Thanks everyone for the reviews! The Cowboy… yeah well, since he's not in the story, you could actually say he DID disappear – just nobody reported him missing yet ;-)

Here's chapter 2 – hope you like it. You have to be a little patient, the "fluffy" stuff is mainly at the end of the story, I just couldn't split the case-related stuff (mostly this chapter). But: I can already promise that there will be a sequel to this story with more fluff and romance because this story didn't get enough of it for my taste, so I decided to go for another one that will be posted after this.

Please read and review, thanks!

Chapter 2

"I only left him for a few minutes, just went around the corner to get some food and when I came back…" Stella heard the excited, high-pitched voice of Sally Myers while she and Danny approached the interrogation room, "… he was GONE!" Sally sniffed.

Mac turned around in relief when he heard the opening of the door.

"Detective Bonasera will take your statement, Miss Myers. Tell her everything you know, we will find your friend, okay?" He smiled at her and nodded to Stella on his way out.

'YOU owe me…' Stella emphatically whispered in his ear when he passed her.

And when we'll see the reindeer pull their sleigh
We know that Santa Claus is on his way
And happiness starts
The love of Christmas here in our heart

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"Miss Myers…" she turned to Sally while she took a seat at the table, Danny next to her, and tried to keep a neutral tone in her voice.

"Tell me what happened."

"My boyfriend is missing…" she started sniffing.

Stella fought hard to suppress a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, we know. You already told us, remember?"

"No, not Steve!" came the excited reply.

Stella frowned. "There's … another boyfriend?"

"Steve is not my boyfriend anymore. We broke up when we found out that we had been related in our former lives. You can't have a relationship with your brother, right?" Sally expectantly looked over to Stella who had a hard time to keep her composure.

"No, of course not," she seriously returned with a wrinkled forehead.

Sally nodded.

"Randy is my boyfriend now. He joined our group a couple of months ago."

Stella glanced over to Danny.

"Also a Santa?" she carefully asked Sally who nodded in confirmation.

Stella took a deep breath and let it out again very slowly, counting backward from ten to zero.

Only Danny noticed – and instinctively moved a few inches away - and Mac who was still waiting and watching from behind the mirrored glass wall. He grinned, glad that she couldn't see him right now and also that he didn't have to deal with the hyperactive little elf in the interrogation room any longer than he did. At the same time he was secretly hoping that Danny's presence would keep Stella from choking her. With a smile on his lips, he returned to his office.

It's gonna be a white, white Christmas
A miracle of light, this Christmas
'Cause that's what you are, my shining star
To bring the joy of Christmas to my heart

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"Wow, this is so great… I feel like Christmas!" Hawkes excitedly exclaimed when he followed Lindsay into the hallway of a well-known record company earlier the same morning.

"Legends have been made here! The biggest stars of Hip-Hop and Dance music go in and out here…" he expectantly looked around to see if he could spot any famous faces.

Much to his disappointment there was not a single one in sight. Instead he saw Flack approaching them, a beautiful yet pretty nervous black woman at his side.

"Ah, Flack!" Lindsay turned to him, glad that they could focus on work now since she wasn't much into either Hip-Hop or Dance music and thus couldn't share any of Hawkes excitement about these 'holy grounds'.

"What happened?"

"This is Arlene Jefferson, the secretary of the company's president. She called us earlier to report a burglary. Miss Jefferson, this is Detective Lindsay Monroe, this is Dr. Sheldon Hawkes. They are with the crime lab, why don't you tell them what you told me?" Flack nodded at the woman who nervously looked at him, then at the two CSIs.

"When I came to work this morning," she started with a trembling voice, "everything seemed to be normal. I went upstairs to my office, turned on the computer and the coffee machine, like every day. Then I went next door to Mr. Fielding's office. I open the windows every morning before he arrives. And then…" she paused, giving Flack a questioning look which he returned with another comforting nod.

"… then I noticed that the golden records at his wall were missing."

We are here about some missing golden records?? Lindsay silently wondered. This is ridiculous, that's something for patrol officers, not for CSI…

Flack noticed her look.

"Miss Jefferson called the police and the officers checked the scene. When they asked about possible ways out, Miss Jefferson showed them the elevator and the staircase. After further questioning, she remembered the old fire exit which hadn't been used in years. The officers went to check it and… well, check it out yourself, otherwise you won't believe me anyway."

Lindsay wondered even more. At this time of the season New York and its citizens seemed to get even more strange than they were usually, especially if you were a country lass. She followed Flack along the corridor while Hawkes smiled at Arlene Jefferson and continued interviewing her.

"Was the door locked when you arrived in the morning?" he asked her.

"Yes. All doors are locked overnight, mine and also the door from my office to Mr. Fielding's."

"Are you the only one who has a key besides him?"

"The doorman should have a spare key, just in case of emergency. It should be in the safe downstairs, in the room behind the doorman's counter in the lobby."

"Thanks, we will check that later. Did you notice anything this morning, any unfamiliar faces in the lobby, suspicious people in front of the building, anything in the hallway or at the doors when you arrived?" Hawkes continued asking in a calm and comforting tone.

Arlene Jefferson shook her head. "Nothing. Everything was normal, nothing was damaged or disturbed. Just the records had been taken off the wall and…"

Hawkes' beeper went off. He took it from his belt and looked at the display.

"Can I leave you alone for a moment, my colleagues need me out there?"

"Sure, I'm okay…" she quietly replied.

Hawkes nodded and smiled at her again. "Just don't touch anything in here, we still need to process the room, dust for prints etc. Do you have a break room where you can wait for us?"

She nodded while Hawkes turned around and left the office. Out in the corridor, he looked around in search for Lindsay and Flack.

"Where are you guys?"

"Over here!" Lindsay's voice came from around the corner at the very end of the corridor to his right.

He followed the call and finally found them leaning over something that was lying in a little storeroom opposite the door to the old fire exit. When he got closer, he paused in surprise.

"Elvis lives, huh?"

"Well, not anymore..." Lindsay replied with a look at the wound at the man's forehead.

"Blunt force trauma… No further visible wounds, COD might be impact against the skull with some heavy object or…" Hawkes started to examine the victim.

"I found blood at the wall next to the fire exit," Flack reported coming out of the door at the other side of the corridor.

"At least he was in there – and then someone must have dragged him across the corridor and dumped him in this storeroom. That's how the officers found him, they noticed the drag marks on the floor," he pointed to some marks on the carpet that were leading from the door to the storeroom.

"What's he doing here anyway? This is not Vegas…" Lindsay was still convinced that New York around Christmas was a very strange place.

"Maybe he decided that Broadway was the better place?" Flack guessed.

"Great…"

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And when the snowflakes fall down from the sky
We'll make snow angels, both you and I
I know that it's true
I wanna spend this Christmas with you


Stella was more than annoyed. She was hoping for a little private time with Mac in his office, something that had become a tradition over the past years when they were both working on Christmas. They would sit down, have something to drink and talk a little or just sit there and say nothing. She liked the atmosphere of those moments, it was something that made up for being around on a day like today.

Instead, for the second time this day she and Danny had to drive out through the maniacal traffic and if that wouldn't have been enough, it had started snowing again and she still didn't really know why they were out here again.

XXXXX

This time, Sally had told them that another musician wanted to meet them at their corner for lunch. They wanted to play together to increase profit. Sally had been waiting there after her visit at the precinct, but the other guy didn't show up. Now she was worried that something had happened to him, too. Stella was more than convinced that all those guys had a reason for disappearing – and in her opinion, the reason was pretty obvious…

Thinking about all this, she returned from the bistro were she had bought something to eat for Danny and herself.

Danny? Where the hell is he?

Stella looked around, the place at the corner where she had left him was empty.

This is just great…

She walked around the corner – nothing.

"DANNY!?!? Where are you? Damn it, come out here, I'm not in the mood for this…"

"Did you lose your little boy?" an older lady who just walked by asked her gently. Stella gave her a surprised look.

"Yeah, like that… Actually he's my colleague and I'm sure he'll be back in a moment," she smiled.

The old lady nodded. "Merry Christmas!"

"Yeah, merry Christmas to you, too."

Stella sighed. Now she was standing all alone in the middle of New York traffic at lunch time, two bags with food in her hands and not a trace of Danny.

Damn it! Can't even leave a guy alone for three minutes without having them disappear…

She looked around again and suddenly spotted Lindsay and Flack on the other side of the street. When she saw they were looking in her direction, she waved.

TBC

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