Written by Carolyn Williams, the premier MacRac fan.
In the annals of Soap Opera, the love story of Mac and Rachel was a long one, winding to almost 15 years filled
with a passion for life and love, jealousy and growth; and finally an understanding they could overcome
any problem as long as they were honest with each other.
In 1974, Rachel Davis a young divorced mother decided to crash a high society party hosted by Iris Carrington. The party was held at Iris's estate; the party was for Iris's "Daddy" - Mac Cory, to introduce him to Bay City society. Iris was having Rachel escorted from the mansion when Mac came to Rachel's rescue. The next day he sent her roses and the romance began. He was dashing and RICH! She was swept off her feet by his attention and obvious sincerity.
In 1975, Mac proposed to Rachel. She was in shock. She was scared. But Mac made everything okay. Rachel's
son Jamie and Mac were instant friends. Rachel explained her past to Mac after he proposed, trying to
make him understand how different they were. They were very much in love; Rachel was happier than she'd
ever been in her life. They were married on Valentine's Day at his townhouse in New York. Mac's friends told him
he was too old for her, but he didn't care what they said.
Mac and Rachel began to grow together as a couple during his courtship. As a wedding present he bought her the mansion on the Bay she walked by as a child wondering what type of people lived there. No one was living in the mansion when he bought it and it required considerable renovation before they could move in. Iris's first of many attempts to drive a wedge between Mac and Rachel was when she hired a young man to give Rachel horse-riding lessons. Amazed, he reported to Iris, Rachel never reciprocated his advances, but Iris still managed to plant a seed of jealousy with her father. Next a worker at the mansion was paid by Iris to create havoc in Mac and Rachel's relationship. They both had short tempers and were stubbornly opinionated -- and frequently jealous.
Rachel was pregnant as they moved into what became known as "The Cory Mansion". She was alone when she called Iris's house to find Mac; Rachel was in pain. As Rachel told Iris she needed to talk to Mac, she doubled over in pain and dropped the phone. Iris, irritated with Rachel's interruption, simply hung up the phone and didn't tell Mac that she called. Mac and Rachel drifted apart after the miscarriage. Mac was involved with transplanting Cory Publishing to Bay City and Rachel had found comfort and solitude in her art. Mac hired an architectural firm to build the Cory Complex; the principal architect was a New York Society friend's daughter, Gwen Parrish. Mac arranged sculpting lessons for Rachel at the local college with the art teacher, a sculptor named Ken Palmer. Iris set up situations where Mac would be jealous of Ken and Rachel of Gwen. Rachel was coming in to her own as a sculptor and spending a lot of time at Ken's studio at the college.
In 1976, Rachel was scheduled for her first New York gallery exhibit but Mac didn't share her enthusiasm for the
trip. He wanted her home with him. Ken convinced Rachel this was something she needed to do and
Rachel left for New York. Mac, angry, had a one-night stand with Gwen. Rachel came back to Bay City
early, after rave reviews, to tell Mac she shouldn't have gone, she would quit her sculpture, and they briefly
reconciled. Then Mac told Rachel about Gwen. Rachel was devastated. Mac begged her forgiveness but shaken and furious
she told him to leave.
Rachel couldn't accept the affair and could not forgive Mac. She escaped into her art. Ken tried to convince her to share his passion for art, which should be enough for her. She knew she still loved Mac. Rachel, understanding she needed both her work and her husband, reconciled with Mac more as equal partners in a new and stronger relationship.
In 1977, Mac and Rachel wanted a child, but Rachel couldn't get pregnant.
She went to her friend Dr. David Gilchrist to get a check-up and discovered
it wasn't her problem. She couldn't get Mac to get a check-up because his ego
prevented him from understanding it could be his problem. This drove a wedge
between Mac and Rachel. After a bitter argument where Mac threatened to leave,
Rachel decided to move out. Mac had confessed he knew he was sterile to Pat
Randolph, but he couldn't talk to Rachel about it. They couldn't have any
type of conversation without tension and eventual anger.
Sven Petersen came to Bay City. Rachel had recently hired a maid named Helga. Sven knew Helga (he had killed her husband). Helga persuaded Mac to hire him as a gardener, telling Mac Sven was her cousin. Sven was an evil man who had a plan to make money. Helga's daughter, Regine, had gotten pregnant by a local boy. Sven drugged Mac and forced Regine to get into bed with Mac to make him think he'd seduced her. The plan worked. Mac told Rachel the child must be his and they discussed divorce. Rachel was devastated that someone else was going to give Mac the child she so desperately wanted. Soon, Rachel figured out parts of Sven's plan. As Sven's plan fell apart, he kidnapped Rachel, holding her for ransom.
In 1978, after Mac and Rachel reconciled, Amanda Cory was born. This was a cruel blow to Iris, who overheard Mac telling Rachel that Amanda is his first real child; Iris was adopted. This set Iris on a continued
path of torment for Mac and Rachel.
Jamie and Iris's son Dennis had gone to a Dude Ranch that summer and Jamie fell in love with Blaine Ewing, the daughter of a hired hand. Blaine followed Jamie back to Bay City. Mac and Rachel had many fights about Rachel's need to control Jamie's life, when Jamie only appeared to be doing what Mac had done, falling in love with a girl from a different social circle. Rachel was enticed by Iris to spent money to buy Blaine off. Jamie left town with Blaine. Mac moved out, upset with Rachel's interference.
Rachel took Amanda to an Artist Colony for a week's vacation. She didn't tell Mac she was leaving town. When she returned, she was rested but Mac was frantic. She visited him and tried to make him understand why she wanted to be alone with her baby. Mac told her Amanda was his baby too. The conversation relaxed and they spoke about reconciliation and made plans to have dinner together that night. Janice Frame and Mitch Blake arrived in Bay City in 1979. Janice wanted a job at Cory Publishing, had dinner with Mac one night and left a bracelet in the back of the limousine. Rachel found the bracelet and cancelled her dinner plans with Mac.
Rachel found this indiscretion too similar to Mac's prior infidelity with Gwen: Gone for a week and Mac turns to someone
else. It was innocent on Mac's part this time, but Rachel would not believe him and they fought bitterly.
Mac turned to Janice who had planned this with Mitch. Janice read a unpublished manuscript at the Cory Complex
called HARRY MUST DIE, where a wife killed her rich husband for his money. She
fed him Damtrex, a drug that would eventually cause heart block.
Rachel began to re-establish her sculpting career, and Janice moved in with Mac. Fearing Mac was going to win custody of Amanda, Rachel made plans to leave Bay City. Mac kidnapped Amanda at the airport. Rachel begged Mac to give Amanda back to her. During those conversations Janice realized Mac still loved Rachel and she couldn't really come between them for long.
Rachel made friends with Frank Lansing, a journalist staying in Bay City because of a book deal with Cory Publishing. Mac was jealous of their relationship but continued his with Janice. When Frank made advances Rachel didn't return, she realized she was still in love with Mac. Mac overheard Rachel and Frank talking about Frank's daughter. During that conversation, Mac assumed Rachel and Frank were talking about starting a family together. Mac confronted Rachel with her relationship with Frank, but the conversation disintegrated into a shouting match and Mac left, furious. Distraught, Mac flew off to San Francisco to marry Janice. When he returned, Mac thought he should tell Rachel about his marriage. Before he could tell her, she told him she still loved him. He accused her of playing games with his emotions. Both in tears, he left.
Janice was starting a new magazine called BRAVA at Cory. Iris befriended Janice, knowing
the connection between Mac and Rachel was stronger and interfered with her relationship with her
Daddy more than Janice ever could. Rachel was curious about the relationship between Janice and Mitch
and feigned romantic interest in Mitch to keep him around her.
Rachel won a commission from the state to do a sculpture on some ground by the Cory Complex. She used the opportunity to temporarily move into an office at the Complex to design the piece that would be placed there. Having an opportunity to be around Mac and Rachel at times, Mitch warned Janice that she didn't have the hold on Mac she thought she did. They started giving him the drug and Mac began to miss work. Rachel was the only one thinking it strange no one saw Mac anymore. She began to worry. Her friends and family thought her obsessed and irrational. She heard about HARRY MUST DIE from Jamie who was the editor of the book. She read the rough draft. Horrified, all she succeeded at was convincing everyone she was going crazy. The plan developed and Janice took Mac on a second honeymoon to St. Croix (Mitch was mysteriously out of town too). Rachel followed and was able to find Mitch but not Mac and Janice. Mitch found Rachel was following him. She convinced him she was in St. Croix because she missed him. Rachel was desperate to find Mac. She had a chance to leave Mitch's hotel room that night but didn't; she slept with Mitch and Matthew was conceived. The next morning, Rachel followed Mitch to Janice and Mac. Mitch tried to stop Janice, but she stabbed him in the stomach, then went after Rachel. They fell into the pool and Rachel killed Janice. Rachel rushed Mac back to Bay City, where everyone now believed her. Rachel and Mac talked about reconciliation, but Mac didn't understand why Rachel would take him back. Iris was appalled. The more Mac and Rachel talked the more they understood they needed to be together again. They remarried quietly in 1980.
Then when Rachel was hospitalized for appendicitis Dr. Russ Matthews discovered she was pregnant. For a
moment she was very happy. Dr. Matthews with Mac's care in mind, continued research on Damtrex to
find out the drug also induces sterility. He told Rachel. Horrified, she realized the father was Mitch, not
Mac. Worse yet, the re-edited version of HARRY MUST DIE included a more detailed and personal plot
line that includes the sterility feature of the drug. Mitch figured out that he was the father of the child she's
carrying and they argued. She tells him she considers the baby Mac's. One night, Mitch arranged to meet
Rachel in the barn and Rachel took a gun to scare him off. She accidentally shot Mitch and he knocked
over a lamp that set the barn on fire, which was burned to the ground.
A body was found, and Rachel confessed to killing Mitch and went on trial. Dramatically at the end of the trial, Rachel took the stand and was forced to admit for the first time publicly, Mitch was the father of her child. Mac was devastated beyond belief and started divorce proceedings. Mac, in turmoil, found evidence that there was a chance Mitch was alive. As 1981 began, Mac decided he wanted to keep his family together. He dropped the divorce plans and asked Rachel for custody of Matthew.
Mac followed a trail to find Mitch who couldn't remember the shooting. Mac brought Mitch back to Bay City to free Rachel from prison. Quickly regaining his memory of the situation, Mitch wanted to be closer to his son. Rachel and Mac were back together but Mitch was always around. Mac was accusatory and suggestive that something was going on between Mitch and Rachel. Rachel loved Mac but was feeling caged by the increasing tension in their marriage. Mitch was there to console her after ever fight. Finally, she decided she loved Mitch and would leave Mac because they were not right together anymore.
She and Mitch moved in together. Mitch was offered a job in San Francisco and moved there with Rachel and Matthew to follow. Mac tried to get on with his life, and had temporary custody of Amanda. As the holidays approached, Rachel found it hard to pack up and move from Bay City. Jamie, Mac, and then Ada chastised her about her indecision. Mac saw that Rachel's infatuation with Mitch was cooling, and he found reasons to be around Rachel. In 1981, after a separation of over a year, they spent the night together on Christmas Eve, but Rachel told him it couldn't happen again, they were just lonely. Mac was crushed, but Rachel ended her relationship with Mitch and stayed in Bay City.
Steven Frame, Jamie's father, returned to Bay City in 1981. Rachel and Steve were planning to marry in 1982, but Steve
died in a car crash. Rachel lost her eyesight in the accident.
Rachel was trying to adjust to her blindness, convinced she could still sculpt. Mac tried to help her and she rebuffed his attempts of help and companionship.
Determined to be a part of her life, Mac befriended Rachel as an Englishman named John Caldwell. Reginald Fearing, an old English author
friend of Mac's, coached him. He
shaved his mustache, changed his cologne, cut his hair and wore a Band-Aid over a finger that was
disfigured, hiding any clues that would allow Rachel to recognize him. They became good friends and took
long walks along the Bay. He helped her with mobility training, taking classes himself at the hospital. Her
sight came back suddenly and she was shocked to learn Mac was John Caldwell. He was around as a friend
for the next months, but Rachel was still grieving over Steven Frame's death, so Mac kept his distance.
Finally, in 1983, Mac confronted an uncomfortable Rachel and spoke poetically about his love for her. He asked her how she felt. After a pause she told him she loved him too, and always had, but they'd been together before, she didn't want them to fail again. Several months later they married in a double wedding with Blaine and Sandy. They were quietly confident this was right and forever.
Mac was busy at an expanding Cory Enterprises, establishing subsidiaries all over North America. One
day on a business trip to Canada, Mac's plane crashed, and he was presumed dead. There was a memorial
service but Rachel wouldn't go, not believing he was dead. Unable to reconcile the information she'd
received, she and some family members went in search of Mac, finding him almost frozen to death.
During the winter of 1983, Carl Hutchins came to Bay City, resuming his aquaintance with Felicia Gallant. Carl believed
his father was driven to suicide because of Mac's purchase of his printing business in England 20 years
earlier. Carl built an empire of his own and his goal in life was to destroy Mac Cory. The first thing he
understood from the good people of Bay City was Mac and Rachel's commitment to each other, so he felt he
could get to Mac through Rachel.
Mac instantly disliked Carl, but Rachel was more mystified by his interest in her; she felt sorry for him.
In 1984, Several months after Mac recovered from the plane crash, he suffered a stroke. The stroke left him unable to talk and walk properly without therapy. Mac struggled with his ego, but with the support of his family, he recovered.
During this time Carl increased his presence in Bay City. Understanding the only way to really get to Mac would be to hurt Rachel, he kidnapped Rachel and her sister Nancy. Mac rescued them and in a shoot out with Carl, Carl shot Rachel. This was in 1985.
The shooting caused Rachel to lose her memory. When she regained
consciousness, Rachel was shocked that she was married to such an old
man. She changed her dress and hairstyle and mystified Mac. The "new Rachel" thought the "old
Rachel's" life was Boooooring. But really, she acted very much like the "old Rachel" opinionated and
stubborn. She and Mac tried to talk, but the effects of their conversations
unnerved her. Mac would tell her they were deeply in love. During one argument
Rachel threw a vase at him. Mac then had flowers sent to her in a plastic vase and they laughed. Rachel was charmed by
his attention. One day when he invited her bowling they ended up stuck in the
middle of an attempted robbery at the bowling alley. One of the gunmen hit Mac and
threatened to shoot him. Rachel blanked out thinking the man with the gun was
Carl Hutchins and threw herself at Mac to protect him, giving Mac the
opportunity to take control of the situation. Her memory returned.
Mitch returned in 1986, introducing another conflict between Mac and Rachel. Matthew, now 14, had not been told
that he was not Mac's son. Later, he was also told about the situation involving his conception. The truth came as a
terrible blow to Matthew, and although Mac was of great comfort, everyone involved suffered.
Mitch got a job at Frame Construction, working on the renovations at the Cory Mansion. Mac and Rachel
fought, with Mac fearing he was finally too old for Rachel. At one point, Mac followed Rachel to the apartment
she and Mitch had shared years ago. She now owned the building. Mitch followed Rachel there and Mac saw them through the window, kissing.
Mac confronted the startled Rachel. He started a fistfight with Mitch and then asked Rachel if she was still in
love with Mitch. She said no and left. Mac told Mitch not to come back to the house. He confronted
Rachel at home about the apartment, and she broke down, accusing Mac of spending too much time with an
employee, Rose Livingston. She repeated that she loved him and the kiss meant nothing.
The tension continued for Mac and Rachel when Mac scheduled a business trip to New York. Rachel
went to the airport to talk to him because he left for the trip after an argument. Rachel saw Mac and
Rose in an embrace. She assumed they were going to New York together and left the
airport without speaking to him. Rachel went to pick up Matthew at Mitch's apartment and he wasn't
there. In tears, she told Mitch her marriage was over. As much as that was what Mitch wanted to hear, he didn't
believe it. He told her to decide what she wanted and go after it whether it hurt him or Mac. She couldn't
believe he was telling her to go after Mac. She left for New York on the next plane expecting to confront
Mac and Rose, only to find Mac alone. They spoke confessing to their hot tempers and jealousies and
reconciled over two days of Broadway shows and late night movies and popcorn in bed. They came home
to renew their vows in a home full of beautiful white flowers and lit candles.
In 1987 Amanda was re-introduced as an 18-year-old. Rachel had given up her sculpture temporarily to help Mac at the Complex. In 1988 someone known only as "The Chief" attempted a hostile take over of Cory Enterprises. Iris manipulated the entire situation and came back to Bay City to save Cory Enterprises but was uncovered as the Chief. Mac disowned her. He and Iris were estranged when he passed away in 1989.
Mac and Rachel were never closer than at the time of his death. Rachel was devastated and quickly overwhelmed by the pressures of being head of the Cory family, and CEO of Cory Enterprises, both adrift with his loss of leadership. With his spirit near, she reached out to begin again. He was her anchor, her lover, and her best friend. He changed her life forever.