Author's Note: This chapter went on a little longer than I expected…just couldn't figure out where to end it. Never fear, I think we still have a couple of chapters to go here…not quite sure yet. As for any medical errors…hey, I have watched a lot of ER and The Learning Channel but by no means do I claim to be a medical professional. Take all my medical stuff with a grain of salt…I did my best. Thanks for the continuing reviews guys…they make my heart sing (and make me write more too). Still don't own The Newsroom. 'Nuff said.
Early the next morning Will woke to the sound of coughing. Mackenzie was being extubated, a rather unpleasant experience from the sound of it.
"Just relax Ms. McHale. You'll feel better in a minute" a nurse reassured Mac as she struggled against the medical personnel.
"Mac, you're fine. You're in the hospital. I'm here, just let the nurse help you" Will said as he stood from the chair he had fallen asleep in and put himself in her line of sight. She seemed to understand that he was there and she calmed. Once the tube was removed Mackenzie immediately fell asleep again.
Will turned his attention to one of the nurses in the room. "She hasn't even been here a full day yet. I thought she would be on the ventilator longer than this?" he asked.
"Ventilators bring their own risks Mr. McAvoy. As soon as a patient shows signs of fighting the vent they are ready to be off it. Don't worry, we're keeping a close eye on her oxygen levels. She's still going to be on supplemental oxygen. Plus, no ventilator means we can start her nebulizer treatments. That will significantly improve her breathing. This is a good thing, try to relax."
Relax. Yeah right, Will thought to himself. The only woman he had ever loved had cheated on him, left the country to cover a war, been stabbed, returned to the U.S. and promptly turned his world upside down. And then, just when he thought they were getting somewhere, just when he thought Brian and the email and the greater fool were all behind them, Mackenzie decides to work herself into the ground and ends up in the hospital. So, Nurse Ratchett, while he would very much like to relax, that just didn't seem possible at the moment. Maybe when Mackenzie got out of here they could both try to relax a little. Maybe a nice little vacation somewhere.
What the hell, McAvoy? You've barely spent a moment alone with her since your own release from the hospital and now you're planning her next vacation for her? Yeah, that's gonna go over real well with Mac. Maybe you could talk to her first? See what she wants? Talk to her? Yeah, he had been meaning to do that for awhile now. Well actually, he had been avoiding that for awhile now, but he didn't mean to did he? They just had a lot of work to do. Bringing down the Tea Party, ferreting out the lies in campaign speeches, giving the American people the truth every night. He couldn't help the fact that he had a high pressure, high profile job that left him little time to work on a personal life.
That's a wonderful was to rationalize being a fifty-four year old bachelor who works with the woman he loves everyday but does nothing to repair their broken relationship. Ok, now the little voice in his head sounded suspiciously like a certain psychiatrist he knew.
"All right McAvoy…time to get off your high horse and figure out where you both went wrong in this relationship" Will told himself aloud.
"But Don Quixote rode a donkey" a hoarse little voice scolded him.
Wait…What? Who just said that? Will whipped his head around to look at the occupant of the hospital bed he had been sitting next to for hours.
"Mackenzie…you're awake!" he shouted at her.
"Apparently, but I'm not deaf so please stop shouting. I am however very thirsty...could we do something about that?" she asked him, as best as her parched, scratchy voice would allow her.
"Yeah, water. I can do that" he said as he reached for the plastic pitcher and cup next to her bed.
"Go slow, you've been unconscious for the better part of twenty four hours. We don't need you choking to death now" he admonished as she tried to grab the cup from his hands.
"What happened?" she asked him.
"You ignored a very bad cold, which turned into pneumonia, which turned into you having a febrile seizure in the conference room at work. Any of this sound familiar Mac?"
"Not really. The last thing I remember is talking to you in the control room about the awful tie you were wearing."
"That was three days ago Mackenzie. Jesus Christ, are you trying to kill yourself? Or do you just not give a damn? You scared the hell out of me you know!" Will shouted at her. She cringed and seemed to pull herself into the pillows behind her. He began to regret how harsh his tone must have sounded.
"I'm sorry I scared you. Now maybe you know how it felt for me to find you lying in a pool of your own blood in your bathroom. For two people who are supposed to be rather intelligent we sure have gotten ourselves in some dumb situations lately Billy."
"Yeah, you're right, we have. Maybe we're not as smart as we think we are. Or maybe we're just too smart for our own good, Mackenzie. Overthinking everything all the god damn time. Maybe it's time to stop analyzing everything so much and start living our lives again." He said this last part quietly and took ahold of her hand.
"What are you trying to say Will?"
"I'm trying to say that I'm going to listen to Charlie for once and remember that I'm older than I think I am."
"What? That didn't even make any sense Billy. Should we adjust my oxygen levels some more?" Mackenzie asked him as she made a show of adjusting her nasal canula and checking the oxygen tank it was attached to.
"I don't know if it made any sense, but I know what Charlie meant when he said it. He sees how good we are together Mackenzie. He knows two people don't work that well together and mentally challenge each other the way we do without there being a little spark of something else. No matter how much I pretended I didn't care, Charlie knew that I did. He was just reminding me that, despite my belief to the contrary, you may not be there forever and we may not have all the time in the world to figure this out and get our shit together" Will looked up at her hopefully.
"Wow, get our shit together…did you get that from a Hallmark card?" she teased him.
"Ok, so it's not Shakespeare, but you know what I'm saying Mackenzie McHale."
"Is that what the message said? I love you, now let's get our shit together? And they say romance is dead."
Ok, now he was getting mad. He was pouring his heart out here…did she have to make it so fucking difficult?
"Damn it Mac, no that's not what the message said. And does it even matter anymore what the message said. I'm here, right now, telling you I love you and we need to move on. Good lord, I know this isn't exactly the most romantic setting to be doing this in, but I would very much like for us to try and work out all our issues and move past them. We were good together before…but I think, maybe now we can be great together. Just tell me you want this…want us" he said this last part so quietly and in a voice so pleading and heartfelt Mackenzie wanted to pull him to her and never let him go. Unfortunately, right now she had a few too many tubes and IV's attached to her to make that very easy.
"I do want that…more than anything in the world Will, but are you sure this is your heart talking and not just a man who got the shit scared out of him when his ex-girlfriend collapsed in front of him?" Mackenzie asked.
"No Mac, that's not it at all. Ok, yes you did scare the crap out of me yesterday, but that's not what's causing this. I've been working through all this for awhile. Hell, I even talked to Habib about it. I won't bore you with all the little details. Suffice it to say, life is short Mac. Why are we making it so hard, too?"
"I don't know Will. I don't know why we are making this harder than it has to be. I don't know why I cheated on the perfect man with a total asshole. I don't know why you took an overdose of anti-depressants and Naproxen. I don't know why a thirty-eight year old woman can't take care of herself and get to the doctor's office before she ends up in the hospital. I don't know a lot of things Will, but I know I love you and if you are ready to try this again I am too."
"I really would love to kiss you right now, but I already missed last night's broadcast and Charlie tells me Reese is on the warpath. If you give me pneumonia and I miss a week of work we may not have jobs to come back to after you get out of here." Will had now pulled his horribly uncomfortable hospital chair right up next to her and was running his hands through the tangled mess of her hair.
"Ok, I'll take a raincheck on the kiss for now. Besides, I'm not really sure I remember the last time I brushed my teeth. How long have I been here? And where is here by the way?" Mackenzie asked him.
"Here is St. Vincent's and you have been here since about noon yesterday. Speaking of which, I need to call your parents again. I managed to stop them from getting on a plane by reminding them that would mean I would be unable to speak to them for eight to ten hours, so they would get no updates on your condition."
"Oh God bless you Will. The last thing I need is my mother and father hovering over me in a hospital room, or god forbid my apartment. Why did you even call them in the first place?"
"You were unconscious and seizing in the back of an ambulance Mackenzie…I thought maybe your family should know!"
"You're my family. Charlie and Jim and Don and that newsroom…they're my family. I'm a grown woman. I don't want my mother crossing the Atlantic to come bring me chicken soup!"
"Ok Kenz, calm down. As a member of your family, can I tell you you're doing a shit job of taking care of yourself so maybe you would let me try to help a little."
"Just exactly how much help am I going to need Billy? When do I get out of here?" Mackenzie was becoming more and more aware of the fact that she was in an ugly little hospital room, wearing a very unflattering pastel print gown and she wanted to go home.
"You're still going to be here a couple of days Mac. The doctor said you need to be on IV antibiotics and to have breathing treatments to help clear up your lungs. After that, you're still out of work for another week" he said this last part quietly, knowing it wasn't going to be well-received.
"A week! I can't be out of the office for a week! What the hell is going to happen to the show? Who's going to keep you in line?!" The monitors next to her bed began to beep and a nurse soon entered.
"Hey…I could hear the yelling down the hall you two. And you, Ms. McHale have only been off a ventilator for a few hours. I was trying to be nice by giving you that nasal canula for oxygen…would you prefer a mask? Makes it a lot more difficult to carry on a conversation, but considering your oxygen levels are dropping again it may be necessary. She needs her rest…if you are disturbing that you're out Mr. McAvoy. I don't care how famous you are." And with that the nurse turned on her heels and left the room, leaving its two occupants feeling like scolded children.
"She's right Mackenzie. I'm sorry…you should be resting" Will said as he stood to tuck her blankets more firmly around her.
Now that she had a minute to stop questioning Will, Mackenzie was realizing just how sick she was. She was wheezing slightly from all the arguing she and Will had just done and she was exhausted. Before she realized what was happening her eyes were closing against her will.
"Don't leave" she managed to whisper to Will before she succumbed to sleep.
"I'm not going anywhere Kenz. Go to sleep. We'll talk more later, I promise. I love you."
