Meme Fill: MacGyver Fic: Unwelcome Company
Title: Unwelcome Company
Fandom: MacGyver
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: MacGyver, Murdoc
Rating: PG
Summary: MacGyver finds himself in an awkward situation, with an unwanted companion.
Word Count: 975
Meme Fill For: owensheart who asked for MacGyver + Murdoc & No. 49. “Well this is awkward…”
Disclaimer: I don’t own MacGyver, or the characters. They belong to the their creators.
“Well this is awkward…”
The unexpected comment coming out of the dimness startled MacGyver and he froze in the process of trying to get free of the manacles chaining him to the wall. He knew that voice only too well, and yet, surely it couldn’t be, not again…
“Dammit, Murdoc! Why can’t you stay dead, just for once? So help me, when I get outta here I’ll…”
Murdoc cut in before he could really work up a head of steam. “You know, that’s always been one of the things I admire about you, MacGyver. No matter what situation you find yourself in, you’re always so certain that you’ll get out alive,” the hit man said conversationally.
“Well, if you admire me so much, how about lettin’ me go? Just for old time’s sake. Whaddaya say?”
“I hate to admit this, but I really wish I could. Unfortunately, I’m not the one who chained you up, so as you can see, it’s a little out of my hands.”
There was a clinking sound to MacGyver’s right, and when he turned to look in that direction, there sat Murdoc, leaning against the damp cellar wall, wrists and ankles shackled just as MacGyver’s were. It was quite a heartening sight.
“That makes a change. So, who’d you piss off? I mean, people usually don’t just chain folks up in cellars for no reason, although they’d probably make an exception for you.”
“Haven’t the faintest. Hard as it is to believe, I was tricked and ambushed the same as you were. In fact I was already here when they brought you in.”
“They? Who’s they? Are you saying you saw them?”
“For all the good it did me. Two big apes, Eastern European judging by their accents. Probably lackeys, they certainly can’t be the brains behind whatever’s going on here. Now, I’ve been sitting here patiently for several hours waiting for you to wake up, and I’ve answered all of your questions, so I think it’s only fair that you answer one of mine. How do you propose we get out of here?”
“We? Dream on, Murdoc, there is no ‘we’. I’m gonna figure out a way to get myself outta here and then I’m gone. Whoever kidnapped us is welcome to keep you.”
“You’d just leave me at their mercy, not knowing what they want with me, after all we’ve been through together? That hardly seems sporting.”
MacGyver gave Murdoc an incredulous look. “You do know I hate you, right?”
“Well of course. I mean, I can hardly blame you; I have tried to kill you a few times. But to be fair, you've tried to kill me on a number of occasions as well. By my reckoning, that about makes us even.”
“Your math is skewed.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit unreasonable?”
“What can I say? When someone tries to kill me, it tends to bring out the worst in me.”
Murdoc shrugged. “That’s only natural I suppose, when a man’s life is threatened he should never give up without a fight, and I do admire a worthy adversary. There are so few of them in my business, and no one has ever proved quite as elusive and unkillable as you.”
“Pot meet kettle,” MacGyver muttered, but Murdoc ignored him.
“Oddly enough, I find I'm rather glad about that. In retrospect, taking you on has always been a most stimulating challenge, even if at the time I found your refusal to lay down and die rather aggravating.”
“Well, I'm just so happy for you.”
“Sarcasm, Mr MacGyver? Shame on you, and here I thought we were getting along rather well.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Murdoc - and in case you didn’t notice, that’s more sarcasm - but the only getting I plan on doing is out of here. Now shut up a minute and let me concentrate.”
“Only if you promise to get me out too.”
“Why in the world would I want to do that?”
“Well, let me see… If these people wanted me dead, then surely they would have killed me already. The same goes for you of course. Therefore, the only possible reason for both of us to still be alive is that they either want something from us, or want us to do something for them. In the right hands, or in this case more likely the wrong hands, I can be quite a formidable weapon. Wouldn’t you prefer to have me where you can keep an eye on me rather than in the hands of person or persons unknown, doing who knows what at their behest?”
Ducking his head, MacGyver cursed under his breath. Murdoc was right, damn his eyes.
“Okay, fine, you win.” He went back to fiddling with his shackles until with a muted click, the first one came undone; two minutes later, he was free and working on Murdoc’s shackles.
“Thank you, Mr MacGyver. I knew you’d see it my way eventually.”
“Don’t think for a moment that this means we’re friends or even on the same side, Murdoc; it just so happens that right now you’re more use to me alive, but that could change, so don’t go getting any ideas. First chance I get I will kill you.”
“I’d expect nothing less,” Murdoc replied as MacGyver unfastened the last cuff. Rubbing his wrists, he looked up at the tall American. “I assume you have a plan, so just tell me what you want me to do.”
MacGyver sighed; there was no way this partnership of convenience was going to end any way but badly. “I should never have got out of bed this morning,” he muttered, then crouching down on his heels, he picked up a splinter of wood and started to draw a diagram in the dirt of the floor. “Okay, so here’s the plan…”
The End