Mac stared at him, dumfounded. What the hell was he doing there? Why was he looking so good with his faded jeans and deep blue sweater? Will, leaning on her door frame, looked at her with a shy smile on his face. He knew he had shocked her and, deep down, he felt a bit proud of himself.
"Are you gonna let me in?" He finally asked after several seconds of just staring at each other.
"Yeah, right." Mac replied before stepping aside to let him enter her apartment. Once he was inside, she closed the door and followed him to her living room. In the five seconds it had taken her to close the door, he had already made himself comfortable on her couch and had the remote on his hand, switching from CNN to ACN to watch the anniversary coverage that was about to start. "Want something to drink?" She asked him, not knowing what else to say.
"Some of that wine will be fine." He replied, pointing to the glass she was holding.
Mac walked to the kitchen and left her glass next to the bottle. Then, she opened a cupboard to get a wineglass for Will. She poured some wine into his glass and stared at her own for a few seconds before draining it in two big gulps and pouring herself another one. She got back into the living room and handed Will his glass. He replied with a quick thank you before returning his attention to the TV screen in front of him. Mac felt a bit underdressed in her calf-length colorful leggings and red tank top so she went to her bedroom to grab her short black robe before sitting down next to Will.
"Take your feet off my table." She told him, her words accompanied with a non-so-gentle kick to his legs.
"It was worth a shot." Will simply replied, pulling his feet down.
They watched the entire A-block in silence. Mac kept her sight on the screen, trying to ignore the fact that Will was sitting besides her on the couch. Meanwhile, Will glanced over to look at Mac every few minutes, waiting for her to say something. When the first commercial break began, Mac jumped out of her seat and walked to the kitchen without saying a word. Will quickly got up and followed her.
"Why aren't you at work?" He dared to ask.
"You're supposed to have the flu. What are you doing here?" Mac asked back.
"I called to wish everybody a good show. When I asked to be put through the control room to talk to you, Don answered and told me you weren't there." Will replied while moving to stand in front of her, at the other side of the island. "Why?"
"It doesn't matter." She told him.
"It does. To me."
"It didn't seem right for me to be there when you had been left out so I told Charlie I wouldn't be producing." Mac explained to him. "I joined today's meetings via Skype, though."
"Is that the reason why you've been so subdued lately?"
"Yeah." Mac replied, feeling bad for lying to him. It wasn't entirely a lie, she had other reasons for keeping her distance but one of them was the anniversary coverage. "Elliot and Sloan are doing a great job." She said, changing the subject.
"They are."
When they heard that the show was back on, they returned to the couch to watch it. For the rest of the broadcast, they talked to each other and shared their thoughts about what was going on. It felt weird, in a way: it reminded them of the old times, when they would spend hours sitting together on the couch watching the news or old movies, Will spooning Mac or him laying down with her on top of him, their bodies close, sharing a kiss every few minutes.
Will knew he didn't have a reason to stay any longer but he didn't want to leave. Since he had learnt that Mac hadn't heard the voicemail message, he had been trying to get closer, to slowly begin to trust her with his heart again. It wasn't an easy task, he had years of resentment flowing through his brain. And bringing Brian back hadn't helped, at all. He was really sorry for that, he knew he had to tell Mac, but something inside him prevented him of doing it. For her part, Mackenzie wanted Will to stay, despite all her current problems and her trying to avoid telling him, she was glad he had decided to come. She enjoyed his company, she enjoyed having him close. She took every opportunity she could, she grabbed every inch he gave her and held onto it as if her life depended of it.
Mac took his presence as a good sign of their road to recovery. She decided to test the boundaries a little more. "Want something to eat?" She asked Will, turning her head to look at him.
Will stared at her for a few seconds, happy to see how relaxed she seemed leaning back on her couch, with her head resting in one of her fluffy cushions, looking at him with her blue wonderful eyes. "What do you have?" He finally asked back.
"Not much." Mac admitted. "But we could order Chinese, or pizza."
"Chinese sounds great."
Mac got up from her comfy spot and walked to the kitchen to grab the menu from her favorite place. She dialed the restaurant's number and placed the order, without bothering to check what Will wanted. She knew all his favorite foods, she also knew he always ordered the same. Will stood near the door, amused. It had been years since they had been together but they still knew each other pretty well. He went back to the living room to grab their wine glasses and returned to the kitchen to refill them. While Mac took out plates and cutlery, Will sat down in a barstool. He looked around: even if it was a different apartment than the one Mac had when they were together, everything looked very similar. He noticed she had everything distributed the same way and that made him smile. Her fridge door was filled with pictures so he stood up to look at them. He first looked at the ones of her family: he remembered her oldest nephew and niece but he didn't know the other kids in those photos, he assumed her brothers had had more children. Then, he saw one of Mac and Jim, both wearing black t-shirts and cargo pants. Under that, there was one of Mac and Sloan, all dressed up, hanging onto each other with silly grins on their faces. He smiled at the picture of the News Night staff from the one year anniversary party at his apartment. But an almost hidden picture was the one that really caught his attention. He carefully took it and showed it to Mac.
"Why the hell is your hair blonde in this picture?" He asked her, confused as hell. Mac grabbed the picture from his hand and bursted out laughing. "What?" Will asked again.
"I lost an stupid bet with Tuck and Morris." Mac told him. At Will confused look, she explained. "They're two of the Marines from the unit I was embedded with. We became very good friends." She returned the picture to Will. "One night, after a very stressful day, we ended drinking cheap vodka and playing poker. We were pretty drunk and I had a very good hand. They knew it so we forgot about the money and decided to bet something different. Long story short, I lost the hand and had to dye my hair blonde and keep it like that, at least, for two weeks."
"Do you still talk to them?" Will asked her while returning the picture to its rightful place.
"Morris died just before I came back to New York." Mac told him. He wanted to ask what happened but the look on her face stopped him. "Tuck is still there. We email each other from time to time and he always calls for my birthday."
Mac was grateful that the doorbell rang at that moment, preventing her from having to explain more things about her time embedded. Some memories were really painful and she didn't want to remind Will (or herself) why she went in the first place. She offered to go downstairs to pick up the food but Will told her he would go. Meanwhile, she set everything on the breakfast bar.
They finished the bottle of wine and opened another one. The food was great and they enjoyed each other company. It had been a while since they had been so relaxed around each other and it felt nice. The mood was wonderful. When he had decided to go to her place, Will knew he had and wanted to apologize but it wasn't as easy as he had thought it would be. He poured himself another glass of wine and refilled Mac's once she had drunk the remaining liquid on her glass. She was pleasantly buzzed and he was getting there. It was the right time to bring up the subject.
"Mac?" He said, surprisingly shy.
"Yes?" She replied, confused at the sudden change in his mood.
"I'm sorry about the Brian thing." He told her before he could change his mind. "It was a pretty bad call. I thought it would make me feel better but it didn't. It was a stupid thing to do and I'm sorry."
Mac didn't know what to say. It had been more than two months since that had happened: why was he apologizing now? She looked at him, a blank expression on her face, waiting for him to say something more.
"Ok." Mac finally said.
"That's all?" He asked a bit incredulously.
"What do you want me to say?" She replied, getting up from her seat. "You brought Brian with the sole purpose of hurting me and you were kind enough of making it pretty clear. What were you expecting? A don't worry about it, it's fine? It's not, Will." She paused for a few seconds, putting her thoughts in order. "You've been punishing me since I came back and I never said a word, thinking I deserved it because I had hurt you. But you know what? I had enough."
"Mackenzie." He said while getting up.
"I think you should leave." Mac told him.
"No." Will firmly told her.
"No?" She asked him, annoyed.
"No." He replied. "You're right, I did it to hurt you and I'm sorry. I'm done, ok? Because I realized hurting you also hurts me, Mac. I've been hurting you and you did nothing but take it. You've been staying by my side, unconditionally, even when I tried to push you away." He stopped to loot directly at her eyes. "I never thanked you for taking care of me the week I was at the hospital, I haven't thanked you for what you did tonight. It means more than you think."
"You don't have to thank me." Mac whispered.
"Yes, I do." Will replied, slowly approaching her. "Thank you, Mackenzie." He said.
Will stood in front of her, with just a few inches between them. Before he could change his mind, he gathered her into his arms. At first, Mac didn't return the hug, still astonished by his words. Will didn't give up, he continued embracing her, he even pulled her a little bit closer. Finally, Mac relaxed into his arms and rested her head on his chest, her hands finding their way to gently caress his back.
When Mac raised her head, she saw something in his eyes that confused her even more. With their arms still around each other, Will looked down to stare at her eyes. He could see and feel her confusion, he was confused to, but, right at that moment, there was only one thing he wanted to do. Slowly, his head descended until his lips softly touched hers. That first kiss was chaste and tender. The second one had more passion into it.
Things were about to escalate very quickly so Mac stopped him before things could go any further.
"Billy." She told him.
Will understood her fears. It was the point of no return. He hadn't fully forgiven her, they both were aware of that, but he wanted to. "I'm working on it." He whispered. "I won't regret it."
"You still hadn't told me what was in the fucking voicemail, Will." Mac reminded him.
"I know." He admitted. "But I will. Soon."
Mac tried to get free of his arms but Will didn't let her. "Billy."
"I'm sure." He assured her.
"You're sure now. Will you still be sure tomorrow? And next week? Because I'm not sure I'll be able to take another blow, Will. I'm not sure I'll survive if you change your mind, Billy. Not right now."
"It won't be easy, nothing really is between us, Mackenzie, it never has been. Give me tonight? We'll work something out in the morning, but let's have tonight. You and me, nothing else matters right now."
After a few seconds, Mac nodded. Will smiled at her before capturing her lips into another kiss. Slowly, they walked their way to her bedroom, sharing quick kisses between removing their clothes. They finally laid down on her bed, facing each other, clad only in their underwear. Will lovingly tucked her hair behind her ear before he moved closer to kiss her again. Carefully, Mac rolled onto her back and Will climbed on top of her.
Their lovemaking was slow and tender, full of unsaid feelings and words. They took their time to get to know each other again, exploring their bodies and reactions to different touches and caresses. They fell asleep holding each other, Mac tucked into his side with her head resting on his shoulder. But when Will woke up the next morning, he found himself alone.