Never Wake A Sleeping Lioness.
So, I've taken a leaf from Aaron Sorkin's book and have found a real news story to "excuse" my need to write fluff. This is set in early 2011 – so sometime between the Giffords shooting and the fifth episode "Amen".
The gang are travelling back from D.C. after a couple of days doing special report for the state of the union. The day after also happened to be the crazy, crazy snow storm, so our heroes are stuck in the airport. It's slightly out-of-sync with real time, but I'm still rather pleased with myself investigative skills.
ALSO! Has anyone seen the RNC's slogan? "We Can Do Better"?! I saw a photo and just went NO! THAT'S MAC'S PHRASE!
*coughs* Er, yeah. I'm very tired.
How long had they all been here? There was a mini plane-traffic jam as the airport ground staff tried to keep the runway as clear as they could for as long as they could before the seemingly inevitable happened and they would stop being able to out-work the snow, and the airport would close. No one was particularly looking forward to it.
It was now coming on close to four in the morning, and the News Night crew had barely slept since the previous Friday night due to their extensive preparations for the State of the Union Special coverage. They had been in D.C. since Monday afternoon, and though they came from The City that Never Sleeps, as it turned out the political centre of America had a similar policy – although it revolved less around drinking cosmos and more around killing yourself with over-work.
Worst off in all of this had been Mackenzie. She had had a fifth of the sleep that everyone else had, not only trying coordinate the rundown and each groups' area of investigation, but also dealing with the less-than-happy Washington team who had been benched, the weasels on the hill who wanted different things every five minutes, the insanity of the White House Press Office, all whilst suffering from severe sleep deprivation.
She was currently passed out on three of the airport lounge seats; her whole crew around her in effectual silence for fear of waking her up again. Jim had walked in earlier and dropped a can of coke which clunked and spewed out a fountain of fizzy juice. She had flown off the handle so quickly that anyone who had moved since had gained looks of deep admiration from their colleagues for managing to do so without rousing Mac from her slumber.
Even though they were in a more secluded part of the airport (since they were not taking a commercial flight), spare seats were virtually non-existent. Whenever a bystander would walk past and eye-up one of the seats Mac was taking on, her team transformed into a human hyena pack and glared at them threateningly until the person took the hint and moved on.
It was not like they were angry with Mac, though. On the contrary, they were all very proud of the work their boss had put in these last few days. Surrounded by the other news outlets who had all crammed into D.C. for the big event, News Night had been given a fair amount of stick, and had to deal with a few sniggers and loud jokes about being the "media elite". But Mac had led by example, and they had all taken heart from her.
Almost intuitively everyone looked up, as though they could smell the scent of a potential threat to Mac; and looking around they spotted a tried looking Will making his way towards them.
He had been gone for the best part of two hours having met an old friend on their way to the gate, and figuring that they wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, had stopped for a drink in the lounge and a catch-up.
Almost before he was close enough to actually see the staffers properly, almost everyone – with the exception of Charlie, who was looking thoroughly amused at the whole thing – had pressed a finger to their lips and pointed in Mac's direction, looking pleadingly at Will to understand.
From his point of view, however, Will could not see the sleeping form of Mac lying across the seats facing away from him, and so looked at his team, bewildered, until he was only feet away and could finally comprehend the source of their anxiety.
Gazing at Mac for a moment, he melted ever so slightly. She had always looked so sweet and peaceful when she was sleeping; the complete opposite of the energetic and adrenaline-fuelled Mackenzie that everyone saw when she was at work. Unconsciously he smiled, turning back to the others and putting up a hand to reassure them that he understood. There was a collective sigh of relief as everyone's shoulders relaxed – except that there wasn't actually a sigh of relief; it was more akin to having walked into a silent movie.
Looking around, Will noted that there were no seats left at all. Greedy Mackenzie had an extra two to herself. Tamara and Kendra were sitting on the floor with Neal, leaning back against the chairs in the spaces between peoples legs. He wasn't sure if he sat on the floor he would ever be able to get up again – after Mackenzie, he was next on the medal table for who had had the least sleep.
Steeling himself, he glanced back over to Mac. They would be talking about this for a while he suspected; but he walked quietly over, and reached out to put an hand under each of her shoulders – there was a collective gasp of horror from behind him, and he could not help but turn around, amused to see the expressions on his team's faces. They were of abject horror. Jim looked as though Will was about to kill his puppy.
He shook his head, laughing silently to himself and turned back to the task at hand. Gently firming his grip around her shoulders, and putting one hand under her neck, he slowly lifted up Mac's shoulders and head and as soon as there was room, swiftly sat down on the chair they had been occupying and laid her gently back down so that her head was resting on his thigh.
It seemed that everyone had been holding their breath, waiting for the inevitable explosion… but it never came. A split second after Will had set her back down she had frowned, wriggled slightly, and let out a slight moan…before relaxing again and to everyone's disbelief, snuggling into Will's leg.
Will let his head fall back and shut his eyes, his body grateful for the seat, and, slightly confusingly, for the warm weight of Mac's head in his lap. He kept the arm that had lifted her shoulders draped across her so that if she start to wake up, he'd be able to soothe her back to sleep.
He opened his eyes again and was met with the stunned disbelief of the staffers. He had moved her – physically moved her! Yet when they so much as breathed too loudly she was in danger of waking up!
Tentatively, still a bit unsure of how far Will's miraculous talents would stretch, Jim spoke up (in a whisper), "That is a gift, man." The others fervently nodded their agreement, some still looking slightly apprehensive but all of them looking impressed.
Jim had been with Mackenzie in a few similar situations when they were out in the Middle East, and depending on her state of exhaustion, she could be the worst grouch he'd ever met. Will nodded smugly, glancing down at the sleeping woman and unconsciously - and luckily not within the other's line of sight – gently stroked the underside of her elbow. She snuggled in again, letting out a small breath.
Charlie was sitting across from Will supposedly buried in a book, but was in actual fact grinning from ear to ear. When would those two just get it together?
This story has sprouted off ideas for two other stories...so forgive me if I start to lose track. I'll try and focus on my multi-chapter one before doing more of these. But if I get stuck again, I'll just fill the time doing these :)