Okay, so… I got this idea while reading Gib's "Lands and Grooves Hills and Valley's" and I just couldn't help myself.

So this is one of the results if you take that story and my "Grandpa" story, blend it together and let it sit for a few years…

Hope y'all like it!

August 24th 2029, Some hellish-hot place in Northern Africa.

"Incoming on your right, don't be alarmed when I fire…" Bozer whispered over the radio. He had his finger on the trigger, ready to pull.

"Thanks Boze…" Mac answered in a hushed voice as he tinkered with the bomb he tried to disarm. The already warm padded bomb-suit was turned hazardously hot by the blazing sun, and Mac was dripping with sweat.

The muffled sound of three rapid shots whistled close to where he was working, and he allowed himself the two seconds it took to ask Bozer, "Did you get them?"

"Confirmed." Bozer answered, not quite able to hide the satisfaction in his voice. "How is it looking down there? Do I need to prepare to go KABOOM?"

"2:47… Let's hope I can steer us clear of going kaboom today, huh?"

"Yeah, you know… That would be awesome!" Bozer called back, eyes scanning the area in front of him. "MAC! What the heck are you doing?"

"Taking off my suit."

"I can see that! Now, why are you taking off the suit that might help keep you alive if this goes caca?"

"If this goes caca… The suit won't help me here, might keep me alive an additional second or so… But it's not going to save me. And I'm about to pass out in this thing, and if that happens, we're both as good as dead."

"Okay-okay… I get it... Just don't-"

"-Go kaboom?" Mac asked as he put down his helmet and ripped open the Velcro securing the jacket of the EOD suit before shedding it.

"Yes." Bozer nodded. "Two more, also right."

Mac nodded, right before Bozer took the two soldiers out.

"Looks like more soldiers are coming…" Riley suddenly said over their radio. "Five vehicles, approaching from the south."

"Bozer?"

"I'm ready Mac, don't you worry…" Bozer assured from his vantage point, "Just take care of the bomb, so we can go home and you can say hi to Jake and baby Lucy…"

Mac gave a thumb's up to Bozer, but kept his focus on the explosive device in front of him.

"Bozer, make sure my husband makes it back home alive, will you?" Riley begged over the radio, "His son and daughter are missing him a lot…"

"I'll do my best to grant that wish, Mrs. MacGyver…" Bozer almost snickered, he knew what her response would be.

"Actually it's still Davis… And you know it…"

Bozer chuckled, "Yeah, that's the disadvantage of Mac being called by his last name…"

"Boze…" Mac said hesitantly, "Maybe you should get outta here…"

"What? Why?"

"Because the clock reads 35 seconds right now, and I don't know if I can disarm it in time."

"Then you should both get out of there Mac!" Riley chimed in from where she was safe behind her keyboard back at the Phoenix Foundation.

"Can't…" Mac sighed, "There are two wounded girls inside the building, if I abandon this bomb. They die."

"And if you don't abandon that bomb, you could go kaboom along with it!" Riley almost barked. "You've got two young kids and a wife back here! Remember?"

"Yeah, I do…" Mac answered hurriedly, "I just…"

Mac trailed off, as he started untangling the wires of the bomb. The blade of his Swiss Army knife travelling between two specific wires as he calculated which one to cut. A glimpse up at the timer told him that he had to make his decision within 4 seconds or it would all be too late.

He singled out one of them, the yellow one, closing his eyes and sending a silent prayer he cut it. He opened his eyes again, instantly looking at the timer once again. The screen was frozen at 00:01.

"It's safe…" he let out breathlessly. "Bomb is dead."

"Damn Mac! You couldn't do that with a little less suspense the next time?" Bozer gasped over the coms, he had taken the liberty to look at the timer through his scope after Mac called it clear. "That's not a lot of seconds left…"

"But it's enough…" Mac countered, silently thanking Bozer for not revealing that it was just a single second.

"That it is my man!" Bozer agreed.

"Boze, how many seconds did my crazy husband have before everything went –" Riley did her best imitation of a bomb going off.

"About seven…" Bozer lied quickly. "As I said, not many seconds…"

"Okay…" Riley sighed with relief, "Now, sorry to interrupt you, but you've still got five vehicles incoming."

"Crap, right." Bozer got to his knees. "From the south, right?"

"Correct."

"Hi, Riley…" Mac finally managed to speak up once again, his heart still pounding way too fast within his chest.

"Yeah?"

"I love you!"

"I love you too, Mac." Riley said, and both Mac and Bozer could hear the smile on her lips. "But make sure you get home!"

"Okay."

"I'll make sure of that." Bozer chimed in, "And I'm going to let that little slice of romance slide, even though I kinda don't like being a constant audience to your relationship. You know, the sweet gooey bits of it."

"Sorry!" Mac and Riley said in unison.

"It's alright…" Bozer laughed as he got into position towards the south. First he took out the right front tire of the leading vehicle. He flashed a smile as the second one collided into the first one.

Then as all five of the vehicles stood still for a few seconds, he took out the right front tire of the remaining four ones.

"That ought to buy us some time…" he smirked as he scanned the landscape for more intruders. "Riley, could you keep an eye with them? Mac, you need some help brother?"

"Will do Bozer, Will do…" Riley nodded mostly to herself as she set up an alarm to go off if the vehicles or the guys driving them moved outside a set area.

"Thanks." Bozer added quickly, before addressing Mac again. "Now, Mac… You need any help down there?"

There was total radio silence for at least five seconds, before Bozer figured he had to try again.

"Mac?"

Still nothing.

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Mac heard his friend calling out to him over the coms, loud and clear, but there was something about the barrel of a .45 that made you think twice about answering. Or maybe it was the tense and sweaty guy holding said .45 that did it?

"Mac? You there buddy? Did you run out of battery…?" Bozer asked through his earpiece.

"Please don't shoot…" Mac almost whispered, hoping not to startle the man behind the gun but also hoping that Bozer would understand why he wasn't answering directly.

"Great, I leave you for what? Five seconds and you go ahead and find someone to hold a gun to you?" Bozer almost sighed, "You inside the building to the north? Snort once if you're inside the building to the north…"

Mac did as he was told.

"Hey-whoa!" Mac then called out to the man with the gun, "I just had a lot of desert dust clogging my nose, okay? No need to get nervous about it!"

The man behind the gun stepped closer, "We should be dead by now! You stopped the bomb, didn't you?"

The man's pronunciation was less than perfect, but he certainly knew English.

Mac nodded a fraction. "Yeah, I did. I didn't want the two girls in the next room to die."

"Well, they are going to!" the man with the gun barked back, "But now I'll be wasting a lot more bullets to do so!"

"A lot more?"

The man nodded, "There are a few more in the basement."

"There are more in the basement?" Mac repeated in the same hushed voice, afraid to startle the gunman.

"26 girls down there!" the man nodded, "But then again, what is it you say? It will be like shooting fish in a barrel?"

"So, are you working alone?"

"No…" the man smiled, "I've got 15 more men on the way over here, right this second."

"But you're alone here, now?"

"Yeah, but you've got to remember… You've got a gun pointed at your head, and I'm not afraid to die…"

Crap. Perfect. Mac thought closing his eyes for a second, of course he had to be held at gunpoint by a suicidal maniac.

"Bozer. I know this is bad timing, but the guys you told me to keep watch of…" Riley came over their coms, her voice a little shaky.

"They're moving, right?"

"Yep…"

"And it looks like that needs my immediate attention?" Bozer asked, not liking where this was headed.

"Looks like it." Riley whined. "Two of them are carrying RPGs, the rest have rifles. They have changed the tire on one truck, stuffed as many of them in and on it as possible. They're coming in quickly."

"Mac, buddy…" Bozer sighed, "You think you can handle this one on your own? Snort once if you do…"

A second or two later, Mac made an audible noise with his nose.

The gunman waved his gun at him. Mac shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly, scrounging up his nose. "Sorry, desert dust. My nose itches like crazy…"

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Bozer had planned on whispering a warning to Mac before he fired the first shot. Give him a little heads up. But of course plans never go as you want them to, and the guys stuffed on the truck saw him before he had the chance to. And they opened fire.

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The gunman's head snapped towards the sound of the gunfire as it killed the silence.

"You're not alone?" he asked.

Mac fought against the urge to spit out something like 'of course not, you really thought I could disarm the bomb and make sure I didn't get shot all at once?' but he settled for shaking his head.

"How many?" the local demanded.

"Enough." Mac answered calmly, hoping he was right.

The sound of the gunfire pulled on the man's attention, his eyes flickering back and forth between Mac and the direction of the sound.

The fifth time the man's eyes left him, Mac leapt into action. Risky, but it had to be done, before the gunman ran tired of waiting.

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Bozer froze a spit second when he heard a gunshot coming from the wrong direction, quickly followed by an ear-piercing scream over the coms.

His heart was about level with his knees by the time the second shot from behind him sounded. But he was a little too busy to call out to Mac, and frankly- if his best friend just had been killed, he wanted to be in the dark for as long as possible.

"MAC!" Riley cried out, not able to hold it back any longer. She had to know. She needed to know.

"Yep…" a hoarse, pained voice croaked out over the radio. "Still here…"

"Oh, thank God!" Riley gasped. "You okay babe?"

Mac let out a pained grunt before answering, "Yeah…"

"Damage report…" she then demanded over the coms.

"Right shoulder." Mac gasped, "Bullet stuck somewhere in there…"

"And the second shot?"

"Well, the other guy isn't moving any longer…" Mac said before letting out a moan, "Man, it almost feels like Cairo day…"

"That's not funny…" Bozer took the liberty to add, relieved that Mac was still alive. "And it's still four days until Cairo day…"

"And we never go to work on Cairo day…" Riley added, before turning her attention back to Mac. "How bad is it?"

"Can still feel my arm…" Mac croaked out, "Bleeding is manageable…"

"So we don't have to worry that you bleed out on us?" Riley asked, hope in her voice.

"Don't think so…" Mac answered. "That being said… Bozer, as soon as you're done…"

"Come help you?"

"Yeah…" Mac confirmed, before letting out a shaky breath,"Thanks…"

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Bozer changed the magazine, and chambered one. He found his target and squeezed the trigger. A pink mist replaced the spot where the man's head had been a short second earlier.

Then he went on to the next one in line, it was a skill he had honed and perfected over many years now. One that he never thought he would excel at when he first asked Jack to teach him, back when he was new to the spy game.

He breathed slowly. Found his target. He inhaled, exhaled about half of the air he had just pulled in, paused, squeezed, felt the recoil, let out the rest of his breath. Inhaled again. Exhaled. Found a new target and repeated the cycle.

It didn't take him long to pick down all of the approaching enemies. Jack would probably be proud of him on this one.

"I think I'm done. Riley, how's it looking from the sky?"

"I think you're correct. Can't see anyone coming your way…" she answered quickly.

"Mac, you still up buddy?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I'm coming over."

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There was a lot of blood, alarmingly much. That was the first thing he noticed as he walked into the room Mac was in.

"Shit." He whispered under his breath, "Mac, this is a lot of…"

"-Not all mine…" Mac ground out, he had his left thumb jammed into his shoulder as far as the wound canal would allow him. "The blood is not all mine…"

"You look like crap!"

"Thanks," he grunted, "I feel like it too…"

"What did you do? Shoot someone for once?" Bozer asked, toeing the dead man on the floor. "Some of Jack's infinite wisdom finally getting through to you?"

Mac shook his head a bit, "No, we were fighting over the gun, I was just lucky not to have it aimed at me when the second bullet fired."

"Luck or not, I still have to take a look at that shoulder…" Bozer said as he knelt down in front of Mac.

"Get the girls first."

"No."

"Some of them need medical attention, if not all of them…"

"You need medical attention." Bozer scowled back, "Now, let me take a look at that shoulder of yours so that Riley and I can relax, then I'll happily take care of the girls in the next room over and the ones in the basement…"

Mac did as he was ordered, causing blood literally pour down his chest on the right side. Which again caused Bozer to quickly press his hand over Mac's wound, hard enough to make the blond cry out in agony.

"Well, that's not good…" Bozer said as he swallowed, he still had trouble with blood and gore when it was up close and personal. He couldn't stand seeing his friends hurt or in pain, but he was enough of a soldier to do what needed to be done.

"Okay, Mac…" he said as he blinked hard, "Put pressure on it again, I'll find something to stop it…"

Mac nodded and took over the job of keeping pressure on the wound. "There are still bullets in the .45 over there… Saw a box of matches on the kitchen table."

"Let's cauterize the crap out of that wound, huh?" Bozer said as he brought his hands together with a clap as he stood back up.

"Bozer…" Riley prodded, "Since I probably won't get a straight answer from Mac, no matter what… How bad is it looking?"

"Oh, he'll be alright…" Bozer answered as he went to find the box of matches. "He's going to need a lot of rest and some time to heal back up, but he'll be fine."

"Thank you…" Riley said and let out a relieved breath.

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Riley wiped away a tear as she relaxed a bit more. It was hard for her to be back at the Phoenix Foundation when the two others were off on the other side of the earth. Especially when things went south in a hurry.

It had taken all she had not to ask Mac how he was doing every fifth second after he was shot, but she knew that it was best for her to keep silent and not disturb them more than necessarily after she learned that Mac was still alive.

Once again the reality dawned on her. This was a hazardous occupation, there was no guarantee that you would return home when you left in the morning. No guarantee that there ever would be a next smile, next hug or a next kiss. No guarantees at all.

They had been lucky. For more than a decade, they had been lucky. They had always retuned home, even when it looked the darkest. Even from Seoul, Kinshasa and Pyongyang. The places she thought of as their Cairos. She knew Kinshasa and Pyongyang made Mac's list of places he never wanted to re-visit too, they had been that bad, and it was always scary when Mac uttered the words 'this is just as bad as Cairo…' Thankfully that wasn't often. It had only happened twice. 'This is ALMOST as bad as Cairo…' on the other hand, that happened more often.

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Mac felt ill, not just because of the hole in his shoulder, but because of the gun and the fact that he might as well have pulled the trigger on the other guy.

Looking at the blood on his clothes he shuddered. A fair part of it was his own, but most of it was the other man's. Mac closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall behind him. He didn't want to look at all of the blood, he wasn't sure he could stomach it.

"Mac, you've got to stay awake!" Bozer almost shouted when he re-entered the messy room.

"I'm awake…" Mac answered, still with closed eyes. "Just trying to avoid the scenery…"

Bozer looked around and understood what Mac meant. He knew Mac didn't have a problem with blood in itself, but the equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting in all red when you're already in pain… That's no good.

"Well, I've got the matches and the bullets…" Bozer informed as he knelt down next to Mac. He picked a multi-tool out of his vest and tugged the bullet out of the casing. "You ready?"

"Not really…" Mac winced, still keeping his eyes closed.

"I'm going to go ahead and do whatever I need to do anyway… Okay?"

Mac nodded a minimalistic nod and prepared himself.

Bozer flinched as Mac squirmed painfully as he jammed as much of the gunpowder into Mac's bullet wound.

"Remember the first time I did this?" Bozer asked, trying to distract Mac. "I was so scared that when I lit up the gunpowder I had stuffed into the wound tract, the bullet still inside there would explode. You had to light it up yourself."

Mac grunted, making Bozer know that he acknowledged his trip down memory lane.

"The second time went a little better…" Bozer shrugged as he struck the match and it flared up. Then he brought the flame close to the wound and the gunpowder blazed up.

Bozer tried his best to block out the sound of Mac's howling scream. It was hard.

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Riley brought her feet up on the chair and hugged her knees. She couldn't wait to see Mac again, hug him tight and tell him she loved him.

She had turned down the volume on the radio. She couldn't stand hearing Mac suffer this way. She felt sick, knowing the man she loved was in an immense pain.

She shuddered and looked towards the corner of her desk. A family picture of her, Mac, Jake and Lucy. It was taken at Bozer's place, by Jack. A big old happy family. Lucy was 5 weeks old when the picture was taken, they had been celebrating Jack and Diane getting married. Finally. That day, that was what life should be like. Life shouldn't be like this at least.

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"How are you feeling?" Bozer asked when Mac eventually calmed down.

"Been worse…" Mac gritted out before swallowing, "Been better too…"

"I should probably 'MacGyver' a sling? Right?"

Mac grunted, displeased. "Could you stop? Using my name as a verb?"

Bozer smirked, shaking his head. "Nope. It's too perfect!"

"No, it's not. It's –OW!"

"Okay, sit still while I find something to act as a sling."

"Go help the girls first…"

Bozer's head snapped up at that, then he looked towards the open doorway. Towards the two first girls they knew about.

Within two seconds, Bozer was at the door. Nodding at the girls.

"Hello there! How are you two?" He waved a hand at them, "How injured are the two of you?"

"Sprained my ankle…" the oldest girl answered, "My cousin stepped on glass. She cut up her foot."

Bozer nodded, "Are you doing alright?"

They both nodded, "He's dead, right?"

"Yeah, but my friend got shot." Bozer nodded, "Have any of you got something I could use as a sling?"

The youngest pointed towards the closet in the corner of the room.

"There are old scarves in there. Can you use that?"

"Yes. Perfect. Thank you!" Bozer nodded and almost skipped over to the closet and pulled out the first thing he could get his hands on. A hot-pink scarf. "Err… Can I use this?"

"That's mine, yeah. Use it." The oldest girl answered.

"You sure, it will probably get some blood on it…"

"Yes. Use it." She said, "As soon as I can, I'll move to Europe or America. I'm not going to need that no more…"

Bozer balled the fabric in his hands, and smirked slightly. "Thank you…"

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It took 34 hours before she could see him. 34 hours before he was home in the states and had been through the necessary surgeries. 34 hours before she was allowed to kiss her husband.

He looked horrible. It looked like he had to fight to keep his eyes open. He was pale and breathed as if he had to plan each breath.

His arm was nestled in a sling. Secured tightly to his chest. A thick pad of dressings were hid under the sky blue hospital gown. A needle was placed into a vein on his opposite arm, it was administering penicillin to him. Making sure he wouldn't end up with a bad infection or sepsis.

"Hello Mac…" She almost whispered as she stepped towards the bed.

"Hello beautiful…" He murmured back, attempting a drugged up smirk.

Riley smiled back, stopping right next to his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Not all bad…" Mac grinned, "But then again, that might be because of the elephant painkillers they apparently have me on."

"Elephant painkillers?" Riley repeated.

Mac nodded a bit, then he tried to lock eyes with her. "I honestly can't feel my face even…"

Riley chuckled as she bent down.

"Well, are you sure? Sure you can't feel this?" she asked as she placed a kiss on his forehead.

Mac grinned widely, "Hey… I felt that, but I think it would be better on my lips."

"Oh, is that so?"

Mac nodded, looking hopefully up at her.

"Well then…" Riley smiled and placed a kiss on Mac's lips.

"Thank you sweetheart." Mac smiled, "How are you doing? Are you all fine?"

"I sat behind a keyboard while you and Bozer were out there." Riley informed, "I'm fine, better now that I see that you're going to live. Jack and the rest of the pack is out in the hallway, Bozer's there too… Ready for visit?"

Mac nodded, and Riley went to go get the rest of the family.

Jack held Jake by the hand, Diane carried Lucy, Bozer had a box of chocolates in his hands.

"How are you feeling tough guy?" Jack asked Mac as he lifted Jake up in his arms. Then he muttered, "Jake, you're soon getting too heavy for this…"

"You want me to take him?" Riley asked, about ready to lift Jake out of Jack's arms.

"Nah…" Jack shook his head, "I need the exercise. Now, Mac… Status report…"

"Loopy…" Mac answered, "Gonna feel this when I start going off the meds…"

Jack chuckled, "Yep, you will. But at least you'll get a few months off work. The three of you have been running on fumes for weeks now. Months actually, now that I come to think about it…"

"We haven't…" Mac tried to protest.

"Dude, I saw you put butter in your milk the other day when I was going to watch this little guy. I don't know what you thought it was at the time, but you sure got surprised when you suddenly had a spoonful of butter in your mouth…"

"About that… Why didn't you warn me?" Mac grouched.

"I wanted to see how far it would go before you realized it…" Jack answered, "I got a good laugh, but honestly kid, you kinda scared me…"

"Butter in milk…" Bozer said with disgust, "That sounds like the texture match from hell!"

"Well, by Mac's reaction, I'm pretty sure it was just that…" Jack shrugged, "Enough about that, Mac… It's good to see you…"

"Same, old man…" Mac sighed, "Even though you could have warned me about that butter…"

"Next time…" Jack promised, "As long as you agree to go fishing with us when you're up to it…"

"Yeah daddy! I want you to fish with me and gramps!" Jake almost squealed, loud enough to make Mac flinch.

"Hey-hey hey…" Jack hushed, trying to reign in Jake's attention. "We talked about this, inside voice… Remember? Daddy doesn't feel fine right now. We need to be calm around him for a couple of weeks… Alright?"

Mac and Riley's oldest kid stilled, and looked down at the floor. He was obviously sorry for not acting as he had been told before they walked inside. His dark brown eyes watered up and he hid his face in Jack's shoulder.

"Hey, it's alright…" Jack sighed, tussling the kid's hair with his good hand. "No damage done, no need to cry… Alright? Mac just needs a little time, that's all…"

Jake pushed himself away from his grandpa's shoulder and wiped away his own tears, then he nodded.

"Grandpa's right…" Mac offered with a tired smile. "Just wait a little and we'll all go fishing… Maybe we can bring Lucy too?"

The frown on Jake's face told Mac all he needed to know about his son's opinion.

"Or maybe she's still too young for that… Maybe just us boys?" Mac offered.

"Yeah!" the kid beamed, like he had just received the best birthday gift ever.

"It's settled then, just us men…" Jack chuckled, "As soon as daddy is up for it…"

Jake nodded, grinning.

Okay… So…. Hope you enjoyed.