My Best Friend

"I never had no one

I could count on

I've been let down so many times"

Stella sits on the end of her couch, curled up with a carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream, watching a marathon of Who Wants to be a Millionaire on Game Show Network. Although today is her birthday, she isn't in a very celebrating mood. During lunch break at work, the team had had a small party for her. Everyone had been there; well, everyone except Mac. Strangely enough, she hadn't seen him all day, though everyone said he was there.

Oh well. He must have forgotten, she thinks, taking in another big spoonful of ice cream as the contestant guesses the wrong answer.

"Put these countries in order from north to south: Greece, Kenya, Panama, Vietnam," Regis says from on TV.

"A, C, D, B," Stella answers, cringing as the brain freeze hits her.

"The answer is: Greece, Vietnam, Panama, Kenya. Let's see who got it right in the fastest time."

"Not me," she mutters, licking her spoon clean. She sets the empty container on the coffee table, not realizing yet that she had eaten half the quart just now.

There is a quiet knock on her door. Stella frowns; she wasn't expecting anybody this evening. Looking at the clock, she's not sure if she should answer it; it is almost ten-thirty. Curiosity getting the best of her, she goes to the door and opens it. "Hello."

Mac is standing on the other side, a big white box in hand, "Happy birthday, Stella. I hope I'm not interrupting anything; I should've called first but I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I was tried of hurting

So tired of searching

'Til you walked into my life"

"Come in," she opens the door wider.

He enters, setting the box down on the kitchen table. From his pocket, he pulls out a card and a small blue box. "Well… happy birthday. I hope you like them."

Stella reads the card to herself, smiling at how perfectly it fit them. Then she opens the smaller box, gasping at the pendant on the necklace; it is an S made out of emeralds. "It's… wonderful, Mac. Thank you so much."

"I know your birthstone is diamonds, not emeralds, but this way it matches your eyes," Mac blushes. "Plus, you seem to wear green a lot."

"Thank you," she kisses his cheek, making him blush even more. Turning to the other box, she asks, "What in the world is this? You already spent who knows how much on the necklace; why did you get me something else?"

"It's the least I could do after what you said last year." She frowns in thought. "Open it."

Slowly she lifts the lid and gasps again. "Did you really make this?"

"That depends. Are you going to eat it?"

"Of course I will. But it'll have to wait until tomorrow since I just ate half a quart of ice cream for dinner."

He looks a little disappointed, "Okay."

"Well, I suppose a small piece couldn't hurt anything," she moves around the kitchen getting plates, forks, and a knife.

When she returns to the table to cut the cake, he has put candles in it. "Sorry, but unless you want to burn your apartment down, I can't put in thirty-seven candles. Do you have matches?"

She pulls out a box from the drawer, "You're really going to sing?"

"Yes," he lights the candles and turns out the lights. As he begins, he rests his hands on her shoulders from behind her.

"It was a feeling

I'd never known

And for the first time

I didn't feel alone"

"Make a wish," he whispers in her ear when he finishes singing.

She does so before blowing out all the candles. "I didn't know you could sing."

"What did you wish for?" Mac hands her a piece of cake.

"Hey, I told you I'd have a small piece. I've already had more sugar today than I've had the rest of the month. And I can't tell you what I wished for or it won't come true."

"Thought I'd give it a try anyway," he shrugs, taking a bite.

Stella scrapes the icing off the top of her piece with her fork. "The icing is good."

"I couldn't have ruined the icing, Stel; it came from a can."

"Well, I'm assuming you used a box to make the cake; if you followed the instructions on the back, you couldn't have messed it up," she tastes a bit of the cake. "Not bad. Could use more icing on top."

"It had icing on top until you ate it."

"Mac?"

"Yeah?"

"I think this is the best birthday cake I've ever had. You're a good cook."

"Thank you."

"So… where were you all day? Everyone told me you were at work, but I never saw you," she leads him to the couch and flips the TV off.

"I was… kind of avoiding you."

"Why?"

"I wanted you to think I forgot your birthday. I thought it'd be more special with just the two of us," he touches her hand.

"You're more than a lover

There could never be another

To make me feel the way you do

Oh, we just get closer

I fall in love all over

Every time I look at you

I don't know where I'd be

Without you here with me

Life with you makes perfect sense

You're my best friend

You're my best friend, oh yeah"

"The two of us?" Stella repeats.

"Yes," he takes a deep breath. "After working with you for ten years, I've finally realized how much I care about you. I mean, I've always cared about you because you're my partner, but I now know that you mean more to me. Well, I care about you as a friend too, but it's much more than that."

She interrupts him, "Mac, you're rambling. That's my job."

"Sorry," Mac looks down at their intertwined hands. "What I've been trying to tell you is that I care about you more than as my best friend. Stel… I… I love you."

"Pinch me."

"What for?"

"I must be dreaming."

"You're not."

She pinches her arm, "Ouch. I guess I'm not."

"Do you often have dreams about me?" he asks curiously, finally getting the courage to look back up at her.

"Maybe."

"You're in almost every one of my dreams," he cups her cheek in his hand. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," she turns her face away to hide the tears.

Letting her be, he tries to find some way to fix this; clearly she didn't return his feelings. "Stel?"

"What?"

"I made a big mistake tonight. This never should have happened; I shouldn't have told you how I feel. I'm sorry. Is there any way we can still be friends?"

Stella wipes her eyes and faces him again. "I don't want to be your friend."

"I should go. We'll talk about this another time. I really am sorry for all of this," Mac heads to the door.

She grabs his arm, stopping him. "I want to be more than your friend, Mac."

"You stand by me

You believe in me

Like nobody ever has"

"You… do?"

"I… yes."

"You're positive?"

"I know what I want."

"And you're ready to move on?"

"Yes, I'm over him. Now, there could still be some memories that come up with you, but we won't know unless we try."

He wipes the tear tracks off her cheeks with his thumbs, "I'm sorry I made you…"

"It's okay, Mac. There was nothing for me to be sad about; they were tears of joy."

"Well, in that case, you don't have to stop."

"No, it's better that I stop," Stella wraps her arms around his neck, head resting in the crook of his neck.

"Just so you know, you look beautiful all the time. Even after on dumpster duty," he timidly wraps his arms around her waist.

"That's not really what I meant. It's better I stop crying so that you don't get all wet when I do this." She tilts her head upwards and her lips meet his. The kiss she had intended on being simple turns into more; minutes pass as they continue, the slow kiss only filled with love, both not ready for more.

Finally Mac pulls away from her lips but keeps holding her tightly. "That was much better than all our kisses in my dreams combined."

"Wow, first, second, and third base all in less than an hour, Taylor," she smiles.

"I was always good at baseball," he jokes. "Stel, I want you to know that I'm not interested in home plate yet. Not unless you are."

"Now that's got to be a first. Guys are always interested in sex," she kisses him again. "But that's good, because I'm not ready."

"When my world goes crazy

You're right there to save me

You make me see how much I have"

Like every other day, Mac wakes up at six. He is surprised to find a mass of curls on his chest but quickly realizes it is Stella. Gently he lifts her up and gets off the couch, laying her back down as he decides she can sleep a little longer.

While she sleeps, he starts breakfast; observing her fridge and pantry, he finds little to work with. Eggs and toast it is, he decides after checking the date on the milk.

Twenty minutes later, everything is ready. He goes into the living room to wake his partner. "Stel," Mac shakes her shoulder, "time to get up."

"What time is it?" she mumbles, not opening her eyes.

"Six-thirty."

"Leave me alone; I can still sleep another half hour," Stella rolls onto her other side to face away from him. "Wait, are you telling me to get up as a boss or a friend?"

"Well, if you don't get up, you won't be able to eat the breakfast I made for you before work."

"Breakfast?"

"Yes. You know, that meal you eat in the morning when you get up."

"What did you make?" she rolls back over and opens her eyes.

"You'll have to get up and look," he offers her a hand.

"Hopefully you didn't use the milk; I'm not quite sure how long it's been in there," she sits up.

"Stella, do you ever cook?"

"Why?"

"Because you have very little to eat; do you even eat at home?"

"No, not very often."

"No wonder you're so darn skinny," he pokes her in the side.

"So what'd you make me?"

"And I still tremble

When we touch

And oh, the look in your eyes

When we make love"

Mac pulls out a chair for her, "I take it you like it."

"Yes. I didn't know you could cook; then again, I didn't know you could bake a cake," she sits.

"I can't make anything too fancy."

"So?" Stella takes two pieces of toast he had cut into triangles. "Normally I just have a piece of fruit or a granola bar and coffee."

"So I saw," he remembers the three open boxes off granola bars in her pantry. They eat in silence, each lost in thought. Finally he breaks it. "Do you have any plans for tonight?"

"Yes, I'm going to do something with you. I just don't know what yet."

"How about we go out to dinner, maybe go for a walk in the park if it's not too chilly, then come back here and have cake?"

"That sounds good. Formal or casual restaurant?"

"I don't know. Let's say casual to informal," he helps her with the dishes, glancing at the clock when they're done. "I've got to get going. See you in a couple hours."

She kisses him goodbye, "I'll cover for you if you're late."

"Thanks," he closes the door behind him.

Stella stares at the door for a moment, deep in thought, then realizes she needs to get ready.

After showering and getting dressed for work, she looks through her closet, contemplating what to wear on her date that evening. She lays out a green top to go with the necklace he got her but can't decide between pants and a skirt. She ends up putting both on her bed to choose between later; as an afterthought, she adds a black dress to the pile.

Before leaving, she applies a little makeup and puts on the emerald necklace. On the way out, she grabs her thermos of coffee.

"You're more than a lover

There can never be another

To make me feel the way you do

Oh, we just get closer

I fall in love all over

Every time I look at you

I don't know where I'd be

Without you here with me

Life with you makes perfect sense

You're my best friend

You're my best friend"

"I haven't seen you at all today," Mac comes up behind her, wondering what she's looking at.

"I saw you very early this morning," Stella smiles, leaning back from the microscope.

"I meant at work. So what are you looking at?"

"Bullets. We took ten guns from a group of gang members, and I'm trying to figure out which gun our victim was shot with."

"No match?"

"Not yet. I have four more to compare it to."

"Stel, have you checked the time recently?" he wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her cheek.

"It was four-thirty when we got back with the guns. Why?" she eliminates bullet number seven.

"It's almost six-thirty now. I was just about to leave and go pick you up, but apparently you haven't left yet."

"Whoops?" she attempts to joke.

"It doesn't look as though you'll be leaving until you get this done."

"Give me twenty minutes to finish this. I'll meet you in your office; we can figure out what we're doing for dinner then."

"Okay, Stel." He kisses her again before whispering, "The necklace looks perfect on you."

Twenty minutes later she is sitting in Mac's chair, waiting for him to come. Her evidence is now locked up, though it was all worthless. He finally walks in five minutes late and starts closing the blinds, keeping them from the eyes of the few people there after shift. "What took you so long?"

"The commissioner kind of saw us together. He was lecturing me on office romances."

"So you got in trouble for the first time in your life?"

"Not the first time," he wanders over to her, moving her from his chair to the edge of his desk so he can kiss her better. "And surely not the last."

"What happened to dinner?" she pulls away from him.

"I guess this," he brings her hand to his lips, "can wait until later."

"You're more than a lover

There can never be another

To make me feel the way you do

Oh, we just get closer

I fall in the love all over

Every time I look at you

I don't know where I'd be

Without you here with me

Life with you makes perfect sense

You're my best friend"

"What's all this?" he motions to her bed.

"Oh, I was trying to decide what to wear on our date. I guess that was kind of useless," she starts to put the clothes away, none of them used since she didn't end up changing after work.

Mac points to the dress, "Next time I'm taking you somewhere where you can wear that."

She smiles, "Deal."

He follows her into the closet. "Do you really wear all those shoes?"

"No."

"Then why don't you get rid of some of them?"

"Never know when you'll need them."

"Okay then," he says to himself.

"Mac?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you still in my closet?" Stella asks, now on her way to the kitchen.

He looks around, not able to find her, before leaving. "I didn't know you left."

"Want something to drink?" she gets out a wine glass for herself.

"Whatever you're having. I'll get us some cake."

They meet on the couch a few minutes later. "I, uh… think you forgot to get another fork, Mac."

"One is plenty," he gets a piece of cake on the fork and holds it out to her.

"We're not getting married yet, Mac," she leans away from him.

"Practice never hurts," he eats the piece himself.

She reaches over and sticks her finger in the icing before licking it off. Repeating this, she only licks half the icing off, then holds her finger out to him. He gently licks the rest of the icing off.

"I guess you don't need a fork after all, Stel," Mac teases.

"Careful what you say, Detective Taylor," she wipes the icing from her finger onto is nose, a hint of a smile on her face.

He holds his icing-covered finger out threateningly at her. "Don't you dare do that again, Bonasera, or I may have to get you back."

"You wouldn't."

"Trust me, Stella, I would." His finger brushes her neck, leaving icing. Setting the cake out of her reach, he leans over to lick the icing off, leaving his mark on her.

Stella lifts his head up so she can kiss him, arms snaking around his neck. "Bedroom?" she manages to get out between kisses.

"Sure?" he pulls back.

"I love you, Mac."

"Love you too," he barely gets out before kissing her again and picking her up.

"You're my best friend

You're my best friend"

A/N: I hope you liked this one. I thought it was cute. I entered it in a contest thing, which I completely forgot to tell you guys about. Darn. Anyway, I hope I win with at least one of the four stories I entered. I've been kind of lazy lately. First I didn't post this, then I haven't been typing really; but I have gotten some writing done. I think I have one six/seven chapter story for you guys and almost two one chapter things finished. Now I just need to find time to type. Hopefully my brother has a soccer game tomorrow or something. Actually, I could type now since they're all gone. But I still have other websites and stuff to visit since I didn't check my email or anything yesterday. Then I was going to go on limewire and illegally download some more songs. Lately I've been into instrumental stuff from different movies. Like I got National Treasure and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now I'm working on getting all the songs from the Harry Potters. Maybe it's because of band. And I had my first dance class today; we decided on the Phantom of the Opera song from the movie and "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts. She wants me to have a red cape thing for Phantom. We were going to do Masquerade, but decided not too because that's really fast like Pirates last year and I don't particually want to do that again. Although Pirates was a minute and a half of really fast and this one has some a slower spot in the middle. So I get to make cupcakes this weekend for my chemistry experiment. Then I'm making my brothers taste them; some of them will be missing ingredients. Well, I hope you enjoyed this one. I'll have another posted probably Tuesday. Please review.