Hours later an exhausted but stubbornly awake MacGyver sat in the rickety chair he'd pulled from the kitchen and propped against the wall next to the narrow bed where Alexei was sleeping or, more accurately, lying unconscious. Sleeping was probably too gentle and sane a word for how the kid's brain was protecting him at the moment. Mac thought that after a couple of bags of IV fluid and some antibiotics and antipyretics added to the drip the boy looked a little more like himself. Too thin, dear god too thin, but like he could recover. Mac was leaning forward resting his head against the flats of his hands when he heard the whispered sigh of relief. "Mac. You weren't a dream."

Mac forced on a reassuring expression as he looked up and moved his chair closer. "You thought I was a dream? I guess you're not over that wicked crush you had on me when you were sixteen yet, huh?"

Something resembling amusement touched Alexei's wide, still-feverish eyes, then his expression was pained. "Did you find Kolya? Where is he?"

"We were hoping you had some idea …" Hearing that his brother wasn't with them, raw anguish swept over the boy's features and he started to try to get up. It didn't take much effort on Mac's part to keep the malnourished bruised kid right where he was. "Hey, hey, shhh. It's gonna be okay. I'm going to go get him, wherever he is. You can count on it. But I need you to be still. I don't know if you've ever been on an IV before but you're dehydrated and you need medicine. If you pull it out and our guy has to start it again, it's gonna suck. A lot."

A shadow passed over MacGyver's normally bright features and his eyes narrowed with a fleeting unwelcome memory. Alexei nodded and relaxed back into the thin pillow they had found for him. He believed Mac when he said that he'd go get Kolya. Mac never made promises he didn't keep. But he looked so upset and like he was trying very hard to hide it that Alexei was worried something had happened to his brother and Mac just didn't want to tell him. "You don't know where he is?"

Mac just shook his head. His eyebrows were getting closer together as he searched his young friend's face.

"They caught him taking pictures of the camp, I think. They had his press ID and they found that picture of us at my graduation in his wallet so they figured he was there because of me. They threw it in my face a few times, but I didn't tell them how we knew each other." Alexei's voice was almost toneless. It was the numbness of trauma that MacGyver was all too familiar with. "They beat me in front of him once, but they didn't let us talk." He paused and swallowed hard, realizing for the first time how dry his mouth was. "I haven't seen him in person since. I was unconscious for a day or so after that beating. One of the guards … always smelled like cigarette smoke … showed me a picture on his phone of Kolya … tied to a chair … bleeding … I don't even know for sure if he was still alive." Now tears were falling silently from the boy's eyes and Mac took his hand. "I think it was in the basement. That's where they took me when they first brought me here … Ublyudki."

Bastards, indeed, Mac thought. He saw Alexei struggling to swallow again. He didn't dare give him any water without asking so he called out, not too loudly, "Hey Rodgers, your patient is awake; are you?" When he'd left Mac with Alexei earlier he'd told him he was going to catch a nap at the kitchen table until they needed him.

In less than a minute they were joined by the rangy dark skinned medic with the reassuring smile of someone who has had to convince a lot of people in pretty dire situations that everything is going to be okay. Regardless of how absolutely non-threatening the man was, Alexei had a moment of blind irrational panic at the introduction of a new face and scrambled up to a sitting position, digging with his feet and coming dangerously close to pulling out the IV MacGyver had warned him about. Mac knew the feeling … intimately. He sat down on the bed and began talking in the practiced reassuring tones that were useful for everything from frightened animals to hostage negotiations. Rodgers, to his credit, continued to move slowly into the small room, and set down his bag next to the bed, then he leaned against the wall with his arms at his sides, hands open and relaxed. "Lex, this is my friend Steven. He's going to take care of you for now so I can go figure out how to get Kolya back."

Alexei blinked slowly. "You know him? And he's your friend? How long?"

Mac gave a reassuring smile that didn't have to be forced this time. "I haven't known him for that long, but he's part of my team now. And … I trust him with my life, with Jack's life, okay?"

Rodgers gave Mac a very genuine grin. Nothing said a real 'welcome to the team' quite like an honest reassurance about you to someone who wasn't part of it. Mac moved away so Rodgers could work and he stood at the foot of the bed by the door for a minute just to make sure Alexei was really okay. The kid grinned at the medic now. "Your name is really Steve Rodgers?"

"Damn it all," he laughed good-naturedly. "I thought I wouldn't have to hear sass about it from a Russian patient."

Mac was so focused on Alexei's more relaxed demeanor that he didn't catch on for a second until the kid laughed and the sound reminded him of the first time they had met when he'd rushed into his brother's apartment after school one day when Mac and Jack were there. "I love comic books and movies!" the boy enthused. It encouraged Mac that he was becoming more animated. He felt a small smile tug at the reluctant corners of his lips. Jack had never failed to come through with a comic book for the kid and often would let him watch movies on the tablet he was supposed to reserve for Phoenix business. If sharing a name with a super hero was all it took to get the kid to calm down enough for Rodgers to treat him, Mac was doubly glad the man was now part of the team. Alexei had raised an eyebrow. "But you don't look like that Steve, more like maybe Luke Cage … Mac kind of does though. Very Cap. Da?"

Mac just shook his head with a small grin, unprepared for how this conversation was about to make him feel.

"Luke Cage, huh? I'll take it ... I don't see Mac as Captain America though. Around the office we joke that he's secretly Iron Man … Science nerd, inventing stuff to save everybody? And he could probably do it in a cave in the middle of nowhere just like in the first movie, too."

Mac felt the pace of his breathing pick up unexpectedly as Alexei replied, "Net. No way. Team Cap all the way and Jack Dalton is his Bucky."

Mac kept his expression carefully neutral as he excused himself from the room. He breezed through the rest of the house, telling Riley, who was picking her head up off her arms after her own nap, that he was going out for a walk to unstiffen his legs from sitting with Alexei. If Jack or Todd woke up looking for him he wouldn't be gone long. Riley knew something was very wrong, but she didn't try to stop him. What she did do was go and wake up Jack as soon as MacGyver was out the front door. Mac didn't get very far before the waves of memory washed over him, temporarily drowning him. He was already hurt … everywhere … and then the series of explosions … he didn't expect to survive, only that his captors wouldn't either … The tightness in his chest eased as soon as the cool night air hit his face, but the familiar rubbery feeling in his legs forced him to make the smart decision and just lean against the cold stone wall on the dark north side of the house. Slamming into the wall ... greying out … Lids fluttering open … soft brown eyes looking into his, "Hey, you are alive!" in a good down-home American accent … He closed his eyes, gulping in air. "Easy there bud … you're safe … We got all the bad guys." … Sweaty, in pain, miserably unable to move … "No … another camp … about twenty klicks west … I think Thompson is with …" Jack holding his arm gently so the medic could start and IV. "We'll get 'em, buddy. You did good." "Dalton, hold him, while I grab the straps. If he rips out another line I don't know where the hell I'll put the next one." Mac felt himself sliding down the wall and sitting on the cool dry earth. Pain like fire in his chest and shoulder but knowing it was worth it because Thompson was still alive … "Holy hell kid, quit movin' … Got a nice souvenir almost in your chest, bud. Can't tell how deep. You must think you're Iron Man or somethin' … Medic! …" Mac hitched an uneven breath, almost a sob, but he could feel control returning slowly, although he wasn't quite conscious of why.

Mac realized after a minute of slow careful breathing that Jack was sitting on the ground next to him with an arm around his shoulders, talking him through his breathing very quietly and patiently. Mac pulled his knees up and rested his elbows on them. Then he leaned his head forward to press the heels of his hands against his eyes, effectively drying the tears that were attempting to squeeze out without being too obvious about it. Not that Jack would say anything or make him feel bad about it. Not ever. But it was important to Mac. Control always was. He was not going to fall apart in the middle of a mission. He hadn't had a flashback in a long time and he wasn't going to give in to another wave of them now. Jack could read nearly all of this in the tired lines of his friend's face, but after years of trying to tell the kid that you didn't get to decide when your brain was going to smack you around with the things you'd seen, he knew better than to say so. Instead he just unscrewed the cap off a bottle of water and passed it into Mac's slightly trembling hand. Mac took a drink and after a minute squeezed it so some of the water would splash up into his face. He smoothed it around, using it to dampen the back of his neck which currently felt like it was on fire, despite the cool, extremely early, morning air. He wasn't quite ready to look at his partner yet, but Mac said quietly, "Thanks, Jack."

Jack was sitting with his knees up as well now, resting his arms on them and looking off into the dark, thinking he could see where the sky would begin to grey truly visibly very soon. It was his way of giving Mac a little space while the kid pulled himself back together. "Any time, brother; you know I've always got your back in all things." Mac was nodding, still looking very distant. "This one hittin' a little close to home, bud?"

"Yeah … I guess no matter how hard you try to bury them, some memories are going to come back."

"Like a bad zombie movie, Mac. Every damned time." Mac nodded again and looked almost like he wanted to say something, but couldn't. "Back on that mountain again, huh?"

"Umhm," was all Mac felt he had in him at the moment.

Jack put an arm around him again, hoping it was the right thing to do. How much space Mac was going to need was always kind of in question. "I sure as hell hope me treatin' you like a kid didn't …"

Mac interrupted. "No. Jack. I was a jerk …" Jack looked like he was about to go into one of his protective don't-you-dare-talk-bad-about-my-boy speeches but Mac needed to say this, especially since he's just come to a conclusion that could very likely get them killed. "Jack, I'm not gonna lie and say you don't drive me crazy sometimes … because you do … But, you know what? That's what family does! I let Nikki get in my head and it was stupid … I'm starting to think if we make it out of here I oughta just block her number and be done with it. But look, Jack," he paused. Jack was looking at him with that warm expression that sometimes made him want to cry, and sometimes made him want to yell, and most times just made him want to hug the jackass, even though he normally hated that kind of thing. "When you came for me in that cave … and then you were with me at the field hospital … and then there you were again when I woke up from surgery at the base hospital … I … no one had ever come back for me before." Jack's face briefly got the look Mac had come to think of as one-day-I-will-punch-this-kid's-dad. "Then after Peyna died and you came to me with the offer from DXS … I took it because it felt like … home. I knew I could count on you. I should be so lucky as to have you for a dad."

Jack felt there was a real possibility he was going to cry so he did what he always did in that situation; he cracked a joke. "Good. It's settled then. Papa Jack is a permanent fixture. So the next time you don't just tell me what's botherin' you instead of having a tantrum like you did back home, I'll take you behind the woodshed and whup your ass but good."

Mac laughed and all of the tension he'd built up during his brief panic attack slid off his shoulders. He glanced sideways at Jack before climbing to his feet, ready, no, needing, to move on. "Change of plans though."

Jack got up then and faced him with a grin. "You say change of plans and I hear explosions, and controlled chaos, and me gettin' to shoot some bad guys. Lay it on me, brother."

"We're not just going in after Kolya. We're going to get all those guys out. Whatever it takes."