I've started writing this story a while ago, and though I had faith in it, I have about 5 stories currently in-progress and I swore to myself I wouldn't post another one until at least one of those is finished first. So this story stayed on my laptop, occasionally being worked on when I was blocked out on all my other stories.

But like all good rules that I place for myself - this one was meant to be broken too. I took a look at this file today and realized I have 13 chapters already written and figured - what the heck, I should just post it and get it over with! My desicion process was also helped by the fact that my Supernatural story is pretty much written from begining to end (although, I'm one of those people who need to feel a pen in their hands and paper under it to get creative so the entire story is in several notebooks scattered on my desk and will still need to be typed on the computer at some point!).

I hope you enjoy this! This was written before S4 began and so my story still has Payton in it and none of the crazy stalker thing they have been laying out for Mac in the s4 episodes so far.

Detective Stella Bonaserra parked her SUV as close to the police tape as she could and stopped out of the car. It was approaching on midnight but the lack of sunlight did nothing to alleviate the heat wave that had been hammering the city for the past several days. The air was sticky and humid and she could already feel her clothes starting to cling to her body merely a minute after stepping out from her air conditioned car. She grabbed her kit from the back seat and made her way over, ducking under the yellow tape and flashing her badge before heading over to Flack who was already there, talking to some uniformed officers.

"Hey Flack, what have you got?"

He motioned for her to follow him but before they could go any further she saw his expression change to a smile as he noticed something behind her. She turned in that direction and smiled a smile of her own when she saw Mac make his way under the yellow tape.

"Hey Mac!" She greeted "How was London?"

"Cold, wet and wonderful" He answered with that trade-mark curve of his lips before quickly diverting the attention back to the case and away from his personal life by asking where the body was. Flack led them into the ally where the body of a young girl was sprawled face down on the pavement, a gun in her outstretched right hand.

Stella gloved up and crouched next to the body "Female, looks about 20 something years old" She padded the girl's pockets and came up empty "No wallet, no purse…"

She trailed off when something caught her eye. Mac gave her a curious look but she ignored him and waited.

Then she saw it again

The girl's finger

It moved

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed and quickly tore off her gloves and reached down to check for a pulse on the girl's neck. It took a few seconds and even then it was so faint she could barely make it out - but it was definitely there "This girl is still alive! Call EMT! Get an ambulance over here NOW!"

"What the hell happened?" Mac turned angrily to Flack as soon as the paramedics pulled away from the scene with the victim "That girl lay bleeding in that ally for 20 minutes longer than she should have!"

"The first officer on the scene checked for a pulse, says he found none!" Flack shook his head and Mac could see that the young detective was just as angry as he was "But trust me, he and I are going to have a long heart to heart a little later tonight with a little tutorial about checking for vitals"

Mac nodded and headed back to the ally where Stella and Hawks were busy going over the crime scene and picking up evidence.

"So, what have we got?" he asked.

"Well, before the paramedics took her away I took a peek at the wounds; she was shot once in the abdomen. The gun from her right hand was recently fired and then there's this…"

She handed him a piece of paper already placed in a clear evidence bag.

"I'm sorry, I can't take it, I had to do this…" Mac read off the paper and frowned "So what do you think? She shot herself?"

"Committing suicide by shooting yourself in the stomach in the middle of a dark ally?" Stella wondered out load, the theory not sitting right with her.

"I don't think so" Hawks interjected from where he was examining the brick wall a few feet away "Because I just found another bullet in this wall"

"We still have no ID on our vic" Flack reported as he joined them "I checked with dispatch there are no fresh missing persons reports matching her description"

"Stella, go to the hospital, check on our vic and process her as soon as possible" Mac instructed "We need to find out who she is…"

"So you're not thinking suicide?" Stella asked

"I don't know yet and until we know for sure what happened here we're treating this like any other case"