Summary: Adam works up the nerve to ask out Stella. The trouble is, she already has a boyfriend. And the date is going to go much worse then either of them could've imagined.

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Adam looked wistfully at Stella and Flack, flirting with each other big time. He glanced down at the trace he was supposed to be analyzing, but his eyes slid back up to the two of them. He sighed and forced himself to look away. He managed to stay focused enough to place the trace on a slide and put it under the microscope, but, in spite of himself, he looked up at where Stella and Flack were standing... well, supposed to be standing. When his eyes were drawn to the magnets that were them, they had disappeared.

"Hey Adam!"

He shot about a foot off his chair. He jumped to his feet and whirled around to see Flack and Stella standing behind him, giggling to each other. Adam went tomato red. Oh, this is great. Just fucking fantastic. Why did he always have to make a fool of himself in front of her? He tried to stutter out a greeting, but she cut him off.

"How's that trace coming?" she asked, obviously wanting him to just spit it out so she could go back to flirting with her fucking boyfriend. Ever since they had starting dating, they spent all of their time with each other. It's like they were joined at the hip or something.

"Well... I'm not quite done with it yet..." he muttered. Flack whispered something in Stella's ear and they both collapsed in a fit of giggles. Adam's face, having almost returned to its normal colour, went, if it was even possible, a deeper shade of red than had been moments before.

Stella, who finally seemed to stop laughing, said, "Well just let me know when you're..." Flack nudged her, and that was all it took. She dissolved into giggles again. At least he was alone in the lab, where no one else could hear the two children standing in front of him, giggling like schoolgirls.

"Done," Stella managed to gasp between fits of laughter. She turned and walked off, still giggling with Flack. Adam turned back to the microscope, sat down, and trying not to think about what had happened, settled back into the place he loved most in the world: an empty lab, just him and the computers.

At the end of the day, when Adam was attempting to hail a cab back to his apartment, he saw the two lovebirds, not even bothering to hail a cab because of end-of-the-workday traffic, walking out the door. They turned left, holding hands, and continued down the street. He knew they weren't walking to each others houses, because Stella lived in the opposite direction. You have fun fucking her, you bastard, he thought bitterly.

The next day, Stella arrived late for work. And for once, she arrived alone. Flack wasn't anywhere in sight. Good for you, Adam thought. You finally dumped him. Now I might have a chance...

He had always had a little bit of a crush on her, he just never had the guts to tell her. And then after she started dating Flack, he knew he would ever be with her. Flack was Detective Flack, NYPD. And he was Adam Ross, Lab Tech. He couldn't compare to a Detective. It had always been his best kept secret, ever since he had laid eyes on her. But not anymore. Today was the day he was going to tell her how he felt. Screw what everyone else thought. Screw Flack. The only thing he cared about was her.

The only problem was figuring out what he would say. He had come up with about 14 different ways he could tell her, but none of them seemed right. Should he just come out and tell her, or should he drag it out and look like an idiot? Okay, so that second one wasn't his greatest idea ever, but he needed something to say. He'd probably just make a fool of himself again, but today was the only chance he was going to get. What should he say? Stella Bonasera, I love you? That sounded pretty good, short and simple.

Today was the day! He strode right up to her, coincidentally she was alone. He was about to say his perfectly rehearsed... 5 words, but as he called her name, she looked at him with those piercing green eyes, and he melted into a puddle. He couldn't do it. Not now. God, he was such a wuss, but he just couldn't do it.

"Yes, Adam?" Stella looked intently at him. Her eyes looked like they were staring right through his eyes into his soul. Adam gulped. He searched his brain for those words he wanted to say, but couldn't quite grasp onto them. The longer he stood there, saying nothing, the more he looked like a complete moron, so he settled for small talk instead, asking about the one person he didn't want to talk about.

"So... where's Flack?" he asked. Stupid, stupid, stupid, was running through his mind over and over again. Either she was going to start crying, or she was going to make him cry. Two things happen with woman who have been dumped: they lash out at you, or they break down and start crying. Adam really hoped it was the latter; he really didn't want to cry in front of her.

"He's sick," she said. Good so far, no crying. So maybe they hadn't broken up. Damn. He was so looking forward to seeing Flack cry. "Just the flu, you know," Stella continued. "He should be up and about in a few days."

This was better than he'd hoped for. A few days to confess his biggest secret. But his mouth seemed to work on its own. "You wanna go out sometime?" he blurted out. Shit, shit shit. Once his brain had caught up to what his mouth wanted to do, he looked up at her. She was waiting for him to continue. "You know... to have dinner? Or... or something," he muttered. He didn't want to look at her anymore, so he stared down at his sneakers. He was so fired. And that was the least of his worries. He'd never be able to ask anyone out ever again...

"Sure." He heard a distant voice, and looked up, startled. Did she just say yes? "Did you just say yes?" he asked, trying to grasp the situation.

She shrugged. "Yep. It wouldn't hurt for two colleagues to have a nice dinner together after a long day at work." She smiled, looking at him. With a start, he realized she was waiting for him to speak.

"Should I pick you up at seven? We can go to a restaurantthat's a favourite of mine. Or... wherever you want to go." To his delight, she nodded, said "See you at seven," and walked off. Adam walked off, too, walking on air. Today was turning out to be the best day of his life.

He went into the bathroom, not noticing the sign on the door. He saw Lindsay in the bathroom, washing her hands in the sink. I wonder what she's doing in the boys bathroom, a little voice in his head said. Lindsay repeated his question, except she changed one little word; the word boy.

Oh God no, he thought. His eyes darted frantically around the room, looking for the urinals that weren't there. Just stalls. Lots and lots of stalls. He turned deep red for the third time in two days, muttered an apology, and left a giggling Lindsay in the woman's bathroom.

That night, at 6:45, Adam still hadn't decided what he was going to wear. When he got home that night after work, he took a shower, took a good half hour trying to decide what cologne to wear- he decided on Chocolate Axe- and now, here he was standing in front of his mirror, putting clothes in front of him, trying to decide. In the end he chose the same kind of style he wore at work. Jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt. It wasn't much, but hopefully it was enough to impress Stella; he hoped it was better than the jacket and tie Flack usually wore. He glanced at the clock as he grabbed his keys and dashed out the door- 6:50. It would take him at least half an hour to get to Stella's apartment, if traffic was like any other day in New York.

In the cab, he decided to call Stella, tell her he was going to be late. It went to voice mail.

"Hey, Stella, I'm running a little late. Traffic is murder. See you in ten minutes," he said to the phone. When he hung up, he checked the time on his phone. 7:05. Maybe he wasn't going to be that late. Now that he looked out the window, there weren't as many cars as usual on the streets of New York City.

When Adam arrived at Stella's apartment, it was quiet in her building. When he had been there before, there was always some kind of noise going on. Kind of strange.

He knocked three times, in rapid succession. The rhythm he knocked with was how fast his heart was going. He put his index and middle finger against his jugular and looked at his watch. But before he could get to five seconds, Stella's door swung open, the Greek goddess herself- er, detective- standing in the doorway, wearing a black dress down to her knees. Adam jumped and turned red- fourth time in two days- and stammered out a greeting.

She smiled, showing her perfectly straight, white teeth. Adam ran his tongue over his own teeth. Shit! He knew he'd forgotten to do something when he left his apartment. He forgot to brush his teeth. Well, Stella had said it was just two colleagues having dinner together, so there probably wasn't going to be any kissing tonight. He was stupid for even thinking that. She did have a boyfriend after all.

"So," Stella cut in. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"Well," Adam began. "It's a restaurant owned by a friend of mine. It's kind of like a bar, but there's a restaurant." He didn't want to tell her what it was called, he felt stupid just saying it. Hopefully she wouldn't ask. And she didn't. She just smiled and started to walk towards the elevators, Adam hurrying behind her to catch up.

Well... how was that? Please review and tell me how you liked it!