"Aw jeez…"

The moan escaped Steve's lips as soon as the fog in his mind started to clear. The intolerable pulsating coming from the right side of his head threatened to split his skull in half as he brought his legs to his chest, hoping to curl up into a ball and die.

And yet, restraints on his hands and a barrier on his back kept him from moving.

"Now you see why I ordered you to move outside and take care of our witnesses?"

Mike's quiet reprimand mirrored the vibration he felt on his back, leading him to believe that the warm barrier was his partner curled up against him.

Swallowing the bile at the stench of vomit and sweat coming from the dirty rug he laid on, Steve grunted in disgust, before pulling on his restraints in vain.

"What? And let you have all the fun?", he countered argumentatively, when the nausea subsided and his headache was reduced to a dull throbbing, "Besides, I wasn't going to leave you behind…"

"A lot of good that did."

Mike's voice was filled with sorrow and Steve felt him shiver a little bit, before shifting closer.

"Well, as a matter of fact it did.", the young Inspector suggested, noticing for the first time that he was shivering too. Grateful for the warmth of Mike's shoulder blades against his in the otherwise cold room, he clenched his hands a few times in hopes of regaining some feeling in his fingertips.

"Sandy and Gus were able to escape unscathed. I saw Roy and Andy drive off with them. We just have to wait for them to reach a safe spot and call in the troops. In the meantime, we'll get to meet the shadows we've been chasing for days. So, in a strange sort of way, things are going according to plan."

He could feel Mike chuckle, before flinching slightly.

"If I wasn't tied up in some filthy basement, I'd take you to a doctor and have your head checked. I think you cracked and broke it."

As their chuckles died down, Steve noticed his partner shiver more than usual, making him wonder just how badly he'd been wounded. Knowing that even if he'd straight out ask him, Mike wouldn't give him an honest answer, he shifted gears and glanced around, trying to gather his bearings.

Shortly after he'd come back around, Steve noted that even though his revolver was missing, the ammo case on his belt was still attached and partially loaded, making him wonder just how thorough their suspects had searched them after they'd disrupted their plans.

With that in mind, Steve hoped that by chance they had also missed the set of hair pins in his pant pocket.

"What are you doing?"

Mike's hoarse voice grew alarmed when Steve rolled away from his partner and onto his other side, leaving the filthy carpet behind and now laying on the bare, yet equally putrid concrete floor.

"Trying to check something…", he replied cryptically in case of any surprise audience, and used his feet to curl up.

Growing weary of his behavior, Mike turned around as well, a wave of understanding flooding his exhausted features when he watched him try to bend his body enough to get to his pant pocket.

He had just about reached his belt when the door behind them opened. Sharing an ominous glance with his partner, Steve froze in his spot, unwilling to give away his plan.

Several sets of footsteps approached their position at a steady pace. Judging by Mike's solemn and unreadable features, Steve figured they'd met before.

"I will have you know, that your foolish attempts to bust our…operation…were in vain, Detectives.", a cold voice with a distinctive Asian accent explained, as the footsteps stopped right behind him, "I sent one of my men after my…patients. They will be captured and brought back here shortly."

"My entire department knows of this location. By now, backup is on its way.", Mike retorted confidently, trying to lean on his elbow to upright himself, "Your operation of murdering innocent people for their organs is officially shut down."

"On the contrary, Lieutenant Stone. Your interception, futile as it may have been, might in turn help me fill some outstanding orders."

Steve was about to join in on the debate, when he sensed the Asian man kneel down behind him, while two of his helpers encroached around the front. He recognized the young man with his arm in a sling as the one he shot through the kitchen window. The other man, mid-forties and burly built, held up a clipboard with one hand, and a nylon rope with the other, as he too went down on one knee right next to him.

Glancing over at his partner for a brief second, Steve noticed Mike's features turning ashen when the implications of their suspect's words sank in.

"You think we left you alive for no reason?", the man continued unaffected and he could hear him put on rubber gloves.

When he continued to fidget with plastic wrapping material, Steve looked over his right shoulder in time to see the surgeon attach a needle to the syringe in his hand, a faint smile playing on his lips from the sick joy of doing something he seemed to have done far too many times.

Preparing for a fight he knew he couldn't win, Steve used his legs to shift away, hoping to reach a better position for a futile defense that might at least buy them some more time.

"Hold him down, Bobby.", came the quiet, almost cheery command from behind, as the surgeon continued to prepare, "My patience has reached…it's very end with these two."

Handing his clipboard over to the kid with his arm in a sling, Steve watched the man step forward and tie his feet together faster than he could try to kick out at him. In the background, he could hear Mike protest for the man to leave him be, as he fought the restraints himself, the rattling of chains almost drowning out any other noise, but the results remaining the same.

As he got done, the surgeon stepped over him, effectively blocking his view of Mike, his cold brown eyes looking him up and down like a piece of meat at the butcher's counter.

Moving positions, the burly man now crouched down behind his shoulders, before wrapping a strong arm around his throat and jerking his head and upper body back until Steve felt the handcuffs resist and tighten, effectively pinning him in place. Unable to move without risking to break his neck, he was powerless to fight as the sleeve of his dress shirt was rolled up and a needle brutally shoved into the inside of his elbow.

"Don't think you are the first one who tried to fight, Inspector.", the surgeon said with a faint chuckle, ignoring Mike's protests from behind, "If you would have chosen to cooperate, I could have told you that drawing blood would be the only painful part of this process. But now that you've made me use Bobby to keep you out of trouble, there's no telling how this might end…Danny, here, grab that vial."

Letting his eyes drift back and forth between the two assistants, Steve couldn't shake the feeling that unlike the brute pinning him in place, younger Danny didn't necessarily enjoy being here. Nervously shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he watched the Asian doctor with a mixture of utter horror and disdain.

"Do you smoke, Inspector?"

The matter-of-fact question and its intention sent chills down his back.

Trying to shift when his tie was removed and he felt a tug on the buttons of his dress shirt; Steve was instantly punished when the hand around his neck tightened significantly. Gasping for air, the young Inspector flinched when he felt the cold metal of a stethoscope against the bare skin on his chest.

"Two…packs a day…at least…"

"Your…arrogance in the face of defeat is quite humorous, albeit futile, Inspector… Danny, make a note, mitral and tricuspids are clear…no arrhythmia or murmurs…"

Steve watched the young man struggle to write with only one good hand, eventually crouching down to rest the clipboard on his thigh.

"You know, we can get you out of here too…", he whispered toward young Danny, only to feel the hand around his throat tighten some more.

"Shut up, cop!", came Bobby's angry reprimand, and yet, the young man's blue eyes showed a glimmer of hope when they met his.

"Aortic and pulmonary valves sound clear too. We have a very nice specimen here. Much nicer than that slow kid Lucas brought up last night.", the doctor applauded before leaning over and placing the stethoscope on his upper back, "Lungs sound excellent too. If he's 0 positive, we're going to make a lot of people very happy."

"If you think for one second that you're going to get away with this, you are dead wrong!", Mike yelled from a few feet away, growing angry enough that his voice was beginning to tremble.

"Don't worry Lieutenant, you will get your turn shortly.", the doctor replied, almost falling into a manic chant, as he wrapped the stethoscope around his neck, before running his hands across Steve's abdomen.

"His liver is in perfect condition. If the bloodwork comes back as a match, we can operate tonight. Bobby, Danny, you two are going to be getting quite the paycheck."

Steve couldn't disguise a shudder at the seemingly gleeful and careless tone in the man's voice.

As the hands on his upper body disappeared, so did the vice grip around his neck. Worn out, he let his head sink back to the floor, waiting for the cramping muscles in his arms to relax again.

"Lieutenant Stone, I trust that you will not follow the foolish example of your partner?", the doctor said before turning around to face Mike, his hand reaching for another syringe in his right coat pocket.

Trying to get his breathing back under control, Steve glanced over at his partner, their eyes meeting for a brief second, before Mike focused back at the doctor and his approaching bodyguard.

And for the first time since they started working together, he saw a look of utter peace and preparedness in his partner's features.

It was the look of a man who was staring death in the face.