The whole room was silent, except for Alex's labored breathing and Bobby's quiet reassurances. Aside from them there were four others accompanying them in this unfortunate situation. A little girl, no more than four years old, was hiding in her mother's arms clutching onto her teddy bear like a lifeline. Her mother was in a state of shock, her skin clammy and pale; the only thing holding her to reality was her daughter.

Adrian Moretti was cowering in the corner, rambling hysterically to himself, his voice never even reaching a whisper. His ramblings consisting of plans of quitting and taking a long vacation.

A scared, nervous yet somewhat excited teenager sat by Bobby and Alex. His thoughts were ambivalent; he was scared and worried, yet he couldn't help the small electrifying feeling rushing through his body.

Nick was agitated, pacing back and worth; his thoughts tumbling and clashing against each other, his frustration increasing, his movements becoming increasingly erratic. Finally he decided to break the silence and process the situation as it was.

"Okay, everyone, tell me your name, and don't even think about lying!" Nick demanded. Nick stopped pacing and casted his gaze across the room and pointed at the teenager, "You start".

"Um my name is Jake, Jake Wiblow," Jake stuttered nervously.

Nick nodded, "You next," he said nodding towards the mother and little girl. The mother still fairly out of it just looked blankly towards him. Nick figuring he was going to get nothing out of the mother turned his attention to the girl.

"Hi, sweetheart, can you tell me your name?" Nick questioned softly, the strain in his voice easily recognized.

"Anna," the girl said hesitantly.

"How about your mom, what's her name?"

"Mommy," the girl said innocently. Stress combined with not getting the answer he wanted, caused Nick to visibly tense and clench his hands. Bobby noticing the man's increasing agitation and quickly intervened.

"Leave the girl alone, she doesn't know any better! Questioning her is not going to get you anywhere!"

"Did I say you could speak, let alone tell me what to do!" Nick spit back. "Do you want me to take another shot at your partner, trust me, I won't miss this time," Nick threatened and Bobby noticeably paled.

"Just, leave Anna alone, she's innocent, she's done nothing to deserve this," Bobby pleaded softly, "She can't help you, just leave her be."

"Fine, I'll leave her alone, for now. Now I already know you two," Nick said to Alex and Bobby, "You, I've seen you before; what's your name?"

"Adrian Moretti, I uh..work here."

Nick, upon learning everyone's identity, resumed his pacing.

"Eames.." Bobby started.

"Yeah, Bobby…" Alex encouraged him to go on, though upon seeing his worried expression added, "Don't worry, Bobby, I'll be alright. I know you won't let anything happen to me."

"Eames I already let you get shot, how can you still even trust me?" Bobby asked doubtfully.

"Bobby, you did not let me get shot!" Alex argued. "If you had known what was going to happen you would have done everything to stop it."

"I'm your partner; I'm supposed to have your back!"

"Bobby you didn't know what was going to happen!"

"I knew something bad was going to happen!"

"How could you have known?" Alex asked disbelievingly.

"When we were about to come here, I had a bad feeling, I knew something bad was going to happen. I knew, and I did nothing!"

"Bobby!" Alex interrupted loudly then continued on more softly, "You didn't know that our suspect was going to shot me and take us hostage, Bobby. You didn't know this was going to happen!"

"I knew that something was going to happen to us, but I just wrote it off, saying that this was just a warning-"

"A warning for what, Bobby?"

"A warning that we were going to have another argument, another fight, like we always seem to be having lately," Bobby answered ruefully with a somber look upon his face.

"I hate it," Alex said suddenly and Bobby looked questioningly down at her, "I hate when we fight, I hate being on bad terms with you. I just…"

"Yeah," Bobby nodded; they both felt the same way.

"So how do we fix it?" Alex pondered.

"I-"

"Just in case you two might have forgotten, Detectives, this isn't a counseling session," Nick sniped, breaking the conversation.

"Is she d-dead?" Jake cautiously asked, looking at the lifeless form of Allison Reed.

"Yes," Nick responded shortly, glancing at the body and quickly turning away, little remorse displayed on his face.

"Nick, you already have one dead body on your hands, you don't want that number to increase, please let Eames go," Bobby begged, desperation evident in his voice and stature. "She needs immediate medical attention."

"No way am I leaving you alone Bobby, just…agh" Eames started but was interrupted by a new wave of pain from her abdomen, which Bobby took as a cue to apply more pressure.

"Eames, please…you're bleeding out, my hands can't form enough pressure to stop the bleeding, you'll go into shock if you don't get help. Please don't argue with me on this…"

"Bobby-"

"It doesn't matter what she says, there's no way I'm going to release my biggest bargaining chip," Nick proclaimed, exerting his control.

"Why did you kill her?" Bobby inquired. "You killed your girlfriend because she suspected and accused you of cheating on her, right? Said she was going to leave, but you couldn't take that!; how could she even consider it! How dare she leave, no one leaves you! How could she have taken your control away. So you killed her, showed her who was in control, put her in her place! But then why kill her, why kill Allison?" Bobby interrogated, trying to find motive, find a character flaw. Find something he could work with, something he could use to manipulate Nick into listening to his pleads; to let Eames go, to let the hostages go.

"She didn't listen!" Nick exclaimed, leaving Bobby more confused than he had been.

"She didn't listen?" Bobby repeated, not deriving the intended meaning from the words.

"She didn't listen to me! I told her what happened, I told her we should run, disappear. She said no, that she wasn't going to go, wasn't going to hide for the rest of her life. She..She said she knew what was best for us, that she would handle everything. She told me to tell the cops that I was at here that night, form an alibi. I told her that it wouldn't work, that the cops would eventually figure it out. I told her we should run, cut our losses and run before the cops had enough time to find evidence. She said no. Why, why wouldn't she listen to me! I knew my alibi wouldn't hold up and I would soon find myself being arrested. I couldn't go to jail, I can't go to jail. I demanded that she start packing that we were leaving. She said she would leave me, leave me! Said she would go to the cops, tell them that I was guilty. Two days later I called her, told her that I changed my mind that I would go with her plan, that I needed to see her. She said she was working, told me to come here. She had no idea, no idea! No way was I going to stay and go to jail; I was going to run and leave with no one knowing what happened. She never even expected it! It was her own fault, her own damn fault! All she had to do was listen to me!"

"If you wanted to disappear without a trace, why kill her here, in front of tons of witnesses?"

"None of which will be able to identify me," Nick reasoned.

"What about us? You've told us more than enough to convict you and bring you down for life," Bobby countered.

"Who says anyone here is going to live to tell the tale?" Nick shot back.

TBC…

Sorry it took so long to update, I just couldn't find the time to write! Well, hopefully this was worth the wait. Please tell me what you think! Constructive criticism and ideas on what should happen are welcome and appreciated! Thank you to all who are reading!