A/N: I messed up editing, so now it's going to be four chapters instead of three; and by messed up, I mean this part ended up being longer than I intended and I had to cut the original chapter in half.

For a moment he questioned what Tatiana had said and briefly shot a glance towards Kidman, who only returned the look.

Part of him hoped he knew who it was.

But the other part tried to keep realistic and remember what this world was capable of.

There was no way it would cut them a break this easily.

Kidman slipped her arm back into her shirt and was in the midst of hastily re-buttoning it when she turned back towards him; her expression said pretty much everything despite the silence. "... Could it?"

Her question sounded incomplete, like the rest of it had been worded over in her head rather than out loud, but he knew what she was asking. And he was certain they both wanted the same answer to it, but if that wasn't the case... then that meant that something else had found its way into here. And he wasn't entirely sure if they were prepared to handle anything at this point in time.

In fact, he knew they weren't.

"I would suggest you hurry." Tatiana spoke as she continued to stand in the doorway. "He sounded like he was in bad shape."

Shit.

Both he and Kidman pushed themselves to their feet so quickly that the chairs they were in toppled backwards and clattered against the ground. They went separately around the table, but they both ended up pushing past the nurse and heading through the rest of the office at about the same time. Her limp no longer seemed to bother her- or maybe she was just forcing herself not to focus on it.

He pushed open the lobby door... and immediately stopped.

The lobby walls were decorated with long blood trails that looked like they had been smeared by hand.

Some of them looked almost casual, as though someone had just been running their hand along the wall... But others were violent, like someone had been clawing at them in a desperate attempt to cling to something. Some of the partial, bloody hand prints were clean enough that every line could be seen on the palm impression. Despite having been in the lobby just minutes before, the blood looked fresh- as though someone had just recently gone through and done it. But... they certainly would've heard something like this going on.

The sight of the mess stilled him to the core and he instinctively reached for his gun- only to remember once more he had left it behind.

Kidman took an audible breath and briefly cursed as she reached for her gun as well, only to curse again when she realized it was missing.

He didn't even see or notice that she had removed her holster.

This place, very rarely, reflected any kind of... damage or had some odd effect wash over it like this; and the few times it had before, things didn't end well. Even now, the sight of it made his skin crawl and made him regret that they had both rushed out here without some kind of protection on them.

Unless, of course, this was like how that blood trail had appeared for Kidman...

He heard the sound of one of the room doors opening again and held his breath.

There were no curse words or mumbled sentences this time- not like it had been with Kidman before.

Just heavy coughing.

It was strange to consider that he moved towards the sound regardless, and stepped out from behind the desk once more, before he stepped into the open doorway looking down the corridor. He heard her follow closely after him, as though still not quite convinced that it wasn't some kind of Haunted or the like standing down there, waiting for them.

They were both still as they watched a door at the end of the corridor slowly inch open, before a hand reached forward to quicken the action.

The sight of a black-clad figure stepping out of the room drew a startled breath out of both of them.

Joseph...

The man had partly shouldered the door open, as though using it for momentary balance, before he stopped just outside of the doorway. He didn't even look at them, he probably didn't even notice them, and instead seemed more focused on something else for the time being; the way he was partly hunched forward told him that it was more than likely pain that kept him distracted. His left hand briefly brushed against his wounded side before it moved to his right shoulder instead, partly gripping it.

Sebastian didn't waste much time as he quickly started down the corridor towards the other man, still in a partial state of disbelief. He half-expected something to go wrong right about now just to fuck with them- just to teach them a lesson about getting comfortable in one place for too long.

But nothing did. Thankfully.

"Joseph."

Kidman was the first one to call his attention to them- although it'd be hard for him not to hear the clicking of her heels in the narrow hallway.

He didn't seem to react to the call of his name, but quickly held up his hand when they drew close- wincing as he did so.

He was in about as bad of shape as they were.

His arms were cut open and bloodied from the debris of the crash; there was even a minor blood smear on the door from where he had pressed his left arm against it. The back of his right shoulder, which he still held on to, had blood stained completely through his shirt and an opened tear suggested further injury. The skin from his cheek down to his jaw had been scraped raw on the left side of his face, leaving a mess of stripped skin and blood to drip down his neck. And while those injuries were nothing to ignore, it was hard to focus on them when there was an obvious, dark stain spreading across his vest.

He was incredibly pale and, at this point, he was almost certain that the adrenaline was the only thing keeping him conscious.

"I'm fine, I... I'm fine." Joseph assured, although the break in his voice gave it away. "Just... don't touch me right now."

The pain read easily in his voice and Sebastian had to stop himself from reaching out anyways.

Kidman had to do the same.

"You're saying one thing, but... I'm seeing the exact opposite." Sebastian replied.

Joseph gave a brief chuckle and seemingly forced himself to stand a little straighter. "Good, because I feel exactly how I look right now." he answered, as he slowly moved his hand to his glasses and momentarily removed them; making it easier to notice the slight haze in his dark eyes. He checked over the damages, which included a completely shattered lens, before he gave a tired sigh and slipped them back on. He only briefly looked around at his surroundings afterwards. "... What is this place?"

"It's hard to explain." He started, already inching his way closer to the man; he knew he wasn't going to last long on his feet.

And he was right.

He managed to step forward and catch Joseph when it seemed like he was going to pass out. It was difficult to find a place to put his hands where he wouldn't inadvertently hurt the man, but he managed to catch him around his left side; slipping his right arm over his shoulder as he pulled his partner towards him in the same motion. He felt Joseph lean heavily against him, despite his earlier remark, but heard him bite back a pained noise as he unfortunately brushed his hand over his injured shoulder.

"It's dislocated." Joseph answered, through gritted teeth, as though knowing he was about to ask.

Sebastian silently cursed to himself and tried to be more mindful of the injury; the pain must've been enough to jerk him back into being conscious.

"It's an easy fix." Kidman started, as she stepped forward and briefly rested her hand on his arm- as though for a substitute because she didn't want to harm Joseph the same way he had. "At least... if you know what you're doing."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Sebastian asked- not wanting to admit he had almost forgotten about her.

"Don't ask, but yes, I do." she replied, before she turned her attention back to Joseph; she seemed to hesitate slightly before she reached forward and gently brushed her hand against his bruising jaw. And it was hard to ignore the genuine look of concern that came over her. "You look half-dead, but... I'm glad to see you're alright. We were worried about you."

"You're one to talk." Joseph remarked, drawing a short chuckle from her. "... Are you two alright?"

"We've all been better." Sebastian answered, watching as Kidman gave an agreeing nod. They were somewhat fucked up, but... they were alive at least. He heard Joseph groan again and felt his fingers briefly dig into his back as a heavy shudder tore through him. He could hear him almost struggling to breathe at this point- his injuries were only getting worse the longer they stood here. "Come on, you definitely need to lie back down and we need to get that bullet wound of yours properly patched up this time."

Easier said than done.

There was no objection as he helped his partner down the corridor and walked him into his room instead; it didn't really seem to matter in the long run considering all of the rooms were the same, but... he just felt more comfortable having Joseph here. He carefully set him down on the edge of the bed and tried to ignore another groan that had escaped him; his hand instinctively went to his side this time. "Christ..." Sebastian started, barely getting another word out before he felt Kidman brush him aside.

"We do need to get that bullet wound taken care of, but believe me, I wouldn't recommend us doing anything before I pop his shoulder back into place." she started, as she took his place and already began to unbutton Joseph's vest as she briefly knelt down on one knee. "These things are incredibly uncomfortable and painful- not to mention, the injury will only get worse the longer the joint remains out of socket, so we need to deal with this first."

He didn't know why she felt the need to explain this to him. Maybe she felt that, when compared to a bullet wound, a dislocated shoulder would be hard to argue as being the priority of the two. And he could only assume her knowledge of that had to have come from personal experience. Either way, he stepped back and let her do what she needed to do- trusting her judgement on the matter. After all, based on Joseph's reaction, it had to have been hurting like hell.

"And before you say anything, I have to do this to figure out which direction the joint pushed out from." Kidman continued, as she carefully slipped his black vest off of his shoulders- and when she had done so, she folded it and tossed it aside. "It'll also be easier to roll it back into the socket without the constriction from the sleeve."

She was either talking out loud to explain it to Joseph or to convince herself that she knew what she was doing.

At this point, he wasn't even sure if the man was listening to her or not.

"You sure about that?" Sebastian asked. "Because... this doesn't seem like the first time you've done this."

"Dislocated shoulders are more common than you think." she replied, as she moved on to his work shirt, while Joseph had already managed to loosen and remove his tie.

"I wasn't talking about that."

She didn't reply.

And, suddenly, he didn't want to know.

"Look, just focus on fixing his shoulder." Sebastian restarted as he stepped back. "I'll grab the supplies we were using before so we can try to stop the bleeding as soon as you're done."

Kidman nodded and briefly glanced back to him. "There are some more of those towels in the the top drawer of the medicine cabinet, you should grab some; we'll need them. I should have this shoulder back in place before you get back."

"Just don't rush it, okay?"

Sebastian stepped out of the small room and headed towards the back office once more. He needed some time to himself anyways to get his thoughts together and calm down for a few seconds. The entire time he had been here had been spent worrying and panicking over every little thing it felt like... and just this once, things worked out for the better; for once, things didn't go from bad to worse when he expected them to. They really could've gotten screwed over just now, and even with Kidman before, so he was having a hard time accepting that they hadn't- or, at least, not yet.

He wouldn't go so far as to rule it out- he wasn't that comfortable with it.

For now though, he needed to focus on what was in front of him and make sure the two of them could pull through this. They would be okay for now... They had to be.

And if not, then he had to do whatever he could to make sure they'd get out of this.

His hands were shaking; he hadn't really realized just how badly he had been affected by all of this. It felt like too much had happened at one time, all in connecting succession to one another. First, it was the Heresy, then the ambush, and then Joseph getting shot, followed by the second ambush and then the hotel... And then waking up in this place not knowing a damn thing about what had happened to the other two. And then slowly being reunited with them with nearly no strings attached.

Anymore surprises and he was going to have a damn heart attack.

Giving out an exhausted sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair before he picked up the mess of medical supplies from the table and took them back with him; he made sure to stop by the medical cabinet as well and grab some of the small, hand towels.

On the return trip, he stopped just long enough to notice that the lobby walls were clean again- there was no sign of blood or... anything on them now. And he had to force himself not to think on it. It wasn't worth his time and, quite frankly, he didn't give a shit.

Stepping back into the hospice room, he watched as Joseph carefully rolled his shoulder in place- hinting that the joint had been properly relocated now. Although the injury that marred the back of it seemed to be giving him some trouble.

"Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be a pinched artery or any kind of ligament tearing from what I can tell." Kidman started, as she kept her hands on his shoulder while he moved it. "We're lucky with that."

"Bad experience?" Sebastian questioned.

"Not important." was all she replied.

She really knew how to cut down his need to question things.

Setting the supplies down on the nearby desk, he watched as she stepped back, seemingly content with her work for the time being, before he turned his attention back to his partner. He had half a mind to ask if he was feeling better with his shoulder back in place, but... decided against it; a relocated shoulder was probably great to have again, but he still had a bullet rip through his body. He was breathing a little heavier now, more than likely the shoulder procedure had wiped out most of his remaining energy and strength, but he still managed to finish slipping out of his half-discarded work shirt; which only revealed another white, short-sleeve one underneath it. "How many shirts are you wearing?" Sebastian asked.

Despite looking like he was on the verge of passing out, Joseph offered a brief chuckle as he slowly rolled up the remaining shirt to reveal the blood-soaked bandage, which had been partly torn off in the wreck. "If you knew anything about etiquette, which I know you don't, you would know that you're supposed to wear a secondary shirt with white."

He wasn't surprised.

"You should take note then, Kidman." Sebastian remarked instead.

The look she shot him practically spelt death.

"The one time I don't..." she retorted, but decided not to finish her sentence.

It wasn't like he could really harp on her for it- he sure as hell wasn't wearing one either.

"Okay... let me just warn you, this isn't going to be pretty." Joseph started, as he kept one hand on the barely remaining bandage before he slowly began to peel it off. "And there's a good chance I'm going to lose consciousness with this."

He had a feeling that it wasn't so much a warning, as it was him blatantly telling them what was going to happen. But, before he could do much of anything, the other man quickly tore the front portion of the bandage off, revealing only a stream of blood that masked where the bullet had actually gone through. It was bleeding worse than it had been before- no doubt the injury itself had not only been ripped back open, but had been further torn open in the crash. Joseph hardly seemed phased by the blood pouring out of him.

"Fuck." Sebastian muttered, as he briefly turned to the supplies he had set aside earlier and grabbed one of the towels he had collected- thankful now that Kidman had mentioned them. Quickly folding it, he waited until Joseph had completely removed the ruined bandages before he moved to press the small towel against his back; covering where the bullet had blown out an exit wound. He heard him curse briefly at the contact and felt his fingers dig into his arm as he pressed harder against the injury, hoping to slow down the blood loss. He could only imagine how much blood he had already lost within the past hour- and he was amazed he was still conscious. It was a terrifying thought, one of which he had to suppress for the time being. "Okay, alright, keep this here and lie back on it; we're not going to get anywhere with these injuries until we get the bleeding under control."

He felt Joseph nod against his shoulder and waited for him to move one hand over the towel, before he had Kidman hand him a second one, which he quickly pressed against his abdomen. There was already blood soaking quickly through it as the man slowly pushed himself back across the bed before he eased himself down- groaning briefly as he did so. He moved with him and moved to sit himself on the edge of the mattress, keeping his hand steadily pressed over the entry wound. "Alright, this next part is going to fucking hurt."

"Trust me, it can't get any worse."

Shit. Joseph had gotten shot and survived a wreck well within ten minutes of each other... there was no doubt he was already in an unbearable amount of pain. The tension in his features and the visible shaking of his hands easily gave that part away. Still, he figured it was worth it to give him a heads up.

Holding his own breath, Sebastian pressed down hard on the injury and tried to ignore how his entire body visibly winced in reaction and how he bit back another pained response. Leather fingers tightly clenched together, but... he didn't say a thing. He kept a steady sense of pressure on it and counted down the seconds it took for his partner to gradually, somewhat relax under the heavy touch as the pain slowly began to drop in intensity; he was still breathing hard and it sounded like he could barely catch his breath.

He looked up as Kidman finally stepped forward once the ordeal was over with, and watched as she eased herself onto the edge of the bed closer to the headboard, somewhat facing him. Her face was firm, but the slight lack of color told him that they were all suffering from this experience. She moved to take one of Joseph's slightly unclenched hands and carefully covered it with her own. He watched as the man briefly squeezed her hand in return, somehow proving that he hadn't quite passed out like he had thought.

Christ, how was he still hanging on to consciousness?

And he waited until the gasped breathing slowly eased down into somewhat regular breaths.

"Okay... what's the worse-case scenario?" Sebastian asked, figuring that, if Joseph was going to be conscious for awhile, it'd be worth it to try and distract him- even if he was trying to do so with a fairly shitty question. But, this question would make his partner think- it would take his focus off of the pain for just a short while, and that was better than nothing.

And Joseph seemed to take a few moments to consider the answer- and he knew the man was thinking based on how he briefly moved his fingers against the bed; it was like he was counting down through a list, organizing his thoughts on a mental notepad. But he was also sure part of the delay was used to steady his breathing and recompose himself before he spoke.

"Worse case... internal bleeding, shock and then death." Joseph simply answered.

"Not really an inspiring answer." Kidman remarked.

Joseph managed a slight shrug. "After a crash like that, we're all more than likely suffering from a degree of internal bleeding." he added. "Which... could prove to be problematic down the line." he paused briefly to catch his breath, before he continued. "At the very least, if there was bleeding going on inside of your brain, it would've already been evident by now- so at least you have that."

"... Comforting." Sebastian replied, catching the brief shake of the head from Kidman. "What about best-case scenario?"

Pause.

"There is no best-case."

He stilled briefly at the answer, but tried not to let it show.

After all... it wasn't like Joseph was lying. What else was there for them to do in the aftermath of this? Of course, once they got out of here, they would continue to search for a way out of this hell- they would continue to search for a way to get to Beacon, but... How much harder would that be to do now? They couldn't make a complete person between the three of them, and the gunshot wound would slow him down...

And the bleeding wasn't stopping.

There was already blood slowly staining the sheets underneath him from the exit wound.

"If anything... it could've been worse." Joseph offered, as though knowing that his answer hadn't gone over well. "High velocity gun, no secondary damages... the bullet went clean through. It could've gone in and bounced around, hit a few vital organs and... I would've been dead in minutes. It could've not exited and heighten the risk of lead poisoning- or could've gotten lodged in my spine." he stopped once more and briefly moved his free hand to cover the one Sebastian had over his abdomen. "... We could've all died in that crash."

Kidman sighed and moved to rest one hand against his chest, feeling it shudder with every breath underneath her. "There is no best-case in this situation, just... better cases."

"Exactly."

Joseph was right... they all could've died in that crash or, even worse, one of them died or two of them died and left just one person behind to continue forward. It seemed like a sick twist of fate that they had all survived in the first place, that they had all seemingly jumped out at the right time- just barely avoiding death. He was certain Ruvik had enjoyed the show- and part of him was almost convinced that the reason they were alive was because Ruvik hadn't intended on killing them then. This was probably the most entertainment he had gotten in years... and he was going to enjoy them for as long as he could.

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance, Detectives."

The voice caught him by surprised and Sebastian turned enough to see Tatiana standing in the doorway, watching them. And it had only occurred to him then that... she wasn't in the office when he had gone back to get the medical supplies; in fact, she hadn't been anywhere in sight this whole time- not since she told them about Joseph's arrival. So... where did she come from? And more importantly, where the hell did she go?

"After all, I can't have you two disturbing our newest patient."

"You know... I didn't know where this was before, but... now I do." Joseph briefly remarked. "... It just looks different now."

Kidman frowned briefly, as though slightly uncomfortable with the woman's sudden reappearance. "What are you going to do?"

Tatiana gave a light shrug. "I'll have to examine the patient first and determine treatment based on my assessment. I assure you, I won't keep him long, and he'll be in good hands."

The woman always seemed to be around if there was a reason for her to- and this instance, he felt like the nurse had already made her decision on why she needed to be here. Not that it was that difficult to see. And yet... he was reluctant to give the nurse control, even though he had this feeling that told him not to object to her decision. But he also knew that she had far more medical expertise than they did, and... it wasn't like she was against them. She had helped both him and Kidman with their injuries, so it only seemed natural for her to be here to help Joseph now.

He knew he would be in better hands, but...

He didn't really have the power to make the decision here.

"Just go, would you? I'll be fine." Joseph assured. "... She's not going to kill me."

Although she may kill them if they didn't abide by her rules.

Sebastian sighed and reluctantly admitted that this was the best course of action. "Fine." he started, squeezing Joseph's hand briefly before he pushed himself to his feet. "Just... hang in there, alright?"

"I've made it this far, haven't I?" he replied. "At best, an infection will kill me."

"Don't act like that's out of the running." Kidman spoke, turning briefly to cup her hand against his jaw as she slowly placed his hand back at his side. "You'll get through this... just be careful with your shoulder, alright?"

"I know I wasn't exactly optimistic before, but... this isn't my deathbed." Joseph reminded, managing a weak chuckle as he gently pushed her away. "I'm serious, go."

And it took a lot of his strength to let go of his hand and force himself to walk out of the room.

Sebastian felt Tatiana briefly brush her hand against his arm when he passed her and paused just slightly at the gesture.

"Don't worry Detective, I'll take care of him."

Somehow, he did find some comfort in her words this time.

But, after stepping out into the hallway and hearing her close the door behind him... he was beginning to regret the decision.

"He'll be fine." Kidman assured him, as she moved one hand to rest on his arm before she gave a comforting squeeze. He could tell she was just as nervous about the situation, but she had a better handle on keeping it pushed down and bottled up for now. "Give him time to get his injuries taken care of and time to rest... he'll bounce back."