Chapter two

Mac woke up from his dreams when his cellphone rang. He didn't want to wake up, but he knew it was work and probably a case.

"Taylor"

"Hey Mac, we have a crime scene for you" Flack answered Mac. Mac got the information about where the crime scene was and got out of bed. He knew Danny and Hawkes had plenty to do with their crime scene from yesterday and Lindsay was still on maternity leave so couldn't take her. So he had to take Stella with him on this one. He didn't really want to wake Stella this early, but knew he had to. He finally made his decision and called Stella.

"Bonasera" he heard her say in a sleepy voice.

"Sorry to wake you Stella, but we have a crime scene" Mac told her "How soon can you get there?" Mac asked.

"I will be there in 20 minutes. See you there Mac" Stella told Mac and hang up. After finishing his call with Stella, Mac went to the bathroom and got ready. He was out the door after 10 minutes.

Stella got out of bed after finishing her call with Mac. She really hated New York when she got called to a scene early, she couldn't understand why people had to ruin other peoples sleep. She went to the bathroom to get ready, but stopped at the sound of her friend in there. She could hear Penguin was throwing up.

"Hey Penguin are you okay?" Stella asked

"Yeah I'm fine, just give me five minutes" Penguin answered. Stella could hear something was wrong, but didn't want to push, so she decided to go back to the bedroom and get ready while waiting for Penguin to come out. Stella returned five minutes later to find the door to the bathroom open. She decided to go in and get ready and talk to Penguin afterwards. Ready to go Stella opened the door to the guest room and walked over to the bed her friend laid on.

"Are you okay? You seem pale" Stella said

"Yeah I'm fine, just think I'm coming down with the flue. Have been feeling kind of sick lately, so having a little vacation will be good for me" Penguin answered

"Okay, but call me if anything changes and I will come home. I don't like seeing you like this. I got a call about a case so I have to go. Try to get some sleep and I will call you a little later and hear how you are" Stella said. She was really worried about Penguin, but knew she this vacation is gonna be good for her.

When Stella saw Penguin was asleep she got up and left the room. She quickly gathered her things and left the apartment. The traffic wasn't bad yet, so the drive to the crime scene was pretty fast. When she got there she went up to Mac and Flack who were talking to each other.

"Hey. What do we have?" Stella asked

"45-50 year old male. Gunshot to the head and no ID" Flack told both Mac and Stella.

"Okay thanks Flack" Mac said as they walked over to the body "Stella start to collect evidence and I will take photos". It took them 1 hour to collect all the evidence and mentioned for the ME's to take the body.

"Mac we don't have much to go on. The killer didn't leave anything behind. And we don't know who the victim is" Stella said as she put the little evidence she had collected into the car. When she didn't get a responds from Mac she turned around to look at him. She could see he was in his own mind. She stepped up to him and waves a hand in front of his eyes, that got him back to the world.

"Mac what are you thinking about?" asked Stella

"I was just thinking about a case from yesterday. Danny, Hawkes, and I had a crime scene with a body with no ID, but the COD wasn't a gunshot to the head. I can't help but think there is a connection" Mac said. His mind went back to yesterday and the crime scene. Their victim was unknown and there weren't many evidence to got through and get a lead, but that wasn't the only reason why he was thinking about that case. On the way back from yesterdays crime scene he had called Stella and told her to get out of the office. She had told him she wasn't there and he could hear a female voice in the background. He remembered that the conversation brought a smile to his face and it didn't go unnoticed by Danny or Hawkes. They had wanted to know why Mac had a smile on his face after talking to Stella. Mac had said it was because of something she had said, but the real reason was because she was Stella, his best friend. He had found out that she meant more to him than just being a friend, but he couldn't tell her. He was afraid to lose their friendship. But every time she smiled or laughed he would smile too. Nothing could change that. Mac knew now wasn't the time to think about their conversation yesterday and what it made him feel right now because they had a case and he had a feeling it was connected to the one form yesterday.

He looked at Stella and couldn't help but think she looked beautiful. They packed the last of their things and went back to the lab.

On the way back to the lab Mac called Danny and Hawkes and told them to meet Stella and him in his office, so they could talk about the two cases. Stella on the other hand called Penguin to ask how she was doing. When they finally arrived at the lab they met with Danny and Hawkes.

"Okay the case from yesterday was a male between 45-50, no ID. COD was stabbing to the chest. Today's case us a male between 45-50, no ID. COD is gunshot to the head" Mac informed as he looked at the two case files.

"Danny have we got an ID for the victim from yesterday?" Mac asked to which Danny said "No".

"Mac if we go with your theory about a serial killer, why is the COD different?" Stella asked. Danny and Hawkes looked at Mac, they didn't know about a possible serial killer.

"Normally a serial killer will use the same kind of COD, so why would these two cases be a possible serial killer?" asked Hawkes. He was really confused, he couldn't see why these two cases should have the same killer, nothing suggested that.

"I know. But something tells me we are dealing with a serial killer, but I could be wrong" Mac said.

"Why don't we find out their ID and take it from there. Maybe their ID will tell us something" Mac finished. They all agreed and left the office. Stella was about to say something to Mac when her phone rang. She looked at the ID and answered the phone.

"Penguin are you okay?" she said while looking at a confused Mac. She decided to leave Mac to take the call in a more private room.

"Yeah I'm fine. I think I know what is wrong with me though" Penguin answered

"What is it?" Stella couldn't wait to hear what it was. She couldn't decide if she should be happy or sad, but told herself to wait to hear what was wrong.

"I think I'm pregnant. When I look back at the last couple of weeks I have been feeling sick for two weeks. Oh. My. God. I'm pregnant" Stella could hear that Penguin had just realized what she was saying "I can't be pregnant. I left the father and I don't know if I'm going back to him. Stell my life is falling apart" Stella could hear that Penguin was about to break down. She knew she couldn't do much over the phone, but tried to calm Penguin down. After about 10 minutes Penguin was calm and they ended the call.

Stella went back to Mac who was running prints through AFIS.

"Any hits yet?" Stella asked as she stepped up to him.

"No not yet" Mac said and turned to look at her. He was about to ask her about the call, but was interrupted.

"Mac, I'm sorry about the call, but I have a friend staying with me. She was sick this morning so she called and told me she was feeling better" Stella left the specific details out.

"It's okay Stella. So she's staying with you? Was she with you yesterday when I called you?" asked Mac

"Yes, she came here yesterday. It's been a long time since I saw her last so I'm glad she's here" Stella said with a big smile on her face. Mac was glad Stella smiled it made his day better. Nothing could stop his growing feelings towards Stella and keeping her safe was the most important thing to him. Seeing her happy was music to his ears, that was another important thing to him, seeing her happy. He was about to say something when he was interrupted again, but not by Stella but from a bibbing sound.

"We have a match. Captain Luke David" Mac said as he read the name.

"Okay so our victim from today's crime scene is or was in the navy" Stella said

"Yep, we only got one problem. We have to contact NCIS" Mac told Stella as Danny walked in "What do you got Danny?" Mac and Stella said at the same time.

"Wow, scary. We found an ID for our vic. His name is Edward Morris, he's a marine and he is missing. Or not any more" Danny told them.

"Okay so we're dealing with two marine victims. We have to get NCIS involved. We don't have any choice but to call them" Mac said as his phone rang.

"Taylor"

"Hey Mac. We got another crime scene. 45-50 male, no ID. Don't know COD, but there was a note this time" Flack told Mac.

"What does it say?" Mac asked and got the attention from both Stella and Danny.

"More to come. One will hit harder than you think" Flack read the note to Mac.

"What does that mean? Well we will find out. I will send Danny and Hawkes, they should be there soon" with that Mac ended the call and turned to Danny and told him to go to the crime scene with Hawkes.

Mac and Stella went into Mac's office and decided what to do.

"We have to call NCIS, but they have to come here. The note said there were more to come so we're dealing with a serial killer" Mac said to Stella and picked up the phone to call NCIS.

"Hey Director, this is Mac Taylor with the NYPD crime lab, we have two dead marines possibly a third one. We might be dealing with a serial killer, we found a note on the last victim" Mac said to the Director of NCIS.

"Yes I understand. We will appreciate your help" with that said Mac ended the call.

Do you still want me to continue? I will tell you who Penguin is and how Stella and Penguin know each other soon.

PS. I won't be uploading soon because I'm going on vacation, but as soon as I get back I will update the story... if people want me to:)