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Macgyver was ready for a calm, relaxing Halloween night.
He had never made much of a deal out of Halloween, honestly. When he was very little, his mom would dress him up in silly costumes and take him out. And when he got a bit older, he and Boze would go together, and then sleep over at Bozer’s house and eat way too much candy. But Mac had just liked it because it was an excuse to eat junk food and hang out with Bozer. Mac was an adult now though, he could eat candy whenever he wanted. And he lived and worked with Bozer, so there was always an excuse to be together. So Halloween just sort of lost its magic, over the years. Wasn’t like he and Boze could get free candy forever, anyway. The decorations were fun, at least. And Halloween still was an excuse to get candy, just not free candy. They had those special edition chocolates in the shape of coffins and fangs and whatever. It just wasn’t the same, once he and Boze grew up, though.
Still, that didn’t mean he did nothing to celebrate. Once they had stopped going out trick or treating every year, older than most kids, probably, Mac and Boze had started watching horror movies on Halloween night instead. They already had been doing that, as they traded candy, but now they made it into a whole marathon. With popcorn and candy and so much pizza. That was what they did every year they were together, ever since they were teens. A horror movie theme and a hell of a ton of popcorn. They’d done all the Scream movies. They’d done all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. They’d even done all of the Saw movies. This year, Boze had decided that they should watch as many of the old Universal horror movies as they could.
Or that was what Bozer had decided, anyway. Until Leanna had asked Bozer out to some Halloween film festival thing. Which was- it was fine. It wasn’t a big deal. They had missed the tradition a few times before, when Mac had been at college or overseas. And it wasn’t like he and Boze couldn’t watch movies together some other time, anyway. Even if it wasn’t on Halloween. Even if it wasn’t their tradition. Even if it wasn’t like how they normally did it. It was fine. It was. But it would have been better if Riley and Jack had been around. Except, Riley was going to some Halloween themed hacker party, which Mac hadn’t even known was a thing. And Jack was working on some special project with Maddy, so- So Mac was alone on Halloween. And it was fine. He was sitting on the couch, drinking a beer and watching a documentary about hyenas. It didn’t feel right to watch a movie without Boze. But whatever. It was fine. It was all fine.
And then Mac heard a strange noise.
He frowned. He was alone in the house. He should have been alone in the house, anyway. But there was that noise again. It- honestly, it sounded like footsteps. Which was impossible, obviously, because Bozer was gone. And so were Riley and Jack, because honestly he did not put it past them to enter his house and just not tell him. But he hadn’t heard the door open, just the sound of footsteps. And he had locked the door, too. Mac stood up, checking the door. It was locked, just like he thought it was. And there was no one around there, either. Not in the kitchen, not in the living room, not on his porch. He kept moving. There was no one in his hallway, no one in his bathroom. And then Mac opened his bedroom door to see-
Murdoc. It was Murdoc, standing in front of him.
“Happy Halloween!” Murdoc cheered.
Mac blinked, staring at the man. Staring at the assassin. Staring at Murdoc. Murdoc his arch nemesis. Murdoc his enemy. Murdoc his-
“What the hell are you doing here, Murdoc?” Mac asked, as soon as he could force his brain to make words. Because, seriously, what the hell was Murdoc doing here.
“Can’t I simply stop by?” Murdoc asked. “As a friend?”
Mac laughed. “You’re not my friend, Murdoc.”
“Aren’t I?” Murdoc asked, tilting his head faux-sweetly. “We’ve known each other for years, at this point.”
“You’ve been trying to kill me for years,” Mac corrected. “And I’ve been stopping you.”
“Is that not friendship?” Murdoc asked.
Mac just sighed. “Why are you here? Do I need to make another wine bottle rocket, or something?”
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Murdoc said. “Although I wouldn’t mind a demonstration of your skills.”
“Is Cassian kidnapped again?” Mac asked. He couldn’t help but worry for the kid.
“No,” Murdoc promised. “I can assure you, he is safe.”
“Then what the hell are you doing in my house?” Mac asked. “And how did you even get in here, anyway?”
Murdoc grinned. “You really should get better locks on your windows. I thought you were meant to be a boy scout, this is really disappointing.”
“Only you call me that,” Mac pointed out. He wasn’t sure if he was more terrified or irritated. “And I wouldn’t have to worry about my windows, if you didn’t try to break into my home!”
“I’m not the only bad guy out there,” Murdoc pointed out. “And besides, I'm not even here as a bad guy, tonight.”
“Then why are you here, Murdoc?” Mac asked.
“To celebrate Halloween, of course,” Murdoc said.
“And why are you here to do that?” Mac asked, now definitely more irritated than terrified. “Aren’t there better places for you to be on Halloween? Like, with your son?”
“Cassian has declared he is ‘too old’ for trick or treating,” Murdoc said. “He’s at a sleepover.”
“You let him?” Mac asked. Murdoc didn’t seem much like the trusting type.
“After I stalked the family in question, of course,” Murdoc cooed. “And installed cameras.”
That was more like it. “You really shouldn’t be telling me this,” Mac said, as he rubbed his head. He could already feel the headache forming. “And that still doesn’t answer why you decided that the next best thing was to break into my house.”
“I thought we could do something,” Murdoc said, like that made any sense. “To celebrate the season!”
Mac stared at him. Thought for a second. “You don’t have any friends, do you?”
“Of course I have friends,” Murdoc said with a pout.
“Do you have any friends that haven’t tried to kill you?” Mac asked.
“Yes,” Murdoc said, grinning. “You!”
“And that you haven’t tried to kill,” Mac corrected.
Murdoc sighed, dejected. “No.”
“Great,” Mac said, shaking his head. “But you’re not my only friend, so-”
“I’m the only friend here,” Murdoc said. “All your other friends, off on Halloween dates-”
“How do you know that?” Mac asked. “Are you stalking us?”
Murdoc laughed. “Obviously.”
“This is supposed to make me want to agree to hanging out with you more?” Macgyver asked, staring at Murdoc.
“All I want is to have an enjoyable Halloween,” Murdoc said. “You and me. No murder. No kidnappings. No harm at all.”
“How the hell am I supposed to trust you?” Mac asked.
“Boy scout-” Murdoc started.
“No,” Mac said, cutting him off. “You kill my friends. You hurt me. You break into my house. And you expect me to just agree to go on some Halloween adventure with you that might end up with me being tied up in a warehouse bleeding out? Seriously?”
“I swear on Cassian,” Murdoc said, oddly solemn. “No one will get hurt tonight.”
That- that actually meant a lot. It was more than Mac was expecting, honestly. For some reason, Mac found himself almost trusting Murdoc.
“Will you not indulge me, boy scout?” Murdoc asked, and batted those stupid- creepy- weirdly cute eyes at him. “Just for one night.”
Macgyver knew that he should punch Murdoc, or build a taser, or something. Jack was in his ear yelling at him to get the hell out of there. And yet-
“Fine,” Mac said. “We can hang out for Halloween, or whatever it is you want to do. Watch horror movies, or something? Because I’m not very jumpy, it won’t be much fun for you.”
“That wasn’t what I had in mind,” Murdoc said. “Although I do love a good horror movie.”
“Of course you do,” Mac muttered under his breath.
“Still, I had something a bit more interesting planned,” Murdoc continued, as though he hadn’t heard Mac at all.
“And what is that?” Mac asked. “Pumpkin carving? Because I do not want you anywhere near a knife, just for my own well being.”
“Nothing like that,” Murdoc promised. “Come. We must go to the car now! Then you’ll find out where we’re going.”
“The car-” Mac started. “You expect me to go to a second location with you?”
“Oh come now,” Murdoc said. “If I was going to kill you, I would do it here. I’m not a coward, boy scout.”
“Of course,” Mac said sarcastically.
“Now,” Murdoc said, grabbing Macgyver by the arm. “Off we go!”
Mac let himself be dragged. For some reason. He probably could have put more of a fight, honestly. Screamed, wriggled, kicked a bit. But why would he? Murdoc, at least right now, seemed harmless. He had promised not to hurt Mac. And, yeah, Mac knew that normally that promise didn’t mean anything, but Murdoc had sworn on Cassian. And if Macgyver knew one thing about Murdoc, it was that he didn’t mess around when it came to his son. And besides, Murdoc just wanted to have some Halloween fun, for some reason. It sort of made sense. Serial killers and assassins would obviously love Halloween. So, Mac let himself be taken out of his house, locked the door behind him, and headed over to the car. His own car.
“Where are we even going?” Mac asked, as he climbed into the passenger seat. Because, for some reason, Murdoc was in the driver’s seat.
“Patience, patience,” Murdoc cooed at him, as he drove out of the parking lot. “Can’t you appreciate a surprise?”
“Every time you’ve surprised me, you’ve tried to, or succeeded in, killing me or someone I love,” Mac said, flatly.
“That’s simply not true,” Murdoc said. “What about when we rescued Cassian together?”
Mac stared at Murdoc. “You kidnapped Nasha. And nearly killed her.”
“Ah,” Murdoc said. “Right.”
“Did you seriously forget about that?” Mac asked.
“And did you seriously forget about the lovely times we had, once we were on our little road trip together? We held up a bank! We robbed an armoured truck! We rescued Cassian!”
“And you killed multiple people,” Mac pointed out. “I still don’t know if you killed your ex or not.”
“I protected Cassian,” Murdoc said, which was not an answer to Mac’s question, but apparently was the only answer he was getting. “And so did you. You can’t tell me you didn’t have just a little bit of fun, then.”
Mac had to admit that blowing up the armoured truck had been fun. “No,” Mac lied. “None of it was fun. It was illegal.”
“Come on, boy scout,” Murdoc whined. “Not even a little bit?”
“Being with you is never fun,” Mac said. Another lie. “You’re a killer.”
“But I’m not a killer tonight,” Murdoc said. “I promised, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mac said. “But who even are you, when you’re not a killer and not with Cassian?”
Murdoc grinned. “You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you, Macgyver?”
“You can never just give me a straight answer, can you?” Mac asked.
“I’m allergic to it, I’m afraid,” Murdoc teased. “I get a terrible rash.”
“Of course you do,” Mac said with a sigh. Why the hell had he agreed to this, again?
Until, finally, Murdoc stopped the car. Mac looked out the window at where they stopped and-
“Did you take me to a corn maze?” Mac asked. It seemed so normal, for Murdoc.
Murdoc grinned. “Isn’t it splendid?”
“Please don’t tell me that you took me out here to chase me down and kill me in the corn maze,” Mac said.
It all seemed a little too Children of the Corn, to Mac. At least he was pretty sure that’s what that movie was about, he wasn’t really paying attention.
“No,” Murdoc said, although his grin only grew bigger. “But that does sound fun! I could switch up my plans, if you wanted me to.”
“Murdoc,” Mac warned.
Murdoc sighed dramatically. “Relax, boy scout. I didn’t bring you here to kill you. That would be no fun at all.”
“Then why did you bring me here?” Macgyver asked.
“Because it’s Halloween!” Murdoc said, waving his arms through the air.
“You seem more like the haunted house type,” Mac quipped.
Murdoc frowned, almost, which was a weird sight to see on his normally freakishly bright face. “I thought it would be fun, boy scout.”
Mac stared at the dark cornfield through the window. He had never been to one. Honestly, Mac hadn’t even known that there were corn mazes in California. And yet, it seemed like there were. There was at least one, anyway. The one that Murdoc had gone out of his way to find and take him to. Mac had always wanted to go to one of these, ever since he was a little kid. But there’d never been one in Mission City, and his dad had always viewed them as a waste of time, anyway. He hadn’t thought there were any out here, and besides, Mac felt too old for them. He still does feel too old for them, actually. But if Murdoc had gone out of his way to take him here, then-
“It does seem fun,” Mac admitted. “I’ve never been to one of these, you know.”
“I do know,” Murdoc said, grinning again.
“What-” Mac started. “Did you contact my grandpa from the grave, or something?”
Murdoc simply grinned. “Nope. Not your dear old gramps.”
“Then who-” Mac started, and then he realised who else knew about Mac’s childhood dream of running through a cornfield. “Bozer told you.”
“Ding ding ding!” Murdoc announced, like he was the host of a fucked up game show or something. “Correct!”
“Bozer knows that I’m here. With you,” Mac said, slowly.
“Yep!” Murdoc said. “Well, kind of. He thinks that I’m your online date, finding a cute way to surprise you.”
Mac stifled a laugh. “He thinks you’re my online date?”
“And what’s so funny about that?” Murdoc asked.
‘You using an online dating site,” Mac said. He couldn’t hold it any more, and he giggled. “You being normal at all, honestly. Us meeting anywhere that didn’t involve you trying to kill me.”
“I suppose that is funny,” Murdoc admitted. “Although, this may shock you to know, I have made an online dating profile before.”
Mac raised an eyebrow. “For a kill?”
“Well, yes-” Murdoc started.
“Doesn't count,” Mac declared, even as he giggled again. It was weirdly easy, talking to Murdoc. At least when he wasn’t actively trying to kill him.
“And why doesn’t that count?” Murdoc asked.
“Because you weren’t looking for a date,” Mac said. “And you definitely didn’t use your real name.”
“You don’t even know my real name,” Murdoc pointed out.
Mac sighed. “That’s not- it’s the name you like, isn’t it? That’s real to me. But you probably used a stupid alias like Reginald, or something.”
“Reginald is a perfectly respectable name for an alias,” Murdoc sniffed.
“Oh god,” Mac said. “You’ve actually used the name Reginald before?”
“I’ve made a lot of aliases before, boy scout,” Murdoc said. “You start to run out of names, after a while.”
“Okay, yeah, but Reginald?” Mac asked, full on laughing again. “Reginald?”
Murdoc scowled. “We do have a corn maze to explore, you know.”
“Right,” Mac said, remembering where they were. “We should probably stop loitering in the parking lot.”
“Yes,” Murdoc said, “We should.”
Mac climbed out of the car, weirdly calm. Which was admittedly weird. How was Mac so calm, around someone who had tried to kill him countless times? How was Mac so easy going, around someone who had killed people Mac cared about? How was Mac so blissful, around someone who he was supposed to be arresting? But it was Murdoc. And Murdoc wasn’t like anyone else who Mac was meant to arrest. He wasn’t some nameless goon. Murdoc was someone who loved whistling showtunes. Murdoc was someone who loved his son more than anything in the world. Murdoc was someone who had gone through stupid lengths to ask Bozer where Murdoc should take Mac on Halloween. And it was Murdoc that Mac had just spent way too long giggling in the car with. He hadn’t laughed like that since he was a kid. So of course Mac felt safe, as he walked out of the car with a killer. It was Murdoc, after all.
The two of them entered the maze, side by side.
He hadn’t realised just how tall the corn was, until he was standing beside it. He hadn’t realised just how immense it was, until it was towering around him. He hadn’t realised just how dark it would be, until he was inside of the maze itself. It wasn’t- he wasn’t scared, exactly. But he found himself realising why he had always wanted to be in a corn maze, in that moment. Everything felt so far away. Phoenix, Bozer being out with Leanna, the stress of the job, it all just disappeared. Everything but darkness. Everything but corn. Everything but Murdoc. Murdoc felt so close to Mac, so alive, so human. Mac grabbed his hand, at some point. Part to make sure they didn’t lose each other, part to ground himself in the moment. He was here, in a corn maze. He was here, in a corn maze, like he had always dreamed of. He was here, in a corn maze, because of Murdoc.
Mac found himself smiling at Murdoc.
He found himself smiling at Murdoc, as they got lost in the dark rows of corn. He found himself smiling at Murdoc, as they held hands even though they didn’t really need to. He found himself smiling at Murdoc, as he participated in an experience that he never thought he would ever get to take part in. He found himself smiling at Murdoc, as he walked in the darkness with his enemy, feeling the safest he ever had. He found himself smiling at Murdoc, and unable to stop, even once the corn maze ended and they wound up eating overly expensive Halloween treats outside. He found himself smiling at Murdoc, even as the air got colder and colder and the night got later and later. He found himself smiling at Murdoc, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop.
And, more than anything, Macgyver found himself wishing for this Halloween to never end.