Again, thank you all for your wonderful reviews! :) I can't tell you how much they make me happy.

Also, I have no idea of Mac's real age, so in this fic, she's 36. I hope it's not too old for you. ^^

Mackenzie was currently in Will's office, having a very interesting debate about economics. Well, actually Will and Sloan were debating and she just stood there, in the middle of the room, watching the two argue.

An expert in economics had been invited in tonight's show, he was a dear friend of Sloan's and one of her mentors, an old professor whom she respected a lot. She had recommended him. Mac didn't understand why Sloan couldn't do the segment herself, since she was the Senior Financial Reporter for News Night. Her friend had just insisted it would be better to have him as a guest because he knew a lot more about the issues they'd be talking about. Mackenzie had no idea how that could be possible seeing that Sloan was like an Encyclopedia of Economics, she knew everything. However, the EP had followed her lead and accepted to have Dr. Mason on the show, largely due to the fact that she was still completely clueless about economic issues, no matter how hard Sloan tried to teach her.

"I just don't want you to be an ass to one of the most respected teacher in the country." Sloan replied to Will's question about why they were even discussing this.

Sloan had forgotten that Will would be interviewing her mentor. She was so used to the anchor's tone and sarcasm during interviews that she hadn't thought about it when she'd made her recommendation.

"Are you asking me to go easy on him ?"

"No, I'm asking you to be nice with him. He's not some coward who'll avoid your questions. In fact, he always says what's on his mind, so he might be a bit-" She paused, trying to find the appropriate word. Will stared at her, waiting and enjoying the moment. He knew his attitude would piss her off and she knew he was doing it on purpose. They had this weird big brother/little sister relationship.

"Straightforward." Mac offered.

"Yes." Sloan shouted, snapping her fingers and pointing in the EP's direction. "Straightforward, exactly. Thank you Kenzie."

"You're welcome." She responded with a small smile.

"So as I was saying, he's gonna be straightforward and I don't want you to be an ass if he says something that you don't like. He's an expert on this, way, way above us. Just be cool, and don't make a fool of him because-"

"He's the expert." Mac cut off. "Will will be nice, I promise." She gave him a look when he opened his mouth to interrupt her. "Actually, I have an idea. Why don't you do the interview ?"

"What ?"

"Really ?!"

The anchor and the economist spoke at the same time. Will was giving her a are-you-fucking-kidding-me look while Sloan looked both thrilled and hesistant. It was News Night with Will McAvoy and she didn't want him to be mad at her if she was doing an interview that he could very well do himself.

"Yeah. It's perfect. Will is going to do the show as usual, and when it's time for the interview, he'll just throw it back to you." Mac explained, staring at Will, daring him to disagree.

"Fine." He gave in. Mac's tone told him this was not up for discussion. If the situation was different, he would have fought back but he didn't want things to get ugly.

Mac was acting all professional, he had no comment to make on her work, she did it like she always did. But deep down, he knew something was missing. The others hadn't noticed because she was still the same with them, however, no matter how hard she tried to pretend she had no problem with him, he knew she was lying. There was no more banter between them, since she had snapped at him in the rundown meeting a month ago. He didn't like, and if he was truthful, it hurt him because she still laughed with the staff, but when it came to him, she was in full EP mode. Sure, they'd fought a lot before, but they always had witty conversations and late night phone calls. Now, those small things, that you don't notice until they're not here anymore, were gone.

So, for the past month, whenever Will had wanted to yell or argue, he'd fought his initial reaction because he didn't want to make matters worse. It was laughable really, he'd become Leno whenever Mac was involved.

"You sure you're okay with this ?" Sloan asked, an apologetic look on her face.

"Yeah. I should have thought about it first." Don't try too hard McAvoy. "Anyway, she's right, you'll do the interview. You know more about economics than I do."

"Ok. Thanks." She replied. "I have to go." Her eyes caught Don walking in the bullpen.

Sloan had noticed for some time that Mac wasn't talking to Will about anything that didn't involve the show. Therefore, she had decided that whenever she was in a room with those two, she would leave them alone as soon as she could. It wasn't the best plan ever, she was aware of it, but then again, Sloan was not known for her amazing relationship skills. She was just hoping that leaving them alone would force them to talk to each other. So far, she had been unsuccessful. Maybe this time would be different.

"See you later." She said, getting out of the room.

Mackenzie was about to leave too but Will's voice stopped her.

"Wait." He almost yelled.

"Yes, Will ?"

"I was thinking … It's been a long time since we saw each other outside of work… Are you free tonight ? We could go out to dinner or get takeouts and go to my place, you know." He ran his hand through his hair, looking at her apprehensively.

Did he just ask her out, Mac wondered. He had some nerve ! Like she would ever want to step foot in his apartment again. No fucking way ! She didn't want to spend time in a place that now belonged to Nina Howard. And there was no chance in hell she would go out to dinner either. She could barely stand to be alone in the same room with him for more than two minutes, she would never survive a whole dinner. She refused to be some kind of replacement for Nina's absence !

"No." She said, offering no further explanation.

"Just no ?" Will was taken aback by her simple answer. "Why not ?"

"Yeah, just no. I have other plans tonight." That was absolutely untrue, but she couldn't picture herself telling him that everytime she looked at him, she imagined him fucking the gossip columnist!

"LIKE WHAT ?" Fuck caution ! He wasn't gonna let this one go so easily.

"LIKE IT'S NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS WILL !" She yelled at him, almost immediately regretting her outburst. She really had no desire to have another breakdown in front of the team. She stormed out of his office and walked straight to hers, not looking at the staffers who had undoubtedly heard her.

However, before she could reach the safety of her offfice, she felt someone grab her arm and turn her around.

"LIKE HELL IT'S NOT MY FUCKING BUSINESS !" Right now, Will didn't give a damn about where he was or who was looking. He fully intended to make her tell him what was wrong, he didn't care how. He had tried for weeks to get her to talk and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Let me go right now." She warned him calmly, but with poison in her words.

"OR WHAT ?!" He screamed. He saw Mackenzie open her mouth but before she could say anything, someone else spoke.

"OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU !" He heard a deep voice and then, he was pinned against the glass wall behind him. He was looking into the murderous eyes of a man who was about to break his arm, he could feel it.

"ERIC !" Mackenzie roared. Will glanced at her, she was surrounded by three men who looked like they were about to kill him too.

She came up to stand next to the man who was holding him. "Eric, let him go. Now !" Eric released his grasp. He turned his face to Mackenzie and asked in a soft voice if she was okay.

"Yes. Thank you." She answered quietly.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON ?" Charlie Skinner's voice resonated. He had just stepped into the bullpen and the staff had their eyes on Mac, Will and a guy he didn't know. Everybody turned to him. He began to walk toward the trio.

Eric said nothing and Will was too shocked by what happened.

"Charlie, it's fine." Mac explained. "Will just lost his temper."

"Who the fuck are you ?" Will asked smoothly, having found his voice again. He didn't yell because, while he could defend himself against most people, he was no match for the tall blond man in front of him.

"Yeah, I would also like to know that." Charlie agreed with his anchor. "And I'm sure we're not the only one." He added, sweeping his gaze around the room.

"Right. Of course. This is Eric." Mackenzie started, indicating the tall blond man with dark brown eyes who was standing the nearest to her.

Then, she continued, pointing at each man. "Derek." He was about the same height as Will with short black hair and bright green eyes. "Chris." He was a little bit taller with brown hair and blue eyes. "And Isaac." He was the shortest but still considered tall. He had short curled brown hair with brown eyes.

The four of them were good-looking and fit.

"They're Marines." She explained. Looking at her boss, she added "Charlie is a Marine too, he fought in Vietnam." As soon as she mentionned this, the four men straighten up and spoke in unison a mark of respect "Sir."

"Gentlemen." The old man greeted them. "How did you meet them ?" He asked Mac, curious.

The story of how she had met those four amazing men was a good one. When she'd turned 22, she went to the Middle East. She hadn't finished her journalism school because it was boring. She wanted to experience things and be on the ground where the news were happening. And Mackenzie McHale, whether she was 22 or 36, always fought for what she believed in. So she'd managed to convince a highly ranked officer in the Marine to assign her to a unit, in order to follow them and report reals news. However, she'd ended up in the most difficult team of Marines there was, which consisted of Eric, Derek, Chris and Isaac.

Mackenzie had soon learnt that the four men were orphans and had been in the same orphanage. None of them had ever find a permanent home because they didn't get along with anyone else. They were the same age and they'd became brothers. They'd all enrolled in the Marines at a young age, although at the time, she had no idea why because it turned out they were the worst at following orders.

At the beginning, they hadn't believed she would last long and hadn't made any effort to support her, probably due to the fact that she was an annoying young reporter (even if she often insisted that she was actually older by a year). After a month, Mackenzie was still holding her ground. She spent time with the unit which consisted of several teams, got to know them, she also trained with them (that had been the worst part because Marine's training was terrible). After 3 months, Mackenzie McHale, though no Marine, was considered an essential part of the unit.

Eric, Derek, Chris and Isaac had admitted that she was tougher than she looked. From then on, they showed her respect for the strength and passion she'd shown. The four men considered her a force to be reckon with. However, there was a defining moment that changed her relationship with them forever. After 13 months, Mac and her boys as she called them in front of the whole unit (because it made everyone laugh) were the only passengers of a boat which was navigating in the Indian ocean. The boat had sank during a stromy weather and they'd ended up stranded on an island, which turned out to be absolutely deserted from human life. They had waited 5 months for rescue. She had spent five months with these guys, sharing everything from meals to episodic breakdowns because the thought of not knowing if they would ever leave this damned island was unbearable. They'd been her anchor and she'd been theirs. During that difficult time, she'd become part of their family, their sister.

Hence the fact that they were very protective of her and that she could make them do anything. They always listened to her, there was a rule among them : whatever Mackenzie says goes.

"I reported the news from the Middle East. I was on their team." She answered Charlie's question, giving him the short version.

"When ?"

"Well, I was 22 so that was-" She paused, counting in her head how many years she'd known them. She was terrible with numbers.

"Fourteen." Isaac whispered, looking at her with a smile.

"Right, so that was fourteen years ago." She finally completed.

Now, Charlie understood where the overprotectiveness came from.

"How come I've never heard of them ?" It was Will, he was wondering why he'd never heard about those guys. They'd been together for two years, surely she would have said something about having surrogate brothers.

"They weren't in the country when we were together Will." She responded softly, feeling guilty for the way Eric had pinned him against the wall. She knew it was bound to bring back bad memories from his childhood. For the entire time they'd been together, her brothers had been abroad so she'd never told him about them. However, they knew a lot about him.

"Wait, what are you even doing here ?" The EP suddenly asked, turning to the four men. "You didn't tell me you were coming."

"Yeah, we wanted to surprise you, sis." Chris said, affectionately. "Hope you don't mind." He added, jokingly.

"Are you kidding ? It's wonderful. I missed you so much !" She hugged him, smiling.

"Don't mind us."

"Derek, no need to be jealous. Come here you idiot." Soon, she'd welcomed all her brothers with a bear hug. She was pretty sure those guys had magical powers because one minute she was anxious and sad, and the other she was relaxed and happy.

She untangled herself from Eric's embrace and turned to Charlie. "I have to go. I'm just gonna get them settled in and I'll come back after lunch, alright ?" Her boss nodded. "Jim, take care of things until I come back."

"Sure, no problem." The senior producer replied.

"Well, boys, let's get you home." They followed her, except for Eric who turned to Will. "Eric, come on." She called him.

"Don't hurt her ever again." The blond Marine threatened him. He turned around and joined the others.

They exited the bullpen. It took a moment and Charlie's "Go back to work people" for the room to go back to its usual cacophony. Will walked to his office for a much needed scotch and cigarette, sending a look to Charlie and asking him silently to be left alone.