Chapter 1


Drawback...

The show had ended, and Mackenzie ran a hand over her face, trying to calm herself down. What was it with Will? The moment they took a step forward, he pulled them two steps back. They had had an argument over the last segment which had resulted in Will ignoring her instructions and continuing to question a congressional aide who clearly had no interest in giving them the facts, merely bitching about his former employer. This wasn't what they were supposed to be about.

Jim put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly and bade her goodnight. She nodded vaguely in assent and returned her gaze back to the monitor in time to watch Will sulk off set.

It had been four long months since Brian's article had been published and had threatened to tear them apart once and for all, but since then Will and Mackenzie had managed to repair their relationship quite well; both were now aware that they each felt something for the other. Beyond that, though...

Still. It was a step in the right direction. It just felt like the longest, slowest walk forward in history. For some unknown reason a funeral procession popped into her head. Geez! That had only appeared there because she was thinking about slow walking, right? Not because - but she questioned whether that was maybe exactly what this was. After all, four months...and aside from knowing that Will felt something for her, she had nothing. FOUR months? And he hadn't so much as hugged her! What the hell was she supposed to think.

Somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind that were currently blocked from view by the angry red light of her current thoughts, a little voice called that it just looked worse right now because they were in a fight. She would cool off and so would he, and come the next broadcast they would be back to their usual bantering selves.

Well, that may be, but she wished she could believe that right now. Sure, there had been smiles, and flirting, and the occasional brush of hands and him standing too close to her, but it didn't feel like security. She did feel sure that this meant he wanted her back.

She knew he was seeing a therapist still - what if he couldn't work through everything? What if she'd fucked it up to badly?

She remembered her own therapy sessions after her stabbing - she knew they weren't exactly the kind of thing Will liked to do with people he didn't really know; and since you could count on one hand the amount of people that Will actually let get that close to him, she imagined he was probably having some difficulties in opening up the wounds he carried to this young stranger.

She slouched back onto her heels, mentally cursing herself for her need to wear baby stilettos all the time. Right now she just wanted to sink into a warm bath and never get out again.

Urgh…why did it have to be so damn complicated? Gathering her notes and calling a "Well done!" to her tech crew, she ambled wearily back towards the newsroom. She turned into the corridor just as Will came out of the studio, but she made no attempt to talk to him, or even look at him. She just couldn't be bothered with it tonight. Now that she had taken a moment to calm down, she knew it was stupid and that they'd get over it, so there was no need to rush, right? To her relief, she heard Will move off towards his own office, making no attempt to talk to her.


About an hour later, as she was packing her things into her bag there was a soft knock at the door. She looked up to find an apologetic looking Will leaning in the doorway. She froze, looking expectantly at him.

He sidled into the room and seated himself into the chair opposite his desk, looking at up at her once more when it became clear that she wasn't going to sit down and join him.

"I'm sorry Mac. I should have listened – you were right – as usual –"

She raised a hand to stop him there, an exhausted expression taking over her face. She gazed at him wearily for a moment before shaking her head and leaning on her briefcase. "Will – I just don't know what to do anymore? I mean how long are we going to keep this up?"

"Wait, Mac, this wasn't about us –" Will started, clearly desperate to make sure she understood this, but again, she did not let him get far.

"What 'us' Will – what are you talking about? Because I'm sorry to tell you that if you are about to give me some rubbish about these fights just being to do with work then I think we need to have a longer conversation sometime soon, because as much as we've tried to avoid it, this is never just about work." She looked as though she was about to cry, or possibly throw something.

"I mean, seriously?" She threw her hands up as she finally slumped down into her chair. "You're seriously going to look me in the eye and say that you couldn't tell beforehand that the guy wasn't just out to make himself look good? You're not an idiot Will –"

"HEY!" A voice came from the door. Taken aback by the silent visitor, both and Mac and Will turned around to find a very stern-looking Charlie Skinner standing in the doorway where Will had been only moments before. He looked seriously between them before coming into the office and closing the door.

"Now," He began, with the air of an angry parent about to tell his children that they needed to share the toys or neither of them would get to play, "I don't know what the hell is going on with you two today, but I want you to sort it. Now!"

Neither of them made a sound in reply, merely looked away from each other, and away from Charlie's piercing and exasperated gaze.

"I'm not a counsellor guys, I can't help you sort out whatever issues you have with each other; but you have a team out there who want to do the show that you guys – you two – said you wanted to do. So you can't change your mind and screw them over just because neither of you can accept the fact that what you need is a dinner and a few glasses of wine!"

Both Mackenzie and Will went a little bit pink at this point; and Will even made an attempt to interrupt, but Charlie was having none of it. His expression saddened a little as he looked between them again.

"Honestly, guys, it's not fair on them, and to be perfectly honest it's unprofessional. Not to mention it's just plain sad." He moved forward a little to stand in between them at the end of the desk and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Regardless of whatever extra-curricular nonsense you two have going on – or lack of it, I guess – you make a great team; that's why I put you back together. So unless you want to give Reece Lansing a new excuse to attack you, pull it together. Fast."

With a last meaningful look at the two of them, Charlie sighed and turned on his heel to head out of the door.

Silence fell as Will and Mackenzie tried to figure out what they should say next. Eventually it was Will who broke the tension.

"We should probably go and apologise." He rubbed his forehead as he looked up awkwardly at Mac, who was looking at him in disappointment. After a moment she nodded.

"Yeah."

Will stood up and waited for her to finish packing up her bag; but as she was heading out the door in front of him, she suddenly spun back around to face him.

"But Charlie's right Will, this has to stop." Will couldn't tell exactly what was going on behind her eyes, but he didn't like the look of it. It wasn't quite defeat, but it was definitely the expression of someone who was coming to the end of their thread. That was when he knew he had to fix it. If he was completely honest with himself about the darker parts of his psyche, the reason he had taken the aide's side was that he congressman had reminded him so much of Brian – and he knew that was stupid – ridiculously stupid – but that had been why. And he didn't think his and Mac's relationship could take it if he told her that. He couldn't bring himself to make her think any less of them than it seemed she already did. He still hadn't told her about the voicemail and how much it had been to do with hiring Mackenzie's ex.

He reached out and placed a tentative hand on her shoulder, squeezing his fingertips gently. "Mac, I'm sorry. And I do want to make this work."

Neither of the spoke. Mac had the sudden urge to just melt into the attractive looking dip between his shoulder and his neck, and just melt there, but with a deep surge of frustration, she knew she couldn't. Not anymore.

She was not sure whether he was talking about the show or them, or both; and if he was perfectly honest, Will didn't either. When it became clear that Will wasn't going to clarify this for her, Mackenzie forced herself to put a small smile of truce onto her face.

She reached up and took the hand on her shoulder in her own and gave it a squeeze, tilting her head, looking almost challenging. "Come on McAvoy; we didn't survive Reece and Leona only to fail on our own." He managed a smile back, and nodded at her.

"Agreed. We'll sort this." She turned to once more set off in the direction of the elevators, but found she had to slow down a second later when Will's hand refused to let go of her own and he fell into step beside her. He wasn't looking at her. Rather determinately, she thought with a small twitch of her mouth.

Will fastidiously looked straight ahead of him. He had no idea why he was holding Mac's hand - he was fairly certain he was acting out-with his mental capacity. It had just felt like the right thing to do. However, this meant that he didn't see the small smile that managed to creep across Mac's face.

Neither of them said anything more until the elevator doors pinged to let them know that they had reached the lobby. Both were lost in their own thoughts, and were only disturbed when Lonny's voice came from somewhere in front of them.

Mac looked up to find Will and Lonny shaking hands; he still hadn't let go of hers, and she blushed a little as Lonny nodded at her, clearly trying not to say anything and keep a straight face.

"We're going to stop in at the bar to see the others for a bit." Will told him. "That okay with you?"

Lonny shrugged. "Yeah sure. Just don't go out the back to smoke anything without letting me know first." He teased.

"If he was smoking something stronger than tobacco, would following him out there not dull your senses?" Mac asked thoughtfully. Will grinned as Lonny gave her an almost insulted look.

"Ms McHale, do I honestly look like the type of guy who would get stoned after a couple of whiffs of marijuana?" Mackenzie ran her eyes over his large guns and strong physique and then looked back at him bashfully. Will laughed properly and pulled her towards the door as she started to go a little bit red. She nudged her shoulder against him, embarrassed.

"Shut up, okay? It was a fair question…before I thought about it." Will just laughed again as he held the door open for them to walk through it.

"Mac –" He began, as they turned into the small wall of people clamouring for Will's autograph, and Mac pushed in front of him. And then what happened next happened so fast that he didn't even process what was going on.

When he though about it later he would realise that he had heard the shot as he had said Mackenzie's name – at the same time Lonny had yelled to them, and a second later he had knocked Will sideways. He banged his head lightly on the ground; enough to make him confused as to why people above him were suddenly screaming. As he managed to lift his head, he caught sight of the look of horror painted on Lonny's face as he stared at something just above him, before Lonny jumped up from the ground at what seemed like light-speed and ran towards something beyond the crowd of legs that were in Will's eyeline. Will turned to look at what Lonny had been staring at, and his blood ran cold.

Mackenzie was falling to her knees just in front him, her back rigid in a graceful arc. He could plainly see the red that was blossoming across her white silk shirt and he somehow managed to come out of his trance, force his body into movement, in time to lean forward and pull her gently against him before she fell.

As she fell back against his chest, her head rolled back against his shoulder and he caught sight of the look of pained surprise on her face. "Will –" she began before wincing in pain as her body spasmed. She moaned horribly and twitched against him as she clutched at her sternum again. It was a pathetic attempt at clawing at something. Her fingers scrabbled feebly over the source of the blood as though she was trying to scratch it off herself.

His brain finally kicked into gear and he looked up. "Someone call an ambulance now!" He yelled, pushing the hair back off her face before moving the hand to cover the one she already had on her chest. She moaned again as he pressed down on her wound, whimpering. He had never been this scared before, ever in his life. Her eyes were closed as she leaned back against him and her breathing was shallow. When he pressed his lips gently to her forehead he felt how cold she was becoming and panicked even further.

"Will!" A familiar voice called on him as he stared down at Mac. Jim crouched down next to him, complete terror on his face as he looked at his boss, and then at Will. He placed a hand on Will's shoulder, making him look at him.

"Will!" We heard the shot from inside the bar, what the hell –"

"Oh my God , Mac!" Don had followed Jim and was now kneeling down beside him, grabbing Mac's wrist to take her pulse as Maggie, Neal, Sloan, Gary and Charlie all appeared behind them. Flashing lights began to intrude on Will's vision but it was like he had become locked inside his own head, and he could only see what was going on, incapable of verbally responding to any of it.