The door handle to the hotel room turned. Ryan took a deep but quiet breath. I can't kill her. She's the fastest way to finding Holly and Gail. I can't kill her. Shit. Killing her would be easier. The door opened. Ryan pressed herself against the wall, still gripping her knife in her right hand, blade pointed to her elbow. Hoping.

Ryan knew the moment Megan was aware that something was wrong. Her posture stiffened almost imperceptibly. Ryan braced for the blow but it still hurt like hell when it landed on her left side. She moved her right hand out, close to her own body and over the inside of Megan's right arm. The knife sliced though her jacket and shirt, and into her flesh.

"Ahhh!" Megan screamed and Ryan couldn't help thinking it sounded more like sexual arousal than pain. They continued to struggle. Megan blocked another knife thrust, and landed a punch of her own to Ryan's mouth. "Agent Ryan, I had no idea you were such a bad girl. Bringing a knife is entirely unacceptable. No matter how arousing I find it. How about I use it on you when I get you tied up properly again? Hmm?"

"God, you're such a fucking crazy bitch!" Ryan punched Megan in the eye with a left jab.

"Sweet talker," Megan grunted out as she kneed her in the stomach.

Ryan followed that up with an elbow to Megan's face. "Crazy." Another punch. "Ass." Another. "Bitch." She pushed Megan back. Given space, Megan reached into her jacket pocket. Ryan lunged for her before she could reach her gun. Megan grabbed Ryan's knife arm and twisted so that she had Ryan's face pointed to the floor her arm stretched out behind her. She twisted the knife out of Ryan's hand. The only way for Ryan to get out of the hold was to dislocate her shoulder.

"Crazy has its advantages," Megan said.

"Yeah, it does," Ryan said and twisted her body dislocating her shoulder. She spun out of the hold and used Megan's body weight against her pulling her forward. Fighting with only her left arm was problematic but not all that unusual for Ryan. They exchanged a series of blows that were more successful for Megan because Ryan could no longer lift her right arm to defend that side of her body. She managed to push Megan back and spun quickly on her left leg. Her right boot heel catching Megan in the temple. "At least my crazy serves the greater good," she said looking down at Megan's now still body.

She walked over to the wall and slammed her right shoulder into it, snapping it back into place. "Fuuck!" Taking a moment to breathe through the pain, she watched Megan carefully. Then she walked over and searched her pockets throwing the guns out of both their reaches. She finally found what she was looking for and zip tied Megan's hands behind her back. Once that was done she resumed her search. She found the cell phones. She took hers out and dialed the last incoming number. "Oliver, it's Ryan. Perik has Holly now too. I have Stapleton at the hotel. Send a team and EMTs. We're gonna have to interrogate her, but she's gonna need some medical attention. So am I for that matter…Yeah…I'll be here."

The hotel room was full of police officers and crime techs. The Toronto Police Department had put out an APB for Perik and every available officer was looking but Oliver, Traci, Luke and Cleve were all in the room. The bellhop's body had been removed by the morgue team. Everything was being expedited. Ryan, however, felt like things were moving at glacial speed.

"If you don't get your hand out of my face, we're going to have a problem. I told you, all I need is a sling for my arm and a shot for the pain," Ryan snarled at the male EMT whose nametag read "Gibbons".

His female partner "Maclean" tried a different tact. "Agent Ryan, you have a laceration above your eye. We need to clean it and at least put a butterfly Band-Aid on it or it will leave you with a nasty scar, and while I myself find it kinda hot, you might regret it later. C'mon, it won't take long at all." She smiled. Ryan looked her over. She had dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, and lips that Ryan was pretty sure should have been illegal.

Ryan rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Get it over with, and for god's sake gimme a pain shot."

"There's a good girl," Maclean said and Ryan glared at her.

Oliver thought the look on her face was very reminiscent of one of Gail's faces and he knew what was coming next. "Now, darlin', let's not let our emotions get the best of us. Have you let them look at your ribs?" Ryan turned her glare on him. "Now, now, I think you should let them look. You've been holding your good arm against them. I noticed."

"You are so annoying, Oliver. I just need a pain shot. Then I need to interrogate freaky-deaky number 2 over there." Ryan nodded her head toward a semiconscious Megan Stapleton.

"I'm not letting you interrogate anyone while you're under the influence of a pain shot," he said.

"Fine. No pain shot."

"No. You're going to let them close that cut above your eye, check your ribs and they will give you a sling and a pain shot, not necessarily in that order."

"You seem to forget that I'm not under your authority."

"Ahh, right you are, Agent, but you are here at my discretion. That's my police detective that's missing. Do as I say, okay? We're all on the same team," he said and smiled at her.

"Goddammit. You all are so unnervingly polite."

Maclean laughed. "I can bitch at you a little more while I take over cleaning your cuts if that'll help." She sat in front of Ryan and began assembling what she'd need to treat her face.

Ryan sighed. "That won't be necessary."

"We're a full-service outfit. It's no trouble." Maclean smiled with those illegal lips as she moved to clean the cut above Ryan's right eye. She dabbed carefully with antiseptic. Ryan hissed. Maclean laughed softly.

"You find this funny?"

"Yeah, I do. You have a dislocated shoulder. The way you're holding your ribs makes me think that they're cracked at least, if not broken, and you're being a big baby about a cut above your eye," Maclean smirked those lips as she replied.

"It stings," Ryan said trying not to lip look her.

"And the others?"

"They don't sting."

"Um hmm. Well, here's that pain reliever. Hopefully, that takes care of the sting."

"Thanks. So…Maclean. You got a first name?"

"Mackenzie"

"Mackenzie Maclean?"

"Yep. I think my parents hated me."

"What do your friends call you?"

"Believe it or not, Mac."

"I should've seen that coming."

"You really should have. Are you sure you don't have a concussion?"

"No."

"You really should get checked out at the hospital. Get the ribs x-rayed."

"I can't. I have to find my friends. Please." Ryan put her hand on Mac's forearm.

"You can't go to sleep. Not if you have a concussion."

"I don't think that'll be a problem. I won't sleep until I find them."

Mac slipped the sling over Ryan's head and gently placed her arm inside. She tried to keep the smile off her face when she said, "Always get your man like Dudley Do-Right?"

"He was a Mountie. I'm a federal agent."

"Of course. How stupid of me."

"And didn't his horse solve all the cases?" Ryan scrunched her face up in thought without wincing about the pull on her cuts.

"I see the pain meds have kicked in, and I think it might have been his girlfriend."

"Yeah. That sounds right."

Mac took a card out of her pocket. "Here. Take this. Call me if you have any more pain, or if you have any questions. I can't write you a prescription for the pain, but I have a friend who's an ER doc and she'll write you one if you let her examine you briefly."

"Thanks," Ryan replied holding up the card. "That's very kind of you."

"I'll confess I have an ulterior motive. I figured it was the best way to give you my phone number," Mac said not the least bit embarrassed. In fact, she seemed…confident, Ryan thought.

Ryan was taken aback. She'd had the most unbelievable day. Tased. Tied Up. Attacked. Shoulder dislocated. Now she was being flirted with by a beautiful woman. "Uhh…"

"Hey, it's fine. You don't want to use the number, you don't have to. I just wanted you to have it, and if you call, and don't want anything other than medical advice or medical favor, then that's fine too."

"Thanks." It was all Ryan could manage under the circumstances.

Then before she knew it, the tall drink of water that was Luke Callahan was in front of her. He looked at her relief clear in his eyes. "Parker, you okay?" He reached down and gently cupped her cheek. What the hell? The most unbelievable day.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Or I will be. Mac here has fixed me up." Ryan gestured gingerly with her injured elbow in the sling.

"Oh. Oh, yeah. That's good." Luke seemed to come back to himself. "So Stapleton is waking up now. I think given that it's the Superintendent's daughter, we might be able to bend the rules a bit. You up to asking some questions?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely"

Traci led the interrogation mostly. Sam and Luke sort of faded into the background because Megan refused to speak to them. Traci carefully laid out what they already had on Megan so that she would know that her cooperation was the only way she was going to get anything out of this. Megan was still resolutely silent when she wasn't making inappropriate comments.

"Detective Nash, I'm sorry we didn't get the chance to know each other better," Megan said as she smiled menacingly, at least as menacingly as she could in handcuffs.

"Megan, be reasonable. Tell us where Perik has taken them. I'll talk to the prosecutor on your behalf," Traci said.

"Yeah, somehow I don't think leniency is in the cards for me. Do you?"

"I swear to God, if something happens to them, you will regret it to your dying day. If you live that long," Ryan growled.

"That makes no sense," Megan said and tilted her head.

"Please just let me interrogate her! Just leave me alone with her for a bit," Ryan pleaded.

Traci looked over with a mixture of regret and pity. "No, as tempting as that is."

"Megan, you have to see that it's over for you. Do you want Ross Perik to get away? Do you want him to have fun without you?" Ryan asked, hoping she was hitting the right buttons.

Megan laughed and Ryan thought it was reminiscent of one of Perik's crazy laughs. "You have no idea what you're talking about Agent Ryan."

"So tell me."

And she did. Over the next hour, Megan Stapleton laid out a story of abuse and terror that had pity stirring even in Ryan's heart. Ryan wouldn't excuse her for what she had done in the last year, but what had happened to her as a little girl? Any defense attorney worth their salt could turn that into something that they could work with. Ryan looked over and saw Sam gripping the back of his chair so hard his knuckles were white and she thought he must be dealing with some of the same feelings she was.

"So your Uncle Ross now has Gail Peck and Holly Stewart because you helped him abduct them. You have to understand that anything that happens to them is on you," Traci said.

"Detective Nash, do you really think that your punishment scares me? You can't make my life any more hellish than it's already been. Prison, death, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore. Not to me," Megan said and closed her eyes.

"Why did you help him?" Ryan couldn't stop herself from asking. "Why? You knew what he was capable of. You helped him escape. You helped him hurt other people. You raped and tortured those women on your own. I don't understand. Why?"

"I haven't been on my own since I was ten years old. He's always with me. I didn't have a choice."

"That's bullshit! Everyone has choices. Even if they're shitty ones. You didn't have to kill those women."

"You don't understand, Agent Parker. I wanted to. I wanted to hurt them. It kept me from being like them."

"And made you like him."

"Perhaps."

"There's no perhaps about it, Megan. You're a monster. A monster I'll extradite to the States so you can face a possible death penalty, if I have to. Tell me where they are!" Ryan jumped up and grabbed Megan by the collar with her good hand. Traci pulled her off.

"Let's take a break. Let's just take a quick break," Traci said.

"Fine!" Ryan stomped out of the room.

In the hallway, she called Brandon on her cell phone. "Brandon, I need you to find a link between Stapleton and Perik. She's his niece. I need you and Marc to find me something. Find it fast. What if it's a family property? Yeah…yeah. Their lives depend on it. Let me know as soon as you have something. Maybe we'll get lucky. Thanks."

A/N: If Mac seems familiar to some of you, she is in fact from Waking Up. I just love her. Thanks again to Bailey for being beta. Please let me know what you think about this chapter, good or bad.