I came into the MacGyver Rewatch super late in season 1, so I decided to go back and see if I could write a missing scene for each episode. First up, S01E01 The Rising - enjoy!
Jack's eyes moved from the steady rise and fall of Mac's chest to the monitors beside his hospital bed to his closed eyes and oxygen mask and back to his chest. The nurses assured him that Mac's vitals were strong, but they couldn't tell him when his partner would wake up.
Waiting was the worst part. He'd sat in a sniper's nest for 15 hours once waiting for the perfect shot and been perfectly content to do so. Fifteen minutes at Mac's bedside had made him want to crawl out of his own skin.
They'd been here for three days. Mac had gone through emergency surgery and was being given heavy antibiotics doses since he'd fallen into the lake with an open wound. The bullet had hit his lung, and he had a chest tube on the opposite side of where Jack was sitting because he just couldn't look at that for very long. It would hopefully be removed today.
Jack had barely slept, afraid that he would wake up to find Mac gone. He put his hands in prayer position on the edge of Mac's bed and leaned his forehead against them. Not for the first time, Jack sent up a silent prayer for Mac's recovery.
He didn't know how long he sat like that before he felt shaky fingers brush against his temple. Jack jerked his head up to see Mac's baby blues cracked open and looking at him.
"Hey, bud," Jack said softly. "You with me?"
"Jack?" Mac's raspy voice was barely audible through the oxygen mask.
He nodded and moved one hand up to squeeze Mac's shoulder on his uninjured side. "How're you feeling?"
"Drugged," Mac replied with a loopy smile. "You okay?"
Mac's brow furrowed, and he blinked slowly at Jack as if his brain was having a hard time understanding the words.
"I'm all right," Jack finally said. "It's you that's been asleep for three days. You're turning my hair gray, pal. I'm too young for that."
"Three days?" Mac twitched weakly, trying to sit up and failing spectacularly.
Jack stood and put a hand lightly on Mac's chest, far from the bandages over his gunshot wound. "Stay still, now. Don't start busting stitches."
"Nikki! Where's Nikki? Is she okay?"
He had hoped that Mac wouldn't ask about Nikki just yet, but he knew better. Mac would have noticed Nikki's absence even if he didn't remember what had happened back at the lake.
Mac's hand grasped Jack's wrist and squeezed weakly. "Jack, where's Nikki?"
Jack met Mac's eyes, determined to be strong for his partner. "We haven't found her body. She's presumed KIA. I'm sorry, Mac. I'm so sorry."
"No, no," Mac murmured as tears filled his eyes. "She can't be. No."
Jack didn't have any other words, and words weren't what Mac needed anyway. He sat carefully on the edge of Mac's bed, moving one hand to the side of Mac's neck and the other to squeeze Mac's hand. Jack wished he could pull him into a hug, but he was afraid to move Mac too much.
Mac cried himself to sleep, and Jack made sure he was out before letting his own tears fall. He should have been paying more attention to their surroundings so he wouldn't have been snuck up on and knocked unconscious while Mac and Nikki faced off with a terrorist by themselves. He should have been better, and he vowed right then and there to work harder to watch Mac's back.
