CHAPTER 1: If we were children, I'd bake you a mud pie.

"So I think we're going to stop here for today. It's already past one, so if I have any further questions, I'll call for you on another day. Thank you."

Mackenzie thought Rebecca Halliday was a much nicer person than she expected any well-paid corporate lawyer to be. Sure, she asked questions that were a pain in the ass to answer, but Mackenzie knew she was just doing her job, and doing it really well. She nodded and whispered her thanks to the rest of the room and opened the door to find Will sitting on the floor, leaning his head against the wall.

"You're still here?"

Will opened his eyes and stood up, and reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, just like he did on the night of the Bin Laden broadcast.

"It's going to be okay."

"You didn't have to wait. You didn't get me in trouble, you know. I got you in trouble."

"It was Jerry's fault and no one else's."

Mackenzie didn't remember the last time she had heard Will be so firm on something, so intent on convincing her of what seemed like the simple truth. A part of her wanted to be able to blame all of this on Jerry and say that he had every intention of deceiving all of them. But it was her fault that she was deceived. If only she had caught it before…

"Stop thinking about it. Let's go get a drink."

Will grabbed her forearm and dragged her all the way to Hang Chew's. Before she knew it, she was already into her second glass of whiskey and feeling braver than she did an hour ago. She was beginning to think she should have done this a while ago because the whiskey was certainly helping with some of the forgetting and feeling less guilty. Will, on the other hand, wasn't even finished with his first and all he seemed to be doing was watching her but not watching her at the same time. He was just sitting there and looking at her every now and then, as if he was afraid she would suddenly transform into a bomb and explode. But he probably wasn't going to run if she did.

"I know now is probably a terrible time for both of us to be asking this question…"

"Then don't ask it."

"…but how is it going with Nina Howard?"

He scoffed and looked at Mackenzie, probably hoping she was asking him jokingly. But she stared on, daring him to answer and he took a big sip of his scotch.

"Well I can't for the life of me see why you thought this was a terrible time to ask, seeing as how we're in the middle of considering whether we should resign and ruining our reputation and our careers for life, ending it all in disgrace…"

"Just answer the damn question, Will."

"Why are you asking, anyway?"

Will didn't meet her eyes. He was just looking at his glass and she decided that his unwillingness to answer her question was going to make her bolder and more annoying. The more the whiskey flowed in her system, the more she thought she couldn't care less what anyone thought of her.

"Because, I'm curious and I need something really titillating to take my mind off things."

"Titillating?"

"What? I can use big words to describe…"

"It's not really going."

"Uh oh, is there trouble ahead for Will and Nina? Find out next week on, 'The Desperate Gossip Columnist…'"

"I ended it."

Mackenzie looked at Will as he finally finished his scotch and ordered another. She could see hints of him starting to fume and become more annoyed with her but she had enough whiskey pounding in her ear to not listen to the more sane voices in her head.

"Well…I wish I could honestly say that I was sorry, but…"

"Don't…bother. I know."

She could see that he was beginning to flush and she wasn't sure if that was because he was angry with her or with someone else. She thought maybe now was the time for her to pause and order another glass.

"I know tomorrow is Saturday but I remember how much you can drink before you're wasted and you're getting really close to it."

"Oh shut up. I can take care of myself."

He sighed and shook his head as Mackenzie took the first sip of her third glass. A few minutes of silence later, Mackenzie decided that there was enough whiskey now in her system to piss him off some more because honestly, she didn't know what else she could be doing without breaking down about what was happening to her professionally.

"What were you thinking? Did your mission to civilize include civilizing her in the bedroom? For a whole month, you just decided…"

"Six."

"What?"

"It was six. We dated for six months."

Mackenzie thought that the shock of hearing the news about Will and Nina would be a one-time thing. She didn't know why she hadn't heard anything about how long they were dating and she didn't know when she had suddenly decided that they had dated for a month. In the back of her mind, she probably wanted to believe that it was just a few rolls in the hay, a couple of less-inhibitive nights on Will's part. But six months? He dated her for half a year and all this time, Mac had thought that she and he were maybe starting to build some of their tension back. Well, who was the desperate housewife now?

"You…you were seeing her when your father passed away?"

"Yes."

It shouldn't have been that big of a deal but somehow, that sobered her up completely. Any kind of lazy and protective haze that was getting ready to overcome her was chased away by the thought of Will and Nina, being intimate and dating. For six months.

"Okay. Well…this has been an incredible success at taking my mind off the disaster that is my professional life and onto the calamity that is my personal life. So, thanks. I'll see you on Monday."

Mackenzie downed the glass of whiskey, put down a hundred dollar bill and walked out as quickly as she could and she rushed to call for a cab. But apparently all the cab drivers in New York City were determined to not stop for her that night, or at least until Will stepped out and grabbed her flailing arm.

"How could you? Of all people, you're going to whore yourself out to the bitch who attacked you with that vicious trash she calls features and who hacked my phone, listened to the private voicemail that you left for me and then proceeded to delete it? Are you fucking kidding me?!"

She was glad she had finished that third glass of whiskey because now she really didn't give a shit what the people walking by thought of her and her yelling at Will McAvoy, the face of ACN. But what was really surprising was that Will was looking at her the whole time, not saying a word and not looking around timidly, wondering if anyone was filming this with their phone or tweeting about it. He was staring at her as if he was daring her to go further. Normally, she would have stopped but this time, she felt the strange need to oblige him.

"So you date her for half a year and meanwhile, you make the team and me look like utter fools, going on ACN morning and wearing that damned football helmet because it makes you more affable! How many people, do you think, watched that and said, 'You know what, I actually like him more now that he threw that ball solidly through the tire. I really want to watch a show hosted by him that talks about serious news.' How can you do this?! How can you completely ignore our faith in you and our respect for you? How can you just betray…"

She stopped, dead in her tracks. Will still wasn't saying anything, watching her with his arms crossed. She had no idea what was happening when tears were freely flowing down her face and Will was pulling them both into a cab.