A/N: This is my first try in writing a crossover story. I have always thought that Horatio and Stella have some chemistry between them and after much debating I decided to give it a try… in what way.. that's what you have to find out.

I do not own any of the characters, neither from CSI Miami nor from CSI New York. If I did, some would never ever see the light of day again, believe me. LOL

Hope you enjoy it.

Bugs, Bombs And A Pajama Party

Chapter 01

With a shudder, Horatio Caine stepped into the warm foyer of the Marriot Hotel, Boston. After getting up very early in the morning, a 3 ½ hours flight and a short drive with the cab later, he had finally managed to arrive at the hotel and all he wanted now was his room and a nice, hot shower. It was incredible cold outside, no wonder since it was December 22nd, so right before Christmas.

This was also the reason why he had agreed to go the conference. In a way, he was the only one without a big family that either lived in Miami or somewhere else. And Horatio being Horatio didn't want to ask a member of his team to leave the city right before Christmas. He wondered though, who had picked out this particular time of the year. Maybe the organizer thought, that the crime rate would decrease before the holidays, so no one would have an excuse for not coming, but still, it was a bit weird.

Pulling his suitcase after him, he walked to the reception, where a small crowd had already started to form. With a sigh he stopped behind a man and took off his black coat. There was no need to wear it inside, since it was pleasantly warm. Thank God no one had had the idea to have a conference in the mountains. The degrees below zero he was experiencing here were already enough for his Miami warmth used body.

Looking around, he hoped to spot some familiar faces, but no one caught his eyes. He hadn't had the chance to call Mac Taylor to ask if he would attend the conference, because Miami had been a very busy city in the last couple of weeks and in a way, he was rather glad that he had some free time now. Though lying on the beach or in his hammock at home, sounded a lot better than freezing his backside off.

So lost in thoughts about the weather, he didn't notice that a familiar face was indeed approaching him; neither did he realize that the desk clerk was calling him because he was next.

"You know, for someone who has his ears and eyes everywhere, you seem a bit distracted," a voice behind him said and made him jump slightly. Turning on his heels, he gave the person a glare, which immediately transformed into a gentle smile when he saw the face.

"And you should know better than sneaking up on a police officer," he chided softly and held out his hand. "Stella Bonasera, don't tell me that Mac is already in his room and you have to do the check in."

"It's even worse," she said and shook his hand. "He didn't even come with me, but is still in New York, probably ice skating at the Rockefeller Center."

Laughing, Horatio grabbed his suitcase and walked to the desk. Without much preamble he handed the man his reservation and immediately turned towards Stella again. "Mac Taylor, Marine… ice skating? Wish I had a photo of that," he grinned.

"Maybe I can ask Sheldon to take one," she quipped and rested her arm against the desk. Seeing his questioning look, she smiled. "I already checked in about an hour ago. And now I wanted to see if there's a familiar face out here and I think I've found one."

"It definitely looks like it," he agreed and accepted his key card.

"Your room number is 367, Mr. Caine. It's on the third floor, left wing. If you take this lift," the clerk pointed towards the direction, "you'll find it very easily. Do you need a boy picking up your luggage?"

"No, thanks," Horatio shook his head and grabbed his belongings. "Left wing?" he made sure and got his answer from Stella.

"Right, I'll take you there, my room is in the same hall," she said and motioned him to follow her.

"I'm right behind you Ma'am," Horatio chuckled and did exactly that. "So, did you lose a bet, or why did Mac send you instead of going himself?" he asked intrigued on their way to the lift.

"No…I didn't lose a bet, it was just my turn to attend here. It's either Mac or me who go to the conferences and to Mac's defense, he wanted to go, but I didn't let him."

Smiling to himself, Horatio chose not to comment on this one. Stella had a very strong will and once she had set her mind on something, it was pretty hard to stop her. Even a stubborn Marine like Mac Taylor had no chance against her. In a lot of ways she reminded him of Calleigh. They were both stubborn and tough women, but then again, they were also very different in their characters. While Calleigh was a real southern steel magnolia, who loved guns, Stella was probably a typical Greek woman. Not that he knew any Greek women beside her, so it was hard to tell…but in the end, the two women were different. Shaking his head at his confusing thoughts, he followed her into the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.

"What about you? Why did you choose to come here?" she turned the tables. "Did you pull the shortest matchstick?"

Chuckling, he shook his head. "No, I actually didn't tell them about the conference in the first place. When I saw the date, I knew I wouldn't want anyone else to go here. They all have family in the one or other way and I didn't want to keep them away from home, you know?"

"But what about your family?" she asked surprised.

Horatio just shrugged. "Oh well, it's different if you choose by yourself to go, or if your boss tells you to go," he explained and exited the lift. "I'm sure that one of them would have agreed to go, but I didn't want that."

Shaking her head at his rather cute explanation she pointed towards the left wing. "You're incredible, you know that?" she grinned and took the lead. This was the Horatio she had come to know; always worried about the well-being of the people around him. Even though they had only met twice, this particular character trade had been obvious to everyone.

"I take that as a compliment and run with it," he easily replied and reached for his key card. "And I have the advantage of escaping Natalia's and Calleigh's decoration marathon," he joked.

"Oh a little decoration here and there is really nice," she replied.

"I knew you would say that as a woman, but they overdo it every year. Everything in the lab gets decorated; even us men if we stand too long on one place. Before you even realize it, you're wearing fairy lights."

Stella couldn't help but laugh at the image forming in her head. Horatio wearing blinking fairy lights was a sight for the gods.

"Stop laughing," he pouted. "You have no idea how burdensome it is to walk around the lab and getting stopped suddenly, because the cable is too short."

"You're insane," she shook her head and kept on laughing. "I think the cold is not good for you," she teased him and stopped at his room. "Here we are, right before you keep on with your fairy tales," she raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure the ladies would be happy to hear about the tales you're telling me here, don't you think?"

"Ah…there's no need to do that," he quickly said, fearing that he would really end up as a walking Christmas tree.

"I thought so," she nodded and stepped away, so he could open his door. "Well then Mr. Fairy Lights, I'm sure we'll see us later at one of the lectures."

"I'm sure we will, Stella," he smiled and turned on the lights. "Thanks for showing me the way."

"You're welcome, Horatio," she replied and waved at him. "See ya later."

Waving back, he waited until she reached her own room and then went inside his own. This conference looked like it had a lot of potential.

***

A few hours and a nice, hot shower later, Horatio closed his door behind him and made his way towards the elevator. In his hand he had a small flyer in which the dates and rooms of the different lectures and seminars were written down. Not that he intended to visit every possible lecture, no, he would just attend the one he was interested in. Listening about the way bodies were differently decaying when being in snow, wasn't so interesting for him, due to the fact that snow was a rather rare sight in Miami.

But he had to attend this particular lecture he was going to, because it was the first one at all. And there was no way that he could skip the introduction. The summary of the leaflet didn't say much about the topic, just something about a special guest presentation and he dearly hoped that it would be an interesting one.

Noticing other people disappearing in a particular room and hearing buzz of a lot of different voices, he decided to have a closer look at it. Maybe he had already found the correct room of the lecture. And the moment he entered the room, he knew that he was right. It was a big conference hall, with a stage at the other end of the room and hundreds of seats standing around; most of them already occupied with people who were talking to their neighbors or to the ones behind them.

With a sigh, he let his eyes roam over the crowd and smiled when he noticed a familiar curly head in one of the seats in front. Making his way towards her, he picked up parts of the conversations around him, that were basically about the question who this special guest would be. Sometimes he heard the name of some ballistic expert, then about some biologist and more than once he heard the name of Gil Grissom.

After a few moments, he stopped at the row of seats where Stella was sitting and noticed that she was in some busy conversation with another woman. Clearing his throat, he rested his hand on the back of the vacant chair next to her. "Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

Being still engrossed in her conversation, Stella didn't recognize his voice. "Yes it is," she turned around and broke out into a smile when she saw Horatio standing there. "Horatio," she grinned, "sit down, I kept it free for you."

Chuckling, he did as he was told and smiled at the two ladies. "Thank you and please, don't stop your lively conversation on my account."

"Hogwash," she shook her head and looked between the two. "Mary, this is Lt. Horatio Caine from the Miami Dade Crime Lab," she started and then looked at Horatio. "Horatio, this is Detective Mary Blige from the San Francisco Crime Lab."

"Pleasure to meet you Ma'am," Horatio nodded at her politely.

"The pleasure is all mine, Lieutenant," the woman replied and was immediately corrected by him.

"It's Horatio Ma'am," he smiled and was interrupted on his part.

"I think no one calls him by his rank, right?" Stella smiled. "At least you told us not to call you like this."

"So you two obviously know each other for a bit longer," Mary concluded and like every CSI, found it very interesting.

"That we do, Ma'am, that we do," Horatio nodded. "We had a few cases together, which brought me to New York and as they say, the rest is history."

"Right," Stella agreed. "And now you can help us with your investigation skills in a very tough case."

"Oh really?" he mocked. "Well I always thought that O.J. was guilty," he chuckled.

"I think we all did and still do," Mary giggled. "But no, this case is a different one."

"Right, we're guessing who our special guest will be," Stella chimed in. "We've heard about some Ballistic guy and a biologist."

"That's the same I've heard, plus Gil Grissom."

"Gil Grissom?" the two women asked.

"Yes, he was head of the Las Vegas Crime Lab until a year ago or so. He's an entomologist… well…his specialty are bugs."

"Uh…bugs," Mary pulled a face and Stella could only agree.

"Then let's hope that it's not him. I already feel it tickling everywhere," she shuddered.

"I hope it's the ballistic expert, even though Calleigh will kill me if I tell her," Horatio joked and turned towards the stage, when the lights went off. "Let's see," he whispered softly and clapped his hands when a man in his late fifties entered the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, at first, let me thank you for coming here so numerously, especially at this time of the year. I can imagine that some of you may have had second thoughts about attending here, but let me tell you that it will be worth it in the end. I'm sure that most of you have read the small leaflet and are now wondering who this special guest will be. Let me tell you that this person is one of the reasons, why attending here was a good decision."

"Some of you might know him as the old head of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, others though might know him as a professor for entomology and then, there probably are some people in this room, who have read his books about the smallest but still very important element in a chain of evidence…" Slowly he looked at the dark background behind him. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome our special guest, Professor Dr. Gilbert Grissom."

"Oh no, the bug man?" Stella sighed and looked rather unimpressed, even a little bit disgusted. "I hope he doesn't use pictures," she whispered.

Horatio did his best to stifle a laugh, but a few noises came out anyway.

"Stop laughing, Mister or I will raise my hand if he asks if someone wants to hold his hairy spider and tell him that this had been your biggest wish for years," she threatened and gave Horatio an evil glare, when he hid his laugh with a cough. "Men," she sighed playfully annoyed and stopped talking when Grissom cleared his throat and started with his lecture.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your nice welcome. Due to the long years of experiences when it comes to the reaction of people to bugs, I know that some of you might be a bit sensitive when it comes to those little creatures, but nevertheless, they're very important in our every day work. Let me show you one of the most common insects that we find on dead bodies – the Fly."

"Oh great, he does have pictures of them," Stella thought to herself and took a deep breath. "Next time when I read the phrase 'special guest' I will leave that particular lecture out," she promised herself and tried to concentrate on Grissom's rants about flies, maggots and whatever other creepy creatures were running around and over a dead body. "How can someone be so fascinated about that?" she asked herself and pulled a face when there was a close-up of some kind of wound and seemingly hundreds of maggots all over it. "Well thank you Mr. Grissom, there goes my dinner."

Tbc

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