Thanks again everyone, you are great :-) Why "poor Mac"??? Okay, I'd rather be in Stella's position than his, but… ;-) Um – and yes, I CAN keep you hanging "ggg" And last but not least: If that made you laugh, wait for this next one… - I mean can you picture Mac in old jeans and rolled up sleeves, paint everywhere…

If you finished laughing and are still able to focus – please read and review, thanks!

Special thanks from me (and you if you like it) again to my friend Mitch who convinced me after he read chapter five that I couldn't end the story with only one more chapter. So you basically get nearly all of this chapter and a part of the next (which will be the final one) only thanks to him, otherwise you would have missed mostly everything in this chapter.

XXXXX

Chapter 6

Stella woke up from a yummy scent that reached her nose.

Pancakes?

She yawned, stretched and rubbed her eyes. After a look to her left side, she found the bed empty. She looked at the clock.

6 am - on a Sunday...

She rolled her eyes and shook her head with a smile.

"Mac?" she called, finding the shirt he wore the other day neatly folded at the bottom end of the bed. She smiled to herself. Since he didn't reply, she made her way to the kitchen, following the delicious scent of fresh pancakes.

"Mac?" she called again.

He looked up from the stove, wearing only his jeans. Slightly blushing, his eyes frantically darted around. Apparently he hadn't expected her to wake up this early.

"Stella, sorry…," he apologized sheepishly while putting on the shirt that he finally remembered in the bedroom.

"The power is back on…" he announced when he returned, just because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

Stella snapped back to reality, temporarily distracted by the image of a shirtless Mac.

"Yeah, um… great…"

XXXXX

Some minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen counter, enjoying the delicious pancakes Mac had prepared for them.

"Would you hand me the maple syrup?" he pulled her out of her thoughts.

Absentmindedly she grabbed for the bottle and gave it to him. She still wasn't sure what had happened the night before, but she knew it would change their relationship completely and forever. Yet they still managed some meaningless small talk throughout the breakfast, nobody would have suspected anything between them being different from before.

"Here we go…" Stella announced after they had finished washing up the dishes. "In the mood to continue some more work?"

"Yeah, let's get started," Mac replied quickly, relieved that it would keep them busy for a while without focusing on a more profound conversation.

They continued their work in the living room. For this day, painting the new wallpapers and finishing the hallway was the plan. Both worked in silence, just occasionally taking a glimpse of the other.

Stella could feel his eyes on her as he was painting on the other side of the room. She noticed very well that he looked over much more often than he needed to and that he did not just do it to check if she would need any help. She knew he wanted her, the only question now was whether his desire was enough for him to come forward. And as much as she wanted him, she wasn't willing to risk their friendship by pushing him into something he wasn't prepared for yet.

Mac's mind started wandering back to the previous night as he was painting. And the next one that would inevitably follow… He was man who liked challenges and Stella was certainly one of these challenges. It was more than worth a try, but how big was the risk of ruining everything they had if she didn't feel the same way?

The sound of his cell phone pulled him out of his thoughts.

"They are in early today," he mocked. Stella mouthed a brief 'not again' before she silently continued working at the other side of the room.

"What? … Yeah, I see. … Look, I can't come in today, I have – plans that I can't change for the day," Mac started explaining. Stella grinned about his struggle when he had to lie while he had a witness.

"Okay, listen. I don't have a computer with me right now, I'll have Stella do some research on the case so that we have something ready for Monday morning. … Yeah, bye Danny," he hung up with a sigh.

"You have ME doing some research?" Stella gave him a challenging look.

"Yeah, what? I have my phone, you have yours. They know that, I could just call you, right?"

XXXXX

At the lab, Danny plopped on the next available chair, holding his sides.

"What???" Lindsay urged him to let her know.

"Mac will contact Stella to do some research on the case," he snorted with laughter. "I wonder how much effort that will take him… This is so cool!"

Lindsay started to giggle as well. Even though she considered Danny's behavior as more or less immature, she had to agree that it contained a certain amount of entertainment.

XXXXX

"Alright, we need to split work a bit," Mac told Stella. "Portland wants to have results tomorrow morning by 11 a.m. and we won't have enough time to get out of here, get to the lab, work on the case, prepare everything and then get it to him. Can you just see if you can find anything that may help us, you got your laptop here, right?"

"Sure I do. But all I can do here is some general searches on the internet, I don't have any access to specific data bases or anything like that from here…"

"We gotta work with what we have. I'll go on with painting in the meantime, let me know if you find something interesting."

Stella went over to her laptop which she had placed on the desk in her bedroom and started searching for information on the West Point Academy and other things she thought could be interesting for the case. After a while she got so involved in her work that she completely forgot about Mac working next door.

"Damn it!"

She looked up in surprise. What was going on there? After some more curses, her curiosity caused her to interrupt her research and instead check up on Mac. She found him standing next to the ladder, his pants, the ladder and the paper-covered floor around him covered with paint spatter. He reproachfully looked down into the bucket, his hands allover covered with paint, still cursing.

Stella approached him silently from the right side and looked down into the bucket where she spotted the paint brush that had apparently dropped down and caused all this mess.

She tried to suppress a laugh.

"It can't hear you, Mac…"

Before he could answer, his cell phone went off again. "Oh great…" he groaned with a look at his paint-covered hands.

"Wait a second," Stella grabbed for the phone attached to his belt. Before he could protest, she flipped it open and held it against his ear, giving him a little push. Mac froze for a second. He knew it would be either Danny or Lindsay on the phone and having Stella standing so close to him, holding the phone for him while breathing against his neck wasn't exactly helping him to relax.

"Is it just me or does something smell suspicious here?" Stella wondered while she put the phone back to Mac's belt after he had ended the call. "No, not here! I'm talking about this phone terror… What is it with them that they have to call all the time?"

Suddenly both at the same time realized something.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Mac asked to make sure they were on the same track.

"A trace?"

"They must have traced my cell phone and now they are playing with us… What are we gonna tell them? How do we explain this?" he looked around to explain the problem.

"Nothing and since when do we have to explain anything to them anyway? It's none of their business, whatever is going on – or not going on for that matter – here between us. Right?"

Mac hesitantly nodded. The thought of returning to the lab the next day with their colleagues knowing they spent the whole weekend – and the nights – together, even though nothing really happened and the whole thing was purely accidental… He could vividly imagine the whispering behind their backs, the looks, the giggling…

"Let's just finish this here for now, otherwise we're gonna be busy the whole night," Stella reminded him.

XXXXX

"Well… Guess that's it!" Stella brushed off her hands in her jeans and took a satisfied glance at the newly decorated living room and hallway with all the furniture back at its place. "Think we did a great job, hum?"

"We sure did," Mac confirmed. Despite all the disturbances from calls and other distractions, the result was more than acceptable. And he had to admit it had been a lot of fun.

"You deserve something special, I wouldn't have been able to do all this so quickly and so well without you," Stella announced. "I'm gonna make you some special dinner, make yourself comfortable – the living room is habitable again," she smiled and went to the kitchen.

"Can I help you somehow?" Mac called after her.

"No, now you're just gonna be the guest, you helped so much already. Let me just please you now."

His heart did a short jump on her words and he was pretty glad that she wasn't in the same room.

XXXXX

For the first time they had dinner in the living room again, just like many times before when Stella had invited him for a meal or to talk about work in private. Still the atmosphere now was different after all that had happened – Mac had the feeling that these rooms had become a part of him. More than ever he felt comfortable and at home here.

"Wanna watch some TV?" Stella asked after they had finished the dish washing together.

"Sure, why not. Way too early to sleep anyway…" Mac answered, instantaneously being reminded of 'the other problem'. Luckily Stella didn't notice anything, she was searching for the remote and the TV guide.

"Ah, there you go. Okay, let's see…" she browsed the paper. "What about 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire'?"

"Quiz show? Sure, why not…" Mac agreed.

"Deal," she nodded and turned on the TV. On her way to the couch she stopped. "Hey, we still got that wine bottle you brought over. I'll get it now…" Mac sent a quick glance to the ceiling. Wine was the last thing he considered a good idea at the moment.

When Stella returned with the bottle and two glasses, he tried to refuse. "Not for me, thanks. I'm not much of a drinker… A beer every now and then maybe, but …"

"Come on, Mac? Just this once! We have to celebrate our successful project," Stella complained.

"By getting drunk?" he tried to joke.

"You don't get drunk from one or two glasses …" she objected.

"Yeah? Just like you at the last Christmas party, huh?" Mac gave her a provoking glance.

Stella briefly sniffed and raised one eyebrow. "Okay… You got a point. But I was NOT drunk, just a little tipsy maybe. And it was champagne, not wine – that's different anyway. At least have a glass with me now, to be on the safe side..."

"How's that?"

"IF I get drunk, I don't want you to remember what I did afterwards," she grinned while filling his glass.

"Okay…" he finally agreed in an emphatic neutral tone, the husky edge in his voice betraying him.

XXXXX

Stella hadn't been able to stop thinking about how good it felt to be in his arms all day. When she woke up the second night and watched him sleep next to her, she fought with herself. After some thinking, she moved closer. She could feel him tense up, but continued to snuggle up to him until she noticed that he slightly relaxed.

"Hey…" she smiled at him with sleepy eyes, letting him know she was awake.

"Stella, I'm sorry about this… I didn't mean… I didn't want to… I …." he stammered, unable to move. She pressed her right index finger on his lips.

"Shshsh… Is this so horrible for you?" she asked him more seriously now. He shook his head, his lips pressed together. She felt that this could be the perfect moment – this was like 'now or never'.

"So then, do you find this unpleasant?"

He shook his head again, unable to say a word.

"Do you feel comfortable like this?"

He nodded slowly.

"And would you like to keep it going on like this?" she asked a last question to be sure she was right.

Another slight nod was the answer. This was all she needed to know.

"Ok, then what's the problem, Mac?"

"Stella…" he started with a deep sigh, "I … I'm not sure if I … I mean, if you … I wanted to say, if we … I don't wanna push you …"

She rolled her eyes and put her finger on his mouth again. "I'm basically lying on top of you, how can I possibly feel pushed? Can't you just stop it and kiss me, you little chump?"

Sorry if I hurt you, baby
Sorry if I did
Sorry if I touched the place
Where your secrets are hid

She removed her finger and closed his lips with a kiss before he had a chance to resist. Within moments she felt his worries melt away and he responded passionately to her efforts. She inwardly sighed in relief, after all she hadn't been sure at all if moving forward on him like this would be the right step to take. If anyone got pushed, she knew for sure it wasn't her. Now she didn't doubt any longer. She knew she did the right thing when she curled up in his arms to get back to sleep moments later.

Mac lay awake for a while, watching her sleep next to him, before he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep with a smile on his lips.

But you meant more than everything
And I could not pretend

I ain't never gonna be the same again

TBC