Freezing Together

Chapter 1: Friday, 10 PM

"How'd I get stuck watching surveillance videos?" a very bored and half asleep Stella Bonasera grumbles, popping a third tape in to look at. So far she had found no trace of the robbers on the two previous tapes and was about to give up. There is still plenty of processing left to do, and she doesn't understand why she can't be helping Mac and Danny with that while some low life lab tech searches the tapes. "It's not fair."

Her cell phone rings, and she answers it, frustration obvious in her voice. "What do you need, Mac?"

"Find anything yet?"

"No."

"I'll be in as soon as we finish packing this stuff up. Is there anything I can get you, Stel?"

"A bottle of water and an orange or whatever's in the fridge. You guys finished already?"

"No, it's late, way past end of shift. It's deserted out here. Thought we'd save the rest of this until Monday; no one's here to process DNA and stuff anyway. Once we finish whatever tape you're on now, we'll lock up for the weekend," he explains.

"See you in a few," she hangs up and pushes the play button to continue the video.

Five minutes later, Mac enters with two bottles of water, an apple, an orange, a banana, and some napkins. "Roads look terrible; snow's still coming down. Hopefully it'll be clearer when we come back Monday morning."

"Any idea what the temperature is now?"

"Below zero, last time I checked. So what've you got?"

"Absolutely nothing unusual," Stella starts to peel the orange. "I doubt there's anything on this one."

They sit in silence, watching the screen while munching quietly on their snacks. Halfway through the tape, a masked figure goes across the screen. She rewinds it and plays the part again in slow motion. "No way to ID him."

"Or her," he adds.

"Let's continue." The screen moves in regular speed again after she marks the spot. "There he is again," she points, marking this point as well.

With no warning, darkness overcomes the lab, the power having gone out. "You alright?" he asks, placing a hand on her arm.

"Yeah."

Mac gets up, heading towards the door. The knob won't turn. "Have to wait until the backup generator kicks in." Within the next two minutes, the lights come back on, though dimmer to conserve power. Again he tries the doorknob; it still won't turn.

"Damn new security system," Stella curses. Since being held hostage for drugs and redoing the lab, they had installed a new system using fingerprints. In order to enter a room, you had to scan your fingerprint in. Apparently the generator didn't produce enough power to run the security system, meaning they were stuck in there until the power comes back on. Unless… "Do you have your keys?"

"No, they're on my desk," he says gloomily.

"Then we're stuck in here."

"Maybe Danny can come back and get my keys off my desk."

"He can't get in your office without the system working."

"Then maybe Gerard could come."

"Mac, he hates us. But then… it's an emergency so… let's call him." Both pull out their cell phones. "Oh wait, I don't have his number in here."

Mac dials the number but gets nothing. "Out of service."

"Try mine." He does and gets the same results.

"We're trapped. We could be here until Monday without anyone knowing it."

"No food, no water, no bathroom. What'll we do?" Stella tries not to panic. "Of all places to get stuck, it just had to be in the AV lab with no windows."

"We might not have to worry about all that."

"What do you mean?"

"The temperature will drop in here with the generator not able to power the heater. It'll be as cold in here as it is outside. We could freeze to death before we're found."

A/N: I'll post the next chapter Wednesday, then the third Friday. After that you'll have to wait until I get back on the tenth so I can put up a couple more chapters, then I leave again the fifteenth for about a week. It'll probably be the middle of August before this whole story is posted; it's twenty chapters long. I can't remember where I came up with this idea. But I really wish I could be stuck in there with them right now since it gets so cold and I'm like dying here. My mom finally turned the air conditioning on though. I have band tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have one of my friends there. I need to go write or read or something. I've started another post All Access story. And I started the sixth Harry Potter book; man, I don't remember any of it ever happening. Can some one tell me who the half-blood prince is? Don't worry, I made my mom go to the bookstore at midnight when it came out and had it read in like less than two days; you can tell me. I was going to start summer reading, but after reading the first chapter of Huckleberry Finn, I was confused. First, he isn't talking in proper English, and it's driving me insane. Then he goes on about how at the end of some other book he and Tom where doing something. The other book doesn't look good either. Anyway... please tell me what you think so far.