"The meeting this morning was about ten o'clock. Have you seen their ratings recently?"

"I heard they were down, that's all."

"Down is being kind, Mac. They tanked. Our lead-in is gone when Terry goes off. Terry is holding our lead, but Elliot can't hold anything. The forty-fourth floor is making changes."

"Drastic ones?"

He nodded. "Elliot is being transferred to London, but not as an anchor. He'll be doing more international stories."

"Is Don going with him," she asked.

"Don is being given one last chance to prove himself. He's going to have the opportunity to produce ten o'clock, but if he doesn't quickly show them something, he's gone.

"Who is getting ten o'clock?"

"Sloan."

"Really? Sloan is going to have Don as her EP?"

"I know."

"Does Sloan know yet?"

"She might by now, but she didn't earlier."

"So why am I going to a meeting this afternoon?"

"Charlie is going to ask you to help Don. Ten o'clock is going to be completely revamped. Sloan, you and Don are going to create a new show. It will be Don's to run once it's established."

"Do you think Sloan is up for this?"

"I need to talk to her outside the building. I'll help her any way I can but ultimately it is going to be up to her. I think she's ready but she's going to have to have a strong EP that she can trust. She's lucky she'll have you to help get her started but I'm not sure how she and Don will be. Hell, she's barely talking to him now, how are they going to do a show?"

"Are we sure Don's going to stick around with Elliot being transferred?"

"I hadn't thought about it, but I guess it is a possibility that he'd leave. I don't think he will because he won't want to disappoint Sloan."

"Or leave Maggie," she added.

"I guess. We both know that's not going to last, Mac. I think he's trying to show everybody that he's not hit and run, but when Sloan told him, something changed.

"He is a good guy, I've known him a long time."

"Really," Will asked raising his head to look at her. "I didn't know you knew him before coming back."

"I gave him his first internship. I taught him how to do the news. He's gotten lazy and picked up some bad habits, but the good is still there."

"Will he listen to you?"

"I don't know. I think it depends on how Charlie explains it to him."

"I'll talk to Charlie before your meeting. He may hate both of us for a while, but it is for his own good."

"This afternoon will either go really well or there will be a lot of anger, I don't think there's going to be a middle ground. He's not going to like me telling him how to create a show."

"He'd be stupid to not listen, but I hear what you're saying, he may be too mad to hear anything. Should I talk to him?"

"Let's see how the meeting goes," she said.

He lifted his head to kiss her. When he pulled back he said, "thank you."

"You're welcome."

Will called Charlie to talk to him about his discussion with Don. Fortunately, Will caught him before his meeting with Don, which was right before Mac's meeting. Charlie agreed that Mac needed to take the lead with Sloan while they were creating the show.

When they arrived back at the newsroom Jim had all the producers in the conference room. Will and Mac joined them, standing to the side and let Jim lead the meeting. When Jim asked for questions, Mac only had a couple and Jim was able to clarify and explain what his focus was for the evening's show.

As the producers and Will filed out of the conference room Jim hung back with Mac. "You did a good job," she said.

"I can do it for a few meetings, but I don't know how you keep all of this together, all the time."

"You do it now, but on a smaller scale. You know what each of the associate producers is doing and how they are pitching their stories."

"But there are only a few of them," he said smiling. "Your job is safe," he teased.

"I've got to go to a two hour meeting, can you handle things here for a while longer?"

"Sure. You'll be here for the final rundown, right?"

She smiled and said she would be.

Mac went up to Charlie's office and saw Don sitting in one of his chairs. She knocked and Charlie said, "come in."

"Good afternoon."

Charlie smiled at her and motioned to a chair, "please sit."

"Don will you excuse us for a couple of minutes?"

"Sure," he said sulking. "I'll be outside."

Charlie came to lean against his desk next to Mac. "So you know you, Don and Sloan are going to create a new show for ten o'clock."

Mac didn't react or give away that she knew anything. "Do you have something in mind, or are you wanting ideas from us?"

"I'd like a complete package," he said.

"How long do we have to come up with something?"

"I'd like first ideas in the next day or so. Mac, I know this is asking a lot, but I know you and you can do this. Don's going to be pissy and Sloan is going to be scared shitless, but you and Will will get them through this. Are you up for this, Mac?"

"We'll come up with something for you"

"Okay, I'm going to bring Don back in and we'll go over everything."

Charlie kept Mac and Don for the whole two hours. Don was pissy and argumentative and she could tell he was scared a little bit, too. Charlie explained that Mac was in charge and that he and Sloan were to work with her to create this new show. When they were dismissed Don wouldn't even wait on the elevator with Mac.

Mac went down to her office and starting listing Sloan's best attributes in hopes of coming up with a pitch. She wasn't having much luck but she knew she needed to talk to Sloan, who had been suspiciously absent most of the day.

Jim came in to get her for the final rundown. Will was already in the conference room with the producers. He smiled at her when she came in and sat down. She looked tired, Will thought. He knew she would be stressed. His life was easier when he didn't care about the people in his newsroom, but it wasn't nearly as full as it is now that he had Mac and friends looking to him for guidance. His meeting with Charlie about Elliot and Don upset him this morning. He didn't like change but now friends of his were being transferred and possibly fired. He was also worried about Sloan. He hadn't been able to spend any time with her today. She, he was sure, was scared to death. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for his friends and he wanted to talk to Sloan with Mac, outside the building.

After their rundown meeting Mac asked to speak with him in his office. He led them down the hallway and held the door for her. "How'd it go?"

"Don's pissed off and won't talk to me. I've not been able to find Sloan to see how she's doing and Charlie is expecting me to come up with a full package let alone first ideas to him in the next couple of days."

"I was thinking about asking Sloan to come back to the apartment after the show. We'll get pizza and beer and talk. She's got to be scared."

"That's a great idea. We need to be able to speak freely without too many people questioning why we are meeting, or what's going on," she said.

"I'll get her there."

"How's the script?"

"Done. I just needed to relax and talk it out. Thank you for that."

"Any time, Billy," she said looking deeply into his eyes.

"I'll see if I can find Sloan," he said.

"Thanks. I'm going to go work some. I'll see you later."

The next time Mac saw Will he was entering the set. They were on the air in a few minutes. Sloan quietly sat down across from Will for her segment. He looked up when he saw her sit. Mac could see Will hand Sloan a note and after she read it, she nodded her head and put the note in her notebook.

After the show Will and Mac both changed into casual clothes. Mac showed up with her things in Will's doorway as he was coming out of the bathroom, tucking in his shirt.

"Ready to go," he asked.

"I am." She looked tired to him. It had been a stressful day and now they had to talk to Sloan and start working on ideas for her show. It was going to be a long night.

"What kind of pizza do you want, vegetable?"

"We should probably get a couple of vegetable. What do you want?"

"We'll get two vegetable and one pepperoni. Do you know how much beer is at home?"

"Not enough," she said. "We'll stop on the way and pick up some."

Will called in their pizza order and gathered his things. "Let's go home, Mac," he said, placing his hand on her back.

Lonny stopped at a store for them on the way home. Mac ran in and got beer for them. When they arrived at the apartment the pizza delivery was pulling up.

"Good timing," Mac said. "I'm starving."

They said good night to Lonny, grabbed dinner and went upstairs. Mac was taking the beer in the kitchen followed by Will who put the pizzas on the table. "I'm going to go find Jane," he said.

"I'll get plates ready."

While Will was checking on Jane the buzzer rang from downstairs. Mac buzzed in Sloan and waited for her by the elevator. When the door opened Sloan looked at Mac and Mac hugged her friend. "How are you doing?"

Sloan shrugged and pulled back. "I'm okay."

Will and Jane walked in the room. "Sloan," Will said, walking over to her and took her in his arms. She was grateful for the hug, and let him hold her. She had always looked at Will as a big brother and she was glad he invited her over to talk. "Are you okay," he asked.

'Getting there."

"Whatever you need, we're here."

"Thanks," she said looking at both of them.

Will put his hand on Sloan's back and led her into the living room. "Sloan, this is my sister, Jane. Jane, Sloan Sabbith."

"It's nice to meet you," Jane said. "Are you all okay?" She could tell something was off with all of them.

"It's been a long day," Will said.

"Come on, let's talk over dinner," Mac said leading them into the kitchen.

Sloan wasn't sure she was comfortable talking in front of Jane, but Mac and Will were being open with her and she decided she'd follow their lead.

Will needed to make Sloan understand it was okay to talk in front of Jane. That she'd keep their confidences. "Sloan, I want you to know that you can say anything here and it won't leave the apartment. Mac and I needed to talk to you about what happened today and how we're moving forward and we're here to help."

"Thanks," Sloan said.

"Everyone want beer," Mac asked.

They all agreed and she handed them all their beers. "There are vegetable pizzas and a pepperoni, please eat."

The women all went for the vegetable pizza while Will ate pepperoni.

"Ten o'clock is being revamped," Will said to Jane. "Mac has point on building the new show with Sloan as the anchor."

"Where's Elliot going," she asked.

Mac replied, "London."

Jane had seen Sloan on Will's show. "Congratulations," Jane said to Sloan.

"Thanks," Sloan said. "I'm not sure I'm ready."

"You are," Will said. "I know you're scared, but we'll get you comfortable."

"We're going to build a show that you're comfortable with, and one you can be proud of, Sloan."

"Trust Mac," Will said. "She's the best EP in the business."

"Thanks," Mac said to Will.

"Have you come up with anything," Sloan asked.

"That's part of why you're here. We need to brainstorm and gather ideas. I want to know what you're comfortable with and if you have a direction you want to go."

"Not yet, I mean I would like it to be economics focused, but most of today has just be reactionary."

"Elliot lost all of our lead in numbers that Terry carried over to nine o'clock. We have to find a new pitch."

They continued chatting about possibilities over dinner and when they finished they all took their beers to the living room. Will and Mac sat next to each other with Sloan and Jane in the chairs.

"Jane, as the non news person here, can I ask you a few questions? I don't have any focus group data, or anything to use as data and I need to start somewhere, do you mind," Sloan asked.

"I don't mind."

"What do you do, professionally?"

"Physician Assistant."

"Okay," Sloan said. "Do you watch the news?"

Jane smiled. "I'm a news junkie. It's always on at home and in the office and streaming on my iPad."

"That's awesome. We want viewers like you," Sloan said, starting to relax a little. Mac was sitting back watching and thinking. "Do you watch economic or finance news?"

"Yes, but most of it I don't understand. CNBC is not frequently on."

"What would make you watch?"

"If the technical jargon was gone. When I watch Ali Velchi and Christine Romans, I get most of it…but what I like is that they are telling me what everybody else is, but they are making it make sense and how it affects my day-to-day life. They aren't just talking about oil prices but explaining how that's going to change the price I pay for gas. I want to know how the story is going to affect my patients and me. They play off one another very well with one being more conservative and the juxtaposition."

"Economics is often hard to explain in small sound bites. I teach a couple of days a week at Columbia and my students tell me the same thing. They want to know the bottom line for their lives."

"Hang on," Mac said. Turning to Will she said, "what if we skew younger?"

"Do you think you could pull a younger demographic with economic driven news," Will asked.

"We could if we broadcast from Columbia and had a live audience that could not only watch but somehow participate and interact."

"A live audience," Sloan questioned, kind of liking where Mac was going with this idea.

"Yes, what do you think, first reaction?"

"I think I like it, but I'm not sure Columbia would agree?"

"Why not, they get free advertising out of it and we'd get the demographic we want."

"So you'd do the news with an economic/finance filter, explain it where I could get it and do it in front of a live audience?"

"That's the first pitch," Mac said. "We could even do a round table for part of the hour. What do you think, Sloan?"

She was actually feeling pretty good about this pitch. "I like it, do you think Charlie will?"

"Yes," Will said, "because it's different."

"Will Don," Sloan asked.

"He will. He and I haven't talked since our meeting and he's pissed as hell at me right now. He wouldn't even ride down the elevator with me.

That was the first Will had heard about Don being rude to Mac. "He what," Will asked Mac.

"When we were leaving Charlie's office I went to the elevator and he stormed past me to the stairs. In all fairness he'd just been told that I was building his new show and that he would be following my lead."

"That's not an excuse," Will said to Mac.

"He's upset about Elliot and he's scared, too, even if he won't admit it to anyone."

"Why is he scared," Sloan asked.

"He's got one more chance to prove himself and if he can't get it together he'll be gone," Will said.

"Then he should be here, with us, talking about what we want to do," Sloan said.

"Some of it is out of loyalty to Elliot, I'm sure," Mac added. "Should I take this to Charlie, as a first idea," Mac asked.

"Yes. Are you going to talk to Don first?"

"Do you want me to call him," Mac offered. She knew Sloan was more worried about Don than she'd admit. Sloan nodded and Mac grabbed her Blackberry and went out to the balcony.