Thank you so much to mercy4vr for reviewing, glad I'm not the only F/A shipper, so sad she had to go!!! They had great chemistry. Anyway enjoy the rest of the story and please review again!
Chapter 2- Waking Up
Aiden awoke and blinked as the Summer sun peeked through the curtains of the bedroom. Looking around she forgot where she was for a moment. But when her eyes focused on the sleeping man next to her, she remembered and smiled at the activities of the previous night. But as much as she would have liked to relive them, reality intruded on the pair.
Aiden stared wide-eyed at the clock. It read 7:09. She usually left for work about 7:45, even though that was still rush hour she was always guaranteed a place on the subway. But she needed to get home and get clean clothes and her equipment for work, including her gun and badge. Staring at Flack, she felt like he could do with a few minutes sleep, they had really worn each other out the previous night, and rushed into his shower. By 7:20, she was showered and desperately trying to dry her hair.
"Aiden? Aid? You still here?" She could hear the uncertainty in his voice. 'How adorable, he actually think I left.'
"Yeah, I'm just drying off." She replied coming out of the bathroom. "Sorry I used your shower."
"That's not a problem. What's the time?" Flack said. He turned to face her, still in bed.
"7:20. And I've still gotta get home to get my stuff. So I'm, gonna have to run." She said gathering her clothes and throwing them on herself. Flack nodded and tried not to let her see how disappointed he was that they didn't have more time to spend together that morning.
Aiden went over to the bed and kissed him passionately. "I'll see you at work. OK?" Flack nodded and kissed her quickly again. As she left and slammed the door, Flack smiled to himself and slowly managed to get into the shower. After their bedtime adventure last night, he would probably have to be admitted back into hospital. 'Wait till I tell Danny about this.' He smiled, he suspected his friend had a bet going on when he and Aiden would get together, because sure enough there was another for Danny and Lindsay.
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Walking towards the locker room, Aiden felt refreshed and ready to start her day. With a set of clean clothes and a bit of make-up, she had left her apartment in record time. As she was getting her gun and shield attached to her belt, Stella Bonasera came into the locker room and saw Aiden grinning broadly to herself.
"I wonder." Stella whispered to herself. She knew Aiden wanted to get together with Flack and suspected something might have happened. Well, she wasn't a Detective for nothing.
"Stella." Mac called entering the locker room.
"Morning Mac, what you got for us today?" She asked.
"Danny and Me are heading off to Brooklyn, Aiden you're with Lindsay in Central Park, Sheldon's in the Upper East and you, Stella, are heading to The Village where Flack's waiting for you."
"Flack's back out on the street?"
"Yeah, thought he could do with some fresh air." Mac said.
"Oh that is great." Stella said. She was happy, she liked working with Flack they usually had a good rapport going and solved the cases well, also she knew he desperately wanted to get back on the beat.
Stella peeked over and saw Aiden's head whip up at the mere mention of his name. Smiling to herself and heading out the door, Stella vowed she would leave the crime scene with a lot more information and not just about the crime.
Aiden smiled at Mac and took the paper from him detailing the case.
"Lindsay's waiting in the car park for you." Mac said, leaving.
"Thanks Mac." Aiden called rushing towards the elevator.
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"Morning Flack." Stella greeted.
"Good morning Stella." He greeted giving her a charming smile, she was used to them. Yes, she did find Flack gorgeous but he was nothing more than a friend, but a good one at that.
"What's makes it such a good morning?" She enquired, probing already. "Especially not for this guy." She said already snapping photos away of the dead body.
"Guy's name is Joshua Ryder. Worked as an Accountant." Flack said checking his trusty notebook.
Stella checked the wallet and found no money but a bank receipt. "Possible robbery motive. But it says he got 70 bucks out of the ATM about five hours ago."
"I don't carry too much around with me. Makes me nervous." Flack said.
"You get nervous?" Stella asked arching an eyebrow. She knew Flack was a tough cop, regularly on the beat, when he wasn't being blown up.
"Course not. But you can never tell when someone's waving a gun or knife in your face, you know. Homeless guy looking for a chance." Flack said, checking his watch to make sure he still had it. But was surprised when he discovered an empty wrist.
Stella also noticed this but didn't say anything. Being a lefty and having to wear his watch on his right hand, you could easily notice when Flack was wearing a watch. And he always wore it, unless something had happened to him the night before.
But Stella simply nodded and kept processing the scene. Within ten minutes she ordered the body to the Coroner's lab. She had seen a knife wound and was pretty sure that was the cause of death but best let the professionals handle it.
"So you never answered my question." Stella said as she and Flack headed towards their cars.
"What question?"
"Why is it such a good morning?" Stella hopped into her car and turned to Flack. "Maybe because your back on the street or maybe I should be asking Aiden the question, I'm sure she's responsible for it." Closing her door, she drove off leaving Flack open-mouthed and gazing after her.
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"Hey Flack." Aiden called, Flack cursed inwardly. She had taken the opportune moment to talk to Flack just as he and Stella were on their way to the break room to discuss the case. Stella smiled and stopped as well. Flack wanted desperately to keep moving but Aiden called him again.
"Flack, I think Aiden wants to talk to you." Stella said coyly. "Possibly about what to have for dinner? Who's bed to sleep in tonight? When you gonna let everyone know your little secret?" With that Stella went to the vending machines leaving the new lovers alone.
Aiden stared at Flack who looked down a little guilty. "Did you tell her?" Aiden asked.
"No, no. Course not. She figured it out. She is a CSI after all."
"She won't say anything."
"Will she?"
"Won't she?"
"I don't know."
"She won't."
"She wouldn't."
Unsure, the pair left each other with a small smile. Only after they separated, Aiden remembered why she had called Flack in the first place. To give him his watch back which was still safely tucked in her pocket.
Flack entered the break room a bit unsure and approached Stella cautiously, who was snacking on a chocolate bar, reading through the case file.
"Stel-"
"Flack, whatever you want to do is fine by me. I'm not your boss. But Mac is, so you might want to warn him. He won't mind, no one will. As long as you stay professional and keep you mind on work at the Lab, it'll be fine."
"Right."
"Besides I think everyone's glad your finally together. Now they can stop betting when it was gonna happen."
Flack just smirked at her, and snagged the last of her chocolate bar.
Within minutes they were back to work.
"So Hammerback said that the victim had been dead only four hours when we picked him up, so that would be six in the morning. So he was probably on his way to work and he got the money out of his bank about an hour before he died."
"So he was up early?" Flack said.
"There was also some kind of red paint on his suit and I sent it over to trace. And it was definitely, a knife wound to the stomach that killed him, but he was pushed back against the tree, bark was found in his hair, and so that knocked him out, and he just bleed to death."
"Could be spray paint. Would make sense, with the mugging and all."
"That's what I was thinking. So do you now of any gangs or teenagers that hang out in that part of town."
"Oh, there's a few."
"Well we need to narrow that down."
"Alright, I'll check with the more notorious gangs and you can work on this guy's history. Might find something interesting with one of the gangs."
Stella nodded and headed to the Lab, while Flack happily headed for the street of New York.