Chapter Four

So, here's Chapter Four. I'm pretty pleased with it, and if you are too, or even if you're not, leave a review. You're also welcome to favourite or follow. Also, thanks to Lily Moonlight for her help with this one.

As he drove over to Chief Sinclair's office, Mac racked his brain for every possible reason he could be meeting with Chief Sinclair and Deputy Inspector Gerard. The obvious conclusion he came to was that it was something to do with Jennifer's case. But what? Surely, they weren't dragging him all the way across town to remind him that time was of the essence?

Pulling up to a red light, he sipped his lukewarm coffee with a sigh. He looked over to the passenger seat where a brown bag held his cheeseburger, the one he had wanted to sit down and eat with Stella.

Stella, who had always ordered a pancake stack, but today had ordered waffles because she had to prove to him that she was unpredictable. She had still gotten strawberries on the side, because she liked fresh strawberries, and had her usual black coffee, because she couldn't have slept in at least 24 hours. She refused to go home, of course. He couldn't have expected anything less.

Pulling him out of his thoughts was the irate roar of a car horn, bringing his attention to the once-red light that was now green. Carrying on along the road, he pulled in to the side in front of a large white building – one which would have otherwise been impressive had he not been here what felt like a hundred times before.

Taking one last sip of his coffee, he grabbed his pager and slid it into his pocket, taking one last look at his cheeseburger before he killed the engine. God only knew what this meeting had in store for him.

"Chief Sinclair," he nodded at his boss as he entered the office. Catching sight of an older, white haired man sitting at the meeting table, he gritted his teeth and tried to steady his breathing. There was no point coming into a meeting with these two feeling angry; they were going to find some way to get on his nerves, anyway.

"Taylor," he observed monotonously. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the older man.

"Inspector Gerard. Last time I saw you, you were gunning for my badge."

Gerard simply nodded, "That was then. This is now. And right now, the Senator of New York's daughter is dead."

And if he wasn't in this office right now, he could be solving her murder. He could be down at the lab; helping Danny get through the evidence, helping Stella through the autopsy, any number of things, really. Anything would be a better use of his time than this. But it was only weeks ago where Gerard had gone after his badge; the reason he got up in the morning. While he couldn't afford to take any of the bait Gerard was throwing him, his actions recently were, at least, a sign of his growing disloyalty towards the younger detective.

So, he sat down, waiting for the point of this meeting to become clear.

Sinclair joined them at the table, "You know how much Senator James Highsmith does for the NYPD. The budget crisis, the recruitment crisis- "

"You make him sound like a knight in shining armour, ready to save the damsel-in-distress that is the NYPD," Mac mumbled. Gerard cleared his throat, leaning towards the younger detective.

"Let me put this to you, in a way you might understand. There's a lot at stake here- "

"You mean beyond the political hand-outs you give each other?" he snapped back. Sinclair watched him carefully, and Mac could have sworn that he had sent him a look of warning, a look that said that said not to argue with Gerard. It was a fight that Mac wasn't going to win.

"You know, Taylor, I let go of what happened with Dobson out of respect for you and your crime lab-,"

"You let go of that, because I did nothing wrong beyond chasing after Dobson with no back up. I didn't kill him, and as soon as IAB confirmed that and you had no one to make an example of-"

Gerard continued through gritted teeth, "But there comes a time when a department needs a fresh outlook, wouldn't you agree? Someone younger, someone smarter – perhaps someone more level-headed. Be careful, Taylor. The brass have a replacement in mind, should you mess up, should you fail to solve this case in adequate time – especially given the resources this case was allocated."

He felt his blood boil against his veins. How dare he? How dare he threaten his job? Sinclair had done just that this morning, only that didn't feel personal. This was personal.

"And who might I ask would you like to replace me? The same woman who hasn't slept in at least a day, who hasn't eaten today and who also can't go home until I finish here and get back to the lab? Come on, Stan. Cut the bullshit and tell me why I'm here?"

- / -

Since returning from lunch with Mac, she had nibbled on the strawberries she had bought for lunch and had poured herself more cups of coffee than she cared to count. She had sighed in defeat at the rest of her lunch, before tipping it into the nearest bin and heading to see Sid in autopsy. As soon as she had put the autopsy report on Mac's desk, she headed back to the AV Lab where Danny was standing chatting to Flack. Forcing the corner of her lips up into a smile, she approached the desk where the two men were standing, interrupting some conversation or another which bore little significance to the case at hand.

"Hey, you two," she greeted lightly. "What are you doing here, Flack?"

He held up a disc, "Mac wanted the surveillance footage from the apartment building. I just got it from the company who own the building, so with any luck, we can work out how the hell the killer got into the building. Where is Mac, anyway? Danny said you two grabbed a bite to eat."

Nodding, she sighed, "Well, we tried to. Sinclair called and asked for him to come in for a meeting with Gerard. I can leave it on his desk, if you want?"

Don handed her the disc before Danny left to grab something from the printer. A cold wave passed through her body, and her hands began tingling. Don watched her body relying on the desk for support, and moved towards her in concern.

"Hey, Stel. You okay?"

She nodded, "Yeah, sorry. Just a little light-headed."

"Stel- "

She shook her head, "Don, I'm fine. What's your next port of call?"

"I'm assigning some extra protection to James and Veronica. We don't know what the motive was yet, and so if it was political, we're really going to need some extra guys on James, in particular. How's he doing?"

"His kid was found dead this morning," Danny answered, returning to their side. "How would you be doin'?"

Nodding, Stella stood up from the desk, "We haven't spoken but I can only assume…"

The sound of the machines in the background seemed to blur as though their wavelengths were being pulled, but became softer, quieter somehow. Replacing these sounds was ringing, which, no matter how hard she shut her eyes, remained. Knowing this wasn't good, she reached for the nearest stationary object she could find –Don's arm.

"Stel? Danny, get Hawkes or Sid… anyone with first aid training, I don't care," she heard, before her body became too weak and her vision went black.

- / -

"The obvious motive is political," Mac mentioned matter-of-factly, "But we're also considering jealousy and actually, evidence is pointing to the victim's boyfriend."

Sinclair raised his eyebrows, "What would that evidence be?"

Before he could open his mouth, the shrill ringing of his phone broke his line of thought. He looked to Sinclair for approval, ignoring Gerard's eye roll at what he could only assume was a lack of professionalism.

"Go on, it could be important," he replied sincerely.

Danny Messer calling…

"Danny, what is it?"

"Mac, I'm sorry. I know you're in a meeting with the brass, I just… Flack told me to call you," he rushed. Ignoring Sinclair and Gerard, he focused on the urgency of Danny's voice, and he couldn't help but feel something was wrong.

"Danny, slow down. What's happened?"

"It's Stella. She was fine, then next thing we know, she collapsed. Don caught her, but she's been out for a while. I've sent for Hawkes. What do I do?"

He stood up quickly and put his blazer, "Just try and wake her up, and keep it that way. I'll be as quick as I can."

Hanging up, he looked to his bosses, "All I ask is that in future when I ask for 5 minutes, five damn minutes for one of my detectives to eat her lunch – you give it to me."

- / -

"You need to go home, Stel," Hawkes urged, with Danny beside him. Don sat beside her on the floor of the AV Lab rubbing her arm, in a weak attempt to soften the blow that Hawkes was delivering. As expected, she shook her head.

"I'm fine-"

Hawkes held up his hand, "Stella, I have a medical degree; don't try that one on me."

Resting her head on her knees, she sighed in defeat. She felt more exhausted than she had been earlier, and coupled with a feeling of growing embarrassment, she felt awful. She had attracted the attention of many lab techs following her earlier collapse, and their concern, while not intended as such, was not received well by Stella. Under a lot of pressure these past few weeks, and having so much to deal with this past year, she had earned the admiration of, well… everyone. She couldn't let herself be brought down so easily by exhaustion when she had weathered every other storm sent her way with much greater ease.

"Mac should be here any minute," she snapped her head up at Danny's comment. "So, I'll pack up the evidence and go get something to eat. You need anything else, Stel?"

She shook her head, and as Danny moved to get on with her tasks, she saw Mac leave the elevator and rush towards then. Helping her up, Don exchanged a glance with Stella before letting her rest her hand on his arm.

"What happened?" Mac demanded from Hawkes, who barely looked at Stella before explaining briefly.

"She hasn't been looking after herself these past couple of days and her body couldn't handle running on fumes and far too many cups of coffee. She passed out as a result of exhaustion," he told him, before smiling at Stella. "So, I advise you to go home, have a proper meal and get some rest. I'd guess it's been at least a day since your last meal, and longer since your last sleep."

And suddenly, she could feel Mac's eyes scrutinising her. He was a busy man, and the time he had taken today to buy her lunch had really cost him. It was time he could have spent doing paperwork or looking over the evidence in Jennifer's case. But he was happy to look out for her, to treat her – because she deserved it. It took sacrifice on his part; but they were sacrifices he was happy to make because he truly cared for her.

And by throwing the food away, despite her lack of appetite, she threw those sacrifices, and his care, straight back in his face.

"Don, can you take Stella home, please? I don't want to see you back here until tomorrow. Understood?"

"Mac," she protested. "I'm not going home; I still have work to do. Besides, Sinclair and I were hoping to update James and Veronica tomorrow, and I have nothing to update them with-"

He shot her a look, in warning, "Stella, I'm not going to get anything done if I'm worrying about you passing out on the job. Go home and I'll catch up with you in the morning."

Ignoring Sheldon and Don's presence, she opened her mouth to retort. He raised his hand, as though to silence her and turned his attention back to Don, telling him to take her home. A glimmer of disappointment in his eyes stopped her from arguing with him.

She tried to force herself to apologise to him, but the words she wanted to say turned into a painful lump in her throat. Speaking through the lump would have brought tears in its wake, and she couldn't cry. Not in front of Sheldon and Don, but most certainly; not in front of Mac. Simply nodding, she let Don lead her out by the arm.

She knew there was only one thing which would dissipate the shame that she was feeling, one which she knew she would regret in the morning.

A/N - Okay, so on Sunday I'm on a flight to the US and I'm pretty optimistic that a) my laptop won't be confiscated and b) I'll find some time to write chapter 5. So hopefully the next chapter will be up sometime next week. Hope you enjoyed it :)