'Boss, I got something!', Jules could barely hide her excitement.

'Go ahead, Jules,'

'Okay, the dead Outlaw member, that was found in an alley was a young boy named Derek Morrow. He was only 15 years old, but has been a member of the gang for 2 years. He worked his way up and was pretty established for his age. The murderer has still not been found, but different members of the Blood Nation have been suspected. Turns out Derek's father is a chemist, currently working at a research facility with access to chemical agents needed for building a bomb.'

'Meaning he's got the knowledge, access and a motive. Good work, Jules. Do you have the address?', Greg asked in his usual calm manner.

'Yes, 1022 Ridgewood Drive, Scarborough.'

'Alright, everybody, you know what to do. Approach with caution, go for less lethal. Lethal if you have no other option. I'll stay here and keep you posted.'

'On our way, Boss.', Sam and the rest of Team One jogged over to the SUVs and drove off sirens blaring.

Throwing up for what felt like the umpteenth time, left Spike feeling even more dizzy and weak. The pain was gone. He couldn't control his body anymore and barely felt Ed gently lowering him back to the ground. He could hardly make sense of what his teamleader was saying, only snippets like 'stay with me' got through to him. He tried to hold onto that.

'Stay with me!', echoed in his head over and over again, until Ed's worried face drifted out of focus and it was finally dark.

His teammate looked like a ghost. A ghost that he was sure would haunt him in his worst nightmares. White as a sheet, blood flecking his teeth, mouth and chin. Eyes at half mast, shivering from the blood loss and barely breathing. Ed would never forget the way Spike looked that day.

After his latest blood vomiting session, Spike had slumped back unconsciously. Ed was worried sick, that he wouldn't wake up again, but on the other hand grateful, that he had been spared to experience any more pain. He knew he needed to get Spike's broken leg free as soon as possible. All the better if his younger teammate didn't have to go through that on top of everything else.

Ed was desperate. A small part of him wanted to break down and cry. Cry because he wouldn't be able to take the loss of Spike. And losing him was exactly what was happening right before his eyes. There was nothing he could do to change that. Except be there for him, try to comfort his unconscious form with reassuring words and touches. And that was exactly why he couldn't allow himself to break down, as scared and hopeless as he was. He wasn't team leader for nothing. His job was to be strong and be there for his team whenever they needed him. So that is what he did.

Making sure that Spike was still out, Ed moved to his teammates right side, where his leg was buried under a thick layer of debris.

Carefully he started taking off the remains of the ceiling, brick by brick until he could make out the broken leg. It didn't look too bad from his point of view. The tibia didn't break the skin, thank God. Though that didn't mean that the bone was not fragmented and dislocated inside.

'Please, please hurry and get us out of here. I don't know how much longer he will last.', he didn't know how many times he thought that in the last hour or so they've been there. Time was pretty much unmeasureable without daylight or anything else to go by.

'Hello!', a male voice yelled from his right, pulling him away from his thoughts on how to best set the leg and back into reality.

'Constables Lane and Scarlatti, are you there?'

'Thank you, thank you, thank you!'

'Yes!', Ed jumped up and followed the direction of the voice. 'We're here, we need help!'

He found himself looking at a small tunnel in the rubble and kneeled down to peek through. Daylight was blinding him, but before long a man's face appeared on the other side. He had dark hair and a round face with a moustache.

'Constable Lane, we are trying to get you and your teammate out. However the building is extremely unstable, we will expand this tunnel, so the both of you can crawl through. What is Scarlatti's condition?', the middle-aged man spoke in a calm voice, the faithful and reassuring demeanor reminding him of his own Boss.

'He's in a bad way. GSW to the stomach, he's been vomiting blood for some time now. He's in and out of consciousness and lost a lot of blood. His right leg is broken. You need to hurry!', Ed tried his best to keep up his strong teamleader voice, but he noticed it break at some points.

'Okay, EMS are on the scene and waiting. We will carefully expand the tunnel now. But you have to get Scarlatti here, because coming in would cost too much time and by the sound of it your Constable doesn't have that.'

Ed nodded quickly and made his way back to Spike, ignoring the room tilting dangerously to the right as he got up too fast.

He dropped to his knees next to him. 'Hey, buddy.'

Spike opened his eyes and tried to focus on him. Ed was smiling down at him excitedly. 'We're getting out of here now. Help is just around the corner. Literally. But I have to get you up and to them, because they can't come in here. Do you hear me, Spike?'

The only answer he got was Spike's eyelids drooping shut again.

Ed didn't know if his younger teammate even understood what he was saying. He figured it was better for him to be out cold if he had to pull him across the floor like some dead animal killed on a hunt.

He didn't dare lift him up in a fireman's carry again. The dizziness he felt whenever he got up and moved around was still too present. He couldn't risk dropping Spike or stumbling against some rubble and bringing the whole building down on them.

Positioning himself behind Spike, he sat him up and wrapped both arms under his and around his chest, grabbing each wrist with the other hand tightly. He lifted himself up, Spike following basically glued to his chest, and began to carefully walk backwards towards rescue.

From this angle he could see the younger man's lower leg being awkwardly bent inwards as he dragged him across the dirty floor. The sight almost made him puke. Spike groaned slightly, but otherwise didn't stir.

The relatively short way felt like a 3 km obstacle course, trying to avoid all sorts of bricks and not stumble over debris and hurt his teammate more. When he finally reached the tunnel, he lowered Spike gently to the ground. The tunnel was now indeed big enough for one person at a time to fit through.

'We're here. Are you ready?', Ed called through the opening.

'Yes, almost there. Secure your teammate with these belts, we'll pull him out carefully.', the middle-aged man tossed some safety belts through to Ed. He quickly wrapped them around Spike and signaled for the firemen to begin pulling.

As Spike disappeared out of his vision and into the bright daylight, a heavy weight lifted off his chest. He would get proper medical care now. Everything was going to be alright.

'Okay, Constable Lane it's your turn now.'

Ed crawled through the hole towards the bright light. He was greeted by the sight of firetrucks, EMS, ambulances, but most important, Greg. Their eyes met, his Boss was standing about 10 meters from him, looking both worried and relieved at the same time.

Ed looked around searching for Spike. He saw him about 5 meters to his left, lying on the ground, EMS leaning over him working frantically to save his life.

He wanted to run over, see what was happening and making sure that his friend was still alive.

Greg thwarted him just as he made the first step trying to break free from the arms of the firemen.

'Eddie, let them do their job. You need to get checked out yourself. There's an ambulance waiting for you.'

'Sir.', a young paramedic guided him gently towards the back of an ambulance.

'I'll see what I can find out about Spike.'

As he approached the two paramedics working on the tech expert, he got his first good look at him. Pale, clammy, bloodied, broken. Dying. They had an oxygen mask covering his face and an IV started. His stomach was exposed and the paramedic just covered the still oozing wound with antiseptic gauze.

In a way he looked so fragile and lifeless, lines of pain were creased on his dirt- and blood-caked face.

'How is he?'

'Bad.', the female replied matter of factly.

'He's hypovolemic due to the massive blood loss. His right leg's broken and the explosion must have enlarged the internal tear in his stomach, hence the blood vomiting. We're trying to stabilize him and get his volume up as we speak, but he needs surgery ASAP.', her male colleague rattled off in a nicer manner.

Greg took off his basecap and ran his left hand over his face in a weary manner. It was a lot to take in, the prognosis didn't exactly look good.

As he was just about to turn around and walk back to Ed, said teamleader suddenly stood behind him.

'What are the news?', he stood with his hands on his hips.

Greg thought about arguing that he needed medical attention just as much as Spike did, but he knew better judging by the look on Ed's face.

'They're stabilizing him, but he needs surgery right away. He's in critical condition.'

'Sergeant Parker!', the male paramedic called as they were loading Spike in the ambulance. 'We're good to go now.'

'Where are you taking him?'

'Markham Stouffville Hospital is closest.', he jumped into the driver's seat and took off, sirens blaring.

'Okay, let's go Eddie.', they jogged over to the SUV and followed the ambulance closely.