Posted.  Ended up taking the weekend mostly off.  I've been way too tired to get into Mac's headspace, exactly, so I'm letting him show some fraying around the edges and seeing what happens.  Will Mari push, or will there be some kind of understanding there?  Hoping for more of the latter, as he'll be easier to right if he doesn't have to be 100% locked down all the time, but we'll see what the characters do. :)