...and then when Don gets on the elevator, Roger is already there. Roger tells Don he got him a meeting Monday morning, but that only chagrins Don because it leaves him so little time to prepare anything and as such signals that it's not going to be a serious meeting. Roger's like, I don't recall saying this was going to be easy. "Don't lose your nerve. I like that guy I saw today. I missed him." If not for the non-speaking extras in the elevator, that fanfic would be well into Chapter Two.

Don arrives home to find Sally watching TV. She tells him that Megan is taking a nap, but when Don enters the bedroom she's wide awake and spoiling for a fight, the latter of which seems to happen these days almost as much as the former. Don apologizes for forgetting to let Megan in on the little change in plans and really it wouldn't have been great if say, she'd left the house on an errand before Sally turned up, but Megan's more interested in what the lack of a call represents than the logistics of it. They go on to establish that their professional commitments will preclude either of them from taking Sally to school on Monday, so she'll have to stay home. Don then shuts down the argument by confessing what happened with Lane, swearing Megan to secrecy. He also makes an interesting comment when, in response to Megan's query of why Lane would do something like that, he exasperatedly replies, "What's the difference. It's all just gossip at a certain point." Among other things, this suggests that he doesn't entirely believe Lane's account of what happened and while it's hard not to make a hacky joke about how trusting Lane's accounting was the whole problem here, it's an interesting statement on how you can't ever know what's in a person's heart coming from someone who can speak to such matters with authority. Megan, completely thrown herself, asks if the firm's okay, but Don assures her it will be fine. He's thoroughly deflated and on top of that has tons of work to do for the Dow meeting, but Megan informs him with some energy that they're going to have dinner with Sally and his acquiescence suggests he's grateful for Megan's intervention in his horrible day. This scene is the first time I can remember the show melding the good and bad aspects of their marriage, which is probably why it felt so realistic.