A/N I do not own these characters. I am simply borrowing them for my own amusement, and hopefully that of my readers. I mean no harm and am gaining no profit from the use of these characters so please, please don't take me to court! Thanks Ya'll...

Chapter 9

John groaned and opened his eyes. His side hurt and he was pretty sure he had dislocated his shoulder but his main concern was Natalie. "Natalie?" he said looking over at her. She was slumped against the steering wheel and unconscious. He reached over to check her pulse and she moaned. He was relieved that she was alive but still concerned. Before he could do anything else Natalie's door was yanked open and she was dragged out of the car roughly.

It was then that he remembered the car that had caused this accident. It was a big black SUV and had been parked right in the middle of the road. He saw that it had pulled over to the side of the road, right next to Natalie's vehicle. As his door was yanked open as well he knew what had happened. Somehow Fritz or Mickey had found out where he was and had set a trap for them.

He didn't fight as he was pulled from the car, instinct telling him that if he did Natalie would be the one who paid the price. Then he felt a sudden pain in the back of his head and the world went black.

"Natalie? Natalie honey wake up." John called to her. He had regained consciousness sitting up and unable to move. He was on the floor but was tied to something, his hands tied behind his back. It was dark and he couldn't really make out anything when he looked around. A moment of appraisal had told him that he was tied to a beam (he could feel it though he couldn't see it) and that he wasn't alone. It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was probably Natalie. The thing he couldn't figure out was why they were still alive. He would have thought that Mickey D would have ordered them killed right away.

Natalie woke slowly, her head pounding and her whole body aching. She tried to moved but found that she couldn't. The darkness of the room added to her fear. Panicking she began to struggle wildly with the bonds. She hated being immobilized but the bonds the restrained her didn't give an inch.

John felt Natalie begin to struggle with the ropes and said, "Natalie? Are you ok?" He felt her calm down at the sound of his voice. He head was killing him and his side burned but so far he didn't think he had reopened the half-healed wound.

Natalie heard the concern in his voice. She stopped struggling for a moment and took account of her aches and pains. "Yeah I'm ok. I have a raging headache and I feel like I got kicked by a mule but I'm ok otherwise. You? How's your side?"

"I got a headache too," John said with a rueful grin even though he knew she couldn't see him. He tried to move his arm and knew that he shoulder was indeed dislocated. "My side is fine but my shoulder is dislocated," he told her truthfully, "I can pop it back in when we get loose."

"Ok now that we are both relatively fine who put us here and how do we get out?" She said grimacing at the sorry pair they made. Tied up and injured it wasn't as if their captors thought they were going anywhere but there was one thing that was bothering her... "Why didn't they kill us?"

John shook his head, "I don't know. I'm sorry I got you into all this." He felt terrible. He should have left the minute he was able and then she wouldn't be in this situation but he had lingered. He had lingered because he had liked spending time with her too much to leave. And now she was tied to a beam with him by vicious killers and it was all his fault.

Natalie heard the guilt in his voice and knew he was blaming himself for this. She wasn't going to let him do that, "No one forced me to take you in John. I knew that you were probably in trouble when I found you with a bullet hole in your stomach. You can't blame your self I won't let you!" she told him fiercely.

John was touched by her words. He loved that she wouldn't let him wallow in self-pity, no matter how much he deserved it. They were quiet while John tried to figure out a way out of the situation they were in. He wished he still had his pocked knife, then they could have cut the ropes they were tied up with.

The door opened letting in light and silhouetting the large man that stood in the doorway. He advanced into the room and John recognized him. "Mickey" he said.

Mickey smiled but it was grim smile. "McBain," he practically spat out. His hate for John clear even to Natalie though she couldn't see his face. "You think you're pretty smart don't you, Agent McBain? Mickey asked, sneering at John. "You fooled everybody, I treated you like a brother! And how did you repay me? You snoop through my business, my home? You take my disk!"

John didn't know what Mickey was talking about. He knew nothing about a disk but the logical part of his brain told him that this was why he had been shot. He must have found something in that week that was a blank in his mind. If only he could remember!

Mickey took John's silence as smugness and got angry. He had orders not to kill McBain till he got the disk and even more orders not to touch the girl. For some reason the boss wanted her to be unharmed. That had really made Fritz mad. He had wanted to teach her a lesson for lying to him. "You got nothing to say, Agent McBain?" he snarled to John.

John simply looked at him. He didn't know what he could say. It wasn't like he could tell them that he couldn't remember. They would never believe him.

Mickey got down on his hunches and got right in Johns face, "Where is the disk? Tell me where it is and I'll let you both go," he lied.

John knew he was lying and stared right back at Mickey. He uttered one word, "No." He spoke softly but clearly.

Mickey's face contorted in fury and he fairly snarled his displeasure. Getting himself back under control he smiled evilly and said, "I'll be back in a few hours. If your answer isn't different...Well... I wonder how many fingers I will have to cut off before you talk."

Bo received the call on his way home. Natalie's car had been found smashed into a tree. He raced to the scene thinking that Natalie was injured. When he got there he was stunned at what he found.

"Where is she?" he demanded, "Where is my niece!" Her car was there but she was not!

"I don't know," said the officer that had arrived first on the scene. "When I got here the car was just like that with the doors open and it was abandoned. I didn't see any sign that she walked away looking for help. In fact her cell phone is still inside the car. Fully charged." He paused then said, "We have officers out looking for her right now, but it looks like she was kidnapped sir."

Bo frowned. "Both doors?" he questioned. Why would both doors be opened unless someone else was with her? "His niece was missing and possibly someone else as well. He figured that if there was a passenger they too were missing because Natalie would never pick up a hitchhiker or stranger. So who ever had been in the other seat she must have known them.

"Yes sir. Both doors. And there is blood on the passenger side door." The officer told Bo.

"Is CSU done with the car?" Bo asked, distracted. So there HAD been another person in the car!

"Yeah. They finished a few minutes ago. They found this under the seat," he said handing Bo John's badge and wallet.

Bo looked at the badge...FBI... then the wallet. "Hmm... John McBain" he wondered if he was any relation to Michael McBain, a doctor at Llanview Memorial Hospital. He was confused though. What would Natalie be doing with John McBain anyway?

Looking at the picture he was startled to see that he recognized the face. It was the man in the picture that those goons had been flashing around the hospital a week ago. He frowned as the pieces began to fall into place. Natalie must have run across John and he must have convinced her to hide him. Maybe he was injured and that's why the goons had been looking for him at the hospital. He sighed. This was all pure speculation. What he needed to do was first call the FBI about John and then find his niece. His gut told him that she was with McBain and BOTH of them were in trouble.

To be continued...