A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed. After much debating I decided to write a case for them to work on, but Stella and Mac will still be the main focus of the fic. If the writings in italics that's Stella thinking.

She wondered why he didn't wear his tie anymore. It could be because he had loosened up a bit lately, after his date with Rose. She knew he wasn't still seeing Rose, but a new girlfriend could explain why Mac seemed so much happier lately. She sighed, she was going to driver herself crazy thinking like that. Stella downed the last drop of her coffee and stared at the pile of paperwork she was supposed to be doing. It was an unusually slow day at the lab. Her mind drifted back to last night. She licked her lips, trying to imagine what it would be like if Mac really kissed her. What would it feel like? What would it taste like? As a young child at the orphanage the nuns always said she was a hopeless romantic, dreaming about her knight in shining armour coming to rescue her and living happily ever after. But eventually she grew older and wiser as the chances of her getting adopted grew less and less likely. Eventually she got tired of waiting and decided she would rescue herself. She was an independent, strong woman who relied on herself to get to where she was today. She didn't need anyone...except him.

"Stella? Stella?" A voice with a heavy New York accent interrupted her thoughts.

" Huh? Oh hey Danny, what's up?"

" What's up with you, more like it. You better not let Mac catch you day-dreaming when you're supposed to be working." Danny half-joked, half-warned.

"I wasn't day-dreaming..' she mumbled, more to herself than him. Danny glanced at the empty coffee cups on her desk.

" Jeeez Stella, four cups of coffee? It's not even noon yet. What's the matter? Boyfriend keep you all night?" he teased.

" Boyfriend?" Stella asked, somewhat confused.

" The sculpture guy. What's his name? Fred? Frank?"

"Oh Frankie. We broke up." she said matter-of-fact-ly.

"How come?" he asked curiously. His intuition was telling him there was more to it than just 'We broke up'.

" You know, you better not let Mac catch you here annoying me when yor suposed to be working." her irritation clearly evident in her voice. Danny threw up his hands in self-defense.

"Alright I'm going. Touchy..." He turned to leave, but just then both his and Stella's cellphone beeped. They simultanouesly flip open their phones.

"Dispatch"

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Danny and Stella arrived at the apartment, kits in hand. Mac was already kneeling over the body. Stella noted that once again his tie was missing from its place around his neck. A young blonde woman, clad in her underwear, lay on the ground in a pool of blood. She sported a nasty head wound.

"Killer left behind the murder weapon." Mac stated, getting right to the point. He lowered a blood covered baseball bat into the evidence bag.

"Signs of a struggle." Stella said, looking around the room. A broken vase lay shattered on the ground, red nail polish was spilt over the table. "Poor girl" she added as an afterthought."

Flack walked up to them, notebook in hand.

"Gotta ID on the vic?" Danny asked.

"Name's Sheryll Hartigay. The neighbours found her this morning."

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Back at the morgue Dr.Sid Hammerback briefed Mac and Danny on the results of the autopsy.

"Her brother just came in to ID her, pretty shaken up. The assistant had to restrain him."

"Well, it's understandable." Danny sympathized.

"Cause of death was blunt force trauma, fractured her skull and snapped her neck." Dr. Hammerback informed them.

"Rape kit?" Mac asked though it was obvious what the answer was.

"Positive, collected semen and sent it off to DNA. I also scraped some blood from under her nails. The Dr. handed Danny a clear container. Inside was dried blood. " Have a look at this." He showed the two her nails. The red polish on them was smudged. Mac recalled seeing red nail polish at the crime scene.

"She was painting her nails when the killer interrupted her. And she scratched him while the polish was still wet."

"Yup, I'd say time of death was around 5pm last night." Dr. Hammerback concluded.

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"Hey Jane." Jane Parsons looked up to see Stella standing in the doorway.

" You're here for the results of the Hartigay case, right?" she smiled, though she wasn't exactly happy with the Greek's presence. She was hoping Mac would come to pick up the results. The two women never really like each other, but no one could really tell. Their indifference was unspoken and though neither would admit it, it revolved around a certain blue-eyed detective.

"Yup." Stella 'smiled' too.

"DNA from the blood and the semen is male and a match to each other."

"Did you run it through AFIS?" Stella asked.

"No matches" Jane answered apologetically.

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Mac was finishing up some paperwork when Stella poked her head in the door.

"Hey Mac, Hawkes said you were looking for me." Mac smiled slightly. He seemed kind of nervous.

"Yeah, come in. Um... are you doing anything tonight?"

"Just paperwork, why?" she asked hopefully.

"I was just wondering if you'd like to have dinner with me." he asked somewhat embarrassed.

Awwww! He's so cute when he's embarrassed.

"I don't know, I'm not really in the mood for hotdogs tonight." she joked light-heartedly

"No hotdogs tonight. Real dinner." he assured her "at my place." he added.

At his place? Does that mean it's a date? Shit, he's waiting for me to answer him.

"Um. Sure I'd love to."

A/N Sorry I took longer than I'd hope to update. Next chap there will be lots more Mac/Stella fluff/smut. Please review!