Nick had flown out of his bed like a bullet shot from a gun when he'd heard the words exit his best friend's mouth. There was no way. Seriously... it couldn't be right. It just couldn't be. No way in hell could he possibly have walked right past a fucking murderer getting onto the elevator that morning in the lobby and simply not known. And not just any murderer... no the murderer... the evil scum of the earth who'd been upstairs only moments before it seemed, doing his best to kill one of his brothers, and succeeding in so gruesomely killing his manager.

His stomach turned at the thought.

No way. Absolutely no fucking way.

Officer Boscorelli was at his side in a second, placing a warm hand firmly upon Nick's arm. He didn't even flinch when Nick jerked at his touch. Instead he kept his hand on his arm and led him safely and calmly back to the confines of his hospital bed, speaking comforting words the entire time.

"It's alright now Mr. Carter. Just take it easy. There you go, back into bed. Just try to relax."

Yeah right.

How in the hell was he supposed to relax when there was a murderous madman on the loose and he had clearly, CLEARLY, been the one to let him get away. He could never let himself relax again.

"What is it?" Officer Boscorelli broke the tense silence after a few moments had passed during which Nick laid in bed and stared up at the ceiling without saying a word. Just wondering how in the hell he could have possibly let this happen. Could he do anything right? Ever?

"Mr. Carter..." the officer prompted again, this time his voice grew stern, "Do you remember something? Anything? Tell me."

Nick nodded towards the officer and took a huge breath of air, gulping in a few lungs full as he tried his best not to puke.

"I.. I saw him. A man with a baseball cap and a tan jacket and a beard... DAMMIT! I SAW him..."

Brian's head shot up this time and Bosco glanced over quickly to make sure he wasn't going to be the next to come barreling out of his bed. When he didn't... when he simply looked over at his friend, who seemed to refuse to look back, and then lay back down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling himself, Boscorelli took the moment to bend down and retrieve his notebook from the floor where he'd tossed it in his haste to help Nick. He stood up and took a seat, this time in the chair beside the other young man's bed. This could be the break in the case that they really needed, and he didn't want to miss a single detail.

Nick couldn't shake the feeling that Brian was watching him from across the room... staring at him... hating him. His best friend for years and years and now the two of them couldn't even look at each other. Or at least, he couldn't bring himself to look at Brian. How long would this last... this strangeness between them... and surely then, between all of them?

Forever maybe.

"Tell me exactly what you saw," Boscorelli spoke pulling Nick away from his thoughts, and effectively causing him to tear his eyes away from Brian's slumped figure on the other bed. He tried his best to remember that morning. It wasn't a difficult thing to do.

"I passed him on my way into the elevator... that's all."

And it was... even if it wasn't.

It was all there was to Nick's story. A momentary brush of the shoulder and he'd let him get away. Even if inside his own mind the story was so much more. He could remember exactly the moment he'd seen the man as the elevator dinged to the lobby and the doors slid open. He could remember how the man had kept his head low so that the two of them had never made eye contact. He could remember just exactly how it had felt as the man had brushed past him, rather harshly, to get by. How it almost hurt.

'Just a businessman in a hurry... just like everyone else.'

That had been Nick's assumption at the time.

How incredibly wrong he had been.

But those details, the ones his own mind wouldn't let him forget weren't important now. Just that he'd seen the man... touched the man... and that he'd let him get away.

"Can you describe anymore than the jacket and the baseball cap?" He didn't let on, but Boscorelli was hopeful now. The fact that he had seen this man in the lobby... the lobby of a very nice hotel in New York City that he knew full well was equipped with video surveillance cameras whose tapes were now being safely stored in their NYPD headquarters... this was a HUGE lead.

"Not really," Nick said, "just that he had the jacket and the hat and the beard... he never looked up."

Boscorelli nodded and took down the information. At least it was something... and something was certainly better than nothing at all.

"I mentioned him to the other officer this afternoon."

Boscorelli nodded again and took more notes. The fact that he'd already mentioned this in detail to another officer made things even better. Made his story more credible.

Just then there was a flutter of noises in the hallway outside that caused all three of the men to turn towards the door to the hospital room. Officer Boscorelli couldn't help but stand and instinctively put his hand to the gun around his waist. If someone was coming, he'd be ready. Instead, the door opened slowly to reveal a doctor and several nurses, escorted by a barage of security guards, one of them gently pushing a wheelchair where a young man was seated. The young man he'd interviewed just that morning.

Howie was pale and somewhat green, tears flooded his eyes as they met with Nick's and Brian's each in turn.

Bosco watched as Brian reached to grip the railings on the side of his bed, pain evident on his face as he tried his hardest to sit up.

Nick, who was already seated, could do nothing but stare.

"What is it D?" Brian whispered as they pushed him further into the room and a nurse attempted to listen to his pulse despite Howie's best attempts to wave her away. "Is it Aj?"

All Howie could do was nod his head and inhale deeply the sobs that threatened to come once more, before he managed to choke out the words... "He's gone guys... Aj's gone."