Chapter 2: Pregnant and Hormonal
"Are you busy?" Stella asks Mac, stepping into his office.
"Just paperwork, but it's waited this long, another day won't hurt," he looks up, noticing her unusual appearance. "Do you need to switch cases, Stel? Or time off?"
"No, I… I just need to talk to you."
"Go ahead," Mac indicates for her to sit.
"I just had a visit from… Frankie's mother. She wanted to apologize for what he did. Without meaning to, she let it slip that her other son, Frankie's brother, he has… leukemia. Frankie was the only blood match to him. I… I can't help but blame myself. He's going to die because I killed his only chance for survival," she breaks down crying.
"It's not your fault, Stella. There's nothing you can do to save him."
"I think there might be," she watches him come over and sit next to her on the couch. "I'm a… almost a week late."
"Late for what?" Mac asks in typical guy fashion, confused.
"You know, late?"
"Oh. You and Frankie are… how long have you known?"
"I kind of suspected the day after… and I have a self test, but I'm not sure I want to know," she explains quietly, not looking at him.
"He didn't know when he… came after you last week, did he?" She shakes her head. "You need to find out soon, Stel."
"I'll call my doctor and see if I can get in tomorrow. Maybe it will be a good thing if it helps to keep him alive."
CSI: NY
"Are you?" Mac asks, seeing her come up to him after she got back from the doctor. She nods slightly. "If everything goes okay and the baby survives, I'll help you, Stella."
"On one hand I want to save Nick, but on the other I don't need a reminder of Frankie everyday. I suppose I should tell his mother what's going on. But then what if I get her hopes up, and I have the baby, and it ends up not being the right blood type? Then I went through that for nothing, and now I've got a kid to take care of."
"It'll work out, Stella."
"You can't guarantee that, Mac. There's no way you can know what happens in the future," Stella lets him hold her tightly to his body, trying to comfort her. "When I was a kid, they'd always say someone would come and adopt me. It never happened. Happy ending are overrated; they're not real."
"You can't seriously believe that? You saved yourself last week; he didn't kill you. That's happy."
"It's not the end, Mac. The end will be when Nick dies too, all because of me."
"Are you hormonal already?" he jokes, not succeeding in cracking a smile on her face. She glares disbelievingly at him. "That's not the Stella I know and love."
"I've changed, Mac. I can't – wait, did you just say you loved me?"
"Yes, and I mean it. I've loved you since the day we met, and I've never stopped. Now, you're going to believe in happy ending or something will go wrong. I can't lose you, Stel. I'm pretty sure you love me too. Happy enough ending for you?" Mac confesses.
"No, this is still the middle. By the end it might not be happy. I'm too much trouble; you don't need someone like me," she walks out on him.
'This is really getting to her. She's never been like this before and I don't like it,' Mac thinks, watching her go.
'I just missed my one shot with him, the only man I've ever been in love with. It's really over before it even began,' she thinks, hurrying away so no one would notice her tears.
A/N: I gotta do this fast; I'm inbetween band concerts. Hope you like it. Wow, that was short for once.