Rafael Barba nearly had the case in the bag, or so he thought. The last witness that Barba needed to secure for the trial had been acting rather skittish, and Barba needed to confirm that his witness would in fact show up to testify. Barba and Carisi made their way to the witnesses' apartment in order to reassure the witness would not bug out before their court appearance. It had been nearly a month since Mike Dodd's death, and since SVU captured the main BX9 lieutenant threatening Barba. While Barba's death threats were not nearly as regular as before, he was still receiving them and thus still had a protective detail. Rather than staying cooped up in his office Benson had allowed Barba to speak with his witness as long as Carisi followed along acting as his detail.
As Barba and Carisi entered the apartment building, both Barba and Carisi saw the elevator out sign and a burly man in a blue jumpsuit working on the only elevator in the building.
Kind of a beast of a man to be working on an elevator, Barba thought to himself. In his usual sassy demeanor Barba managed to spit out a remark to Carisi about the situation. "Great, the elevator is out. What floor is it on?"
"Only seven flights up Barba, we can use the walk," replied Carisi with a annoyed grin back to Barba.
Barba did not look amused at that remark nevertheless, they started the trek up the stairwell.
As soon as the detective and ADA had rounded the first flight of stairs, the elevator repairman took out a radio and called in "Barba is here in the stairwell, but with a detective"
"Good…you know the drill."
Quickly putting the radio and tools in his bag, the burly man grabbed a gun from his bag and entered the stairwell.
Carisi had made much better progress on the stairs than Barba, laughing as he was already on the 5th flight while Barba was still on the 3rd. "What's slowing you down counselor?"
"Nothing other than I'm wearing a 3-piece suit, and I'd rather not be drenched in sweat for an appointment later today. Also I'm trying to multitask and send a message to Carmen."
While Barba and Carisi had been toying with each other, neither had expected to be attacked in the stairwell.
Rafael Barba did not have enough time to respond as he heard heavy footsteps coming up behind him fast. Right as he was turning around to see who it was, a blunt object smacked into the side of his head, and he collapsed on the stairs seeing stars on his way down. Not entirely knocked out, his vision was full of black spots and he was in no mood to try and move off the ground. Barba was expecting a second blow to the head at any moment, but did not receive it. Instead the attacker backed away and descended down the stairs.
While Barba had been getting creamed by the assailant, Carisi stopped in his tracks with the sounds of running footsteps and the loud noise coming from someone falling onto the metal stairwell. "Barba? You ok?" Carisi shouted, while unholstering his gun. "I'm coming down," he yelled out, while looking around making sure there was no one in the stairwell above him.
Barba wanted to say something, but his head hurt so much and he felt like throwing up. Barba weakly managed to get out "Carisi… look out." As Carisi rounded the stairs and saw Barba on the ground the assailant came running up the stairs, aiming his gun at Carisi. Carisi didn't bother taking warning shots, but instead aimed directly at the advancing attacker. A couple of the shots hit the target and the burly man fell backwards landing on the stairs below Barba. However, the burly man managed to get off a couple shots, due to reflex, though all the shots were sporadic hitting metal and concrete. One said shot did ricochet off the metal stairwell railing.
While the assailant fell down the stairs, Barba made out a whimper. Just his luck, the stray ricocheted bullet had found its target, Rafael Barba. The bullet had grazed the flesh on his left thigh. Barba knew it wasn't a severe wound, but damn did it hurt.
Carisi quickly holstered her weapon, and knelled down to check out Barba's leg. "Shit, Counselor, it just grazed the surface." Rafael couldn't help but wince when Carisi ripped open his pant leg around the wound. Carisi looked around for something to wrap around Barba's leg, before setting his gaze on Barba's tie.
"Oh no you are not going to use my favorite tie," Rafael looked in horror. "Cool it Barba, you'll thank me later." Carisi quickly untied Barba's orange tie and wrapped it around his leg, putting pressure on the bleeding wound. "I'm going to call you a bus, Barba so try and relax." "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," Barba joked but also couldn't help but scowl while saying this. First his throbbing head and now his leg hurt, what a great start to his day. While Carisi started to dial Benson, he did not hear the second person making their way down the stairwell.
The second assailant had been waiting on the 7th floor to surprise whoever make it up first, but after hearing all the commotion, they quickly took their shoes off and slowly made their way down the stairs.
Seeing Carisi kneeling next to ADA Barba, with one hand putting pressure on his wound and the other holding his phone to call, the second assailant took his gun and pistol whipped the detective. Sonny never knew what hit him. He collapsed on top of Barba who cried out in pain with the lanky detective landing on top of him.
The second assailant quickly ran down to his partner to see if he was still alive. While the burly assailant had been shot repeatedly in the chest, he was by no means dead. He had been wearing a bullet proof vest, which stopped the bullets from penetrating his body. The second assailant rousted his burly friend who then got up amongst some groins and cussing. "We are only taking Barba with us, leave the detective with a message for the NYPD."
Barba, seeing everything going on wildly tried grabbing his phone, however, this was difficult with Carisi's dead weight on top of him. He managed to get his phone out and start dialing, however, his bloody fingers had a challenging time trying to dial on the touch screen. By the time he managed to dial for help it was too late.
"Put the phone down Mr. Barba, I don't want to have to kill you." The second assailant pointed his gun at Barba's head. Barba was forced to drop his phone. "I don't know what you want or you are trying to accomplish, but what you are doing is not going to help anyone," Barba said while trying to maintain a tough demeanor even though he was in some pain and scared of what would happen next.
The burly assailant had taken Barba and Carisi's phones and thrown them against the wall and then down the stairwell. "Looks like no one will be tracking the two of you… goodnight councilor." With this, the second assailant took the butt of his pistol and made contact with Barba's head. This time Barba's vision went completely black and he lost all consciousness.