I AM STRONGER WHEN SURROUNDED BY THOSE WHO I LOVE
Malcolm's arms, burdened with the weight of the chains confining them, were wrapped around Dani, as he held her to him. They hadn't moved an inch since they'd finished. Dani nestled her head on his collarbone refusing to leave the sanctuary of the moment they had just shared. He placed a long kiss on her forehead, reluctantly becoming more and more aware of Nathan's eyes on them. Something was wrong. Malcolm could see him out of the corner of his eye; he was agitated. It took every ounce of willpower he had to unwrap his arms and force Dani back to reality as well, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen with Nathan. For that, they would need pants.
When he loosened his arms, she looked up at him. He swept the hair out of her face and held her head in his hand, his thumb brushing her cheek. Dani leaned into his hand, and Malcolm returned the gesture with an affiliative smile.
"Well, that was… interesting." Nathan's tone was factual, annoyed even, nothing like it had been after the first time Malcolm and Dani were together. Dani noticed the shift too, stood, and dressed.
Malcolm did the same, as he tried to figure out the source of Nathan's discontent.
He responded as though he had heard Malcolm's thoughts. "Malcolm, you and I both know consent isn't exactly my thing. Yet there you both were, enjoying the hell out of each other."
Malcolm glanced at Dani. Both looked away quickly when their eyes met, neither of them ready to unpack the implications of what had just happened between them.
He didn't get off watching us. He's frustrated. A sexually frustrated sadistic serial killer… This is bad.
"And now I find myself in need of a release," Nathan continued.
This is VERY bad.
Nathan snatched Dani by the arm and pushed her roughly in the direction of her chains. Malcolm jumped immediately to his knees afraid of what Nathan had in mind. Relief washed over him as he watched Nathan re-cuff Dani and walk away from her, toward the door. He exited the room slamming it behind him.
Once he had left, Dani leaned as close to Malcolm as she could, "What's going on?"
"He's angry because he couldn't… finish while watching us. We didn't exactly adhere to his preferences." Again, at the mention of their interaction, each of them broke eye contact.
"So does that mean he's coming back in here looking for something sexual or something sadistic? Or both?"
"I have no idea."
A short time later, they got their answer. Nathan returned with a plastic bag in his hand, it's contents too small to identify, and sat it on the table. From the covered shelf beneath the table he pulled two sets of leather medical restraints, and he set to work wrapping the appropriate portions around the table and securing them. When he'd finished, he unchained Malcolm and extended his arm, "After you." Malcolm stopped at the side of the table, awaiting instructions. As he did, he took note of the plastic bag's cargo: fishing line and a curved needle.
Oh good. I'm going to need stitches.
"Shirt," Nathan commanded. Malcolm instinctively reached to unbutton his shirt, having completely forgotten it had been undone since Dani revived him earlier. He shrugged it off and onto the floor, and got on the table. Once he lay back, he placed his wrists in the restraints and Nathan secured them. Then, Nathan continued to the large belt at Malcolm's knees; he tightened it as well.
Knees, not ankles. That has to be significant.
"How does that feel?" Nathan asked his voice dripping with faux concern.
Malcolm couldn't resist, "I literally sleep in these on a nightly basis. If you're trying to intimidate me, providing all the comforts of home isn't the first place I'd start."
Nathan's smirk fell, "Noted." He crossed to the other side of the room and released Dani, leading her back to Malcolm. Nathan stood at the head of the table, with Dani at the side, and indicated that she should scoot closer. Once she had, Nathan pulled his knife out of his pocket and opened it dramatically. To Dani's surprise, he flipped the the blade in his hand and extended the handle toward her. Her stomach dropped, as she took the weapon from him.
Malcolm surveyed the knife for a moment, then Dani, then turned his gaze to the ceiling above him. You can handle this. You've been stabbed before. They're going to stitch you up. As long as they miss vital organs, you're fine. It's just pain. It's just pain. He wasn't sure how much of his own pep talk he was buying, but it occupied his mind at least.
Dani stared at the blade in her trembling hand, as Nathan pulled a second knife from his pocket and opened it before breaking the silence. "In case you're thinking about using that on me," he brought his knife down and lightly touched Malcolm's throat. "Let's start off simple. Cut him."
Dani didn't look at Nathan as she asked, "Where?" She was focused on Malcolm's reaction to their captor's response.
"Dealer's choice," Nathan replied.
Malcolm continued to study the open ceiling, the knots in each piece of wood, the cobwebs as they moved slightly with the air. He saw Dani move out of the corner of his eye, she'd chosen the top of his left arm, just below the deltoid. She pressed on the knife until it broke the skin and immediately stopped. Nathan tilted his head and glared at her, irritated. "This is the only time I'm going to tell you this. More."
Dani lowered her head in defeat, put the knife back on the open cut, and continued the motion. Malcolm inhaled loudly and deeply, but remained otherwise quiet. Blood seeped out of the incision in little trails that dripped down the back of Malcolm's arm and onto the table.
"Not bad. We can do better than that I think," Nathan coached. "Again, his side this time."
Dani tried to avoid the rib cage and picked a spot at Malcolm's waist. She put her left hand on his chest both to steady herself and to try and comfort him. When the knife dug into his side, Malcolm's stomach immediately tensed. He knew that wasn't the smartest thing to do while she was still cutting, but the reaction wasn't exactly voluntary.
Dani started to lift the blade away and Nathan cleared his throat angrily. She continued to move the edge diagonally from his waist and began moving across his abdominal muscles. Again Malcolm tensed his muscles rigid. He grimaced and exhaled forcefully.
It's just pain. It's just pain.
Dani pulled the knife away from Malcolm's stomach, half afraid Nathan would argue. The wound on Malcom's waist and stomach was deeper than the one on his arm. Blood had started to pool on his abs. Nathan was entranced as he watched the wound bleed. Each time Malcolm took a breath the blood would spill down his side onto the table.
Malcolm closed his eyes and breathed slowly.
"How does that feel?" Nathan repeated, sarcastically.
Malcolm opened his eyes and looked at him. "It's great. Thank you," he countered.
Nathan laughed and patted him on the chest appreciatively. "It's good you're in such high spirits, Malcolm." He turned to Dani, the laughter instantly vanishing from his face, "Stab him."
"What?" She gasped.
"Take the knife in your hand, and stab him with it."
"If I hit the wrong spot he could die."
"Then don't hit the wrong spot."
Dani looked to Malcolm, her eyes searching for guidance. He slowly closed his own once again.
God damn it.
"Malcolm?" Her voice sounded like a little lost child.
He opened his eyes and paused for a second, outraged at the fact that he was going to have to choose the location of his own stab wound. "AaaaaAHHH!" Both Dani and Nathan jumped and his frustrated yell.
Nathan recovered quickly. "You have 5 seconds before I stab him myself," he threatened. "Five… Four…"
"Malcolm, where?" Dani begged.
Fuck. He tried to think of the location least likely to hit an organ.
"Three..." Nathan adjusted the knife in his hands, ready to strike.
"Malcolm?!"
"Lower left abdomen, away from center, below navel line." Malcolm was taking quick, deep breaths in preparation, as Dani found the spot with the knife.
"Two…"
"JUST DO IT, DANI!" Malcolm screamed.
"One…"
Dani plunged the blade into the spot he had chosen. Just like they had when he was shocked, Malcolm's eyes shot open. This time his scream was anything but soundless. Malcolm wailed as he pulled at his restraints with every ounce of strength he had. Then he laid his head back and tried to breath his way through the pain.
Dani knew that you were supposed to leave the knife in place, if you were seeking medical attention. They did not have that luxury. There was already a significant amount of blood exiting the wound with the knife still inside. "Malcolm! Knife out or in?" she asked.
Malcolm's grunted response was directed toward Nathan, "That baggie for me?"
Nathan nodded, enthralled with the scene playing out before him.
"Out, Dani," he groaned.
Dani wrapped her hand around the knife, "Do you want me to count?"
"No, thank you. Please, just get it out!"
She pulled the blade out in one swift motion and dropped it on the table next to Malcolm, immediately regretting their decision. They had nothing prepared to stop the bleeding as it proceeded to pour out of his torso. Dani panicked and pressed both of her hands on the wound to try and stop the outpour.
"My shirt!" Malcolm reminded her. Dani ran to retrieve it, as Nathan stood there staring at Malcolm, relishing in the pain and the chaos.
When Dani turned to rush back to the other side of the table, she was stopped dead in her tracks by the single greatest sound she had ever heard: A thunderous knock on the basement door, followed by Gil's voice yelling "NYPD. OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!"
Malcolm whipped his head around in the direction of the door, his wound still hemorrhaging considerably. They found us.
"GIL!" Dani screamed as she resumed her mission back to Malcolm. She had almost reached him when she was violently jerked backward, the shirt in her hand falling to the floor. Nathan pulled her around in front of him and put his knife to her neck, the table less than a foot from them. Malcolm lay there helpless as his blood continued to cascade down his side.
Nathan yelled in the direction of the still-closed door, "It's open! But if you step foot in this room I'm slitting your girl's throat right here. Your call." Dani jerked in an attempt to free herself, "Ah, ah, ah. Don't move." Nathan responded, pressing the knife harder, drawing a fine line of blood.
"Dani, you okay?!" J.T. screamed.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Gil responded next, "Where's Bright?"
Dani turned her head to look at him, the pool of blood on the table beneath him was now dripping onto the floor. Malcolm was fading, but still conscious. "He's here. He's lost a lot of blood. We need a medic!"
"Shut up!" Nathan warned her tightening his grip on her arm.
"Nathan this doesn't have to end like this," Gil began.
Dani slowly reached her hand back toward the table.
"Save it, cop. You know what I've done. I know what I've done. Let's not sugar coat the scenario here." Nathan returned.
She couldn't quite reach. She again jerked her body as though she was trying to escape his grip, pushing the two of them closer to the table.
Gil continued, "What do we need to do to keep this from ending in more bloodshed?" He negotiated through the door.
Dani again inched her hand back toward the table painstakingly slow, so as to not alert Nathan. She found Malcolm's restraint and gingerly opened the cuff. Then, she softly tapped the table with her finger twice and prayed with everything inside her that Malcolm understood her message.
"You know. I'm actually quite fond of bloodshed. At this point taking down two cops on my way out would be the ultimate finale to one hell of a ride." Nathan replied to Gil.
Malcolm's liberated hand found the knife laying beside him on the table and gripped it tightly.
"We're not going to let you do that, Nathan. Don't make this any harder on yourself," Gill responded.
Dani threw her head backward into Nathan's, the force of the blow sending him stumbling into the table. When he got there, Malcolm raised himself half up, his right arm still restrained, and brought the knife down between Nathan's collarbone and the top of his shoulder. Nathan's body went limp and slid to the ground.
Malcolm, too, slumped backward uncontrollably, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.
"CLEAR! GIL GET IN HERE!" Dani shouted, as she ran to Malcolm.
Gil, J.T., and the team burst into the room, medics rushing in behind them.
"Malcolm? Malcolm?" Dani urged as he fell in and out of consciousness.
Everything sounded like it was under water. Dani? Where's Dani? Malcolm mumbled her name multiple times before it came out coherently, "Dani?"
"I'm here. It's okay. Medics are here. We did it, Malcolm. We survived."
Malcolm huffed once and smiled, then his eyes rolled again and his head fell back on the table.