Mac walked towards his office with a case file in his hand. He sighed miserably. All of a sudden he stumbled as Detective Bonasera launched herself onto his back with her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck.
"Stella!" she kissed his ear and jumped down.
"Don't look so miserable." She said cupping his face with her hands. Mac pushed her hands away irritably. Stella grabbed his face again.
"Right," she said and kissed him. After a while Mac tried to disengage his mouth from Stella's who was holding his face so he couldn't get away. Mac struggled in vain, pulling at her hands, but it was like trying to get a giant sucker fish off his face.
"You ok Mac?" asked Danny, nonchalantly strolling by with Sheldon who was sniggering.
"Mmmmmmmm!" Mac complained. Danny looked at Flack and Lindsay who had just appeared. Danny and Sheldon exchanged glances and Sheldon walked up to Stella.
"Hey Stella, Mac can't breathe." Stella scooted backwards immediately. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Mac. Mac took a deep breath of air. Everyone else was sniggering. Mac scowled, embarrassed, at them.
"You try doing battle with the giant squid." He muttered. Stella hugged him.
"Sorry Mac." She kissed his nose. Mac shook his head.
"You could french kiss for America in the Olympics." He remarked, still a bit annoyed.
"Why thank you." Stella replied graciously. The others shook their heads and walked off. Mac looked at them desperately.
"Wha-! Hey! Guys don't leave me alone with her!" Stella punched his arm. Mac turned back to her. "So do you actually have anything on the case or were you just jumping on me for the fun of it?" Stella gave him a winning smile.
"Mac, sweetheart, would I do that to you?" Mac raised his eyebrows at her.
"Would you?" Stella grinned.
"Yeah." Mac hit her forcefully over the head with his case file.
In the very late afternoon, all the CSIs were lounging around behind Mac's desk after finishing their cases and playing hangman on a new whiteboard that Flack and Sheldon had stolen from the delivery van which was parked outside the crime lab. The whiteboard had been for the crime lab, so it didn't really make a difference. They'd propped it up against a chair, but it kept on falling down. They were all yelling very loudly.
"Y! Y!" Stella called. Sheldon drew the body in. Lindsay hit her.
"M!" she shouted. Sheldon put in the M's. There was silence for a bit, then they all began yelling again.
"Mammoth! Mammoth!" Sheldon scribbled it in. He held the pen out to Danny.
"Go on Danny." There was immediate complaining.
"Hey," Flack yelled. "I said it first!" Danny shuffled forwards to the board on his knees. He grinned and stuck his tongue out at Flack. Stella shook her head as Flack pouted.
"Honestly you two, so immature." Flack kicked her and missed. Mac kicked him back.
"What are you, our mom?" Flack asked indignantly. Stella smiled.
"Well, I always thought that Mac and I were the parents, you were the uni dropout…" Flack opened his mouth in disbelief. Stella started laughing. "Danny and Aiden are the stroppy teenagers, only Aiden's gone to uni, Sheldon's the forgotten ten year old…" everyone laughed and Sheldon pretended to cry. Danny put his arms around Sheldon and patted his head. Lindsay poked Stella.
"What am I then?" Mac leaned across Stella and poked Lindsay.
"You're the new baby." The boys all pointed and laughed at her. Lindsay stuck her bottom lip out. Danny shook his head.
"Sorry Montana, you're not half as good at pouting as Aiden was." He frowned. "Is." He turned back to the board and tapped it. "Anyway." They all started yelling again. Mac looked at Stella.
"Do you always think of us like that?" he asked. Stella smiled.
"Don't you?" Mac nodded. He leaned forwards and kissed her. They had been together for 2 and a half months, and apart from the occasional argument about Stella's underwear lying around the place they were perfectly happy. Very happy. So happy, that they both wanted to marry the other. Only they didn't say because they were afraid of the answer. Stella was coming to her breaking point though.
"T! T! No T! Not B!"
"A! A! Oh yes!"
"N! N, Danny N! Not M! God you're so deaf!" Danny made a rude gesture at Flack. Stella watched the word forming lazily. Suddenly she sat up straight.
"Exsanguination!" Danny scowled at her and wrote it in.
"Damn you Stella!" Stella grabbed the pen and gave an evil laugh. Danny sat next to Mac.
"How the hell do you put up with her?" Mac grinned at him.
"With a load of sleeping pills." Danny grinned back.
"Gotcha."
"Danny, you spelt exsanguination wrong anyway." Danny was horrified.
"What! No I didn't!" Stella nodded.
"Yes you did. One X and one G. you put two of both." Flack pointed and laughed at Danny. Danny scowled. Aiden slipped in and reached out but Danny got there first. He grabbed her hands and swung her around his head like a hammer thrower then let her go. Far away they could hear a squeal.
"Heh heh heh!" Danny sniggered. Everyone was shouting again.
"Stella that's way too long!"
"Make it shorter!"
"Can't you cut some words out?" Stella shook her head. She added a question mark to her six word hangman.
"Come on, " she said. "Start guessing."
"A." she wrote in the A's.
"E." she wrote in the E's.
"I." She rolled her eyes and wrote in the I's.
"You can't just go through the vowels! "
"Yes we can!" Flack replied. "U." she wrote in the U.
"You must have every letter of the alphabet in there" Mac remarked.
"Not quite." Said Stella. "Are you playing or not?" Mac sat up.
"M." he said. Stella wrote it in.
"You always guess M." said Lindsay.
"No I don't."
"Yes you do."
"No I …"
"Oi!" said Stella. "come on."
"B." said Lindsay. Stella shook her head happily and drew the beginning of the gallows.
"T and O!" Danny garbled through a mouthful of bagel.
"Pick one." Said Stella. "And don't speak with your mouth full." Danny rolled his eyes.
"Yes mom." He swallowed. "Which one's right?" he grinned impishly. Stella gave him a look.
"Pick one." She ordered.
"O." said Sheldon.
"Fine," said Danny. "T." Stella wrote both in. Mac tipped his head to one side.
"Are the first two words Mac Taylor?" he asked. Stella nodded and put it in.
"That means you have to put in the other C's, Y's, L's and R's." said Lindsay, chewing breaded octopus. Stella shook her finger.
"Not necessarily."
"You just don't want to lose." Flack grinned.
"Shut up."
"Now who's being immature!" Danny cried triumphantly. Sheldon swallowed grapefruit and coughed.
"Y." he choked. Mac hit him on the back. Hard. Stella scribbled in the Y's. The CSI's stared at her hangman.
"Mac Taylor," Lindsay read. "Something I something something/ YOU/ M, A something something Y/ ME/" Mac frowned.
"L" he said. Stella put them in. Danny grinned.
"R." everyone else grinned too. Sheldon finished it off.
"W." they looked at the board then at Mac.
"Mac Taylor," Flack read importantly. "Will you marry me?" Stella nodded, then looked at Mac, who was a bit bewildered.
"Mac, " she said. "I'm serious. Will you marry me?" Mac was completely silent. Stella felt the overwhelming sense of dread that she'd done the wrong thing coming over her. After a bit Mac smiled and whispered;
"Of course I will Stella." Stella finally let out the breath she'd been holding in. she clapped her hand over her mouth and couldn't stop the tears from falling. Mac leant forwards and pulled her hand from her mouth. Stella moved to him and they kissed. She flung her arms around his neck. When they broke apart Mac was crying too. Stella laughed at him and pushed his tears away.
"Shut up." Mac whispered happily. They put their foreheads together, still crying. Behind them Flack, Danny, Lindsay and Sheldon all had their phones out, texting all the people who should know about what had happened. Danny put his phone away and started crying. Sheldon poked him.
"You cry like a girl." They all ended up have a sob-in behind the fiancées, who had started frenching. The bagel was starting to get very wet, and all the breadcrumbs fell off the octopus. Eventually the crying slowed down. Danny wiped his eyes on Flack's jacket.
"You guys are so adorable." Lindsay looked completely soppy.
"You have to have an engagement party." Said Flack. "Please?" Mac looked at Stella, who grinned mischievously.
"Ok." She said, before returning to kiss Mac. All the others started crying again. Mac and Stella had a laughing fit at them. Stella kissed Mac's nose.
"I can't believe you said yes." She whispered. Mac smiled.
"I wouldn't have said anything else, you just surprised me, that's all." Stella hugged him. Something very wet fell onto their heads. Frowning they both looked up. The ceiling was sobbing.
"My Stella's all grown up and getting married!" Mac stared at it in disbelief.