Thanks everyone for your sweet comments and wishes - I'm so happy that you like it, I knew you would. "Bit" more of the emotional direction coming up now.

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Chapter 21 – Trial By Jury

They were sitting on the couch for a while in total silence until Mac got up and walked over to the window. He stared out, watching the lights of New York by night.

Why isn't she reacting to me? She doesn't say a word…

Mac began to panic. He had no idea what he was supposed to do next, afraid that it would be wrong anyway. Nothing seemed to be right, pushing her might scare her off, waiting for her to take the next step might make her think he didn't care or would think about a way to back out again…

Finally Stella stood up as well and walked over to him.

"You know, you can't turn the indicator light and drive on the left side and then turn right at the end of the street…" she quietly said, now standing next to him.

She didn't touch him or even look at him, just looked out of the window the same way he did.

He knew what she was referring to.

"So – what am I charged with?" he softly replied.

Stella looked over to her right side from the corner of her eyes without turning her head. She was surprised by this reaction, but apparently they both didn't really know how to get out of this situation and maybe it just needed a little playing to make it easier.

"Causing inappropriate confusion in coincidence with mental ups and downs," she quickly replied, wondering if it just sounded as stupid as it seemed.

"That's a pretty serious charge… So what's the people's evidence in the arraignment?"

You really wanna play this game? Alright, there you go…

"Well, first of all I don't appreciate someone snapping at me without any reason when I'm just trying to be nice."

"You're right, that was unfair and wrong. And I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have overreacted that way, but I was just… you know when you… after the… I just didn't know…" he struggled for the right words.

"The defense is already losing the thread?" Stella asked without sounding teasingly at all.

Mac knew that he had to explain it to her, now was the moment to talk openly. Otherwise they would never get out of this emotional mess they had been caught in for days.

He breathed in deeply before continuing in a calm voice.

"After I got the electrical shock and you held me in your arms while I was lying there on the floor… I can't explain it, I was just pretty confused afterwards and I didn't know if it was the shock or … being so close to you and I … I was just afraid that someone else might notice that. And when you then asked about getting me something to eat and some rest – I just snapped. It wasn't against you, I guess I just wanted to make clear, more for anyone who could have heard it, that there was nothing."

He sighed.

"I didn't mean to hurt you, Stella."

She nodded. She had expected something like that behind his reaction, but couldn't believe it until he told her himself.

"And besides," he continued with more courage after he noticed she understood what he had just told her, "when I wanted to apologize, you attacked me with paper cannonballs without warning."

"Objection!" she defended herself.

"Why's that?"

"First of all it was just basically a paper pellet. And it was just ONE and I was just throwing it into the waste basket and didn't 'attack' you with it."

"Right. Objection sustained," he agreed. "What next?"

"When you invited me for lunch, we…"

"Objection, irrelevant!" Mac interrupted.

Stella took a deep breath.

"I wasn't done yet. Let me finish my phrase?"

"Sure."

"… we got interrupted by this call that I KNOW you couldn't do anything about," she emphasized. "I'm not blaming you for that, that's just daily routine, I'm used to it. But what I couldn't understand was what happened later. Mac, we had a wonderful evening together, I haven't felt that good in a very long time. And correct me if I'm wrong, I had the feeling you had a pretty good time yourself."

She looked at him expectantly.

He nodded slightly.

"You're right, I did…"

"I didn't take the little good night kiss as a commitment or anything, but I could swear there was something going on between us. And no matter what you tell me now, I know you felt it, too."

When he didn't react, she went on.

"Then how do you explain the scene in the locker room the next morning? What happened there, Mac?"

He shook his head and pressed his lips together. Now that he heard the facts presented to him like this he noticed how stupid his behavior was and how much he hurt her with it.

"I was just afraid that someone would come in and…"

"What Mac? Catch us having a very brief, innocent hug? Are you really that afraid of it?"

"It could have developed into more than a hug…" he mumbled so quietly that she couldn't understand what he was saying.

"What?!"

TBC

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Eh, yeah - mean little me again. Sorry.

No, I'm not - send me some more of those nice little review alerts and I will think about another quick update ;-)

xxxlittlesheepxxx