Hello everybody. Welcome. Welcome. Lovely to have you reading again. The last chapter was sad I admit that but you were warned. This chapter is also sad but it is short. Mainly because I couldn't think of what to say. I have finally managed to pull something together though. Hope you like and hope it's not too depressing.

Chapter 8- Coping?

Stella P.O.V.

I pulled my arms out of Frank's grip and sank to the floor

"Stella you told me you were ok. You told me you were coping"

He was pacing up and down the office now. He seemed angry

"This is my way of coping."

"This is not coping!" he was definitely angry now. Very angry. "You told me you had stopped this!"

I was just ignoring him. I couldn't stop him when he started shouting

"STELLA!" I looked up Frank was standing over me

There was a knock at the door. I made no attempt to answer it but the person on the other side didn't wait. It was Stark. Just what I needed. After a pause Frank was the first to speak.

"What do you want Stark?" he seemed to have calmed down

"I want to know what's going on." He had that horrible smirk on his face

"It's none of your business Stark." I could see the anger flash in Frank's eyes

"If it disturbs me then it is my business. You're making enough noise to wake the dead. People on the other side of the building can hear you!"

They were both facing each other, hands on hips ready for a full scale argument. I couldn't deal with it. Not here. Not now. I stood up.

"Stop this. Stop it now. You're both acting like children!"

They were both about to speak but I interrupted them

"Get out the pair of you!" they looked at me "NOW!"

They stood for a moment and then left. When they had gone I sank back to the floor.

Frank's P.O.V.

Stark had been driving me up the wall ever since day one. When I first met him, when him, me and Stella first started our training, he seemed so smug and up himself. To be completely honest today I could have killed him. Also he had always fancied Stella and when we were in training so we always competed for her love. As well as that whenever he saw me he rubbed in the fact that he had a higher clearance level than me. He hated me and I hated him. That was clear.

When I had left the main building what I had done hit me. I had shouted at Stella. She needed my help not me shouting at the top of my voice about what had happened. I was trying to make the situation better not worse.

Stella's P.O.V.

It was only 2pm but I couldn't stay here till 8pm. It was too long to be cooped up in a stuffy old office. My office didn't even have a window so I couldn't even let any air in the room. When people were in here it felt claustrophobic so I never spoke to anybody in here for a long time. I had paperwork to look through and reports of missions to write up but I wasn't in the mood to do any of that now. I grabbed my jacket, my phone and my keys and was about to leave but I stopped before I reached the door. I wasn't sure where I would go. If I went back to my flat then somebody would come and find me and drag me back to work. Then I thought of the perfect place. I hadn't been for a few weeks because I knew that it would upset me if I did but now was a perfect time. I wrote a note for anybody who came to find. I didn't put where I was going but I did put that I would be a little bit longer than a few hours. I went to grab one last thing from the draw in my desk but I stopped again. Was I sure about this? Was I sure I wanted to do this? My hand sealed around the handle. I was sure. I put the object in my pocket. I didn't think what I was about to do was good but I felt it was my only way out.

Dun, Dun, Duh. Sorry it's a cliff hanger but I thought you might like the drama. Sorry also for the shortness of the chapter. I tried to add things in where I could. Please review and tell me what you think.