Hi readers,

It's finally finished, sorry for the long wait!

I immensely enjoyed writing this story. When I started, I never expected it to become that long, but I got a bit carried away with it. It was a real fun-trip for me and you guys have been awesome! Thanks so much for reading my story and encouraging me in so many ways! I will miss this story, now that it's finished, but I'm also very happy that I wrote it.

Now enjoy the last chapter!

Unlike the characters and everything else you might recognize, all mistakes are mine!

Summary:

A terrible accident – a Jeep, smashed almost beyond recognition – not the slightest trace of a certain blond agent… Eventually, the team have to face the fact that they might have lost their friend forever.

BETWEEN HOPE AND DESPAIR

Chapter 9

The cave

Why was dying taking so damn long? Mac certainly didn't want to die, but as it was inevitably happening now, he just wanted it to be over. He had never given much thought to what it would feel like, but he definitely didn't expect it to be like this. Somehow, he'd hoped for the pain to subside at some point, but it didn't. On the contrary, it hurt like a bitch! Not to mention all the other irritating and most uncomfortable sensations he was experiencing: something that felt like hands all over him, being strapped into something, being lifted and carried, laid down repeatedly on various surfaces, light that was first burning right through his brain and was then dimmed to a more tolerable level, being poked and prodded…

Then there were the voices inside his head… Some sounded familiar, some not so much. Sometimes they seemed to be close to him and sometimes far away or muffled, like underwater, or fading in and out like a badly tuned radio. Most of the time he couldn't make out what they were saying. Neither could he place whom they belonged to. However, one voice was with him all the time. That voice was very familiar. It meant warmth, safety and comfort. Mac wracked his aching and only partially working brain to come up with a name… John? Jim? No… Jack! That was it. The hallucination of Jack made it all a little more bearable. Although he knew that it was a hallucination and his partner wasn't really there, hearing his voice was still comforting. Mac clung to that.

A small and still halfway working part of his scientific mind struggled to make sense of all those strange perceptions. He understood the processes that take place in a dying body. Organ functions and nerve activity would gradually cease, the slowly ceasing metabolic processes and the therefore accumulating toxic substances in the bloodstream easily explained the disorientation, fading awareness and hallucinations. In the end, the body would no longer be able to maintain sufficient breathing and circulation to provide the brain with oxygen, which would first cause the dying person to lose consciousness and only very few minutes later lead to irreparable brain damage and death.

So far, however, his nerves were still working at full capacity. Especially those in his injured side were firing pain stimuli just fine. At one point he felt like floating upwards - no, more like being dragged, and that sucked! If Jack's voice hadn't constantly been in his ear, he didn't know how he would have made it through that. The pain level was beyond anything he'd ever endured and due to total exhaustion he was unable to keep up his usual defenses and coping techniques. It hit him full-force. He was dimly aware of screaming, pleading and begging for it to stop and after an eternity, it did.

MacGyver didn't believe in an afterlife of any kind, so he was seriously wondering what was happening to him. After some more floating, drifting, people scurrying around him and clinging to Jack's voice in his head, he was finally warm and decently comfortable. The pain was numbed down to a manageable level at last and as he relaxed gradually, he felt total exhaustion take over every single fiber of his body and his mangled thoughts finally dissolved in darkness.

Phoenix Foundation

Medical facility

Jack point-blank refused to leave Mac's bedside for anything more than a quick dash to use the bathroom – and for a talk with the doctor to get details of his friend's condition. When the short man with the greyish hair invited him into his office, Jack was so nervous that he was visibly shaking. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides and he ground his teeth so hard that they hurt.

"Come in and have a seat, Agent Dalton," he invited him in a professional but nonetheless friendly tone of voice and offered his hand for a shake. Jack took it.

"I'd rather stand, if you don't mind, Dr. Clarke." He immediately started to pace the room, not able to contain his nervous energy. "Let's postpone the small talk until later. How's he?" Jack was aware that he sounded a bit rude, but the doctor had known him for long enough to know that it was nothing personal. He needed facts and the doctor was about to give them.

"Agent MacGyver is severely dehydrated, had reopened his stitches, caught a nasty infection in the wound, has started to turn septic, is running a high fever and has numerous bruises and scratches."

That was about what Jack had already guessed himself. "And that means what exactly…?"

"Apart from getting him rehydrated and nourished, we have him on strong antibiotics to fight off the bacteria causing the infection and put him on a temporary dialysis to help his kidneys recover. His renal values are quite concerning."

Jack swallowed. "It's temporary?" he tried to reassure himself.

"We hope so. If he responds well to the antibiotics and we get the infection and the fever under control quickly, we expect his kidneys to recover. In that case, we just need to take the stress off them for a couple of days with the dialysis." There was a big "If".

"And what will happen if he doesn't respond to the medication?" he forced himself to ask.

"Let's not go there just yet," Dr. Clarke replied in a soothing voice. "We've seen this particular patient defy the odds more than once. It's already a miracle he was rescued it time, thanks to you and your team and his legendary stubbornness. Did you know that it looks like he survived on his own urine down there?"

Jack had stopped pacing and was heavily leaning with his back against the closed door. The mere thought made his stomach churn and he grimaced in disgust, but nodded. It made perfect sense, of course. If there was even the smallest chance of surviving, Mac would use it, no matter what, and Jack was inexpressibly grateful for that. The kid was alive and safe now, and that was the only thing that mattered. Whatever happened next, they'd deal with when it occurred. Jack rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling very tired.

"You should go home and get some rest as well, Agent," the doctor suggested. "You look dead on your feet. There's nothing you can do here now. Your partner will be asleep for quite a while. We have him on a light sedation to give his body the rest it needs to recover." Jack stared at him, shell-shocked by the mere idea of leaving.

"I'm not going anywhere except back into that room to sit on that torture-thingy you have for a chair in this place, until I'm 100 % sure that Mac's gonna be okay!" he protested in a low growling voice. He'd been incredibly compliant until then, for Mac's sake, but he'd at last reached the end of his tether. Neither the doctor, nor the nurse on duty, nor Matty had been able to convince him to let his partner out of his sight anymore, not even for a minute. He reclaimed his post in that pathetic excuse for a chair, watching Mac sleep as if he feared that the young man would vanish into thin air as soon as he looked the other way for a second. He had his kid back and he wasn't going to leave him for anything short of deadly force.

Nobody questioned his stay again after the first time Mac panicked. All of a sudden, he started writhing and struggling, eyes wide open in fright but not seeing anything of the room he was in. Jack jumped and immediately started to talk him down in a low, comforting and reassuring tone, very gently rubbing his upper arm.

"Easy, buddy, easy! You're okay, you're safe."

Glassy blue eyes stared right through Jack at horrors only they could see. The blonde, still too weak to do much more than twitch, flinched at Jack's touch and a hoarse whimper escaped his lips. The older man couldn't help noticing how vulnerable and breakable he looked. Caught in some nightmare, or flashback, or whatever this was, he was just a terrified kid who had to shoulder more at his young age than most people could endure in a lifetime.

"C'mon, brother look at me! It's me, Jack, I've got you." He waved a finger in Mac's line of sight and after a short while, he saw the blue eyes sluggishly follow the movement. He flicked his fingers twice and the gaze became more focused with each slow blink of those reddened eyelids. A layer of a healing cream covered the raw skin there, as well as the chapped lips.

"Mac? You with me, bud?"

Jack watched as a cascade of emotion washed over the pale face on the pillow. There was fear, sadness and forlornness, but also realization and a glint of hope, when bloodshot blue eyes finally met brown ones.

"J'ck?" It was a croaky, broken sound that hardly resembled a voice, but to Jack it was the sweetest music he'd ever heard in his life. "Y' real?"

Something pulled painfully at Jack's heart, but he smiled at Mac, took one of his trembling hands between both his large, calloused ones and squeezed it gently.

"Yeah, Mac, it's me. I'm real, see?" He felt the slender fingers move between his palms as if they needed to make sure that he was really and truly there. He shifted his grip and rubbed the groping fingers with his thumbs.

Mac made a rasping noise in his throat, coughed feebly and winced in pain. Jack remembered the Styrofoam cup that the nurse had left on the bedside table.

"Want some ice?"

The blonde's face lit up in anticipation and Jack took a spoon, fished one of the ice chips out of the cup and carefully placed it in the younger man's mouth. He sucked on it greedily.

"More?" he asked longingly, with a little more tone in his voice.

"In a minute. Let's see how your stomach takes it first."

Two well-tolerated ice chips later, Mac's eyelids started to droop and he frantically fought to keep them open. Jack grabbed his hand again.

"You need rest, kiddo. You can relax now."

"Stay—pl'se?" he slurred. The frightened and pleading expression that was visible for a split second before the lids slid closed broke Jack's heart, again. The hand between his had already gone slack and he gripped it more tightly.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here, when you wake up. I'm not letting go of you until you ask me to, I promise!" he swore solemnly and received a contented sigh in return, as Mac relaxed visibly and drifted off peacefully. Jack settled for a long and very uncomfortable wait, but he couldn't think of anything he'd rather be doing.

Riley and Bozer were standing in the hallway to Mac's room and watched the scene through the glass pane in the door. Both were barely able to contain their emotions.

"He looks so fragile." Bozer stated. As Mac's roomie, he was used to seeing him asleep, but he couldn't remember that he'd ever seen him this defenseless. The ex-Delta was clutching his hand as if he expected the blonde to fall apart as soon as he let go of it. Every time when the sleeping man started to twitch and moan in distress, Jack rubbed the long fingers reassuringly and calmly talked to him, until he relaxed again and slept on peacefully. Riley spoke in a faraway voice:

"He's really back, right? I'm not dreaming this?" Bozer reached over and pinched her in the arm. "Ow—Yeah, thanks!" She hadn't woken up. She was still standing in the hallway with Bozer, Jack was still sitting next to the hospital bed on the other side of the door and Mac was still sleeping in that bed, recovering. She heaved a deep relieved sigh. She'd hardly started to process the fact that the young genius, whom she regarded as a brother, had been taken away from them, completely out of the blue, by a freak accident. She had yet refused to dwell on the possible aftermaths of that loss, on the impact it would have on their little family. Jack would very likely have been devastated beyond repair.

Bozer observed the scene with misty eyes. He, too, had a lot of processing to do in the near future. He and Mac had been best friends since childhood. He had almost gone crazy with worry, when Mac had broken it to him that he'd enlisted to the Army, and every single day he'd feared that his friend would come back in a box, or not at all. Luckily, Mac had returned, with more than his fair share of mental issues from having seen combat, but physically mostly unharmed. Besides, he had met Jack there. Bozer couldn't know a lot of details, because most of the stuff they'd been doing in Afghanistan was still classified, but from what he knew, he'd concluded that Jack had gone to any length to make sure that Mac made it home in one piece. At first, Bozer had felt a bit jealous of Jack, when he realized how close the two of them suddenly were, but all of them had quickly found their place in the little surrogate family they now formed. Jack didn't take Bozer's place as Mac's brother / best buddy from him. He was more of a father figure; stepping in as the dad Mac never really had and always yearned for. Besides and most importantly, Bozer thought that he'd never be able to thank Jack enough for protecting Mac over in the Sandbox and helping him through the aftermath that had followed their return. He didn't think he would have been able to deal with his roomies nightmares, flashbacks and all the dark places his overactive mind used to take him almost every night during the first few weeks after his service. Jack had been his anchor and his lifeline whenever things went bad.

The way Jack was now keeping watch over the sleeping kid (no, not a kid, but he exactly looked like one) melted Bozer's heart like a piece of butter in a furnace. No matter how much he himself longed to touch Mac, just to reassure himself that he was really back, - alive, warm and breathing – he realized that in the state the blonde was in at the moment, he desperately needed Jack at his side. Jack provided safety and comfort. His presence allowed Mac to get the rest he so urgently needed to heal. Right now, Jack was the only person who was able to scare away the demons that haunted his nightmares.

Bozer startled when he felt Riley's hand on his shoulder.

"Let's check on them later."

Bozer nodded silently and both left the corridor.

It took Mac two full days of intensive monitoring, regular blood-tests and medication until the doctors were satisfied enough with his lab test results to take him off the dialysis. He was a lot more relieved than he cared to admit, that no persistent damage to his kidneys had happened, or to any other vital organ for that matter. That prospect had secretly freaked him out. When it gradually became clear that his body was coming back to functioning the way it was supposed to and he felt better by the hour, he immediately remembered why he hated to be in medical, or anywhere that even remotely resembled a hospital. He was so bored, that he almost missed all the equipment they'd had him on. As soon as he had been coherent enough, he'd started to think about what he could turn it into. It was quite a lot…

However, no amount of bargaining changed the fact that he needed to stay on the antibiotics at least for a week. As he was receiving them via IV, he was stuck. The medical staff was looking forward to it about as much as Mac was. Not at all. Luckily, his friends did their best to keep him entertained and to discourage him from following through with any potential escape plans his big brain might come up with. On the other hand, Mac knew, of course, that he had to stick to the antibiotics, because breeding any antibiotica-resistant bacteria inside his body was most definitely not on his bucket list. Therefore, he stayed. Grudgingly.

By now, Jack looked as if he belonged in the hospital bed instead of Mac, who was clearly on the mend. Disconnected from all the medical equipment except for the IV, relocated to a regular room and fever-free, MacGyver looked and felt not quite back to normal yet, but he was visibly on the right track. Jack, however, had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and when he walked, he moved almost like twice his age. Besides, it had gotten impossible to be in the same room with him and ignore the fact that he was in dire need of a shower and a change of clothes. Throw in a shave and a good night's sleep on something more comfortable than a hospital visitor's chair and he might turn back into a human being. So far, Mac had failed miserably in convincing him to do that.

A soft knock on the door announced the arrival of another visitor. Mac called them in and Riley poked his head in.

"Mac? You awake?" She grinned when she saw the agent sitting up in bed, talking urgently to Jack, who sat in the chair next to his bed and looked miserable, albeit determined. Mac gestured her to come in and she did so, followed by Bozer. The latter was carrying a large cardboard box, which he sat down on the square table in a corner of the room. Mac looked at it delightedly, instant recognition on his face. He knew that box.

"You brought work! Great!" he exclaimed, grinning.

"We didn't want you to sneak out of here to get your hands on something to fix, so we brought your 'projects' here," Bozer explained. Mac's fingers twitched as if they were already working on something. Riley came over to his bed and hugged him. While her ear was close to his face, he secretly whispered in her ear:

"We need to kick Jack's butt home and into a shower. He's refusing so far, but now that you're here –" Riley sniffed the air in the room and wrinkled her nose. She didn't beat about the bush, when she addressed the ex-Delta.

"Go and get that shower already, Jack! You stink to heaven!" In an urgent kind of stage-whisper she added, "The nurses are already complaining!" At that, Jack straightened, looking alarmed.

"The nurses? That dark-haired one, too? With the green eyes and the dimples? You know, Larissa?"

"Clarice," the hacker corrected, while Mac and Bozer stifled laughs, "and yes, her too. You can't blame her, by the way. It's gross by now!"

"Be right back," he said to Mac and was out of the door. A second later, his head reappeared. "You two keep an eye on our boy for me!" he ordered the newly arrived visitors. Riley shook her head in disbelief, but couldn't quite hide a fond smile.

"Mac's not going anywhere. Go," Riley shot back, "and while you're at it, grab some sleep, too! You're a mess!"

Jack's head vanished and the door closed with a snap. The three agents in the room sighed in relief and Mac put into words what they all had been thinking.

"Finally!"

Mac and Bozer's place, a week later

Mac couldn't remember ever being this happy to come home, although he had a strong hunch that Jack and Bozer would raise their mother-henning on him to a whole new level for quite a while from now on. And sure enough, as soon as Jack had parked the car in the driveway, he dashed over to the passenger's side to help Mac out of the car.

"I can get out by myself just fine, Jack!" the younger man complained, slightly irritated.

"Lemme help! You don't wanna face-plant in your driveway, bud!"

"I won't!"

"You just got released by medical and your blood-pressure is still—"

Mac interrupted. "That's exactly the point: I got released! Officially. I didn't check myself out. I'm perfectly fine to walk up my driveway without assistance and my blood-pressure might still be a little lower than usual for me, but it's within normal range. Shall I spell it out for you? N-O-R-M-A-L, Jack!" With that, Mac swung his long legs out of the car and straightened up without the slightest hint of a dizzy spell or anything. "See? I'm good."

The older man watched him with a doubtful frown, as if he was half expecting his friend to drop dead on the spot. He sighed. The kid had a history of disregarding his own well-being over everybody else's, as well as hiding injuries and other health issues in order to avoid hospital stays, but this time, Jack had pestered the entire medical staff into making 200 % sure that Mac was fine before even considering releasing him. (Of course, Mac had lectured him on the impossibility of more than 100 % in this case, but Jack couldn't have cared less if he'd tried.) He was aware that he was acting like a helicopter parent, but he could barely restrain himself. He reluctantly let Mac walk by himself, but kept within arms-length of him to be able to catch him, just in case. Mac gave him his most-annoyed sideway eye-roll, but didn't say anything.

The two Phoenix agents were greeted at the door by Bozer, who was wearing his favorite 'Kiss the cook'-apron and a wide grin. Seeing his roomie standing in front of the door made Bozer incredibly happy and he opened his arms wide to invite him for a hug, a questioning look on his face. Mac simply stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him. Bozer blinked rapidly and had to clear his throat to get rid of the lump that had formed in there again. "Lunch is ready." He said into Mac's ear with a croaky voice. The blonde had already noticed the delicious scents wafting over from the kitchen and judging by his nose, the hobby-cook had once again surpassed himself. Flanked by Jack and Bozer, Mac entered the living room.

"SURPRISE!" Riley and Matty stood up from the couch upon his entry and greeted him joyfully.

"Welcome back, Blondie!" He bent down to hug Matty briefly but warmly.

Riley didn't trust her voice and went for a silent hug. Mac felt her swallow and struggle to get her breathing back under control. He hugged her tightly, his chin lightly resting on top of her head, to give her time to regain her composure. Jack stepped forward as soon as they broke apart. Mac just rolled his eyes and threw Matty a resigned look, earning a mock helpless shrug in return, when he allowed Jack to steer him towards the couch and have him sit down.

Within the next minutes, his friends piled enough food in front of him to feed an army. Mac gaped incredulously at the growing mounts of food on the table. He caught Bozer by the sleeve, when he placed a large bowl of baked potatoes on the last free spot.

"You know I'm supposed to go easy on my stomach for a while, don't you?" He laughed.

"I'll personally make sure you put those pounds you lost back on. You didn't have any body-fat to spare in the first place."

"I'm never gonna hear the end of this, aren't I?"

"You got that right! At least not before you fit into your clothes again." Bozer grinned at him broadly. Mac looked down his admittedly too thin frame, then from face to face and back at the laden table.

"Guys, I'm gonna need your help on this!" He declared with a slight hint of desperation in his voice. Jack arranged his face into a concerned frown.

"Now I'm truly worried! Mac's asking for help? We're in deep shit!" They all laughed; Mac rather sarcastically.

They grabbed plates and cutlery, sat down around the table and started to eat. Bozer and Jack had clearly made 'fattening Mac up' their top-priority mission. They were sitting on either side of Mac and whenever the blonde had managed to clear a spot on his plate, one of them would immediately fill it with more food. Matty and Riley watched the spectacle with growing amusement, until Mac put down his fork, raised his hands in defeat and leaned back in his seat with a heavy sigh.

"You shove one more bite down my throat and I swear I'm gonna burst!"

The two 'men on a mission' immediately protested. "You need plenty of energy to regain your strength!" - "You can't be full! You hardly ate!" Bozer pointed accusingly at Mac's full plate. Mac glared at him, shaking his head, but refrained from commenting on the fact that it was only full because it kept refilling itself faster than he could eat.

"Seriously guys, I feel like a darning goose."

Bozer's face fell. "Do you mean to tell me that you aren't even gonna try the dessert?"

Mac looked at him in horror. "Listen, Boze, I really appreciate all this," he gestured at the table that still held enough food to feed the entire neighborhood, even after five people had eaten more than their fill, "but the human stomach has a maximum capacity of not much more than a liter and I've surely reached breaking point for mine. So if you don't plan on making me sick -" He left the half-sentence hanging there, looking around with a pleading expression on his face. Thankfully, they took pity on him and graciously allowed him to skip dessert. In fact, they were all so stuffed, that nobody felt much like eating any pudding on top. Mac looked from the table to Bozer and back. "We're gonna need a bigger freezer," he stated dryly. Bozer looked a little crestfallen, but he couldn't eat anything else, eitherr.

After the leftovers had been stowed away and the living room and kitchen were mostly back to their usual tidy and clean state, the five Phoenix agents had moved outside to gather around the fire-pit on the deck. Bozer was handing out drinks to everybody. Mac bumped his plastic water bottle to Jack's beer and took a long sip. He enjoyed finally being back home and among his friends, though it felt kind of strange, too. A little more than a week ago, he'd been dying, in total darkness, alone, confused, in agony and scared. In the end, he'd given up hope of ever seeing any of his friends again and now, they were all around him in his own home and he was not only alive, but almost feeling back to normal. They hadn't given up on him and had kept searching until they'd found him, literally in the last minute. He felt an enormous wave of gratitude wash over him, when he looked at them.

"Thank you!" he said, his gratefulness very apparent in those two simple words. The others turned to him and Jack spoke.

"Anytime, brother. Don't you dare trying to check out on me ever again!" The other three agreed, nodding fervently.

"I can assure you that I most definitely didn't have any intention to do that!"

"Well, you gave it a pretty good shot this time! We really thought we'd never see you again! When Matty told me that your Jeep had fallen down the cliff and you were gone-" He trailed off, fighting to regain his composure.

While Mac was still in medical, they hadn't really talked about what happened on both ends while he was missing. Therefore, he was curious now.

"Care to fill me in on how you managed to find me in that cave, when you thought that I'd drowned in the Pacific? Not that I'm complaining, or anything…"

"That," Jack began, "is a long story! Maybe, before we get started on that, could you please tell me what two dead minions of some loan shark have been doing with my phone number in their pocket?"

Mac blinked, momentarily not quite following. "Dead - What? What loan-shark?"

"Tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine."

"Alright, I'll make it quick, just the essentials: My tire popped, the Jeep crashed into the railing, came to a halt balanced on the rim, I got out, a van came along, skidded, knocked my Jeep down, almost ran me over, two guys grabbed me, asked me for a number for a ransom call, I told them to call you, they put me in that hole and never returned. That was about it." He took a deep breath, before he went on. "I really thought I was a goner this time… So who were those guys and what happened?"

"I'd kinda hoped you'd elaborate a little more, but I'll let it slide for now. So… where do I start?"

Riley and Bozer didn't find the right words to start, either, so Matty spoke up, looking very serious. "I'd say it started when I was notified that a car, which had crashed into the ocean, had been identified as your Jeep. Everything looked like you'd—you'd fallen down with it. We immediately started a search with everything we've got, but essentially, we didn't have much hope of finding you alive… if at all."

Mac sat very still, suddenly mesmerized by the half-empty water bottle in his hand. He was absentmindedly swirling the water in it around with small movements of his wrist. "I'm sorry," he murmured. Jack put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault, bud!"

"I know it wasn't, but still—"

"What?"

Mac intently watched the liquid in his bottle, when he reversed the direction of his swirling, producing a dozen tiny whirls for a second, before the current flowed the other way round. "I should have stayed with you. You were hurt," he said so softly, it was hardly more than a whisper. Jack had to strain his ears to catch it.

"Listen, Mac, I don't even want to imagine what two days alone in that godforsaken cave, dehydrated and with a fever did to your hyperactive mind, but I want you to stop feeling guilty about it, right now! It. Wasn't. Your. Freakin'. Fault!"

The blonde squeezed his eyes shut for about ten seconds, while he processed what his friend had just said. When he opened them again, his expression had changed. The forlornness and guilt that had been prominent in those blue eyes before had successfully been compartmentalized away to be dealt with later… Or never. Jack made a mental note to make sure to bring it back up on occasion to sort it out.

"So if you thought I was fish food, what gave you the idea to explore a cave in that national forest?" Mac asked so matter-of-factly, as if they were casually discussing their last weekend. Jack winced and Riley took the question as her cue to join the conversation.

"In short, we figured out who the van, which came along the road shortly after your crash, belonged to, a guy named Robert Arlington. Does that ring any bells?"

"They didn't introduce themselves. I never got their names."

"Never mind," Riley went on. "At first, we wanted to find and ask them what they'd seen and why they drove by an obvious accident site without at least calling anyone, but that was, when it got really weird."

"What happened? Jack said they were dead?" Mac asked, feeling sorry for the lives lost, no matter what they'd done.

"Yeah, they were murdered by their boss, the same day you vanished."

Mac frowned, remembering the conversation that he'd overheard while he was feigning unconsciousness in the back of the van. "They were on the run from their boss, because they screwed up. They were supposed to kidnap a girl for him. They knew he was gonna kill them and wanted to run for it; leave the country or something. They needed money, so they decided to try and use me as a hostage for ransom."

"OK, that explains that sheet of paper..." Riley murmured, lost in thought. "Anyway, we were trying to find Arlington and Higgs, when they turned up dead inside their crashed van. Later, I accessed their case file and discovered pictures of everything that was found on their bodies – including Jack's phone number in your handwriting." She took a deep breath and Bozer took over, finally having found his voice.

"Man, I'll never forget how all your stuff was scattered all over that table in the forensics lab, soaking wet, and Jill explaining how the accident happened! Everything fit together and it all pointed to you being- gone – for good!" Bozer blinked tears out of his eyes. "But when Ri found that piece of paper in the police file, we finally knew that you couldn't have died in the fall and that those two guys must have had something to do with your disappearance. So we grabbed their boss, a ruthless loan-shark and soul seller."

Jack jumped in. "When Matty was finished with him, we knew that he'd murdered his former employees, but didn't know anything about you or where you could have gotten to. So we started searching again. Riles found a satellite shot of their car in the forest and we followed the trail. It still took till next day, though, to finally find you. We were almost too late..." He trailed off, the memory of his barely alive partner still very vivid in his mind.

"But you weren't too late. Thanks for never giving up on me!"

The group fell silent, awkwardly looking at each other. Jack shifted uncomfortably on the wooden bench and looked into the flames instead of at his friend's face.

"Well… To tell ya the truth…. For a while… Actually, we kinda- did!" he mumbled reluctantly. "If that phone number hadn't turned up in the file-" He trailed off, not able to finish the sentence.

"Yeah, well, but the point is, that it did, and that you found it and that you drew the right conclusions. We're dealing with narrow misses all the time."

"No, Mac, this was different," Bozer interjected. "It's hardly ever been this close! Besides, it didn't even happen on a mission! You manage to almost get yourself killed on a freakin' vacation trip!"

"Yeah," Riley confirmed, "Your vacations turn out to be more dangerous than many of our missions!"

Mac opened his mouth to reply, but Jack beat him to it.

"Speaking of vacations… Matty, you know what you gotta do next time when Mac hands in his next request for time off?"

Mac knew exactly what was coming, but he was hopelessly outnumbered, when everybody else chorused like one voice:

"Reject it!"

.

.

The End

So, that's it. Thanks so much for joining me for the ride. I hope I was able to wrap it up nicely in the end and clear up most of the confusion you might have suffered along the way.

I also hope that I didn't mutilate the English language too badly. I did my best, I promise! ;-) In case you find any major blunders, it would be great if you pointed them out to me, so I can fix them.