The week passed fast! I can't believe it's Saturday already! Well, anyways, as I planned to update both my stories frequently... here we go :) Chapter number 5 ;-) I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 5: Hometown Hero

~ S ~ B ~

Mac and I had finished our Chinese dinner and were now sitting in the living room of our new home. Suddenly Mac got up from the armchair he was sitting in and walked over to the piano, where he had left his bass guitar. I watched him as he carefully put the coffin to the ground and opened it. He let his gaze wander over the instrument before he finally took it out of its protecting coffin and walked back to were he was sitting before. I watched him with a soft smile as he sat back down. Then his blue eyes met mine and a small smile appeared on his face.

"It's been quite a while since I played the last time…" he said as he moved his instrument into playing position.

I was quite amazed to see how he treated his instrument. So much tenderness and love were in his expression as he started to softly play a few chords. I didn't recognize the song he was playing, but Mac seemed to be satisfied, because a smile appeared on his face. A few minutes later he looked up again, playing the chords without even watching, but still I didn't recognize the song he was playing, although the melody was quite happy and bright. His blue eyes caught mine watching him with a warm smile and his he instantly smiled, just as he did the night I came to the club he was playing at after Peyton broke up with him. Peyton… I liked her, I really did, but that was before she broke up with him through a letter and hurt the men I cared so much about. A soft frown appeared on Mac's face and I looked at him in wonder, but my smile returned quickly as I figured that he noticed the frown on my face as I thought about… Peyton. As soon as my smile was back were it belonged his frown disappeared and he concentrated on the song he was playing. The melody sounded familiar to me, but still I just couldn't remember the song it belonged to. A few minutes later he stopped playing and looked at me in an expecting way.

"Recognized it?" he asked and his voice was warm and calm.

"Yes, but I can't remember what the song was called." I answer in truth and he gave me an amused smile.

"You're making fun of me, Mac Taylor?" I asked teasingly, but he just shook his head.

"No, I'm just smiling, because most people don't recognize this song. It's Sir Duke by…"

"Stevie Wonder." I finished his sentence.

"Yes."

"That song really had a great melody for a bass guitar."

"Yeah and it's one of the hardest songs to learn, because it's quite fast."

"But you did an amazing job." I smiled and he chuckled shyly.

He played a few more songs and let me guess what he played. Since I mostly don't know the parts of every single instrument in those songs it was quite hard to guess. But two of the four songs I guessed were correct. One of the songs was Baba O'Riley by The Who one of my all time favorite songs. While I listened to Mac playing the time flew and soon it was time to go to bed and get some solid rest before the next day starts.

"So… you just go upstairs and take your time… I'll follow when you're ready." Mac said a bit nervous after he had stuffed his guitar back into its coffin. I smiled at his nervousness.

"Mac… you can come up in 10 minutes." I said calmly.

"Ten minutes? Wow, that's fast for a woman. They say women need a lot of time to get ready…"

"Mac… first of all, they need a lot of time to get ready when they're going out on a date or something and secondly I am not the like some wannabe chick who needs to look like a star all the time." I said rather seriously and he chuckled lightly.

"Never said that, Stella. And I never thought you were that kinda woman."

"Good. So… you better be up in ten minutes or else." I lightly teased.

"What's the else?" he asked back.

"Not gonna tell ya my secrets..." I said with a mischievous grin. "and Mac? Ten minutes from now!"

I went upstairs into the bedroom and grabbed the things I needed before I went into the bathroom and got started on my usual evening procedure. I changed into my pajamas, brushed my teeth and then also got my hair done for the night. As I returned into the bedroom I found Mac already waiting.

"I was scared by the or else." He chuckled before he went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

I sat down on the bed. The small lamp on my nightstand was the only light in the big room. I snuggled into the covers on my side and rolled onto my left side, my gaze turned to the empty side of the bed that now belonged to Mac. Normally I would have been slightly nervous to sleep next to him, as we never done that before, but I think I had been too tired to think about it right now. And honestly... we've been best friends for so long and I trusted him more than anyone else, so why actually feeling nervous? Besides, when my apartment burnt down, he had seen me in pajamas and sweater, so actually I had nothing to worry about. A few minutes later he came back and sat down on the edge of the bed. He had put on dark blue pajamas which suited him quite well. He slightly turned around and his warm blue eyes caught my green ones watching him with a small smile.

"I somehow get the feeling that you like what you see here." He smiled nervously.

"Very much." I said to tease him a bit and he rewarded me with a surprised glance. "Relax Mac. I'll behave."

"You're in teasing mood aren't you?" he mentioned with another shy smile as he lay down next to me, turning onto his right side, so that he was looking at me.

"Always and now just close your eyes and get some rest, okay?"

"I'll try."

"Good. Goodnight, Mac." I said as I rolled onto my other side and turned off the light.

"Goodnight Stella." He whispered into the darkness and soon I was sound asleep.

xXxXxXxXx

The next time I opened my eyes I was woken up by the sound of my alarm clock going off. I turned it off and looked at the side of the bed where Mac should have been right now, but his side was empty. I sighed lightly and then got up, wandered into the bathroom and got dressed and fixed my hair a bit, before I went in search of my beloved partner. I finally found him in the kitchen preparing a modest breakfast which filled the room with the smell of fresh coffee, bacon and pancakes. Obviously Steve had organized that so we won't starve. I leaned against the bar and watched Mac with a soft smile, before I finally make myself known.

"Mmm… smells good." I said warmly. Mac turned around and smiled.

"Good Morning."

"Good Morning, Mac. Did you sleep at all?"

He looked at me with a slight frown as he handed me a cup of still steaming coffee.

"I was up an hour before you came down. And I had a quite good night's sleep, thanks."

"Good, because I was afraid I'd kept you up…"

"No you didn't. I was woken up by the sun shining through the window right onto my nose." He said, causing me to chuckle and only a few seconds later the room was filled with joyful laughter. It was good to seem him joking and hear him laughing. The good mood he was in suited him quite well. And I would make it to my mission to keep his good mood as long as possible. We shared our breakfast and another cup of coffee before it was time to get ready and wait for Steve de LaRossa to pick us up.

"You know I could get used to this." I mentioned as we stood in front of the house, waiting for our taxi.

"What?" Mac asked a bit confused.

"You making breakfast and me just watching you… You did a great job with breakfast."

"Mmm… why do I get the feeling that everyone thinks I am a miserable cook?"

"Maybe because you never taught us otherwise?"

"Good point. Maybe I'm not a master in the kitchen, but I am able to make some easy things to eat." Mac defended himself.

"Well, so we're going to make dinner tonight?" I asked him, just as de LaRossa's car approached at the corner of the street.

"We?" Mac asked uncertainly.

"Yes, we. I'm gonna teach you a bit more." I said as Steve stopped in front of us and we got into the car.

"So, how was the first night in your new home?" Steve de LaRossa asked in a light tone.

"Good. Had a good night's sleep and a great time." I answered and Steve shot me a mischievous smile, which I replied with a small frown. Was he really thinking that Mac and I had…?

"Sorry…" he uttered quickly. "and you Dete… Mac?"

"I agree with Stella." He smiled and gave me a wink.

"Good. So first you'll meet my boss, Rainer Mayer. As the name may tell you, he's German." Steve de LaRossa started into his explanations. The ride to the Chicago Crime Lab was spent with Steve telling us about his boss and his team.

Chief Rainer Mayer was born in Berlin, Germany, but they moved to the US when he was a small boy. They lived in Park Ridge since he was 5 years old. He went to school, high school and college and then he visited the Police Academy and became a cop. Through the 30 years he now worked as a cop he was quite successful, made it to a Third Grade Detective and then to the Chief of Detectives. Quite a great career for an immigrant. Steve told us that Chief Mayer was one of the lucky immigrants, because he came here when he was a small boy and so grew up here and he quickly became a part of the society and yet, his parents were wealthy people. Good circumstances for a great career. Steve told us a bit about his other team members we're going to meet. He said we would only meet two of them today and maybe meet the rest occasionally.

~ M ~ T ~

The ride to the Chicago Crime Lab didn't take much time. I listened carefully to what Steve de LaRossa said about his boss and the team members we were about to meet today. What he said about Chief Mayer's career was true. He was one of the lucky one's. Not every immigrant gets the chance he is hoping for.

As we arrived at the Lab Lieutenant de LaRossa took us to the conference room where his boss and two detectives where already waiting for us. The chief was a tall and athletic looking man, with short brown hair and brown eyes. The young woman who was standing next to him, as we walked into the room was Detective Amy Dubois, who much like Stella, had been through quite a mess in her life. Steve told us that she was one tough woman and he never met a woman that strong and with such a tragic background story as Amy. Detective Dubois was 29 years old and had black wavy hair and big blue eyes. Besides the color of her hair and eyes she looked a lot like Jessica Angell. The man who was standing a bit aside was Detective Roy Chandler, Steve's second in command. He was a bit smaller than Steve and the Chief, but also quite athletic and had brown curly hair and clever looking grey eyes. Roy Chandler was still a young man, only 32 years old and Steve told us that Amy and Roy were testing the romantic waters for a few weeks, just to warn us.

Chief Mayer came walking to us with a warm smile on his lips.

"Detective Bonasera." He greeted Stella first, shaking her hand before he extended it to me. "Detective Taylor, the hometown hero."

I noticed that Stella gave me quick glance as Chief Mayer said that, but I chuckled lightly. The tone in the Chief's words was light and he smiled at me. He didn't mean that.

"Yeah, well… I don't think I'm a hero, though. Am just doing my job and honestly I don't care what the media makes of it." I smiled at him.

I instantly like the man who stood in front of me. Nothing beside his name said that he was German. He acted and talked like he was born here and he obviously had a good sense of humor.

"Well, at least you're honest, Detective. Still you're doing a good job and I admire your work."

"Thank you, Chief."

"You're welcome. Well, back to the topic. First of all thanks for helping us here, we really do appreciate it." Chief Mayer said as we sat down at the table.

"You know, one question keeps my mind busy… why getting two detectives from New York when Chicago has a lot of great detectives and cops, too?" I wondered, carefully not to sound offending or anything like that. Chief Mayer smiled knowingly.

"Well, Detective Taylor, that's a normal and expected question. We've been looking for volunteers who want to help us and first of all we asked our own detectives, but we want trained and experienced detectives on this job and we would have found a lot of male men who fit the description, but we couldn't find a female detective who looked like the vics. Well, we had one here, but she was very young and she didn't want to do it, since she's not trained enough. And you're a great addition to Detective Bonasera for this case, because you're from Chicago and you've been working with her for a long time and we heard a lot about you two being the New York Finest dream team." He said.

"Well, that makes sense." I nodded.

The next one hour and a half were spent with getting more details about the victims. They had already three couples on their victims list. The first couple, killed at the beginning of this year, Dr. James Button and his wife Anna Button. She was one who was looking for a job, recently she had been working as a journalist, but wanted to do something more reliable. Her husband, James, was a wealthy and successful psychologist. The photo of him showed a man at 35 who had short dark hair and brown eyes and a tanned skin. Neighbors and friends described them as a lovely couple, very much in love and nice neighbors. They had left their one-year-old son behind, who luckily had been at his grandparent's house when his parents were killed. He was now raised by his mother's parents.

The second couple, murdered about three months later was living near the place the first victims lived. It was the main street which passed the Centennial Park. Michael and Yohanna McKenzie, both working at the same publishing company. He was a quite well known writer and the editor of the company and Yohanna was lector. Both were also known as a lovely couple with no troubles, good relationships, always nice and helpful. Again nobody could imagine who wanted to kill them.

The latest victims where Rafaél and Loretta Sanchez. Rafael had been working as a lab tech. They had been killed about a month ago and nearly half a year after the second couple. They got married two weeks before they were killed. They had no children, just as the second couple and again they were described as friendly and helpful. A quiet couple.

Something about all these three couples made me thinking. There was something about all three of them. I looked through the Crime Scene photos and the photos of the victims again. The women looked a lot like Stella, especially the second, Yohanna. They all had golden curls, slightly olive skin and green eyes. They had about the same weight and figure and all were married, but this wasn't the only connection between them. I thought there was something about the husbands, too.

"What are you thinking, Mac?" Stella asked me and I looked up, seeing 5 pairs of questioning eyes looking at me. I cleared my throat and slightly leaned back against my chair.

"Well, I think we should take a look at the husbands, too. Except for the different eye color, they were all athletic build and had short, dark hair. I think the killer's targeting specific couples." I said.

"That could be coincidence that they had the same built body and same hair color." Detective Amy Dubois said. I looked at her with a serious expression.

"Could be, Detective, but I don't believe in coincidences." I said firmly, only to be rewarded with a frown.

"I think Detective Taylor is right. We should have noticed that…" Detective Chandler said, only to get a pout from his girlfriend. "What? You're mad at me for agreeing with him? He's right! Do you think there's a connection between those men?"

"I don't know, but we should check that. Maybe they had a same hobby or maybe they're not connected with each other. Still I think it's no coincidence that they looked alike, too. Here the killer didn't care about the eye color, but about the hair and body."

"Good, I get to work on that." Detective Chandler said and his boss and the chief nodded in agreement, Amy Dubois was still pouting, that I was allowed to talk to her like that.

"Stop pouting, Amy, you know Detective Taylor's right." Steve de LaRossa said. "Detective Bonasera… I've been thinking about your situation here and… well, I guess you will get bored to death if you were staying at home all day. So… if you want, we would like to offer you a little job here at the Crime Lab. You'll not be going to the crime scenes, but you'll be able to analyze evidence and stuff like that."

"Will be fine with me. Any special working hours?" Stella asked eagerly. I knew that she would be bored, if she'd be staying home all day so I was glad that Steve offered her a job at his crime lab.

"I was thinking about three times the week. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the weekend will be your 'family' time. Shifts will be changing weekly. And since we only have one car available, either me or one of my co-workers will pick you up and take you home. You'll be working with Detective Dubois." Steve said.

"Alright." Stella nodded her head.

"Any more questions, detective Taylor?" Chief Mayer asked. He obviously noticed my still thoughtful face.

"Do we still have access to the crime scenes?" I asked. I would have loved to see them myself.

"The case isn't closed yet, so yes, we still have access to them, although the Crime Scene clean up's already did their job, why?"

"I would like to go back to the crime scenes and take a look around. Just curious."

"Well, we can go there right now?" Steve suggested and I looked at Stella, who obviously seemed to know what I was thinking. So Steve de LaRossa, Chief Rainer Mayer, Stella and I left the conference room, after Steve told Amy Dubois to help her partner.

Okay, so... what do you think? Are you guys still interested in more? What do you think will they find at the crime scenes? Any new links or just dead ends? Is there a connection between all the three killed couples?

Let me know what you think, will you? Please?

A/N: For all of you who still haven't done it yet... I would really appreciate if you guys would take a lookt at my poll and vote, please? I really need your help and I really wanna know what you guys want to read next! THANKS!

A/N 2: And for those of you who are interested... I just posted the first 2 chapter of my original story... also a Crime story... if you like to read and maybe leave a review there as well... just go to my profile and press "Homepage" and you'll land on my FictionPress profile. I would really appreciate you guys taking a look at that story and tell me what ya think, if you have some time left now :) THANK YOU!

Now, enjoy your weekend and have a great day! blackrose538