Get One Free

Summary: Spoilers for all of Season 2 especially 2x12, set between 2x06 and 2x11. On a late night shift Oz and Toby stumble on the victim of an horrific crime.
Warning : Mentions of rape and torture.

Disclaimer: None of this is mine.

AN: Wasn't going to post this yet (actually wasn't planning on posting it at all because of the subject matter) but I keep fiddling with this instead of doing other stuff. It was either delete it or share. Un-beta'd (volunteers?) but complete, will be posted over the next week or so.

On nights it was the few hours before dawn that were the toughest, the calls tend to trail off or at least slow down. Unless you're lucky enough to get a serious shout the quiet and lack of adrenalin meant there was no fooling your body that you shouldn't really be tucked up in bed - preferably not alone.

Unfortunately his partner was sprawled in the passenger side of the rig day dreaming about exactly that. Toby stretched, cracking the joints in his neck before casting an annoyed glare across at him. "Oz, telepath here."

His partner opened his eyes briefly and smirked back at him amused "You don't like it? Then don't listen in," and Toby realised - belatedly - that he'd partner had been doing it deliberately to get a rise from him.

"Thanks man, you know I'm going to have to bleach my brain before I get any sleep today." He tried to sound annoyed but knew he was failing because Oz was still grinning at him.

"I have to entertain myself somehow; especially if dispatch is going to give all our calls away."

There was a slight hint of an undertone in Oz's voice, but Toby had to agree. The last call - over half an hour ago - had been to a single vehicle RTA several blocks away. It had been passed to Murphy and Watanabe despite the fact that Toby and Oz were nearly as close and the senior crew. Normally something like that was at most a minor annoyance, but on a dead shift after a very long rotation on nights it was - frustrating.

Wrapping his arms around his chest Toby slouched deeper into the driver's seat and let his eyes drift shut for a moment or two.

"You got another headache?" Oz's voice interrupted before he could get close to comfortable.

"No, just tired." He muttered.

Yeah right. Oz's thoughts broke through his half hearted block and Toby glared at him for a moment. Although it was true that he'd had more than his share of headaches recently his telepathy felt more... more comfortable than ever. It was becoming like second nature or a genuine sixth sense and he felt like he was a lifetime away from the pain and stress of his childhood. Turning his head away from Oz he chose not to respond, he had no intention of discussing every little aspect of his ability with his partner.

He let his eyes drift shut a second time and immediately opened them again jerking upright as the image of an eagle, its wings crushed and twisted by chains, crashed through his mind. Annoyed Toby turned to glare at his partner, but Oz was also alert and leaning forward eyes fixed on a spot out of the windshield. "Whoa man. You see that?"

Toby turned to look and did a double take "What the hell?"

As Oz leaned even further forward in his seat, confirming it wasn't some fevered night shift hallucination, Toby picked up the radio and called it in. "Dispatch this is University 21 we have a... err... a semi naked man running across the street near our location, maybe injured, we're going to take a look."

He acknowledged the demand to give more information and wait for police backup with a grunt, before ignoring it and jumping out the rig behind his partner.

The man had stopped running and was half walking, half limping towards the sidewalk, and Toby joined his partner a safe distance away as Oz tried to talk him down.

"Hey man. Where are you going? You look like you need help and you know what it's your lucky night, my partner and I are paramedics. Maybe you should stop a minute and let us check you out." As Oz spoke using his casual non-threatening tone that seemed to have an effect on most people, Toby took proper look at the man. He was naked apart from some ill fitting cut-off jeans that hung low on his hips. His bare feet were bleeding and even in the orange glow of the nearest street lights Toby could see that nearly every inch of exposed skin was covered in bruising or raw looking wounds.

Oz was moving closer now hands raised, looking as relaxed as possible, but the man was jumpy and Toby could sense the wildness in his thoughts - the eagle hissing and twisting in the chains that held it ready to fight back. "Oz..." He warned quietly and was about to explain when the man jerked, limbs convulsing, before his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped like a stone.

His partner just managed to get to him before the man's head cracked against the hard sidewalk. Kneeling next to them Toby started a thorough assessment and basic treatment - airway and Oxygen first.

"BP's 80 Systolic, and he's tachycardic." Oz's tone was tense as it broke through his concentration.

Toby nodded, tugging the man's arm straight a 14 gauge already in hand. "He's got to be bleeding internally?"

As Oz started to investigate Toby turned his attention to the veins in the exposed forearm. He'd just picked his spot and started to advance the needle when the muscles under his hand tensed and jerked accompanied by a long low groan and...

...and a sudden rush of thoughts and memory crashing through his skull.

Toby yanked back the needle pressing down on the puncture site as he swore, coming back to himself before he'd even realised what had happened. The line was messed up and the vein was blown.

"Toby?" Oz's tone was a mixture of warning and concern and Toby opened his mouth to respond but his partner cut him off already pulling out another catheter and exposing the victims other arm. "I've got this, get the stretcher."

As he stood the world swam slightly and Toby realised he was breathing heavily. He took slow breaths on the short jog back to the ambulance and it was enough to help him regain his composure and dry the faint sheen of sweat on his forehead.

As quickly as her could he unloaded the stretcher and headed back to his partner, nudging past a few late night party goers that had gathered round. Oz was still bent over their patient working, and Toby knew he should have felt guilty letting himself get distracted like that, but the images from the flash were still clear in his head and he couldn't feel anything but numb.

"How are we doing?" He asked his partner as, stretcher in place, he dropped back to he's knees alongside his partner.

"Ready to roll." Oz dropped his voice and looked Toby in the eye. "He's bleeding from multiple wounds... And he's been ra..."

Toby held up a hand sharply aware of the small but growing group of onlookers around them. He didn't need Oz to tell him anyway, he knew because he'd seen it all in wonderful telepathic Technicolor. "I know Oz," he whispered as they quickly lifted their patient onto the stretcher and got him back to the rig, "I know exactly what happened to him."

They headed back with lights and sirens, Oz steering the rig through the streets with his usual tactless skill as Toby concentrated on cutting away the last of the injured mans clothing, cataloguing and dressing the various wounds. He recognised each one from the flash he'd had while on the street: the bite mark on his shoulder; the chunk of flesh that had been cut from his left flank; the trail of cigarette burns down the line of his spine. Toby dressed the worst of them quickly trying to ignore the fact that in his mind he could see - almost feel - each one happening.

"We're two minutes out how we doing back there?" Oz shouted back glancing at Toby in the rear view mirror between gesticulating at various car drivers.

Toby glanced at the pale sweaty face of their patient and the numbers on the portable monitor. "We're doing okay." He replied grimacing, okay was relative.

Oz glanced back at him again, "You got a hit, back there?"

Toby sighed as he pulled away the last of the jeans and uncovered fresh burn marks across the top of the man's thighs. "Yeah, I got a hit."

"And you saw..." Oz trailed off, he as was all but staring at him in the rear-view mirror now and Toby wished he'd watch the traffic.

"Yeah."

Oz shook his head and finally focused back on the road. "Oh man that sucks."

"Yeah, it sucks" Toby whispered too quietly to be heard. In that brief moment he'd witnessed the rape and everything that had gone on before and after, and as Oz so eloquently put it, it sucked.

The glass of the observation window that looked on to the critical care beds was cool against his forehead and it helped sooth the dull ache in his head. Last night he'd started work pain free, care free, and in good spirits. One hit, one stupid lapse in concentration, had derailed the whole shift and Toby wanted nothing more than to scrub the night out of his mind and start again. He couldn't though, couldn't just forget it, not when someone had screamed their fear and pain in his mind like that.

"Hey,"

"Hey Liv." The light touch on his shoulder didn't make him jump but he couldn't remember when his brain had acknowledged her presence.

"I thought I might find you here. Have you finished your shift?"

He nodded murmuring a yes as he tilted his head and rested his cheek against her hand. She let him, and gently brushed his face once before turning to look at the pale figure on the bed through the glass. "How's he doing?" Toby asked.

"His name's Lee Thompson, and he's not good. Some of his injuries are infected and we're worried about peritonitis because of the damage caused by the assault." She paused and turned looking deep in his eyes. "Oz said you saw what happened?"

Toby took a breath and stepped away from her. "Oz talks too much."

"So you saw..." She trailed off and he nodded unhappily. "God Toby, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I guess it depends on whether he wakes up or not." His ex gave him a long searching look and he added, "I'll talk to Sergeant McClusky."

Liv looked satisfied with his response and patted him lightly on the shoulder. "That sounds like a plan - after you've had some sleep."

As soon as she said the words his body betrayed him and he yawned widely putting pay any chance he had of denying his exhaustion. "I'm not sure I can sleep after that." He said with rare honesty as he gestured to the man on the bed.

She looked at him critically. "I can give you something for that, and the headache you're trying to hide from me, if you let me give you a full check up."

Toby read her sincerity and wondered just how tried he looked for her to be making the offer. He was actually considering take her up on it when his phone bleeped and Olivia scowled at him as he checked his messages. It was the IIB and he shrugged at her apologetically, "Sorry I have to go, but if I still have it later I'm all yours."

"Get some sleep" He heard her call after him as he left.

End Part 1