Michelle's head was absolutely splitting as she finally was able to crack an eye open. All the lights seemed brighter than normal, causing her to shut them again. As she finally acclimated, she looked around to see a room to get her bearings. As she tried to move her arms, she realized they were tied behind her with zip ties and her ankles were bound to the chair she was sitting on. The left side of her head throbbed and she swore it felt sticky which meant she had been bleeding.

There was nothing else in the room as she turned her head from side to side. This wasn't good at all. She tried to remember what happened but all she remembered was leaving Elijah's house so he could go pick his daughter up. Then it went black until she woke up just a few seconds ago.

She started struggling against the ties as she saw the glass a few feet in front of her with someone standing behind it. The bright light, however, kept her from being able to see their face, though she could tell it was a man by his stature and build.

"Where am I?" She said as she tried to get free. His laugh sent chills down her spine and her gut screamed even louder. Something was seriously wrong. "NO!" She shouted as he started walking away towards another door. "Let me go!"

"LET ME GO!"

((4 Hours Before))

Plates of food sat untouched on the kitchen table as moans were heard throughout Elijah's place. He had Michelle backed against the counter, lips against hers, as they practically clawed at each other. Reaching around, he grabbed her ass and effortlessly lifted her to sit on the counter as her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist.

"You know…" Michelle said between kisses with a smile. "I think we should probably eat. Don't want to starve…"

"But I am starving," Elijah replied as his hands moved up her denim covered thighs causing Michelle to laugh before pushing him back.

"I'm serious. I am actually freaking hungry. And it's all your fault." Michelle shoved him back with a laugh before hopping off the counter and moving over to the table.

"How is it my fault? You're the one who instigates it."

"How so? I'm not the one grabbing my ass all the time, risking our jobs over it too!"

The playful fight had been the same for them since they started staying at each other's places. Michelle had moved back to the city and got her own place. She decided staying with Cyber was where she wanted to be. But not just because of Elijah. She loved her job and she adored the team. The only nights she had spent alone were those where he had his daughter and she would never interrupt that.

As they finally settled down to eat, Michelle couldn't stop that little nagging voice in the back of her head. It had been speaking to her since her and Elijah had started up their fun times again.

"Elijah… Where is this going?" She asked as she took a bite of spaghetti. His brow quirked as he looked a bit confused. "I mean… Sure we have tons of amazing sex and eat every now and then but… Is that all we are again? Or is this going somewhere?" Michelle suddenly felt self conscious for bringing it up and looked down at the table but Elijah wasn't letting that happen as he reached across to put his hand on top of hers.

"Hey… Where is this coming from?" He asked as he sought her eyes.

"It's just… Don't get me wrong this has been fun but… I don't want just another affair, Elijah. I can't go there again. You know that. I kinda wanna know if that's all we are or if there's more here."

Before Elijah could answer her, his phone rang. As he sighed and went to answer it, he saw Devon's name on the caller ID. Michelle could only sigh knowing something was up and that meant the end of this conversation. As she grabbed her keys, he hung up the phone and turned to her with an apologetic look.

"I'm so sorry. Michie had a bad day at school and apparently wants to come over here." He said as he walked over, not liking the way the blonde in front of him crossed her arms over her chest. She did that when she was trying to hide, not wanting to get hurt again and he could kick himself for this bad timing.

"It's okay. I have some stuff I still have to unpack. I'm being slow with it." She said with an overly casual wave before walking to the front door to let herself out. Before she could leave the porch, however, she felt him turn her around and his lips were on hers.

"We aren't done with this conversation. But you need to know, you were /never/ just an affair to me." Her eyes shined with hope as she gave a silent nod before walking towards her car and he to his truck.

The drive back to her apartment was short lived but it felt long as hell as she pondered the small and cut short conversation. She was hardly paying attention as she tried to look through her purse for her apartment keys as she walked across the dark parking lot, making a mental note to see if the complex would change that light bulb for safety reasons.

She was only halfway across the parking lot when pain exploded on the left side of her head, her world going black.

Michelle had almost ruined her voice as she screamed to be let out for God knew how long. Tears streamed down her face as she came to the realization that she had been kidnapped. But by whom? And what did they want? She tried to calm herself as tears streamed down her face. The lights had turned off what felt like hours ago and she had been left in total darkness.

She didn't know if her captor knew about her fears, and that when the lights went out, her claustrophobia set in. It was as if she could feel the room getting smaller and smaller, threatening to squeeze the life out of her as she struggled to breathe.

As the lights suddenly came back on, she had to close her eyes for a few seconds before they would adjust. Her head whirled around as she heard the door open on the other side of the glass. She tried to get free as he walked inside, locking the door.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked and when she was met with silence, she tried again. "What do you want?" Still no answer as the man moved to set up a camera and when he turned around, she recoiled from the clown mask he wore. The one with an evil, sadistic grin. Yes, another fear of hers. What was this asshole playing at? "Answer me!"

"You really don't remember?" He asked as a deep breath crawled from under the mask as he walked over to the camera and turned it on. "Let's see if any of this reminds you."

"What are you talking about, you psycho?" Michelle screamed as she fought against her restraints. The pain was swift as his fist landed on the left side of her face. A cry left her lips as she saw stars from the force of the blow, spitting blood from where her lip split.

"Name calling isn't very nice, Michelle. But then again, you always did have a nasty mouth. Let's change that." The man cracked his knuckles as Michelle turned to look at the camera. "Who is he?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Michelle asked and was rewarded with another punch to the face, crying out again as tears squeezed out of her eyes at the pain.

"The cop, you whore! The Cop! Who the fuck is he?" The man was screaming now and Michelle knew she hit a nerve. "What makes you think he can touch you when you belong to someone else?"

Then Michelle's eyes widened as realization hit her. There was only one person who would ever react that way to her touching another man. Her mouth parted with a sharp intake of breath as she said the name.

"Timothy…"

"No! You are so wrong. Green Arrow could TOTALLY take Daredevil!" Crummy shouted back to Raven as they went back and forth, Nelson just shaking his head. They didn't currently have a case going so they were all just blowing off steam in the office while Avery was in a meeting.

"Oh please! Daredevil has highly heightened senses. Green Arrow wouldn't stand a chance." Raven scoffed and threw a paperball at Crummy.

"Not if Green Arrow shot an arrow with a supersonic sound that rendered Daredevil incapacitated. BOOM! I win." They all busted out laughing as a message popped up on their screen. "What's this?"

"That shouldn't have come through our system…" Nelson said as he opened the file and they all stopped dead. "Avery!" He jumped out of his chair and sprinted to her office, barging in. "You have to see this!"

Everyone in the office came running out and Avery's face fell and she uttered two words she wished she never would have to say again.

"Call Elijah…"

Elijah was kicking himself as he sat in his living room. He should have had that conversation but Devon called and he jumped like normal. GOd damnit, what had he done? The message that sent to Michelle was probably not a good one. Michie was up in her room sleeping as his phone vibrated in his pocket.

"Agent Mundo…" He said as he pressed the rectangle iPhone to his ear. Within seconds he was hanging up the phone and calling his dad. "I gotta go to work. Can you be here in five minutes?" His father heard how frantic he was and said he would make it in two.

Sure enough, Elijah had just grabbed his gun out of his home safe when his doorbell rang. He sprinted to the door and hugged his father.

"Michie is asleep. I just… I have to go." Elijah couldn't even think as his breathing became erratic.

"Go, son. I've got this." His father was always serious when it came to his job and Elijah was more than grateful for it as he took off to his truck, tires squealing as he slammed on the gas and barrelled down the road.

He exploded out of the elevator and sprinted over to where everyone was staring at the screens. As he looked up, his heart fell straight to the floor. It was Michelle on the screen. She was tied up and bleeding from multiple contusions to her face, from what looked like hard punches.

"What is this? What happened?" Elijah asked Avery before turning to the three hackers in the room.

"This just popped up while we were waiting for Avery to get out of a meeting. I'm trying to hack it but it keeps bouncing from multiple servers. It's gonna take some time to narrow it down." Crummy said, his hands working frantically over the keyboard.

"Narrow it down! I want to know who has her." Elijah sounded frantic as he ran a hand through his hair and made his way to his office. "Fuck!" He shouted as he kicked a chair right as Avery walked into the room.

"What's going on, Elijah?" She asked softly as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I thought things were going great again but… Somehow I made her think this was just another affair. She's pulling away and it's my fault and now this…" He said and Avery could see how tortured he was.

"Elijah, it's natural for her to feel that way after what happened last time. It's nothing you or she did. It's just her fears rearing their heads. It happens to all of us. We'll find her and you can make it all right. Okay?" He tried to break eye contact but she wouldn't allow it until he finally gave a nod of his head before making his way out to the bullpen.

Right in time for her to utter that name.

"Right! I want to know everything about any Timothy she could have come into contact with the past few years since she left. Let me know when you have something." He said before going to the elevator, Avery hot on his tail.

"Where are you going?" She asked as she got between the doors right before they shut.

"That behavior is his normal when he feels possessive. It means she probably held out a restraining order against him. His name will pop up. I just have to make a few calls." Elijah said and Avery smiled, impressed at him.

"See? I told you we would get this. Let's go. You aren't going alone. Let's knock on some doors." She said just as the doors fully shut.

"Oh so /now/ you remember?" His voice was a snarl as he ripped off the clown mask, careful to keep his back to the camera so only she could see that sadistic face. "How dare you think you can touch another man when you are mine."

"We are not together! Did you not get the hint when I took the restraining order out against you?" She said as she spat in his face, which was the wrong move.

He backed off and pulled the mask back on before pulling a knife out of his pocket before turning to the camera.

"You took her away from me, Mundo. And I will not stand for it. She is mine. And you're both about to see that." Michelle felt herself tense as he brought the knife up to her arm and made a cut, causing her to cry out as blood rolled down her arm.

"It's not his fault! You've got it all wrong!" She screamed, just wanting this to end.

"And how do I have it wrong, kitten?" His voice purred at her old nickname he used when they were dating and Michelle felt her skin crawl before speaking.

"I'm nothing but an affair to him. That's it. He just went through a divorce so it's like rebound. I don't belong to him." Most of that was true anyways so at least she wasn't lying to him which would only piss him off. She chanced a glance at the camera, hoping Elijah didn't just hear her say that.

What she didn't expect was another slice to be carved, this one in her chest right above her heart which caused her to scream out in pain as she felt the blood run down her porcelain skin.

"You mean you actually lowered yourself to that whore level? How dare you taint yourself, you stupid bitch!" The back of his hand landed on her right cheek this time and she knew she would be bruised as shit but she just had to endure this. She couldn't let herself die here.

"I'm sorry!" She screamed as sobs escaped her, making the cut on her chest burn as sweat dripped into the wound. God, would the pain ever end?

Everyone's jaw dropped when they heard that confession from Michelle right as Elijah was walking back in with the paperwork he needed with the necessary phone numbers.

"I gotta call you back." He said as he hung up in time to hear her cry out those words. Everyone turned to look up at him but he couldn't move. Either she was telling the guy the truth and that's how she felt or … She was lying but he knew her too well. She wouldn't lie to a captor. That would only anger them. She being a psychology major knew that and wouldn't risk it.

"I got a hit on Timothy when I cross referenced her statement of a restraining order and I got a hit!" Crummy said to distract them all as he brought up the picture of the blonde man. "Timothy Marvin Norris. He has a lot of violent offenses on his record for domestic abuse and aggravated stalking."

"And I bet Michelle didn't do a background check before their first date. By then it was too late." Elijah said as he let out a deep breath and ran a hand over his face. "Get me a last known address on him! Let's move out!" He shouted as he moved towards the elevator, the other agents, including Avery, following after him. He would be damned if that asshole cut her one more time.

"I'll send it to you!" Crummy said just as they all looked up to see Timothy move past the camera and out of the room. They heard a door shut and only then did Michelle break down in sobs with all of them watching.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" She kept muttering to herself as she finally looked up at the camera, blood all over her as she muttered, "I love you, Elijah."

"Crummy! Got the address!" Raven shouted and gave him a nod as she sent it to Elijah.

Avery kept the live stream going as they were speeding down the highway to the suburbs of DC to get to this bastard.

"She's giving up…" Avery said as she heard those last words to Elijah and his knuckles went white as he gripped the steering wheel so tight, he was surprised he didn't break it.

"No she's not. She doesn't give up. That's her saying she's going to fight. And we all know what happens when she does that with someone as mentally unstable as this guy." Avery gave a nod of her head and Elijah pressed his foot to the floor to make the SUV go as fast as he possibly could.

As they pulled up outside the house, he pulled on his vest quickly before he led SWAT into the house, kicking down the door before storming inside.

"FBI!" He screamed as he moved through the different rooms, finding no trace of Timothy or Michelle anywhere. "They aren't here… Shit!"

"Wait, we will find them. There has to be a clue here somewhere." Avery said as she holstered her own weapon before rustling through some papers on a desk.

"Mundo!" A voice called from the back room, one of the rooms SWAT looked in, not him. He ran back there. "You have to see this!"

There on the wall were pictures, dozens of them, of Michelle. Some of her walking down the street, others in her house, one in her bathtub. Then the rest… were of them. Kissing, walking hand in hand, in his house, and having sex. This man had been following Michelle.

All of the ones of them together was under one word painted in red. WHORE. This was not a good sign. Especially since on closer inspection all of Elijah's faces in the pictures were scratched out with red as well.

"He doesn't want her…" Elijah muttered as realization slapped him in the face.

"What?" Avery said as she walked in and saw everything. "You're right… He wants you not her."

"What have you got?" Elijah demanded as Crummy's number called him.

"We've got a location! He was watching the house. As soon as you walked into that room, we got an IP address. Sending it to you now!" Crummy said as Elijah got a message vibrating in his ear. "It's a trap, Elijah. He wants you to go there."

"I know. And I'm going to do what he wants." He said as he hung up and walked back to the kitchen, stopping when he saw a piece of paper on the kitchen table that wasn't there before. How did this guy get in? There were only five words and he knew what he had to do.

Come alone,

Or she dies.

As he crumpled the note up and threw it down to the floor, he walked past Avery just as she picked it up, reading it before rushing after him.

"Elijah, this is what he wants. You can't go alone. You know that." She said and when Elijah turned, she saw everything, pain, anger, torment… It was all flashing through him at once.

"I have to, Avery. I'm sorry. Have SWAT on standby a couple of blocks away. I'll have to do this alone and you know that. It's the only way I can get her back. I have to play his game."

Michelle's head jerked up to the door when Timothy walked in and she felt herself glare up at him, trying not to squint in the harsh, bright light in her eyes.

"You should be angry at yourself not me." His haughty tone only served to piss her off more. AFter he had left, she remembered she kept a nail file in her back pocket in case she ever broke a nail or if she needed to break into anywhere on a case. For the last few minutes, she had been cutting through the binds on her wrists and they finally snapped right before he walked in.

"I'm not pissed at you. I feel sorry for you." She shot at him, knowing what would happen if she kept going and not caring. "You are such a damn coward that you had to kidnap me and taunt the man I'm sleeping with? No wonder you're single." His roar of rage meant she had the desired effect. She waited until he was close enough before she brought her fist around to land right on his cheek.

She thought she would have more time but he was on her before she could even cut her feet loose. His hand wrapped around her throat and squeezed. She tried clawing at him but it was no use. His grip was relentless. It was over. She was going to die here. No more nights with Elijah, no more time with Michie. No more team. She was done. Her time was over as she felt the darkness creeping up on her as she tried to gasp for air.

Suddenly his hand left her and she coughed violently as she sagged in the chair. What was going on? THen she heard it. Shouting. And not just any shouting.

"No…" She said as she heard Elijah's voice screaming for Timothy to come get him. "Don't you touch…" Before she could finish, Timothy's fist landed in her gut, causing her to double over and gag a few times. By the time she recovered, Timothy was out of the room.

But he didn't go for Elijah. No, he went the opposite way. Something was wrong.

Elijah's gun was raised as he walked into the abandoned warehouse that held the IP address Raven had sent him. It was dark and water dripped somewhere but that wasn't what he was listening for.

"Timothy Norris! I know you're here!" He shouted as he quietly made his way through what looked like a maze. This was elaborate too, as if Norris had been planning this for a while now. "Come out and show yourself. Let's talk about this!"

Any little thing that moved, Elijah twitched in that direction with his gun but never pulled the trigger. No, he needed to find Norris so he didn't waste all his ammo.

"Oh, I don't think so. Come see if you can find me…" Norris' voice came over some loudspeakers. "See, I know Michelle's fears. All of them. Do you?"

"I know she hates clowns, spiders, and dark enclosed spaces." Elijah responded from memory as he looked around for any sort of room that could be hiding Norris.

"All correct. But do you know her WORST fear?" Norris asked with a sadistic laugh. "Let's see if you can figure it out. Come and get me, if you can."

Loud music blared over the loudspeakers as Elijah continued into the maze. It seemed he was the only one here as he finally reached the center that held a basement door that was propped open.

"You getting this?" He asked out loud as he brought a hand up to his ear. Avery was just a few blocks away able to hear everything and she said as much.

"Be careful, Elijah. We don't know what he has planned." She said from the van parked on the street as worry flooded her. They had to wait for his signal or else Michelle could end up dead.

"I'm going down into what looks like a basement. Standby." Elijah muttered as he slowly took it step by step. No boobie traps at all so that was a sign. Not necessarily a good one, however.

Michelle was desperately trying to reach the nail file that was just out of reach of her fingers. If she had gotten her feet free, this wouldn't be a problem right now. Blood oozed out of all her wounds, from the contusions on her face to the cut on her arm and chest. So much movement kept reopening them and there was a high risk of infection down here.

She was not dying down here. That wasn't going to happen. It wasn't in her cards this day. With a shout of pain, she felt her shoulder dislocate as she was able to finally reach the nail file. She was sweating from exertion and pain as she sat back up and it wasn't about to end anytime soon. With her good arm, she gripped the other shoulder and with a scream, she popped the joint back into place.

"Michelle!" She heard his voice and when she looked up, he came around the corner. She should be relieved but this was too easy. Something was off.

"Elijah watch out! He's still here somewhere." She said as she frantically tried to use the nail file to cut the ties binding her feet. Her movements, however, were too frantic and her hand slid down and she cried out as she looked to see a cut crossing the expanse of the palm of her hand while Elijah tried to break into the room.

Finally he raised his gun and she turned away as he shot the lock off the door and busted in. Pulling out a knife, he cut her binds and gathered her into his arms. Her cries were of relief as she clung to him, not caring that she was a sweaty, bloody mess. That moment was short lived as Timothy walked into the room.

"Isn't this just fitting. The bastard who can't pick a woman and the whore who keeps thinking he will somehow fall in love with her. You're wrong, Michelle. He will never love you. Not like I do." He said as he held a gun on them both. "You know what you have to do to end this, Michelle. You come with me, he lives. You don't, you both die down here."

Avery was listening and couldn't take anymore.

"Let's go!" She shouted to everyone as they all hit the gas and sped towards the warehouse. This could go very badly. But they knew Timothy was still in the building and that's all she needed.

Michelle had a choice in front of her and she knew what she had to do. She placed a hand on Elijah's arm to lower it from in front of her as she stepped forward with her other hand up.

"Okay. I'll go with you. Just please don't hurt him." She turned to look at Elijah's shocked expression and she only gave him a nod before moving to stand next to Timothy. "You win. Let's go."

"Glad you finally see things my way." He got cocky and lowered his weapon and that's when Michelle struck, grabbing his wrist and wrenching it until she heard it crack. Timothy's scream was loud as he grabbed her hair and spun her around. Her ankle got caught on the leg of the chair and twisted, causing her to scream with pain before he let her fall. It was just enough time for Elijah to take his gun back out and shoot Timothy twice in the chest.

He kicked the gun away as Timothy tried to gasp for breath, gun trained right between his eyes if the man tried anything.

"You… still don't know… her greatest fear. I win." He said with one final breath, his eyes going blank as the life left him. Once he was gone, Elijah rushed over to Michelle who was shaking from shock.

"Let's go, Michelle." He said and she gave a nod. She tried standing but her leg gave out, her ankle not able to support her. Elijah didn't care as he just swung her body bridal style in his arms and carried her out of the basement. He was walking out of the front door to the warehouse as SWAT approached, EMT's rushing forward for her. It was over. Well, this part of it was over.

Michelle's time in the hospital was short lived as she didn't want to be there. As soon as she got her cuts cleaned, some stitches to close the cut on her forehead and crutches due to her sprained ankle, she checked herself out. Though she didn't want to go home.

As she got in a cap, well hobbled in more like, she gave a familiar address and felt herself doze until she was woken up by the cab driver. She thanked the man before standing outside of Elijah's home. She found his truck in the driveway and knew he must be worried because she didn't allow any visitors when she was being cleaned up. Only because she knew she wouldn't be there long.

Once she reached his door, she knocked.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with surprise after he opened the door.

"Losing you." She blurted out as she stood there, gazing up at him. "That's my greatest fear. I don't know if that's what he was meaning but that's it. I can't lose you again, Elijah." Tears sprang up in her eyes as his arms were immediately around her, bringing into his warmth as his lips kissed the top of her head.

"You never will, Michelle. I'm right here." He muttered as his eyes closed. "I thought I was going to lose you today. I also heard what you told him." He felt her tense a bit and took a deep breath. "You were never an affair to me. That much I already told you. Truth is… You are the love of my life. I have never felt about anyone the way I do you. I want everything with you… In time."

Her eyes sparkled as she pulled back to look into his eyes before pulling his lips to hers. The kiss stung like a bitch due to her lip and he tried to pull away because of it but she wasn't having it. She could ignore the pain.

Because her happiness out measured all of the pain.