Title: History
Author: Nat
Pairing: Mac/Stella
Summary: Their friendship is, if anything, based on history, for they share decades of partnership.
Rating: Whatever replaced PG
Dedication: To delgaserasca, because when it comes to Mac/Stella, there's no one else who understands like you do!
Their friendship is, if anything, based on history, for they share decades of partnership. They're history is written on each others body, some in visible scars, some in not so visible scars, but they are there and they bare them for the other to see.
a.
He wears the history of how they met unofficially, a tiny scar on his hair line that none can see, except for her, because she was the one that put it there. Too many years in the marines had made him sneaky, and you were never to be sneaky around Stella Bonasera.
He broke his sneaky walking habit around her after that.
b.
She wears the history of how they met officially. He offered his hand to her like nothing had happened, but all she could do was stare at the stitches near his hairline from where her coffee mug had connect with his head two days earlier.
She blushes profusely every time the story is retold, but still maintains he shouldn't have snuck up on her. She never apologised and he didn't care.
c.
He wears the history of there first ever case together. A scar from a bullet that sits 3 inches above his heart. The day he was released from hospital, Stella had stormed into his apartment and tore him to shreds. It was a partnership, she yelled at him, which means you have to trust me Mac. Trust my judgement. And you didn't, which almost cost you your life.
Every time he questioned her judgement, his scar stung, like it did that day.
d.
She wears the history of their 23 conviction. A serial killer by the name of Bobby Williams. Their evidence on the case, cost Bobby 2 consecutive life sentences and 9 months later almost cost Stella her life. She was in the ICU for almost a week, the 5 inch scar running diagonally across her abdomen.
In some ways they wear that scar together, because it was him that tracked down Bobby and empty the clip to his 9mm into his chest after he pulled a gun as they were trying to arrest him again. It's him that has to live with that, and with the fact he'd do it again in a heart beat.
The whole department was talking about it for weeks. A whole clip, instead of just one bullet. For months he told himself it was because Stella was his partner and it was his responsibility to protect her, he never admitted that it was because he felt… something for her, which went beyond their partnership.
e.
She wears the history of Claire. Inside and out. The day Mac told her about Claire for the first time, shouldn't help the pang of jealousy that coursed its way through her veins. It had always been the two of them; it had been for years now, and in her naive mind she let herself believe it always would be.
At that moment she started to let go of her best friend.
The day he told her they were getting married, she ran though central park, she ran and ran and ran. She kept running, while her body screamed at her to stop, eventually she realised she couldn't out run the feeling that maybe, she had fallen in… something with her best friend, but now it was to late to even think about what that something was.
In the shower that night she cried to herself, her tears mingling with the water. After that, she never again cried over Mac Taylor.
Two days after their wedding, she ended up in the ICU for the second time. A narcotics raid gone wrong. One bullet punctured her lung, she was breathing blood bubbles for god knows how long, One bullet in her lower abdomen, on the opposite side of the jagged scar that put her in there the first time and one bullet into her left thigh.
He didn't even know about what happened till one week later when he returned from his honey moon. When he went to visit her, the nurse smiled at him and told him he was the first person to come visit her.
He couldn't help but feel he had betrayed her in same way.
f.
They both wear the history of 9/11. The death of Claire he hid on the inside, but she saw it even through the limited ties of friendship they still had left. She stayed with him during the week off the department made him take off, though he never asked her, and she never asked him if he wanted her too.
Each night of that week, they sat there silently next to each other on the couch, until the last night of his mandatory week off. She had reached over tentatively and slipped her hand into his. Slowly his body began to shake and she watched as the tears began to fall and it was him that reached for her. She held on to him tightly as he mourned for his wife.
That was the first night they both slept soundly all week.
Years have passed and they have started their own history together, sharing it equally. Though on their bodies past stories are told, most of them full of pain. But slowly the scars have faded by the love they share for each other. Kisses and touches glide over them, healing the history they once shared, making way for they're future together.
One not tainted by the past.
fin
