A huge thank you goes to dark rolling sea. You never let me down!

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CHAPTER 9 – Of Sickness, Soup and Fever

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It was Monday morning and Lindsay had just arrived at the lab. Hawkes had arrived at the same time and he had filled Lindsay in on what they had been doing during her time away. To sum it up, they were merely gathering more evidence. A man had gotten killed at a construction site and everything seemed to be pointing to a mere accident – a stupid, easily avoidable one at that, but an accident nonetheless. The two spent a few hours looking at photographs, comparing pieces of garments and all sorts of other things but with no avail. Nothing was surfacing and it was pretty certain that they already had enough evidence to prove the death was nothing but an unfortunate mishap. But a certain amount of uncertainty was still lingering in the air.

"Hey, you wanna go get some coffee?" Hawkes asked. "I know it's almost lunch time, but I for one could really use a cup… Or two,"

Lindsay placed the paper she was holding on the table and smiled. "Sure."

"Great, let's go!"

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Danny and Stella were already in the break room and Hawkes was more than excited when he spotted the pot of fresh coffee.

"So, how was Montana?" Stella asked Lindsay when she took her seat across from Stella.

"It was nice," she said and left it at that.

Stella looked at her suspiciously. "And…?"

"And what?"

"What did you do?" Stella asked.

"Helped out with housework, met up with a couple of old friends… Nothing major," she said, taking a sip from her cup.

"Still think the wheat fields beat Manhattan?" Danny asked with a smile.

Lindsay looked at her cup in amusement. "Still haven't seen one?" she shot back and Danny laughed along with all the others.

"What's so funny?" Mac asked as he walked in. He was searching their faces for an answer, his glance stopping at Lindsay.

"Danny vs. wheat fields," Stella offered.

"I see," he said and made a beeline for the coffee pot. "So have you found anything?"

"No," they said more or less in unison.

"OK, just keep on trying…" he trailed off, dropping a lump of sugar into his cup.

The group continued to talk about this and that, sometimes about the case and at times straying to other matters. It was Danny who left first because he had come up with an idea and decided to go for it as fast as possible.

"I think I'll go see what this idea is…" Hawkes had told them and quickly caught up with Danny. Mac swiftly took the vacated seat for himself.

Stella rose from her seat and went to pour herself another cup. "We really need a bigger pot…" she declared after ending up with less than half a cup. "Mac, we need a new coffee maker,"

"I think this one is just fine,"

"Aw, come on,"

"No unless you're willing to pay for it," he stressed his point.

With a heavy sigh Stella wandered out of the room. Mac was sure he heard her debating with herself about purchasing a new one.

"You think she'll actually buy one?" Lindsay asked still delighted by the exchange.

"Just to be safe," Mac said, "I'd say there's a 50/50 chance,"

Lindsay let out a laugh and thought about the odds; he was probably right. She noticed that Mac was yawning quite deeply.

"Didn't get enough sleep?" she asked, feeling a little guilty.

The feeling did not go unnoticed by Mac, not by a long shot. "I'm pretty sure I did," he said reassuringly.

Yet a new smile appeared on Lindsay's face. "Maybe it's you who is coming down with something…"

"Oh, I hope not," he said, repeating the phrase Lindsay had said last night. Secretly he hoped Lindsay's usual sense of these things was slightly off today.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Of course not," Mac said with his characteristic smirk.

Lindsay got up and playfully punched him in the shoulder. "I'll see you later," was all she said before she was gone.

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On Tuesday morning Stella made her way to Mac's office. She had seen him briefly a little earlier and quite frankly he hadn't looked too good. She was sure he was either incredibly tired or just plain old sick. She also knew that if he was sick someone had to go and kick him out of the said office and force him to go home. Stella found herself at his door in no time and after a couple of quick knocks invited herself in.

"My God, you're a mess!" she proclaimed, much to the dismay of Mac.

"Why thank you…" he replied sarcastically.

Stella now stood on the other side of his desk and wore a deadly expression. "You're obviously sick. Go home,"

"I'm fine… It's just a little warm in here and I didn't sleep properly," he explained.

"Yeah, sure. Go home," Stella repeated.

"I'm fully capable of working," Mac said but truthfully he wasn't that convincing – at least not in Stella's eyes.

After a series of more arguments Stella was about to call back up, but Mac finally gave in. She walked him to the door just to make sure he wasn't about to stay around for 'a couple of more minutes'.

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"Hi there," Stella said as she walked towards Lindsay who was going over some garment samples.

"Hi Stella,"

"Still haven't found anything?" Stella asked in frustration.

"No, nothing," Lindsay acknowledged. "Hey, have you seen Mac around?"

"Yeah, just sent him home… He seems to have caught some bug and looked really sick. I did pester him about the obvious fever and he gave in a little after that," Stella said with pride in her voice.

"How many times did you tell him that we would be perfectly fine on our own?" Lindsay asked in amusement.

"Three times."

"Wow."

"Yeah… Well, I'm going to go ask Danny about a couple of things," Stella informed and with a swift turn she was on her way.

Lindsay's thoughts stuck on Mac and in no time she knew what she would do.

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Mac was lying on his couch watching the evening news. It was around five and though he had spent most of the day resting at home, making and answering an occasional phone call, he was completely beat. The day had been depressing in every aspect and didn't seem to be improving. He hadn't even seen Lindsay, not once. Had she been right! Here he was, sick with the flu. It was ironic and Mac knew it. His eyelids started feeling heavier and heavier and soon he was half asleep.

Ring, ring

'What…?' Mac thought groggily.

Ring, ring

After the second set of ringing he woke up completely and his brain registered the sound as the doorbell.

"Coming!" he yelled and stood up, waiting for his balance to return after lying still for so long.

The ringing stopped and Mac walked to the front door to open it.

"Lindsay," he said sounding surprised.

"Hey," she said softly, taking in the sight. He looked very tired and the pyjama pants/white sleeveless undershirt attire was only adding to the image. He wasn't a bad sight though, Lindsay pondered.

"Come on in, make yourself comfortable," he said. Maybe the day was taking a turn for the better. "What brings you here?"

"I heard an interesting story from Stella…" she began, taking her coat off. "She told me you were sick and wouldn't go home. Among other things," Mac was eyeing a shopping bag that Lindsay was carrying with her. "So I came by to see how you were doing and…" she reached for the bag, "To drop this off."

Lindsay handed Mac a Tupperware box. "It's a day old but I doubt it has gone bad," she added.

Mac shifted his eyes from the box to Lindsay and back again. 'She brought me soup… And by the smell of it, chicken soup,' he thought and was completely taken by her endearing gesture.

"Thank you," Mac asserted, the words meaning a lot more than a simple 'thank you'.

"You're welcome. Don't worry, it is my cooking but I ate it last night and I'm still alive," Lindsay said with a convincing smile.

Mac was about to go into the kitchen, but Lindsay caught up with him and made him stop. "Just stay here, I can take care of it. You seem to have eaten already," she said, glancing at the living room table on top of which was a pizza box. "I'll put it in the fridge for you," she continued, taking the box from his hand. He knew she didn't need any help and she had been to his apartment enough times to know her way around it. So instead of following her he sat on the couch. He felt a little out of place with someone doing all of this for him. Luckily it was a feeling of a good kind.

"Brought you a glass of water. I figured you might like to drink something," she said, placing the glass on to the edge of the coffee table.

"Thanks," he said in a hoarse voice. "You didn't have to–"

"Don't even think about saying it," Lindsay said, effectively cutting him off in the middle of a sentence. They fell silent for a while – Mac drinking the water – only the TV creating a light background noise.

Mac closed his eyes when chills ran down his spine. "How high is the fever?" Lindsay asked with concern.

"I think it's dying down, because of the chills…"

Lindsay rose from her seat reaching for Mac's forehead, softly placing her hand on it. His eyes were still closed and he was slightly startled, but quickly settled under her touch. "Still pretty hot," she said tentatively. "Maybe you should just try sleeping it off," Lindsay suggested.

"I suppose you're right," Mac admitted.

"I'll go fetch you some more water," Mac nodded his thanks and leaned back on the couch.

Lindsay got distracted by a few unwashed dishes and decided to wash them straight away. It would only take a couple of minutes and she figured she could get away with that time. When she was finished and walked back into the living room she found Mac sound asleep. Once again she placed the glass on the table, but this time she picked up the empty pizza box. Placing it next to the front door, she returned to the kitchen, on her way finding a note pad and a pen. After writing a note, she set in on the kitchen table. She hushed around for a couple of more minutes and once more she felt how his fever was progressing. Lindsay pulled a blanket over the sleeping detective and watched him for a while. "It'll all be better tomorrow," she whispered, lightly smoothing his hair and placing a soft kiss on his forehead. She stood back up and switched off the TV and with a final glance at Mac, left the apartment with the empty pizza box.

Mac stirred in his sleep when the door closed. The sound was very low in volume and wasn't enough to wake him. Just a minute ago he had felt a kiss being placed on his head. Little did he know, in his current state of mind, that what he thought was merely a dream was in fact reality.

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