A/N: For those who have been waiting, the sequel is up! It's called "Perfect" and can be found in the NCIS/CM crossover section. Here's a taste!

"The perfect woman is a higher type of human than the perfect man, and also something much more rare."

Friedrich Nietzsche

It was a cold night that the lack of moon and starlight seemed to make all the chillier. It was a night where even the regular nocturnal scavengers decided to remain in their hidden nests and dens. The cold seemed to have frozen the city in a dark crystal, the city holding its breath waiting for something to occur. And when there was movement, a flicker, it shattered the brittle stillness of the winter air into many shards of cutting glass.

Had anyone or thing been around to see it, they would not have been able to discern if it was a man or a woman or to the more fanciful, if the dark figure was even human. It was an indistinct blob that appeared to have a large humped back and a strange gait. The shadow moved awkwardly, a labored walk as it shuffled towards the dense vegetation that lined the pathway. It paused and then with a soft grunt, it unburdened itself of the object on its shoulder. The dark blanket unfurled and a startling flash of white appeared from within the woolen folds. Leaves and small twigs crackled as the white object tumbled over several times before settling into a nest of vines and low bushes at the bottom of the slope it had just rolled down.

The shadow observed its work for a moment and then, moving much more freely than it had a minute before, melted back into the cold dark.

The night was still once more.