A/N: Hey guys! I know this chapter has taken a long time, and I'm sorry! I've been so busy with school and everything, and on top of that, I've had a hard time getting this story where I want it to be. I hope I've lived up to your expectations!

I'm not a medical expert, I only know what I've researched, so if anything is wrong, I apologize.

Since it was an extra long wait for this, this is an extra long chapter (but that's partly because I wanted to reach a certain spot before I posted... bad cliffie coming up lol).

Anyways, R R and let me know if you're enjoying this story! Thanks for reading guys!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Flashpoint or its characters.

Chapter 4:

A few minutes later Wordy glanced over and Sam had dozed off, his head resting against the window. Wordy decided to let him sleep until they got to the Barn, he figured Sam was exhausted.

20 minutes later, Wordy parked in a parking spot and gently shook Sam to wake him. Sam startled awake.

"Sorry," Wordy said, "we're here."

They both got out and went inside and up to their floor. Sam headed to the locker room to shower and get some fresh clothes on.

As Sam took of the jacket Wordy brought him, he felt something bulky in the pocket. He reached in and pulled out the ring box and opened it to reveal the beautiful engagement ring he had bought for Hannah. He sighed while he tucked the box back into the jacket pocket and hung the jacket in his locker.

After carefully showering, as to not get his stitches wet, Sam gently took the bandage that was still over his stitches off. As he put another bandage on, he noticed the area around the stitches seemed red. He quickly wrote it off as irritation from the bandage rubbing the suture site while he was showering.

He finished up and headed towards the briefing room. Upon entering he saw his teammates gathered around the table, all either eating or picking at their food, deep in discussion. He grabbed something to eat from the end of the table and walked over to join them.

They hadn't even noticed he had come in until he took his place next to Spike.

"Samtastic! How are you feeling, buddy?" Spike asked after giving Sam a hug.

"I'm okay, Spike. I'll be much better after this is all over with." He said and followed it up with a huge yawn.

"Sam, it would make all of us feel a lot better if you would try to get a couple of hours of sleep while we work on the plan, and we can catch you up when you wake up." Greg said.

"With all due respect, Greg, that's not happening. I'm sorry, but there's no way I would be able to sleep knowing the woman I love is with someone who abused her for 3 years and threatened to kill her if she ever left him."

"Understood, Sam. Just let us know if anything gets to be too much. I know you think you can handle it, but you've been through a lot of emotional and physical trauma in the past few hours. Don't push yourself too hard."

"Got it, thanks, Sarge."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was 4am by the time the team had finalized their plan. Outside, the sky was still only being lit by the moon with no sign of the sun, which would work to their advantage, as long as they worked quickly. They all stood up from the table and stretched and then headed to the locker room to get geared up. Wordy thought he was the last one out of the room until he noticed Sam still sitting at the table.

"Sam? You okay?"

"Yeah, Wordy. Something just feels off, I don't know what it is."

"Well, you've been through a lot of emotional turmoil. There is something off, and you're going to have to deal with it soon, but we'll be there to back you up."

"Thanks, Wordy. I'm coming to gear up right now."

Wordy nodded and left the room. Sam stood and was about to take a step, but a wave of nausea came over him. Bile rose up and burned his throat, but he forced it back down as he closed his eyes and rested the palms of his hands on the table to steady himself.

While something did seem off, and was nagging at him, what he had failed to tell Wordy was that his side was throbbing, and he was fighting nausea while going through the whole plan. He almost had to go to the bathroom to throw up, but he held it down. He didn't know what was wrong, but he wasn't going to bring it up until Hannah was safe in his arms.

He made his way to the locker room and geared up alongside everyone else, although he was a bit slower, and tried not to let his teammates catch on to the fact that he was being very gentle with his side.

He tried to put his vest on but winced and sucked in his breath as he tightened it and it pressed against the stitches in his side.

He looked up and found Wordy and Spike watching him with worried looks on their faces. He smiled at them, trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't work. "Sam…" Wordy started, but was interrupted by Sam, "I'm okay, Wordy. The vest rubs against my stitches. That's it."

Ed called out, "Let's head out, guys! We don't have a lot of time before daylight."

Spike sent a look to Sam and then turned to leave. Wordy's gaze lingered on Sam a bit longer, then he spoke in a low tone so Greg or Ed wouldn't hear him, "Wear it loose. If something is wrong, you better tell one of us. Remember, no unacceptable risks."

"Thanks, Wordy." Sam said and gave him a grateful look. He felt bad for not telling his team the whole truth, which they would probably say was taking an unacceptable risk, but he had to be there to save Hannah. After a lot of thinking, he decided that he would do whatever it took to figure things out with Hannah. Yeah, all of this made things a lot more difficult, but she was worth fighting for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two men had been sitting in the parking lot for hours. They were taking shifts staying awake, so they would know if the blonde man left the building. Jeff was awake, sitting in the driver's seat, bored out of his mind. He was almost ready to just leave. Aaron could do his own dirty work.

Just as he was building up the courage to call the boss and tell him that, he saw movement near the front of the building. He shook the man sleeping in the passenger seat, urgently whispering, "Martin! Wake up!"

Martin slowly opened his eyes, "what?"

"I don't know what your boss has gotten us into, but I don't like it."

Neither of them had been paying much attention to what the building was, they were just watching for the blonde man. Now they watched as he and 6 others walked out of the building in full gear.

"They're cops, man! What the hell? I'm calling Aaron." Jeff said.

"Hold on, man. Who cares if they're cops? This is what he's paying us to do. Let's just do it."

"We can't kidnap a cop!"

"Why not? He's a person just like everyone else. The boss wants it done, we have to do it."

"Did you know he was a cop? Why'd you get me into this, man?"

"Yes, I've known he's a cop. I needed someone's help and you were the only one willing to help me."

"I needed money! You didn't tell me this is what we were doing!"

"Well you can't back out now. You know way too much. Let's get it over with, and once we get him back to the house, Aaron can have his way with him, and you can go. The only condition Aaron will have is that you stay quiet about the whole thing. And for your safety, I would encourage you to listen to him. He's got a lot of resources, I wouldn't want a guy like him on my bad side."

Jeff just nodded his head and accepted his fate. He was all in now. He backed out of the parking spot and put the car into drive, then carefully began following the SUV the blonde had gotten into.

After driving for a few minutes, he realized the route felt very familiar. "Martin, I think we've got a problem."

Martin, who had dozed back off, opened his eyes and looked around, "what is it?"

"I think they're going to Aaron's house."

Martin recognized the street signs too. He pulled out his phone and dialed his boss.

"Did you get him yet?" Aaron asked in place of a greeting.

"No, boss, we have a problem. We think he might be heading to the house—"

"Why is that a problem? That's exactly what we want."

"His whole team is with him. All decked out in police gear."

Aaron cursed into the phone, then said, "alright, I'll come up with something. Just follow them, and when they get here be prepared to back me up. I'll call you back in a few minutes and let you know my plan."

"Got it boss, it seems like we're about 20 minutes away."

"I'll be ready."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hannah opened her eyes and looked around the small, dimly lit room. Her head was still a little fuzzy from the drugs she had been given, but she slowly sat up and tried to take in her surroundings.

She leaned against the wall and noticed a door to her right. She carefully stood and tried to open it. Locked. She shook her head trying to clear some of the fuzziness. She felt dizzy, so she sat back against the wall. Suddenly the door swung open and the person standing in the doorway was someone she had hoped she would never see again.

"Well, it's good to see you again, Paige. Or should I call you Hannah now?"

"Aaron, I'm sorry—

"No, I don't want to hear it. You knew exactly what you were doing when you left me. Now, your boyfriend is on his way here, and his whole team is with him. They're coming right to me. I couldn't have asked for anything more."

"Please, don't hurt them. Just take me, they aren't a part of this."

"They became a part of it when Sam started dating you, and then started bringing you around his friends. I don't have time for this, we have to get out of here."

"Why? I thought you were waiting for them to get here?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. I am waiting, but when they come in here and this place gets blown up, I don't want to be here and I'm sure you don't either."

Hannah just sat there, trying to process what he just said. She knew she had to fight back, she had to do something. She couldn't allow the man she loved and the people she considered family to get hurt, or even worse, killed.

But just as her head cleared enough for her to think about what to do, she felt a prick in her arm and looked down to see Aaron holding a syringe in her arm.

"No…" she said as her head became cloudy once again. As the blackness tugged at the corners of her vision she heard him say, "don't worry, I just need your cooperation right now. I'll make sure you won't miss all the fun."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team One drove past the driveway of the house and parked down the street. They gathered everything they might need and started walking back up the dirt road towards the driveway.

The house was on a huge piece of land out in the country in the middle of nowhere, trees surrounding it on all sides. If someone wanted to kidnap someone and hide, here was a great place to do it.

The Team had decided that they would stick together in two teams. Greg, Jules, and Leah would approach the house from the front, and Ed, Wordy, Spike and Sam would approach from the back. They could tell that Sam wasn't at a hundred percent, but he was pushing through. They all were keeping a very close eye on him.

As they got further and further onto the property, Ed's team started to go around to the back of the house. Wordy noticed an old truck parked behind the house, and Ed noticed a barn about 75 yards behind the house. They both spoke quietly into the radio to let the team know their findings. They decided to breach the house first because if McCarthy didn't know they were coming, he would most likely be in the house.

"On three," Ed said into the radio and looked at his teammates behind him for confirmation. When he looked at Sam, he noticed Sam's eyes seemed a little unfocused, and he almost couldn't tell, but he thought he saw sweat glistening on Sam's forehead. On a cool breezy night like this one, that was odd. "Sam?" Sam's head snapped up and locked eyes with Ed, the focus back. "You good?" Ed kept the question short, not wanting to draw too much attention to Sam from the other guys because he knew they needed to get this done. Sam wouldn't get checked out until Hannah was safe.

"Yeah." Sam nodded, but his eyes lost contact with Ed's and shifted slightly to the side. That small action was the reason Ed knew he was lying. He glanced at Wordy and Spike and gave them a look. They had also seen Sam's reaction and nodded at Ed to let him know they were watching Sam too.

Ed spoke back into the radio, "Alright. One… Two… Three!" Both the front door and back door burst open, Team One spilling into the small ranch house yelling "Police! SRU!" They searched the whole house and didn't find anything.

They converged back in the living room. "Where could they be?" Spike wondered aloud.

"That's what we need to find out Spike. We need to search the rest of this property. I'd say let's check the barn first." Ed said, and got various nods and confirmations from his teammates.

Sam spoke up, and they all noticed his voice sounded more quiet and weaker than normal, "When you guys searched the house, did you check for a hidden room, or maybe hidden stairs to a basement?"

Everyone looked around at each other. "Not thoroughly. Let's do that before we go check out the barn behind the house." Greg said. As the team set off to search the house more thoroughly Ed pulled Sam aside. "Sam, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, Ed. I'm okay." Sam said firmly.

Ed angrily sighed and then growled through clenched teeth, "Braddock, I'll have you benched if you don't tell me what's wrong. I'm trying to look out for you. I know you want to save Hannah, but you can't do that if you're hurt—" his rant was cut off when Wordy called out, "I've got something!"

Ed continued staring at Sam, as Sam said, "just a little bit longer Ed. I just have to make it a little longer, we're about to find her, I can feel it."

Ed stayed quiet for a minute and then answered, "we can't take that risk. Tell me what's wrong."

"It's just my side is bothering me. The vest rubs where the stitches are."

"I'm getting Greg to call the medics, and as soon as they get here, you're getting checked out and doing what they say. No exceptions."

"But what if we haven't found her—"

"That's an order, Sam. I know how desperate you are to find her, but I can't have you taking unacceptable risks. We will do everything we can to find her, whether the medics want to take you or not. We will bring her home to you if we don't find her before the ambulance gets here. Hannah needs you to take care of yourself. You can't be there for her if you aren't okay."

"Yes, sir." Sam said and turned to head towards the rest of his team, Ed close on his heels.

Wordy had found a false bookcase that led to a set of stairs. As the team gathered around, Ed whispered to Greg, "call Winnie and tell her to send the medics. Sam needs to get checked out." Greg looked at him curiously, and Ed knew he was wondering how Ed got information out of Sam. "He didn't tell me, it's an order." Greg nodded and pulled out his phone to make the call.

After Greg called, and was told by Winnie that the soonest an ambulance could be out there was no sooner than an hour later, they drew their weapons and announced their presence down into the basement. "Police! SRU!" They got no answer, so they headed down the stairs.

The basement was very dimly lit and musty. As they all got to the bottom of the stairs, they spilled into a hallway with two doors on each side of the hallway. All four doors were closed. They started with the first door on the left. One team member covered each of the other doors, while everyone else cleared the first room.

Ed picked the lock of the padlock on the first door, and Sam took a deep breath as Wordy kicked in the door. Sam looked around his teammates and saw that the room was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief. They moved on to the second door and did the same thing.

Same result, empty. And the third was empty as well. After clearing each room, Sam wasn't sure whether he should be relieved that they didn't find her in bad shape, or more anxious that they hadn't found her yet. They moved on to the fourth room and Sam's stomach was in knots.

Wordy kicked in the door and this room wasn't empty. It was a bigger room, and in it they found a bulletin board full of pictures of each of them and their families. They also found a desk with a bunch of computer equipment, and head phones, they figured this was where McCarthy had been watching them from.

The team started searching the room, and Ed walked around the desk to see if there was anything that would tell them where he might've taken Hannah. He was caught off guard when he saw a blinking red light under the desk and upon further inspection he hollered to his team, "BOMB! 30 seconds! Everyone out!"

They didn't waste any time as they all ran for the door and up the stairs. They were still running from the house when they heard the explosion, and they felt the heat at their backs, as the blast caused them to surge forward and knocked them off of their feet.

Spike was the first to regain composure, and he carefully check over himself to make sure he wasn't injured. Other than the ringing in his ears, he seemed okay. He carefully got up and was relieved to see each of his teammates slowly getting up. "You guys okay?" He asked.

After a minute, he got affirmations from each of them, and they were all relieved that everyone was alright other than bumps and bruises. They all turned their attention to Sam. "Sam?" Wordy questioned. Sam had said he was okay, but they were all worried.

"I'm alright, guys." Sam insisted. He said he was okay, but he wasn't fully telling them the truth. His side was throbbing, he felt like he was burning up, his breathing felt shallow, and his heart was pounding. He was exhausted, and as much as he wanted to tell them what was wrong, he had to find Hannah. Any clues they might've had to tell them where she might be were just blown up with the house. They only had one place left on this property to search, he had to at least do that.

At Sam's insistence, Team One drew their weapons and headed towards the barn behind the house. They heard a gunshot and Wordy felt a bullet whiz by his ear. "Shots fired from the barn!" He yelled. The team scattered and took cover behind trees, and various junk that littered the yard.

After getting to safety, they each called out, "no harm."

Whoever was in the barn was still shooting at them as Jules found a perch and took position as Sierra One. The first signs of daylight were peaking over the horizon, but the light wasn't enough to show the Team anywhere a shooter could be. They also couldn't blindly shoot into the barn because they still didn't know where Hannah was.

Jules looked through her night vision binoculars and called out to the team, "looks like two shooters. One coming from behind the hay stacked on the side of the barn, and one coming from inside the left window. Both are males. Don't see anyone else." She lined up her shot with the man behind the hay and said "I've got the solution."

Greg said, "hold your fire, Jules." Then he tried yelling over the gunfire, "Police! SRU! Stop shooting!" The shots continued and Greg didn't have any choice but to give the command, "Scorpio."

One gunshot later, and it was silent. Spike and Wordy quietly and quickly went to the side of the barn and Wordy called into the radio, "subject neutralized. Jules, any sight on the second shooter?"

"Negative—" she paused and then said, "hold on, someone is coming out of the barn and it looks like they're holding someone or something in front of them."

The sun was now starting to fill the land with light, so each team member could see when Aaron McCarthy walked out of the barn, holding Hannah in front of him with a gun to her head.

Sam, Ed and Leah changed positions to cover Greg, as Greg quietly spoke into his radio, "Wordy and Spike, go around and see if there is a back entrance to the barn and if you can catch him off guard. Jules, status?"

"No solution. He's using her as a shield."

Sam's heart broke when he saw the helpless look in Hannah's eyes. She had tear stains down her cheeks and a pleading look in her eyes.

"Aaron, do you want to talk?"

"No! My life is ruined!" He pointed the gun towards Sam, "all because you stole my wife! You aren't getting away with this!"

Ed quickly moved to cover Sam, as it was obvious McCarthy was very angry with him.

"Aaron, talk to me. Sam didn't know Hannah was your wife." Greg tried.

"Her name is Paige!"

Greg cursed at himself for not remembering that. "Aaron, you don't want anyone to get hurt. Put the gun down and we can talk some more."

Spike spoke softly into the radio. "There's another deceased male in the barn. Gunshot wound to the head."

Wordy followed that with, "I'm in position. I've got the solution, boss."

"My wife and that stupid boyfriend of hers don't deserve to live!" McCarthy said, wildly waving his gun around. "I intend to get revenge tonight, I don't care who's in my way." He said and swung the gun towards Ed who was standing in front of Sam.

"Scorpio!" Greg said.

Two consecutive gunshots rang out. McCarthy dropped to the ground and Hannah pulled away from him and fell to the ground, sobbing.

Spike checked for a pulse, then called out "subject neutralized," before rushing over to Hannah and helping her up.

Sam yelled, "officer down! Ed's hit!"

"I'm okay. Vest." Ed said. After Ed caught his breath, Sam and Greg helped him stand up.

Sam looked over to where his best friend was guiding his girlfriend towards them. He smiled at her, but as he took a step forward he faltered, feeing nauseous. His next step was even worse as he caught his foot on a uneven piece of ground— he didn't even attempt to break his fall. Sam was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Please review and let me know if you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

Brownie points to anyone who knows or can guess what might be wrong with Sam! :O