This chapter is jumping in time. There is a little flashback. Hope it make sense. Please comment if you like it.
1.5 months earlier
Mac and the rest of the team are out for a beer after hours. It is Sid's last day before he goes away on sick leave for receive cancer treatment at a clinic in California. Everyone is trying to keep the mood up for Sid.
"so Sid who is going to take over for you while you are on vacation?" Danny asks.
"how about you Hawkes?" Jo asks.
"why should I be punished?" Hawkes asks.
"come on Hawkes you miss it, admit it," Sid says. Hawkes kinda have to admit that sometimes he really does miss being in the MEs office.
"maybe sometimes. Not having Mac bossing me around was definitely a bonus." Hawkes says with a smile and everyone starts laughing.
"so who is the new temporary ME, Sid?" JO asks when everyone stops laughing at Hawkes joke.
"it is someone you all know. She is professional and really great."
everyone is looking confused. Mac is trying to Figure out. It can't be their former ME and Mac's ex-girlfriend Peyton Driscoll because Sid said it was someone everyone knows and Jo hasn't meet Peyton before.
"well, actually Hawkes I would like to ask you if you could be my replacement for just the next 6 weeks because my replacement can't start until then."
Everyone looks at Hawkes.
"of cause Sid."
Sid nods in thanks.
"I did consider at first to move the start of my treatment until she could come but then it wasn't sure that I could get into the treatment Center.
"Sid don't worry about it. Hawkes can be in Autopsy. I can still boss around with him and Sinclair has been bossing with me to get me to hire a new CSI. So we will be okay until you come back." Mac says.
Sid raises his glass.
"thanks, all of you."
Everyone cheers for Sid and wish him good luck with his cancer treatment.
Present time
Today is Hawkes last day as temporary ME. Tomorrow is the day where the new replacement for Sid is coming. Everyone has been guessing who it could be.
It is Sunday morning and Mac woke up early. He couldn't sleep so instead of moving around and risk waking up Christine he decided to go for a morning run and then stop to bring breakfast home at around 8.30.
It is a cold march morning in New York City. Mac has been on his run for about 1.30 hour now. He is on his way home. He walks out from the bakery that is about 2 blocks from his apartment. He is walking down the street when he sees the ME van park on the street. Mac walks over there to meet Hawkes. The ME assistant Sandy Winslow who has now been an ME assistant for 1 month under Hawkes. He is doing great according to Hawkes and Mac has also noticed his eyes for details.
"morning Detective Taylor." Sandy Greets when he gets out of the van.
"morning Sandy. Where is Sheldon?"
"dr. Hawkes is home sick today, Detective."
Mac looks confused.
"who is with you?"
"the new ME sir. She is already inside. Are you the CSI on the scene?" Sandy asks.
"no. no one else is here?" mac asks confused.
"no. we have been her for 5 minutes no one is here."
Lindsay has been home with Jack and Lucy who has both been sick the last few days. Hawkes has had a little cold lately but not so bad that he couldn't go to work and JO has been at a forensics convention so they have been a little shorthanded the last few days. Mac walks inside to meet the new ME. There is a police officer at the door.
"good morning Detective Taylor." The officer greets.
"where is the detective on the case?" Mac asks.
"detective Lovato is on her way, sir."
Mac nods and the put on his gloves before he enters the crime scene. He walks into an apartment and into the bedroom where a man in his 40 is dead on the floor. Bend over a buddy is a woman in a blue ME jumpsuit with brown hair in a ponytail. There are lots of high-velocity blood spatter on the walls and all over the room.
"morning Dr." Mac greets. The woman stands up and turns around. It is Peyton Driscoll. She is wearing a mask. She takes off her mask and smiles at him.
"morning Mac. It is great to see you again."
mac look around at the crime scene and at the body.
"what are you preliminary COD?"
Peyton nods and bends down to the victim again Mac kneel down next to her.
"there is no visible trauma to the body. I can't tell you anything before I get him back to the office."
Mac is walking around in the room and looking to see if he can find any signs of bullet holes.
"Mac don't touch anything."
Mac looks confused at her.
"why?"
"look at his eyes. I am calling the CDC. I think this is a viral epidemic. Could be a chemical virus."
Peyton takes out her phone and calls CDC while Mac tells the officer at the door to step away and close the door.
20 minutes later the CDC response team is at the scene and Mac and Peyton are being securely transported out of the building and to a hospital quarantine. Jo and the rest of the team arrive at the scene few minutes after Mac and Peyton have been transported away.
"what happened here?" Jo asks in frustration.
The leader of the CDC teams walks over to them.
"CSI Danville?" he asks.
"yes. Any idea what we are dealing with?"
"I'm CDC leader Walker. It looks like a virus. We are cleaning the house right now. The ME and the detective at the scene are being transported to treatment now."
"the CSI? Who was that?"
"a CSI Taylor?" Jo looks choked.
"it was Macs day off. What was he even doing her?" Danny asks.
"I should have been on the scene I overslept," Quinn explains.
"Mac lives only 2 blocks that way we could go talk to Christine ask her way he was here and also inform her about what is going on if she doesn't already know," Lindsay says. Jo nods.
"yes. Hawkes, I need you as ME. The new ME has been quarantined with Mac. Danny, you and Lindsay go to Christine get him some clean clothing and…
"we know the protocol, Jo," Danny says before he and Lindsay leave the scene again.
The CDC leader Walker comes over to JO. "detective Danville do you know if your CSI removed anything from the crime scene?"
"Mac is professional he would have taken anything out of the scene."
"okay, we are going to have to kill all leaving organism with UV light before you can access the scene."
"okay."
"in the ME." Hawkes introduces himself.
"suit up over here." Walk leads him over to get in a suit so he can enter the crime scene.
Macs apartment
Christine has just finished her shower. She is waiting for Mac to come home with breakfast like he always does when he wakes up early and leaves for a run. Christine is coming out of the bathroom with wet hair and in Macs t/shirt when it rings on the door. She laughs and walks to the door to open.
"really Mac Taylor you are the most…"
She stops when she sees Danny and Lindsay outside.
"hey, guys." She simply says.
"morning Christine can we come in?" Danny asks.
"yeah but Mac is out for a run. He should be back anytime soon."
She let them in.
"I'm afraid he won't," Lindsay says. Christine looks shocked at them.
"what happened to him? is he dead?"
"no no. don't worry. He was at a crime scene two blocks away. Do you know what he was doing there?"
Christine is confused.
"no. I thought he went for a run and then went to pick up breakfast on the way home. He does that sometimes. It was his day off why would he be at a crime scene?"
"we don't know do you know where the place is he pick up breakfast?"
"a small bakery just three blocks away from here." Christine finds her phone to find the exact address for the bakery and shows it to Danny.
"boom. Crime scene right between home and bakery."
"he walked by the crime scene saw no CSI o the scene started the preliminary to Quinn arrived."
"Mac shouldn't even have been there," Danny says.
"Okay English please. Where is Mac? What happened to him? is he okay? Can I talk to him?" Christine asks in frustration over not understanding what is going on. Danny and Lindsay share a concerned look before Lindsay starts explaining to Christine.
"it is possible that Mac has been exposed to a chemical virus. He is Quarantined at the hospital right now until they find out what he was exposed to. You can't see him because you could get affected too."
Christine sits down on the couch. She is in shock. They had planned to spend the day together. Just relaxing. Just the two of them and start wedding plans. Lindsay takes a seat and leans her arms around her.
"Mac is going to be fine, Christine," Lindsay says. Danny looks up at Lindsay with a look that says don't give her false hope.
"Christine we will keep you updated as soon we know anything. But it can take up to two before we actually know if he has been affected and in worst case what he has been affected with."
"is he alone?" Christine asks in between her tears.
"no, our new ME Peyton Driscoll is quarantined too. She is an old friend of Mac."
"if he is affected is he going to die?" she asks trying to sound more rational than she feels.
"don't go there, Christine," Lindsay says.
"If Lucy was here she should say no one beats Mac," Danny says. They all starts laughing a little.
"yeah, Lucy is right." Christine stands up.
"okay, what do you guys need from me?"
"we need to know if he has gotten any cuts or bruises lately," Danny says more like a cup now.
Christine smiles little.
"he cut himself last night during shaving. It happens when he gets distracted." Christine looks at a picture of him and Mac he has on his work desk in the living room.
"sometimes he focused like goldfish." Christine laughs. "he always blames on me. Saying that I am distracting him."
Lindsay and Danny look at each other with a smile.
"that is strangely enough also what we experience at the lab," Danny says. Christin look surprised. Danny explains. "he is clearly distracted when he get a text from you."
"but it is a really good thing. He is really happy. We like him better that way." Lindsay says. Christine smiles.
"so Christine we also need to bring some clean clothing for him. something relaxed." Danny says.
Christine walks into the bedroom and finds a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and a cardigan. She puts it all in a plastic bag and walks out to the two detectives in the living room. She grabs the picture from his desk.
"that is his favorite I think. He always looks at it when he is frustrated about work." Christine explains.
"Christine I think that any picture of you and him is his favorite," Danny says. "I have known Mac for many years and for a really long time he didn't have any pictures in his office that was any kind of personal. Now he has pictures of what he calls his two favorite girls." Danny says.
"me and Lucy?" Christine asks with a little chuckle. Danny nods.
"yeah, I didn't think in the beginning that Lucy would accept sharing the title as Macs favorite girl with anyone, but…"
"she really adores you." Lindsay finishes Danny's sentences.
"thanks, guys."
Hospital quarantine
Mac and Peyton are placed in a room made of plastic. They are finally out of the safety suits. There are a bed and a desk and a chair in each 'room'. Mac sits down on his bed.
"so what are we going to do now? I feel like being 15 again. Being ground for sneaking out."
Peyton laughs.
"you being grounded? Why do I find it hard to believe that the perfect Mac Taylor was a rebel kid."
"oh trust me. If you knew how many times my mom have told me 'you are ground until you get off to college, young man'."
Peyton starts laughing again.
"I really can't image you as a rebel teenager. What did you get grounded for?"
"sneaking out of my bedroom window and go out with my girlfriend. A secret girlfriend who had tattoos which were a total no go from my dad. Making science experiments with electricity in the garage a scared the hell out of my mom and when my mom had told me not to go do anything stupid and then I did and was injured… well doing something stupid is a subjective definition so it depends on how you rate do something stupid."
"I'm sure teenager Mac Taylor knew what do anything stupid meant by his mom's definition."
"yeah, I did."
Peyton stops laughing. Mac just stares at the ceiling.
"it's funny. We have known each other for so many years but I never knew any of this."
Mac looks over at Peyton.
"maybe because we never really talked when we were together," Mac says.
"yeah. I missed my opportunity to get to know the real rebel Mac Taylor."
mac chuckles. "I'm not a rebel."
"says the guy who blow up his own lab."
Mac sits up fast to face her.
"every big scientist in the history has at some point blow up his own lab." He says in a defensive tone before a smile spreads on his face. Peyton just laughs and shakes her head in disbelief.
"Mac Taylor you are unbelievable."
she looks into his eyes.
"I can't believe it would take that we got quarantined before we were actually able to talk. I really missed you, Mac."
Crime lab 9.30 pm
"okay thank you." Jo hangs up on her phone and walks into the conference room where everyone else is.
"we just got confirmed that the victim was affected wit…" Jo needs to get herself together before she can be the strong leader she needs to be. "with Ebola."
Everyone is choked about the news.
"do we know the sources for the virus?" Hawkes asks.
"no. vi don't know anything because we don't have an ID on our victim yet." JO says a little frustrated about the slow process of the case.
"I will call the hospital and get an update on Mac and Peyton." Sheldon leaves the room.
"has everyone else wondered how it must be for Mac that Peyton comes back after years and then they get quarantined together?"
Adam asks.
"yeah I'm sure Mac enjoys being locked in a plastic box with his ex-girlfriend that dumped him twice," Lindsay says sarcastically and leaves the room.
Hospital Quarantine 9.40 pm
Mac is in a light sleep when a male doctor enters his room to take some test.
"detective Taylor?" the doctor says to try to wake him up.
"that doesn't work," Peyton says. "MAC TAYLOR if you don't…"
Mac opens his eyes and looks at her with a serious look.
"if you even think about finishing that sentences you are in trouble." He warns her. He looks up at the doctor.
"why are women in my life always waking me up when I am most comfortable?"
"guess it's a lady thing." The doctor says with a smile.
"you got some good news for us, doctor?" Mac asks.
"unfortunately I got bad news for you. We have identified the virus. It is… ebola."
Mac swallows hard and then nods.
"okay. Are we infected?" he asks rational as the detective he is.
"we don't know yet. Unfortunately, we got some bad news from your girlfriend... that you cut yourself doing shaving the other night that means…"
"I have a bigger change for being infected because of the direct access?"
"yes, unfortunately. So we are going to have to make some more test on you. Which also means that you too can't have any contact. In the case on of you is not affected and the other on is."
Mac nods in understanding.
"detective am going to ask you If you have had any kind of physical contact with anyone since you suspected you had gotten affected?"
"no. I have a girlfriend but I haven seen or talked to her since we suspected infection."
"okay. Are you aware of how the virus spreads?"
"yes, buddy fluids," Mac says.
"yes. So we are going to take some more blood test but normally the symptoms of the infection show between 2 and 21 days after the virus has entered your body. So we are going to have a nurse watching you guys all night. And you both need to inform us if you have symptoms like a sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat."
Mac and Peyton nod in understanding.
"yes, doctor."
"okay, good night." The doctor leaves the room. Shortly after three nurses comes in to take som blood samples from both of them before they both can get some sleep. When the nurses have left they both lays down in their beds again. They both look up at the ceiling.
"so you have a girlfriend? She is a lucky woman. I hope she knows that."
Mac chuckles.
"I'm the lucky one. She is amazing. She has helped me become a better me."
Peyton knows she should feel happy for him but she still feels a little bit of jealousy in her stomach.
at Mac and Christine's apartment
Christine is sitting in bed and looking at Macs empty side of the bed. She takes her phone and looks at her picture she has of Mac on her front page. She decides to send him a text even though he probably doesn't have his phone right now. 'I miss you. Please come home soon.' She sends the text and then places her phone on the nightstand. Then she leans over and lays her head on his pillow. She reaches over and takes his teddy bear that is sitting on his nightstand and sleeps with it for the night.
Monday morning hospital quarantine
Mac is laying in the bed in the hospital quarantine. He has been awake for hours. He didn't realize he would miss Christine just after one night without her next to him but he has gotten so used to her being next to him and her head resting on his chest every night that he has difficulties sleeping without her.
Peyton is also laying awake. She can't stop thinking about what Mac said last night about his girlfriend. That she has made him a better person. He has always been the most amazing man she has ever known. Has his new girlfriend changed him? maybe it is that doctor Hunter that he was dating last time she saw him. flirting with a patient? Isn't that against the rules?
Peyton's thoughts get interrupted when the doctor enters their room.
"good morning. I have a laptop for each of you and a cell phone and Detective Taylor, Detective Danville asked me to bring you this." She hands Mac the picture Christine placed in the bag with his clothing. Mac looks at it and smiles.
"thank you."
"it is against the rules but she told me that it was very important."
"thank you," Mac says and sits down on his bed. The nurse places the computer and the cellphone on his table. He is just looking at the picture for a while.
"I miss you." He mumbles while he is looking at Christine smiling at him on the picture. Peyton is watching him. she wishes that she was the one on the picture he would look at like that. It has been a long time since he looked at her with those eyes felt with sincerity.
A few hours later Mac is on facetime with his team. They are all concerned about both of them.
"are any of you showing any symptoms yet?" Dr. Hawkes asks.
"no none of us have any symptoms yet," Mac says but then he starts coughing.
"mac one of the symptoms is coughing," Hawkes says.
"Christine had a could last week she probably transferred it to me. I'm fine." Mac sounds insisting.
"mac…"
"I'm fine Sheldon. How is the case going?"
"we have ID the victim. His name is James Hopkins. He was married to a doctor Shanan Hopkins. No kids. The wife died three yeas ago. He was a teacher in a high school." Lindsay informs Mac.
"nothing about this guy screams biochemical terror," Danny concludes.
"that doesn't make any sense. Keep looking there gotta be something." Mac says.
They all nods. Quinn stands up.
"everyone, can I please talk to Mac alone for a moment?" Quinn asks. Everyone looks confused and then Jo signals that they should all leave the room. When everyone has left the room Quin walks closer to the screen.
"Mac I'm sorry. It should be me in there not you."
"What the Hell happened Quinn? Why weren't you at the scene?"
"i…" Quinn looks down embarrassed about the truth.
"I went out for a beer with Jo last night. I meet someone and I overslept this morning so I didn't hear the call."
"goddamit, Quinn," Mac says.
"I'm sorry Mac." She sounds sincere when she apologizes.
"that just doesn't do it this time Quinn." Mac tries to keep his cool. "I gotta go Quinn." Mac hangs up. He stands up and walks around within his little plastic cube. He is angry. It is the worst reason possible. It is bad enough that he is Quarantined. He is quarantined with his ex-girlfriend. That dumped him twice. He was at a crime scene that wasn't even his because a colleague who has a crush on him went out drinking the night before to get over him because he turned down a beer invitation for a movie night at home with his fiancee. Can this day be much worst?
While Mac is walking around to calm himself down he starts feeling a headache. He felt it earlier but not as much as now. He starts feeling dizzy and suddenly he is unconscious.