As Harry found herself being forcibly moved into the garage, she slowly became aware of something that transformed her fear swiftly into fury and disbelief. After the door was shut, and locked, she was finally released.

"You bastard!" she shouted. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing? I'm leaving now, this minute," she said, stepping around Dempsey to reach for the door.

"No you aint," he replied emotionlessly, slipping the key into his pocket with one hand and grabbing her by the shoulder with the other to shove her back away from him.

"Like hell I'm not!" she yelled, forcing herself forwards again with her eye on his trouser pocket.

Dempsey pre-empted her however and blocked her way. He took told of her wrists then, grasping them firmly in his hands to prevent her from attempting to take the key from him.

How dare he! She could feel her anger building and building.

She twisted her arms abruptly, forcing him to relinquish his hold, before lunging for him once more. She had been trained in these situations and there was no way that she was putting up with this! Again, he took hold of her wrists, but this time, to ensure that he kept hold of her, he turned quickly, looping their arms over her head, with his grip still on her wrists, as he moved behind her. By bringing both of their arms down, she found herself clamped against him, with her arms crossed around her middle. He had also been trained, and he wasn't going to let her go until he was ready. He had to make her understand the danger… somehow.

She sensed his head just above hers but was far too infuriated to even turn and look at him.

"Dempsey," she began, through gritted teeth, "If you don't let go of me now, you will be out of my life for good," she threatened. "You can sort out your messed up life yourself."

"Can't let go of ya Harry, not till ya see sense," he replied, seemingly unaffected by her declaration.

"Me see sense?" she exclaimed, outraged. "You've completely lost your mind! Get the hell off me!" she shouted, thrashing out, "Let me go Dempsey!" She continued by twisting, pulling, kicking, even attempting to bite him, so enraged was she, but he blocked her every move and still kept her restrained; he was simply stronger than her.

She hated him… hated him with a vengeance for the fact that she was so damn physically helpless against him. She just couldn't get free until he chose to let her go. Damn him!

Finally, almost beside herself with frustration and anger still, she had no choice however but to stop struggling; it simply wasn't going to help. Now, words were her only means of escape.

"Well done Dempsey, does this make you feel more of a man or something, that you can physically hold me here against my will?" she said bitterly.

"It aint about that, an' you know it," he replied.

"I know that you're losing your mind. What do you want from me exactly, huh? What do you plan on achieving from this?" she asked, finally turning to look him in the face. His expression was unreadable, his face a blank mask.

"Keeping you alive," he replied simply.

"Oh really? So, what are you going to do? Keep me locked up in here forever?" she came back.

"If that's what it takes," he replied, irrationally.

She laughed with incredulity and turned her head away from him again. "You're insane. You're so far out of your depth; you don't know what you're doing. You do realize that, don't you?"

He groaned. It was the first sign of a crack in this cold, hard emotionless attitude he'd adopted.

"I need time to think… to decide what to do without you bolting for the damn door," he explained.

At least he was making a bit more sense now. Not much, but a bit.

"And I have no say in this at all then?" she answered.

"You would have done, if you'd have shown me that ya understood the danger you're in now," he came back.

"You haven't listened to a word I said, have you? You're not listening to reason," she replied with frustration.

"What about listening to my concerns eh?" he snapped back. "How d'ya think I'd feel if you left today an' I never saw you alive again? You ever think of that?" he accused, his emotions beginning to break his mask of control.

"Don't put that on me Dempsey. That's no excuse for this behaviour. Besides, whatever happened to, 'life is hard; then you die'?" she said sarcastically.

There followed a short silence before he broke it. "Is that supposed to be funny or somethin'? Cause I aint laughin'. This aint no joke!" he replied angrily.

"Well, what about respect then, eh? I was your partner. How many times have we been through this kind of thing together, and you always at least showed me respect before. I'm not stupid Dempsey. I'm a damn good cop and I deserve your respect!" she said, struggling once more to free her arms as her feelings began to fuel her anger again. Still he refused to release her. "For God's sake Dempsey, I'm undressed under here; just take your hands off me at least!"

"I wouldn't care if you were butt naked right now; I aint letting go to have you leavin here without protection. You can despise me as much as ya like; but at least you'll be alive while ya doin it!"

The last thing she wanted at that moment, with the fury she was feeling towards him, was to be pressed so tightly up against his body. She hated herself almost as much as she hated him at that point. She hated how she had reacted to him the night before, and the night before that, and that morning, because now, all she desperately wanted was to be as far away from him as possible!

"I can defend myself for God's sake!" she shouted out. "I did it all the time we were working together; you never locked me up then? Why the hell now?"

"It's different now," he admitted.

"Oh really? Why Dempsey? Why is it different now?" she challenged, twisting her head to try to get a glance of his face again. It was harder this time though; he had shifted position.

He wasn't prepared to admit even to himself the real reason why things were different then, but there were other reasons that also sprung to mind.

"Because we aint dealt with people like this before," he replied.

"Oh come on, we've dealt with Mafia in the past," she countered.

"It's different ya hear me! It's just different!" he exclaimed.

"Why?" she pushed. "Why Dempsey?"

"Because…because I lost Danny through this God damn it! I aint losing you too!" he shouted, tightening his grip on her. "I can't deal with that," he added more quietly. "I just can't."

Suddenly, it no longer felt as if he were restraining her, more like he was holding on to her for dear life. He was afraid, afraid enough to do something as crazy as this. It was that realization, and the break in his voice, a sound of helpless desperation, that finally, gradually cut through her anger.

She sighed and leant back against him.

"How many times have you said to me that emotions and police work don't mix?" she pointed out in the most accommodating voice she could muster. Shouting the odds at each other, when essentially they were on the same side here, was getting them nowhere. "You're letting your fears rule your reasoning. The only way we are going to get through this is by working together, can't you see that?" She waited for a reply but he seemed to have fallen silent, so she went on. "I don't mean to devalue the work you've done on this case Dempsey but you tried on your own for seven years to bring down the Borelli's and it didn't work. We need to be together on this. Won't you trust me?" she appealed.

"I trust ya Harry," he finally replied, "but you got no way of protecting yourself and you're gonna go rushin' out there oblivious. Just look how easily I overpowered you," he pointed out.

"Okay, I understand where you're coming from on this, but can you please just release me so we can talk about it rationally?" she reasoned.

He supposed that he couldn't really hold her there indefinitely. But he wasn't going to let her leave that garage until he had some idea of how he could protect her. At least she had calmed down now though. Really, he guessed that the best way to protect her was to get her on side. With this in mind, at last, he reluctantly let go of her arms.

She moved forward and turned to him, taking a few steps backwards and tying the belt of her nightgown more firmly around her middle as she did so.

"Okay," she sighed. "I need to be more careful."

"A hell of a lot more careful. These guys are animals!" he exclaimed.

She searched his face for a few moments, trying to think of a way of reassuring him. One way sprang to mind. She didn't really want to disclose that but, at this stage, she really had no choice.

"I have a firearm," she admitted.

This surprised him. "Ya do?"

"Yes. It's upstairs. So you see, I can protect myself," she replied.

This did serve as some kind of a reassurance to him, but he still wasn't entirely at ease.

"Can't ya just stay with someone for a few days?"

"Dempsey," she groaned. "No, I can't."

"What's wrong with stayin' with Richie," he frowned. "Thought you'd be staying with him anyway."

Great. How was she going to get out of that one? To her relief, he continued before she had to come up with an excuse.

"On second thoughts, he aint no good," he said, remembering how defenceless Richie had been when he had abducted him earlier. "Go stay with Doug if ya must. Yeah, he's the best option." Dempsey had the feeling that Doug was the only option. His instincts told him that, if she wouldn't stay at the guest house, or allow him to stay with her, she would be safest with Doug.

"Dempsey, you can't just palm me off on other people like that."

"What? Doug wouldn't let ya stay?" he questioned.

She sighed, "Yes, he probably would, but I'm not going to ask him. Besides, he'd have questions I couldn't answer. He'd know there was something wrong. Look, I'll carry my firearm with me at all times, okay. You can even replace my locks with more secure ones if you like, for goodness sake, but will you please let me out of here now or we won't get your car back from Richie if I don't get to his house before he leaves." She hoped that maybe getting the car back would convince him. It didn't, but knowing that realistically, he wasn't going to completely alienate and anger her further by keeping her there, and the fact that she had a weapon, was enough to make him reach into his pocket for the key. Besides, after having thought about it, he'd damn well keep surveillance on her house twenty four hours a day if he had to.

He turned to the door to unlock it and she slipped past him into the kitchen, stopping before she headed upstairs again to throw him a disapproving look. Enough was enough. She needed more help with this; after she had seen Richie, she was going to Spikings.

"Don't ever pull a stunt like that on me again!" she exclaimed.