The Cause and Affect of Extreme Situations

SUMMARY: Mac is having a bad day and all it does is keep going further and further down hill. Especially when there's an accident while they attempt to apprehend a suspect. SMACK! Mac/Stella all the way eventually. Lots of Angst!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own... that's y me and my friend are planning a huge heist to kidnap Gary ;) lol. Don't sue... trust me you'll pay more money on the lawyer then u will get out of me.

Authors Note: Ok so this is chapter two! Sorry if the characters are a bit OOC but that's the best I could do. This is the ONLY CSI I watch and the only one I like probably because I completely love NY and cause I love Mac (Gary Sinise) his story, background and all that, Stella, and the guy that plays Danny (I always forget his name) but anyway yeah he's hot. lol anyway yeah new chap soon if i get the reviews!

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CHAPTER 2

by cripticwolf

It turns out that Aiden actually ended up winning the bet. Mac went home and got another shirt and tie during his lunch break and was finally more comfortable. His headache hadn't completely went away but it was just a tolerable ache now that he could deal with. He was glad that him and Stella had made up earlier, he felt alot less stressed out and worried knowing that they were good again. It surprised him how much she affected him. The last person that made him feel that was Claire. Smiling softly at the thought Mac decided to go check out how his team was doing.

Mac walked into the lab and up behind Stella, who was running some prints and staring intently at the computer screen. She didn't even seem to notice that he was in the room so when he said, "How's it going Stella?" she nearly fell out of the chair.

"Jesus Mac! Give me a freakin' heart attack why don't ya?" She blamed his Marine training for the fact that she didn't hear him coming but in reality it was because she was lost in her thoughts... about him, but she'd never let him know that.

He laughed. "Sorry Stella. So what've you got?" Leave it to Mac to go from laughing to serious work mode in the blink of an eye.

She took a deep breath trying to calm herself from when Mac scared the crap out of her. "Remember that explosion Vic from yesterday?"

"The guy you and Aiden found in the ruble of the collapsed building in Queens?" She nodded. "Yeah what about it? I though you concluded that it was a gas explosion that caused it to explode?"

"At first that's what we thought but I was thinking about what Hawkes said about how our Vic's face seemed like someone went out of their way to completely bash it in, and that it looked like to much of a precise job to have been from the collapse. Plus It seemed odd to me that no one else was in the building when it collapsed, the cops said they only found our john doe and no one else, its seemed so... orchestrated. So last night i went back to the building and just started looking around the area, thank god it was only a two story building so there wasn't alot of an area covered in the rubble, and i found some things that I though looked like they could be used to bash this guys head in and came across these." She pointed over to the table by the corner of the room, which had various objects strewn around it. Mac put on a pair of gloves and walked over to them picking them up and examining them himself as Stella continued. "The only one i found prints on was that hammer there at the end, and get this, I also found some blood. Im running the prints now."

"Great job Stella." Mac said, genuinely pleased with her advances on the case and her performance. Trusting you gut, didnt always give you what you needed to make a break in a case, in this particualar case Stella's intuition was what gave them a lead. They waited another minute in silence before the computer informed them that they had a match on the prints.

"Bruce Mitchells... he was incarcerated three years ago for aggravated assault and armed robbery. He's got other offenses, unruly conduct, shoplifting, drunk driving and the kicker is...arson. Geez this guy just screams the word Creepy." Stella said and Mac nodded. Bruce Mitchell was a large man with a muscular build, 37 years old, tall, with dark eyes and dark greasy hair. He had a Tattoo of a Grim Reaper on his neck that disappeared, no doubt continuing on his right breast. He had a big nose that was crooked and looked like he broke it a few times in the past and a goatee. Not someone you'd want to be near without a crowd of witenesses around.

"Looks like our guy." Stella stated. Mac agreed. "You grab Danny and Aiden and I'll work on getting a warrant. Meet back here in 20." With that said Mac walked out of the lab and toward his office and Stella went the opposite direction, toward the cafeteria to search for Danny and Aiden.

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30 Minutes later and they were headed to Bruce Mitchell's last known place of residence, his parents' house in the Bronx. When they got there Mac told Danny and Aiden to go ask the neighbors if they'd see him around and check the perimeter while Stella and him went to question Bruce's mother.

Debra Mitchells was not a social woman. She hated company. In fact the only thing she hated more then company was cops. As soon as she opened the door Mac and Stella became instantly aware that they weren't going to get anything from her, but hey had to try none the less. Debra's fat face caked with too much makeup for a 60-year-old woman peeked through the crack that the door was opened.

"What do you want?" She asked rudely and in a gravely voice, the kind you get when you've smoked basically all your life, eyeing them up and down. She knew they were cops before the man even help up his badge.

"Miss. Mitchells, I'm Detective Taylor and this is Detective Bonasera, we'd like to ask you a few questions about your son Bruce... Can we come in?" Mac asked, pleased at the flash he saw in her eyes when he mentioned her son. Debra growled and started mutter something about how cops were pigs and all needed to die under her breath as she unlooked her door.

"Fine but don't touch nothing." She sneered at them, walking into the living room. 'Couldn't pay us enough to lady.' Mac and Stella took a look around, the walls had a bad leaking problem and stains from past leakage were clearly visible being yellow and brown on what they think we're white walls at one point but had stained slightly yellow from cigarette smoke. The floor had things all over it, clothes, empty containers, bottles, cigarette cartons, and at one point Mac and Stella thought they saw things movie around. Both just looked at each other. "Well are ya coming or not?" Debra called sticking her chubby face around the doorframe and glaring at them. Both Mac and Stella rolled their eyes and sighed before they followed Debra to the living room.

"Have a seat." She said as she plopped down on a ripped easy chair.

"Uh... thanks." Mac said. Him and Stella moved over to the couch, Stella made a grossed out comment under her breath and Mac had to work on not laughing as they both sat down on the very tip of the cushions.

"Now what'd ya want from me, I ain't got all day?"

"Like I said before Miss. Mitchells we need to ask you about your son."

"What about him? My Brucey is a wonderful boy. Never done nothing wrong in his life, nothing. He just gets blamed for it all by the damn police. He's smart and handsome, what would he need ta be a criminal for?" She ranted.

"That's actually what we'd like to know." Mac cut in.

"He's done nothing wrong. He's just like his daddy."

"Where is his daddy Miss. Mitchells?" Stella spoke up for the first time and asked. Debra glared at her.

"That's really none of ya business, but I supposed I may as well tell ya." She said. "Henry is in prison. Got 5 years for beating up on some cop who was harassing me." There was a level of hatred in her voice that proved that she wouldn't bother telling them a thing. Mac raised his eyebrows at the 'harassing' comment. Not that Mac didn't think it was possible; there were plenty of dirty cops in this city. "Harassing how?" he asked genuinely curious.

"Ya kno like flirting and try to cop a feel on me." She told them and they knew she was lying... for one no cop who was dirty or clean would EVER consider it and for two it was just plain obvious she was lying.

"Right. So back to Bruce…Have you seen him since he's been out of jail? Had any contact with him in any way?" Mac asked.

"No." Came the short clipped response. Stella rolled her eyes. Mac was loosing his patience and worse then that his headache was coming back.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure." Mac stood up and walked around the living room, glancing at Stella he motioned that he was gonna check out the kitchen, she nodded microscopically. "What the hell are you doin'!" Debra asked and was about to get up when Stella pushed her back down, with little force.

"Relax Miss. Mitchells we have a warrant." Stella flashed the paper in front of Miss. Mitchells face. She snorted and rolled her eyes folding her arms over her chest, and sitting still. Mac came back a minute later and walked over to them. Looking at Debra he asked. "You always leave your back door open and stove running and forget about it?" Mac asked. Anger flashed in Debra's eyes and something else... fear? Mac leaned down closer to her and said very deliberately. "Where's your son Miss. Mitchells? He's the suspect in a murder and if I find out he was here when I check these," he pulled out a piece of tape (A/N: the things they get the fingerprints up with idk the name so its tape lol) with a fingerprint on it from the pot in the kitchen and the door that was open before putting them back in his pocket. "Then I'm going to come back here, arrest you, and throw you in jail. Then when I get your son im going to throw him in jail too. Then the whole family will be back together..." Mac knew he was pushing her, making her angry, that was the point her wanted her to flip to spill her secret. "Tell me now Miss. Mitchell, where's Bruce?"

He saw it coming but had no time to pull back as Debra punched him in the face, he was expecting a slap but that was a full on punch. He stumbled and Stella quickly got a pair of cuffs on Debra. "FUCK YOU COPS! My Brucey ain't stupid, he knew you were coming before you even got to the door, he's long gone by now! He's not stupid! He wont be in any hotels or anywhere people know him! He knows the way you pigs operate! He's got plenty of money, more money then you make in your entire life! You'll never catch him!"

"Ma'am would you please shut up!" Stella pushed Debra outside, where luckily Flack was just pulling up. She handed him over.

"You shouldn't have Stel, I'm flattered." Flack said sarcastically.

"You know us Flack, always giving." She smirked and he grinned as he turned and pushed Debra toward the squad car. "Dont you even think about touching me!" She heard Debra say and chuckled at Flacks reply. "Dont worry, I won't, no more then I have to trust me."

Stella went back into the house and found Mac in the kitchen searching for a towel or napkin. "Mac, you alright? She really socked you good." She asked concern written in her voice. Mac turned toward her and she saw that his nose was bleeding pretty badly.

"Damn this hurts... I don't think she broke it, she more or less got me in the jaw but it still friggin hurts." He had his head back and was pinching his nose to try and stop the blood. Stella pushed him down in a chair and found a roll of paper towels on the counter, grabbing a few, she walked back over to him and took his hand away from his nose replacing it with paper towels and pinching it. He winced and she apologized sympathetically. "Sorry."

"It's alright." Mac replied smiling. "Thanks."

"No problem." Stella replied quietly. They had a moment just staring at eachother blue eyes locked with brown before both of them realised it and broke the gaze. "Well at least we got something out of her." Stella said clearing her throat and changing the subject.

"That was the point. I knew she'd flip out if I pushed her... just wasn't expecting that punch." He rubbed his jaw here her fist made contact with it before lifting the paper towel from his nose and seeing that it had stopped bleeding.

"Anyway we kno that he probably wont go to a hotel or anyplace where he's known, like she said. Also that he's got alot of cash." She considered those options trying to draw some conclusions. " We try and catch a trail, get someone out showing pictures to local owners renting out high priced apartments and ask if they know of anyone throwing alot of cash around that resembles him." She suggested.

"Sounds good. Get Danny and Aiden to interrogate Miss. Mitchell's and tell them to watch her left hook."

Stella laughed and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Mac was not having a very pleasant day.

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TBC...

That chapter 2 thanks for the reviews and hope u all like the rest of this story!