"I think I've got something," Riley said uncertainly.

Elliot materialized next to her. "Where?"

"Don't get too excited. I'm not sure it's them."

Steve joined them. "Why not?"

"Well, it's reading as one of the chips the vet called in to us..."

"But?"

"But the signal's way too strong."

Riley thought she heard Elliot snicker.

She glanced over her shoulder at him with a terse, "What?" before she went back to cleaning up the signal.

"Well, if you were Mac and the cavalry hadn't arrived yet, you might…"

"Soup up the signal, sure. But as far as we know from that vet, Mac and Oversight are carrying those chips the hard way."

Steve cleared his throat. "And Mac is much too sensible to just dig the damn thing out with a screwdriver or something. Right."

"Good point," Riley nodded, fingers flying over the keys. "Got him!" She tapped the map on her screen. "Right here. Right in the middle of nowhere and too much tree cover to see what we're getting ourselves into."

Elliot pointed, too. "But here's a decent LZ, less than a quarter mile West."

Riley shot him a look. "You a pilot, too?"

"I'm a lot of things." He tipped his chin at Steve. "Gear us up? I'll get Webber on the phone and see if I can get us a serviceable bird."

Steve simply moved the check through their gear instead of wasting words since Elliot already had his phone out. Riley finished sending the coordinates to Matty so she could begin moving assets in on the compound for clean up. This team's only job was to get Mac, Jack, and Oversight out. Phoenix would work with other agencies and local authorities to deal with Murdoc and Walsh.

She felt eyes on her. Steve stood, paused in the midst of packing up, head tilted to one side.

"Need help with something?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Now that you mention it, I think I do."

She closed her rig and slid it into her bag. "Yeah?"

"The look that's been on your face lately has me curious."

"What look?"

"It's somewhere between worried, and pissed off, and like you might cry if you thought you could get five minutes alone."

"Of course I'm worried and pissed off! Murdoc and Walsh kidnapped Jack and now Mac and his dad are probably prisoners too since they haven't just called."

"Well, yeah, sure. Sure, of course. But it didn't start on this op. You had the same look at the hospital over what was, in the grand scheme of Angus MacGyver's life, extremely minor shit."

She stood and started going over their gear like there was something she could add to it. "I don't know what you're trying to get at. Mac's my friend. Of course I worry about him."

"This isn't a 'friend' face."

Riley's face flushed. She started to stammer a reply, but Elliot came back from down the hall where he'd gone to make his call to Matty. He looked at the two of them and smirked. "I see Dr. Rodgers has finally caught on to why you've been snatching our heads off for hours."

"I don't … you aren't …I—"

Steve chuckled and Elliot grabbed his bag and headed to the door, gesturing for them to follow. "That's okay, Ri." He grinned over his shoulder. "Mac feels the same way."

"Oh, definitely," Steve agreed, grabbing his own pack and heading outside.

Riley followed after a second's hesitation.

"You guys think you're so smart!"

0-0-0

Mac told Jack he was just going to sit with him for a few minutes to see how he did with the latest cocktail of "keep Jack alive long enough to solve this problem' meds, but once Jack dozed off, Mac gave in to an equally honest reason for having taken a seat on the edge of Jack's cot. He was exhausted, in pain, and he was positive he was running a fever. It was hot here, sure. But not hot enough to explain how sweaty he was. The heat also couldn't explain the broken glass feeling in his joints, or how much he just wanted to lay down somewhere, anywhere and sleep.

He leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

He didn't think he dozed off but when he opened them again the light was different and Jack was awake again, pushed up on one elbow and frowning. But he wasn't bleeding freely and his color was a little better.

"Was I snoring?" Mac asked, meaning it as a joke, but the way he rasped said maybe he had been and it wasn't doing his throat any favors.

"How close you think your ole man is on this super soldier stuff?"

"Anxious for me to stab you some more, pal?" Mac managed to sound a little less miserable that time. "Because honestly I'm not too keen on it, especially until I'm sure it's not going to kill you."

"I was more thinkin' that you look like you could use some."

Mac forced himself to his feet without bothering to conceal his groan. "I'm okay," he lied. Badly. "I'm just glad we finally got you stabilized."

"Stable as I ever get, I guess," Jack chuckled sounding almost entirely like himself. "Hey, speakin' a bleedin', kid, your hand…"

Mac glanced down at his bandaged hand. "Shit," he whispered. He made sure his back was to the camera in the corner. "I've got back up coming. I hope." He didn't even whisper it, but Jack gave him a slow nod. Then out loud he said, "Yeah, I took out my own IV, kinda butchered it I guess."

"And that's why Sully always gets after ya," Jack said with a very convincing look of disapproval. "And if you got supersoldiered, ya wouldn't have to worry about—"

Mac's eyes went wide for a split second. "Jack! You're brilliant!" Mac banged loudly on the door and was running up the hall before Jack had a chance to reply.