Here's the second part! It's so nice to find time to write again!
After Deborah Part Two
Rated: PG
MacGyver ran outside and saw a car partly submerged in the marina. A woman was trapped inside, yelling for help. She saw MacGyver, and a look of relief washed over her tear-stained, concerned face.
“I lost control,” she said. “I…I don’t know what happened, but my leg is caught in the door!”
MacGyver saw what she meant. The driver’s side door was dented in, crushing her leg. He watched her struggle as the car slowly began to sink.
“Stay still,” he said. “I’ll try to get you out of there.”
“What are you going to do?”
MacGyver looked at his jeep. Almost everything he ever needed was inside it. Once again his thoughts flashed briefly to his final deadly confrontation with Deborah. He had used his jeep’s jumper cables and fluid to defeat her. “I wouldn’t want you to take this personally,” he could feel her whisper in his ear, her voice filled with venom. Quickly, his thoughts returned to the present and the urgency of the woman’s situation.
“I’m not sure yet,” he said, “but I’m working on it. Just stay still.”
Anna nodded and tried to watch him as he ran over to his jeep, but it was difficult to crane her neck and the heavy door on her leg limited her movements. She listened as the jeep’s engine started and the tires rolled closer to her car, crunching on the dirt on the docks. The engine died just as quickly as it had started, and MacGyver jumped out, pulling out some thick steel cable and attaching it to the winch on the back of the jeep. The car Anna was in was tilted, hanging halfway on the dock, the trunk sticking in the air. MacGyver figured that it would make pulling the vehicle out of the water much easier. As he worked to attach the cable to the back of her car, Anna listened. She knew what he was doing. She knew from reading all the files on MacGyver that he was a master at getting out of tough situations, and that such a rescue would be easy for him. This knowledge calmed her, but she did her best to continue the role of the damsel in distress.
“Please hurry,” she said, adding just the right amount of fear to her voice. “I think the water’s rising!”
“Don’t worry,” MacGyver said, smiling at her to reassure her. “I’ll get you out of there soon enough.”
He jumped into his jeep and began to operate the winch. Pulling the other car out of the water proved more difficult than he thought. The other car was much heavier, and it began to pull on his jeep, straining both vehicles to the limit. He had to stop and check the progress he’d made. He got out and surveyed what the winch had been able to accomplish, finding that it had only managed to pull the other car out a few inches. The car now teetered precariously like a see-saw, rocking gently back and forth on the pivot point of the dock. Unsatisfied with the winch’s performance, he decided to try something else.
“I have another idea,” he said to her. “Just stay calm.”
“I’m stuck,” she said. “I’m going to drown!”
“No you’re not! Just stay still. I’ll be right there.”
“What are you doing?”
“You’ll see.”
MacGyver retrieved his jack, a crowbar, and a small fire extinguisher, prepared to use all three to pry open the door that was bent in on her leg. He wasn’t sure which tool would work best, so he decided to improvise with three different tools. Either he could use the jack to lift the pieces of metal apart, or he could use the gas from the fire extinguisher, or he could just try the good old fashioned method of using muscle. Once he got closer to the door and could see it better, he would have a better idea of how to assess the situation. He also had his flashlight with him, and when he got into the water and swam up to where the driver’s side was, he shone his light on the door and her leg.
“How are you doing? Are you all right?” He asked her, looking briefly up at her.
Anna shuddered, trembling with shock. “I’m fine, I think, now that you’re here,” she said, managing a slight smile.
MacGyver returned her smile. “Everything’s going to be okay. Just sit still a little while longer,” he said.
The car creaked and rocked forward, filling the inside with more water. It was now up to Anna’s waist. “Hurry,” she whispered, a look of pain and desperation creasing her forehead.
“Take it easy,” MacGyver said.
He looked at the damage to the door. It was bent in, and he could see a small piece of her leg pinched by it. The impact had forced the door open a few inches while it bent inward near the steering wheel.
“Okay,” he said. “I want you to remain perfectly still while I do this. It…might hurt a little.”
“I don’t care. Please, just hurry and get me out of here!”
MacGyver decided to use the jack first. Bracing it against the side of the car and wedging it between the cracked open door and the body of the car, he began to crank it, finding just enough room to operate it. It wasn’t perfect, but slowly it worked to pry open the door farther to where the pressure on her leg decreased.
“I think it’s working,” she said. “I can feel it!”
“Yeah, well we’re not quite there yet,” MacGyver said. “Just hold on a little longer.”
He began to use the crowbar as well, yanking on the door but careful to avoid damaging her leg any more severely than it already had been. While he worked, Anna couldn’t help but watch him in fascination. It was one thing to read about his inventive mind on paper. Seeing it firsthand was another matter entirely. He was willing to try anything to save her, never giving up. If one idea failed, he moved smoothly to the next one. She was sure he was as anxious as she was, but he didn’t show it. She knew that was why he was the best in his field. Patience and perseverance.
The door began to crack open farther, and suddenly it fell completely off its hinges. Anna felt the weight on her leg lessen, and MacGyver moved out of the way to let the door sink into the water. She watched as it disappeared into the darkness. Above, her car was still attached to his jeep. MacGyver had kept them together while he worked to prevent the car from sinking too much, but now it was beginning to creak violently, threatening to take his jeep with it. He looked up in alarm.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he said, gently wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her out of the car. He looked at her. “How’s your leg?”
“It hurts,” Anna said. “I think it’s swelling.”
“Listen, I need you to help me pull yourself out of here. Can you do that?”
Anna nodded, wincing in pain. “I think so,” she said.
“Good. I’ll get out first, and I’ll help pull you out, but you need to help yourself, too. Walk yourself up the side of the dock as I pull you up, okay?”
“All right.”
MacGyver grabbed the edges of the dock with his long arms and swiftly pulled himself out of the water. He turned and reached out to Anna.
“Now take my hands,” he said.
Anna reached for his hands and he gripped hers. She could feel the strength and determination in those large, firm hands.
“Now, walk yourself up,” he said.
Anna nodded and began to help him lift her out of the water, groaning every time she had to use her damaged leg. MacGyver heard her groans.
“Are you all right?” He asked. “Can you use your leg?”
“I think so,” she said. “Just don’t let go.”
“I won’t. Take it easy, now. Just one step at a time.”
Even in a crisis, MacGyver had a mellow, soothing voice that encouraged Anna to work harder to save herself, even with his guidance. She pushed with all her effort, and soon she found herself on the dock next to him. She gasped with relief and exhaustion as her body rolled onto the solid surface. MacGyver touched the side of her face and smiled at her.
“Are you going to be okay?” He asked.
“Yes, thanks to you,” she said.
MacGyver turned when he heard the creaking strain of the two vehicles still attached to each other. “I don’t think I’ll be able to pull your car out of the water completely,” he said. “That’s why I stopped using my winch. Your car’s too heavy. It would take a larger vehicle than mine to pull it out.”
“Let it go,” Anna said.
“What?”
“My car’s a complete unsalvageable wreck now, anyway. Just let it loose. I’d much rather be alive.”
Understanding what she meant, MacGyver released the cable from the end of her car. It dropped into the water with a dramatic splash, slowly sinking beneath the water. Anna sat up, feeling weak, her leg throbbing. She watched along with MacGyver as her car vanished. She looked at him.
“If it wasn’t for you, I’d be going under with it,” she said. “Thank you.”
***
MacGyver decided to visit the hospital where they had taken the young woman to follow up on her condition. Ironically, they had taken her to the same hospital where they had treated him for the burns to his eyes after Deborah’s unsuccessful attempt to murder him through the use of an explosive device.
“Tell me, MacGyver, does your life flash before your eyes when you’re blind?” Her voice taunted him, echoing through his mind.
He could still hear and feel her vicious cruelty. Even though she was now in prison, Deborah refused to leave him alone to his misery, forcing herself into his permanent memories. As he entered the hospital, he could feel her presence there. He almost thought he could see her sitting in a waiting area, pretending to hope for his speedy recovery while secretly harboring frustration and anger over her failed plan. Her hand had held his so tenderly, guiding his sightless eyes. All the while, she hated him, and would prefer using those soft, feminine hands to kill him.
“MacGyver, what are you doing here?” The doctor who had treated his burns asked him.
Snapping out of his dark thoughts, he smiled at her. “For once I’m not a patient here,” he said, lightly joking to ease the pain of his memories.
The doctor smiled back. “It’s a good thing, too,” she said. “Your eyes have healed quite nicely.”
“Thanks to your help.”
“So, where’s Deborah? She was so kind to you during your recovery. I’d hang on to her.”
Yeah, kind, he thought bitterly. “We’re…no longer seeing each other,” he said, clenching his jaw.
“Oh, well I’m sorry to hear that.”
I’m not, he thought.
“I’m actually here for someone else, a young woman brought in from a car accident,” MacGyver said, hoping to change the subject. “I helped her.”
The doctor smiled warmly. “I have no doubt you did,” she said. “The hospital staff tells me that half of the injuries that put you in here are a result of helping someone. You really should look after yourself a little better, Mr. MacGyver.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “In the meantime, I need to find her. Excuse me.”
He left the doctor to approach the nurse’s station, hoping he hadn’t been too abrupt with her. She was a wonderful doctor who had helped heal his eyes, but when she brought up Deborah, it was too painful for him to hear. He asked the nurse where he might find the young woman, describing everything that happened. For the first time, he realized he didn’t even know her name yet.
“She’s in room 221,” the nurse on duty told him.
“Thank you,” he said.
MacGyver moved quickly through the corridors that always smelled of overpowering antiseptic and disease. He began to think that Deborah was not only the cause of his suffering, but all the suffering in the hospital. He knew that was ridiculous, but she seemed to follow him anywhere he went, even though she wasn’t really there. When he entered the young woman’s room, he began to relax again. She was sitting on her hospital bed, a thick bandage around her leg.
“You came to see me,” she said, smiling.
“Well yeah,” he said. “I wanted to see how your leg was doing.”
Anna looked down at the bandage. “Oh, it’s fine really,” she said. “The doctor said it’s going to be a massive bruise and it’s going to be swollen for awhile, but it didn’t even break. There was no evidence of a fracture, he said.”
“That’s great news.”
During the emergency of freeing her from the car, MacGyver hadn’t had time to notice her appearance. Watching her now, her long, bandaged leg propped up on the hospital bed; he immediately noticed how attractive she was. She had long, wavy blond hair and clear green eyes framed by long eyelashes. Her pale, creamy skin and her soft British accent also contributed to her beauty. She was the complete opposite of Deborah, he thought, whose dark, intriguing looks seemed to match with her deadly intensity at pursuing him. She had been the perfect femme fatale, while this young woman seemed more like a queen, full of class and grace. Still, he cautioned himself. He had been fooled by appearances before. He couldn’t go through it again. He maintained a polite distance from her, determined not to fall victim to her charms.
Anna noticed his behavior. He was a complete contradiction, she thought. He was so calm and confident during any crisis but his own. She decided not to comment on it. After all, she was working on gaining his trust, and she would take as long as she had to in order to earn it.
“You’re probably wondering how it happened,” she said, smiling shyly.
“How what happened?” MacGyver asked, distracted by her beauty and his own thoughts.
“The accident,” she said. “It was stupid, really. I’ve been living in this country for two years. You would think I would finally learn how to drive on the right side of the road.”
She watched as her attempt at humor produced its desired effect. MacGyver grinned, the corners of his mouth turning up seductively, forming deep dimples in his cheeks. Anna realized that he was unaware of how handsome he was, acting more like a shy adolescent than a mature adult. He was vulnerable. He could handle anything but his own feelings. She realized that was why Deborah had come so close to killing him. His emotions had worked to her advantage.
“Is that really what happened?” MacGyver asked, still grinning.
“Yes. Rather embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“Oh, I don’t know. We all make mistakes, I guess.” MacGyver looked down at the floor, remembering and regretting his.
“I’m just glad my mistake didn’t kill me,” Anna said, watching MacGyver’s reaction. She knew he was saying, ‘Yeah, mine too’ in his mind. “Listen, uh…”
“Name’s MacGyver.”
“MacGyver. I’m glad you were there when I needed you.”
“I’m glad to be of help…”
“Anna.”
“Anna.”
MacGyver looked awkwardly towards the door. “Well, I’m glad you’ll be fine, Anna,” he said, shifting his weight uneasily. “I’d better go.” He started towards the door.
“Wait!” Anna said. MacGyver stopped and looked at her. She could see the wounded look in his haunting dark eyes. It was still there, fresh and raw as the healing scars near his eyes. “I would like to keep in touch with you, if that’s all right. I mean, after what you did for me, it’s…”
“It was nothing,” MacGyver said, shrugging.
“I’m not asking for a date, MacGyver. I just want to know you. Anyone who would do something as incredible as you did deserves to be known.” She smiled coyly.
MacGyver saw the innocence and sincerity in her clear, pale, liquid green eyes. As much as he tried to avoid women since Deborah, he knew that Pete was right. Not all of them were out to hunt him—it was absurd. He knew he had to get his life back together again, and maybe the best way to do it was with a friend—a female friend.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll keep in touch.”
Anna smiled. The first step had been taken.
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
