Mac opened his eyes to see Scotty leaning over him and Wes too. "Don't give up!" Scotty said. "The ambulance is coming!"

Wes was putting pressure on the wound. "He's bleeding bad," he said.

Mac looked at Scotty. "Tell…them what I found," he whispered. "Tell them about…that guy. He had two with him, both male."

"I'll tell them," Scotty assured him. "Just hold on."

Mac moaned as he felt pain but he heard sirens. He knew he had found the right person now at least, and there were other witnesses who knew who he was. Even if he died they could still find the guy. He stared at the ceiling feeling like he was not in his body.

Soon, the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over caring for Mac. Don Flack was there as well. "Mac!" he exclaimed but Mac was not responding. Don looked at Scotty. "What happened?"

"He was in here looking for a suspect," Scotty replied. "The guy arrived and he followed him outside. When he came back in he was stabbed."

"Can you describe the guy?"

"Sure I can. Wes there can too."

"Good," Don said. "Anyone see what happened?"

"He was coming over to the table to talk to the guy I guess," Wes said. "When he saw Detective Taylor, he headed for the exit and Detective Taylor followed him."

"I came back here to check on him," Scotty said. "I saw him coming in the door and he said 'help me' and fell down."

Don frowned. "Did he say anything?" he asked.

"He said to tell you that that guy who was in here was the one who did it. He stabbed him and he was the one who killed those people over the treasure."

"You guys have to come down town to give your statements and to give a description." Don watched as Mac was loaded onto the stretcher. He leaned over Mac. "We'll get him, Mac."

"We have to get moving with him," one of the paramedics said.

Mac was carried out to the ambulance and they got on their way to the hospital. Don wished he was going with Mac but he had to get the witnesses back to the precinct so they could give their statements. He took the witnesses out to the car and called Danny as he was getting in.

"Hello," Danny answered sleepily. He had gone home to get some sleep himself.

"Danny, wake up!" Don said. "Mac's been stabbed!"

Danny sat up. "What?"

"He was trying to get a suspect and he got stabbed! He's on his way to the hospital now! I have two witnesses here that I have to get back to the precinct to get their statements and their descriptions."

"I'll get on my way to the hospital. I'll inform Jo."

"Good!"

Don got to the precinct as quickly as he could. He got the two witnesses into the interrogation room so that they could write their statements. "I want you to just write down what you told me before," Don said to Scotty. "Write your name and address, phone number."

Scotty nodded and looked at Don. "I hope he will be okay," he said. "He's a good guy."

"I know."

Don went down to the other room where Wes was and told him the same thing he told Scotty. "I don't know that detective very well," Wes said. "We had a game of pool and I even beat him." He frowned. "I hope he's alright."

Don frowned. "Just write your statement," he said and went out to his desk. He got his phone and called Danny. "Are you at the hospital yet?"

"Not yet," Danny replied. "I'm almost there."

"I've got the witnesses here and they're writing down their statements. Next they will give us a description."

"Good. I just hope we can find those guys. They had to be working for one of our suspects."

"Yeah. These guys said that the guy bragged about getting that treasure for some rich guy. He didn't tell the name though."

"Well, we'll find him. We haven't visited John Gordon yet."

"I'll go with you to do that."

"Let me know when you find out how Mac is," Don said.

"I will," Danny replied. He ended the call and finally arrived at the hospital. He went inside and to the emergency area although he was sure Mac had not stopped there long. He went up to the desk and showed them his badge. "Where is Mac Taylor?"

"He was taken into emergency surgery," the woman answered.

"Where can I wait?"

The woman told him where to wait so Danny went down the hall and found the waiting area. He paced back and forth wishing he could know how Mac was. He wanted to find those guys who did this but he wanted to know how Mac was first and he did not want him there alone.

Jo soon arrived at the hospital and found her way to where Danny was. "What is going on?" she asked.

"Mac went to that bar looking for his suspect and the guy got the jump on him and stabbed him."

"He went without telling anyone?"

"I don't think he was on duty."

"And he went to a bar?"

"Yeah, it was at the Green Tree."

"I've never been there."

"I haven't been there many times. I guess it's Mac's hang out."

Jo sighed. "Did they say anything about how he is?" she asked.

"Nothing yet. As I understand it, he was bleeding pretty badly."

"And he was stabbed?"

Danny nodded. "I don't know any details but Lindsay, Sheldon and Adam are at the scene." He paced back and forth again. "I just wish I knew something. He found the guys who committed those murders, and he almost got himself killed in the process."

"Oh, I thought he was going home."

"So did I."

"I was busy getting all that treasure in place. I just assumed that he was going to get some sleep. As a matter of fact, I believe that's what he said he was going to do."

Danny shook his head. "He should have let us know what he was doing. He should have taken somebody with him for backup."

"Maybe he found something he didn't expect to find. Maybe he was just going there looking for information and actually found the suspects."

"That could be, but it turned out badly. The bartender told us all he knew. He didn't see the stabbing. Mac had followed the suspect outside and apparently the stabbing took place out there in the alley. Mac came back in with a stab wound."

"I'm glad he could get back in."

Danny had not even thought about what if Mac could not have gotten back in. He might not have survived, but what-if's did not matter. He was just glad Mac had a chance of surviving. He wished they would tell them something.

Don Flack was trying to find a lead to the suspects that Mac had met up with. He did not even know where to start looking. The witnesses had given their statements and they had given a description. He had to find someone who knew these characters and maybe they could help them find them. He had already put a sketch of what the guy from the bar looked like. It was now all over the city and on every news channel. Reporters were eager to know about the treasure and what was going on now. It would take time for them to find them. Don just hoped someone would see the guy and call it in.

Lindsay, Sheldon and Adam were investigating the scene of the crime. "Wes said the suspect came to the pool tables but he didn't pick up a cue before Mac came back into the room," Lindsay said. "He must have seen Mac and knew he was after him."

"And Mac followed him outside," Adam said. "I dusted that knob for prints, and there were a lot of them."

"All it takes is one," Sheldon said. "Just one match that fits the description of the man the witnesses described."

"I just hope we get one," Lindsay replied. "He bought a drink and I collected the glasses from the bar there beside the pool tables. Hopefully we will get some good prints from them."

Lindsey and Adam went outside in the alley where the stabbing took place. They easily found where Mac had bled. "Mac must have fought," Lindsay declared. "I mean, no one is going to take Mac Taylor down easily."

"And that means there could be blood from someone else out here," Adam agreed.

Lindsay stared around them. "I just don't see how he got the best of Mac out here," she said.

"Maybe he had help."

"There was no one else in the bar with him that the witnesses saw, and no one else came out except him and Mac."

"They must have come out another door or something."

They got all the evidence they could find but they did not find the knife that was used to stab Mac. "It's funny they stabbed Mac after they shot all those other people," Lindsay pointed out. "Usually a criminal has a favorite weapon."

"Maybe he didn't want to make a lot of noise out here with so many people around," Adam said.

"That could be right."

When they were done with the crime scene, they went back to the lab, hoping that they would find something that would lead to someone. The men they were looking for were dangerous and needed to be found. "I just can't believe these rich men would hire someone like this to get those treasures for them," Sheldon said. "I mean, these people are dangerous. They could have killed them too to keep them from knowing who they are."

"But they didn't want anyone to know that they were associated with them," Lindsay replied. "They would have never told it and they know it."

"It's just a complicated case no matter how you look at it."

"That's true."

Adam got busy with the fingerprints to see if they could get a hit and maybe it would give them a name. Lindsey had taken blood samples from the alley where Mac was stabbed. She got busy on those while Sheldon was taking fingerprints from the glasses that were in the bar. In the back of their minds, they were concerned about Mac but they knew they had to get the evidence processed before valuable parts of it were ruined or could not be found anymore.

Danny and Jo were waiting impatiently in the waiting room. Jo was pacing back and forth. Danny had finally sat down but he had sat down several times and found it hard to stay seated. He got up and joined Jo in pacing and they circled the room on opposite sides. "Why is it taking so long for them to tell us anything?" Jo asked.

"It was pretty serious," Danny answered.

Jo did not want to hear that. She wanted to know how Mac was doing. She hated waiting for news like this. It was nerve racking and just too much tension but they had no choice but to wait. She thought it was sad that Mac had no one else around but them. He had no family in New York. She had never even heard if he had any family at all. He never mentioned anything like that. Jo supposed after a person got so old, they just had their own life and lost touch…or some people. She was certainly not like that. She thought Mac just kept all that too himself.

After another hour, a doctor came into the waiting area. "Family and friends of Mac Taylor," he said.

Jo and Danny hurried over to him. "How is he?" Jo asked.

"We have him stabilized for now," the doctor said. "He lost a lot of blood. The knife blade had been twisted and then jerked out from the appearance of the wound. It nicked a vein but we got that stopped in time. It also nicked his intestine. He's got a lot of healing to do."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"If he stays stable. We had to shock him a few times. We thought we were going to lose him a couple of times but we finally got him stabilized."

Jo was horrified at that statement. "When can we see him?" she asked.

"Not now. I don't know when. That's all I can tell you."

The doctor turned and left. Jo looked at Danny. "Is that all we can hear?" she asked. "We can't even see him?"

"He'll make it," Danny said.

"Why do people have to be alone when they're like this? Does everyone have to suffer and die alone?"

Danny looked at Jo. "He's not going to die!" he said.

Jo covered her face. "But it's always this way. When someone is in critical condition, they have to be alone."

Danny knew Jo was just upset, but he had thought of that too. He wished he could see Mac too. He could not imagine going to that lab every day and not seeing Mac. He just had to get well…