Disclaimer: They are not mine, I can swear it.

Title: Not without you.

Dedicated specially to my really patient and sweet beta Jo, you know I can't do it without you, literally.

By Lylou

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"And now what? If the father is the real murder, our case is gone, Mac."

"At least we have his name. Jack Taker-Thomas. Without known direction, father of Will Taker-Thomas, who's death was this morning in the commercial-center shooting."

"So…Daddy is our real murderer, and we don't know where to search, what a surprise."

"Maybe it isn't all lost, Stella."

"How?"

"Seems like he wants my attention… I don't think this is over yet."

"Do you think the whole thing is about you?"

"I can't be completely sure, Stella, but he knows me, he knows our methods, he sent us his own son like bait… and he knows about you."

"Yes, he said something about me this morning…"

"…He said you were dead."

Mac hated the mental image of Stella's cold and lifeless body in his arms, although he knew that that would return many more times to his nightmares the following nights.

"I can't understand why, Mac. I mean, we suppose that they worked together. The son should know that I am alive."

"Serial killers rarely work in pairs. When there are two, only one is the decision-maker; I think Daddy controlled his son and sacrificed him."

"That sounds well for me…. But Mac, that means that there is still somebody very upset with you out there."

"I think now I'm gong to say "stop," Stella."

She looked at him in silence; the rest of the pizza was almost cold on the living-room table. Outside, it was freezing, and she could see the snow falling slowly and silently through the window. Mac's house always seemed a bit lonely for her, above all if she compared his cold apartment with her warm home, but it still smelled like him, like grey autumn mornings and the cold sea breeze, like Mac Taylor.

He was one of her favourite people in the world, but she couldn't make him happy. He always was sweet and warm, but Mac was the loneliest and saddest man she had ever known.

"Are you okay, Stella?"

"Yes, I just … it has been a long day, I guess.

"Go to sleep, Stella."

"No, you have to go to the bed. The sofa is mine, remember?"

"I can't let you sleep here."

"Why, because I'm a woman?"

"No… it is because you are…. you."

Stella nodded in silence, looking at him. She took off her jacket and left on the chair; she freed her hair from the ponytail and began to untie the blouse underneath Mac's unbelieving look.

"What are you doing, Stella?"

"I'm going to sleep now, Mac, and I can't do it dressed, so go to your bedroom if you don't want to see the end of the show…"

"I'm... I'm going to get some blankets for you."

"Thank you."

Mac left the room and came back a few minutes later with blankets and a pillow and gave them to her.

"If you need something else just…"

"I wouldn't wake you. You are hurt, remember?"

"Yes…That's why you are here, isn't it?"

Mac looked at her in silence. The only light in the room was the weak and amber one of the street lamp outside, through the curtains. She had the half of her green blouse buttons undone, her hair falling upon her face and the whole room smelling like her skin, like a sweet tangerine gilded from the sun.

He toyed again with his favourite thought; he couldn't help one more time. Mac thought about how it would feel, her warm and smooth body under him, the taste of her sweet tangerine skin among the shadows on his bed, to wake up in the middle of the night and see Stella Bonasera sleeping naked under his blankets with her curls spilled on his pillow.

His voice sounded deeper and darker than he wanted it to:

"What would have happened if I hadn't left the room before, Stella?"

"I guess we will never know."

Her voice was too familiar and too warm just to go to his bedroom and sleep. He still could see her, on his sofa, looking at him through the room's shadows.

He needed to rest; maybe tomorrow he wouldn't feel so tired and confused… but he wasn't confused. Mac knew it very well that for first time in weeks he was sure and really frightened.

"Good night, Stella."

"Good night."

She couldn't sleep and she had been trying for two hours. From the sofa, Stella could see the clock. It was past midnight.

She hated the insomnia nights when her brain worked at full speed and she couldn't do anything else except turn in the bed. Or the sofa.

"Great, the second night in which you aren't going to sleep."

And she remembered the face that Mac had on in the morning when she was speaking to him about her noisy neighbour's private party. It seemed that an eternity had passed from that, but it had been just a few hours ago... but the shooting in the commercial-center, Mac bleeding on the ground and the hospital, the evening had tired her absolutely, and to improve her day, she wasn't able to sleep now.

Outside, it was still snowing. At the end she had decided to sleep with her silk shirt; after all he was on the other side of the door, but now… she was feeling a little bit lonely.

Stella heard steps in the other room and knew that she wasn't the only one that couldn't sleep that night.

So she folded up the blankets and walked slowly towards the bedroom, and suddenly she remembered that the only thing that she was wearing was her green blouse, but the lights were off and it was just Mac.

Just Mac.

He had his hands leaned on the window frame, and he was watching the snow falling in silence into the shadowy streets. Mac was only wearing his pajama pants, and although he hadn't turned when she entered in the room, he knew that she was there.

"You can't sleep?"

Stella took more time than she thought to answer. His bed was completely unmade, and all the room was bathed in shade. Mac had separated from the window and watched her straight until Stella finally answered.

"Actually, no…. how you feel?"

"Fine... I have been worse."

"So, Mac…. why can't you sleep?"

He smiled weakly in the dark room, and Stella could see how the white bandage on his left side contrasted to the shadowy bedroom. She was a bit cold only with her shirt in January, but when she listened, his voice soft and deep in the room, she suddenly felt a warmth on her spine as if it was a south wind on a summer night.

"And you... why can't you sleep, Stella?"

"The adrenaline, I guess."

"Yes…."

Stella walked the few meters that still separated him from her and slowly put her hand on the bandage.

"Does this hurt you?"

Mac held her hand smoothly and looked at her between the shadows.

"Only when I laugh."

"Then, you do not have to worry."

Stella approached closer to him, and Mac could feel again the warm smell of her skin floating around in the dark room. She freed her small hand and stop touching the bandage to touch his skin. Mac felt his breathing accelerate a little when he felt her smooth and cold hand on his skin. Mac tried to speak but the words never got to leave his mouth.

She was too much close, how he had wished so many lonely and cold nights, but she smelled too good, her skin was much too smooth, and he almost could breathe her vanilla breath... but the worse thing was that she watched him, watched him and it seemed that her greenish eyes were done of green fire, just until Stella kissed to him.

And then everything became sweet heat around them.

He only could feel her warm body against him and the silk blouse underneath his hands.

Mac felt as if he had done that many other times, as if every night he had passionately kissed Stella Bonasera. They walked slowly until the wall, and he couldn't say anymore if they had been there for a minute or an hour, with her small body, which looked warmed up directly by the sun, against the cold wall of his room.

He slid his mouth by the smooth and warm skin of her neck, and suddenly Stella didn't seem a normal woman no longer, and he knew that never more would she look like one. The normal woman wasn't made of hot caramel.

Mac felt her breathe anxiously against his hair and smiled. He had nothing else more important in the world than this, her hot skin and her half words whispered in his ear, and all the while he was fighting with the small buttons of her shirt.

Suddenly, he heard a noise at the other side of the door, on the landing, but he decided that it wasn't enough important.

"Did you hear something?"

Her voice resounded partially, and she wasn't really separated from him, but Mac knew that something went wrong and whispered into her ear:

"Where it is your gun?"

Stella thought about it for a few seconds, and when she was going to answer, Mac heard more sounds that he could have sworn that come from the next room.

But before he couldn't do anything, Mac felt an intense pain in his wound and felt the warm and thick blood through the bandage.

His legs failed from the pain, and he fell to the ground. Then Mac saw the intruder for the first time while Stella was running into the living-room.

Mac felt painfully the man's foot on his wounded side and how his bandage soiled with blood.

The man was holding him against the ground with his foot when Mac saw Stella entering the room with her weapon and aiming it at the intruder.

They heard his voice for the first time; it was strangely cold and relaxed:

"I will kill him right now if you don't throw down the weapon."

"I will shoot you. I swear!" Stella shouted, but the man far from letting him go, tightened his hold on Mac with more strength, and Mac felt that he was beginning to faint.

The intruder continued treading down on Mac now with so much strength that Stella could see the blood in the wood floor.

Stella looked at Mac, and thought in a second.

She dropped the gun.

The intruder took handcuffs out and handed them to Stella.

"I guess you know how to put them on."

"No, Stella..."

She could hear Mac from the floor; his voice sounded weak, and every time she looked, there was more blood in the floor. She felt the cold metal against her wrists and a chill ran up her spine when she heard the "click" which meant that they were closed on her.

"Now let's go, baby."

"…If you touch her, I will kill you, do you hear me?"

"Today, you killed my son; I am the one that should be upset, don't you think, Mac?"

Stella wanted to shout and cry and all at the same time when she felt how the man threw her in the direction of the door.

"We are going now, doll, unless he wants to see what is going to happen with you."

Stella felt his cold voice against the skin of her cheek, and before being hauled through the door, she called out to Mac, who continued bleeding, still on the ground.

Mac couldn't avoid thinking that that was the second time in the same day in which he bled on the ground while Stella shouted his name.

And then everything turned black.

To be continue…..

All the opinions are welcome.