Chapter 7: Adopting Nicholas
"And I'm gonna love you
Like it's the last day of my life
Oh…"
"Could both of you sing here please?" the child service worker hands them a clipboard. Mac signs the paper first before giving it to Stella, who has a little difficulty writing her name with her arm in the sling and the baby, Nicholas, in her other arm. He takes it back and hands it to the woman. "And you also need to fill these out."
Mac fills out his information and all he knows of Stella's before asking her. "Why didn't you tell me you had to fill out so much paperwork before we could keep the baby, Stella?"
"I was never adopted, Mac, just put in foster care repeatedly where the parents already had their papers filled out before getting the kids."
"Really? Well, I'm sure your foster parents took good care of you. Now I'll need to make copies of both your drivers' licenses." Stella keeps her mouth shut about her experience in the system. Mac gives his to her before taking Nick so she could get hers out. As she leaves the office, the couple watches Nick grab at Mac's tie.
"See, he doesn't like them either. You really shouldn't wear them," she smirks, still fighting over the tie with him. "You're lucky I only have one hand."
"A month and a half to antagonize you with them."
The woman returns and hands them their cards. "You're all set. Here's my number if you need anything. Thank you for adopting one of the many… orphans we have."
"Thanks you," Mac shakes her hand and lets Stella do so before handing Nicholas back to her.
"What'd you give him to me for? I can't put him in the car seat," she says when they leave the office. Nick reaches up to grab a strand of her curls.
"Guess you'll be putting your hair back," he laughs.
"Mac, I can barely even wash my hair now."
"Come on; he's probably getting hungry since it took so long in there," Mac puts his hand on her back as they walk to the car.
Last Day
Stella lies fast asleep in Mac's arms when the baby starts crying. In order to get up, she has to pry his strong arms from around her stomach.
"Where are you going?" he says sleepily. She smiles at his over protectiveness.
"Nick's awake. Why don't you go get your guitar and sing for him?"
"You don't want to hear me sing, especially at this hour," Mac gets out of bed and follows her down the hall.
"What should we try first? There's music, the dryer, or we could put him in our room."
"Maybe he's just hungry," he picks up the baby and hands him to her.
"You go back to bed with him, and I'll go heat up a bottle of formula."
"I can get it. Besides, you have to go to work and can't be sleeping on the job," she heads to the kitchen instead of back to his bedroom.
"Stel, you can't hold him and heat up the formula with a sling on one arm. I took two weeks off to help you with him."
"What about the team? There are only four of them."
"You need me more than they do. If the Miami team can get by with four CSIs, a detective, and that Horatio who does nothing but watch over the lab, which still gets in trouble with the feds anyway, we can get by with three CSIs, two detectives, and Adam helping out in the field more than usual," Mac kisses her cheek and Nick's forehead. "Now go back to bed."
"Thanks," Stella smiles. A few minutes later, he joins them on the bed with the bottle. They watch as Nick hungrily drinks the warm liquid. Eventually he refuses to drink anymore and yawns sleepily. "I think he'll sleep for a couple more hours before waking us up again."
Mac takes the baby from her and carries him back to his crib, not knowing she is following. He pulls the blanket over him and gives him a good night kiss. Stella walks up next to him, placing her good hand on his shoulder. He wraps his arm around her waist, and together they watch their baby sleep.
"It's perfect," she whispers, leaning up to kiss him.
A/N: It's over. I'll post my one chapter thing on Stella's wardrobe Monday maybe. Then you'll have to wait because I don't have anything else typed. It's very rainy here, yet still way too hot. Thursday was the seniors' last day at school so they were making a mess. For once I was glad my bus is one of the last ones to get there because they were throwing water balloons at people, specifically freshmen, as they entered. Then they did it again as we were going to the buses. I wouldn't have minded getting hit though since it was so hot. Then someone had paintballs and dropped then at the intersection between the biggest hallways in the school were many people pass through. And apparently they did something to the ketchup, but my friend didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Friday wasn't exciting except that who killed my science teacher thing was due. After reading my math teacher's side, I was sure it was her, but I was still planning to go to some other teachers. I asked the one lady during study hall then I meant to go around the next morning to find other teachers but didn't. Then I found out it was due, so I just wrote it was my math teacher with the gnome by the stage. Everyone kept asking me what I figured out and they had the same thing so it must be right. I guess I was lucky it just happened to be one of the two people I see during the day. Please give me final comments. This will be the second highest story I've written for amounts of reviews.
