Chapter Thirty-Two

"Hey Doll-face, what's goin on?" Wallace asked Mac as he unlocked the door to her apartment and let himself in.

They'd remained close all through their days at Hearst, closer for the absence of their mutual best friend. Mac had dated some but had mostly stuck to having a more or less friends with benefits arrangement with Max. Wallace had teased her about it incessantly but it had worked well for Mac.

When they'd graduated, they had a falling out. The falling out revolved entirely around Mac's relationship with Max, or lack thereof. Wallace told her that she deserved more. Mac didn't understand what he was talking about and, at the time, neither had he. They went their separate ways. Wallace moved to Chicago for an apprenticeship with a mechanical engineering firm specializing in aeronautics. Mac, to her own surprise, took an entry level position with Kane Enterprises.

Four years later, Mac had moved up in the company but was getting more and more disillusioned with their ethics and practices. She stayed because it was secure. The recession had hit and while some in Neptune weren't impacted, others felt the blow in big ways. Between her non-relationship with Max and her mounting concerns with her job, Wallace moving back to town was the highlight of her year.

His company had transferred him for a big project outside of San Diego. Without thinking, he'd called up Keith and asked if he could bunk there for awhile. Keith, of course, had agreed. He'd been lonely since Veronica had left. She called, of course, but it wasn't the same and she wouldn't come visit. Keith had thought that maybe with Wallace staying with him, Veronica would consider coming home more. She hadn't, so he and Wallace had gone to visit her. So had Mac. That visit to New York happened nine months before.

One evening when Keith and Veronica had gone for a Daddy/Daughter Date, Wallace and Mac had hung out alone. They'd gone to dinner together. They'd laughed at the crazily named foods at the Ethiopian restaurant they'd decided to try on a whim. They sat and talked in Central Park. While they people watched, they made up stories about the folks that they saw and made fun of themselves for doing it. When they got back to their hotel, they decided to watch a movie together.

Things had started out innocently enough with Mac lying on her stomach, chin propped on one palm and her elbow planted on the bed. Wallace was seated at the head of the bed, back against several piled pillows and feet crossed at the ankles, resting within six inches of Mac's waist.

At a particularly dull part of the movie, Mac looked back at Wallace and grinned mischievously before reaching the hand she wasn't propped on to tickle Wallace's feet. He jerked away, exclaiming "Hey now!" and they'd immediately devolved into a free-for-all tickle/pillow fight. They rolled and wrestled on the bed until Wallace had her pinned beneath him and they were suddenly staring each other right in the eye.

The moment was frozen in time. They had both felt their hearts skip a few beats and then Wallace had lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her like she'd never been kissed. At that moment, they'd both pretty much known that it was over for them. They'd been together ever since but had never felt like it was the right time to tell anyone.

Wallace had moved out of the Mars residence and had gotten himself an apartment of his own. When he and Mac were out in public, things were the same as they had always been. They didn't want to jinx their relationship by outing themselves too soon. They also wanted Veronica to be the first person that they told, but it never seemed the right time.

Recently, Mac had quit her job with Kane Enterprises to strike out on her own. Things were going well and if they continued that way, the two were discussing the possibility of moving in together. In preparation, they'd already made copies of their keys. They'd joked about having a cheesy ceremony called "The Sharing of the Keys". Then somehow it stopped being a joke and in the midst of rolling waves of laughter had vowed to cherish each other's keys and to never misuse them in any way.

That night had been different from any other. Before that, she would go to his place and would stay the night there. The night they shared their keys, though, was the first she let him stay with her.

This night, when Wallace walked in, Mac looked up from her computer and smiled. She hurriedly set the laptop aside and met Wallace halfway between the back door and where she'd been sitting on her reclining sofa. When she reached him, she grinned and took his face in her hands and kissed him with excitement before saying, "Guess what?!"

"What's up, Sugar Pie?" Wallace asked, a grin on his own face. He loved to see her like this. Giddy with some new gadget or discovery that he only halfway understood.

"I think I found something," Mac said, leading him to the couch and picking the laptop back up as she guided him to take a seat beside her.

"Ok," he said, looking at the screen that wasn't making any sense to him, "What did you find?"

"I don't know," Mac replied but her tone was so earnest that he couldn't help but laugh.

"So if you don't know what you found then how do you know you found anything at all?" Wallace asked.

"Because," Mac answered, pulling up some records on one tab and some statistics on another tab, "These numbers don't add up. There are inconsistencies in these files but I don't know what they mean yet," she explained.

"How are you gonna figure that out?" Wallace asked, slipping an arm around her.

She automatically snuggled close and said, "Well, I guess I take it to Veronica's tomorrow. Maybe they can help me sort it out then."

"Speaking of Veronica," Wallace started tentatively, "When are we gonna tell her about us? It's getting harder and harder to hide. She's gonna stop being so blind sooner or later."

"Can I vote for later?" Mac fairly squeaked and then explained, "It's just that, it's been so nice just the two of us. I think about her and Logan and all the drama they've been through. I don't want that for us. Somehow I guess I keep thinking that the longer we keep 'us' hidden, the less chance of our relationship being cursed."

"Cursed?!" Wallace laughed, at first thinking she was joking. Then he looked at her when she didn't laugh and realized she was serious, "Oh my god! You really are serious, aren't you?"

"Yes!" Mac exclaimed, "I don't want to be on again off again and more off than on. I just want to be us and stay us and not have to deal with the rest of the world." By the end of her speech, her words were rather whiny and she'd tucked her head firmly between Wallace's chin and his shoulder.

"Cindy 'Mac' Mackenzie. We are not even like that," Wallace said sternly, forcing her to lift her head and look him in the eye.

"How do you know?" she asked in a very small and childish voice. She knew she sounded silly but she couldn't help it. She'd been burned one too many times before.

He held her gaze and said confidently, "I know because - " then cut himself off before saying, "Wait a minute. Stay right there. I've got to get something from my car but don't move."

She watched him get up and leave and wondered what in the world he could want to get from his car that was so important that he couldn't even finish his sentence to her. It was ridiculous really.

Before she could think about it any more or rationalize in her mind what his reasoning might be, he returned. "What was so important that - " she started to ask. Then he was down on one knee in front of her with a small black velvet box in his hands. She just sat there slack-jawed and staring with wide blue eyes, a look of utter shock in them.

"Cindy Mackenzie," Wallace said with pride and confidence in his voice, grinning at her as if he knew exactly what she'd say next, "I cannot even imagine what the next twenty minutes would be like without you, let alone the next twenty years. Would you marry me? I don't think I could live with myself without you by my side."

Mac was crying and blubbering happy tears as she reached for him and pulled him back up to the couch to hug him and kiss him and look at the ring and try it on. "Oh my god, yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! I can NOT believe this! I can't wait to tell -" she stopped herself mid-sentence and grabbed Wallace by the shoulders, "We have to tell her. No! We have to tell them! Tonight. Now! I am so totally going to burst if we don't go find Veronica and Logan right this minute and tell them we're engaged."

Wallace just laughed again, shook his head happily and cupped her face in his hands to kiss her. "I had other plans for tonight," he said, "But we can do that instead if that's what you want."

Taking a moment to think, Mac quickly said decidedly, "We go see them and tell them the news and then come back here and celebrate. All. Night. Long."