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~~! Jack !~~
The Dalton family ranch was huge. Jack loved growing up there as a child and had described it in great detail to Mac on the plane and during the car ride to the ranch from DFW. It seemed to help ease Mac’s anxiety, his constant chatter about anything and nothing, so he kept it up as long as he could.
Their tours had ended recently, pretty closely coinciding with a routine patrol that had gone sideways in the worst way. An EOD tech and two Overwatches were KIA. The last couple of weeks of their service had been spent in an MTF in Landstuhl. Jack’s left leg was broken in three places, and he’d been grazed by a couple of bullets, one at his side, which had cracked a rib, and one to his shoulder. He had undergone surgery for the leg, which was currently immobilized in a complicated brace that Mac eyed every so often with interest. He could tell the kid wanted to get his hands on it and make a bicycle or something out of it. Jack would gladly give it to him in a few weeks when he didn’t need it any longer.
He glanced over at Mac as he navigated the familiar backroads to the ranch. Jack had insisted on driving because his right leg was fine, and Mac had no business behind the wheel with the concussion he was desperately trying to ignore behind dark sunglasses and sheer determination.
Jack suspected that it was partly the concussion and partly the oddity of being discharged and stateside that was making Mac squirrely. While Jack had experience transitioning out of military life, Mac was trying his damnedest to find his footing in an unfamiliar world. When Jack had asked him if he wanted to fly straight back to California, Mac had confessed that he wasn’t ready. So, Jack had booked their tickets to Texas and promised that his family would love to meet his pain-in-the-ass EOD tech.
Besides the grade 2 concussion, Mac had an orbital fracture that was still swollen and painful. He was reluctantly taking his pain medication regularly, which told Jack all he needed to know about Mac’s pain level. The whole right side of his body was one big bruise from landing on it after the RPG had gone off before they could get to cover. His right shoulder had been dislocated, and it was a miracle he hadn’t broken any bones besides his face.
Their physical injuries would heal, but Jack was concerned about Mac’s head. He was having nightmares about the attack, about the soldiers who had died. Every time the kid closed his eyes, he was right back there in the sandbox, reliving the whole thing again and again.
Jack shook the thoughts from his head and grinned when he saw the entrance to the ranch coming up. “Welcome to the Circle D,” he said, reaching out to gently tap Mac on the chest. “You awake over there?”
“Yeah,” Mac replied, sitting up a little straighter and adjusting his sunglasses. “You said you told them I was coming, right?”
“Yes, I promise, I told them.” Jack didn’t get it, but Mac was concerned that he wasn’t welcome at the Dalton family home. He’d told the kid multiple times that he was being ridiculous, but Mac was still nervous.
He pulled their rental SUV up as close as he could get to the ranch house and cut the engine. It was a two-story, white house with a wraparound porch and wide set of steps. It was quiet, which made sense at two o’clock in the afternoon, and Jack had asked that the family wait until supper to descend on them. At the moment, Mac was skittish around new people, and Jack wasn’t keen on crowds just yet.
Jack busied himself with getting his crutches out of the backseat and easing himself out of the SUV. He looked across the seat before he closed the door and saw that Mac had finally gotten moving too, slipping out of the vehicle and steadying himself on the car’s frame.
“Well, I’ll be! Jack Dalton!” He broke into a grin when he heard his mother’s voice. She let the screen door slam behind her as she rushed down the steps and across the yard to pull him into a careful but strong hug. “Welcome home. It’s damn good to see you.”
“You too, Ma. You too.” He clung to her for a minute, overwhelmed by being there, by holding her in his arms, by escaping the sandbox more or less intact.
They both wiped away tears as they separated, and his mother turned around with a smile. “You must be Mac,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” She moved closer to him, giving him plenty of time to move away before she wrapped her arms around him too.
“Not all good, I’m sure,” he replied with a slight chuckle. He tensed as she embraced him but relaxed enough to hug her back before she let go.
“Thanks for bringing him back to me.” She squeezed Mac’s arm and kept her gaze steady on his face, making sure he understood how sincere she was.
He averted his eyes and kicked at the weeds growing through the gravel of the driveway. “I didn’t do much,” he murmured.
“Hogwash! You did plenty, kiddo. Trust me.”
Mac blushed but didn’t argue. “Thanks for letting me stay here, Ms. Dalton.”
“It’s Evelyn, but you call me Ev. Everyone does, and it doesn’t make me look around for my mother-in-law, bless her soul.”
“Okay, Ev,” Mac stumbled over the name.
Jack laughed and started toward the house, expertly maneuvering his crutches. “What time is everyone else getting here?”
“Your sister is comin’ by for supper, but I told the rest of the family to wait ‘til tomorrow night. That’ll give you boys time to settle in, and we’ll do a big barbecue.”
“That sounds good, don’t it, Mac?”
“Sounds good,” Mac parroted.
Jack led the way inside the house, giving Mac the short version of the tour as they went. The front door opened into the living room, which had a fairly open floor plan so that you could see into the kitchen from there too. The dining room was off to the left. On the right, there was a hallway that led to the master suite and a rather large bedroom with a connected bathroom. Also, to the right were the stairs that led up to two other bedrooms and another bathroom.
“I had the ranch hands come in and re-arrange some furniture for me when I heard about Jack’s leg,” Evelyn said, pointing toward the first-floor bedroom. “They moved one of the twin beds down from upstairs, so you and Mac can share this room if you want. Otherwise, he can take the guest room upstairs.”
Jack shot her a grateful look as he eased himself down to sit on the worn, comfortable couch. He’d told her about Mac’s nightmares on one of the last couple of calls he’d had with her before they got stateside. However, he left the decision up to Mac.
“I can stay down here.” Mac sat beside Jack and fiddled nervously with his sunglasses, which he’d removed when they’d entered the house.
“Now that that’s settled. Can I get you anything? Water?”
“Water would be great, Ma. And an ice pack for Mac’s eye. Thanks.”
“I’m fine,” Mac tried to protest, but Jack shushed him pretty quick.
“The doc said to keep icing it if it swelled, and with all the travel today, it’s ballooning right up.” Jack waited until his mother was across the room in the kitchen before he reached out to touch it, but Mac ducked his head away and then hissed in pain and pressed a palm to his forehead. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Headache.”
“You’re due for some meds, so why don’t you take those when Ma gets back with the water. Then you can go and lie down for a while.”
Mac scoffed. “It’s barely two in the afternoon.”
Jack was unimpressed. “It’s been a long day, and you’re still recovering.”
“Me? What about you?”
Jack wanted to keep arguing, but he saw what Mac was doing. “You know what, you’re right. I should really elevate my leg anyway. So, we’ll both take our meds and then take naps. How’s that sound?”
Mac squinted at him as if studying him like a lab rat. “You can’t trick me by pretending to agree and then slipping out of the room as soon as I fall asleep.”
“I’m not pretending. My leg’s achin’ something fierce, and I’m tired.”
“You seemed fine three minutes ago.”
“I can pretend just as well as you,” Jack replied. “Do you have your meds on you?”
Mac sighed and looked at the door as if it were 500 feet away instead of about 15. “Left them out in the car.”
“Mine too.”
Carefully, Mac pushed himself to his feet and headed for the door. “I’ll grab our bags.”
“Just get the meds for now,” Jack replied. “No reason for you to hurt yourself carrying those in when Shelly’s husband and son will be here in a couple of hours.” Shelly was his younger sister, and she was married to Joe and had three kids, Jonny, Karalee, and Wyatt. Jonny was fourteen, Karalee was ten, and Wyatt was three.
Mac waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder.
“I’m serious, Mac!” Jack called after him.
Evelyn hurried back in and set two glasses of ice water on the coffee table. “I’ll help him, Jack. Don’t you move.”
They returned a few minutes later with Mac’s and Jack’s Dopp kits, which held their meds. Mac sat back down beside Jack while Evelyn headed into the kitchen.
“Ma?” Jack called, curious as to what she was doing.
“Mac said he’s taking antibiotics and pain medication, and I imagine you’re on the same types of pills, so you boys need a little somethin’ in your stomachs before you take those.”
“Your mom’s nice,” Mac said quietly. He leaned his head against the back of the couch and closed his eyes.
“Yeah, I like her,” Jack agreed. “You doin’ okay?”
“Fine. Tired.”
“One word answers don’t sound fine to me, bud. What’s hurtin’?”
“Everything.” It sounded like an answer, but Jack knew it as a deflection. Mac didn’t want him to know how bad it was because he didn’t think Jack could do anything about it. He was wrong about that.
“Did I ever tell you about the time I took Andrea Fields up into the hayloft?” He waited for Mac to roll his head in Jack’s direction and smile. Distraction was a helluva help when it came to MacGyver. “We were fifteen, and she was beautiful. Long brown hair, dimples, big green eyes. Anyway, we were flirtin’ like crazy all summer, so I kissed her behind the barn. She suggested we go up into the hayloft, and I was definitely willing, so we headed up there all quiet-like.”
Evelyn returned with a plate of cheese and crackers and a bowl of fruit. “Is he telling you about the first time he broke his leg?”
“Spoilers!” Jack exclaimed, and Mac chuckled.
“Let me guess. He fell out of the hayloft?”
“Got it on the first try,” Evelyn grinned. “He is a smart one, Jack. Now, you both need to eat something and get some rest.”
Mac gingerly sat up and chose a handful of crackers and a banana for his snack. “How’d you fall out of the hayloft?”
“Well, the far corner of the barn roof had been leaking, and no one had noticed. The floorboards were a little weak over there, so when we sat down, they gave way. I did the gentlemanly thing and tried to cushion her fall. My leg,” he patted his thigh just above the edge of the brace he was currently wearing, “took the brunt of it.”
“You have never heard such screamin’ in your life. Jack was shoutin’ about his leg. Andrea was shoutin’ about Jack. Shelly was shoutin’ because she’d been mucking the horse stalls, and they scared the daylights out of her. The animals were going crazy.”
Mac laughed. “There’s never a dull moment with Jack around.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“Hey, now!” Jack’s protest was half-hearted. He was proud that Mac had relaxed and enjoyed his story, and he was happy that his friend and his mother were getting along so well.
After Mac finished his crackers, and Jack had eaten an apple and most of the cheese cubes, and both men had taken their meds, Evelyn showed them the bedroom where they’d be staying. There was a full-size bed just inside the doorway and a twin-size bed a few feet away with a small nightstand separating the two. A door just to the right of the entrance led to the bathroom, and a door further to the right was a closet. They’d passed another door that led into the bathroom from the hallway.
Mac thanked her for her hospitality and all but fell onto the twin bed. Jack kept an eye on him while he toed off his sneakers and lay back, and Jack himself propped his crutches up against the wall and eased onto the soft mattress. Then, Jack quietly asked his mom to bring in the ice pack that had been forgotten during Mac’s insistence on going out to get their stuff.
Evelyn returned quickly with the ice pack, which she wisely handed to Jack. She gave him one more quick hug before leaving them alone.
“Heads up,” Jack said, waiting until Mac looked at him before gently tossing the ice pack to him.
“Thanks,” Mac murmured, putting the ice pack over his eye and relaxing into his own mattress.
Jack busied himself with getting situated, using the extra pillows his mom had left on the bed to prop his leg up. He listened as Mac’s breathing evened out into sleep and allowed himself the same luxury.
~~! Mac !~~
A car door slammed outside. Mac woke with a start and a groan, unsure of where he was, what was going on, or why his head hurt so badly. He lifted his heavy head, and his eyes darted around the room until he caught sight of Jack, sleeping on the other bed. His rabbiting heart rate started to slow.
He dropped his head back onto the pillow and immediately regretted it when pain spiked behind his eye and his stomach roiled. He swallowed against the nausea and tried to keep his breathing even. If he could just go back to sleep for a little while, he would feel so much better.
There were voices out in the living room, but he couldn’t quite make out the words. Jack’s sister and her family must have arrived for dinner. The thought of food nearly sent Mac’s nausea over the edge, and he groaned again.
“What’s happenin’? Mac?” Jack woke, sounding groggy and disoriented.
“I’m okay,” Mac replied. “Go back to sleep.”
“I’m ‘wake,” Jack argued.
“Clearly.”
Jack muttered something that sounded like “don’t sass me boy”, and then Mac heard the springs on the other bed creak as Jack shifted around. He finally opened his eyes and rolled his head slowly in Jack’s direction to see what was going on.
Jack was sitting on the edge of his bed, both feet on the floor, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He yawned and scratched at the edge of his leg brace. “What time’s it?”
Mac had no idea and had no interest in lifting his arm to look at his watch. He closed his eyes and ignored the question.
“Almost five,” Jack said, apparently having checked his own watch. “Dinner will be ready soon. We should get up.”
“Mmm, not hungry.” Mac tried to turn over on his side to put his back to Jack. Unfortunately, he needed to lay on his right side to make that happen, and there was no way his body was going to let him do that. He got halfway there before the pain spiked from his head to his toes and back up. Nausea overwhelmed him, and he gagged as he pushed himself up and lunged across Jack’s bed to the door that led to the bathroom.
Thankfully, he was on his knees in front of the toilet by the time his gagging lead to full-on vomiting. After a couple of minutes, he felt a cool washcloth against the back of his neck, and then Jack was rubbing circles on his back. The whole thing went on for a few minutes too long for his aching body, but Mac eventually quieted, reached up to flush the toilet, and then leaned his forehead against the edge of the cool porcelain seat.
“Talk to me, bud. What’s wrong?” Jack’s voice was quiet, and he kept rubbing circles along Mac’s back, which Mac appreciated more than he had the energy to tell his friend at that moment.
“Migraine.” Mac pointed listlessly to the right side of his head, behind the swelling of his broken orbital bone. That’s where the pain was pulsing the worst. If only he could reach into his brain and massage it until it stopped hurting so bad.
“Damn. Do you have meds for that?”
“In my Dopp kit.”
Mac opened his eyes to slits to see that Jack was sitting beside him on the bathroom floor, wedged at an awkward angle against the bathtub so that he could keep his left leg stretched out. Jack was looking up, obviously trying to figure out how to get back on his feet.
Before either of them could move, there was a knock on the bathroom door that led into the hallway. “Jack? Are you okay?” Evelyn was worried, and Mac was embarrassed to think that she could have heard him being sick.
Jack looked relieved at the sound of her voice. “Ma, can you come in here?”
The door opened slowly. Evelyn gasped as she stepped into the room and kneeled beside them. Without thought, she brushed Mac’s hair back and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. “Are you okay, Mac?”
He blinked at her, surprised and bemused. It had been a long time since anyone had felt his forehead for fever. It was nice.
“Ma, could you get Mac’s Dopp kit, please? And a glass of water.”
She frowned at Mac, probably for his lack of response, but hurried to do as Jack asked.
“Hey,” Jack tapped Mac’s shoulder to get his attention. “What’s your full name?”
Mac made a face. “Really? Concussion questions?”
“Yes, really. You’re freaking me out, man. Name. Now.”
“Angus MacGyver.”
“What’s today?”
“Thursday.”
“Remember these three words: bathtub, Texas, sunset.”
“Bathtub, Texas, and sunset,” Mac repeated the words back in the hopes that it would help him remember them in a few minutes. He could tell that his cognitive function wasn’t at 100%, so he wasn’t sure how well he would do on this test. It was annoying but a fact of his concussion combined with the migraine.
“Do you wanna move this party to the bedroom? My butt’s going numb.”
Mac considered the question. His stomach had settled, for now, so it was probably safe to move, but he didn’t really want to have to vault over Jack’s bed again if that changed. He must have made another face because Jack’s hand went back to rubbing circles along his back.
Evelyn returned a few minutes later. She helped Mac bring the glass of water to his lips when his hand was shaking too badly for him to do it without spilling. He merely swished the water around in his mouth and spat it into the toilet before setting the glass aside.
“Hey, you should drink some of that,” Jack said, sounding concerned.
“Later,” Mac replied. With as little movement as possible, he unzipped the Dopp kit, pulled out the autoinjector with his migraine medicine, expertly set it up, lifted his shirt, and stabbed it into his stomach.
Jack flinched away from the mere sight of it. “Geez, kid. Warn a guy next time.”
“Sorry.”
“What the hell is going on?” Evelyn was looking sternly at both of them when Mac turned his attention back to her.
“Mac has a migraine,” Jack explained. “Hopefully, that will help stop it.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything else I can do to help?”
“No, thank you.” Mac removed the autoinjector from his stomach, shakily disassembled it, and put it back in the Dopp kit. Then he used the toilet seat to push himself to his feet.
Evelyn hovered, hands out, in case he faltered, which was nice but unnecessary. Mac saw where Jack got his overprotective streak from.
He made his way back into the bedroom but chose to lay down on Jack’s bed instead of the one he’d taken earlier so that he was closer to the bathroom if he needed it again. He could hear shuffling in the bathroom as Jack somehow got up from the floor. He hoped Jack hadn’t hurt himself in his rush to help.
“You okay?” they both asked at the same time when Jack appeared at the bathroom door using his crutches to move into the bedroom.
“You first, kid,” Jack said.
“Mmhmm, will be. Just need to let the medicine work.” Mac was finding it hard to keep his eyes open now, but he was still worried. “What about you? Did you hurt yourself getting into the bathroom?”
“I’m good, Mac. Hey, what were those three words I gave you?”
“Bathtub, Texas, and, um…” Mac’s brain was getting foggy, and sleep was pulling at him. “Sunset.”
“That’s good. Get some rest.”