Okay, I promised the next one would be up soon – and here it is.

The story features the song "White White Christmas", written and performed by one of my absolute favorites, Jane Comerford (Australian singer, songwriter, vocal coach – and lead singer of the German country band Texas Lightning). If you get the chance, listen to it, it's really beautiful :-)

This is a nice little Christmas story, a little fluffy in the end "maybe".

Disclaimer: All the original characters belong to their owners - except for Mac. Mac belongs to Stella.

Please read and review – updates on request ;-)

Chapter 1

It was Christmas Eve and raw winter weather controlled New York City. The usual traffic chaos in the streets was multiplied, masses of disoriented tourists, countless fundraisers and guys in more or less stupid Christmas costumes crowded the sidewalks and stores.

Stella silently cursed while she stepped out of the elevator. She loved the Christmas time and its spirit, but working at this time of the year was a real pain. Once again she asked herself why it was always her who had to work on Christmas, once again she thought about talking to Mac about it. And once again she knew she wouldn't do it.

Besides, it wasn't as if anyone would be waiting for her at home. But to say she was delighted when Mac called her an hour before her alarm clock would have woken her up would have been too much.

"Morning!" the man in question greeted her friendlily when she entered his office.

"Coffee," she replied without looking at him and took a seat in the chair at the other side of his desk.

"Is there a life before coffee?" he solicitously asked while pouring a mug for her.

Stella grumbled.

"This city is crazy. New York under normal conditions is already tough enough. New York in summer – no talking about that. But New York at Christmas??" She rolled her eyes and took a large sip of her coffee.

Mac's coffee was definitely the best, the only reason she had headed straight for his office instead of going to the break room first. Her heart made a little caper when she noticed that he had put on the lights of the little tree which she had placed on his desk the night before.

"Don't like Christmas?" he smiled, knowing very well that she did.

They had had long discussions about Christmas decoration at the lab and in the offices, something he considered as totally unnecessary while she would always try to convince him it would make him happy and lighten up the atmosphere.

And when he had arrived early this morning, he had found this little Christmas tree on his desk. Only about 1.5 feet high, but completely decorated with glitter balls, tinsel and even real fairy lights. He had to admit it made the room a lot friendlier and brought in some Christmas spirit.

This was what Christmas was about for him – giving and sharing with people you loved. So right after he had called Stella to come in earlier this morning, he went out again to pick up a special gift he had ordered for her.

"Sure I do. Nothing's better than this silent, contemplative, relaxing…"

Mac's phone started ringing at the same time that his beeper went off. Before Stella could react on that, her own beeper also called for attention.

"…time," she finished her sentence and reached for her beeper. Mac also reached for his one while he picked up the phone with the other hand.

XXXXX

"Anything important?" he asked her after he had finished his call.

"No, just some test results. So, why am I here so early?" she replied, now in a much better mood with enough coffee in her system.

"Lindsay and Hawkes are investigating a burglary at a record company with a possible homicide, Flack called half an hour ago, they already left. And I have a meeting with the Chief later and some other things to do, I can't get out now…" Mac explained.

"And…? You want me to baby-sit them or what?" Stella tried to figure out what this had to do with her having to come in earlier.

"You…" Mac carefully searched for the right words, "You and Danny will investigate the disappearance of a street musician. His girlfriend reported him missing. The instruments had been knocked over and she said there was blood. You can meet her at the corner 57th and Broadway, that's all we know for now. Except that…"

"Don't tell me he's one of these Bongo playing Santas…" Stella shot him a suspicious look.

"… he's dressed as Santa Claus," Mac couldn't stop the sentence he had started in time.

"Great. Find a missing Santa on December 24 during rush hour in the heart of New York City. That's what I call a challenge. DANNY!" she called, already on her way through the door.

XXXXX

Mac smiled while he looked after her. He leaned over and opened his desk drawer. Carefully he took a little box out and opened it. A little angel figure was inside - a very special one. It had been impossible to find an angel with dark instead of blond curls, so finally he had to have it custom made. It had green eyes and a beautiful smile, which was why it had reminded him of her right away.

Still smiling, he put the little figure back in its box and carefully locked the drawer. It wasn't necessary that anyone saw it except for the person it was meant for. He would give it to her later, hoping they would find a quiet moment to sit down, have something to drink, talk…

With a sigh he pulled himself off these thoughts and tried to focus on the things he had to do.

Christmas is coming just around the bend
I wish those jingle bells would never end
I know that it's true
I wanna spend this Christmas with you


XXXXX

"I'll drive!" Stella exclaimed while she headed through the parking garage, followed by Danny who just shrugged. In this mood it was better not to object, he knew that only too well.

And the mood didn't get much better after they had interviewed Sally Myers, the girlfriend of the missing Santa. She was dressed in some sort of elf costume, her blonde hair in little curls like these little angel dolls. She was very upset and excited, Stella would describe her as typically blonde and naïve. And certainly hyperactive or even hysterical.

"This is just ridiculous… Maybe the guy had enough of this stupid stuff? Maybe he just went off for a drink? Maybe he took off with the money they made? Maybe he just said 'I'll just go and 'buy cigarettes' and she believed it and wonders now why he isn't coming back…" she grumbled while she tried to maneuver the car through the endless traffic on their way back to the lab.

"And the blood?" Danny took advantage of the fact that Stella had to focus on the traffic and started to argue.

"Blood?? Oh yeah, sure. You mean the little smear on top of the Bongo drum? The one that you could hardly see? Geez, maybe he cut his finger – no wait, there would have been more blood in that case…"

"First of all: What if this is not just a runaway? Maybe some other musicians kidnapped him! You have any idea, how much a corner like that is worth these days? They can make thousands a week! And second of all: …"

"First of all: There is no 'second of all'," Stella snapped. "It's secondLY."

"We talk about a missing person – maybe some sort of 'turf war' between street musicians - and you are correcting my grammar?!?" Danny exclaimed.

"A conspiracy? Great…" Stella was about to hit the wheel with her forehead until she figured that wouldn't be such a good plan in the middle of New York's most congested road.

"He left his aura behind… He wouldn't have left without telling me – we are SO close. We were brother and sister in three former incarnations…" she fluted, repeating only a part of what Sally Myers had told them.

"This IS ridiculous!" she finally stated once again.

XXXXX

"Ridiculous…" Stella mumbled yet another time while she entered the lab, followed by Danny. "This is ridiculous. Okay then… place the 'evidence' that we collected at the 'scene' on the table and let's start 'processing'…"

The sound of her voice made more than clear what she thought about the whole thing.

XXXXX

Beep beep beep…

"Thanks!"

Stella sighed in relief when her beeper interrupted her slightly aimless search for evidence for a crime among the things on the table. After a look at the display, her mood changed.

"Ah NO! Gimme a break…" she sighed.

"What's up?" Danny asked from the other side of the table, looking up behind his microscope.

"We have a visitor…"

"Santa Claus?" Danny tried to joke, realizing the moment the words left his mouth that THIS was not the right one for this moment.

"No… Actually it's rather Mrs. Claus," Stella replied with another deep sigh. "Sally Myers wants to see us, she's in the interrogation room…"

TBC