Chapter 9: The Unanswerable Questions

"We'd see the day, we'd see the day

When nobody died

We'd see the day, we'd see the day

When nobody died

We'd see the day when nobody died"

Mac stands outside her office door, watching her stress out over the lack of evidence. When he finally enters, she takes no notice of him. He pulls the file out of her hands, "You've been staring at that for the last five hours."

"And I still haven't found anything to put her behind bars," Stella reaches to take the folder back.

Looking sternly at her, he places it down on the corner of her desk. "You know as well as I do that some cases can't be solved."

She looks away from his blue-gray eyes. "I just feel like it's my fault he was killed. She beat him to death for telling me what she does to him."

"Stel, if it's anyone's fault, it's mine; I just let her take him home even though I was aware of what he was put through."

"You're right," she stares at him for a moment before punching him in the chest as hard as she can.

He rubs the spot where she hit him, "I guess I deserved that."

"The boy would still be alive if it weren't for you."

"After the way you described foster care, he wouldn't have lived long."

"But he would have had a better chance of surviving."

"If I could change what I did in that moment, I wouldn't have let her take Mitchell. But I can't change the past."

Stella can no longer hold back her emotions. He gently wipes the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs before pulling her into a comforting embrace. Hands clinging to his shirt, she refuses to let go, not that he wants her to.

"Everything will be okay," he rubs her back.

"Not for Mitchell," she lifts her head up. "We can't even convict his killer."

"It's almost midnight; we can't help him without some rest and food. Let me take you home."

"No dinner?"

"How about midnight snack? We can stop for ice cream sundaes at that place down the street from your apartment."

"Snack? The sundae is almost as big as my breakfast." They smile at each other.

Nobody

"Would you like to come in for a drink?" she asks, unlocking her door.

"I think I'll just have water so I can get to sleep sometime before work starts again."

She gets two bottles of water out of the fridge, "Do you mind… can you… I… ?"

"Whatever it is, I'll do it for you. It's not a problem," Mac takes her hand.

"Thanks. You made a good pillow last night."

"Just one request: if we're going to sleep… next to each other, can we use the bed instead of the couch?"

"Of course. And I really didn't mean to fall asleep on top of you last night."

"No problem."

Stella yawns, "I think I'm going to get ready for bed." She heads to her room and gets out a pair of pajamas. When she comes out of the bathroom, he has made himself comfortable on her bed. "Are you okay in your work clothes?"

"I can manage. I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

She sits beside him and reaches over to unbutton his shirt, "In that case, the shirt can come off. The pants, however, must stay on."

After she is done unbuttoning it, he pulls the shirt off and lays it with his shoes beside the bed. She rests her head on his bare chest, fingers examining his many battle scars. "Are we going to sleep with the lights on?"

"We did the other night," she gets back up and turns them off.

Mac wraps his arms around her thin waist, "We forgot to get under the covers."

"There's a blanket at the end of the bed if you're cold."

"It's you I'm worried about."

"I'll be fine with you here."

He kisses the top of her head, "Why is it that people have to kill one another?"

"I'm still hung up on Mitchell's mother abusing him. How can you not love your own child? In my case, I wasn't their biological child so they never had to love me. But she beat her own son for no reason."

"Some things just can't be explained," he kisses her again. "You might not have had someone to love you before, but you have me from now on."

She kisses his chest above his heart, "You're the best family I've ever had."

"I'll always love you, Stella." He is surprised she doesn't respond. When he looks down at her, he finds her eyes are closed. Smiling to himself at how beautiful and peaceful she looks, he follows her lead and soon falls asleep too. The past few days had been difficult for both of them.

A/N: I was lazy the past few days and didn't feel like updating. And I left the story open for you to decide whether Mitchell's mother ends up convicted or not. It seems like there was so much I had to tell you guys, but now I don't remember it. So my next two stories will be called My Best Friend and Escaping the Pain. Then I have to do some more typing because I've got almost two more stories done and just haven't been able to type them. They're called... Faster than Angels Fly and That's Where It Is. I have like half a page to go on the second one and then it's done. And I'm going to start a story about Stella being stalked next I think. Although I really should write my one that's about what happens with Mac and Peyton and Stella over the summer so it's up before the season starts. What other ideas do I have to write still... one where Mac and Stella are held hostage and one if she ended up being HIV positive. I think that's it. So yesterday we were at my grandma's and her condo place has paddle boats or whatever they're called in the lake that you can use. So the two that were working before were out of the water for some reason so my brother gets in the one that was broken before, which was now fixed. He yelled something about there being a spider in it and he squished it and then he said he needed someone to come with him to help him peddle. No one else would so I volunteered. I asked my dad before I got in if there were any other spiders in there and he said no. So I get in and we start peddling and I looked down towards my feet and there on the inside of the boat are two spiders. So I curl up in my seat and tell my brother to go back to the dock, which we weren't far from. He pulls the boat in on his side so I can't get out, then has to back up and turn it so I could get out. Another spider crawled across the middle thing by the stearing thing for the rutter. Finally after a lot of screaming, I could get out. There were probably even more spiders in the back of the thing. And they were like huge too; well, bigger than what I normally see here. My grandma says she has all kinds of spiders in her house; guess I'm never staying there. Okay, I'll shut up now. Please tell me what you thought of the story.