Partner for a Reason

Chapter 4

After the fifth mangled paperclip Mac gave up and threw it away. He stood up again, pacing the floor, hands playing with the cord of his hoodie. Riley and Bozer sat in the plactic chairs glancing into the distance. Nobody spoke. What was there to say anyway? Jack was fighting for his life. He was not only a team member, he was so much more. Jack was the link, that connected them all. The grounding strength that pulled Mac back when he got lost in his head, because everything became to much for the young genius to cope. The fatherly shoulder for Riley when she felt unsure and like a teen again, questioning her ability, when she couldn't solve a problem immediately, Jack was always there to encouraged her. For Bozer the Delta was something different, someone like a real life hero, Wilt wasn't sure existed until he met the Texan. He was immediately drawn to the badass soldier, who has a heart as great as Texas and he was humbled, when Jack thanked him for supporting Mac through his difficult childhood.

Mac heard small footsteps and knew that Matty had arrived. Without greeting she asked. „Any news on him yet?" The blond shook his head, „they took him for a scan."

„Matty I'm sorry, I should have ..." That was as far as he got before Matty interrupted him.

„No! This is NOT on you MacGyver. Not anyone of you" she looked them all in the eyes before she continued „is to blame for what happened to Jack. Is that clear?" After she received some hesitant nods from their agents she spoke again. „Don't worry, I'll get to the bottom of this mess and I'm gonna make sure, that this doesn't happen again. I don't have all the facts yet and right now the only thing that matters is, that the old man is gonna be alright."

Mac nodded. His thoughts had turned to his Dad and his involvement in the missions this week shortly, but then Mac had pushed the images onto the back burner. He would deal with James, but not now. His only focus was his partner, dammit it should have been since he knew Jack has been sent out alone. What was he thinking? The opening of a door pulled him from the dark place where his thoughts had wandered.

Doc Ward, Mac was relieved to see it was him who took care of Jack, stepped out. They knew the physician for some years and had been treated often by him. He was one of the few employes at Medical, who understood the kind of relationship Mac and Jack had. The need to stay at their partners bedside, no matter if visiting time was up.

Doc Ward wore a serious expression, that sent a shiver of fear down Macs spine. The physician cleared his throat and began to speak. „We made a scan and ran some tests. The good news is, there is not a skull fracture or bleeding. The bad news is, he aggravated his concussion and that led to some swelling in his brain. Right now, we hope it will go down by itself over the next two days or we will have to operate to reduce the pressure, but that would bear an enormous risk. He's still unconscious and I'm sorry, but I can't tell you when he wakes up."

„But he will wake up?" Mac couldn't stop himself to ask.

„I think so, but he's not out of the woods yet. I'm sorry, but right now his condition is life threatening. He's gonna need a long time to recover from this, that's for sure. We will have to worry about post concussion syndrome, that means problems with remembering things, lingering headaches, vertigo and migraine. He was lucky you found him in time. He was extremely dehydrated due to throwing up and drinking not enough. Right now, the only thing we can do is wait and hope. We're gonna do another scan tomorrow, if we're lucky the swelling is down a bit by then."

„Can I sit with him?" Mac asked, fighting tears after hearing the diagnosis. The rest of the team wasn't faring much better. Bozer stood there, eyes wide open only shaking his head, while Riley was crying openly. Matty had turned away, fighting to regain her composure.