PART 8:

Jackson and Franklin walked into the house with Goodwin following them in a rage.

"How could you be so stupid?!" Goodwin yelled. "You were supposed to watch him. What the hell were you doing back there?"

"Hey man," Franklin said angrily. "You doped him up for this ride. I thought he was out."

"Well you thought wrong," Goodwin said. He began to pace back and forth. "Now the police have him."

"They probably took him to the hospital," Jackson said. "That's where we'll find him."

"Oh sure," Goodwin said sarcastically. "We'll just call up all the hospitals in Los Angeles and ask if Lieutenant Sloan is there and let them know that we want to come down and finish the job that we started." Feeling a headache coming on, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, they aren't going to take him to the hospital. They know we'll be out there looking for him."

"Then where did they take him?" Jackson asked.

"Probably a safe house," Goodwin answered.

"Well, what are we going to do then?"

"First thing first. I have to get Torres out of jail. Then I have to tell him that you screwed up and that Sloan got away." He walked away from them.

Jesse sat in his car, looking through the rearview mirror for any signs of Mark pulling up behind him. He called him earlier and told him to meet him and Cheryl at this address, but Mark didn't tell him why he wanted to meet here.

He looked around. The house was the only one near the beach. What the hell is he up to? he thought.

Stealing one more glance in the rearview mirror he saw Cheryl coming up the driveway. He got out of his car. Walking toward the back, he stood by the trunk and waited for Mark to get out of the car.

Cheryl shut off the engine, and Mark looked back at Steve. He had passed out on the way to the house, his body lying across the back seat. He looked up and saw Jesse standing by his car. Getting out of the car, he walked over to him.

"You want to tell me what this is all about?" Jesse asked.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't explain anything over the phone to you, but we found Steve."

"You brought me out here to tell me this?" Jesse asked. "Where is he? Is he in this house?"

"No, he's in the car."

Jesse looked at the car. "Where?"

"He's passed out on the back seat. I need your help getting him inside the house."

"Okay."

They walked over to the car.

"Where's Amanda?" Mark asked.

"She getting all the stuff you asked for together," Jesse answered. "She should be here soon."

"Good," Mark said. He opened the back door of the car, giving Jesse his first look at Steve.

"Jesus Christ," he said. "What the hell?"

"I'll explain everything to you once we get him into the house."

Jesse reached into the car to grab hold of Steve. Seeing Steve wake up, Jesse smiled at him. "Come on, Steve, let's get you into the house." Before he could do anything else Steve started to hit and kick at him, flailing wildly. Jesse backed out of the car, and Steve moved over to the other side of the back seat to get away from him.

"What's wrong with him?" Jesse asked.

Mark ignored the question and looked into the car to see Steve with his knees up to his chest, his head buried in his arms.

"Steve," he said to him gently. "Look at me, Steve."

Steve didn't look up.

"Steven, I said look at me."

Steve slowly raised his head and looked at Mark. He wiped his runny nose on his sleeve, tears filled his eyes, and his body was trembling.

Steve reached for Mark's hand; grabbing hold, he started moving toward the open door. Mark helped him out of the car. Jesse moved to the other side and grabbed Steve's other arm. Side by side, they led him toward the house.

Once at the door, Cheryl took a key from its hiding place above the ledge of the door, unlocking it and pushing it open. They led Steve into the house and toward one of the back bedrooms.

Turning on the light, Mark and Jesse helped Steve over to the bed.

"I want to talk with you out there," Jesse said, pointing toward the door and walking out.

Mark turned to follow, but Steve grabbed his hand.

"Don't…don't leave me…me, dad," he begged him in a shaky voice.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he took a hold of his hand. "I'll be right outside the door, Steve. I'm not going anywhere."

"No…no…don't go," Steve said, eyes opened wide with fear. "They…they want to…to kill me. Please…please don't…don't go."

"You're safe now, Steve. No one is going to hurt you again."

Steve's eyes began to close. "They…they're after…after me, dad," he said in a low voice. "They… they want to…to kill me."

Mark continued to hold Steve's hand and watched him fall asleep. Once he was asleep, he let go of his hand and brushed a strand of hair away from his forehead. Standing up from the bed, he leaned over and gave his son a kiss on the forehead.

"No one is going to harm you," he whispered. "I promise you that, Steve. They won't get their hands on you again."

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Leaning against the door, he wiped away his tears before joining Jesse and Cheryl in the other room.

Walking into the other room, he saw Jesse pacing back and forth.

"Okay, you going to tell me what's going on here?" Jesse asked. "Where did you find him? And what the hell happened to him?"

"You saw the needle marks in his arm. You figure it out."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"Got a call that a patrol car spotted Steve downtown," he began to explain. "He was heading into an alleyway like someone was chasing him, but the officers said they saw no one."

"They turned him into a junkie," Jesse said.

"You mean Torres turned him into a junkie," Mark replied.

"How can you be sure?"

"Torres deals in heroin and heroin only," Cheryl chimed in. "Those marks on Steve's arms have to be from needles that were filled with heroin."

"Mark, we need to get him to a hospital. Then we can find out what's in his system. It might not be heroin."

"No, no hospitals."

"Mark, it's the only way we're going to find out what they shot him up with."

"Look, Steve got away from these guys. They're going to be looking for him, and the hospital will be the first place they'll start looking."

"The police could put a guard outside his door," Jesse suggested. "Mark, we can treat Steve better at the hospital."

"The airport was crowded the day he disappeared. And they still got him. These are professionals we're dealing with. If they can get someone in a crowd airport without anyone seeing a thing, they can easily get to him in a hospital."

"That's why you have Amanda bringing all that stuff here," Jesse said. "What happens if Steve needs more then what we have here for him, Mark?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Mark replied. "Please Jesse; just try to understand why this has to be done this way."

"Does Captain Newman know about this?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, he knows."

"I'm behind you one hundred percent on this Mark," Jesse said. "But you have to promise me that if Steve needs to go to the hospital, you'll bring him there."

"I can't promise you that Jesse," Mark answered and walked away from his friend.

Mark continued to pace back and forth on the floor, while Cheryl sat in one of the chairs. Amanda had arrived ten minutes before and was now in the room with Jesse examining Steve. Mark stopped pacing and Cheryl looked up when they heard the front door unlock and then open. Captain Newman came walking into the house.

Cheryl got up and walked over to him.

"How's he doing?" he asked.

"He's in one of the back bedrooms. Doctor Bentley and Doctor Travis are in there examining him right now."

"How long have they been in there?"

"About ten minutes," Mark said.

They continued to wait. Mark was about to walk into the back when finally, Jesse and Amanda walked into the room.

"Okay, let's have it," Mark said. "How is he?"

"I took a sample from Steve so I can take it back to the lab with me and have a look at it," Amanda answered. "Looks like he was given heroin, but where it was just heroin and nothing mixed with it, I don't know. I should also be able to determine how much they were giving him, but I'm not sure."

"What about his physical injuries?" Newman asked.

"A lot of bruises, but nothing life threatening," Jesse answered.

"If this is heroin," Amanda said. "He's going to go through one hell of a withdrawal from it."

"What should we be looking for?" Cheryl asked.

"Nausea and vomiting, abdominal cramps, muscle spasms. He could go into irregular heartbeats. He'll have some weakness. A lot of aches and pains like he has the flu," Jesse answered.

"He'll probably sleep for awhile longer," Amanda said. "I'll get this to the lab and work on it right away and bring you back the results."

"Thanks, Amanda," Mark followed her to the door.

"Anytime, Mark."

"Call me as soon as you get the results."

"I will."

Amanda walked out the door, and Mark walked back over to the group.

"Okay," Newman said, "we have two days before Torres is released from jail. There is no way that Steve's going to be ready to testify in that amount of time."

"Don't worry," Cheryl said. "In two days we'll have enough proof against Torres to keep him and his lawyer behind bars for good."

"Can you guarantee that, Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, I can."