"The handle wasn't damaged in any way, he must have let them in without checking first," Felix sighed as he and Chris left another building in which they hadn't celebrated any success. All they found were a few stray cats.

"From what you're saying, he certainly didn't just get towed away," Christopher tried to comfort him as he sat down in the car.

"I know, but maybe if I'd been a few minutes faster..." freckles pressed his lips together to hold back tears.

"Don't blame yourself, it's not your fault. I know it's hard, but right now we have to let the "what ifs" go, and we have to focus on what's happening now."

Felix nodded and rubbed his eyes. He felt shivers creeping onto him. That was not a good sign...

He got strattled when Christopher's phone started ringing. The sanguine immediately picked up the call and started to drive.

"Yes, Seungmin?"

"Guys, we located Jisung. He's weak, but he's alive. I'm sending the address to Felix's cell phone."

"Oh my god," freckles whispered to himself as the notification on his phone dinged. This time he didn't try to stop the tears. He's alive... They don't know what condition he's in, but he's alive.

"Thank you," Christopher smiled and entered the address into the navigation system.

"How far is it?" asked Felix, and then he sniffled.

"If we go fast, and we will, we should be there in half an hour, it's just outside the city."

Felix nodded and wiped his nose with his hand. There was blood on his fingers. He cursed softly and started looking for tissues.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about me and go."

Christopher nodded sceptically, but without saying anything, he turned on the police beacon and stepped on the accelerator.

"We're sending reinforcements and an ambulance, they should meet you there," the operator continued.

"Great. Thanks again."

"You're welcome, it's my job," Seungmin laughed and ended the call.

***

Heavy footsteps were approaching quickly. Of course. It was clear the giant was going to want his phone back, though it took him almost twenty minutes to realize he didn't have it. It didn't matter now anyway, the police were on their way.

Jisung slid the phone back to where he found it before pretending to be passed out. He tried to calm his heartbeat as well as his breathing. He just had to hold on for a few more minutes, it would be over soon and this would just be a bad memory.

He heard the door open. Then someone entered and stopped for a moment.

"Dead, of course," the newcomer muttered under his breath.

He felt his gaze on him, but held his position unchanged, even though his mouth filled uncomfortably with saliva. His attacker must have concluded that he had won, because the next moment he had left the room.

When the door clicked, he sat up again and swallowed several times in a row. He desperately needed a drink.

***

Felix was leaning forward, pressing at least the fifth tissue to his nose. Apart from the heavy nosebleed, he was suffering from a fever with hypothermia and his head was pounding from the sound of the police siren. He wished this was all a nightmare he could snap out of in the warm bed next to Jisung, but this was his reality at the moment. He couldn't believe that only a few days ago he had laughed at Changbin because his girlfriend had eaten the chocolate he had saved for later.

"Are you okay?" asked Christopher. They were almost there.

Freckles tried to nod, but the slightest movement of his head made him nauseous. His older colleague noticed and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. This time he didn't flinch from his touch, but gratefully accepted it.

"We're almost there, just don't faint."

When they were about a hundred and fifty meters from their destination, Christopher turned off both the siren and the beacon, and Felix's head was immensely relieved. But the sanguine wasn't slowing down, he was playing for every second to spare.

As they got even closer, Felix looked up from the ground to check the situation. The warehouse was already besieged by police cars with flashing beacons, and two ambulances were pulling up close behind. The police officers stood with their guns ready.

He put down his tissue, opened the door and tried to get out, but his legs couldn't carry him and he fell back on the seat. His whole body ached and black dots were flickering before his eyes.

"Don't you want to stay in the car?" Christopher said softly.

"No, I can't do that to him," he replied weakly. "Help me up, please."

The sanguine wrapped an arm around his waist and picked him up, then walked him closer to the centre of the action. When he focused on the scene outside the entrance to the building, it nearly knocked him down.

***

Jisung breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the police sirens. They're here, it's over. However, that didn't mean he could relent, anything could still happen.

The footsteps running towards his cell convinced him of this. The door flew open and a man of smaller figure grabbed him without hesitation and dragged him out.

"Get your filthy hands off me!" he yelled, squirming in his tight grip as the man dragged him somewhere. If he had known he wouldn't be poisoned, he might have bitten the terrorist's hand. He still had the strength for that.

"You're just lucky we still need you," his assailant growled in his ear, then pressed the knife to the side of his neck, right against the artery, making Jisung almost motionless.

It wasn't long before they were standing in front of the building. He found Felix's face almost immediately in the jumble of faces, though he was standing more in the background. His partner was as pale as a ghost and his nose was bleeding incessantly. He even noticed that he had spat up bloody saliva. He might have only a few minutes before...

"Do you want him? Then you'll let us walk out of here," the terrorist spoke loudly and pressed the knife even tighter to his throat. He really couldn't move his head now.

"Put the weapon down and we can talk," one of the officers spoke.

"Cut the cop talk," the man sputtered.

Then everything happened so fast.

He managed to register that Felix was pulling out a gun and pointing it in his direction.

A deafening bang interrupted the conversation between the officer and the attacker. The attacker's grip loosened and he felt a scratch on his neck. Someone loudly urged him to go while he could. The officers rushed toward the attacker.

***

Everything suddenly went quiet. Even though Felix was aware of at least a dozen people in the area, a strange sense of calm spread through him. He was breathing heavily. The hand with the gun he had used to blow off his attacker's ear dropped heavily along his body, and if he hadn't been holding onto Christopher, he would have dropped too.

"Felix!" a familiar voice addressed him. He forced his eyes to stay open and smiled broadly, even though he was feeling so weak.

"Hi, Hanji."

"You two, ambulance, now," Christopher ordered, already leading them in that direction.

When they got into the vehicle, Jisung finally gave Felix a drink. The freckled man felt life slowly but surely returning to his veins and the excruciating pain throughout his body, as well as the throbbing headache, subsiding. Pulling away, he rested his head on his partner's shoulder, closing his eyes and breathing calmly. The sanguine stroked his hair and occasionally kissed his temple.

"Your turn," Felix whispered after a moment, smiling slightly. "You can drink from the neck."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

When the freckled one nodded, Jisung carefully bit his throat and drank slowly and carefully. That was until he felt his partner sink into his arms.

"Felix? Felix!"