Hi guys! Thanks for the nice words! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm having a crazy amount of fun writing it. And I'm writing it quickly! It's melodramatic and suspenseful, and I'm digging it. I'm glad to see you are too! Thanks again for reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.

Will's phone began to ring and he glanced down and didn't recognize the number. He thought about letting it go to voicemail, but he stepped away from the officers and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Will?" And just like that everything seems to stop.

"Mac? Oh God, Mac," he breathes out. "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

"Will," and his heart stops because it sounds like she's barely holding it together. And what is she doing calling his phone? "They want to talk to you." He doesn't ask who. Something is wrong. Something went wrong, he just knows it. Did they find the phone? Shit, shit, shit.

"Honey," he starts to say, but Mac's voice is replaced by a male voice, cold and low.

"I have your wife here," the voice tells him, and Will waves his arm to get the attention of the negotiator. "She's got a mighty big diamond on her hand. I can imagine that set you back, Will? Was it? So I've got a question, Will, what's your wife's safety worth to you?" The negotiator, call me Pete, Mr. McAvoy, is by his side and so is Jim, hovering just beyond Will's periphery.

Will's mouth is dry, and he feels a buzzing in his head. Mac's ring. Jesus. That fucking ring. It's ostentatious, he liked that about it. He liked that he could afford to put something that nice on Mac's finger to show the world that she belonged to him.

"Take the ring," he says firmly.

"Oh, don't worry, I already took care of that. Your wife gave that up pretty willingly," he laughs and the sound sends a chill down Will's spine, but he's relieved to hear that Mac didn't fight over the ring. He'll buy her a new ring. He can always buy her a new ring. He can't…if she doesn't…

He feels like he's going to throw up, and Pete's at his elbow, a confused look on his face.

"I'll pay anything," Will says, and he means it. He'll pay anything to get Mackenzie out of there. Anything.

"Good, I'm glad we understand each other," the man tells Will. "I think we'll get along, Will, and I'll tell you what. As a sign of good faith, I'll let you speak to Mackenzie again." And there's a shuffle while Will holds his breath.

"Will," Mac's back on the phone, her voice steadier this time.

"We're going to get you out of there, okay, sweetheart? You just hang in there," Will tells her, his fingers digging into the phone. He's pressing it so hard into his ear that it's almost painful, but he can't think about that, he can't think about anything other than Mac and the fact that that fucking ring could have possibly put her in danger. That ring was nothing but trouble from the word go.

"I love you," Mac's voice is soft.

"I love you, God, Mac, I love you so much, we're going to get you out of there," Will repeats. The line goes dead, and Will turns to the expectant faces staring back at him as he hangs up his phone.

"What's going on? Was that Mac?" Jim asks. Will nods, and drops his head for a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Mr. McAvoy," Will can see why Pete is the negotiator; his voice is calm and reassuring when nothing about this situation is calm or reassuring. "What's going on?"

"They noticed Mac's ring," Will says roughly.

"Be hard not to," Jim mutters.

"They think they can use her as a bargaining chip," Charlie fills in. "Oh fuck." Which pretty much neatly sums up Will's feelings on the subject.

"Yeah," Will says and he looks back at the bank and wishes, not for the first or last time, that he had told Mac they just didn't have time to stop that morning.

When the Captain grabs the phone out of Mac's hands and hangs it up, she feels the loss instantly. Hearing Will's voice had been comforting, and she wanted to just stay on the phone with him. Continue hearing his voice, rumbling and reassuring, telling her that they would get her out of there.

"Go back down and sit with the others," the Captain orders, and Mac does as she's told.

"Let's ask for ten million," Lurch suggests.

"We don't know if they have that kind of money," Sparky points out.

"Mackenzie McHale, what's your net worth?" the Captain snickers, and Mac hugs her knees close to her chest and doesn't answer.

Sparky is flipping through her wallet, pulling out credit cards and handing them over to the Captain. He stops at a picture, and tilts his head thoughtfully.

"Holy shit," Sparky says. "You'll never believe it. Her husband is Will McAvoy."

"Who?" Lurch asks, and Sparky rolls his eyes.

"Get a fucking clue, Will McAvoy. From NewsNight? He's that news guy," Sparky says. "You really need to watch the news more often."

"Mr. Big Shot News Guy, huh? That's your husband? Quick, look up his net worth. See how much he made last year," the Captain instructs. He comes back over to Mackenzie and leans down, and grins at her. "I do hope it's enough. I would hate for him to have to report his wife's untimely demise on the news tonight." He straightens and starts to walk back to where Lurch and Sparky are searching the internet to find out how much money Will raked in last year.

It's a lot, she knows. And other than his beautiful apartment, and the ring that was now clutched in the Captain's sweaty hand, he had never been very good at spending it. He was good at lavishing Mac with gifts, both before and now that they were married, but even that didn't put a dent in his sizable income.

Mac swallows hard. Maybe she underestimated these guys. Maybe they weren't as stupid as they appeared.

"We should ask for six million," Sparky finally says. "They've got it. We ask for too much and we might push our luck. Six is a good number. Two each."

"Two each?" The Captain repeats. "I planned this whole fucking thing. I noticed the ring on her finger. We ask for six, and I get four and you two each get one." Sparky looks like he's going to argue, and his mouth opens and then closes again, but something has shifted, Mac can tell. She's always been good at reading people, and she can see the seed of resentment has been planted.

Shit, she thinks. The last thing we all need is for these guys to turn on one another.

Six million. It's a lot of money, but Sparky is right, they have it. Between her trust fund and Will's salary, they can more than cover six.

The phone rings again, and the Captain snatches up the phone.

"Put Will McAvoy on the phone," he demands lazily. There's a pause and then a shit-eating grin slides across his face. "Mr. McAvoy, six million should do it. You hand over six million in unmarked bills and you can have back your lovely wife. You have an hour. Otherwise, we're putting a bullet in that pretty little head of hers. Do we understand one another? Good."

"I understand," Will says, his eyes closed. He can't get the image of Mackenzie, bleeding, hurt, dead, fuck, dead, out of his head. He hears the dial tone, and the phone slips from his hands and tumbles to the ground.

"Mr. McAvoy, the first question is, do you want to pay?" Pete asks, and Will wheels around and the fury is unmistakeable in his voice.

"The fuck? Of course I'm going to pay," he shouts.

"Okay, then," Pete doesn't flinch. "Okay. You work on getting the money. In the meantime, we're going to work on how to get in there before that hour deadline." When he leaves the three of them alone, Will immediately pulls out his phone and calls his attorney and his financial adviser.

"How do you even get unmarked bills? Fuck," Will mutters. Charlie hangs back, making his own calls, and only Jim stays put, his arms wrapped tightly around his middle. Mac's his family. She's his family, and he almost wishes that he were in there with her. If she has to go through this, he wishes that he was going through it with her. They'd gone through some shit together, and always managed to come out relatively okay.

Jim needs Mac to come out of this okay. He knows that Will is holding on by a thread, and he wishes that he could be more supportive, more like Charlie, but he can't. He can't, because that's Mac in there. He once carried her bleeding body through the streets of Islamabad praying to every deity that would listen, and he didn't go through that, she didn't go through that, to end up a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Will appears back at his side, and Jim glances up at him. Will's oddly calm now, a look of determination on his face.

"We're going to get her out of there," he tells Jim, and his voice is sure, and strong, and Jim can't do anything but nod and hope.

The Captain decides that Mac should be separated from the other hostages, and he grabs her arm and tugs her back to the bank manager's office, shutting the glass door behind her.

She's not entirely sorry to be back there. It gives her an opportunity to pull out her phone to send another message to Will. She keeps it under the desk, keeping an eye on the three as they joke and wait for the phone to ring again.

Since hanging up with Will they've been in high spirits, and it makes Mac incredibly uneasy.

You have an hour. Otherwise, we're putting a bullet in that pretty little head of hers.

She's certainly not interested in finding out if that's a serious threat or not.

Mackenzie knows her husband; knows that Will is moving heaven and earth to get her out of there. She's not surprised to see his text message back. I love you. I love you. I love you. It's so simple, and for the first time all day she feels hot tears prick her eyes. Her fingers trembles as she types back a reply.

They've moved me to the manager's office in the back. It's on the left side of the bank. The rest are still against the right wall. I'm still okay, Will. Everything's going to be fine.

She's not sure if she believes that or not. She's a kind of terrified that she's never been before, despite having survived a stabbing and several war zones. She just wants Will. He makes her feel safe, and loved, and she wants his arms around her, damn it.

She turns the chair slightly to slide the phone back into her bra. There's nothing left to do now but wait.