"Hey, Mac. I'm so sorry about the wait." Transferring her drink to her off-hand, she unobtrusively wiped the condensation off her fingers before offering him her hand, giving him a welcoming smile, "It's nice to see you again. How have you been?"

"Don't worry about it." Setting his briefcase down on the floor next to the armchair, Mac stood, hesitating for a fraction of a second before taking her hand. Apparently, Skye's previous reticence about physical contact was a well-known quirk, but the man covered his surprise smoothly, "Same old, same old. You look good."

"I am, thanks." Sitting, she tucked herself up against the arm of the couch, pulling her legs up under herself. Smiling at Dean when he sat beside her after handing Mac his beer, she turned her attention to the man with the briefcase, really wanting to just get this done and over with, "What brings you out?"

"First, I'd like to offer my condolences." Sitting forward with beer in hand and his elbows on his knees, Mac's professional smile softened into something more sincere, "Beatrice was an interesting woman and we're gonna miss her."

"Yeah, she was and thank you, I appreciate that." Shifting to lean against Dean, she fidgeted with the label on her unopened beer, slowly peeling the label off without really noticing she was doing it. Glancing over at Dean as he plucked the bottle out of her hand and twisted off the top before handing it back, she flashed him a grateful smile before turning back to Mac, "I know your family knew her for a long time. Really, probably better than I did, so I'm sorry for your loss too."

"I don't know about that, but thank you. I hope you don't mind my saying, but she was so excited when you decided to follow in her footsteps." Leaning back in his seat, Mac smiled, the professional veneer falling away a little, totally unaware of the can of worms he was about to open, "You know, the last lucid conversation I had with her was right after you got your acceptance letter. She couldn't stop talking about it, she was so proud."

"Wait. Go back a second." Before Skye could even start to open her mouth to reply to that, Dean sat up, paying a lot more attention now than he had been a second ago. He hadn't heard a damn thing about any kind of acceptance anywhere. Hell, he didn't even know what Mac meant when he said Skye was following in Bea's footsteps, "What is he talkin' about, TInk?"

"It's not anything." Well, if the look on Dean's face was anything to go by, there went her nice, relaxing day of sex and pie, "Really."

"I'm sorry." Looking more confused by the second, Mac set his half-empty beer down on the side table next to the armchair, concerned that he'd created a problem when that certainly hadn't been his intention, "Did I say something I shouldn't have?"

"No, Mac." It's not like she'd been intentionally hiding anything, it just wasn't real relevant these days, but now she was thinking that Dean might not see it that way, "It's okay."

"I'm not sure it is." Sitting forward with his elbows on his knees, Dean looked at Skyler, making it clear he wasn't going to let her brush the question off until he got an answer, "What acceptance letter?"

"I got a-I got accepted to a dance academy in New York before we met." Elbow on the arm of the couch, Skye closed her eyes and rubbed a temple. This was a conversation she could stand to put off for a while, or forever considering it no longer had any bearing on anything, "It's really not important."

"I had actually been under the impression that's where you'd been the last few months, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it."

Well, obviously that was not where she'd been. Paying no mind to the increasingly apologetic lawyer, Dean looked at Skye intently, "When, exactly?"

"It was right before we moved."

Dean had been under the impression that it'd been going on about a year and a half since she'd left, but the way Mac had phrased that made him think he just might be mistaken, which was becoming less of a surprise by the second, "...when exactly did you move, Skye?"

"About three weeks before we met." Oh, that was going to start something, "Can we talk about this later?"

"Three weeks? " He could have sworn she'd told him she'd been in New Orleans almost a year when they met, but it seemed he was mistaken about that too. What else was he mistaken about? Getting to his feet, Dean headed for the door, not saying anything as he disappeared into the hallway.

"Dean, wait-" Standing as Dean walked out, she sighed deeply and closed her eyes. This was not how she'd seen today going. Turning back to Mac, she offered an apologetic smile,"I'm sorry, Mac. I hate to be rude, but is there any way we could do this later?"

"I really didn't mean to start anything." From the looks of it, Mac still had no idea what he started. Laying his briefcase on his knees, he popped it open and took out a sheaf of papers that were clipped together and a sealed envelope before closing it again. Standing, he offered the lot of it to Skye, "Of course. Why don't I just leave these here and you can get them back to me in the next couple of days. Just date, sign, and initial where marked."

"I'll bring them by in the morning, thank you." Taking the stack of papers that was way thicker than she thought it really needed to be, she picked the envelope off the top of the pile, her name scrawled across the front in Bea's spidery handwriting, "What's this?"

"That is a letter from your Grandmother, to give to you upon her passing." Offering her his hand again, Mac smiled apologetically, "It really was nice to see you again, Skyler. I'm glad to see you come out of your shell a bit."

"You mean it's nice to see me talking and smiling and not cowering in a corner with my nose in a book." Not like there was a reason to mince words here. Smiling, she set the papers down on the none-too-stable coffee table and shook his hand, "It was nice to see you again too, Mac."

"I'll show myself out."