A/N This chapter has a bit of violence nothing too graphic but more than anything the previous chapters have had, just a heads up.

Moving Target

Strickland watched as the man hit Sandra across the face with the back of his meaty hand. He struggled to get up to protect her but two extremely large men held him back. They were doing it to hurt him they wanted him to talk. But he had no answers to give them. And so they hit her again. These were not the type of people who cared about hitting a woman; they were thugs of the lowest kind. He watched as the blood slid down the side of her head. The last blow had split her lip open and more blood appeared. She was tied to one of the dining room chairs, held hostage in their own home. He could see the tears slide down her cheeks but she was trying so hard not to cry out. She didn't want to give these men the satisfaction, yet he knew she was scared and in pain. All he wanted to do was take her in his arms and tell her everything would be alright.

"This stops when you tell me what I want to know." The man who had hit her told him.

"I don't know" he shouted at the man.

"You expect me to believe that a deputy assistant commissioner doesn't know the name of an informant. Come now just give me the name and we let her go." The man said with a sickening smile.

"I am telling you the truth I don't know the name, the source is anonymous the identity protected even from the highest levels. I can't tell you what I don't know. Now please just let her go," he begged.

"I'm not going to let her go until you give me a name."

"I can't I don't know" Strickland cried why couldn't this crazed man understand.

"Then find out. One call gets me the name." The man growled as he picked up the nearby phone.

"They won't give me the name the informant is protected their name will not be released until the case is prosecuted and they testify in court. It's to prevent things like this from happening." He could see anger flare up in the man's eyes and to his horror he turned and backhanded Sandra so hard he was sure her nose broke. He heard her cry out chocking on the blood. He struggled once more to get to her as she spit blood out of her mouth but as before he couldn't move.

"You better convince him to tell me." He said talking to her. "It's your life on the line not his. You better start pleading."

"He's telling you the truth its police procedure in high profile cases like this." She managed to get out.

"Wrong answer" he said pulling out a knife. He plunged it into her exposed thigh. She screamed out in pain as even more tears flooded her eyes. The man gave each of them a horrible grin and then pulled the knife back out causing her to scream again. "I would start thinking of a plan to get me this information if I were you."

"There is no way even if you threaten to kill us no one is going to give you the name," Strickland hissed.

The man growled and plunged the knife into her other thigh. She tried to hold back the cries but she was unsuccessful and her screams filled the house once more.

"Please stop this I can't tell you, if there was any way I could don't you think I would gladly hand over that scum to you so you will stop hurting her. But I can't there is no way." He tried once more to reason with this monster.

"I am going to give you one last chance." He said grabbing some left over rope. He walked behind Sandra and wrapped the rope around her neck using it as a garrote. He then slowly tightened it cutting off some of her air. "You tell me the name or you get to watch her die." Her eyes went wide pleading for him to help her, though they both knew there was nothing he could do. A few more tears rolled down her face.

"I can't tell you I don't know" Strickland yelled. The man only tightened the rope. He could see it in her eyes she couldn't breathe. He fought with all his strength against the men holding him but no matter what he did the two men held firmly on to him. "I don't know," he screamed. The rope got tighter. "I don't know" he growled. He watched as she tried to fight desperate to breath but there was nothing she could do. He struggled violently against the men holding him, he needed to get free he needed to save her. He tried with everything he had, he tried to kick them, he threw his body weight against them but couldn't get free and he watched as the life went out of her body. "NO" he screamed she couldn't be dead she wasn't suppose to die. "NO you bastard." He cried as tears ran down his face. His whole world just shattered around him, he couldn't live without her he didn't want to live without her. "SANDRA" he yelled desperate for her to wake up but she didn't. She was gone and with him was his will to live. He didn't care what they did to him now. "Sandra please" he sobbed prayed for her to come back to him.

"NO" he screamed sitting up and panting. He desperately searched the room with his eyes. Nothing looked out of place; the dining room chairs were all where they belonged. The TV was on and some infomercial was playing. He quickly turned it off and listened. The house was quite. Nothing seemed to be wrong, no unwanted guest in the house, but he didn't trust it. He flew up the stairs as fast as he could, tripping once in his haste.

"Sandra" he called out as he flung open the bedroom door.

"Wh-what? What's going on?" She asked sitting up confused but her sudden wake up call. He was next to her on the bed immediately. He cupped her face in his hands searching for any harm and when he found none he kisses her. He pulled back and looked at the rest of her body and again found nothing as he ran his hands over her. He then pulled her into his arms his hand holding her head against his chest. "Robert what's going on, you're scaring me."

"You're alive." He said breathlessly.

"Am I not supposed to be?" she asked confused.

"I had a nightmare. These guys broke into the house they attacked you and killed you because I wouldn't tell them what they wanted to know." He gasped holding her tight for fear she might disappear.

"It was just a dream it wasn't real I'm here you're here we're both safe and no one hurt me okay." She said trying to calm him down. He still hadn't let her go so she couldn't kiss him as she wanted to. Instead she just let him hold her. After several minutes she could hear his heart return to a more normal rhythm. And slowly he began to relax only then did he loosen his grip on her.

"You want to try lying down?" she asked hopefully their position was not the most comfortable one.

"I guess." He answered as he pulled her down on the bed with him not willing to let her go.

His breathing had finally returned to normal when a thought came to her.

"Robert ?" she asked breaking the silence when she suddenly remembered events from earlier that night.

"Yeah?" he replied slightly confused.

"Did you fall asleep in front of the TV?"

"Yes I did" he answered unsure where she was going with her question.

"You fell asleep watching that horror movie didn't you?" She said sitting up to look down at him now that she was free from his arms.

"Maybe" he responded sheepishly remembering the night's earlier events. His nightmare was beginning to make a bit more sense to him.

"The home invasion horror film, the one I told you not to watch that late at night." She cried smacking his arm.

"Ow yes, yes okay I did I should have listened to you. I'm sorry." He cried apologizing to her. She had warned him but he got sucked into the film and he couldn't stop watching.

She lay back down in his arms with a smug look on her face. "You are as bad as your son." She said reminding him of the time Roo watched a horror movie without anyone knowing and then was up half the night afraid some monster was going to come steal him.

"Yeah I know" he sighed he was totally embarrassed by the whole thing but the images of the nightmare where still too fresh in his mind.

"You scared the crap out of me" she moaned adrenaline still pumping through her veins.

"I'm sorry. It was so real and vivid the guy kept hitting you and then he-"

"Don't you dare tell me about your nightmare as I am trying to fall asleep I don't want your bad dreams." She exclaimed she didn't need nightmares as well.

"I thought I was supposed to tell you about the dream to make it better." He asked slightly confused.

"Not when it is your own fault and I am trying to go back to sleep" she told him with an exasperated sigh.

"Sorry you're right. I'm just so glad you're alive I had to watch the guy strangle you to death." It was hard to convince his mind that the images were just a dream it was just far too real for his liking.

"Robert!"

"Sorry" he moaned he didn't want to scare her as well but it was hard not to talk about what he saw.

"I am very much alive and I will hit you again if you keep talking about this." She said reprimanding him slightly.

"Right I'm so sorry."

"You should be for waking me up in the middle of the night. If I can't go back to sleep now it is your fault." She said trying to be angry with him but she just couldn't manage to. She could understand how he was feeling on more than one occasion she had her own nightmares of him being killed or Gerry, Jack and Brian being hurt or killed. It was an occupational byproduct of being a cop they saw the worst of humanity and crime scene photos were not something that could be easily forgotten.

"I really am sorry I woke you up and scared you like that" he said pulling her close to him, she didn't even try to stop him instead she snuggled up with him.

"Its okay I suppose and I am sure it was terrifying I can only imagine. But I promise you it was just a dream. Maybe if we talked about something else?" She suggested trying think of some way to help him forget his nightmare.

"I will try... where Gerry, Jack, and Brian upset that they won't be part of that study of older people in the work place?" He asked, it was the only thing he could think of that had nothing to do with his nightmare.

"No not really and I personally think it is better this way, no one should study those three" she told him laughing a little at the end.

"You are probably right" he sighed. They were both silent for a while Sandra had closed her eyes trying to fall back to sleep again when Strickland finally began to talk again.

"I know you don't really want to hear…" he began tentatively he needed to talk to her about the feeling his nightmare had caused.

"It's okay I'm awake now you might as well" she said with a sigh.

"It was so real and I thought I had lost you, lost you forever and I couldn't bear it. I couldn't live without you." He couldn't even stand the thought of her being gone it made his chest tight he could barely breath.

"Hey I'm right here in your arms nothing is going to happen I'm not going anywhere." She told him trying to reassure him and make him feel better.

"I know but I couldn't live if something happened to you. I won't let anything happen to you I can't." He said firmly he could barely stomach the idea of anything happening to her.

"That goes both ways you know, I couldn't bear to live without you either." She informed him and then leaned over to kiss him. "Why don't we both try and get some sleep, have better dreams."

"Sounds good" he replied holding her close.

"Robert" she said after a minute.

"Yeah?" he asked unable to hold back the yawn that escaped from his lips.

"No more horror films."

A/N Hope there wasn't too much violence and you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and the reviews. (Sorry I fixed the title on this don't really know where my head was guess that is why you shouldn't post a story while on the phone with your mum.)