The house was eerily quiet as he and Derek began to clear the rooms, though Dave could hear the others trying to creep as quietly as they could. Finding the door that led to the basement, Dave looked at Derek, giving him a tight nod as he placed his hand on the doorknob, opening it slowly while Derek kept his gun trained on the door as it opened. Finding no one at the top of the stairs, he led the way down, Derek covering his six as they slowly made their way to the basement.

Once they reached the floor, Dave knew that this was definitely the place that Curtis had taken Alex, since it was more kept up and looked like a veritable dungeon. A noise caught his attention, and he glanced over at Derek, seeing that he had heard the noise as well. Together, they went towards the sound, and then he found himself looking in horror at Alex. She was bound to a chair, and it looked like there were explosives hooked up to her. Feeling sick to his stomach, he lowered his gun as he made his way over to her.

Reaching out to touch her leg, he was surprised to see her lift her head in obvious fear, her mouth gagged with a cloth. "We're here to rescue you, Alex. Here, let me get rid of this gag. Derek, keep an eye out."

"Of course, Dave." They both smiled at Alex before Dave made his way around to the back of her, brushing her ponytail out of the way so that he could untie the gag, pulling it off as gently as he could. "How are you feeling, Blake?"

"Sore, and out of it. He drugged me, but not with MDMA. He wanted me alive. How did you manage to find me so quickly?"

"Penelope worked her magic and traced the signal here. There are a bunch of people upstairs, searching for Curtis. How are you hooked up to the explosives?"

She shook her head. "I'm not. I'm just seated atop a throne of fire, or so he called it. I think that he just wanted me to know that even though I could maybe free myself, the likelihood of that happening was extremely small. How, how's Erin? John took great pleasure in informing me that he had managed to give her his version of MDMA before he escaped the room. He called you pathetic, since you wouldn't take the shot."

"I should have, but if I had caused more pain to Erin by doing so, I would never have been able to live with myself. But we got her to the hospital in time, and when I left, it was more than likely that she would pull through. Now, we just need to free you, and maybe we can see about getting you in the same room to recover." He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her cheek before starting to make work of the knots on the ropes that bound her to the chair.

It didn't take him long to free Alex, and then he was allowing Derek to help guide her over to the stairs, and Dave made certain that he had his gun in his hand, since there was something a little too easy about the rescue. After all, Curtis hadn't ever been sloppy, and this was definitely a sloppy move on his part. His ear picked up a faint noise, and he whirled around to see that the man in question was skulking out of the shadows of the basement, a maniacal look on his face.

"I see that it didn't take you that long to find me. You're all here, except for Erin and that sweet little analyst that you call Kitten. It's a shame, really, that you rescued Erin, only to leave her, for all intents and purposes, a widow. How is she going to live with that, Rossi? And what if Helena needs another part of your liver, and you're not there to give it to her? That will devastate Erin, too. But I suppose that it is good that she suffer. She should, after what she did to Blake and me. Perhaps she'll take up drinking again, and just completely derail her life once more. It's just a shame that we won't be around to watch that downfall."

"You're not planning on making it out?"

"I'm down here with the explosive, Dave. I highly doubt that God will grant me wings in the last moments of my life. It's just a shame that I won't be able to see Erin's face when she realizes how much she's lost."
Curtis pulled a device of some sort from his pocket and before he could press the button there, Dave shot him three time, right in the chest. He looked at Dave in shock, as if he couldn't believe that he would actually carry through with shooting him in that moment, and he shrugged. "I hesitated when Erin was in danger. I'm not about to allow you to try and destroy all of us. Rot in hell, you fucking bastard."

Going over to Curtis's side, he plucked the device from his hand, watching the light fade from his eyes as he heard a good number of feet pound down the stairs towards him. "Is everything all right down here?" Aaron asked as he looked at him.

"It will be now. He was going to set off the explosives and kill us all, in order to inflict the most pain on Erin that he could. I made certain that he couldn't do that. Here, this is my service weapon, we'll go through the protocol after I make certain that Erin is all right."

Aaron nodded as he accepted the weapon, turning on the safety as Dave turned and made his way up the stairs and out into the yard. The paramedics were just loading Alex into the back of an ambulance, and he jogged over, showing his badge to the woman. "I need to ride along, and we're heading to New Amsterdam. One of our colleagues is already there, and it will be easier for us if everyone is in one place."

"Of course, sir. Do you want to ride in the back?" He nodded and climbed into the ambulance, giving Alex a wide smile as he took a seat at her side, reaching out for her hand before pulling his phone from his pocket and calling Penelope.

"Did you find Alex?!" were the first words out of her mouth, and he chuckled a little. "I take it that's a good sign. Are you coming back here to the hospital?"

"Yes, that is the plan. And before you ask, Curtis has been permanently neutralized, and there is no possible way he can hurt us any longer."

"Thank God for that. Erin's been moved to a private room, and while she's not quite awake right now, I think that she will be by the time you get here. Do you have a pen handy?"

"One second." He let go of Alex's hand to grab his pen from his shirt pocket, pressing his phone against his ear with his shoulder. "Go ahead."

"We're in room 7683. I'll talk to Doctor Max, and have the porters make room for Alex's bed here with Erin. They deserve to be together."

"We are on the same wavelength there, Kitten. We'll see you soon." He hung up without saying goodbye before looking at the paramedic who was taking Alex's vitals. "We're going to be heading to room 7683 when we arrive at the hospital, it's already been arranged, especially since it appears that Alex won't need much more than observation?"

"That remains to be seen, but we will take her to the room specified, sir."

Alex laughed before groaning. "Don't make me laugh, David. That makes everything hurt. He must have dragged me down the stairs while I was knocked out." He nodded and took hold of Alex's hand once more, hoping that they arrived soon. He was getting anxious to see his partner and find out how she was truly doing.