AUSTIN

TEXAS

(THEY'RE DEFINITELY HELPING TO KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD)

'Brother, this is the worst idea you have ever had!'

Jack cursed as he narrowly avoided over-balancing and falling off his unicycle, pulling the itchy, rainbow afro off his head and tossing it onto the windscreen of the car being driven by one of the bad guy's goons that was in hot pursuit of the partners, before pulling the gun from the waistband of his poofy clown pants and shooting out the tires.

Meanwhile, Mac, also dressed as a clown, complete with the exaggerated white-and-red makeup, and riding a unicycle (much better than Jack – it wasn't his first time on one, though he and Bozer had sworn to never, ever tell that story), tossed something (it appeared to be based on one of those really long balloons for balloon animals and his foam red nose) at the axel of the front wheel of the motorbike being ridden by another goon, causing the man to crash out, taking out another of the motorcycle-riding goons chasing them.

'Yeah, it's definitely up there…'

It is, however, definitely not the worst idea I've ever had.

The Football Field Incident might just take that cake. Or the Incident that got me kicked out of the Boy Scouts.

Or maybe even Cairo.

But if I don't think of something soon…well, this could start moving up the list.

Mac looked up and ahead, and a half-formed idea crystallized out of his brain.

'Jack, left here!'

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'I can't believe there aren't any pics!' Bozer, aghast, turned to Riley (who'd been in Austin, albeit in the van, with Mac and Jack, while Bozer had been working on a prosthesis for Agent Torres from the Edwards team back at the Phoenix), spreading his hands out. 'Come on, Riley, I thought we had each other's backs!'

Riley shook her head, but raised her hands anyway in a sort-of apology.

'I'll remember next time, Bozer. Promise.'

Jack, meanwhile, shot Mac a look.

'But it ain't gonna happen again, is it, brother?'

Mac's expression grew very strange, as if he was halfway between promising that it wouldn't (it'd been highly undignified and really one of his worst ideas ever) and being pedantic about the fact that he couldn't exactly promise that.

At that moment, the four of them walked into the war room, which was already occupied by Matty and Leanna, who smiled and waved at Bozer, mouthing surprise!

It was definitely a surprise.

As far as he knew, Leanna was supposed to be in Detroit, on a mission to…well, he actually had no idea. But he did know that she was meant to be in Detroit and wasn't going to be back for at least another three days.

But of course Bozer was delighted to see his baby three whole days earlier (at least!), particularly since it looked like she was going to be working this mission, whatever it was, with them.

Matty turned and tapped the screen, as Bozer moved to stand next to Leanna, while Mac reached for a paperclip from the bowl on the table.

On the screen, an image of a grey-haired man with a very charismatic smile in a smart suit appeared.

'Michigan Senator Marcus Hicks was attacked in Detroit by an unknown assailant or assailants in a failed assassination attempt seven hours ago.'

Leanna spoke up, tapping the screen, bringing up a video of an exploding vehicle in a motorcade.

'The explosion took out his entire security detail.'

Matty continued.

'The Senator is currently in a secure location, but he has several engagements over the next couple of days that he refuses to cancel.' The look on her face suggested that Matty had tried to convince him (as persuasively as she could, given that he was a US Senator, and there were lines she couldn't cross), but he'd stubbornly dug in. Mac, fiddling with his paperclip without looking at it, adopted a sardonic expression. From what he knew of Senator Hicks, the man was not open to changing his mind, at all, once it was made up. Even in the face of common sense and evidence. 'Because of the fact that a bomb was planted under one of the Senator's vehicles, there are suspicions that it might have been an inside job. There's no time to vet a new security detail, so Mac, Jack, you're up. You'll be wheels up in twenty.' Mac and Jack nodded seriously, Mac tossing a paperclip down on the table shaped like the General Motors logo. 'Riley, Bozer, Leanna, you and Jill will be working to identify the attackers and figure out their next move…'

Riley, Bozer and Leanna filed in to the conference room that Jill had set up in, the hacker walking a little way ahead of the couple to give them a bit of relative privacy as they talked, heads close together. She called out to her fellow analyst (even if Riley was very much a field analyst and Jill was decidedly not), as she walked up towards the big screen that Jill had set up.

'Start with assembling a list of all the people who have something against Senator Hicks?'

Jill spoke without looking up from her laptop.

'It's going to be a really long list.' She turned briefly as she reached down to grab a cord, shooting Leanna a wry grin. 'Just like your Sacramento case from last month.'

The blonde technical analyst obliviously returned to setting up, crouching down to plug in the cord and turning away from them, as Bozer turned to Leanna with a confused expression.

'Sacramento? You were in Sacramento last month?'

Leanna looked a bit uncomfortable, shifting her weight form one leg to the other. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Jill, who was still under the table.

'Yeah, and she seriously kicked butt. Those arms dealers didn't know what…' Jill trailed off as she got up and took in the expressions on everyone's faces. Leanna was still uncomfortable, Bozer looked a little hurt and Riley was pointedly not looking at the couple. '…But I don't think I should be telling you that, it's classified. Sort of. Somewhat.'

Riley was now shooting Jill a look. The blonde analyst, however, had already realized her mistake and was now looking very sheepish and apologetic and rather like she wanted the floor to swallow her up.

Leanna glanced over at her boyfriend, reaching out and putting a hand on his arm.

'It was just for about ten hours.' She let go of Bozer's arm and gestured to the screen, which now displayed a cloned copy of Senator Hick's emails. 'Jill, do we have access to his calls, texts and snail mail records too?'

'Uh…working on the snail mail, but calls and texts are go…'

SECURE LOCATION

SOMEWHERE IN DETROIT

'Senator Hicks, I'm Jack Dalton, ex-Delta, ex-CIA.' He gestured to Mac. 'This is Angus MacGyver, ex-MIT, ex-Army EOD.'

Mac nodded at the Senator, before speaking.

'Apologies for having to interfere with your schedule; we got here from LA as fast as we could.'

Senator Hicks looked very unimpressed and muttered just slightly too loud for it to have been only to himself.

'Great, half my protection detail's a barely-grown-up leftie Californian. I feel so much safer.'

That was said very sarcastically. Jack could feel his partner bristling.

(Sure, Jack knew that Mac disagreed with the Senator's politics – vehemently. Very vehemently.)

(But even if he didn't necessarily seem like it all the time, Mac was a professional.)

(And Mac was an idealist.)

(And above all that, Mac was a good man. The very best of men.)

Still, the blonde drew himself up to his full height and looked the Senator dead in the eye.

'True, you'd never get my vote, Senator. But you're a representative of the American people, elected by their will. I've sworn my life to defend this country, her Constitution, her people and their values.' Mac paused, holding the older man's gaze for a moment. 'I'd give my life for yours if necessary.'

With that, Mac turned away to start doing his thing with the safehouse's television. Jack winced internally at the inevitable expense report.

(Matty had been cagey about exactly who this safe house belonged to. Jack really hoped it wasn't the DEA. They had the worst expense report procedures.)

The Texan also watched the Senator closely.

Something that he would definitely call respect had flickered briefly across the man's face for a moment as Mac had made his dramatic declaration (which Jack really, really, really hoped would not come to pass, and would do everything he could to prevent it from being so).

It'd quickly flickered away, overcome by scepticism, cynicism, even just plain dislike.

Still, Jack hid a little smile.

He'd seen Mac win over countless doubters.

He had faith in their boy.

(Who wouldn't be won over? He was Mac.)

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'…Mormons in general, apparently, the congregations of over one hundred mosques, temples, churches and synagogues…'

Focused on her laptop, Jill reeled off a list of people that the Senator had apparently pissed off.

'…Pro-choice activists, pro-lifers…'

Bozer made a very confused face, and glanced at Riley, who'd spoken.

'How do you piss off both? Isn't that, like, contradictory?' Riley's expression seemed to show that most of her agreed with him about the absurdity of the situation, and just turned her laptop screen a little so that he could see the video on it. Bozer's face grew more scrunched-up. 'Oh, that's how. Really not a good way to convince people to your viewpoint, man.'

Leanna looked up from her laptop.

'Hundreds of scientists and science educators have signed an open letter opposing him, he's also pissed off anti-anti-vaxxers…'

'And gun control activists.'

'Several feminist organizations.'

'Economists.'

'Four large corporations.'

'Most of Silicon Valley.'

'Animal rights activists, several concerned mothers' groups…'

'Associations of doctors, nurses and paramedics…'

'And politicians from all sides.' Bozer turned his laptop around to show the three women. 'Seriously. He's united Democrats, Republicans and Greens.'

'The Free Palestine and BLM Movements have campaigned against him…'

'So have prisoners' rights advocates and death penalty abolitionists.'

Bozer shook his head.

'Seriously, it'd be easier to list the people who don't hate him.'

Leanna gave a wry little smile.

'Maybe we should tell Matty to pull Mac off his protection detail.'

(She couldn't imagine that he would be happy, having to protect a man who was anti-gun control, anti-science, anti-intellectual and very much pro-war, who preferred to use brute force, collateral be damned, rather than being clever and precise because the only acceptable collateral was none, who thought that criminals from murderers to rapists to drug dealers should be executed, rather than believing that no-one should die for their crimes, because an eye for an eye just made the whole world blind.)

(And she was right.)

(But she was also so very wrong.)

Leanna's joke fell very flat.

Jill shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Riley shot Leanna a look. And that hurt and little bit of anger flared in Bozer again, causing a corresponding flare of that tension between him and Leanna to rise again.

(Sure, he kinda got why Leanna didn't share much about her work with him. A lot of the stuff they did was actually classified, but he knew – because he worked for the exact same agency – that there were also plenty of things that she could share with him. Matty believed that they worked better with people they cared about. Matty also believed that they worked better when they didn't keep unnecessary secrets from their team, and he and Leanna were a team in more ways than one, even if her missions didn't often overlap with his.)

(She could definitely have told him that she'd been in Sacramento that day he couldn't reach her at all. Heck, she could have mentioned – without any details, if that made her feel more comfortable – that she'd kicked serious butt that day.)

(He'd have made her those crepes with strawberries and chocolate and hazelnut spread that she loved so much. They could've had had a celebration, because he was seriously proud of his amazing, super-badass, super-hot girlfriend.)

(That was probably why her joke, her little dig, not that she'd meant it that way, at his BFF sparked such a reaction.)

'Yeah, he disagrees with everything the Senator's got to say. But Mac won't let anything happen to him on his watch.'

With that, Bozer got up and headed towards the break room for some coffee. Leanna, looking very uncomfortable (though not as uncomfortable as poor Jill) and seemingly kicking herself internally, bit her lip, and glanced at her boyfriend's departing back, then back at Riley, as if she was hoping for some advice, a clue, a hint.

Riley (without complete certainty – she hadn't quite seen Bozer like this before, not even when he'd found out about Mac's – and by extension, hers and Jack's – secret double life) shook her head a little.

Something in her gut told her that it would not be good for Bozer or Leanna or their relationship for them to talk before they'd calmed down a little.

NRA-SPONSORED EVENT

DETROIT

Jack glanced at his partner with (barely) disguised concern as the two of them cased the room as the Senator prepared to give the keynote speech.

(Jack himself was, on balance, a fan of guns and the 2nd Amendment, even if he'd been shot at far more times than he'd like.)

(He had to fight fire with fire, after all. And besides, he was a military brat who'd grown up in Texas and his mom's pa had been a rancher, and he was a massive fan of Bruce Willis to boot.)

(But even he was a little uncomfortable with the firepower that was on sale to the general public here.)

(He wasn't convinced – not at all – that the general public should have access to assault rifles.)

(Assault rifles were good for only one thing. Unless you were Mac, in which case they were probably good for more than a dozen things that no-one else could think of and none of which involved shooting someone.)

(Jack believed in the right to bear arms. But he also believed that that great power came with a great responsibility.)

(The greater the power of the firearm, the greater the responsibility.)

(Most people, unfortunately, simply didn't have the willingness or the ability or the training to bear that much responsibility.)

If he was a little uncomfortable, he couldn't possibly imagine how uncomfortable Mac must be feeling.

(Mac was, to put it lightly, not a fan of guns beyond admiring their engineering.)

(He was a government agent who refused to carry, and before that, he'd been a solider who'd done the bare minimum with firearms that the Army would allow.)

(People shot at him all the time; Mac refused to shoot back.)

(He was a strong advocate of less-lethal technologies, and spent a significant portion of his time contributing to maintaining the Phoenix's cover as a think-tank improving said technologies, working to get them to the point where they really could be a practical replacement for lethal means.)

The blonde, to Jack's practiced eyes, definitely looked uncomfortable.

He looked definitively more uncomfortable as he passed a stand with a man dressed in some kind of furry mascot costume advertising AK-15s.

Still, Mac was silent and pulled his eyes away from the (admittedly rather horrifying, even in Jack's opinion) sight, continuing to scan the room for any threats to their primary.

Jack gave a little smile.

That was his boy.

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

'Guys, I've got something…'

Riley tapped a few keys on her laptop, and a webpage titled, simply, The Movement, appeared on the big screen.

There were several banners on the page, including a Stop Keystone one, a BLM one, a March for Our Lives one and a Free Palestine one.

Jill, who was now searching through the website on her own laptop using an algorithm she'd written to search for certain keywords, nodded in agreement.

'There's an entire thread devoted specifically to raging about Senator Hicks…'

Leanna, who was reading off the big screen, which now displayed said thread (which had a lot of very, very heavy criticism of the man – some quite rational, sensible and inevitable, given the firebrand Senator's controversial views, but a lot more that was simply insults or even threats), nodded, and indicated several names on the screen.

'These four users here, based on their comments, they fit the profile for taking this into the real world…'

Riley and Jill nodded.

'Tracking them down.'

NRA-SPONSORED EVENT

DETROIT

As the Senator held a private meeting with a senior NRA member (who also happened to be his brother-in-law) in a room whose door was currently being guarded by Jack and a security system built by Mac earlier, using bits of that hopefully-not-DEA-safehouse's TV, the blonde monitored the rest of the expo for any potential threats towards Senator Hicks.

As he walked along one of the rows of displays (faux) casually, he didn't see anything that could be a threat (as had been the case all day long), but he did see a bearded man of about Jack's age struggling with a broken table.

(It was one of those folding tables, and it seemed that the mechanism that unfolded and locked the legs had broken, and so, the table was very lopsided.)

Mac, without even really thinking about it, made his way over to the man swearing at the display table.

'Mind if I take a look?'

The man eyed him suspiciously, then incredulously for a moment, before coming to a decision and nodding.

'Knock yourself out, kid, the damn thing's just a piece of junk.'

Mac was already half-underneath the table, carefully examining the mechanism.

'Eh, I wouldn't bin it just yet.' He popped out slightly from under the table. 'Got a pen?'

Eighty-four seconds later, the table was fixed (using some parts salvaged from a pen advertising a gun shop downtown and a couple of paperclips from Mac's pocket), and the stall owner gave a rather impressed (albeit very surprised) nod, before glancing over at Mac and giving a slightly deeper, grateful nod, touching the brim of his Rick's Guns baseball cap briefly.

Mac nodded back and continued on his way.

I spend my life trying to help people.

Not just help the people I like or the people I agree with, but people.

No terms, no conditions, no fine print, as my grandfather put it.

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

There were four photos with names and locations underneath them on the flatscreen.

Shawn Kane, nineteen. An African-American college student from Detroit.

Jacob Holden, eighteen. Brunette, green eyes, from Indianapolis, getting his contractor license.

Adriana Chen, twenty, who sported a harsh undercut with electric-blue streaks and was a student at Northwestern.

And Ora Ramirez, sixteen, a high school student in Orange County, who really reminded Riley of her sixteen-year-old self, from the piercings to the way she looked at the camera to her hacking skills.

These were the four members of the so-called The Movement forum who fit the profile for taking their grievances to the real world.

They'd uncovered encrypted messages between the four of them that were pretty concrete evidence that they were behind the attack on the Senator.

The messages also told them two more things that they all really wished weren't so.

Firstly, the failed attack was, as they'd all suspected, not really a failure. It'd achieved its aim; taking out the Senator's security team. There was another attack on its way, the real one, but unfortunately, the four had taken even greater precautions with that and they hadn't been able to find any details, though they all knew it'd be soon.

(They'd alerted Mac and Jack, sent them everything they had, even if it wasn't all that much.)

Secondly, it seemed that Ora Ramirez, even though she was only sixteen, was the ringleader of the group of teenage terrorists.

Riley, Jill, Bozer and Leanna exchanged a glance.

They'd had to do a lot of things over their careers that they'd rather not, because of the demands of their job.

They accepted that.

But still, interrogating a teenage girl, breaking her to get necessary, life-saving intel…

ON-ROUTE TO A SHOPPING MALL

LA

As Bozer drove them towards the shopping mall where Jill and Riley had tracked Ora Ramirez to, Leanna stared out the window, the silence between them stretching thin and tense.

Eventually, Bozer, being Bozer, broke it.

'I'm sorry for overreacting earlier.'

Leanna glanced over at her boyfriend, her expression softening a little.

'I'm sorry too, I should have read the room.' Leanna paused, hesitating for a long moment. 'And…I'm sorry for not telling you anything about Sacramento.'

Her second apology didn't feel quite as genuine, quite as meant, as her first.

(Even though she and Bozer had been in spy school together, that'd only been three weeks. Leanna had been trained in a very different school of spying, one where rules were there for a reason, one where professionalism was vital, and keeping your lips sealed, keeping everything that was top secret or classified or compartmentalized so, was the most important thing of all.)

(Keeping in touch with Bozer was the most rebellious, most rule-breaking thing she'd ever done in her life.)

(It'd been worth it, every moment, every risk. He brought out a side of her that she hadn't let out for a very long time. It was just something about him.)

(But it was far out of her comfort zone.)

(Leanna believed that, despite her and Bozer's relationship, if it wasn't need-to-know for him, he didn't need to know. Because she knew it was important to him, because compromise was vital to any relationship, she gave that a little leeway, and told him a little more than she'd have if not for that relationship…but clearly, it wasn't enough for him.)

(But she didn't know if she could share any more. It didn't sit well with her.)

(The spy game was dark and dangerous and full of lies and webs and secrets. There were bright spots, innocent spots – rare as they were – like, it seemed, Bozer's team, Bozer's family…but Leanna knew they were the exception, not the rule.)

(You had to do things you didn't want to do. Things you weren't proud of, so you could do things you would be proud of, or things you had to do.)

(It was part of this life.)

(And Leanna had graduated spy school second in her class. She was made for it.)

Bozer pulled into the mall parking lot.

The air didn't feel quite cleared.

That tension between them still seemed to stretch.

The young couple pushed that aside, putting on their game faces.

They had a job to do.

SHOPPING MALL

LA

'Ora Ramirez?'

The teen girl looked up as Leanna and Bozer approached her, swore, and took off running.

As they gave chase, Bozer and Leanna shared a glance, then she went left and he went right, veering apart to cut her off.

Bozer pressed a finger to his earpiece as he ran.

'Riley…'

'Left at the Hot Topic, then right at the escalators…'

VA CENTRE

DETROIT

Mac and Jack stood just a few feet behind the Senator as he talked with several vets, shaking hands and listening to stories.

They were both on high alert, keeping an eye out for potential threats, especially the three teenagers whose pictures Riley had sent them less than an hour ago.

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

Leanna walked into the interrogation room that Ora Ramirez sat in, holding a file and a sealed, opaque evidence bag, as well as a bottle of water.

She sat down opposite the teenage girl, nudging the water bottle towards her.

Ora stared at it for a moment, then at Leanna, leaning back in her seat and pointedly not taking a drink.

Leanna was quiet for a moment, just looking at her, something sad, even uncomfortable in her eyes.

'I'm sorry, Ora, but your brother's in hospital.' That got a reaction out of the girl. A genuine one, fear and worry crossing her face. 'He was shot, accidentally, during a SWAT raid on your family's home. He's in surgery, they're working on him now-'

Ora stared at her, glared at her, and bit out a handful of words.

'I don't believe you. You're just trying to-'

Leanna, wordlessly, sadly, just pulled a bloodied woman's dress shirt, one that looked like it'd fit her perfectly, out of the evidence bag.

'I put pressure on the wound for ten minutes until EMTs got there.' The Latina girl swallowed, eyes wide, and Leanna leaned closer to her. 'Your brother's blood, Ora. I'm sorry, but…it's your fault.' Ora flinched. 'Your poor parents…' The teenager looked away, not able to meet the agent's eyes. Leanna's voice and expression softened. 'Help us, tell us everything, and we can give you a deal. They won't lose both of their kids for long…'

Ora stared at Leanna for a long, long moment, as if she was hoping that the woman would tell her that this was all some cruel trick, that something would cross her face, something cold and cruel and hard, that'd just hint that this was just an interrogation technique, that this wasn't real, but it didn't happen.

(Leanna was made for this. She was really, really good.)

The teenager glanced one last time at the bloodied shirt on the table, swallowed, looked down at her hands, and began to speak.

'We're…we're targeting the VA event…'

On the other side of the one-way glass, watching the interrogation, Bozer was tense, fists clenched, anger and pain and betrayal in equal parts in his eyes. Riley, busy transcribing all the intel that Leanna extracted to Mac and Jack, shot her friend a concerned glance.

'Bozer…'

He swallowed.

'I can't watch anymore.'

'You and I both know that in this game, there are no rules.'

'911, what's your emergency?'

'Please, we need help!'

'Congratulations. You got me to do something I haven't done since that day. Talk about Josh's death.'

'…But if this is the game, I don't think I want to play.'

Bozer turned away and walked out the door, though not before muttering something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like, not again.

Riley bit her lip, very concerned, as she kept typing up the intel for Mac and Jack.

Bozer hadn't been forged and hardened in fire in the way that Jack and Mac and Matty and Riley herself had been.

And he was so fundamentally good, so free of guile, innocent, a touch naive…

But there'd been something more in his eyes, in his posture, in his voice, Riley was sure. Very sure.

Something deeper, some terrible wound that'd never quite healed.

The hacker swallowed and pushed it aside for now.

She had to.

They had to stop Senator Hicks, a whole group of vets and Mac and Jack from being blown up.

So, making a mental note (in all caps and bold) to prod Bozer about it later, with some chocolate or a tub of ice-cream or some donuts, to listen if he was willing to talk, Riley focused back on her work.

A couple of minutes later, Leanna stepped out of the interrogation room, and with the door firmly closed behind her, she let her eyes close for a moment, taking a deep breath, then another.

Recovering her equilibrium.

She swallowed and looked down for a moment, sending up a very quick prayer for forgiveness, before looking up again.

She just so happened to make eye contact with Bozer, who was heading back into the observation room from the bathroom down the hall.

Pain, betrayal and anger were still very, very obvious in his eyes.

Leanna swallowed again and looked away, not able to make eye contact with her boyfriend.

That tension had grown, swollen, and felt like it filled the room now.

But they both pushed it aside, and stepped into the observation room together.

They had a job to do.

Everything else had to wait.

For now.

VA CENTRE

DETROIT

'Yeah, little late, Ri…'

Senator Hicks was standing on the podium, in the middle of a speech.

And around them, people were screaming and shaking and panicking, as a teenage boy (Holden) wearing an explosive vest, detonator in hand, flanked by a teen girl (Chen) and a boy (Kane), Kane pointing his weapon at the terrified audience, while Chen had her gun trained on Jack, who had his own weapon trained on Holden.

(The teenagers appeared to have been spooked, or had gotten antsy and couldn't wait. Apparently, the plan had been to launch their attack – they'd slipped in with the huge crowd of people a couple of minutes before the Senator's speech, heavily disguised – just after the speech, but they'd interrupted it instead.)

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw a familiar head of blonde hair slip out a side door in the chaos as the teens established control of the room, Kane firing several warning shots at some of the hostages who'd dared to approach him.

'Any one of you try something like that again and we blow this place!'

'Son, none of us-'

Jack shot Senator Hicks a warning look, as a bullet lodged itself in his right knee and he fell to the ground, just a couple of yards from Jack's feet, and Chen practically spat at him.

'Shut up.'

Mac picked the lock of the centre's medical supply room without even having to really think about it, then stepped inside and started pulling open drawers, no fewer than twenty potential half-formed ideas floating around his brain.

He opened a locked drawer and found a huge number of fentanyl lollipops.

Now, the opioid epidemic, including among former members of the armed forces, is a major crisis facing our country today.

But right now, I'm really grateful for endemic over-prescription.

Mac seized a box of disposable nitrile gloves and scooped the lollipops out of the drawer, getting straight to work, acutely aware of his deadline.

'There's no outcome where this ends well for you three, or your cause…'

Kane snorted, Chen scoffed, and Holden's grip on the detonator tightened a little.

He was the one who tilted his chin up, challengingly, at Jack, despite the fact that the former CIA agent had his gun aimed squarely between his eyes.

'We'll be martyrs for the cause. No matter what.'

Internally, Jack cursed.

He had to give them credit; they knew what they were doing.

He could foil them, yes (he was a damn good shot, and he knew he had back-up in the form of Mac and several vets and current service members)…but if he killed Holden, shot him point-blank between the eyes and had to do the same to Chen and Kane (quite likely, that would be the only way to make sure that the bomb didn't go off and kill the Senator, plus all the innocents around them)…he'd be serving their cause.

Their twisted cause, that road to hell paved with good intentions.

Teenage martyrs shot and killed by government agent?

(The optics – cold as it was to consider - on that were terrible.)

Besides, Jack avoided shooting to kill whenever he could.

And he really, really, really didn't want to shoot kids.

Mac grabbed an oxygen mask and a couple more nitrile gloves, as well as a roll of dental floss, cutting off a long length with his Swiss Army knife.

Holding a section between his teeth, the oxygen mask tucked under his arm, he tied a series of knots in the floss.

'You'd get your cause a lot further if you got to have a good, long chat with someone with real power.'

Chen snorted.

'They don't listen. They never do.'

'I know some people who will. Promise. I can get you the chance, just put down those guns, and let me disarm that vest…'

(Or, rather, let Mac disarm it, but Jack wasn't mentioning his partner to them. He had to buy Mac enough time to execute whatever genius, non-lethal plan he was currently coming up with.)

The three teenagers glanced at each other for a moment.

(They were still young, still idealistic, in a way, deep down. They really, really wanted to believe him.)

But eventually, Kane scoffed.

'You're preaching non-violence, while you've got a gun on Jake?'

Jack paused for a moment, and thought very, very loudly, hurry up, brother! He didn't shift his weapon from Holden in the slightest, but he did speak, tone conciliatory, acknowledging the truth of Kane's words.

'I'll put mine down if you guys put yours down. Make this fair.'

Senator Hicks, still on the floor and applying pressure to the still-bleeding gunshot wound (through-and-through, fortunately) in his knee, shot Jack a look as if he thought the Phoenix agent was crazy and whispered harshly to him.

'They don't have a dead man's switch, just hurry up and shoot 'em!'

Jack shot him a very, very, very harsh look.

A look that said, with all due respect, sir – which ain't much – shut up.

Jack, Kane, Chen and Holden all stared at each other for a long, long, long moment.

Then, ever so slightly, slowly, Holden's right hand, the one holding the detonator, began to shift, thumb moving…

At that moment, Mac, wearing a very strange thing that obscured most of his face and kind-of resembled a gas mask, pulling a whole bunch of inflated gloves behind him like a clown selling really weird five-fingered balloons, burst into the room.

The door slammed shut behind him, and he gave the string tied to the 'balloons' a sharp yank.

They burst with a loud pop, and something filled the air which left a vaguely-sweet aftertaste on the back of Jack's palate…

That was the last thing he remembered, as everything went blurry, then dark…

Woozy, vaguely aware of falling to her knees, her grip on her weapon loosening as the same thing happened to everyone in the room, except the blonde guy wearing that really weird pseudo-gas-mask, Adriana Chen stared at that blonde guy.

Judging by the fact that he was kneeling by Jake, who was already out, disarming his vest, and that he'd cast a concerned glance at the Senator and that government agent who'd been holding a gun on them, he was some kind of government agent too.

He would have been well within his rights to kill them. And he'd have been able to, without losing a wink of sleep.

But Adriana knew that when she actually blacked out, she'd wake up again.

The last thought she had before that all-engulfing darkness took her was that, maybe he wouldn't have slept so well. Maybe he wouldn't have slept at all.

Mac, as he disarmed the explosive vest that Holden had been wearing, addressed Riley through his earpiece.

'We need EMTs here, stat. Tell them to bring naloxone. Lots of naloxone.'

I do not want a repeat of the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis.

Not at all.

Everyone here's getting the antidote, even if I'm sure some of the powers-that-be would rather I kept my sleeping gas formulation a secret.

The explosive neutered, he turned his attention to rolling the Senator, then Jack, into the recovery position, before beginning to work his way through the crowd, rolling people into the recovery position and triaging the best he could, injecting those who seemed particularly weak or frail (like a woman who couldn't have been any younger than 85, whom he really hoped hadn't landed too hard on the ground) with the limited amount of naloxone he'd found in another one of the drawers.

As EMTs took a selection of (now-conscious) people to hospital for observation, and FBI agents took Chen, Holden and Kane away in cuffs, Mac's phone beeped in his pocket.

He pulled it out, to find that that familiar, shocking scene on Cloud City was on the screen, and he had a text message from his father.

Good work, Angus.

Mac stared at it for a long moment, then swallowed and put his phone back in his pocket.

He would never admit it, but a little part of him was still that little boy who'd idolized his father and treasured any praise from him (who'd reassured his dying mother that it was okay she wouldn't get to see who he'd grow up to be, because she already knew – he was going to be a good man, because his grandfather would teach him how, and he was going to be a scientist, an inventor, just like his dad, and they could even work together to make things to help people), and praise from his father was almost as rare as hens' teeth.

But on the other hand, after all this time, after everything…it hardly felt anywhere near enough. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, almost.

Mac pushed that all aside to process later, and walked over to where Jack and the Senator were just being given the all-clear by paramedics.

The Senator stood, somehow managing to make the motion dignified, despite the shock blanket wrapped around his shoulders and the lack of his suit jacket and tie, the rumpled nature of his dress shirt, and held Mac's eyes for a moment, expression far from being sceptical or challenging.

There was definite respect there, this time.

He nodded at the blonde agent, then held out his hand, and Mac took it and shook it firmly with a nod of his own.

Then, the Senator walked off towards his brand-new security team, and Mac and Jack headed the other way for ex-fil.

Jack grinned and pointed at his partner.

'That was awesome, brother! Those balloon thingies looked real weird, but…awesome!' Jack's grin softened, and he put an arm around Mac's shoulders, pulling him into a side-hug. 'Seriously, you did real good today, son. Real good.' He'd have done it, if he'd really had to. And he'd have gone home and eventually gotten to sleep. But those would've been three kills that Jack carried with him for the rest of his life, in the back of his mind. (Not all of them were, far from it, but these three would have been.) But Mac had made another way, a seemingly impossible way, possible, because that was what he did. Mac hugged the older man back for a moment, before they both let go and Jack pointed at him again, the grin on his face changing into a teasing smirk. 'But you've already done the whole knock-everyone-out trick, man! You running out of ideas? The hamster wheels in your head need oiling?'

Mac rolled his eyes and shook his head with very fond exasperation, as they fell into that light-hearted banter that had almost-certainly kept them sane through so much.

'A, that is not how brains work, Jack. And B, it's a highly-effective tactic…'

PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

SOMEWHERE IN LA

Once Mac and Jack were on the plane on their way back to LA, the Senator was in safe hands, and the teenage terrorists arrested, all their evidence sent to the FBI and all the loose ends tied up, Bozer walked down the corridor, towards Leanna.

'We need to talk.'

Leanna just nodded, as that terse, tense something between them, which they'd put aside because they had to, returned with a vengeance.

Bozer opened the door to the nearby interrogation room, and unseen by both of them, in the observation room, Riley turned off all the cameras and microphones, then shut down the observation room and left.

The young couple stood on opposite sides of the table in the room, Bozer leaning against the wall, Leanna with her hands on the back of a chair, silent and tense, the expression on Bozer's face stony and pained and betrayed.

Eventually, Leanna broke the silence.

'It was the most efficient way of getting what we needed.'

That sounded far more defensive than she'd wanted it to.

'She's sixteen, Leanna! Some things…some things are just wrong.'

'There's only one rule in this game, Bozer. There are no rules.'

There was something angry in Leanna's voice too, now, and the two of them stood there, staring at each other, for a long, long moment, before Bozer finally broke the silence.

'You…you know. And…and you still did it. Again.' Bozer hesitated for a moment. 'And…you've done it before, haven't you?' Leanna was still for a moment, before she gave one, definite nod, the motion slightly jerky. Bozer nodded, suspicions confirmed, and paused, looking heartbroken, before continuing. 'This…this isn't just about that anymore. It's…it's about our future together, Leanna.'

Bozer knew full well that he might be being a tad hypocritical.

He was a spy. His closest friends, his family in all about blood, were spies.

His BFF was a spy who had certainly played people's emotions, bluffed them, when he'd needed to. Bozer had witnessed it himself, several times.

(Though, Bozer also knew that his BFF ran crazy cost-benefit analyses in his mind, and that it didn't sit terribly well with him. He knew that Mac never did it if there was another way that didn't end in death or serious injury, even if that way was harder and put him at greater risk. He did everything he could to minimise pain and injury to everyone, even the bad guys, and even emotional pain.)

(Bozer, since he lived with Mac, was aware that that look on Omar's face when Mac had told him that they had Mia was something that Mac could not forget, not in the slightest.)

(And not just because of his near-eidetic memory.)

(Mac had found a way – a seemingly impossible way – to save Bozer and Leanna and capture the entirety of a Serbian crime family without spilling a drop of blood, but in Mac's eyes, that wasn't a mission with no harm done. It wasn't one of those missions that he'd slept like a baby after, even if it wasn't one of those that kept him up all night either.)

(Leanna had never seemed to have lost even a wink of sleep.)

But hypocritical or not (he was human, all humans were hypocritical from time to time anyway), he still felt that way. His emotions were genuine, and he and Leanna had to share and talk about these things.

Leanna seemed to know which way his thoughts had turned, because she crossed her arms and replied, her voice a touch softer than Bozer had expected.

'Not everyone's got Mac's skill-set or access to it. That's what makes better paths possible.' Her voice hardened a bit more, grew defensive again. 'The rest of us…we don't get that luxury. We make do with what we have.' She paused, breaths coming quickly, then slowing, before her voice softened again, slightly. 'You're living in a bubble, Bozer.'

Bozer swallowed, staring at her for a long, long moment.

'If…if I am…I don't wanna live outside it.' The I can't went unspoken, but hung there nonetheless. He paused for several beats, the silence stretching thin between them, before continuing, voice sad and sorry and very much heartbroken. 'This…this is gonna keep happening, isn't it?'

Leanna nodded jerkily, her eyes just as sad and pained as his.

'Yeah.'

Bozer swallowed and looked her in the eye.

'So this is it for us?'

Leanna, after a moment, just nodded sadly.

'Yeah.'

There was a long silence, before Bozer's mouth twisted into something that might have been a very weak grin.

'They say that living together's supposed to make or break your relationship…turns out it's working together.'

Leanna gave a particularly strong exhale that might have been a weak laugh, before she walked towards the door, though not before stopping briefly by his side and putting a hand on his shoulder, then, after a moment's hesitation, kissing him on the cheek lightly.

It felt very much like goodbye.

'All the best, Bozer.'

Yeah, it was definitely goodbye.

He swallowed and managed a weak but genuine smile.

'You too, Leanna.'

She gave a little nod and a weak, but genuine, smile in return, then walked out the door.

And, Bozer thought to himself, out of his life.

MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

LA

Two days after Mac had saved the day using lollipops, of all things (Mac, being Mac, had pedantically insisted that it'd only worked because they were fentanyl lollipops, and he had no idea how he could have pulled off something like that using ordinary lollipops – but Jack firmly believed that if anyone could save the day using normal lollipops, it'd be his partner), Jack, holding a six-pack of Bozer's favourite beer, walked up the driveway, side-by-side with Matty.

He was also, periodically, staring at his boss as they walked, muttering under his breath, and Matty just raised an eyebrow at him.

'Have I got something on my face, Jack? Or is there something you want to share with the class?'

Yeah, he was definitely right.

Jack just gave a little grin-smirk and shook his head.

'Nah.'

Matty snorted and rolled her eyes.

(Jack had suspected that Matty's little thing with sending Leanna on a mission with Bozer but having her be Mac's fake wife, while it wasn't the crazy mind games that Bozer had, in his paranoia, believed that she was playing – which, Jack agreed, was definitely not beyond Matty the Hun – did have a little something more behind it. He'd started thinking when Leanna got recruited to the Phoenix that Matty had been testing her…and in more ways than one.)

(Matty, according to Cage, who was Cage, so of course it was right, was Team Mom. What mother didn't want to test their kid's significant other a little, just to make sure that they were good and right for their child?)

(Diane would totally have done it.)

(Without the whole take-down-a-Serbian-war-criminal and cover-identities-and-espionage stuff, but the point still stood.)

Then, the thought crossed his mind, that Matty had been wrong.

On one hand…Matty was wrong. This was a day that he was never going to forget.

On the other hand…he really wished that she hadn't been, in this case.

Who wouldn't be sad that their friend's relationship had ended, and their heart was broken?

Bozer might have fallen hard and fast (unbelievably hard and fast), but Jack believed, they all believed, he had truly, deeply and definitely madly, loved Leanna.

He sighed, expression sobering, as they reached the front door and Jack turned his key in the lock.

Mac and Riley were in the kitchen, preparing French toast (one of about four things that Riley could cook well, and one of probably hundreds that Mac could, since cooking was, according to him, 'applied edible chemistry'). The blonde raised an eyebrow at the six-pack in Jack's hand, and the older man shrugged.

'It's 5 o'clock somewhere.'

Mac resisted the urge to point out that, since it was 8:07 am, it was not, actually, exactly 5 o' clock anywhere, and instead took the beer and put it in the fridge, just as Bozer walked out of the bathroom, hair wet, towel around his neck. There was a very melancholy look on his face as he exited the bathroom, but his expression brightened when he saw his friends, a grin that was only ever-so-slightly forced appearing on his face.

'Morning, everyone.'

'Morning, Boze.' Mac took the plate of French toast that Riley handed him, added a couple of pieces of bacon, which had been baking in the oven, as well as a generous drizzle of maple syrup. 'Breakfast?'

Bozer's grin widened and grew easier, and he took the plate from Mac and sat down at the dining table, as Mac and Riley plated up breakfast for the rest of them.

Two-thirds of the way through breakfast, Matty shot Jack a look as he sneakily attempted to steal the last of Mac's bacon (he'd never dare to try and take hers) while the blonde was distracted doing something to the pepper grinder (exactly what it was, no-one except Mac knew…actually, maybe Mac didn't quite know what he was doing either, given the muttering under his breath that he was doing and the fact that there was pepper and bits of metal all over the table), then spoke.

'Leanna is transferring back to the CIA. They're very happy to have her back.'

Mac, Jack and Riley, almost comically, if not for the situation, due to how synchronised it was, all turned to look at Bozer, who just gave a sad little smile.

'She is a really good agent.'

Two hours after breakfast, after Jack had headed off to, Mac and Riley both knew, spend a quiet Saturday with Diane and Matty had headed off to do whatever she did on weekend (it was probably classified), Riley set up the first film in their MCU movie marathon, Iron Man, before plonking herself back down on the couch next to Bozer.

Meanwhile, Mac grabbed an array of Ben and Jerry's tubs from the freezer (specially purchased the day before – he was capable of some degree of forward planning, thank you very much), then balanced three spoons on top and walked over into the living room. He put down the ice-cream on the coffee table and passed Bozer a tub of his favourite, Phish Food.

As the famous Marvel opening credits rolled, Riley gave a mischievous smirk and tossed Mac a tub of Blondie Ambition, before pointing to her hair, which made Mac give a little groan (it was a Jack-worthy pun, and everyone knew he couldn't stand Jack's puns) and Bozer a little chuckle, which they both counted as a win.

As Tony Stark dramatically announced to the press that he was Iron Man, Bozer glanced at the blonde on his right (who'd declared that while Blondie Ambition was no Rocky Road, it was far, far better than its punny name) and the hacker on his left (who'd shamelessly polished off a whole pint of Chunky Monkey) and smiled, leaning back against the couch.

AN: What did you guys think about that? I am really nervous about posting this episode, because of the themes/issues that it deals with, and I really hope I did them justice, and more importantly, was reasonably 'fair' in dealing with them. I tried very hard not to demonise any one side (both in terms of the politics and Bozer/Leanna) and let them both 'speak' (especially Leanna); I know I'm pretty far from being balanced and definitely have a message in there (in my defence, this is a fanfic for a show in which the titular character is a pacifist who hates guns, is clearly uncomfortable with being a 'professional liar' and will give it all away for the sake of only working for someone he trusts). I really hope you guys think I did alright!

Jack's view on guns is my headcanon, just based on what I thought was 'logical' considering his background, occupation and frequent usage of them in the field (and fangirling over certain weapons); he and Mac disagree on this, but they definitely respect each other's opinions. This ending to Bozer/Leanna is what I've had in mind all along – I felt that they never really resolved that point of major tension between them, with the fact that the rule of the game is that there are no rules, and that Leanna can, will and does do whatever she needs to to complete her mission (even if she's not proud of having done it and feels guilty for it afterwards), while Bozer doesn't want to play this game (and in their line of work, can get away with it too, because of the miracles that this team can pull off, frequently because of Mac). I'm really sorry if you're a Bozer/Leanna fan – but at least I hope they got a decent-ish ending?

I know that the opening gambit is jumping the shark, but I think the show did that with the time Mac and Jack were dressed as Sami reindeer herders…or at least the time that Mac copied Up! :P

Anyway – here's the 'press release' for the next episode:

3.05, Butterfly Bandages to Sutures. A suspected Organization break-in at the CIA's Office of Special Projects brings Nikki and Allie to the Phoenix…and an awful lot of awkwardness and discomfort for Mac. Clearly, it's not his day…and that's before the bad guys get involved.