What it takes to say I love you Ch. 4
It was a quiet ride back to Will's apartment. Mackenzie was tucked close into his side, fidgeting with the cufflinks on his shirt sleeve to keep herself from falling asleep, and Will was more than grateful that Lonny had the tact not to try and start a conversation.
As they pulled into the garage, Will gently extracted himself from Mackenzie to get the hospital issue wheelchair from the trunk. Mac looked at it disdainfully, and a bemused smile crossed his face as he reached a hand out to her so that she could pull herself forward more easily out of the car. Between her sprained ankle and her bruised one, being upstanding for long periods of time wasn't really going to be possible for about a week.
He could tell she was trying to hide the flashes of pain and discomfort and that she was feeling as she shuffled to the door, so he hopped round and gently slid one arm under her legs and the other round her back lifting her out and gently into the wheelchair.
"You have a knee injury remember? Think how much more ridiculous we'll look if we both have to wheel ourselves into the office for a couple of weeks." Will scoffed, starting to push her along the concourse as Lonny followed silently behind them.
"Mac, I've lifted grocery bags heavier than you."
Lonny said goodbye to them at the lift, kissing Mac's cheek as he said he hoped she felt better in the morning, and earning himself a suspicious look from Will which just made the bodyguard smile cheekily.
"You still wanting a ride in the morning?"
Will looked down at Mac, who looked as though she was about to say something – something he had been expecting (and if he had anything to do with it then she wouldn't have a say on the matter) so he jumped in before she could open her mouth.
"I'm not sure yet. I'll call you in the morning – well – in a few hours I guess." Lonny nodded, tucking his hands in the large pockets of his leather jacket. Will held out his hand, "And seriously, thanks Lonny. I know two am calls aren't really what you signed up for."
Lonny shook his head, brushing it off as he grasped Will's hand. "Hey, no worries, man. And Mackenzie, you have any problems with him you call me, right?"
Mackenzie grinned up at him and nodded. "Will do. Thank you, Lonny."
"Alright you two. Remember she has to rest McAvoy!"
Mac blushed at his last comment, but Will smiled ruefully and turned them into the elevator as the doors pinged open.
"Yes, you do. So why you thought you'd get away with going into work tomorrow is beyond me."
"I wasn't going to –"
"Mac, please. That's exactly what you were going to say when he asked about tomorrow morning."
She looked up at him with those round eyes he knew she used whenever she wanted something, but he stood leaning against the railing beside her, arms folded, a set look on his face.
"The primary is in three days."
"You're not going into work until at least Tuesday – at the very least, like the Doctor said. And I'm not overly thrilled about you going in on Tuesday either because it will be like Macy's when the sales open. You know we usually have ambulances on standby for the New Hampshire primary."
"But –"
"If we have to we'll have you constantly on conference call, but I don't think you wheeling yourself around the office on Tuesday is best for everyone else's health. You know what you're like on these days – you'll…wind up running someone over on your way to the decision desk."
At this she laughed; but still looked a little put out. He could see this was not going to be the end of this disagreement, so he decided to change the topic.
"Look, you must be hungry right? Pumped full of alcohol, then concussed and then pumped full of drugs?" Looking down all he could see was the hair swinging in front her face as she thought about this for a second.
"Actually, yeah I am. I hadn't noticed." She peered up at him, inquisitive about where he was going with this.
"Well in that case there are two options Ms. One, we get take out – it's not three yet, they should still be serving – or…there is a bit of Marzetti in the fridge from yesterday?" He could feel the grin forming on his face before it did, knowing that Mackenzie's eyes would light up just as they did now.
Marzetti had been Will's mother's speciality dish. He'd learned to cook at an early age, but it had mainly been basic stuff to feed his brothers and sisters whenever his mom was recovering from his father's latest outburst. But teaching him Marzetti had just been a lazy afternoon with just the two of them in the house.
As soon as Mackenzie had tasted it, it had become their special dinner; Will had always made it for them after a particularly trying week at work or after a special occasion. He'd made it after she'd gotten her first Peabody. That had been a good night…
But he'd stopped making it after they had split up. First his mother had died, and then Mac had gone. He just didn't like eating it without either of them.
"Oooh Marzetti sounds good to me." Will laughed.
"Mac, you're positively drooling. That's very unbecoming."
"Listen Billy, good home cooked meals have been an uncommon luxury for me the past few years. They didn't do much spaghetti in Peshawar. It was discriminatory –"
"Against people who never learned to cook? That's because girls over there pay attention to their mothers when they try and teach them to cook." He teased as he began to wheel her out into his apartment.
"Yes, because women are completely equal to men over there..."
"And yet, I can cook and you can't."
"Think about what you're saying Billy. Picture what you're actually saying: you're talking about my mother and me working together over a hot stove. In what warped dimension of your mind does that end up in anything other than hospitalisation?"
Will burst out laughing, gripping the handles of her wheelchair so that he didn't double over and whack his forehead off her bashed skull. He stopped her at the lounge and moved in front of her still laughing a little.
He held out his hands to her and grasped her forearms to help her up. "Fair enough. Your Dad did a mean roast though. You could have paid a little more attention to him."
So that she didn't have to put too much pressure on her ankle, he was standing incredibly close to her. He desperately wanted to pull her into a proper hug, but it would be too sore on her ankles. He'd lift her up but he remembered the bruises on her midriff and decided against it; so he settled for the fact that she was holding onto his arm and his ribs very tightly, before he gently helped her over to the lounge.
She tucked her legs underneath her and snuggled back into the couch, yawning.
"How long before they said I can sleep?" Will was watching her, smiling. She looked so adorable when she was tired; tiny and cute, and here she was five years later tucked up in the same corner of his sofa where, back then, her name had practically been invisibly engraved on the seatback. Coming out of his reverie, he checked his watch.
"Not for another hour. And then I have to wake you up every two hours." Mac's face crumpled into a frown, and he hastened to add (before he laughed again and earned himself another dirty look), "But then you get to go straight back to sleep! It's just to check you haven't turned into a zombie."
She smirked; and then frowned again. "But Will, you have to stay up? You'll be exhausted tomorrow!"
He sat down beside her and pushed some strands of hair behind her ear. "Let me worry about tomorrow. Since tomorrow is strictly off-limits for you anyway, I'm the only one who needs to worry about tomorrow. And it's nearly half two, it's already late…or early. I'd be tired anyway." None of this seemed to have pleased or reassured Mackenzie in the least.
"I'm just worried that you're going to thanking the viewers for washing us again."
"Well, actually I'm thinking that tonight excepted, I'm probably going to be getting some decent sleep over the next few days." He said gently, the ghost of a smile on his face – his hand still hadn't left her cheek.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. You see, you scared the absolute shit out of me tonight Mackenzie McHale, and I'm not entirely sure I'll be letting you further than a foot away from me for a while."
Mackenzie tried to hide the smile spreading across her own face. "Well…I can see that being a slight issue when it comes to Monday's broadcast."
"Monday's two days away. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"I'm sorry for scaring you Will." Mac suddenly said in a quiet voice, the smile once more gone from her face, and a far more vulnerable look taking over. She looked even smaller than she had a minute before, and he saw tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Hey!" His arm instantly wrapped under her legs, pulling them over his lap so that she could curl herself into him as he wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head in the space between his collarbone and the crook of his neck. Her arms clasped around his neck and she let out a small sob.
"I'm really sorry, I can't believe that happened. You're right, it was a really stupid thing to do. The only reason I still had a phone is because I'd stuffed it in my bra – if I hadn't had it –"
Will shushed her, gently running his hand through the unblemished side of her hair and shushed her as she started to hiccough.
"Mac, you were drunk. Everyone makes mistakes, and you got unlucky and yours happened to have nasty consequences.
"But you did scare me shitless. Just…promise me that from now on whenever you leave a night out alone you'll just take the nearest cab you can find, okay?" He felt her nod shakily into his shoulder, and he pressed a light kiss to her hair. "This is just the shock talking. I think you've scared yourself more than anything. You'll be fine once we've got some food in you and you've had a shower and some sleep, yeah? Well, a bath I guess."
She nodded again into his shoulder and muttered something inaudible.
"What'd you say?"
She finally looked up at him, a weak smile trying to break through the drying tears on her face. "I said 'thanks for coming to get me'."
The breath was knocked out of him for a moment as he thought how absurd she was being, and he suddenly felt a little more serious. "Did you doubt for a moment that I would?"
She stared at him wide-eyed, before shaking her head, slightly like she was in a trance; and maybe it was. They weren't aware of who moved first – maybe they did it simultaneously – but Will just knew that his face was getting closer to hers, and he was watching her expression raptly, as though trying to sear it into his memory. He saw her eyes close a second before his lips met hers, and then his did too, melting into the moment and Mackenzie.
It wasn't a long kiss, but her top lip was held in both of his before he kissed her again and rested his forehead against hers, avoiding her sutures.
"I'll always be there when you need me." He gazing at her very deeply and he knew she had understood that he hadn't just been meaning when she was drunk and needing walked home. It was the first time Will had mentioned wanting a second go at "them" but she could tell just from his eyes that he did and that when they got back together, he was in it for forever.
He hadn't realised that he'd been holding his breath waiting for her to do something in response until she leaned upwards and kissed him again, apparently unable to come up with a verbal answer. Her hand curled round his neck, fingers tickling the strands of hair there whilst he rubbed gently circles into the where his hand was resting at her knee joint with his thumb.
Neither of them seemed to want to push their renewed contact with each other too hard, too quickly, because she pulled away seconds later; but to Will it had felt like minutes. He beamed at her, and a bashful smiled appeared on her face too. He looked down to where his hand was at her knee and cleared his throat.
"Well…I'm glad that's cleared up." Mackenzie giggled, and he grinned back at her just as her stomach rumbled. "Okay. Food is coming. Do you think you want to change while I go heat up the Marzetti? Can you manage that on your own?"
She smirked slightly at the last bit and he grimaced slightly before smirking. There really hadn't been away around it.
"Do you have something I can change into?" Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "I think I could probably manage to sit on your bed and change. I don't have to stand up for that."
He put on a (only-half) mock disappointed face. But he knew there'd be plenty of time for other things later once they started spending more time together. She laughed, before forcing her own face into one of mock seriousness. "Getting into the bath might not be so easy though."
She couldn't keep a straight face as the look of surprise flitted across his. Seriously…she must have lost a couple million brain cells tonight – yet she still gave as good (or in this case he'd concede, better) as she got. She was still smiling that incredibly sexy smile of mischief that he'd missed to the point of madness these last few years.
"Come on Billy. You'd better help me back into this stupid chair."
He stared at her for a moment, before simply lifting her up bridal style and carrying her there himself. Depositing her on the bed, he turned to his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of his cosiest sweatpants and an old Jets t-shirt that she'd bought him at a match before they'd moved in together.
Handing them to her and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, right over her cut he made for the kitchen again.
"Some Marzetti coming up for the poor sick woman." She stuck her tongue out at him and he winked.
Reeeeeally hope I'm not the only one who stuffs their phone there on a night out, and that it's not some weird cultural thing that makes me uncivilised. Aaahhh cultural diferences. If you ever get the chance to move a way for a bit, do it. It's weird… but good:p
P.S. Marzetti is my Dad's speciality dish, and he always makes it for me whenever I go home ^^