A/N: Okay, it's my pseudo-sembreak already and I'm hoping to not have writer's block. I'm working on this as well as on my companion piece on "A Little Mac Man". But I'm managing. So far so good ei?

Keep em comments coming, guys! Everything is appreciated. Thank you!

"Stella," he called out. I'll be lying if I say that that didn't feel good. He was jogging towards me. "Wait up. Uh… could you take care of this?" he said handing me another brown case folder. "Lindsey has a court date and Danny's neck-deep in paperwork. She needs the results from Sid and she won't be back until after shift. Sheldon's in the lab with me and…you're the only one I trust with this."

He's babbling. It's cute. "Mac, Mac – it's okay," I chuckled. "I'll take over from here. No problem. Let's go?" I place my hand on his shoulder like I always do.

He smiles. It's a genuine smile.

Yeah, now I know we're okay.

We go back to the morgue; ever the gentleman, Mac opened the door for me. Peyton was opening up another body beside my victim. When she saw Mac, her face lit up. I didn't see how he reacted to that because I went straight to Sid, giving a skull a bath.

Good thing, his slab is far away enough from the two 'lovebirds' but close enough to somewhat hear what they were talking about. It's not that I want to eavesdrop; I just want to hear if she would say anything to Mac about what happened between us a little while ago.

"I hear they're on a rough patch," Sid said snapping me out of my reverie. I look at him with one eyebrow up. He proceeded to explain to me what happened to Lindsey's vic with a few segues about his co-ME and my fellow CSI.

"So… rough… patch?" I finally say regarding their 'relationship'. Office gossip is always juicy especially when you feign to process evidence while talking about it.

"Yes, but it's nothing that a nice dinner couldn't fix," he said clipping on his very cool glasses. Then he fell silent. "Or maybe not."

I lift my head to their direction and it looked like they were having a heated conversation. Over what, I couldn't exactly hear. Sid and I decided to block it out as he finished with his report. Normally, I would barge on over there and break them apart, probably take one of them to the side and have a talk. It's hard not to, but I have to stay put.

"That's all you got to say!" we heard Peyton almost scream. Sid and the other employees in the morgue looked at the couple, Peyton as red as a beet and Mac as cool as ever. "Mac, I'm tired of this!" then she pushed him on the chest.

That's it, I'm coming over. Although Sid tried to stop me, I just couldn't hold it in. "Hey Mac, Peyton – stop it!" I said, wedging myself between them. "Mac, come on… we're going." He nodded and briskly walked on outside.

Peyton huffed and yelled out, "When are you going to be proud that we're together, huh? You want out? Then, fine!"

What I said to her a while ago came back to me: didn't see how much the he loved her. I couldn't just let that pass. When I was pretty sure that Mac was out of earshot I faced her and firmly said, "No, Peyton. He is very proud. You better start seeing that because you don't know how lucky you are."

I left her there with her jaw dropping.

ChocoBetty – well, I'm interested to see what other scenarios the previous chapter could end to. Thank you very much for the insight and who knows, maybe we have the same thing in mind but I might use it in another chapter.

Mokis – hey! Yeah, my classmate also said the same thing. It's like her mom and her older sister arguing hahahah… thanks!

Princess-Leasel – well, I haven't watched any season3 episodes yet. I'm not so far away from your place; I'm from the Philippines. I'm just playing it by ear with Peyton.

AliasCSINYFriendsER – lol, I'm holding out hope too. And I have a great feeling about SMACked in fandom as well on the show. Hahahaha…

Soupbowl17 – I haven't seen Peyton in the show yet. But yeah, as a SMACker, anything or anyone that comes between them is the antagonist, regardless hahaha….