Seeing her husband's condition Sophie took in a sharp intake of breath and had to placed her hand over her mouth to stop herself from bursting into tears.

Feeling a hand on her elbow Greg guided her towards the hospital bed where Eddie lay his injuries echoed and made to look even worse by the whiteness of the pillows behind his head, his eyes were closed and his lips as much as the swelling would allow drawn into a thin white line a clear indication that despite the medication he was still in pain.

Nervously walking up to the bed Sophie gently reached out and stroked Ed's hand. Feeling his wife's touch Ed struggled to open his eyes only to find that his right was now completely swollen shut, and the vision in his other was taking a few seconds to clear enough so that Sophie's face took time came into focus.

Finally seeing the angished look on Sophie's face Ed offered a tentative smile and winced as he did so and turn his hand over so it slipped into hers and he gave a gentle squeeze.

"Hey" Ed whispered "Come on now everythings alright don't look so worried" Ed tried to reassure his wife.

"Oh Eddie how can you say that" Sophie replied close to tears "You could have been killed"

"I know...I know...but...I...got lucky...its only a concussion, a few stitches and some bruises...nothing that won't mend" struggling with his speech Ed continued "I'll soon...have my...boyish good looks... back" he chuckled trying to make light of his situation for Sophie's sake.

"You're not funny Eddie" Sophie replied her voice still quivering with emotion but relief had started the slowly ebb in.

Standing on the fringe and waiting for the moment between Ed and Sophie to pass Greg stepped forward.

"Hey Eddie you gave us quite a fright there buddy...have you any idea what happened?" his own face showing the strain of the past few hours.

"Yeah... sorry boss... I'm still trying to... to...workout how I didn't know he was there or where he came from... but... there's large pieces missing" frustration started to creep into Ed's unusually quiet voice

"That's understandable Eddie it could take a few days for you to remember exactly what happened and even then all of it might not come back at all"...Greg stopped and noticed the look on Eddie's face that told him he had something else to tell him, something he didn't want Sophie to know.

"Humm Sophie I'm gonna get out of your way but before I go can I just have a few minutes with Eddie please?"

Looking at Eddie and then Greg Sophie's eyes narrowed with suspicion "Why...what's going on?"

"It's nothing Soph just procedure and I know Eddie needs his rest but I still need to do a quick debrief" Greg replied knowing this wasn't exactly true.

"Ed?"

"Soph I'd like to...see Clark...but you need to prepare him...I don't want to scare him any more then I already have ...please" seeing her hestiate Ed brought her hand to his swollen lips and giving it a reassuring kiss...and asked again..."please"

"OK if you're sure, but only for a few minutes ok Greg?" Sophie replied putting enough edge in her voice that Greg know that it was more an order then a request.

Both Ed and Greg watched not saying a word as they watch Sophie leave the room and as the door softy shut behind her Greg turned to face his Team Leader...

"Alright Eddie what have you got to tell me that you can't say in front of Sophie and it better be good because not only do I have to wear that her husband get injured on my watch, but you now have me lying to her and..."

"Mes..sa...ge"

"Message...what are you talking about Eddie?" Greg drew closer to the bed making sure he could hear all that Eddie had to say.

"I don't...remember all of it...but before I lost conciousness he told me it was a message...there was more but...but...damn it I can't remember"

"You think this was a delibrate attack Eddie, you seriously think someone is targeting the team"? Greg asked in shock.

"It's all floating around but I remember being on the phone to Clark and being caught totally off guard" ... Eddie closed his eyes desperately trying to piece the puzzle together..."I couldn't breath and knew I had to slow it down so I spoke to him...I...I...asked him why that's when he said it was a message"

Letting out a deep slow breath Greg digested all the information that Eddie had just given him sparking a frightening thought.

"Eddie I gotta tell ya giving someone a beating like you took is a very strange weapon of choice"..."it's up close and it's personal"...waiting for Eddie to look directly at him Greg continued stressing the importance on each and every word of his next sentence..."you need to think buddy could this be directed at you rather then the team"?

"Greg... I...don't...know...I just...can't...remember"... Ed was now frantically fighting to stay awake..."Sophie...Clark"

Seeing his friend was now physically and mentally exhausted, he could see he was on the edge of oblivion but each and everytime his head fell forward he stopped himself as if his body had recieved an electric shock Greg placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry one step at a time, you need to get some sleep I'll send in Sophie and Clark but I'm gonna talk with the team...don't worry Eddie we're on this"

The last words Ed heard as he slipped into a restless painful sleep were that his team would be right outside the door.

Greg smiled and nodded as he held the door open for Sophie and Clark to go in and be with Ed, going over to his team he waited a few minutes to make sure that they wouldn't hear the conversation he was about to have.

Holding his hands up as he was bombarded with concerned questions from the team he raised his voice so he could gain some sort of order.

"Guys...guys stop I'll answer your questions in a minute but in the meantime we have a possibly serious situation that we need to deal with"

Looking confused the team fell quiet only for Wordy to speak up and state the obvious "Sgt what on earth can be more serious then finding the guy that did this?"

"Eddie just told me that his attacker told him that this was a message" not giving the team time to throw more questions at him he quickly continued "At first I thought is was some revenge act against the team but the more Ed tried to explain it the more I think this is personal...this is directed solely at Ed."

"Whoa why would you think that boss?" Sam asked pushing himself off the wall on the opposite side of the room where he had been standing with Jules a hint of anger starting to creep into his voice.

"Because there were plenty of chances for this attack to take place in the 3hrs we were all at the warehouse but it only happened when Eddie was seperated from Wordy and the team and he couldn't get back to him because the door was locked on the opposite site making a quick rescue impossible"

Wordy shook his head not believe he was about to say what he was going to say "It makes sense...but how did they know Clark was going to phone?"

"Yeah boss how could they have know"

"I don't know Spike maybe it just played out like that, Eddie did say the attacker caught him totally off guard so I assume it just played into his hands and with Eddie sending Wordy ahead just made it that much easier"

"So what are we going to do now?" Wordy asked

"At this moment in time we are going to treat this as a real threat so we will take it in turns to stay here until he's discharged but in the meantime I'll make some discreet inquires into Eddie's past cases see what turns up" Greg pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut frighting his own signs of fatigure.

"OK I'll go phone Shelly" Wordy pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to walk away.

"Wordy" Greg called

Stopping a short distance from the team Wordy turned back "Sgt"

"You can't tell Shelly why you're staying Eddie doesn't want Sophie and Clark knowing...well not just yet anyway"

"Why?" Spike and Sam asked in unison

"At the moment I don't know but for the time being we're going to do what he asks...copy?"

"Copy that" came the reply from all team members.

SORRY GUYS THIS CHAPTER IS REALLY BORING BUT ITS GOING TO GET A LOT MORE EXCITING SHORTLY...