Thanks a lot for your nice reviews – the most fun part is the creative one, the inspiration, collecting ideas and then the writing itself… But I have to admit, getting some good feedback makes it even better :-)
Author's note: Little addition to chapter one, forgot to put it in there – the basic idea for the case (just the general idea and the identity of the vic, everything else is fiction) came from an old "Cagney & Lacey" episode and the thing with the scarves is VERY loosely inspired by a scene in CSI (episode "Butterflied").
And a special THANKS goes to my friend Mitch in the US whom I convinced a while ago to get into CSI: NY (okay, Melina might have played a role in this as well gg) and who now does a little proof-reading for me before I publish.
Oh – and in case it's not clear anyway: Characters' thoughts are in Italics and when there's something like xxxxx between paragraphs, that usually means a change of location or a "time shift".
I said previously that further details including my disclaimer would be found in my profile, but right now for some reason, I feel like particularly mentioning it again here – consider it a statement :-)
Disclaimer: All the original characters belong to their creators - except for Mac. Mac belongs to Stella - Period.
Now – enjoy and review please ;-)
Chapter 2
Two hours later, Mac entered the lab, spotting Stella leaning over the bed sheets that were spread over the table. He smiled silently, knowing that she had certainly started working on the evidence right after she had arrived from the crime scene without stopping for something like breakfast.
"Had any breakfast yet?" he asked while getting closer. "Coffee?"
Stella looked up, only noticing him when he was already looking over her shoulder.
"Huh?"
Mac shook his head, his lips pressed together to avoid a grin. "Follow me!" he ordered, gently leading her out of the lab into the break room. While he poured them two mugs of coffee, Stella took a seat at the table.
Without looking at her, he started telling her what he had learned from the doctors at the hospital when he suddenly noticed that her attention was somewhere else.
"... and the COD is..." he focused her, but she didn't show any reaction. "... spontaneous human combustion." Nothing.
"Uhum," she finally replied.
"Stella?" he carefully asked, looking down at her. "Hear anything I just told you??"
"Yeah, sure... combustion...," she mumbled, then suddenly snapped back to the present. "Combustion??? Why COD? I thought..."
"Ah good, at least a part of you is still with me...," he joked.
"Sorry, I was just thinking..."
"Figures. Here, get some coffee, that might help. And after that, I'm gonna take you out
for some breakfast."
xxxxx
When Mac returned to his office later, he found a note from Stella attached to his monitor.
Meet me at my office, gotta show you something. S. Your pager is off…
Mac immediately got the reproach behind the last comment. He reached for his pager and cursed silently. Damned battery… He took a new one out of his desk drawer and turned to leave when the phone started ringing. With a sigh, he went back to his desk and picked up.
"Taylor! John, how are you doing?" he asked the DA who usually just called him to put pressure on a case. Something he didn't like at all. And he was right.
"I was just working on the final report in the Miller case, I'll have the documents sent to your office before lunch. … No, we don't have any results on the Bedford case yet. Victim is still unconscious and without his consent, we can't do a drug test on him. Evidence is in trace and we're waiting for DNA results from the bed sheets. … You'll know when I know. … Sure, bye John."
He hung up with a sigh and grabbed for the folder with the Miller report.
xxxxx
About an hour later, Mac jumped up from his chair and headed over to Stella's office. She was sitting at her desk, head propped up on her left hand. She stared at the screen with her eyes half-closed, not even looking up when he stormed in.
"I'm so sorry, I totally forgot you..."
She gave him an surveying look. "You know... little by little I'm starting to take this personally," she teased.
"I talked to Flack about the Bedford case earlier and..." he started.
"What the hell does he think he's doing?!?" Mac's eyes widened in surprise from this unexpected outburst. "I told him I didn't want to give anything to the DA yet and instead of waiting, he comes running to you? That's really great! Why don't you handle the case together, so he won't have to cry for help behind my back…" she ranted.
"Whoa, easy…" Mac interrupted when Stella finally paused to take a breath. "I told him that you have the lead in this case and nothing would be done without your consent and that I would agree with anything you decide. He will follow your orders, he's waiting for your call as soon as you get any tests results or the victim wakes up."
Suddenly Stella became very quiet. "Hum. I feel like an idiot…" she mumbled.
Mac just smiled and nodded. "Good."
"Hey!! You didn't have to agree so quickly," she weakly protested with a sheepish grin.
"So, what am I actually here for?" he reminded her of the fact that she put the message to his monitor earlier.
"We got an ID on the victim, prints have been identified. Have a look at this…" she motioned to her computer screen.
Mac walked around her desk to look over her shoulder. After a moment of silence without a reaction, she peered over her left shoulder, following his gaze unperceived.
"Um… after you finished scanning my cleavage… would you mind giving me your opinion on this?" she teased him, pointing to the monitor again.
He winced slightly. "Huh?! I wasn't… I…"
"Ah, never mind," she blinked with a playful smile.
He quietly studied the screen. "Thomas Gordon Browning. He's a West Point cadet? That could make investigations a bit complicated. They are not exactly very communicative when it comes to one of their own… Where's the folder for the case?"
"Over there in the filing cabinet, bottom drawer, right side in the middle."
"I'll get it."
Mac walked around the desk to the filing cabinet on the left side of the office. He bent forward to search the bottom drawer for the requested file, then suddenly turned his head.
"Caught in the act?!" he grinned when he noticed Stella blushing and quickly pretending to be very busy with searching something on her desk.
"Hum?" she looked up as if she didn't know what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"
"You were just staring at my … backside," he dryly noticed, trying not to grin about Stella's attempt to wriggle herself out of the situation.
"I was not!" she claimed in feigned indignation. "I just wanted to see if you needed help finding the file and… Eh, damn it! So what? Even if I WAS checking you out…," she admitted reluctantly.
'Quite nice btw ...' she mumbled barely audibly.
"…since you did the same with me before," she continued in normal volume, looking at him like a kid who was trying to make a deal with its parents about staying up 10 minutes longer, "… I think we are even now?"
He shook his head in disbelief, holding back a laugh. Just when he returned to the desk, the folder in his hands, his pager beeped.
"DNA…"
"Ah, so for her you switch the pager on, hum?" Stella raised her right eyebrow with a smirk.
"The battery was empty, I didn't notice until I got your message…" he tried to defend himself.
"Sure, whatever…" Stella chuckled, it was too easy to put him off his stride. "Well, we don't wanna keep her waiting, right?" she smiled, opening the door for him.
xxxxx
"Jane, you got something for us?" he asked moments later at the DNA lab.
"Yeah, got the results for the samples that Stella pulled from the sheets in your hotel case. Found female DNA on them – and traces of cocaine," the blonde DNA expert replied with a smile.
"Any further information?" Stella asked her.
"No match in CODIS, but what I can tell you, it's a white female and there were traces of sweat and vaginal fluids," Jane explained.
"What a surprise…" Stella mocked. "Okay, thanks Jane."
xxxxx
On the way back to the office, Stella's cell phone rang. "Bonasera… Yeah, thanks, I'll be right there," she flipped the phone shut again. "Flack. The victim recovered consciousness, I'll meet him at the hospital," she explained to Mac.
"Okay. Stella…?"
"Yeah? Yeah… I'll be nice, don't worry."
TBC