Mackenzie woke up the next morning and, as she usually did, she turned her head to the right to look at the alarm clock on her bedside table. Something she quickly regretted doing; the muscles on her neck painfully spasmed and all she could do was groan and moan out loud. Her hand quickly went to support her neck and she closed her eyes before taking a few deep breaths to relax and subdue the pain.
She heard a gentle knock on her bedroom door and she smiled. "Come in." Mac said. She was expecting Will and, when she saw Sloan opening the door, her smile vanished.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Will had to go to the pitch meeting. He'll come back once it's over." Sloan explained while she went around the bed to carefully sit next to Mac. "How are you feeling?"
"As if a car had hit mine from behind." Mac dryly replied. "What time is it?"
"Ten past eleven." Sloan replied after glancing at her watch.
"Really? I slept for more than ten hours?" She thought out loud. "Unbelievable."
"Will told me that the medication they gave you was pretty strong." Sloan told her. "Are you hungry? I brought you breakfast." She proudly asked.
"I'm not very hungry but I have to eat something before taking the meds they gave me." Mac explained. "Can you hand me my robe? It's in the bathroom."
"Of course." Sloan quickly replied. She got up from the bed and went to grab the robe. When she came back, she saw Mac attempting to sit up but with only one hand to help, the other was still supporting her neck, she was having some trouble achieving her goal. Sloan abandoned the robe on the bed an offered her hand to her friend to help her up. Mac gladly accepted it.
"Oh God." She groaned when she stood up. "Hand me the brace, please." Mac asked her, pointing to where the neck collar was. Sloan grabbed it and helped Mac put it around her neck. "Thanks."
"No problem." Sloan replied with a smile.
They walked together to the living room where, very sternly, Sloan ordered Mac to sit down on the couch while she made her a cup of tea and grabbed the chocolate croissants she had bought. Mac, after telling Sloan she was perfectly capable of preparing her own tea, reluctantly complied when Sloan glared at her. Once she was sitting down, she leant back to rest her head on the couch and closed her eyes. How could she still be so tired after sleeping for ten straight hours? A car accident and strong medication would do that to you, Mackenzie, she told herself.
Sloan returned and gave Mac her pills and a cup of tea. "Take this." She told her. Mac did as told and swallowed the pills with a sip of the warm drink. Then, Sloan sat next to her and balanced the tray with the croissants on her knees. "Eat." She said, handing Mac a croissant.
"Yes ma'am." Mac replied, smiling. "You're a mean nurse, Sloanie." She told her, calling her the name she used to tease her, or to piss her off. When Sloan had begun calling her Kenzie, she had come up with Sloanie just to mess with her. It had ended becoming a recurrent joke between them.
Sloan laughed out loud. "Yes, I am. I have to keep you in line."
"Thank you." Mac sincerely said.
"Don't mention it. You'd do the same for me." Sloan replied. Then, she repositioned herself on the couch, making herself comfortable, before she asked what she had been dying to ask since she spoke with Charlie that morning. "So, Will knows?"
"Yeah." Mac told her, defeated. "We were going out tonight and I was going to tell him but I had to do it yesterday because, well ... You know why."
"Do they think it was the creep who hit you?" She asked.
"That's what Mike told me. They're investigating it." Mac explained. "But I didn't tell him, Charlie did."
"Kenzie!" Sloan exclaimed. "Why?"
"Because something happened with the fucking creep and I realized what it was just when they were about to take me to the MRI. Will was with me and I needed someone to tell Mike and I didn't have time to explain."
"What happened?" She asked. Then, something clicked on her mind. "Is it related to what happened on Sunday that you haven't told me yet?"
"Yes." Mac simply answered.
"Spill it." Sloan ordered her friend.
"Will came by Sunday night to watch the broadcast with me." Mac began.
"And? This can't be all." Sloan interrupted her. "He's been weird all week. You too."
"He spent the night." She told her, knowing Sloan would quickly link the missing points.
"Holy cow!" She exclaimed again. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
"I had a brief lapse of judgement." Mac replied. "Twice."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Sloan..."
"Do you regret it?" She asked her friend.
"I don't think so." Mac answered. "It's complicated."
"You bet your ass it is!" Sloan thought out loud. "What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know, we haven't really talked about it. The current situation doesn't help either." She said before taking a deep breath. "He told me he's working on it. I'm confused, I don't know what's going through his head anymore. He went from hating me and making my life hell to being kind and wonderful and charming, Sloan. Charlie told me he took the news about the stalker much better than he had thought he would but I know him, he kept everything inside for my sake. He'll continue like this until he explodes and I'm sure it's not going to be very pleasant."
"He's worried."
"Well, I am too. What if he changes his mind? What if he decides I'm not worth the trouble? I don't know if I could take his rejection a second time, Sloan."
"You have to tell him, Kenzie, explain everything to him, make him understand."
"Easy for you to say."
"Want me to kick some sense into him? I could." Sloan joked and she smiled when Mac bursted out laughing.
"God, Sloan, don't make me laugh. It hurts." Mac reprimanded her friend, but they both know she wasn't serious at all. Mac appreciated Sloan's company and everything the economist was doing for her. When she came back to New York, she never thought she would find a wonderful and best friend in Sloan Sabbith.
"Come on, finish your breakfast while we watch ACN Morning and mock Tony Hart."
When Will opened the door of Mackenzie's apartment a little after half-past two, he smiled at the sight in front of him: Mac was sleeping on the couch with her feet on Sloan's lap while the other woman worked on something with her iPad, the TV in front of them still on but muted. He carefully closed the door, trying not to wake Mac up, and approached them.
"I have lunch." He told Sloan in greeting, showing her the bags on his hands. "How is she?"
"The muscle relaxant knocked her out. I took the brace off, as you told me, and made sure she was comfortable."
"Thank you." He sincerely told her. "I'll get everything ready in the kitchen." Will informed her before walking to said room.
Sloan put her iPad on the coffee table before she, very carefully, lifted Mac's legs so she could get up. Once she accomplished the task without waking up her friend, she quickly followed Will. She smiled at the sight of him grabbing dishes and glasses from the cupboards without a second thought, as if he lived there. Sloan helped him set the table while he heated their food.
"How mad are you right now?" She asked him.
"What?" Will replied with a confused look on his face that made Sloan laugh. "She told you." Will realized.
"Yep." Sloan sympathetically told him. "She was going to tell you."
"Why did she wait so long?" Will asked her, pretty sure that she knew.
"It's not my place to say. You have to ask her." Sloan replied.
"Sloan, don't fuck with me on this." Will sternly said, throwing the dishtowel he had on his hand to the kitchen counter.
"I'll give you my very own personal opinion." Sloan told him, leaving the table mid-set. She approached him and looked at him, directly into his eyes. "You've been acting like an schizophrenic towards her lately."
"I don't think that's an accurate psychiatric observation." Will interrupted her.
"You know what I mean." Sloan replied. "She didn't tell you because she wasn't sure you'd care. I know!" She said, raising her hand to stop him, when she saw he was about to interrupt her again. "I know you care and I think, deep down, she knew too, but she remote possibility that you wouldn't scared her."
"What are you two talking about?" Mac asked from the door of the kitchen, startling them.
"Hey." Will softly said. Mac entered the kitchen and Will went to kiss her cheek. "How are you feeling?"
"I've been better." She replied, smiling at him. "You brought lunch?"
"Yeah."
"Well, let's eat. I'm hungry and our economist here has a show to do at four."
They ate their lunch while Will put Mac up to date about what happened at the newsroom that morning. Will explained that the staff knew about the accident and that everyone of them had asked Will to send their best wishes to Mac. He told her that Jim had been a bit nervous after he had told Scooter he didn't need Don for the show, that he was more than capable to be the EP for the night. "He'll be great." Mac had said.
Sloan left as soon as they finished eating, leaving Will to clear the table while Mac returned to her comfortable couch. He joined her ten minutes later. He sat down and put one of the cushions on his lap, urging Mac to lay down with her head on his lap. Mac happily complied. They spent a few minutes in silence, Will gently stroking her hair. Mackenzie knew the inevitable conversation was about to start so she closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
"Relax, Mackenzie. I'm not the Spanish Inquisition."
Mac opened her eyes and looked at him. "You've taken the news surprisingly well." She softly said.
"I have to admit I was mad as hell when Charlie told me, but I had time to think. I understand why you didn't tell me. It hurts, it hurts that I made you think, even if it was for a moment, that I wouldn't care. It hurst that you couldn't trust me enough."
"Billy..." Mac tried to interrupt him, but he didn't let her.
"It's mostly my fault; I've been giving you mixed signals, I've been so focused in my own problems that, even if I suspected that something was wrong, I decided to ignore it." He sadly admitted.
"I didn't want to worry you. I though I could deal with this on my own, that telling you would be like some kind of emotional blackmail."
"Why?" He asked, confused.
"I didn't want you to think I'd told you to keep you by my side. I needed to be sure that you wanted to be with me for the right reasons. What happened Sunday night..." Mac took a deep breath. "It scared me. It was wonderful, and I loved every second of it, and it scared me. What if I've given myself completely to you and then, at some point, you changed your mind?"
"I'd never do that. I wouldn't have made love to you if I wasn't sure about my feelings."
"That's what you say, Will, but you change your mind about me as often as I change my knickers. Excuse me for having my doubts."
"Hey!" He exclaimed, offended. Mac tried to sit up but he gently placed his hand on her upper-chest, preventing her from moving. "I would never take advantage of your feelings for me, Mac."
"You did." She softly replied.
"And I apologized." He reminded her. "I can't promise I won't hurt you ever again, neither can you, but I promise you I'll never do it intentionally. I want to try again. I know how my life is when you're not in it and I hate it. I want you by my side, in every possible way. I wasn't ready to admit it before."
"What made you change your mind?" Mac asked him.
"These past few weeks, Jack, Charlie, the possibility of losing you. Pick your choice." Will replied.
Mac removed Will's hand from her body and, despite his protests, sat up on the couch. She turned herself around to look at him and took his hands between her own.
"So this if for real. We're trying again." Mac told him, the question hanging in the air.
"We are." He said, his eyes telling her he was sure.
"Ok." She simply replied before tucking herself against his side.
Will kissed her head and put his arm around her, pulling her as close as possible. "Ok."
A few hours later, Will sat down at his desk and organized his papers, a nervous habit he had acquired a long time ago. He checked that everything was alright and mentally set himself to start.
"Will." He heard Jim through his earpiece. "You ready?"
"Yeah." Will replied. For a second, he had thought about messing with him, as he always did with Mackenzie, but he knew the boy was nervous so he had let it go.
"Mac just texted me. She asked me to tell you that she's watching and to not thank people for washing us."
Will snorted at that and, despite himself, a small laugh escaped him. Mac knew he would also be nervous and, with a simple text message, she had put him at ease.
"Good show."
"Thanks, Jim." Will replied.
The broadcast had gone well. As soon as the red light had gone off, his phone vibrated. Will took out his earpiece and grabbed his phone: the name on the screen didn't surprise him at all. He answered Mac's call with an smile while he gathered his things. He went back to his office and spent twenty minutes talking to her. After she had reassured him, at least five times, that she was fine, he kept his promise and asked Lonny to take him back to his apartment, not hers.
He got home and changed into comfortable clothes before grabbing a beer from the fridge and stepping into the balcony to smoke a cigarette. All he could think about was Mackenzie and a sudden urge to hear her voice made him pick up his Blackberry and dial her number, something he regretted as soon as he heard her sleepy voice over the phone.
"Did I wake you?" He asked, concerned.
"I don't mind." Mac assured him.
"Go back to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow." Will told her.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, really." He said, trying to convince her.
"Billy, would you feel better if you came?" She asked him. When, after a few seconds, he didn't answer, Mac spoke again. "Billy?"
"Yeah, I would." Will admitted.
"You stole my spare key, right?"
"I did." He replied with a small laugh.
"Use it, ok? I'm comfy and I don't want to get up."
"Ok." Will said, still laughing. "I'll be there soon."
Mac hung up before he could say anything more. In record time, he packed a bag and asked Lonny to drive him to Mac's apartment. When he arrived, he used the key to let himself in. He closed the door and locked it before walking to Mackenzie's bedroom.
The door was open, he could see her sleeping form and the steady raise and fall of her chest every time she took a breath. Will sat down on the chair opposite the bed and left his duffle bag on the floor. He got his clothes off and changed into his pajama pants and an old t-shirt. After pulling down the covers, Will quickly climbed into the bed and moved as closer to her as he could. He put his arm over her waist and spooned her from behind. Mac relaxed into his arms and snugged even closer, almost every inch of their bodies touching.
She murmured something unintelligible in her sleep. In response, Will kissed he back of her head. "Shhh. Go back to sleep." He whispered to her.
"I love you, Billy." Mac softly said.
Will froze and stopped breathing for a few seconds. He gently nudged her and verified what he thought: she was asleep. He released his breath, relieved, before kissing her once again and closing his eyes.
"I love you too." He whispered back.