I debated a lot about this part, which is why it took me longer to post. Originally, I was going to have a tidy, happy ending, but then I realized this is not the direction this story is going. It gets darker and there are going to be more challenges ahead before there is a resolution and poor Mac is back to normal.
Still, the story should be entertaining and suspenseful (I hope). Read on!
Speechless Part Eight
Rated: PG
Completely immersed in water, weighed down by chains, shattered bones, and weakness from starvation, MacGyver was condemned to a silent, watery world, his eyes covered by a blindfold, his mouth gagged, slowly drowning, slowly sinking into oblivion, unaware… “How long as he been like this?” Pete asked.
“Several hours,” Dr. Carrington said. “A nurse found him collapsed on the floor.”
MacGyver thrashed around in bed, his head tossing from side to side, limbs flailing and jerking, hands reaching and groping for something, his eyes staring vacantly. Dr. Carrington pointed his penlight into MacGyver’s glassy, unfocused eyes and waved his hand in front of them, but he received no reaction.
“He appears unresponsive to visual stimuli,” he said, shaking his head in dismay and turning off his penlight, putting it back in his lab coat pocket.
“He’s blind?” Pete asked.
Dr. Carrington looked at him wearily. “Not only that, but he does not seem able to hear us, either,” he said, sighing. “Combine that with his inability to communicate or comprehend, and he’s almost completely incapacitated, unaware of his external surroundings.”
Nikki clasped one of MacGyver’s outstretched hands and squeezed it to comfort him and let him know he was not alone, knowing that he was searching desperately for something solid, something that would connect him to the outside world, trapped in the darkness and silence.
“I can’t imagine the torment he must be going through,” she said, sobbing. “He must feel so lost and afraid.” She stroked his cheek and ran her hand through his hair, smoothing it. He stared up at her with empty, sightless eyes.
“What can we do?” Pete asked, his voice tremulous with tears.
“Very little, I’m afraid,” Dr. Carrington said. “Remember, technically he is still a healthy man. None of this should be happening to him. The question remains how we can treat an illness that we cannot diagnose, leaving us with no clues. We can do our best to make him comfortable, but beyond that there is not much else we can do.”
“I still recommend moving him to a place where he can receive special care,” Dr. Ladd said. “In his condition, he requires intensive, constant monitoring since he is disabled and cannot take care of himself. He is helpless and dependent on that care for survival. We can no longer wait and see what the outcome will be. His condition is rapidly deteriorating, and we must act soon.”
Pete nodded, taking hold of MacGyver’s other hand and wiping his eyes. “I know,” he said. “It’s just…so hard, seeing him this way. I never thought or even imagined that he would ever end up like this.”
Dr. Ladd placed a sympathetic, supportive hand on his back. “Listen, I know this isn’t easy for either of you,” he said, looking at Nikki, including her. “I know you want what’s best for him, that you want to see him well taken care of, but the idea of placing him in a special care facility upsets you because you’re still tied to the MacGyver you knew, the healthy, vigorous, independent man you remember. It’s difficult for you to adjust to this new reality where his condition is so shocking and distressing. Still, I want you to take a moment and consider doing this for him. He needs you. He cannot make this decision for himself—you have to make it for him.”
Pete nodded again, too overcome with emotion to speak, choking back more tears.
“It’ll be all right,” Dr. Ladd said in the soothing, professional tone he had used for so many years to calm his patients, remembering how many times he used it to awaken MacGyver from a traumatic memory of his torture. He was undergoing a new torture, and he needed that help again. “Dr. Carrington and I will wait outside and give you some time alone with him while you think about this,” he said. He looked at the other doctor and motioned towards the door, ushering him outside.
“Come on, MacGyver, you can beat this, I know it,” Pete whispered, sobbing, watching as he continued to twist and squirm, staring at nothing, his mouth working silently as if he were trying to say something.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen to him,” Nikki said. “Prime Minister Nucci is safe. The press conference is over. He should be able to speak and understand us again. He shouldn’t be shut away in his mind, unable to see or hear us on top of everything else that’s happened to him.” She wiped her moist eyes, further smudging her mascara. She looked back down at MacGyver, once again stroking his cheek and his hair. “I hope he can at least feel us,” she said. “I hope he can somehow know someone is here for him, that he doesn’t have to be scared, that we won’t leave him.”
“I know, I hope so too,” Pete said, looking into MacGyver’s blank, dull, expressionless eyes, hoping to find a faint glimmer of recognition in them, but he found nothing. They remained staring, lifeless black voids, seeing nothing. He sighed. “You know Nikki, I hoped the same thing for him,” he said. “I hoped that after the security for Nucci had been taken care of and the event went smoothly that the threat was over, that MacGyver would return to us and his ability to speak and comprehend would be restored. Never once did I imagine that he could actually get worse. I guess I was just hoping for a happy ending, but unfortunately those don’t happen very often in reality. It seems like you were right. This drug they used on him is much more powerful. Maybe he’s not supposed to recover this time. His return to sanity last time could have been just a fortuitous mistake. They want him permanently shut down, and when he wasn’t last time they had to come back at him with a new drug to guarantee results this time.”
“I don’t want to think that way,” Nikki said.
“I don’t either, but we have to consider it,” Pete said. “Mac could be lost to us.”
“Well, what are we going to do? Put him in a home like Dr. Ladd suggested? Shut him away from us, further isolating him in his own world?” Nikki asked angrily, snapping at him through her tears. She sniffed and wiped her face again. “Look Pete, I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just…”
“I know. This is difficult and painful for both of us. I can’t stand it, Nikki. I can’t stand the thought that we may never get Mac back to the way he once was. I don’t like to think about it. I don’t want to think about it, yet I know I have to at some point. Dr. Ladd is right. If we care for his welfare, we’re going to have to do something for him, make sure he is properly cared for.” His pager beeped once again. “Oh great, of all times for this blasted thing to go off,” he said, feeling like throwing it across the room and smashing it to tiny pieces. Looking down at the number, he recognized it as a Phoenix Foundation number again. “I guess I’d better take this,” he said, sighing deeply in irritation. “I’ll be back. Look after MacGyver for me, will you?”
Nikki smiled sadly. “You know you don’t even have to ask,” she said, more tears emerging in her eyes. “I would never leave him.”
Pete smiled at her and nodded, leaving the room.
“And I won’t,” she whispered to him, stroking his cheek again. “I won’t leave you, MacGyver. I love you. I wish you could hear me. I wish you knew I was here.”
MacGyver’s free hand flailed, groping again, searching in the absence of Pete’s grip, seeking something new to hold. Nikki grabbed it and held it, now holding both his hands in hers. Even in his state, she could feel their strength and masculinity. She bent over and kissed him on the lips. She then kissed him on the cheek, the forehead, the neck, almost anywhere she could so he could get the tactile sensation, bathing him in her tears blackened by mascara as she went. She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head against his chest, listening to him breathe.
“Please don’t do this,” she said. “Come back to us...please…”
MacGyver was locked back in The Tomb, blindfolded and gagged, unsure how long he had laid there in constant pain, dying slowly. Pete’s vision appeared before him, blurry and ghostlike, a shroud of fog surrounding him.
“Oh God, help me Pete, get me out of here, please, please get me out of here,” MacGyver tried to say, but his words sounded like grunts, the gag preventing him from speaking correctly.
Pete turned away from him, his apparition vanishing in the mist.
“Where are you going? NO! Please, come back! Please…don’t leave me here! Please…” his words were mere whimpers and mewls, unable to be understood to anyone except him, sounding clear in his mind until they reached the obstruction of the gag.
MacGyver watched helplessly as Pete left. He tried to reach out to him before it was too late, tried to grab his shoulder and stop him, but he couldn’t move, his broken, torn arm screaming in protest, restrained by the heavy chains that coiled around him, restricting even the slightest movement. Soon, Pete’s image was gone, and he was once again left in complete darkness, the blindfold covering his eyes and blocking it out.
“No…Pete, don’t leave me alone in the dark…no…help me…help me find a way back…get me out of here…please…” “It’s okay, MacGyver,” Nikki soothed, noticing that his movements had increased and become more violent, making it difficult for her to hold onto his hands any longer. She tried to let go, but he reached and groped blindly, almost in a panic, trying to feel for her again. “Okay, I won’t let go,” she said, brushing back his hair and then taking his hands again, his sightless eyes still staring up at her but not noticing her. She kissed him. “Don’t worry, I won’t let go. I’m here.”
MacGyver tossed his head from side to side, his mouth working again. It almost looked as if he was about to cry, his face contorted in a painful grimace. She saw a single tear leak from his blank, staring eye.
“Oh God Mac, I’m so sorry,” she said, gently wiping it away. “I know you’re lost and afraid right now. I don’t know how aware you are, but I’m here for you. It’s going to be all right, I promise.” She embraced him, feeling him continue to wriggle beneath her in distress. “I won’t leave you.”
MacGyver responded, holding her tightly, clinging to her, afraid to let go from wherever he was in his corner of darkness. The body he felt, the one he held against him, was his only connection to the outside world. He could smell the sweet, light fragrance of perfume, feel soft hair brushing against his cheek.
Nikki…Nikki, don’t leave me here, too… Pete entered minutes later, disconsolate. “How is he?” He asked.
Nikki looked up. “Not much better, I’m afraid,” she said. “Look at him. He’s actually crying.”
More tears rolled down MacGyver’s cheeks from his vacant, sightless eyes. She did her best to dab them away. “Pete, it’s awful,” she said. “He’s so frightened.”
Pete stared down at his friend, feeling faint and ill, wondering when the bad news was ever going to end. MacGyver thrashed around again, groping, reaching for someone to hold onto. Sighing, he grabbed his hand again, and his motions ceased, reassured and calmed, at least briefly.
“Who called you?” Nikki asked. MacGyver’s tears had stopped, but she wiped his wet face, drying it.
Pete looked up at her, his eyes red-rimmed with fatigue and sorrow. He looked rumpled and worn, a good ten years older than he actually was.
“Well, what is it, Pete? What happened? Tell me.”
Pete sighed. “Are you sure you want to hear this?” He asked.
“No,” Nikki said, laughing slightly, “I’m pretty sure I don’t, but you’d better tell me anyway.”
“Prime Minister Nucci is dead.”
To be continued…
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
--Henry David Thoreau
brains+brawn+beauty+personality=MacGyver
Darnit!! I knew Nucci was still in danger!! My persian kittens said so!
Bet is hard for you 'cause you're always thinking a lot of story ideas at the same time *hug* Thanks for another awesome chapter and for keeping us on the edge of our seats!! 
That is all I can say, MacsChick, besides how awesome this story is. 
to you.
) but anyway, it probably is hard to write these chapters so thanks for writing them an a lot of hugs for you 
