A/N: Hello! So, I know this chapter has been ridiculously delayed. I meant to get it up over two weeks ago. But my week was a zoo of Christmas parties and other holiday prep and even if I had the odd hour to write, I was too stressed for it. Then, the weekend after I got the flu and was physically incapable of writing. Then it was Christmas. Anyway, the chapter finally got written. It's a bit short, mainly because I decided to split it and post what I had rather than make you wait even longer for the second half. Splitting it is probably a good idea; it would have been insanely long. I hope you enjoy it, and I apologize for the delay!
Chapter 12
xxx
Will was still off in his meeting with Charlie and the affiliates (or at least hadn't yet made it back to the newsroom), when Sloan strode into Mac's office and dropped into the chair across from the deck.
Mac looked up at her friend with a smile.
"Please tell me we're still on for drinks tonight," Sloan groaned. "After this week I could use a little excessive alcohol."
Mac wasn't sure whether to frown or smile. It was hard to tell with Sloan sometimes. "Of course we're still up for drinks tonight. Why wouldn't we be?" Sure, Mac might have had a few thoughts on the subject over the past few hours, may have wished more than once that they weren't on for drinks, but that wasn't the same thing as actually cancelling plans. Besides, there was no way Sloan could have known about any of that. Was there?
Sloan rolled her eyes. "Please, like there's no chance you got another offer for the evening."
This time Mackenzie did frown. "I didn't get another offer. Why would I have...?"
Sloan turned and fixed her with an awfully pointed stare. "Will's been awfully attentive lately."
Mac faltered. "What?"
"You know what I mean," Sloan replied, beginning a list of examples. "Hugs in the office, in front of everyone."
"Extenuating circumstances," Mac said lightly, defaulting to her usual story.
"Heading off for lunch together," Sloan continued.
"To discuss work," Mac reminded her.
"Organizing a staff-wide thank-you for all he's done over the past week," Sloan added.
"People wanted to show their gratitude," Mac replied. "I simply facilitated that."
"How about just the fact that both of you always seem to be in each other's offices, if not in each other's personal space," Sloan concluded.
Mac waved that away too. "We do work closely together. And we argue."
"You haven't been arguing this week," Sloan reminded her. "Well, not much. This week, you're... nicer."
Mac bit her lip. Will had been... nicer. He was being more than nicer. He was being...
"What's going on Kenzie?" Sloan asked softly (obviously sensing a chink in Mac's armour).
Mac shook her head. She wasn't ready to talk about this. She didn't know what to say.
Sloan frowned. "I'm sorry. I just thought... the way you two were acting..."
"Nothing is happening," Mac said slowly. Well, nothing much, she amended mentally. Nothing that was easily explainable. "We've always looked out for each other. You know that. And I guess he doesn't hate me anymore."
"He hasn't hated you for a while, if he ever really did," Sloan said firmly.
Mac shook her head again. She wasn't sure she believed that Will had never hated her. She'd seen how devastated he'd been. Sloan hadn't. Mac took a breath and told her friend part of what was going on. "Remember how I told you Will has a heart the size of a range rover? Well, I'm, I'm apparently a person he cares about again."
Sloan was frowning again. "You were always a person he cared about."
"Not really," Mac whispered. Will hadn't always cared. Or at least, he'd frozen her out for so long, it was the next best thing. And she'd gone halfway across the world to escape the pain.
Sloan leaned forward. "Yes, really," she insisted. When Mac tried to interrupt, her friend continued. "He always cared about you Mackenzie. Sure, he was an ass, but whenever anything's happened these past two and a half years, Will was always right there with you, even when he was mad at you. He was. And you know it."
Mac bit her lip. Billy was fiercely loyal. "I guess."
"So, what's going on?" Sloan demanded.
But Mac was stubborn, if for no other reason than she didn't want to share this, whatever it was. Because while Will had been there for her in the past, it hadn't been like this. He hadn't been there all night with his arms around her. He hadn't. And that was the part Mackenzie wasn't ready to share yet. "Nothing."
"Kenzie."
"Really, nothing," Mac insisted.
Sloan was blunt. "I don't believe you."
Mac leaned back in her chair and stared her friend down. Sloan's stare was pointed, but she'd never spent time in a war zone.
Sloan broke first. "Fine," she huffed. "Don't tell me."
"Tell you what?" Mac asked innocently.
Sloan smirked. "And we're still on for drinks?"
"Absolutely," Mac confirmed. Suddenly she smirked. "You can tell me what's going on with Don."
Sloan groaned. "Argh! Don!"
Mac frowned. That didn't sound good. She'd been so caught up in her own problems that she may have missed this. "Is something wrong?"
Sloan shook her head. "I'm going to need far more alcohol to answer that question."
"I'll wait until tonight then," Mac said softly.
Sloan nodded, for the first time looking uncertain.
Mac remembered her friend's frustration when she'd first walked into the office. And she felt vaguely guilty for wanting to cancel their plans to get drinks. Sloan looked like she could use a sympathetic ear (or maybe just an excuse to get a little alcohol into her).
"We'll figure it out," Mac promised.
"Yeah, we both have such good track records with relationships," Sloan muttered.
"Hey!" Mac objected lightly, though she knew the other woman had a point.
"Sorry." Sloan muttered.
"Besides, who else are you going to ask?" Mac wondered. "Maggie?"
Sloan winced at the thought. "See you tonight."
"You bet!" Mac said cheerfully.
"Kenzie?" Sloan asked, standing up and heading for the door.
"Hm?"
"Thanks," she said softly.
Mac smiled. "What're friends for?"
Sloan smiled tentatively back. "And Kenz?"
"Yeah?"
Sloan took a breath. "Trust me, we talk sometimes, and he never really hated you. Even if he tried to convince himself otherwise."
Mac found she didn't have an answer to that. So she just nodded, and tried to swallow the sudden lump in her throat.
She watched Sloan stride across the bullpen and up to her office.
Mac really hoped Sloan was right. About Will not hating he that is. She knew he didn't hate her now. That really should be enough.
Still it would have been nice to know that...
Mac shook her head.
She had Will on the brain lately. Maybe too much so. A girls night out with a friend was exactly what she needed.
(Even if it wasn't necessarily exactly what she wanted.)
Mackenzie sighed.
Part of her selfishly still wished she and Sloan weren't meeting for drinks tonight. Oh, she was sure it would be fun (particularly the part where she interrogated the economist about one Don Keefer). Mac definitely wanted to catch up with her friend. She'd been so caught up in her own problems lately, too caught up. It was time for that to change. Will had helped pull her up out of her pit of feeling sorry for herself, of feeling guilty, of feeling really just generally awful. Now it was time for to rejoin the land of the living.
She couldn't hide away with Will forever (no matter how good it felt).
And Will had plans himself with Charlie.
Besides, if Sloan was going to interrogate her, Mackenzie figured it was only fair that she got to return the favour. She smiled. Tonight would be a perfect opportunity.
Her smile turned wistful as she remembered her morning.
She supposed she had brought the interrogation on herself. It was just, so many of the staffers had mentioned how great Will had been all week. It had given Mac an idea. A notion really. Just a simple something.
The staff had wanted to say thank you. So that's what Mac had suggested they do. She'd just suggested they do it subtly.
It had started with a few staffers, but in the end Mac had decided she may as well get everybody in on it.
Organizing things would be her way of saying thank you.
She hadn't expected Will to figure it out. But he had. Oh, he had.
And when he had, he'd let her know.
Mac had just left his office moments before. She'd been searching for a list she'd written earlier and left on her desk. Will had been talking to Charlie. At least, she thought he had. Right up until the moment when he strode into her office and wrapped his arms around her.
Without realizing it, Mackenzie wrapped her own arms around herself, biting her lower lip and remembering.
She was unlikely to forget.
Because Will had said more than a simple thank you.
xxx
"I bet you think you're sneaky," he murmured against her ear after pulling her into a hug without a word.
Mac hadn't bothered to ask him what he was talking about. Particularly given that he'd been ranting about how well his day was going only minutes before, how everyone seemed to be bearers of good news. That had been right before she'd yelled at him to let the staff thank him. Still, it wasn't like he'd figured it out quickly. "I am sneaky," she assured him, relaxing into his arms.
She'd felt his laughter against her ear. The sound made her want to hold onto him even tighter. So she did.
"Not particularly," Will murmured. "Sometimes I'm just dense."
Mac wasn't going to argue with that last part, but the first part was wrong. "No. I'm sneaky," she insisted.
"Whatever you say, dear."
The warmth in his tone nearly undid her. The joy surged out of her in a smile that was probably just stupidly, idiotically happy, but... She could deal with sarcasm. She could deal with teasing. But if he was going to be affectionate... She buried her face against his neck, thrilling when he tightened his grip. She tried to explain. "I wanted to do… I wanted…"
She felt a quick intake of breath from the man in her arms. "You didn't need to…"
His stubbornness made her growl. This wasn't about needs, but wants. "Billy…"
He cut off her argument. "But thank you."
Mackenzie relaxed again. "Welcome." Words were becoming a bit difficult.
Apparently she hadn't been the only one having trouble verbally, because all Will said was, "Hm." His arms still wrapped around her were more eloquent.
Mac smiled softly to herself. Then a thought struck her. "Although, you'll thank me, but not the staff?"
She felt another puff of laughter against her ear. "That sounds about right," he agreed.
This time it was her turn to chuckle softly. "Will…"
She felt his hand run up and down her back. Only once, but oh. Then what his hand was doing was immaterial, because his voice was in her ear again.
"My closest friend and most trusted partner," he whispered softly. "Always, Kenzie."
She'd sighed.
Always.
Mackenzie was almost sighing now, remembering.
Because he'd said the words again.
He kept saying it.
Only this time, the words hadn't been about trying to pull her out of her own despair.
They'd been a thank you.
And maybe even a promise.
So as she practically bounced out of her office in search of Jim, Mac decided she didn't care if half the bullpen was watching, trying to figure out what was going on. Let them watch. She wasn't going to worry about it.
Today, she deserved to be happy.
xxx
After the show, Will lingered for a moment in his office. He was supposed to meet Charlie upstairs. Will suspected the occasion was little more than managing to make it through the week, an accomplishment in and of itself. He was planning on heading up to celebrate that fact with some really good bourbon in just a few minutes.
Will smiled ruefully.
After all, he should have been looking forward to it.
Instead, he just felt vaguely unsettled.
Shaking his head, he made his way to his doorway. He could see her in her office. No slow, dragging moments from her. Not tonight at least. Not his Mackenzie.
(Will tried to ignore the possessive pronoun that had somehow crept into his thoughts.)
He focused on her.
Mac was flipping around her office, trying to do a dozen things at once as she tried to wrap up her week. Will watched her bounce from bent over in front of her computer, to stretching up to reach something on top of her filing cabinet to straightening a stack of papers to her computer again before pausing dead centre in the room and taking a deep breath.
Will started to meander over. That was his cue, the break in her movements. As he'd expected, Mackenzie spun once more and grabbed her bag and coat. Will met her when she got to her doorway.
They both had their own plans for the evening. But that didn't mean he couldn't wish her a good night.
Mac noticed him a second later. Will watched as her face immediately split into a smile.
One of the nice ones.
One of the ones that looked like she was just happy to see him.
(He liked to think he was seeing them more lately, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.)
He liked those smiles.
Even if they sometimes distracted him.
Pretty Mackenzie.
Touch her. Touch her. Touch her. Will's brain whispered encouragement as he stepped closer. He ignored its advice. She was his friend. His partner. His colleague.
He was just saying good night before they went their separate ways.
Even if he did want to touch her. Just a little bit.
"You heading out?" he asked casually.
She nodded. "I've got to stop by her office and grab Sloan, and then we're heading to the bar."
"Hang Chews?" Will asked.
Mac shook her head. "The new place down the block. Sloan's suggestion. I think she's hoping for a little distance from the newsroom for a night."
"Or a little distance from potential eavesdroppers," Will murmured dryly.
Mackenzie's smile widened.
Touch her. Touch her. Touch her, his brain insisted. He stepped closer. He could smell her perfume now.
"Maybe," she admitted. "Maybe just one eavesdropper in particular."
Will found himself grinning. "I wonder who that could be."
Mac chuckled. "Yeah, they've been so subtle."
"You'll have to let me know how that goes," he murmured.
Mac's eyes lit up. "Why William McAvoy, I didn't know you followed the office gossip this closely. I'm shocked. Such a blow to your image as a crank."
He rolled his eyes. "I didn't need to follow things closely to pick up that much. And anyway, I couldn't have avoided hearing about it, even if I'd wanted to."
"Don can be a bit of a sharer," Mackenzie admitted.
"Sloan too," Will grumbled. He'd been hearing snippets of the story from both sides. Really, just frustrated exclamations on the inability of certain things to move forward or muttered grumblings about things being far too complicated and why couldn't people just say what they want. He figured Mac would get more than a little of that tonight from Sloan. He almost sympathized, "I wish you luck with that."
Mac scowled at him. "I'm sure tonight will be great."
"I'm sure it will," Will said sincerely, wishing she'd smile again. Also, Mac and Sloan really did get along well, so they probably would have a good time. He shifted closer.
Mac softened slightly and mirrored his movement. Right into his space. He didn't mind. "You heading up to Charlie's?" she asked.
He nodded. "In a minute. Who knows what he's got planned. We probably won't even leave the office."
"The man does have the better part of a bar stashed around the room, "Mac murmured.
"His scotch selection is probably better than some bars anyway," Will agreed. "Particularly the single malts."
She smiled again. "Probably."
And this time Will couldn't help himself.
He reached out and lightly grasped her elbow. Just a little thing. Just for a moment. "I hope you have a good evening, Mackenzie."
Her eyes flicked down to his hand on her elbow before she looked up at him again in mild surprise.
Then her entire face slowly brightened into a sweet (and slightly shy) smile. "You too, Billy," she murmured.
Will's heart sped up slightly. She was smiling again. She was smiling and he was touching her, maybe even because he was touching her (yes, good). She liked him touching her. And not just when he touched her because they were both exhausted and only half aware of what was happening (even if that was just the excuse they gave themselves). This was deliberate. And she was smiling at him.
He rubbed a finger along her elbow. Still deliberately. And she knew it.
Touch her. Touch her. Touch her.
His heart beat in time with the request.
He considered his next move. If he even had one. Maybe he did. Maybe...
Then Sloan walked up.
"Ready to go Mac?" she asked. "Hey Will."
Will gritted his teeth as Mac's gaze swung away from him and towards Sloan. He shifted back slightly in annoyance. He should probably get out of her personal space if other people were joining the conversation.
Mackenzie just nodded. "Yeah. I'm all set. You?"
"Oh, believe me," Sloan muttered. "I'm more than ready to get this weekend started.
Mac winced sympathetically. "You sound like a woman in desperate need of a martini."
And with that, Will knew his moment with her was well and truly over. "Well, I won't hold either of you two up," he said, doing his best not to sound annoyed. "Enjoy your evening ladies."
He must have succeeded in sounding, because when Sloan turned towards him all she said was, "Thanks. You too."
Will couldn't resist one last little squeeze of Mackenzie's elbow. "Have a good time, Mackenzie," he murmured. "Don't worry about any of the rest of the crap."
Then without another word, he spun on his heel and headed towards the elevators.
After all, Charlie and some really good scotch were waiting.
xxx
"Okay, what was that?" Sloan asked Mackenzie as soon as Will was out of earshot.
Mac forced her attention from the man walking away from them to the woman standing next to her. "What was what?" she asked. "Will saying goodnight?"
Sloan rolled her eyes. "No, not Will saying goodnight. Well, okay yes, that too. But mostly I meant the rest."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Mackenzie said quickly.
Sloan looked sceptical. "Sure you don't."
"I don't," Mac was very firm. So Will had said goodnight. And he'd had a hand on her elbow. There was no need for an interrogation. That was Mackenzie's story, and she was sticking with it. "Will can be sweet, but I hope you're not expecting me to be able to predict what he's going to do at any moment, just because I've known him longer."
"You haven't just known him longer," Sloan pointed out. "You've known him better."
Mac winced slightly. She had known him better. Hadn't stopped her from making a massive mistake. "You two are pretty close," was all she said.
"Not like you two," Sloan countered.
Mac sighed. "Sloan."
"Kenzie."
And Mac gave in. Just a little. "I really don't know what's going on in Will's head right now."
Sloan looked surprised. "Really?"
"Really," Mac confirmed.
Sloan nodded as they walked towards the elevator. "I guess that makes sense. After all, men are often more trouble than they're worth."
Mackenzie's ears pricked up as she realized that (for once), maybe she wasn't going to be the subject of questions. "Hm?"
Sloan nodded emphatically. "I mean who knows what's going on in Don's head at any one time."
And Mac, to her considerable relief, realized that she probably wasn't going to be at the centre of this conversation. This time she was definitely going to be the one asking the questions.
"Come on," she encouraged with a slow smile. . "Let's get you a drink."
xxx
