It was all Jo's fault. She'd suggested he go through some of these reports to pass the time until a lead came up. Said anything was better than just sitting waiting. Promised that time would fly by. He should've known. Reports never made time fly by.

The phone on his desk rang, breaking the silence.

"Taylor," Mac answered.

"Come and find me daddy!" a little girl's voice sing-songed. Mac frowned.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"It's me. Come and find me!"

"Where are you?" Mac asked, trying a different angle.

"You have to find me daddy. It's like hide and seek. I'm hiding and you have to find me. Hurry before time runs out!"

Then he was left listening to the dialling tone. Mac stared at the handset for a moment, confused, before hanging up and leaving his office. This obviously had something to do with Kenzie, there were no other missing children cases right now. But what did the call mean?

"Adam, I need you to trace the last number that called my desk phone," Mac said.

"Sure. What's up Mac?" Adam replied, beginning to type.

"I don't know," Mac replied honestly.

"Okay... The call came from a disposable cell phone..." Adam explained. "I can keep a trace on it, and if it makes another call try and trace it.

"Do it," Mac ordered.

XOXOXOX

"It doesn't make sense," Mac frowned.

"Which part?" Jo asked.

"The whole phone call. The daddy come and find me. Why phone me and not Stella?" he asked. Jo didn't reply. She had her own theories, however she wasn't about to tell Mac. She wanted him to figure it out on his own. She opened her mouth to reply when Mac's phone rang again. Their eyes met. Jo nodded.

"I'll tell Adam," she said. Mac hesitated, then picked up the handset.

"Taylor."

"Hello detective." A man's voice.

"Who is this?"

"Looking for your little girl?"

"I don't have a little girl," Mac replied. The man laughed.

"She's a pretty one. Like her mother. Very pretty... Don't you agree?" There was something in his tone of voice that made Mac's blood boil, especially to hear him talk about Stella that way.

"Where is she?" he asked. "Where's Mackenzie?"

"You figure it out detective." Then the line went dead.

Mac hurried through the corridors to Adam's lab. He looked at Adam and Jo hopefully. Jo shook her head.

"Two more seconds," Adam groaned.

"Damn," Mac muttered.

"Was it the little girl again?" Adam asked. Mac shook his head.

"He talked to me this time. Nothing useful. I recorded the conversation. Adam see if you can isolate anything in the background that gives us a clue to where he is. And give a copy to Danny so he can compare his voice to any possible suspects."

"You okay?" Jo asked quietly as they walked through the lab's corridors.

"I don't know..." Mac sighed. "This case is really getting to me. It's personal, because Stella's my best friend, and I look at her and I can see that if we don't find Kenzie, it'll kill her. She's falling apart and I can't help her." Jo squeezed his shoulder.

"We'll find her," she said.

"That's what I keep telling Stella. But there more time that passes... The less I believe it."

XOXOXOX

Danny skidded as he tried to turn into Mac's office at full speed.

"I gotta boom!" he announced breathlessly. It took a moment for Mac to realise what Danny was talking about.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I compared the phone call to the tape of an interview with one of the guys who looks pretty close to the sketch we got. I isolated seven words and compared them. It's a 99.98% match!"

"Who?" Mac asked.

"Michael Ulster, GBH eight years ago, you and Stella investigated. Ulster got out on parole a few months ago."

"Address?"

"Got it."

"Warrant?"

"Flack's getting it and meeting us there."

"Let's go."

XOXOXOX

Mac sent Danny and Hawkes around to the back entrance, while Flack followed him through the front.

"We take Ulster alive," Mac ordered before they split up. "We need him to find Kenzie."

Mac held up three fingers, then counted down before signalling to Flack. They burst through the door and began searching for Ulster.

"NYPD, freeze!" Flack yelled, catching sight of someone walking away from them. "Freeze!" he repeated. They didn't stop. "Freeze dammit!" he yelled. Michael Ulster turned, pulling out his gun and pointed it straight at Mac and Flack.

"How's this?" he asked. Gun pointed at guns. Eyes staring into eyes.

"Drop the gun," Flack said slowly.

"Let me think about that... No," Ulster replied.

"Where's Mackenzie Bonasera?" Mac asked.

"It's a secret," Ulster laughed.

"This isn't a game Ulster, you're going back to prison for a very long time unless you tell us where Mackenzie Bonasera is right now," Flack warned.

"Ooh, I'm scared!" Ulster laughed again. "It's such a shame, isn't it Detective Taylor, that children always have to pay for their parents choices. It's true what they say, about children paying for the sins of their fathers."

"Last chance, where is she?" Mac asked.

"You know what? I don't want to play anymore." Ulster removed the safety catch. He fired, and a spilt second later, Mac and Flack fired back. Another split second, and Danny and Hawkes fired from behind. Ulster fell to the ground.

"Call the paramedics," Flack ordered. Mac crouched by Ulster's already still body.

"Don't bother," he said. "He's gone."

Danny swore, and Flack hit the wall in anger. Mac stared at Ulster's face. If he'd harmed Kenzie in any way, Mac would personally find a way to bring him back to life, just so he could kill him again. The ringing of his cell phone broke through the tense silence.

"Taylor."

"That good, huh?" Jo said.

"What've you got?" he asked, too tired and pissed off to care.

"Ulster was renting another property, downtown. Do you want the address?"

"Sure."

"What's up?" Flack asked as Mac stood up.

"Ulster started renting a building downtown about a month ago," Mac replied. "Hawkes, you process here, Flack make sure Mackenzie isn't somewhere in this building. Danny, you and I will check out his other place."

XOXOXOX

The warrant in his pocket, Mac opened the door and he and Danny slipped inside quietly. Immediately they were greeted by two corridors going off in opposite directions.

"What now?" Danny asked.

"You take right, I'll go left," Mac replied. Danny nodded before starting down the right corridor slowly, checking in every door. Mac did the same to the left. The building was some sort of old school or college, unused for years, dust layering the desks and chairs. Mac kept the safety catch off his gun. There was no evidence to point to anyone being here, but he didn't want to take that risk. He opened another door and looked around the room. Another classroom. He was about to leave when some instinct made him look around again. This time he noticed the door at the back of the room. Moving slowly between the desks, Mac noticed footprints in the dust. Recent footprints. He opened the door, shining his torch around the storage cupboard. He heard a muffled sob from the corner and swung the torch around until it fell on a small girl with Stella curls, crouched on the floor. Mac quickly holstered his gun and crouched down next to her.

"Hey," he smiled. "Is your name Kenzie?" She stared at him fearfully. "I'm Mac, I'm a friend of your mom's, I'm going to take you home."

"I can't," she whispered. "He said he'd hurt my mommy if I didn't go with him."

"He can't hurt you anymore Kenzie, I promise." Mac pulled out his cell phone. "Danny, I've got her. Finish checking your side, then finish this side. I'm taking Kenzie home."

Mac returned his cell phone to his pocket and reached out to pick Kenzie up. Her small arms slipped around his neck and held onto him tightly and Mac tried to ignore the mixture of emotions it stirred in him. Outside, he met the paramedics he'd called on the off chance that Kenzie was there. Although she was reluctant to let go, Kenzie allowed them to check her over, but Mac had to stay with her. Which he was more than happy to do.

"Kenzie, did he... Did he hurt you at all?" Mac asked, unsure of how to phrase the question to a three year old.

"He pushed me and I fell over. And he held my arm really tight," she replied, pointing to the finger shaped bruises on her upper arm.

"Did he do anything else? Anything at all?"

"No," she shook her head. Mac studied her face carefully then relaxed, certain she was telling him the truth.

XOXOXOX

Outside it was getting dark. Not that the city was getting any quieter. If anything it seemed to becoming more alive. Stella wandered through her apartment listlessly. Kenzie had been gone fifty hours and thirty minutes. Every instinct she'd developed as a CSI told her that she wasn't coming back. Her maternal instinct refused to believe it.

She hadn't turned the lights on, and as a result her apartment was in near darkness, except for the lights from the street which came through the windows. As she walked into the leg on the table, stubbing her little toe, she cursed. She crossed the room and flicked on the light switch. Maybe TV would help. She could find something that didn't take any concentration, and maybe it would distract her long enough that she could forget that her baby was missing. However, before she made it to the couch, the doorbell rang. Stella sighed. It would probably be Mac or Lindsay or Flack or someone to make sure that she was taking care of herself. Right now, she didn't want to see anyone.

She opened the door and, as she'd suspected, Mac was outside. However, Stella ceased to notice him as soon as she saw her daughter in his arms.

"Kenzie!"

"Mommy!" Stella held her daughter tightly.

"Oh baby, I was so worried! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"The man pushed me and held my arm really tight but Mac came and found me and said that he couldn't hurt me no more and he was gonna take me home to you," Kenzie replied into her mother's hair. At the mention of his name Stella remembered Mac. But when she opened her eyes and removed them from Kenzie's hair, he was gone.