A/N Hey friends!! It has been a long week. We thought a hurricane was going to come our way but now it looks like we are in the clear now so I should be able to get chapter five sooner than I thought. Somehow half of my chapter five got erased but luckily I wrote most of it down so all I have to do is retype it so I should be able to post it by next week.

Thanks to lily moonlight for looking over this.

Chapter 4

Stella's Secret

Charge of the post

Stella was the first one out of the car she was looking for Mac, Don or …

"Lindsay!" she exclaimed as she rushed up to her.

"Mac and Don were in the building," Lindsay said, with a phone pressed up to her ear.

"Yeah we heard the 1033," Stella said.

Stella told the person from homeland security that she was in charge of the crime scene. She did not feel in charge. She felt like she wanted to go some place and cry for her friends and for her city but right now she had to keep herself together and make sure everyone was doing their job. She checked every stretcher for Don and Mac she couldn't lose both of them, that would be too much to handle. She made sure to send Lindsay to the hospital to get her cut checked out.

CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY

She waited for Danny to come out of the building with the rescue team. When Danny finally came out of the building it scared her how pale he was.

"Danny what's wrong? Did you find Mac and Don?" she asked trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

"Yeah we found them but Flack's hurt real bad" he said, voice shaking.

"What about Mac" Stella asked, nervously.



"He's a little banged up but he will be ok," Danny said and then went to finish looking with the rescue crew.

Stella felt her breath catch when she saw the EMT's wheel Don out. She could see his face was cut up and what made her ill was the large hole in his stomach. Her heart broke when she saw Mac clutching Don's hand before they put him into the ambulance.

"You ok?" Stella asked after the ambulance pulled away with Don.

Mac turned to her with the saddest eyes she had ever seen. She was careful of his injury as she leaned in and gave him a hug. She felt him lean into her embrace needing her comfort for a moment and then pulled away and headed for the command post.

Stella had never felt so helpless. Everyone was taking Don's injury hard but Mac was taking it harder than the rest. He seemed so distant like he was in another time. She wondered if he was thinking about when Claire died.

She had only met Claire Taylor a few times before 9-11 happened. Claire was a really sweet person and made Mac extremely happy. He was never the same after that day. CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY

Stella felt sick again. She knew most of it was stress and she was only eight weeks but she hoped that she wasn't going to be one of those women who stayed sick during the whole pregnancy. She'd already made one trip the bathroom once she was hoping she wouldn't have to go again. She just couldn't help but think what if it was her that was in the explosion. No one would know about her pregnancy. They wouldn't know to try to save her baby. That scared her. What if she got hurt no one would know.

"Stella," Mac's voice broke through her thoughts.

"Yeah, Mac sorry," she said, trying to focus.

"You ok? I called your name twice," he asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Yeah I was just lost in thought," she said.

Mac nodded.

"I just heard Don was moved to recovery room," Mac said.

"Thank God for that," she said, sighing in relief.

"I just got a location of a warehouse where the C-4 might be," Mac said.

"Ok let's go," she said, as she headed for the door.

Mac followed behind her.

CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY



She looked at the pictures of the potential targets and shook her head. She wanted to catch this creep fast before he hurt anyone else. They not only found C-4 but a lot of automatic weapons and files with different names on them. Who was this guy? Why was he following Mac?

CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY

Stella felt the bullets fly past her as she ducked down near the closests object.

"Mac he's in the projection booth," Stella yelled.

She watched as Mac headed up the stairs to find Lesing. She followed shortly after they had cleared the first floor. She slowed when she heard Mac's voice. She watched as Mac held up his hand in surrender. She didn't know what Mac was doing but she trusted him so she put her gun away and motioned for the others to stop where they were. She watched as Lesing gave the gun to Mac and was arrested. After it was all over Stella wanted to tell Mac about the baby but wasn't sure how.

CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY

Stella sat staring at Don's pale face, and then she took his hand.

"Hey Don its Stella. Mac told me that you squeezed his hand and that's great considering what you have been through. I know it is going to be a while before you wake up but I'm going to help you get through this like you helped me," she said as she squeezed his hand. She smiled when she felt his hand tighten around hers.

"I'm a little afraid of what is a head for me Don. I haven't really told anyone about what I am going to tell you because then I think it will become real for me," she said stopping as she became overcome with emotion.

"I'm eight weeks pregnant. I really don't know how to tell anyone. I can take care of myself and I don't want anyone thinking I can't. I just don't know how I am going to tell them, especially Mac. I just couldn't help but think today what if something happened to me and nobody knew about the baby. I know everyone will be supportive but I'm… I'm scared. That is why you have to be ok because this baby needs all the Aunts and Uncle it can get so you just rest and take your time healing and when you're ready come back to us" Stella said as she kissed his knuckles then laid his hand back on the bed.

She then got up from her chair by his bed and went into the hall where Mac was. She gave him a small smile as she sat down next to him. That was where they would wait until their friend got better.