With Esposito taking Charlotte McGyver solo with uniforms on standby for back just in case, Adam and Watkins had indeed gone with Ryan to get the arrest warrants for Corey Shelley. Markaway hadn't even finished watching the whole tape before he'd begun to issue them. Papers hot in hand, Adam and Watkins jogged down the steps of the courthouse while Ryan hung back as planned to discuss the federal side of the case with the judge.

'This must be so exciting, your first solo arrest!'

'Easy, Watkins.' But Adam was sharing her enthusiasm in the form of a twinkle in his eye as he drummed his fingers nervously against his sidearm beneath his jacket. 'You start getting juiced, other things tend to be forgotten. Important things that give those snakes in suits known as lawyers holes to wriggle through and take their clients with them.'

'Okay. Okay, I'm cool.'

Adam watched with some fascination as she took a few deep breaths, pulled it together. Watkins was going to make an excellent detective in time, he thought, as he pulled his ringing cellphone from his pocket.

'Brennan.'

'Change of plans,' Esposito said with no patience whatsoever. 'We're heading to Saint Vincent's, Adam.'

The detective swore ripely when he heard Esposito's voice on the other end of the phone. 'Shit, what happened?'

'Someone tried to stab Corey Shelley to death. He's currently in surgery, and Charlotte is at the hospital waiting for him.'

'She is not going to be happy to see us again.'

'Well boo-fucking-hoo for her. If she has any kind of brain she'll know deep down we're not doing this to piss her off, we're trying to help her.'

Adam didn't miss the bitter derision in his fellow detective's voice, but said nothing about it, just let another thought sink in. 'He's at Saint Vincent's? Shit.'

'What?'

'That means that if he came in as a trauma case, chances are he's with Doctor Cannell and my fiancee getting treated.'

'Shit,' Ryan agreed, then sighed. 'Is that a conflict of interest?'

'It's murky. It skirts the line already since we talked to Lindsay about the bible page significance already.'

'Alright. You wait for us to get there, do not talk to anyone. Hell, don't even go in the damn building. Just wait for me.'

'You got it.'

Adam hung up, and went to get in the driver's side of the car but Watkins beat him to it. He didn't bother processing the chauvinistic response that he was the man, he should drive for he'd barely buckled his seat belt before Watkins had thrown the lights and sirens on and was peeling out of the parking space. They made it to Saint Vincent's in a fraction of the time that it would have taken Adam to get them there, with nary a crushed civilian or pedestrian to their name.

'You go in,' she told him, flipping off the noisemakers, 'I'll park and page you.'

'You got it, Marietta Andretti.'

Watkins just laughed, zipped off like the Crown Vic was a Maserati while Adam went into the ER entrance right to the desk nurse which happened to be Andrea. The sight of her downstairs instead of tending to little kids was a little surprising but Adam remembered that Andrea was a pediatric trauma specialist too. He approached reception and flashed his badge for her, where he saw she was on the phone requesting something from the pharmacy.

'No, I need three of Lotrazipam, three of Nuprin, four of Haloperidol. Hold on.' Andrea held her palm over the receiver. 'Adam, what's up, is everything okay?'

'One of our suspects in a hot case was brought in, a twenty-year-old stabbing victim?'

'Oh, I don't know about that, but I do know Esposito's here in the family lounge. Back that way-' she gesture over her right shoulder '-third door on your right.'

'Thanks.'

Adam caught Watkins eye when she came in, and they headed for the lounge where they found Esposito pacing back and forth. 'YOu get any news? Is he on his way to Lanie's place?'

'No, he's a tough guy. That's all the orderly was able to tell me since I'm a cop not family. And until we can see Doctor Cannell or Doctor Sabern, we won't know anymore.'

'How long until-'

Doctor Sabern, Doctor Cannell please report to the ER family lounge. Doctor Cannell, Doctor Sabern, ER family lounge, Andrea's voice rang over the PA system, making Esposito point towards the speaker in the ceiling. 'Third time since I got here they've paged them both. Still nothing.'

'Where is Charlotte?'

'Across the hall. She was screaming her head off when I got here, took two orderlies to wrestle her down and a few shots of something. She might not even be coherent for an interview for a few hours.'

Adam shook his head, swore under his breath. 'We're so close on this one, we can't have it fall apart now.'

'Where's Detective Ryan?' Watkins said, looking around. 'He should be here, shouldn't he?'

'He's good as a go-between for the feds and Adam's the one who had this brainstorm in the first place,' Esposito reminded her, then pokered up when he saw both Lindsay and Cannell come in. 'Doc, what's the word?'

'He's a very lucky young man,' Cannell sighed, scratching her head. 'Whoever went at him somehow managed to miss the major arteries. He's lost a lot of blood and he'll need quite a bit of physiotherapy but he should be able to be out of here in a week or two.'

'Adam, what's going on?' Lindsay asked, her eyes solemn as she studied her fiancee.'

'Corey is our prime suspect in our murder case,' he replied evenly, and Lindsay looked to Cannell for guidance.

'I think it would be in your best interest to sit this one out, Doctor Sabern,' Cannell replied while her eyes stayed on Adam's face. 'You're an excellent trauma doctor but there is always another case and given your connection to this one, it's probably a good idea to stay on the bench.'

'Understood, Doctor,' Lindsay said quietly; it had a totally different flavour, Adam noted, when Lindsay was giving way to her resident than to her family. He liked this one much better as it meant she was being given a voice, not a slap. 'Would you like me to keep an eye on Charlotte McGyver with the detectives? I'm sure they want to talk to her as well.'

'That's acceptable.'

'When will Mister Shelley, or Miss McGyver be ready for an interview?' Esposito inquired.

'Mister Shelley will be in surgery for at least another two hours, followed by two in the recovery room, so you wouldn't be able to see him until at least...' Cannell checked her watch, did the math. 'Five o'clock this afternoon. Charlotte should be able to give your detectives something in an hour or so.'

'Alright.' Esposito looked at them. 'You two head back to the precinct, con-fab with Ryan, I'll keep an eye on Charlotte here.'

'Sir, I can do that,' Watkins volunteered. 'It's basically a babysitting detail, and I'm a lowly uniform. You're a second-grade, Detective Esposito, you'll be more valuable back at the precinct doing whatever it is you do when the uniforms aren't around.'

'You're sure, Watkins?'

She nodded firmly. 'Yes sir, I'm sure.'

'Alright, you're here and you call the moment she opens her eyes. And stop calling me sir.'

'Yes sir.'

'It's just her way,' Adam jumped in when Esposito opened his mouth to correct her once more. 'Save yourself a headache, bro.'

Esposito lifted his hands, then offered his card to Cannell. 'The moment Mister Shelley is coherent for it, you call us at this number.'

'I will, Doctor, it's not my first time treating someone on the run from the law.'

With an amused little smile on her lips, Cannell left with Lindsay, giving her instructions on Charlotte's care while she went back into surgery; Watkins followed Lindsay out like a shadow. Back in the lounge, Adam and Esposito calculated the next move.

'We head back to the precinct and we wrap this up good and tight so that when Corey Shelley wakes up, the first thing he hears is he's going to jail for murder and Charlotte is...well, we'll get there on her.'

They'd just cleared the ER sliding doors to the parking garage when Esposito's cellphone rang. 'Esposito. Yeah. Okay. No, we're on our way, we'll fill you in when we get there. Captain K-Pow wants us back at the precinct for a debrief before the feds take off.'

'How'd she get that name anyways?' Adam asked, curious.

'Long story, tell you later. We gotta stay in the zone right now.'

'Duly noted. I'll drive,' he said when they got to the car and he took out his keys; he let out a yelp when Esposito neatly nipped them out of his hands. 'Dude! My ride!'