Miss Understanding

"Put it in. Take it out. Put it in. Take it out. Put it in. Take it out."

"Sounds pretty routine."

"It is routine, and I wish I could do something about it."

"What have you tried?"

"Well that's the thing, most of the time it's too hard."

"Oh come on, it can't be that hard."

"Oh, it is. I just can't get it to settle once it's down."

"Have you tried brushing it?"

"That just makes is worse! I don't know, but Mac..."

"Mac what?"

"He's the cause of all this!"

Mac's head was about to pop and it looked like he was hit repetitively with a wet sponge. He was trying to find Lindsay to discuss the case when he'd heard their...conversation. "Just walk away."

"Stella, your hair is fine, and Mac loves it anyway." Lindsay smiled, though she could understand her friend's worry.

"I know, it's just...suddenly I got really self conscious of them." Stella said with worry, touching the afore mentioned curls.

"You always used to leave them down, why start putting them in a ponytail or bun, now?" Asked Lindsay.

"Oh, it's stupid." Stella sighed, though Lindsay's eyes urged her to go on. "I heard Mac and Flack talking about me, and Mac said that he thought they were cute."

"And this is a bad thing...how?" Lindsay squinted. Some girls got self conscious about such things, but she couldn't see Stella being self conscious. Ever!

"Well...every time I saw Mac after that I felt like he was staring at them, and I'd start blushing." Stella said on the verge of franticness, waving her hands around her head and blushing at the thought. "Then he'd ask what was wrong and I'd blush more!"

"Sounds to me like you should just leave them down if he likes them so much. It might actually help move your relationship along." Lindsay sighed. She loved Stella, she really did; they'd had their ups and downs but she was like a big sister to her and there was nothing she wouldn't do for her. When it came to unresolved sexual tension Mac and Stella were topped by no other, and it was frustrating to someone who knew how much they really loved each other. Also how stubborn they could be. In any case, Lindsay really wanted to help her best friend, but no matter what she said there was no way anyone was going to help Stella out of her frame of mind at the time...except for the one responsible. An evil grin crept onto her face as she giggled like an evil Smurf. "Yes..."

"Lindsay...?" Stella blinked. Lindsay turned to her and blinked as well. "You're scaring me."

"I gotta go! Good luck Stella!" Lindsay shouted over her shoulder as she ran out of the break room and down the hall, plowing her way through the oncoming traffic of lab techs. "S'cuse me! Sorry! Move it! I'm on a mission!"

"I wonder about that girl sometimes." Stella murmured to herself, shaking her curly head and getting up to leave. She pulled out the ribbon she'd been using-elastics would get stuck in hair and never be found again-and tied the curls in a ponytail once again.

"Whoa Bessie, what's the emergency?" Danny asked.

"Bessie? That's a new one!" Lindsay rolled her eyes.

"What's goin' on?" He asked again, walking with her.

"Stella's freaking out about her hair because Mac said he thought it was cute, and I'm trying to find him so they can talk it out." She said seriously, her steps even and defined.

"Well, Mac has this thing for curly hair." Danny muttered, twisting his mouth in a muppet like fashion.

"Well Stella's tired of always putting her hair up and then taking it out, so I'm going to talk to him." She huffed.

"I would not wanna be him right now." Danny muttered to himself, though he was secretly smiling on the inside picturing his sweet little Lindsay throwing his boss out a window...or worse. "Besides, Mac told me about how she'd been putting her hair up lately, and how he wishes she'd leave it down."

"Well, he's got a lot of nerve." Lindsay growled.

"What's so awful about him thinkin' Stell's hair is cute, anyway?" He frowned.

"She's getting really self conscious!" Lindsay blustered again. Seeing how Danny's face remained blank, she sighed. "Remember how you said my curls were cute, and right after that I got my hair cut?"

"Yes, and you're hair is still cute to me." He smiled. His smile only grew when he saw a faint pink rise to her cheeks.

"Don't interrupt me!" She snapped, though her voice was anything but sharp. "Girls get self conscious about this kind of thing."

"So, this is a problem..." Danny squinted.

"YES!!"

Mac's eyes were still wide from Stella's words.

In. Out. Routine. Mac. Problem.

He was romantically inept; he knew it, everyone knew it, Stella didn't seem to, though, but maybe it was finally catching up with her. He didn't know much about pleasing women, be it romantically or the other way that children shouldn't really learn about until they're at least twelve years old, but Stella didn't seem upset with him in any way. She'd actually been very affectionate, except that whenever he even looked at her hair she'd leave, or distract herself by any means necessary. Of coarse, her hair was attached to her head, which included her (stunningly gorgeous) face, so he was having a rather hard time with it.

"Mac!" Lindsay shouted, shocking him out of his state.

"Lindsay?"

Whap!

"What the hell was that for?!" Mac gaped, rubbing his head where Lindsay had hit him with...he tilted his head to read the cover of the book she'd hit him with; How to Deal With Men for Dummies. Ironic. Where would she get that? And who the hell wrote it for that matter?!

"Why'd you have to go and tell Stella her hair was cute?! She can't stop thinking about it, and it's all YOUR fault!" Lindsay griped.

"Excuse me? You and Stella were the ones talking about...us." Mac felt heat bubble up from the base of his neck.

"What are you talking about?" Lindsay frowned.

"Put it in. Take it out. Ring a bell?" He hissed.

"That..." Lindsay's doe-brown eyes widened to the size of tennis balls. Small tennis balls, but tennis balls nonetheless. "Wait, you thought we were talking about...Mac, Stella was talking about her hair."

"What?"

"She was telling me how hard it was for her to do her hair every morning. You thought we were talking about..." A violent wave of embarrassment hit the cowgirl head-on. She would never be able to look at Mac the same way EVER AGAIN. "Ewww!"

"Thank you for that." Mac dead panned as she rushed out, waving her hands around her face to make it go away.

"Hey Mac, what's wrong with Lindsay?" Stella asked him.

"Misunderstanding." He murmured. He looked up at her with his piercing blue eyes, drawing in her peridot ones. He held her gaze as the familiar blush of nervousness came to her cheeks.

"I gotta-"

Stella made to leave but he shot out from behind his desk and grabbed her wrist, spinning her towards him and holding her barely an inch away from him. "Mac?"

"Stella." He smiled, bringing his hand to the back of her head and letting his fingers delve into the ocean of curls ever so slightly and massage them. She let out a moan of pleasure and leaned into his touch. He found an end of the ribbon and pulled it out swiftly, chuckling to himself.

She let out an almost inaudible whimper from lack-of-Mac and looked at him with a pout. "I was enjoying that."

"Stella, leave your hair down." He whispered, coming a breath away from her glossed lips. His breath hit her face and made her heart pound violently. He touched his forehead to hers and smiled gently. "I miss seeing that cute curly silhouette when I wake up."

"Mac..." She warned, knowing where the conversation was going.

"Stella, for once, I'm going to win. Yes, I think you're all around beautiful, sexy, adorable, words I can't even find to describe how much I love you. Now, while I still don't understand this whole thing I know you like to leave your hair down. So leave it down." He brushed a thin cascade off her exposed shoulder and coiled it around his finger.

"Mac, my hair has caused me nothing but trouble, all my life." She frowned, speaking pointedly though her head still rested on his.

"What? You mean my brushing it every morning doesn't help?" He chuckled as the faint red spread over the bridge of her nose and began to encroach on her ears. "I like your curls, Stella."

"Well, I don't." She huffed, but then smiled. "But I guess I could leave them be a while longer, just for you."

"Good, now, about this little misunderstanding, I heard you and Lindsay talking earlier, and well..." Mac looked away in embarrassment.

"Just tell me Mac, I'm Miss Understanding." Stella smiled.

"It really sounded like you were talking about our sex life."

"Oh...well if I were talking about that I wouldn't be complaining. I'd be bragging."