Sorry I didn't update last night. I wasn't home and forgot to put the next Chapter up before I left 
Chapter 3The day had gone by fast. Stella had gotten up at eight – which was actually like sleeping in for her – and done some shopping to get the last important things she needed and packed her bags at home.
Mac had knocked on her door exactly at three p.m. to pick her up and drive to the airport together. Before they’d gone to the car, Mac had pulled out one of those little blue boxes Stella loved so much and asked, “Will you be my wife?”
Stella had chuckled at that and placed a kiss on Mac’s cheek.
“Yes,” she had replied and let Mac slide the ring onto her finger.
The flight to Chicago had gone without any turbulence. They had used the time to memorize a few facts about themselves and get used to the new situation. During the flight, Mac had taken Stella’s hand a few times and squeezed it softly. Each time she had smiled at him reassuringly.
Now they were waiting in front of the airport. A guy from a car rental agency had waited for them to arrive and given them the keys to their car for the next few weeks. When the car drove up to them, Stella let out a relieved sigh. Mac turned around and shot her a look.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m just looking forward to sit down on the couch, relax, and get some proper food,” she replied.
Mac chuckled. “We still have to unpack, adjust in the house, and go through the file,” he pointed out.
“Thanks for tearing my last piece of hope apart,” Stella commented drily.
Mac grinned and pulled her into his arms, placing a soft kiss to her forehead. “We don’t have to do all of it today, sweetie,” he said. “I’ll cook you a nice dinner when we get home, and you just relax.”
“I knew I married the perfect man,” Stella replied and ran her hand down his face.
“Come on,” Mac said and pulled Stella gently towards the car. He opened the door for her and helped her get in. “I’ll just get our bags in the car, and then we’re ready to go.”
The drive towards their house was quiet. Stella rested her head against the seat, staring out of the window, lost in thought. Mac turned his head from time to time to look at Stella to check if she was still awake, and when they pulled up in front of the house, he leaned over and ran his hand gently over Stella’s cheek.
“Hey, sleepy,” Mac said. “We’re home.”
Stella smiled at Mac and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Finally,” she replied as she got out of the car.
Mac walked around the car and was going to open the trunk when Stella stopped him, stepping in behind him and resting a hand on his back.
“How about we take a look at the house first before we get our stuff in to unpack?” she suggested.
“Sure,” Mac replied.
Mac wrapped his arms around Stella’s waist as they made their way towards the house.
“This is going to be fun,” Stella said and leaned into her ‘husband’ slightly.
Mac chuckled and opened the door. “The house looks nice,” he said as they stepped through the door, closing it behind themselves.
“That’s an understatement,” Stella argued. “It looks amazing,” she added, and Mac chuckled. “Come on; let’s take a tour through our new home.” Stella tugged slightly at the sleeve of his jacket.
“Whatever you want, sweetie,” Mac replied teasingly, earning him a smack from his pretended wife.
They looked through the house, familiarizing themselves with their new surroundings. When they had finished their tour, Mac went back to the car and brought their bags into the bedroom. The two of them started to unpack in a comfortable silence, and after approximately thirty minutes, Stella plopped down on their bed, sprawling out. Mac turned around and looked at her, chuckling when he saw her lying on the bed.
“Everything alright?” he asked with a smile.
“Just tired is all,” Stella replied and sat up again.
Mac nodded. “It was a long day,” he agreed.
“Would you mind if I took a bath?” Stella asked.
“Of course not,” Mac replied. “Go ahead. I’ll see what I’ll manage for dinner while you’re taking your bath.”
“Thanks, Mac,” Stella returned. “I’ll finish unpacking my stuff later. Right now I just need a break.”
“Okay, I’ll finish putting away my stuff and make dinner afterward. You take your time,” Mac said.
“You know, right now I do love you,” Stella said in a teasing tone.
Mac, who was about to put his socks in the drawer of the dresser, turned around with a mock expression of shock on his face.
“You love me only right now?” he asked in disbelief. “Why did you marry me then?”
Stella chuckled, reached into her suitcase to grab some socks of her own, and threw them at him. With a quick movement of his hand, Mac caught them, only to throw them back at Stella a moment later. Catching her off-guard, he hit her on the head.
“You wanna start a fight, Taylor?” Stella asked, challenging.
“Hey, you started throwing socks at me,” he returned and threw his pair of socks at her as well.
“You are in trouble,” Stella said and took a few steps backward. She grabbed one of the pillows and was about to throw it at Mac when he held up his hands in self-defense.
“Okay, okay, I surrender,” he said. “I apologize for throwing socks at you.”
“Good boy,” Stella replied with a triumphant grin. She went to her bag once again and took her toiletries out.
“What, you wanna throw that at me now?” Mac asked teasingly.
Stella chuckled. “Cute, Mac,” she returned. “I’ll be in the bathroom if you need me.”
“I’m sure I’ll manage without you for a while,” Mac replied and smiled at Stella. “Enjoy your bath.”
“Thanks,” she replied, turned around and made her way into the bathroom.
***
It was a little over an hour later when Mac knocked on the bathroom door. No response. He knocked again. Once again, nothing.
“Stella?” Mac called. When he didn’t an answer, he said, “Stella, I’m coming in.”
The bathroom door cracked open, and Mac stepped into the warm room. The view in front of him caused him to smile. Stella lay peacefully in the bathtub full of water and bubbles. Her eyes were closed, and her chest rose with the even rhythm of her breath. She was sound asleep. Mac took a step closer to the bathtub, but then hesitated.
“Stella,” he called softly. “Hey, wake up.”
She stirred and slowly opened her eyes. “Hey,” she greeted him with a sleepy voice.
“Hey,” Mac replied. “You fell asleep in the tub,” he explained. “When you didn’t come out of the bathroom for over an hour, I thought I should check if you had drowned yourself. I knocked, but you didn’t answer, so I thought I should come in to see if everything was alright.”
Stella smiled softly. “That’s cute, Mac.”
“Okay, now that I know that you’re still alive I can go back to the kitchen,” he told her, and she chuckled.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” she said.
“Take your time,” Mac said before disappearing.
***
It was a good twenty minutes later when Stella stepped out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. She was dressed in her favorite sweat pants and an old t-shirt.
“Smells good,” she commented, and Mac turned around with a smile.
“Thanks,” he replied. “Dinner will be ready in a few. Took me some time to come up with something.”
“So I guess we need to go grocery shopping tomorrow,” Stella stated and made her way over to the cupboard to look for plates. On her way, she stole a few glances into the pans and the oven. When she couldn’t figure out what it was that Mac was cooking, she asked, “What’s for dinner?”
“There was a note on the fridge saying that everything in there was bought this morning, just so we know that it’s still fresh and edible,” Mac explained. “I did expect to find more than chicken and some tomatoes, though.” Mac released a chuckle. “Going through the cupboards, I did find some noodles, so we’re having grilled chicken on noodles with tomato sauce,” he announced. “Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds.”
It was Stella’s turn to chuckle. “Mac, I know you can cook, and I trust you not to kill me on our first day here.”
“How sweet,” Mac replied sarcastically.
Stella set the table and then opened the fridge to see if there was anything to drink in there.
“Oh boy, even your fridge hosts more food than this one does,” she stated.
“Told you,” Mac replied as he served their food.
“Don’t we have a pantry or something in this house?” she asked. “Or is this poor bottle of water really the only thing we have at the moment?”
“Even if there was one somewhere, I wouldn’t expect it to be filled,” Mac replied. “Now come on, dinner’s ready.”
Stella grabbed the bottle of water and poured both of them a glass. Sitting down, she said, “It does look good.”
Mac smiled at her over the table. “Enjoy. I hope you like it.”
“It’s really good, Mac,” Stella said after she had taken the first bite.
“I’m glad you like it.”
They ate in silence for a few moments until Stella spoke up again. “We don’t even have anything for breakfast.”
“That’s why I’ll take you out for breakfast. On our way back, we can stop by the grocery store to get some decent food,” Mac replied.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Stella said with a smile. “You know, we should talk about some things after dinner. Maybe go through the file again.”
“I think so, too,” Mac agreed.
They fell silent again, both lost in their own thoughts while finishing off their dinner. Afterward, they cleaned the dishes together and then moved into the living room. Mac went into the bedroom to get the case file out of his nightstand. When he walked back into the living room, he found Stella curled up in the armchair.
“You’ve already taken over the armchair, I see,” he commented when he plopped down on the sofa and placed the file on the table.
Stella smiled sheepishly. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to sit in the armchair at the orphanage, but the nuns wouldn’t let me,” she explained.
“Well, I’ll let you,” Mac replied with a sympathetic smile. He looked at her in silence for a few moments, smiling slightly.
“What?” Stella asked.
“Nothing.” Mac smiled slightly at her.
“We should talk about some things,” Stella said and Mac nodded in agreement. “How are we gonna do this?” she asked. “I mean, we’re supposed to be married.”
Mac gave her a soft smile. “Stella,” he said. “You’re my best friend. I think we’ll manage just fine. We’ve both been in relationships, so we both know how to act,” he pointed out with raised eyebrows. “So we’ll just do that.”
Stella chuckled. “You’re right.” They fell silent for a few moments before Stella spoke up again. “We should do something to introduce ourselves to the neighbors.”
Mac nodded again. “How about a barbeque the day after tomorrow?” he suggested.
“Sounds good,” Stella agreed. “We could invite a few of the neighbors in person tomorrow. That way we’d have a first impression of the people living in the neighborhood.”
“I like the idea,” Mac said. “So that’s what we do tomorrow, then.”
Stella nodded and leaned her head against the backrest of the armchair. She closed her eyes and let out a soft yawn.
“We can talk about the rest tomorrow, Stella,” Mac said. Stella opened her eyes again and looked at him. “You look like you’re gonna fall asleep there any minute. Let’s just go to bed and deal with the rest tomorrow.”
“I’d actually really like that,” Stella replied, taking a deep breath.
“Come on then,” Mac said as he got up from the sofa. When Stella still made no attempt to get up, Mac grabbed her hand and pulled her up with him. “The bed isn’t going to come down to you,” he teased, “and you don’t wanna spent the first night here on the couch, do you?”
“You could carry me up, honey,” Stella suggested with a cheeky grin.
Mac wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her towards him, and whispered, “You wish. And besides, I’m still your boss.”
Stella chuckled. “We’ll see about that,” she returned challengingly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mac asked with a slight smile. Stella just ignored the comment and made her way upstairs.
“I still need to finish unpacking,” she stated as they stepped into the bedroom.
Mac chuckled. “Do it tomorrow. You’re tired.”
She nodded. “I’ll be in the bathroom for a moment,” Stella said, grabbed her pajamas from her suitcase and disappearing. Mac looked after her with a smile and shook his head.
When Stella came out of the bathroom again she found Mac sitting on their bed, dressed in a shirt and old sweatpants and staring at the bedroom door. He looked up when he heard the door opening and smiled at her as he got up.
“Finally,” he said teasingly.
Stella chuckled. “The room’s all yours.” She walked over to her suitcase and pushed it out of the way towards the window so that the bed could be reached from all three sides. While Mac was in the bathroom, Stella sat on the side of the bed she had decided to be hers and placed a book and an alarm clock on the night table.
Sitting on the bed, Stella looked out of the window, lost in thought. She didn’t even notice that Mac had come out of the bathroom again until he sat down on the bed beside her and gently nudged her with his shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied.
“Stella,” Mac said softly.
She sighed. “Okay, I’m not fine,” Stella returned. “I’m not okay. I’m sitting in Chicago with my boss trying to catch a serial who kills his victims in a sick way, and we’re on our own. There’s nobody to help us because one of Chicago PD’s cops is corrupt, and their deputy inspector doesn’t trust them anymore. So no, I’m not okay.”
“Stella,” Mac said and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “we will manage this together. We’re a good team. We’ve been working together for over ten years now, and there is no person in this world who knows me better than you do. I promise you that I won’t let anything happen to you. And we will catch this guy. Together. Because together we always catch the bad guys.”
“Thanks, Mac,” Stella returned and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes again.
“Hey, before you fall asleep like this, let’s lie down,” Mac suggested.
Stella laughed lightly. “Just so we’re clear, I get the right side of the bed,” she stated.
“Why are you sitting on the left side then?” Mac asked pointedly.
With a roll of her eyes, Stella replied, “The right side when you lie in the bed.”
“Whatever you want,” Mac said and stood.
Stella pulled the covers back and snuggled into the bed.
“Good night,” Mac said as he crawled into bed beside Stella after turning off the lights.
“Night,” Stella mumbled, already half asleep.
it's not really something that would be the first thing to pop up if you think of Mac lol
But on the other hand I think it doesn't really fit because Mac really isn't this kind of person. He needs to fight for justice. 
