MacKenzie McHale [The Newsroom]

Her birthday sort of sneaks up on her and it's only when she's in the Compound reading up on prenatal care that she realizes she's 36 now and not 35 anymore. It's a weird feeling, not having any acknowledgement of the day other than a slow realization and MacKenzie has always been fond of her special day.

She knows that on the island, the only people who'd know today was her birthday are Jackson and Jim and while she hasn't received any presents or acknowledgment from them yet, she assumes it's coming. Jim's always been a thoughtful man and Jackson's in love with her; if anyone would celebrate her birthday, it'd be them.

When she hears someone come in to the room she puts her book back on the shelf and grins. Of course. No time like the present.

"Hi."

It's fucking hot.

Mac has never been the best when she's not in complete comfort and while she didn't bitch when she was embedded because she had a job to do, she's back on the island after having been in air conditioning for three days and she's annoyed. It's irrational, but nothing about pregnancy is rational, is it?

Jackson is next to her, which makes the bed that much warmer, and she huffs and comes out from under the sheet to lay on top of it completely naked. She fans herself ineffectually with her hand.

"Why does it have to be so goddamn hot?"

She's possibly whining more than a little.

Mac has never been a sound sleeper since being embedded. Two years in a war zone made her wary of every footfall and every noise tends to rouse her. Worse still is the fact that she's not used to sharing a bed with anyone on a regular basis and this has become a bit of a learning curve.

She wakes up in a cold sweat yet again, heart racing. She rolls her eyes, completely annoyed with herself, and brushes a hand against Jackson's shoulder. "Sorry. Bad dream. Did I wake you?"

After the Sharktopus nonsense, Mac decides she's going to rest for a few days. She has a severely sprained ankle that really limits her ability to walk and sand is out of the question unless she wants to just make it worse. While it's frustrating to her, she doesn't mind being in the house for a few days and spending some time just reading books and keeping her own company, which she doesn't particularly mind.

She does, however, miss Jackson and hopes he'll be by to check on her and her stupid injury. She hears a knock at her cottage door and calls out so she doesn't have to get up.

"It's open! I'm in bed." Bed is the most comfortable place to lay around with books, after all, and Mac pushes her reading glasses up on her nose and squints at the tiny print.

According to all the books she's read, a sprained ankle can hurt for approximately six to eight weeks. Mac's only had hers for two and she's already about to go insane and she doesn't think she can handle the pain and inconvenience of walking on sand with a bad ankle for much longer.

Today, she's eschewed going out and about for lazing about in her cottage with a bowl of fruit and a book on Henry Kissinger. She strongly suspects that she's read it before but she was always so busy with work back home that reading for pleasure was something she didn't really have time for and when she did, she almost never finished anything.

She hears the door swing open and assumes it's Nikola - anyone else who might visit her would have likely knocked. "Bedroom. Still nursing my war wound."

Continued from here.

"So, how many women have you given massages to lately? I need to know where I'm going to rank after tonight."

It's flirty and light because Mac isn't really looking for a relationship. She fucks those things up and sex is much, much easier in that respect.

Mardi Gras had been an enlightening experience and Mac isn't entirely sure it happened given just how tipsy she'd been. But it had, apparently, and her dry streak of God only knows how long had finally been broken with Nikola and she's keen to have it continue. It's not serious. How can it be, when he's technically in a relationship with someone else? Still, it's fun and she's had very little of that in the past few years. She's not about to turn down a good thing.

They've agreed to keep it to her place in the GAE for now, which is fine; Mac is much more comfortable in her own bed with her own things than she is skulking off in the night to someone else's. She's expecting Nikola and while it makes her nervous, more than half the butterflies in her stomach are from sheer excitement - it's a nice feeling.

When she hears the door swing in, she pads out to greet him, a grin on her face. "You're punctual. I suppose I gave you proper motivation?"