a/n: Thank you for all who read Hurricanes and Changes and asked me to continue writing for this pairing. I am flattered. Truly. It has taken me a while to come up with a new creative angle for Mac/Will but I think I have found something to keep us interested until July 14th! Thanks for reading. Rating is higher for language, probably drug use, and maybe sex. idk. i don't want to limit myself. ;)

Unravel. Part 1.

"When are you going to forget?" she asked. Her eyes looked at him in earnest.

"Forget what?" He tried to pretend he didn't know what question she was asking.

"That you're mad at me." She looked down at the papers on her desk and tried to suppress the tears that were inevitable whenever she thought about this subject.

He couldn't answer.

….

After she found out about the message, she was sure that Will would come around any day. This was a huge change in their relationship. Whatever the message said, it had made him so upset that he had Brian Brenner come to the office to give a side my side comparison of her two former boyfriends. She didn't know for sure what it said, but Will's actions all but gave him away.

For the first week she was expecting it any minute. A late night phone call, or an email, perhaps he'd come by her apartment in the middle of the night. She liked that scenario the best and she waited patiently. In her head she already started making plans for their future. After all, it was only a matter of time.

After two weeks she started to worry slightly and made an effort to wear higher heels and shorter skirts in the office. She knew how he felt about her legs.

After a month she blamed the 'American Taliban' backlash. Will was vain, and he hated having any

one dislike him. Their ratings were good, but had fallen slightly since that victorious night. The broadcast seemed to have polarized people into 'love its' or 'hate its.' They focused most of their energy on trying to appeal to more 'love its.'

Once while working in the office he took her out to one of their old favorite Chinese dives that was open until way too late in the evening. She was incredibly hopeful that night and very upset that she hadn't shaved her legs, but Will was a perfect gentleman who put her in a cab and sent her on her merry way back home. Silent tears fell the entire way.

It started to occur to her that the message might not have said at all what she thought. That she was looking into the situation far too in depth. Their working relationship did not suffer though. They were making great television and the best part was that they were enjoying it. The Occupy story was huge and they had another big one about to break.

After two months she started to think about dating again, but the thought repulsed her.

After three months the seed of bitterness was planted and though she didn't know it yet, she had started to resent him. New York was cheery and ready for Christmas, but Mackenzie was in a state of depression. She hadn't felt this way in years. She couldn't say why, but she felt as if he had yelled at her and kicked her out of the apartment all over again. When she looked at him she no longer saw the man she wanted to be with. She saw the man who had tortured her for nearly two years. The man who refused to forgive her for something she couldn't take back. The man that embarrassed her in front of her own office staff, by bringing her ex-boyfriend in to write a story.

Will was the man who shattered her heart, and she no longer believed that he would try to put it back together.

…

Time. He just needed time.

He knew that he loved Mackenzie, but the thought of it terrified him. How could he risk putting everything on the line for her? What if she rejected him? He couldn't risk it. It was too much.

This however, did not stop him from obsessing over her. He mentally catalogued every shoe, every dress, every new makeup style she wore. He knew that she was partial to Prada but that she occasionally wore other designer shoes. They were all gorgeous and over priced. He knew what she was eating, and he made sure that when she wasn't eating enough that he asked her to lunch or to late night dinners.

He dreamed about her. Sometimes scary dreams where she died in the Middle East and he never got to see her again. Sometimes happy dreams, where she was in bed with him snuggled up like old times. However, most of his dreams were of him chasing her around in the god forsaken desert. She got further and further away with each passing week.

He was busy, but truth be told he spent hours thinking about Mackenzie. When he wasn't at work he was pretty much smoking weed and daydreaming.

He hoped that soon he would have the courage to make a move. Or, that he would simply lose control and they would fall into each others arms. He didn't know why he couldn't do it, but he just couldn't.

In November he noticed that Mackenzie seemed to be going out of her way to ignore him. She was completely attentive to him when they were working, but there was no flirtation, no sidelong glances, and no unnecessary touching.

He knew that the new executive on the 37th floor was trying to pick him up. She was smart, pretty, and generally his type. He could definitely sleep with her, but how could he sleep with someone else, when he couldn't stop thinking of Mackenzie? In his own fantasies she was getting him off every morning. Going out with someone else seemed like cheating.

It was cheating. What was wrong with this picture?