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| Fandom: | Houston Knights |
| Series: | Other Authors |
| Rating: | PG-13 Violence |
| Archive: | Starwinder's |
| Title: | Past Meets Present |
| Author: | JoeyPare |
Standard Disclaimer: Houston Knights belongs to Jay Bernstein and Michael Butler and Columbia Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fan fiction, written out of love for the shows. I am making no money off this. I have no money so please don't sue me. Any original characters that may appear in these stories are the property of the author.
Joseph LaFiamma stood on the threshold of the Major Crime Unit Squad room. His day had started at five-thirty this morning but not the way he'd planned. As he was getting ready to go for his morning run, a news report barked disturbing news conjuring up old memories buried deep inside. Instead of running he'd gotten dressed and driven down to Community Medical Center and spent three hours with HPD officers and a surgeon named Joshua Noble.
"Hey, LaFiamma," Estaban Guiterrez chuckled, slapping the ex-Chicago detective on the shoulder, "You going in or out?"
"Out!" Joey replied as he strolled into the squad room.
Joe's blond Texas partner Sergeant Levon Lundy glanced up from his stack of paperwork and stared at LaFiamma. Levon could see the taut lines of tension showing around Joe's jawbone. His nose flared in anger, giving the Texan a feeling this was going to be one hell of a day. "LaFiamma, what's up? You're tighter 'n a banjo string waitin' to be plucked."
Ignoring his partner Joey made a beeline for Lieutenant Joanne Beaumont who was stepping out of her office with an armload of papers. "Lieutenant! I've just come from the hospital ... a case ... HPD has, well, it looks like its going to be transferred to us."
"Case? What case?" Joanne questioned looking from her detective to what she was carrying. Didn't they have enough cases Joe had to bring in another one?
"The victims on the radio this morning ... that HPD found ... the men hovering close to death. I know about them. I saw them this morning. The - the same thing happened in Chicago five years ago. Lost a ... a good friend to this coven ... or cult, whoever they are. They spring up every couple of years. My friend was turned over to them by his own fiancée."
"Coven? What the hell is a coven?" Lundy asked, standing and trailing after his partner.
"Witches," Carol replied cheerfully, passing the pair. LaFiamma spun on his heel, his eyes narrowing, his stare penetrating through her. Carol put up her hands in defense. "I helped my nephew with a school project, Joe," she said. "A witch, I'm not!"
LaFiamma tersely explained how his friend, Sammy Rodgers, had volunteered to help expose a cult operating in the area. How the Feds thought they could finally catch who was behind it, so they implanted a miniature microphone and tracker into Sammy's ear so they could track where he was taken and get to him before anything happened. But they arrived too late. Quietly Joey added, "The nail in his heart was just for show. Tests showed he had twenty drugs pumped into him."
Lundy stared at his partner in disbelief. "Are you serious? What kind of ceremony's that? Who the hell are these people?"
LaFiamma laughed dryly. "These 'people' are you and me, Lundy. Those arrested at the scene were doctors, lawyers, a respiratory therapist - two were cops, a housewife and an engineer! The nail was stainless steel, overlaid in silver, 'bout six inches long, with a T-head."
"Hey, amigo," Estaban interjected. "My countrymen have all kinds of ancient ceremonies and rituals. But I have never heard of anything like this. These victims, you say they are still alive. Well, sort of alive. Drugged .... usually, in my country, they would've been killed."
"The fifth man ... gets that pleasure, Estaban," LaFiamma said tightly, watching Beaumont's face at the revelation.
"Joe, five victims? How bad is this going to get?" She asked, flabbergasted that more people were going to be found.
"I don't know, Lieutenant. Each time they did it in Chicago, it was different. They drugged their victims pretty heavily. Some died from drug interactions when doctors tried to stop the pain the men were in. Others are alive - as vegetables on life support systems. Each and every one had a silver nail in his hip, his thigh and his shoulder. The fifth man gets a nail through his heart."
"Why?" Beaumont asked shuddering as her mind imagined the torturous procedure.
"Don't know. We never found out why they did what they did. I can tell you that the person responsible was never caught... and it's happened in St. Louis, Nashville, and Phoenix since."
++++++++++++++++++++++
Joey stretched out a hand from under his covers groggily feeling around for his alarm. He and Lundy had put in a long day yesterday going over paperwork after Beaumont had been handed HPD's case. Today was Friday. He really just wanted to pull the covers over his head and stay where he was. Against his better judgement he rolled out of the nice warm, inviting bed, and plodded downstairs. Hoping some coffee would help wake him up.
Slowly he poured water into the coffee maker and was just about to turn it on when the phone rang. Or was it the door? He grabbed the phone on the fourth ring. "LaFiamma," he growled. "Yeah... mornin', Lundy ... me too. Just can't seem to get goin' this morning. Hold on, got someone at my door too."
"This early?" His partner asked.
Joe laid the phone on the counter and walked to the door. Opening it he was surprised to find one of the Reisner steno-pool girls standing there. "Deb? What are you doing here so ......"
Her hand streaked out, grasping his wrist. An instant later another woman stepped out of nowhere and pierced a vein in his trapped arm with a syringe, sending a cool liquid directly into his blood stream. LaFiamma looked down at his wrist, then up at her. "What the h---ll?" His voice trailed to nothingness as his unconscious body wilted to the floor.
Lundy's shout came over the phone. "LAFIAMMA! WHAT'S GOING ON? LAFIAMMA!"
Deb stepped over the fallen detective, walked into Joe's apartment and picked up the abandoned receiver. "Morning, Levon," she drawled, "See you tomorrow night." Then this pretty Southern girl from Mississippi gently hung up the phone.
Two men, dressed in black, stood staring down at Joey LaFiamma, nodding to each other they bent down and picked him up, carrying him to the elevator. The woman who had rendered LaFiamma unconscious joined Deb in Joe's kitchen. Taking blood from a vial in her purse she began to smear blood on LaFiamma's kitchen counter, the entryway and the floor. Analysis would later show that it was the blood of a third victim, who had not yet been found.
++++++++++++++++++++
Levon barreled to a stop in front of his partner's apartment. Estaban was out the passenger door taking steps two at a time, matching the Texan stride for stride. Bursting through the first floor doors, Levon started for the stairs.
"Lundy!" Estaban shouted pointing to a smear of blood at the base of the elevator door.
"If they've hurt him..." Levon started the words catching in his throat when the car door opened revealing dibbles of blood inside the car.
Pulling their weapons they stepped cautiously into the elevator car, riding it to the second floor. Their worse fears became a reality as they stepped out of the elevator and moved toward Joe's apartment. Lundy gagged at the sight ... a bloody handprint on the doorframe near the floor. Estaban kicked opened the partially open door to reveal an even bloodier sight.
"OH, MY, GOD!" Lundy gasped frozen at the sight of an overturned bar stool and more blood on Joe's counter and floor.
Sergeant Guiterrez carefully stepped through the apartment to Joe's phone. The Mexican explained what they'd found to Beaumont and that LaFiamma was missing. "And Lieutenant - by the looks of things, he didn't go willingly."
Joanne Beaumont sat on LaFiamma's couch next to her former partner, Levon Lundy. "Why him, Jo? Why me? Why? What'd they hit him with that would splatter blood like that? Damn, we were finally getting it together. Finally getting to work as partners."
The question went unanswered. Joanne had no answer. The only one who had an answer had been taken.
Sergeant Joe-Bill McCandless rushed into the quietness of the apartment, shouting, "LIEUTENANT! HPD just found another victim. This makes number three. He's been taken to the Medical Center too.
"Damn!" Lundy hissed running a hand through his blond curls. "That woman on the phone. The one that hung up Joe's phone - I know I've heard it before -- and LaFiamma sounded like he knew her, too! We got to find out who she is!"
"LaFiamma called Chicago this morning," Joe-Bill cut in, "asking them to send copies of all the paperwork on that case where his friend died. It was being faxed in when I left. I read a couple of pages - LaFiamma's the fourth man taken. In Chicago and Nashville the fourth victim died of his wounds ... blood loss.
++++++++++++++
Joey had no idea how long he'd been out. From the angle of the sun streaming through the skylight above him he figured it was at least three hours. If it was even the same day.
He tried to shift, but found he couldn't, couldn't even flinch. He was spread out like a Christmas angel without the snow. Turning his head, he saw his hand, wrist and arm wrapped in burgundy leather, around a very thin, almost invisible pole. He looked the other way and found his other arm restrained in the same way. His immediate thought was of Sammy, and how he died. Joe tried to lift his head to look down his body, but it was like a lead weight. Even the smallest motion was making him dizzy and nauseous. As best he could, he looked down his body and saw that he was wrapped in burgundy leather with similar poles anchoring his ankles. //The broad with the sweet blue eyes tapped you as number four, Joey boy.//
"Joey?" Debi called softly.
LaFiamma rolled his head slowly toward the sound of his name, and looked into the crystal blue eyes of Debi Rawlins, a Reisner stenographer. She was dressed in a long, flowing, pale lavender gown with a smocked bodice. For a fleeting moment, he thought, man, she's beautiful!
Her hand came up and gently touched his unshaven face, but she stepped back abruptly when his eyes pierced through her, giving her a chill. "It's no use struggling, Joey," she said. "You can't move. Your major muscles are totally immobilized. It's an experimental drug our leader, a doctor, has been working on. I'll be back later, and I'll visit you in the hospital tomorrow."
"You do that, lady. I'll be happy to slap you in irons," Joey said tightly, immediately regretting saying anything as nausea swept over him. He opened his mouth to release what he felt coming up his throat. He fully expected a lizard to come roaring out. //What the hell did they give me?//
"You won't remember, Joey. All that goes on here will be erased from your memory."
LaFiamma listened to the sound of her footstep fade as she walked away. She was right. He couldn't move, his arms and legs refused to respond no matter how hard he concentrated. All he could do was wait.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The Major Crime detectives milling around the squad room were in a macabre mood. It had been three hours since LaFiamma's abduction, and they had no clue how to find him. Lundy paced around his and Joe's desk, his frustration growing with every second. "I can't believe no one saw anything! No one heard anything! I mean - they carried a body out of his building - people were going to work! Those fingerprints - those fingerprints we found have to lead somewhere." He spun around, almost tripping over Annie as she wheeled into the room.
"Come on, everybody," Annie urged. "Sitting around here isn't going to help Joey."
Lundy's temper snapped. "AND WHERE THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO START LOOKIN', ANNIE? WITCHES AIN'T LISTED IN THE YELLOW PAGES, YA' KNOW!"
Annie regarded the worried man with compassion. "I thought you'd be happy to know that the blood in Joey's apartment wasn't his type, and the handprints weren't his either. We got two clear sets of prints -- one off his counter, the other off the doorknob and framing."
"Mighty careless of 'em not to wear gloves. Who are these blood thirsty women anyway?" Levon said settling back into his chair. Adding, "Sorry I yelled. I ain't mad at you Annie."
"They both work here... at Reisner," Annie said sadly. "Debi Rawlins, a stenographer, and Karen Sloan, up in the computer room."
"Joey and Debi were supposed to have a date tonight," Carol "Legs" O'Brien said. "But he cancelled it because of this case."
"Looks like she still got him," Estaban said sourly.
"Debi Rawlins?" Lundy was on his feet again. "Doesn't she have a southern drawl with a twinge of a foreign accent?"
"Yeah," Carol answered, moving over to join he and Annie. "Her parents were in the service in Germany, but they're from Biloxi. She's got a real mix of an accent."
"That's her!" Levon yelped. "The woman that told me she'd see me tomorrow night, then hung up Joe's phone. What time do they get to work?"
Annie shook her head. "I already checked, Levon, they both have today and tomorrow off."
"Hey, amigos. If they stick with the schedule LaFiamma told us about, we only got six hours to find him," Estaban interrupted. "We'd better start truckin'."
+++++++++
Joey opened his eyes when he heard soft footsteps approaching. In a moment four faces were peering down at him, two on each side. He was startled to see Karen Sloan, another Reisner employee, and a new girl from his condo whose name he didn't know. A third was a nurse he knew from the Med Center, and Debi was there, standing next to Karen.
"Sundown already?" he quipped, hoping the bravado didn't sound as false as he knew it was.
The girls graciously bowed to each other and then to him. The nurse opened a small velvet box, handing the contents to Debi. She put the contents of what they gave her into her mouth, then she bent over his shoulders and began to kiss him, as the kiss increased Deb dropped the capsule from her mouth into Joe's.
He couldn't stop the automatic response the act elicited. Why the hell are you opening your mouth, man, you stupid? He chastised himself even as he felt something drop into the back of his throat. He used every effort, every reflex he still controlled, to keep from swallowing it. He worked the capsule up to the side of his cheek.
As Deb draw back from the kiss, the nurse reached out, gently stroking his throat. He swallowed once, than twice, almost losing the capsule he'd trapped between his cheek and teeth. Joe was surprised when Karen and the condo girl each took turns giving him a light kiss. Then the quartet turned and disappeared into the darkness. LaFiamma turned his head and spit the capsule out. I sure hope you know what the hell you're doin', Joseph Anthony LaFiamma, he thought.
+++++++++++++
Lundy and Estaban found that both young women still lived at home. They had no cars. And both mothers claimed that their daughters were at work. In fact, Mrs. Rawlins explained to the two detectives at her door that Debi was working overtime on a big project that was happening over this weekend. That she wouldn't be back home until Sunday night.
"Mrs. Rawlins," Lundy pressed, "do Debi and Karen Sloan ever do things together?"
"Oh, sure, all the time," she replied. "In fact, they've been attending a seminar together. It will help with their jobs Karen said. They've been gone every night this week."
"Do you know where this seminar is being held?" Levon asked, hoping for any possible clue.
"No, but it's probably on her desk calendar. You're free to go into her bedroom and have a look if you want." Deb's mother replied ushering them in the house, pointing the way to her daughter's bedroom.
Levon slowly pushed open the girl's bedroom door. Estaban edged up next to him, saying, "It looks like anyone's sister's bedroom...bed, dresser, desk, pictures on the wall.
"Hey amigo, thought Joe only dated this girl twice." Estaban said pointing to a framed photo of Joe on the nightstand next to her bed.
"That's a public relations picture, Estaban." Lundy said, reaching out to pick it up. "The department makes these up for everyone. It's so Scully can have a picture for the newspapers. I got a feelin' LaFiamma don't know anything about it."
Moving to Deb Rawlins' desk, the two detectives began going through papers and a large white desk calendar. The calendar revealed nothing - it was totally blank. But going through a stack of folders they uncover a red folder with full-length pictures of five men including Joe and Levon. Each picture has holes pierced through various points of the men's body. Lundy's photo was the only one who had a hole in his heart. On the back of each picture was the man's name, where he worked, and a brief outline of his daily schedule. More papers inside explained that they picked their victims at random from various walks of life. Neither detective could find reference to the red star next to Levon and Joe's name.
"These names ... must be drugs ... look ... it says side effects -- convulsions - hallucinations - dizziness - nausea - god, cowboy, these people are insane. They're using real people for experiments. We got to find him Levon, we got to!" Estaban exclaimed abruptly closing the folder and slipping it inside his denim jacket.
"Estaban..." Lundy warned, "we don't have a warrant to take that."
"Listen, amigo, Mrs. Rawlins invited us in! This is all we have, man. You want to find LaFiamma, don't you? This is the only clue so far." The Mexican growled back into the blond detective's face.
Lundy shook his head, he had to agree that Estaban was right. " Time's a'wastin', lets take it and go," he replied stepping back into the hall.
"Mrs. Rawlins, how do Debi and Karen get to these meetings since neither one has a car," Lundy asked re-entering the living room.
Putting down her dusting cloths, the gray-haired woman answered, "Oh, someone picks them up. Last night, it was that nice Nancy Barlow. She's a new doctor -- of infectious diseases -- at the Med Center."
Lundy and Estaban exchanged distressed looks. //Infectious diseases? //
"Why? What's wrong? Has something happened to Debi? Is that why you're here?" The woman asked excitedly looking from one man to the other.
"No, ma'am," Lundy said quietly. "Someone they know didn't show up for work today. So we're checkin' friends and co-workers. Nothing's happened to Debi." //Though if I had my way somethin' drastic would happen to her! //
Back in the Jimmy, Levon grumbled, "Beaumont ain't gonna be none too happy with us bringin' this folder in without a warrant."
"Yeah, well, let her!" Estaban replied, opening the folder after he buckled his seat belt. "We got a list here, cowboy! A list everyone at that 'seminar.' "
+ + ++++++++++++
Joey felt the rustle of cloth, and a hand slid onto his thigh. He opened his eyes, and stared into the face of Doctor Nancy Barlow. She was a short woman, with curly brown hair, and sinister eyes. She twisted the flesh of his thigh in her knuckles, and frowned as a moan escaped from his lips.
"I see Debi's gone soft again. You should not be able to feel that," Doctor Barlow growled.
"Debi passed me the capsule. I just didn't swallow it," Joe said hoarsely. What he wouldn't give for a cup of that coffee he was going to make.
Joe watched as she walked slowly, methodically around him. When she stopped, he knew she'd found what she was looking for. She smiled as she stood up, the prize capsule between her fingers. The expression triggered his memory, and he remembered where he had seen her before - at the Medical Center in surgical scrubs.
Her hand snaked out, sliding along his jawbone, then pressed in hard just below and behind his earlobe. He fought against the pain her fingers caused, but in the end he yielded, opening his mouth. Geez, this woman is stronger than Chicken, he thought as his jaw sprang open. His eyes widened in fear as she deftly pulled the orange and white capsule apart and shoved it deep into the back of his throat with her fingers. The tart tasting powder made him gag.
"I'll deal with Debi later," Barlow said, an evil twinkle in her eye. "She's obviously more sweet on you than she's admitted to us. Perhaps she'll be punished with you." The woman stood back, her hand reaching out to run a finger down his bare chest. "This drug has never been given this way, Sergeant. So what happens to you... we just don't know, but it will be fun finding out."
Her grin gave Joey a chill. He swallowed several times, trying to remove the bitter taste of the powder. His throat was dry, raw. "I could get something to drink...?" he rasped. Her eyebrows climbed slightly. "Right, dumb question." He tried swallowing again, but the back of his tongue was already numb. Must be something in that powder that numbs the brain so you can't feel the pain that's going to be inflicted, but he knew Sammy Rodgers had felt the pain. Everyone who'd worked on the case had heard the tape they'd found. Had heard Sammy's screams ... and that damn chanting ... had heard it in their sleep for weeks!
Joey's eyes surveyed the area. The skylight directly above him showered a circle of light all around the dais that he lay on, but other than that, all he could see was darkness on all sides. He could feel the eyes of someone watching him ... studying him. Joe knew once the sun started to fade the show would start - and he would be the main attraction.
Joey was startled to see Deb returning so soon, and then he saw she was carrying something in her hands. Fear gripped him as she lay a soft white cloth on his mid-section. The coldness of the steel contents through the leather gave him a chill. She stepped back and waited in silence. He could see tears glistening in her eyes, and wondered how she'd gotten involved in all this. He had a feeling she was getting more than she'd bargained for. // Damn, I can't even feel myself breathe! Even Uncle Mikey's more humane than this. //
++++++++++++++++++++
The list had been divided up between Lundy, Estaban, Carol and Joe-Bill. Fifteen people and so far, not one was found at home or at work. Even the Med Center had no additional contact numbers for Doctor Barlow. And it was unusual, they said, for her to leave her beeper on her desk. One secretary said she thought the seminar was near Bear Creek Park from a conversation she overheard.
"Hey, amigo, that APB we put out on the doctor's license plates should start bringing in something soon," Estaban said, watching Lundy pace in one of the Med Center's waiting rooms.
"'Bout the only thing we have left," Lundy grumbled, looking at his watch. "It's damn frustratin', Estaban, knowin' there's not a'thing we can do. Chicken said there ain't nothing on the street about this. Let's hope them cars are all at the same place."
+ + +++++++++
Debi's eyes were locked on Joey's face. She loved his eyes, and wished they were open. A slight moan escaped his lips, and she watched another shiver run down his body. "I'm sorry, Joey," she whispered, "I'm really sorry."
His eyes cracked opened at the sound of his name. His eyes began to focus and Joe stared at her - the girl with crystal blue eyes. Debi had not moved from her spot.
"I'm sorry, Joey. Forgive me, oh, please forgive me," she whispered tearfully.
Joe watched the tears slowly sliding down her cheeks. He wanted to scream at her. He wanted to hug her.
+ + +++++++++++++++++++
Lundy knew time was wasting. They were no closer to finding LaFiamma, than they had been seven hours ago. In all the papers he and Estaban had brought hack, nothing had proven to be the lead they needed.
No way am I goin' ta lose another partner, he thought savagely. Another friend. He blinked. Yes, friend! The revelation of his feelings drew a thin smile from the man. He and LaFiamma were friends!
+ + ++++++++++++++++++++++
Glancing at his watch, the cop from Galveston stood up and adjusted his robe. There was no activity on the police scanner he was manning, and the party was about to start. "Bout time this Yankee cop gets his dues!" The man muttered, opening the door and walking out into the hall. Just as he shut the door behind him, the scanner crackled, and a police cruiser reported a location for several of the cars on the list.
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++++++
A flurry of soft-shoes and the rustling of clothes brought Joey awake fast. He watched several people, male and female, circle around him, faces masked by veils and hoods. He listened as their soft monotone singing began. He had to keep alert. He couldn't let their music lull him into oblivion. It wasn't sundown. Why were they starting early?
Doctor Barlow stepped forward, unfolding the white cloth on his stomach. A fear he'd never experienced before gripped his soul. He stared as Barlow picked up each T-head nail and with grand gestures showed them off to the surrounding crowd. The shiny, silver objects glistened in the sunlight, sending dancing sparkles of light into the darkness beyond them
LaFiamma watched as Debi was motioned forward. Her left hand was positioned on his right shoulder.
"Your gushing love for his man is sickening, Deborah! You shall pay for not being more careful with the capsule. You shall become part of his pain!" Barlow barked indignantly.
"Karen!" The doctor ordered loudly, "Won't you place the first pin?" LaFiamma heard the answering footsteps approach and stop near his left side. Karen's hand rested a hand on his stomach for an instant, then Joe saw her lift one of the steel pins. He watched as she raised it to her chest, then plunged it downward. He felt the pointed pressure of the pin prick the soft flesh of his upper thigh. It pierced his skin, quick and fine, yet his cry was a mere moan, a hoarse gasp of pain.
+ + ++++++++++++++++++++++
Houston cops in SWAT gear milled around the parking lot shared between three office buildings. All the cars from the list were equally divided between each building. No noticeable lights were on in any of the structures.
+ + ++++++++++++++++++++++++
LaFiamma felt like an observer, hovering off to the side, watching the bizarre play unfold around him. Thoughts of his partner flashed through his confused mind. I never got t' tell you, he said silently to the absent man. But I liked being your partner. He watched the girl from his condo step forward. They'd always smiled and said good morning to each other. She delicately picked up a steel pin and moved in next to Debi, who stood trembling next to him. There was a quick flash of steel as the woman plunged it into him, stabbing fire into his side and spattering blood on Debi's dress. The drug had numbed his body, and LaFiamma didn't feel the next steel pin - the one the Galveston cop pick up and plunged into his shoulder. What he heard was Deb's cry of pain and watched her stagger and almost fall. His gaze focused on the expression of horror on her face then followed her pain-filled stare down to her hand.
// OH-MY-GOD! // Her hand was pinned to his shoulder, yet he felt nothing as he looked at it. His blood - was bubbling out and over her hand. The scream came from somewhere inside his soul ... the deepest, darkest place where things are hidden. Around the dais, the onlookers shuddered and the skylight shattered sending pieces of glass in all directions. Outside, the officers froze, unable to distinguish which building the scream had come from, but they all knew it was their friend and fellow officer - Joey LaFiamma. Two HPD officers came running -- they had found a side door propped open in the middle building.
+ + +++++++++++++++++++++++
LaFiamma's eyes were locked with Deb's. In a hoarse whisper, he said her name. He tried to think about this gentlest of girls... about the day they'd spent at the zoo... about things from his childhood... then the chanting began again... but why did it start now? Why not after the other pins were inserted?
Those watching were there for the sheer pleasure of administering pain. They were unprepared for the Italian detective who held it in. LaFiamma had suffered pain in many forms during his lifetime, but it was Debi's suffering that revealed his inner soul, pulling out the inner conflicts he buried deep inside himself. His eyes stayed on hers, watching the tears roll off her face, splashing in the blood pooling on his chest... their blood. Solace and comfort were exchanged through their gazes, each helping the other to block out what was happening around.
The chanters began circling, closer and closer to the object of their pleasure. Then suddenly lights flooded the area and police stormed the room.
Lundy came in with the first wave of cops. The sight of his partner spread-eagle on an altar, with his dripping blood on the floor froze him in his tracks. The Texan and Joe were oblivious to the people being handcuffed - to the paramedic's arrival. Suddenly Levon knew he had to get that bitch of girl away from his partner. She was the cause of this. She had to be removed.
The paramedics were flabbergasted to find Doctor Barlow and an Emergency Room nurse involved in such brutality. After a quick examination of LaFiamma, they radioed the situation to the Trauma Center and the doctor on standby. The decision was made to set up a field hospital there rather than move Joey and Debi.
+ + ++++++++++++++++++++
Lundy reached for Debi's shoulder, ready to yank her away from his partner, but a paramedic stopped him cold by grabbing one of Levon's shoulders and pointing to the pin that bound the two together. Lundy's eyes followed the pointing finger to the pin in LaFiamma's shoulder. It passed through Debi's hand and disappeared into LaFiamma's shoulder.
"We can't move or touch them until the trauma team gets here," the paramedic explained. "You his partner?" Lundy nodded. "Okay, you can stay with him, but make sure he doesn't get excited, or tries to move."
Levon blanched, but nodded. The blond slowly walked around to the other side of his partner and knelt beside him. He could feel Joe's blood soak into the knees of his jeans. "LaFiamma ... Joe?" Levon said in a very controlled voice, trying hard to disguise the fear that gnawed at his stomach. Joe gave no response or acknowledgment of his partner's presence.
Lundy looked up. "Debi?" he called quietly, standing he reached out to gently touch her other arm. It was the touch that averted her eyes from Joey's. LaFiamma followed her gaze.
Meeting Lundy's concern-filled eyes, he mumbled, "Not her. She's not one of them." The activity broke through the safe-harbor he'd found in her blue eyes. The pain that racked his body began to filter into his brain.
The trauma team arrived and began to set up around them, pushing Lundy aside and asking Debi questions. Tears still rolled down her face, and she told them the names of the drugs she knew Doctor Barlow had used.
Both doctors were speechless. "They're not even on the market yet!" one of them remarked. "They're still experimental. They've never been used on humans."
Debi answered. "Yes, they have, several times. Nancy - Doctor Barlow has all the results recorded. She - she - this is part of her medical research..."
"MEDICAL RESEARCH ... like this? Not in this century!" the other surgeon muttered. "Damn, her references were fantastic."
Lundy's patience was wearing thin, these men were discussing irrelevant things. What about his partner? "Doc, my partner's bleedin' on the floor, when the hell you gonna start doin' somethin' about that!?" The Texan blasted, frustrated that no one was trying to stop the blood that was dripping out of the Italian onto the floor.
"He's been given experimental drugs, detective," the doctor with curly black hair replied, setting up a field surgical kit. "We have no idea what the interaction will be with other drugs. Believe me, we'd like to give him something for the pain but the reaction with the others could kill him!"
Levon watched as the doctors began to access Joe's injuries. "The thigh's not too serious," Doctor Jonathan said, "But the shoulder and rib wounds don't look good. They might have nicked a bowel but we won't know until we get him in. Look, Lundy is it? Can you help get him loose?"
Levon nodded, and motioned for Estaban to help him. Using scalpels the doctors handed them, the two detectives worked their way through the leather straps. Standing next to Debi, Lundy worked quickly. He stepped behind her and she moved slightly, then slipped on the bloody floor. LaFiamma cried out in agony as the steel pin ground against bone.
"Stevens," the doctor called to one of the paramedics, "give us a hand here."
Remembering the syringe that got him here in the first place, LaFiamma began to struggle against Lundy and Estaban as Stevens approached with a needle in his hand. Lundy reached out, a firm hand closing on the good shoulder. "It's okay, partner," he said calmly, "These are good guys."
The paramedic nodded his thanks and administered the sedative. LaFiamma drifted into sleep, never knowing the difficulties that would arise as the doctors desperately worked to separate he and Debi. It took four hours to remove the pins and clean the wounds before transporting LaFiamma back to the Med Center. Once there, he was taken directly into a proper operating room for the more delicate repairs.