Chapter Text
In nearly a millennium, Joe hadn’t been away from Nicky’s side for more than a day. So when the team ran into an ambush, some five days ago now, which saw Nicky captured, Joe hadn’t been right since.
Without Nicky by his side, Joe felt empty, alone, broken.
Of course he, Andy and Booker searched tirelessly for even the smallest of clues, anything to bring Nicky back to them as soon as possible.
But every night Joe went to bed without Nicky, and felt the empty space beside him where usually the love of his life lay sleeping, his sanity unravelled a little further.
Finally, after several days of chasing many dead-end leads and nights with little to no sleep, the team found the lead that would hopefully take them to where Nicky was being held.
Booker and Andy just managed to convince Joe to wait for the cover of darkness, before storming the abandoned factory that was their target.
"Can’t you go any faster?" Joe called out from the backseat of the car Booker currently drove over a narrow country road which would eventually end at said factory.
"I’m going over 140 km/h," Booker called back over his shoulder without taking his eyes off the road. "If I crash this car, we won’t be getting there any faster."
Joe grumbled in frustration. He knew what kind of people they were up against, and their love for torturing their prisoners, so it was likely that Nicky would have had to endure gruesome practices and immense pain ever since his capture. Something Joe found very hard to come to terms with.
Andy looked back from the passenger seat. The look in her eyes showed how she felt for Joe and that she understood how difficult this all was for him.
"We’ll find him, Joe," she said just loud enough to be heard over the roaring of the engine. Joe’s gaze flickered onto her, and she could see the tears he was working so hard to keep back. Andy gave him a small, reassuring smile, before sitting straight and facing the road again.
Joe crossed one arm over his chest and raised his other hand to his mouth, nibbling at his nails. He had been biting them bloody these past days. Never had he felt so ill at ease in his own skin as now. All he longed for was Nicky. To hold him again, kiss him again, hell, even to just be in his presence again would untangle the knot which had tied in Joe’s chest ever since Nicky’s capture. Joe shifted uncomfortably in his seat, growling under his breath in frustration at the events of the past days.
Booker suddenly stomped on the brakes.
"What?!" Andy looked questioningly.
"According to the intel, the factory should just be around the next corner and that line of trees," Booker started, although he seemed hesitant to what he actually wanted to say.
"Then what are you waiting for? Go!" Joe’s patience was wearing thin.
"This, exactly." Booker looked at Joe through the rearview mirror. "Joe, you need to promise that, whatever we run into in there, that whatever we find, you keep your head on straight."
Joe meant to protest. He could surely make no such promise, but Andy stopped him before he could speak.
"Booker’s right," she said, "we’re all worried for Nicky, but we can’t let our emotions get in the way until we’re sure every threat has been eliminated."
Joe’s eyes darted from Booker to Andy and back again. This went against every instinct he had, but deep down he also knew they made a valid point.
"Fine," he answered curtly.
"Thank you." Booker truly sounded appreciative. He slowly put his foot on the gas pedal again, and steered the car around that final bend in the road.
---
Booker accelerated as the gate at the end of the road came into view, pushing their car to its very limits as he crashed it through the barrier.
The iron bars flew in every direction, but the loud bang and sparks erupting from the left front side of their car, told that it hadn’t been left unscathed by this manoeuvre.
"Fuck!" Booker spat the word, punching the steering wheel as the car came to a grinding stop. The smoke now rising up from under the hood confirmed that this vehicle was done for, and that they would have to find other means of transportation to get out of here.
"Let’s go." Andy was all business. "We’ll figure this out when we have to."
The three of them jumped out of the car, sprinting for the nearest way into the building.
Where they had expected to be met by some sort of assassin squad and a rain of bullets, there instead was silence.
Booker came to a halt with his back pressed to the building’s outer wall. Joe and Andy did the same on either side of him.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Joe wasn’t entirely able to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice.
"The intel was solid." Booker shook his head. "They either knew we were coming and made a run for it, or…" He fell silent when he saw the absolute horror on Joe’s face.
"Or we’re too late?" Joe finished for him.
"Guys, this is not the time." Andy pushed past Booker and Joe, and peeked around the corner of the factory’s loading dock. She saw absolutely no movement whatsoever.
"It looks empty." Andy concluded. "But I see many side rooms and other hiding possibilities, so we’ll still treat this as a hostile environment. You know what to do."
Weapons raised in front of them, Andy, Booker and Joe stepped away from their cover and into the building. Quickly clearing the loading dock, they advanced to the vast open space of the factory floor and the adjacent warehouse. They halted, vigilant for any movement or sounds. But, still, absolutely nothing.
"Split up," Andy instructed. Booker and Joe didn’t need any further instructions, and all three of them disappeared in a different direction.
Joe’s heart was in his throat as he moved through the factory. In every room and around every corner he expected to find either someone trying to kill him or to find Nicky being tortured in some horrific way.
But none of it…
Joe cleared every millimeter of the area he had chosen without running into so much as a mouse.
The knot in Joe’s chest tightened uncomfortably. What if it had been a false lead and Nicky wasn’t here? Or what if they had taken Nicky with them when they made a run for it and he was still being tortured somewhere else?
Joe shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. The mere idea of having to sleep another night without Nicky lying beside him, in his arms, was unbearable.
Without encountering the slightest bit of trouble, Joe double-backed and strode onto the factory floor again. Booker came back from the opposite direction, looking equally confused.
"Nothing?" Joe’s voice was a little higher than usual.
Booker shook his head. "There’s food leftovers in the canteen over there that don’t look too old, so people have been here until quite recently, but…" He shrugged, not understanding a thing about this.
"Guys, over here!"
Andy’s voice came from the other end of the factory’s warehouse. She didn’t sound panicked or distressed, but her voice still betrayed that something was seriously wrong.
"Nicolo…" Joe mumbled under his breath. He broke into a run in the direction where Andy’s voice had come from.
Joe almost collided with Andy when he rounded the corner into what turned out to be a dead-end corridor, which ended in a storage room.
"Is he in there?" Joe started to lose what little bit of control he still had over himself.
Andy gently held her hands against Joe’s chest to calm him and prevent him from pushing past her. "He is."
Booker appeared behind Joe in the hallway as well. He immediately caught up on the subdued tone of Andy’s voice and frowned in concern. "Everything okay?"
Andy sighed heavily, looking down at her boots, before she locked eyes with Joe.
"Maybe…" Her voice faltered. "Maybe you shouldn’t go in there, Joe."