Chapter 8: A New Rule
Mac gets up to answer the door, assuming it is the pizza delivery man. He is shocked to find the lab director on the other side. "Hello, Taylor, is everything alright? Where are the others?"
"Stella is kind of trying to sleep although she's starving, and the pizza should be here soon. I think the other four are discussing what movies we should watch later or something," Mac answers, closing the door behind the director.
"Hi, Bonasera, you asleep?" he asks.
"No, why?"
"I need to talk to you alone for a few minutes about this morning," he looks towards Mac as he leaves, shutting the door not quite all the way behind him. "How are you holding up?"
"Alright."
"Mac took you off the case, I assume."
She nods, "Possible tampering with evidence in a jury's opinion," she recites. "I can help, just not touch anything or interrogate."
"That's okay. So what's going on between you and Mac?"
"Nothing. We're just close friends and partners like we've always been," Stella says, half telling the truth.
"Really, because lately it seems like more? I think you both know it is against protocol to have a relationship with a co-worker," the director persists.
"Yes, there's nothing else, and we know even if we wanted to, we couldn't get involved."
"Okay, I need to talk to you all," he offers her a hand, but she refuses before going into the room where others were. "How are you guys sleeping?"
"Stella and I have the other room, and the guys are all in here," Lindsay answers.
"A new rule has been approved: No relationships are allowed between co-workers," the director informs them. Stella glares at him with pure anger as Mac glances at her.
There is a knock on the door; Flack answers and pays the man. "Time to eat," he says, putting the pizza boxes down in the kitchen.
"Well, I'll leave now. Stay safe and have a good night," the director leaves as they all file into the kitchen.
"He heard us, Mac. And now he's blackmailing me, because I'm with you. He is jealous, and he just made that stupid rule up to aggravate me. God, I hate him," Stella fumes.
"Just because you always get in trouble with him doesn't mean you should hate him. And what's with this about blackmail?" Mac asks.
"I'll explain in a few minutes. I don't care what he says, Mac, he can't separate us because we were together before he made up this stupid rule. Plus we have witnesses," she smiles.
"Movie's going to start," Hawkes calls to them.
They go to the bedroom and sit down on an empty bed. "What's with this no relationship thing?" Danny asks.
"He's doing it to aggravate me. But I don't care. Mac and I aren't breaking up," Stella insists.
A quarter of the way through the movie Stella is sleeping in Mac's arms. By the time the movie is over Lindsay is asleep too. Mac and Danny carry the girls to their beds and cover them up.
"I'll watch first," Hawkes offers, sitting in the chair by the window.
"Take care of them, Sheldon. Make sure they don't get hurt," Mac says, kissing Stella's lips before going to his room.
A/N: Last night's episode was awesome. One thing: the article couldn't have been written a year ago, because it was exactly six months ago she killed him on the show. The end was good, but they should have had Mac come and check on her or something like in Scifi-warper's Compromise.
