Thanks for reviewing. Enjoy chapter 6!

Every muscle in Stella's neck tensed as she felt his breath there. She held her breath, and worked to escape a gasp as his arm brushed hers as he reached for her test results. And then he had gone, moving to the other side of the table. Frustration ebbed through her. Why couldn't this man sense the effect he had on her?

He knew, of course he knew. And Mac, ever the untypical male, was typically terrified. It wasn't that he didn't feel the same. She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, partly because, well, she just was, but also because she was feisty, and determined, and put everyone else before herself. And somewhere along the road, he'd fallen in love with her.

Mac groaned at himself mentally as this played out in his head, and he realised how cheesy it sounded. Knowing he'd have time to continue the inner monologue later, he turned his attention back to the case again.

"So, Stel, if we know that the boy was given ice cream, we're looking for containers, and if we're looking for containers, we need someone to do a trash dive." He grinned over the table at her, and, she would swear later, there was a glint in his eyes of something completely evil.

"Uh-uh, no way, Mac. Not gonna happen. Get Danny. Get…someone. Not, in a million years, will I rummage through trash."

Stella sighed to herself as she pushed through layers of rubbish, in the dumpster outside their first crime scene, and anger built in her chest. She could hear Don on the other side of the dumpster, laughing about something – probably her – with Danny. Then a cough, and a cautious, "How ya doing in there, Stel?"

Stella was, of course, not in the mood to mess around. "Not great, Don," She ground out through gritted teeth. "And, Detective Flack," she sneered, "I suggest you shut it, or…" She trailed off, and Flack turned, worried.

"Stell? Or what? You okay in there?" Stella could only lean over the side of the dumpster as she vomited, loudly, onto the pavement. "Shit, Stella, are you okay?" Stella shook her head, and vomited again, causing Mac to look up from where he was standing, a few metres away with Adam.

"Stella?" He was shocked. Stella was never sick, not with flu, not physically. "Okay, Flack, get her out of there, Danny can wrap this up." He called to the younger man, as he strode over to his friend.

"No, Mac. We have another body." Her words made all three men look up.

It was simple to understand why she had been sick. After the area had been cordoned off, two cops had climbed into the dumpster to retrieve the body. Another child. Or, she should say, pieces of another child. Even Mac turned grey, and Danny hurried Lindsay away. Stella, in the meantime, was leaning heavily up against a wall, taking deep breaths and the occasional sip from a bottle of water. She looked up, and smiled weakly at Mac, as he walked up to her. "There are some days, Mac, when I wonder why I stopped smoking." Mac looked at her in disbelief.

"You used to smoke?" He was intrigued by her past, even after all the years they'd known each other. She rarely looked back, although he knew she had been orphaned, presumably at a young age since she never mentioned her parents.

"I was eleven when I had my first cigarette. Foster home, couldn't really keep track of us all." She smiled fondly at what Mac assumed was one of the happier moments in her childhood. "I started smoking officially when I was thirteen. Gave it up on my first day in the lab. I was twenty-six, and it was easily the hardest thing I ever did."

"Good for you. It's a horrible habit." Mac had his 'boss voice' on, and Stella raised an eyebrow.

"It might be horrible, but it kept me sane. And broke, of course." She rubbed her stomach as another wave of nausea hit her.

"I would tell you to take something Stella, but my guess is that you'd bring it right back up again…" 'because you haven't eaten in two, maybe three days.' Mac thought, but didn't say. Stella knew him well enough to know exactly what he was thinking.

Keep reviewing :) I am so bored these days, and I want to start another story, any ideas?