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i.
"Quick, hide!" Mac hissed at her husband, grabbing his arm and pulling him behind a cereal box display.
"What the hell..." Will muttered, but did as he was told, moving behind the boxes and closer to Mac, being careful not the jostle the baby, fast asleep in her carrier resting in the cart.
"Brian Brenner," Mac's voice was just above a whisper.
"What? Here?" Will started to lean his head out to see and Mac grabbed the lapels of his shirt and yanked him back.
"Don't!" She admonished.
"How long are we supposed to stay here?" Will asked, glancing down at Charlotte. They only had so long to grocery shop while she slept peacefully. Time was ticking.
"Until the coast is clear," Mac replied, pressing herself up against Will so they were better hidden (he was certainly not going to complain about having Mac closer to him).
"How long do you predict that will take?" Will almost didn't want to ask.
"I don't care if it takes all day, I'm not going out there until I think he's gone," Mac shot back.
"We need..." He started, and Mac pressed a finger to his lips.
"There is nothing in this world that we need badly enough to make me go out there right now." Will let out a long suffering sigh.
"This is ridiculous," he told her. "Charlie's going to be awake soon and we still need..."
"MacKenzie?" She stiffened. Brian Fucking Brenner.
"Hi, Brian," Mac sighed.
"Hello, Will," Brian added.
"Brian," Will replied, giving him a curt nod.
"I thought I heard you had moved to Chicago?" Mac said, her mouth in a tight smile. About three weeks after their engagement, Mac had run into a mutual friend of her and Brian's who had told her he had been offered a job with the Chicago Sun Times. She and Will had celebrated the news of Brian's departure from New York by ordering food in and not getting out of bed all day.
"Good riddance!" Mac had cackled.
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" Will had chimed in, before pinning her to the bed and covering her mouth with his.
But their celebration had been premature, because here he was. Standing in front of them in the middle of the grocery store on the Upper East Side, where he was most definitely not supposed to be.
"I did, I'm just here for a couple of days," Brian answered.
A couple of days. And in those couple of days, out of all the grocery stores in the city, a city that had millions of people, they ended up in the same goddamn place as Brian Goddamn Brenner.
Ha fucking ha ha, Universe, Will thought.
Bringing in Brian to punish MacKenzie had been one of his more dickbag moves, and one that he still felt guilt and a decent amount of regret over when he thought about it. He had been as overjoyed as Mac to hear that Brian was moving away from New York. Not just because of the obvious, not just because he was an old boyfriend of Mac's, the old boyfriend, but also because Brian represented a time, and a version of himself, that Will wasn't exactly proud of.
"Great," Mac said in a voice that was recognized by both men as her just shy of sarcasm tone.
"I hear congratulations are in order," Brian said, shifting his weight uncomfortably and glancing past Mac to where the baby was sleeping. "She's beautiful."
"Oh," Mac lit up, as she always did when someone complimented Charlotte. It was the quickest way to get Mac on your side (the opposite was true as well. Any slight against the baby was not taken kindly. A certain DC anchor found that out when she had made a snide comment after the birth announcement had been sent out. Something along the lines of "I've seen cuter babies," a comment overheard by Maggie, reported back to Jim, relayed to Gary, who was in the midst of telling Tess when Will overheard. And promptly flipped his shit. Mac had calmed him down, but had taken her own subtle revenge against Jane by ensuring that DC didn't get to break any big stories for a lengthy period of time afterwards). "Thanks."
“I never thought of you as a mother. It kind of blew my mind when I heard you were pregnant. MacKenzie McHale, someone’s mother,” Brian snorted, and the smile slid off of Mac’s face.
“It’s been great, Brian, really,” Will said, positioning himself between Brian and Mac. He recognized the look on his wife’s face. She was pissed.
"You know," Brian began, oblivious to MacKenzie’s darkening mood. "I think I owe you an apology."
"You think?" The words were out of Will's mouth before he could quite stop them, and he saw Mac fight a smirk out of the corner of his eye.
"Look," Brian said, his tone and stance defensive. "About the article.” Both Will and Mac’s eyes widened in surprise.
“That’s what you need to apologize to us for?” Mac asked.
“Yes. Well, okay, I'm not going to apologize completely for the article. You brought me in there to write whatever I wanted to write, and at the time I thought what you were trying to do was bullshit."
"This is the worst apology ever," Mac told him.
"I'm getting there," Brian rolled his eyes at her, a move that irritated both McAvoys. "I might have been a little harsher than I needed to be based on our past. That's what I'm apologizing for."
"Holy shit," Mac breathed. "I don't think I've ever heard an apology from you. Ever. Ever." She turned to Will, an incredulous look on her face. "Not once. Not ever. This is a momentous occasion. We should document it."
"Jesus, Mac, can't you just accept my apology?" Brian asked, exasperated.
"Such as it is," Will muttered. He was rewarded with a glare from Brian, and a grin from his wife.
“I should go,” Brian rocked back on his heels. “Seriously, you, a mother. Will wonders ever cease?”
“As always, it’s been a real pleasure seeing you,” Mac replied, and there was no mistaking the sarcasm in her voice this time. As soon as he was out of earshot, Mac turned and smacked her husband, hard, on the arm.
“What the hell was that for?” Will exclaimed.
“Next time, hide better,” Mac hissed.
ii.
Her new job meant long hours, sometimes even longer hours than him.
Will would take Charlotte home after the broadcast, and Mac would be still holed up in her office, an apologetic look on her face when he stopped by with the baby to say goodbye and ask her how much longer she was going to be. It never failed that as soon as she crawled into bed at some ridiculously late hour, the baby woke up and she would insist on being the one to go.
“I feel like I haven’t seen her all day,” Mac would tell him, sleepily, as she threw her legs over the side of the bed and dragged herself to the nursery.
She was starting to look again like she had been grown somewhere dark and damp, after several long nights at the office followed by a few nights where Charlotte just wouldn’t be consoled.
Which was exactly why Will told her to go back to bed when Charlie’s cries woke them up that Saturday morning.
“I’m going to take her out for a few hours,” he told his wife, brushing the hair from her face. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.” Mac was too exhausted to even argue, she gave him a nod and rolled over.
Will got Charlotte dressed and packed a bag, stopping into the bedroom to drop a kiss to Mac’s forehead, and to tell her he was taking the baby to the park. His wife barely stirred.
A few hours later, he was pushing Charlotte through the park back towards home when he spotted her.
“Fuck,” he breathed out, and then remembered the company he was in, and glanced down at the baby. “Sorry baby girl, Daddy didn’t mean to say that word.” Panicked he glanced around to see if it was too late to turn around and walk the other way. Before he was caught.
“Will? Will McAvoy? Is that you?” Damn. It was too late.
“Hey, there,” he said.
“It’s Carrie,” she supplied. “Sloan Sabbith’s friend? What? You don’t remember me?”
“Of course I remember you,” he answered. He did remember her. Who could forget a woman who pulled a gun out of her purse on the first date? “How are you doing?”
“I’m great, thanks! Is this your daughter?” Carrie leaned over the stroller, and Will fought the urge to tug the stroller back. “I saw that you had gotten married. Lucky lady.” Carrie poked him in the chest, and he forced a smile. “She’s adorable!” Will felt his chest puff out in pride, something that happened any time someone complimented his daughter. She was adorable. And already a fucking genius (although it wasn’t as if that should surprise anyone. Not with MacKenzie for a mother).
“Thankfully she got her mother’s looks,” Will flashed Carrie a smile.
“I don’t know,” was it just him, or was her tone borderline flirtatious? “I think she might have gotten your looks.” He chuckled uncomfortably. (And shit, it was flirtatious. She knew he was married. Goddamn Sloan for introducing him to this woman.)
“Right, well, we don’t want to keep you,” he started to say, and she placed a hand on his arm.
“Oh, I don’t have anywhere to be,” she assured him. He was anything but reassured. She gave his arm a squeeze. He was devising a plan to get away when he was distracted by his daughter, straining in her stroller towards something, someone, walking towards them.
“Mamamama!” Charlotte babbled, as she started kicking her tiny legs and waving her little arms.
“Who’s your friend, Will?” That was a voice that he was painfully familiar with. Carrie quickly dropped her hand from Will’s arm. “Hey sweet girl,” Mac turned her attention to the eight month old, kneeling down to unstrap Charlie from the stroller. She stood with the baby in her arms and leaned into her husband.
“This is Carrie,” Will introduced, wrapping an arm around his wife’s shoulders and being so grateful for her impeccable timing. “She’s a friend of Sloan’s.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mac smiled. “I’m MacKenzie. MacKenzie McAvoy.” No one missed the emphasis on her last name.
“It was nice to meet you too,” Carrie replied. “Well, I should let you go. Your daughter is really beautiful. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Mac beamed at her.
“Will, it was good to see you,” Carrie gave him a wink and then sashayed away.
“Jesus, Will, I can’t let you go anywhere on your own,” Mac teased. He kissed the shit eating grin off her face.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” Will said, ignoring as she cooed to Charlotte,
“Daddy thinks he’s a real ladies man, but we know better, yes we do. He’s an idiot, but he’s our idiot. Yes he is.”
iii.
“If it isn’t MacKenzie McHale,” Mac swallowed the groan that wanted to escape, and turned around slowly.
“Wade Campbell, I’m surprised you’re here,” she gestured to the party around them, and wondered where the fuck her husband had wandered off to.
“Didn’t think I rated an invite?” He gave her a cocky grin that she wanted to smack off his face.
“No, it’s just the last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, I’m pretty sure I told you to go to Hell,” she gave him a sweet smile.
“And yet, here I am.”
“Here you are,” she nodded. “That’s disappointing. I had really hoped you had listened to me.”
“Well, I did lose the election,” he offered.
“Pity,” she deadpanned. She took a long sip of her drink. “But I am wondering how you managed an invite to this party. What poor woman are you sleeping with this time to help get yourself ahead?”
“I deserve that,” Wade held up in his hands in a motion of surrender. “But I’ll have you know that I was invited myself. The mayor and I go way back. I’m actually a little surprised to see you. I didn’t think the mayor’s New Year’s Eve party was your thing.” Wade’s eyes narrowed. “Unless. Let me guess. You’re here with your husband.” Mac felt a flicker of annoyance. Wade Fucking Campbell wasn’t allowed to harbor any resentment towards her (even if it had been clear to all parties involved that Mac was desperately, irrevocably in love with Will. Because Wade had fucking used her. So he didn’t get to be the injured party).
“I have to tell you, this kind of party is even less Will’s thing than it is mine,” Mac replied, cooly. “We’re not staying long.”
It had been at Pruitt’s request that they were here at all. They had promised him they would make an appearance. (Truthfully, they hadn’t wanted to go out for New Year’s at all. If it had been up to either one of them, they would have rung in the new year at home, curled up around each other after putting Charlotte to bed. But their plans for the night, like so many things lately, were out of their control.)
“I suppose I should tell you congratulations,” Wade held up his glass in a toast, and Mac fought the urge to knock the champagne flute out of his hands. “New job, new husband, new baby. Looks like things worked out pretty well for you.”
“Everything okay, here, hon?” Will appeared at her elbow, sliding his fingers along the shiny material of her dress, before resting his hand on her hip.
“Fine,” Mac reassured him, flashing him a small smile. “Wade was just congratulating me.”
“We should go,” Will said, ignoring Wade completely and turning to his wife. “The car’s waiting for us.” MacKenzie nodded, reaching to take the hand that was resting on her hip and giving it a squeeze.
“Sounds great,” she told him, “let me just say goodbye to a couple of people. I’ll meet you out front?” Will nodded. “Wade? I’d say it was a pleasure to see you again, but we both know I’d be lying.” She gave Will’s hand one last squeeze and disappeared into the crowds. Will watched her go, and then turned to Wade.
“You’re a real piece of shit, Campbell,” he said without preamble. “And I’ve been waiting a few years to be able to say that to you.”
“Seems to have worked out in your favor,” Wade pointed out.
“Fuck you,” Will said, his voice calm. “You used her. You made her feel stupid and small, and that makes you human garbage. And I could go on, about how you’re scum, worse than scum, but you’re not worth me wasting my breath. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find my wife and we’re going to block out the part of the evening where we had to see your miserable fucking face again.” He drained his drink, placed the empty glass on a passing waiter’s tray, and made his way through the crowds toward where MacKenzie was waiting.
iv.
“Erin Andrews,” Will muttered.
“What?” MacKenzie looked over at him confused.
“Erin Andrews is here,” he repeated.
“Oh,” Mac said, and Will had no idea what that “oh” was supposed to mean. He studied his wife’s face for any sort of hint of what was going through her head. “Okay.”
“Okay?” He asked, surprised. Mac shrugged.
“Am I supposed to be worried for some reason?” Mac replied.
“No?”
“You sure about that, buddy? You don’t sound very sure,” Mac narrowed her eyes at him.
“No, you aren’t supposed to be worried,” Will said. “Worried isn’t the right word. I just didn’t know if it was going to be awkward.”
“Uh-huh,” Mac replied, folding her arms across her chest.
“I mean, it was a short fling,” Will was aware that he was babbling, but the fact that his wife looked incredibly unflustered had the unique ability to fluster him. “It really only lasted the two weeks were at the beach, and you know, my mind wasn’t really in the right place at the time.”
“Okay,” Mac repeated.
“I’m just saying,” Will started.
“Will McAvoy! As I live and breathe,” Erin Andrews approached the couple, a smile on her face.
“Erin,” he greeted. “How are you?”
“I’m great, thanks,” she replied. “It’s been awhile. What? Four? Five years?”
“At least,” he nodded. “This is my wife, MacKenzie.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” Mac said, extending her hand.
“You too,” Erin smiled. “I’m so happy to finally meet you. I wanted to let you know, I got the thank you note you sent, that was so sweet!” Will’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“Thank you note?”
“Erin sent the most darling little dress for Charlotte when she was born,” Mac explained.
“You did? She did?” Will looked back and forth between the two women.
“Congratulations, she’s really beautiful,” Erin said, sincerely. “The picture you included with the thank you was really adorable.”
“Thank you!” Mac smiled widely. “I have a ton of pictures, if you’d like to see? And if you don’t mind me being that person.”
“I would love to see!” Erin grinned, and Mac rummaged through her purse and pulled out her phone.
What in the fuck is happening? Will wondered, watching the women flip through pictures oohing and ahhing over his baby girl.
“She is gorgeous,” Erin exclaimed. “Look at those little cheeks!”
Will managed to hold it in until Erin had finished looking at the pictures and had excused herself, slipping back into the party, and then he wheeled on Mac.
“What the fuck?” He asked, and Mac frowned at him.
“What?”
“You never told me that Erin Andrews sent Charlotte a gift,” he replied.
“First, yes, I did, and second, why is that a big deal? Because you slept with her?” Mac had to bite her lip from laughing at the shocked look on her husband’s face.
“No, I mean yes, I just, yes, but no,” Will sputtered, and Mac brushed a kiss to his lips to shut him up.
“Some advice, sweetheart?” Mac offered. “I’d stop while I was ahead if I were you.”
v.
The baby was being fussy.
They were out shopping for Christmas presents for the team (something Mac had insisted on doing themselves, "We're not farming out Christmas presents. Not for the staff, not for family, and definitely not for Charlotte!" She had been firm, and Will had given up arguing with her), and they had made it through about half their list when Charlotte completely melted down.
“You finish shopping for your sisters,” Mac said, pushing the list into his chest and removing Charlotte from the stroller. “I’m going to try to get her to calm down. I’ll meet you out front when you’re done.”
“Ten four,” Will agreed, and Mac carried the eleven month old through the crowded store, pushing her way through.
“I know, darling,” Mac shushed the baby, bouncing her lightly, as she rifled through the diaper bag to find a pacifier. Trying to juggle the baby and the bag at the same time, she wasn’t paying very much attention to where she was going and ran straight into someone else. “Oh! I’m so sorry…” Mac trailed off when she glanced up and met the surprised eyes of Nina Howard.
“MacKenzie,” Nina greeted. “And this must be Charlotte?” The baby in question was now calmer, Mac having found the pacifier, and was rubbing her tiny fist against her eye, her head dropping onto her mother’s shoulder.
Nina reached out a hand tentatively towards Charlotte, before apparently thinking better of it and pulling back her hand.
“Yes, it is,” Mac ran a soothing hand down the baby’s back. “How did you…”
“I saw the birth announcement,” Nina explained.
“Right,” Mac nodded.
“She’s beautiful,” Nina offered.
“Thank you,” Mac said, softly, wondering how she could remove herself from the increasingly awkward situation.
Both Will and Mac agreed, in the weeks following their engagement, to put everything on the table. Everything. It meant long nights of talking, explaining, apologizing for mistakes and miscommunications. There was some anger, fueled mostly by frustration, and some tears, and few topics caused more anger and more tears than the topic of Nina Howard. And in the flood of words and explanations, it came out that Nina had told MacKenzie what the voicemail said.
“You knew?” Will had been floored. “You knew that I said I was still in love with you?”
“Wait, what?” Mac had stilled her pacing across the living room, spinning on her heel to face him. “That’s not what she told me.” Will ran a frustrated hand over his face.
“No, I don’t imagine she did,” he sighed, sinking onto the couch behind him. Mac felt her anger deflate, and she crossed the room and dropped down next to him.
But now, standing in front of Nina, Mac felt a little of the anger well up inside of her. They wasted so much time. And that was partly Nina’s fault. Nina, who had the voicemail in the first place, and who must have known that her relationship with Will was not going to end well (how could it? When Will was always going to be in love with MacKenzie. When Nina knew that). Mac swallowed hard.
“Hey, I thought we were meeting out front,” Will said, coming up from behind MacKenzie. He stopped short when he spotted Nina. “Oh.”
“Hello, Will,” Nina said, her tone markedly cooler than it had been before he had arrived (Will had confessed how his relationship with Nina had ended, in the green room of the morning show, and part of MacKenzie did feel badly for Nina. No one deserved to be dumped like that, but another part, a bigger part, of her had remembered how relieved she felt when she heard Will had broken up with Nina, and she hadn’t cared how or why it had happened, she had just been so happy it had).
“Hello, Nina,” Will replied. “It’s good to see you.”
“You’ve had quite the couple of years, Will,” Nina’s voice held an edge of bitterness, not that Mac could blame her, and Mac shifted uncomfortably, the baby’s solid and warm weight in her arms. Charlotte was fast asleep, a piece of Mac’s hair tangled in her tiny fist. “New wife, landed yourself in jail for awhile, made yourself a journalistic martyr, new baby, am I missing anything?”
“No, I think you’ve nailed it,” Will drawled, his voice even. “You’ve paid attention.”
“I read about it in the tabloids,” Nina shot back. There were a few beats of tense silence, and Mac sighed.
“We should go,” Mac finally said, “We only have so much time before we have a very unhappy eleven month old, and while there are plenty of things that the three of us could have a conversation about, this is not the time or the place.”
“You’re right,” Nina replied. “The baby really is beautiful, MacKenzie.” She gave Mac a small smile as she slipped around her.
“Jesus Fucking Christ,” Will breathed when Nina had walked away. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to go Christmas shopping.”
“Uh-huh,” Mac rolled her eyes. “You were whining about Christmas shopping because you can see into the future and knew that we were going to end up in the same store at the same time as Nina Howard.”
“That was a nice and awkward encounter,” Will muttered. “Really put me in the Christmas spirit.”
“I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, and I’ll own them, but Nina Howard’s all on you,” Mac reminded him.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right, and I’m sorry. Can we at least go home now?” Will asked, and Mac shook her head, moving the bags in the stroller out of the way with one hand, and carefully lowered the sleeping Charlotte down.
“No way, the baby’s asleep, we have a whole list of people and not that much time before Christmas, and maybe, after she wakes up, we can take Charlotte to see Santa!” She finished buckling Charlotte in, and grinned as he groaned.
vi.
“I see you finally got your head out of your ass, McAvoy,” the big, booming voice of Lonny Church exclaimed. “I never thought I’d see the day.” Both McAvoys turned from where they were sitting in the sand box with Charlotte to find Lonny standing behind them, grinning like an idiot.
“Me neither,” MacKenzie grinned at him, climbing to her feet and brushing sand off her pants. She threw her arms around him, and he lifted her in a bear hug. “It’s so good to see you, Lonny!”
“You too, Mac,” Lonny told her. Will stood, picking up Charlotte and reaching out a free hand for Lonny to shake. “And who is this?”
“This is Charlie,” Will introduced, bouncing the baby enough to make the little girl giggle. “Charlotte.” The smile fell slightly from Lonny’s face.
“I heard about Charlie Skinner, I’m so sorry. He was a great man,” Lonny said. “He’d be proud as shit that you named your little girl after him.” The grin returned, a grin that both Will and Mac mirrored (they had imagined it many times, the look on Charlie’s face when introduced to his namesake. He would have been over the moon).
“How have you been?” Mac asked. “We haven’t seen you in years!”
“I’m good,” Lonny answered. “I’m still in private security. Thankfully, I have a client who is far less of a pain in the ass.” Will pulled a face, and Mac snorted, leaning in and bumping her hip against his.
“I’m sure every client is less of a pain in the ass,” Mac laughed.
“I’m standing right here,” Will complained.
“Oh, shut up,” Mac instructed. “You know I wouldn’t trade you for any other pain in ass. You’re my pain in the ass.” The sound of her phone interrupted her, buried somewhere in the diaper bag, and she pulled it out and frowned. “Pruitt, excuse me for a minute.” She wandered away, the phone pressed up against her ear, and Lonny turned to Will as soon as she was out of earshot.
“Seriously, Will,” Lonny started. “She’s the best thing to ever happen to you, that will ever happen to you. You have no idea how many times I had to bite my tongue…”
“You never bit your tongue,” Will scoffed, and then he glanced over at his wife and his gaze softened. “But I know that. Trust me, I know that.”
“Yeah, okay,” Lonny nodded. “But I know people, McAvoy, and if you ever hurt her…”
“They’ll find my body somewhere in the Hudson?” Will filled in.
“Please, the people I know? They’d never find your body,” the grin was back on Lonny’s face. “In all seriousness, I’m really happy for you. You seem..content. It’s a good look on you.” Mac finished up her conversation and joined them, taking the baby out of Will’s arms.
“Sorry about that. I swear, I’m going to have to a serious talk with that man about what constitutes an emergency,” she shook her head, and then reached out and squeezed Lonny’s arm. “You have any plans? Can we buy you lunch?”
“I’d love that,” Lonny replied.
“Lead the way,” Will said, grabbing the diaper bag and the stroller and falling in step behind Lonny and his wife.