A/N: Ladies and gentlmen, meet Catherine Wilcox.

Chapter 10

"Danny?" Stella asked.

"Yeah?"

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

She showed him a sign that had been taped to the door of the lab for the last hour. In large, neatly printed letters it said, "QUIET PLEASE." Underneath, in smaller letters, it said "Nervous breakdown in progress."

"This was taped to the door of the lab for the last hour," Stella explained, grinning.

"So that's why I've had peace and quiet lately!" Danny said, starting to see the humor in the situation as he started grinning. "Whose handwriting is this?"

"I don't know," Stella said.

"I do," Mac said as he came in to the lab. "It's Randi's."

"Randi did this?" Danny asked.

"That's her handwriting so I'm guessing she stuck it on the door when you weren't looking," Mac said. "It's her idea of a joke."

Danny just shook his head in amusement and chuckled. "How's she doing on the fraud case?"

Randi had been working steadily on the Vandersteen fraud case for the last two days and, with the exception of the occasional breakroom pop-by, almost no one had seen hide nor hair of her. When she'd spoken to Mac, he got the impression she was working like the devil to bring down Vandersteen. He worried about her though. He knew her sister, Catherine, was due to show up soon and Stewart had raised merry hell about her little volunteer stint, creating additional stress on top of everything else. She'd gone home late last night and shown up early this morning.

"She's been working pretty hard. Last I heard, she said she'd have the final report ready by tomorrow," Mac said.

"Has anyone checked on her lately?" Stella asked.

"I was just about to do so, provided she hasn't gone home already," Mac said.

"If she has, drag her home. That girl is working way too hard as it is and I don't feel like picking her up off the floor any time soon," Danny quipped.

Mac chuckled. He left the lab and headed to find Randi. Sure enough, she was in the lab that had become her new temporary office. She had her head in her arms and was fast asleep from the looks of it. A cold cup of coffee sat nearby, next to a legal pad and pen, and her laptop hummed. In a hot pink and black velvet corset top, black ankle-length split A-line skirt with white lace edging, matching crop jacket, and thigh-high black lace-up boots with a five inch heel, she looked sexy and soft at the same time, especially with her hair curling around her face.

He gently brushed her forehead and she stirred. "Hmm?" she asked as she slowly woke up.

"You've been working too hard again," he said, smiling affectionately.

"Yeah. Really want to nail the bastard," she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Well, you will, but it's time you went home," he said.

"'Kay." She stood up, moved away from her chair and bent over so her fingers were touching the floor. One of the things Mac had learned about Randi over the last few weeks was that she regularly took Yoga classes and was reasonably flexible as a result. Her stretching like the way she was now had caused quite a number of accidents, mostly from guys not watching where they were going.

"Tell you what; I'll take you home," Mac said. "Just give me a minute to grab my coat."

"'Kay," she said tiredly. Mac helped her into her coat; it was the Union coat he'd seen her wear the first day at the NYPD. Apparently it was an accurate copy of the original design and not the real thing, which made sense, since the Civil War had been a hundred-and-forty-one years ago and any clothing surviving from that time period would be in a museum, not Randi's closet.

Then Mac helped her turn off her laptop and turn off the lab lights. She was nearly asleep on her feet and Mac found himself guiding her much like he would a sleepwalker. That was when he decided to simply take her to his home, rather than hers. Less of a hassle and he seriously doubted she notice until she woke up the next morning with the way she was going.

She was nearly out of it again when he sat her on his office couch long enough for him to grab his own coat and tie before leading her out of the office and locking the door. They passed Stella and Danny, who were also on their way out and both grinned.

"Need a hand?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, you take my keys and I'll take her before she falls asleep on her feet," Mac said, handing the CSI his keys. Then he scooped Randi up in his arms, who simply snuggled against him in her sleep, and followed Danny to his car. There, he bundled Randi in the passenger side and, after thanking Danny, drove to his apartment.

Thankfully, Randi was reasonably easy for him to get in to the apartment because she was not quite asleep but not quite awake, enabling her to walk, with some assistance. Once inside the apartment, Mac removed Randi's boots and coat and coaxed her awake enough to convince her to clean her face of make-up and get undressed enough to put on one of his old shirts and drawstring shorts. This she did while he grabbed a quick shower. When he came back into the bedroom, having traded his work clothes for pajama bottoms, she was already in bed and sound asleep, and Mac thought she looked absolutely adorable. The moment he climbed in to bed, she snuggled up next to him, murmuring something in her sleep, and he just smiled. He was actually starting to enjoy her sleeping next to him.

"Night, Randi," he said, snapping off the light.

Randi bounced into the Interrogation Room the next day, wearing a white suit with fitted jacket and gold detailing, sparkling turquoise ankle boots with gold detailing and four inch spike heel, and a satin white and gold camisole with a draped neckline. A gold chain belt sat on her low-rise pants, gold earrings swung from her ears, and her hair was piled high and held in place with pretty chopsticks decorated with hibiscuses. She held a file in one hand and a devilish grin on her face.

Randi had slept very well the previous night and woken up this morning only mildly confused at waking up beside Mac when she wasn't quite sure how she got there. But then, after her confusion cleared, she'd woken him up with butterfly kisses and bought him coffee as a way of saying 'thank you' for looking after her.

"Hello Byron! Long time no see! Where ya been, man?" she chirped cheerfully as she handed Steve the file and nodded cheerfully to Flack, who was also in the room.

"Miranda, a pleasure to see you, as always," Byron said pleasantly. Byron was a thirties while man with black hair neatly combed in place and wearing a top-of-the-line Armani suit. "I take it you're doing well?"

"Oh I'm doing absolutely great, especially since I'm about to bust your ass!" she said cheerfully.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Ms. Wilcox," Byron's lawyer, Andrew Ridgewood said cautiously.

Steve started chuckling as he read the file over again. "Do you recall, sir, us mentioning that we would be bringing in a private appraiser?"

"Yes, I do," Andrew said.

"Randi was the appraiser and she just spent the last two days examining your client's items. I have here, in my hand, a signed appraiser listing your client's items as being worth a fraction of what you originally tried to tell me they were worth," Steve said.

"That means fraud, bud, and that means some very serious charges," Flack said easily.

"Aa-and, this will hold up in court too!" Randi said. "It's signed, stamped, and yada-yada-yada. After this, I don't think any insurance company's gonna look too kindly at you for a quite a while. Have a nice day, Byro." And with that, she bounced out of the room, leaving a chuckling Steve and a grinning Flack.

Randi was in such a good mood that she decided to snag Mac for lunch and if he couldn't go for lunch because of work then she was going to steal Angel away and hit one of the nicer places. As it was, Mac was heading out and when he saw her literally bouncing his way, he grinned.

"You finished the fraud case?" he asked.

"Yup! Wanna join me for lunch?" she asked, threading her arm through his and grinning up at him after placing a kiss on his cheek.

Mac chuckled. "I would love to but –" he began reluctantly.

"You've been snagged by Dispatch, right?"

"I'm afraid so."

"That's okay. I can always grab Angel. God knows I owe that girl," she said cheerfully.

He smiled. "You're in a good mood."

"Yup! Brought down Big-mouth Byron and he's going down and gonna stay down this time! The sun is shining, I've got a prince of my very own, I look good, I feel good, and I'm in such a good mood that nobody and nuttin' can bring me down!" she said, snuggling against him, causing him to chuckle again.

"Well, well, well. Some things never change. You never really have shown any restraint with yourself in public and I see, despite my constant advice, that hasn't changed a bit," came a cold, haughty female voice from behind them. "You still choose to act like a brainless teenage girl. Really, Miranda, you can do so much better than that, especially since you're supposed to be a Wilcox."

"Except that," Randi muttered, all her sunshine vanishing at once.

The couple turned around and found a woman dressed to the nines in a fitted, high-quality skirt, suit, and shoes of wine, a cream colored blouse, and a matching handbag. She had black hair, just like Randi and the facial features were similar, but there the resemblance ended. Where Randi was sunshine, cuddles, mischievously impish, and laughter, this woman was cool and polished, resembling more of a walking ice queen than a person. She also oozed sex, but unlike Randi, hers was intentional. She was a knockout and she knew it and everything about her expected the rest of the world to know it as well.

"Helloooo Catherine," Randi said. Darn, there went her day.