Title: Sound
Rating: T just to be safe.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own CSI:NY. I only own the story.
Spoilers: This is post Snow Day, so it would help if you've seen it.
Category: General; Stella POV;
Summary: Stella hears a familiar sound.
Author's Note: Thanks for checking out this story. Reviews are greatly appreciated, but no flames please.
Stella Bonasera is avidly trying to ignore the mountain of paperwork in front of her. It's late. She's beyond tired, and well past exhausted. But as much as she loathes the paperwork, knows it can wait, and knows she would be more capable with a shower and some rest, she loathes going home to an empty apartment more.
So, in an admittedly desperate attempt to avoid both going home and tackling the pile of dead trees and formalities in front of her, she leans back in her desk chair, lets her eyes close, and focuses on the sounds coming from the lab and other offices around her.
The delicate chime of a bell as the elevator doors open and close.
The soft whir and hum of the mass spectrometer.
The metallic click of a random office door shutting as her coworkers leave for the day.
And then she hears it, and she smiles. Danny and Lindsay.
The unmistakable, yet undefined, sound of two of her best coworkers and friends, Danny Messer, and Lindsay Monroe, having a caring and playful conversation.
Their voices soon fade and Stella assumes that they must have simply walked on by, probably heading home, whether together or to their separate apartments, she isn't sure.
But she is more than sure of what she hears in the sound of their voices mixing and melding together. It's a familiar sound to Stella, even if she's never been able to speak it herself or hear it about her in the voice of someone else.
She's heard it in Mac's voice when he talks about Claire.
She's heard it in the voice of countless parents, speaking through their grief, about the child they've lost to crime.
And now she hears it in their casual banter, their easy give and take.
It's in Danny's voice every time he calls her "Montana".
And she heard it in Lindsay's voice, more than just casual longing, when she called from Montana and asked about Danny.
It's beyond devoted partnership.
It's deeper than irresistible attraction and combustible chemistry.
It's complete adoration and unconditional acceptance.
It sounds like love.