'Bones you better hurry up, I can't hold on much longer' I thought not for the first time. The little bastard was talking again, but I had tuned him out long ago. I hung from the wall naked, large chains anchoring me down in this hell.

It was a torture chamber, a modern day dungeon, the walls and floor were made of stone and the room was freezing. There were no stocks, iron maidens, or thumb screws however, only this nasty little serial killer and his sharp little knife.

The torture would alternate. He would silently cut for a while mostly shallow long slices in my skin, then the cutting would stop and he would speak almost without breathing. His little speeches generally went something like, "So how do you feel Agent Booth, are you enjoying this as much as I am. You know you did a very poor job, all those people I killed. I am going to kill so many more. You failed quit miserably, I really would have thought better of you. How does the Splinter feel, still hurting a little I hope? It is my own invention you know. Guaranties that no matter what happens you shall not escape alive."

The Splinter that he was so proud of and constantly speaking about was a metal stake about as big around as a pencil and fifteen inches long. The mean little piece of metal was covered in little barbs not unlike those on a fish hook. A chain ran from the end of it to a large anchor in the wall, the other end stuck into my lower abdomen.

My tormentor had placed it there saying that it was in my Inferior Mesenteric artery or something like that I was a bit preoccupied screaming at the time. He rambled on about it for quite awhile but in short if I removed it, the blood pumping through the artery and around the splinter would be able to bleed out. I would die about fifteen minutes after it was removed. If I didn't remove it, well it was chained to the wall, so I was stuck here.

I had been in this nightmare for three days but it felt more like three years. The man taking such pleasure in my screams was a serial killer that Bones, the squints and I had been trying to track down for two months. Rupert Patterson was his name and the team and I had connected fourteen gruesome murders to him. He seemed to pick people at random, young, old, male, and female.

Bones had said that it was apparent from the fact that some of the wounds were healing up when the victims died that the murderer would keep his victims alive for days torturing them. In my case I don't know if this fact is good or bad since it gives Bones more time to get to me, but the question is how much of me will be left when she gets here.

It had been a beautiful morning the last time I saw the sky. Bones had just left for the Jeffersonian and I was walking to my ride on my way over to the Hoover building from our apartment. About halfway to the Tahoe, the hairs on the back of my neck had stood up and I new I was in trouble, I had reached quickly for my pistol but it was to late as I was hit over the back of the head.

I woke up in this very room screaming as the son of a bitch cut a line in my chest. I knew that I would have been missed shortly after having been abducted and that my new family would be looking under every stone for me. I just had to hang on to my life and my sanity until Bones could find me.

The man spoke a name and suddenly he had my full attention. "Ah, I see." He said "Temperance Brennen is it. That is the way to finally break you? Would you like a little company in here? That can certainly be arranged."

The little demon in my chest woke up at this, the same one that I think might have dropped Epps on purpose, the one that let me kill seven men in a gun fight at the Jeffersonian five months ago. Rupert was in very serious trouble now.

"Rupert, be very careful. It would be a very, very bad move to continue with this line of thought." I rasped quietly, my eyes turning as hard as the stone to which I was chained.

The man only smiled and made too set down his knife and pick up his coat. "I shall return soon with your Temperance. She and I shall put on a little show for you"

Unknown to me or Rupert, Bones was nearly there already, she was speeding down the road in her little sports car. She was tracking a signal to me coming form the little solitary house that set upon a hill in the distance; SWAT was fallowing hot on her heels.

Threatening Bones had not been Rupert's first mistake. He had sent a little handheld computer to the Jeffersonian that was customized to receive live audio and video from his chamber so Bones and my friends could watch me die as they proceeded in their futile attempts to save me. But that very signal had led them right to me.

Temperance saw and heard what was happening in the chamber on that little computer that she had brought with her. Her heart sank as she saw my eyes get that very dangerous look to them. "Please, Booth, don't do anything stupid, I am almost there." It was hopeless though, her eyes started to tear; she new it was coming to a head and she would not get there before I made a move to end it. "God, if you are there, please don't take him, I need him" she prayed much as she had when Booth had been lying in the hospital after the gunfight with the terrorists at the lab. She didn't care if she thought God was there or not, she would do anything for her Booth.

I stood up fully in the little chamber now, a new strength pumping from the monster in my chest. I looked from one chain anchor to the other, one holding my left wrist the other my right. Because Rupert had his trusty Splinter he had not taken much care in making sure there was no slack in the chains for me to work with. It was his third and last mistake.

I spun around facing the wall I was chained too, the chains crossing just above my wrists. I reached up and grabbed each anchor, one in each hand and pulled. First I placed one foot on the wall, then the other, pulling back I pushed on the wall with both my legs. I was nearly standing horizontal to the floor on the wall pulling with all my might. The fist thing to give was the left anchor. It slipped out of the wall and I stumbled from the wall but landed on the ground steadily with both feet before quickly grabbing the remaining anchor with both hands and once again placing both of my feet on the wall.

Rupert stood stock still and watched in amusement as I struggled with the first anchor. As it slipped out of the wall he had let out a little yelp and snatched up his knife and started towards me.

The second thing to give was my left shoulder, it slipped painfully out of the socket. Unfazed, I continued to pull. The anchor gave just as Rupert stabbed me in the lower back. I let out a guttural yell as I fell back and onto the floor.

At the same time Bones screamed as she saw it play out on the little screen in her right hand. She slammed on the brakes just out side of the front door of the house. She pulled her gun and quickly opened the door of her car to charge into the house. The swat team pulled up behind her and shouted at her to wait, but she never slowed down.

I stood quickly from the ground where I had fallen when the second anchor had slipped from the wall. Rupert held his knife at me but I didn't realize or care what he had, it was time for him to die.

Reaching nearly the full extent of the Splinter's chain I reached out with my right hand and grabbed him by the collar yanking him towards me I took two steps back. I grabbed his collar like a vise with my left hand, releasing him with my right and letting it rise to strike him.

I brought my right fist into his face as he hopelessly stabbed and cut at me with his little knife. My left shoulder hung disjointed with no real power but my left hand held fast, anchoring him to me with my limp arm like the chain from the Splinter to wall held me. His jaw broke as my right struck him, then his left cheek bone, then his nose, as he stabbed me three times in my right side.

I felt myself weaken; it was time to end it. I let my right hand fall to the Splinter in my artery. His eyes grew wide as I held him and he saw what I was reaching for, he started stabbing at me with his little knife more frantically now. A scream came from his throat as I ripped the Splinter form my body with out uttering a sound of my own. I raised it over my head. "Nobody threatens my Temperance" I said as I brought the long piece of metal down, I stabbed it down through the opening in his skeleton just above his ribs where the neck started, it entered just between his collarbones and down I pushed it. I released it and raised my right again and screamed "Nobody!" as I slammed my fist into the protruding end of the Splinter pushing the full fifteen inches down into his body, skewering his heart like a shish kabob. He was very dead as I let my left hand unclench from his collar. I gave his body a tiny little push as he fell backwards snapping the Splinter chain taut. The pull of the chain spun him back and around to the left as he hit the stone floor.

I wavered for a moment on my feet thinking that this wasn't such a bad way to die, my family was safe and I would die making that so. I fell forward toward the floor with thoughts of Temperance and Parker on my mind as I let the dark find me, but once again Bones was there to catch me before I hit the floor.

888

'The hospital again, I wonder if I am in the same room I was last time, I should have my name on the door by now' I thought as the dark receded and my mind unclouded.

"Bones" I said, I could feel her holding my right hand again. I knew it was her before I opened my eyes. "That's it Seeley, come back to me" she said.

"We really need to stop meeting like this" I said with a smile fully conscious now. At this I saw a flash of anger in her face and she hit me, hard, in the shoulder, fortunately the uninjured one.

"I swear Booth, if it even looks like you may get hurt again I am going to chain you up in the apartment!" she stated hotly through her tears. She seemed to regret saying it even before it was fully out of her mouth and she quickly followed with "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"I'm not really into that Bones but I'll try most anything once" I said with a smirk and a wink, alleviating her fear at bringing up bad memories for me.

"You certainly have a one track mind, a dirty one at that" she said smiling slightly. "Yea, just the way you like it" I returned and she hit me again.

Her face grew hard as she pulled her hand from mine and started pacing the room. She said "If you had not killed him when you did and hurt yourself so damn badly in the process you would have saved me a lot of hart ache. I was there. I could have helped you. You had better not be so damn fast to sacrifice yourself to kill someone who threatens me in the future or you will be in very serious trouble from me, understand?"

Realizing that this was a dangerous area I simply stated "yes ma'am" in the most defeated voice I could muster up.

"That's right, yes ma'am" she muttered as she walked over and crawled into my bed.

"This bed is not quite big enough for both of us babe" I said. To which she replied "shut up, and don't call me babe" clearly still a bit peeved.

Tears continued to leak from her eyes slowly as her head rested on my right shoulder. She muttered angry things into my chest that sounded like "self sacrificing, alpha male, caveman, Neanderthal," and such as that.

I wrapped my good arm around her and kissed her on the top of the head. I said "You're right, I'll be more careful in the future, I promise." This seamed to satisfy her and her mutterings slowly came to an end. She relaxed into me and wrapped her arms around me.

"I love you" she said weakly. "I love you too babe, sorry I scared you again" I said kissing the top of her head for the second time.

Just as I hoped it would the "babe" seemed to reenergize her. The sadness left her to be replaced by annoyance. She sat up looked directly into my eyes and said "don't call me babe" as she poked me to emphasize every word.

I smiled my best charm smile at this, reached up and slid my right hand up behind her head into her hair. I slowly pulled her down to my lips.