Author's Lengthy Note: Do-si-do and here we go...

This is the last part of a three part series about Charlie Skinner and his relationship with Leona Lansing and his wife Nancy. This really all came out of the my activity in the Newsroom Role Playing Group over on Tumblr, #askacn, with a lot of help in particular from the player that is Charlie.

I've been really stuck on this whole idea for a few reasons and I think the main one is this: Charlie and Leona's back stories are wide open. You have a hint of what kind-of-sort-of might have happened, but not really. Not to mention that Aaron Sorkin himself says that he could imagine a relationship between the two of them.

I'm writing the ending first, because it is the least research intensive. I'm still doing a lot of research for it, but Charlie and Leona's story does require much, much more. I've got books arriving from Amazon and seven or eight obituaries from journalists for the past parts that need to be written.

This story takes place in ten chapters, each representing a day. There are supplements that will be included in the story – two obituaries and perhaps a tabloid article. They will each get their own chapter, so a chapter that is not a named date is one of these supplements.

Because the following things have not been established as I have started this work, please note the following: Nancy, Charlie's wife would be played by Mary McDonnell. Her maiden name for the sake of the story is McCoy. Leona's ex-husband has not been mentioned by name, so I am calling him Arthur in the meantime. He would be played by Jon Voight. Leona's maiden name is Lefebvre and her parents were Willem and Katherine. No one is cast as her mother, she's only mentioned by name, as is her father, but he would be played by Willem Defoe in the past. (He's not in this story, but I already know who needed to be that part.)

This story takes place in the not too distant future and the only tidbit you need to be aware is that the McAvoy's are married already.

This story does contain a major character death.

Find me at missatomicbomb77 dot tumblr dot com if you want to see rough chapters and anything Charlie/Leona.

"Hey Charlie," Will McAvoy says as he enters his office for the first time that morning. He sets his cup of takeout coffee on his desk and begins to settle in for the day, depositing his messenger bag on the desk and removing his jacket. He was taking his boss' appearance in his office stride. Eighty percent of the time, it was nothing serious and it was just a casual re-connection from when they may have last seen one another. When Charlie's return greeting wasn't forthcoming, Will slowed to look at Charlie. "Charlie?"

Charlie sat at the table in Will's office, lost at the window for a moment. He was nine thousand miles away in his mind and it did take him a good few seconds to come back to the present time and to Will. "Good Morning!" Charlie boomed. "How was your weekend?" The moment that he was done speaking he lost again, staring back out of the window.

"Uh, good, thanks. What's going on Charlie?" Will waited for a response as one beat became two, and two became four.

Charlie's voice was quiet, which was something that made the fine hair on Will's arms stand on end. "When Mackenzie… before she told you… did she seemingly shut down? Stop talking to you…" Not wanting to see you, he finishes asking in his own mind. He was using all his energy not to become emotional, but he was having a very hard time keeping his lower lip from trembling.

Will glances at the door of his office, and seeing that it was wide open made the quick strides across his office to close it. "Charlie," Will says as he comes to sit at the table with Charlie. "Can I get you something to drink?"

Charlie shook his head no, almost too violently. "It's just been strange. We used to talk so openly about everything and anything but now…" It's all text messages and one word emails and "I'm not sure what's happening right now." Charlie is not entirely sure what he's even said aloud or to himself at this point. "I can't tell what she's thinking."

Will finds himself looking at his hands and he sees the gold wedding band on his own finger, not very different from the one on Charlie's. He can understand why Charlie's here yet at the same time can't even begin to comprehend what he could be feeling on the other side of a wedding band and a possible ending of a marriage. Will and Mackenzie fought so very long and hard to get here; the memory of the pain they caused each other is distant in his memory.

"She's struggling with something she can't share." Charlie tells him, "I know that she is, it's the only scenario I can see that leaves me out and I'm not..." He becomes quiet for a few moments.

The only thing that Will can think to do is to reach across the table and grip his friend and mentor's shoulder in a show of love and support.

Will is shocked when the silence is snapped by Charlie himself and he gets to his feet. "Well anyway," Charlie bellows, "I hope you have a good week then."

Charlie has burst out the door and Will isn't quite sure what has just happened, except that maybe Charlie has aged ten years in the course of a weekend.