A/N 1 First and Foremost, I want to thank Ridley C. James and Gib for helping me out so much on this project with their indispensable input, suggestions, and support! Both of you are amazing writers and, as it turns out, editors/beta readers! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I couldn't have done this without you!

A/N 2 This is just my AU on what might happen after the end of Season 1. Focuses most on Mac and Jack (of course!) but the other characters come into play, as well! Plus, some surprise visitors show up in Chapter Six! ;-) There will be some flashbacks aka missing scenes from the final three episodes (Compass, Hole Puncher, and Cigar Cutter) as well as possibly one from Corkscrew! :-) The chapters are written up to the middle of Chapter Nine. Some of you may recognize the first couple of chapters. I did post the beginnings of this story before but it seemed like something went wrong with the post, so I took it down after a few hours... and then I decided to change it up a bit and make it a longer multi-chapter story. It looks like it will be about 10 chapters, and I'll typically be posting one or two chapters a week. :-) EXCEPT for today... :-D Since these ones are short, I'm posting two back-to-back!

CHAPTER ONE

Matty sat in the passenger seat of the Phoenix-issued vehicle. As much as she hated to admit it, every time she visited with Murdoc, she left the prison with a severe case of the heeby-jeebies. If he were playing a part on a TV show or a movie, he'd definitely get her vote for 'Creepiest Male Actor'.

But this wasn't a TV show, and it certainly wasn't a movie. This was real life and Murdoc was a dangerous sociopath. She reached into her bag and extracted the one personal item he had, which translated into the one and only way she could punish him—short of threatening his relationship with his son again, which still left a bad taste in her mouth. Desperate times called for desperate measures but Matty had played that card once already, and that was more than enough for her. Besides, although she couldn't be entirely certain that Murdoc wouldn't hesitate to hurt even his own son, the fact that he had taken so many steps to ensure the boy's protection spoke to his… well, if not love for the boy, at least affection. Or perhaps, and more than likely, it was merely the result of a sociopath not wanting to be out-maneuvered.

As she flipped through the pages of Paradise Lost, she couldn't help but wonder if Murdoc's son was just yet another pawn in Murdoc's vengeful game of chess. Instead of just being one or two steps ahead of everyone else, it seemed like he had finished the entire game and was simply biding his time until all the other players caught up – lying in the shadows, anxiously waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill each and every one of them.

Finally, making a decision that had been weighing on her mind for some time now, Matty turned to Agent Halderman who was sitting behind the wheel. "Take me to LAX."

"Ma'am?"

"You heard me, Jeeves," she countered, making sure her tone conveyed exactly how she felt about her orders being questioned.

Halderman glanced in the rearview mirror, seemingly having a silent conversation with his fellow agents in the back seat. Then, with a terse shrug, he said simply, "LAX. Yes, ma'am."

The sun was bright, the heat was sweltering, and the GTO's roof was down – Jack was livin' the dream! He seriously loved road trips!

As he belted out the latest country track on the mix tape he saved for just this type of occasion, a glance in the mirror told him MacGyver was livin' a totally different kind of dream. A bad one. He'd actually fallen asleep less than an hour into the drive, getting Jack's spidey-senses tingling about the kid's quality of sleep since the fiasco with the Organization the week before. The current nightmare—was it still called a nightmare when it happened during the day? Jack thought absently. Anyway, what ever it was called, Mac being trapped in it only confirmed Jack's suspicions.

Tin Man was still sitting in the passenger seat, a joke that was supposed to only last until their first stop for gas before hitting the 405. Unfortunately, Mac had already started his little nap by that point, so Jack had decided to let him sleep. Clearly, that had been a mistake. He couldn't even reach back to wake the kid without risking an accident – never before had Jack regretted surpassing the speed limit in his GTO.

He quickly decided to take the next exit. Mildly surprised that Mac continued to sleep through the honking horns from the drivers who disagreed with his skilled merging maneuvers, Jack made it safely to the right-hand side of the freeway without incident and then onto the offramp.

He needed to find a way to get the kid to sit up front with him without making it obvious that it was due to any kind of mother-henning on his part. Jack was certain that Mac's grandfather had done the best he could raising him, but the then 12-year-old had still had to grow up way too fast, making him a fiercely independent adult who felt like he should be able to handle any and all circumstances on his own.

Even after taking several hits from three mercs, not to mention his fight with Zito or Tennant or whatever the guy's name was, he'd attempted to hide his injuries and pass himself off as 'fine'.

Well, screw that. Jack hadn't accepted it then, and no way was he going to accept it now. Or ever, for that matter. Mac may be an adult but there were times that Jack couldn't help but see the vulnerable 12-year-old boy in his eyes. After all, does anyone ever truly get over being abandoned by the one person who was supposed to be there for him and protect him, no matter what?

There was no doubt in Jack's mind that MacGyver was a true-blue hero who knew all about self-sacrifice—Jack himself been the beneficiary of the blond's penchant for putting the needs of others before his own more times than he wanted to count. But the kid had grown up with absolutely no idea how it felt to be the one on the receiving end of that equation. And Jack had spent the past five years trying to show him.

But it was a process. If he was too pushy or protective, Mac would just shut down and pull away from him. So, Jack had long ago learned to take it one step (read: tragedy) at a time, and to always go with the whole frog in a pot of cold water analogy—with MacGyver being the frog trying to instantly escape any situation that made him appear the least bit vulnerable, and Jack being the pot of water trying to make him realize it was okay to let someone else be the strong one once in a while.

The 'boiling point' in this analogy would be Mac's walls finally coming down and the kid actually allowing Jack entrance into his little fortress of solitude. If Jack tried to rush it, to bulldozer his way in, then Mac would simply pull even further into himself and promptly jump out of the 'pot of cold water'.

No. Getting through to this particular 'frog' would take a certain amount of charm and finesse—both of which Jack had in abundance. And darn it if the former Delta Commando couldn't help but smirk at how Mac would react to being the frog in any analogy.

By the time Jack pulled into the parking lot of the tiny truck stop diner, Mac was becoming increasingly agitated. "Why are we stopping?" Sparky asked from the passenger seat. "Have we broken down?"

"Not yet," Jack said, taking a brief moment to contemplate his best friend in the backseat. "But it's nothing a little TLC can't cure."

"Would you like me to search for the closest mechanic using my newly installed GPS technology?"

"What?" Jack had been so focused on MacGyver, he hadn't even realized he and Sparky had been talking about two totally different kinds of pending breakdowns. "No," he told the robot. "I got this."

He got out of the car and allowed the door to close louder than usual, hoping that would wake the kid. Nope, not even a flinch. So, he braced one hand on the back of the driver's seat, then gripped the slender shoulder firmly with the other. "Mac," he said softly, giving him a gentle shake. Then louder, "MacGyver!"

Mac startled awake, hands automatically reaching out and grabbing whatever he could get a hold of, while barely biting back the shout that threatened to leak through the nightmare and into the waking world. His heart thundered in his chest at the unfamiliar surroundings, until his frantic gaze landed on Jack and he was able to breathe normally again.

He cleared his throat and, once he was confident he could speak without his voice shaking, he asked, "How long was I asleep?"

Jack looked at his watch with a casualness that belied the apprehension in his eyes. "About an hour or so."

MacGyver blushed slightly when he realized his left hand had gotten a death grip on Jack's other arm in his escape from the nightmare. Jack acted like it was no big deal; Mac begged to differ. Forcing himself to release his friend, Mac scrubbed a hand down his face in an effort to clear away the effects of the dream, then glanced around again striving for casual when he asked, "Where are we?"

"Next few hours are gonna be nothin' but desert. Figured we should stop for a bite to eat while we still can."

"Yeah," Mac said, fuzzy mind still trying to catch up. A week filled with almost completely sleepless nights had left him with a bit of a sluggish response time. "Good idea." He unfastened his seatbelt and climbed out of the GTO. Instead of asking Jack to open the door or leaning forward to open it himself, he decided to jump over it, needing his partner to see that he was fine… because he was.

A fib that would have been far more believable if he hadn't stumbled upon his landing to the pavement. Jack's quick reflexes were the only reason Mac didn't faceplant right there in the parking lot.

"You okay?" Jack asked, no longer trying to hide his concern.

"Of course," MacGyver deflected. "My legs are just cramped from being relegated to the backseat for the past hour."

"Well, then, you'll just have to sit up front with me for the remainder of the trip," Jack said, turning just in time to hide the smirk playing on his lips.

Mac watched his partner head into the diner, unable to shake the feeling that he'd just been played.

TBC