Disclaimer: Don't own Numb3rs or any of the characters. I do own Jasmine.

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Chapter Twelve – Missing

Everyone in the room turned when they heard the thud of Colby hitting the floor, there was a brief moment of stunned silence before Don knelt beside the fallen agent and Megan hurried to the door to get help. David lay helpless. "Is he OK? What's happening?"

Doctor Jensen dashed back into the room, knelt down and felt for a pulse, finding one he sighed with relief and motioned to an orderly to bring the gurney in, with the assistance of Don, Megan and a couple of nurses they managed to lift him on to it and he was wheeled out.

"Stay here, I'll find you when I know what's going on." Stated Doctor Jensen following the gurney out of David's room.

"Oh god, he must have been injured and not said anything."

"Stubborn, pig headed…"

"Foolhardy idiot." Finished Megan. "I knew he was lying when he said he'd been seen by medical staff."
"Hang on, we don't know he was lying, he may have and just played down his injuries."

Turning to a nurse who had just entered the room to check on David, "Sorry to bother you, but is there anyway to find out if Agent Colby Granger was seen by any medical staff here at the hospital tonight, prior to this incident?" Megan asked.

"Yes, of course. I'll check for you." She left the room, returning a few minutes later. "No, he booked Agent Sinclair in but didn't see anyone himself."

"I don't think foolhardy idiot quite covers it." Sighed Megan.

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"Lets get some oxygen going, get me a line in. Cut off his clothes, come on people, need to find out what the hell is going on here." Doctor Jensen barked orders.

Colby became aware of someone placing something over his face, his eyes slowly opened taking in this sudden turn of events.

"What….?"

"Colby, you're alright, it's Doctor Jensen, just lay still for me."

He felt a slight scratch in the back of his hand and watched as a bag of saline was hung, people were pulling at his clothes. He was surrounded by people and he didn't like it, not one bit, too many memories of the night the team rescued him from Rutherford's warehouse. Panicking he started to struggle against the hands and his breathing became rapid.

"Calm down. We need to examine you." The words had no effect, Doctor Jensen motioned for everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and step back from the bed. Stepping in to Colby's line of sight he looked the young man directly in the eye. "We're just trying to help, you're bleeding and we need to see where that's coming from. You need to calm your breathing, slow, easy breaths. I don't want to have to sedate you."

"Too many people." Stammered Colby.

"OK, hang on." He rested his hand on the shoulder of a shaken Colby, turned to the staff. "I need everyone but one nurse to leave the room please. Thank you." After they had left he turned to his patient. "Just me and Nurse Stevens now, OK?"

He took an unsteady breath, but nodded, allowing the nurse to finish cutting away his top and the doctor to examine him.

"It's not quite as bad as it looks, though you should have told someone sooner that you were bleeding."

"Had no idea."

The doctor looked doubtful.

"Had no pain. Was in with David, coughed and suddenly hurt like hell."

"You've pulled open your wound from the operation." Turning to the nurse "Page the on call surgeon, I think this will have to be repaired in the OR."

Feeling calmer now. "How did I not realise?"

"Adrenaline can do funny things to us. I would suggest that until you saw Agent Sinclair your mind was otherwise occupied, once you realised he was, indeed, going to be alright, you relaxed, the adrenaline left and so did you, temporarily at least. I also think you're probably suffering from delayed shock. Nurse Stevens is going to give you some morphine to help with the pain, the surgeon should be here soon"
"I'm cold." As if to emphasise the point he shivered violently.

Nurse Stevens immediately brought an extra blanket and laid it over him, then administered the dose of morphine through his IV cannula.

Colby closed his eyes and the next time he opened them a familiar face loomed over him and she didn't look too happy to see him.

"Hey Doctor Vassen."

"Don't hey me Agent Granger. I told you to take it easy."

"Not my fault. Explosion. David was hurt, had to get out."

"Well you're going to pay the price for your heroics now, I'm going to have to take you back into the OR, you've torn out internal stitches as well as the outer ones, if I don't repair it then you risk getting an infection. It means another general anaesthetic. Though it will only be for a short time at least."

"Any other choice?"

"No. I can't do it under sedation as the internal stitching is deep and it would be too painful."

"Go home afterwards?"

"No chance, you're here for at least 24 hours." Rolling her eyes the doctor turned and spoke to a porter, instructing him to take the patient up to the OR.

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Colby woke to the annoying beep of machines monitoring his heart rate and O2 levels. He tried to move and immediately regretted it as his sore abdomen objected.

"Lay still. The procedure went well and you were only under for about 30 minutes, but you are going to be sore again for a while." Colby opened his eyes to see Doctor Vassen checking his vitals. "I've arranged to have you moved to the same room as Agent Sinclair shortly."

"Is he OK?"

"Yes, he's probably got a headache worse than any hangover and he will have to be careful not to pull the stitches in his arm, but he will be just fine. Thanks to you, apparently the ceiling collapsed just after the pair of you got out."

Colby closed his eyes, glad that his friend was relatively uninjured, but feeling guilty about the fact that his apartment had become a target, most likely because of him.

Doctor Vassen rested her hand on Colby's. "You were both very lucky, your injuries could have been much worse."

He merely nodded and closed his eyes, a short time later a porter arrived and he was accompanied by a nurse to the room he was to stay in for the next 24 hours, once again at the mercy of Doctor Vassen.

His bed was pushed into a room with a second bed and a curtain separating the two. Once he was settled and the nurse had made sure he was comfortable she pulled the curtain back revealing David in bed with Don and Megan sitting next to him.

Standing up Megan walked over to him and rested her hand on his arm. "Hey, you gave us a bit of a fright. How you feeling?"

"Sorry, I'm OK." He murmured, he looked over at David. "How you doing man?"

"I have a headache and my arm is throbbing, but I'm alive, thank you."

Colby simply waved his hand dismissively.

Don and Megan exchanged glances but said nothing about Colby's attitude, sure that the man was just suffering the after effects of the explosion.

"I'm going to go back and check on Liz and Jasmine." Stated Megan.

"I need to go and check on things at the office. There is an agent outside." Both the agents left leaving their two bed ridden colleagues to rest.

Colby turned his head away from David's direction and closed his eyes, feigning sleep. Sighing David gave up on the idea of talking to his partner.

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Don arrived back at the hospital after spending a couple of hours learning precisely nothing. All the coroner could tell him about the person that knocked on the door prior to the explosion, and now lay dead on the table, was that the body belonged to a male, aged 30-35, 6 feet tall. There were no fingerprints and they would need to rely on DNA and dental records to identify the man, a lengthy process. The techs were still sifting through the evidence they had collected and wouldn't know anything about the bomb until at least the next day.

Entering the hospital room quietly so as not to disturb either of his agents he found that David was awake and approached his bed. "Hey." He took one look at his face and knew something was wrong. "What's up? Something happened with Colby?"

"Yes… well no…. I mean…"

"You're gonna have to help me out here."

"It's just after you left he wouldn't speak to me, just turned his head away." David replied softly.

"Ah, right. I think it's possibly just shock."

"Maybe."

"David, man, come on, whatever else he's your friend, he'll talk to you when he's ready, you need to stop worrying and get some rest."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
"Course I am." Smiled Don. Leaning over he turned off the light over David's bed. "Sleep." He settled into a chair between the two beds where he could be close to both agents. Despite what he had said to David he was worried about Colby's reaction. He leant back in the chair and closed his eyes, it had been a very long day.

Colby groaned softly as he tried to find a more comfortable position, his abdomen was protesting to any movement, the noise woke Don with a start and he turned quickly to check on both men. David was still sleeping soundly. Noting that Colby was moving restlessly he moved closer to his bed. "Hey, you alright?" he asked softly.
"Yeah, just uncomfortable."

"Want me to get a nurse?"

"Nah, it'll be fine in a minute."

"You know what happened isn't your fault, don't you?" Don's question was met with stony silence. "Colby, look at me." Once the younger man was looking at him Don continued. "You are not to blame."

"Of course I am. If I hadn't been there David's apartment would be intact and he wouldn't be laying in a hospital bed."

"You can't know that. Who's to say that he wasn't the target? If he was and you were elsewhere maybe the ceiling would have collapsed on him."
"Really? How likely do you think that is? How can you be sure?"

"Man, that's the point. We can't be sure. There is no point in second guessing ourselves now. What's done is done. The main thing is that both of you are alive to tell the tale."

"I'm… well, I guess, I'm struggling with this. I became part of the FBI to help people, not to put them in harms way. How do I reconcile myself with the fact that people I care about are getting hurt?"

"You have to ask yourself, if the roles had been reversed and it was David being targeted, or any one of the team, if you would have done anything differently. The answer is no, you wouldn't. All you need to know is that we all trust you with our lives, and in return we know that you trust us with yours."

Colby remained silent for several minutes, contemplating what Don had said, he couldn't deny the logic. He would die to save any member of his team or their families, he couldn't take away from them the fact that they would do the same for him. Just as he was about to respond a figure appeared in the doorway.

"Megan, what's up?"

She stepped into the room looking from Colby to Don. "Er, can I speak to you outside for a minute, please, Don?"

"Hold up, what's going on?" Asked Colby, he could tell something was wrong and whatever it was Megan really didn't want him to know.

She looked at Don helplessly. He shrugged and indicated that she should just tell them, whatever was going on it obviously involved Colby somehow, so they would have to tell him sooner or later.

"Jasmine is missing. I went back to the safe house, Liz said that she was in the bedroom, I was going to let her know you were OK. I knocked and when I got no answer went into the room, she was gone."

"What?" Colby started to try to sit up, he grimaced with pain, but this didn't prevent him from continuing to try to get out of bed.

"What do you think you're doing? Get back into bed." Megan hurried to his side.

"We've got to find her."
"And we will, but right now you are in no shape to be getting out of bed."

Ignoring his boss and the pain stabbing through his abdomen, he swung his legs off the bed so he was sitting up. By now David was awake and had heard Megan say that Jasmine was missing.

"Colby, don't be an idiot, you're going to kill yourself."

"Don't be so melodramatic man. I tore my stitches, that's all."

"If you don't get back in that bed right now, I'm gonna get up outta mine and put your ass back in it."

"Uh huh, you and what army Sinclair? Not exactly in top shape yourself are ya?"

"Enough!" Ordered Don as he watched the two men glare at each other across the room, before he could utter another word Colby was on his feet, though he didn't manage to stay there long, before he could take even one step he was in a heap on the floor clutching his abdomen. Don rolled his eyes in frustration, sometimes it was like he was dealing with toddlers who needed a time out. He turned when he heard a commotion at the door to the room and was relieved to see that Megan had gone for reinforcements in the form of a formidable looking nurse.

"Agent Granger, what do you think you are doing out of bed?" She stood with her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"Leaving."

"Hmmm, looks more like you're sitting on the floor to me young man. Now are you going to let me help you get back into bed or do I need to page Doctor Vassen? She gave me strict orders to let her know if you misbehaved, said something about keeping you in for a week if she had to."

As much as Colby would have liked to argue more he was beginning to feel sick with the waves of pain coursing through his body, not to mention he didn't want Doctor Vassen to find out about this escapade and keep him in. "Alright." He mumbled.

Nodding, the nurse, with Don's help, got Colby back on his feet and back into bed. She pulled the covers back over him. It didn't go unnoticed by the seasoned nurse that her patient was wincing with every movement, without another word she left the room and was back a few minutes later wielding a syringe.

"What's that?" asked a wary Colby.

"Morphine."

He started to protest, then taking a look at her face decided that was a bad idea and allowed her to administer the drug into the cannula in the back of his hand.

"Any more nonsense about discharging yourself and I will call Doctor Vassen, you hear me?"

"Yes ma'am."

Satisfied that her patient was as comfortable as he could be, she left, ordering both men in the beds to get some rest.

"We'll find her Colb, I promise." Don tried to reassure him, nodded to David and left the room with Megan.

"Sorry man, dunno what came over me."

"It's OK Colby, really, just get some rest."

Nodding he allowed the morphine to take over and closed his eyes.

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Megan and Liz stood in the hallway of the safe house discussing how Jasmine had got out without being seen and where she might go.

"She must have climbed out the window."

"I thought they were all locked."

"Apparently not." Stated Liz. "The question we should be asking is where did she go?"
"Did she even go willingly do you think?"

"Well there's no sign of a struggle, but I suppose someone could have used a different sort of force."

"Yeah, like blackmail."
"You don't think someone got her to leave by threatening Colby do you, how could they have contacted her?"

"I don't know, but something made her leave."

"Anything happen whilst you were at the boutique with her today?"

"No, not that I noticed, but that's a good place to start first thing tomorrow. It's too late now. We might as well head home and meet at the boutique in the morning."

"OK."

The two female agents left the safe house heading to their respective homes, both were annoyed that Jasmine had slipped out, and concerned about her safety. This latest incident involving Colby was the most violent yet, the perp was clearly escalating and didn't care who else he, or she, hurt. If Jasmine was part of the reason for these attacks she was in danger and was out there on her own. Both women also knew that Colby would be unbearable until they found where she was, this wasn't good at a time when he needed to rest in order to heal.

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The following morning Liz and Megan were outside the boutique Jasmine and her friend, Anna, were supposed to be opening together. They went round to the back entrance and rang the bell. The door was opened by Anna.

"Agent Reeves. Is everything OK?"

"Hello Anna, this is Agent Warner, we're wondering if you have seen or heard from Jasmine?"

"Come in." She motioned the agents into the shop and closed the door. "I haven't spoken to her since yesterday as you left. I thought she was with you."

"Anna, she's missing, we think she climbed out of her bedroom window at the house we were staying in. We need to find her."

"I haven't heard from her, I would tell you if I had."

"Alright, well if you do hear from her, here's my card, call me straight away."

"Of course." Anna took the card and showed them out.

"What now?" sighed Liz.

"I dunno, we've checked her house, I'm not sure where else to look. We'll need to talk to Colby and if he can't come up with anything we may have to speak to Rutherford."

"I am not looking forward to either of those conversations!"

"Me neither."