Merry Christmas! Okay so this is the first of two CSI NY stories I wrote this Christmas. I only ever intended to write one, but Mac and Stella made me… So it is there fault. The other thing is that if something seems a little off characterization wise I am blaming it on either alcohol or Christmas magic. Take your pick. Anyway I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of them.
Spoilers: None except for character deaths and departures (Aiden/Jess/Stella)
"Anybody want to dance?" Lindsey asked looking around the room from where she was perched on one of the tables.
"Love to," Danny replied standing up and taking his wife by the hand.
"What about you two?" she asked looking over her shoulder at Mac and Don as Danny led her into the center of the room.
"Mac's not really my type Linds," Don pointed out with a half shrug.
Everyone laughed, but the memory of two Christmases before came to mind. That had been on of their happiest Christmases, and it had been a Christmas when everyone had a dance partner. Danny had Lindsey. Don had Jess. Mac had Stella. Now Jess was dead, and Stella was gone.
"What about Jo?" Danny suggested, "I'm sure she would be willing to tolerate one of you for a dance."
"Jo is not here," Don pointed out as everybody looked around confirming his statement.
"I think she said she was picking up someone at the airport," Lindsey said as she and Danny stood positioned in the dance floor, "Someone want to put some music on?"
"Sure," Mac replied with a smile moving over to the CD player and stack of CD's beside. Quickly he shuffled through the stack and found the disk he knew was Lindsey's favorite. He slid it into the player and stood back as music filled the air. For several minutes, that was the only noise in the room as Danny and Lindsey moved in slow circles. Finally when the song was over they broke apart and moved to the sides of the room.
Danny poured himself a glass of eggnog and sat down on a chair next to the table Lindsey was once again sitting on. Don was leaning against another table staring contemplatively into his drink. Mac however was smiling as a new song began to play.
"What are you thinking about Mac?" Lindsey asked her boss, watching as his eyes sparkled slightly like they always did when he was happy about something.
Mac paused for a moment before deciding to share his story. "Years ago, actually I think it was the first Christmas I was in New York," Mac told them reminiscently, "My partner invited Claire and I over to her house because ours was still a mess getting boxes unpacked. It was just going to be a little dinner get together, but it had been snowing all day so we got stuck there. I wasn't sure what to do because I didn't know my partner all that well, after all I had only been in New York a few months, but she and Claire dragged me out front, and we had a giant snowball fight." Mac closed his eyes, smiling at the memory. After a moment he looked up and spoke again, "anyway, this was the song that was playing when we came in, and Claire and I started dancing to it."
"Who was your partner?" Danny asked curiously.
"Stella," Mac replied with a small smile, "I think a few years after that, she came up with the Christmas party in the lab."
"Oh I remember the first one," Danny told them with a laugh, "Aiden was there too, and she got really drunk and begin singing really awful karaoke at the top of her lungs."
"If I remember correctly Messer," Don reminded his friend, "her loud drunken karaoke was much better than yours that year."
"I think that was one of my favorite Christmases," Danny decided with a smile, disregarding Don's last comment, "At least the parts I remember of it…"
"I remember that you and Aiden left together that night," Don said with a sideways glance at Lindsey, who was not at all bothered by the story about her husband's Christmas eve activities a decade ago.
"Nothing happened," Danny told them looking around at the skeptical faces surrounding him, "she's smarter than that."
"Touché," Don agreed with a nod.
"But I do believe you spent more than one Christmas Eve with a certain brunette detective," Danny pointed out, turning the room's attention to Don.
"Oh yea," Don smiled happily, "Just her, me, a blazing fire, and a dead body." Danny nearly choked on his eggnog, and Lindsey was chuckling as she patted him on the back. "Turned out not to be an arson investigation or a homicide. The body had apparently been there for several weeks, and the fire was started by a space heater."
"I think that was the year Stella made us go shopping with her," Lindsey reminisced, "we got so distracted. I think we bought more presents for each other than we did for you guys."
"Is that why Jess gave Stella three seasons of Law and Order, a blender, a bottle of shampoo, and a box of chocolates that year?" Mac asked with a laugh as Lindsey nodded.
"Why do you know exactly what Stella got for Christmas three years ago?" Don asked teasingly.
"I'm your boss," Mac replied calmly, "It is my job to know things. For instance, I know what you bought Jess that same Christmas." That was a flat out lie. Mac had no clue what Don had bought for Jess three years ago, but the implication that he did was enough to make the other man turn brick red.
The four of them lapsed into silence for a while. Those were some of the happy Christmas memories, but there were so many sad ones too, especially the first Christmas without someone. Claire, Aiden, and Jess had all had a Christmas where their memory was the most noticeable thing there. This year was Stella's turn. No one quite knew what do to without her there because they had always assumed she would never leave, but she had left… Slowly they all lapsed into doing something to distract themselves from the absence of those they loved.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Don, who was closest reached over, and opened it, then went back to contemplating his drink. Mac was studying the sky outside the window. Danny and Lindsey were both talking about Lucy. None of them really paid attention to who was standing at the door.
"Well, this is a rousing party," Jo said in her southern accent, "A little music, a lot of alcohol, and no dancing. Down south we do it a little differently."
Lindsey looked up. "Usually we do too, but with only four of us there isn't as much fun," she explained.
"Well I may be able to help with that," Jo replied with a smile, "See I just picked up this friend that the airport, and she would love to join y'all. Would that be all right?"
"Of course," Mac said still looking out the window. He was lost once again in memories of that first New York Christmas when everyone had been happy and together.
"Well all right then," Jo said with a nod of her head, "You can come in now honey."
"I'm glad," a very familiar voice replied, "It was getting cold in the hall."
Lindsey's cup of eggnog slipped from her grasp and shattered on the floor, but no one seemed to notice. The room had frozen everyone wondering if their ears were deceiving them. Lindsey was the first to speak.
"Stella," she choked out shocked.
"Lindsey," Stella replied fondly, "I've missed you."
Lindsey shook herself from the trance she had been held in, and in two strides she made it from the table she had been sitting on to Stella, who she embraced warmly. "How have you been?" Lindsey asked her friend happily.
"I've been good," Stella replied thoughtfully, "I've missed you guys though. How has life been going in the big city?"
"Pretty much the same as before," Danny said after a moment of consideration as he came to join the group around Stella, "Stupid people committing stupid crimes, occasionally smart people coming stupid crimes."
"Funny," Stella said with a laugh, "That's pretty much how it works in New Orleans."
"Do you have criminal groupies down there?" Don asked, "because I swear in the past six months I have had at least half a dozen criminals asked for Detective Bonasera or, and this is a direct quote, 'the hot curly haired detective.' Everyone laughed except Mac who was still standing over by the window. This did not escape Stella's notice, and after a moment she broke away from the group and walked over to the window.
"Mac," she said quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Stella," he replied coolly not looking at her, but also not shrugging her hand off.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" she asked him after another moment of silence.
"Nothing," Mac murmured quietly.
"Don't insult my intelligence, Mac,' she told him with a shake of her head, "I can still tell when you're lying."
"You left," he told her finally.
"They needed me in New Orleans," she reminded him.
"We needed you in New York," he replied finally turning to look at her.
"They needed me or you needed," she asked him watching his eyes very carefully because even though she was a scientist she still believed you could see a person's soul reflected in their eyes.
"Both," Mac told her honestly.
"If you had told me that six months ago," she murmured, "I would have stayed."
"Really," he asked a little surprised.
"Yes," she replied simply.
There was a very long pause where they just stared into each other's eyes, and the other four people in the room watched transfixed. Finally Stella took a step forward and hugged Mac tightly.
"I missed you," she whispered into his ear.
"I've missed you too," he replied just as quietly as he wrapped his arms around her.
For several long moments they stood wrapped in each other's arm, taking comfort from each other's presence. For over fifteen years they had been all but inseparable, and now they were seeing each other for the first time in six months. What do you do in that situation? What do you say? The truth is that there is nothing you can say. So they stood in silence.
Finally they broke apart and turned to look at the people in front of them. Danny and Don were both wearing satisfied smiles, while Lindsey and Jo both were watching Stella and Mac with a look usually used for puppies or really adorable couples. Realizing that the bosses, because they would always think of Stella as their boss, were watching them, the other's quickly busied themselves getting more eggnog.
"I would like it noted," Jo said as she took a sip of eggnog, "that she is your Christmas present." Jo pointed to Stella, who smiled. "This means that I don't have to go shopping for any of you."
"I thought you already went shopping," Lindsey pointed out.
"True," Jo said thoughtfully, "I guess you get those too." Everyone laughed.
"I do have one question," Don said slowly, "How did you get all of Stella's address or phone number or whatever without tipping one of us off?"
"I'm a detective Don," she reminded him, "I think I can track down one person."
"Right," he murmured trying to take a sip of eggnog and really only succeeding and sloping at least half of it down the front of his shirt.
"Got a bit of a drinking problem?" Stella teased as Lindsey handed him a napkin. They all laughed as a new song filled the room.
"I love this song," Lindsey said smiling as she hummed along.
"Dance with me," Danny offered with a slightly exaggerated bow. Lindsey smiled and took him by the hand as they move into the center of the room. Slowly they began to turn in circles, and Lindsey's head came to rest on Danny's shoulder. "I though you hated this song," he whispered to her.
"I do," she replied wrinkling her nose a little bit, "but the power of suggestion is a magnificent thing. Look around."
Danny looked around as his wife smiled into his shoulder. In front of him, Don and Jo were dancing. It was not an intimate dance just one between friends so that neither would be left out. Either way, Danny doubted these two were the intended victims of Lindsey's suggestion, and this thought was proved correct as Lindsey slowly turned him to face the other way. Mac and Stella were slowly dancing, wrapped in each other's arms.
"Was I an idiot for leaving all this?" Stella asked Mac quietly as they continued to turn in slow circles.
"No," he replied just as quietly, "but I was an idiot for not stopping you." Stella chuckled softly. "Is there any chance you could come back?" he asked after a moment.
"We both know there isn't," she said simply, "There is no job for me in New York anymore, and I have work to do in New Orleans"
Mac nodded his understanding. "True," he agreed, "but if we ever get a job opening up here, you're our first pick."
"Alright," she told him, "but let's talk about something else for tonight."
"Okay," he replied. He understood her wish to discuss something other than the impossible especially because it was her first night home, at least he assumed she still thought of New York as home. "Have you made any friends in New Orleans?"
"Not really," she said after a moment, "some of the guys at the precinct are okay, but most of them are jerks. There are not a lot of females down there. The guys are big in to protecting us." Her distaste was clear in her tone.
"And we all know how fond you are of that," Mac teased her, "Unless we are in a house that is trying to kill us. Then you don't mind so much."
"I remember the house, how could I forget it," she told him, "but I have no memory of having you protect me."
"Um," he replied with a moment of false consideration, "'If you say ladies first I'll shoot you.'"
"I had already been almost killed once that day and didn't want to push my luck," she told him with a feigned look of innocence, "you can take that as my official statement."
"I wasn't aware we were taking statements," he told her.
"Of course we are," she replied leaning in a little closer, "What's yours?"
"I love you, Stella Bonasera," he said softly without thinking. Stella stopped dead and looked at him. His eyes widened slowly as he realized what he had just said, and he became aware that the entire room was watching him. He cursed himself. One glass of eggnog and he had lost control of his tongue. "I'm sorry," he told her quietly watching her still shocked expression, "Forget I ever said that."
For a very long moment, Stella just stared at him. She had dreamed of him saying those words a million times but had never though he actually would, at least not to her. "Do I have to?" she asked him finally.
"Do you have to what?" he replied confused.
"Do I have to forget you said that?" she clarified.
"I guess if you don't want to…" he said carefully as he felt a tiny flutter of hope.
Stella shook her head as a small smile curled her lips. Leaning forward, she kissed him slowly and sweetly on the lips. For a moment, he was too shocked to do anything. Then he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. After a few moments they broke apart.
"I love you, Mac Taylor," Stella said looking at him with a radiant smile.
"About damn time," Lindsey said causing Mac and Stella to turn towards her. "It only took you half a decade of being in love with each other to admit it." Behind her Don and Danny were standing with slightly stunned expressions on their faces. Jo looked rather pleased with herself.
"I guess it is," Stella said looking over at Mac, who had his arm wrapped firmly around her waist.
Finally Don managed to shake himself out of the trance he was in enough to speak. "I only have one thing to say," he said slowly looking over at Jo, "You are going to have a very difficult time topping this for next year."
"Yes," she replied, "I do I do believe I am, but Christmas is a time for miracles."
'Yes,' Stella though to herself as she looked up at Mac, 'Christmas was a time for miracles. It was a time for finding true love. It was a time for telling the truth. Christmas was all those things, but most of all it was about being with the ones you love. After that everything else just seemed to fall into place. Maybe that was the magic of Christmas.'
The entire time I was writing this story I was not sure if I liked it, but then I got to that last part and suddenly I knew I liked it. I hope you did to. Please leave a review, and have a very Merry Christmas.