Fin slammed his fist down on his desk. His whole body shook from office coffee and lack of sleep. He hadn't been able to rest properly since Munch went missing Saturday morning. Now it was late Tuesday evening and he felt no closer to finding where his partner was. Truthfully he felt frustrated because they had been blocked at every turn. And what really infuriated him was it had happened mostly by lawyers and judges. Munch always called it "the Establishment." Right now "the Establishment" was really pissing Fin off.

Pounding the desk hadn't helped anything either. It didn't make him feel better; it only made his had hurt. He was ready to bust the whole squad room to pieces if he thought it'd bring Munch back but it wouldn't. It would probably only make Cragen mad, and he couldn't afford the garnishing of his wages to pay for the damages either.

"What are we missing?" he yelled at no one in particular.

"Fin, calm down," said Benson

"We let go of our two main suspects hours ago because we couldn't get anything outta them, and you want me to calm down?" Fin screamed.

"Yes," replied Stabler. "Fin, we'll find him."

"How? The trail's gone cold. We got nothing on the search of the synagogue, and nothing out of the Rabbi or Glen! We've got nothing!"

Stabler put a reassuring hand on Fin's shoulder. "We'll find him."

"What are we suppose to do? Wait till we find his bony ass naked in an alleyway somewhere?"

"How about you help my bony ass back to my desk before I fall over?"

Startled, all three detectives whipped around to find Munch being held up by an unidentified man in the doorway. He looked awful. He was dirty and his hair was a mess. His suit jacket, tie, socks and shoes were gone. His gray dress shirt was untucked and partially unbuttoned. Fin guessed that the only thing keeping Munch up was the young man supporting him.

"Oh my god!" Benson exclaimed.

Stabler ran over and helped Munch take a seat at his desk. Cragen, Dr. Huang, and Casey Novak the ADA had all come out of Cragen's office to see what the commotion was and were surprised to find the veteran detective returned. Fin just stood in unbelief. Had the others not been reacting the same as he, he would've guessed that Munch was a mirage, but since they were, it could only mean one thing.

"Do you mean I've been going crazy over you for four days, and now you're just going to saunter in here and make jokes like it is no big deal!" Fin complained. His anger wasn't subsiding; he just wasn't sure who he was angry at anymore.

"I'm sorry? I haven't exactly been on a vacation in Paris here, Fin," John spat the words back. The two partners glared at each other for a moment, and Fin felt the anger subside. He had forgotten that John was the victim, he hadn't meant for this to happen.

"I'm sorry," Fin apologized.

"It's okay," Munch accepted.

"Where have you been?" asked Cragen. "And who's this guy?"

"I've been to hell and back," Munch answered. "And he's a fallen angel I found. He's a newfound friend. This is Chris. He'll be handing Rabbi Reubenstein and his unscrupulous colleagues to us on a platter for all the vicious things they've done, and in return, we'll be giving him full immunity."

"Oh really," said Casey. "I don't remember my office agreeing to this deal."

"Trust me, do the deal. This kid got mixed up in some pretty crazy things, but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. We owe him, I owe him this," Munch pleaded.

"Please, I'll tell you everything. I'll do anything and give you all the information you need," Chris begged. "I deserve to be punished for what I've done. I'll take the punishment if you want me too."

Munch and Cragen looked at Casey. "I'll deal," she agreed. "Besides it seems we have bigger fish to fry than this good Samaritian."

Fin nodded. He was relieved. The whole pressure of what had happened over the weekend went away, and he was finally free to do what he did best; kick some bad guy butt.

They adjourned into an interrogation room so they could have some privacy. Benson, Stabler and Dr. Huang offered to wait behind the looking glass and observe from there, leaving Cragen, Fin and Casey to talk to the kid. Munch went with them also. They had pleaded with him to go to the hospital, but he was being stubborn. Fin finally had to just give in to his partner so they wouldn't waste any more time.

Chris's tale was sick. The Rabbi had taken their religion to a different extreme, instead of remember how merciful the lord could be, he had twisted it into a perverse form of judgment. When someone new came to the synagogue, they would welcome him, but secretly the Rabbi would do some background checking. Apparently, for a while he had dabbled as a PI, but quit when he realized the tendencies humans had to be bad. He felt that the guilty were going unpunished for heinous crimes, and that the Law of Moses required that the guilty be stoned. This matter he took into his own hands. Many of his followers supported this because they felt if they were taking justice into their own hands, they were making their lives safer.

When Chris had joined the group 3 years earlier, he hadn't suspected anything. Then two months into it, after a service, he was led down to a basement and was tried. He couldn't really call it a trial because the verdict was already decided before he got there. Nevertheless, Chris had stood trial and was found innocent and learned of the true nature of the group. Since they were the only friends he had made since coming to New York, he initially went along with the group's activities. But after the two men had been found guilty and he had participated and witnessed their deaths, he lost his resolve. By that time, they had convinced him there was no way out. He was a part of it, if he liked it or not. So he had stayed. So when Munch, posing as Katz, had joined the group, his stomach had dropped out. He wished not to participate, which was why he was given the job to guard Munch.

"Well, that was a mistake that worked in our favor," Munch sighed gratefully. "But what I want to know is why it took four days to get me out."

"We had some opposition," Cragen gingerly explained.

"Opposition my ass," said Fin. "Everything worked against us from the time I realized you were gone!"

Together they worked out how the events of the weekend played out. Chris explained that the beat officer had been a decoy sent out to distract any partner that Munch may have had, and the reason that Munch's cell phone and tracker had gone off line were because of some electronic blocker that the Rabbi had installed in the walls of his office. That had allowed them the time to take Munch's unconscious body down through the basement, into a tunnel and into a joining building, where they kept him till Sunday night.

Fin explained the legal woes they had been having. After finding Munch's GPS tracker on the dog, they had formed search parties throughout the neighborhood, but it had been a big waste of time and they lost most of their Saturday. Fin had been convinced that Munch was still in the synagogue, and though they tried, they couldn't find a judge that was willing to allow them to search a place of religion, even if it was the last place Munch had been. It hadn't been till early Monday, after the day of rest, or unrest for them, which Casey had finally gotten a judge into a corner who agreed to sign off on the warrant.

"By then, we had already left to the other compound," Chris explained.

"Yeah, I noticed," said Fin.

Chris and Munch took turns detailing the events of their weekend, Chris explaining the finer points and Munch would jump in now and then with his side, plus some sarcasm thrown it for fun. They all agreed that Munch had been lucky that the Rabbi was feeling the pressure from the authorities, and had prolonged torture and death. But by Monday, he had already been drugged again and moved, which was why the police found nothing.

"You're right, we had nothing. Until Monday afternoon, when we caught up with the Rabbi and his friend Glen," explained Fin.

"Yeah, Glen's his right hand man. They've known each other for years. I think they were in the PI business together," said Chris.

"They're both tight lipped pricks. We grilled them as long as we could, but both men wouldn't budge or say anything to give us a clue what was going on. I'm surprised they didn't lawyer up," complained Fin.

"Probably think they're all smarter that us, don't they," sighed Munch.

"We held them till Tuesday afternoon, around 4pm, then we had to cut them loose," said Cragen. "After that we were dead in the water. We had a detail follow them, and they did give a pretty wild chase for several hours trying to shake them."

"Which gave me the opportunity to set up the escape," Chris then detailed how exactly he had managed to get Munch out of there. Fin had to admit, that for someone who never had any military or police training, Chris had done a pretty good job covering his tracks, and blocking potential problems.

"What I want to know is, why did you finally decide to get in the cab?" Munch asked Chris.

"Because I decided it was time to follow someone who had real authority to punish the wicked. We murdered people. Its against the law," Chris answered.

Munch just nodded. Fin took a look at him, and thought how bad he really looked. He started to worry again.

"I think I have enough to put the rat bastards away," Casey said. "If Chris is willing to take you to the compound, we can get them all."

"No problem, as long as no one sees me," he said.

"That will be no problem," Cragen assured the younger man. They all stood up to make preparations, but suddenly Munch was back down. He had collapsed from all that had happened to him physically. After all that had happened, his body finally gave out on him. They rushed to his side, as the other three came through the door.

"I'll get my medical kit," yelled Huang. He ran quickly out of the room and back. Stabler ran to a phone to call a bus.

"I'm okay," Munch mumbled as he fell into unconsciousness.

"I'll stay with him, Cap. You all go get the men that did this," Benson offered. Cragen nodded. Fin was reluctant to leave his partner there, but there was nothing he could do. He could only go get those that had done this. They all left Benson and Huang with Munch, and headed for the compound.

XXX

The siege had gone well. Although they had lost their captive, somehow the members hadn't felt any danger of the police finding them. So when the SUV and CRT teams showed up at the compound, they were totally unprepared to handle the situation.

Chris had rode with Stabler and Fin to the site, and then agreed to ride back to the precinct in a squad car. Stabler and Fin had busted in with the first group to go through the door. They had found Glen and Mike and others of the group in a back room arguing. Fin was slightly worried that the whole process had gone too easily. There had to be some catch. As they cuffed the men, a uniformed officer came in to talk to them.

"No sign of the Rabbi anywhere," he reported.

From behind them, Glen let out a hallow laugh. "You won't find him! He's gone to punish the guilty! The guilty will receive their reward!"

Stabler gave Fin a questioning look and realization struck both men at the same time.

"Munch! We've gotta get to the hospital!" Fin yelled. Stabler reached for his phone to call his partner, and both men barreled out of the building. It was unfortunate that someone was blocking their path, and all three people fell into a heap on the ground.

"Benson!" Stabler called in recognition. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you at the hospital?"

"Munch is fine. He just needed an IV drip, so he told me to get out of there and do some real work. So I radioed in and they said you all were here. What's wrong?" she asked.

"That crazy Rabbi is still after Munch. He's not here, so we think he's gone after him at the hospital," Fin quickly explained.

Benson's eyes opened wide with shock. "Let's go, my car will be the easiest to get out."

The three ran to the car and were out of there with only a short yell to a confused Cragen to explain what was up. Benson drove as fast as she could, and Fin only hoped they wouldn't be too late.

XXX

Arriving shortly at the hospital the three quickly pounded down halls towards Munch's room. They kept their badges and guns at the ready, silencing anyone who'd try to stop them. Fin feared the worse, assuming that his partner was already dead, and worked in his mind how they were going to find the mad man who had done this.

"It's just down the hall," Benson called, and the three prepared themselves. Fin went in first and was shocked at what he found there. The three detectives looked in on a sight that they would've never believed had they not seen it themselves. The Rabbi Reubenstein sat motionless in the corner chair, glaring at the person occupying the bed. They turned their heads and saw Munch, still hooked up to the IV, his gun in his hand, fixed on the Rabbi. John was grinning ear to ear, his eyes shining behind his dark glasses.

"What the hell…" Fin's voice trailed off.

"You know I never feel safe unless I have my gun," Munch replied slyly.

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For fun I thought I'd write this little note down at the bottom this time. Sorry this took so long to get up. I lost the urge to write for a bit, but I wanted to finish this at least. The epilogue should be up shortly.

Thanks again for the reviews, they're worth it! And it makes me feel good to know that so many enjoy my story. I've decided to hold off on a Munch/Howard Homicide fic for now. I want to get season 7 and watch it first, so I can get a grip on the idiots that worked there and not just what I've read about them. But I'll still be doing some Munch writing, when the story comes to me.

Oh and for all ya'll wondering how Munch got a gun into the hospital. I dunno, he just did. He's a cop and it's a fictional story. That works, right? ; D