Okay guys, thanks SO much for all your nice reviews - I'm flattered ;-) I think for this, you deserve a faster updating - so here we go with the next chapter. Besides, I have so much stuff in the backlog that I have to increase updating speed a bit since I'm working on a Christmas story - which IMHO should be posted around ... Christmas ;-)

Hope you like this one - please read and review, thanks :-)

Chapter 4

"Yeah well, the date for repair is on Monday..."

"Fine, and we have Saturday..." Mac paused. "That means we are trapped in here for ... let me calculate ... about two days if power doesn't come back on its own?"

Stella nodded. "That's IF power comes back. That's the security factor with this lock – it makes sure that nobody intentionally short-circuits it to break in… The only way to open it would be by this manual override, which as I said is not working, or by using some special software, they have to log in via laptop from outside of the apartment and put in a master code via remote access – but not on weekends…"

"I see. Just wanted to make sure..."

"And two nights..." she picked up his prior thread about the time calculation.

"Didn't wanna mention that in the first place," he mimicked a smile. "And no other way to have somebody open it from the outside?" he carefully asked, trying not to sound too nervous.

"Sure. We could call for emergency help and they could break the door into pieces, but I'm not sure if that would be appropriate…"

"Maybe not," Mac weakly agreed.

"So... What are we going to do now?" She looked around as if searching for an answer in the chaotic living room, then back at him.

"Dinner? Food is getting cold..."

"Okay, good plan."

"Lucky enough I went shopping yesterday since I planned to renovate the whole weekend. The fridge has an emergency power unit, it should keep the stuff fresh until power comes back, can't take forever… You won't have to starve," she grinned.

That's the LAST thing I'm worried about right now...

XXXXX

After dinner, they decided to go on working while there was still a little light coming in from outside. TV or anything else wouldn't work without power anyway. Just when Stella started tearing down some more wallpaper in the hallway, her cell phone started ringing.

"Not now…" she sighed and wiped her hands in her old jeans. "Bonasera?" Her eyes slightly widened as she gesticulated towards Mac who poked his head through the kitchen door to remain silent. "Danny! Hi… What is it?" Mac quickly disappeared again.

"Sorry to interrupt your free weekend, but we need you out here," Danny answered.

"That won't really work, I'm trapped in my apartment, the alarm system locked the door due to the power outage and I can't get anyone coming up here on short notice to fix it."

"Geez, all hell has broken loose out here – and we can't seem to get in touch with Mac either…"

"MAC?" Stella asked out loud to give him a sign. "Hum, maybe he turned his cell phone off?" she continued while shooting a questioning look towards the matter of their conversation.

Mac grabbed his phone and shrugged after a look at the display. Then he gave her a sign that he switched the phone on.

"I'm sure he will turn it on again soon, just keep trying…" Stella told Danny after Mac had disappeared again.

"Great… So, what are you doin' in there now?"

"Trying to renovate my living room and the hallway, but working hours will be cut now – it would be a bit complicated to redecorate the walls by candlelight," she joked.

"Yeah, well, have fun. Talk to ya later…"

"Alright, bye Danny."

"That was close… What if they keep calling all the time now?" Stella asked Mac who had joined her in the hallway after she had ended the call. Before he got a chance to reply, his phone went off.

"I guess we'll find out sooner than we want… It's Lindsay."

"Oh great…" Stella grumbled. "I'm in the kitchen… I feel like Alf!"

XXXXX

After a second call a while later, Lindsay turned to Danny. "You think Mac has a girlfriend?" The folder he was just studying dropped onto the table.

"Mac? Never."

"Why's that? He's a man..."

"Yeah, I noticed. But Mac and a woman?" he started to work on that thought. "Can't really think of that... You know, since..."

"Yeah, I heard about his wife. Maybe he finally figured it's time to move on with life?"

Danny shook his head. "Nah... Can't imagine that seriously..."

"Hum…"

XXXXX

"I'm gonna call Stella again, I need some information…" Danny said a while later.

"Okay, I'll give Mac another call, ask him about the emergency generator, nobody seems to know exactly how long this thing works and how much it can handle. Maybe we can work normally for at least a while if we can get it started…" Lindsay replied.

XXXXX

"That's strange..." Lindsay said to Danny after she ended the call.

"What?" he replied absentmindedly, still surprised by what just happened, trying to sort it out in his mind.

"Mac was whispering the whole time when we just spoke, as if he wanted to avoid someone hearing the conversation..."

Danny nodded. "Yeah… that would be me."

Lindsay raised her eyebrows. "YOU?!?"

"You never gonna believe this – Mac is with Stella! I just heard his phone ringing in the background when I talked to her. Then it stopped, that was when he started talking to you."

"How do you know it was his phone, could be anyone..." Lindsay objected. "…and you said Stella was trapped in her apartment."

"This was clearly Mac's ring tone..." They both sat down and looked at each other.

"Anyone could have that ring tone..."

"Hey! Let's trace Mac's cell phone, then we'll know for sure," Danny suddenly jumped up.

Lindsay followed him reluctantly to the nearly dark computer room. Only one computer was turned on to save power. "Didn't you say Stella lives on Lexington Avenue?" she asked a few moments later after having entered Mac's number and hitting a few keys.

"Yeah...?!"

"That's the address I got here..." she whispered.

"Sure you traced Mac's number, not Stella's?" She shot him a look. "Okay, okay, sorry. Know what that means?"

"Mac IS at Stella's place..." Lindsay slowly said. Danny gave her a pensive look.

"We can play with that..." he said with a suggestive grin.

"What do you have in mind, Messer?"

"Dunno yet... Let's just have some fun. Call them, keep them busy with trying to avoid us noticing the other one in the background…"

Lindsay shook her head, but smiled about the idea. She called Stella to ask her if she knew about Mac's whereabouts.

XXXXX

"How am I supposed to know where Mac is? Didn't he mention he would be out of town for the weekend? I think he was going to ... " Stella asked a bit louder so that Mac could notice in the neighboring room. She knew Lindsay had already talked to Mac several times, but of course she couldn't ask her why she didn't ask him herself where he was since she wasn't supposed to know about those calls…

Mac looked through the open door, mouthing something that she interpreted as "Jersey". She nodded with a smile. "... Jersey" she finished the sentence. "And the tunnel is closed now, so he can't come back anyway."

Some time and a couple of calls later, Stella turned to Mac after just having ended another call from Danny.

"What are we gonna do if they keep calling nonstop? This is getting complicated…" she asked, being interrupted by his cell phone. After a look at the display, he sighed.

"Guess we're gonna find out soon. It's Lindsay…"

"Hey, be positive…" Stella joked on her way to the bathroom. "Their shift should end soon, maybe we get some rest then."

TBC