Flack rummaged through the bedside table, desperately looking for another battery for his flashlight. When he finally found it, he turned the light on and shone it into the drawer. He shuffled through the mess, hoping to find a few more batteries, knowing he would likely need them later. What he found instead only made him laugh.
He pulled a sheet of paper out of the drawer and closed it, walking into the living room, light shining on the paper as he read over it.
"Hey Stell," he said, plopping down on the couch next to her. "Take a look at this." He handed the paper to her and hovered the light over it. "This is from the last big snowstorm we had. The one that wiped out the power late last year."
"Oh yeah, the one where you walked around whining like a baby for five days because you were so bored."
"I wasn't being a baby. There was nothing to do."
Stella rattled the list in her hand. "It sure looks like you found things to keep yourself occupied."
He slouched down low into the couch cushions and smiled. "Yeah, eventually, but it was still the longest five days ever. And it still doesn't seem like there was that much to do, even with this list. Life is dull without electricity."
Stella smacked him on the arm and snuggled down into his chest. "Excuse me, it wasn't that dull."
"I'm sorry. Parts of it were just great. But you have to admit, you got bored too."
"Guess we'll just have to use the list as a guide to keep us sane this time around."
1. Read a book – by candle light.
Flack couldn't remember a time when the weather had been so bad. Yes, this was New York and the weather did have a tendency to get down right ugly. But the power had been out for over 12 hours over all five boroughs and the power companies still didn't know when they would have it back on.
So here he was, sitting at home, in the dark. Well, not completely dark. He had a couple flashlights. And exactly 3 candles, which were doing a poor job of illuminating his living room.
Sighing in defeat, he tossed a pillow from the couch down to the floor, along with a blanket. He arranged the candles above the pillow and laid back, reaching for his book on the coffee table. If he was lucky, the candle light would last until he got to the end of the book.
2. Play board games with friends.
The next morning, Flack called everyone and said he would make his place the 'Snowstorm Headquarters.' And soon enough people started coming through the front door. All of his friends were bundled in sweats and carried a blanket or two. They all also brought along supplies for a day or two: snacks, real food, games, bottled water, extra candles and flashlights, and sleeping bags.
As they played dozens of different board games, whatever they could get a hold of, the day quickly flew by. Before they knew it, the sun had gone down and they were playing by candle light. When it was nearly midnight, they realized they had passed a whole day together and survived it just fine.
They soon split up and began making up their beds for the night, finally calling it a day. As long as they were together, the storm wouldn't be so bad after all.
3. Rewrite the ending of a movie.
"I don't care," Flack shouted above everybody else. "He should have ended up getting rewarded for what he did."
His friends all laughed.
"You just wanted to see the cop get laid by the undercover chick," Lindsay laughed.
He glared at her. "Well would that be such a bad ending. I mean, cops work hard in the big city. They deserve something nice."
Everyone laughed again.
Stella looked at Danny. "What about you Danny? If you wrote the movie, would he have gotten his girl at the end of the movie or would you have ended it like that?"
"No, he would have definitely gotten the girl; she was hot." This earned him a playful smack on the arm from Lindsay. "What, she was attractive. Anyway. He woulda got the girl, but it would have been more of a fade-into-the-sunset kind of ending."
Flack scrunched his brow at him. "You've changed since you and Monroe hooked up, ya know that?"
Everyone laughed. They all knew they were never going to agree on an ending for the movie, but it passed the time arguing about it.
4. Tell scary stories.
After they had eaten lunch, Hawkes got a call from Mac saying Sid was stuck at home and they needed an ME. They all wished him good luck in the snow and told him to check in when he got to the lab.
Everyone else, still being instructed to stay put for the time being, continued to laugh about the weirdest perps they had ever interrogated.
"There was this guy," Angell began, "who had piercings all the way up each ear, half a dozen or so in his face, black hair, dark eyeliner, black clothes. He was the poster child for cliché goth." She smiled as she recalled the memory. "The whole time I question him, he puts on this tough guy act and doesn't really say more than necessary and he's really pissing me off." She leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees, getting excited as she got to the good part of the story. "So I get right in the kid's face, tell him that if he doesn't start speaking up, he's going to spend a night in jail, where they'll remove all of his jewelry." She leaned back again. "I've never gotten a quicker confession."
Everyone exploded with laughter.
"I'm telling you, those little studs and rings all over his face were just about the most disgusting thing I've ever seen."
"Hey, you think that's bad," Danny jumped in, "I had to remove a piercing from a suspect once that was neither an ear nor facial piercing."
This time, the noise in the room was a combination of groans, laughter, and disgust.
"I hate my job sometimes."
They continued comparing horror stories for the rest of the afternoon, filling Hawkes in on the really good ones when he returned a few hours later.
5. Clean under the bed.
The next morning, everyone had gone home to get clean clothes and try to find a shower somewhere in town. And Flack was alone, once again.
He cleaned up the living room a little, although everyone had been very great house guests and the room was already tidy. He didn't feel like cleaning the bathroom as there was absolutely no light, so he wandered into his bedroom. He pulled the curtains open to let the dim light of the day in and sat on the end of the bed. After a moment, he stood from the bed and lay on his stomach on the floor. Reaching out, he began pulling everything out from under his bed. There were several shirts he had been missing for quite some time, a few scraps of paper, a pair of handcuffs, and a handful of assorted ink pens.
Dragging his find out and onto the bed, he sorted through it and put it all where it belonged.
"Well, that really passed a good five minutes," he muttered to himself.
6. Look out the window.
He had tried reading for a while but couldn't seem to stay focused. Giving up, he closed his book on the table and made his way over to the window.
The city below was not what he was accustomed to seeing from that window. Usually, he saw the daily hustle and bustle of people working, flowing through everyday life. Now he saw nothing like that. Now he saw chaos. Plows moved through the streets, trying to clear the several feet of snow that kept falling. Large vehicles followed slowly in their wake trying to make their commute. People on the sidewalks were shoveling snow, trying to clear the fronts of stores, apartments, unbury cars. Children, teens, and some adults had given up all hope of working and had engaged in a snowball fight in the street.
The sun had yet to show since the storm had first hit, but there was still plenty of light coming from behind the grey clouds, providing everyone with the light they needed for whatever they chose to do.
7. Go to work anyway.
The lines at the YMCA were long, but they had generators and were providing free showers to anyone willing to wait. Packing a backpack with his clothes, soap, and yet another book, Flack headed for the nearest hot shower. He waited for almost two hours before he finally got to an open stall, but in the end, he felt a hundred times better.
Changed and refreshed, he headed toward the precinct. He hadn't been called in but he had been in his apartment for far too long. Even if he was just going to sit at his desk and do paperwork for a few hours, he would feel better just for getting out.
There were very few people in the bullpen, which he expected. Most people lived too far away to walk in the bad weather. Many also had kids to care for while they were stuck at home. Flack was glad he was in neither category.
After working at his desk for nearly four hours, Flack bundled up, deciding to head home again.
Just before he left the bullpen, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and read the text message from Stella. Mac's making me leave again.
Flack laughed and re-routed. He made his way upstairs to the crime lab. It was dimly lit, being run on back-up generators, and quiet, much like the precinct below. He knocked on Stella's office door before stepping inside.
"Rumor has it you're bored too."
Stella turned to face him. "What are you doing here?"
"Went to the Y, then came here to work for a while. Same as you. Just needed to get out. I was just headed out if you wanna join me."
Stella zipped her coat and walked out the door with him. "Beats braving the storm alone."
8. Snuggle by a warm fire – not.
"Next time I move, I'm going somewhere that has fireplaces," Flack grumbled. "These little battery-operated space heaters are a joke."
Stella wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders and scooted closer to Flack. She stretched a blanket across their laps and cuddled into the side of his body. "Next time you move, find a building with back-up generators that actually work."
"Hey, your building ain't any better."
"I know, that's why I'm here. We'll stay a whole lot warmer if we're together."
Flack chuckled and waggled his eyebrows at her. She swatted him but didn't lose her contact with him. "You think you're so funny. Body heat goes a long way in weather like this."
"I know. It's a great way to keep warm Stell." He wrapped his arm around her and pulled the blanket up over them more, trapping their heat in.
9. Have sex.
Logically, they never actually thought they would end up sleeping together between their layers and layers of blankets in front of the little space heater. But somehow, it happened.
And they didn't regret it.
They had veered off the subject of body heat and onto tropical getaways and 'thinking warm thoughts'. Then suddenly, they were kissing. And they realized how amazing it was to be so close. And how warm they were all of a sudden.
As they peeled off layers of clothing and held their blankets tight around them, they forgot all about the dreadful weather and the cold they were trying so hard to forget. All they could feel was heat and passion as the snow continued to fall outside.
10. Remember good times.
Before lunch, everyone was gathered in Flack's apartment once again. They were drinking hot chocolate that Angell had bought just down the street. The power over about half the city had been restored, mostly to business-busy areas, providing more and more hot food and drink options.
As they tried to stay warm from the inside out, they had passed around stories about friends, family, and loved ones they lost.
"Do you remember that thing that Detective Henlison would always say?" Danny jumped in, speaking of an older detective who died of a heart attack years earlier. "Something about keeping your foot out of your mouth?"
"No, no, no. You gotta do it right, Messer," Flack laughed. "It was always like this." Flack paused and straightened his back and puffed out his chest, obviously trying to mimic the man. "Son, ya keep ya foot outta ya mouth and ya nose outta my ass," he began in a heavy Brooklyn drawl, "that way ya always got ya two feet for runnin' on and a good nose for sniffin' in a perp's no-good business."
Everyone laughed hard as he finished.
"And ya know what?" Danny said, "Nobody ever sucked up to that man after that line."
With memories like that, time really flew by fast.
11. Recite meaningless facts.
"This has gotta be something Hawkes or Montana would know." Danny laughed.
Lindsay walked back into the living room from Flack's kitchen, wrapping back up on the couch next to Danny. "What would I know?"
Hawkes chimed in with a laugh. "How condoms are only about ninety-seven percent effective."
"Oh, that's easy. Latex rubber is a porous material. Microscopic holes means microscopic stuff can get through. You're a scientist, you should know that by now."
Danny scoffed. "I know latex is porous, but I didn't think it was so much so that it was just letting everything out."
Hawkes laughed at his friend. "Danny, chill. The holes are only microns in diameter."
He nodded then contorted his face into confusion. "So is a sperm."
Flack tossed a ball at Danny, bouncing it off his shoulder. "Enough 'contraception for dummies' over there. I thought we were just trying to come up with good facts, not analyze them."
Danny picked up the ball and tossed it back. "Okay, wise ass, you're up."
"Okay." He thought for a minute before speaking again, all eyes on him. "Did you know it's physically impossible to lick your own elbow?"
There was a resounding groan in the room. He figured everyone would know that one already, which made it that much funnier after making them wait as he thought it up. This time, there were several objects tossed in his direction and he put his hands up in defense as he tried to dodge them all.
When they could no longer come up with any other useless trivia, they realized how late it was and decided to call it a night.
12. Keep warm – again.
As they all began making up their makeshift beds around Flack's apartment again, Flack and Stella exchanged a look. Without a word, they got up and walked toward Flack's bedroom wrapped in the same blanket.
Everyone remaining in the living room stopped and watched as they left. When the door shut behind them, Adam shrugged. "Looks like they're going to be plenty warm tonight."
As a loud laughter broke out in the living room, Stella and Flack settled into Flack's bed. "I think they've figured it out," Stella smiled against his lips.
"Well, they're smart. I would have been worried if they hadn't." He kissed her back and pulled her close against his body.
Their combined heat instantly took him back to the previous evening and he still couldn't believe they were together. "What are we doin' here Stell?"
She pulled herself up a little, resting her body on top of his and kissed him. "Staying warm." She kissed him again then answered the question as he had asked it. "In the back of my mind, I think I've always felt something. But I've had such a rocky past that I couldn't bring myself to feel those things again, not the way I wanted to."
"But last night?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "It was different all of a sudden. Something told me that I didn't need to worry and that I had known that all along." She kissed him once more and chuckled lightly. "You know how crazy this weather can make me."
"You know, I really don't. I guess you'll just have to show me again."
As the snow stopped falling outside the window, the storm began to lift. But until the power was restored much later, they were content to keep warm together.
Wrapping them tighter in a blanket on the couch, Flack and Stella lay cocooned together laughing at the list and the memories from the previous year.
"You know, maybe I don't need this list after all. I mean, we did okay last year. And it's pretty unlikely that this storm is going to last as long, right?"
Stella rested her head on his chest. "I hope not. I don't think I can go that long without showering again."
"The lack of showers didn't bother me. It was definitely the lack of heat and hot food. I felt like I was frozen from the inside out half the time."
She looked up at him and smirked. "Well, I thought we remedied that pretty well."
"Yeah, we did. But that wasn't til the storm was nearly over." He tightened his hold on her and snuggled her closer. "But at least this time we can get right to the warming up right away."
They both laughed.
"As bad as it was, I don't think I would have changed anything about that storm last year," Flack said as he stroked his fingers over Stella's back.
"I'm sure I could name a few things that could have been better…like the freezing indoor temperatures."
Flack shook his head, even though Stella couldn't see him from where she was laying. "It was the cold that brought us together. In a weird way, we should be celebrating that damn storm."
"Well, I don't know about celebrating, but you're right," she stretched up to kiss him, then snuggled back into his chest and kissed him where her head rested, "that storm really had some kind of magical power."