A/N: Sorry this one took a while. I got really sidetracked with this little project I've nicknamed "What were you smoking when you thought this was a good idea?" I'll give you a link to it at the end. Anyways, thank you so much as always for the reviews, and enjoy!

"Hanson!" Flack whirled around as the officer at the door poked his head inside. "Where did Adam go? The guy who was sitting here."

"He left about five minutes ago. Didn't say where. Kid didn't look good though."

"He talk on his phone at all, speak to anybody?" Flack pressed.

Hanson shook his head. "I don't think so."

Flack whipped out his radio as he strode out into the hallway. "I need a location on Adam Ross. Last seen fourth floor. Approximately 5' 8", brown hair, light beard, jeans and a blue crime scene jacket. I need him in protective custody now." Don raked his fingers through his hair as he scanned the nearly empty hallways. Coming up with nothing, he pocketed the radio and went back inside the room.

Mac was watching him. He looked exhausted. It seemed he was struggling to keep his eyelids from sliding shut. His left eye was nothing but a narrow slit that refused to open any more than it already was.

Don let out a long sigh as tore his eyes away. "Mac, we got this. We'll find Adam. Get some rest."

"Don…" Mac rasped, wincing as he tried to move.

"I mean it. Lindsay saw these guys. She can ID them."

Lindsay nodded quickly from Mac's bedside, still absently gripping the man's arm, now to keep him down more than anything.

"Our focus right now is finding Adam, and we will. Whatever else you have can wait …Unless you have anything that can help us find out who these guys are or where they might be." Don added reluctantly. He didn't want to give Mac any more reason to hurt himself. He could see the frustration in Mac's eyes again, wanting so badly to help, but being helpless himself.

"Can't remember…" He muttered, looking utterly disappointed in himself.

Don shook his head. It figured that Mac would be awake for three minutes and already have the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Hey, it's okay. You just rest."

Mac seemed to have finally lost the battle for consciousness as his eyes slid shut, but then he managed to mumble. "Look at the techs..."

Don waited for more, but the now even breathing told him Mac was out, and good thing too. Three more minutes and Mac would have been donning his holster and Kevlar. Don watched the unconscious man for another minute just to be sure he was truly sleeping. He placed his hand on Lindsay's shoulder. "Let's go. I need you on this." Lindsay hesitated for a moment before following him. "He's gonna be fine now." Flack said, not just for her benefit. He stopped just outside the door again and waved Hanson over. "No one gets in this room without hospital ID or a pass from me. He's still a material witness… and call me if he wakes up again…Don't let him out either."

Stella had finally caught her break. She had hard, physical proof that someone else had been in trace when the explosive went off. A stock cabinet had been blasted off its base and was leaning precariously against the back wall. Hidden on the side facing the wall was a blood smear. Someone's cover from the explosion hadn't been as safe as they had hoped, toppling on top of them instead.

Now she just needed something to compare it to… CODIS would take time to come up with a match- if there was one. She highly doubted it. This screamed inside job.

As she sat in front of the computer to wait, her phone rang. She feared every new call would be the chief pulling them off the case. They had an excuse at first. Accidents could be investigated by their own department. It was when they suspected foul play that they should have dropped it and ran. Stella could distance herself to a point. She hadn't been there when it happened. She wasn't sure it was much of an excuse, but her best friend was lying in the ICU receiving blood transfusions because he had left half of his own on the floor across the hallway. There was no way she was backing down now. She wondered if Mac would have approved of them working it… They could battle it out later.

"Bonasera." She answered finally.

"Stell, it's Flack."

"You find our suspects?" She asked.

"No, but we definitely got a new development here. Adam was the target, not Mac."

"What?" That couldn't be right… Who would want to hurt Adam? Granted the kid could sometimes be obnoxious, but nothing that warranted murder. "How do you know that?"

"Mac told me." Flack hurried on, sensing she was about to launch into a series of predictable questions. "He was awake, but he's out right now. I don't know how he knows, I don't even think he knows how he knows, I just know he does. Doesn't make much difference at this point. Here's our problem. Adam's gone. We can't find him. He's not in the hospital. Has he called you?"

"Uh…" Stella took a moment for the information to sink in. "No, no, he hasn't."

"We got everybody out looking for him. He can't have gotten far. You got anything over there?"

"Danny is processing Kendall at another hospital right now and Sheldon is looking over the security logs. Nothing has stuck out so far. I found some blood in trace. Could be from a perp. CODIS is running now."

"Mac said something about looking at the lab techs. Adam said there were two in room when he came in, but not when he left."

Stella nodded, her inside job theory suddenly looking very plausible. "Whoever did this would need the clearance to get to this floor. It makes sense that it could be one of them. I'll get Sheldon to focus his search."

"I'm sending over the hospital's security footage with Lindsay right now. Hopefully you can get something off that, but she's your best shot at an ID. She was looking right at 'em."

"Alright, good. I think we can finally start getting somewhere…" There was silence for a few seconds on the line before she spoke again. "Why Adam?"

"I've been asking myself the same thing. It made more sense when it was Mac."

"Why would Adam run off? Did he know?"

"No, I don't think so, but he's been blaming himself for this all night. I don't think they've gotten to him, but he's vulnerable. I'll let you know as soon as we have something."

"Likewise…Wait, Don-?"

"Mac's gonna be fine, Stell." He answered without being asked.

Stella allowed a smile to cross her tired face. "Thanks."

Predictably, CODIS had come up with nothing. However, Lindsay had brought more than security footage with her, and they were now running the blood found in trace against the blood found on the gurney where the suspects had been. While they waited, they sifted through the endless hours of footage. They spotted their guys coming into the hospital just after Kendall showed up at the police station, but there was no sign of them leaving. Of course the hospital wasn't equipped with cameras in the back hallways or exits.

"I don't get it." Lindsay sighed in frustration as she sat back with a soft thud. "Why? Just…why?"

Stella propped her chin on her fist and gave Lindsay small, tired smile. "Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and you don't get to know why."

Lindsay smirked, looking down at her hands. "So I'm not the only one he gives that speech to?"

Stella scoffed. "Are you kidding? He invented it for me."

"Stella!" Sheldon burst into the room, waving a flash drive like a trophy. "Your tip did the trick." He explained as he plugged it in and pulled up a grainy security feed. "Alright, this was earlier tonight. Night shift started at 4. Now look here."

"That's Kendall." Stella said slowly.

"And getting into the elevator with her..."

"That's them!" Lindsay said, stabbing her finger at the screen.

"I ran their faces and they don't work in the building, let alone in this lab. They were posing at lab techs to blend in."

Stella was staring hard at the image, a mix of emotions fighting for dominance inside her, until she finally managed to speak in a carefully controlled tone, "And Kendall gave them access."

"I'll update Danny." Sheldon said, whipping out his cell as walked into the hallway.

"Why would she do something like that?" Stella muttered as she studied the screen, searching for a gun or some other hint that she was an unwilling participant.

"Maybe she didn't have a choice." Lindsay said. "She was attacked an hour ago, maybe to make sure she wouldn't say anything?"

Stella shrugged hopelessly. "Maybe. Our suspects are obviously in possession of her phone. Seems an odd thing to steal unless they had it before the attack. In which case, maybe they used it to lure Adam into trace, or out of the hospital."

Lindsay suddenly sat up and dug into her pocket, pulling out a cell phone. "I forgot, I had found this outside Mac's room. It's Adam's. Looked like it fell out of his pocket where he was sitting. I already looked through it. Kendall told him to meet her in trace, or at least someone did on her phone. That was the last text. No calls since then either."

"And no way to trace him, since he left it." Stella sighed.

Sheldon re-entered the room, snapping his phone shut. "Danny said he hasn't been able to get two words out of Kendall. She wouldn't talk to him, the forensic nurse or a female police officer. They're holding her and have officers stationed outside her room. She's being treated for shock and some other minor injuries. Danny is coming back with the evidence now."

Lindsay hesitated for a moment, "Of course there is the possibility that this is all an act. She could be working with these guys. She knows the consequences for letting someone unauthorized into the lab. Why risk it unless she was in on it?"

"Then why not use the phone herself?" Stella quickly shook her head, stopping herself. "Speculating won't get us anywhere. We need evidence. Sheldon, get back to her apartment and start processing. Flack said he saw blood. Maybe that's where she was attacked." Sheldon immediately turned and went right back out. "We should really start looking into Adam as well. See if there's anything that would hint at where he might be, or at least why someone wants him dead."

"Flack already has Angell looking into him. He was a suspect before a victim. She hadn't found anything as of half an hour ago…" Lindsay shifted uncomfortably. "Stella, I should have seen this coming. He kept trying to tell me how responsible he felt for what happened, saying it was his fault, and I just didn't listen."

Guilt suddenly seized Stella as well. Shouldn't she have known if something were wrong with Adam? He had seemed upset earlier, but she was so concerned about Mac, she hadn't even thought about it. She figured he was worried like everyone else. Maybe if she had just taken notice, paid attention, she would have seen it, and stopped him from leaving. "We're all a little responsible on that front, but it doesn't matter anymore. We just need to find him."

"DNA at the hospital is a match to the DNA in trace." Lindsay reported listlessly, spotting the blinking green icon on the computer over Stella's shoulder.

Stella sighed. More useless evidence. Great for when they were at trial, prosecuting the guys, but as far as finding Adam and protecting him- worthless. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. Get images of our suspects off the security feed, send them out as many places as you can. Actually, send out Adam's picture too. Then grab your jacket. If he doesn't want to come to us, we're going to have to go and find him ourselves."

Adam had been trudging aimlessly through the streets for almost an hour now. His mind had been blissfully blank for most of it, numb like his back had been, and like Adam wished it still was.

It was a good thing his mindless wanderings had led him within a few blocks of his apartment. He could do with a shirt and a proper jacket. The fall night wasn't too cold, even by the Phoenix native's standards, but between the thin hospital gown posing as a shirt and his non-insulated windbreaker, goose-bumps had blossomed across his skin. A sudden chill caused his tender back to seize up and he had to grasp a light post for support until the pain passed.

He gingerly straightened up and carefully started walking again, quite certain if a cop spotted him they would be convinced he was either high or drunk with the way he was stumbling along. As he neared his apartment complex, it suddenly hit him. What was he doing? Sure, grab a change of clothes to make himself feel better, but then what? Sit at home and wait? Wait for what? A warrant for his arrest? If he had a choice, he would help find the guys that had almost killed his boss, but that was out of the question. For all the cops knew, he had been helping them.

Adam rounded a corner and his complex came into view. Parked across the street was a police cruiser. They're staking out my apartment. Adam realized with a jolt. After another minute of internal debate, Adam started moving again, walking straight for the cruiser. Maybe if I'm cooperative enough to climb right into the back seat, they'll let me grab a shirt before they book me.

It was nearly 2am, and the last of the late night crowds were still stumbling their way home along the sidewalks. Someone passing by slammed into Adam's shoulder, causing Adam to hiss in pain as his back flared up again. Before he could look around for the perpetrator to congratulate him on his walking abilities, Adam felt something hard press into the small of his back, right along the edge of a particularly deep laceration. He tried to arch his back away from it, but a sudden jab from the object nearly sent him to the sidewalk in agonizing pain. A powerful hand grasping at his bicep was all that kept him standing.

He felt someone lean close to his ear. "I'd stop moving, Adam. You'll draw the attention of that lovely cop over there, and I'd hate to be responsible for hospitalizing two of New York's finest tonight. How is Taylor, by the way?"

Adam tried to whirl around, "You son of a-."

The man's painful grip tightened around his arm, and the object was shoved against his ribs. "I'm gonna need you to cooperate here, Adam. I don't want to shoot you, but my friend still has your boss in his sights, and if he hears you're giving me trouble, he might just have to complicate Taylor's recovery. Now… are you gonna come with me quietly or do I need to make a phone call?"

Adam slowly shook his head.

"Good." The gun was poking into his side again. "Let's go."

A/N: The chapter didn't want to be written. I swear, it doesn't like me. I'm not too fond of it either. But yes, review anyways.

So that project thing, yeah... I'm an avid procrastinator, so much so, that I procrastinate procrastinating and start something new so I can procrastinate on that. Anyways, I was looking at youtube videos and saw some people made little trailers for their fics, and I like making videos, so I gave it a shot. Link's in my profile at the bottom of the page.