Joe attempted to open his eyes but they refused to co-operate, clamped down with a crushing fatigue. His body shuddered as his muscles awoke with him, the nerve endings sparking like static electricity. Tears leaked down the sides of his face as his eyes watered when layer upon layer of pain made itself known. The most debilitating being the knife like cramp in his injured shoulder. His arm felt like it was fused to his side and Joe didn't want to even try to move it incase he got an action replay of the hurt Lance had previously inflicted upon him.

It had easily been the worse pain he had experienced in his life, even being shot had hurt less as the sting of the bullet had dulled over time. The increasing pressure of Lance's thumbs had made for comparably increasing agony and the resulting cramping was only continuing the experience.

After the aches of his body, the continuous pulsing shudders racking his frame, the rasp of his breathing and the immobility of his arm the next thing Joe noticed was the hand stroking his forehead.

Summoning up some of that Joe Hardy stubbornness he forced his eyes to open, his field of vision filling with the face of the nurse who had refused to play ball and be a good little hostage. He blinked rapidly to focus his blurry sight, opening his mouth to attempt to find out what had happened since his world had gone black, but his swollen throat didn't want to play ball either. Coughing in an attempt to get his voice back, he swallowed before trying again.

"What is going on?"

The nurse, who's name badge identified her as Maria, smiled down at him though it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Your phone rang, Lance answered it and had a chat with the police chief outside. It didn't go down so well but he's chatting with his people right now so we have a reprieve."

Her slightly accented voice was like a pillow to Joe and he closed his eyes for a moment, sighing as his rebellious body continued to tremor no matter how much he tried to stop it.

"What he did to you...it was horrible," Maria said, her eyes misting over for a moment. "I didn't know what to do."

"You did right to do nothing, these guys are not to be messed around with," Joe replied, his voice breaking somewhat as his throat protested.

"I need to take a look at your shoulder," Maria said as her professional need to help overpowered her own fear.

It was a statement Joe was dreading but he knew she was right if he was to be helpful in the not too distant future. He took a deep breath, steeling himself before looking into her eyes and letting her know to proceed with a short, sharp nod.

She bit her lip slightly, looking up to see whether Lance was in the vicinity. Drawing his attention to herself or the ruined young man before her was not a smart idea. Looking around her she eyed the strap of her leather watch before unclasping it and cramming the end of it in Joe's mouth. "Bite down on this if you have to."

Flexing her fingers she lifted Joe's head from the floor with one hand, pressing the base of his neck with the other. He closed his eyes, wincing as her fingertips met with a mass of knotted muscle. She worked at it, loosening the tightened knots until they eased themselves somewhat. She rotated Joe's head slowly, his eyes creasing as the pain in his back grew in intensity before easing off to a dull ache. She worked methodically trying to soothe the stiffening muscles until she finally reached close to the abused scar tissue. The exploding pain caused Joe to bite the thin watch strap almost entirely in half and Maria moved her hand away like it had been burned.

"Sorry it's just..I don't think there's much you can do for that right now...Think I'm going to have to go full Brit mode and just stiffen up my upper lip," he said through gritted teeth after allowing the torn watch to fall from his mouth. The attempt at humour seriously falling short.

"I'm sorry Joe...I don't know what to do...unless..." She looked across the room where a trolley stood open, its wears on display. Motioning to Mary she mouthed "distraction" as obviously as she dared with the remaining Marchetti guard stood watching the hostages. Mary's eyes glinted in understanding and she nodded imperceptibly as Joe looked wildly from one woman to the other.

"Whatever you're planning, forget it. I'm fine, really. Don't get yourself killed because of me!"

"Shut up," Maria replied, her attention now fully focused upon Mary and the hovering goon.

"Son," Mary said suddenly attracting the gaze of the thickset man. "Son, I need to use the bathroom."

"No," he replied unblinkingly.

"Son I'm an old lady and when I got to go I got to go. Now I can either be taken to the bathroom or I can go right here and you can just deal with it for the rest of the day. Your choice."

The man's eyes flicked round the room as a look of uncertainty crossed his face. With Lance and the other's talking tactics with Dante, he was very much alone and in charge of the situation.

"Son?"

"OK, fine but be quick," he said motioning with his gun to the toilet door and attempting to watch both her and the room. She stood and made a decent show of stumbling over to the entrance, falling to one knee when she saw him turn back to the room from the corner of her eye.

"Give an old lady a hand would you?" she said "these bones of mine aren't used to sitting on the cold, hard floor all day long."

He visibly rolled his eyes before making his way across to her, picking her bodily from the floor by her arm. Quick as a flash Maria crossed the room to the trolley, grasping for a syringe and fumbling for one of the many colourless vials before dashing back to her seat beside Joe. He couldn't help but laugh at the continuous stream of Mary babble in the background of the room as Maria filled the syringe, flicking it slightly before plunging it into one of Joe's prominent arm veins.

"Morphine," she said by way of description to his questioning gaze "just enough to get you back on your feet..well to take the edge off. Not enough to send you back to sleep."

"Good...good," he replied, his eyes blinking slightly slower as the pain killer rushed through his system dulling the white hot pulsing in his shoulder. He took a moment to relish the receding pain before opening his eyelids fully. She was right, it wouldn't do to pass out again despite his entire body screaming for the comforting darkness of unconsciousness.

He rolled his ruined shoulder experimentally, hissing as the movement caused a spike of fire to lance through the scar. So long as he kept his arm immobile he would be able to cope with the pain.

"OK now what?" Maria asked the worry she was obviously feeling crossing her face in spite of her best efforts to control it.

"Now...now we wait," Joe said apologetically as her eyes clouded in disappointment, "I can't take on five of these guys with weapons alone and I refuse to let anyone else put themselves in harms way. The best thing we can do is wait for the Chief to bust us all out of this joint."

Mary's voice grew louder as the goon lead her back to the room and her seat on the floor. She flopped before looking over to Joe, smiling when he attempted to communicate his thanks to her with just his eyes.

Joe started slightly and hissed as Maria brought a tissue up to his mouth and dabbed at the drying blood. She wiped softly as he flinched beneath her touch, her hand pressing his ripped lip against his teeth despite her best efforts at being gentle. Her eyes roamed his face and she winced in sympathy at the bruise blooming on his temple. "You look like you've been in a war zone."

"Nah, this is nothing...unfortunately in my line of work this stuff seems to come with the territory."

"What is it that you do exactly that means you're used to the sight of gun wielding maniacs?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I work in a detective agency with my dad and my brother," Joe said, his voice catching slightly at the thought of Frank on the outside. He hoped his brother was keeping clear of this mess but if he knew anything with any sort of certainty, it was that Frank was as sure to be as knee deep as he was.

"Frank, this is the Chief. Return to the command centre immediately."

"No can do Chief," Frank responded to the tinny voice in his ear. He'd been ignoring the sporadic burst of commands which had been bursting out of the earphones over the past half an hour as he made his way to the source of the gunfire and the room where the hostages were being held. But a note of desperation and something else in the voice of the Chief stopped him in his tracks and made him respond.

"Frank...something's happened," the Chief said after a pause.

"Joe?" Frank asked swallowing slightly.

"...yes," the Chief replied, rushing out his next words, "he's alive..."

Any relief Frank felt at the Chief confirming Joe was alive froze at his next words, "they found him."

"Oh god, is he OK?" Frank said, the worry evident in his every syllable.

"He's in bad shape. But it looks like someone upstairs is looking after him. There's a nurse in there who seems hell bent to get him back on his feet."

Frank sagged a little at his words. The last thing he wanted to have to do was call his mother and father with more bad news about his brother. They were barely holding it together after the last time their sons had gotten hurt.

"Chief, I got to get in there somehow. I have to help him," Frank said desperately.

"Listen son, there's nothing you can do right now, you're only going to get yourself killed if you go in there."

"I'm going in either with your help or without it," Frank said. A coldness creeping into his voice.

The Chief paused, sighing on the other end of the line. He knew sending in Frank had been a bad idea from the start...but he also knew if he had a family member in there with those psychos he'd be chomping at the bit to get in there too.

"There is one way," he began, sighing again "head back to command and we'll get you kitted out. But take it from me Hardy, you're going in there under your own duress. If they take you down I can't risk sending my men in there after you and endangering the lives of the rest of the hostages."

"Understood."

Thanks once again for those of you taking time to review.

I know this story has been a bit Frank light so far but I've just started writing chapters where he's very much in the thick of it as well so don't worry. He'll be apart of the action soon enough!

As always, all comments and critiques are welcome.