Disclaimer: I do not own Flashpoint or anything you recognize from it. A/N: Okay, in fear of alerting the 'authorities' and not knowing much when it comes to explosives, I'm asking all of you to just suspend reality for a few chapters and follow me on this wild trip. I'd be very grateful, thank you. ((Side note: Addison had to enter the room, if she didn't: one of her teammates would have gone. There are more reasons but hopefully this chapter clears it up.)) Also, I just want to thank all of you for supporting me and this story, when I say this is for you, I mean it.

If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together…there is something you must remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart…I'll always be with you. — Winnie the Pooh

Please enjoy and Please Review!

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Game is On

She ignored the sudden quiet over the earpiece, "Addison." She heard Sam's stunted voice.

"Give me a damn minute." She snapped, turning around the room and absorbing everything, how in hells could she have missed the bombs littering the room? "TF bombs. The whole damn room is littered with them." She quietly said and swallowed down the bile.

She ignored Spike's wild cursing, "Addison, please tell us what that means." Wordy asked.

"That you can't dismantle them. If you touch them, they blow. In training we were taught to run the other way…they're more sensitive than landmines." She quietly explained, her eyes absorbing the sight of the walls being covered by shiny chrome canisters. And the door…there was no way she would go near that thing. Just standing a few feet away and she was sweating profusely.

"How much time?" Parker asked worriedly.

She shuddered and stared at the mirror, and slowly, as to not disturb anything, ripped off the note from a clock and stared at the clock, her heart stopping. "Eight minutes." She quietly said.

She heard more cursing and willed the tears away, "Stop it, everyone. I need a moment to think." She snapped crankily. She stared at the note and swallowed, crumpling it in her hand, "Sara's in the basement." She quietly said.

"What? How do you know?" Sam asked.

"We don't have a lot of time now, okay Sam? Just please go and get her. It won't be rigged." She explained and sighed when she heard Ed order the team to go check.

"Just hang on Addie, we're calling the bomb squad." Parker said, trying to sound calm despite the urgency he was feeling.

She snorted in ill humour, "They're not going to get here in time. It takes ten minutes for them to travel from HQ to a location…and that's on a good day, boss. Just focus on getting Sara out of here…and empty this damn block." She ordered.

"Stop being the martyr, Addison. We're your teammates, we're going to get you out." Jules snapped, tears in her voice.

"You don't get it, Jules. It's her, or me: that's the game. It's not for me to decide, it's for all of you. Save her or save me." She said, wishing she could have seen it sooner and damn it, Miller was clever.

"No, Addison. We're not leaving you." Spike chortled out.

She closed her eyes, "I'm sorry, Mike. I wished it wouldn't be this way but there's no way I can get out of here. Just leave and make sure this place is empty." She felt as though her heart was being ripped from her chest: not for her impending death but for Mike's suffering.

"No."

She wiped furiously at her face, "I'm not doing this now. We'll do it later." She said knowing there wouldn't be a later. But she was horrible at goodbyes and if she could pretend, they damn well could too.

"How much longer?" Ed asked crankily.

She swallowed and glanced at the clock, "Six minutes." She muttered, breathing in brokenly. She promised herself she wasn't going to go down without a fight and damn it, she was going down swinging.

Addison glanced around the small bathroom, taking in the tiles and ceramic toilet, her heart falling when she realised she couldn't hide behind—a tub. A metal tub! She dropped her SRU issued rifle on the ground and kicked the tub, ignoring the chattering in her ear. The only way for her to extract the tub away from the tiled nook was to shoot around it and hope nothing ricocheted. "Boss?" She quietly asked, grabbing her regulation-issued handgun.

"Yes, Addie?" Sarge asked.

"Do I have permission to shoot something?" She asked quietly before rolling her eyes when Wordy shouted, "No, there isn't anyone in here with me. I just have an idea. Sara?" She asked.

"Four more minutes. The bastard is sure making it challenging." Sam grunted.

She heard Parker sigh, "Make the rounds last, Addie. But be careful."

She sighed, there were so many things that she wanted to say to each and every one of them…especially Mike but she couldn't. Time wasn't on her side. She ached for him, she wanted to scream and shout at the world, to rip everything apart until her fingers bled and shredded but she couldn't. Now wasn't the time for defeat or rage, she had survived the odds so many times before: she would fight for her rights to live again.

Addison raised her gun and shot as many rounds as she thought would be needed, aiming for the thin line of grout that connected the metal, aged tub to the tiled wall. She dropped the gun and kicked the tub: pulling, ripping and cursing as she slowly rocked it from its nook. All the while mindful of the bombs and the clock.

"Remind me to buy you a dictionary." She heard Ed's dry voice comment.

"What?" She asked confusedly.

"I don't think she needs one. She clearly has grasped the cursing part of the English language." Parker muttered, "I might have to stricken a few things from the record."

She laughed, and glanced behind her, sobering immediately, "Four minutes."

"We've got Sara." Sam breathlessly said.

She nodded, "Grab her and get out of here. With the amount of TF in here, you'll be safer a block away."

"Boss, you seriously can't expect us to leave her here." Wordy's voice broke through.

"Enough guys, let's just—Sam and Jules, take Sara out of here." Ed ordered, his voice rough and gravelly.

"Don't put this on Sarge, you guys." Addison snapped, she knew when their teammate died, Sarge had mantled the guilt: she refused to do this to him again.

"Addison, are you sure about the TF?" Sarge asked, needing assurance.

She shut her eyes, if there was an opportunity to save her, it had past: she felt as though she was like a little child being left behind. Abandoned. "I'm sure." She quietly said.

"No, Addison. You get your ass back here, do you hear me?" She heard Spike shout through the earpiece. And if there ever were a moment that she could love someone more, it was then. Hearing his whiskey tenor curse and shout: she wanted to walk into his arms and forget all about this ugly, living nightmare.

She felt a few tears slip down her cheeks, "Three minutes." She quietly said. She let her head fall back and stared at the ceiling, her breathing stuttering in and out from the rising need to sob and give up. The tears were falling freely now but she refused to weep, there were still so many things she had wanted to do. She shook her head, if she was going to die; she was going to die with dignity. Die like a soldier.

She opened her mouth, there were so many things left unsaid between her and Mike, so many things she still wanted to do. She refused to die: she hadn't tasted an evening with him in bed; she didn't know what he would say first thing in the mornings or how his hair would look. Would he have a sleepy smile or an enigmatic one? She opened her mouth, she could never tell him that she loved him in such an open forum but she needed to get this out, "Jules?" She asked quietly, ignoring the red beeping of the clock mounted on the mirror.

"Yes, Addie?" She heard Jules' tearstained voice.

"Can you…can you make sure he knows?" She asked hesitantly, she had no intentions of dying but realistically: the amount of TF and a small metal tub? Things weren't looking so good, regardless of what she told her teammates.

"Addie, you are not going to die." Jules snapped, her voice breaking.

She shook her head; she had to make sure the other woman knew of whom they were talking about, "He needs to know." She said and breathed deeply, this was the only way to tell him how she felt and at least this way, no one but Sam, Jules, and Spike would know whom she was really talking to. "Amo et Te amabo semper et in aeternitatem."

"What does that mean?" Jules asked quietly.

Addison shook her head, "Two minutes." She replied and turned around to rip the tub away from the wall with a vigour she never knew she had, "I'll have to turn off the frequency, I don't know how he has rigged the bombs and if they'll go off all at once or not, so I'll tell you when it's safe or not. Okay?" She demanded.

She heard Parker sigh, "You heard her, team. Clear out."

"Did you find him?" She asked, turning the tub on its side.

"No but by now, he's the most wanted man in the country." Sam's voice broke through.

She grabbed her riffle and handgun, dismantling them both and placing them on the floor, "A minute and a half." She said, her heart speeding up impossibly fast. She felt as though her heart might burst from her chest, her skin felt tighter and her mouth was painfully dry: she knew all the symptoms of an adrenaline rush but she couldn't act on the flight instinct. She had to cement herself. She sat on the floor and pulled the tub over her, cocooning her under metal and floor, "How much longer?" She asked.

"One minute."

She nodded and curled herself inwards, like a caterpillar before its metamorphosis, "I'll see you guys later." She said refusing to say goodbye. "I'm turning the mic off now." It was the only warning she gave and turned the frequency off, cutting her teammates off.

She always thought waiting to pull the trigger during her snipping days or sneaking through when she gathered Intel was intense but nothing, nothing compared to the waiting that she was stuck doing at that moment. She didn't know how long she had, she didn't know anything but the sweat pooling on her skin. She refused to close her eyes, but decided to do her own countdown.

"One, two, three…" She swallowed and forced herself to count past the terror growing in the pit of her stomach, her voice faltered when she heard a loud high pitch beeping and recognised the ten-second count down beeping from training. She braced herself for the impact and slammed her eyes shut, clamping her hands over her ears just as she felt the hot impact and screeching boom of the first bomb exploding.