Thank you for all those reviews and the reassurance. Please continue, I still love to know what you think.

No, the officer shakes his head in reply to Mac's question, Detective Stella Bonasera has not been seen. Mac scans the building, the walls that are no longer walls but ice floes, being pushed together they jut into the air at various angles, forming crevasses. The roof no longer supported by them lies limp like a sheet in between.

"Kind of looks like an iceberg, doesn't it?" a familiar voice comes from behind.

Mac turns around. "Stella was in there."

The smile slips off Flack's face. "You sure?" A wisp of mist curls from his mouth like a wraith.

"I'm here because I wanted to pick her up." Mac produces a similar cloud.

Angell steps closer, as if hoping to be able to hold the umbrella she's sharing with Flack over Mac too. She exchanges a quick glance with Flack before looking inquiringly at Mac, "Have you tried calling her?"

Mac shakes his head. He thinks of the many times he had tried to call Stella and not been able to reach her, to find out later that something was wrong. He hesitates. Flack and Angell exchange another glance. Flack pulls out his cell, presses a couple of buttons. After a few moments he shakes his head. Snowflakes that have sat in Mac's hair like stars melt and run wet trails over his face.

"When did this happen?" Mac asks.

"According to inside and outside witnesses, at about 7:30, just after sunrise." Flack replies.

"Just after we ended the call." Mac says, half to himself, subconsciously brushing through his hair he sends icy water running down his spine. "I should have …"

"You should have what? Known that this would happen? I doubt very much you could have." Flack's voice breaks through Mac's thoughts. "We don't even know how this happened yet."

Mac rewinds and replays the sequence of events in his head. Stella's voice on the phone, the things she had said. Had there been any sign that she was distressed, in trouble? No, even though Stella is much better at reading him, he would have noticed that. She had just seemed delighted with the snow, and wanting to share that with him. You'll love it. It seems like the only reason why she had called him, he's sure she wouldn't just have called him in hopes of getting a lift.

And after the conversation, through breakfast and driving here, up until the moment he saw what had become of the building there had been no indication that something was wrong. Not even a bad feeling. Flack is right, he couldn't have known. But he wishes he had. The snow that continues gathering weighs on his heart.

"I'm going in there." Mac states, turning around.

"Mac, you can't …" Flack places a hand on Mac's shoulder. Whisked off by Mac's abrupt movement to face him again it stays frozen in the air, defensively.

"I know the risk. She's in there, probably injured, and the sooner we start the more likely …" Mac stops, not being able to take the thought further.

Angell pulls back a little from the ice she sees forming in Mac's eyes. Flack watches him walk towards the group of rescue workers, and he senses that if the building took Stella it might as well take Mac too. He feels Angell's cool fingertips on his hand.

"Let's go talk again to the people who got out. Maybe they have seen her and can tell us where to look." she suggests.

Mac talks to the rescue workers. Thanks to his badge, mention of his marine background and the determination on his face they agree to let him come along. He thinks about the conversation with Stella again. Was there anything in the background that could help him locate her? From the echoes he thinks that she may have been in a hallway, but was she still there when the building collapsed? And was she on her way out, or further in?

An ambulance light spits stains on the scenery. Blue shadows, a spirit's blood. It's waiting. All those who got out on their own had been near the stairwell at the front center of the building, and suffered only minor injuries. Flack talks to a man who's getting a few cuts disinfected, gives him a description of Stella.

"Sorry," the man shrugs, "I haven't seen anybody looking like that. But then, as soon as I heard that growling sound I just turned and ran, didn't really take a close look at anything anymore." He looks over Flack's shoulder. "You know, from out here it looks like an iceberg, with the …" he trails off noticing the effect of his words on Flack's expression.

"Yeah, thanks anyway." Flack manages to say before turning to the next witness, remembering that the real danger of an iceberg lies in that what is hidden beneath.

Mac looks at the building again, rotating the plan he has just looked at with the rescue workers in his head, making amends for the changes that must have occurred. With a swish some snow that had gathered on the ruins of the building slides down. The pattern it has left where it tore away looks like an angel's wings.


Thank you for taking the time to read. Is it still worth continuing? Please let me know what you think. All comments are appreciated and replied to if logged on.