The scanner on the kitchenette table had been a dead end.
Without a two-way connection, it served as a listening device only, not allowing for Mike to send a mayday when they needed help the most.
And yet, in the few seconds it took him to look over the device and head to the bedroom and check on Davis, the slew of messages coming across dispatch trying to narrow down the location of a certain two missing Homicide detectives made him hold out hope that help was a lot closer than they expected.
The sight of the disgraced MP Lieutenant wasn't for the faint of heart and Mike took a second to digest the image of the fully naked man lying on the floor, some bone fragments showing around the bleeding wound on his knee.
Steve had tied his hands to the foot of the bed, keeping him securely tucked in place before backup would arrive.
When he was reasonably assured that the man was still breathing, Mike reached for the soiled bedsheets and draped them over him, a small measure of comfort until a doctor could take a look at that knee.
The motion was enough to rip Davis out of his semi-conscious state and he cocked his head backwards to get a better look at Mike.
"What is this, Stone? You're trying to play nice now that you stopped me?"
"Just showing mercy.", Mike countered coldly, and stood back up, "You wouldn't understand."
"Always the morally superior one, aren't you? Never doing anything wrong. By-The-Book Mike Stone. What a celebrity status you've built around yourself over the years."
Torn between leaving the Lieutenant to his insulting blabbering or staying back, feeling the urgent questions of why and how burn on the tip of his tongue, Mike exhaled slowly, then shook his head.
"Morality has to be part of our code. It's an oath we took when they pinned that badge on us for the first time. It's too bad you've forgotten all about it."
"Not all of it.", Davis argued and wrapped the bedsheet tighter around his chest, as much as his restraints allowed, shivering against the cold floor, "Twenty-five underappreciated years of getting spit on, berated by the public, shoved around by city officials who wouldn't last a day out on those streets…don't tell me the thought of switching sides didn't occur to you at least once, Stone. Because if you say no, I'll call you a liar."
Mike wanted to answer, give the other man his spiel about law enforcement being a lifetime commitment, that serving the public came with certain sacrifices, but Davis never gave him that chance when he continued undisturbed.
"You and that…stuffy, self-righteous attitude. Mike Stone, he who can't do any wrong. You probably sleep in your suit and tie too. Dream of how you can suck up to the Brass some more, give people the impression that you look forward to the negative publicity and budget cuts every day, that you just can't wait to be out in the pouring rain digging through garbage filled dumpsters to find your clues. And you probably call that a noble profession. Oh no, I wasn't going to go down that road, Stone, not after all these years. Cassidy, Mahoney, Sawyer and that kid Madison…we all were feeling the same way about things. About the disrespect we get. About people stepping on our badges whenever they want, and the Brass encouraging them, kicking us when we're down. O'Connor was the first one pushing me over the edge, her and those stupid protests she'd have going on in her neighborhood, pleading for the poor, underprivileged women in this town and yet about to be married to one of the richest guys in the Bay Area. Every week she'd be down on our floor, wanting us to locating some sniffling teenage girls that ran away from home while we were trying to solve crimes. She crossed my desk one too many times, and the hunter became the prey. I won't lie to you, Stone, it felt good to work her over, so damn good. She kept us entertained for a long time until she decided to run away. She didn't get very far. Neither will Milan."
Having an increasingly hard time restraining his fiery temper, Mike turned to leave the room, when Davis called him back.
"I gotta give it to that kid of yours. Got a lot more guts than I thought. I wish my guys would have just killed him when they had the chance, put a little dent in your perfect image. See how long you would have held it together preaching about the goodness of this world when in reality, it's filled with nothing but evil."
Turning around one last time, Mike glanced over Cassidy's dead body awkwardly leaning against the outer wall, then back at the injured Lieutenant.
"Well, for what it's worth, there's two less bad guys on the loose now. Five, by the time Steve and I get done here."