A/N: Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for reading. I'm so excited to be writing my first fic. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Thanks!

The entire precinct was buzzing like a hive. Officers, Detectives, and Lieutenants were rushing from desk to desk, answering phones, going over stacks of files, discussing details with partners. Every single person available was working the case, trying to find their missing teammates. In the conference room, Gil was standing in front of the white board looking at photos of previous victims, a cup of luke-warm coffee in his hand. JT was sitting at the table, combing over reports he'd read twenty times already. He slammed the file closed and rested his head in his hands.

Gil watched as frustration and exhaustion emanated from his detective, "Why don't you go home for a few hours, JT? Get some rest. Come back fresh."

JT didn't move his position. He simply replied, "Could you?" from beneath his hands.

Gil couldn't exactly argue with that logic. He too was running on stale coffee and a prayer.

"They've been gone for thirty-seven hours, Gil."

"I know."

"We know his timeline. Best case scenario we've got five days. Best case"

"That doesn't matter, JT, because we're going to find them long before then." Gil refused to think any other way. They were going to get Dani and Bright back. Failure wasn't an option.

"How? We've got NOTHING!" JT slammed his fists down on the table and jumped up, knocking his chair backward. "We've been three steps behind this guy for over two weeks already!"

"We're making progress. We've got a possible description of his truck."

"Exactly, Gil. A 'possible' description. Meanwhile," he stormed the whiteboard and pointed at the photos of the male victims' injuries, "THIS is what's probably happening to Malcolm RIGHT NOW! And Dani's the one being forced to do it!"

Gil turned his head away. He'd been trying desperately not to imagine what might be happening to Bright at this very moment. Or the toll it would take on Dani as the one being made to do it. "We just have to keep pushing, JT. Somehow, we have to find a way to get to them in time."

"I know, boss," he leaned back on the table and rubbed his eyes. "It's just all I can think about is the one thing we need to crack this case is-"

"Bright."

"Yeah," JT crossed his arms and opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind.

Gil looked inquisically at his partner, "What?"

"What he's gonna do to Dani… if he hasn't already."

Gil couldn't find his voice. JT scratched his cheek, wiping a tear away sneakily in the process. He cleared his voice, the moment of hopelessness had passed. His determination returned anew, "WHEN we find this guy. I get ten minutes alone with him."

Gil grinned and gave him a "cheers" gesture with his coffee cup. JT walked around the table, picked up his chair, and continued scouring the reports for anything they might have missed. Gil sat down across from him and did the same.

I CAN SHOW OTHERS I CARE THROUGH SELFLESSNESS AND SACRIFICE

For a split second when Malcolm awoke, he had forgotten. He opened his eyes wondering why his back hurt so badly. When he rolled on his side, and subsequently part of his injured arm, everything came back to him instantly. "Ahhh," he winced, bringing himself up into a sitting position. As he did, he noticed something laying on the ground next to him. A small tube and roll of gauze.

You should put some ointment on that. You don't want it to get infected.

Malcolm couldn't help but laugh, as he read the tube's label, "Triple Antibiotic Ointment." A second huffed chuckle escaped him. He was serious. He opened the tube and squeezed about half of it onto his arm. Now the fun part, rubbing it in. Malcolm took a deep breath, and began to gently push the ointment around his forearm. He hissed each time he went over one of the burns. It would be a miracle if every one of them didn't get massively infected. He reached the last one, the one closest to the crook of his elbow, Dani's name. As he smoothed the ointment across it, he noticed that this one hurt significantly less than the others. His logical side noted the reason for that was because she wasn't forced to press as hard. Malcolm still found a poetic significance in it nonetheless.

"How bad does it hurt?" Malcolm hadn't noticed, Dani was awake. He wondered if she'd even slept at all.

Malcolm began wrapping his forearm with the gauze Nathan had left for him. "On a scale of zero to hammer-inflicted-metacarpal-fracture-to-escape-the-last-serial-killer-who-had-me-chained-in-a-basement… I'd say a six." He'd hoped to hear some semblance of relief, maybe even a snicker, from his partner, but she gave none. The way she was sitting, he could actually see her face relatively clearly. Yet again, she wouldn't make eye contact with him. "Hey," he coaxed, "I'm fine, Dani. Seriously. Look." He held up his arm, showing her the wrapping he'd just completed.

"I have. I saw your arm, Malcolm. The burns, the blood, all of it. I did that to you."

"You had no choice. Your options were: burn me or let him shoot me in the head. Honestly, I'm pretty grateful for the route you chose."

"Malcolm, my name is branded on your arm. Forever!"

"Well, some friends get drunk on Spring Break and get tattoos. We get held captive and brand your name on my arm."

Dani was exasperated. "How can you possibly make jokes about this?"

"Because, Dani. Is any amount of guilt - or anger - going to remove these?" He gestured toward his injured arm with his left hand. "No. It is what it is. You can't change it."

"I would if I could," Malcolm watched as she wiped her cheeks. She was crying. He knew Dani well enough not to bring it up.

"I know you would. Dani this," he gestured to show he meant the room, the whole situation they were trapped in, "is about survival. We do what he have to to survive, to escape. No matter what. We can deal with everything else once we're out of here. Deal?"

"Deal."

"No more apologies. We save all that for another day. Okay?"

"Okay."

Malcolm decided to change the subject, "Were you awake when Nathan brought the ointment in?"

"Yeah, but I don't think he knew. It was only a few minutes before you woke up. Did he do that with the other people he held captive?"

Malcolm noticed she refused to say the word victim, seeing as how they would be lumped into that same category. "I'm not sure," his profiler brain kicked in, not that it really ever turned off. "If he was healing his vic- captors, then that could throw our profiled timeline off a bit."

"Why?"

"Well, we looked at the injuries and their various levels of healing as a gage to how long he was keeping people. But we thought they were healing naturally, not with any medicinal help. If he was helping to heal their wounds, then they weren't here as long as we thought they were," Malcolm was on one of his profiling tangents. "I mean we profiled that he was keeping people for anywhere from 7-12 days. If he was healing them, that could shift that timeline as low as 4-6 maybe." And then he heard himself. But there wasn't any taking those words back.

Dani didn't show any visible signs of panic, but he could tell in her eyes she was trying to play it off. "So that's what we should assume then? We've been here for what? Two days now? So, we should assume we've got two days to figure out a way to get out of here?"

"Maybe. I guess it's always better to assume the shortest amount of time and hope for the better. I just wish I could come up with something, anything that might be a viable way out of here."

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments. Malcolm was back to scouring the room for anything that might look useful in an escape attempt.

He was deep enough into the scenarios again that Dani's voice startled him, "Malcolm, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"When he comes back in here…" she broke off mid sentence.

Dani looked up at him, her eyes were filled with fear. The dread that flooded Malcolm's core at her mentioning the topic would have floored him, had he not already been there. He couldn't fathom what she must be feeling and he had absolutely no idea what to say to her.

Dani cleared her throat and steadied her voice, "Maybe I'm grasping at straws here, but the other day in the conference room, when we were talking about his methods…" she paused again.

"Yeah?" was all Malcolm could come up with.

"When you were telling us why he… did certain things. You said he took couples because of the psychological aspect not necessarily the physical, right?"

"Yes. He uses the romantic bond as a weakness, a leveraging mechanism to psychologically torture them in addition to the physical component." Malcolm was unsure where this was going.

"Okay, but we're not in a relationship. We're not involved"

"True."

"And Nathan knows that. He knows we're cops," Malcolm started to interject, but she held up her hand to correct herself, "or cop and consultant. That we work together."

"Yes he does," Malcolm thought he knew where this was headed now. "You're wondering if that changes his M.O.? If he might not…"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know," she was fidgeting with her fingers, picking at random places. He could tell she was trying to figure out how to say something in her head. He gave her a moment to gather her thoughts. After a minute or two she asked, "Isn't the point of raping the women, so he can force the men who love them to watch?"

There it was. She'd actually said the word.

Malcolm didn't know how to respond. He didn't think he could bear to see her face if he told her the truth: that if Nathan got off on sexual assault, then that wasn't going to change. Forcing the husband/lover to watch and listen to the act was just a bonus for him. It hurt not to reply to her, but Malcolm thought giving her hope only to have it ripped violently away would be worse than what she was already trying to cope with.

He tried to think of something, anything to say to try and help her. Nothing.

After a few seconds, Dani seemed to understand what his silence meant. She simply nodded a few times to herself, "Yeah, I figured it was a long shot."

The first lock on the door clicked. They both startled at the sound. How did it somehow seem twice as loud? As the remaining locks were unfastened Dani's eyes met Malcolm's. They were screaming in silent terror and her breathing was rapid.

"It's going to be ok, Dani. Try and go to another place, in your mind. Survival, remember?" Every bit of what he was saying to her sounded like absolute bullshit. But it was all he could think of.

Nathan opened the door like he had just entered the home of a close friend, "Afternoon. How's everyone feeling today?" He closed the door behind him and took a few steps in Malcolm's direction. Dani scooted as far back into her corner as she possibly could. "I see you got my care package." He closed the distance to Malcolm and squatted down. "How's the pain?"

Malcolm knew it was stupid to respond, but the more Nathan was paying attention to him, the less he was paying attention to Dani. "What pain?" he retorted.

"What pain? Heh," Nathan chuckled at his captive's response and genuinely smiled. "I really do like you, Malcolm. I feel like in another life, we would have been friends." As he finished the last word Nathan lashed out at Malcolm's forearm, backhanding it so hard his chains were instantly taught and his wrist screamed out in pain along with his burns.

"AHHH," Malcolm pulled his injured arm into his chest, careful not to put any more pressure on the wounds.

"How about now?" Nathan asked and he rose back onto a standing position. He turned in the opposite direction, "How are you doing today, Dani?" he inquired as he took slow, deliberate steps toward her.

Malcolm was on his knees in an instant, "Hey, Nathan!" he yelled in an attempt to distract him.

Nathan answered, "What do you want?' but his march to Dani never ceased.

I have no idea. Think, Malcolm. Think. "When our team gets here, and your face is plastered on every news outlet, what do you think they'll call you?"

Again, Nathan never turned his gaze from Dani. He was about a foot from her now, again he crouched down in front of his captive, "While I appreciate the effort, Malcolm, Dani and I have some urgent business to attend to."

"Stay away from me," Dani warned pulling her legs in against her chest.

"My dear, that is what is known as an empty threat. What exactly do you intend to do?"

Malcolm tried to get Nathan's attention once again, "Are you worried you won't get national coverage when they catch you? Would it bother you if it was just the local news stations?" Nathan completely ignored him this time.

Nathan reached out and touched the side of Dani's thigh. She smacked his hand away. And he smacked her face in return, opened-palm.

"Leave her alone!" Malcolm yelled helplessly, from across the room.

Nathan again reached out but this time he grabbed both of Dani's ankles and jerked them with all his might. She slid in his direction, the force of the movement caused her head to hit the cement floor hard enough that her vision went blurry for a few seconds. He had pulled her far enough that her hands were pinned over her head, with no further give from the chains. In the few short seconds it took her to shake it off, Nathan was already undoing the button and zipper of her slacks. Dani kicked her legs to try and deter him. She connected with his torso once and despite being barefoot, the blow packed enough punch to knock Nathan backward. Once he got up he marched over to her and kicked her in her side. Dani curled up in pain.

Malcolm stood as best he could with the slack his restraints gave him and lunged, in vain, in Nathan's direction, "Don't touch her!"

This time Nathan did acknowledge him, by grabbing the cuffs of Dani's pants and staring Malcolm in the eyes as he yanked them off of her in one swift motion. The corners of Nathan's mouth curled into a devilish grin as he returned his gaze to Dani. This time he ran his hand from her calf all the way up her thigh to her underwear.

Malcom was desperate to help Dani, Threats won't work. Your chained up 20 feet away, Bright. Beg! "Please! Hurt me. Do anything you want. I'm begging you! Just not to her."

Nathan turned his head, squeezed Dani's thigh, and raised himself up. As Malcolm watched Nathan cross the room toward him, the look on the killer's face sent ice water through his veins. Joy.

Once he reached him, Nathan slowly leaned into Malcolm's ear and whispered, "You care about her." Then he leaned back out, excited to see Malcolm's response.

"What?"

"Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me. I'm GREAT at keeping things to myself." Nathan was practically giddy. "But this… this has possibilities." He was pacing back and forth in front of Malcolm, the wheels in his head were turning, a visible bounce to his step. Suddenly he stopped mid-step and twisted to face Malcolm again. "Okay, hero." He stepped toward Malcolm once more. "You want me to leave Dani alone?"

"Yes."

"You want me to stop undressing her?"

"Yes."

"Touching her?"

"Yes!"

"You'll do anything to keep me from fucking her right there on the concrete floor?

"YES!"

"Okay."

Malcolm was stunned. "What?"

"Fine," Nathan spun on his heels and checked on Dani, who, in the midst of their discussion, had sat herself up and was clutching her legs again. "You win. I won't go over there and fuck Dani so hard she forgets her own name."

He swung his body around to face Malcolm again. "But you will."