Chapter 10: Worried Friends
"You're the only one who knows,
You slow it down"
"What took you guys so long?" Danny asks as Mac and Stella enter the lab.
"We got stuck in the rain."
"You doing okay, Stel? Not hurt too badly?"
"Just my arm," she holds it up.
"Stella Bonasera, what do you mean 'a little burnt'? Your whole arm is wrapped up," Lindsay rushes down the hall to see her.
"It could have been worse."
"You could have been completely burnt to ashes."
"Pleasant."
"I brought you some stuff. It's on your desk."
"Thanks," Stella starts to walk away.
"We, uh, managed to save a few things from your apartment for you," Danny hands her the diamond necklace Mac gave her six months ago for her birthday. "Most of your jewelry was salvaged and a few other things. We put them in your desk drawer."
"Thank you, guys. This means a lot to me," she takes the necklace from him. Mac holds out his hand for it and gently clips it around her neck.
"And if I were you, I'd stay away from Sid. He mentioned something about wanting to see this burn of yours," Lindsay warns.
"I'll keep that in mind. Speaking of which, Mac, don't you have to change the bandages soon?"
"Please don't remind me," he mumbles.
Hawkes joins them. "I can do it if it bothers you."
"Where have you been, Sheldon?" Stella asks as he hugs her.
"Logging in evidence from your place."
"Do we have enough for an arrest?"
"So far we've got some fingerprints and Don's getting security tapes. We should have enough for a warrant for that guy from the other scene."
They stand there, looking around at one another until Mac takes control. "Okay, Hawkes, you and Don watch security videos when he returns. Danny and Lindsay, start processing any evidence you brought back. Stella, we're going to rebandage your arm and then see what we can do."
The team splits up, and Mac leads Stella to his office. He pats his desk for her to take a seat. "If looking at my arm bothers you, I'm sure Hawkes wouldn't mind doing this."
"It isn't a problem; it just bothers me because I don't like seeing you hurt."
"It's not your fault," she says softly.
He gently unwraps her arm before recovering it up. "I let you go home alone last night. I knew he'd come after you."
"He would have gotten me somehow, whether you were there or not. Besides, you saved me; he didn't succeed."
"I suppose," he helps her down.
"Why don't you go help Danny and Lindsay? I'll continue looking through the cold case files and see if we can get him for more than two fires."
"Okay. But don't you be wandering out of the lab alone. You've caused me enough scares to last the rest of my life," Mac teases.
Stella playfully punches him in the chest. "Well, I guess you aren't very god at protecting me then, Mac."
"You'd better watch it, Bonasera; I just might have to get you back for that."
A/N: And guess who shows up... well, you'll have to wait to find out in the next chapter. My mom has a meeting tonight, but I don't really have anything to type while she's gone. I guess I could start the story I'm almost finished writing. Or I could work on my English. We read a couple poems from this collection called Spoon Pond or something random like that. Each poem is like an epitaph for someone who is dead, and the dead person talks a little about their life. Or their death. Anyway, we have to write one of those type things. It has to be like three hundred words. My person is going to be murdered because they found out about something they weren't supposed to. The name sometimes has to do with their life/death, so I was either going to name my person Jane Doe or John Doe. Then we have to get with a partner and create two new people that are somehow connected; some of the people written about in this guy's book were connected. My friend and I are writing about gardners. The one gardener helped the other succeed, kind of like a gardener watering a flower so it grows. That one only has to be a hundred and fifty words though. Not so fun. We would be reading The Great Gatsby but some class still has the books so there's not enough for us to read it yet. And my chemistry teacher hasn't been there since midterms. And she's going to be gone tomorrow too. We were supposed to do a lab, but we can't really do that now. And substitutes have no idea how to balance equations. I know what I'm doing, but I can't explain how to do it to someone. I tried to explain my method to my one friend and she actually understood it. I guess I'll update again Wednesday. Thanks for the all the reviews last chapter. Keep them coming.