"Life Begins at forty they say…."
Mac looked up from her desk, surprised to see Will in the office this early, and shook her head in disbelief… As much as she liked to keep her birthday quiet at work she kind of had a hunch that Will wouldn't ignore today. Her previous two birthday's since she'd been back at ACN had managed to slip by quietly with just Jim & Will whispering "Happy Birthday" discreetly, but somehow she thought today would be different. Her relationship with Will had moved on so much over the previous few months that she'd had a feeling for a couple of weeks now that he wouldn't let this day pass by as quietly as previous years.
"Old age seems to have made you lose your hearing already?" Will said, watching her brain process his previous comment…
Mac looked up again to see a grin spread wide across his face – he was obviously waiting for an answer…
"I'll have you know that I'm not forty until ten to midnight thank you…" She said in her crisp English accent that Will adored so much…
Mac took a moment and glanced quickly at her watch and then turned her attention back to Will leant against the door frame, looking oh so handsome in his dark jeans and navy sweater… "For your information Billy, I still have sixteen hours and four minutes of my thirties left, thank you very much!"
"Oh - Now there speaks a woman desperate not to admit she's entering a new decade…." Will chuckled as he started to make his way over to her desk…
Mac giggled slightly and slowly started to smile back at him… "Whatever you think, I'm not worried about being forty – I just like my star news anchor to have the correct facts before he speaks – all journalists should have the facts and present the best version of the story – haven't you learnt anything from Newsnight 2.0?"
"Deny it all you want Mackenzie McHale but you forget I was there on that fateful night when you slipped from your twenties into your thirties…. Boy, that was bad enough – this has got to be doing your head in today…."
Mac let her mind wander briefly back to that night ten years ago before she noticed the grin spread even wider across Will's face… She cursed that he knew her so well to know that she'd be struggling to accept being forty and she cursed even more that he was obviously enjoying it! She wasn't going to let him get away with it too lightly…. She took a deep breath and let her bottom lip slip between her teeth for a moment or two, enjoying the sparkle in his eyes…
"Well, you should know how hard it is… Or sorry, can you actually remember back that far?" Mac joked as she threw the report she was reading onto her desk and finally took a serious look at his face…
"Oh, good comeback Mackenzie but you're barking up the wrong tree – you see this isn't about me…. I'm okay with it - there's nothing wrong with being fifty em…. fifty something…" Will answered as he started to casually make his way around her desk… "They say fifty is the new forty these days – haven't you heard?!"
Mackenzie was about to utter some smart comeback about him always being twelve years older than her but stopped as she felt her stomach flip as she suddenly saw the big bunch of flowers Will produced from behind his back…. "Happy Birthday old girl!"
To say the sight of him standing in-front of her holding out flowers took her breath away was an understatement…
"Oh Will – they're gorgeous…" She whispered a moment later as she started to recover from the shock…. "Daises and yellow roses…"
"Your favourite…" Will added smartly, obviously so pleased with himself…
"You remembered…." Mac said as her eyes took in the brightly coloured blooms…. She slowly took them from him and took a quick smell of the flowers – he couldn't have given her a more precious gift if he'd pulled the moon out of the sky for her….
"Of course I remember…" Will muttered as their eyes locked with each other's for a moment – both of them thinking back to happier times in their past – thinking back to times when he didn't have to wait for an excuse like a birthday to bring her flowers – to times when he'd show up at her office door with flowers and a soft kiss – just because he'd wanted to let her know just how much he loved her or that he was thinking of her…
Will was the first to look away just at the precise moment her eyes started to melt deep into his…. Mackenzie took the hint as she watched him swallow the lump that was obviously building in his throat… She took a deep breath and laid her hand on his arm instead….
"You know - there really is no…."
"Happier flower than the Daisy!" Will finished for her with a little chuckle, relieved that their eye moment had come to an end.…. "Mackenzie, only you could rate the flowers by their happiness – you really are one of a kind…"
Mac giggled and leant up and pressed the softest of kisses to his cheek – she suddenly didn't care that he might think it awkward or embarrassing - he surely couldn't expect to buy such beautiful flowers on her fortieth birthday and not be thanked for them….
"Thank you Will – you didn't have to do this…"
"I know…." Will replied, his eyes dropping down and meeting hers again without his brain's permission…. "I just wanted to…" he added, his voice barely a whisper….
"They really are beautiful…" Mac answered, squeezing his arm tenderly….
Mac was certain she noticed a slight blush come to his cheeks as he shoved his hands deep in his pockets and rocked on his feet – an action that just melted her heart a tiny bit more than usual… She placed the flowers on the corner of her desk and slowly made her way back to her chair… There had been so many moments like this recently – ever since his stay in the hospital – so many moments where she was certain he would finally reveal to her what the message had said, so many moments when Mackenzie had been certain he would lean towards her and kiss her but sadly, every moment had ended up with the supposedly eloquent Will McAvoy, stuttering and usually disappearing from the room leaving them both feeling lost and completely empty inside….
"So…." Mackenzie whispered as she looked up at him a couple of seconds later..…
"So?" Will repeated leaning against the edge of her desk as nonchalantly as he could…
"You're early this morning…" she whispered, wondering why on earth they just couldn't talk normally on occasions like this… Why when something tender or caring happened between the two of them did they suddenly have to revert to being awkward, adolescent teenagers afraid to let the other one know what they were feeling… Why oh why did they have to hide it?
"Hey… Have you eaten?" Will suddenly asked… "I skipped breakfast before I came out and I… I just wondered if you wanted to grab some breakfast before the craziness of today starts?" Will added, the blush showing even more on his cheeks…
"Sounds lovely…" Mac answered quickly before he even had the chance to back out of his breakfast plan…. "But I'm just waiting on a call from the Mayor's office…. Can we eat in half an hour or so?"
Will nodded slowly and then couldn't help himself as he watched the smile spreading across her face… For a moment he lost his train of thought completely and just concentrated on the smile on Mackenzie's face…
"You okay?" Mac asked wondering what the hell was wrong with him this morning… He seemed to be acting odder and odder by the second…
"Yup…" he whispered but still he didn't move or speak even…
"So… back to work then?" Mac mumbled, the awkwardness of Will's gazing and silence suddenly engulfing the room… "Our little team of reporters will be here soon…" Mac said glancing out into the newsroom…
Will nodded but then shook his head slowly – he was determined not to let this moment pass without saying what he'd come to say…
"No?" Mac repeated, a smile starting to form on her mouth at the cheeky look spreading across his face…. "Not back to work?"
"No…" Will said, crossing his legs and smiling…. "So come on - what's the birthday girl got planned for today then?"
"Apart from running a number one in the ratings news programme and controlling an ageing anchor you mean?"
"Come on Mac - I was kind of meaning after work... and I'm ignoring that last part before you say anything!"
"Well, after work, I have a hot date…."
Will felt the colour drain from his face and for the first time in months he felt his whole body start to shake inside – he had absolutely no idea that Mackenzie was even seeing someone…. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh feeling totally stupid at even contemplating asking her out to dinner….
"Sorry… I had no idea…" Will mumbled, his heart well and truly sinking to his toes… "I'll leave you to it…"
"Wait..." Mackenzie almost shouted, desperate to get his attention… "Will… wait…."
Will turned around and Mackenzie's heart almost melted at the look in his eyes… She quickly stood up and met him half way across the room… "I'm sorry – I was just trying to be funny… Will – I was going to say I have a date with a bubble bath and a bottle of red wine for one in my apartment…."
Will took a deep breath and let it all out in one go - his nerves that he'd been battling with all morning were suddenly back with a vengeance and the thought of how amazing a dinner with her at Enrico's that evening would be were very rapidly disappearing…
"Why did you ask?" Mackenzie whispered, desperate to make amends at her bad attempt of a joke and even more desperate to find out what Will had in mind…
Will left it a moment – at that point he simply had no idea what the hell to say next… He watched her face, noticing how similar her eyes were to the night six months ago when she'd told him she'd been at North Western – so filled with hope and maybe even showing a hint of desire… She had that look on her face that made him either want to kiss her senseless or shout at her… Will had no idea which to do six months ago and he certainly had no idea this morning either…
"Will?" she whispered, bringing his attention back to right now just as they both heard an excited squeal outside their office door….
"It doesn't matter…." Will replied quietly, noticing Maggie rushing towards the office door… He forced a smile onto his face and whispered a quick "Happy Birthday" as Maggie barged her way through the door – balloons and cakes in hand…
Will made it into his office, collapsed into his chair and dropped his head into his hands… Really – how difficult did it have to be to ask her out on a date? He'd been planning this for days now and never in his wildest dreams had he expected it to be this difficult… What the hell was it with this woman? Why couldn't he just go up to her and say "Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?" Really? Surely it wasn't that hard? He'd been speaking to Habib just yesterday about this and had even got it straight in his mind – the young Doctor would surely be appalled at Will backing out at this stage…..
He sighed and shook his head slightly…. It had all started so well – the dreamy look on her face when he'd handed over the flowers was enough to make him jump straight up and give it another go at asking her out to dinner – surely it couldn't be that hard?
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the small black, velvet box that he'd placed in there a couple of hours earlier – the small black box that he'd had for six long years now… He leant back in his chair and shut his eyes tightly…. What had seemed to him to be an absolutely fool-proof plan was now starting to look like a total disaster…. From the look on her face earlier when he'd mentioned her thirtieth birthday he wasn't even sure she remembered their deal of ten years ago….., He remembered it though – he remembered that amazing night that they'd first gone out just the two of them for an after show drink… He remembered not finding out it was her birthday until their seventh or eighth scotch that night… he remembered being madly in love with her already but he also remembered how hurt and upset she was that evening having been ceremoniously dumped by Brian Brenner two days before her thirtieth birthday. He remembered the sadness in her eyes when she'd said that – albeit drunkenly – that she was giving up the dream of falling in love… he remembered the tear that rolled down her cheek as she'd muttered that no man would ever love her enough to marry her… he remembered the look of complete loss of hope in her eyes as she whined that she'd never get the chance to be a Mother…. he remembered nearly proposing to her there and then on the spot but more than anything he remembered her begging him as they staggered out of the bar that night, to marry her if they were both still single on her fortieth birthday.
Will remembered that last part like it was just yesterday - he just had no idea whether she remembered too…
A/N: Well, here's the first chapter of a short story I've been working on lately...
I can't promise that the updates will be as regular as I used to be as a new job has pretty much taken over life at the moment! I hope you enjoy this - would love to hear what you all think!
Enjoy!
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