Chapter Text
“Do you think Will knows about it?”
Will heard the question but couldn’t see who said it. He did stop walking, wanting to know what the person thought he might know.
“About Mac, you mean?”
His interest even more piqued now Will waited for the conversation to continue. What did they think he might know about Mackenzie?
“The tattoo.” The female voice clarified.
A tattoo Will thought. Did Mackenzie have a tattoo? Where he immediately thought. She didn’t have one when they’d been together. He was 100 % sure of that because he’d spent many hours worshipping every inch of her body.
“I don’t know.” The male answered. “The complexities of their relationship are beyond me.”
“True.” After a short pause the person continued. “Didn’t expect her to actually answer the question.”
“Me neither.”
“I wonder what it is.”
“And where it is.” The male voice added.
While Will wondered both things too, he disliked the man thinking about Mackenzie’s body. He’d identified the voice to be Martin’s and the female’s voice was Tess’. He walked to his office, and for the rest of the day his thoughts were on Mackenzie and her tattoo. During the rundown meetings he hadn’t added anything useful. He kept on scanning her body, thinking about where the tattoo could be, what it could be, why she’d gotten one, and back to where it could be.
It only got worse during the broadcast where for several times he lost the thread of the interview. At first Mackenzie had calmly steered him back on topic. That calm had disappeared the more he’d messed up and in the end she’d even given up on helping him, the only sound she made were helpless sighs. Glad to have gotten through the broadcast Will quickly changed and left, wanting to avoid talking to Mackenzie.
He didn’t really know what had led him to Hang Chew’s. Maybe it was for distraction because sitting at home thinking about Mackenzie and her tattoo wouldn’t do him any good. It would lead to him drinking and drunk calling her. Here he would drink too, but the company of his team would prevent him from drinking too much. All was going well, with even Charlie joining them shortly after Will’s arrival, till Mackenzie and Sloan walked in. Will was immediately back to being distracted. Watching her walk to the bar, he scanned her slim figure, looking her up and down, thinking about the tattoo again.
“You seem more distracted by her than usual.” Charlie pointed out as he watched Will watch Mackenzie.
“Mmm..?” Will tore his eyes away from Mackenzie to Charlie, not having heard him.
“Did something finally happen between you two?”
“No.” He answered thinking he might sound whiny. He had been trying to get closer to Mackenzie, but it seemed as if she either wasn’t catching on that that was what he was doing, or she was deliberately ignoring him.
“That’s the problem then?” Charlie watched Mackenzie laughing at Sloan.
“Yes. No.” He immediately contradicted himself. Taking another sip from his drink Will checked to see if no one else was listening to them. “I heard something today about Mackenzie and that’s got me a bit distracted.” He gestured with his hand as if it was nothing. “I just need a bit of time to…, adapt.” Was the word he chose.
“Must have been something quite big to distract you like it has.” He watched Will watch Mackenzie. In doing so, he saw her glance over at him first, giving him a smile, before her eyes settled on Will, her eyes and smile turning soft the way they always did when she looked at Will. He wondered if Will could see it too.
Charlie continued. “You only ever mess up like that when whatever you’re dealing with is connected to Mackenzie. Is she seeing someone? Is that what’s thrown you off your game?” Charlie asked, chuckling at Will who immediately glared at him.
“Why do you say that?” Will asked. “What have you heard?” There was an edge to his question.
Charlie held up his hands. “Down boy.” He had to stop himself from laughing out loud at Will’s reaction, knowing it wouldn’t sit well with him. “I haven’t heard anything.” Knowing sometimes staying silent was more effective to get Will to talk, Charlie did exactly that.
“I want to ask her about it.”
It didn’t bother Charlie that he still didn’t know what it was. “Why don’t you?”
“I don’t want to cross a line.”
Charlie wondered what the hell that meant. “Might be a good idea to talk to her then.”
“Maybe.”
Not wanting to deal with a whiny, pouting and distracted Will for another day he decided to spur the man on. Standing up he walked over to Sloan and Mackenzie knowing Will was watching him. Putting his hand on Mackenzie’s shoulder he talked with both women for a moment grinning because he knew he was annoying Will.
Watching Charlie talking to Sloan and Mackenzie, Will dreaded the outcome. He knew it wasn’t going to bode well for him. When he saw Charlie put his hands on Mackenzie’s shoulders, carefully turning her on her barstool towards him till they were both looking at him, Will looked away, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. He knew what was going to happen next. Mackenzie was going to join him. Charlie had probably told her she was the reason he’d been so distracted. He didn’t like it when Charlie meddled even if his intentions were good.
Looking at Will as he averted his eyes from her, Mackenzie answered Charlie’s question. “I don’t know.” She really had no clue why Will had been so off his game tonight. He’d acted weird the entire today. He’d been present at the rundown meetings, but hadn’t participated. He had been looking at her strangely too. At one point she even thought she had some sort of stain on her clothes with the way he’d kept looking her up and down. During the broadcast he’d been even worse. Whatever was going on with him had to be bad. She disliked that he didn’t feel like he could talk to her. She’d promised herself though she was no longer going to push him into talking to her.
“Go talk to your man.” Charlie gently said when he realized she, just like Will, needed a push in the right direction.
Glancing in Will’s direction again, Mackenzie sighed. Turning back towards the bar, she put her glass of wine down, slid off the bar stool and made her way towards Will. Sitting down on the chair opposite of him, she crossed one leg over the other, leaned forward, her elbow on the table, chin on her hand, she looked at him. After a long silence, in which Will continued to shift uneasily in his seat, Mackenzie finally spoke.
TBC…