A/N: Many, many appologizes for the major delay in up-dates. Life kinda, sorta, got in the way. Needless to say, my pregnancy is finally progressing normally and I finally got a chance to get some real writting done. Sure, this one's a bit bland but the next chapter will be even better, promise. Thanks kindly for your patience.

Poor Mac; just when he thought things couldn't get any busier for him, they did. Over the next several weeks he was literally rushed off his feet.

First their was Lindsey and her court case back in Montana, where she had to testify against a man who had killed her childhood friends in a bloody rampage. It hadn't surprised him at all when Danny had abruptly left to go to Montana just to support Lindsey; he'd been aware of the attraction his two CSIs shared for some time, especially after the Holly Golightly diamond heist case. Both Flack and Stella had seen Danny and Lindsey in a tight embrace after the flash-bang had gone off.

Then Stella had hit him with the news that she might have contracted HIV after accidentally cutting herself on a piece of glass covered in blood from HIV-positive suicide victim Emery Gable. At first they had three months to find out and then, with the introduction of a special DNA test, which Adam Ross preformed, they found out even faster; Stella did not have HIV, a major relief for everyone who knew.

While that was going on, Mac was trying to help M.E. Peyton Driscoll solve a rather puzzling case where a body she had declared DOA was not quite so dead after all. Between him, Danny, and Peyton, they solved the case and in the process Mac's relationship with Peyton grew stronger.

Then Clay Dobson was released due to Detective Dean Truby incarnation for skimming and dealing in black cocaine as well as murder. That was bad but it got worse; Dobson was a serial killer and once he was released, he struck again. This lead to a very nasty rooftop confrontation that lead to Dobson commiting suicide after snapping Mac's handcuffs on him and telling him, "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me." While the evidence initially cleared Mac, both Inspector Stanton Gerrard and Chief of Detectives Brigham Sinclair got put through public pressure to try him through the courts, essentially turning him into a scapegoat for their own career ambitions. It wasn't until Detective Truby, who admitted to Mac that he had screwed up royally and that Mac had done the right thing by busting him, had given him a trump card that could be used against both Gerrard and Sinclair that the weight on his shoulders finally lifted.

Almost two months passed before Mac realized he hadn't seen hide nor hair of Artie. When he mentioned it to Flack, the blue-eyed detective just shrugged.

"Artie's like the wind, Mac," he said. "She comes, she goes, keeps a low profile just like most street kids. She'll show up if and when she chooses to. Artie's one of the few kids I don't worry about too much because I know she can take care of herself."

And so, another week passed. Then one quiet evening, while Peyton was doing a night shift at the Morgue, Mac was having a quiet evening to himself. He was seriously contemplating ordering a pizza from his favorite pizza joint and had in fact picked up the pizza joint menu when a knock came at his door.

Curious, Mac cautiously checked through the peephole and then flung the door open as he spotted Artie leaning heavily against the doorframe.

"Artie! What the hell happened to you?" he demanded. And he had good reason to.

She was pale, sweating, her pupils enlarged, her breathing erratic, and her dark green camouflage shirt was stained with what looked like blood seeping from her right shoulder region. She was holding her right arm close to her chest and he could see that her left hand was covered in blood. There was a nasty tear in the right shoulder area of her large black denim jacket; the cause of the tear, he couldn't even begin to guess. Her dark brown cargo pants were covered in what looked like dirt and maybe one or two other things he wasn't sure about. The same went for her boots.

She gave him a dopey grin and said, "Hi Daddy! Sorry I'm late coming home; my birthday party went on a bit too long but it was a lotta fun!"

And with that odd statement, she collapsed in his shocked arms, her eyes rolling back into her head.