A/N: Yay! A long-ish two-part chapter to celebrate the 20th part of this story. Wow, I never expected this to be this long. And I have you guys to thank for staying with me all throughout.

Enjoy!

This feeling of emptiness that makes me feel sad

So, does it makes me happy that I deliberately hurt her? Do I take pride at the fact that my co-workers tell me that she's crying in the locker room or when she hailed a cab to go home? Am I happy that we never talk anymore?

No. How can I be? If she feels bad, imagine how it makes me feel. I make her feel bad. I don't know why I'm doing it. Maybe I'm getting back at her for… not telling me how she feels. I want to see if I can make Stella crack… no, that's too selfish an act.

But either way, this hurts me more than it hurts her. I thought I can ignore her for at least six months but something came up that I wasn't expecting. And simply… I can't hold out on her that long.

One afternoon, I was looking for the right opportunity to talk to he, to honestly ask her out. Yet, I couldn't. So what I did was I bought some flowers from Sheridan Florists International, daisies – Stella's favorite, to be sent to her office early the next morning.

I made sure that I come in late. I don't want to see her throw the flowers away if she doesn't like them. Of course, the florists insist that I attach a message, which I did. I was never the romantic kind, but after I relayed my message to the operator on the other line, she was almost in tears (or that's what she told me).

Stella would always be special to me, no matter what. I love her – yes, love her more than a friend; we're way over that. I don't know what exactly she is to me, my best friend or my partner. But this I know, Stella's my rock. She kept me together when I lost my wife. She made sure I'm safe always. I cannot count how many times she saved my life, defended me. I'm eternally grateful for her for it.

'Losing' her this way – losing her at all makes my heart break.

CSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINYCSINY

A huge basket of daisies are sitting on my table this morning at work. The female lab staff, including Lindsey was asking me about it. As soon as I got off the elevator, Lindsey was all smiles and asking if I have a new boyfriend.

"What are you saying, Lindsey?" I replied.

"Well, you do have two dozen daisies on your desk today," she smiled. "A secret admirer will start with roses."

We rounded the corner and I saw it: twenty-four daisies of different colors in a white basket. There's a note on top of the bunch. Lindsey followed me in my office, with that same wide smile waiting for me to read the note:

I know how much you love daisies. I hope they make you smile today. I love to see you smile. See you at work today… smiling. Love, Mac.

"It's from Mac, isn't it?" Lindsey whispered excitedly. The lab techs were discreetly eavesdropping outside. "Oh I knew it!" She touched some of the flowers and continued, "There's a romantic inside that shell after all. Ah, love."

"Oh Lindsey," I laughed. "Stop acting like a lovesick teenager." She's right – there is another side of Mac that they haven't seen. I'm lucky to have seen it a couple of times but never being the receiving end of it. This is something new.

"I will if you stop smiling… which I know you won't," she said. "All you need is the horse and you'll have a knight in shining armor."

"We're friends, Lindsey," I sighed, sitting down and rereading the note. She's right again, how can I stop smiling? Geez, am I losing my touch? I'm getting easier and easier to read. "Emphasis on friends."

She turned to leave. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," she said. Danny's rubbing off her. I stopped and admired the flowers. Twenty-four… the most anyone has given me. It feels good – something to definitely smile about today.

Just when I thought I have the space alone to myself, someone walks in. Before I could look behind me, "Like them?" Mac said. He was leaning on the door's hinges with a huge smile on his face. My grin was as big as ever that I couldn't talk. "I take that smile as a yes then."

I don't care if half of the lab is watching us inconspicuously; I leapt into his arms and gave him a huge hug. "Thanks, Mac. So much!" I said; my voice muffled by his shoulder.

I felt his arms encircle my waist as he said in my hair, "So we're good?"

"Yeah, we are," I happily replied.

I kept the flowers beside my books where I could always see them. Mac got his wish; I was practically smiling the whole day. And it seemed to have a contagious effect on everybody. It was a good day at the lab.

Everybody was happy for us. Little did we know that there was one person in the lab who wasn't amused. She saw us.

mj0621 – in "The Forgotten" he has glasses. Major plus points! Hahahaha! Gary has 3 kids: two girls and a son. I can't remember the name of his eldest daughter but I know she's 18. McCanna is 14, I think and Ella Jane is 14. See… I've done my homework. Gary's character in "Open Season" is Shaw the Hunter.

thefirthyone – grabe, yeah… HUGE FILES. Naghahanap pa rin ako ng paraan para makita yun lol…