Author's Notes: I really never intended to write any more in my Page Six universe, but what can I say? Sloan and Mackenzie continued to argue and bicker in my head and demanded my attention. I swear I am working on finishing up In Sickness and In Health and Reverse Spooning…just taking a little longer than I thought! Still don't own The Newsroom.
Mackenzie knew she was in trouble the minute Sloan threw open her office door and dropped into the chair in front of her desk.
"What is it that you did not understand about our little discussion last time?" Sloan angrily ground out through clenched teeth.
"I don't understand the discussion we are having right now. Could you be a little more precise as to what you're referring to Sloan?"
"Six months ago, you let Page Six drop that little bombshell on me about you and Will and you want to play innocent now Mackenzie McHale?! Oh wait, I forgot, it isn't Mackenzie McHale anymore is it?" Sloan stared harshly at her.
"Sloan, I swear on all that is holy, I have no clue what you are talking about."
"I'm talking about this Mackenzie!" Sloan nearly screamed and slammed the magazine down on her desk.
There, in big bold letters was an article in People Magazine about her weekend getaway with Will that supposedly culminated in marriage.
"Sloan, I had no idea about this article and I am not married." Not yet anyway, her mind supplied. Damn, couldn't they keep a few things private? And the article had it all wrong anyway.
"You're not?" Sloan questioned.
"No, I'm not. Will and I did go to St. Bart's a few weeks ago, but we did not get married."
Nope, we didn't get married, but apparently we did get pregnant that weekend, she thought to herself. Now, if that had ended up in the magazine she really would have been shocked. She hadn't even been to the doctor yet for God's sake. Did they have people going through their fucking garbage looking for the EPT stick?
"You swear you're not married?" Sloan asked again.
"Yeah Mac, swear to me you're not married. Because if you are I'd like to know who he is" Will responded as he entered her office.
"I'm not married to anyone, nor have I ever been. Can we move on to actual news as opposed to this fictional drivel that's passing as news these days?" Mackenzie asked throwing the magazine in the trash.
"Mackenzie, you just threw out our wedding announcement" Will teased her.
"No, I did not! Now, can we all go to work?" Mackenzie looked pointedly at Sloan as she said this.
"Fine. But let's be clear on this. If anything appears in one of these rags that is true and I didn't hear it from you two first, heads will roll" Sloan said as she turned and left the room.
"At least they didn't get the real story" Will said.
"The real story is about the size of a kidney bean and does not need to be announced in some supermarket scandal sheet" Mackenzie replied indignantly, holding her hand over her midriff.
"You do understand Sloan may kill you if that happens?"
"No she won't William. I am pregnant with your child and intend to use you as a human shield if she comes storming in here again."
They both stopped for a second. Pregnant with your child…it had rolled so easily off her tongue and they'd only had a few days to get used to the idea. They really hadn't been trying…they hadn't not been trying either. Just one of those, let's throw caution to the wind and see what happens moments. She had actually assumed she wouldn't get pregnant.
She had been on the pill for fifteen years and she was nearly forty. She assumed it was too late. She had been wrong.
"When are you going to the doctor?" he asked her.
"Tomorrow at 9:30. You can come if you want, but I'm guessing that would be a really good way to tip off the paparazzi. A picture of you sitting in my OB/GYN's office would be on Page Six by Wednesday."
"Good point. I'll be there in spirit."
"I'll try to remember that when my feet are in the stirrups."
"Ok, on that note I'm going to leave your office now. No coffee Mackenzie" he told her, staring pointedly at the mug on her desk.
"It's tea" she replied.
Days and weeks progressed and Mackenzie pressured Will not to tell anyone yet.
"I'm only ten weeks Will and I'm pushing forty. Let's wait a little longer to make sure everything's ok."
She saw the look on his face though. He was bursting at the seams to tell someone. It would have been cute really, if she hadn't been spending most of her mornings slumped over the toilet bowl for hours.
"I didn't tell him, I swear" Will announced into her office before he had even made it through the door a few days later, hands suspiciously hidden behind his back.
"William Duncan McAvoy, what have you done?" she whispered harshly as she got up from her desk and slammed the door behind him. She reached around his back and grabbed the concealed item from his hands. She found herself holding the tiniest little t-shirt she had ever seen, emblazoned with the words 'Future Journalist.'
"It's Charlie, Mac. It really wasn't that hard for him to put two and two together anyway. Not after you ran out of his office the other day when he started eating a bagel with cream cheese and lox. He should know anyway. Eventually you're going to have to take some time off work" Will said confidently, as if this excused everything.
"Do you really expect me to believe you were talking to Charlie about my pregnancy because you wanted to give your boss ample notice to fill an EP vacancy?"
"No" he mumbled, looking down at his shoes much like she imagined he must have done when he was a small child and received a scolding.
"No one else Will. Not just yet, agreed?"
He nodded glumly, but suddenly reached out and retrieved the tiny t-shirt from her hands and stuffed it in his pocket. He made his way toward his office, whistling the whole way.
"Way to keep a secret Will. You couldn't be more obvious if you went on the air and made an announcement" Mackenzie muttered to herself.
She fully intended to tell everyone. Really she did. But in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and fifteen hour workdays, it just slipped her mind. That's what she told herself. Though, deep down inside, she knew her reticence on this subject stemmed more from a desire for privacy and a genuine fear of loss of control than anything else.
But two months later, when Sloan barreled into her office once again, she knew any semblance of confidentiality or containment were well and truly shot all to hell.
"Is there something about the concept of girl talk that you don't understand Mackenzie?" the economist spit at her.
"I believe it's a friendly get-together between female friends to chat and bond…that sort of thing" Mackenzie replied quietly.
"That's about the gist of it. So why is it you can weep on my shoulder about how you broke Will's heart and are never getting back together, but you can't actually tell me that you are back together? And then, to add insult to injury, you don't tell me that you're pregnant?"
"Ah…whoops? You know about that?"
"Yeah Mackenzie, I know about that."
"You're not shouting at me though?" Mackenzie asked uncertainly.
"Because I don't want the father of your child bursting in here and reading me the riot act. So I am very calmly now going to ask you for details and you are going to give them to me."
"I'm four and a half months along, Will proposed and I'm thinking about it" Mackenzie replied calmly.
"Congratulations, of course he did and what the hell is there to think about?!" Sloan demanded.
"I didn't picture a shotgun wedding at forty."
"It's hardly a shotgun wedding Kenz. You guys have been together, on and off, for nearly three years. You spend every minute of the day together and you haven't killed each other yet. If that's not love, I don't know what is. And you're not forty yet."
"Well, I also don't picture myself waddling down the aisle Sloan. So unless we do this pretty damn fast, it's a little late for that Vera Wang couture gown" Mackenzie grumbled. She didn't tell Sloan, but she actually had said yes…in her own way. With watery eyes and a slight nod of her head, she had told Will she would marry him. But he knew her better than anyone in the world, and he knew pushing her into a wedding only weeks after they had discovered the pregnancy was a sure fire way to scare the shit out of her. It would happen in time.
"Like you ever wanted a traditional wedding anyway. Fly back down to St. Bart's and do it on the beach. Go to Washington D.C. and have Joe Biden officiate. I hear he and Will go way back. Whatever the hell you do, just make sure I know about it this time, ok? Holy hell Mackenzie! What's so damn difficult about sharing a few tidbits of personal information with a friend?" Sloan continued to mutter under her breath as she left the room.
Mackenzie watched as Will gave the economist a wide berth as he made his way toward her office.
"Page Six strikes again, huh?" he asked her as he entered, holding up the offending article.
"I guess so. It wasn't going to be a secret much longer anyway. How many more baggy sweaters can I get away with in October?" she asked settling her hands on her abdomen.
"Was that a rhetorical question? Because I really don't want to learn the hard way not to make comments about weight to a hormonal pregnant woman."
"I'm not hormonal" she pouted.
"Whatever you say Mac. I'm not the one who burst into tears this morning at the ASPCA commercial" he reminded her.
"Well, do they really have to show all those injured animals to me at 6 in the morning? I'll donate, I'll do a story on puppy mills…whatever the hell they want! Just quit with the limping puppies set to Sarah McLachlan music!" she started sniffling as she said this.
"Yeah, totally not hormonal. I'm just going to slowly back out of your office now, setting this brownie on your desk as a peace offering. I'll see you in the conference room, Mackenzie."
She knew there was a reason she loved him. Maybe she could forgive him for the morning sickness and stretch marks if he kept her supplied with chocolate. She grabbed the brownie and her notebook and headed for the rundown meeting.
She found herself entering an unusually quiet conference room.
"What?" she asked, looking around at the staff.
"Nothing" Jim said, trying desperately to keep his eyes on her face.
"Oh Good Lord! Does everyone in this building read Page Six? Shouldn't you people be researching actual news stories and using honest to god sources, not the gossip columns?" she asked, exasperated.
"Sorry Mac" They all replied in unison.
"Fine, let's get this over with. Yes I am pregnant. Will and I are expecting in about five months. No, this will not be a story on tonight's show, so let's get our asses in gear and figure out what will be on tonight's show people!"
"See, that wasn't so hard" Sloan muttered from her seat.
A smattering of agreements and acknowledgments could be heard around the room and also what sounded like some sort of squeaking exclamation of joy from Maggie. Will tried to hide his grin, but failed miserably.
"What?" he asked Mackenzie as she made her way over to a chair next to him.
"Would you like to get up and do some sort of fist pump or high five all the men in the room while you're at it?" she asked him facetiously.
"Just because I'm excited to share our news does not mean I feel the need to make some sort of caveman-like expression of macho pride" he told her.
"Why is it men feel they have accomplished something just by impregnating a woman? I'm the one who still has to give birth here. Should that not be the more highly prized achievement?" she pouted as she settled into her chair and began munching on her brownie.
"Yes dear" Will replied, suitably chastised, but still grinning like an idiot.
Two weeks later Mackenzie arrived at work to find Sloan once again seated in her office.
"Sloan, you do know you have your own office right? I mean, it may be a bit smaller than mine, but I'm sure you can manage to work with what you've got" Mackenzie told her friend sarcastically.
"So, here's the deal Kenz. You are going to have a little girl's weekend out with me and a few others and you're going to enjoy it. No arguments. I let you get away with keeping a baby and a marriage proposal from me, but you owe me big time now."
"Sloan, you have noticed the change to my figure, have you not? Do I look like a woman who wants to spend her weekend out at the bars looking for single men?" Mackenzie replied, lowering herself into her chair and rearranging the fabric of her blouse over her expanding middle.
"Fine, then our little get together will come to you. Unless you had some exciting weekend plans you wanted to inform me of. Like jetting off to some Caribbean isle to elope?" she asked emphatically.
"We were going to stay home and watch old movies in bed. We hadn't planned on being invaded by half the office."
"Too bad. You and Will would spend every minute you weren't working hiding out together. It's cute in a kind of neurotic, co-dependent sort of way. I'm sure you two can spend one evening apart. Tell Will to go play poker with Charlie again" Sloan suggested.
"Have you named my child and set a wedding date for me too while you're at it Sloan?"
"Lira if it's a girl and Milton if it's a boy. No word on the wedding date yet. Give me time."
"Milton McAvoy" Will chimed in from the doorway. "You are just setting up the poor kid to have the crap beaten out of him."
"Sloan, I am not naming my child after a currency or an economist" Mackenzie informed her.
"Hey, you asked. So, seven on Saturday night? Your place, because I intend to enjoy that magnificent monument to multi-million dollar salaries before it becomes a baby-proofed habitat."
"Was there anything else you needed Sloan? Want to let me know what's going to be on tonight's show before you go?"
"Nope, we're all good here. Have fun playing poker Will." And with that Sloan scampered out of Mackenzie's office.
"I'm playing poker?" Will asked.
"Apparently I owe Sloan for my transgressions and have been pulled into some sort of female bonding experience. And it's at our home."
"When did we lose control of the office?" he asked her.
"Get used to it. I hear parenthood is all about loss of control" Mackenzie told him.
"Come on, we have a meeting with Reese in five minutes" he told her and helped pull her out of her chair.
Saturday came much too quickly for Mackenzie's liking. It was true…she and Will would spend every moment together if left to their own devices. They enjoyed each other's company and not just in the bedroom.
"Stop thinking about it Mac" she heard Will grumble into her ear from his position spooned up behind her in bed. She turned over, rather gracelessly thanks to her expanding middle, and faced him.
"Hey, you aren't about to be invaded by half the office. You are getting off easy by going to Charlie's" she told him.
"Then tell Sloan they can't come over if you're that upset about it."
"Right, and then I never hear the end of it?" Mackenzie pouted.
"So, you'll get through it. It's one night Mac. Now come here" he told her, pulling her towards him. He rested his hand on her belly and waited. Soon enough he felt a small fluttering against his hand.
"I'll never get tired of that" he told her.
"Try it from my perspective. She's sitting on my bladder right now" she told him and scooted out of bed toward the bathroom.
"Stop saying she. You'll let the cat out of the bag" he shouted toward her.
"I'm sure Page Six already knows it's a she. They probably know when I'll deliver and what her name is. I wish they'd tell us" Mackenzie muttered before slamming the bathroom door.
She spent the better part of the afternoon pouting and eating chocolate.
"Do you need anything before I go Mac?" he asked her later that evening.
"I need you to stay here and keep the office staff from invading our home."
"Sorry, your visitors are here already" he told her after hearing the buzzer in the kitchen.
He watched as Tess, Tamara, Kendra, Sloan and Maggie exited the elevator.
"Have fun ladies" he told them as he made his way out.
"Wow Kenz, I guess I haven't really noticed at the office, but you're kind of getting big" Sloan remarked.
Will just closed his eyes and smacked the palm of his hand to his head, leaning against the wall of the elevator as the doors closed.
"Thanks Sloan. You're really encouraging this female bonding ritual by insulting me the moment you walk through the door" Mackenzie told her friend, pulling a blanket from the back of the sofa and wrapping it around herself. She wasn't used to anyone but Will seeing her at home these days and the old UCLA Law t-shirt and leggings were the most comfortable things she could find to wear lately. Unfortunately, it accentuated her growing form.
"Help yourself to drinks everyone. Will ordered Chinese before he left, it should be here soon" Mackenzie informed them all as she made her way to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. Sloan, of course, headed straight for the bar.
"Any more of that Cabernet, Kenz? That stuff was really good."
"No Sloan, I believe we drank all of it. You're probably out of luck if you're looking for much in the way of wine. That was mostly for me, so I doubt Will replenished it in the last few months. Scotch, bourbon and the makings for martinis may be all that's over there now. And there's beer in the refrigerator" she told her friend.
"So Kenz, fill us all in. Wedding date, baby names, due date and are you at the really horny part of pregnancy yet? I had a friend who told me her second trimester was the best time of her life!" Sloan asked from her bartending position near the kitchen.
"Sloan, did we not have this conversation before? No information about my sex life. For your own sake, and the sake of all these impressionable young ears with us here tonight, please let that subject drop. You will all wake up hungover and miserable tomorrow with knowledge you will wish you didn't have. Then you will have to go to work Monday morning and look your bosses in the eye knowing exactly which sexual positions they prefer. Some things are better left unsaid" Mackenzie explained.
"Fine, be that way Kenzie. Do we get any baby or wedding news then?"
"We're having a baby and we're engaged. Good enough?" Mackenzie asked her friend as she sank into the sofa once more. Sloan plopped herself down next to her as the others drifted into the room with their drinks.
"No, not good enough Mackenzie. Details, please?"
"Sloan, in case you hadn't noticed Will and I aren't exactly warm, fuzzy invite everyone into your life kind of people. Yes, occasionally I do send out mass emails with far too much information in them. But other than a few slips here and there, we keep to ourselves for the most part."
Sloan looked down at her belly meaningfully. "Obviously you find something to keep yourselves occupied." A few snickers could be heard.
"Change the subject Sloan" Mackenzie gritted through her clenched teeth and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Does it kick a lot?" she asked.
"Yes, she's a McHale-McAvoy. Of course she kicks a lot."
"SHE?! You know? Mackenzie! What is it with you and keeping a secret? You're a journalist for God's sake, you should be awful at it!" Sloan shrieked.
"Obviously I am awful at it. We weren't planning on telling anyone" Mackenzie muttered to herself.
"So, Lira it is!"
"No Sloan, Lira it is not! Lira McAvoy? She'll sound like an Italian-Scottish cruise ship or something!"
"My father wanted to name me Michael if I was a boy. He was a big basketball fan" Maggie piped in.
"My mother wanted to name me Rose" Tamara said. "Can you believe that? I would have been Rose Hart!"
"You ok Kenz? You're not looking too comfortable" Sloan asked.
"I'm pregnant. I'm never comfortable. She's using my kidney as a soccer ball."
"Oh, can I feel?" Sloan asked.
Mackenzie looked at her self-consciously. "First you tell me I'm fat and now you want to touch my stomach. Try a different tactic next time Sloan."
"I'm sorry Mackenzie. You just wear those knit dresses at work with the sweaters over them. I hadn't really noticed the belly too much until tonight. You look good though Kenz, really."
Mackenzie looked at her. She sometimes forgot that part of Sloan's charm was her utter lack of people skills. She never meant anything by what she said…her delivery just lacked a certain finesse.
"Give me your hand" she told her and placed the younger woman's hand where her daughter was currently kicking away.
"Wow! This is really bizarre Kenz. I never pictured you guys as parents."
"Thank you Sloan. Your confidence in us is astounding" Mackenzie replied dryly.
"I can picture you guys as parents" Maggie interjected. "Will sort of reminds me of my dad."
"What is it with you all seeing Will as a father figure?" Mackenzie wondered aloud. "I'll never understand it."
"Well, I would hope not!" Sloan exclaimed, earning her a glare from Mac.
"I didn't mean it in a bad way! Ok, I'm going to stop talking now. I seem to stick my foot in my mouth no matter what I say" Sloan said sadly.
"It's ok Sloan. I'm probably a little oversensitive about some things right now. Plus, all of you are slowly sinking into an alcohol induced haze and I'm drinking Evian. I'll try to take everything you say with a grain of salt."
As the night wore on, Mackenzie decided it was actually quite amusing to watch as all the women on her staff became decidedly buzzed. Kendra and Tess seemed reasonably sober, but Sloan, Maggie and Tamara were likely going to be spending the night on her sofa. Will was going to be thrilled.
When he returned home at around 1am it was to the unexpected sight of Maggie Jordan and Tamara Hart asleep on his floor and Sloan Sabbith asleep on his wife. Ok, not yet his wife, but close enough.
"Mackenzie, why is there an economist on your lap?" he queried.
"She was trying to explain a free market economy to our child. She insisted that our daughter will not be as economically illiterate as I am. Unfortunately, she fell asleep with her head on my belly in the middle of that and I have been stuck here for the last half hour. Help me up, would you? I really have to go to the bathroom."
He slid Sloan's head off her lap and pulled Mackenzie up off the couch.
"Do I even want to ask what went on here tonight?" he questioned as they made their way down the hall.
"Not really. I think Sloan and Maggie are bonding over their current shared hatred of Don. It appears he is no longer with Maggie but has made no move on Sloan. Thus, neither woman is currently enthralled with the man. I hope Elliot has a back-up plan for an EP. Last I heard those two were trying to figure out where to dump the body."
"When did we become the model of a healthy relationship among the newsroom staff?" he asked rhetorically.
"Terrifying thought isn't it?" Mackenzie said entering their bathroom.
As they settled in for bed Will realized what she had said earlier.
"Wait a second. You said Sloan was lecturing our daughter. Since when does she know it's a girl?"
"That kind of slipped earlier" Mackenzie whispered.
Will wrapped himself around her and laughed into her ear. "I knew you'd be the one to crack."
She elbowed him in the ribs. "Hey, I have pregnancy brain. Forgive me if a few things slip out here and there. At least I didn't promise Sloan she could name her. She wants to call our daughter Lira."
"That's not that bad."
"Lira McAvoy? Will, she wants to name our daughter after the Italian unit of currency!"
"Ok, what do you want to name her?" Will asked.
"I don't know, but it isn't going to be Lira."
Will got up from bed and looked for his jacket. "I almost forgot, Charlie gave me this earlier. Told me to wait until I was with you to open it."
He placed the signature robin's egg blue Tiffany and Company box in her lap. She pulled off the ribbon and lifted the lid of the box to reveal a beautiful silver picture frame. Engraved along the bottom was a message: If you can give your child only one gift, let it be enthusiasm. With you two as parents that will never be lacking. Love, Charlie.
God, he really wished Charlie had warned him. As soon as she read the engraving she was a crying mess.
"Mac, please…you know I can't handle these mood swings" he grabbed a handful of tissues from the bedside and handed them to her.
"I think I've got the name" she told him, wiping her eyes.
"Please tell me you don't want to name her Tiffany?" he pleaded.
"No, of course not. No daughter of mine would ever be Tiffany or Mindy or Wendy. God Will, how long have you known me?"
"Ok, I'm sorry. I never know what's in your head these days Mac. The other day you ate pancakes with mayonnaise on them for breakfast!"
"Hey, that was good and you didn't even try them so don't knock it!"
"Ok, what's our daughter's name then?"
"Charlotte. Charlotte McAvoy. Charlie for short" she told him.
"I love it. It's beautiful Mac" he pulled her back down against him and wrapped his arms around his girls.
Mackenzie burrowed into his embrace and calmed instantly. All the changes in her life recently had made her a bit nervous and, if she were honest with herself, a bit testy. This was where she found her tranquility. She would apologize to Sloan in the morning for being less than enthusiastic about their little get together. In the meantime, she placed her head against Will's chest and listened to his heartbeat, letting it lull her to sleep.
Page Six be damned. They could write whatever the hell they wanted to. Everything important in her life was right here and it was amazing.
More Author's Notes: I was totally sure I would never write any Will/Mac babyfic, but I've been drawn in by the many lovely stories others have written. I succumbed to babyfic peer pressure!