A/N: This story is set around season 4/5 and starts with the aftermath of Stella's apartment fire. Since this is fiction and I can bend and twist things how I like (how fun!) this has plot lines that were never on the show. It's also assumed that the events of S5E6 ('Enough') and S5E11 ('Forbidden Fruit') have already occurred before Stella's apartment fire, and I've made Mac and Stella a little younger than they are on the show in season 5.
This is my first CSI:NY fic and the first time that I've written for quite a while so I hope that you enjoy it. To be honest, discovering the show and writing this fic has kept me sane lately – it has been a nice bit of escapism from reality. So far I've written this up to chapter 10 and will continue to write it as I upload, since I feel like there is still a lot more to explore in this story. The first chapter is short and sweet, a little appetizer :). Reviews would be appreciated.
Chapter 1
Tell Her
Stella stood in her burnt out apartment contemplating the damage. Her possessions were reduced to ashes; her home had become an inhabitable sooty ruin overnight and her level of tiredness had reached an all-time high. As Mac stepped over the threshold, he saw the worry etched across her elegant Grecian features. Stella's mind ran amok with anxieties of where she would sleep tonight, whether her insurance would cover the sheer amount of damage to her personal property, how she would find another place-
"-I have an extra room."
His soft and sincere voice sliced through her hammering thoughts and soothed the intense anxiety. His timbre and the probity of his utterance soothed her like a silken hot chocolate on a frozen winter's evening. She swilled the statement around her head, allowing each word to fully permeate her consciousness and prickle her senses. The soft hairs at the back of her lithe neck arose and a chill tingled up her spine. The overwhelming exhaustion and despondency was momentarily replaced with an electric spark of relief, gladness, gratefulness and a twinge of affection towards Mac that she fought to disguise for the millionth time.
"I owe you one," she forced in a buoyant tone with a weary smile in Mac's direction. Her green eyes flickered across his honest hazel's and he could see that her usual emerald-like orbs had diminished to a sleepy sapped shade of moss.
"That's what partners are for," he smiled matter-of-factly, handing her a much welcomed coffee. His warm fingers graced hers with the slightest of touches as she accepted his gift, sending an uncontrollable wave of endearment through her chest.
She took a sharp intake of breath and audibly sighed, a fraction of her built up stress and tension dissipated into the atmosphere around her.
"Maybe you should sit this one out?" he gingerly suggested.