Hollyberries and Mistletoe

by sparkygirl82

The prompt was mistletoe, and this is what came about. A real-life game of clue! Mac/Stella with a little Adam/Angell thrown in for fun.

A/N: I don't own them or make money off of them. I'm just borrowing them, I promise to put them back. Thanks to Lisa for the help.

"Hey Monroe, aren't you supposed to be working on that bodega from this morning?" Flack had walked into one of the labs to find Lindsay sitting at the counter, staring out the glass door.

Lindsay turned to look at Flack. "Was waiting on ballistics when I caught the beginning of an interesting show." Lindsay motioned with her head the direction she had just been watching.

Flack squinted to see what she was talking about. He could just make out Mac and Stella performing some sort of experiment in what he thought of as the "Mad Scientist Lab."

"Weren't they working on that homicide at that party over on the West Side?"

"The one with the dead butler in the sitting room? Yeah. They found arterial spray on some mistletoe that was hanging in the room. They're trying to figure out what exactly happened in there."

"My guess is the maid, with the candlestick," Flack replied with a smirk.

"I'm with you on that one. Rumor has it that the two were involved in some torrid love affair."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"One of the other maids told the gardener who told Stella. I think the guy wanted an excuse to talk to Stella."

"So in other words, the gardener probably had something to do with the murder. All the guilty suspects seem to hit on Stella."

"Yeah, pretty much. I bet Danny a Benjamin that it was the gardener."

Flack grinned, Danny was always losing his money in bets to Lindsay. "How'd Mac react to all the attention Stella was getting?"

"Oh you know the usual, growling around the suspect, never leaving the room Stella was in."

"Typical Mac fashion. He needs to stop being a chicken and tell her how he feels. It's obvious those two are head over heels for each other, but both are too stubborn and too scared to do anything about it."

"True, but at least I had something to keep me entertained while waiting on ballistics," Lindsay said with a laugh. As if on cue, the computer in the background beeped, signaling that it was done processing the bullet Lindsay had found at the crime scene earlier. "Hey Flack, feel like taking a ride? Got a case to case hit on that bullet. Seems we need to go pay a visit to one Martin Brower."

"Sure thing," he said as he grabbed his phone from the counter-top.

*******************************************

Stella watched Mac as he paced back and forth in the room. A line of mistletoe plants were strung up in the lab with dummies placed in various poses underneath each one. Finally Mac stopped his movement and looked at Stella.

"Ok, so let's go over again what we know. We know the victim and Maria the maid were intimately involved and that Charles the vic' was planning on proposing to her. We have the blood splattered ring that was tied to the mistletoe approximately seven feet from the ground. Charles is five feet, eleven inches tall. Maria entered the room, but when she arrived she found him in a pool of blood with a large wound to the neck, causing the arterial spray we found on the ring and the mistletoe."

Stella nodded, picking up where Mac left off. "We're still waiting for trace to come back on that gooey substance that Sid found in the wound track." Stella caught Mac's eye and grinned at his raised eyebrow at her choice of words.

Mac continued, "Now based on the size and shape of the wound track, it's too thick to be a knife. So we're looking at something that when inserted into the neck would produce a wound that looks similar to a knife wound but thicker. Maybe something that would be easily accessible to someone coming into the house. The killer's moves were calculated, precise, methodical. This was more than a crime of passion, this was planned."

Just then the door opened and Adam walked in with an envelope in his hand. "Hey guys, was just on my way out but I wanted to drop off the results for you. Trace came back on the substance in your wound track to Ilex opaca otherwise known as..."

"Holly berries," Mac finished for him.

Adam nodded. "Yeah, more specifically from the berries of the plant. The reddish color of the substance wasn't noticeable because of the large amount of blood. If you guys don't need anything else I'm gonna get going."

"You and Jessica are going out to celebrate right?" Stella asked with a smile on her face.

Adam blushed, "Yeah, we're celebrating our six month anniversary tonight. I'm taking her out to dinner and the theatre."

"Well I hope you two have a great time tonight. Thanks for your help."

"Night guys," Adam replied with a small wave as he left the room.

Mac turned back to Stella and watched the wistful expression pass her face before turning back to look at him. "What's that look for Mac?"

"Nothing, I just didn't realize that the two of them were even in a relationship. How long have you known about it?"

"I had my suspicions about a week in, but then Adam needed someone to talk to one night about four months ago and he told me. They decided from the beginning to keep their personal relationship completely separate from their professional one, so it's not surprising you didn't know. Besides Mac, you are a guy."

"Stella, you wound me," Mac replied with a laugh.

"Hey, I can't help it if you're oblivious to anything other than work."

"Not true, I notice things," he said, giving Stella a thoughtful look that made her wonder.

She mentally shook herself, now was not the time to dissect every word he said. "So now that we know what the substance was in the wound track, it should be pretty simple in narrowing down the type of weapon used."

Mac nodded. "We're looking for something with a blade the shape of a knife that would be used around the holly berry plants and is easily accessible near the house."

Stella's eyes lit up. "I got it, pruning shears. Son of a bitch, I even sat and interviewed the gardener."

"Well we won't know if he's the one that did it until we find the weapon and examine the evidence. I'll call Hawkes and have him look for possible weapons and bring them back for testing. In the meantime, now that we know the type of weapon used, we can figure out how exactly the arterial spray got up over a foot above the vic's head.

***************************************************************

Sheldon Hawkes took another look around the crime scene after hanging up with Mac. Now they had a good idea what type of weapon the murderer used and it was up to him to find it. As Sheldon started to walk toward the door to the garden, he noticed a small amount of dirt on the other-wise pristine floor. He scooped up a sample and placed it in an envelope, handing it to one of the techs to take back to run trace. Looking around the room once more to make sure he didn't miss anything else, Sheldon turned and headed out toward the direction of the garden.

*****************************************************************

"Ok, so we have a pretty good idea what weapon we're looking at now. And as we know, there's been no conclusive evidence to the maximum distance arterial spray can travel."

Stella watched Mac as he talked, working through the scenario. "So we know based on the spray pattern of the blood, the killer had pulled Charles' head back, angling the side of the neck up toward the mistletoe."

Mac nodded in agreement. "Come here for a minute, I want to try something. You'll be Charles and I'll be the killer. Now Sid noted there were bruises on the vic's head, chin and shoulder, probably from being held tightly. But there were no other apparent signs he fought back."

As he spoke Mac moved to stand directly behind Stella, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, the other grasping her head as he moved it to the side increasing the access to the carotid artery.

"Now if I'm the killer holding you like this, and I let go of your shoulders, most people would try to get away or fight back. The only way this would work efficiently is for a second attacker to come in, shears overhead as they struck the victim."

Stella had to mentally shake herself to keep from losing focus. The proximity of Mac, the feel of his arms wrapped around her was proving to be a distracting combination. Add to that the smell of his cologne that she had gotten him for Christmas, it was a wonder she was still remembering to breathe.

Stella nodded, her mind processing all the available information. "So we're actually looking for two killers. We know one of them was bigger, probably male. He was the one who would've held Charles, keeping him from moving and fighting back. And all we know about the other attacker is they're most likely the one who made the fatal wound."

"Now all we have to do is hope that Hawkes finds us that murder weapon and that the evidence supports our theories." Mac realized that as they had been running over theories he still had his arms wrapped around Stella, one arm wrapped around her shoulders and his free hand was loosely tangled in her curls. As he felt the warmth of her body he realized he really didn't want to move.

Stella could feel Mac tense as she realized they were still standing there, bodies pressed flush against each other. All she would have to do is lean her head back a little and it'd be resting against his left shoulder. She smiled to herself as she realized the reluctance to separate was not entirely one-sided.

Finally they pulled apart. Despite whatever might be evolving in their relationship, there was a killer, possibly two on the loose and now was not the time to be distracted.

Stella turned around to face Mac, noting the intensity of his gaze and the warmth she felt from his eyes. "I'm going to go down and talk to Sid, see if we can't get any more information off the body and what happened."

"As soon as I hear anything from Hawkes, I'll let you know."

Nodding, they headed in opposite directions, both missing the small smile that was affixed on the other.

*********************************************

"Stella! I was just about to call you."

"Got something else for me Sid?"

"I do. It seems our victim had some evidence still up his sleeve, or actually I should say, on his elbow. Seems he was able to hit his attacker in the mouth, leaving a partial bite mark on his skin. Good thing for us, even though it's only partial, I was able to make a mold and found a distinct marking in the bite. Seems his attacker is missing his left canine. Should make narrowing down the suspect a little easier," Sid remarked as he handed her the mold of the bite.

"That is as long as they can't make it to a dentist before I get to them. Thanks for the help. Now let's just hope Hawkes can find that weapon. We think there were two attackers, so if we can get anything off the weapon, we can then track down both killers."

"Good luck with that!" Sid watched Stella as she headed out of the coroner's lab, smiling at her determination.

*****************************************************

Mac looked down at his phone as he dialed the number he knew by heart. "Hey Stell, good news. Hawkes found us the murder weapon. He sent it back with one of the techs so we can process it. He got a couple of fingerprints off the shears, and with any luck we'll get some epithelials off the weapon and get a hit in CODIS. Meet me in L1 in five minutes? Ok, sounds good." Mac smiled as he closed the phone. He loved watching Stella work in the lab. She made it look like art. Like choreography to a dance. As he passed by the coffee machine on his way to meet her he decided to grab two cups of the brew, it was the little things he could do to show her he cared.

*******************************************************

"Got anything yet?" Mac asked as he walked into L1 to see Stella already at work processing the pruning shears that Hawkes had recovered from the scene.

Stella looked up from the microscope, smiling as he handed her the coffee. "I've got the fingerprints Hawkes lifted running through the system right now, with any luck we'll get a match to those we lifted from the gardener. I also found this clear, slightly sticky substance on the handle. Collected a sample and it's running through GCMS. So now we wait for the results."

Mac watched Stella out of the corner of his eye. It had been a long day and he had a feeling it would be a long night. Both detectives had a bad (or good, depending on your opinion) habit of becoming so wrapped up in a case they lost track of time, or just disregarded it all together, intent on working until the case was solved. The lab was almost completely empty. All the other workers had either gone home for the evening or were out in the field somewhere collecting evidence.

Mac set his empty cup down on the counter. "I have an idea. We probably have about ten minutes until we'll have the results, let's go grab some dinner, my treat."

Stella raised an eyebrow at him. "Does this mean we're having hotdogs again? Last time you said we'd grab dinner it was eating hotdogs at a dog show. And people say I have twisted sense of humor."

Mac smirked at that. "Actually no, I was going to say the vending machines. Grab a quick snack now, and then actually go somewhere nice once we finish up here. It's been too long since we spent time together outside of the lab."

"Vending machines, wow you really do know how to show a girl a good time!" Both laughed at that. Taking off her lab coat she turned to hang it up on the wall before turning back to face Mac. "You better believe I'm choosing the biggest, gooiest treat I can find."

"Sounds great to me," Mac replied as he followed her out, his hand warm on the small of her back.

********************************************************************

Mac smiled as Stella regaled him with stories of days as a holy terror at the orphanage. The two detectives were walking back to the labs after having found the vending machines. Despite her earlier threat Stella did in fact find a rather large cinnamon bun, but then proceeded to tell Mac there was no way she was eating it all herself so he better start digging in. Over fresh coffee and a shared treat the two sat in the empty lounge nearby and enjoyed a few quiet minutes just talking and enjoying the company of the other.

As they neared the lab Mac glanced over at Stella. They had lapsed into a comfortable silence. He noticed a small amount of frosting on her cheek. Before his head could kick in, Mac reached out and grabbed Stella's hand, causing her to stop and turn to face him.

"Mac?" He could see the confusion in her eyes.

He let go of her hand as he brought it up to her cheek to wipe the bit of frosting off. "Hold still for a moment, you have something right here."

Stella inhaled sharply as his warm hand made contact with her cheek. Both detectives' eyes widened as they felt the jolt of electricity pass between them. Mac let his hand fall back to his side but both continued to hold the other's gaze, not willing to break the connection quite yet. Finally, both let their defenses fall down, allowing the other to see what they were feeling, both able to read each other so well. It was Mac who broke the connection first, studying his feet for a moment before looking back up. "After this case, let me take you to a real dinner." His voice was thick with emotion. He looked back down to his feet again before meeting her gaze with a small smile. "I think we have some things to talk about."

Not trusting her voice, Stella just nodded her head. She had a matching smile on her face. Finally she found her voice. "C'mon Mac, lets go catch the bad guys." With that, both detectives headed back to the lab to check on the test results.

********************************************************

Mac and Stella were met with a surprise as they walked into the nearly empty lab. Lindsay was at one of the stations comparing some fingerprints lifted from the shears. She looked up as she heard them walk in together. A smirk crossed her face as she noticed Mac's hand on Stella's back and the matching smiles on the detectives' faces.

"Lindsay, what are you doing here? I thought you and Flack were still working on that bodega from earlier?" Stella asked.

"We actually just got back, it was really pretty easy, had a case to case hit from a B & E from about five years ago. The guy just got released on good behavior after serving four years at Riker's. Flack took him down to booking. Figured I'd stop by and see if I could help you guys out at all on this case.

I did some comparisons on the two sets of fingerprints you got from the shears and was able to separate them. One set is from the gardener, the other set is not pulling up in AFIS."

Mac took in the information. "Now you know we can't prove anything just because the gardener's fingerprints are on a gardening tool. He'd lawyer up and they'd be all over that. What'd we find from that trace that was on the handle?"

Stella picked up the results from the printer. "Looks like there's trace amounts of Isobutane, Isoparaffinic Hydrocarbon Solvents, Butane, and Solvents."

"Ok, so wood cleaner," Mac filled in.

"Didn't Maria say she had been dusting the furniture when she got a text message from Charles saying to meet him in the ballroom?" Stella asked.

Mac stopped and looked at Stella, "I think we need to have a little chat with Maria. See if maybe we can't get a set of fingerprints to compare with those on the weapon. There are some holes in her story we need to fill in.

**************************************************************

Stella looked at the woman seated at the table in the interrogation room. They had matched her fingerprints to the other set on the pruning shears. Hawkes had also been able to match the dirt from the scene to trace that had been left on John the gardener's shoes. He of course had tried to deny the charges, but when they took a dental mold, they had matched the bite marks left on the victim to him. They knew based on the evidence who was responsible. Mac had even tried to talk Stella out of staying around for the actual arrest. But her need to understand had won out, so Mac stayed behind the window as he watched Stella talk to Maria.

"I don't get it. You had a man who obviously adored you, who wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. If you didn't love him why kill him?" Stella watched the woman with interest.

"Charles was a sweet guy, but simple. He was happy to stay in a life waiting on others hand and foot. I wanted more. I tried to explain that to him but he just couldn't get it. I saw how the better half lived, the parties they went to, the things they had and I knew if I stayed with Charles I'd never get those. John was different. He had a plan, a way of finally getting back what we deserved. We were at the beck and call of these people day after day. John knew where Mrs. Hartford kept a stash of money, hidden in the greenhouse. She thought no one knew about it. It was money she'd use to pay for all her gentleman callers when Mr. Hartford was out of town on business and all her sex parties she loved to have. Mr. Hartford knew about it all. Mrs. Hartford knew we knew about them, but who would believe a lowly maid who told anyone. They'd just think I was trying to make money off my rich employer. John had it all figured out. If he started a fire, Mrs. Hartford would lose the money that she hid and no one would be the wiser. Then we were going to leave this place and start new. And we'd no longer be the simple hired help. John was smart, he was going to invest the money and we'd make millions. Charles got in the way, he found out about the plan. So we had no other choice but to get rid of him. I even tried to pay him off, but he was so damn loyal to Mr. Hartford."

Stella looked on in disgust. She turned to the officer in the room. "Get this woman out of here. I've heard enough." She watched as the officer handcuffed Maria and led her out of the room. Stella followed them out, turning the corner to stand next to Mac. "I just don't get people Mac. She had a man who loved her and would've spent the rest of his life taking care of her, but she was more concerned with how much he could spend on her. Didn't she realize how lucky she was? How lucky she was to have someone who cared so much about her, who loved her and wanted to be with her?"

Mac could see the weariness in her eyes. It was moments like these Mac cursed Stella's need to understand the reasoning behind the crime, to try and understand the criminal. It took a lot out of her. Hell, it took a lot out of all of them. It almost seemed that he could see the light fade from her eyes a little more after each case. That's why years ago he made it his personal mission to do whatever he could to keep that light bright in her eyes, to not let that light fade away. Mac sighed. "Maybe she didn't realize the potential of what she had right in front of her."

Stella nodded silently. She felt the adrenaline leaving her body. She suddenly felt as if she could sleep for a year.

"C'mon," Mac said quietly, grabbing her hand. "Let's get out of here." He turned and led her out of the hallway and through central dispatch. It was late, and the office was void of the usual hum of activity that persisted throughout the day. Only a handful of detectives were present in the precinct, working through the cases.

Stella followed Mac out to his car, not paying any attention to what was happening around her, concentrating solely on the warm hand holding hers. She got into the car as he opened the door for her, neither saying anything on the ride. As the car slowed to a stop Stella realized she had been staring out the window without even paying attention to where they were. Mac was out of the car and opening the door before Stella had even taken her seatbelt off. He led her into the building, his hand on the small of her back, reassuring her. As they made their way in she realized that it wasn't her apartment building, but Mac's. Deciding to trust Mac, she chose not to verbalize this revelation. He removed his hand from her back as he moved to unlock the door. They were greeted to the delicious smells of fresh Chinese food that had somehow been placed on the coffee table in the living room. Stella turned to look at Mac in surprise.

"How on earth did you manage to have dinner sitting and waiting on your coffee table without leaving the precinct?"

Mac shrugged, "I called Cheng over at that place you love so much, he owed me a favor so I had him deliver the food over to my super who brought it up here for me. I knew you were exhausted and if I let you go home you wouldn't take care of yourself, so I figured if I brought you here I could make sure you ate and then got some rest. You're as bad as I am sometimes Stell."

Stella looked at Mac for a moment. He could see she was mentally debating with herself about something. The next thing he knew she had wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tight.

Mac stiffened for a moment, causing Stella to worry he was going to pull away, that things would become awkward between them, that she had overstepped the boundary of their friendship. Instead he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her even closer, one wrapping around her waist, the other coming to rest on her back so his hand was running through her hair.

They stood there for a few minutes, drawing comfort from the other. Finally Mac pulled back a bit so he could look into Stella's eyes. He could see her eyes were glassy but she was fighting against the tears. "Stella, after Claire died you were there for me every step of the way. Taking care of me, comforting me. No matter how many times I pushed you away you always came back."

By now a stray tear had fought its way through and left its mark on her cheek. Mac brought his hand up to cup her face, the pad of his thumb erasing the mark. Stella laughed to try and stop any more tears, "I think you referred to me once as an annoying poodle."

Mac laughed at the memory, thankful in the fact that now he was able to think back to that time in his life and find some joy amongst the pain. And it was all thanks to the woman in front of him. "The point is, I don't know where I'd be if it weren't for you taking care of me. Now it's my turn. Let me take care of you Stell." He looked deep into her eyes, begging for permission. "Let me love you."

Stella nodded her head and with that Mac closed the distance between them as he brushed his lips against hers. Their kisses were light at first, both hesitant to evolve their friendship into something more, but slowly they became bolder, deeper. Finally their kisses slowed. Mac placed a final kiss to her temple before resting his forehead against hers. They stood there for a moment, both enjoying the comfort of the other. This time it was Stella who pulled back to look at Mac. He noticed her eyes had a sparkle in them again and it made him smile to think that it might be because of him. Stella moved her head to rest against the crook of his neck, her breath warm on his skin.

"You know Mac, if we could stay like this forever I'd be a happy woman."

Just then her stomach decided to protest the lack of Chinese food being eaten. Stella groaned and tried to bury her face in Mac's neck in feigned embarrassment.

Mac laughed, "As much as I love that idea, I'd hate to see this food go to waste. Why don't we eat, maybe watch a movie…I have your favorite one. Besides, we both have the day off tomorrow, so let's enjoy it while we can."

Stella beamed at him, "I think that is an excellent idea Mac."

A little while later, the food had been consumed and Mac and Stella were lying on the couch, her head resting on his chest as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" played in the background. Mac was running his fingers up and down her arm, her hand resting over his heart. She had fallen asleep almost immediately after they had finished the food and gotten comfortable on the couch. Mac could feel his eyes growing heavy as strains of the beginning of "Moon River" played in the background. Quietly he sang along, singing to Stella.

Moon river wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style someday
You dream maker, you heartbreaker
Wherever you're going I'm going your way
Two drifters off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see
We're after the same rainbow's end
Waiting round the bend
My huckleberry friend, moon river
And me

As the last strains of the melody floated through the room, Mac placed a light kiss on the top of Stella's head as he tightened his hold on her. He felt her stir slightly and try to snuggle into him more. Smiling he pulled the blanket on the back of the couch over them as he closed his eyes. Quietly he whispered, "I love you, Stella Bonasera."

He was almost asleep when he heard a reply so soft he thought he was dreaming.

"I love you, Mac Taylor."

He opened his eyes to look down at her, but her eyes were still closed. Smiling, Mac closed his eyes and for the first time in a long time, slept peacefully.