A/N: A million thanks to my wonderful beta GaelicSpirit, I appreciate her so much! An additional thanks to TheShadowArchitect for preforming a medical beta on this story, to make sure I wasn't too off base! And as always I do not own MacGyver or any of its characters. Hope you enjoy!

When Angus MacGyver awoke that beautiful morning, knew only two things: the plush bed he was currently occupying was insanely comfortable, and his stomach hurt.

Running a hand through his hair he thought, I should know better by now than to try to keep up with Jack at a buffet. He paid the price for overeating every single time. Sighing, he looked at his dad's watch on his wrist to see the time. He was surprised it was later in the morning than he'd first thought. They had completed the mission, extracting important information from a French ambassador, with ease. Now they had the morning off until they met ex-fil later that day.

Sitting up, he enjoyed the lavish and private quarters they had this mission. Staying at an exclusive resort in one of their renowned villas had its perks. Each member of his team had their own room and en suit. Which this morning suited Mac just fine. He smelled coffee brewing and his stomach gave a little roll.

Guess I'm skipping the coffee this morning.

Stretching he slid out of bed and padded to the bathroom. When he was finished, he joined the others in the living quarters. His best friend, Wilt Bozer, was in the state-of-the-art kitchen, no doubt whipping up something amazing for breakfast. In the living area, Jack Dalton was sprawled across the couch. Hearing Mac approach, he tilted his head back.

"Nice to see you this morning. Bozer and I had bets on who would wake up last. Congrats, you just earned Bozer a five." Jack pulled out his wallet and handed Mac the five. "Since it's your fault I lost, take that to him would ya?"

Sighing Mac grabbed the bill out of Jack's hand, who immediately went back to channel surfing. He walked into the kitchen to see what Bozer was cooking. He was greeted with a wide smile and an outstretched hand for the money.

"Hey Roomie! Thanks for earning me some moola." He shoved the cash in his pocket and picket up the spatula he had been using. Mac looked into the skillet wondering what Bozer was cooking up.

"Are you making Tartiflette?" Mac questioned.

Bozer grinned at Mac correct guess. "You better believe it. Man, that was killer last night."

At the mention of last night Mac's stomach gave another roll. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his stomach, willing it to behave. "You know the Swiss traditionally eat this for supper, right?" The look Bozer gave Mac could best be described as 'do I care.'

"Whatever, it was good last night, and it's gonna be even better this morning. Now, go keep Jack occupied before the kitchen randomly catches fire just because you're in here."

As Mac left, he showed Bozer how much he appreciated being kicked out of the kitchen.

"I saw that!" Bozer hollered.

"You were supposed to!"

Mac flopped down in one of the oversized recliners, contemplating grabbed the remote from Jack's hand.

"What was Bozer supposed to see?" Jack didn't even make eye contact with Mac.

"I flipped him off."

Jack grinned, "My man." He looked like he was going to try for a fist bump, but stopped when he realized how far away Mac was.

"Food will be ready in just a minute." Bozer's voice floated into the living room.

Jack sighed and tossed the remote to Mac who almost let it hit him in the head, due to his lack of attention. "I guess I better go rouse Sleeping Beauty."

With that, he hauled himself up and went down the hallway to Riley's room. When it was just her and the guys, they tried to make sure she had privacy, something they didn't always get.

Mac could hear Jack yelling through the door. "Hey Riles, time to drag your butt outta the bed. Bozer's almost got food ready, and your coffee's ready." Jack had just reached the end of the hallway when Riley appeared behind him.

Rubbing her eyes, she yawned. "Did someone say coffee?"

Bozer announced, "All food is now on the table including everybody's preferred drink choice."

Jack narrowed his eyes, "You couldn't have gotten everybody's drink choice correct."

Rolling his eyes, Bozer pointed at each of his friends and rattled off their drink orders. "Mac likes his coffee with just a touch of sugar and creamer. Riley likes half coffee and half of the amazing hot chocolate." At the mention of her name, Riley let out a little moan of pleasure as she took her first sip of coffee. Bozer shot Jack a look, "You love the hot chocolate, and I like mine with a generous amount of sugar and cream. Am I right?"

Jack grudgingly nodded; Riley who was busy drinking her held up her thumb, and Mac nodded his agreement.

"Ok, so maybe you do. Let's dig in; the buffet wore off hours ago."

Mac never ceased to be surprised by Jack's appetite. When they had to, Jack could go for days on power bars alone, but when he could, he would eat! Everybody took their places at the table and Bozer dished out the food. While it smelled good, Mac just wasn't hungry. When Jack polished off his plate Mac offered him his; after Jack took it, Mac feared he would be interrogated, but was saved by the chiming of Riley's cell.

Holding up the cell Riley stated, "It's Matty, she wants a face to face pronto."

Riley quickly walked to her room to retrieve her laptop. The rest of the team assembled in the living room so everybody would be able to see the laptop. Riley placed it down, set up the video link, and sat down in the middle of the couch between Mac and Jack.

Matty's face popped up on the laptop from the War Room back in the Phoenix. "All right campers vacation time is over. We've just received word that a massive snow front in headed your way. It's predicted to reach whiteout conditions and drop over a foot of snow. I want you out ahead of this thing. Ex fil has been bumped up by a couple of hours, so I would suggest you shake a leg if you don't want to get stranded."

Jack shrugged. "Oh, come on, Matty. There are worse things than being stranded at a resort villa."

"Would you please use your head for something more than growing grey hairs, Dalton?" Matty looked exasperated, the way she usually did when dealing with Jack. "Pretty soon the French ambassador is going to realize what happened and come after you. Would you rather be where you can't escape for a couple of days or thousands of miles away?" When Jack didn't answer Matty continued. "I'm sending the coordinated to your phones; stay on comms and we'll keep you updated on the weather conditions." With that, the video feed disconnected and the screen went blank.

Jack was the first one to react, clapping his hands together, "All right, ya'll heard the boss lady. Let's get to moving. I want us to be at the ski shop in thirty minutes, and remember your canteens, thermoses, liquid caring devices."

With that, they all went back to their separate rooms to pack up. The plan was to ski cross country from the Pro shop, and meet a Phoenix helicopter, which would take them to an airport to fly back to LA. To anybody watching, it would look like just another day excursion.

Mac made his way back to his room trying to ignore the nausea that was building. He made it to the bathroom just in time to throw up most of the buffet from last night. After heaving a couple more times, Mac sluggishly pulled himself to his feet in front of the sink.

Looking in the mirror, he noticed how pale he was and hoped since he had puked he would start to feel better. Rinsing his mouth out, he quickly brushed his teeth, gathered all his toiletry items, and got dressed. As he pulled on his long johns, ski pants, and shirt he formulated a plan to make sure his friends didn't notice how under the weather he felt, pun not intended.

The exercise was bound to help him feel better; if not he could rest on the plane, and if it still stuck around, he might even say something to the Phoenix medics. With his plan in place he finished stuffing the rest of his gear in his satchel and joined the others in the living room.

Once everybody was there, Jack reminded them, "Ok we are getting our cross-country skis from the ski shop here, circling back to grab our gear then onto ex-fil." When he received nods all around, the group set out.

Once they had their equipment they circled back grabbed their gear, and started out. Mac smiled as the cold air hit his face; he loved the thrill of sailing over the white powdery snow. Jack was just ahead, with Riley right behind him, and Bozer bringing up the rear. He was caught off guard when the pain in his abdomen came back viciously, but this time it was lower and to the right. He tried to ignore it; all I have to go is get to the plane, I can rest on the plane, was his constant thought. He didn't realize it, but he had slowed down to where Bozer was slightly ahead of him.

When Jack called a rest stop, Mac was panting, and thankful for the reprieve he felt nauseous again, but was trying to keep it at bay with small sips of water. Jack looked his way, "You ok there, Hoss?"

His side was throbbing now, but they had to get to ex-fil ahead of the storm, so he just nodded.

Jack looked dubious. "Not sure if I believe you."

Mac just shrugged and tried to take another sip of water, not wanting to throw up and slow them down when time was of the essence. After another couple of minutes rest Jack urged them on again. This time he couldn't keep up; the pain was a growing presence. He didn't even realized he had stopped until he felt Jack's hand on his face.

"Hey, Mac, look at me." Mac tried to follow the order. "What's wrong?"

"My side," He gasped out. "It's killing me." Then he couldn't keep the nausea at bay, so he turned away from Jack and vomited bile into the snow.

"Shit! Why didn't you say something earlier?" Jack shook his head. "Never mind." Touching his com, he called, "Matty you there?"

"I'm always here."

"Mac's in a bad way, I'm not sure we are going to make it to ex-fil in time. Is there any place we can take shelter during the storm?"

"I'm looking. What's wrong with boy wonder?" Matty sounded concerned.

"My side is killing me," Mac answered, his voice breathless. Bozer was standing beside his best friend making sure he didn't fall over, while Riley had her phone out coordinating with Matty.

"I've found what looks like a little house you should be able to take shelter in. When you get there, establish a video feed, and I'll have one of the doctors do a video exam. Now, go before that storm hits," Matty ordered.

They could see the dark storm clouds building behind them which provided an extra incentive to hurry. This time Riley led the way with Jack and Bozer on each side of Mac making sure he stayed with the group, and didn't flop into a pile of snow. It was slow going, but thankfully the house wasn't too far away. They finally reached the small old structure, it had big windows set into the wood structure of the house. Finding a door on the side under a covered carport, they soon found that it locked.

"Think you can do your thing?" Jack asked Mac worriedly.

Mac shot him an icy glare, "I'm hurting, not dead." He thought about it a second, "I could even pick a simple door lock then, too." He smirked, pulled off his glove, produced a paperclip from nowhere, and deftly picked the lock.

Jack, after taking his skis off, entered the house first, and quickly cleared the small structure. The door opened into the kitchen; there was a sturdy table a couple a few feet in front of the door and a large opening led into the living room. Mac assumed that the door set in the far wall was the bedroom. Bozer guided Mac to one of the two older couches in the living room which Mac settled into thankful to be off his feet.

"I'll get the fire going. I think I remember seeing some wood piled under the shelter outside." Bozer volunteered.

"I'm gonna get that video conference going," Riley said as she started unpacking her tech equipment at the coffee table directly in front of Mac.

"That leaves me and you, Bud." Jack stood right in front of Mac staring down at him in concern. "I think you might also be runnin' a fever." He pulled his other glove off and stuck his hand against Mac's forehead.

Mac sighed, "You know that's not a very accurate way to gauge a fever."

"It worked for my momma."

Mac rolled his eyes; he had learned to never argue against Mama Dalton's method. Jack would argue till the cows came home. Jack removed his hand shaking his head, his forehead creased in worry.

"So, Dr. Dalton, do I have a fever?"

They herd both Bozer and Riley laugh from behind them. Bozer was getting the logs situated in the big fireplace. "Tell me, Jack, where did you attend medical school at? Clown college?" Bozer quipped.

This set off another round of laughter, but Mac decided that laughing was a bad idea when it made the pain spike. He gasped and grabbed his side, hoping the sharp pain would pass quickly. Blinking his eyes open the first thing he saw was Jack's concerned face.

Mac nodded, indicating that the worst was over. Jack turned around to face Riley, "That video feed about ready?"

Riley was kneeling in front of her computer, typing away, "It will be…now!" She hit enter and the screen suddenly grew large as the image of Matty in the War Room appeared.

"It's about time you called in. We were beginning to get worried." Jack opened his mouth about to say, well who knew what, but Matty continued, "I've got Dr. McKay with me."

This time when Mac let out a low groan it had nothing to do with his side. Both Jack and Mac were pretty sure the doctor hated them. Dr. McKay stepped in front of the camera, peering at the video screen he announced, "Well it would be easier for me to do an examination if I could actually see my patient and if he wasn't bundled up like a snowman."

Jack got up close to the video camera making sure that Dr. McKay could see him plainly, "Listen, Doc, we just got in here, and it is freezing…."

Bozer broke in, "I just got the fire going, and am about to go see if this place has a generator, which I'm assuming it does because there is a fridge here and…." Bozer broke off what he was saying after he realized that he was rambling. Motioning first to himself and then outside, "I'm just going to go now." With that he left out the kitchen door.

With a sigh Dr. McKay spoke again, "Fine then. Can you tell me what you are feeling?"

Mac nodded and set up leaning closer to the computer screen with a wince. "My stomach hurt this morning, but I attributed that to over indulgence last night. That was followed by vomiting. After we set out, the pain traveled down to my lower right side, and has been getting steadily worse." Mac stopped, holding his breath as another pain shot through his body.

Jack added, "he also threw up on the way to the cabin."

Dr. McKay's brows were furrowed. "I don't suppose you could tell if you had a fever or not?" He crossed his arms and looked into the camera.

Mac just shook his head no, but noticed that Jack was literally biting his lips to keep quiet.

Dr. McKay hummed and went onto the next question. "And on a scale of 0 being pain free to 10 being the worst pain imaginable; what is your pain level?"

Mac frowned thinking, "Ummm, generally I guess about a 3, but when I move too much it spikes to like a 6 or so."

"You might want to bump that up a notch or two, he tends to not understand how to correctly use the pain scale." Jack finally interjected, shooting Mac a look. "Also, though not scientific, I'm pretty sure he is running a fever."

McKay sighed, "I have an idea of what it might be, but there are a couple of tests that I want to do." McKay was about to say something else when the lights came on. "Finally!" he exclaimed. "Now we can get somewhere. MacGyver, if you could take off your top layers."

Jack frowned, "Can he at least leave on his under shirt? It's still not that warm in here."

After instructing Mac to get undressed, McKay had pulled out a tablet and was focused on it. Without looking up he murmured, "Yeah, sure, that's fine."

Jack growled again, turning to help Mac who was struggling to take his ski jacket off. By the time they had Mac stripped down to his ski pants and thermals Mac was sweating from both the pain and exertion. Jack took a few seconds to divest himself of his own coat and winter weather gear while Mac pulled himself together. When Mac indicated he was ready Jack stepped aside so they could see the computer again.

McKay was still on his tablet. Mac was ready to get this over with said rather brusquely, "We're ready when you are, doctor."

Glancing back at the camera McKay sighed putting his tablet down again. "Alright MacGyver, what I'm going to need you to do is lay down with your right side facing out." Mac did as instructed. When he was in place, McKay continued. "Now, Dalton, I'm going to need you fell of MacGyver's abdomen and describe to me how it feels."

Jack shrugged and did as the doctor described. "It feels kinda hard or tight."

Dr. McKay nodded, "Ok now this time I need you to press down firmly where MacGyver is indicating that the pain is located at, then hold."

Jack did as instructed. McKay continued, "Does that hurt any worse?"

Mac shook his head, "No."

McKay nodded, "Ok, now release."

When Jack pulled his hands away, a pain shot through Mac's abdomen that put the previous spikes to shame. He curled up and would have fallen off the couch if it wasn't for Jack.

Bozer and Riley who had been keeping to the back ground rushed over. Jack and Bozer both attempted to help Mac through the pain. Riley got in front of the camera; she wasn't a big fan of Dr. McKay's either.

"What did you do to him?" She demanded.

McKay seemed nonplused, "It is called rebound tenderness. Now, if we can perform one more test I'll be comfortable with giving my diagnosis."

Riley moved back so that the doctor could see his patient, but still stayed closer.

Jack turned from the crouch he was in trying to comfort his hurting friend. "Will it hurt him like this did?"

McKay looked him straight in the face, "It might."

"I'll be ok." Mac said faintly. Bozer was helping him back into a sitting position.

"When you are ready, MacGyver, all I need you to do is cough."

"That's it?" Bozer questioned suspiciously.

"Yes, it is."

Four pairs of eyes turned to stare at Mac. He glanced at them, then drawing a breath forced himself to cough. Another pain shot through him in the same place, but this time it wasn't as bad.

"There you're tests are done. Now what's wrong with Mac?" Jack demanded. After the last test, he'd sat down beside his friend, while Bozer sat on Mac's other side, and Riley stood behind the couch right behind Mac.

"That was called Dunphy's sign; at this point I'm confident that Mac has appendicitis."