When Bambi reached the third floor, she quickly made her way to the room, grabbed some clothes out of her suitcase, and stepped into the bathroom. Over the course of taking a shower, she heard the door slam multiple times as Mello stormed in, dried off, and stormed back out. After drying off her body, the brunette changed into dry clothes. As she brushed her wet hair, her phone began to ring.

She sighed before answering, "Hello?"

"B, this is N," the hacker's voice program called out from the other line. "I am finished with our case, and I will be flying to LA in one hour with G as a temporary escort. L has already given me your location."

"I'll see you in the morning, then."

"Goodbye."

The young woman let a sigh of relief escape her lips as the line went dead. Thank goodness. The sooner Near gets here, the sooner we can leave.

Bambi put her phone down to finish brushing her hair. After that, she took a step toward the bathroom door and promptly slipped on a puddle, landing on the floor with a loud thud. Although the brunette barely had enough time to react in her current condition, she had managed to protect her head from further damage.

As Bambi laid face-down on the floor, stunned, she heard Matt call out from the other room, "Are you okay?"

The young woman pushed herself up and began to pull her legs underneath her torso to get in the position to stand. "I'm fi-"

She cried out as pain seared through her ankle and she collapsed again. She heard footsteps hurry to the bathroom as she grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.

Matt's voice rang out from the other side of the door. "Hey! Bambi, can you hear me?"  

The brunette sucked in a breath. "Yeah." She rolled onto her side and looked down to her feet only to find that the joint connecting her ankle was already beginning to swell. "I think I busted my ankle."

There was silence as Bambi carefully pushed herself into a sitting position, wincing as she shifted her throbbing joint. She leaned against the cabinet behind her, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath to calm herself.

There was a short silence before Matt warily asked, "Are... are you dressed?"

"Yeah."

The brunette could have sworn that she heard him sigh in relief. "Okay, I'm coming in."

He opened the door, careful not to hit the injured investigator. He kneeled down next to Bambi and put his arm around her waist as she put her arm over his shoulders. After gently pulling her up, Matt helped her out of the bathroom and to the couch, walking slowly as the brunette hopped on her right leg. Bambi sat down and carefully lifted her legs onto the couch, wincing at even the slightest movement from her left ankle.

The young man tried to lighten the mood as he commented, "Man, first you get beat up by Mello, and now by gravity. This just isn't your week, is it?"

A bitter laugh escaped Bambi's lips. "You could say that again."

"We're out of frozen peas, so I'll be right back with an ice pack for that," Matt told her before heading out the door.

Bambi sat there in silence, trying to ignore the pain as she looked at the window. Although it was covered by a curtain, watching the lighting behind it fade was enough to pose a mild distraction from her ankle. Another several minutes passed before she heard the door open. The young woman looked up expectantly, but was quickly disappointed to find a grumpy-looking Mello entering the room. She folded her arms and pouted as she returned her attention to the window. Oh, great. It's Sir Yells-A-Lot.

The blond scrutinized her before wordlessly approaching the couch. Once there he gracelessly grabbed her legs and tossed them aside to make room for himself to sit. His irritation caused him to put so much force behind the action that the rest of the young woman followed suit and fell off the couch.

Involuntary tears streamed down Bambi's face in reaction to the intense pain. She still couldn't put the pressure on her ankle that she needed to walk away. The hacker kept her face turned away from the blond as she bit her lip. Her fingers dug into the couch, ripping the fabric as she sat there and tried to contain herself.

Mello sat down on the couch, assuming that the brunette was just being a drama queen like most other girls he knew were. He took a bite from his chocolate bar and looked up to find his best friend standing in the doorway, ice pack in hand, as he stared wide-eyed at the spectacle.

Matt looked at his blond friend, visibly frustrated, before saying in an unusually stern voice, "We need to talk."

Rather than waiting to help the brunette up, Matt slipped an arm under her knees and his other arm behind her back. He lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom. After placing her on the bed, he walked back out, closing the door behind him.

Bambi was humiliated that she was in such a pathetic state that she had to be carried away from a conflict. She couldn't even stay strong enough to stand on her own in front of her opponent. The teen laid back on the bed, put a pillow over her face and let out a frustrated and exasperated sigh.

After closing the door behind him, Matt walked over to Mello crossed his arms and began lecturing him. "Dude, this is starting to get ridiculous, and it needs to stop."

Mello's lips formed a thin line as he narrowed his eyes, avoiding eye-contact.

After Bambi calmed down a bit, she noticed a cool breeze caressing her exposed skin. She scrunched her nose in confusion as she began to pull the pillow off her face: the window wasn't open earlier. Once the pillow was fully removed, she recoiled in fear. In front of her, trying to creep onto the bed, was a familiar man with messy black hair and a slasher smile on his face.

She opened her mouth to scream for help, but he was to fast. Like a lion catching its prey, the murderer pounced on her, sitting on the brunette's midsection as he held a cloth over her mouth and nose. Bambi desperately tried to pry his hands off, but he was just too strong.

Matt continued, "The only thing she did to you was insult you the first day. That's it! Nothing else. She even tried to work with you throughout the week, but you wouldn't have it."

Mello narrowed his eyes. "Why the Hell should she get to relax? She's barely done a damn thing this whole time while we've been working our asses off for months!"

"Okay, I'll give you that, but that doesn't mean you can treat her like that." The redhead folded his arms. "Come on man, you know that. 'Use your words, not your fists' and all that crap. Besides, other than the whole hot tub thing, the only reason you have to be mad at her is because she works with Near, and you can't judge her solely off that."

Mello clenched his fists and stood as he roared, "If you like her so damn much why don't you just ask to permanently work with your intended-partner?"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. Is that what this is about? I explained that to you already. It's not like she's going to be here forever, and, like it or not, we all have to work together."

Bambi could feel the drugs in her system taking over to leave her unconscious in a few minutes. Her head was beginning to feel funny, and it was getting difficult to feel her arms. She urgently needed to get away. As she continued to struggle against the cloth, she looked at her attacker. Beyond's arms were long enough that she wouldn't be able to reach his head to retaliate, but his stomach wasn't. If she tried to strike there, he would either double over in pain, or arch himself so his stomach was out of reach, leaving his head vulnerable.

Dubbing this a win-win situation, she decided to go for it. With one hand, she threw a punch at the murderer's gut, and he moved just as expected. Just as quickly, she took her other hand and punched him in the temple, causing him to fall to the side. Taking advantage of this, Bambi rolled out from under him and onto the floor with a low thud.

Mello directed his attention to the bedroom door, having thought that he heard something as Matt continued, "Look, I know you're frustrated, but you need to cool it. You overreact and lash out when you're this stressed and that's exactly what Beyond wants. Sure Bambi screwed up too, but I think that if you would just give her a chance, you two might actually get along – and that would make it so much easier for us to work toget-"

Mello cut Matt off by shushing him.

"Have you been listening to any of th-"

Mello cut him off again, this time asking, "Did you hear that?"

Matt furrowed his eyebrows as he followed Mello's gaze to the door.

Concerned, he began to walk across the room. "Hey, are you alright in there?"

Bambi heard Matt's voice calling out to her, but she couldn't distinguish what he said. She was so drugged that she could barely move, let alone call out for help. She struggled to crawl toward the door, which she could now see had been locked. As soon as she made it past the bed, her arms were pulled to her sides. Beyond sat on her back, blocking any effective movement. He then pulled the cloth under her head and back onto her nose and mouth, holding it there until she blacked out.

Matt called out again as he reached the door, "Bambi?"

He took hold of the door knob and tried to let himself in, only to find that the door was locked. Matt's eyes widened in fear, and Mello sprang up, both of them painfully aware that she couldn't stand on her own, let alone get up and lock the door. Matt ran to a box in the corner of the room to find some tools to pick the lock.

As he searched, a man's laughter rang out from inside the bedroom, "I'd like to thank you two for this, especially you, Mihael."

At the sound of his real name Mello ran to the door and tried to force his way through.

Satisfied with the reaction, Beyond continued in a mocking tone. "It would have been much more difficult to acquire my prize if it weren't for you."

The voice fell silent, and less than thirty seconds later, Mello managed to break down the door. He rushed inside to find the blankets and a pillow strewn about, and the open window: the escape route.

Mello ran to the window, looking out. He saw the fire escape underneath the window, and Beyond making his way to a black car with Bambi's limp body draped over his shoulder. Mello launched himself out the window and onto the fire escape as he tried to descend as quickly as possible.

As he got closer to the bottom, Mello heard the car start, so he skipped the final ladder and jumped over the edge. He ran after the car, but it was much faster than him, and sped off into the night. Mello stopped the chase, cursing himself for leaving the keys to his motorcycle in the room. Back in the bedroom, Matt looked around for any note that Beyond might have left behind. In his search, he found a small USB drive placed in plain sight on the night stand.

Seven hours later, Mello had just gotten off the phone with the Chief of Police. He walked over to Matt, informing him, "They ran the plates. Apparently it was the stolen vehicle of his last victim. He said that he would have his patrol officers keep an extra eye out for it."

Matt nodded his head, his eyes glued to his screen.

Mello continued, referring to the USB drive that Matt had found earlier. "Find anything yet?"

Matt replied, "No, not yet. I'm still trying to make sure that there is nothing on it that will corrupt our files."

Just then there was a knock at the door. Matt briefly glanced at the door before returning to his laptop, as Mello, though surprised, went to the door and opened it. Standing there were Near and Gevanni, holding a few suitcases. Mello narrowed his eyes at his rival, but let them in. Gevanni set the suitcases down in the closet before making his leave, wishing the team luck as he closed the door behind him.

Near looked around the room before asking, "Where is Bambi?"

Matt piped up, knowing that Mello wouldn't want to admit it to Near, "Beyond has her."

Near frowned and spoke with an unusual tone in his voice. "You let a serial killer kidnap my partner?"

Mello clenched his fists, and Matt sighed at the comment, before replying, "Yes, and we are working on finding them now. The files for the rest of the case are on the table."

Near waited for a moment before shuffling to the table. He twirled his hair as he opened the first file.

Beyond stopped at another safe house for the third time that night. The girl was starting to wake up again, so he had to make this quick. He hid the stolen vehicle behind the abandoned building before running inside and taking out a bottle of chloroform that he had purchased. He poured a previously-calculated amount of the chemical into a measuring cup before sealing the bottle and taking out a fresh rag from the same cabinet.

It's amazing what some people will do for money, he silently mused as he soaked the rag in the drug.

The murderer rushed back out to the car, keeping the rag away from his face to avoid the toxic fumes as the liquid rapidly evaporated. He opened the rear door to see Amelia still sprawled out across the seat. He carefully crawled over her body and hovered over her face, his legs on either side of her torso. He slipped a hand under her cheek before lifting to make the girl face him. She groaned lightly at the touch, her eyebrows furrowing slightly, but there was no movement aside from that. Beyond knew that if he delayed this any further, she may be able to regain her senses. The girl moaned in distress as he held the chloroform-soaked rag over her nose and mouth, confirming that she was at least slightly aware of what was going on.

He leaned in toward her ear as he whispered, "Hush, girl. You don't want to cause a ruckus. No one is around to hear you anyway."

As the whimpers quieted down into silence, he checked her pulse and the numbers above her head. The numbers hadn't changed, and her pulse had returned to a more acceptable rate. Beyond crawled back out of the car before closing the door behind him. He returned to the building and fetched a jar of strawberry jam out of the cabinet. As he consumed the contents, he turned on the television to check for the locations of police checkpoints that were looking for him and Amelia. He smiled as he calculated a new route before returning to the cabinet, this time taking out a syringe. The contents were the latest the engineers of the black market could offer.

Beyond than returned to the car and opened the back door again. He crawled to the girl's torso before carefully taking off the syringe's cap. He rolled up the unconscious teen's sleeve and stuck the syringe into her arm before forcing the contents into her body. Then, he backed out of the car and carefully discarded the empty syringe into a garbage bin. After checking the time, the murderer returned to the car and drove off toward his final destination.