A/N: Thanks for all of the amazing reviews and I am sorry it has taken so long to update. Warning: there is some bad language in this chapter, but it is not gratutitous.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Flashpoint related.

It's a Second Chance

Chapter 21

The Test

As Anisa was running in the direction that the GPS device was guiding her, she heard a voice in her earpiece.

"Anisa, Greg, can you hear me?"

"Yes, loud and clear," Anisa replied. She was running at about a 75% pace. She wasn't sure how far she would need to run and she wanted to make sure she had enough gas to complete the task.

"Good. We will be here with you if you need anything. Can you see where the GPS is leading you? Maybe give us a head start," he asked.

"No. It will only give me 100 yards at a time, so I will update you as much as I can."

"Copy that," said Greg. Then he turned his attention to his temporary tech, "Matt, can we get a helicopter to track her GPS. Who knows where he is going to lead her."

"Copy that, Boss," was Matt's response.

"Greg, he has me turning left at that corner," reported Anisa.

"Copy that," Greg said alert for any change in her breathing. But she seemed to be pacing herself well.

"Boss, the bird is in the air and on route. ETA 5 minutes," reported Matt.

"Good, Matt. Thanks."

Anisa was led through the streets of northern Toronto. She could hear the rotors of the helicopter and it brought back memories that she would rather forget. She knew that it was there for her safety, but she couldn't help but think about the helicopter that pulled them out of Afghanistan. She had been running for about 15 minutes when she was directed to go "off road". She turned and headed up a hillside into an empty lot. She followed the directions into a field.

"Greg, he is telling me to head toward that line of trees," she informed Team One.

"Copy that. We can't following with the trucks, but we got the bird in the sky tracking your GPS. He will be following you. He also is patched into your headset and hearing this," Greg advised.

The helicopter pilot spoke, "Detective, this Rob Marshall. I have you in my sights. Not gonna lose ya. Stay strong."

"Copy that," was Anisa's response. She continued her trek through the wooded area. Then she came to a metal fence. It was about 9 feet tall and had razor wire at the top. "Shit!" was all she could say. She checked the GPS to make sure that she hadn't made an error, which she hadn't. She ran along the fence in both directions to see if she could see and end to it. No luck. She knew she could scale the fence even with the pack, but the razor wire posed a problem. She checked her watch, she had been running for 18 minutes. Dammit! She threw the pack onto the ground and then thought that maybe there was something in it that she could use.

"Greg, I have run into a tall fence with razor wire on it. There is no visible way around the fence." She paused for a brief second and then said, "Um, I'm gonna open the pack to see if there is something I can use to cut the wire so I can either go through or over the fence."

"Whoa...hang on." Greg took off his hat and rubbed his head.

He looked at Ed who was shaking his head, "Boss, I don't like it. It could be booby trapped."

Anisa listened to them debate...they were wasting time. She hadn't been asking permission she was simply telling them. She inhaled and unzipped the bag. When she realized that she was safe, she exhaled. Looking into the bag she saw a bottle of water, a small pack of tools with a screwdriver, a pliers, wire cutters and som other small tools. It also looked like there was a vinyl raft of some sort in there. She took toolkit and put it into one of the big pockets of her cargo pants and slid the wire cutters into one of the loops on the vest.

"Guys, it's done. No booby traps. Got some wire cutters. Going up the fence." She threw the pack on her back again and began to climb. Ed and Greg just looked at each other. Sam smirked in the background causing a smile to trace across Ryan's lips. Anisa reached the top, pulled out the wire cutter and snipped the razor wire. She bent the wire back enough to slip her body through. She tossed her pack over the top of the fence. As she did this her sleeve caught on the razor wire and easily slit through the material and sliced her arm. "Dammit!" she uttered as her sleeve became soaked with her own blood.

"Red, you OK?" asked Ryan calmly, hiding his concern.

"Yeah. I'm good, just tore my shirt," she explained as she jumped to the ground, put the pack on her back and continued her run. Shortly she cam upon a very large lake. She could see no way around it. It seemed to stretch on in either direction for a mile.

"Guys, I have come to a large body of water and I see no way around it. Going to inflate a raft and let's pray there is an oar in this damn pack." She opened her pack again and found a small inflatable boat with an automatic pump. She unfolded it and started the pump. "Any word on our guys? How are they doing?" she asked as the boat was inflating.

Matt replied, "We still have visual and they seem to be the same. No change."

"Copy that" was Anisa's reply. She swallowed some water and checked her watch. She had 15 minutes to get to her destination. She dug through the duffel hoping there was an oar. Finally, at the bottom of the bag she found a small oar. Damn it was small...but it was better than nothing. The pump stopped, signifying that the inflation was complete. She put the pack in the boat and announced, "Launching the boat." She started rowing as fast as she could. She was ignoring the throbbing in her arm. "Rob, can you do me a favor?"

The helicopter pilot responded, "You bet, what is it?"

"Can you fly ahead and see if there is anymore water I may need to cross anywhere. We are getting down to the wire and I don't want to have fold this stupid raft up if I don't have to. Not to mention that it is friggin heavy."

"Copy that, back in a few." She heard the rotors peel off knowing he was scouring the area as she had asked.

Greg's phone buzzed with an 'UNKNOWN' number. He answered it, "Sergeant Greg Parker."

"Hi, Greg. I see that your girl has hit the water. Good for her" he said condescendingly. "She is only a couple of minutes behind."

"How is my guy doing?"

"As you can see, he and blondie are the same. I was just calling to let you know that I am going to take them off line for a few minutes. They should be back up in about 5 minutes. You have my word that they will be unharmed, that is, unless they decide to do something really stupid. In that case, all bets are off," Ward laughed. The computer screen went dark.

Greg and Matt looked at each other. "This isn't good, is it Sarge?" asked Matt. Greg just shook his head and turned away from the tech.

Anisa was paddling as fast as she could. Her muscles were burning with fatigue, but there was no time to think about that now. She was nearly at the opposite bank and she heard the rotors from the helicopter.

Rob's voice was heard over the headsets, "Good news, I don't see any water in this direction. A couple of miles up, there are some abandoned warehouses. Could be our spot. You doing OK, detective?"

"I'm good. Greg, what it going on with Spike and Natalie?"

"Don't know. They are still blacked out," frustration evident in his voice.

Anisa continued to paddle. Only a little way to go now. "Does it look like they could be being held in a warehouse?"

"Yes, it is possible," was Greg's repsonse.

Ed's voice was heard over the headset, "Greg, I think we should head to the warehouses."

"Yeah Eddie, let's move out. McConnell we will meet you there," was Greg's reply.

Anisa paddled to the bank of the lake. "Copy that. Just leaving the water. Heading into some thick woods."

"OK, go safe."

"Yep"

Ryan had stayed silent. He felt helpless. He knew she was working on auto-pilot and adrenaline. He thought about the promise he had made to her late husband. He felt like he was letting him down. He couldn't take care of her now.

"Damn, these woods are thick," she muttered. They were slowing her down. She had 8 minutes to get there. She was trying to negotiate her way through the heavy brush when a branch hit her in the face knocking her slightly off balance and cutting her above the eye. "Aw shit!" she exclaimed as she wiped the blood from her eye.

"Red, you OK?" Ryan asked with concern.

"Yeah...just gave myself another scar. Still on the move... approaching the crest of this friggin' hill," she replied. As she approached the top of the hill, Anisa stopped. She listened...she thought she might have heard something. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She looked around scanning the woods around her. She couldn't see anything or hear anything unusual. She checked her watch – 3 minutes...'Alright time to kick it into the next gear' she told herself. She ran full speed down the hill with the pack on her back. When she reached the warehouse, she was confronted by another fence. 'Not another friggin' fence' she thought. She threw the pack over it and scaled it as quickly as she could.

"Sarge, video is back up," announced Matt.

"What have we got?" asked Greg.

"Still have Spike and Natalie, but now they are seated in chairs and...Sarge..."

"What?" questioned Greg intently. "Oh God no."

At that Ed came tearing into the truck, "Greg?" Ed looked at the image on the screen. He saw more bruises on Spike and blood coming from his nose. Something didn't look quite right about them. Worse yet, it looked like some explosives had been fasten around Spike's chest. "THIS ENDS NOW!"

"Wait Eddie, I can't let you go out there with out a clear head." Greg rubbed his eyes hoping that it would make him think of a plan. "Ed, you know this guy is a bit of a coward. I bet he got out of there, what do you think?"

"Yeah, maybe, but he hasn't come out this way. He must have gone out the back and up that wooded hill," Ed said.

"Team One, I need Sam, Wordy, Jules. We think the subject has gone out the back and we are going to comb the hillside," commanded Ed.

Ryan came up to Ed and said, "I'm going, too." It wasn't a question. Ed leveled his eyes at Lambert. He knew what the detective was feeling.

Ed nodded his head. "Grab a vest." The team grabbed their gear and headed up the hill.

"Greg, I'm here. Entering the door at the back of the warehouse," announced Anisa.

"Copy that. McConnell before you go any further there is something you need to know...there are explosives involved. You don't need to got through with this," warned Greg.

"Quitting is not an option, copy?" was her response more of a command than anything else.

"OK, please go careful." Greg's phone buzzed, "Parker."

"Hi, Greg. Sorry I had to disappear like that. Just had a few things to take care of," Ward said. "I think it might be helpful if you were to have your techie patch me into McConnell's headset."

"You know what, I will see what we can do about that, but right now, I want to talk about Spike and Natalie." Greg had no intention of patching him into McConnell's headset. She had enough on her mind without having to listen to this guy. "It appears you may have given them some type of drug. Can you tell me what?"

"It is a special cocktail imported from Asia. It will wear off in about an hour and should have no permanent effects...as long as they are out of the warehouse in time. Now we will see how strong Ms. McConnell really is," he responded with a chuckle.

Anisa looked into the warehouse... it looked empty. There was an office on one side. She sprinted to it and gently opened the door. The room was empty. She backed up and scanned the warehouse again. Surely she was in the right warehouse. Then she saw the the balcony with some doors at the back of the warehouse. There were no stairs to get up there. She walked over the to balcony and saw at one end there was an opening in the floor where perhaps a ladder may have belonged. She absently rubbed her head and accidentally hit the cut where the branch had hit her. That made her wince and broke open the scab again. She put her pack down and opened it hoping there might be something in there that might help. She found some rope and at the end of the rope was a grappling hook. No wonder the pack still felt so heavy. It had been a while since she had used one of these. Her first attempt to toss it through the open ended with it clattering back down to the floor of the warehouse. Second attempt was successful. As she prepared to climb the rope, she quietly thanked Jules for giving her gloves. Anisa tied the bag to the bottom of the rope and the scaled it. Once she reached the balcony, she pulled the bag up. She looked at the doors in front of her and decided to start with the first. She tried the handle and it was locked. She looked at the toolkit that had been provided. She found a lock pick. Anisa quickly picked the lock of the first door and opened it slowly. Empty. She went to the second door and tried the handle. It was also locked. She picked that lock and opened the door slowly. Empty. She got to the third door and found it locked also. She picked that lock and slowly opened the door. This time as it opened about ¼ inch she heard a click.

'I don't think that is a good sound,' she thought to herself. As she opened the door wider she saw Natalie seated in a chair with her arms secured behind her. Her shoulders appeared somewhat slumped forward as if overly relaxed. Her face showed both fatigue and anguish. Her eyes looked at Anisa pleadingly. Anisa widened the opening of the door and saw Spike. His face was swollen and bloody. When she looked down and saw the explosives strapped to his chest, she inhaled a shallow breath. She scanned the room and saw a window on the the back wall and a timing device mounted on the right wall. She followed the wire from the timer down the wall along the base of the floor. Every few feet there were bundles of some type of what she assumed was explosives (she was far from an expert in that area). She looked up at the timer and saw that it showed 6:32:18 and the seconds were ticking off. Anisa determined that the click she had heard when she opened the door had started the timer on the explosives around the room. She gingerly stepped into the room.

"Greg, I found them," her voice was quieter than she had meant it to be. "We are going to need paramedics here ASAP," Anisa instructed as she approached the captives. She stepped over to Spike. She bent down and touched his face an looked into his eyes. He seemed groggy.

"Hey," he offered in acknowledgment. "He drugged us. Told us it was a special imported paralytic that was only temporary. Would last about an hour."

She nodded, "Any idea about the explosives?"

"Wall bombs are plastique." Spike said in halted speech. "Not sure what I am wearing...TNT?" She was so close now that he could smell her. He closed his eyes and remembered that happy day they had spent at the concert. 'That was really good,' he thought.

Anisa looked at his face and wanted to take him out of there now. But the priority of life code called for hostages first, then officers, and then subjects.

"Spike, stay with me. I'm gonna get Natalie out and then I'll be back for you." Spike looked at the clock 5:52:19. He knew there wouldn't be time. She followed his eyes and got up and went over to Natalie who was sobbing uncontrollably.

Anisa firmly but gently took Natalie's face in her hands, "Nat, listen to me. You are going to be fine, but I need your help. Breathe." Natalie looked at Anisa and nodded, trying to calm herself. "First, I'm gonna cut you loose and then re-bind your arms in front so I can carry you down, alright? You may be hurt and bruised a little, but it is the only way I'm going to be able to get you down safely. OK?" Natalie nodded shakily. Anisa went around and cut the bindings on her legs and her hands. Then she brought her hands to the front and took out her hand cuffs and cuffed her in front. Anisa then squatted down in front Natalie's chair and put Nat's arms around her neck so her hands were in front of Anisa. "OK Nat, here we go." Before she actually stood up, she looked over at Spike and said, "I'll be back for you."

Spike yelled to her "NO! There won't be time. One man down range."

"Don't quote that shit to me Scarlatti...I got quotes of my own. No man left behind! Failure is not an option! So, don't go anywhere." Spike offered a half smile at that.

Anisa stood up ignoring the screaming pain in her quads. "Greg, I'm coming down with Natalie. Meet me half way and bring Spike's vest and some carabiners," she demanded not waiting for a reply. She moved as quickly as she could with the larger woman's weight on her back. She reached the rope and secured it. Anisa rearranged Nat so that one of her arms was under her own. This would prevent Anisa from being choked by her weight as she climbed down. She descended as quickly and safely as she could, but as she hit the floor, her foot landed awkwardly and her ankle buckled under the added weight. "Ahh!" Anisa yelled involuntarily.

Greg's voice sounded alarmed, "Anisa?"

"I'm good. Just sprained my ankle." She hobbled as quickly as she could out of the front door of the building. She saw Greg standing there with the vest. As she approached, he dropped the vest so that he could take Natalie from her. He looked into Anisa's eyes, but didn't utter a word. There was no need for words. He carried Natalie to the paramedics. Anisa grabbed the vest, turned and ran as fast as she could with her injured ankle back into the warehouse. She climbed the rope and reentered the room in which Spike was being held. The clock read 2:29:45.

Meanwhile...

Jules and Wordy were scaling the hillside when they heard some clicking that sounded like fingers on a keyboard. Wordy pointed a large boulder to their left. The two SRU officers flanked the rock and closed in. "POLICE! Hands in the air! On your knees!" screamed Jules. While Wordy cuffed the subject, Jules snapped his picture with her PDA. "Boss, subject in custody. It is not Ward. Repeat, Ward still at large. Matt sending you a photo. See if you can get an ID."

"Copy that," said Matt

Anisa looked at Spike and found it hard to breathe seeing him strapped with explosives. She had to focus. It was up to her to get him out safely.

"Spike, I need your help," Anisa said trying to hide her real emotions. She walked behind him to look at the bomb that was still attached to him. She knew she could not reach the timer on the wall so she thought if she could disengage Spike from the one the asshole had strapped to him, she might be able to get him out of the building before it blew. She pleaded quietly to Spike, "Please help me."

Spike said, "Come here, Anisa, so I can see you." She walked around so she was in front of him. She looked into his eyes but what she saw surprised her. It wasn't fear, it was peace and something else...

"Mike, the clock is ticking," she said with desperation in her voice.

He nodded to the earpiece indicating she should take it out. She removed the earpiece and got closer to him. He said in a soft voice, "If I die today, I want your lips to be the last ones I kiss. Kiss me." Anisa could barely breathe as she leaned in and touched her lips to his. The kiss deepened but only briefly. As much as Anisa wanted that moment to last forever, she pulled back.

Spike looked into her eyes said softly, "I love you."

Anisa gave a small smile and replied, "I love you too." Her heart felt full for the first time since Sean died. She glanced at the clock. It read, 1:46:35. "Mike, nobody is going to die today...tell me which wire to cut."

"What color are the wires?" he asked.

"Blue, red, two yellow, one with a black stripe."

Spike thought for a split second, "OK, if you cut the two yellow, the one with the black stripe first, that should disable the bomb."

"Are you sure?" questioned Anisa.

"Yes..." then under his breath he said, "theoretically."

Anisa inhaled and said a little prayer. Snip Snip. "Done... OK, Mike, I'm gonna cut you out of this contraption. Can you move your limbs?"

"Umm.." Spike tried to move his arms and legs. They twitched a little, but not much. "not really. The feeling is coming back, but slowly."

She glanced at the clock...0:47:14.

Spike saw the clock, too. "Get out of here. There is just enough time for you to get out of here. PLEASE!" he begged.

Without stopping what she was doing, Anisa said quietly, "I am not going to watch another man I love die because of me." She cut the explosives off of Spike and carefully laid them on the floor. She cut his hands free, grabbed his vest and pulled it on him as quickly as she could.

"How's it going in there, Anisa," asked Greg knowing the time was short.

Anisa knew she would not have time to get Spike down through the main hole inside the warehouse and then clear of the warehouse before it blew. Their only chance was through the window in this room. She broke the window in the room with her pack then slid the chair over to the window. She put her earpiece back in and announced to Greg, "We are coming out the back window. Make sure paramedics are on standby, but the building is going to blow, so wait until it is clear before heading over."

She secured the rope and then wove it through the carabiners she had clipped to Spike's vest in order to offset some of his weight. She then positioned him over her shoulder as she had done with Natalie and the climbed out the window. She had just started to repel down the building when a rifle shot rang through the air.

At the sound of gunfire Greg asked urgently, "Team One status." One-by-one they all responded that they were safe...except for Spike and Anisa.

The rifle sound allowed the members of Team One to pinpoint Ward's location. "Sam, you close in from the left I will come in from the right," directed Ed.

"Copy" responded Sam. At that moment a large explosion was heard. Sam glanced in the direction of the warehouse, but could only see smoke.

They were close, but Ryan Lambert arrived first and put the muzzle of his handgun to Ward's skull. "Just give me a reason to pull the trigger, mother fucker!" Ward was fortunate that Ed and Sam arrived in that exact moment or Ryan may have just killed him.

"Drop your weapon, Ward! Do it NOW!" commanded Ed. "Hands in the air! OK. On your knees." Ward did not obey that final command fast enough, so Lambert kicked him full force onto the ground.

"That is police brutality," cried Ward in protest.

Sam responded, "I did not see a thing, how about you Ed."

"Nope, I didn't see a thing," agreed Ed with his gun trained on Ward's head.

Sam cuffed him and then stood him up and said, "Subject secure and in custody. Bringing him down, Boss."

Anisa heard the sound of the rifle at the same instant she felt the rope break and they began to free fall. What happened next occurred over the span of 3 seconds. She instinctively had to protect Spike, so as they were dropping she managed to turn enough so that her body was between Spike and the ground cushioning his fall. Upon impact, she heard some cracking sounds and felt some pain, but could not determine from where the pain came. She could hardly breathe. She saw Spike's head hit the ground. Then she remembered the bomb and managed to roller herself over so she was partially covering Spike then...BOOM! Everything went black.