Chapter Eight

"You are very resourceful, my love. Every time I leave you somewhere I find you some place else when I return." Melosa's voice cut into Steve's suffering and made him jump. The movement sent his agony rocketing skyward and he cried out again. No one he'd ever met had reduced him to such a state, and he knew that she had come the closest to wiping him out but he also knew that she wasn't finished yet. He didn't want to plead with her, to even speak to her, but if she moved him away from the window there was no way he would ever be able to make the journey back to it again.

"Don't … please … don't move me." The weakness he was showing no longer infuriated him, nor the tears which filled his eyes, anger and desperation were emotions which used a lot of energy and he knew that he had very little of it left.

"Why would I move you? This way you will see your death as it comes to meet you. That's a far better ending than even I had thought of. I wish I could be here to see it, but don't worry, I've mailed a letter to your friends so they'll know where to find your broken body. It's such a shame that this is goodbye but your father needs to suffer as I have suffered. He will know that you died afraid and alone, no longer a hero but a terrified remnant of a man. Dimi heel."

Steve heard the tapping of claws on the wooden floor and his fear increased until he felt it could go no higher, but immediately discovered he was wrong. The next thing he heard was an even more ominous sound as the large ball from the wrecker plunged into the building next but one to his own, twisting his heart and gut as it did so and he heard the dog yelp in fear.

"Shhh, Baby, Dimi, shhh. He will stay until I call him off, Lieutenant. The end is getting closer, my darling, I wonder how long it will be."

A set of steps, or something similar, was put in front of him and Melosa climbed up so that she was level with his face. She placed her lips against his own and, running her hands through his hair, kissed him before biting on the lower one and smiling as he gasped. Looking directly at her he could see the evil in her eyes but had no time to prepare himself before the whip made contact with his body again and again, splitting the taut skin, causing him to jerk against his bonds and he felt his right shoulder separate itself from his arm as his vision blurred, his stomach heaved and his screams were ripped from him.

"I have to leave now. Do you wish me to take Dimi as well?"

"Yes … please take … take him." He could feel the hot breath of the dog on his bare feet and even that non-threatening action was causing him to panic and hyperventilate.

"I might, if I feel that you don't need him. Tell me, Lieutenant; were you wrong to persecute my brother?"

"N … no … he … he killed … arghhh!" He felt a hand on his chest and then he was swinging free. His feet kicking at the dog's head as he moved, causing it to growl at him.

"Were you wrong, Lieutenant? Dimi, scent."

The dog leapt at him and Steve cried out, "Yes …! Yes, I was wrong … oh, God, stop … please … stop." Steve prayed for darkness, for a return to the unconsciousness, which had kept him going before, but nothing happened except that the weight of the dog pushed him far enough back that its paws scraped down his chest and then he swung forward again. The scream that resulted took almost all of his remaining energy and he knew that he was a beaten man.

"So, you deserve to die. For what you have done to Mando you deserve to die. I have defeated you."

There was silence in the room apart from the heavy breathing of the bloodhound and his prey, and then she was back in his face again. "Say it! Say that I have won, that Mando has won. Tell me that we have defeated you."

"No …" He could only utter the one word and she didn't have to do anything other than rest her hand on his shoulder and his world exploded with pain again. The scream that left him was answered only by the seagulls and he collapsed shaking, as his arms took his entire weight, and wished for a mercifully quick end to his suffering.

"Say it!"

"Dad … I'm so … sorry." He couldn't even bring a picture of his father up in front of him in his mind and it was then that he realised it was all over and he gave her what it was she wanted. "You … you … h … have … defe … defeated me …."

ooo

"Who would've guessed that black SUV's were so popular?" Cheryl shook her head as she finished listening to a report on her headset. "They've stopped twenty-six, and all of them have been legit. Two had bald tires but that's all we've got so far."

"What time is it?" Mark didn't even look down at his own watch but threw the question out to the rest of his companions, not wanting to take his eyes from the scene through the doorway of the chopper.

"Half past ten, why?" Jesse checked and then returned his gaze to the window trying with all his might to see where the chain with the hook on the end might be. It needed to be close to trains, he'd seen both but not together, or together but not near enough to a road to hear trucks. The seagulls he was ignoring; they swooped and called all over the docks and just because they had been audible when Amanda was on the phone didn't mean they would be in the same spot right now.

"Just wondered." Mark had needed to hear his own voice, to know that he was still able to form coherent sentences, but all he could think of had been to ask a simple question.

"Sir, do you want me to sweep again?" The voice of the pilot, who had worked in silence since Jesse's quip about commercials, seemed almost timid and, as Ron barked back at him, Jesse could understand why.

"You keep going until I say stop."

"Yes, Sir."

"What?" Cheryl's headset crackled into life and suddenly all eyes were on her. "Where …? Ok, guide me to it, no don't, put it through the FBI headsets, let the pilot have it directly." She listened and when her own earphones were silent Cheryl turned to Mark. "We've got her."

ooo

Although they were in a fast moving helicopter it had taken over ten minutes to reach the area where the black SUV containing Melosa Arriaga had been spotted.

There wasn't a suitable landing place and so the young pilot, who had finally told Jesse he was called Justin Margolis, had found the closest empty lot to put down in. Cheryl and Ron had sprinted towards their target as soon as their feet hit the ground but both of them froze momentarily as they heard the sound of raised voices and then gunfire before Ron took over the lead position, his own gun drawn and ready, with Cheryl behind him and Justin silently joining them to take up the rear.

By the time that Jesse and a slower than usual Mark arrived at the scene they could see that the woman was laying on the ground with cops, their weapons trained on their target, surrounding her. There was another gun just out of reach which, Mark presumed, had belonged to Melosa.

"Doctor Travis, we need you here!" Cheryl's voice shook him from his transitory stupor and he crouched down by the woman who had tried to destroy the life of those he held most dear.

"Doctor … Travis … think you can … save me?" Her voice was raspy and Jesse could see the blood soaking the left side of her shirt. He felt for a pulse and wasn't surprised when it was irregular beneath his fingers.

"Mark, I need my bag." Jesse had placed a hand over the wound, applying pressure and trying to forget that he had nothing to protect himself with as he did so.

"No, Jess, let her suffer!"

"Mark! She's our only hope of finding them. I need my bag."

"Don't bother … Doctor … it won't … help."

"Where is my son?" Mark shouted the words, barging his way in front of Jesse and shaking Melosa by the shoulder.

"Mark!" Jesse moved a little closer to his friend, shocked to see the violence he was dishing out to the woman in front of them.

"Jesse, back off." Mark made contact with Jesse's chest, pushing the surprised young man and, as he removed the pressure from the wound, he staggered until Ron's strong hands stopped him from falling.

"I asked you a question." Mark moved closer so that he was almost touching Melosa's face with his own. "Where is my son?"

Melosa smiled and seemed to grasp a new strength from somewhere, "Dead, by now … Doctor Sloan … Too bad that you were just … too late to save him. But don't worry … I've sent … you a letter telling … you where you can find their bodies ... Maybe you will be able … to piece him back together, you be … ing a doctor an' all."

Mark's moved as if to strike the woman but, as Jesse and Cheryl both stepped forwards to stop him, he realised what he was doing and let his arm fall to his side.

"We beat you … Doctor Sloan, Mando and I beat you." Melosa coughed and her face clouded with pain as blood spat out onto Mark's shirt. "Your son ack …nowledged that fact before … before he died … and you will … too."

"Amanda? Where is Doctor Bentley?" Ron moved to crouch next to Mark, he knew that the older man was suffering but so was he and he needed to know where his love was more than he had needed to know anything in his entire life.

The smile that spread across Melosa's face made him wish that Mark had slapped her and Ron clenched his own fists so that his emotions wouldn't get the better of him. "Where is she?"

"You people … are so boring, asking …me the same questions over and over. She is … dead too, and such a shame because … she really thought I was going to free her. Poor stupid … girl." She moved a little, crying out in pain as she did so and Jesse edged closer, readying himself to treat his patient, but his professional ethics fought with the knowledge that if her words were true he really didn't want to help her at all.

"Were … did they?" For a moment Mark couldn't continue but he needed to know one more thing. "Were they together?"

"Oh no. That would have been … far too kind, and I just wasn't feeling kind today. I separated … them, promised her …" again she coughed and her fists clenched against a spasm of pain. Jesse tried to get back to treating her. He knew that she was badly hurt and almost certainly dying and he felt obligated to help her despite what she had done.

With a wheezy gasp Melosa began to speak again. "She thought … that she would be freed … that she would be able … to go back to her … children, she believed me and … left him alone to … suffer and die. And then she suffered and … died … too ... Life can be so cruel. I hope you … realise what you have done, Doctor Sloan, their … deaths are on your … conscience." The last word trailed away and as it did so Melosa shuddered, blood bubbled from the corner of her mouth, her eyes rolled in her head and she was still. Mark placed a hand on each shoulder and shook her.

"Where …? Where is he? Where is … my son? Answer me … please, God, answer me … where's Steve?" Mark's pleads turned into heaving heavy sobs and Cheryl gently put her arms around him as she and Ron led him a little way off to where Justin was standing, feeling a definite outsider; then she turned to watch the other doctor check her prisoner.

Jesse felt for a pulse but found nothing. He looked towards the group of people staring at him and shook his head.

For a moment there was silence as a multitude of emotions fought for supremacy. The woman had tortured and probably killed those that they held most dear, she had deserved to be killed too, but they were no closer to finding them and so she had had no right to die.

Jesse had been watching Melosa as she taunted Mark and he had seen that she kept trying to look over to her left, as if waiting for something to happen. There had been a lot of noise while she had been talking, and all of it seemed to be coming from the general direction that Arriaga had a fascination with. Suddenly he knew that if he followed her gaze he would find what it was they had been looking for and maybe, just maybe, Melosa's final act would have been to point the way to Steve and Amanda.

"Ron, Mark, they're this way." Jesse looked around in desperation, he had a rough idea where he wanted to be, but not an exact location, he needed a car.

There were two black and whites as well as a black sedan parked on the roadside and, reading his thoughts, Ron pointed at the obviously FBI vehicle. "That one."

"I'll deal with this and then find you." Cheryl leant into the first car and pulled the radio handset towards her as she spoke and then, as she began to call in, the four of them continue their frantic search.

ooo

Jesse had cleaned off his hands as soon as he got in the car before turning his attention to finding his friends. He had given up looking out of the window almost immediately and, opening the sunroof, had stood up and poked his head through the gap. The morning traffic had died down a little bit but Justin, now the driver rather than the pilot, knew the urgency of the journey and was weaving through what cars there were while his passengers scoured the landscape for what they were looking for.

The sound of a loud collision suddenly filled the air and Jesse, being in the best position to see what had caused it, felt his entire world stop.

"My God …" For a moment his words were almost a whisper but then the urgency of the moment took over and he spoke a little louder. "It's not a hook on a chain it's a wrecker's ball. There, that block there. We have to stop that demolition!"

The car screeched to a halt and all four occupants were out of it almost before the doors were open. Ron, gun in hand, and his fellow agent, scoured the area looking for a foreman or someone to approach but, seeing no one, made their way instead towards the large crane which was causing all the damage.

"Hey!" Ron called out as loudly as he could, but the driver of the heavy equipment, which was fitted with a huge hydraulic crane device attached to an equally huge metal ball, was protected not only by his cab but by ear defenders.

Ron leapt up onto the caterpillar tracks and banged on the Perspex but still got no reply and both he and Agent Margolis watched in horror as the ball completed an arc and smashed into the side of the building causing the area it hit to collapse inwards, leaving only one complete section standing, and then part of that roof fell, almost as an afterthought, from the initial hit. Finally, with a noise which sounded suspiciously like a growl, Ron wrenched open the door which got the man's attention.

"What the hell?" He swung round in his seat ready to pounce until he saw the gun pointing right at him.

"FBI. Turn the machine off."

"What?" The man screamed at him and Ron, looking far calmer than he actually felt, pointed to the ear protectors and then took his ID from his pocket.

Pulling the defenders off, the man glared at Ron and then at Justin who was now peering in through the door.

"I said, FBI, turn the machine off. There are still people in that building."

"What? You're kidding me, right...? You're not kidding me. Man, that warehouse has been empty for like months. There's … my God, there's only one piece left! How can there be anyone in there?"

"Trust me. Now don't swing it again, ok?"

"Yes, Sir."

Ron was back on the ground in a single bound, sliding his wallet back into his pants as he made his way quickly back towards where Mark and Jesse were standing, buffeted slightly by the wind which whistled around the dock area, looking in shock at the building in front of them.

"Jesse, you're with me." He saw the shocked look on Jesse's face and paused for a moment, "We make a good team, remember? Margolis, stay with the doctor. Mark, I don't know what stuff Jesse has in that medical bag of his but I hope to God we're gonna need it. Can you get some sort of triage prepared and get on to Medivac?" He knew it was odd to be wanting someone to require medical treatment, but he also knew that if it wasn't needed then Steve and Amanda were indeed both dead and he couldn't let that possibility gain any credence.

"Yes, yes, I can do that. Jesse, find him … find Steve for me." He brushed back the tears and then turned to the tall FBI Agent. "Ron …"

"Yeah, Mark, I know." Ron couldn't let him finish the sentence; he had to keep the emotions in a separate space until later. Then, whichever way things fell, he would deal with them, alone. "Jesse, let's go!" The younger man needed no second call and together they rushed to the front of the building. As they ran in through the door the sound of bricks and debris falling seemed to surround them.

"I'm gonna start at the top, you start down here. "We'll meet in the middle." Jesse didn't wait for a reply but raced up the staircase that he had spotted off to his left, stumbling over the rubble as he went.

Ron watched him go and then, feeling more scared than he had in a long time, he hurried off into the main part of the building looking around desperately for any signs of life.

ooo

The staircase was full of dust and as the sun shone in through the windows on each level the particles played in its rays. Jesse tried to cover his mouth with his hand and shield his eyes to protect them from getting grit in them. He glanced about him on each landing but saw nothing until he reached the fourth level. The main wall was cracked from the now non-existent roof to the floor and, as he began to make his way into the room, he heard the sound of a train close by and more bricks and rubble fell around him.

When the dust cleared Jesse peered about and finally saw what he had been both desperately searching for and dreading finding. He could see the outline of a man, looking as if he was suspended in mid-air about ten feet in front of him.

"Steve! It's all right, I'm coming, Buddy, just hang on a minute or two longer. I'm coming." Jesse carefully made his way forward, but he had to stop almost within reach of his friend as he realised that the floor had cracked open and begun to fall away.

Gradually he backtracked and worked towards the middle of the room where the tremors had yet to cause major problems. Skirting the damaged area Jesse made his way round so that he was behind his friend and then moved in closer once more.

It became clear that Steve was hanging from a metal rail and that he was attached to it by handcuffs. For a moment Jesse was beaten, how would he get his friend down without the keys? He knew that the wrecker wouldn't hit the building again but he wasn't sure that it would be needed anyway. Bricks and rafters were either falling or creaking all the time and Jesse knew that if he couldn't get Steve free quickly he would have to leave him where he was or die with him.

A sob escaped Jesse as the awfulness of his situation hit home. Steve would be livid if he knew that he had died with him, but how could he leave him here and save himself?

"Think, Jesse, think. Doctor, intelligent being, best friend. Put the three together and save him, then get the hell out!" For a moment he considered pulling on Steve to test the strength of the rail, but realised that he didn't need to do that. Looking around he saw a set of steps leaning up against the outside wall just beyond where Steve was and, swallowing his fear, he edged towards them.

The gap through to the level below was at its widest just next to the legs of the ladder and, rather than put his entire weight on an area he wasn't sure would hold him, Jesse lay out flat and grasped them with both hands. Then he wriggled his way backwards, ignoring the pain caused by all the sharp and rough objects underneath him, until he was far enough away from the chasm to stand.

Carefully he set up his prize and began to climb it. There were only three steps and by the time he was standing on the top rung Jesse could see into his friend's face and he reached up and grasped the rail. As he let the metal take all his weight he accidentally caught the ladder with his feet and it fell through to the floor beneath. Knowing that he now only had one shot at freeing Steve, Jesse began to bounce, willing the wall to release its grip as he did so.

ooo

Agent Margolis hadn't worked with Ron Wagner for very long but he had learnt almost immediately that the man kept every feeling other than superiority and anger well hidden.

The look on his face as he exited the building with someone in his arms was one Justin hoped never to see on anyone's face ever again. Despair was written all over his colleague and, as he rushed over to help him, Justin could have sworn he saw the trail of a tear on the dust-covered face.

"Mark, she isn't breathing, I can't find a pulse. She … she was covered in rubble. It … it's falling from the floors above." Gently Ron laid the hopefully unconscious woman on the ground and then, with his fists clenched, he swallowed down his fears unable to tear his gaze away from the woman he loved.

Mark had been watching the building so intently that he hadn't seen Justin leave his side and rush to help Ron, but now he was galvanised into action and began to take the vital signs of his friend, hoping against hope that Ron was wrong and that somewhere, somehow, he would find a pulse.

ooo

The rail finally began to move when Jesse thought that his arms would come out of their sockets. He couldn't begin to imagine the agony that Steve must have gone through and it was easy to see that the right shoulder had been dislocated again. His upper torso was covered in cuts and marks and, knowing Melosa's previous history, Jesse was sure they were from a scalpel and a riding crop of some sort.

He pulled himself up as far as he could on the rail until his head was up above it and then kicking his feet against the air to try and give himself more power and energy Jesse forced himself downwards, crying out as his muscles screamed in protest. With a grating sound the metal finally came free from the wall and the two of them fell to the floor with Jesse pushing at Steve to keep him away from the gaping hole which would hasten their descent to the next level.

ooo

The pounding of his head told Jesse that he had probably knocked himself out as he landed, and the sudden need to turn away and heave into the dust confirmed it. For a moment he had no idea how he had arrived in the situation he found himself in and, as the room swum around him, he tried to gather his thoughts.

It was the gradual realisation that there was another body next to his own that finally hauled him back to reality and, with a feeling very close to despair, he reached over and placed his hand on his best friend's neck, sending up a silent prayer as he did so.

The pulse he found there could be described as thready at best but it was so welcome that Jesse had to swallow back tears, she had been wrong; Steve wasn't dead, now he just had to hope that Amanda was still alive also.

"Steve, you're gonna be safe real soon. We'll be out of here in a jiffy." Jesse's voice wavered a little as he spoke and as he finished his words he saw to his amazement that Steve was moving. "Steve! Oh, God, Steve, it's Jesse, come on, Buddy, look at me."

Although he didn't do as he was told Steve swallowed hard and then, in a voice laden with the dust and pain of his recent existence, he said just the one word. "Jess?"

The sound of another train going by and the resulting cascade of rubble tore Jesse's gaze from his friend and he realised that he had to somehow get Steve out of what could quite easily become a double grave. For a moment the magnitude of that task seemed totally beyond him and he closed his eyes and tried to marshal his failing strength. When he opened them again he saw that Steve had returned to his unconscious state and although he had been relieved to hear his voice he was even more relieved that Steve wouldn't know about the pain it would cause to move him.

"Doctor Travis!" The words seemed to echo all around him, and whether it was coincidence or not the debris increased.

"Don't … don't shout. Just help me." He had to shout himself and then Jesse held his breath as he waited for the next shower of bricks to hit. It didn't take long and this time a sharp piece of rafter made contact with his arm, piercing the skin and embedding itself in his flesh. As Jesse looked down to try and remove it he noticed for the first time that his body was scratched and bleeding, probably as a result of the fall from the rail, and he also realised that his right ankle and lower leg was resting at an angle which wasn't at all natural.

The sight of his leg caused the pain to reach its neural transmitters and suddenly he was bathed in sweat, knowing that there was no way that he would be able to carry his friend by himself. "Justin, please, hurry."

Jesse had no idea what was causing the room to sway, he hoped it was just his injuries, but when a large piece of floor disappeared in front of his eyes he knew that the building didn't have long left, and because of that neither did they.

This alarming prospect along with his desperate situation caused Jesse to lose a little of his grip on reality and so he almost jumped out of his skin as suddenly there was a voice next to him.

"Can you help me with him?" Justin was assessing the situation as he spoke and it didn't look good. He pressed his headset a little closer to his ear and began to speak into the microphone.

"This is Agent Margolis; I have them, but I'm gonna need back up, very careful backup, to get them both to safety." He looked down at the two men and knew that he had made the right decision to come into the building himself and that he was going to have to take them out one at a time.

"Steve … take him first." Jesse was feeling sicker as the moments passed but he knew what he had to do and, with a feeling of relief, he watched as the young man next to him nodded his agreement and carefully took Steve in a fireman's lift before beginning a slow and cautious descent to the ground.

ooo

The first Medivac helicopter had arrived just after Agent Margolis disappeared into the building. Mark had watched him for only a second before resuming his efforts to bring Amanda back to him. Between them he and Ron had begun CPR and hadn't paused until the gentle hands of the medics had carefully moved them away from her.

"We'll take over now, Sir. The other chopper is on its way, it'll be about five minutes." The man had begun to treat Amanda as soon as he could get to her and Mark, knowing that he was, for now, superfluous turned his eyes towards the building, counting the seconds until he saw Jesse and Steve come out.

"Mark … Mark!" Ron's voice cut into his desperate vigil and he turned haunted eyes towards the taller man. "I'm gonna go with them. I'll … I'll see you at Community General … and … and thank you." He couldn't say anymore and so, with one last lingering look at the dangerous building behind him, Ron climbed into the helicopter and took Amanda's hand in his own, rubbing it gently as the chopper took off, willing the warmth to return.

ooo

The journey down the stairs seemed far longer than the journey up them. Somewhere in the back of his mind as he travelled Justin could remember talking with his wife about how the distance home from somewhere always seemed shorter than the distance to get there in the first place. That wasn't the case right now. The picture of her face came up in front of him and he used it as a beacon to keep him going, to keep him taking one step after another, and then suddenly there in front of him was the exit, he could see a cloudless blue sky and the anxious face of Mark Sloan.

As soon as Justin became visible Mark rushed to his side and together they made the journey back to the temporary triage that the doctor had set up.

"Where's Jesse?" Mark looked around, expecting and needing to see the face of his young friend emerging from the building as well.

"He was injured; I have to go back for him. He's still on the top floor." As Justin spoke there was a rumble and a groan from the direction of the warehouse and the two men looked on in horror as the front of the building began to collapse inwards.