visit from an old friend
It had been a quiet day at the Lab. Mac had spent most of the day doing paperwork. Danny and Hawkes had been working on an arson case while Lindsay had worked together with Quinn and Adam on a home invasion robbery and Jo had the day off. So it had been quiet. Mac had left the lab early. He had gone to the restaurant and picked up Christine and they had gone to their favorite restaurant for dinner.
Back at the apartment, Mac pulls up in front of their building.
"I'll park the car. see you upstairs." She unbuckles her seatbelt but before she can get out of the car he grabs her hand gently.
"sweety, could you open a bottle of wine when you come up?"
She looks at him with a smile and tries to read his face to find out what he is up to.
"why?"
He gives her an innocent smile.
"can't we drink a glass of wine just because we feel like it?"
She looks at him with a wondering look to see if she can see any hint of what he is planning. But his expression is absolutely clueless. She gets out of the car and enters the elevator. When she exited the elevator on their floor. she sees a woman standing outside their door. She walks over to the door and finds her key. The woman who is tall and has brown curly hair walks over to her.
"hi, excuse me isn't this detective Mac Taylor's apartment?" the woman asks.
"who are you?" Christine asks. She remembers Mac has told her never to reveal any information without having seen any identification. The woman takes a detective badge of her belt and shows it to Christine. It looks legitimate.
"New Orleans police department. Detective Bonasera. I'm looking for Detective Mac Taylor."
"Yes, it is detective Taylor's apartment. I'm his fiancée. What is it about?"
The detective has a big smile on her face.
"Mac is engaged?" the detective asks very surprisedly in a much more friendly and less formal tone. Christine is confused.
"you know him personally?"
"Christine be careful. step away from her." Mac's voice is heard from the elevator behind them. He is talking in a very warning tone that scares Christine. Christine takes a few steps back from the detective. Christine is confused now. Mac walks up to the two woman.
"Mac Taylor. Haven't seen you in awhile." The detective says with a smile and turns around. Mac starts smiling. A smile that shows pure happiness. A smile that Christine rarely embrace each other.
"its good to see you too, Stell," Mac says when they break apart. Christine is just observing the two old friends.
"I see you already meet my girlfriend Christine. Christine this is my friend and former partner, Stella Bonasera."
"nice to meet you." The two woman shake hands.
"let's get inside," Mac says and Christine unlocks the door and they walk inside. Stella notices that Mac places a hand on Christine's lower back. A discreet touch, something that the old Mac Taylor that she worked with never did to anyone after his wife died. not even when he was dating Peyton.
Christine makes coffee while Mac updates Stella on what has been going on in the lab since she left for New Orleans.
"so Danny and Lindsay have got a baby boy, Jack. Lucy loves her little brother. And Flack is started dating a new homicide detective, Lovato. Sid got cancer but he is fighting it so he should be back within a few month."
"so who is the current ME?" Stella asks.
"Peyton," Mac says and looks towards the kitchen. But Christine is nowhere to be seen. Mac hasn't told Christine about his relationship with Peyton and how it ended.
"how is that? I mean working with her again?"
Mac hesitates a little before he answered. "I guess it is okay."
Christine comes in with the coffee and three cups.
"do you use anything in your coffee, Stella?" she asks.
"no thanks. Just black."
Christine fills up the coffee cups and takes a seat next to Mac.
"so that is pretty much what has happened in the lab since you left," Mac concludes his rapport on important events from the lab personnel and work related.
"I think you are forgetting one big thing, Mac Taylor," Stella says. Mac looks confused at Stella. She mentioned earlier that she pretty much hasn't been in contact with anyone in the lab since she left, so Mac can't think of what it could be that he has forgotten.
"I see a big rock on your girlfriend's finger and the fact that it seems like she is living her with you."
Mac looks at Christine with a big smile and takes her hand.
"oh yeah, that little detail. Did I forget to mention that?" Mac says with a big smile that is impossible for him to hide. Christine gives him a kiss on the cheek. She can't hide her happiness either. in the old times, Mac would just have ignored the question and turned focus to something work-related. Stella likes this new development. She has a feeling she is going to like Christine very much.
"Yeah, I think you did." Stella turns to Christine. "please tell me it was just a tiny bit romantic. He can actually be romantic when he really wants to."
Christine looks at Mac with a smile. "it was perfect." Mac gives Christine a quick kiss on the cheek. Stella is noticing the very special glow he has on his face when he is looking at Christine. A glow that she hasn't seen on his face since before 9/11. Happy, joking Mac Taylor.
"I haven't seen you this happy in a very long time," Stella says once Christine has left for the kitchen to refill the coffee. The conversation between the couple and the old friend is easy going. Like Stella and Christine had known each other for a long time and like no time had passed since Stella left New York.
"I haven't been this happy in a long time." He says with sincere honesty. He takes a sip of his coffee cup before he looks at Stella with a more serious look. "so what brings you to the big apple? Tired of being the boss?"
Stella laughs. "you wish. Keep dreaming Taylor. I am not coming back to let you bust my butt around again."
There are a nice comfortable mood in the apartment as the two old friend exchange memories and catch up on the time that has past.
"I need your help with a case. A serial killer who is targeting blonde low-risk woman in their early 40. He has the forensic knowledge and is skilled in computers also. He knows how to avoid
surveillance camera. He is finding his victims on online dating sites. One particular dating site actually."
After Stella has given Mac the details about the case they work out a plan for the jointed investigation and agree that Stella should join the team first thing in the morning.
the next day Mac and Stella arrive at the crime lab together after grabbing a cup of coffee for old time sake. As soon as they step out of the elevator they are meet by Sheldon Hawkes. He has some information for Mac but doesn't get to give it to him because of the surprise present of detective Stella Bonasera.
"Stella?" Hawkes says in surprise.
"Doctor Sheldon Hawkes… haven't seen you in a while." She takes him into a big hug. When the friendly reunion is over Mac asks Hawkes for the information and they have a walk and talk back to Mac's office. Mac takes a seat behind his desk and starts working on the information Hawkes gave him while Hawkes and Stella are catching up on old times.
Later Mac gathers the entire team in the conference room. Mac, Stella, and Hawkes are in the conference room when Danny and Lindsay come in.
"whats up, Mac?" Danny asks. Lindsay immediately sees Stella.
"oh my god Stella?" Lindsay says and gives Stella a big hug that embraces all the feels Lindsay had of loss and abandonment but also hope and happiness for Stella.
It was a tough time for Lindsay when Stella left. Both because of the Shane Casey case and Shane Casey hurting Lucy. Since Lindsay first joined the crime lab Stella had not only been a mentor for the young CSI but also like a mother figure for her but someone she could confide in and talk to about everything. Of cause she has Danny but sometimes having a woman to talk to had been all Lindsay needed when she had a rough day. She had felt like Stella had abanded her in the toughest time in her life. She had taken a mans life. She had even gotten a medal for it and a monster had threatened to kill her husband and her daughter and then Stella had just left her behind. Lindsay had known that it was selfish of her to think that way but that was the way she had felt it. Of cause having Mac and Danny and the other guys always helped and then Jo had joined the team.
"Oh I missed you, Stell," Lindsay says. Not able to hide how much she missed her friend and old mentor.
"I missed you too kiddo." A word that Stella often had used to Lindsay to cheer her up.
"my turn. My turn." Daddy says like an impatient little boy. Everyone starts laughing.
"and you still wonder where Jack got that impatiens from," Lindsay says.
"from you babe," Daddy says before he gives Stella a big hug.
"I hear it didn't go so well for sergeant Danny Messer," Stella says.
"Yeah well, I missed my friends and not seeing my beautiful wife all the time," Danny says and places his arm on Lindsay's shoulders and places a kiss on her head.
"so you missed your wife? What about Mac bossing you around?" Stella asks. Danny looks over at Mac with a smile.
"Well, I guess that is a pain in the ass I going to have to live with until I can convince Lindsay to transfer to another team. I suggested Montana." Danny says.
"come on city boy you wouldn't last 5 minutes on the countryside." Everyone starts laughing.
"Good to hear some things never change." Stella says with a smile. "even after all this time you two still argue like the day you first meet."
"why change the good things?" Danny asks.
Stella hadn't realized until now how much she missed those guys. They weren't just her colleagues but they were family. Mac had been there for her when she lost her mentor Professor Papakota and found out about the truth about her mother and all her friends had been there for her when she killed her boyfriend Frankie Mala. They had been there for her.
"okay reunion is over. Let's get to work." Mac says and everyone takes a seat except for Mac and Stella. Stella starts to fill in the team on the investigation of her serial killer when Jo joins them.
"morning Mac," Jo says when she entered. "Quinn will be her shortly she had to change. Dumpster diving." Jo explains when she sits down. Then Jo sees the new face.
"Oh hey. New face. I'm Jo Danville."
"Stella Bonasera." Stella introduces her self.
"it's so nice to finally put a face to the name. I heard a lot of great things about you." Jo says. It warms Stella to hear that her friends didn't just forget her despite the way that she suddenly left the team.
"okay let's get started," Mac says.
Stella continues the briefing and Quinn join them and just sits down without says hello to Stella. Stella is almost done briefing the team when Adam walks to the conference room. Instead of walking to the room and join the briefing he is just standing in the door stirring at Stella. She starts smiling by the sight of Adam
"Hey Adam what's up?" she says using his words and sends him a big loving smile. Adam is still just stirring at her.
"Hey dude," Danny says and snaps Adam out of his head.
"Sorry," Adam says still looking at Stella. "I got this for your boss," Adam says and hands Mac a file before he leaves without saying anything to Stella.
"that… was weird." Lindsay says.
"it's Adam," Danny says like that explains Adams behavior.
"yeah but that was weird even for Adam standard," Hawkes says.
The meeting continues but Stella can't stop wondering why Adam was behaving so strange seeing her again. they did once sleep together but that talked about that and agreed that it should never happen again. so they where just friends again.
Later in the day, Adam is in the computer lab working on a video from a murder from Stella's case, when Danny and Hawkes come in.
"Hey Adam whats up with you man?" Danny asks.
Adam doesn't answer him he just continues typing on his computer with the pen in his mouth pretending like he didn't hear him.
"Hey, Adam!" Hawkes says loud and turns Adams chair so he is forced to face them. "what happened earlier?" Hawkes asks. Adam doesn't answer he just wants to get back to his work so he pretending like he has no idea what they are talking about.
"Adam, you gotta tell us what is going on?" Danny is pushing him.
"just leave me alone," Adam says and gets up and leaves the room and leaves his friend even more confused than they already were.
In the afternoon Mac is sitting in his office filling out paperwork when Stella comes into the office followed by a young man in his mid-twenties with blond hair and a headband to pull back his long hair from his face. He is wearing washed jeans with holes and a loose T-shirt with some geeky print on it and a pair of headphones hanging around his neck and a pair of sunglasses sitting on the neck of his T-shirt. Not exactly the kind of look Mac normally find appropriate for a law enforcement officer.
"Hey, Mac this is Justin he is my CSI level 1 in training he has a Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigation Master's Degree to become a digital forensics expert." Stella introduces the young man. Mac stands up.
"Hello, sir. It's a pleasure to me you, sir." The young man says and gives Mac a nice handshake. Mac has already changed his first impression of the sloppy looking young man.
"I'm detective Mac Taylor. It's nice to meet you."
"It's a great honor to get to work for you sir."
Stella recognizes the impressed look on Mac's face. Justin starts to inform the detectives about the little progress he has done on the case. Mac gets even more impressed with the young man. Despite his looks, he seems to be a great investigator.
"Do we have any physical description of this guy yet?" Mac asks Justin.
"I got a very precise description of the back of his head and his right ear… but… other than that. No." Justin says and sounds a bit frustrated over spending the last 3 month chasing this guy and looking at hours of survivance and not being able to find anything leading closer to stopping this guy."
"we will get him, Justin," Stella says and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. In the same moment, Adams comes to stand in the door. He sees Stella's hand on the young Techs shoulder. Without a word, Adam just walks away.
"he is an ard dude. He hasn't said a word all day." Justin says before he leaves the office. Adam being quite all day is very unusual for Adam who normally talks to his computer.
"What is with him today?" Mac asks more to himself than to Stella. Stella has a bad feeling that Adams unusual behavior has something to do with her being in the lab.
Mac, Stella and the rest of the team except Adam, are talking about the case When Justin comes running in.
"morning Stell."
"what did I tell you?"
"Sorry. Good morning Detective Bonasera." Justin says in a more respected tone of voice.
"you got something?" Mac asks.
"yes. Last night I meet this smoky hot waitress."
"Justin… he meant about the case." Stella interrupts the young man.
"Yes…" Justin realizes how he started his explanation. "okay. She was smoky hot but she told me something interesting."
"that she was single?" Danny asks with a teasing smile and the older detectives enjoy the teasing of the very young and unexpired investigator.
"Unfortunately… no."Justin seems disappointed and then gets back to the case "but…" Justin informs the team about his new discoveries and they start to form a strategy on how to catch this guy. They work out an undercover operation with Stella being the bait and the rest of the team as a backup in different positions.
Later in the afternoon, the "date" with the serial killer is planned to take place on Friday night at a restaurant at 6 pm.
Friday night Stella stresses up for her "date" and Adam comes in to help wire her up so they can have eyes and ears on her at all time.
Adam is just stirring at her at first.
"wow." Is his only comment. Stella suddenly feels very self-aware.
"Hey, Adam." She says looking at him in the mirror with a smile.
"I'm here to wire you up." He informs her and gets himself together so he can do his job. He opens his case with the wire equipment and starts to get an earpiece ready for her.
"why are you doing this?" he asks while he is giving her the earpiece and then starts to place a camera on a neckless.
"because it is my job." She simply responds.
"no, it's not. We have undercover cops who are trained for this. You are not."
"Adam I been on a date before. This is just going to be like a date."
"year with a crazy psychopath criminal."
"I have been on a date with one of those before too you know."
Adam realizes what he said.
"sorry, Stell I didn't mean to bring that up."
Adam places the neckless around her neck.
"it's okay Adam. I'm fine with it. It's a long time ago." Stella gives him a reinsuring smile in the mirror.
Stella turns around to face him. He can't keep himself from stirring at her. She is wearing a long slim black dress with a deep V-cup on the front and it goes down deep on the back also.
"you look great Stell," Adam says.
Then Danny, Hawkes, Don, and Mac comes in. Danny whistles impressed
"wow."
"wow, Stella looking good," Don says.
"Hey guys," Stella says doesn't feel quite comfortable with the attention from her male friends.
"you ready Stella?" Mac says walking in. doesn't seem to notice her appears.
"come on Mac I know you are engaged and not suppose to notice other women but you can't honestly say you don't notice how stunned she looks?" Danny says.
"You have married Messer." Sheldon comments.
"exactly," Danny says like that explains everything.
Mac just smiles at his goofy male coworkers.
"okay let's get going. Stella Hawkes will be a waiter. Danny and Flack will be outside and so will Lindsay and I and Adam and Justin will be in your ear all the time.
"being on a date with Adam in your ear. Wow, that must be like a date in hell."
Danny, Hawkes, and Flack start laughing.
"very funny," Adam says and leaves.
"come on dude. You know we are just messing with you." Hawkes says but Adam walks by them and continues towards the AV-lab.
"okay let the show begin," Mac says and they all leave the lab to get the undercover started.
The date goes according to the plan and the suspect that uses the name Tommy doesn't suspect anything. There is a comfortable conversation between him and Stella and Hawkes is the waiter for them. At the end of the dinner, Tommy pays and they leave the restaurant together and walks out into the busy street. He places his arm on her hip and they walk comfortably. The plan is that Stella has a safeword to say as a hint to her backup-teams to intervene if something goes wrong or he starts to suspect anything. Now they are just waiting for Stella to give them a hint to arrest him but the street is too busy and Hawkes saw earlier that he has a knife and a gun so it is too risky to arrest him on a busy street. Suddenly Danny, Flack, Lindsay, and Mac can't here Stella anymore. Neither can she here Adam. She starts to suspect something is up. He tightens his arm around her and she starts to feel something sharp poking her in the side of her stomach.
"it has been a nice evening detective." He suddenly whispered in her ear. His voice has changed.
"how did you know?" she whispered back as they continue walking.
"you really think I am that stupid?" he asks as they walk by a dark alley. He pushes her into the alley and staps her and runs away.
The next thing she remembers is her waking up at the hospital. Someone is sitting in a chair next to her hospital bed. The person is asleep. As soon as she regains full coarseness she realizes it is Adam.
"hey." She says. He wakes up. When he realizes she is awake he jumps out of the chair in the usual clumsy Adam-way and it makes Stella laugh.
"hey. How are you feeling?" Adam asks.
"I'm fine. Why are you here?"
"Mac kicked me out of the lab last night after I yelled at him," Adam answers a little-embarrassed thinking back to the night before when Mac came back to the lab after they gave up finding the suspect on foot. Adam had almost verbally attacked Mac the moment he came back to his office. He had yelled at Mac and had been so emotionally and upset that Mac had sent him home but instead of going home he had gone to the hospital to Stella.
"why would you yell at Mac over a case going wrong?" Stella asks.
"because it is not just a regular case going wrong. You got hurt."
Adam says looking down at his feet. Stella takes his hand in hers when she realizes what he is saying.
"Adam."
"Adam sorry Stella I should not have said that." He says.
"Adam. When I left I missed you. I missed you a lot."
"why didn't you answer my calls, text or emails?" Adama asks for them to realize that it sounds more like a jealous ex-boyfriend.
"because I didn't know what to say. I missed you and we had agreed that we didn't have any feelings for each other so…"
"I do…" Adam says interrupting her.
"hmmm…" she asks.
"I did have feelings for you and honestly I thought they were gone after you left but seeing you again made me realize they are not."
"Adam we shall not start a relationship. You have a great girlfriend you should be with and I have my life in New Orleans."
Adam nods.
"Yeah, I know."
Stella takes into a hug. Just talking things through with Stella made him feel much better but he still had to face Mac later and that fact that he had yelled at him last night. Last time he disobeyed Mac he got three days of suspension. This time 3 days of suspension probably won't cut it. He will probably have to look for a new job soon.
By Monday morning the serial killer, whose real name turns out to be Luke Thomson, a 35-year-old divorced man from New York City, was arrested when a hotel receptionist recognized his photo when he checked in. Stella would have to stay in the hospital for a few days to recover even though the knife luckily had hit any vital organs. The paperwork was done and the case was closed. Only Adams situation was not yet resolved. Adam was nervous when he stepped out of the elevator Monday morning to go to his meeting with Mac.
"morning Adam" Quin's voice came from behind him. She came up from the stairs.
"morning." He greeted sounding very nervous. "have you seen Mac yet?" he asks looking around for Mac.
"no. I think I went to visit detective Bonasera at the hospital this morning." Quinn informs in before she leaves him. Adam walks slowly towards Mac's office. Hoping not to meet anyone else. He finally gets to Mac's door and walks in to see Mac hasn't arrived yet. He takes a seat on the couch. Hopefully, Stella didn't tell Mac what he confessed to her Friday night. If Mac found out that he had overreacted because of personal feelings he would be doomed.
"Adam?" Mac comes into his office.
"morning Mac. Im sorry about my outburst Friday night." Adam stands out. He is nervous so he starts to labelling as he usually does.
"Adam slow down," Mac says he is in a good mood today, Adam notices.
"you are not in trouble." Adam is confused.
"but… I yelled at you."
"yes. But your friend was injured and you were stuck back here and not able to do anything. The suspect jammed Stellas gear. There where nothing anyone could do. You overreacted because you feel responsible. Right?" Mac says.
Adam exhales. Not realize he had actually been holding his breath. Adam nods.
"yes. Yes, I did."
"take the rest of the day off. Relax, calm down and come in tomorrow morning. Okay?" Adam nods.
"oh… okay. Thanks, boss."
Adam leaves the office. More confused then he normally is. Mac is in his office. He sits down in his chair. Shortly after he received a text from Stella.
"did you give him a hard time?" the text reads. Mac responds back with a no and smiles. Goofy Adam being in love with a Stella. He should have seen that years ago.