Chapter 2: Jack remembers the other half of the story, the part he didn't tell Riley.

As Jack watched his partner chatter with Riley as they gathered their things as they prepared to leave the debriefing room, he let his mind think back to the other half of the story, the part he hadn't told Riley.

Jack felt a glimmer of frustration. Now that Patricia was so high in the DXS, she as been needed to help deal with an uncooperative new president. As a result, he and MacGyver has been assigned a new agent to debrief them, if only until Thornton had the time again.

The agent was Jenks.

Ever since Jenks had gotten away with handcuffing MacGyver to a table during a debriefing just because the kid couldn't sit still, he had been enforcing more and more ridiculous rules on the kid every time he debriefed them. It had started out small. The blond couldn't stand up or move around. It gradually progressed to larger and harsher things, such as MacGyver couldn't speak unless he was spoken to, or bring food into the debrief.

This last one was especially cruel in Jack's eyes, as the kid was still, well, a kid. He was still growing, and he was a teenage boy, and after some of their missions where they hadn't had the chance to eat for a while, MacGyver was literally starving. To make matters worse, Jenks had shown no objection to Jack bringing food, and the agent himself would even sometimes bring food to the debriefings and eat it front of MacGyver.

Jack had made a complaint to HR, but had been met with the response that, "Technically, he's allowed to set rules in the debriefing. Basically," and here the sympathetic agent had looked Jack in the eyes to drive her point home, "We can't do anything unless he does something completely unethical and there is proof and two witnesses other than the person lodging the complaint."

Jack had spent the rest of the day fuming as he remembered the way MacGyver's stomach had growled through their last debriefing as Jenks had consumed a particularly fragrant turkey sandwich in front of him.

To make matters worse, if MacGyver didn't follow the rules that Jenks set during the debriefings, he would be handcuffed to the table. It only took two missions for Jack and the kid to catch on. Unfortunately, the last of those times had happened after a mission where MacGyver took some pretty severe hits to his ribs and found later that they were cracked. Being handcuffed to the table had put him in some pretty severe pain, and he had barely been able to focus and give his report on what had happened during the mission.

Jack had barely been able to restrain himself from actually hitting Jenks; he was only stopped by the thought that Jenks would find some way to take that out on the kid as well.

It was after a particularly long mission where both Jack and MacGyver hadn't slept in thirty-six hours when Jack finally snapped.

They were waiting in the room, Jack watching the door as MacGyver drifted in and out of a light doze, when Jenks threw the door open with a loud bang. MacGyver, taken by surprise, tumbled out of his seat and ended up sprawled on the floor. Jack would've laughed at the startled expression on the kid's face had it not been for the situation they were in.

Jenks reached the teen's chair in two angry strides, getting to the kid before Jack could gather himself enough to get out of his chair. He watched as Jenks bent down and roughly hauled MacGyver, who had a panicked look in his eyes, to his feet, hissing, "I've told you not to fall asleep, agent. It's disrespectful to-"

Jack shot out of his chair and interrupted him furiously, shoving him backwards and away from MacGyver. "Get your hands off of him."

Jenks turned to him, a triumphant look in his eyes. "I knew it. Having the two of you in here has just made you more prone to outbursts. Come with me, agent."

Jenks beckoned to MacGyver, who looked at Jack with a pleading look. Jack took a threatening step towards the older man, but Jenks held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. "Do I need to handcuff you to the table, Agent Dalton?"

Jack stopped, suddenly realizing that if the man decided to call for backup, Jack would be the one being taken down and would have his record examined.

That would leave Jenks free to threaten the kid without anyone there to stop him.

Jack froze in his tracks, hating the feeling of helplessness that overwhelmed him. Jenks shot him a triumphant look, then beckoned again to MacGyver, saying impatiently, "I said follow me."

MacGyver followed the senior agent out the door, shooting a look back at Jack. The older man hated the fear he saw sparking in those pale blue eyes.

The door shut with a resounding finality, and Jack, in disbelief, heard the sound of the lock clicking.

Jack impatiently muttered to himself as he looked around the room for something that he could use to pick the lock. "Come on, think. What would Mac do?"

Suddenly, it came to him. The brunet looked up at the lights flickering in the ceiling. The man thanked his lucky stars that the lights were a standard lightbulb with a filament as he remembered a trick that MacGyver had taught him once when they were both bored on a mission.

The man carefully removed the lightbulb from the ceiling while standing on the table, using his shirt to cover his hand. Even with the fabric protecting him, he was slightly burned, but Jack put it out of his mind as he focused on what he was about to do. Carefully, the man smashed the lightbulb on the table, revealing the filament inside. He took the filament from the lightbulb and, after a couple of minutes, succeeded in picking the lock.

The brunet didn't take a moment to celebrate his accomplishment, instead running down the hall and peering into each room in an attempt to find his friend.

When he did find him, it was in one of the interrogation rooms, with the one-sided glass that allowed people outside the room to see the people inside the room, but not the other way around. The fact that the glass was there was the only reason that Jenks didn't see Jack.

Jack was about to burst into the room when he remembered what the agent he had consulted had said. Quickly, he turned and rushed off, finding, to his continuing luck, two agents that he was on friendly terms with walking down the hallway in his direction.

Jack skidded to a stop in front of the two men, who seemed somewhat alarmed by his rapid pace. Jack blurted out, "No time to explain. Follow me, and one of you get your phone camera ready."

With that, the man set back down the hall at a dead sprint, the pounding footsteps of the two men behind him confirming that they were following.

The group reached the room once again, and Jack froze at the sight in front of him.

MacGyver was handcuffed to the table in the same manner as a couple of months before. He was a bit taller than last time, so his chest wasn't stretched quite so uncomfortably on the table, but it was still painful. He was trying to keep his head up to look at Jenks, but was obviously exhausted, as his head began to fall towards the tabletop as his eyes started to droop. Just before the teen's head met the table, however, Jenks slammed his hand down right next to his ear, startling the younger man into awareness.

MacGyver's head snapped up as he flinched away from Jenks, his panicked gaze settling on the agent. The older man set down the pen he was using to write on some papers, an obviously fake expression of disappointment on his face as his spoke. "Come on, Agent, we've talked about this. You need to learn to respect your superiors."

As he spoke, Jenks stood and began to walk around MacGyver. The teen tried to keep the man in his line of sight, but was unable to with the way he was handcuffed to the table. Jenks suddenly grabbed the blond's hair and wrenched his head upright, eliciting a stifled gasp of pain from the younger man. Jenks simply met MacGyver's gaze and raised an eyebrow, waiting to release the teen until he had choked out a, "Yessir."

Jenks watched as the kid's head dropped, MacGyver's chest heaving in panicked breaths. Jack knew, through the haze of his anger, that the kid would've been able to hide them had he not been so tired. The only way Jack was keeping himself from bursting into the room was the fact that he knew that they had to get proof that Jenks was abusing his power.

His restraint shattered the moment the agent that was recording the scene said, "We've got enough."

Jack was in the room before Jenks said another word. He slammed the other man against the wall, saying, "Stay away from him, you-"

Jenks cut him off, saying, "I could get you suspended for-"

Jack punched him and watched in satisfaction as his eyes rolled into his head and his legs crumpled from underneath him. He let the man's body drop carelessly onto the floor, turning from it to check on his partner.

One of the agents had released the kid from his handcuffs while the other had left- to find some security guards, Jack assumed- and the blond was rubbing at his wrists while looking up at Jack in relief. The agent turned from MacGyver and switched places with Jack, bending down to secure Jenks in the handcuffs while Jack tended to his partner.

MacGyver was sitting in the chair, slightly slumped, as he said lowly, "He wouldn't- I was so tired-"

Jack tentatively drew the kid into a hug, muttering, "I know. Don't worry, no one's mad at you."

MacGyver allowed himself to fall into the embrace, and Jack drew back after a moment to find that the kid had almost fallen asleep on his shoulder. Chuckling in relieved amusement, Jack straightened up, tapping the kid lightly on the shoulder. His amusement vanished, however, when the teen startled awake, flinching away from the hand that had awoken him and panic flashing through his eyes as his gaze shot up to Jack.

His expression relaxed the next moment, however, when he realized who woke him. Rubbing at his eyes in a way that made him seem much younger than nineteen, he peered up at Jack. Jack smiled, trying to show no trace of his anger on his face. "C'mon, buddy. I don't think anyone's gonna mind if you crash on the couch in the break room while this mess gets cleaned up."

Together the two men made their way to the aforementioned break room. MacGyver fell onto the couch and was asleep almost instantly, his arms crossed over his chest and his mouth opened slightly as he emitted small, whistling snores that were more cute than annoying.

Jack watched his friend- someone he had begun to realize that he thought of as a brother- sleep for an hour or so, too keyed up to feel his own exhaustion. He glanced up sharply as the door opened, but relaxed when he saw that it was the agent he had complained to.

She smiled as she took a seat by him. She was motherly, and getting on a bit in age, but had been with the DXS for as long as anyone could remember. Quietly, as she gazed at the sleeping teen, she spoke. "I saw what you got. The video and the two witnesses will be enough to get Jenks fired. We can't prosecute him, because this is, after all, a secret agency, but you can bet that his life will be pretty horrible after this. I wouldn't be surprised if he has someone suddenly steal his credit cards and spend all of his money right as his house is suddenly foreclosed on, or something of the sort."

With that and a motherly pat in Jack's hand, the woman rose from the table and gave Jack a quick wink. Then she turned and left, leaving Jack with the relieved knowledge that this wouldn't happen again. Not to MacGyver, or to anyone else.

Jack watched as his friend slept peacefully on the couch, blissfully unaware of the world, and safe in the knowledge that Jack was there.