called him a short while ago,"

"Really?" Both Daniel and Pete briefly turned they heads towards each other, each having asked the question at the same time, disbelief coloring their words. "Where was he? Is he okay?" Daniel added, returning his questioning gaze to the Major.

"He says he's with Mr. MacGyver in DC."

'What is he doing in DC?' Daniel thought, 'he hates DC: too many politicians.'

"DC?" This time Pete stood up, things just kept getting weirder and weirder, "Mac and I just came back from DC."

"Yeah? What for?"

"We were investigating a senator who was believed to be dealing dirty." Pete caught the looks that Daniel and Sam exchanged, "What?"

"Could you by any chance tell us which senator?" Sam asked politely, a knot forming in her gut. Sure, there were many corrupt senators, it was POLITICS, but for some reason she couldn't explain, she knew who it was. So did Daniel.

'Oh what the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound. It'll be all over the papers in a week or so anyway, they might as well know now if it helps those two misfits somehow.' "Senator Kinsey. Mac and I had been trailing him for about a week. In fact, we just got back a couple days ago." And man what a long couple of days it had been.

"Damn!"

"I believe that it is an institution to teach young children that O'Neill and MacGyver have journeyed to the Washington District of Colombia to…go after…Senator Kinsey."

Pete and Carter stared at Teal'c, who had just appeared at the door joining the two rooms, trying to decipher what exactly it was that he had just said, but Daniel got it way before they did.

"It's elementary Teal'c, and have you been reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?"

"Indeed," He gave a tiny bow of his head in the affirmative.

"Riiiight…anyway, I think he may be right. It seems like something Jack would do, but why?"

"Mac and Jack are very…close," Pete answered cryptically, "It could be that they figured out who it was that had ordered their kidnapping."

"Do you think that MacGyver is there as well?" Sam asked Pete.

"Without a doubt! Where one is, you're sure to find the other."

"So we go to DC then?" This from Daniel, he couldn't believe at the way Jack seemed to be hopping across the continent. He silently hoped that when they got there, he wouldn't have changed locations again.

"Looks like it," Sam replied.

"What do we do when we get there?"

"Find Kinsey," What else could they do?

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Sorry guys, but it might be a little bit till the next one. I know it seems like I keep putting off Mac & SG-1's meeting, but I have the perfect moment in mind, don't worry, it'll happen, soon. R & R people! thanks to all you loyal readers out there for supporting me through your reviews.