Please note: Sorry for the confusion on this chapter. I had some editing issues, but I think it's all correct now.

Martin anxiously fiddled with his earpiece to make sure it was working. Danny had been virtually silent since he first pulled away from the curb after he and Martin had convened at the street corner down the block from where Carlos was supposed to be. Hearing Danny's account of his telephone conversation with Carlos had made Martin nervous. It seemed strange that Carlos was adamant about Danny coming alone if all he wanted to do was give himself up. Martin would have assumed that Carlos would want as many agents and police officers as possible to make sure the Sergeis couldn't take him out. This made Martin concerned about what Danny was getting himself into. He was just thankful that Danny hadn't decided to do this on his own, but instead immediately came to Martin to ask for help.

"You hear anything from him yet? Our earpieces just came into range." Martin heard Jack ask in his earpiece. Jack and Vivian had just pulled up after Danny had entered the apartment building.

After Danny had told Martin about Carlos's call, Martin convinced him to let him call Jack to coordinate more back-up. Martin knew that Danny wanted to handle it on his own and especially not involve Jack after what had happened after Sophie's kidnapping, but Danny also knew that Carlos was unpredictable at best and the most important thing was that Carlos be taken into custody.

So Jack and Vivian took their places on the opposite end of the block, while Samantha was covering the back alley with a couple of patrol cars. The only agent not involved was Elena. For the moment, Jack had agreed with Danny that she should not be involved especially considering the threat Carlos had told Danny about.

"Nothing yet," Martin answered as he kept his eyes trained on the front of the apartment building.

Just as he answered Jack, Martin heard three hard knocks. Assuming that Danny was knocking on Carlos's door, Martin leaned forward waiting to hear Carlos's response.

But Martin didn't hear anything at first. Instead, he heard some kind of strange buzzing background noise followed by a loud thud.

"What happens now?" a voice called out, although it was so faint through his earpiece that Martin couldn't decipher if the voice was Danny's or Carlos's.

"You die," a unmistakeably, heavy-accented voice replied and then Martin heard two gunshots fired.

Shuddering at the sound, Martin yelled, "Oh God! Shots fired! Shots fired! "Go….go….go," he yelled as he put the car in park and gunned the gas. Within seconds, his car was in front the building. Quickly exiting his car, he called out again, "Sam, make sure you have the back covered! I'm going in the front door."

"Got it," he heard Sam reply.

"We're right behind you, Martin," Jack called out as he pulled up with Vivian and they both got out of the car.

After they quickly, but strategically rushed in the door, Martin glanced up the stairwell to see if the coast was clear. As soon as he looked up, he caught site of a hooded figure aiming his gun at them. "Gun! Down! Get down!" he yelled.

They all took cover as a bullets came flying down the stairwell. After the first barrage, Jack positioned himself to get a few shots off. As soon as he started shooting, the hooded figure took off. When he was out of sight, Martin, Vivian and Jack made their way up the stairs being very careful to cover each other.

"Sam? Sam? You see anything back there?" Jack asked.

"No! Nothing! Should we come in?" he heard her respond in his ear piece.

"Stay put, but stay covered. There's a shooter in the building, for sure," he finished as they made their way to the second floor.

Martin moved through the hallway, his breath catching as he caught sight of blood seeping out of the doorway that Danny was supposed to have entered. But he kept focused on clearing the hallway, as Jack entered the door where the blood was coming from.

"Clear!" Martin called out as he paced to the end of the hallway.

"Clear!" Vivian responded from the other end of the hallway.

Martin walked quickly back to the door where Jack had entered. As he approached the door, he heard Jack yell, "Clear", signaling that the apartment was empty, except for the body laying by the front door. Leaning down, Martin immediately realized it wasn't Danny as he turned the body over to check for a pulse. As he placed his fingers on the neck, Martin gasped slightly, "Christ," he muttered.

"What?" Jack asked as he approached him. "Who is it?"

"Emil Cortez, the informant we talked to this morning," Martin answered solemnly. "He's dead."

"Sam...Sam...do you see anything down there?" Jack and Martin heard Viv call out through their earpieces.

"No. Nothing! What the hell is going on up there?"

"Listen, Sam," Viv directed. "Take the units and go to the side alley of the building. It looks like there's a service elevator that goes down to a parking structure below the building. You need to find the entrance to that structure. That's the only way the shooter got out of here. Maybe Danny chased him down there, but I can't get the elevator to work. They must have jammed it up."

"Martin, go with Viv. See if you can get down to that parking level. I'll call this in," Jack ordered.

"Got it," Martin said as he stood up. "I'll be there in a second," he said to Viv so she could hear through her earpiece.

After Martin hurried away, Jack called the EMT and then squatted down to see if there was anything on Emil Cortez that could tell him what had happened. As he carefully search Emil's pockets, Jack's eyes came to rest on Emil's face. In the corner of his mouth, it looked like there was piece of paper hanging out of it. Jack grabbed a latex glove from his pocket and put it on. Then he carefully removed the paper using his finger tips. Straightening out what appeared to be a business card, Jack sighed heavily as he read the name on the familiar card: Special Agent Danny Taylor.

Feeling his arms encircle her waist, Elena relaxed her body against his as she laid her head against his chest. Their bodies swayed in time with the music as they danced in the middle of her living room.This was something Elena never imagined herself doing with Danny Taylor, but now being with him like this felt like the most natural thing in the world.

She felt his hand rub circles on the small of her back as he gently kissed her neck.

Tilting her head up, Elena rose on her tip toes and pressed her lips to his. Kissing him...Danny...had become her favorite thing to do, his lips always welcoming and warm.

"I love you," she said after their lips parted for a moment.

Pressing his forehead to hers, Danny smiled, but didn't say anything in response.

Elena stopped dancing as she looked up at him. "What is it, mi amor?"

Danny still didn't speak, instead he put his arms tightly around her and pulled her close. She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

Taking a deep breath, Elena felt overwhelmed by the closeness, then suddenly his touch felt different. His hands grabbed roughly at her as she felt him hungrily kissing...biting her neck. Then a smell invaded her nostrils...tequila...definitely never a smell she's ever associated with Danny. Pulling herself out of his grasp, Elena faced him...and her breath caught at the sight of Carlos before her. As she tried to pull away from him, he roughly grabbed her arms and covered her mouth with his.

Feeling sick, Elena pulled one her arms free and hit him as hard as she could. "Get the hell away from me! Where's Danny? What happened--"

"You and Danny are over, querida. He's gone. You're never going to see him again!" Carlos yelled as he roughly grabbed her again.

With all her strength, Elena tried to fight him...to push him away. Closing her eyes, she pushed with all her might.

Darting up quickly, Elena was practically hyperventillating as she tried to catch her breath. Looking around, she was able to calm herself when she realized she was still in the FBI conference room, laying next to Sophie on the sofa. Rubbing the tears out her eyes, Elena sat up and moved away from Sophie. Then she stood up and walked out of the conference room. Checking her watch, she noted it was 2 a.m. She found it strange that Danny hadn't woken her to tell her that he was going home, but shrugging she walked down the hall to the ladie's room.

In the ladie's room, Elena splashed some cold water on her face and then removed the remnants of her mascara with a paper towel. As she wiped her eyes, her memory flashed to the night that she and Danny had first kissed during that seedy undercover operation. After putting a sleeping Sophie in the car, he had gently rubbed a smudge of mascara on her face. It was the tiniest of gestures, but looking back, Elena knew it had more meaning than she had realized at the time.

Walking out of the bathroom. Elena frowned and stopped in her tracks when she noticed the flurry of activity in the office. Vivian and Samantha were in the bullpen while Jack was speaking with someone from the crime scene team in the hallway.

"What's up, Jack?" Elena asked, as she approached him after the crime scene investigator walked away.

"Elena...uh...come in," he said quietly as he ushered her into his office.

"Jack, what is it? A case? Where are Danny and Martin?"

"Martin's out in the field. Danny, uh, Danny..."

"What? What Jack? Where's Danny?" Elena ask, voice sounding panicked.

"He got a call...from Carlos--" Jack practically wincing at having to talk to her.

Her eyes widening in surprise, Elena ran a hand through her hair. "Carlos! Carlos called? What happened? Why didn't he tell--"

"Carlos told Danny that you and Sophie were in danger. He said that the Sergeis might be after you to get back at him. So Danny...we...didn't want to involve you."

"Involve me in what, Jack? Where the hell is Danny?" Elena yelled.

Sam and Vivian walked into the office as Elena practically started to fall apart. Rushing over to her, Vivian put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "Carlos told Danny that he'd surrender to him," Vivian explained in a soothing tone.

"Oh God...he didn't try to do it on his own--"

"No, no," Sam interrupted. "Danny played it by the book. He brought Martin for back-up and Martin called us. We were all there, but..." Sam trailed off, her voice betraying her emotion.

Watching the tears come to Sam's eyes, Elena's heart sank and she looked at Jack again. "Danny...where is he? Please Jack!"

"We don't know," Jack answered in a barely audible tone, sounding almost ashamed.

"Something happened...something we can't even explain yet," Vivian said. "We thought we had all the exits covered, but --"

Before Vivian couldn't finish, a cell phone rang. They all checked their phones. Elena frowned when she saw it was her phone. After opening it, she answered, "Delgado."

"Hey baby."

Elena's breath caught as she looked at Jack. "C-Carlos?"

"That's right. I'm just calling to let you know that...that..."

"What?" she asked impatiently as she clicked the speaker phone on her cell so they all could hear. She wanted to ask him where Danny was, but she didn't want him to hang up on her.

"That I love you and I love Sophie very much, but that was never enough for you. So now I'm leaving the country. You'll never have to deal with me again. I'll miss Sophie like crazy, but I don't have a choice anymore. If I stay, I'll never be free again and I won't see her anyway. If you just would have listened and loved me like I loved you, then none of this would have happened."

"Carlos, listen to me, I'll try to help you...I'll try--"

"You're lying. You wanted me to disappear so you and Danny can finally be together. Well, baby, I'm going to disappear now, but you and Danny will never be a happy familia. The Sergei brothers will make sure of that!"

"What...what are you talking about? Where is he?" she finally asked as she looked up at Jack, Sam and Vivian, their expressions showing the shock and fear that she felt.

A chill went down Elena's spine when she heard Carlos laugh, a deep, sinister laugh as he responded to her. "I have no idea where he is. After the Sergeis are done with him, chances are, you'll never find his body. That's the way they work, and now that they think he was my partner in the money-laundering scheme...they're going to keep him alive while they try to get him to tell them where the money is, and when they realize he has know idea where it is, they'll put a bullet in his head. But he'll suffer...he'll suffer the way I've suffered without you and Sophie in my life."

"Carlos...Carlos, please...don't do this," Elena cried, losing control. "This is Danny. He was your friend. We love...I love him, Carlos. Don't do this. Tell us where he is," she pleaded.

Carlos's laugh turned to a cold silence.

"Carlos! Carlos!" Elena screamed.

But the line had gone dead.

A/N - Ahhh, more drama! Sorry. I never, ever thought this fic would be over 30 chapter, but it looks like I still have a few left! Thanks for hanging in there!