Jack and Vivian were covering Samantha, Danny and Martin as they advanced towards the door at the end of the abandoned hallway. It was dusk and the light in the building was quickly diminishing. There was a sliver of light beaming at them as they inched nearer to the door and they could hear the murmur of many voices in the apartment beyond.
Jack gave the signal that he and Viv were ready to cover the others. Martin locked eyes with Sam and nodded his head at Danny. Samantha had never seen Martin this anxious before. It was a missing little girl, abducted by four adult males. He desperately wanted this little girl to be alive and he hadn't stopped worrying since the first call came in.
The team was ready for this one. Martin walked slowly towards the door, silently gripping his gun. He prepared to kick down the door and Samantha and Danny lifted their guns behind him. But then, everything went wrong.
Vivian doubled over and began coughing loudly and breathing heavily. Jack instinctively lowered his gun to make sure she was okay. Samantha and Danny turned to look but they weren't the only one's who heard. One man opened the door, a pistol in his right hand. His cold eyes fell first upon Martin, who was a mere five feet from the door. Time seemed to stop as Samantha watched what happened next.
The gruff kidnapper held the gun up and fired a single shot that was so forceful it pushed Martin back into the wall where he collided with a door frame and fell limply to the hard cement floor.
Samantha screamed and tried to run to him. Luckily, this diverted the man's attention away from the unconscious agent that he was currently advancing towards and made him realize that four other FBI agents had just witnessed his attempted murder. Unfortunately, it made him focus on the hysterical blonde.
Danny, who always thought quick on his feet, grabbed Samantha around the middle and pulled her out of the gunman's range despite her irrational fighting. He then proceeded to call in for back up.
Shouts of, "FBI, get out of here!" and "Forget the kid," could be heard, echoing off of the bare walls soon to be followed by numerous sets of running footsteps. She knew that Jack and the NYPD would be chasing the suspects by now and Vivian was carefully examining the little girl. She knew that she and Danny should be out trying to help Jack or Viv and that the police would take care of Martin, but the sight of his pained expression before hitting the wall would not leave. The torture that was being inflicted upon her mind that he might be seriously injured wouldn't leave. And the feeling that her heart had stopped beating at the thought of Martin being…dead, was more than she could handle.
Danny checked around the corner and when he said it was all clear, Sam rushed from where she was behind him and sprinted to Martin's side.
At the sight of his unconscious body, Sam nearly began crying and hyperventilating at the same time. She lifted his head and checked his pulse. She had not been able to tell exactly where he'd been shot and didn't want to imagine the varying possibilities.
When she discovered that he was still breathing she realized that she had been holding her breath. She could hear Danny on the radio calling in for an ambulance.
"Where'd he get hit?" he asked, kneeling down beside her.
"Left shoulder. That's going to be fine, but he hit his head on the corner here," and she pointed to the door frame without ever looking away from Martin's motionless face, "and then hit it hard on the floor. He may have a concussion." She said all of this in a very shaky voice and was happy that it was Danny on her right and not Jack or Vivian.
"Well, a concussion is a lot better than it could have been." He had meant for this to be comforting but it only caused Samantha to swallow hard. Danny saw the fear behind her eyes, welling up. He put a comforting hand on her back and tried to soothe her while knowing that she was silently praying for Martin to open his eyes.
Danny did not know exactly what was going on between Samantha and Marty, but he knew that it was something special. Sam had a light in her eyes and laughter in her heart, something he had never seen in her before. Martin seemed to have struck a chord somewhere in Samantha that had never been heard before. She was happy, and for that, Danny would forever be grateful.
"Damn it, why aren't the EMT's here yet?" Samantha said loudly, the frustration barely covering up the worry. Danny didn't really know what to do. Nothing would comfort her except for the sound of Martin's voice right now, and at this precise moment he was not available to save her.
At the exact same time, EMT's showed up to check Martin's vitals and then take him to the hospital and Jack and Vivian walked over to where Samantha and Danny sat crouching over Martin's limp body. Neither Jack nor Vivian thought anything of Samantha's highly uncharacteristic show of emotions. In fact, Jack figured that hearing the gunshot had merely reverted her back to a few years previously and frightened her.
"Sam, do you want me to drive you to the hospital?" Danny asked her as the EMT's lifted Martin up and began carrying him out to the ambulance. Her gaze had still not broken from Martin but she shook her head.
"If it's okay, I'd like to ride with him." This time she looked at Jack, pleading for this chance to return the favor Martin had once done for her.
"Sure, the rest of us will meet you there." He thought nothing of her odd request and nothing of her lightning fast departure.