Mac has the first day back to work after the kidnapping so he has gotten up early to get ready for work. Christine wakes up by the sound of Mac moving around in the bedroom in the dark. She turns on her nightstand.

"Mac? Why didn't you turn on the light?" she asks sleepily.

"I didn't want to wake you up. Go back to sleep honey."

"you have the first day back at work?"

"yes." Mac is wearing his usual work outfit with a shirt and a black jacket. He places his badges and his weapon on his belt and then walks over to Christine. He sits down on the side of her bed. He leans down a kisses her.

"go back to sleep. You don't have to get up this early."

Christine takes his hand in hers.

"How are you feeling about going back to work?"

"I don't know. I would rather stay here with you. Make sure you are okay."

"I am. I am fine, Mac."

"call me if you need anything okay?"

"go. Go… Make the city safer." Christine says,

"you are kicking me out now?" Mac says surprised. Raising an eyebrow.

"Clearly that is the only way I can get you out of here." She says with a laugh.

"okay:" Mac says with a smile and leans down and kisses her one last time. He stands up and corrects his belt and his gun. Then he leans over and turns off her light before he leaves the room.

"be safe," Christine says before Mac closes the door.

"you know me." Is Macs respond with a smile.

"exactly," Christine says before she pulls her cover over her should and goes back to sleep. Mac leaves the apartment with a smile on his face but also with worry and concern about leaving Christine alone for the first time since she came home. He knows she is a grown woman, but he still feels a certain need to protect her and keep her from harm's way.

The crime lab

Mac is having a briefing with his team but Jo notice that Mac seems very distracted and he keeps looking at his phone.

"Mac…" Jo says interrupting Hawkes who is informing the team about the medical report on the second victim in their case the team has been working on over the past week. Mac looks up from his phone that he has looked at for the 5th times in 5 minutes.

"call her," Jo says. Mac look confused at her and then around at the team. "who?" Mac asks.

"the queen," Danny says. He has noticed Mac's distraction too. That makes Adam, Hawkes, Danny, and Flack laugh. Jo and Lindsay don't seem to find it as funny as their male colleagues.

"Christine. Call Christine." Mac pretends to not understand what she is talking about.

"why would I call Christine? She is home she is fine." Mac says and stuffs his phone in his jacket pocket.

"because you want to. You have checked your phone 5 times in 5 minutes." Jo says.

"are you keeping me under surveillance?" Mac asks a little irritated. Jo has noticed Mac being on the edge all day.

"Mac…" Lindsay says. "we are concerned about you… and Christine." Lindsay explains.

"no need to. Christine is home. She is fine."

"are you?" Danny asks. Mac looks at Danny with a questioned look. "you are not the only one who has been a traumatic situation where you nearly lost the woman you love. I know how it feels."

"I don't need any psychanalysis, Danny." Mac stands up and leaves the conference room.

"let's give him some space," Jo says and the team continues the briefing.

Jo exits the elevator and notices Mac, who is sitting in his office. He is just starring out over the city skylines. Jo walks into the office without knocking on the door.

"haven't you heard about knocking Jo?" Mac asks without turning his chair around to face her. Jo just smiles and walks over to Mac. She is a few steps behind his chair when she notices he is sitting with his photo of him and Christine in his hands.

"Mac." Jo just places a hand on his shoulder. Mac just looks down at the photo. Then he turns around and places the photo back on his desk and tries to put on his usual poker face.

"what do you have Jo?" Mac asks.

"concerns… for you." Mac signs heavily. He was hoping Jo would just let it go and focus on the case.

"Jo." Mac looks at the photo again. "I can't call her. She would tell me I'm a softy and that I am checking up on her." It makes both Mac and Jo smile. It is only very few people who know that Mac actually is a big softy, but it takes a long time for people to get to know the softer side of Mac.

"does it matter?" Jo asks. Mac looks up at Jo for the first time since she entered the office. Jo clearly sees the pain and worry in his eyes. Jo takes Mac's phone from the table and quickly finds Christine's number before Mac gets any protest in.

"Are you checking up on me?" is the first thing Christine says when she answers the phone. Jo is holding Mac's phone in her hand. She has a big smile on her face. Mac has an expression that says I told you so, but JO doesn't seem to care and she reaches the phone out to Mac. Mac just looks up at Jo.

"Hello… Mac are you there?" Christine asks when no one is answering. Jo hands Mac the phone and leaves the office. Mac takes the phone and turns around and looks out over the skylines.

"hey, honey. How are you?" Mac asks.

"I'm fine…" she says. mac can hear that isn't 100% true. "where you checking up on me?" she asks in a teasing tone.

"no…" He says a little too fast. "I didn't call you…" Mac realizes that sounded a bit wrong. So he explains. "It was Jo. She took my phone. That makes Christine laugh. She knows Mac would be too stubborn to actually call her because it would make him look soft. But Jo… she has never been bothered by Mac's tough marine face so she probably took his phone and called her for him to force his hand.

"Mac I am fine." Christine tries to sound more convincing but she knows she fails right away. "Christine you don't fool me," Mac says and Christine signs in defeat. "I am okay, Mac."

"Promise me you will call me if you need anything?" Mac says with concern.

"could you bring some chips home?" she asks and they both start laughing.

"sure." It knocks on the door and Mac turns around in his chair. Lindsay is standing there in the door. Mac signals to her that she can come in.

"I gotta go, Christine. I love you, Christine." He says right before Lindsay enters his office.

"I love you too, Mac." She says before she hangs up. Mac places his phone on the table and turns his business face back on and is ready to focus on the case.

"Christine?" Lindsay asks. Mac nods. "how is she?"

Mac just looks down. He isn't sure how to answer.

"she is getting better." Mac says and looks over at his picture on his desk before he turns back to Linsay. "what do you have?" he asks and Lindsay gets back to business. Mac tries really hard to focus on the case but his mind does keep wandering back to Christine. He keeps thinking whether it was to soon he got back to work. He smiles to himself when he thinks of how Christine would have laughed at him and kicked his butt out of the door if he had told her that he wanted to stay home to take care of her. she is not going to let him do that. She is too strong and independent to let him do that.