Chapter 2: Blackjack

"Hey, guys," Lindsay answers Flack's door. "What took you so long?"

"Accident on the way here. Took forever for traffic to get around." Mac and Stella enter.

"We're gonna play blackjack. Except every time you bust, an article of clothing is taken. You're done when you lose all your chips or get down to your underclothes," Danny explains.

Mac glances at Stella. "I'll get them to play normal if you're uncomfortable undressing in front of them."

"No, it's just… I've never played blackjack before."

"I'm sure they won't mind if I help you out a little to start with."

"Uh, guys, I don't know how to play," Stella says.

"We'll teach you. Flack, you want to be dealer or should we teach Stella how to so we don't lose all our money?" Hawkes asks.

"I'll deal," Don shuffles the cards. They all sit at the table as he deals out the cards. "This'll be our practice round."

After five minutes of explaining, Stella sort of understands the game. They tell her to ask if she needs help.

In the first round, Lindsay and Flack both bust. Then Danny, Stella, and Don, again, in the second round each must undress. At the end of five rounds, everyone had lost two articles of clothing, except Flack, who had lost three.

Stella glances towards Mac. "What's with the 'evil Mac' look? We're not playing poker; you don't need to have such a serious face."

"I can't play poker," he says, looking at her. "It'd be funny to watch you try though. You're always so emotional."

"I can't keep a serious face at all so I can never win."

Flack deals the next round and gets a blackjack, taking all the chips from the center. To pay for it though, he busts the next round.

Twenty minutes into the game, Danny loses all his clothing and is finished. "Can I dress again or do I have to sit here, naked, in shame?"

"Sit there in shame, Danny," Lindsay replies. "Besides, you've got your boxers on."

Five minutes later, Don is also out. Hawkes offers to deal for the other three.

"Hit," Lindsay says. She gets a ten on her fifteen and busts.

Mac stands with a seventeen while Stella splits her tens to end up with eighteen and twenty.

Hawkes gets a sixteen and hits to end up with twenty-two. He takes his shirt off.

Lindsay and Mac have two pieces of clothing left each, Hawkes has one, and Stella has three. In the next five rounds, a lot of money exchanges possession, but no on busts. Mac has the most chips, all stacked neatly in front of him, while Lindsay looks to be close but it was hard to tell with them in a big pile. Stella only has about half of what her fiancé does.

The dealer breaks the streak without busting, and Sheldon is out. He sits down next to Danny and Flack as Lindsay takes his place.

"Any bets on who will win?"

"Lindsay will be out next," Flack says.

"Other bet's on those two. Mac will win because Stella will run out of chips before she loses all her clothes."

"I don't know. I think she'll beat him. It all depends on who deals after Lindsay. If she deals, he'll win. But if he deals, she's got a chance to beat him," Sheldon explains.

Lindsay busts and hands Stella her chips. "Stel, when did that happen?"

"When did what happen?" she asks, confused.

"The ring."

"Last Friday," Stella smiles at Mac. "He was very creative in how he proposed."

"How was that?" Flack asks.

"Twenty questions. He made me figure out all the words, and I had to unscramble them to get the message."

"It was four words; you figured it out right away," Mac says.

"I didn't get that he was actually asking his message."

"How come ya didn't tell us?" Danny asks.

"We decided to see how long it took you guys to notice. You're a bit slow."

"Congratulations!" Lindsay hugs her. "Mac's good at picking out jewelry for you. The ring is beautiful."

"Okay, finish up the game, you three," Don says.

Mac and Stella each bust again before Lindsay is out. Mac takes over for her. He deals Stella a ten and gives her jack when she asks for a hit.

"I'll stand."

He flips over his cards: thirteen. He hits himself with an eight and takes her chips.

"Stella," Mac teases after another three rounds. "I'm beginning to think you don't want to undress since you're not hitting above thirteen. Or are you just psychic and can predict getting a bust?"

"You're going to run out of chips soon," Danny says.

She ignores their comments as he deals again.

Stella gets a twenty-one with a ten, an ace, and a king. Mac flips his cards to find a jack and a six. He hits himself. Twenty-three. Busted.

"I beat you again," Stella smiles. "And I didn't even know how to play the game before tonight."

"Good job, Stella," Mac puts a hand on her back.

They all get dressed before cleaning up the chips and cards. Stella and Lindsay talk in the living room about the wedding while the guys are in the kitchen.

"For future reference, guys, you have to get Stella drunk before she'll undress for you," Mac tells them.

Stella just rolls her eyes. "Yeah, Mac spends a lot of money on alcohol just so he can sleep with me."

A/N: So in this chapter, I couldn't think of an important thing to say that I wasn't going to use later. And I really don't think my English teacher likes me because this time I got a C on my stupid writing assignment, personal narrative thing. I bet I haven't even said fifty words to her all school year. Anyway, I've got a low A in the class now, but we have this poetry analyzing thing and it's worth like 165 points. I hate poetry. If you just have to read it, and not think about it, it's okay. I'll probably end up with a B this quarter. Funny part is, it's probably one of my easier classes. Trig's probably the hardest, but I'm only taking it this year 'cause I'm like super smart in math apparently, so I took Geometry and Algebra in middle school, which aren't normally taken until high school. And I just found out those credits are counted as electives because they still want us to take three years of math in high school instead of taking trig freshman year and stopping math since you have your credits. I should shut up now. Oh, so I tried to use my tape recorder (just sound) and tape all the Stella scenes from Heart of Glass and I was going to do the same thing with Ride In. When I listened to the tape, nothing was on there. How did that happen? I did this 'cause I changed what "Superman"'s going to be about and so I can still reference the tapes if I need to since the episodes probably won't be on anymore. Okay, hope you liked this chapter.