He had no way of dodging the punch that was headed his way. He had a wall to his right, and a wall behind him, and on his left a second mean-looking dude blocked his way.

The shockwave from the punch traveled all the way through his abdomen, just like he had expected, but then the guy in front of him looked satisfied with himself and prompted the other guy to follow him.

Street looked down, and his heart sank.

He didn't expect seeing the handle of a knife sticking out of his lower left side.

"Shit…" he just kept staring at it in disbelief. All this for sticking up for a girl he didn't know.

He felt panic gripping at him. He had a freaking knife stuck inside him.

He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911 as he started walking towards the front of the street. A knife in the gut definitely called for a hospital visit, and he had no foolproof way of knowing if the knife had done some real damage or not. It probably had, it was buried to its hilt.

But it didn't really feel that bad yet. If anything, it felt absurd.

It was like it ought to hurt, but it didn't.

It was like it ought to knock him on his ass, but there he was, walking without too much trouble.

The only thing he knew for sure right now, was to let the blade stay where it was. For all he knew, it could be the only thing keeping him from gushing blood.

SWATSWATSWAT

"Hey, Hondo… I just got a call from Street." Luca bit down on his lower lip, "He told me to tell you that he's going… He's going in for surgery. He- He was stabbed tonight… Says he's doing fine all things considered. Alright, call me when you get this, okay?"

He hung up and squeezed his right fist so hard his knuckles cracked.

Even though Street had said multiple times that he felt good, and that the doctors were optimistic about his recovery, nothing about this night felt okay.

Oh dear lord how bad he wanted to punch something.

He shook his head and started pacing again, from the corner of the kitchen counter, to the pinball machine and back.

Then his phone started ringing. He picked up.

"Hey Luca, I just missed your call. Heard the voicemail, what happened? How is he?"

"He didn't really say much. Just that he had been stabbed in the gut by some guy who had been picking on some girl. He called for an ambulance by himself, and climbed into it on his own. Man, I'm stressed!" Luca blew out an exasperated breath, "Anyway, he's not coming in to work the day after tomorrow."

"Of course not…" Hondo agreed, "How are you holding up? Would you like some company?"

"I've got Duke keeping me company, he's laying under the table looking at me…" Luca shrugged, "Probably thinks I'm acting funny or something."

"I could come over." Hondo offered.

"It's not necess-"

"-I know it's not necessary. Do you want me to come over?"

Luca stalled a bit, looked over at Duke who tilted his head at him. As if asking 'what's wrong?'

"Probably smart not to be alone, huh?" Luca sighed, "Yeah, come over."

"Alright, I'll be there in twenty, just need to put some real clothes on."

Luca couldn't help but smirk at that comment, "Yeah, I should probably find a t-shirt to go with my PJ-pants. I'm not changing pants though."

He could hear Hondo chuckle at the other end of the line. "Alright, see you in twenty. Call me if something happens."

"Will do…" Luca nodded.

SWATSWATSWAT

As soon as they had hung up, he contemplated calling the rest of the team, but Street had only specified Hondo. The rest of the team could wait until the morning.

He paced a bit more, before he decided to go to his bedroom to punch the crap out of the sandbag he had hanging there.

The bag wasn't enough. It didn't relieve pressure as well as he had hoped. He continued punching. Continued trying to get some negative energy out of his system.

It didn't work. Not tonight.

He broke away from the bag, pulled one deep breath before he spun around and chose the concrete wall in stead of the punching bad for his impromptu workout.

He kept hitting the wall until fatigue got to him and his legs almost gave out.

His hands were shaking, he couldn't hold them still for the life of him. He looked up and saw that he had colored an area of the wall red with blood.

He looked down at his hands, and his knuckles were bruised, bloody and swollen.

He was soaked with sweat. He glanced at the clock on the wall, he had maybe five minutes to clean up before Hondo got there.

Grabbing a fresh t-shirt, PJ-pants and some boxers, he half-jogged over to his bathroom.

SWATSWATSWAT

While he was in the shower, washing the sweat off of him and the blood off his knuckles, the adrenaline started wearing off and his hands started hurting.

Soap made the cuts and abrasions on his knuckles sting like they were on fire. And moving his fingers made him wince when he didn't prepare well enough.

He stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel. His hands were still shaking, but now they were aching as well.

He dried off quickly, and looked down at his hands.

There were a couple of good gashes over his knuckles. Two of them were gaping quite a bit, and could probably use a stitch or two each. But a couple of Steri-Strips would have to do.

He dried his hands a bit better, then he attempted to close the wounds with the thin adhesive strips. Would've been a lot easier if his hands weren't swollen to heck and stiff.

After that, he put the fresh set of clothes on. He realized how his hands were looking and figured he had to hide them with zip-hoodie. Then he had to re-apply the Steri-Strips because they had peeled off.

Just as he was done closing his wounds a second time, he heard Hondo's car pull up outside.

He pulled the sleeves well over his hands to hide them, before he opened the door to the living room in order to meet Hondo.

SWATSWATSWAT

Hondo had his own key to Luca's home, so it didn't take long before he was inside.

"How are you…" Hondo asked as soon as they saw each other, then his lips curved into a small smile, "So, you flexed too hard?"

Luca got real confused for a split second, before he looked down at his t-shirt, the print saying 'I flexed and the sleeves fell off'. Then he shrugged and nodded.

"So, how are you?"

Luca took a calming breath and shook his head, "It rattled me."

Hondo nodded as Luca walked over to the couch to sit down.

"I mean, we're not supposed to get hurt, but when we do…" Luca shook his head as he placed his elbows on his knees, "We're supposed to get hurt on the job. Not out on the town with friends…"

Hondo nodded again, and sat down on the couch as well.

They sat in silence for a while, then Hondo spoke up, "Your hands are shaking…"

Luca looked down at them and saw how bad they were still shaking. "Yeah, I beat the crap out of my punching bag from our call ended and until I had to jump in the shower. Muscle fatigue."

Hondo nodded, and looked over Luca's head, "You forgot to close the door to your bedroom… Let me see your hands."

"Huh?" Luca's head jerked up and he glanced over at the bloody wall, then back at Hondo.

"How are your hands looking?"

Luca groaned, but raised his arms to peel back the sleeves of the zip hoodie. Only to find that his hands were feeling progressively worse. He barely managed to avoid grimacing.

Hondo frowned as he saw the damage Luca had managed to do himself. "Punching bag, huh?"

Luca chuckled a little, "Yeah… Well…"

Hondo reached out for Luca's right hand when the blond's attention was off somewhere else. He really wasn't expecting it when Luca yelped and pulled his hand away.

"Sorry."

Luca shook his head, grimacing as he held both his hands close to his chest, not really able to cradle either hand.

"Broken?"

Luca shook his head, "Don't think so…"

"Well, I think you should get some pictures taken…" Hondo sighed, "Of both your hands."

Luca shrugged.

"I can drive you to the urgent care right now if you want to…" Hondo offered, "It's almost 4 a.m. and with luck we'll be done there just in time to visit Street."

Luca sighed and glanced down at his beaten up hands, then he reluctantly nodded.

"Alright, but you might want some other pants. The muscle shirt and the hoodie is fine, but pajamas…?"

Luca nodded, "Yeah… Sure."

"-And if you tell me where you've got your cleaning supplies, I can see what damage I can make to that stain you've got on your wall… I don't think you're up to it, and Street won't be either."

Luca nodded a little more, "Yeah, thanks… It's in the laundry room. Under the sink."

Hondo nodded and got up.

SWATSWATSWAT

Jim was a little groggy when he woke up. Half of the team was already there, Tan, Luca and Hondo were missing.

The fact that Luca and Hondo still wasn't there confused him a bit. He had told Luca that he could tell Hondo straight away, but that the rest of the team could wait until the morning.

He was a bit too groggy to really address it yet, he was also a bit too groggy to keep a decent conversation with those from the team who was already present.

He dozed off a couple of times before he actually felt like waking up.

He had just woken up for the nth time when he heard Luca's voice from down the hall. Then he heard Hondo's voice giving a reply to whatever Luca had said.

He did a short wave at the two of them, Hondo waved back and Luca nodded at him.

"Kinda thought you two would've been the first ones here…"

"Oh, we were…" Hondo shook his head and gave Luca a solid pat on the back.

"Huh?"

Luca sighed and pulled his hands out of his pockets, showing off one hand wrapped in gauze and one wrapped in cast.

"What happened?"

"I went ham on the punching bag…" Luca shrugged.

"Yeah, and then you went ham on the concrete wall when the bag wasn't enough…" Hondo added.

"Ouch…" Street frowned, "Are you alright?"

Luca chuckled, "Yeah man… I'm not the one stuck in a hospital bed."

Street smirked, "Bet that I'll be 100% before you are…"

"Game on, kid." Luca grinned, "Game on…"

Hondo chuckled.

"So, how are you feeling?" Luca asked back after a little while.

"My stomach hurts. And my shoulders hurt…" Street shrugged, "The nurse explained that it was typical of the sort of surgery I had. Called it air pain, because of the air the surgical team used to blow up my belly to make room to operate."

"Ow, I felt that when I had my appendix removed…" Chris frowned.

"But hey, I will almost have no scarring, so…" he shrugged a little, "That's cool I guess."