A/N: So I had this idea forever ago. Then, life got in the way, and I never started. However, now its summer and I have more time and boom here is the first one. This will be different complete stories, each with one other newsroom character, influencing Mac and Will in some way and first up is Neal and its set right after 1x10. This got long so I broke it into two parts. Please let me know what you think and if you want to read part two. Thanks and enjoy!

Catch Me a Catch

Neal: The Unwitting Matchmaker, Part 1

"Uh Mac, I got that thing you asked," Neal said jogging a little as he caught up to Mackenzie outside her office door.

"What are you taking about?" Mac asked confused, before recognition dawned, "Oh, that thing."

Mackenzie's eyes darted furiously from left to right making sure no one was paying attention as she pulled Neal in to her office by his wrist. "You mean the stuff."

Neal pursed his lips and tried not to laugh as Mackenzie made exaggerated joint smoking gestures with her hands like she was on Snoop Dogg's tour bus.

"Yeah, I got it. Don't worry. It's a lemon bar, no one can tell anything else about it." Neal dug through his backpack and pulled out a shrink wrapped pastry with a multicolored sticker on top.

"A lemon bar? There was a time when the only funny baked goods were brownies, it was a simpler time, a better time."
"Mac…"

"Yes, Neal?"

"This isn't for you is it?" Neal cautiously asked.

"No, it's not. Let's just leave it at that."

"Is it for him?" Neal couldn't help but ask anyway, as he gestured vaguely towards the direction of Will's office.

"He would never ask me to do that for him." Mac coolly responded.

"I notice that wasn't a straight out no."

"You're becoming more like a reporter by the minute. I appreciate the help with this Neal, but I have no intention of explaining my… intentions. I'd appreciate that you keep this between us." Mac lectured.

"Of course," Neal responded.

Mackenzie could never imagine telling anyone, especially young faced Neal, that the laced pastry was in fact for Will. Will himself didn't know about it and she wasn't planning on telling him either. See, Mackenzie needed some answers from that man, and the more Will refused to tell Mackenzie what was on that message the more singularly obsessed she became with finding out. She'd tried for weeks now. Cajoling, flirting, yelling, and straight up calmly asking Will, but the man ducked, dived, and evaded her at every damn turn.

Last night, after a few too many martinis at Hang Chews, Mackenzie convinced herself that getting Will high again, and asking him a few pointed questions, wasn't just a flippant remark she'd made. Instead, it might be the only viable option she had left. A few seconds later she had pulled Neal into a corner and convinced him to get her what she needed.

Now, Mackenzie had what she wanted so desperately the night before in her hands. However, in the sober light of day she just didn't know if she could go through tricking Will. Mackenzie was so lost in thought that she barely noticed Neal saying an awkward goodbye as he left her office. Mackenzie's eyes were glued to the lemon bar on her desk. After a moment she grabbed it and threw it inside her bottom desk drawer. Fuck, she just couldn't do it. There just had to be another way to move things along.

There was no other way to move things along. Mackenzie was giving Will that damn lemon bar. It had been sitting in her drawer for a week and Will had finally frustrated her to the point where giving it to him sounded like a possible option again.

It all started during the night's post-show breakdown. The crew was gathered in the meeting room discussing the nights show. Everything was fine until Mackenzie gave Will one little note on his delivery, one tiny, reasonable suggestion about his tone matching content and he just blew up.

"I sounded fine Mac! You're just still pissy because I vetoed the story on Congress you wanted in tonight's C block!" Will snipped.

"I am not pissy, Will. I am just being what I was hired to be, a producer." Mac retorted.

"Oh, I was unaware producer meant pissy nitpicker."

"See, now why couldn't you be like this on air. You are trying to be an ass and so your tone sounds like a gigantic ass's would."

Will stood up from his spot at the head of the table so he was face to face with Mackenzie who was already standing. All the staff's eyes were glued to them like they were watching their very own live Telenovela.

"Okay meeting over, everyone out!" Will said through gritted teeth looking back at the staff before facing Mackenzie again.

The scared staff cleared out quickly. They had become very adept at leaving once Mackenzie and Will got to a level with each other that the staff referred to behind their backs as "crazy town."

"Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have called you an ass in front of everyone." Mackenzie hedged trying to defuse the situation.

"What is your problem Mackenzie? Wait, don't answer that. I don't want to know."

"Well you did call me a pissy nitpicker! And you know what you, Will, you are my problem. Opps sorry, guess I answered."

"You know, you can be so fucking infuriating Mac!" Will yelled, stepping even closer to her.

Now, they were truly in each other's faces. Mackenzie was so angry, so damn frustrated but not because they were having a little row. She was pissed because all she really wanted was for him to close the small distance between the two of them and kiss her stupid. Fuck all the glass walls, fuck anyone who would see them, and fuck the past. She just wanted his hands on her body, his mouth on hers, and to release the ball of tension wound so damn tightly within her. She ached for that stubborn, infuriating, sexy man. She was pissed because no matter how Will acted out she knew ultimately she was the cause of the clusterfuck that was them.

Will was having a physical reaction as well. He couldn't help but watch the heave of Mac's breasts, her cleavage accentuated by her crossed arms. The sparkle of her wide eyes, the unconscious way she licked and bit at her soft lips. She was gorgeous when she was fired up. It would be so easy to wrap his hand around her waist, pull their bodies flush together, and really feel passion for the first time in years.

That isn't what Will did though. Instead, scared, horny, and confused, he took a large step back from Mackenzie.

"So about that voicemail, Will…" Mackenzie started when it was clear that the moment between them had passed.

Will just shook his head, looked down, and left the room without a word. Leaving Mackenzie in the meeting room exasperated beyond belief on every level, physical, emotional, sexual, just a plethora of frustration.

Five minutes later, huffing and puffing all the way, she dug through her bottom desk drawer because damn it enough was enough of this shit.

Mackenzie waltzed into Will's office without bothering to knock. She plastered on a smile, one she hoped he wouldn't find suspicious, as she entered the lion's den. Will sat at his desk eyeing her curiously.

"Knocking, it's pretty popular these days. If you don't know how I can teach you."

Will really didn't feel like going another round with Mackenzie. He had been way too close to ravaging, or that very least kissing her back there and he just wasn't sure he was ready for what that meant. The thing was just when he thought her forgave her, or that it didn't matter if he did or not, something would remind him of his hurt and his betrayal and he would be back to strewing in his own misery and thanking God she never heard that damning message.

"A little something for you," Mac sweetly began ignoring his knocking comment, "Happy Friday."

"Why? What is this? You were just about to rip my throat out back there." Will said looking at the package suspiciously. "Is there rat poison in this?"

"Will that's crazy. It's a peace offering?" Mac asked more than stated. Her voice going up another octave, she was not playing it cool at all.

"Wait, I feel like I know this bakery." Will inspected the baked good turning it around and around in his hands.

"Um, it's a popular place." Mac said.

"No, that's not it," Will said. "I think—"

"Oh, for God's sake! The thing has marijuana in it, and apparently you eat this shit enough to recognize the brand or label or whatever that stupid hippie dippy sticker is. I just… Ugh... I wanted you to eat the damn lemon bar! I am sorry. I am awful. This was an awful idea." Mackenzie dramatically confessed.

"Why did you want me to have this? I've known you a long time and I never thought my occasional pot use was something you endorsed."

"You really are thick headed sometimes for such a brilliant man." Mackenzie replied.

"You are batting a thousand today Mackenzie, what the fuck is going on here?"

"I wanted to get you high, so you'd tell me..." Mackenzie reluctantly started.

"-what was on the voicemail message," Will finished for her, like he was ashamed of himself for not catching on sooner. "Fuck ,Mackenzie, seriously? You were really going to dose me for answers."

"Maybe?" Mackenzie meekly replied.

Mackenzie braced herself waiting for the yelling to start. Her eyes closed and instead of the rage she was expecting to hear come from his lips, Will started laughing, real genuine uncontainable laughter. Mackenzie opened up her scrunched eyes and looked at him in utter confusion.

"I must admit this isn't the reaction I was expecting." Mackenzie said.

Will continued to laugh. He wiped a tear from his eye and got himself together. "We are quite a fucked up pair. So very fucked up. You know that right?"

"Unfortunately, I really do." Mac agreed starting to laugh herself at the absurdity of their whole situation. Will's laughter died down. Then a look Mackenzie knew all too well passed over his face. He was having an idea. One that at the very least he thought was brilliant.

"What about this? I'll eat that lemon bar. If you share it with me." Will proposed.

"Will, come on. I haven't been high since Clinton was in office."

"But unlike him, you inhaled," Will joked.

"Yes, repeatedly, usually with REM playing in the background, but that was a very long time ago."

"Well, there is no inhalation required this time, just some chewing." Will retorted.

"You'll eat it too." Mackenzie confirmed.

"Of course, I keep my word. You know that."

"I do know that, Will. Can I think about it?" Mackenzie asked.

"Sorry, it feels like a now or never situation." Will responded, eyes sparkling as he tested her further.

"Fine, but I don't think we should do this here." Mac agreed.

"It was okay to do it here when it was just me." Will said.

"Well, in that case I would have been sober. So, we'd have one mind intact."

"Fine, I concede. Grab your things, finish up, and meet me by the elevator in fifteen minutes."

"Where are we going?" Mac asked.

"My place," he answered. "We have some eating to do. Unless, you have already changed your mind."

"So this is what peer pressure feels like, I never really subscribed to it in my youth. If my 80s movie watching is correct the next thing you are going to be doing is bocking like a chicken. Well I am no chicken, Billy. I'll be ready in ten." Mackenzie smiled brilliantly before walking out the door. Will couldn't help but recognize how beautiful she was at that moment, her feisty smile, her confident walk, and those long sexy legs as she strode away. Uh oh, for the first time Will questioned this spur of the moment choice. See, Will knew he wouldn't get high enough off half an edible to confess anything to her, but now he remembered that being alone with her might be just as dangerous.

Yet, for reasons he refused to delve too deep into he wanted to see what Mackenzie was like high. She'd never done it with him when they were together and he didn't want the opportunity to see a truly relaxed Mackenzie pass him by. Will decided right then that he could handle it. His conflicted feelings for Mac would be the same as they'd been whether they got high together or not. So why not try and have a nice, potentially amusing, night.

Up Next: Mackenzie, Will, marijuana, and his apartment!