Sorry again for the long wait between chapters...i lost the confidence in my writing ability for a while when i failed a essay at university and it delayed me from qualifying as a nurse but i am happy to report that i have now passed my course...now i just need to find a job ! As the offer i had got withdrawn due the failed essay...Anyway on with the story !

Duplicity

Waking up the second time, if possible, was worse.

Every muscle and joint seemed to ache, his head was fuzzy and not a lot currently made sense to Matt.

Parts and fragments still crashing at train wrecking speeds, causing an almighty headache.

The dim room that seemed to be his unwanted home for the moment seemed colder than the last time he had awoken in it.

Though in all fairness, that could have also been down to the fact that he was now half sitting and half lying on the frozen stone floor from earlier. Shifting slightly, a stinging pain in his ankles and wrists reminded him of the body aching convulsions he barely remembered, that had led to layers of skin being ripped off to the point they were now red raw and seeping blood slowly.

That was when he noticed the other subtle changes from the last time.

He was alone, no open door to make him think he could escape, the dim light above swinging gently allowing some light to the room. No presence in the room this time either, no shadows to make him think someone was watching him. Just nothing.

He was completely alone

He would die alone with no answers.

That's what the point of this was now and he didn't understand.

All of a sudden that seemed worse than anything else that had been done to him so far.

Forcing away these thoughts he focused on the rest of his new predicament.

Heavy manacles had been secured to his already raw wrists, forcing his already tired arms above his head, making movement awkward and painful. The thick chain connected him to the damp wall, it seemed to have been knotted to make sure he couldn't move much.

Puffing out shaky breaths at the new details of this whole thing, he now knew for a fact that even though he had seen Hallie, it must have just been a hallucination; even if he had annoyed her, she wouldn't have been involved in this.

It just wasn't in her nature as a doctor.

Wincing at the added pressure the cold metal cuffs were putting on his torn wrists he decided that maybe standing up would be a better idea, and maybe it would get his blood flowing again to his cold limbs.

Taking a deep breath, he readied himself to stand, expecting that something was going to hurt almost made it better. Almost.

What he didn't ready himself for though, was the tilt-o-whirl impression that his vision did as he stood; sending him straight back down to the unforgiving floor, he'd forgotten about the previous blow to the head. The metal biting even more at his wrists and muscles stretching to almost beyond their limit. He was lucky that one or both of his shoulders hadn't dislocated with the force of his fall.

Once he got his body under control, he sighed. Getting out any time soon was looking slimmer by the minute in his condition.

Not being able to do anything physically right now was a problem and always had been, it left him thinking of all the things he'd done wrong up to now.

Maybe, he shouldn't have gone after Voight like he had, but then he kicked himself at the thought because it had been the right thing to do, even Hallie had known that.

Having decided that Hallie wasn't a part of this and that he was just mixing up his memories, he wasn't expecting what was to come next.

And that it would change everything he knew.

He pushed away the thoughts that were bombarding his brain; it wasn't going to help him right now. He needed to get out of here and probably sooner rather than later if the weakness he was feeling and the amount of his blood staining the floor was anything to go by. It wasn't that he's wrists and ankle were bleeding profusely but weeping wounds were deceptive.

Deep in thought, the door slamming into the wall startled Matt.

He'd been expecting Voight, or one of his cronies to appear at the door like they had sporadically in the last few days to rough him up a little more, just to make his life more miserable.

Who he did see however, turned his already nauseous stomach. He'd been so convinced that this wouldn't be the case, but then he already had a suspicion of the same thing. He'd just had the hope that he wouldn't be proven wrong. That he could still trust in people.

But it was Hallie that stood there, not tied up, not hurt, not that he wanted that for her but it meant that she was at least partly responsible for his current situation.

And even with her standing there he didn't really want to believe it.

Thoughts raced faster through his pounding head, making him dizzy.

"Hallie?"

The questions held in the tone too difficult for him to voice. The rung had well and truly been pulled from under him.

"Matt, i'm sorry, I..." She moved towards him but he moved away as much as he could, disbelief on his normally stoic face.

She had to look away from him, she knew how hard it was for him to trust anyone with as much as he had shared with her. She knew it would kill him but it also had to be done, she just hoped that he would understand it someday.

Matt looked at her closely, he could tell that she was sorry to some extent but it didn't override the betrayal he felt. Never would he have thought she would do something like this and especially with Voight, someone he had tried to protect her from and this is how she repaid him. Teaming up with someone that tried to harass them to the point they feared for their safety.

It didn't make any kind of sense. He noticed that she had come closer again and suddenly felt that he was too exposed.

"Don't." He didn't shout and that only made her feel worse, he'd been starved and locked up like an animal, he didn't have the energy to get angry. Even worse than all that, she could see he had shut down emotionally, there was now a mask where his endearing neutral expression had been.

"Matt, I..." She paused, he wouldn't look at her, "I didn't have a choice."

At that he looked up but the expressions was the same, as if the last eight years of their life were gone, that loving look he always had on his face when he saw her was nowhere to be seen.

"There's always a choice." Matt really wanted to believe her. he honestly did but there is also always a choice, whether to do the right thing or not. He wasn't so naive to think that there was only right and wrong, shades in between did exist but this was wrong in so many ways that he didn't know what would happen now. To them, to her.

For a moment he thought she was going to hurt him when a flare of anger sparked up in her eyes, but she remained relatively calm as she spoke her next words.

"They have my sister and her children, Matt, if there had been any other way..." She looked sadly at him trying to make him see the truth in her words, that she really hadn't had a choice.

To her surprise, the question she thought he was going to ask didn't get asked, she'd thought he was going to question her about how could she be able to trade his life for theirs like a normal person would have. He said instead, "I could have helped you, you know I would do anything for them." And he said it with so much acceptance that it physically pained her.

Matt Casey would never have even thought about himself for a second and she knew it, deep down she knew that was the reason she'd done this because she knew Matt would have accepted it without question because he valued every others person's life above his own. She couldn't have risked going to the police to try to get help, it had to be this way.

She hated herself for it, and probably would for the rest of her life.

"Matt, I..." She tried to step towards him again but the heavy wince when he tried to move again stopped her. Voight and his cronies had put Matt through a lot, she could see the evidence all over his chest, back and arms. She never had liked to see him hurt even slightly and this was more than slightly; and she could hear the wheeze in his voice when he spoke, that either meant he was getting ill from the cold room, or that his ribs were putting pressure on his lungs.

"I'll ask just one question..." but he stopped as a coughing fit overtook him, damn he thought just what he needed, though he knew it had been coming on for the last few hours.

Their eight year relationship and the doctor in her made her want to step forward to help him but she realised that she had lost that right the moment she'd drugged him and handed him over to Voight.

"Ask me anything." She sighed sadly after the cough fit had passed and his breathing had calmed down. He looked how she felt, drained from the whole situation.

"Are you absolutely sure that he is telling the truth?"

At first she thought the question odd, but she thought back to how she had been told, she had just took Voight at his word, I mean sure she had rung her sister and got no answer from her mobile or home but her sister sometimes forgot to charge her phone with looking after the kids and wasn't at home much. She hadn't looked any further than that.

Looking at Matt's bruised and battered appearance, thinking about what they had gone through the last time Voight was around, he had been mostly focused on Matt after all and just took Voight at his word.

She paled.

What had she done.

Could all of this have been for nothing?

TBC

Oh dear well my muse has decided to go this way with this one, did everyone like the twist at the end my muse wanted lol what is going to happen now, was Voight honest with Hallie about her sister's kidnapping or was it just a game because he likes those and is the firehouse any closer to finding our boy yet? Find out next time :) Hope you have enjoyed update!