'I'm fine,' MacKenzie said to the nurse. 'It's just that Will prefers me unconscious - that way I can remain silent.' Turning to Will, she said, 'Perhaps you'd like to request I be put into a medically induced coma.'

'For Christ's sake, MacKenzie. I just wanted to make sure they know how narcotics affect you in case they want to adjust your medication. I forgot to tell the night nurse.'

'So you'd rather I be in pain than embarrass you,' she said petulantly.

Will rolled his eyes and spoke to the nurse, 'When she takes that stuff there's no telling what's going to come out her mouth - she veers between saying x-rated things and getting weepy.' He looked at MacKenzie. 'Remember when you were sick a few weeks ago and took that NyQuil? You spent the night on my couch crying over Hallmark commercials and waxing rhapsodic about Chippendale dancers.'

'I'll have you know that Hallmark commercials are extremely moving and Chippendale dancers are very attractive. Of course they have nothing on you, Billy. You look much better in boxers than they ever could.'

'OK, Mac,' he said quickly, realizing he'd led her right into that one but MacKenzie was undeterred. 'Do you still have those blue silk boxers I bought you?' To the nurse she said, 'They make his balls look like floating clouds.'

'MacKenzie!' Lady McHale said.

'Oh God,' said Will.

'It's true, Mum. He's absolutely gorgeous - and not just in the front. I haven't seen his ass in years but I promise you that's the first thing I'm going to do when I get out of here.'

'OK, Mac - that's -' Will said ineffectually.

'...He has the most perfect ass - so muscular and round. In fact -'

Will clapped his hand over MacKenzie's mouth. '...enough.'

MacKenzie's eyes narrowed and she spoke against Will's hand. Will had no idea how she'd ended that sentence and he didn't want to know. Still, he dropped his hand. The nurse's lips twitched but she managed to adopt a neutral expression. Then MacKenzie looked stricken, realizing she'd embarrassed him again and her eyes filled with tears. 'Oh Billy, I'm so sorry - now I've gone and ruined everything.'

'You haven't ruined anything, Kenz,' he said gently. 'Just - try to keep a lid on it, okay?'

'Okay,' she sniffed.

'I'll ask the doctor to look at her dosage,' the nurse said, trying not to smile. 'They'll be bringing your breakfast in a few minutes,' she said to MacKenzie.

At the mention of the word, 'breakfast,' Will's stomach rumbled, which was audible to everyone in the room.

'Thank you,' Will said. He didn't dare look at MacKenzie's parents, who had apparently been stunned into silence.

'Mackie, why don't you let William go get himself something to eat,' said Lady McHale. 'We'll stay with you until he gets back.'

'When was the last time you ate?' MacKenzie said to Will.

'Yesterday morning, I think.'

'Go, then - I'll see you in a few minutes.'

He kissed her cheek and slid out of the bed.

'Can I bring something back for either of you?' he said to her parents, who seemed glad at the prospect of getting rid of him. He had the feeling MacKenzie was about to be interrogated.

'No thank you - we ate at the airport.'

'OK, then - be back in a few minutes.'

'Will, wait - is Lonny here? You can't go without him - especially after yesterday.'

'He should be around somewhere. I won't go without him,' Will said.

He opened the door and poked his head into the hallway. He was hoping the promise of lousy coffee and even lousier company would be enough to lure Lonny to the cafeteria but the chair outside MacKenzie's door was empty. Lonny would kill him if he went there by himself but he was starving so he decided to make a run for the vending machine at the end of the hall. Quickly shutting MacKenzie's door behind him, he went to make his purchase.

In MacKenzie's room, Lord McHale stood beside her bed. He looked down at her face, still so pale, and was exceedingly grateful she was all right but he was frightened for her future: how could she even consider marrying the man who had been the source of so much of her heartache? Lord and Lady McHale knew the circumstances of Will and MacKenzie's breakup, knew from MacKenzie how deeply Will had been wounded, but that did little to mitigate the suffering Will himself had inflicted on MacKenzie in the intervening years. It was because of Will that she had gone to Afghanistan, where she had very nearly died, and yesterday she had almost died again because of him. Lord McHale had once been fond of Will - very fond indeed - when he and MacKenzie had been together the first time, but he'd heard too many stories about Will's bad behaviour, heard the pain in his daughter's voice too many times to view Will as anything other than a threat to MacKenzie's well-being.

That fear was in his voice when spoke, so what he said came out a little more harshly than he'd intended. 'MacKenzie, what is the meaning of this? How can you marry that man when he's treated you so badly?'

'Dad, I know you don't understand and my head is too muddled to have this conversation now but I promise you don't have to worry. I love Will and he loves me and that's all that matters.'

'It's not all that matters, MacKenzie! How a man treats you is what matters.'

Seeing the tears well up in her eyes, his expression softened. 'Never mind - we'll talk about this later, when you're feeling better.'

'Thank you.'

Will was heading back to the room when he saw Jim walking down the hall towards him.

'Hey,' Jim said, observing Will's stuck-up hair and day-old whiskers. 'You been here all night?'

'Yeah - want some?' Will said, thrusting a bag of Fritos at him.

'Uh - no thanks,' he said, shaking his head. 'How is she?'

'Hopped up on pain-killers. And if I were you I'd steer clear of her unless you want her parents to hear about what color underwear you were wearing when you got shot in the ass.'

Jim chortled. 'Mac and pain killers - a lethal combination.'

'You're telling me.' Will turned towards MacKenzie's room, making the sign of the cross before opening the door.

He was about to step inside when a booming voice stopped him in his tracks. 'McAvoy, if I catch your white ass walking anywhere in this hospital without me again I'm gonna fucking kill you. You got that?"

Will waved Lonny off, then motioned for him to follow him into the room. When Lonny saw MacKenzie's parents standing next to her bed, he stopped short.

'Oh shit - excuse me.'

'Lord and Lady McHale, meet my bodyguard, Lonny Church. Lonny, these are Mac's parents.'

'We met earlier - when they first arrived,' Lonny said sheepishly.

'Oh, right,' Will said. 'Forgot you were out there.'

He felt the tension in the room and guessed he was the cause. He was in dire need of real sustenance and a cup of coffee but this couldn't wait - he needed to talk to Mac's parents.

'Ms. McHale,' Lonny said, 'Glad to see you're feeling better.'

'Thank you, Lonny,' MacKenzie said. 'Lonny's the best bodyguard in the business - bar none,' MacKenzie said to her parents. 'Well, except for yesterday but I'm sure that wasn't his fault. He probably had to go to the bathroom or something.'

Lonny looked hurt, then explained that some idiot guard in training had believed the gunman's story about skipping the metal detectors because he had a pacemaker.

'Yeah, Charlie told us,' Will said. 'Listen,' he whispered. 'Don't mind Mac - she's a loose cannon because of the pain killers.' Offering the bag of Fritos to Lonny, he said, 'I'm terrified of what's going to come out of her mouth next.' Observing that MacKenzie had just noticed Jim standing in the doorway, Will said, 'But we're safe now because she has another target. Hey, did you notice any place out there where Mac's parents and I could have a private conversation?'

'There's an empty room next door,' Lonny said. 'I'll see if it's okay to use it. How long will you need?'

'15 minutes.'

'OK, let me see what I can do.'

'Jim!' MacKenzie said gleefully.

'Hey Mac,' Jim said, walking up to her bed and kissing her on the cheek. 'How are you feeling?'

'Never better. Mum, Dad, this is Jim Harper, our senior producer. He's the one who saved my life in Afghanistan.'

Lord McHale shook Jim's hand. 'We owe you a great deal, Jim. Thank you for taking care of our daughter.'

'And he bandaged me up last night, too. Jim's the greatest. The absofuckinglutely greatest.'

'MacKenzie,' her mother warned.

'He is - though I'm not sure how he's going to feel about our news.'

'What news?' Jim said.

'Will and I are getting married. Isn't it wonderful?' she beamed.

Jim looked bewildered. 'You're getting married? Uh, congratulations,' he said, recovering quickly.

'You don't look happy. I knew you wouldn't be happy. Jim's like you, Dad - he thinks Will treats me terribly,' she said to her parents by way of explanation.

Alarmed, Will looked at Mac's parents. He could prove himself to Jim (who would see he and Mac together on a daily basis) but he wasn't so sure he'd be able to convince Lord McHale he was a worthy custodian of MacKenzie's heart. Even so, he couldn't resist needling Jim.

'So Jim's not my biggest fan.' Will said.

'Not at all - he hates you - well, not you exactly - just the way you treat me. You had to have known that. I can't tell you how many times he's told me to tell you to fuck off -'

'OK, Mac,' said Jim.

'Don't worry, Jimmy - Will won't hold it against you - if he's managed to forgive me for ripping his heart out and stomping on it with my Louboutins he can forgive you for hating his guts.'

Will burst out laughing and Jim turned three shades of pink.

'What's so funny?' MacKenzie asked indignantly.

'You are, my beautiful, brilliant and entirely too talkative fiancee.' He bent down to kiss her cheek gently, still chuckling.

Lonny returned and whispered to Will that the room next door would be available for the next half hour.

'Listen, Mac,' Will said. 'While you catch up with Jim, I was wondering if your parents wouldn't mind going next door with me for a minute.'

'Whatever for?' MacKenzie said.

'I just want to talk to them about something. Lord and Lady McHale? Is that alright with you? It shouldn't take long.'

They nodded and followed Will and Lonny out the door. Lonny led them to the room and closed the door behind him. When they were alone, Will offered MacKenzie's parents a seat and pulled up another one opposite MacKenzie's mother.

'First of all,' Will began. 'I want to tell you how sorry I am that MacKenzie got hurt. That bullet was meant for me and I wish to God I'd been the one who got hit instead of her. But I'm going to make sure she gets the best medical care possible. She's also getting her own bodyguard and ACN is installing metal detectors outside the newsroom.'

Will paused, and took a breath. Lord McHale's expression was inscrutable so Will decided to continue.

'I imagine you weren't too happy to hear about our engagement - you've probably heard quite a few stories about me hurting MacKenzie over the years and all I can say about that is that there's absolutely no excuse for how I treated her but I will spend the rest of my life making it up to her. I never stopped loving her but I did blame her for ruining the life we could have had together and I hated the fact that I couldn't get over her, no matter how hard I tried. I admit I've spent a long time trying to punish her, trying to hurt her as much as she hurt me but yesterday, when she got hurt, all the anger just melted away and all I could think about was how dark the world would be without her in it - not just professionally - I mean, every ACN viewer owes MacKenzie a debt of gratitude - but personally. It suddenly dawned on me that I've been a complete and total idiot for holding on to the past when all this time I could have been spending my life with the only woman I have ever loved. I promise you that from this day forward I will love her and worship her and take care of her until the day I die. I don't expect you to believe me but I hope in time that I'll be able to regain your trust.'

'Thank you for speaking so candidly, William,' Lady McHale said. 'I, for one, am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. What say you, Harold?'

Lord McHale looked thoughtfully at Will, who certainly seemed sincere. 'MacKenzie has been desperately unhappy about you for some time,' he said, apparently unable to let bygones be bygones.

'I know - well, I didn't know that exactly but I do know I've been a jerk and she must have been hurt by my actions.'

'That would be an understatement, William,' Lord McHale said coolly. 'Although I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt you should know that when she's feeling better I fully intend to have a discussion with her about whether it is in her best interests to marry you.'

'I understand. Thank you.'