Chapter 9: A Crazy Mistake
"When was the last time you ate something?" Mac pulls the car into a parking spot.
"Five-thirtyish."
"Come on. We're gong to get ice cream."
"I can't go out there with a bruise on my face."
"What would you like then?"
"Surprise me," Stella stares out the window, watching the pedestrians on the sidewalk. He enters the little shop to get the dessert.
She spots a familiar, haunting face and gets out of the car, bringing her gun with her. "How did you get away from them?" she points the gun at the man.
"What are you talking about?" he holds his arms out in defense. "I've never seen you before."
"You know what you did, Zach."
"Listen, lady, my name isn't Zach. It's Adam."
"You think I could forget your face after what you did to me?"
"I told you I've never seen you before in my life. I never did anything to you."
Mac exits the building, two ice creams in hand, to find a big crowd a little way down. He goes to the car, shocked to find no Stella, and puts the ice cream in the car before running down the street in search of her.
"Quit lying to me," he hears her yell.
"Excuse me," he makes his way through the crowd. When he makes it to the center, he finds her pointing her gun at some random man. "Stella," Mac walks slowly to her, "give me your gun."
"But Zach escaped," she gestures to the frightened man before her.
"He's not Zach, Stel," he places a hand on the barrel of her gun, forcing it to point to the ground before taking it from her.
"I called the police for backup," a citizen says. "They can take that crazy woman away for you."
Stella turns around, ready to beat the guy up, but he grabs her. "I'm sorry for your inconvenience, but would you mind staying here so we can get this straightened out?"
"Sure," the man follows Mac to his car. "Why aren't you handcuffing her?"
He puts Stella in the car so he can talk to the man. "She's my partner; we work in the CSI Unit of the NYPD. You must have reminded her of her boyfriend for some reason. It's from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; the man beat her, but tonight he tried to kill her. Stella really didn't mean to hurt you; I'll encourage you to file a police report but don't press charges. I will deal with her actions at work."
"How?"
"Suspend her for three to five days."
"That's all? She tried to kill me."
"It won't stand in court; a jury wouldn't charge her," Mac tries to convince him.
"Fine." The police arrive to take his statement. Mac talks to another officer.
"Don't they want to talk to me?" Stella asks when he climbs in next to her.
"I called the chief; we made a deal so you wouldn't have to go to court."
"I'm fired, aren't I?"
"No. Two weeks on suspension. You can't come back after that until you've gone to a psychologist at least three times."
"I don't need a psychologist," she shakes her head.
"I can't believe that. Stella, you just threatened a man with your gun because he looked a little like Zach. You had completely convinced yourself it was him. You need to get help." He hands her a container of ice cream.
"I think I've officially gone insane."
"You're not insane. It's PTSD."
"Why didn't you just let me handle this? Why'd you help me?"
"I care about you. It's not your fault entirely for going after him."
A/N: My report part of the project for Western Civ is long enough, but I just listened to the interview, and it's only twelve minutes long. It'll look kind of odd if my report only covers the first half of the interview, so I apparently have to change that too after I go tell my mom my problem. And I do have another story since I didn't anything for you Monday... my cat brought a mouse inside and I didn't realize it. My mom did and the cat ran behind the big screen TV. When she came out, she didn't have the thing. So we pulled the TV out nad it wasn't there. We have four cats and none of them can find it. That's like the only exciting thing. You know on that one episode of NY where Lindsay ate the fried spider at the end how the other case dealt with that "shooting" people game thing. That was on Providence last night, and Syd was hilarious. I better go finish this. I'll update Friday.
