AN Okay, I figured since Dream has gone ahead and posted her stories sans my involvment, it's only fair that I post one of my own. I have no idea where this came from, but it turned out pretty good, I think. The 'B' story (which starts in this chapter)is actually better than the 'A' story, but hey, I'm a fangirl, I had to throw in some romance or it just wouldn't feel right! Please r&r! Thanks:oP NeverMind

CSI:NY – Face Off

©2005 NeverMind

"I love Central Park. The trees, the birds…"

"The bodies," CSI Aiden Burn finished for her partner, Danny Messer.

"It's good to get out of the office, don't you think?" he asked, his camera skillfully clicking away, capturing the scene of the crime. "What do we got?"

"ID says he's Raymond Wallace, age 28. Address in Hell's Kitchen," she told him.

"Hmm, my favorite vacation spot," Danny quipped as Aiden rolled her eyes. "Roll him over."

Aiden and an assistant ME rolled the dead man onto his back.

"Whoa," Danny exclaimed, unable to prevent his automatic recoil upon seeing the man's face. It was non-existent. There was nothing left but an oozing mass of tissue and maggots. He recovered quickly and snapped off a few pictures.

Aiden coughed to try to prevent herself from gagging. "Hard to match this ID to this mess," she observed in a choked voice.

"Man, I can't even tell if there's any teeth left for a dental ID," Danny said. "I got everything. Bag this guy before my partner passes out over here."

Aiden smacked him in the gut.

"Ow!"

"Stop being a brat and help me finish processing this scene," she told him as the ME zipped the bag over the body and removed him from the scene.

Danny grinned at her mischievously before stretching, cracking his neck and getting to work. He wandered the perimeter of the scene, placing markers near potential evidence and snapping off pictures.

Aiden was on her hands and knees near the grass where the body had lain. With a pair of long tweezers, she picked up a few leftover maggots that had fallen out of the man's head and put them into a clear container. "I hate maggots," she muttered under her breath.

"Hey, Aiden?" Danny called from the far corner of their crime scene.

"Yeah?"

"Could you come here a minute?"

She pulled herself off the ground and walked carefully over to where he was standing.

"What's up? – whoa!" she declared. "Oh, my god, that's disgusting," she said, turning away to catch her breath.

"I tell ya, I've heard of defacing property, but this is just ridiculous," Danny said, snapping photos of the man's missing face that was lying just under a bush. "You wanna bag that for me?" he asked.

"Not really, no," she answered, still cringing.

"Oh, come on, you gotta face your fears," he teased her.

She shuddered, but pulled out a large plastic bag out of Danny's kit. "You sure are taking this lightly," she told him as she eased the rotting face off the ground and into the bag.

"I have to, otherwise I'd be as grossed out as you," he said with a grin, continuing with his picture taking.

Detective Don Flack came over to where Aiden was crouched. "I see you found our vic's face," he stated calmly.

"Yeah. Still not very recognizable, but if this isn't the vic's we're in some real trouble."

"Man, I've heard of defacing property…"

"Already went there!" Danny called from a few feet away. "Any witnesses?"

Flack stood up and flipped open his notebook. "No one saw what happened, but the woman who found him literally tripped over him. Good thing he was face-down or she might still be screaming."

Aiden shuddered again, carefully writing on the label of the bag containing the face before handing it off to the assistant ME to include with the body. "Tell Hawkes, good luck," she told him.

"How long had he been here?" Flack asked.

"ME said maybe more than 24 hours," Danny said, "Which amazes me because there are so many regulars that come by this spot – joggers, dog walkers – you'd think they'd have noticed the same guy lying on the grass in the same position for two days in a row."

"You know New Yorkers," Flack said, "They never want to get involved. The woman who found him was trying to avoid a 'suspicious man' on the path. We tracked the guy down, turns out he's just a harmless homeless guy asking for spare change."

"Did he have anything useful to tell you?" Aiden asked.

"Nah, just babbled something about the government being out to get him. I don't think he's all there, if you know what I'm saying."

"Well, make sure we can still find him later, just in case," Danny warned.

"Shouldn't be a problem there. He lives at the shelter just across the street."

Aiden was picking up more maggots and putting them into containers. Flack couldn't help but laugh at the faces she was making. "You gonna be okay?" he asked.

"Bleh. I hate maggots," she said.

"Just wait till we get to dissect them," Danny told her.

"You can dissect them. I'll do everything else," she tried to bargain.

"Oh no, you gotta dissect the maggots with me. They're really cool. They absorb like, everything. They'll tell us more about this case than anything else."

"Wonderful," she grudged.

"You two take it easy. I'm gonna go pound the pavement for a while, see if I come up with anything," Flack said with a laugh, dismissing himself.

By the time ME Sheldon Hawkes called them to head over to the autopsy room, it was late evening and Danny and Aiden were comparing notes to make sure they hadn't missed anything.

"So, what have we got?" Danny asked Hawkes as they stood in front of their victim and his face.

"You know how chickens will keep running around for a while even after you cut off their heads?" Hawkes asked.

"Yeah..?" Danny prompted.

"Well, I think you're looking at a human chicken."

"A human chicken?" Aiden asked, dubious.

"Yeah. You say you found this guy's face a few feet behind where his body was laying? Was there any indication that he'd been moved?"

"No, but it's been a few days – the grass wasn't very accommodating in keeping its original patterns," Danny said.

"Was there a blood trail, though?" Hawkes persisted.

"No."

"That's what I thought. This guy has abrasions on his knees and his palms – consistent with someone falling forward and trying to break their fall. It's a natural reflex – even if you can't see, you automatically hold your hands out in front of you to brace yourself."

"So you think he ran from where his face was sliced off and fell down where we found him before he died?" Aiden asked.

"The bruises are peri-mortem."

"Creepy."

"I think it's fascinating. Cause of death is exsanguination."

"So he bled out? The blow that sliced off his face didn't kill him?" Danny asked.

"Well, it did, but not instantly."

"Any indication of the weapon used?" Aiden asked.

"Well, that's a little tricky, but I'm guessing something long and extremely sharp. The tissue is quite decomposed, so I'll have to boil him to get a better look at the tool marks on the bone."

"Any chance of putting the skull back together?" Aiden asked. "I could do a reconstruction of it so we can make sure the vic is the same guy as on our ID."

"I'll see what I can do," Hawkes told her.

"Keep in touch," Danny said as he and Aiden headed back to the CSI offices.