Mackenzie didn't move.

She stayed as she was, bent over that piece of blank paper, trying to ignore whatever it was that was happening in the hopes that it would go away.

But when she raised her head to see a room full of people looking at her with extremely perplexed expressions across their faces, she knew she had no choice but to stand up straight and turn around.

She did this slowly, warily with her head still tipped downwards slightly until she was the whole way around and lifted it back up nervously as she came face to face with the only person who had ever called her…

"Max?" he asked stunned, his brow furrowed in confusion at the very sight of her.

Suddenly her heart began to feel like it was beating faster and slower at the same time. And all she saw was him.

He was every inch as perfect as she'd remembered him to be. That same height and dark hair, those eyes and an all too familiar questionable tie. She swallowed hard, not knowing what to say. She supposed that 'hi' would be good. Or she could have pretended like that wasn't her, like she had no idea who he was. Of course, he'd soon see her badge or her name and know that this was in fact the only girl who had ever made Don Flack want to stick around for longer than a week or two.

"Uh…" Mackenzie stuttered, her body nervous and her face blushed bright red, "I forgot something in my…I mean I need…I need air-water…air."

That hadn't exactly been the most eloquent or professional way she'd ever left a room as she purposely tried to refrain from looking Don in the eye, easing past him quickly as she averted her gaze and walked briskly out of the room and into the glass lined halls.

She heard the urgent foot steps follow her, but she kept walking, ignoring them as best she could. Soon realizing she had no idea where she was going. Before she knew it, the hall ended and the only place she had left to go was into the lift. She groaned, but as the footsteps drew closer, she pressed the down button impatiently, watching the numbers above the doors ascend until the lift opened and she hastily stepped inside, too busy pushing the ground floor button to realize than Don had hurled himself into the lift behind her.

It wasn't until the doors had closed and she'd turned around as the lift descended that she noticed him standing there. Standing there closer to her than she needed him to be and so she took a meek step back, keeping her eyes fixated on the floor.

They say time heals all wounds, but evidently for her, four years had not been enough. She hadn't understood until now just how much she still found it painful to be around him, even after all this time. She tried to tell herself everyday that she had done the right thing for the both of them, but standing here next to him it wasn't so easy to convince herself that that was true.

All of a sudden the carriage came to a halt, surprising Mackenzie as she braced herself on the wall and looked over to see Don taking his hand off the emergency stop button.

She stood up straight and composed herself before growing annoyed and angry. Fear had never bought out the best in her, it always forced her mind into attack mode, and unfortunately for Flack, it had been his doing.

"What are you doing!?" she yelled in his direction, her arms demonstrating her frustrated mood.

"What am I doing?" he retaliated, "I work here. What the hell are you doing?"

He looked right at her and she could barely take it.

"I'm working this case genius," she replied aggressively, her brow furrowed in his direction as she pressed down on the emergency stop button again to get the lift moving.

"Sorry if I seem a little confused to see you here. Trust me, when I got up this morning I didn't think you'd be the fed I'd be working with," he explained in an annoyed tone as he pressed the emergency stop button again.

"You really think I would have taken this case if I knew you were the detective working it? You think I'm that dense?" she asked rhetorically, her aggression easing slightly as a hint of vulnerability became present in her voice, again pressing down on the emergency button.

"What, you hate me that much?" he asked back, undoing her action as the lift again came to a halt, him speaking with that same thick New York accent she'd grown to love, that same voice that made her melt and her knees weak.

It wasn't that she hated him, really it was the opposite. It was that she still loved him with every inch of who she was, even though she'd been trying desperately to wash him out of her system for the past four years. That he could ever believe she hated him, that hurt Mackenzie. She knew that he knew he had been the only person who ever completely loved her the way she was, who never asked more of her and never asked her to change. He had been her family and to think that he could believe she hated him, that saddened her.

Things hadn't always been so tempestuous. When they'd first met they'd gotten along perfectly. It was the induction day of the police academy and Mackenzie had been hurriedly dropped off and left by her less than thrilled parents, left to lug heavy luggage to her dorm. As she made her way over, she spotted a young man, around her age, tall with brown hair and blue eyes being patted on the back proudly by an officer wearing his dress blues who she assumed to be his father. The sight made her both smile and sigh, happy for the guy that his parents seemed to take pride in their son, and sad that her parents didn't much care for anything Mackenzie did if it wasn't what they wanted. As she thought that, she had taken a misstep and gone tumbling down a flight of stairs with her bags landing on top of her. The young man had quickly rushed over and helped her up, and as embarrassed as she had been, she just smiled and said thank you and they got to talking...and never stopped. They quickly became best friends, they never fought and almost always saw eye to eye. For a couple years they were only friends, but one night when they were hanging out, much like they did almost everyday, they had both reached for the TV remote when Don's hand landed on top of Mackenzie's. Something had just 'clicked' at that moment with that touch, leading to the two of them becoming far more than friends. But all that seemed light years away from the way that things were right now.

"Stop doing that," Mackenzie requested in a frustrated tone. Annoyed at his determination to keep the two of them trapped in the lift together.

"I will when you talk to me," he stated calmly, standing in front of the emergency button so that she couldn't reach it again.

But Mackenzie couldn't do it. She couldn't stand there with him after all that time and talk as if they'd parted a week ago. It had caught her off guard to see him let alone speak to him, and she quite honestly just didn't know what to do or what to say. She didn't even know how she felt anymore...well, that wasn't completely true. But what she did know, she was in the process of internally denying.

"I can't," she pleaded, "Not right now. Finding out that I have to work with you and being near you and having you trap me in a lift, it's all a lot to handle and I have to go right now. Please."

Don looked at her face. He knew she didn't hate him, that there was no way she would ever come close. Every girl he'd slept with, been with since she'd gone had been his way of trying to forget her. Only in some strange way, it just made him want her back even more. Because no other girl sounded like she did, or did things for him out of the goodness of her heart like she did. No ones smile made the world stop like hers did, and seeing her on the verge of tears, which he had only seen happen once before, it made him feel like an total ass.

"Okay," he obliged, reluctantly releasing the emergency break and allowing the lift to reach the bottom floor, "And I'm sorry. I know you hate lifts."

As she began to walk out of the lift, she stalled briefly at his words, taking a deep breath before continuing her pace until he saw her go outside.

He still remembered. It was only a little thing, but sometimes it was the little things that counted, even he knew that.

Truth was, even after all the time apart, Don could have told you anything you wanted to know about Mackenzie Riley. Whether either of them wanted to admit it or not, he knew her better than anyone and the same went for her, she knew everything about Don.

He was the only one who ever called her Max, she never liked coffee, only hot chocolate. She almost never ate breakfast because she said it made her stomach unsettled. Her favourite colour was red, she didn't like green. Her favourite food was Mexican and she hated olives. But it wasn't just the things he knew she liked and didn't like. He still remembered the way her eyes looked in different light, the way she always wore Don's old shirt to bed every night when he worked a late shift because it smelled like him. The way that the toughness was just a front for all the sweetness and heart that lay beneath the surface. As much as he wanted to forget, he even still remembered the way she felt, smelled, tasted.

It wasn't exactly easy for a guy like Don Flack to admit just how in love with Max he had been, and maybe still was. He was always tough, only for him it wasn't a front. He was a good guy too, but his innate toughness made for a great cop and both he and she knew that. When it came to her, maybe he remembered more than he wanted to sometimes. Other girls, they were alright, but he never cared if he hurt them or didn't call them back. He cared about how Max felt though, he always had. He'd threatened a good share of people who had bad mouthed her behind her back. He always looked out for her, loved her, protected her.

That was how it was supposed to be forever. At least that's what they'd once promised each other.

'Til death do us part'… right?