Chapter 3: Just One Chance
"I'm pregnant with your son's child," Stella tells Mrs. Mala a couple weeks later.
"You mean there might still be a chance?"
"It's a possibility. I grew up in an orphanage, never knowing my parents. I have no idea if this type of blood runs in my family or what. It all depends on Frankie."
"Were you and my son… trying to have kids or even planning on getting married?" Mrs. Mala asks.
"No, I'm on birth control pills; the doctor said that the maker has been having a lot of complaints of it not working. That added with the stress of my job probably caused it not to work. If he was planning on… proposing, I didn't know about it," Stella admits.
"If this child is an accident, I'm sorry he also had to leave a piece of himself behind for you. Are you planning on keeping the baby?"
She nods, "I couldn't put any child up for adoption after growing up in the system."
"I should leave before your boss gets really mad at you for wasting time on the job."
Stella looks outside the wall behind her, "Mac doesn't mind. He's helped me through all of this."
As Mrs. Mala heads to the door, Mac enters. "If you need any help, Detective, call me."
"What do you need, Mac?"
"Why don't you believe me when I say I love you?"
"I want to, Mac, but the last person who said that to me tried to kill me."
"Stella, just give me a chance. I want to help you raise the baby. I haven't been here for you for five years; it's time I paid my debt," Mac says, kissing her cheek.
"What, you think by telling me about your love you're helping me? For all I know you're lying to ease your guilt."
He kisses her lips, "You know how hard it is for me to move on after Claire. I thought you'd know that I'd really have to care about you to do that."
"I believe you, Mac. And I love you too. But why do you want someone as troublesome as me?" she asks.
"When you love someone, you learn to adapt to them and help change their lifestyle."
"So if you were to abuse me, I'd deal with it if I really loved you?"
"No, I hope you'd get away from me if I hit you. I can help you change you "troublesomeness", but you really aren't a problem, Stel. Just give me one chance, please," Mac begs.
"Frankie got me pregnant, Mac, not you. Why are you trying to fix his mistakes?"
"It's his fault, but you shouldn't have to suffer anymore because of him. Children should be raised with two parents, not one. I'll help you, Stel. Please," he touches her cheek softly.
"I… Mac, I love you. And as much as I believe in raising children with two parents when it's your fault for getting pregnant anyway, you shouldn't have to do this for me," she removes his hand from her cheek but doesn't let go.
"You know I'm going to help you whether you want it or not, so just give in," Mac grins slyly and leans in to kiss her.
She turns her head, causing him to kiss her cheek instead. "Are you planning on trying to date me or help me raise the baby?"
"I want to do both. But I'll wait until you're comfortable before we start dating, if that's okay with you."
"I've waited forever for you to ask that. And yes, I'll accept your offer. I need a few weeks though before we go out. You can help with the baby too, when it comes, since you insist," she smiles, letting him kiss her this time.
"I'll be waiting impatiently until you're ready. No pressure, Stella."
A/N: Last day of school. Yeah!!!! NY on at ten, just to let you know. And Veronica isn't on again. Update Thursday, probably. Oh, we have a fish tank and all the things are named after CSI characters. We've had like five Horatio snails. Last time my mom got a black colored one that I named Peyton and the other bluish one wasn't never named. It died (unnamed one) like the week before Mac and Peyton broke up. I said it was sign that Peyton would still be on because it wasn't that snail who died. Well, last week, it died. So now we have Horatio Jr. Jr. Jr. and Peyton Jr. Maybe it means she'll go away again. But I guess we'll have to wait a few weeks until the new episodes come back to see. Stella seriously needs to do something.