Note: This was written for the CSI Big Bang. Thanks to Elenna for the beta.
Warning: Future chapters will contain non-graphic discussion of sexual violence.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY characters, settings, etc. are the property of Anthony Zuiker and CBS. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of the CSI franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

::

It was the best day ever as far as Sebastian was concerned. It had snowed lots last night and school was closed, so Miss Melissa had brought them to the park to play after lunch. He didn't even mind having to play with the girls, since they got to make a snowman. In brand new snow. No one had even walked in it yet--he couldn't believe it. He was pretty sure that this is what the older boys at school meant when they said "jackpot". (He'd tried asking Mom, but she'd just made that really pinched face and told him she never wanted to hear him sounding so pedestrian again.)

(He'd had to ask Miss Melissa what pedestrian meant.)

Once the girls got done making their snow angels - he and Louis and Matty weren't going to do something girly like that, even though it kinda looked like fun - they started rolling their balls of snow to make their snowman. Sebastian knew the most about making snowmen. He was almost a whole year older than Sarah (even though they were in the same class at school--Daddy said it was because he had a red shirt) and had obviously made more than her. That didn't keep her from trying to tell everyone how to do it. She was almost as bossy as Peter Ramsey, and everyone knew he was the bossiest kid in their class.

By the time he and Louis had the bottom ball of the snowman finished, the other girls had the head rolled, and Sarah and Matty were almost finished with the middle. Only they weren't, because the middle was almost as big as their part, which he was quick to point out.

"Then make the bottom bigger," Sarah said. She crossed her arms and made that same mean glaring look that Mom made when Daddy got home too late.

"No, you."

"Fine, this'll be the bottom."

"No way! Louis and I made the bottom."

"You made it too small. Obviously you don't know anything about making snowmen."

"Did not! You made the middle too big!"

"Did not! You're just incomt- inconti- you just don't know what you’re doing."

"Hey! I do, too!"

"No you don't!"

"Sarah! Sebastian!" That was Miss Melissa, and she wasn't too happy they were fighting. "Keep it up and we're all going back home. You hear me?"

"Yes, ma'am"

"Yes, Miss Melissa." Sebastian hung his head but peered up at her through his eyelashes.

Miss Melissa just rolled her eyes and began to chuckle. "You aren't the slightest bit repentant, are you?"

He knew what repentant was--that meant sorry. "We didn't mean to fight. She just-"

"Uh! No finger pointing. Now, why don't you and Louis finish rolling your big snowball. Sarah and Matty can help push."

"We'll go over there," Sarah said, pointing at the huge snowdrift across the park.

"No!" Louis shouted, his eyes wide in horror. "We can't use that!"

"Louis," Miss Melissa said, shaking her head with an amused look, "why can't you use that snow?"

"If we use it for a snowman, we can't make the snow hill into a fort."

"A fort?" Sebastian asked, his eyes growing wide. They could make a fort!

"Yeah, we could tunnel into it, and it could be our snow cave fort! And it would be cool!"

"Oh, it'd definitely be cool. You'll all freeze to death," Miss Melissa muttered under her breath. Sebastian was pretty certain that was what she called sarcasm. (Mom said that sarcasm was very unbecoming, but Miss Melissa was too valuable an au pair to get rid of just because of that.)

"Yeah! Neat!" Sarah said, clapping her hands. "We could have separate rooms for the boys and girls, and we could make little beds for our baby dolls and-"

"Ewww..." Louis wrinkled his nose. "Who wants to play with baby dolls in there? We could play "Cowboys and Indians" instead and fight each other for the fort!"

"Momma says we can't play "Cowboys and Indians", 'cause it isn't 'PC'," Alyson, who had kept very quiet until now, said.

"Then we'll play "Cops and Robbers". She didn't say you couldn't play that, did she?"

"Not yet."

Everyone nodded. Alyson's Momma had the strictest rules. That meant that usually Alyson couldn't do anything fun. Sebastian bet that "Cops and Robbers" would be outlawed, too, pretty soon.

"Okay," Miss Melissa said, carefully re-braiding one of Tricia’s braids that had come undone, "you can build your fort, but first you need to finish the snowman. Why not get your snow from over by the bench?"

The bench wasn't even close to the snowdrift, so they all quickly agreed. And since everyone wanted to work on the snow fort, everyone helped, and they had the snowman finished in what Miss Melissa called record time. She also said it was "awesome", which was another word he couldn't say around Mom.

He and Matty and Louis found the perfect sticks to use as arms, while the girls made the face with pebbles and a carrot that Miss Melissa had in her bag. She even had a stocking cap and scarf for the snowman, saying it wouldn't be a proper snowman without. As soon as it was finished they all raced over to the snowdrift to start to make the fort.

"Wait!" Louis shouted. Everyone stopped and turned to look at him. "We can't all go doing this all at once. We've got to have a plan. Otherwise we'll just ruin it."

Sebastian nodded, and so did Matty and Alyson, though Sarah didn't seem to like the idea. But Louis continued before Sarah could say anything bossy.

"Sebastian and I will start making our tunnel at this end. Sarah and Matty can start across from us. Then Alyson and Tricia can start digging over here, and Hannah and Beth can start over there. Then we'll have four tunnels going into the fort that all meet in the middle!"

Even Sarah had to admit it was a good idea. At least Sebastian thought she did, until she started screaming and screaming and she really did scream like a little girl. Then Matty was screaming, too, and Miss Melissa came running over and when she saw what was going on her face turned really white and she pointed at the bench. "All of you, over there now."

Sebastian was going to protest, but then Louis gasped and hit him in the arm. He looked down. There was a boot under the snow. Miss Melissa came over, her cell phone in her hand. "Get over to the bench, you two."

"But Miss Melissa, there's--" Louis just pointed at the boot.

"I know. Go sit down." She put her phone up to her ear, and Sebastian could hear a voice saying "911, please state your emergency" and then Miss Melissa was saying that there was a dead body in Union Square Park as she shooed them over to the bench.

He could see, as they passed where Matty and Sarah had been digging, a hand. It was very pale, almost the same color as the snow.

Sebastian had never seen a dead body before. He didn't think he ever wanted to see one again.

::

Detective Jessica Angell was talking with a young woman when Stella and Lindsay arrived at Union Square Park. Behind the woman was a bench that looked like it was loaded with children, all of whom looked some degree of scared or shaken. Angell nodded at something she was saying before closing her notebook and heading over in their direction.

"What have we got?" Stella asked as she approached, looking around the park and pulling her wool coat tighter around her. The call coming in had said there was a body in the park. She had yet to see the body.

"Melissa Kenyon." Angell motioned to the woman she had been speaking with as she briefed them. "She is regularly the nanny for one of the boys over there, but when school is called for snow she ends up picking up some extra cash by watching some of the other kids from the building, as well. They came out here to play in the park, do the usual - make some snow angels, build a snowman, have a snowball fight, those kinds of things. She wasn't expecting to add 'find a dead body' to the list."

"Dead body?" Lindsay asked, looking around the park again.

The wind picked up again as she spoke, lifting a spray of snowflakes from the ground and blowing them across the park. It made her glad for the thick, fluffy red scarf she'd wrapped around her neck as they'd left the lab. And her gloves. She glanced down at them quickly. The worst thing about outdoor crime scenes in the winter, at least in her opinion, was that thick gloves and mittens weren't tactile enough for delicate evidence collection. Which meant these were going to have to come off soon, as soon as they found the body. She glanced back up at Angell, who seemed entirely too amused at the situation.

"The body?" Angell said, shoving her hands down into her pockets. "It's back there."

She nodded back at a drift of snow that looked partially dug up. Stella paused, then said, "That's a snowdrift."

"It's under the snowdrift," Angell responded. "The kids were going to dig out a snow fort but found the body instead. Miss Kenyon says that as soon as a couple of the kids started screaming, she stopped them from digging and sat them all down on the bench. So your crime scene shouldn't be too disturbed."

"No," Lindsay said with a sigh. "It's just under all that snow." She turned to Stella. "How do we want to do this?"

"We've got to dig it out." Stella set her kit down at the edge of the crime scene tape, then glanced over at Angell. "Do you need to get anything else from the witnesses?"

"Nah, I was just about to release them," Angell said as she shook her head. "She didn't have much, just what time they got here and who found the body. I have her contact info in case we need to get anything more."

"Good, c'mon."

Angell just raised an eyebrow in question.

"I'm unofficially deputizing you as a CSI long enough to help us dig the body out," Stella said, pulling her phone out as they made their way over to the drift. Lindsay had already taken out the camera and was getting pictures of the mostly unblemished snow, including shots of the hand and boot that were visible now that they were getting closer.

"Let me guess--too many techs out with the bug that's going around?"

"That, and we're all less likely to get sick ourselves the less time we spend out here."

Angell laughed softly, pulling her stocking cap down to better cover her ears. "I always did love snow days."