A/N: Thank you to all, who reviewed and put this adventure on alert. Hope you continue to enjoy!

Several hours later, Pride found himself in the ICU still waiting with baited breath. Both of his agents were still clinging to life by a thread. At Loretta's insistence, the injured pair had been placed in side by side cubicles with a collapsible partition separating the two hospital beds and the equipment that was keeping them alive.

Not surprisingly, both were suffering from a head trauma. Brody the more so, the doctor had said she suffered from a subdural hematoma; bleeding and swelling around the brain. At this point, they were hoping that medications would resolve the issue without the need for surgery.

Aside from the head trauma, Chris' injuries were more centralized in his torso and abdominal area. More precisely, he had a couple of fractured ribs, a bruised kidney and a cracked sternum from where the steering wheel had been shoved into his chest. The artificial respirator had been put into place to reduce further stress to his already traumatized heart and lungs.

How had they ended up this way? More importantly how had Chris' truck ended up in the middle of the Barataria Wildlife Preserve? What were they doing way out there in the middle of the night? Cars weren't even allowed in that area of the preserve. He had to wonder if maybe LaSalle had taken a turn too sharp and ended up tumbling off the side of cliff.

Chris was normally an excellent driver. Even in the midst of a high speed chase, he always managed to keep whatever vehicle he was driving in control. None of this was making sense.

Pride looked down at his cell phone as it began to hum from his hip. It was Abigail Borin. She was at the Jefferson-Parrish Sherriff's department, crime lab where the truck had been towed.

"Talk to me, Borin."

"Found out why the air bags didn't deploy," she told King. "They were both cut."

Cut? Someone had literally taken steps to open up the dash, unpack, and puncture the material with a sharp instrument and then put it all back into place.

At least that ruled out negligence on LaSalle's part.

"Let's dust for prints and hope we get a hit." Pride ordered, thinking about how lucky he was that Abigail had just happened to be in town and was willing to drop everything to help him with the case.

"Already done. My people are running them through CODIS now."

"Thanks, let me know as soon as something pops up." Pride shoved his cell phone into his back pocket and headed towards the nurses station where he found Loretta.

"Do you have bloodwork back on Brody and LaSalle yet?"

Loretta was pretty certain they had both come back relatively normal, given the situation, but she decided to double check. "There was nothing out of the ordinary on either one. Being that Christopher was the driver, a toxicology report was done but it came back clean."

As it should Pride returned silently before stepping back into the sanctuary of the twin ICU cubical with Loretta trailing.

"What about Chloroform?" Pride asked over his shoulder. It was hard to trace. He knew it was a bit old fashion, but at this point he wasn't going to rule anything out. Chloroform was known to cause cardiac distress. If Chris was doused with too much that could explain the undue stress on his heart at the time of the accident.

"Unless someone had the knowledge to mix it with Diazapam it's highly unlikely." Loretta placed her hands on her hips. It was known fact to medical professionals that it took over five minutes to knock someone out with the now ancient anesthesia. She shuddered to think what would happen to the person trying to hold Chris or Brody down for that long."

"Can ya check for it?" Pride asked, sounding a bit desperate.

Loretta gave her old friend a subtle nod. Since Chloroform was technically an inhalant she would be able to spot signs of it the nasal passages and in the throat. But at the moment given the agents current state it would be difficult to trace. If she had to place money on it, she would bet upon close examination she would find puncture wounds or perhaps a blunt force trauma that was caused prior to the accident.

Pride stared pensively at his unconscious friends. He was about to say something when he heard a low moan coming from Chris. It wasn't much but it was enough to give Pride new resolve. "He turned his head," he told Loretta.

The corners of Loretta's mouth twitched as she watched the younger agents eyes form into small slits and then blink. Reaching down to bed railing, Loretta pressed the call button. In a few moments, Chris was going to realize that there was a tube down his throat and he would start to gag and when that happened she wanted to be ready.

Chris came out of it with a start, his entire body twitching.

"Just take it easy," Loretta soothed watching as his dark blue eyes went wide and suddenly shifted with fear. He wanted to swallow but he couldn't. He attempted to raise his shoulders off the bed only have Pride's hand anchor him back down.

"Listen to Loretta," Pride said firmly as a nurse with dark hair appeared at Loretta's side.

"Christopher, this is Bethany. She's going to help me take the tube out of your throat." Without warning, Bethany tugged on the tape that was keeping the tube securely in place, making Chris wince.

"On the count of three, Dr. Wade's going to pull out and I need you to cough as hard as you can. Ready?"

Chris' expression went totally blank. He still felt like he was trapped in that weird dream state.

"Blink, if you understood what she just said, Christopher." Loretta added as Pride gave his shoulder a squeeze.

Chris blinked and Loretta began to count. 1,2,3!

Chris coughed for all that it was worth, until he felt the relief in his throat as it opened up in freedom. For several minutes, he gasped taking in huge gulps of air, followed by intense coughing.

"Just breath," Loretta soothed taking a hold of his free hand. "Pride's here and I'm here and you are going to be just fine."

When his breathing finally returned to normal, the perky nurse Bethany began to ask him a barrage of questions.

"What's your full name and when were you born?"

Chris stared at her for several seconds before turning his head toward Pride. There was only one question to answer and he was going to ask it. Swallowing, he felt a slow burn in his throat from where the tube had left it inflamed and raw.

Unable to form a complete sentence, he simply said one word that came out in the form of a wheeze.

Brody.