A/N: Again, sorry for the long wait! I'm graduating next Thursday and the last week has been full of all the studying I never did in all my years in college. To top it off, this chapter was insanely difficult to write, so now I feel like i forced it! Argh.

Also, poor Gary! Thoughts with him and quick recovery. Glad he's okay.

OOPS! uploaded the wrong thing...if you read this early...forget the last part. That was supposed to be deleted. It's fixed now. Read on!

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"Looks like something out of A Beautiful Mind." Don drawled as he rocked back in his chair, stopping just short of putting his feet up on the conference table.

Mac surveyed the white boards where almost every space that wasn't covered with crime scene photos contained his nearly illegible scrawl. "That's just what I need; to find out that this guy is actually in my head and all of this is a schizophrenic break." He stepped forward and flattened out a piece of tape attached to a photo of the third vic. "Might actually be a relief." He added under his breath.

"Nah." Don shook his head. "That would probably mean you're the killer too."

"Not necessarily…Could be you." Mac was uncapping a marker to add another note to the board when he suddenly hissed in pain. The marker clattered to the floor as Mac shook out his hand. "Dammit…" He muttered.

Don rolled forward in his chair and leaned down to scoop up the marker for him. "Ready to call in Sheldon yet?" He asked. Mac reached out to take it back, but Don held the marker at bay, keeping it hostage until he got an answer.

Mac continued to hold out his hand, trying to stare Don into submission. "He's working trace. It's a little more important right now."

Don shook his head, wearing a smug smile. "I just saw him in the break room two minutes ago… He ate the last donut," He added icily as his stomach gave another rumble. "Trust me, he won't mind. I'll go get him." Before Mac could offer a protest, Flack swung out of the chair and strode quickly from the conference room, shoving the marker into his pocket as he went and leaving Mac staring after him with barely concealed frustration.

It had been two hours since Mac had received the call from…whoever it was. If Mac was more affected by it than the texts, he didn't show it. At this point, Don didn't know what it would take for Mac to get it through his skull that this guy was dangerous. Don, on the other hand, just took it as another sign of how this guy was escalating again. He was taking more risks, killing in daylight, stalking Mac, calling him up on the phone. The next logical step would be meeting him in person. Normally, Don didn't envy anyone who picked a fight with Mac. While he seemed physically unassuming, Don was quite certain Mac had the ability to snap his neck in two seconds. He'd seen the CSI drop bouncers doing their best impersonations of Hulk Hogan in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, with his hand, and complete lack of sleep for the last 30 hours, Don was doubting Mac's ability to so effectively defend himself. He was grateful he'd gotten Mac to agree to have him stick around. At least if something did happen, he would have backup.

Don's thought process was interrupted as he spotted Hawkes leaving the break room just ahead of him, brushing the sugar of the last donut from his fingers. "Hey, Doc."

Sheldon turned and on spotting Don, held up his hands in mock defense. "I'm sorry I ate it. I didn't know you wanted one. The vending machines are down that hall if you're really hungry." He pointed back behind Don with a smirk.

"Good to know, but not what I was gonna say. But, since we're on the subject, do you have any quarters?" He smiled to himself as Sheldon actually started digging through his pockets with a defeated roll of his eyes. "What I came to ask was if you would take a look at Mac's hand. He's in the conference room."

"Yeah, of course." Hawkes held out the three quarters he'd found. "That's all I got."

"Good enough." Don grinned, taking the coins and immediately stuffing them into his own pocket.

"I noticed at the crime scene he wasn't using his hand at all." Sheldon continued with a frown. "He didn't end up going to the hospital, did he?"

"Nope, but did you really expect him to? If you want Mac to take care of himself, you can't give him the option out, Hawkes. Next time, tell him if he doesn't go to the hospital, he risks losing the hand or something."

Hawkes nodded and tilted his head, looking like he was seriously considering Don's suggestion. "Yeah, alright. Thanks for the heads up."

"Sure thing- Hold on. Vending machines were-?" Sheldon pointed him in the right direction and Don took off down the hallway, feeling like he'd just stolen lunch money, but at the same time feeling justified in doing it.

As his mind wandered back away from food, Don found himself secretly hoping something was wrong enough with Mac to require a trip to the hospital. It wasn't that he wanted his friend hurt, far from it, but it might just be the only thing that would get Mac to drop the case for just a few hours to tend to his own needs. Don slowed his steps briefly as he considered bribing Sheldon with the 75 cents he'd just received to tell Mac he had to go to the hospital, but decided against it—or rather, his stomach decided for him. The doc probably wasn't that cheap anyways.

With two granola bars and a cup of coffee in hand, Don made his way back to the conference room, but just as he was just passing the AV lab, Adam, his head down, eyes fixed on the floor, shuffled out of the lab and collided with him.

Adam immediately backpedalled, his hands up as if to ward off a retaliatory attack. "Oh, crap. I am so sorry, Detective Flack." He sputtered.

Don shrugged it off, just grateful that he hadn't dropped his coffee. "Calm down, Ross. It's fine." He assured the tech as he checked himself over to make sure none of the coffee had gotten onto his shirt. He was sure it hadn't touched his skin as he didn't feel like his flesh was melting. The coffee was boiling hot, which Don assumed was probably a deliberate ploy by the vending machine manufacturer to completely scald customers' tongues to the point of destroying every last taste bud, thereby masking the horrible flavor. Satisfied that he was unscathed by the incident, Don noticed the tech was still staring at him warily. "What were you up to? You find anything?"

Still recovering from apparent shock, Adam just blinked at him until he suddenly snapped out of it. "Um, yes, and no. Um…" He quickly looked down both ends of the hallway and suddenly grabbed Flack's arm, pulling him into the AV lab. Adam quickly let go and turned back to the detective.

Don studied the nervous tech in front of him. He was wringing his hands and kept looking back down the hall, as if waiting for someone to come after him. "Spit it out, Ross. What's going on?"

"Ok, so here's the thing…" Adam hurried to a computer and his fingers flew over the keys, bringing up a folder full of files. "I was going through Danielle Vance's phone- she's-she's the last vic." Adam said, turning back to Flack to make sure he understood.

"I know." Flack said, impatiently waving his hand for Adam to continue.

"Right, right, well, um… I was looking at recent calls and texts and didn't come up with anything that stuck out, but then I went through her applications." The tech seemed less nervous as he grew more comfortable with the technical topic. At the same time, Don just got more and more lost. "There's a note taking app. It also keeps track of when the note was updated. This last one was updated just a few hours before the body was found at about 4am. It contains a few links…"

"What are you getting at?" Don finally asked.

Adam bit his lip as scrolled through the list of files until he found the one he was looking for. The pointer hung over the file as the tech hesitated for a moment. Then he clicked twice, bringing up a new image on the monitor. A series of hyperlinks dominated the page.

"What are they?"

Adam glanced back at Don, and then clicked on each link, waiting a few seconds to let the resulting image sink in before moving on to the next. With each new picture that flashed across the screen, Don's eyes grew wider.

"Son of a bitch…"

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"Well it's not infected, but the swelling isn't a good sign. Why didn't you go to the hospital?"

Mac let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding as Hawkes finally let go of the purple and red mass of flesh that had once been recognizable as a hand. Mac would freely admit that the limb had been bothering him before, but now it was just downright painful. "Didn't have time, like I still don't have time right now." Mac explained in a clipped tone as he started to rewrap the bandages around his hand.

"Hold on, I should splint it for you. It'll help decrease the pain and keep it from getting worse until you find time." Hawkes frowned as he leaned back in his chair and shrugged his shoulders hopelessly. "It's been over 12 hours, so stiches are out of the question, but you should still clean it and icing it won't hurt either."

Sheldon made Mac feel like disregarding medical advice was a personal slight to the former ME. He didn't mean it to be. He just really couldn't afford to waste time. Mac blew out a breath as he paused in balling up the old bandages. "It's plenty cold outside, does that count?" He smirked.

Sheldon smiled, "Not quite. I'm going down to meet up with Sid, and then I'll see if we can throw a splint together for you. In the meantime, put a clean bandage on there and don't use it."

Mac nodded. "Thanks, Hawkes."

The door suddenly swung open as Flack stepped inside the conference room. "Mac, you need to see this."

The slight flush to his cheeks and wild eyes were all the prompting Mac needed. He glanced at Sheldon and immediately rose from his seat and followed Don down the hall into the AV lab where Adam was nervously spinning back and forth in his chair. When he saw Mac enter, he immediately stopped and sat up a little straighter. "What did you find?" Mac asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he took up a spot behind Adam.

The tech spun back around to his computer and instead of explaining himself like he had to Don, Adam started straight in with the pictures.

Mac's facial expression faltered for only a brief second, but he could feel his heart pounding from somewhere near his stomach. The fingers of his crossed arms dug into his flesh as he fought to keep his composure. His breathing unconsciously quickened. His eyes were transfixed on the screen and not even the twinging of his injured hand could get him to stop.

Displayed on the glowing monitor was a picture of Mac and Don arriving at his apartment the night before, but that wasn't the most disturbing shot. It was the pictures following that. The next one was of something Mac had seen many times before, every time he entered his apartment, in fact, because it was his own living room. The next image was of his bedroom, followed by more interior shots of various spots in his apartment, and a few more of Mac and Don as they arrived at the lab.

"Where did you get these?" Mac asked, finding his voice low and rough.

Don, wearing a grim look on his face, stepped forward. "They were found on the vic's phone, put there about two hours before she was killed."

Mac shook his head in confusion. "We didn't find a phone with the vic."

"Stella brought it in half an hour ago. I assume the husband gave it to her." Adam explained.

"Stella isn't back yet." Mac snapped, quickly getting over his shock as the rage started to set in. "Where did you get it?"

The color instantly drained from Adam's face as he stared up at Mac, open mouthed as he tried to form words.

Mac stepped forward suddenly, his arms coming uncrossed as he slammed his hands onto the table. "Where did you get the phone, Adam?" He barked.

"M-Maggie."

"Who's Maggie?" Don asked, stepping in as Mac continued to bear down on the quivering tech.

"Another tech. She told me Stella brought her the phone. I believed her."

"Where is she now?" Mac demanded, but as soon as Adam started to answer, he interrupted him, "Forget it, just show me where she is."

Adam nearly tripped over himself in his haste to vacate his seat. He stumbled into the hallway, daring to look back only once to make sure Mac was following him.

Maggie turned out to be the most unassuming looking human being Mac had ever seen. She was a petite brunette with soft features that made her look about 12. It was her first week on the job. When Adam asked her to come out into the hallway and talk to Mac, she put on a nervous smile and gave a quiet "hi" in greeting as her eyes darted nervously between the two detectives.

The plans Mac had of ripping apart whatever tech he found responsible fizzled and died, but the anger remained, making his questions sound clipped and accusatory. He didn't think Maggie could shrink any smaller. If he decided not to fire her, he was quite certain she would quit. Looking back on it later, he wouldn't have blamed her.

"Who gave you the phone?"

"A guy, in the elevator. He got in, but jumped out again, saying he'd forgotten something, but he needed to get the phone up to the lab and asked if I wouldn't mind taking it for him. He told me Det. Bonasera gave it to him." It wasn't hard to see that Maggie was fighting just to maintain her composure.

"What did he look like?"

"Um…I-I don't know. He was still wearing his jacket and had his hood up. He might have been early thirties I guess?"

"You guess?" Mac spat, "A guy asks you to break the chain of custody, and you didn't get a good look at him?"

"Mac." Don said softly, turning away from the tech and lightly grabbing his friend's arm. "Come on." Mac resisted briefly, but Don's grip never lessened and he gave him, letting Flack lead him back down the hall. He didn't let go until they reach Mac's office.

Mac sunk down onto his couch, attempting to return his heartbeat to its normal rhythm as Don went back out into the hallway for about a minute before coming back in. He sat down on the coffee table in front of Mac, leaning his elbows on his knees. Mac kept his head down, wouldn't meet his eyes. He hand throbbed almost unbearably- smacking it into a table hadn't been a very bright idea—but he welcomed the pain. It brought him back to his senses.

The guy had been in his lab, his apartment. Mac couldn't fight the reality of the situation anymore. Ignoring the killer was just pissing him off. He wanted Mac to notice him, to know he was there, watching him. He wanted Mac to feel like he was losing control, like there was nothing he could do. What was that anecdote about the frogs in a pan? Drop them in boiling water and they'll jump right out, but put them in when it's cold and slowly turn up the heat? By the time they notice, it's too late. They're dead.

This killer had been turning up the heat, ratcheting up the stakes with every contact, and Mac had refused to notice. Now he was slowly being torn from the inside out with this guys mind games. Mac shook his head. There was a way out… it was catching this guy. He had to. He couldn't let him win.

"We'll get her with a sketch artist." Don was saying, twisting the white board marker between his fingers. Mac was half-listening, but stopped paying attention completely as a thought sparked in his brain. "Adam is already checking the security footage from the lobby… We should get a team to your apartment. Maybe he left something we didn't see. He could have touched something-."

"How did he get the phone?" Mac suddenly muttered to himself.

"Huh?"

"It's not the vic's, not unless he broke into her apartment at 4am when she was sleeping and stole it. The phone belongs to someone else. If there's one thing we haven't found with any of the vics, it's a phone."

"O-kay." Don said slowly. "So what are you saying? This phone belongs to another vic? One of the first two?"

Mac looked up. "Or a new one." He quickly got to his feet and strode across the hall into the AV lab. "Adam."

The tech jumped and fumbled to right the can of soda he'd bumped. He then quickly tried to hide the can as he realized it wasn't allowed in the lab… "I'm still bringing up the program. I haven't even had a chance to look at footage yet-."

"Forget the tapes for now. Aside from the pictures, what else did you find on that phone?"

Adam calmed almost immediately. Mac wasn't yelling anymore and was actually acting quite close to his normal self. "Um, regular phone calls, texts. Nothing jumped out at me except that note. I haven't really dug into the other parts yet."

Mac spotted the elevators open out of the corner of his eye and watched as two women stepped out onto the floor. "Get on it." He said, turning back to Adam. "Call the phone company, find out who this phone belongs to. Put someone else on the surveillance tapes."

Adam nodded immediately. "Right away, Boss."

Mac walked through the side door of the lab and intercepted Stella and Lindsay as they came up the steps. "Did you find anything?"

Stella shook her head. "The husband said he hasn't seen anyone sticking around and his wife never mentioned anything about being followed. She left at 6am like she did every morning and that was that."

"She was 5 months pregnant." Lindsay added, looking drained from the experience. Mac paused briefly as he gave her a small, reassuring smile. Lindsay returned it and then frowned. "Mac, what happened to your hand?"

Mac looked down to see a small trickle of blood trailing down his fingers. "It's nothing. Hawkes already looked at it." He explained quickly, shoving the hand back into his pocket as he ignored Stella's raised eyebrow. "Did the husband say anything about his wife's phone?"

Stella glanced at Lindsay who shrugged and shook her head. "I think he said she takes it with her when she goes running. It's the only way he lets her go alone."

An almost smug look crossed Mac's face and Stella looked at him in confusion. "Why? What's the cell phone have to do with it?"

"I don't know yet." Mac spun on his heel and was by Adam's side only a few seconds later. "I need you to put a trace on our second and third vic's cell phones."

"Sure thing, and I just got off the phone with the service provider. They say the owner of this phone is named Jaycie Carlson."

Mac pulled up a chair beside him, "You run it through the DMV?"

"Just about to." Adam nodded, bringing up the necessary application. With a few swift key strokes, the search was running. It only took a few seconds to come up with the sole match. A picture of a young, smiling woman with short brown hair looked back at them from the screen. "That's not your first, second, or third vic…"

Mac's jaw clenched as his heart plummeted. "No. We got another body out there."

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A/N: Could really use some feedback about now... Thanks for reading! Please review!