Chapter Text
5:45 am PST
Wednesday
The ass crack of dawn
Jack honks, he’s parked out front Mac’s house, seconds alter Mac pops out the door looking annoyed. He heaves up his huge backpacking bag onto his back. Its blue waterproof and bigger than Mac’s torso, Jack can see the top over the pack peek over macs head. The bag probably weighs as much as Mac does, Jack laughs to himself.
Mac locks the door behind him and makes his way to the car. He doesn't acknowledge Jack in the front seat on his way past. He slings his bag into the trunk next to Jacks and gets in the passenger seat next to him.
“Morin’ kid,” Jacks says, handing him a coffee and a bagel. Mac grunts a thanks, but he’s still upset with Jack.
Jack puts the car in gear, and they begin driving to the DXS airstrip. He tries to break the ice with the kid. “Mac I’m sorry about last night, I shouldn’t have yelled but -”
“I don’t need your apology Jack.” Mac snaps, speaking for the first time. “I just want to get this mission on with.”
“No Mac we have to resolve this there will be no working together on mission if we don’t.” Jack tries to be rational.
“Jack, it's fine, I have my opinion and you have yours. Move on.”
“You know I can’t do that if your opinion is going to get you killed.”
“But I didn’t get killed Jack! I’m fine! It worked fine!”
“You ran directly into fire! You could have been shot!”
Mac can hear the desperation in Jack’s voice, but he still doesn’t give him an inch. “I saw an opportunity to shut off the machine and I took it.”
“An opportunity to get yourself shot to bits.”
“But I didn’t! So just drop it!”
“Do you want to die? Is that it, you have a death wish? Your life not going the way you wanted? You wanna get shot, Mac?”
Jack waits for an answer, Mac doesn’t give him one. “Mac we can’t go like this-”
“Jack I understand that you don’t trust me-”
“What? -"
“Listen I know you don’t trust me and that’s fine I accept that, but Thornton called us specifically on this mission because of our skills. and we can’t not show up for her.”
Jack has no idea how to respond to that, he's shocked Mac can be so smart but have gotten this so wrong. He trusts him, what the hell is Mac talking about? Jack hesitates, trying to think of something to say. Something that would get Mac to understand, Jack just wants him to be safe.
Mac shifts sensing the conversation is over, he turns and stares out the window.
6:45 am
DXS Air Strip, L.A. CA
Population Approx. 3.94 Million
After driving the rest of the way in silence only broken when Jack turns off the radio, they arrive at the airstrip; Thornton meets them in the hanger.
“What’s up Patty? What’s so important you’ve got us at the airport without a briefing?”
“MacGyver, Dalton thank you for being on time.” Thornton says. “Your mission is to hike into a national park in Alaska, find a cabin where some files, containing top secret information from the Cold War are stashed. We only just got the intel yesterday of the existence of the files, when I told you to get packed. Do you have everything on the list?”
“Yea, but six days worth of food? How long will we be out there?” Mac asks.
“Hopefully no longer than six days.”
Fair answer. Mac thinks.
“Patty, you do know it's basically winter isn’t it gonna be freezing up there.” Jack cuts in.
“You packed warm clothes?”
“Well yeah but…”
“No buts Jack, please try to be professional, this is your job.” She reminds him sharply but it's not harsh.
Jack grumbles something about professionalism and Mac snickers at him.
Thornton clears her throat, “If you packed everything on the list you should be fine. The other thing is this is a time sensitive issue, we aren’t the only ones looking for these files and now that we know about them who knows who else does? There are weather warnings in the area for a blizzard it could be nothing, but it could be dangerous which is why we need your skills.”
Mac nods but Jack doesn’t look convinced “Are you sure you’re not just trying to get rid of us? This sounds like a death sentence, sending us into a blizzard for some files that might exist.
Thornton glances at him in disapproval before handing Mac a file. “In there are the maps and everything you will need to know about the region and your contact in Anchorage.
“Wait why do we have to hike in? Can’t we just zip over in a helo and get it done with? Jack cuts in.
“Blizzard warning?” Mac asks sarcastically.
“The area is low visibly from the sky due to the sunlight reflecting off the snow and blinding pilots. The terrain would be nearly impossible to land blind. And normally we wouldn’t send anyone into an inaccessible remote area while it's under a possible blizzard precaution, but the information in the files is very sensitive and possibly dangerous.”
Jack seems to accept this answer, and Mac thinks for a moment before asking, “What’s in the files?”
“That’s classified.”
“Classified as in you don’t know, or classified as in we’ll lose our jobs if we sneak a peek?”
“Our intel says they likely contain information about a bunker, previously thought to be just propaganda.”
Mac and Jack nod “No further questions” Jack says, mocking professionalism.
Thornton wishes them good luck and a safe flight then turns and leaves. The agents grab their bags and board the plane, while the pilot prepares for take off.
The flight is long, almost 5 hours. The boys spend their time looking through the files Thornton gave them, then they try to get some sleep knowing they’ll need rest before they begin the trek the next day.
When they’re not sleeping, they barely talk, Mac thinks Jack is still mad at him especially after he admitted he knew Jack didn’t trust him. Mac’s anxiety is blowing everything about of proportion, but he can’t help it, sitting in silence with Jack and nothing to do. He keeps going over the argument in the car, and the fight yesterday, and the mission. Trying to figure out if he can fix this with Jack, but just the thought of confronting Jack up twists his stomach and makes his skin crawl with nerves. There’s no way Jack is going to want to stick around after the way he treated him, their partnership will be over, and Jack will finally be able to get on with his life. Without Mac.
1:00 pm AKST
Anchorage the largest city in Alaska
Population approx. 290, 000
Their contact, an ex-operative who’d been relocated to Alaska when he retired, Jason Palmer. Mr. Palmer was an old man of average description, average height, weight, clothes. He snorted when he saw Mac clearly unimpressed by the younger agent. They shook hands, Mac mildly offended, he was used to people treating him that way, but it still hurt to be constantly underestimated.
They stayed with Mr. Palmer for the night he let them sleep on a blow-up mattress squished into his office.
That afternoon Mac messed about with the navigation gear getting himself oriented with the maps and the area. They didn’t exactly have coordinates just a 40-year-old map with a vague location marked and a few notes from the DXS techs. Mac checked over the route they’d chosen and quickly ran some calculations to figure out how long each section would take them. A mile with a rise of 1000 ft in elevation takes about an hour so each day of hiking should take around 5 hours if they want to make there and back in six days. That leaves some room for adjustment as the weather is unpredictable and their maps are certainly outdated and liable for mistake or changed in land formation that were not accounted for. At a certain point on the last day, they’ll be able to contacts Mr. palmer to come pick them up and hopefully they’ll reach the arranged meeting place around the same time.
Jack finished blowing up the air mattress and rolled on to it relaxing. “Hey, remind me again how we are going to navigate with an old map and a compass to a location that may or may not exist?”
Mac sighs looking up from the map. “Well, the compass bit is easy but whether or not there’s anything out there… no idea.
“Great,” Jack responds sarcastically, stretching out on the air mattress. “And you're a compass expert? I’m pretty sure they always had GPS when you were a kid.”
“My Grandfather taught me orienteering when we went camping as a kid. I’ve known how to navigate backwoods trails since I was ten.” Mac says defiantly, he’s proud of this.
Jack stays silent for a moment waiting to see if Mac will continue. The kid never talks about his childhood or family. In the army Jack barely ever got mac to talk about Bozer and all he really said was that’s he was Mac’s childhood friend. Jack also knows Mac’s mom died when he was young, and his dad left so his grandfather raised him, but Jack doesn't even know his grandpa's name.
“Alrighty then you're the expert, I've seen a lot of maps man, but camping has never been my scene. My dad took us when we were all real little. I remember making smores around a campfire but living on the ranch was a lot like camping outside all the time. We’d sleep outside on warm summer nights in the soft grassy fields staring up at the stars. We’d stay up all night making up stories and playing outside.” Jack says wistfully, remembering his boyhood with a melancholy smile.
“I loved camping as a kid.” Something in Mac’s voice made Jack sit up to see Mac’s face, his eyes were glazed over, and he didn't seem to notice Jack move. “After my Dad left, we stayed at his house in Mission City, it wasn’t big like L.A. and the stars weren’t anything like the backwoods in North Calli. I remember when my grandpa took me camping, I’d sit by the river a little way away from our campsite looking up at the stars for hours. Harry taught me how to navigate by the stars. How sailors could find north the north star Polaris. He showed me so many constellations I wanted to learn them all, Hercules, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Scorpio, I wonder what the fall constellations are? If they’re different since we’re so much farther north? Orion’s belt maybe?”
Mac seemed a million miles away stuck in the memory of his grandfather and his childhood. Jack smiles imagining young Mac being amazed by the stars and the world around him.
They both took a moment lost in memories before continuing to check over their maps and gear.
So your saying that we should hunt for our food?” Mac asks incredulously. “Jack we’re only gone for like six days and we hike the whole time. We don't have time for sticking around and hunting.”
“Yea but then we wouldn't have to haul out all this food, and we could just have a camping trip where we find some old files in a secret cabin.”
“That wouldn’t really be a nice little camping trip, it would just be us trying to survive in the wild.
“No, it would be a hunting trip!” He mimes shooting a gun excitedly.
Mac rolls his eye, but a small smile creeps across his face.
After dinner that evening Mac offers to help wash the dishes, Jack joins him in the kitchen. They work together in silence, the rift in their friendship and trust is still noticeable. When they're finished, they join Mt. Palmer in the living room.
“You boys know what you're doing tomorrow?”
Mac explains they have to wake up early and drive out to the national park to start the long hike as soon as possible.
“So we have to leave by six? That ain’t too early?” Mr. Palmer asks.
“The drive is like what four and a half hours?” Palmer nods, Mac continues saying “Yeah leave by six then, the mission is important, someone needs those files quickly.”
“If they even exist.” Jack cuts in.
“Yeah” Mac shrugs.
That thought hangs in the air for a second before Mr. Palmer cuts through the silence saying, “Oh! I got a book for you,” he struggles to his feet quickly and grabs an old paperback book.
“We don't really have much space for anything else...”
“No, no,” he quiets Mac’s modest refusal of the gift. “I wasn’t going to give you this, but you seem capable, and worthy.” He eyes Mac then hands him the book and takes his seat again. “Its a guide to the area, the weather, plants, animals and first aid. I'm sure you boys already know a bit of first aid with your line of work but the rest of it might be helpful.” Mac flips through the book the text is small, printed in times new roman font the pages are stiff and wrinkled. The whole book looks like it was dropped in water and dried in the sun.
“Its an old book,” Mr. Palmer goes on. “I used to take it camping with my son. He was a good kid, a little troubled maybe misguides but deep down he was good. When he moved out we lost touch, I can see that the two of you are going through something, some trouble maybe. I don’t want you to lose touch the way my son and I did.”
Mac blushed lightly at the implication of him being Jacks son.
Mr. Palmer turned to Mac and continued speaking. “When we met earlier, I had my doubts about you, in my time agents were all cut from the same material, and you son don’t quite fit the mold.” He shakes his head in thought. “Pardon my eavesdropping but earlier I heard you talking about your plan for the trip, and you seem like a knowledgeable young man. The backcountry trails are dangerous, and the cold is unforgiving, you reminded me of my son, and I don’t want you boys to get caught in a snowstorm and freeze to death.”
“Thank you, sir.” Mac stammers quietly, taken aback by the old man’s kind words.
“We really appreciate that man, and thanks for letting us crash here tonight and the ride out tomorrow.” Jack adds.
“We’ll that’s all a favor to your boss Ms. Thornton. But the company is nice.”