Christine has been home from the hospital for 5 days now. She has tried to ask Mac about what the kidnappers did to Mac while she was kidnapped but he has refused to talk about it. She is starting to get frustrated about it.

Macs apartment

Christine is walking around in the kitchen in Mac's apartment. She is rinsing down her lunch plaid when her phone rings.

"Hey, Jo. How are you?" Christine says as she answers a call from Jo.

"Hey, Christine. How are you"?

"I'm… I'm okay. How are you and everyone in the lab?" Christine asks.

"well we are missing Mac, but we all know that he needs to be with you right now."

"how are you doing? It must be nice to have Mac home for a week."

"Well…" Christine likes having Mac home but she can't understand why Mac won't talk with her about the kidnapping. He shuts down every time she mentions it. "Jo, can I ask you a question?"
"sure," Jo says.

"what did the kidnappers do to Mac?"

"Christine…"
"Jo please tell me. Mac won't tell me."
"Christine have you thought about why he won't tell me?

"Jo, please. I need to know what happened to Mac. I want to know what they did."

There is a short moment of silence on the other end of the line. "Jo?"

"Christine, they used your phone to make it look like you had been unfaithful to Mac. They also made it look like you had been part of a jewelry store robbery in Las Vegas and they also found a blonde woman matching your description dead in a car. At first, they fought it was you. It turned out to Jimmy Boyd's girlfriend Kim. When they killed Shawn Boyd, they cut out his tongue and mailed it in a box to Mac to taunt him. Making Mac believe it was yours. The guy Zane Kalim taunted Mac in the interrogation room by making him believe that they had done terrible things to you. "
Christine is shocked by the information. Tears start forming in her eyes. She knows Mac is a tough man and he has probably seen things a lot worst over the year, but she still feels bad about they would use her as a weapon against him.

"I'm sorry Christine. I think the reason why Mac didn't tell you is that he wants to protect you."

"I don't need protection, Jo," Christine says while tears are falling down her face. she is trying to sound angry because nobody wanted to tell her but she also felt sad and worried about Mac. She is trying to hide her tears from Jo, but Jo can hear her voice breaking as she speaks.

"Christine I'm sorry. I think you should talk to Mac. I think the best thing is that you and Mac should work this out together."

"we will Jo."

After her conversation with Jo Christine sits on the floor in the kitchen and is crying. Once she hears the front door opens she gets up and wipe the tears off her face. She stands up and starts finding the ingredients for the cake she had planned to bake. Mac comes into the kitchen with his hands filled with shopping bags. He walks in and places the shopping bags on the kitchen tables. Christine is standing in the kitchen baking a cake. Macs give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, sweetie.

"Hey," Christine says and turns her face away from him and finds her ingredients in the cabin. Mac notice she is turning her face away from him. He has noticed she has been doing that a lot since the kidnapping. Every time she has cried and she is trying to hide it from him. Mac walks over behind her and wrap his arms around her and kisses her neck and her shoulder.

"Mac, please stop."
Christine walks away from him and stands at the other end of the kitchen from him. She stands with her back to him and takes a moment to gather her thoughts and her strength not to cry before she turns around.

"why won't you tell me the truth about what happened to you while I was kidnapped?"
Mac looks down at his hands.

"do you think I'm weak?" she looks at him with a determined look. "I am tougher then you think, Mac."

"I know how tough you are," Mac says little too fast so it almost sounds defensive.

"then why don't you tell me what happened? Why do you think you need to protect me?"

Mac looks down at his hands. He takes a moment to choose the right words and to gather his strength to tell her the truth.

"I don't tell you because… not because I want to protect you, but… to protect me."

Christine look surprised at him and waits for him to elaborate.

"I am not telling you about it because I am not proud of what happened to me. What this case did to me. What I became doing this case."

Christine is surprised about that, but she doesn't say anything, waiting for him to explain himself.

"every detective I have worked with has had a case where they got personally involved. One of the greatest young detectives I ever worked with she got so personally involved with a victim of a rape case that she considered planting evidence to get a conviction. I ended up firing her. I have been personally involved in cases before, but never to the extent where I started to question the legal system and that justice would be served."

Christine is just listening to him even though he not at one point look at her.

"I began to doubt everything from the moment I found out you had disappeared. Since the moment I joined the NYPD I have believed that justice will be served as long as the legal procedure was complied with, but…" Mac looks up and meets Christine's eyes. Christine can see pain and sadness in his eyes. "the risk of losing you too… it made me question everything. I did things that could have put everyone around me in great danger and they could all have lost their careers, but… all I could think about was getting you back." Christine walks over to Mac and places her hands behind his neck and look straight into his eyes. "I couldn't live with losing you too." He says. Christine likes when Mac is honest to her and show his more vulnerable side, but she never expected this.

"Mac your team trust you and love you. I'm sure they understand you."

"a few years ago, Flack lost his girlfriend. She was a young detective who was killed in the line of duty and Flack ended up killing the man who killed her. I didn't understand it back then, but now… I do. I was willing to do anything to get you back." Mac looks down again. "I couldn't imagine my life without you." He looks into her eyes with so much love, affection and need. She leans in and kisses him. He has his arms tight around her. He holds her as close to him as possible. He just doesn't want to let go of her.

"Aiden… my young detective, I fired for considering planting evidence, her last dying thing to do was to give me a clue so I could solve her case for her…" Mac looks down. Embarrassed. "over the past four days, I have done more than just thinking about breaking protocol. I violated several protocols to get you back. I went behind my teams back. Flack and Jo covered for me. There would be more than enough evidence to get me fired."
"Mac…" Christine says and places her hand on his face to get him to look at her. He looks up and meets her eyes.

"they would never do that. They know you were in a vulnerable position. They know people sometimes make irrational decisions in a desperation situation."

"yes but I have punished my team members for doing similar things before."

"Mac… don't beat yourself up for this."

"This case made me become someone that I don't want to be. It is not the kind of man I want to be or the kind of man I want to be for you." Mac says with sincerity looking into her eyes. She pulls him in for a sweet soft kiss.

"you know the kind of man that I like for you to be.? That is exactly the man I see in front of me right now." Mac look confused at her and waits for her to elaborates. She starts smiling. "I love the kind of man who is open and kind and who is not afraid to let his heart out of his chest every once in a while. That is the kind of man that I Love and that is the kind of man that I see you are Mac."

A smile sneaks up on Mac's lips. "one time I got into a heated argument over a case with one of my former teammates, Stella Bonasera. And after the argument, she said that I reminded her of "the old Mac Taylor. Who sometimes let his heart out of his chest about a case."

Christine smiles about his sentimentally. "you know I think you are starting to be a lot like you used to be. Everything that has happened to you in the past has made you the person you are and it has made you to the man that I love."

Mac just looks at her. Smiling and thinking about how much he loves this woman. After Claire died he never thought he would love someone this much again and when Christine was kidnaped that was when he really realized how much he loves her and that he can't spend his life without her.