Monday morning, Lonny had offered to pick Mackenzie up and drive her to the office, where she would meet her new bodyguard. When they approached her office, Mac noticed the lights were on. She opened the door and found a man standing in front of her desk.
"Hey Mike." Lonny greeted him and shook his hand.
"Lonny." He replied.
Mac carefully observed them: the man was taller than Lonny and as robust as he was. He was dressed in a black suit and a black tie, as if he was taken from one of the Men in Black movies. He was clearly an attractive man, not that Mac cared about that; he was there to protect her, not to end as Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard. She abandoned that line of thought when Lonny called her name.
"Ms. McHale, this is Michael Tyler. Michael, Mackenzie McHale." Lonny introduced them. "I'll leave you two alone." On his way out, he stopped next to Mac. "You have forty-five minutes until he gets here." He whispered.
"Thanks." She replied, perfectly aware of what he meant.
Lonny left the office and left them alone. An uncomfortable silence surrounded them, neither of them sure what to do or what to say.
To break the ice, Michael spoke first. "I've been told that you're a reluctant client."
Mac walked behind her desk and left her purse and briefcase before taking out her coat. "Aren't all your clients a bit reluctant to get protection?" She asked him but he didn't answer, he only stared at her. "How does this work?" Mac continued, sitting on her chair and inviting him to do the same.
"Wherever you go, I follow." He simply replied.
"Mr. Tyler, I think you'll have to be more specific."
"What do you want to know?" He asked her.
"Are you always this gruff?" Mac said with an smile on her face.
"You're not the type of client I'm used to work for. I'm very serious about my job and, right now, my job is to ensure your safety. I have a set of rules I like to follow and it seems you aren't going to be too eager to carry them out." Michael explained.
"You don't know me." She told him.
"I'm good at reading people, Ms. McHale." He simply said.
"Let's hear those rules." Mac replied, crossing her arms and leaning back on her chair.
"Right now, there are two secure places: your apartment and this building. Whenever you step outside these places, I go with you. This is non-negotiable."
"Alright." She said, resigned. "Next?"
"I'll pick you up every morning, at your doorstep, drive you to work and escort you to your office. Then-"
"No." Mac interrupted him. "You said this is a secure building. I can take an elevator alone, thank you very much." She firmly told him. A few seconds later, her face softened. "I'm not trying to make your job more difficult, I swear, but I don't want anyone here to know what's going on."
"I'll escort you to security, downstairs, and wait for you there when you're ready to leave." He proposed.
"Deal."
"If you have to leave one of the secure places, call me and I'll come as soon as possible." Mac nodded. "Always walk besides me or a little ahead, never behind. Do not wander of." He took an small device from his shirt pocket and handed it to her. Mac took it, confused, and stared at him waiting for an explanation. "It's a panic button. It has to be with you all the time. When activated, it alerts the police and myself. It also has a GPS tracker."
"Aren't you overreacting?" Mac asked him.
"No, I'm not." He simply replied. "If you want to go somewhere, I'd really appreciate if you'd give me some notice." Then, he leant forward and rested his arms on Mac's desk. "Ms. McHale, we're not enemies nor I'm here to make your life more difficult." Michael told her, softening his tone a little bit. "I know you are not comfortable with this situation, I understand, but we have to work together on this."
"You could start by not calling me Ms. McHale all the time. If you're going to become my new best friend, we better begin by using our names." Mac sarcastically told him.
"How should I call you?" He mocked her.
"Mackenzie, or Mac, will be fine."
"Then, I'm Mike."
"Ok." She simply replied.
Michael stood up and adjusted his jacket. Then, he handed her a business card. "Save my number on your phone, the first one of the list, and program it on your speed-dial." He told her. "I'll leave you to your work. Call me when you're ready to leave tonight."
"I will."
It took them a few heated discussions and some adjustments for both parts but, by day five, Mackenzie was getting used to have Mike following her around. Despite his tough appearance, Mike was a nice guy, with a wicked sense of humor that Mac really appreciated. She was getting to know him pretty well thanks to the long car rides between her apartment and the AWN building.
After Friday's broadcast was over and the meeting about Sunday's special show ended, Mac walked back to her office, ready to go home. She was gathering her things when Sloan irrupted into the room, without knocking, and looking ready to go.
"Let's go to Hang Chew's." Sloan announced, her voice making Mac clear that it wasn't a request.
"I'm tired, Sloan, and Mike is waiting for me downstairs." Mac told her friend.
"One drink." Sloan replied, her eyes looking directly into Mac's daring her to say no.
"Ok. One drink."
Together, they walked to the elevators. They stepped out on the ground floor and found Mike talking with one of the security guards.
"Ready?" He asked Mac when they approached him.
"Sloan wants to go to Hang Chew's." Mac told him. Mike sent her an annoyed look and Mac quickly explained. "It was a last minute decision. I know you like some notice but my friend here-" she pointed to Sloan. "Barged into my office five minutes ago and demanded I accompany her."
"Hey!" Sloan exclaimed.
"Give me an hour." Mac told Mike, ignoring Sloan's offended cry.
"Alright."
They left the building and walked to Hang Chew's. Just before Mike opened the door, Mac stopped him with a hand on his arm. It was Friday night; the staff would be already there. Mike agreed to let them go in first and he would follow a few minutes later. Once both women were inside, they found a quiet booth to sit down and ordered their drinks. Mike got in two minutes later and sat at a table close to them.
"He's a cutie." Sloan told Mac, looking at the man with an eye fixed on them all the time.
"And married." Mac replied, laughing at her friend.
"What a shame." Sloan murmured under her breath.
Their drinks arrived and they enjoyed them while talking and gossiping about everything they could think about. They were having a great time. Their drinks banished pretty quickly and they asked for a second round.
"It'll be nice to have you in my ear on Sunday." Sloan told Mac, out of the blue. Mac didn't reply, and focused her attention on the cocktail glass in front of her for a few seconds before she raised it to take a sip. "What?" Sloan asked, confused.
"I won't be producing Sunday night." Mac confessed.
"What?" Sloan asked again.
"It's not fair that Will got benched and I didn't."
"Will got benched?" Sloan asked, surprised. "I thought he took himself out!" She exclaimed.
"Fuck." Mac said out loud. "This stays between us." Mac told her. When Sloan nodded in agreement, Mac continued. "It was Charlie's decision." She explained. "I'm as responsible for the American Taliban editorial as he is. If he's being left out because of it, I'm out too. I told Charlie this morning and he'll tell Don once his show is over, tonight."
"Kenzie." Sloan tried to intervene but Mac didn't let her.
"We wrote it together, Sloan."
"Does he know?"
"Will?" Mac asked.
"Yeah." Sloan replied.
"No, he doesn't."
"You should tell him." Sloan told her. "He knows we all have his back but he'll appreciate you taking the fall with him."
"He doesn't need to know."
"He does." Sloan firmly said. "As well as the other situation."
"Don't start, please." Mac groaned. "I'm a grown woman and I make my own decisions. Stop treating me as a little kid."
"Stop acting like a little kid." Sloan spat back. "He's your friend, he cares about you."
"Right." Mac sarcastically laughed before taking a sip from her drink. "That's why he's been making my life hell for the past two months, fuck, for more than a year. That's why he brought Brian fucking Brenner to look over my shoulder while I whored myself out to save the ratings and, most important, to save him. That's why I'm still waiting to hear a thank you from him for spending almost a week at the hospital with him. That's why he tries to hurt me every chance he gets. He does all these things because he cares about me." Mac took a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing. "I'm tired, Sloan, I'm tired of being his punching bag. I know I hurt him, believe me, I know. How much longer will I have to endure this? I made a mistake and there isn't a day I don't regret it. I have punished myself for so long ..." Mac paused, making Sloan's heart break a little. "But haven't I suffered enough for my mistake? Why does he love to remind me time and time again that I broke his heart? Does he think I don't know? Doesn't he know that I broke mine too? That it is still broken?" Sloan stayed silent, letting Mac get everything out of her chest. "I left a job I loved for him; I left the fucking country to go report a war. I've been shoot at, I've slept in caves, I've been stabbed, for crying out loud! I almost died because of it and I have a nice fucking scar that reminds me about it every fucking day." She ended her rant. Sloan continued staring at her in silence, knowing there was more. "I'm tired. I'm tired of my life being about him."
"You're still in love with him." Sloan softly said.
"Of course I am!" Mac admitted before she could really think about what she was saying. "Would I be here if I wasn't?"
On Sunday night, Mac was pouring herself a glass of wine, while she waited for News Night to start, when her doorbell rang. She left the bottle on the kitchen counter and grabbed her glass before going to the door. She didn't know who would be visiting at that hour, everybody was working that night. It must be someone she knew, her doorman had a list of people allowed into the building (at Mike's insistence).
She looked through the peephole and she almost dropped her glass when she saw who was waiting outside her door. She quickly opened the bolts and then the door.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice a mix between surprise and annoyance.
"Hey." Will simply replied.