2A/N: Thanks to everyone's patience. While you're waiting, here's a couple extra scenes from MacGyver's rescue. The first is Pete during the rescue and right after, and the second is from Ethan's POV.
Pete didn't care what he said, MacGyver was not okay.
Maybe he really was just tired, but Pete felt there had to be more to it. Sleep-deprived or not, MacGyver usually talked. But while his feet dragged slowly along, MacGyver didn't say a word.
Then, not far from the exit, MacGyver stopped and began to sag. Robins quickly grabbed his other side, stabilizing MacGyver and rousing him enough to keep walking. Robins still didn't let go.
Eventually, they reached the staircase outside. The smugglers who'd been found had already been herded outside, leaving plenty of room for the slow moving trio.
Pete stopped them again before ascending the stairs, knowing it would be hard for MacGyver.
"Alright," Pete said. "Just up these steps, then we're out. Okay, Mac?"
MacGyver lifted his head slightly, but didn't respond. Uncertainty flickered in MacGyver's eyes.
"Mac?" Pete asked.
MacGyver blinked slowly, then his eyes glazed over. He suddenly went limp, and it was all Pete could do to keep him from dropping straight to the floor.
"MacGyver!" Pete shouted as he and Robins lowered him to the concrete floor. "Robins, call for a medic!"
Robins grabbed his radio and turned away. Pete knelt over MacGyver and opened his jacket, looking for an injury he could have missed. Seeing nothing, Pete checked MacGyver's pulse.
"Normal," Pete said, confused.
Robins turned back. "What?"
"Pulse is normal." Pete watched MacGyver's chest for a minute. "So is breathing. But both are slow, like…"
Trailing off, Pete leaned forward and rolled up MacGyver's sleeves. Robins went to his other side, then quickly pointed at MacGyver's neck.
"Look."
MacGyver had two small swellings on the side of his neck, surrounding a tiny puncture in his skin.
"He was drugged," Pete finished.
Something rumbled far down the hall. The radio suddenly came alive with shouts.
"Evacuate!"
"The ceiling's collapsing!"
"-coming down, run!"
Worried as Pete was about MacGyver's condition, they couldn't stick around. Robins straightened and, with Pete's help, put MacGyver over one broad shoulder, then hurried up the stairs with Pete balancing MacGyver from behind.
The rumbling grew louder. Cracks followed and the walls shook as the place began to cave. The agents who had still been below clattered up the steps behind Pete. Everyone clustered together as they hurried to escape, all helping carry MacGyver and two other injured agents.
The group burst out of the stairwell as metal shrieked. Pete yelled at everyone to move, hesitating himself long enough to ensure nobody had been left behind, then he ran outside.
Behind the shack concealing the base's entrance, the ground cracked and shuddered. Then, with a groan Pete felt as much as saw, the ground sunk. Trees toppled and tangled together as the ground fell away, dirt and dust flying out of cracks that formed in the ground.
Silence fell, broken only by the occasional thud of a dirt clod falling into the sinkhole. A large portion of ground had sunk down and more than a few trees laid on their sides with roots exposed, but the shack was still intact, and all the agents were on the stable side of the base.
"Mac?" Pete said.
Robins, kneeling beside MacGyver, gave Pete a thumbs up. "Same."
"Good, I guess," Pete sighed. "Stay with him."
Pete ordered the agents to various tasks, securing the smugglers they'd arrested, checking the range of the damaged area, and taking stock of injuries. He checked the shack himself, and was disappointed to find the stairwell completely collapsed.
Two days of chasing, and Pete still had no idea why MacGyver had been taken. Everything they'd found pointed toward weapon smuggling. These were people who shot witnesses, not took them captive. Especially captives who caused as much trouble as MacGyver could.
Pete paused halfway back to MacGyver. He'd nearly forgotten the voice when MacGyver had been captured. MacGyver's capture had been intentional, planned.
Pete went to kneel at MacGyver's side. "Where's the medic?"
Robins nodded to the side. "Owen, Leroy, and Jen were shot. Kit said bleeding takes priority."
"Of course he does."
Pete looked at MacGyver and sighed, but couldn't fault the team's medic. MacGyver was still unconscious, but had no signs of major injuries. The best Pete could do was get him to a hospital for testing to see what he'd been drugged with.
Then he was going to get to the bottom of who had wanted MacGyver. And why.
"Great plan, sure. Just grab the agent guy, what could go wrong?"
Brushing the concrete powder from his jacket, Ethan ignored Yancy. He glanced at Davis, who, loyal as ever, didn't complain.
"I told you it was a dumb plan," Yancy went on. "And now look at us. Just the three of us, no vehicles, no back-up, no nothing."
Ethan finally spared his little brother a scathing glance. "What? Are you afraid of walking now?"
Yancy scoffed. "I'm not the one with shiny leather boots. I know how to hike, and I am not dragging you."
"As if you could, shrimp."
Yancy's eyes were icy, but upturned to compensate for the three-inch difference between the brothers. Nobody had ever said the brothers looked alike, not with Yancy's beanpole frame and shaggy blonde head compared to Ethan's wiry height and dark, even hair. Their eyes matched, and that was it for appearances.
"I think I liked it better when you were playing boss," Yancy growled.
"I can go back to giving orders if you like."
"Only if you want a broken nose."
Ethan's eyes narrowed and his voice softened. "I'd like to see you try."
Yancy glared, but he was the first to look aside. Appearances aside, both were equally tenacious, willing to do what was necessary to achieve their goal. For Ethan, it was letting his short-tempered brother stick around for an extra pair of hands. For Yancy, it was a job and means of staying out of prison.
"What's the plan now?" Davis asked. He gestured in the direction of the wrecked base. "We don't have anywhere to go."
"Yes, we do," Ethan said. He turned and began walking deeper into the trees, listening to the others follow. "We never made it to my facility. As long as those charges did their job, the Phoenix Foundation will cover our tracks for us."
"Until MacGyver puts together the pieces," Yancy said.
Ethan glanced at him.
"He's smarter than you, at least," Yancy said with a smirk.
Ethan didn't react to the taunt. He'd implied as much while explaining the plan. It was probably true, but then again, few people could claim to be smarter than MacGyver. His mind worked in ways nobody understood, though Ethan hoped someday to.
"MacGyver won't be figuring anything out," Ethan said confidently. He took the empty syringe from his jacket and waved it. "I made sure of that."
"You never did tell me what that was supposed to do," Yancy said. His tone shifted from curious back to annoyance as he added, "Besides slow MacGyver down so we couldn't bring him with us."
"We could barely contain MacGyver inside a van surrounded by a small army," Ethan said. "Would you have liked to try marching him through the woods with just the three of us? No, MacGyver isn't a man who will follow orders."
"Anyone will follow orders with proper motivation," Yancy muttered.
Ethan stopped and turned with a pleased grin. "But for how long? MacGyver might do the job, but we wouldn't get a thing out of him."
"Then we'd make him talk," Yancy said. "You said you only needed one job, anyway."
"Yancy, think! Why try so hard if I would have to force MacGyver's every step?"
Yancy crossed his arms. "You put this much effort into it."
"Why force him," Ethan went on, undeterred, "When I can make MacGyver loyal to me?"
Silence followed from Ethan's unimaginative companions. Ethan sighed and waved them off, not bothering to explain.
"I made one mistake this time," Ethan said, more to himself than Yancy or Davis, "I waited for MacGyver to come to me. Next time, I'm going to fetch him myself."