Chapter 7: Safety and Regrets

Mac sits at his desk deep in thought when Hawkes walks in. "Hey, Mac, we got a hit for the tire tracks. Her father owns a car that matches; we put out an alert on the license plate number."

"I should've told her."

"Told her what?"

"If I had told her then instead of waiting, he might not have gotten her. She would've been on the lookout, and he would be stopped before she was taken."

"It isn't your fault Stella was kidnapped. We'll find her before something happens," Sheldon tries to cheer him up.

"I can't do this without her. She's been through so much in the past year; she can't die now. I need her."

"What do you mean by she's been through so much?"

"Well, there was the whole thing with Frankie and the after effects of that. Now she's waiting on test results from the government. Then her father kidnaps her."

"Test results? What's she getting tested for?"

"You didn't know?" Hawkes shakes his head. "Remember the woman whose brother died, and she broke the window in the interrogation room when she saw her reflection? Stella wouldn't listen to us when she got cut. It was because she was bagging a piece of glass earlier in the day, and it broke, cutting her wrist. Later, she found out Emery Gable was HIV positive and went to get tested. These past couple months have been difficult for her. The results should come to her next week."

"Why didn't she tell us? Well, the rest of us anyway."

"You know Stella; she's a very private person. I'm sure she would have told you if she tested positive. Look, you can't tell her I said anything."

"I won't." His pager goes off. "Car's been found. Let's go check it out."

Both men head to the car, getting Flack on the way out.

Family

Stella waits until she's sure he's gone before struggling against the new ropes binding her to the bed. After a few minutes, her energy is gone, and she knows it'll be useless to continue fighting; the ropes were just too strong. Exhausted, she starts to drift off to sleep.

Waking when she hears a loud banging coming from the other room, she starts to fight the ropes again, afraid her father had come back to kill her. The bedroom door is kicked in, and a man rushes in. In the dark, she can't recognize the man.

He touches her arm, causing her to try to fight him off with the ropes still binding her. Surprised, he takes a step back, trying not to get hit.

"Go away," she yells. This time, he places a hand on her cheek. "No. No, don't touch me." She turns her head, trying to get his hand off.

"Stella, it's me," Mac says loudly, hoping she can hear him over the noise made from her movements. "You're safe now."

"Mac?" Stella asks, not struggling anymore.

"Yes, it's me. You're okay," he tries to untie the knots.

Flack comes in, flipping on the lights. "There's no one else here. He must've gotten away."

Mac pulls out a pocket knife and cuts the ropes binding her. When free, she throws her arms around him. "He left a while ago and never came back. Said something about returning for me later," she mumbles into his shoulder.

"Get uniforms on the place," Mac orders, leading her out of the room. "Hawkes, see if you can find anything. I'd also like a DNA sample if you can find a hair or something."

"Yes, sir," Sheldon puts gloves on.

"Where are we going?" Stella looks up at him.

"I haven't decided yet." They get into the elevator, and he pushes the lobby button. "Someplace private. We need to talk."

"About what?" she asks. He seems angry, and she feels it is directed at her. "I don't remember doing anything wrong."

"You didn't do anything, Stel," he tries to soften his voice. He was angry, but definitely not at her. "We think the man who kidnapped you is your father."

A/N: A little over halfway finished with this story. Today we dissected a chicken wing because we had to practice for the rat next week. I didn't get to touch in though because we needed someone to answer questions about the dissection and everyone else had already touched it and got their gloves dirty. I didn't really want chicken on my pencil so I just wrote; plus they said I had the neatest handwriting. Everybody says I have neat handwriting but I don't think so. Maybe that's because they don't see my fanfiction notebook. Sometimes I can't even tell what I wrote. My hands still smell like skunk from the latex gloves. They were really lose; when you see the CSIs with them on, they look like they fit tightly on their hands. I don't pay attention to what they look like on Providence when Syd performs surgeries. Okay, so last night was the pilot and after her mother died at her sister's wedding and she returned to her apartment, they show her walk in and then she starts stripping while walking to the shower because her boyfriend's in there. Then there was another guy in there with him so she breaks up with him. It was kind of random to see her stripping there, not that they actually showed anything but her head. And if their apartment is that big, why did it look like you had to go through the kitchen to get to the shower? I have to update BCTG so I can blab more there. Please review. Alerts are working again.