So this is a prompt from helloyesimhere; she wanted me to write a spinoff of "Everyone Hates a Bully" about Mac first starting off at DXS, and having something similar happen to him as in EHAB. Full prompt is at the bottom.

Sorry if the characters are OOC...I feel like I have a hard time writing the characters pre-canon...*covers face*

helloyesimhere, guess what! I got it done! I hope it's at least kinda what you were looking for...

Let me know what you think?

Not mine

The agents watched the new guy being led around by Thornton. From what they'd heard, the kid had just gotten out of the army and was specially recruited for DXS, even though he looked like he was barely legal.

"I can't believe this," Grant muttered to his partner Stephen. "What makes this kid so special? He doesn't look like much of anything, but Thornton's already giving him fieldwork at a level it took us a year to get to," he griped.

"I hear ya, man," Stephen agreed. "I don't know about you, but I think it's time we got to know the latest recruit to the DXS."

0-0-0

MacGyver washed his hands and walked out of the men's room. He was scheduled to meet back with Thornton in about twenty-five minutes, but for the time being, he decided he was going to wander around a little, try and familiarize himself with the building more. He turned and began walking down the hallway, almost running into two men as they walked out of one of the large conference rooms.

"Sorry," Mac said, trying to sidestep the two men. They did the little side-stepping dance people did when they didn't know which way the other person was going to go, but finally MacGyver stood to the side and gestured for the two men to go through.

"Sorry," he said again with a smile. "You go ahead."

"Hey, you're the new guy, right?" one of the men asked as the two of them walked past MacGyver.

"Yeah," Mac said, holding out his hands. "Name's MacGyver."

"I'm Stephen, and this is Grant," said the man who had spoken before, taking MacGyver's hand and shaking it.

"Hey," Grant greeted, shaking Mac's hand after Stephen let it go. "So you got the grand tour yet?"

"Uh, yeah," MacGyver replied, glancing around the hallway and nodding his head. "Yeah, Thornton showed me around a little bit."

"Did she show you everywhere?" Stephen asked, waggling his eyebrows. MacGyver felt a little odd as he talked with these two, but he wasn't sure why; they hadn't given him any indication that they were anything but nice, so he pushed his feeling aside.

"Uh, everywhere except the lower level and the lab," he said.

"Well, we could show you the lower level right now," Grant offered. MacGyver stared at the men, unsure of how to answer.

"I think I'll wait for Director Thornton," he finally said. "Thanks for the offer though," he added. He began to walk back down the hallway, but they caught up to him.

"Hey, we don't mind, really!" Stephen insisted. They flanked MacGyver on either side, preventing him from going anywhere.

"Yeah, let us show you one of our favorite places in the lower level," Grant added enthusiastically. MacGyver tried to protest and get away, but the men were quite persistent, and finally Mac decided to go with it. The nagging feeling had returned, but other than a strange, strong desire to give him a tour, they still hadn't shown any malicious intent, so MacGyver once again pushed the feeling away.

"Okay," he agreed. "I just have to meet back up with Thornton in a few minutes, so it can't be too long," he informed them.

"We'll keep it short," Grant promised. "We'll only show you what we think is the best place in the Foundation!"

"And where's that?" MacGyver asked as they approached the elevator.

"We can't tell you," Stephen said with a shake of his head. "That would ruin the surprise!"

As they walked down towards an elevator, Grant turned to MacGyver. "So tell us," he said. "There's a rumor going around that you can make a weapon out of anything?"

"I guess yeah, if that's how people are putting it. I take what I have around me and turn it into something useful," MacGyver said humbly, shrugging his shoulders.

"How'd you learn to do it?" Stephen asked as the three of them got on the elevator, and Stephen hit the button for the bottom floor. MacGyver shrugged again.

"I dunno. As a kid I liked taking things apart, figuring out how they worked, and then putting them back together," he explained.

"That's it?" Stephen asked, somewhat incredulously.

"Well, I also like reading books, but yeah," Mac replied. "That's about it."

Stephen and Grant looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but they didn't say anything else. The numbers on the elevator got lower and lower until they reached L3.

"Here we are," Grant said as the elevator doors opened, revealing a deserted hallway. "Steve and I like to come down here to get away whenever Thornton gets a little too demanding," he explained. MacGyver nodded, though he didn't agree with hiding from your boss.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I believe people should face their problems head-on. Hiding from your boss when she gets too demanding just seems like the easy way out.

"This is what you wanted to show me?" Mac asked, slightly disappointed that it wasn't a secret tunnel or something like that.

"Oh, it gets better," Grant promised. They led him down the hallway and showed him to a door. It wasn't anything fancy, just a regular door, and MacGyver wondered what was so wonderful behind it.

Once again, the nagging feeling returned, but MacGyver figured that was because of the time. He had about fifteen minutes to get back to Thornton, so he knew he needed to tell them he had to hurry.

"Hey guys," he said. "It's super nice of you to show me around, and show me the hangouts around here, but I really should be getting back soon," he reminded them.

"Always a boy scout, huh?" Stephen laughed. "Don't worry. We're almost done," he promised. They opened the door, but before MacGyver could ask them what was so special about this particular room, a shove from behind sent him sprawling into the room. He crashed into a shelf, knocking the wooden thing down over his head, along with everything on it.

As he struggled under the pile of stuff that had fallen on him, he heard snickering from the men outside as the door was shut. MacGyver surged forward, but he heard an electric click as the code was punched in and the lock slid into place, locking him in the small room.

"Find your way out of this, egghead," Mac heard Stephen call through the door. MacGyver tried the handle, but unsurprisingly found that it wasn't budging. He groaned a little as his shoulder ached from the heavy beating it had just taken. His head was also pounding, but he shrugged those feelings away for the moment, needing to concentrate.

Okay, fine. I should have listened to that little nagging voice in my head a little more. Sue me. Maybe this is just an initiation that they pull on all new recruits; a haze, or something like that. Yeah right.

MacGyver pulled out his phone, using the dim lighting from the screen to try and see what was around him. He was grateful when he found a light switch, which he flicked on. A dim lightbulb came on overhead, and he turned off his phone.

The first thing I realized was that the door is electronically locked, so what I needed to do was find some way of releasing said-electronic-lock.

Mac fished his trusty Swiss Army knife out of his pocket, flipping open one of the sections and walking over to the the side of the door. By the dim light, he could just make out a panel that he assumed led to the electrical wiring of the lock.

Unfortunately, I've only been employed here at DXS for a day, so they haven't quite gotten around to giving me the codes for the doors yet. However, there may be a way to put the code in from this side of the door. Theoretically.

MacGyver used his knife to pry the panel away from the wall, and he examined the wiring.

From what I heard when Stephen and Grant locked me in here, the password is a five-digit combo, so there literally could be any number of possibilities. Now, a lot of times the numbers on the keypads will have a slightly different tone than the others, and I have a pretty good auditory memory. All I need to do is figure out which button was associated with which tone, and I'm pretty sure I can remember the order the different tones went in.

MacGyver reached in and grabbed the wires. He began pressing the wires against the circuit board, causing the tones to go off. He pressed all ten digits and heard each tone, making special note of one whenever he heard a tone for the password. He finally finished, and, mentally crossing his fingers, he began the process of putting in the correct code. After he punched in the fifth digit, he heard the lock click open and he proceeded to step out of the small room and into the hallway.

He checked his watch and realized he had less than five minutes to get back to Thornton. He sprinted down the hallway, deciding it would be faster to take the stairs rather than wait for the elevator. He pushed the stairwell door open and took the stairs two or three at a time, making it back up to the conference room in just over three minutes.

"Sorry I'm late," MacGyver said as he walked in the conference room, face slightly flushed from his impromptu jog. Thornton was standing side-by-side with someone, facing a large screen, which currently had pictures of a bomb explosion, along with several pictures of different men. "Wait, I know these guys," Mac said as he pointed at the pictures. "These were known bomb-makers over in Iraq," he stated. Thornton nodded.

"They've just escaped custody, and since you know their patterns and behaviors, we were hoping you could help us track them down," she explained. "This is your partner," she added with a small smile, gesturing to the man standing next to her. "I believe you two already know each other?" Thornton asked as the man turned around, revealing Jack Dalton's smiling face. MacGyver's own face split into a grin, despite the pain he was feeling in the upper half of his body. Jack walked over and clapped a hand on his young friend's shoulder, and when he did that, MacGyver winced away slightly.

Jack's eyes narrowed in confusion and suspicion. "What's up bud?" he asked, staring his friend over.

"Nothing," MacGyver insisted. "It's great to see you!" he said, trying to divert the conversation away from his injuries. Thornton silently watched the two interact, noticing that there was indeed something wrong with Mac's side.

"Well, you two can do plenty of catching up on the plane ride," Thornton interrupted. "Wheels up in thirty," she informed them. The pair of them walked out, still talking, but Thornton caught Jack's suspicious look that he cast at his friend as the two of them walked away. She and Jack both knew MacGyver was hiding something, and she intended to find out what it was.

0-0-0

After The Mission

"So," Jack said as he and Mac drove towards their exfil site. "You ever planning on telling me what happened?"

"What are you talking about?" Mac asked. He had actually forgotten about the whole 'being shoved in a closet' prank, and the fight he had with the bomb makers had added injuries that hurt much worse than his sore shoulder.

"Mac," Jack said, giving his partner a hard look. "Back at HQ? You were hurtin'," he reminded his friend. "I wanna know what happened."

"Nothing," Mac insisted. Jack stared at his friend skeptically, and Mac knew it wasn't going to drop anytime soon. "I just...had a little run-in with some shelves. We had a disagreement, the shelves won, that's all," he finally admitted.

"Since when do you have run-ins with furniture? Kid, who are you trying to protect?"

MacGyver sighed. "Honestly, it's nothing," he said. "Just some other agents pulling a prank," he explained. "I don't think they meant to push me so hard, but I collided with a shelf," he finally gave in.

"Who are they?" Jack asked with a scowl on his face.

"I'm not telling you," Mac said. "Honestly Jack," he said when his partner and friend turned to give him an incredulous look. "I can take care of myself, fight my own battles," he assured the older man.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're going to," Jack pointed out.

"And just because I'm not going to doesn't mean that gives you permission to fight them for me," Mac argued. "If it happens again, I'll do something about it," he said.

"Promise?" Jack asked skeptically.

"Promise," MacGyver replied.

"Also promise that you'll tell me what's going on next time?"

"Wow, we're getting greedy now," Mac replied with a laugh. "Fine," he gave in after Jack continued staring at him. "Just keep your eyes on the road and I'll let you know if it happens again!"

"Good," Jack said, turning his focus back on the road.

A Few Hours Later

DXS HQ, Somewhere In CA

Mac and Jack walked into DXS, laughing and joking around, shoving each other lightly. Mac stopped dead in his tracks as he saw Grant and Stephen walking around with mops and buckets.

"Wow, looks like you managed to tick someone off," Jack laughed as he saw his two co-workers. They glared sullenly at the returning agents, and MacGyver gave them a confused look.

"If someone ticks Thornton or Oversight off, they usually get assigned desk duty or janitor duty for a day," Jack explained.

"Gotcha," Mac said slowly as they walked by the two agents, who continued to glare at him."So don't tick anyone off," he said. Jack nodded, and Mac and Jack headed upstairs for their debriefing with Thornton.

0-0-0

After the debriefing, Mac lingered around for a minute.

"Dude, you coming?" Jack asked from the doorway.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute," Mac said. Jack shrugged and walked away, leaving MacGyver and Patricia Thornton in the room.

"Yes?" the Director asked, sparing a moment to glance at her newest agent.

"How'd you know?" Mac asked.

"How'd I know what?" Thornton asked in clarification.

"Grant and Stephen," MacGyver replied, not needing to say anything else. Thornton nodded in understanding.

"You mean how did I know that they locked you in that closet on the third level of the basement?" she asked. MacGyver stared at her in slight surprise.

"That's...oddly specific, but yes," MacGyver said slowly.

"I have my ways of finding things out," she said vaguely.

"And that's all I get to know, isn't it?" the new agent asked with a small smile.

"That's all you get to know," Thornton confirmed. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said as way of dismissal.

"See you then," Mac said with a nod. He turned and walked out the door, catching up with his partner.

"What'd Patty want?" Jack asked.

"Does she know you call her Patty?" Mac countered, not wanting to talk about Grant and Stephen anymore.

"She does," Jack confirmed with a wink. "She pretends she doesn't like it, but I think she secretly does," he added in a conspiratory whisper. The two of them continued to talk, unaware of Thornton watching them from the conference room.

As she watched them leave, she couldn't help the feeling that even though she wasn't supposed to show favoritism, there was just something about that pair that made her think it was going to be a little harder than usual.

Full prompt: Would you mind maybe doing a spinoff thing of this, like, maybe when Mac first started and agents bullying him and then Thornton finding out? And maybe Mac didn't say anything bc he thought it was normal or some initiation thing or something?

So? Thoughts? helloyesimhere, is it OK?

Also, I'm sorry there wasn't more hurt in this...I figured agents couldn't get away with hurting him too bad, so I am sorry...

Disclaimer, I don't know if how Mac got out of the closet would actually work, but just roll with it for this story XD I've noticed that on phones, the numbers seem to have different tones but *shrug*

Did it work out OK though?