Chapter 11: A Surprise Visitor

"Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh

Be my baby

Oh, oh, oh"

"Need something?" Stella asks without looking up as her door opens.

"You."

Recognizing the voice but not in a good way, she looks up. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Neither are you."

"Why did you come here?"

"To give you one last chance; say yes, and you'll be spared."

"If you kill me right now, you'll be caught; my colleagues are just down the hall."

"Prison can't be worse than this."

"You'll find a girlfriend someday if you stop killing every woman that turns you down." Slowly she stands, trying to remain calm.

"No, I won't. They all turn me down; not one said yes. Why?"

"I don't know."

"Why did you say no?"

"First, it's not right when we have yet to convict your neighbor's killer. And I'm not really interested in a boyfriend at the moment."

"Oh."

"And your neighbor probably wasn't interested because she had a boyfriend. Unless you were making that up."

"No, I have seen her with a guy a few times."

"Just keep trying; you'll find her eventually."

He lowers the gun. "Who pulled you out of the fire?"

"My partner."

"The guy at the scene with you the second time?"

"Yeah."

"He seemed a little possessive of you. Are you two together?"

"No, no he's just my partner. And we're really close, but not in that way."

"He meant it in that way. Men are only jealous when someone tries to take their woman."

"We're not dating."

"You lied to me," James raises the gun again.

"No, I swear we're not."

"Why should I believe you?" he pulls the trigger.

Stella ducks, quickly getting under her desk for cover. She hears glass shatter. Then she can hear footsteps in the halls. Afraid he's still there, she remains hidden.

The door opens. "Stella?" Mac says nervously. "Stel, are you in here?"

"Is he gone?"

"He was here? In the lab?"

She comes out of hiding. "Yes."

"Did he hurt you in any way?"

"He shot at me, but it missed. I think I'm alright."

"I shouldn't have left you alone," he holds a hand out to her. She lets him embrace her, head resting against his shoulder.

When she pulls back, there is a small red stain on his shirt. She touches her cheek with her hand, only to find blood on her fingers as she pulls it away. "I… your shirt has… blood on it."

"It's okay; there's an extra in my locker. Here, let's go clean that cut up."

As he cares for the small cut, she informs him about the attack. "Mac, he shot at me because he thought we were… dating. Which was why he thought I wasn't interested in dating anyone."

Mac isn't sure what to say. He gets up from the bench and pulls the clean shirt out of his locker. Failing to notice her watching him, he pulls his shirt off and turns to face her as he buttons the new one. "Since someone is incapable of keeping out of trouble, I want you in my office in five minutes; we might as well let the others handle this and start on a new case."

A/N: I guess he'll have to find some other way to kill her. And he does in the next chapter I think, or the chapter after that, but Mac will once again ruin his plans. So I finally went to see the counselor today. She didn't know whether this biotechnology class would be better than taking Chemistry II and Biology II at the high school. But she did say we might be able to work it out with the band director so I could still be in marching band. So I decided next year I'll probably take AP Calculus, Chemistry II, Anatomy, Spanish III, Band, and Psycology at the high school and maybe English and Health at the college. We have to wait until we go to this meeting Monday. Then she said that I should probably ask my Chemistry teacher about sciences and what she thinks would be best. But my chemistry teacher has been there once in the past two weeks. If she's not there tomorrow, we'll have one of the other chemistry teachers so we can do lab. I can ask her. Or I could go see what my biology teacher from last year thinks. I decided not to take AP Government since I have no interest in Government really or British Literature. I'm thinking senior year will be the biotechnology class and English, Government, and some kind of math at the college. And maybe band, but I can't have over seven credits, and I don't know how much each of those are and if I will get one credit for band or if they can cut it to half a credit if I only can do marching season. It's too confusing. I suppose I'll update Friday. Please review.