Title: All I Need is You
Chapter 15 - Extreme Highs and Extreme Lows
A/N: okay guys so don't hate me but I'm going to keep the baby's sex a surprise. I'm still kinda torn so don't give up okay!! And sorry for the delay in updating. And thanks!
Mac and Stella exchanged wondering looks. They had thought about it but now to actually make their final decision was something that they would not be able to change until the day of the birth itself.
"Stella?"
"Mac?" Stella asked softly, to which Mac nodded his head and offered a shy smile. "As we discussed?"
"Are you sure?" Mac asked again.
"I am."
"Then I am too."
"We are going to wait and be surprised."
"Very well," Angie smiled. "So let's take a picture right now while their leg is in the way and..." Angie smiled as she took the ultra sound picture and then a few minutes later handed it and two others to the proud Taylor parents.
"Can we have one more?" Stella inquired. "For your mom."
"Sure," Angie smiled took the fourth picture. "Stella, I'm sure you probably need to use the washroom and you can also wipe off the gel."
"And now?"
"That's it Mr. Taylor," Angie smiled. "All goes well, the next time you are in a clinical setting should be when your wife gives birth to your baby."
"Our baby Mac," Stella smiled as she squeezed his hand once more. "Thank you Angie."
"Good luck guys. Come out when you're ready."
Mac watched Angie finally leave and then turned back to Stella and then down at the picture in his hands. "I um...I can't explain what I'm feeling right now Stella. I mean this is our baby...the precious little being that I play for and that we talk to and...our baby Stella."
"Our baby Mac," Stella whispered as she allowed Mac to help her sit up. She wrapped her arms around Mac's waist and held him close. Mac gently lifted her face to his and kissed her tenderly on the mouth.
"I love you so much Stella."
"I love you just as much Mac," she replied as he helped her stand up. "But right now I have to pee."
"Okay let's get this off," Mac stated with a chuckle as he started to wipe off the warming gel. Once finished he watched her hurry to the attached bathroom and then looked down at the picture in his hand before he pulled out his phone and called his mother. "Yeah I got it right here."
"Did you find out the sex?"
"We wanted to wait."
"Is it beautiful?"
"Mom, it's the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life," Mac mentioned as he looked at the picture of his child in his hands. "Are you upset we didn't find out?"
"Mac, I love you and Stella very much," Millie Taylor told her son warmly. "I will love my grandchild no matter what sex it it. How is Stella?" Millie asked as Mac looked up and watched Stella come back in the room, dressed to leave.
"Your mom?" Stella mouthed and Mac nodded his head as he handed her the phone. "Millie?"
Mac let Stella talk to his mother as he carefully tucked away two of the pictures into the breast pocket of his suit jacket and the third would be sent to his mother.
"Well?" Mac asked as Stella hung up.
"She still wants to move here and is expecting the picture in a few days."
"Can I say told you so?" Mac quipped as he wrapped his arms around her once more. He looked down into her warm green eyes and gently brushed a tear away as he leaned in and kissed her lips. "I know I have asked this of you before, but will you get any work done today?"
"Will you?"
"Should make for interesting dinner time conversation," Mac quoted her line from a few weeks earlier.
"Yes that it should."
Mac quickly put on his coat and then both of them walked, hand in hand, out of the small room and then back outside, waiting for a cab to take them back to work. Mac held her hand in the ride, the other still looking at the picture of their baby, Stella's head resting on his shoulder.
"We need two frames," Mac mentioned and Stella was quick to agree. They got off the elevator and headed toward their respective offices, being greeted by Sid along the way.
"Ah was wondering when you two were going to show up."
"What's going on Sid?" Mac queried with raised brows.
"So boy or girl?"
"Nice try Hammerback no one is going to know if they won the pool until the actual birth," Stella smiled.
"Party Pooper," Sid shot back and both Mac and Stella exchanged amused expressions.
"So then nothing work related?"
"All the time work with you two," Sid smirked as he handed Stella a file. "Can I at least see the picture?"
Stella pulled out her ultrasound picture that Mac had given her in the elevator and soon there was a small crowd gathered around the two proud parents to be, talking about the picture, making sex assumptions, asking when the due date was and by the time Mac actually made it into his office and sat down a whole hour had passed.
Mac pulled out his picture and placed it on his desk, looking at his child with a proud smile. "Wow," he whispered softly. "Hi baby," his finger gently brushed the surface. He had seen pictures before of unborn children and had tried to picture in his mind their baby in Stella's belly as he read or played or even talked to it, but now to see it for himself, to actually see the small being he helped create, left him utterly speechless.
"Boy or girl?" Flack asked as he walked into Mac's office and sat down in a nearby chair.
"We didn't want to know yet," Mac replied as he handed Flack the picture.
"Really why? Then you won't know what to prepare for."
"We'll find out for the second."
"Second? Mac you don't even have the first yet."
"Both Stella and I were only children and it was lonely. Neither of us want that for our family. Besides we want to be surprised. We know we can't do a lot of personal shopping before then but that's okay. What?"
Flack looked at the picture and then up at Mac with a smile. "You a dad, wow."
Mac offered a smirk as he took the picture back and then put it back in to the small holder where it was before, the one fixed to his desk. "What did you find?"
"I think this Carl kid actually cares for her. Which in itself is kinda disturbing," Flack added. "But he has no idea where she is or what she's up to. He says the few conversations they've had in the past week has been strained and in his words scary. But he is concerned for her sanity. He said the last time she started talking as crazy as she is now she ended up on suicide watch in solitary."
"She's a ticking time bomb waiting for the right minute to explode. Damn it!"
Think she'll come back for you?"
"A week ago I would have laughed at that notion but now..." Mac's voice trailed off as he turned and looked out the window. "It's not me I'm worried about."
"Think she'll come after Stella?"
Mac turned back to Flack with a heavy frown. "I certainly think she's capable of inflicting harm. That morphine is street grade which means she has friends she can turn to and that in itself makes her a danger to others, but more importantly those she sees as a potential threat."
"Well we have enough to bring her in," Flack stated firmly.
"I just hope we can do that before she really does something drastic," Mac uttered fatefully.
Ella hovered once again in the laundry facility of the apartment she was now taking refuge in. She carefully held the small knife in her hands, her mind starting to seek her own self hurt as means of comfort and emotional reprieve. She had dialed Mac's number on the phone and stared at it until it faded because the call was never put through.
"If I call him, she'll answer," Ella's angry mind in contempt. "I hate her!"
She gently banged her head against the wall one more time, her eyes starting to tear up. Ella, I miss you, please come back to me, Carl's voice was now heard inside her head; the new war between one man who cared and one man who didn't. She just couldnt reason which was which.
She raised the blade, just a small cut to help ease her mental anguish. However, just as the blade of the small knife was about to pierce the skin, she heard a name mentioned that stopped her actions cold.
"Stella, remember to get the jacket also."
"I will honey, see you in five!"
'I have to call Stella..' Mac's words about his wife rang clear in her tormented mind. "Stella!" She hissed in anger as she quickly pushed herself up from her hiding spot and peered around the corner. Her eyes narrowed at the head of curls and her mind instantly flashed the showdown between her and Mrs. Taylor at Mac's place of work.
"I hate her..." she chanted over and over again as she rushed from her hiding spot, knife in hand.
The woman turned...
The knife was raised...
A scream was heard...
"Wow that is so amazing," Lindsay gushed over the small picture on Stella's desk an hour later. "Did it hurt?"
"Actually it kinda tickled," Stella answered with a smile. "Angie, the tech used warm gel and...and it was amazing to hear the heartbeat, to see the tiny organs and to know at that moment that, that small life that Mac and I created was there...looking back at us."
"And how are you feeling with all the Ella stress?"
"In my mind I am still a bit worried that she is out there and plotting to come after Mac one more time."
"Don't think she'll come after you?" Lindsay asked with a frown.
"I think she's capable but in these obsessive cases, it's usually the person on the receiving end of the obsession who bears the brunt," Stella relayed with a heavy sigh. "But we are both aware and...I can't live in fear right?"
"Will probably do more harm than good," Stella stated with a small smile. "How are your wedding plans coming?"
"Two weeks to go," Lindsay answered with a nervous laugh. "I am so excited to be marrying Danny and not even sure why I am so nervous."
"Lindsay I have known Mac for ten years, but when we were doing all the planning and such I couldn't sleep. I know what you are going through."
"Do you have your dress yet?"
"Might as well just wear a burlap sack," Stella teased as she tenderly rubbed her belly. "Baby is making it very difficult for mommy to where her regular clothes. I'll find something."
Both looked up to see Mac and Danny rush by with kits in their hands and then exchanged strained smiles. "Another case. So before they come back with a myriad of evidence can you look at this?"
"Sure," Stella agreed as she took the paper from Lindsay's hand, her mind now wondering if Mac had time to eat lunch before he took the call.
XXXXXXXX
"You have been quiet all day Mac, worried about Ella?"
"What she's planning next," Mac replied as he looked out the passenger window, his frown heavy and heart rate elevated. "The longer she's away from real help the faster her hold on reality is going to leave. I thought that Clinic in Albany was what she needed but"
"You think jail?"
"Jail might be a bit harsh but when we find her and we will find her, I think I'm going to let a court appointed physiatrist handle this one."
"Which is what you should have done last time."
"Hindsight," Mac huffed as Danny brought the Avalanche to a stop and both got out.
"Whoa what is going on here?" Danny asked in shock as they looked at the myriad of ambulances and police cars in front of them.
Mac watched Flack head up to them and gestured with his head for him to come over. "You said one body."
"Yeah the dead body is in the corner store, there was an attempted stabbing next door."
"Okay well we'll..." Mac's voice trailed off as he turned to follow Danny toward the small store. Flack's arm touched his, stopping his actions. "Don?"
"Mac, you might want to come and see this," Flack suggested.
"Danny you go ahead, I'll catch up."
"Mac, you sure?"
"Just a minute Dano, trust me," Flack told his friend with a slight frown. Danny nodded and headed with another officer into the small corner store to get started on their real case as Mac followed after Flack into the first floor of the apartment building.
"Don what is..."
"Just a second Mac," Flack urged as he walked up to a woman who had been crying. "Ms. Hollister right? Can you tell me again what happened?"
"My sister Stella was in the laundry room, getting her husband's jacket. When she said that out of no where a young woman with blond hair came out of no where and started to stab her."
"Stella?" Mac asked and Flack looked at him weakly. "Young woman...blond hair...what?"
"She um..." the woman paused to cry a bit. "She kept saying, I hate you, over and over again and he's mine. Her husband, my brother isn't having an affair officer this had to be random!" The woman insisted in anger.
Mac felt the room starting to lightly spin as his eyes left the woman before them, traveled past Flack and rested on the blood stain in the next room.
"Here is a picture, notice anything familiar?" Flack asked as he showed Mac a picture of Stella Hollister.
"From the back..." Mac's voice trailed off in misery. "How is she? Your sister?"
"She's um...she's alive for now but..." her voice trailed off as she sagged to the nearby bench and started to cry once more, being quickly comforted by a nearby neighbor.
"One other tenant, the one who got to Mrs. Hollister in time said he saw a young woman with wavy blond hair fleeing out the back."
"Ella."
"She obviously was hiding here, heard the name Stella, saw her from behind and..."
"And tried to kill her," Mac stated in horror as he looked at his friend in torment. "Don..."
"She's coming for Stella next."
"Damn it Don, you said she had major pains when I was trapped by Ella, to tell her this and keep her on a constant state of alert will harm her for sure."
"You have to tell her Mac."
"Trust me I know, I've learnt the value of lies, the hard way. But if she loses our child it will kill us both," he huffed as he raked a hand through his short dark hair. "Damn it!"
"I put two guys on each entrance to your apartment Mac and..."
"I have to call her."
"I'll call Sheldon to come and help Danny, you go and tell her in person."
Mac pulled out his phone and started to dial.
"Mac, you have to tell her in person," Flack insisted.
"I'm calling Ella. Maybe I can get her to come in and and listen to reason."
"Worth a shot."
But as suspected when Mac called her number, he only got her voice mail. "Ella, it's Mac, I'd like to talk to you in person. I'm worried about you. Please call me, I'll meet you wherever you want."
"Think she'll go for it?"
"I think this just proved that Ella McBride's sanity is waning faster than any of us thought. I hope she listens to reason, but now I doubt it."
"Go and talk to Stella."
Mac offered his concerned friend a whispered thanks as he turned and headed for the Avalanche, his eyes darting nervously around at every face he saw, searching for the one that was now causing terror on innocent people. "Damn you Ella!" Mac cursed as he angrily hit the steering wheel and then turned the Avalanche back into traffic, rushing in the direction of their lab.
XXXXXXXX
Stella looked up from Adam's computer as Mac rushed into the area and looked at her with a worried expression before he offered a soft nod with his head for her to follow.
"Adam, just print those results when you find them," Stella instructed before she turned and hurried after Mac. Mac didn't say a word until they were inside her office and then the turned to her with a heavy frown.
"Mac, what is going on? I know that look and its not a good one for you."
"I struggled with telling you this...especially today."
"Mac what is it? Tell me. Is it Ella?"
"It is," Mac replied with a heavy sigh as his eyes searched Stella's. "I just need you to relax or something."
"Mac just tell me before I send myself into a tizzy guessing."
"Danny and I were at the crime scene when next door there was a woman who was attacked. Her name was Stella and from behind...well she could have been you. Ella seems to be the main suspect from two eye witness descriptions."
"Is she um..."
"She's alive so that is one good thing but...I called Ella to see if she'd meet me in person and hopefully to end this, but so far she hasn't called back. Stella I'm sorry I...I know you don't want me to see her but..."
"But if she trusts you enough to meet her then maybe..."
"I can bring her in. Sorry, this is the only way."
"I'm glad I know," Stella frowned as she slowly eased herself into a nearby chair. Mac sat down in the adjoining one and took her hands in his.
"Stella, I swear to you right now, that I will not let her hurt you in any way."
"She's obviously lost her grip on reality."
"And that is what makes her so dangerous right now," Mac mumbled as his eyes kept themselves fixed on her wedding band. "I'll not lose you Stella. Not to anyone; espcially her."
Stella gently lifted his face and offered what she hoped was a brave smile, not wanting to tell him that inside her heart was now racing with fear and wonder.
"Mac I'm going to be fine, I know you'll never let her hurt us."
"Never. But I remember the last time...damn it Stella, Don thought you were going into false labor."
"Then he knows nothing about pregnant women," Stella tried to assure her husband by giving his hands a gentle squeeze. "Mac seeing our baby this morning has given me further incentive to want to take it easy and that means mental and physical relaxation."
"But..."
"Mac, I won't lie, yes I am worried and scared, especially in light of this. But I also know that to sit here and stress would do more harm than good to our child. So I am going to tell myself that while I am on edge because I need to be alert, you are going to keep your family safe. Okay?"
Mac looked at her and offered a soft nod. "But you must promise me you'll never go anywhere alone. Until we have her. It's not a matter of you not being able to handle yourself or..."
"I give you my word Mac. For us. The three of us."
Mac took some comfort in her words but with Ella's attack he knew she was speeding closer to the edge, faster than he anticipated and that would mean she would reach desperation mode in no time, if she wasn't there already.
"Oh what have I done...what have I done..." Ella growled at herself over and over again as she hovered behind a back alley dumpster a good number of blocks from her latest mishap. Her life seemed to be spiraling out of control faster than she could find a solution to get it back on track.
"All I wanted was Mac to love me," she muttered to herself as she listened to his message over and over again. "All I ever wanted was to be loved!" She hissed in anger.
She leaned her head back against the cold stone of the building she was leaning on and closed her eyes, picturing Mac's smiling face in her mind's eye.
"Why doesn't he love me. I'm pretty...I'm smart...I'm..." her voice trailed off in sorrow as she looked down at the smattering of blood on her hands. Her mind flashed images of the woman she had attacked, who when she turned around wasn't the woman she thought she was ridding herself of.
"I hate her...she'shis wife!" She hissed in miserable anger. "Mac doesn't want to be a father!"
She let her eyes rest on a noise to her right and offered a half smile when a mangy looking alley cat darted in her direction. "Hi," she smiled weakly as a few more angry tears silently tumbled down her mascara messed cheeks and splashed on the ground below her.
The cat stopped and looked at her in wonder. "I won't hurt you."
"I have no home either," she lightly sobbed as her offered her hand, drawing the small animal closer. The cat, drawn to the smell of food on her fingers, came a bit closer allowing Ella to quickly grab it and pull it close. The animal at first resisted but Ella held on.
"Please don't leave me," she begged in misery. "Please...I can't be alone."
A few minutes later she allowed the cat to go free and watched with a half smile as it scampered away, after a mouse she presumed and out of her sight.
She leaned back against the wall and listened to Mac's message one more time.
'I'm worried about you.'
"Maybe there still is hope for us," she falsely reasoned. "If he's worried he cares, if he cares, he'll love me. Right?"
"Right," she answered herself with a firm nod of her head as she slowly pushed herself up to her feet. She had snatched a hat as she took flight and stuffed a stray curl under it; completely hiding her blond locks from those that now assumed would be hunting her.
"I'm coming Mac...coming to be with you. I'm coming home."
"Okay but call if you need anything," Jessica insisted to Stella once more a few hours later as Stella hugged her friend one more time and then headed for Mac who was waiting for her by the elevator. Mac looked at her in concern and Stella offered a weak smile in return.
"I know you had that small panic attack an hour earlier."
"Mac, I can't worry you every time our baby decides it needs to do some aerobics. What can I say, we are going to have an active kid."
"Stella..."
"Mac, I'm fine, really," she tried to sooth his nerves as she gently touched his rough cheek with her soft hand. "We just need this to be over."
"And fast," Mac huffed as the elevator deposited them in the underground parking lot and their awaiting vehicle. They talked about the case that just wrapped up on the way home, nothing further about the woman stabbed who looked like Stella. Thankfully the woman is recovering but both of them know that instead of attempted murder, Ella McBride's arrest warrant could be for murder one.
"I'm going to order in tonight and that's final," Mac stated with a frown as soon as he closed the door and looked at Stella with a heavy frown.
Stella pressed herself into Mac's open arms and finally allowed herself to express the emotions she kept locked away for the better part of a day, wetting the top of Mac's suit jacket with her tears of frustration and anger. Mac slowly led her to the bedroom and helped her lay down before sitting beside her, holding her hand. He took out the last ultrasound picture and placed it on the table next to her.
"I want you just to rest, okay?"
"I didn't feel like cooking," Stella confessed with a slight smile.
Mac pushed some curls behind her ear and leaned down and kissed her in the lips. "I love you Stella."
Stella's hand wrapped behind Mac's head and pulled his lips back down, allowing her to hungrily taste them. "I love you too."
"Just rest okay, I'll place the call and be right back."
Stella offered a nod and watched Mac leave before she made herself a little more comfortable on the bed. A few minutes later Mac came back into the room and started to undress, offering a shy smile as his wife's hungry eyes continued to devour his state of undress.
"Can you walk around in that for the rest of the night?"
"In only my underwear and t-shirt?"
"Just your underwear?" She teased and his lips curled into a slight smirk. "It would really make me feel better."
"Oh that isn't fair," Mac teased as he reached for a pair of casual pants, slightly laughing at Stella's pout. "Later? I can't answer the door wearing this."
"Might not have to leave a tip."
"Very funny," Mac deadpanned and Stella laughed.
Mac finished dressing in something more casual and then eased himself back down beside her. He looked down at the small camisole she had changed into and then smiled.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Mac, tell me."
"Your breasts are bigger."
"Trust me I know," Stella groaned.
"And that is bad?"
"You try carrying all this weight around. Plus they hurt more. But we are nearing the end of the second trimester so everything is where it should be. Hey should I call up Playboy and do a centerfold for them?"
"Yeah right," Mac rolled his eyes as he leaned in closer and planted a warm kiss above the top of her cotton camisole. "You know when you wear cotton, it's a real turn on. Does that hurt?" He asked, remembering she said her breasts were more tender and sore in her second trimester.
"No, I know you're careful. I'm hungry Mac."
"Me too," he teased as his hand rested on her swollen belly. "Is baby hungry also?"
"So you're not disappointed about not knowing the sex?"
"I thought about that today...well before...anyways, I know it's seems odd just addressing our baby as well...baby, but...but I guess I just wanted to be surprised. I'll tell you what, for the second we can find out the sex in advance."
"Second?" Stella managed with a soft smile, her eyes watering.
"You and I were both only children and..."
"It's kind of a lonely way to grow up?"
"What do you think?"
"I think two is the perfect number," Stella smiled as she kissed him once more.
"Good, because I already told Don that we were having two."
"You did what?"
"I um...dinner right?"
"Mac!" Stella gently scolded with a smile. "Two sounds perfect."
"Really?"
"Really. And I'm happy your mother wants to move here. I really am, puts my mind at ease. I was thinking more about that today also; just how much she's giving up butbut she's getting a lot in return."
"That's how she sees it also. Trust me Stella, she's just as excited as we are."
"Really daddy?"
"Okay maybe not as much as we are," Mac chuckled as their food finally arrived. They finished their meal, talking more about what things they were still lacking for the arrival of the newest Taylor and what to expect from the third trimester. Mac finished with the dishes and then went in search of his wife, finding her sitting on the edge of the bed holding the picture of their unborn baby in her hands. But when she looked up with teary eyes, his heart broke.
"What it is?" He asked as he slowly sat down beside her.
"Hormones Mac, plain and simple. I hate to play the emotional card, as you know that's not me but..." her voice trailed off in a soft whimper. Mac carefully put his arm around her shoulders and offered a loving squeeze, kissing her on the cheek. "I guess today...seeing our baby and feeling such joy to this...now wondering when Ella is going to make her next move and how much damage it could cause."
Mac held his wife and allowed her to express whatever she felt she had to, to make herself feel better. Her soft whimpers and tormented words, tugged at his heart once more and by the time she was finished his own eyes were wet. "I'll never let her hurt you," Mac promised. "Come on let's get some rest."
"I know you want more than rest Mac."
"Stella, I'd have sex with you every minute of the day if you let me," Mac teased and was happy when his wife's beautiful face finally cracked a smile.
"Every minute?" She arched a brow.
"Every second minute?" He retorted as he kissed her lips once more. "I know you're tired, I can see it in your eyes, maybe not physically but the other stuff is just as important."
Stella wrapped her arms around Mac's neck and allowed her body one final heavy exhale before she kissed him on the ear, her warm breath tickling his sensitive skin. "I promise I'll make it up to you tomorrow."
Mac's smile widened as he brought her eyes to meet his. "I love you."
A few minutes later both nestled into their warm bed, safe and secure in the loving embrace of each other, falsely believing that with the officers outside, in the front and the back, their threat from Ella McBride would be kept at bay.
Ella's eyes narrowed as she looked up at Mac's new apartment just as the lights to the bedroom went out. She felt her fists ball but quickly took a deep breath to calm her rising anger.
"Mac belongs to me...and after tomorrow, I'll be the only woman in his life! Sorry Stella Taylor, but this is the last day you'll spend with your husband."
A/N: okay so you all know me, I would never obviously kill Stella (duh) or their unborn baby (that would be wrong eek!)but what do you think will happen?
PS: As promised, Promise of Tomorrow wil be up tomorrow!