The main characters don't belong to me but to the creators of CSI NY tv series. But Maria Kostopoulos is totally mine! And Dr. Irene Samaras too.

Thanks to Lily Moonlight, for her help with the English. She 's always there.

I Can't Say Goodbye

Chapter 21

"Mac... Are you going to explain how did you find me?"

Mac looked at her, smiling. He didn't know how much information he wanted to give her.

"Well, I'd like to say it was thanks to my incomparable detective skills... but, in fact, the first clue I had came from a somewhat unusual source. You can't imagine who..."

Stella leaned back further, placing her head in Mac's lap, encouraging him with a gesture to continue.

"Your old friend, agent Smithson, saw you on TV when the President was here. He said it was only a short sequence, but he was sure it was you. From there it was easy, I found the photo gallery of the event on the website of the American embassy et voilà, there you were, with a nice green dress and a round belly. Since I assumed that it wouldn't be because of the Greek beer..."

"You got mad because I didn't tell you?"

"At first, yes, I can't deny that... I'd have liked not to have missed anything in this whole affair, and not knowing where the hell you were had me worried... But, well, then I saw other pictures that improved my mood"

"What other pictures?"

Mac decided to tell her everything, or almost everything. Enough of hiding things, they had had too much of that. He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, which hung over the chair, and pulled out the reproduction of the ultrasound that he had received. He showed it to Stella.

"A few minutes after finding out you were inAthensthis came to my email from Dr. Samaras' Practice. In the upper corner, look what it says. Baby Taylor. And its mother, Stella Bonasera. How could I be mad after seeing this?"

Stella was shocked.

"Did they send the ultrasound to you? I called to say I hadn't received it and the girl said that she had sent it! She must have used the emergency email contact, I had given them yours. She sent me the picture again, and it finally arrived" Stella looked at her baby. "Isn't it gorgeous?"

"She is."

Stella was surprised again about Mac's allusion to the "she" baby.

"And through an ultrasound that got sent to you by mistake you found me... How did you know where I lived? Mac, you're a hound..."

"I have to confess that I had to use Adam's computer skills, and I won't explain the procedures of dubious legality, or downright illegal ones I used to achieve that... But who cares? We are as we should be at last."

Stella smiled. "So Adam knows? What about the others?"

"Adam is the only one who knows, if at this point he has managed to keep his mouth shut, which will be hard on him, but he promised. It should be us who tells Danny and Lindsay, and Don..."

"We'll wait until we return, or...? I have an idea! Tomorrow we could get some better photos with my camera and we could send them to their emails with a message to congratulate them on Thanksgiving Day. What do you think?"

Mac smiled at her.

"I think it's a great idea. Lindsay has had it rough, believe me, and Lucy has missed you so much. But we must not let them have any more time of uncertainty than necessary... I'd like to know what they say when they see what we have to show them..." he said, caressing Stella's belly at the same time. The baby kicked again, as she had when he arrived hours earlier.

"Stella, there's something else I knew that day, when all about you seemed no longer to be a mystery. Horatio Caine told me that you've been proposed as the director of the new CSI New Orleans Lab. Is that true, and how are we going to cope with that?"

Stella smiled at how Mac had phrased his sentence. "How are we are going to cope," he had said "we".

"It was nothing concrete, Mac, only the future intentions of those who decide these things, and, apparently, they thought I was a good candidate. It seems that everything will be much slower now that the budgets have been cut... I really don't know what to think or how to respond if they offered me definitely the job right now."

"Well, we'll resolve the problem when it arises, not before. Don't you think?"

Mac didn't want to think very much about this complication.

Stella continued. "Moreover, it seems that I am the candidate of the year... In recent days I've received two interesting proposals... Well three, counting yours" She breathed on the ring and pretended to polish it, with a mocking gesture.

"How come?" Mac asked her.

First, the US Department of State wants me permanently, it seems they find my work excellent, and the compliments to me that the President himself made has led them to make me an offer with a very advantageous contract. And second, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece has also asked me to become his liaison with the US, others who have succumbed to my charm..."

"I hope it's to your charm, in general, and not your list of charms..." Mac leaned to kiss her. "I'm glad on one hand, but on the other I'm afraid that the entire world knows that you're really good in everything you set out to do..." He pretended to sigh, pitifully. "Alongside these proposals, mine is by far the least advantageous."

"Yours is the only one I'm sure I won't refuse. Mac Taylor, you're trapped!"

This time, Stella stood up and pulled him towards the bedroom where she hoped to repeat the sublime experience of the afternoon. The dance of the pregnancy hormones made her very willing to have sex with the man in her life, the father of her baby, with her love at last reunited.

Mac slept little, despite the physical toll of sex. Stella, however, seemed to rest perfectly. He looked at her for hours. There was no woman in the world more beautiful for him. When Stella awoke, she found his eyes on her, watching her sleep. She reached over and kissed him before getting up.

"I'll be back in a minute. I have to, you know, pee."

Mac laughed, he had noticed that Stella had to visit the bathroom every few hours to relieve her bladder... Snags of pregnancy. When he saw her again, walking naked to the bed, he couldn't help feel his body screamed for joining hers again. Stella seemed to have the same need, because instead of lying down at his side, she kissed him and immediately felt Mac's reaction, in more than one place...

"Well, well, DetectiveTaylor... For your age you're very frisky..."

"I have a good stimulus, and I've accumulated a lot of ammo, too"

"You know I have a pregnancy guide that the doctor gave me... and it explains the best positions for sex during pregnancy"

"Wow! I like it."

"I intend to try them all."

Mac laughed

"Today?"

She pinched his butt, as she sat on him like a rider on horseback.

"This is, according to the guide, one of the most popular." She sought with her hand and found what she was looking for, hard and ready. She led Mac's member to its natural place and slowly slid down on him. Their intimate connection made them both sigh. Slowly, Stella began riding him, without haste, but providing both with an increasing pleasure. Mac put his hands on her hips to help her to sway. Soon they were both coming to the gates of heaven. Stella commanded, demanded, imposed the rhythm, which was in crescendo, like the sounds coming from their throats.

Maria arrived at her usual time. She opened the door with her key and took off her coat, which hung in the closet at the entrance. The weather wasn't too cold. The previous evening she had bought the turkey and she had already prepared the stuffing and the turkey at her home, so she only needed to stuff it and put it in the oven. She didn't want Stella to yearn for her country and its traditions in such an important day.

Maria had left everything in the kitchen when she heard a noise which gave her the shock of her life... Stella was screaming. God! Was she being assaulted, or was it a premature birth... It must at least be a nightmare... Maria hurried into the bedroom, ready to finish whatever was happening...

Maria opened the door and ran towards Stella's bed. Stella was bouncing up and down, naked... naked on top of... "Oh God, oh my God...!" Maria stood there, paralyzed and speechless, while they continued, both very busy in their entertaining activity, crying "Mac!" and "Stella!" until they both came and Stella leaned gently over him, exhausted. That's when, turning her head to lie on Mac's chest, Stella saw Maria. Exchanging glances, Maria realized the awkward situation. Mac saw her then too, looking scared for a moment.

Maria turned and ran outside the room, as fast as she had entered, with unusual speed for a woman of her age. Stella then began to laugh, and the sound of her laughter infected Mac too, who embraced her as they both rolled onto their sides

"Caught!" Was all that Mac could say.

"That," said Stella, "Was my dear Maria, the one and only Maria Kostopoulos."

To be continued...