Sorry its taken me so long to post. Just life is so busy. This is the last chapter of this story.
My mind has been consumed with another one, so I have to end this one first1
Love all the new postings! Please keep it up. We have to have fuel till June!
I don't own the Newsroom.
After the broadcast Lonny drove Mackenzie home and then took Will to the Carlyle where Sir McHale was staying.
Will found him waiting in the bar and the two greeted each other warmly.
"Well it's nice to have you all to myself for a drink Will. What will it be?"
"Same as you're having. A single malt, please."
After they were served and had a chance to catch up on the day's news, Will finally began what he had wanted to talk to Mackenzie's father about.
"Sir, I wanted a chance to tell you privately that I spoke out of turn the other night."
"Yes I gathered from Mackenzie's reaction that she wasn't quite on your train of thought. Don't let that bother you Will. I think I know my daughter well enough to know what was going on."
"You do?"
"Yes" Michael said, smiling warmly at Will. "No question she regrets her …transgression. And I have no doubt that she's paid dearly for her actions. But I also have no doubt that you're the man she wants to be with, and should be. She just needs time to believe that you're sincere, I would expect."
"Well…thank-you for that."
"Clearly you two are a good team creatively, and now you're sorting out your personal relationship. I hope you are because I believe you love each other very much."
"Yes we are, and we do. It took me a long time to forgive Mackenzie and to realize that I wasn't blameless either. Too long." Will said sadly.
"I don't judge you Will. What Mackenzie did was clearly devastating to you, as it would be to most people… but if I may say…"
"Please go on." Will said looking right into Michael's eyes. "I want to hear what you have to say."
"Well…. I didn't understand why you didn't go after her, and bring her home. Four years was a long time to be over there, especially for a woman."
Will was silent. He had wondered the same thing himself, many times.
"I thought about it. I thought about it many time. The truth is, I was angry. First for leaving so abruptly, and then for putting herself in harm's way which just made the worry …terrible for me…and I felt that it wasn't my place to go after her. I thought her leaving was…her way of saying good-bye, finally. But looking back …I should have known better. I should have gone over there and brought her home."
"As her father I just hope that the two of you will fight for each other. Life is long and there will no doubt be times ahead of you when one of you will hurt the other. The ability to forgive, and to stay and ride the storms and not run away are both essential. I hope that you will be the mature one and to some extent, guide Mackenzie. She's brilliant, but she also flighty and impulsive."
Hearing those words made Will feel ashamed that he had been so hard on Mackenzie. He wanted to do all the things that her father asked of him. He wanted to be the mature steadying hand in their relationship. He wanted to fight for her and protect her.
"I promise to try my best sir. I appreciate your candor. I love Mackenzie very much and I'm just grateful for a second chance. I think she's waiting for us." Will smiled as he looked down and read her text message on his phone.
"Dinner almost ready. See you both soon xo"
He couldn't imagine what she had done and only hoped it was edible. They rode over to Will's apartment in a more relaxed mode, having cleared the air. When they arrived they could smell the aroma of dinner as soon as the door opened and Will had to admit, it smelled pretty good.
"So what have you done?" he asked suspiciously, giving Mackenzie and soft kiss and a quick hug before heading for the kitchen to satisfy his curiosity.
The table was beautifully set and there appeared to be dinner in the oven and sides ready on the stove top.
"Ok, are you going to tell me that this is home made?"
"Yes…in someone's home, just not ours. No more questions!"
"Well I don't care who made it darling, it smells great." Michael McHale exclaimed coming up behind Mackenzie and hugging her.
"Anyway, cooking has never been a sport in our house Will. She grew up with cooks I'm afraid."
"That's fine with me. What are we having Kenz?"
Hearing him use her pet name for her in front of her father made Mackenzie feel warm inside.
"We're having Coq au Vin with roast potatoes, french beans and a green salad with an assortment of french cheeses, and for dessert, Cream Caramel." She said casually, watching Will's face light up. "Oh, and crusty bread to mop up the juice of course." She added.
"I'm not even going to ask." he said laughing.
"Good, don't. Now come on you two. Will open the wine. Father, sit here please."
Will poured the wine and Mackenzie served, plating the food from the stove. Dinner went on for two hours as they laughed and talked about so many things. Of course Michael had much to say about their show and he tore apart some of Will's statements but mostly he was very proud of them for taking on the Tea Party and most of all for their now famous American Taliban broadcast. Will couldn't remember feeling more relaxed and happy around his own dinner table. More than once he caught Mackenzie's hand and squeezed it, a gesture not missed on Mackenzie's father.
Eventually Michael grew tired and reminded them both that it was very late and thanked them for a wonderful evening, before saying good – night. His car and driver were waiting, and soon enough Will was able to close the door, and pull Mackenzie in for a hug and a barrage of questions.
"So..where did you get that dinner?"
"Never you mind. I have my sources. I may not be able to cook but I can dial a phone and I can order just fine, thank-you sir.."
"You certainly can. That was a great meal."
"So did you work things out with Father?"
"Yes. He understood what was happening, better then either of us did I suspect."
"That wouldn't surprise me. You and I have lived in denial of our feelings for so long, it's a wonder we ever let them surface."
"Most of all we talked about you and I promised your father that I will be more mature and patient and just try harder Mackenzie…starting with right now."
"Which means?"
"Which means that I want you know that I love you very much and I want a life with you and I don't really care what that looks like. Married, not married, kids, no kids…whatever we decide, so long as it's us and we do it together."
He was holding her on his lap now, her head was resting on his shoulder and he was stroking her arm as he spoke quietly to her.
"The important thing is that you're happy and you want to be here with me. Do you really Mac? Do you really think that you'll be happy staying in one place with me..?"
Mackenzie sat up and faced Will. She wanted to be looking into his eyes when she told him how she felt. She could see traces of fear in his eyes and that made her heart ache.
"This is the only place I want to be. I've been in love with you for so long…. I've prayed for the day that you would take me back and love me again. I don't want to go anywhere, unless you want to and we go together. I love doing our show and I would be happy doing it until we're both too old to do any more.. I don't think about kids because I don't dare. If you want a child and I can still give you one, then of course we can try. But honestly, I don't long for a child and I don't even know if I would be any good at caring for one. I can barely care for myself…as you know. I just know that I'm in love with you and I want you to believe it and stop worrying that it's not true or that I'll leave you."
There were tears in Will's eyes as he listened to her and saw how sincerely she meant every word. For the first time he really believed that Mackenzie was not going to run away or get cold feet, or decide that she needed to be away from him.
"I believe you." he whispered. 'Let's go to bed. It's very late. I want to make love to you…but tonight I think we both need to sleep. We have all week-end to be close and get you really settled in here."
"And after that we have….forever." she said laughing.
"Yes we do." he said, pulling her up and into his arms as he switched off the lights and led her by the hand to his bedroom. It was his bedroom and he would need to change that, and soon he decided. Laying in bed, nestled up with her was the happiest place that Will had ever known.
" In a few weeks let's start to look for a new apartment. I want us to start fresh in a place that we choose together and you can design it any way you want. How does that sound?"
"It sounds fast Will. Let's get through this season and then ask Charlie for two weeks off. Let's go away for a week, please? Somewhere warm and private, where we can just be anonymous and not talk to anyone or think about work. Then we can come home and take a week to look at places. "
"Ok, that sounds good. Why don't you figure out where we should go, and I'll work with my agent to find places for us to see when we get home?"
"I like that plan. And Will, darling, you will have to design the new place with some input from me. You're so much better at it. I can't think beyond a bed and my books and my closet. You know that." She laughed.
"We'll see. I think you just haven't thought a lot about making a home. But you will, and I want our new place to be about both of us."
"Well now that you mention it, I would like to do away with the brown leather sofa and the wall of TV monitors. And it would be nice to have some antiques mixed in with your modern furniture. And maybe you could put your baseball prints in storage."
"What have I done! Next thing you know we'll have and English parlor for a livingroom…"
"And what would be wrong with injecting some culture into your man cave?" she giggled
"Not a thing if it means your naked body in my bed every night." he said stroking her belly and kissing her hungrily until she was moaning into his mouth.
They were still so new, and exited by each other that it was impossible for him to fall asleep without becoming aroused. Just the feel of her body next to him was all it took for Will to get rock hard and wanting to be inside her.
Soon she was wet and begging for him to touch her and make love to her, which only made him even harder and desperate to make her come until he couldn't hold back another second. He couldn't believe how incredible sex was with her. Of course it helped that he loved her so much he couldn't express it better any other way then to make love to her with his whole heart.
Afterwards they fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms, grateful that it was Saturday, because it was already almost dawn.
The End
