A/N: Thanks to Kev for comments, thoughts and ideas.

There are Three Types of Lies: Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

Chapter Four

"So, run this crazy plan past me one more time," Bobby muttered as he absently picked the label off his bottle of Bud.

Danny lit a cigarette and took another sip of some dubious looking beer called Sheepshagger. "Lee calls the prison in the morning to arrange a visit posing as Warwick's girlfriend, Dervla MacGuire. She's used that alias before, and if they dig, they can trace it back to a flat in Carlow. Visit secured, she'll move up to the flat to make her cover solid and wait until her appointment at the prison. Once she meets with Warwick, she'll slip him the tiny, undetectable tracker and job done, meet up with the rest of us. Then we can move onto phase two - busting him out of there.

"We'll fit a wire on Bailey before she leaves, and do some long range ops on her once she is in Carlow to make sure everything is okay. The tracker will only be activated once she has passed it to Warwick, so that way it won't set any alarms off on the way into the prison."

"You sure the tracker and wire will be undetectable?" Rafe asked warily. "Still seems like a huge risk getting that lot into a prison."

"New technology and materials," Winter announced proudly. "Low-metal-content inner ear and mouth implant. Wire from the mic in the mouth is passed into the ear canal and connects to the ear piece. We'll be able to hear Lee and she can hear us, and it's totally invisible. All we have to do is turn it off when she goes though security, and back on again when she's through. Oh, and I suggest a couple of you newcomers do the listening job just to be on the safe side. We'll have no idea who is watching the prison or her flat, and some of us can't afford to be recognized.

"The tracker is the size of a button and with a bit of slight of hand, Lee can pass it to Warwick. We can arm it from a distance of around 1km. Again, that way it's not live when she goes though the prison entry checks. It's some hi-tech gadget MI5 have created specifically for getting through tight security and thus perfect for this job."

I glanced at Winter suspiciously. "So tell me, just how did you get your hands on all this equipment?"

Winter grinned. "I have an inside contact at MI5 who sends me the specs of all their new toys, and I then pass those on to a guy in Liverpool who replicates them for me."

"Nice," Lester commented.

More like sneaky and underhand, but I'd come to expect no less from Winter. He seemed to have more tricks up his sleeve than a magician, and possess more information than the CIA. Combine that with his team's ruthless, calculating efficiency and dodgy dealings and any fool could see how this lot were some of the best in this field.

Bailey held up her hand, gesturing for him to stop. "Hang on just a second; go back a bit, Winter. Just how do you connect the mic in my mouth to the receiver in my ear?"

Winter shifted in his seat, took a long pull of beer, coughed and looked anywhere but at Bailey. "It's connected by a tiny wire."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes, I got that bit. How?"

"We use a syringe with a special needle on the end to hook onto the wire in your mouth and pull it through into your ear canal, and then connect the two bits together," Winter announced succinctly.

Bailey paled and her green eyes went wide.

Danny patted her absently on the shoulder. "Think of it as an extreme body mod, sis."

She shook her head. "Oh no, you are not sticking a large needle from my ear to my gob. No way in hell that is happening – work something else out."

Winter glanced over at Bobby. "You're a medic, should be a piece of cake for you, right?"

Poor Bobby looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He glanced over at me for support and I shrugged. It was his call to make.

"I'm an army medic, guys. Not an ENT specialist," he protested.

Winter waved his hand. "You'll be fine," he said flippantly.

"He might be, but I won't," Lee muttered. "Maybe you should draw him a diagram Winter, just to make sure."

"Come on Lee, the SAS are using this technology all the time," Winter cajoled. "Right, Danny?"

"Sure," Danny agreed all too easily, "It'll be a walk in the park."

Lee stood up, clearly agitated, and pulled a bottle of Jameson's from the back of a cupboard, cracked the seal on it and took a long swig. "No."

Danny reached for the bottle and she side stepped him easily, backing away towards the hall. "No way. No."

Winter looked at me for help and I shook my head, while Danny looked to Lester, who was equally unsupportive. "Don't look at me, man. I ain't the one with the threat of a fucking huge needle being shoved in my ear. Hell, just the thought of it makes me shiver, and that's coming from a man with a ring in the end of his dick. It's Lee's body, so it's her call."

Danny cracked his knuckles and grinned at Bailey. "You can keep that bottle of single malt if you agree to the wire."

"Fuck you Danny," she growled as she turned and fled to her room, slamming and locking the door behind her.

"Well," Winter slapped a fake, cheery smile onto his face, "That went well, folks."

Bobby leaned his chair back onto two legs and drained the Bud. "The technology sounds great man, it really does, but I'm not sure that I've got the capability to put it in situ. I could seriously fuck something up, and I'm not prepared to risk it. Life or death situation, and I'll do what I have to do, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy randomly sticking giant needles into people's heads."

"Nice ethics," Rafe commented as he squeezed Bobby's shoulder.

Bobby blushed. "Thanks," he mumbled.

The corners of Lester's mouth twitched slightly as he watched their exchange and I rolled my eyes. Rafe was really getting to Bobby.

Winter stood up to get more beer. "Well, it looks like I'll just have to do the implant job myself. It's the only viable mic set up we have that won't show up, and I want ears on them in that prison. No mic, then no way of getting the tracker to Warwick, and I'm not prepared to leave him there to rot."

"You're a bastard," Lester spat.

Winter nodded. "Yeah, that's why I run this show. Someone has to make the difficult decisions. Look Bobby, if you want to try it out first, you can test it on Danny. He's so thick skinned that he won't feel a damn thing."

"Oi!" Danny yelled. "I am sitting right here, boss."

Winter faked a surprised look. "Oh, so you are. You'll play guinea pig for Bobby, right?"

"What about using Wesley?" Danny suggested hopefully.

Stunning idea, and the most sensible thing Danny had said all day. Unfortunately for us, though fortunately for Wesley, Winter shot his idea down.

"I'm not that much of a bastard, Danny. If you're such a wuss, then I'll be the willing victim. Never thought I'd see the day that you chickened out on something."

I covered my mouth with my hand to hide the smile on my face, while Lester faked a cough. Clever tactics. Winter knew damn well that by egging Danny on and then telling him that he was a chicken was going to push the red head's buttons and get him to agree. Danny was that sort of guy and he wouldn't like his boss questioning his masculinity.

"Fine," Danny snorted. He looked over at Bobby. "Tomorrow morning when we're all sober okay with you?"

Bobby gulped and nodded fractionally. He was not a happy camper.

"Stop moving!" Bobby hissed.

Danny grimaced. "That's one huge fucking needle you got there, man."

"The SAS do this all the time, right?" Lester teased. "So no worries, hey Danny."

Danny was sat in a kitchen chair with a white knuckled grip on the table top, med supplies spread out in front of him, while Bobby hovered around him with the biggest syringe I had ever seen in my life, in his surgical gloved hand.

Danny growled at Lester and Winter put the kettle on again. Apart from Danny's griping, the apartment was quiet. Billy had gone up to Cork with Wesley, Bailey was still in bed having gone back to her nocturnal hours, and the rest of us were watching Bobby with macabre fascination as he set up to implant a wire in Danny's head.

"Afraid of needles, big guy?" Rafe joked.

Danny shook his head vigorously, causing the numerous rings in his ears to rattle together. "What do you fucking think, you muppet?"

Rafe grinned. "You never can tell, maybe they sedated you when they put that lot in."

Danny lunged for Rafe, but his leg was still giving him mobility problems and Bobby pushed him easily back down in the chair. "Hush up and sit still. If you won't behave, I will sedate you and then practice on you until I get this right. I might have to try both ears, just to be on the safe side."

Danny paled and instantly sat still.

"Relax," Bobby soothed, slipping easily into the role of the reassuring medical professional. "I'm going to give you a local first, so you shouldn't feel much more than me tugging on the wire."

He loaded up a smaller syringe with the local anesthetic and jabbed it in Danny's ear canal. Danny hissed, but kept still and then shot Bobby an evil glare when my medic numbed the inside of his mouth seconds later.

"Sorted. By the time I've got this lot set, you won't be able to feel a thing – in theory anyway."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Danny rasped out. He was losing feeling in his mouth already.

Bobby smiled. "The entry and exit points are fine – it's just the bit in the middle that could be a little sore. Anyway, I thought you SAS guys were as hard as nails."

Danny glowered. "We are."

"Well, don't be such a baby then," Bobby teased as he picked up the mic and long wire. "Now shut up, stick this in your mouth and hold it in place with your finger."

Rafe sniggered. "How's your oral technique, Danny?"

Danny, incapable of speech, shot him the bird with his free hand, causing Rafe to laugh loudly.

"Stop winding him up, Rafe," Bobby snapped. "I might have to practice on you next."

Rafe smiled, flashing his perfect white teeth. "Bobby, you can use and abuse me any time. All you have to do is ask."

The giant needle in Bobby's hand wavered slightly and he looked away from Rafe hurriedly. Rafe really was getting under Bobby's skin, so to speak, and it was highly entertaining. I'd never seen bashful Bobby before. Cool, calm and collected Bobby, serious Bobby and party animal Bobby, yes, but not this easily rattled and blushing like a school girl Bobby. It really was fun.

Bobby re-focused his attention on Danny again. "I'm going to count to three and then do this. Okay?"

Danny grunted and stared intently at the blank kitchen wall over my left shoulder.

"One." Suddenly and without warning, Bobby slid the syringe into Danny's skull from inside his right ear, going in vertically towards the back of the jaw. Danny squirmed in the chair and Bobby clamped down on his shoulder with his free to hold him in his seat. "You move, and I'll hit something vital. Stop fidgeting; I need to hook the wire, so open your mouth and keep still."

Danny complied albeit grudgingly and Bobby poked and prodded until he was happy, and then slowly retracted the needle, pulling the wire into the ear canal. "Sorted. Nice job, Danny. Let's get this sucker connected to the ear piece and test it out."

Five minutes later and Danny was wired for sound. Both the ear piece and mic worked perfectly and were totally invisible. The metal content was so low that it would pass through metal detectors without a hitch. Winter was very pleased with the results so far, and Danny had stopped swearing and cursing as the throbbing in his face had subsided. The mic test had consisted of a long stream of creative swear words, half of which I didn't understand. It seemed that for kicks on one very dull job, Danny had learnt how to curse and insult in Latin.

Danny was one strange guy, and I still didn't quite get him. Just when I thought that I had him figured, he'd do something else and I'd have to re-evaluate my opinion of him. At first glance, based upon his initial appearance back in Scotland last month, I'd written him off as a simple, trigger happy thug. Yet behind the tattoos and multiple piercings was a clever, witty and loyal to the death guy who would move heaven and earth for his comrades. There was also a dark side lurking just beneath the surface; a side I saw a little of back in that warehouse in Trenton, when he took Erik to pieces slowly and methodically, leaving nothing behind but a pile of dismembered flesh and bones. It was the dark side that frightened me, because I knew that I had not seen the worst of it and when I did, it could well be a sign of impending doom or the apocalypse.

If it wasn't for the love he had for Bailey, I'd have considered him to be one step away from a serial killer. She was a sister to him, despite the lack of a blood relationship; though I'd have said that their bond was stronger than blood. They were two halves of a whole, soul mates even, and after watching them together I realized that what they had wasn't remotely sexual. It had never been about that, nor would it ever be. I knew Lester was falling hard for Bailey, but it would be Danny that would be the one to put her back together after the trauma she suffered at the hands of the Russians. Unfortunately for Lee, she wasn't willing to let him do that just yet, and Danny was still stuck on the outside looking in as she tried her best to self destruct.

Bailey might let him in eventually, but first she had to hit the bottom, only then would she let him help, maybe. She wasn't quite there yet, but she wasn't far from it. If she was willing to resort to smack to keep the demons at bay, then it was only a matter of days before the shit hit the fan. Until that point we just had to sit back and let her get on with it, no use trying to help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

I tuned back into the conversation that had been going on around me in the kitchen and decided that I had missed nothing vital.

"- so just don't go around slagging me off, remember?" Winter teased Danny.

"Fuck," the red head muttered. "Can't you take this damn thing out, doc?"

"Shower first and then we'll see. Winter tells me that there's no data for usage over a long period of time and we could do with knowing how long the battery will last and if you can get it wet for example. And you still need to go out later and test the range of it," Bobby explained.

"Yeah, just 'cos I heard on the SAS and MI5 grapevine that this sucker was indestructible, doesn't mean that they are telling the truth," Winter snorted. "You know as well as I do that they like to make thing up."

"Fine, I'll live with it for a while. I better go kick Lee out of bed, she needs to call the prison ASAP and it's getting on, must be nearly lunchtime," Danny mused.

He limped off down the corridor to the far end and banged on Bailey's bedroom door. "Oi, little girl, haul your arse out of bed. The day is wasting away and you have shit to do."

There was a muffled reply from the other side of the door and Danny dropped his forehead against the wood. "Open the door, Lee. This isn't fucking funny."

Something heavy thudded against the door from the inside, which caused Danny to jerk back in shock. He kicked the door in frustration, and hissed out a sharp breath, obviously forgetting the state of his knee momentarily. Swearing under his breath, which came across very well over the receiver on the kitchen table, he hobbled back to the kitchen and looked to his boss.

"Can you pick the lock on her door? I can't bend down enough to get level with it with this damn knee."

Winter grimaced. "Yeah, but I don't have a death wish. She'll come out when she needs a piss or some food."

Danny shook his head. "She's creative, so she won't come out if she doesn't want to. You know that as well as I do. She needs to start taking responsibility for her actions, man. She has a job to do, just like the rest of us and I'm getting fed up with her damn attitude. If you don't pick that lock, I swear I'll shoot the sodding thing and to hell with the consequences!"

Winter ran his hands through his spiked hair in frustration, mussing it up slightly and let out a resigned sighed. "Fine, but if she shoots me or lobs a knife at me, I'm going to kick your arse and actually dislocate your other knee." He rummaged around in the cutlery drawer and pulled out a lock pick set, and set about Bailey's door as silently as possible. About twenty seconds later he stepped back and looked at Danny. "It's all yours, man."

Danny knocked softly on the door, gently eased it open and stepped into the doorway. "Hey, Lee-Lee-"

A German para boot shot past his head and smacked into the hallway wall opposite him. "Don't ever call me that!" The other boot hit him square in the chest.

Foolishly, Danny stepped into her room and shut the door.

Winter turned the volume up on the receiver and grinned. "This should be interesting, gentlemen. I wonder if we have any more popcorn."

For twenty minutes, Danny and Bailey yelled and cussed at each other from the confines of her room. She sounded as drunk as a skunk and high to boot. The whisky that she'd snagged the previous night had been finished off and the bottle itself had bitten the dust after impacting with an as yet unidentified object in her bedroom. Winter had indeed found more popcorn and had tipped it into a huge bowl that he'd set in the middle of the kitchen table. It was now mostly gone, just a few scraps and crumbs left in the bottom.

"He's a brave man," Bobby remarked.

"What, Danny?" Winter snorted. "He's a total and utter fucking muppet. Won't win in a battle of words with Lee, even if she is on another planet and certainly can't get the drop on her. She's still as mean as a snake and faster than him, despite alcohol in her system. Only advantage he has is brute strength, and he's a pussycat around her most of the time. From what I heard about last night, that's the first time he's laid a hand on her in anger in years. He's well buggered, unless by some remote chance he can charm her out of there, which I doubt. How are you off for med supplies, Bobby?"

Bobby smiled. "I've enough. Packed for anything and everything this time."

"Even removing her boot from up his ass?" Rafe joked.

"Her boots are in the corridor," I commented dryly.

Winter laughed. "She's resourceful, she'll think of something else."

"Ewww! Thanks for that mental image, man," Les groaned.

"Hasn't it gone quiet in there?" Rafe quizzed.

We all lent in close to the small receiving unit next to the popcorn bowl and strained our ears, listening for sounds for Lee's room.

"Too quiet," Winter muttered. "I don't like it."

Danny's hushed tones made us all jump. "Baby girl?"

There was a rustle of clothing. "Leave me alone." Bailey was crying, her voice loud and close to the mike.

"I want to help, Lee. Please, for the love of god, let me help you."

"I don't want your help, Danny. Now leave me alone," she sniffled. Sounded like she was crying all over him.

"So you can sulk and brood and wallow in despair and self hatred?"

"It's not like that, Danny."

"Sure it's not, honey. And I'm the queen of fucking Sheba."

"It's not like that. You don't know, none of you know!" Her voice was raised and she sounded angry.

"So tell me, Bailey. Tell me what happened. Tell me what is making you self destruct," Danny murmured in a soothing tone. "You know, you're letting them win, you acting like this. They are dead and gone and you're safe, but you are still letting them win by hurting yourself like this."

"I can't -" she choked out.

I was right, Lee was nearly at rock bottom and it wouldn't be long before she completely fell apart. I just hoped for all our sakes that she could hold it together long enough to get into the prison.

"Where is my sister, Lee? Where's that strong woman I love so much?"

"Danny, please. What they did…"

"I can't deal with this," Lester announced. "I need some fresh air." He got up and left the room via the stairs.

I looked to Bobby, who gave me a grim look and got up to follow his partner.

"I don't want to listen to this either," Rafe muttered.

"None of us do," Winter answered as he turned the receiver off.

Thankfully, I didn't hear what Bailey had to say of her ordeal in Scotland to Danny, but they finally reappeared nearly an hour later, and she looked like hell. After two cups of tea and a couple of pieces of left over garlic bread she called the prison to set up a visit for the day after tomorrow at 2pm. Now she just needed the wire, laptop and personal stuff and she was good to go.

Bobby was gearing up to implant her wire, and Winter and Danny had gone out to test the range of the one he had already. It looked to be water proof as it had survived his shower. Things were falling into place quite well so far – well on the planning side anyway. Still it was never a wise move to get complacent, so we had to keep our guard up and be alert at all times.

Bobby fussed over his supplies one last time. "You okay with this?"

Bailey shrugged. "Looks like I have no choice, so you better just get on with it."

"Okay, what I'm going to do is -"

"Just fucking do it already, Bobby." Bailey seemed to have a bug up her ass since she reappeared.

"Just trying to keep you in the loop, Lee." Bobby said with a weary sigh. "Let me give you the local and then I'll do the implant."

"No."

"Pardon?"

"No local, just do it."

"Shit Lee, it's gonna hurt."

Bailey shrugged again. "So?"

Bobby glanced at me and it was my turn to shrug. If she wanted to play it that way, then it was up to her. Bobby nodded and slid the mic into place while Lee stared at the light fitting. The huge needle disappeared inside Bailey's left ear and the only indication of pain I saw on her face was when her eyes squeezed shut momentarily.

Job swiftly done, we checked everything to make sure it was working, which it was, and Lee went to pack. The sound of her laughter floated over the receiver a few minutes later as she crashed and thudded around her room. "Least you can't hear my internal monologue and the little voices, right?"

I hit the transmit button on the receiver. "Thankfully, no."

Bailey snorted. "Thank the gods for small mercies right, Ric?"

Bobby took the receiver from my hand. "It's a shame, really. I've been wondering recently just what goes on in that head of yours."

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, Bobby," she joked. "Hey, I'm nearly done here, can someone find the tank bag and saddle bags for my bike? They should be in the garage somewhere and they just need fixing to my bike."

"I'll go," Bobby offered as he ventured out the door and down the stairs.

Lee came out of her room and then disappeared into the bath, rustled around, slammed the cabinet door, stomped into the kitchen, and headed for the med supplies box above the sink and cursed.

I poured another cup of coffee and watched her with mild amusement. Testy Bailey was always fun to watch, and in the past I would have baited her until she'd snapped, got into a huge fight with her and then had mad, sweaty sex. Times had changed and I wasn't going to do that to her anymore, so I stuck to simple questions instead. "Problems?"

"I need some med supplies and as per fucking usual, we have bugger all here," she growled.

"What do you need?"

"Ibuprofen, paracetamol and a couple of support bandages, nothing much. I'll bet that nesh bastard, Danny necked the last of the Ibuprofen."

I smiled and had to reign in my words. The urge to bait her was so ingrained that it was hard to hold myself in check. "You mean that poor bastard with a knee injury?"

"He's a baby. You think Bobby will mind if I raid his supplies?"

I shook my head. "Doubt it, he should have enough for an army this time. Box is under the table."

She dragged the huge plastic tool box onto a chair and flipped the lid up, holding it open with her hand, then rummaged about and whistled though her teeth. "Shit, you weren't joking, were you? He's packed for everything bar a nuclear disaster or alien invasion."

"That's probably in a separate box somewhere. Find what you want?"

Bailey bit her lower lip and nodded. "Think so." She stuffed a handful of stuff in a wash bag, packed up her lap top, picked up a small pile of borrowed clothes, pulled her leather jacket on over a long sleeve black tee, two sizes too big and scooped up the tracker for Warwick. "I'm done here so I'll go find Bobby and get moving. You lot following soon?"

"Once Rafe and Les have loaded your Land Rover - fifteen minutes tops. Stay safe, Lee. Remember, we'll be with you all the way." I pulled out a wad of notes and handed them to her. "Winter told me to give you this and to tell you that you need to go shopping for clothes. Says that you need to look like someone's girlfriend for the visit."

Bailey pocked the cash and rolled her eyes. "Cheeky bastard. See you at the rendezvous on Thursday afternoon, Ric."

She grabbed her crash helmet from the coat rack by the door and went down stairs. The mike picked up her brief conversation with Bobby, Lester and Rafe in the garage, and I turned the receiver off when it began to pick up nothing but the sound of her Ducati's engine as she opened the throttle and took off north towards Carlow.

Bobby came back up and fixed himself what must have been his tenth cup of coffee of the day. He went to sit down and looked quizzically at his med supplies box that was still sitting on the chair. "You need something, Ric?"

"Bailey wanted pain pills. Guess that implant was hurting more than she was letting on."

Bobby popped the lid and rummaged about. "Shit!"

I looked over at him, and he was pissed. "What?"

"Did she tell you what she wanted?"

"Ibuprofen, paracetamol and support bandages," I rattled off from memory. "What's wrong, Bobby?"

"So she said nothing about wanting eight vials of morphine and a load of syringes then?"

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. How could I have been so fucking stupid? She'd got rid of Bobby by sending him to the garage and knew that I wouldn't even think that there was morphine in the box. There was only one reason Bailey wanted that morphine - to get high. Fuck. I'd trusted her… but not anymore.