Alright, I apologize for the long waiting period - to be honest I wasn't that motivated to update because of the little response lately (Hey, I've seen stories for other shows that get 100 reviews for only three chapters - don't tell me that those shows have more fans... Can't be! And don't tell me that CSI: NY fans are just lazy... You can't let that stand like this ;-)). But I was also busy with other stuff - just got reminded of this by getting a review for another story, so that made me want to update spontaneously (see, it works #LOL#).

Short reminder: Remember my description of Chief Atkins from "If Love..." - don't mix him with Sinclaire from season 4!

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Chapter 11 – Attention: Snappy Pig!

SQUEEEEEEEAK!!!

Mac had been alerted by loud squeaks and had headed over to the lab room. Now he was watching through the glass doors how Stella was trying to handle the guinea pig and at the same time to get some hair from him by using a comb. Danny watched her from the other side of the table, having great fun with teasing her.

"Hey, I thought no pets allowed at the lab," Mac heard him joking.

"One more comment and I will stuff this little fur ball into your big mouth, Messer!"

Mac took this as a sign to intervene.

"Hey – I said COMB, not kill…" he joked as he entered the lab room to ease the situation.

Stella looked over to him and forgot to focus on the animal for a moment.

"OUCH!"

"What now?"

"It bites!" Stella returned in a mixture of surprise and complaint, holding up her left index finger that didn't show any visible sign of damage.

"This might be easier if I gave him a shot of Valium… or strychnine," she mumbled with semi-seriousness.

Mac fought hard to suppress a laugh.

"You okay?" he asked, trying to remain serious.

"Yeah, besides my punched finger, I'm fine," she returned slightly huffed.

"Come on, let me help you. I think it's easier if one person holds the animal and another takes some samples, hum?" Mac tried to make a peace offering.

Stella nodded and handed him the guinea pig.

"You hold, I comb," she firmly stated.

A few minutes later, they had collected some hair samples from the animal, had taken samples of a powdery substance with duct tape from its back and had taken samples of the wood shavings in the cage and dusted the cage for prints. Little Bartholomew was back in his cage, now hiding in his house. Only his backside was visible in the door.

"What's wrong with him now?" Mac wondered.

"Maybe he is grumbling about the inappropriate treatment for an animal of his heritage," Stella mocked.

They bagged all samples in evidence bags and labeled them and Mac offered to take them to Trace for analysis.

Stella cleaned up the work place when Flack poked his head through the door.

"Hey Stel, have you seen Mac? I'm on my way to the Prescott residence, I heard that Mr. Prescott is back from his trip and I wanted to see if you guys already found something that I can tell them."

"We just finished processing, Mac is taking the samples to Trace. If you are going there anyway, you can take their hairy little beast back with you," Stella replied, more than glad that now she wouldn't have to go there again to take the guinea pig back herself.

Flack briefly eyed the animal hair on her shirt and started sniffling a bit. He wasn't really looking forward to transporting some shedding animal, most likely smelling and causing dirt everywhere, in his car.

"I think this is not such a good idea… You know, cat allergy," he returned sniffing a little more.

"It's guinea pig…" Stella retorted.

"Oh…"

XXXXX

After she had finally convinced Flack to take the animal back to the Prescotts, Stella went over to the print lab and started working on the prints they had lifted from the pig's cage and the boy's room. Most prints naturally came from the family, butler Rogers or the cleaning personnel, but then the computer suddenly beeped.

Match found!

Stella jumped up and clicked on the result. After a few moments, the printer gave her what she needed and she headed over to Mac's office to show him what she had found. When she was just about to walk around the corner in front of Mac's office, she heard a voice that made her stop abruptly.

"Okay, Mac. When you see Bonasera, tell her to visit me in my office. I'll see you later, keep me informed."

Chief Atkins… Again??

Stella quickly started wondering if there might have been another complaint filed against her recently or what the reason for the Chief wanting to talk to her personally might be. It couldn't be about the Moormann case – that case was closed.

What else could it be?

She figured she hadn't done anything wrong and started to get furious before even knowing what was going on.

"Lord, send me patience!" she sent a quick prayer upwards when she saw him leaving Mac's office. She wanted to cool down before a possible discussion with Mac and turned away when he spotted her.

"Stella! Have a minute?"

She stopped in her movement and turned around again.

Damnit!

"Quick!!!" she added, looking up to the ceiling another time. Then she took a deep breath, put a smile on and headed towards Mac's office door.

TBC

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I know, this one was a little short - but I promise to update quickly (if you promise to show me you are still with me - I miss quite a few (formerly) regular names here :-)) The next two or three are my favorites for this story - ready for it? The next one will be "He knows..." Getting curious?

xxxlittlesheepxxx