Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed Fear and Loathing, you''ll be glad to know that I am planning a sequel but due to the heavy subject nature I wanted to take a break from it for a little while.

Here's my next offering, it's a plot that has been rolling around in my head for a while now. I know it's not nice to torture poor H but I can't help it, I enjoy it!

Anyways, here goes:

"Alright gentlemen" Horatio addressed his team as they stood outside the abandoned warehouse, "You know the plan. We go in pairs; no one is to be left without back up. Understood?" The members of the group nodded as they loaded and checked their guns, Horatio and his team had been tracking this local drug cartel for a number of weeks. After biding their time, now was the time to strike. He stood sideways on, the sunlight shining off of his sunglasses as he turned his head towards his team, "Time to cut the head off this snake once and for all"

They entered the building in pairs, Eric and Frank took the left flank, Horatio and Ryan the right, and they were followed in by a pair of uniformed officers. Moving quietly, the teams made their way through the dimly lit warehouse.

Horatio stopped suddenly when he heard movement up ahead; he swiftly moved his head and gun hand from side to side, attempting to take at aim at any suspects in front of him. Just as he was about to move forward once more he heard a crashing noise and someone cursing in Spanish, sensing he had the suspect cornered Horatio walked forwards, gun aimed at the area that the noise originated from. "You've got nowhere to go son" he told him, "Put your hands up and come quietly"

The suspect knew he was trapped, he raised his hands in surrender, "Ok, ok. Don't shoot me man" he pleaded pitifully.

"Walk towards me" Horatio ordered sternly, "Hands where I can see them" Confident that the suspect had surrendered and knowing that Ryan had his back covered he took a few steps towards the young Spanish man, as he reached to his back to get his cuffs he was tackled to the ground from behind. Hitting the ground with a thump he felt his breath leave his body violently and painfully, and then he felt a sharp scratching pain in his right leg. Dazed and confused he called out to his team mate, "Ryan! Where the hell are you?"

There was no time to listen for an answer as the two drug dealers set about subduing the man on the floor, "You've caused us nothing but trouble, Puta!" one of them shouted in between kicks at the fallen lieutenant, "Time to put you out of commission. For good!" the other suspect added, breathing heavily through anger and exertion.

Having subdued their own suspects and secured the rest of the building Frank and Eric ran towards the commotion. "Freeze! MDPD!" Eric shouted, gun trained on the criminals. Frank, along with the two uniformed officers handcuffed them and marched them out towards the waiting squad cars.

Sensing that the beating had stopped, Horatio attempted to lift his head from the ground. Wheezing heavily he asked Eric, "What took you so long, brother?" The effort of holding his head up was becoming too much for him so he let it fall back down to the ground with a thump, not caring about the pain it caused.

"Shit. Horatio, what did they do to you?" Eric knelt down by his fallen friend, the drug dealers had certainly done a number on him, "Hang in there man, I'm gonna call for a bus" he told him whilst placing a reassuring hand on his arm. "This is Eric Delko, MDPD. I need a bus at 43rd and Main, right now!" Eric put his cell phone back in his pocket and looked down at Horatio once more, his breathing was becoming more and more laboured and he was looking at Eric with unfocused eyes.

"Horatio" he gripped the red head's arm tighter in an effort to rouse a response from him, "Horatio!" he shook him this time, "Horatio, talk to man! Tell me what they've done!" Eric was starting to panic now, a simple beating wouldn't have caused a man like Horatio to react like this, something was seriously wrong.

"Eric" he gasped as he began reaching a shaky hand towards his right leg, Eric's eyes followed his movements, his eyes widened and he gasped as he saw the needle sticking out of his friend's thigh.

"Oh man. No!" Realisation hit Eric like a tonne of bricks, the bastards had stuck Horatio with a needle full of heroin. "H, you gotta stay with me man! Help is on the way but you gotta keep talking to me. You hear?" He shook Horatio by the arm once more to get his attention, he could tell by the size of his friend's pupils that the drug was already in his bloodstream, his breathing becoming shallower and slower with each passing second. Seeing his eyes close once more he shook him violently trying to keep him conscious, "Horatio! Open your eyes man! Stay with me!"

"Eric, what the hell happened? Is he alright?" Frank ran over, seeing Horatio lying prostrate on the ground, the look that Eric gave him told him things were far from alright.

Eric turned his attention back to the man lying in front of him, his lips were turning blue now and his breathing was almost non-existent. Suddenly Horatio gasped then went limp, his head falling listlessly to one side.

"Horatio!" Eric exclaimed as he checked for a pulse, "Don't you dare do this to me!" he told him as he started chest compressions. Precious minutes later paramedics came running towards them, "I think it's a heroin overdose, he stopped breathing a couple of minutes ago" he told them as he allowed them to take over the CPR.

One of the paramedics turned to look at Frank and Eric as they worked on Horatio, "Is he a user?" he questioned, motioning his head towards the dying man in front of him.

"Of course he's not a user you dumbass!" Frank shouted, "The scumbag drug dealers we've just arrested stuck him with a needle full of the stuff" he told them, running a shaky hand over his balding head, watching as they hooked monitors up to Horatio's chest.

"I'm still not getting a pulse" the other paramedic told his partner, "Charging to 300, stand clear" Horatio's body lifted from the ground as the shock went through him. "Still no pulse. Charge to 360, stand clear" The monitors still showed no response, the paramedic administered a dose of epinephrine and charged the paddles once more. "Okay, we've got a pulse" the paramedic turned to his colleague, "It's weak but it's there, we need to get him to Dade Memorial. ASAP"

Eric and Frank watched in stunned silence as they intubated Horatio and ran IVs into both of his arms, "Either one of you coming with us?" the paramedics asked as they started pushing to gurney towards the warehouse door.

Eric shook himself from his stupor and replied, "I'm coming with him" He held his fallen friend's hand as he was wheeled towards the ambulance. He sat in the back of the vehicle as the gurney was loaded, it was then that he saw Ryan running towards him. Anger surged through him, Ryan was meant to have Horatio's back, where the hell was he when it all went down in the warehouse? He was about to leap from the vehicle when one of the paramedics placed a hand on his arm, "It's not looking too good for your friend here, we need to leave right now"

Eric sat back down and watched helplessly as his friend, boss and mentor fought for his life. "We should be at the hospital in less than ten minutes sir" said the paramedic who was rhythmically squeezing air into the breathing tube in Horatio's mouth. Suddenly the alarms on the monitor started to squeal, Horatio's back arched and then he fell limp against the gurney, twitching and convulsing uncontrollably. "Shit Bobby, you better step on it!" the paramedic shouted to his colleague driving the vehicle. After two horrendously long minutes the paramedic had managed to stabilise Horatio to the point where the monitors were beeping and not screeching as they had been before. The paramedic glanced at the monitors once more and told his colleague, "We better nearly be there Bobby, his pressure's dropping fast. I don't think he's gonna hold out much longer!"

The next thing Eric knew the ambulance had screeched to a halt, the back doors were opened and the gurney removed. Doctors and nurses swarmed around Horatio as they raced through into the ER, all Eric could do was stand and watch as they attempted to save his friend's life.