Disclaimer: CSI:NY does NOT belong to me. The only characters that belong to me are Alexis and Emma. And this is a slightly AU story. Hope that's not a problem with anyone. And I hope people like this story!
Spoilers: None…maybe borrowed concepts, but that's about it!
Summary: What do we get when we give Detective Mac Taylor a niece? A little drama but mostly a whole lot of fun!
Chapter 8
Stella was startled awake when she felt her gags come undone. She forced her eyes to open and came face to face with a hardened face. "Who are you?" she rasped, voice hoarse from not having liquids.
"That's not important now," he answered vaguely. He stood and crossed the room to retrieve a water bottle from his duffel. "Here," he said, tossing the bottle at her.
She caught it and unscrewed the cap. Taking a long swig, she let the cool liquid sit in her mouth before swallowing it. Putting the cap back on, she adjusted herself slightly, setting the bottle on the ground next to her.
"Your boss took something from me, so I took something from him," the man started. "He should always watch his back."
Stella stared at him, trying to place his last sentence, when it hit her. They had closed a case a couple years ago that had landed him in jail. To be fair, it was the evidence that put him in jail. She recalled the last trial where the man threatened Mac by telling to "always watch his back" as he was led away in cuffs.
"This has nothing to do with you; you're just a pawn in all of this," the man stated, staring hard at her. He stood and crouched down next to her, reaching out to push some stray curls away from her face.
Stella jerked her head away and hissed, "Don't touch me." She immediately recoiled as she received a hard slap in the face for her answer.
"I don't think you want to mess with me, Stella," he said with a sneer. "That's right; I remember you, or did you think I had forgotten?" He ran his finger down the side of her face, trailing down her neck, dipping slightly into her neckline. Suddenly he grabbed her by the throat and shoved her up against the wall behind her. "Behave, or you will find yourself in even more of a pickle." With that he practically tossed her aside like an old rag doll and stood.
Stella gasped for air as she supported herself from lying fully on the ground. Bastard, she thought. Suddenly, she checked her jacket pocket to see if she still had her cell. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy. The jackass took it, probably when he kidnapped her from work.
Mac, Aiden, Danny…anyone! You have to find me! she thought, trying desperately to stay awake. The pain in her leg had returned and was now throbbing mercilessly, threatening to succumb her into the land of darkness for several more hours.
Meanwhile, Alexis and Emma were playing in the living room when the phone rang. "Hold on kiddo," Alexis smiled as she ran to grab the cordless. "Hello?" she answered. "Hey Uncle Mac, what's wrong?" she asked, the smile leaving her face. When he explained the situation to her, she went pale and sunk to the floor.
Emma watched curiously before toddling over to sit next to Alexis. "Lexi, smile!" she demanded, scared because the older girl wasn't talking. "No sad!"
Alexis flatly answered her uncle's request of coming to the station so he could keep an eye on them. As she ended the call, she dropped the phone and sobs began to wrack her body. She grabbed Emma in a hug and squeezed her to the point of almost cutting her oxygen supply.
"Lexi, hurt," the toddler complained, pushing at Alexis' arms. "Ow!" she complained again when the teen didn't acknowledge her.
Suddenly Alexis loosened her hold. "I'm sorry baby girl," she apologized, kissing the girl's head. "We need to go see Daddy at work." She stood up and carried Emma upstairs to change her into warmer clothes and packed a bag for her.
When they left the house, Alexis quickly jumped into her new car and headed into the city, safely arriving at the precinct where she Danny waiting for them outside. "Danny, what's going on?" she asked tearfully.
Danny shook his head sadly and wrapped his arms around the two girls, holding them for a few minutes. When he broke the hug, he took their bag from them and ushered them inside. "Your uncle will explain everything," he answered vaguely.
Alexis, clutching Emma desperately, followed, numb to the stares she was receiving. The minute Danny left Mac's office, she set the toddler down and collapsed against her uncle.
Mac lowered himself into a chair, taking his niece with him. "Shhh," he soothed. "We're working on finding her." He held his hand out for Emma who took it, unsure as to why Alexis was crying again.
Alexis pulled back and settled herself in the other vacant chair. Mac pulled his little girl onto his lap and cuddled her close. "Sweetie," he started. How was one to explain to a one year-old that her mommy was missing? Mac sighed and instead, dropped a kiss to Emma's head.
"Mama?" Emma questioned, looking around to see if she could spot Stella.
"Mommy's not here right now," Mac said sadly, running his fingers through her soft curls. "Some bad men took her but we're going to get her back," he promised fiercely, hugging the toddler to him.
Emma looked sad as she buried her face into her daddy's chest. Alexis stood and came over to wrap her arms around Mac's shoulders as she rested her cheek on his head. "Can I do anything to help?"
Mac shook his head. "No, just keep Emma occupied while we go to the crime scene. We found traces of blood outside." He squeezed Emma quickly and leaned back to look at her. "I'm going to go look for mommy. You need to stay here and be good for Lexi, okay?"
Emma nodded. "I go," she decided. She started protesting when Alexis lifted her out of Mac's arms and into her own.
"No, sweetie," Mac said softly. "You need to stay here so you don't get hurt."
Alexis rested her hand on her uncle's arm. "Go, we'll be fine. Are you taking Danny and Aiden with you?"
He nodded as he walked over to retrieve his jacket off the back of his chair. "And Flack. If you need anything, Jane is down the hall and Hawkes is downstairs." He adjusted his coat and kissed the girls goodbye. "We're not going to stop until we find her."
Alexis nodded as he left and sunk into her uncle's chair. "Well, kiddo. I brought some toys and books for you to play with." She smiled weakly as Emma looked up at her. "You can go ahead and play if you want."
Emma slid off the older girl's lap and toddled over to her bag where she plopped down in front of it. She pulled the bag towards her and reached in to pull some toys out. Finding one of her favorites, she stuck it in her mouth and watched the people pass by the office.
Outside, Danny and Aiden were processing the current crime scene. "Hey Danny, look at this," Aiden called.
"What?" Danny asked, crouching down next to his partner.
"See this?" Aiden responded, pointing at tire marks. "They go away from the office rather than towards it." She straightened up and followed the marks. Confusion marked her face as she turned back to Danny. "If this was random, wouldn't there have been marks going both ways?"
Danny came to stand next to her and looked back down the alley. "You're right. Looks like they were waiting for her to come out. This means that this was personal against Stella."
"Or anyone of us," Aiden added. "They could've been waiting for anybody and Stella happened to be the first to step outside."
Danny nodded thoughtfully. He frowned as something caught his eye. He walked quickly back to his kit. Grabbing a sterile swab, he returned to where Aiden was watching him curiously. When he crouched down, she followed. "Got some blood," he murmured.
Aiden left him and grabbed the liquid that would confirm if it was blood. Dribbling a drop onto the swab, Danny and Aiden looked at each other with anxiety-ridden looks. The tip of the swab had indeed turned pink. "I'll take this to DNA," Aiden said softly as she headed back inside the building. Danny continued to process the crime scene while she ran inside.
Meanwhile, Mac and Flack were processing an abandoned car that had been found with blood on it. Taking care of the necessary samples and such, they were soon headed back to the lab with a lot more than they had started with. Mac ran the blood samples to DNA where he almost ran into Aiden.
"Did you find anything?" he asked quickly.
Aiden solemnly nodded. "Found traces of blood outside. Positive with Stella's DNA. What'd you get?" she asked, gesturing to the samples he held.
"We processed a car that had blood on it. I have a feeling this may match with Stella's too," he said looking down.
Aiden rested her hand on his shoulder as she passed. "We'll find her. But I've gotta run and continue working on the evidence."
Mac nodded as she headed down the hall and he entered Jane Parson's office. "Jane, another blood sample," he said, handing it over to her.
Jane looked at him with sympathy. "I'm really sorry about all of this," she said in her British accent. "I'm assuming you'd like to wait?" she stated, rather than asked.
Mac didn't answer but instead sat in one of the two chairs that were placed next to the door. He watched curiously as Jane performed her own tests and about an hour and a half later, she walked over to him with the results. "For the second time today, this is a match to Stella."
Mac sighed and ran his hand over his face. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
She looked at him in surprise. "Gut instinct," he said to her silent question. "Thanks," he said, holding up the sheet as he headed out of the office. Heading back to one of the labs, he began to process the hairs they had found in the backseat and front seat of the car in question.
Several hours, the team met again in Mac's office. "Okay, we have DNA that matches Stella and a man named Thomas Cole," Aiden started. She flicked through the file, "And apparently, he just got out of jail from a case that Mac and Stella processed back in 2003. Now he's out and has a personal vendetta against Mac and Stella, probably more against Mac since he testified at his trial."
Mac took the file from her hands and flicked through it. "Yes, I remember this man. He threatened me after he was sentenced and led away in cuffs." He tossed the file onto his desk. "Someone has obviously bailed him out. He was supposed to get 25 years and it's only been two."
Flack leaned against the glass wall and flipped through his notes. "We found the car he used, parked out in front of a pawn shop. That address is very shady and surrounded with old, abandoned warehouses. I think we need to search around that neighborhood." He glanced up and saw that everyone was looking at him. "Just an idea," he shrugged.
Mac shook his head as if snapping himself out of a daydream. "Flack's right. We need to search that neighborhood where we found that car. They can't be too far away because we know that Stella has at least been injured." He motioned for everyone to follow. "Let's go," he ordered.
As everyone filed out of the office, he turned back to give a reassuring smile to the girls before leaving with the group. They drove like madmen back to the scene where they found the car. Danny and Aiden arrived first and immediately were inside the pawnshop, questioning the owner. Mac arrived with Flack not a moment later and those two immediately began searching the nearby buildings for clues.
Danny came back outside as Aiden politely thanked the owner inside and joined her partner on the sidewalk. "Hey Mac," Danny called. When Mac looked his way, he motioned him over. "The owner says that he noticed a man carrying a woman over his shoulder the other day. Thinks she was unconscious cause she didn't struggle."
"Didn't struggle?" Mac asked.
"He thinks the man wasn't someone that the woman would hang out with," Danny clarified.
Mac nodded as Flack called for the three to join him. "Looks like we have some gravitational drops of blood," he said, pointing at a trail that led to the back of a small abandoned building.
"Okay, we need to call for backup. This guy might be armed," Mac stated. He grabbed his cell phone and called for backup. "They'll be here in ten," he informed his team. He stepped back and looked up towards the roof of the building. "No windows on the sides," he observed, walking around to the back. "We have windows back here though."
Flack, Danny and Aiden joined him as he studied the backside of the building. "There's a door over there. Use that one as an entrance but have the front blocked," Aiden suggested. She watched as the guys headed for the other side of the building only to return immediately.
"Nothing on that side, but we'll have all sides covered just in case," Mac decided. They headed back up the alley and noticed a small squad was waiting for them.
Inside, Thomas Cole was pacing the room nervously. "How the hell could they have found me?" he muttered to himself.
Stella watched him with a smirk. "Never leave evidence behind that they can use against you," she replied.
He lunged at her after she said that. "Shut up!" he screamed in her face. He forced her onto her back as he put pressure on her injured leg.
Stella bit her lip as she tried not to scream out in pain. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of knowing he was hurting her. She struggled instead to get her arm out from underneath her. Forming a fist, she brought towards his head and got him hard.
Groaning, Cole rolled away from her, clutching his head. He cursed as he stood and went back to the windows. He started panicking as he saw the uniforms coming to the back and stationed themselves like an army. He started pacing nervously again. "I'm not going back to that hell hole," he declared, pulling a gun out of his pocket.
Stella, starting to get nervous herself, watched him through pain-filled eyes. Suddenly she heard feet coming up the stairs. "He's got a gun!" she called out in warning.
He turned and fired a shot, fortunately only hitting her in the shoulder. She groaned as the shot propelled her backwards so she was on her back, clutching her shoulder as her leg continued to throb.
"Police! Open up!" the officers on the other side shouted, pounding on the door. Barely five seconds later, they burst through just as Cole stuck the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
Stella closed her eyes and turned away as the police ducked for cover. "Stella!" a man yelled, pushing his way through the police. "Stella!"
She opened her eyes cautiously and found herself looking into the worried gaze of Mac Taylor, her fiancée. "Mac!" she cried, trying to sit up. She moaned as she remembered her injured shoulder. "Bastard shot me and smashed my leg in the car door," she explained.
"Shh, you're going to be okay," Mac said, his eyes welling up. "I've got you now." He gathered her into his arms, bleeding shoulder and all, and rocked her back and forth. He smoothed her hair back and kept rocking.
"Hey Stel, good to have you back," Aiden said through a watery smile. She dropped to her knees and hugged her friend.
That's how Danny and Flack found them moments later. "Come on, you need to get to the hospital," Danny said, trying to be professional. When she pulled back from Mac's embrace, Danny grinned at her. "Hey Stella."
"Hey Danny, Flack. Glad you guys came after me," she teased. That's the Stella they all know and love, the one that'll continue to tease and joke even when she is clearly in pain.
After several examinations, a surgery and a cast, Stella was finally resting in a hospital bed with Mac asleep in the chair next to hers. She had woken up a few minutes ago, and was enjoying the sight before her. Mac's mouth was slightly open and a little bit of drool was on the corner of his mouth.
She looked up as the door to her room opened quietly. "Hey," Aiden greeted softly. She glanced over at Mac and saw that he was still asleep. "How ya feelin'?" she asked, sitting in the chair on the other side of Stella's bed.
"Like I got hit by truck," Stella said with a grin. "How'd you find me so fast?"
Aiden chuckled. "Stel, it's been a day. We only found evidence yesterday and today. Mac was after everyone trying to get you back."
Stella smiled softly. "Yeah, I bet he was." She looked over at the man she loves then back at Aiden. "I'm glad it was you guys who found me instead of someone else."
"I'm just glad we got there before he could beat you up even more. How long did you have the bullet wound?" Aiden wondered.
"Only about ten minutes before you guys came barging in. He saw everyone surrounding the building and started getting nervous and when I opened my mouth with a sarcastic response, he shot me. I'm just lucky he was such a crappy shot."
"We're all lucky, Stel," Aiden whispered. "You don't realize how many people love you."
Stella grew quiet as she thought about what her friend told her. "You're right; I don't," she admitted.
"Do you think you're ready to give a statement?" Aiden asked, getting down to business, as Danny came into the room.
Danny crossed to where Aiden sat. "Hey Stella," he said with a smile.
"Hey Danny, thanks for coming," Stella answered. She smiled and adjusted herself, cringing slightly. After getting as comfortable as she could, she recounted her incident for Aiden and Danny to record.