Title: Brothers In Arms

Author: tigerkity

Pairings: none

Disclaimer: Jack and Mac are unfortunately not mine, as well as their TV companions. I do not make any money from this and no copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: My story has weird timing, it just worked out that way. It is in Stargate season 4/5, complete with the year in between the original Abydos mission and the Stargate's reactivation. But here is where it gets a little complicated: On the MacGyver side, Pete never went blind, obviously, and Mac is still working with Phoenix, but he has aged (because Jack is older in 'Stargate' than Mac was in 'MacGyver') still following? Oh well, read on. It'll sort itself out, I promise. Also, Feedback of all kinds is appreciated.

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"Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
Ive watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms" - Dire Straits 'Brothers In Arms'

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"Make yourself at home Pete," MacGyver called after unlocking the door to his houseboat. He tossed the keys to his jeep on the kitchen counter and dropped his overnight bag on the couch. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out various fruits.

"You can go put your stuff upstairs on the bed, I'll take the couch tonight. Hey, Pete, I'm gonna make myself a smoothie. You want anything?"

"Naw thanks, but if ya got apple juice, I'll have some. Thanks."

MacGyver headed towards the cabinet and pulled out two glasses. He noticed one had dirty smudge on it and he wiped it on his shirt to see if it was something that he could get off. Once he realized that whatever the dirt that was on it wasn't baked on, he gently put it in the sink to be cleaned later and pulled out another glass from the cabinet.

He cut up some of the fruits he got out of the fridge earlier and put them in a blender along with a little bit of milk to make it more of a drink instead of just sludge. He put the blender on high and opened up the fridge again to get out some apple juice for his friend. It was then he noticed that Pete was heading back down the stairs with something in his hand.

"Hey Mac, when was this picture of you taken?"

"Hold on Pete, I can't hear you." He turned off the blender and the noise immediately stopped. "Okay, now what did you say?"

"I asked when was this picture of you taken?"

Mac grabbed a towel that was hanging on the edge of a lower cabinet and walked towards Pete while drying his hand of fruit juices. "What picture of me?"

"This one here. It was by your bed."

Now Mac was confused, he never kept a picture of himself by his bed. He had a picture of Harry and… oh.

When Pete was stowing his bags in Mac's room, he had noticed a picture of Mac with short hair on the bedside table. He had gone over to get a better look as he had remembered that he had never seen his best friend with shorter hair, but once he looked closely he realized that it couldn't have been too long ago because the shortest his hair had been was when he had first met him, and it was much darker. In the picture, though, it was a light, honey brown color, like Mac's was now, but then there was the fact that it was a lot shorter, almost military. He would have surely realized if Mac had cut his hair, especially to that extent. He picked it up and brought it back down to ask him about it.

What he wasn't expecting was Mac's reaction to the picture. The moment he saw the photo, he gently took it out of Pete's hands and stared at it with an almost wistful, and melancholy look. His eyes had softened and glazed over as if he was recalling some long passed memory.

/flashback/

"Hey Mac, do you really think you should keep this out in the open like this?"

"Yeah Jack why not?" Jack was holding a picture of himself that Mac had taken a couple months ago back at their cabin in Minnesota.

"Someone's gonna see it," He pointed out.

"So they'll see it. They'll just think it's me, they always have and so they always will."

"Yeah, don't remind me. Okay bro, it's you who will have to answer all the questions, not me." Jack picked up his bag and headed down the stairs, with Mac following right behind him. Once they got to the bottom of the stairs, Jack turned around and embraced his younger brother in a familial hug. They then stepped back and looked into each other's eyes.

"Have a safe trip Jack. Watch your back."

"Always bro, always. I'll miss ya."

"Me too."

"Stay safe." With that, Jack turned and headed out the door. He was still holding the handle when he turned back around and jokingly gave Mac a parting piece of advice to sort of lighten the mood of sadness, "Oh, and Mac, watch out for those damsels in distress. Alright?"

MacGyver chuckled at the long running joke between them. His brother had always teased him that it seemed like almost every week he was rescuing some fair maiden from the terrible dangers of the streets of LA.

"I will Jack, if you stop being such an annoyance to the chain of command."

With a mock evil laugh he responded, "Never!"

"Same here," he answered. Jack closed the door and Mac wondered if he would ever see him again. They could never really safely visit each other normally like other families could; their visits were few and far between. 'Don't think like that Mac,' he told himself, 'No one can kill that guy; he always turns up, eventually, just like the proverbial penny. You couldn't get rid of him that easily.' With a soft snort of amusement, he quietly went back to his life as if nothing had happened; that was the only way it could be.

/end flashback/

"Mac? Mac, you alright?" MacGyver shook his head gently, and his eyes refocused, as if waking from a dream.

"Yeah. Yeah Pete, I'm okay," he tried to reassure his best friend.

"You sure? You looked like you went off in your own world there for a second."

"I'm fine Pete, really. It's just…well, it just that this picture brought back a memory I had forgotten about for a long time."

Pete was very curious about what it was that Mac was thinking about so he tried to press him for some more info, "Yeah…what about?"

"Nothin' much really, just stuff."

He always knew when Mac was trying to evade an issue, and this was one of those times. He didn't have the gall to say, 'it's none of your business, so get the hell out!' Mac was too nice for that.

He couldn't tell Pete who it really was in that picture. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, he trusted Pete with his life but it was more a matter of whom he didn't trust. He could never know who was listening. Sure, he checked the house for bugs at least once a week, but, as the person in the picture had said, "The ears have walls Mac." He let out a chortle at that thought. Butchered sayings like that was what made Jack Jack. He shook his head as he walked to the stairs, going back up to replace the photo on his nightstand.

"Oh, Pete, your juice is on the counter. Help yourself."

"Okay Mac, thanks." Pete picked up his glass and wondered at his friend's sudden change of behavior. He was acting sort of odd. He had laughed at a picture of himself. 'Ooooookay. He probably just needs some rest, that's all.'

MacGyver had just placed the picture down when the phone rang. He sat down on the bed and picked it up,

"Hello?"

"Mac?" A desperate and very familiar voice answered.

"Jack? Oh my god…. what, what happened? Are you okay?" Something was very, very off. One, Jack never blatantly called him like this, there was usually a lot of smoke and mirrors involved. Two, Jack sounded like shit, and worse, he sounded nervous. Jack was never nervous. Three, he should have known and anticipated Lady Fate. He had been thinking about Jack, and in the past whenever that happened, Jack had always shown up, usually bringing a whole lot of mischief and trouble with him. But, as they had grown up, the mischief became more dangerous. Mac shuddered to think what trouble his brother could find now, as a grown man.

"Slow down there big guy. I was just in the…ah…I was just ah in the neighborhood, marina." Mac noticed that he had sounded distracted, like he was watching out for something in particular.

"If ya can, you better stay put for a little bit. I've got company."

"So I've noticed."

"His name's Pete, he's my best friend and he's my boss."

"Thornton, right, bald and reminds me of my CO?" Mac rolled his eyes,

"Yeah, that's the one. Hold on a minute or two, I'll clear the house for ya. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Sounds good…thanks."

"Jack," He sighed, "Be careful…and don't make a mess."

"Hey that wasn't my fault!" Jack retaliated. 'It was those damn rent-a-thugs,' he thought.

"Just, never mind. I'll see ya later. Where are ya?"

"I'm in the phone booth overlooking the marina. Come on, where'd ya think?"

"Jack-"

"Gotta go Mac, see ya later." The phone connection cut off.

"Later Jack" Mac quickly headed down the stairs, and desperately tried to think of a reason to get Pete out of the house.

"Who was that on the phone?"

"Phone? Oh…uh…just, Phoenix. They said they had some paperwork they needed you to sign off on, immediately."

"Now? Can't it wait a couple hours?"

"Apparently not. Need a lift?"

"Yeah sure thanks. I appreciate it."

"No problem Pete." He ushered his friend out the door, quickly down the dock and up to his jeep. Mac tried to inconspicuously search the area for his brother. He knew he was there, he could feel him; he just couldn't see him. He sighed and gave up. He knew that if Jack didn't want to be seen, then it was damn near impossible to. He got into his jeep and drove away to take Pete to Phoenix.

He knew that his impromptu cover about paperwork would hold. There was always a lot of paperwork coming out of the Phoenix Foundation. It was a wonder. Sometimes he thought that all the time he spent trying to get people aware about saving the forests was just trying to make up for all the trees cut down to push that amount of paper across the numerous desks at the Foundation.

Any ideas on where this is going? first one to come up with the answer gets a hundred points!