Arg. Sorry about not posting this sooner but I had a math exam & fanfiction kept messing up. Thankies to all the people who read & reviewed the first chapter. Hope I didn't let you down with this one, sorry it's soo short. Anyways, I should get chapter 3 up by tommorrow. Enjoy, and review please. :D

Stella pulled her jacket tighter around her as the cold started to bite at the uncovered parts of her skin. She normally loved winter. Winter normally entailed Christmas sales at 'Bloomingdales' or better yet 'Tiffany's'. But this winter was different; it was predicted to be the coldest winter that New York had ever experienced. The Christmas decorations already graced the streets of the city even though it was only early November. Just last week Adam had come up to her in the lab and practically begged her to let him put up mistletoe. His reason had been that there was a hot new lab tech; Stella had just agreed and told him she hoped that the new lab tech was a woman; resulting in Danny wanting to high-five her for the joke.

Shaking her thoughts about Christmas from her head, she thought instead about what she would say to Mac. It had been three long years since they had last talked. She could hardly just walk up to him and grin a 'hi'. A rustle of leaves suddenly caught Stella's attention, and she was dragged out of her thoughts. She hadn't realised that she had reached Central Park already, the last time she had really looked around at where she was; was when she had grabbed her jacket and practically sprinted out of her apartment. Yet again the rustling of the leaves caught her attention. She was suddenly reminded of the open case that she still kept on her desk in the hope that one day she would find the evidence to solve it and find the young girls attacker. As she looked over to the dark mass of bushes something caught her eyes. Someone else was there with her.

"Mac?" Stella called, her voice filled with uncertainty. She ignored the fear that was starting to form in her stomach knowing that if she let it eat into her mind then she would lose it and panic.

"Mac?" She called again. Her voice was stronger; as if to enforce the point to herself that she would not be scared by what was hiding in the darkness.

"This is not funny Mac" She tried again in a tone of annoyance now. There was a sudden sound of running footsteps; something grabbed Stella by the back of her neck. She gasped in pain as something hard hit the back of her neck. Whatever was holding that back of Stella's neck suddenly let go and she fell down to her knees. Stella pressed the palms of her hands down on the cold, wet ground and tried to push herself back up; but everything was spinning.

"Mac, where are you?" Stella managed to croak before another blow was delivered to her head and she collapsed onto the ground. A dark figure hovered over the green-eyed detective as she lay unconscious in the middle of Central Park.