SuDo Madhouse Chapter 26: Bear Case 2, a person of interest fanfic

SAMEEN SHAW POV

A sudden intake of air as Sameen gasps for air, cause her to cough. Sameen snaps her eyes open, only to see the world is upside down; it's dark and the only light source is outside?. Her hands are dangling down, as if she's being lynched up to be butchered. Her entire body feels sore, and a massive fucking headache.

Where is she?

Looking down -up?- she sees she's being held in place by a seat belt… She's in a car?

What the fuck happened?

…

Then memories of what happened hit her like a train hitting a wall. John was driving the car while she's at the back and that 'unconscious' asshole was sitting in the front. Everything was going smoothly, they agreed to swap intel and work together, then suddenly out of nowhere the asshole was out of his bindings with his fist flying towards John which instantly knock the former spook out. She was about to go restrain or try to regain control of the situation when the car accelerated, and she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. In a split-second decision, she abandons her initial plan and quickly put on her seatbelt just before the car crashes.

She lets out a groan as a wave of nausea crashes through her system, but she won't let such a stupid feeling slow her down. Looking at the front, she sees John still passed out in the driver's seat but when her eyes drift towards the passenger seat, only to see that it's empty.

Motherfucker…

How long was she out for and how far did that asshole go?

Feeling like there was a fire lit under her ass, she undangles her hand and attempts to unbuckle her seatbelt. After a few attempts at mushing the buckle, she was free from the seatbelt and instantly falls onto the ceiling of the car.

A jolt of pain courses from her head down to her spine, causing her to let out a suffering groan.

"Ugh… that's not going to help with the concussion." Sameen mumbles to herself while she tries to reorient as the headache grows stronger.

Finally attune to her position, Sameen reaches for the door handle and miraculously the car door opens easily. Crawling out of the car, she then rolls on her back to lie on the hard asphalt road in order to catch her breath and to clear this fucking headache.

At least this isn't her first rollover accident, so she knows how annoying it can get. It's just been some time since then…

As she lay there, a potent scent fills the air, causing her to tilt her head at the origins and what she sees…

"Fuck." She mutters as she looks at the gas leaking out from the car and when she looks at the front of the car, she sees that by some divine intervention it's still running. "Double fuck."

With a push, she quickly gets up, and instantly a wave of grogginess hits her. If it she didn't instinctively brace herself on the upside-down car, else she would have collapsed, which would have suck. Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea for her to jump up from the prone with her fucking concussion.

Sameen takes tentatively forward away from the car to test her stability and finds it good enough even if she feels like she's just drank 10 shots of tequila. God, she could go for a drink right now. After a few steps away from the car, she feels comfortable enough with her current state that she can pursue that asshole, and just a few yards away from the crash site, there's a fresh-looking car for her pickings.

Just as she's halfway towards the car, a small voice in her head told her to look back at wreckage. Turning back, she sees that John is still unconscious in the car with a puddle of gas surrounding the car.

The chances for the gas catching fire from the expose engine are quite low… but she can't leave John unconscious in there and there's still a small risk that something might light up that gas.

Yet… turning back towards her new self-designated transportation, she can't let that asshole get away. This is the closest thing to a breakthrough in her pursuit of the fucker that's been a plague to the country and from everything she's gathered, he fucking knows who Pauling is.

But… John saved her life once, and it's a dick move to not do the same for him…

Fuck it.

Doing a complete 180, Sameen marches back towards the wreckage. When she reaches the driver's side, she looks down and there's already gas on where she's standing. Gotta be a bitch to remove the smell, or maybe she'll just toss this away later.

She quickly pulls open the car door, not wanting to stand here longer than needed. Kneeling down, she gets to a position where she won't get hit when an unconscious John eventually falls on to the ceiling of the car. Putting her finger on the man's neck, she feels a steady pulse. Well, steady enough for someone hanging upside down.

Like seriously… how the hell is he still out of it? He can't be that older than her. Sameen looks at John's face and slaps it, which didn't incite a single reaction. On second thought, he might just be old.

With her thumb on the seat buckle, she puts as much force as she can and after a few seconds; the buckle budges and John falls down headfirst onto the ceiling. John lets out a suffering groan and his eyes open slightly.

Oh fucking, finally he wakes up. Just needed a nice bonk on that thick skull of his.

She positions her hands on John's armpits and with every strength she has; she starts to pull John out of the wreckage. Dragging the drowsy man by his ass through the puddle of gas.

"God, you're heavier than you look." Sameen comments as she tries to fall on the ground, because she really doesn't want to change her clothes.

"Shaw?" John drowsily asks. "Why are you dragging me?"

Can't believe the dude's volume can go lower than his normal one.

"Why the fuck do you think?" Shaw retorts as she rolls her eyes. "And I fucking told you so. If you had just gave me the keys, we wouldn't be in this mess."

John doesn't reply as his head tilts to his side as if…

"Oi you dick, you better not go back to sleep." Sameen mutters as she drags the man up the curb and safely away from the car.

"I'm not." John drunkenly replies.

"Yeah, right you weren't." Sameen says as she comes to a stop and puts John upright onto the wall of some abandoned looking building.

She kneels down in front of John and sees a man that's clearly got fucked by that crash. The former spook's eyes are unfocused, and he keeps on closing it as if it would clear his eyesight. Yeah buddy, you really have a bad concussion, but nothing like a good ice pack wouldn't help. God, she wishes she has one for herself right now.

Giving the former spook a quick check to see if there's any other injuries and finds nothing except some superficial wounds as well as that small gash on John's temple. That asshole must really have a mean right hook.

Just as she finishes her quick triage, the sound of multiple sirens echoes off in the distance. Honestly, she expected them to come faster, but maybe the crash fucked up her internal clock a bit and she wasn't out for as long as she thought she was. That means that asshole can't be that far ahead.

"Guess we're even now." Sameen pats John's shoulders, then slowly gets up from her kneeled position and turns around. She needs to get to that car before the police comes.

"Shaw… wait." John's regains his normal volume but still sounds like he's drunk.

Sameen just ignores the man and continues to walk away towards the car. If he's anything like how he was before, she has a feeling that she'll meet John soon anyway. Once she reaches the car, she quickly unlocks it with the tool she always has on hand and enters the car.

After a few seconds of attempting to hot-wire -the fucking headache really doesn't help-, the car finally comes to life just as an ambulance reaches the scene of the crash. Not wanting to linger any more than she needs to, she quickly puts the car into gear and drives away, leaving the scene of carnage behind her as more emergency vehicles arrive.

Now that all of that distraction is behind her -if only she could leave this fucking headache behind as well-, she needs to track down that asshole again. Good thing she won't be starting from starch again like two days ago, and she just knows the right places for her to check out.

Sameen needs to get there on the double, not just to catch up with him, but because the places were registered under one of his other names and his employers just fucked him right up in the ass.

She can't help but wonder if she could feel sympathies, would she feel sorry for the asshole? They do share the same experience of being fucked by their bosses…

… Nah. The asshole works for a terrorist, and karma is a bitch.

Knowing that the man clearly had training, the first thing he's going to do is to regroup and where better to regroup than his second house not far from that big ass house of his. She quickly changes gear and speed through the neighborhood -though she sometimes still follows the traffic rules, can't have some cop stopping her- towards Queensboro Hill.

Not sure how long it took her to reach this place, she brings the car to a screeching halt just in front of the nondescript house… well, nondescript compared to that other house, at least this blended in with the other houses, even if the other houses are duplexes.

Not bothering to turn off her car, she jumps out of the car -making sure to not fall- with her H&K USP in hand and sprints the short distance to the door. With her left hand, she feels the door and finds that it's unlocked. Bingo motherfucker.

The fucker might be inside.

Bracing herself onto the railing, Sameen kicks open the door and bursts into the living room. Only to find that it's empty, but that doesn't mean the asshole isn't here. So, she starts going through the ground floor, passing by the multitude of pictures of the man when he was younger -like a decade or more younger- with some girls.

What is this place? Is this a side house to drag girls into? Can't be dudes love to show off their shit whenever they can, and bringing girls back here doesn't jibe with that. Is it some kind of memory hole or something? When she found out about this place, she thought it was just some shitty weekend house because it's near to the golf course. Not that she knows if he golfs, but he's a rich asshole, and they all play golf.

However, seeing this place… it meant something more to him. What does it mean to him? She has no clue, seeing that she doesn't understand sentimentalities.

With the ground floor done, she climbs up the stairs and starts scanning the floor. As she goes through the room, she finds the place getting weirder… there's a kid room, but she didn't see any pictures of any kids downstairs… unless it was those girls? Then there's a room where a teen clearly lived in, but a teen who lived like in the late 90s and the place is frozen in time.

Did the asshole have kids? Nothing she dug up showed anything of the sort… Ah, this isn't important. What's important is finding where that asshole.

Finally, she reaches the last door of this floor, and without losing balance; she kicks down the door, revealing the master bedroom with a king-size bed. With her gun raised up, she quickly searched through the largest room in the house. The décor gives out 90s to early 2000s vibes, like most of the house.

Fuck… he's not here.

The front door was unlocked; that could only mean the asshole just dropped by for a second before fucking off. He can't be more than ten minutes ahead of her right now.

Sameen lets out an annoyed sigh and looks around the average size master bedroom, checking if she missed anything that could lead her to the asshole. She comes to a stop by the night table where there's a frame. Picking it up, she sees that it's a picture of a young Gary in uniform and a smiling woman by his side.

He must have had a family in the past if the other two rooms told her anything, and by the lack of them in his life right now, they must be dead. An interesting piece of information about the asshole that she can use in the future, but it doesn't help with her current predicament. Putting back the frame where it belongs, Sameen exits the room as her brain tries to think about where to go next.

Just as she's halfway down the stairs, a muffled sound of someone walking forces her to a stop and instantly draws up her pistol.

Can't be that asshole, can it? Wouldn't make sense if he's already been here. That only means it's someone from the CSS coming here to finish the job.

Fuck… she won't have the element of surprise because of her car. Guess it's down to who's faster with the trigger and this fucking concussion won't be helping her in the slightest. If she heard it right, the sounds came from the kitchen and whoever that's in there wouldn't hear her steps. All those months of training by Hersh permanently changed how she normally walks.

She continues her way down the stairs, this time making sure to be as silent as possible. Reorienting her to make sure that she has the best sight on the interloper before they can even react. At the corner of her eye, she spots the front door was slightly open, and she's certain that she had closed the door after kicking it open.

Sameen finally reaches the bottom of the step with her body at a slight angle to give her the best shot and she softly pulls the trigger the moment she sees a movement in the shadows.

BANG

Less than a second after her shot, she hears the person crashing onto the counter, causing cups to fall down and making more noise. Spurred by the sudden rush of adrenaline, she rushes forward to the interloper with her pistol still aimed at the person. Really should have turned on the lights earlier, at least she would have a better view of what's going on.

As she reaches the interloper, she notices the body is too small to be a man and the way she's slumping on the counter is suspicious. Not wanting to take the risk or generally wasting time, she aims at the woman's knee and takes a shot.

The woman screams in pain as she collapses onto the floor, revealing that she's holding a pistol in hand. Taking a step forward, she kicks away the pistol from the interloper. Looks like she hit the bitch on the shoulder, entering from deltoid and exiting just before the neck. She's lucky to be alive. Though, it doesn't change the fact that it sucks to be her right now.

The woman is desperately trying to stem the bleeding from her shoulder and at the same time glaring at Sameen. She gave the woman a quick assessment of her wounds and her gear. The stuff she's carrying is discrete, the undershirt vest, no tactical gear or bulky shit. One would think she's an undercover cop or something. As for wounds…

"You're going to bleed out if you don't get help soon." Sameen casually tells the woman as she continues to point at her. "So do us both a favor and answer my question. Who sent you?"

The woman didn't say anything as she continues to glare at Sameen and spits on the floor.

Heh, if the bitch had done it to any other person, they would have just shot her there and then for that sign of 'disrespect'. However, if this is like the fuckers from the past…

"Did Pauling send you?" Sameen asks with a smile on her. At least she finally has a name to put on the black hole.

As usual, the woman doesn't say anything to her, but the look on her face slightly changed from contempt to one of confusion -if Sameen wasn't trained on spotting these minute details, she wouldn't have spotted the change-.

That's not a reaction Sameen was expecting…

"Did the collective sent you to kill Gary?" Sameen asks the woman whose blood is now pooling on the floor.

There's the reaction Sameen was expecting. The look of recognition and slight smugness, despite her situation.

"You have no idea what kind of power you're dealing with." The woman finally breaks her silence with a defiant tone.

She can't help but shakes her head and reply with. "You're the one that doesn't know a thing."

This bitch really doesn't know anything if she doesn't know who Pauling was. Either she's new or she really down the totem pole. Hell, she might even be some kind of hired gun for all she knows, but that isn't important right now and this is wasting time.

Also, this woman must be alone if there's no one barging in from all the commotion…

"You know, they'll kill you later, right?" Sameen comments before stomping on the bitch's wounded knee, causing her to scream in pain, can't take the chance of this bitch following her. "I've seen it way too many times."

Sameen turns around and quickly walks out of the building. As she exits the house, she instantly spots another car. That must be the bitch's car, and it confirms her assumption that the would-be assassin came alone. Raising her pistol up, she squeezes the trigger.

BANG

The tire of the car deflates, causing the car to sag onto one side. A bit overkill, seeing how fucked up her wounds are, but better to be safe than sorry.

Just as she was about to get in her stolen car, she came to a full stop. If that bitch had two brain cells, she would have put a tracker somewhere on the car. Sameen should check for it, but time is a luxury, and she can't waste it.

Screw it. Those fuckers should be on their way to the other place and if they want to chase her, so be it. She needed an outlet for the past three years of bullshit. Shooting people has always been satisfying, and that's just more people for her to shoot at.

Putting peddle to the metal, Sameen speeds through the winding streets of the Queens suburb and onto the parkway towards her eventual destination: Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

With a lot of concentration and ignoring the thumping feeling in her head, she reaches and parks her car parallel to the location without killing herself in the process. Just across multiple rows of train tracks lies a row of old derelict-looking buildings but still occupied with dim lights shining out of the windows, that used to be part of the Bush Terminal and if she remembers right, just behind these sets of buildings are the old half sunken piers. It must be a weird sight for others to see how these four sets of buildings are the only ones that look disheveled compared to the building complex of the former Bush Terminal, but not to her.

These buildings are owned by Gary, but not in the most direct sense of the word. When she dig into his many identities, she found out a 'familiar' name and a 'familiar' company. A name that she saw before when she followed the paper trail that led her to that dead end in Philly. It really pissed her off when she found out about that connection. If she wasn't so focused on that scarred woman, she would have gotten to this asshole before shit hit the fan and things would have been so much easier.

But nooo… shit must always be difficult when it comes to this group of assholes.

Pistol in hand, Sameen gets out of the car and sprints cross the rarely used train tracks. She comes to a stop as her body leans onto the wall beside a door into the building, feeling slightly light-headed, but nothing too bad.

There are four buildings that the asshole might be in and she's at one of the inner two buildings. One in four is good enough odds in her books. Gingerly with one hand, she opens the door while her other hand is raised up, ready for anything. The moment she enters the dimly lit lobby and scans the area for any threats, before continuing.

God, this place is a dump. It's a miracle she didn't encounter a junkie the moment she opened the door. There is trash and paper strewn about on the floor. The furniture looks like it could collapse with a small push, as if that asshole had purposefully left this place to wither away…

Ah, that asshole… he did this so no one would go too deep into this building where he must have kept his stuff if shit hits the fan. There must be something else further in the building to deter any urban 'explorers', unless, of course, he's a dumbass. Not something she would discount if he put his contingency shit here where he knows his employers know.

He needs to be here…

There were multiple cars in the parking lot, and she bet that those fuckers in the collective have already sent someone here. Just as she was about to continue on from the lobby, she noticed a disturbance in the clutter on the floor.

It might be nothing, hell some critter might have done it, but she has a feeling that's been forged by years of experience that tell her. Someone was here recently…

BANG

Instantly, she can feel her perception becoming more heightened as her head, along with her pistol, snaps at the doorway towards the sound of the gunshot that echoed out from deep inside the building.

BANG

Someone IS fucking here.

Without a single ounce of hesitation, Sameen sprints out from the lobby and towards the gunshot, but that didn't mean she'll let anyone catch her off guard.

BANG

Someone really is having a fun time in this dimly lit shithole. Sameen continues her stride with her pistol raise up, however her pace slowed down slightly after she passed by row after row of room, up two flights of staircase, and corridors when she spots something curious off at the next door she has to pass.

It's a device… it's similar to the ones she disarmed at Gary's mansion. If it's similar, then… Sameen peers into the other side of the door.

Yup, it sure is.

In front of her are wires that's attached to a battery which itself is connected to a large bank of capacitors that's attached to the door frame. Someone would have gotten the shock of their lifetime if it was armed. This tells her that the asshole is here and not a total dumbass.

BANG

Fuck, she doesn't have time to waste. So, she sprints forwards again. This time she doesn't stop as she passes by dismantled traps after dismantled traps, but that doesn't mean she didn't take note of the traps as she passes by -it's no fucking wonder why no one is here, the combination of these traps and the fucking maze of a building layout-. One after another, each trap becomes more elaborate the deeper she went, and each trap was 'carefully' disarmed without triggering it.

She can't tell why, but she feels like she's getting nearer.

BANG

And as if God was telling her she's on the right track. After going through a nondescript door unlike the other trapped doors previously into a rather large space, she spots bullet casings by the doorway… rifle casings and at a glance; she knows it's a 5.56 casing. The fuckers must really want Gary dead. That only lights a fire in her as she sprints even faster than before, following the bullet casings and bullet holes on the brick walls, as well as the other miscellaneous things.

BANG

Her breathing starts laboring as she comes to a halt after another door when she spots blood on crates a few paces away from the door… and a blood trail that's going away from the door. The asshole is bleeding and from the amount of blood, it's not a superficial wound.

Oh fuck no, those fuckers don't get to kill him before she gets what she wants from him, not after everything she's been through to get to this point. In an almost fanatical zeal, she sprints forward.

CRACK

BANG

CRACK

BANG

They're close, she can hear they're not far… and one of them has a suppressor. As she sprints the final distance, she notices the blood trail never lets up and the amount of blood is constant. Bet it's a fucking gut shot. Good thing that's survivable…

BANG

CRACK

There, just beyond, that opened door. She steadies her breathing as she runs through the door with her pistol up, entering a large storage area and the first thing she sees is a guy in all black kneeling with a rifle aiming down onto the other side of the room while taking cover behind some wooden boxes.

Barely a second pass after she registers that the man in black is the threat when she pulls the trigger as she aims at the threat's head and in a blink of an eye, the threat is down for the count. Just as her eyes look away from the dead to start scanning for the asshole…

BANG

The bullet hit the wall less than a foot away from her position and instantly she dives towards the cover the dead guy was using -and making sure she isn't sitting on blood or brain matter-. Her eyes curiously wonders towards the dead guy's rifle and see that it's a modernized AUG -odd choice- with a sick ass can on it. She shouldn't get distracted by shiny things and needs to get a handle on the situation.

"OI, Asshole!" She yells to get his attention. "I just saved you!"

How a change of circumstances changes everything. Just a week ago he is the enemy, but that doesn't mean she'll be friendly with the asshole either, seeing he works with fucking terrorists.

A few seconds passes by before the asshole replies with a, "Fuck You!"

BANG

This time, the bullet whizzes just above her head and hits the wall opposite of her, causing a spike of annoyance. This ungrateful…

"Motherfucker." Sameen whispers to herself before yelling. "I just killed the asshole who tried to kill you. You dickhead!"

Several seconds pass by in silence. Well, he didn't shoot back instantly… that's progress. If only she had a mirror or a piece of metal to help her peek over the edge.

"You're bleeding and you will go into shock any time now. I can help you!" Sameen yells again after several seconds of silence.

Again, there's no instant response and only after thirty seconds, the asshole yells back. "Why the fuck should I trust you?!"

Sameen rolls her eyes. She can just wait for him to pass out, but that can happen anywhere from now to thirty minutes and she doesn't have all day. Also, she doesn't want to get this dead asshole's blood on her clothes -because that's going to be fucking annoying to clean off if it dries- and the longer she's here, the higher chance that's going to happen.

"You don't!" Sameen replies. "But you don't have much choice!"

A minute passes by before the asshole breaks his silence. "How do I know this isn't some trick you fuckers are trying to pull?"

She lets out a sigh of frustration. Swear to God…

"Do you want me to wave this asshole's dead body for you to see?!" Her eyes went back to the dead dude, and that sparked an idea in her. "Wait, a second!"

Maneuvering slightly, she bends down to unclasp the dead dude's helmet -making sure to avoid the brain matter- and grabs the tricked-out AUG.

"Here!" Sameen tosses the rifle and the bloody over the crate onto the other side. After the loud sounds of the items impacting the floor, she continued. "Convinced yet, dickhead?! As much as you're an asshole, I don't like the fuckers who're planning to kill you more!"

Another minute passes before the asshole yells. "Toss your gun away!"

"Like hell I am!" She instantly retorts and then lets out an unamused snort. "You're the asshole that shooting at me! How about you throw that gun away?!"

God, how the fuck does John constantly do this? If everyone is like this dude, it's a miracle that John doesn't put a bullet in at least one of his numbers. Because she really feels like shooting this guy now.

"Ain't gonna happen!" The assholes shout back, but this time there's a slight waver in his voice.

Is the dumbass just letting himself bleed out while they're having this stupid shouting match?

"Look, this isn't going anywhere. We're both not going to disarm and you're fucking bleeding out!" Sameen tries to reason with the dumb motherfucker. "How about you stop being a fucking dumbass and let me help you?!"

After what it feels like an eternity of silence that descended in the room with the only sound she can hear was her labored breathing, the asshole finally replied. "Fine!"

With that, the annoyed tension that's in her let up as she loosened her shoulder slightly.

Gary continued. "Come forward with your hands up and your gun in your hand pointing up!"

That's good enough. With the asshole's blood loss, she'll be faster than him anyhow, but it's still fucking risky as fuck.

"Alright, I'll fucking kill you if you shoot at me again! I'm coming up!" Sameen gives Gary the heads up as she does as instructed and gets up from her position.

Instantly, as she got up, she could see where Gary had set himself up. It's roughly 50 paces away from her position on the other side of the room, standing up from behind a low-lying wall that looks like it used to be some office in the middle of the store.

Even from this distance, she can see he looks like shit and as she gets closer, she can see how disheveled he looks. The man is leaning on the low-lying wall to prop himself up. Sweat covers his face as he breathes in deeply, with a slight tremor in his gun wielding hand while the other hand desperately tries to put pressure on the gun wound at the gut -knew it would be a gut wound-. All signs of a person who lost a lot of blood, but his eyes, they are still focused on her like a hawk, along with his finger on the trigger of his compact pistol that's aiming right at her head.

Maybe she won't be as fast as she thought she would be…

Sameen is two paces away from the man when she comes to a stop and annoyingly said. "Are you going to shoot or not, asshole?"

Now that she's closer to the asshole, she can see the extent of the wound. The bottom part of the man's shirt and pants was soaked with blood. Looks like she underestimate the amount of blood loss…

"You… You're that bitch that tasered me…" Gary said dizzily. "Who the fuck are you?"

Despite how he sounds like he's going to pass out any second now, his eyes are still sharp and his grip on his pistol tightens harder.

Sameen rolls her eyes at this display of defiance and slowly lowers her arms -she might not feel fear, but she's not dumb enough to suddenly lower her hands in front of a cornered dog-. Gary didn't do anything as she put her hands on her hips.

"I'm the bitch that's trying to save your life." She says smugly as she slowly creeps forward.

The asshole doesn't look amused by her comment, as his voice is still hard. "Why the fuck did you tasered me?"

Sameen rolls her eyes in disbelief. Is this guy an idiot? And she replies. "Gee, no thanks for pulling you out from that McMansion of yours before being blown up?"

"Bitch, you could have just told me rather than tazing me." Gary instantly retorts back, and his pistol is still trained on her.

She can't help but let out an unamused snort and replies. "Like you're going to believe a stranger that just barged into your house saying that it's going to explode. So, tazing you was the easiest option, but you just went and fucked it all up by crashing the car like some dumbass. Now you're bleeding out here and have no idea if the collective is sending more assholes."

Gary pauses for a moment as if she had just knocked his head with a hammer and all the while, his body involuntarily shakes harder. The guy is going to go into shock any time now.

After what feels like minutes, the guy lowers his pistol and says. "That bitch can't have done this… she wouldn't. It can't be that… This must be the fuckers who crashed the market. They're attacking us through me." His voice continues to waver as he mumbles away, but there's a sharpness in it.

Is the dude really in denial on who's trying to kill him?

Sameen quickly holsters her pistol as she walks up to him to check on his wound and asks. "That bitch?" Sameen has a feeling she knows who he's referring to.

She removes the guy's hand from the wound to get a better look and sees that blood is dark red as it continues to flow out at a constant rate. A venous bleeding, the bullet must have nicked it, not the worst but not the best either. Looking at the other side of the wound, she can see an exit. Sameen removes her jacket and tears out the arm to make a makeshift bandage to apply on the wound. She really should carry some gauze on her at all times. Shit would have been handy in the past few months. God, she would kill for some Israeli bandages right now.

Looks like Gary came out of his stupor when she tightens the 'bandage' knot and says. "She's…"

But before Gary can continue, Sameen hears footsteps coming from the door where she came from and her instincts snap right into action. Bringing the tall idiot down with her onto the other side of the low-laying wall.

The moment they hit the floor…

CRACK

Bullet impacts on the opposite wall, causing small flacks of brick and concrete to sprinkle on her. Sameen pulls out her pistol and blindly shoots over the low wall, and while she's doing that, Gary chuckles.

"Am I missing the joke?" Sameen asks, slightly pissed off as she gets into a better position so she can actually aim her gun and fires at the intruder, causing the guy to duck behind the cover she used previously.

CRACK

He stops his chuckles momentarily. "If you're the one that's saving me, who's going to save you?" He says mirthfully and chuckles again.

Sameen stares at him with a raised brow. This dude is totally off his rocker and she's not sure if it's the blood loss or if he's always like this. She really hopes it is the blood loss that's talking, if it isn't he's going to be fucking annoying.

Just as she was about to clap back at the idiot…

BANG

After the second shot, she hears a soft thud of a body hitting the floor. Huh… could it be…

In a rush of movement, Sameen gets up from her cover. If needed, she's ready to put a bullet at the new interloper and see a familiar face by the door.

"Hey Shaw." A smirking John says as if he isn't surprised by her presence while he aims his pistol in her direction but not at her. "We really should stop meeting up like this."

A smirk grew on her as she stared at John. Knew they would meet up again, but she didn't expect him to be this quick. Did he follow her here after getting away from the EMTs and cops from the crash? No… four eyes must have found out about this place, just like she did.

"John." Sameen casually greets back. "Head still spinning?"

"Nothing a bit of Tylenol won't fix." John answers with a small smile and lowers his hand as he decocks his pistol. "Can I come forward or are you just gonna continue to point that gun at me?"

She needs all the help she can get. Lowering her pistol, she then nudges a bit and says. "Sure, better two guys with a gun than one. And you don't happen to see more of the goons coming, did you?"

"I…" John was about to say something as he's halfway to her position before being cut off.

"No! Who the fuck are you?" Gary says wildly as he tries to get up from his slump position.

Huh… been wondering why he's quiet since John came in. He must have lost focused…

John smiles in Gary's direction as the injured man grabs the top of the wall to pull himself up.

"A concerned third party." John quips lightly as he raises his hands up slightly to show that he means no harm.

If only John had said that cheesy line when they first met, then maybe she wouldn't have shot him in the first place. Maybe…

Gary finally gets up from his slumped position with the support of the low-wall and points his pistol at John as he says. "You're that asshole that I punched in the car. You kidnapped me!"

"That was more of her idea." John retorts softly with a grin and points at her. "And it isn't kidnapping if it's helping you."

Sameen lets out a snort. "That was totally kidnapping John."

"Semantics." John slyly as he gives Gary his winning smile and nods to the man. "Just like her. I'm here to help you. Though my motivation might be simpler than hers."

"Fuck you, John." Sameen amusingly interjects with a slight grin on her.

John ignores her while he continues to look at Gary with that smile of his. "I'm guessing that your employers weren't too happy with you losing a lot of their money and having two people helping you increase your odds of surviving."

Guess John and four eyes found out about CSS as well, which kinda annoys her slightly. Took her three years to get to this point while captain America, with the help of his sidekick, figured it out in just two days. They really have it easy with Research giving them Gary's name… but… why didn't Research gave this asshole's name to ISA?

"Day just keep getting better." Gary mirthfully says as he lowers his pistol. "I'm fucking losing it if I need to rely on two dim-witted strangers."

Sameen turns to face the asshole and glares at the bleeding man. "Yeah? At least I'm not fucking dumb enough to work for a national criminal conspiracy that regularly commits terrorist acts."

Gary squints at her as if she's an idiot. "What the fu…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the sound of a cell phone ringing cut him off. Sameen's glances at John who's standing -he must have made his way here while she was busy with the asshole- beside her and answering the phone.

John instantly frowns the moment the phone touches his head and turns to the both of them. "We have company."

Well, that's annoying…

She stares at John as his face hardens and the both of them bring their pistol up again. Looking at Gary, she can see he's still panting, but his eyes are still sharp with him focusing at the door again. Her eyes slightly glance to the other side of the room, where there's a window to the outside.

Something doesn't feel right… her eyes darts between the window and Gary.

She lets her instinct take hold of her movement and says. "Get down!"

Not more than a second later, the sound of glass cracking and a very distinct sound of multiple bullets hitting a wall.

Gary groans in pain beside her from the sudden movement downwards. Good, the dumbass wasn't hit.

Her sights now are on John, who looks at her with a form of wonderment and quips. "First it's the house, now this? If I don't know better, I'll say you're lucky, Shaw."

"More like I've been through this shit before." Sameen retorts as she crawls to the edge of the wall to get a better look at where that shot came from. She sees multiple holes in the window. The sniper must be at the building across the rail tracks.

"See anything?" John asks her as he crouches beside her and gives Gary the odd glances to make sure he's okay.

Sameen shakes her head. "No… I hope you got a plan to get out of here."

Because they're kinda fucked if they don't. With a sniper providing overwatch, their chances of living through an assault by multiple boogies are quite low.

RING RING

Both of them give each other a look saying it's not their phone before snapping their heads towards Gary, who's still groaning but is slowly reaching into his pocket.

"You seriously still have your phone on you?" Sameen says in dumbfounded disbelief. "No fucking wonder they know where you're at."

"Fuck you… I forgot it was on me." Gary replies as he takes out his phone and gives an odd look when he sees the screen before putting it on the speakerphone.

"Hey Gary…" A female voice echoes out from the smartphone.

"I'm fucking busy right now, Alison." Screams into the phone with vigor that has been absent since Sameen been here.

John gives Gary a knowing look, while Sameen rakes her brain, trying to figure out who that is. Alison… isn't that the secretary?

"Yeah, I know you're busy right now…"

"Then why the fuck are you calling me right now?" Gary cuts the woman off.

Sameen and John give each other a look that basically says this guy an asshole before John casually shrugs.

"Christ, I can't believe I had to work under you for months, but the payoff will be sweet when I kill you."

Huh…

"What?" Gary says with a dumb look on his face.

"Yeah, I can see you hiding behind that wall with those two new friends of yours. I wonder who they are. Not that it matters, they are going to die anyway for interfering with the firm's termination of your contract and you know how the big boss is obsessed with people following the firm's policies."

Looks like we know who's the sniper now, but if she can spot her, they might have a better chance of getting out of her sights.

"The firm?" John asks no one specifically as he peeks over the wall to see the sniper.

Of course, a group of people who call their criminal organization a consultancy service would call themselves the firm. What a bunch of dorks. Albeit it's a bunch of dorks with a lot of power and guns.

"Termination?" Dumbly asks, as he continues to stare at the phone, totally consumed by that small device.

A bit slow on the uptick, isn't he?

"Yeah, your services are no longer needed by the firm and the boss gives her regards."

The moment Alison ended the call, Sameen hears a torrent of steps coming from the door and a second later multiple suppressed shots echoes inside the room.

Sameen and John quickly return fire at the incoming threats, but they can't get any good shot without getting their heads blown off by the sniper. While all of that is happening, the asshole still dumbly stares at his phone. It's like being fired from his job was more of an earth-shattering revelation than being actively targeted for an assassination.

The dude really needs to get his priorities straight.

"We're in a bit of a pickle, aren't we?" Sameen quips at John, who continues to provide cover fire as she reloads her pistol. "Hope you got a plan out, because mine involves us shooting ourselves out of here and we don't have enough ammo."

She could feel a smile forming on her lips. Nothing like the smell of gunpowder in the air and a fresh gunfight to get rid of the lingering effects of her concussion.

Inserting the fresh magazine into her pistol, she slides out of cover to shoot at one of the black clad dudes, but she misses her shot by a few inches, causing the guy to dive for cover.

John gets back into cover to reload while she continues to fire at the assholes and he says. "Yeah, Finch is working on something."

Of course, four eyes was working on something…

"Well, he better work fast because we don't have infinite ammo here." Sameen gets back into cover to reload.

By her count, there's 8 fuckers with full gear coming to get them and they aren't fucking chumps like the previous three. The only saving grace is this room; the shit in the room basically makes this into fucking corridor. They don't have much option of moving forward without getting hit and team whatever the fuck this is, can't get a better shot with that sniper overlooking them. So, it's a fucking stalemate until she and John run out of ammo.

After reloading, she gets back into position and shoots at the fuckers. In hindsight, it might not have been the smartest decision for her to throw away that AUG. That shit would have been really useful right now.

"We need to get to the ground floor." John ducks beside her again to reload. "Finch found a way for us to get out."

At the sound of her pistol clicking, she ducks back to reload again. She's burned through three megs and hasn't taken anyone down yet. Now she's down to 2 megs… "Yeah? How do you expect us to do that? These assholes are blocking the path to the stairs."

"Finch couldn't get the latest version blueprint of this building, but I'm sure our friend here made some alterations to the building." John's voice is still cool as ice as he points at the unconscious dude that they're trying to save, who's still has his phone in his hand.

Oh right, the asshole has a gun. Well, that solves her current supply issue. She tosses her gun and spare megs to John. "Make sure they don't get closer."

John wordlessly nods and gets back to shooting at the goons while she crawls to Gary and strips the guns & ammo from him before slapping his face. Not medically the best way to wake up someone unconscious from shock, but shit usually works.

After several satisfying smacks on the asshole's face, he finally wakes up. "Stop fucking hitting me, bitch." He mumbles incoherently.

"Well, you better wake up if you want to live, asshole." She gives the man a hard stare as he slowly regains his bearing.

"W-what happened?" The man rubs his face and she can see pain coursing through him at the look on his face. Looks like the adrenaline in his system is gone now.

"You're out of a job, and we have 8 assholes plus your former 'secretary' trying really hard to kill you." She glances at the duffle bag to the side of Gary. How did she miss that earlier? Not that it matters now… "We need to get out of dodge. Is there a way out from here?"

Gary looks around, trying to find something. "Where's my gun?"

Sameen raises the Glock 26 for him to see and says. "Figure I'll be in a better position to use it rather than you. Now. Way. Out."

The guy weakly glares at her before sighing and nods at the end of the room. "Behind that door, there's a room with a hole that goes downstairs."

She nods. "You better walk on your own, because there's no way in hell I'm going to carry your lazy ass."

Gary lets out a groan. "At least carry my bag."

Sameen growls, but doesn't want to argue right now. "Fine…" She turns to John. "We're going to that room."

John gives a quick glance at the door before nodding and taking up the rear guard duty.

She leans over and grabs the duffle bag. "What the fuck do you have in here? A brick of lead?"

"My shit." Gary bites back as he gets into position to crawl to that room. However, when he moves, she can see something bad.

Shit… he's bleeding isn't stopping. They need to get some proper dressing before the guy dies from blood loss.

"Let's go." Sameen says as she pushes the guy forward and follows right behind him as they make their way to the door, all the while avoiding getting hit by the sniper or one of the goons that spot them.

As they get closer to the door, Sameen comes to a full stop and drops the bag.

"Don't fucking drop my bag, bitch!" Gary yells from behind her. He must have made it to the door.

Sameen ignores the guy as she uses a wooden crate as cover. "John, come on!"

The moment John stops firing, she starts providing cover from her position, but it's not the best and slowly the goons come forward from their initial positions.

She gives John a few seconds after he passes by her before disengaging from her position and crawls with the bag in hand to the door while John provides cover fire.

The moment she passes the threshold of the door, John quickly closes and barricade it by dropping the metal shelf that's beside the door.

"Took you long enough." Gary comments as he crouches beside a big ass hole in the floor that's at the back corner of the room.

"Yeah, fuck you too, Gary." Sameen snaps at the injured man before turning to look at a haggard John. "You good?"

John just shrugs as he puts away her pistol -that must have run out of ammo by now- and says. "Been better… we should get going before those guys blast open the door."

No arguments there… they both walk the short distance to the big hole, and she can't help but ask. "Why did you even do this?"

"Because there's only one staircase that leads up here?" He explains as if she's an idiot, which causes her to glare at the man as he continues. "There wouldn't be windows down there, so Alison wouldn't get a shot on us…"

The guy pauses and shakes his head. "Since fucking when did Alison know how to shoot a gun? Ya know, she said she was scared of guns when I invited her to the range a few months ago?"

"Sounds like she's just good at her job." John replies sarcastically.

"Enough talking, princesses." Sameen drops the bag through the hole.

"What the fuck did you just do that for?!" Gary snaps at her.

Sameen smirks at the injured man. "Carry it on your own if you don't want me holding it."

Gary glares and grumbles but doesn't continue his protest as he slides down the ladder, followed by her. The moment her feet touches the lower floor, she hears shooting up above and John quickly slides down the ladder.

"They brought a shotgun." John says cheekily as she knocks down the ladder. "Where to next?"

"Straight down that way." Gary points to the long hallway. "It goes to the bridge that's connected to the other building. From there, we can use the stairs down."

"There's no other way for them to get to this hallway?" Sameen asks as she grabs the duffle bag and all of them move forward hastily.

"Nah, I made this building like a maze, with lots of winding paths, and I'm the only one that knows all the exits." Gary smugly says as tries to keep up the pace while he uses the wall as support.

"Useful." John comments from the front as he appointed himself to take point.

Sameen snorts. "More like insane. Should have invested in a place where your boss doesn't know of."

"You have no clue; it doesn't matter what I buy. Those bitches would always know…" Gary shakes his head. "… I still can't believe she actually fired me, and Alison works for the firm."

"You know, I thought losing all of your money would bother you more than losing your job." John says amusingly, as they get closer to a door at the end of the hallway.

"Of course, I'm fucking pissed that most of my money is gone…" Gary grits his teeth in pain as he retorts. "… but if the collective wants someone dead, they will be dead, because the most important thing is 'customer satisfaction is guaranteed'. So, I'm focusing more on saving my life right now and money later."

Customer satisfaction is guaranteed? Are they running a terrorist organization or a fucking chick-fil-a?

"The collective?" John turns towards them and asks with a frown on his face as they come to a stop by the door.

Huh… he and four eyes don't know about the collective, but know that Gary here works for some kind of organization?

"Later, I'll explain after we get out of this mess." Sameen tells John as she opens the door, revealing the bridge… and there are a lot of windows and not much cover when the goons upstairs comes down.

She shares a look at John and both of them nod; wordlessly understanding that both of them are thinking about the same thing.

Sameen grabs Gary by his shoulder and pulls him down, causing the man to let out a painful sounding "Ow, bitch." She ignores his pain and pulls him forward and the both of them follow John's lead, carefully hiding behind the wall.

After what others would describe, a 'nerve-racking' experience of crossing the bridge and the moment they reach onto the other side. A distinct sound of…

CRACK

"Fuck!" Gary screams as he collapses onto the floor.

John quickly turns around and fires at the other end of the bridge, while Sameen drags Gary into cover so she can safely examine his fresh wound.

Dang… Looks like he's shot at the inner thigh.

With her bare hands, she tears open his trouser to get a better look at the bloody wound.

"I'm like a fucking bullet magnet today." Gary complains through his teeth as he looks down at his thigh.

"You want good news or bad news?" Sameen asks as she tears her sleeve.

"Oh, don't bother…" Gary groans. "… they missed my femoral arteries, but if we don't get out of here soon, I'll die from blood loss or shock."

"Bingo. You want a cookie?" Sameen asks amusingly as she does her best with these shitty makeshift bandages.

God, what she would do just for some iodine, gauze and a CAT tourniquet…

"Hey John!" She yells as she finishes the last knot of the bandage, tightening it as much as she can.

"Yeah?" John asks as he ducks back into the cover and quickly reloads before continue firing again.

"You don't happen to have an IFAK on you?" She asks as she leaves Gary and make her way closer to John.

"Sorry…" John fires a few more rounds. "Wasn't planning on getting shot today."

She rolls her eyes at that statement and gets out of cover to take a shot. "Who fucking plans on getting shot?"

John just shrugs. "Marines?"

"Fuck you." Sameen retorts instantly as she takes another shot and finally hit one of the goons at their unprotected part. "One down, seven to go."

"Great, now we just have to hope our guy here has a stash of ammo somewhere near us." John says glibly as he reloads. "I only got a couple of megs left."

Sameen stops shooting for a second to take stock of what she has. "Got 3 megs left… that's 30 bullets."

They're fucked if they don't get out of here as soon as possible and she's not planning an alamo today.

"Stop firing. Let them come closer." Gary's gruff, weak voice breaks through the sound of the fight.

What… "You're insane, aren't you?" Sameen asks as she stares at the injured man.

"I think the blood loss is talking." John quips as he continues to lay down fire.

"Fuck you both… I wired the bridge to explode… so let them get closer." Gary slowly but struggling to get up.

Now why didn't he just say that from the beginning? Everyone loves explosions.

A grin bloomed on John's face at the word 'explode'. "Now, you're talking at my level. Where's the trigger?" John sounds like a kid finding where the candy is stashed.

Gary finally stands up and points at them. "That light switch."

Both of them look at the innocent-looking switch which is between John and her that's been ignored the entire time.

"I call dibs." John says instantly as his finger moves at lightning speed to the switch.

Sameen just stares unimpressively at the former spook, then looks back to Gary. "Someone might've been searching for the light switch."

"Lights is that one, and it's labeled." Gary answers and points to the other wall across the wide opening.

She gives Gary a 'you're dumb' stare. If there wasn't for the sniper, they could have been on the wrong wall to trigger this? That's just dumb.

"Yeah, Shaw… it says don't turn on here." John comments with a smirk on him.

"How am I the only normal one here?" Sameen shakes her head as she trades places with John. "Trigger it when I tell you to."

She peeks her head slightly out to see if coming forward from the lack of return fire, and predictably they are. Just as the three of the goons are slightly halfway through the bridge, they come to a freezing halt. In a snap of the finger, they turn around and start sprinting backward from where they came from.

How the….

"Do it!" She yells as she quickly gets back behind the cover.

BOOM

In less than a second later, a gush of air and debris fly past the large opening as the entire the entire shakes from the blast of the explosion. Her ears are ringing, and she feels her head is slightly spinning from the impact of the explosion. Plus, her earlier concussion isn't helping.

Taking a second to recompose herself by closing her eyes and taking deep breaths, she then looks at the other two guys. John looks like he had a blast if his wide grin has to say anything -what a pyromaniac-, but overall looks okay while Gary is on his ass again and looks disoriented.

Taking a look out to where the former bridge once stood, she sees the open sky, and a thick dust covered the area, making it impossible to see at the other building. Looking down, she tried to see if she could see any bodies, but with the dust, it was too dark. She could only hope that the blast took out a few of those annoying fuckers, but she'll just assume the worst.

"We need to go now, they knew the bridge was mined …" Sameen says as she walks back to grab the bag and tossing it John, then she pulls Gary up, causing the man to yelp in pain. "…. That blast gonna give us some time, but we need to get downstairs before they do."

"How would they even know that?" John questioned as they make their way through the building as fast as their feet can take them.

"From experience, I'll say that whoever is commanding them knew about the trap." Sameen concludes as they go down the staircase while she's holding Gary up.

"That fucking bitch must have known I wired it up." Gary grunted it out.

"Yeah, you don't say. But how would she know that?" She questions the paling man. "Sure, she knows about this building, but she wouldn't know what you did inside of it."

"How the fuck would I know?" Gary groans as they reach the ground floor. "Fucking upper management always knows shit that people shouldn't know about, and I never really questioned it."

Upper management? They sure are taking that consultancy LARP seriously. Hersh would have loved this shit. Too bad he's a dick.

And that statement jived with what she's experienced in the past… these collective fucks must have their own intelligence gathering arm.

"Hope you have a plan, John." Sameen says after they exit the staircase and enter what looks like a former loading bay of this building.

"Finch has one… we need to get to the basement. There's an access tunnel in there that'll lead us to the get-away car." John takes point as he leads them towards the basement staircase, somewhere in the middle of the building.

"Guessing that this Finch is your boss or something?" Gary asks her in a weak voice.

She glances at the increasingly pale man. It's going to be trouble if he passes out, better keep his mind busy. "Finch is more of John's boss rather than mine."

"Offer is still up if you're interested, Shaw." John comments as they walk through the mazelike hallways.

She snorts at that and says. "Just because we're saving the same dude doesn't mean I'm joining."

"That's how you know about it?" Gary asks as John opens a door to the basement staircase. "Your boss tells you who to save?"

Intuitive asshole, isn't he? At least he doesn't know about Research, and she isn't sure if she's glad about it or not. It tells her that he doesn't know about his organization's deeds. So, what position does he hold? Just handling mobsters, or is he hiding something?

John glances back at Sameen to give her a look before answering. "Something like that."

"I had a friendly chat with Michael Sr. in New Jersey, and he got a message two days ago saying you were no longer his contact with the collective because you were 'retiring'. Of course, I knew that was bullshit." Sameen explains as they briskly make their way through the basement, following John's lead.

"Fucking assholes…" Gary seethe. "… fucking been loyal to the firm for the past 13 years and this is how they treat me?"

"I guess it's the risk of working for a criminal organization." John glibly says while he pries a metal door that says, 'AUTHORIZED PERSONAL ONLY' and reveals another dark dingy empty corridor with pipes going through it.

"We… I ain't a criminal…" Gary weakly protests.

She lets out an unamused snort and says. "Of course, who doesn't have the number for the head of the Jersey City crime family on speed dial?"

"That… I mean we… I'm not… don't do normal criminal shit. We consult those assholes… yeah… in the early years there was more fieldwork involving contract work for them, but most of the shit we've done in the past few years was making those criminal shits better at their job and less public collateral damage." Gary explains between quick breaths.

Contract work? More like plain old murder for hire? What pretentious fucks.

"Is that what your boss been telling you? Or is that what you've been telling yourself, so you sleep better at night?" Sameen growls out her response. "Because you fuckers aren't better than any of those criminals."

"What do you know what we do? Of the things we've done to control those psychotic fucks running around the country. Someone has to keep the chaos in check." Gary's panting keeps getting faster.

Keep the chaos in check? Motherfucker…

Sameen snaps back at the pretentious fuck. "I've seen what you assholes have done and you fucks are just plain old terr…"

"Sorry to break this reverting conversation, but we're here." John cuts her off and opens a large metal door, revealing a dark alleyway with a car standing by. That tunnel must have led them to one of the buildings on the south side of this former terminal complex.

"I'll drive while you patch this asshole up. Can't have you driving since you were shit the last time." She says as she moves out of the service tunnel with Gary by her side and towards a car that's very much started up. Huh…

"Sorry, but Fusco is driving, it's his car." John glances back at her with a small shit-eating grin on him.

"Who the fuck is Fusco?" She asks incredulity then lets out a disappointed sigh. "Fine, I'll take the back seat with this asshole. Can't have him knocking you out again."

"Your choice." John says with a smile as tosses Gary's bag into the trunk and enters the passenger seat.

"Come on, asshole. Take a seat." Sameen encourages him to enter the back seat, resulting in him groaning painfully as he gets into the car.

With him in the car, she closes the door and scans the surroundings for any threat before getting into the car herself.

"That's all? I feel like I'm a taxi service tonight." A man with a thick New York accent says from the driver's seat.

"You must be, Fusco. I've only met one of John's help, and his name is Leon." Sameen smirks at the driver and looks at him through the rearview mirror. The guy is plump, and everything from his hairstyle to the way he dresses, he looks like the stereotypical NYPD detective.

"Better put the pedal to the metal Fusco. If you don't, we're all dead." Sameen adds.

The car quickly speeds out from the alley and towards wherever direction Finch has told Fusco to go.

As Fusco turns the car onto the 1st avenue, he turns to look at John. "You sure know how to pick 'em." He then turns to look at Sameen through the mirror. "And I'm not his helper. I'm a cop!"

She grins… knew it.

The car takes another that goes up onto a ramp onto Belt Parkway. Good, if no one is behind them… looking back, there's no suspicious car. Then it's a straight road to Manhattan using Battery Park Tunnel.

Turning her focus back to the asshole, his face is caked in sweat, breathing keeps getting faster and checking his pulse its… 128 beats per minute. Fuck…

"Hey Fusco, you got a med kit in this car?" Sameen asks as she checks the makeshift bandage on Gary's left lumbar region. Shit is soaked in blood.

"Ahh… try checking under the seat." Fusco points at John.

After a second of fumbling, John passes a bright red medical kit. "Here."

"Thanks." She grabs the bag, which she quickly opens it, but before she can grab anything, she notices the state Gary is in and smacks his face. "Oi, don't fall asleep."

"Fuck you, don't smack me." Gary protests and slightly slurring his words.

That's undesirable.

"You know first aid?" John asks as he looks back at her with a slight frown of concern on him.

Rolling her eyes at John. She spent most of her life learning to be a doctor so… "Yeah, picked up a few things a while back."

Looking back down at the med kit, it's a fully stock kit; CAT tourniquet, angle scissors, lots of gauze, gloves, swabs and even an Israeli bandage, just to name a few.

Grabbing the tourniquet, she quickly undo the Velcro strap and wrap it around the upper part of Gary's right leg. "Hold your breath."

"What… ARGH!" Gary screams in pain as she tightens the tourniquet.

Second turn…

"GOD DAMM."

Finally, the last turn.

Gary groans in pain as he clinches his teeth.

She checks to see if fit a finger underneath that tourniquet… and no, it's tighter than a virgin's asshole.

"Need help back there?" John asks with concern lace in his voice.

Rolling her eyes again. "Don't worry, he's just a big baby."

"H-how about you do it?" Gary pants out.

She gives the man a sweet smile as she wears the latex gloves. "Been there, done that."

"Do you know who those assholes shooting at us were?" She asks, trying to keep the man awake, as she cuts open his shirt and bandage.

"I don't know, never seen them before…. Argh!" He stops talking and his body gone stiff with pain as she stuff his abdomen wound with gauze after dousing the wound with a good amount of iodine.

She continues to pack the wound with gauze despite his cry of agony until she physically can't put more gauze on it. Then she unpack the Israeli bandage and wrap it around the wound.

"How do you not know who those are? You're high up in the chain. Like a capo or something." She asks as she examines the dressing.

"Snort… y-yeah, I'm a capo… what shit is that? N-nah, I've only worked with like 10 people, including those bitches." His voice is getting progressively weaker and his slurring more.

He's going to pass out any moment. At least she's stabilized his wounds for the moment.

Which happened not a second later. The guy needs to drink some water when he wakes up and a blood transfusion; he lost at least a liter of blood at this point.

Not being able to extract more information from the guy, she quickly did the same procedure for his thigh wound. After locking the bandage in place, she removes the bloody gloves and sinks into her seat with her eyes close.

"You good, Shaw?"

Opening her eyes again, she sees the car exiting the tunnel and entering downtown. "Just been a long night… You got some water?"

"Catch." John tosses a bottle of water, which she instinctively catches and takes a drink.

Gulping down the last bit of water, she then asks. "Where's the safe house?"

"Since it's a new place, I've never been there myself, but Finch says it's not far from the financial district." John answers in his usual demeanor.

"I need a change of clothes." Looking down at her torn shirt that's half soaked in Gary's blood.

John smirks at her. "I'm sure Finch has something there."

Glancing back at Gary, she sees the man's head slumps forward, so she brings her hand back to Gary's neck… still alive and pulse still as high as before. She'll make sure he won't die before she gets what she wants from him. After that, it doesn't matter.

"We're here." Fusco says as the car comes to a stop in front of a multistory apartment building.

Looks like this is gonna be home base until shit settles or if when those goons find them again.

Shit… she just jinx it, didn't she?

A/N: Sorry for the late update, been really busy with work. This chapter got way longer than I expected, so I'm breaking the chapter up again. I'm hoping the next chapter will be the last and comes out in two weeks, because I really want to write the following chapters.