Chapter Text
Mac was awoken to the sound of banging, as if someone were trying to knock his front door down, he glanced at the clock and was shocked to see that it was 3am. Who the hell was visiting at that time? His first thought was that it was his partner and he became concerned, however there had been no message or call so that was probably unlikely. Figuring that the only way to know would be to answer the door, he got out of bed, put on a hoody and walked to the front door.
After a slight hesitation, (maybe letting some stranger in at that hour wasn’t the best idea) Mac opened the door and came face to face with his father.
“Dad?”
“Hello Angus.”
Mac just stood in the doorway frozen to the spot, the last person he expected to see was the man that had abandoned him when he was twelve years old. He was shaken out of his shock when James pushed past him into the house.
“What do you want?” Mac asked, not sure if he should hinder the man’s entrance.
“We need to talk.” James replied. “Are you alone?”
“Bozer is away for the weekend, you remember him, don’t you?”
“Wilt, he was a good kid, good friend to you.”
“I’m surprised you noticed.” Mac replied, anger taking over from his recent shock. “Why are you here, at 3am? How did you know where I lived?”
“I told you, we need to talk,” James said, walking further into the house and expecting his son to follow. “This was your grandfather’s house; I know he left it to you.”
“How?”
“That’s not important right now. You’re in danger Angus and I’ve come to help, shall I make us a hot drink?”
“Danger from who? And how are you going to help? Where have you been all these years?” Mac had more questions to ask but he thought he shouldn’t bombard his father with too many at once.
He followed him into the kitchen, watching as James put on the kettle and took out mugs from the cupboard, he wasn’t really sure why he was letting him take over his kitchen when he hadn’t seen the man in so long, he guessed he was still in shock.
“It’s hard to explain, let’s sit down and I’ll try.” Pouring water from the finished kettle.
James motioned for Mac to proceed him into the living room, causing his son to miss the pill he dropped into one of the drinks. James followed and handed Mac the dosed cup, taking a seat in the chair opposite him.
“Drink up, you look like you could use it,” James said, sipping his own drink.
Mac wasn’t especially interested in drinking anything but he did, hoping that it would get his father talking, maybe it would even help wake him up a little, he was still slightly unsure if he was even awake or if this was some strange dream.
“I know all about the Phoenix Foundation, what sort of things you get up to,” James said, setting down his mug on the coffee table.
“It’s a think tank,” Mac replied, not sure how else to respond.
“You and I both know that’s not true. I used to work for the CIA, so I know a thing or two about clandestine operations.”
“CIA?” Of all the things his father could have said, CIA wasn’t even on Mac’s radar.
“Yes. It’s the reason I left. I couldn’t put you in that kind of danger anymore. Of course, now that you’re an agent yourself you know what I’m talking about.”
“I would never abandon my son!” Mac exclaimed. “You didn’t even say goodbye”
“Angus I’m sorry, but we can’t get into that right now. We need to leave, you’re in danger and I need to get you somewhere safe.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that, and I am sorry that it had to come to this.” James stood and took the mug out of Mac’s hand seeing that his eyes were starting to lose focus.
“What, what…. did you…. do?” Mac asked, finding it harder to keep his eyes open.
“I gave you a sedative. Don’t worry I’ll explain everything in more detail when we get away from here.”
Mac tried his best to get up, to get away from his father, if he could just stay awake then maybe everything would be ok. Unfortunately, being half asleep and being drugged wasn’t making it easy, he fell to his knees as soon as he tried to get away from the sofa. The last thing he saw before darkness overtook him was his father and he didn’t like the way he was looking at him.
The first thing Mac was aware of was that he was lying on something a lot more comfortable that his living room floor, he slowly opened his eyes a little nervous as to what he might find.
He was expecting a bedroom of some kind, maybe find he was lying on a sofa, what he didn’t anticipate was a mattress in the middle of a basement. He sat up and pushed away the blanket that was covering him, intending to get up and explore. The manacle and chain attached to his ankle made him stop, what the hell? Without warning his breathing started to quicken, why had his father brought him wherever he was and locked him up, he said he wanted to help him. Maybe his father only said that to make him relax, who knew what he’d been up to since they’d last seen each other, he could be a criminal.
Panicking wasn’t going to help the situation, so he took a few deep breaths, focus MacGyver. He was just about to get up and search the room, surely there was something there he could pick the lock with, when the door opened, and his father came in.
“You’re awake,” James said, coming down the stairs.
“What the hell is going on?” Mac asked, immediately standing, not wanting to be vulnerable around the older man.
“Sit Angus and I’ll explain.”
“I’d rather stand. I would walk around, but looks like that’s out of the question,” Mac replied, adding a lot of sarcasm to the last sentence.
“You can walk around Angus, there’s enough slack, but not too much.”
James sat on the bottom step, rolling the bottle of water he had in his hand over to the mattress.
“I thought you might be thirsty. Don’t worry, it’s not drugged.”
Mac looked at the bottle and then up at his father, he was thirsty, it felt like something had died in his mouth. Part of him wanted to kick it back, but he knew that he needed to keep himself hydrated. He bent down and picked it up, taking a long drink and then placing it back on the floor.
“You said you were going to explain.”
“You’re right. Firstly, I want to apologize for where we are, the only reason I’ve had to do this is because I know that you won’t want to stay and that is imperative to keeping you safe. I thought about locking you in a room upstairs but there are too many things you could use to pick a lock. This was the only way.”
“Great thanks, the first time I’ve seen you in over ten years and you chain me up in your basement to keep me safe, makes perfect sense.”
Mac couldn’t believe what he was hearing, the man was crazy.
“Believe me Angus I’m not enjoying this.” James sighed, running his hands through his hair and spoke again. “There are people after me and they won’t hesitate to go after you to get to me.”
“So, this is your way of protecting me?” Mac asked. “Well I’m sorry to say but it’s ridiculous!! I could have gone into protective custody, helped you track down the people who are after you, anything but this. Tell me what the plan is if they find us here? I won’t be able to help you or myself.”
“They won’t find us. This is the only way.” James got up and started walking towards Mac, his countenance completely changing. “You will stay here; do as you’re told and be grateful that I’m bothering protecting you.”
Mac backed up slightly, not sure what had made the man switch his emotions so abruptly. He really should just nod, or say ok, knowing that answering back was not the best idea. He did neither of those things though. “Or what?” came out of his mouth instead.
The reply was a fist to the face, knocking him off his feet onto the mattress. He scrambled backwards, thinking that there would be more hits, but James was already walking up the stairs.
The door shut with a bang and there was a sound of a key turning. Mac sat up and rubbed his jaw, his father had hit him hard. He really wanted to cry in that moment, suddenly feeling like the little boy who had been abandoned by his father. But he wouldn’t, he was an adult, a trained agent and he would find a way out of this basement and find his way home, however long it took.