ANGELA AND HODGINS

His wheels were caught on something, but he wasn't sure what, he couldn't see what it was from his current position in his wheelchair. Despite his considerable upper body strength, his wheelchair wouldn't budge from the current position. Hodgins finally slammed his fists down on the arms of his chair, "Ange! I'm sorry, but my damn wheelchair is stuck again."

His wife entered the workroom in their large apartment, "I told you, you don't have to feel bad, ever for needing help."

Hodgins could only shrug, "yeah, well two years in this thing and I don't think I'll ever not be independent."

Angela knelt down and laughed as she unhooked his wheelchair, "It was the chain from Jefferson's little bike that Michael Vincent took apart trying to make an invention."

Hodgins laughed, "okay, that's my fault. I was the one who pointed out that many useful items for inventions are located throughout the house."

Angela nodded, "I know it's your fault, it's why I laughed." She looked around her husband's workspace and realized he was working on something entirely new.

"What are you working on now?"

Hodgins face turned a light shade of red, "well, I can't really work on this at the lab, because I don't want to share credit, but…"

Angela's eyes narrowed, "this is that new type of explosive you were talking about with Wendell."

Hodgins stammered for a few seconds before nodding, "yeah, I am. It's not dangerous here, I swear, it's so localized and the reaction is small that it's perfect for an infinite number of possibilities."

Angela bent down and poked him in the chest, "like pissing off your wife and endangering your two young sons?"

"Well, yes, those are currently very real possibilities, but Ange, if I can just minimize the explosion and heat by a fraction, I might be on to a billion-dollar idea."

"Dead men can't spend money Hodgins, remember that." She then kissed him, smiled and left him alone again in his workspace. He was about to take down some chemicals from his shelf when he heard the doorbell, followed by shrieking from his two sons.

"Hodgins, get out here. It's Booth."

His curiosity more than getting the better of him, he wheeled out to living room where Booth stood up to greet him.

"Bug boy, I need a moment in private, with you and Angela, no offense to Michael Vincent."

Hodgins quickly turned his chair, "Michael Vincent, go upstairs see how fast you can put back together antique clock you took apart yesterday."

Michael Vincent's eyes went wide, and he immediately darted upstairs. Angela shook her head, "I told him you already knew about that, but he was hoping you didn't."

Hodgins smiled, "I took that same clock apart when I was younger. Okay Booth, what's so serious that you come to our house and not the Jeffersonian?"

Booth sighed, then looked between Angela and Hodgins a few times before speaking, "it's not good. I was called out with Bones to check on a corpse. It was in a well on a big farm in Maryland." Hodgins and Angela exchanged anxious looks as they waited for the news of whoever it was, "it's your brother."

"My brother? I just saw him last week." Angela walked next him and sat on his lap, laying her head on his shoulder. "It was murder, wasn't it? It had to be, or you wouldn't be involved, officially anyways."

"His ID was in his pocket, but there are signs of blunt force trauma on his head and several broken bones elsewhere on his body."

"Oh my god," Angela said muffled into her husband's shoulder.

Booth swallowed as he looked at his friends, Hodgins knew the look, "okay Booth, spill it man. What else is wrong? You can't stonewall a diehard conspiracy theorist."

"Normally I'd make fun of you, but you're not wrong Bug Boy. There was a note with Jeffrey's body. As soon as we ID'd the body, we knew it was for you." Booth pulled his phone out of his picket and quickly unlocked it and showed him the picture, it was a piece of paper, "Brother's Keeper, be careful. I'm coming for you." At the bottom of the note was a sequence of numbers and letters. Booth noticed Hodgins' reaction as he read it.

"That sequence means something. What is it?"

Hodgins swallowed hard as he fought back tears for the first time, he had barely known Jeffrey in reality, but he was his brother and he loved him because no one else truly had. "That is the account number for the money used for Jeffrey's care."

Booth rubbed his neck, he was tired, and he hated delivering bad news to anyone, but it was infinitely worse when it was a close friend, "why would anyone care about that?"

Hodgins looked quickly at Angela then back to Booth. "It was just shy of ten million dollars. I set it up for his care and then as a trust to be used for people who needed care but didn't have any funds. As far as I knew, Angie, myself, and our financial lawyer were the only ones to know about it."

Booth started typing on his phone, "what's the name?"

Hodgins rubbed his face, "her name was Sheila Dawkins."

Booth typed in the name then looked up puzzled, "was?"

"Um, yeah. She died a few months ago, we were told it was a car accident."

Booth's thumbs typed with greater fury, "that can't be a coincidence. I'll look into it immediately."

"We've made no short of enemies in our investigations, we all know that, but who in the hell would know about my brother and hurt him?"

Angela rubbed his shoulders with a worried look on her face, "We deal with psychos all the time, sadly, it could totally be any number of people. If Zach were here, he could do the math."

Hodgins offered up a sad grin, "yeah, he could. Booth, I know everyone wants to treat me with kid gloves since I'm in a wheelchair, but I need to be involved with this. When it was your brother, you went undercover and did everything you could to bring them to justice."

Booth stiffened, his color drained his lips began to form a scowl, Angela quickly noticed, "Booth, he's not trying to piss you off, he's mourning his brother and wants justice, the same as you."

Booth closed his eyes for a split second to calm his anger, "sorry, my temper's still not where it should be. Personal stuff always pushes me over, which Bones is always quick to point out is ironic since I pry into personal lives for a living."

Hodgins shook his head, "don't worry about it man, this shit, it's real. My family, other than Jeffrey, they were part of the problem, I never felt bad spilling crap about them, but my kids, I share very little. They're my world, you protected your brother his entire life, I only protected Jeffrey while I knew about him."

Booth sighed, "Hodgins, I didn't mean to…shit, I'm not coming off good here. Brothers are obviously a touchy subject, I should be more understanding, I'm sorry about your brother. You sacrificed for him to care for him when a lot of people wouldn't have, I get that, obviously. We'll find the person responsible."

BONES AND BOOTH

As he walked in the door to the house, Hank immediately wrapped himself around Booth's leg, "daddy!"

Booth smiled and picked up his son, "Hank! You're getting too big. You're going knock me down soon."

"Actually, based on his body mass and top speed, that's an unlikely probability." Bones was on the couch staring at pictures of Jeffrey Hodgins' remains.

"Hello to you too Bones, and that was me talking to our son, who's four years old. I don't do math and probabilities."

Bones looked up from her laptop, "I disagree. You do basic mathematical computations daily to track down suspects and find murderers."

Booth sighed and rolled his eyes, "I've known you for over fifteen years and yet you still take everything I say so damn literal."

Bones smiled crookedly and fondly, "sorry, my brain is conditioned for that."

Booth kissed her and smiled, "yeah, I'm aware."

Bones set her laptop down, "how did Hodgins take the unfortunate news about his brother?"

Booth sat down in his favorite recliner and stretched out, "better than I would have. I got touchy when he made a comment about if I was upset when my brother was murdered."

Bones nodded, "that is fair Booth, as humans we react based on our emotions and abilities but also on what we see from others and deem as acceptable behaviors."

"I understand that, I do. It's just, you know me Bones, personal stuff is personal, yet for a living, I delve into other people's personal lives, many times because something terrible happened to a loved one, and I get pissed if they are defensive or try to hide things."

"You are complex Booth, most human beings are. You are good at your job, yet years of being an operative and the painful experiences you have had in life made you guarded about your private life."

Booth groaned, "again, I'm aware. It just didn't help the situation when talking to bug boy today. Did you find anything by looking at the pictures?"

"I saw and observed many things, but none yet that can help me determine who it was."

"Did any of the squints determine cause of death?"

Bones smiled, "my new intern, Mr. Lopez was able to sift through the injuries and categorize the perimortem and postmortem injuries. He was able to determine and I concur with his findings, that Jeffrey Hodgins's cause of death was a crushed larynx by blunt force trauma. It appears that the murder weapon was a rounded instrument, roughly the size a police nightstick or baton, but we will need to run further tests to determine the exact weapon. It does appear that the victim was tortured before his death, four phalanges were broken, three ribs were cracked, and there was wide spread bruising on the body."

Booth sat up straight, "Bones, it's possible he wasn't tortured, he was mentally ill and was known to have severe reactions to change, so I'm guessing kidnapping didn't sit well with him. If he was hurt, I'm thinking he gave nearly as good as he got, other than the murder part."

"I doubt however that the injured assailants and murderers would go to the hospital."

"Maybe, listen, Bones, I need you and the squints to look at his injuries and figure out what damage Jeffrey would have inflicted on his attacker or attackers. I'm fairly certain that one man couldn't handle Jeffrey."

"Base on what evidence? It sounds like pure conjecture to me."

Booth shot Bones a sideways glance, rolling his eyes again, "Bones, I know this stuff. It's what I do. What I also know is that an attacker struggles with a regular sized man in normal kidnapping cases, with a man who is known to have physical bouts of rage, two or three would be nearly impossible." Booth picked up his phone and dialed a number from his contacts list, "Michaels, Booth. Have the local detectives scour the area to see if there were any reports or eyewitnesses to a struggle. Jeffrey Hodgins would not have gone quietly, and all evidence points to a massive struggle. This could help us narrow the search. Got it. Thanks."

"Do you think Hodgins will miss his brother? They didn't have a close relationship."

Booth sank back into the chair again, "it's complicated Bones. He didn't know Jeffrey well, but he knew he was his brother, he sacrificed for him, he cared for him. He might not have known him or understood him like he wanted to, but he'll miss him."

"Like you with Jared?" Bones' face was serious and without a trace of malice, Booth took a deep breath to fight back his normal readily loaded quips and responses when pressed about his brother.

"I imagine it's very similar Bones, very similar. I was mad at Jared for his decisions, but I loved him. Hodgins wasn't mad at Jeffrey, but he couldn't pretend to understand him, no one could."

ANGELA AND HODGINS

Early in the evening, Angela left their bedroom when she heard the elevator bell on the second floor, she came out and faced the elevator as the doors opened and an angry Hodgins was exiting.

"Okay, what's eating you? I know you're sad and angry about Jeffrey, but this, this is something else."

"It's nothing." He tried to wheel past her, but she stretched out both arms and firmly held him back, using all her strength to do so.

Angela's eyes began to brim with tears, "no Hodgins. Don't do this to me, not again."

Hodgins looked up, "do what?"

"Like you did after you were first paralyzed, don't shut me out. I can't do that again. It killed me, I wanted to help you, but you were so angry at me and refused to let me in, you can't do that again."

Hodgins' left arm quickly reached up to her arm and he gently pulled her down until she was sitting on his lap, her sobs soon became louder and nearly inconsolable. "I'm sorry Angie, so sorry. This isn't about you."

Angela lifted her head, her brown eyes with tears flowing out stared eye to eye with his intense blue eyes, "that's bullshit, and you know it Hodgins. It may not be a reaction to anything I've done, but it's still about me, it affects me, it affects our family. Last time you wanted a divorce and to just leave Michael Vincent and I…" Her sobs picked up steam again, Hodgins nestled his face into her shoulders, feeling worse than ever for making the one person always on his side feel like crap.

"Angie, look, this is different. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to focus on who would do this. It's not like when…" He felt his mouth go dry, his emotions were getting the best of him again, "look, this, it's not easy. I was always active Angie, always. I climbed mountains, I dove, I sailed, I could look out for people, for my people, my family…"

Angela placed her finger lovingly on his lips, "stop it, you still look out for us. You always looked out for Jeffery and made sure his life was comfortable and happy."

"But it wasn't enough, it wasn't close to good enough, he ended up dead, probably tortured, and I can't go down in that well like I would have before. I can't do things like I did before."

Kissing his cheek slowly and softly, she ran her fingers through the curls of his hair, "for most people, that would be the end of the story, but you're you Hodgins. You make things, when things break, you create a new surface, so they won't break again, when someone drained your fortune, you made a new one. No one has ever stopped you, from anything."

"It's not that simple. I'm scared. What if this person who left us the note and killed Jeffrey is like the Gravedigger? I almost died there, I still have the occasional nightmare about that."

"I know. Look, this is uncomfortable, but the last time, you shut me out and I was so desperate for loving attention…"

"I know, I know. God, believe me, I still have nightmares about what I did to you too. I love you, I'm just pissed off that there's yet another fucking whack-job out there who is using my family as a plaything. I'm not angry at you, I'm angry that I can't do what I want to right now, but I'll get over it."

Angela sighed, "that's how it started before Hodgins, with you feeling a little sorry for yourself, then the anger, then rage and shutting out everyone who loves you."

"I know, but I won't do that again. I've been better, haven't I?" His eyes betrayed the worry he felt, the worry he had never let go of, his fears of not being able to keep his wife happy and his family together.

Angela remained silent for a moment before kissing his neck, her hands gently caressing his face, "you have been amazing. I tell you that, like all the time."

"This is different Angie, this isn't about me doing what I need to around the house, this is me losing you because…"

Several tears rolled down Angela's cheeks, "you will never lose me. When you got paralyzed, you were angry and I was hurt, what almost happened then, it could never…"

Hodgins interrupted her, "I thought I'd never be paralyzed, I thought that Jeffrey would be never be murdered to get at me…"

Angela held Hodgins' face with both hands, "those are different, I can't control those things, but I can control me, and I know you will never lose me. Okay?"

Hodgins took a deep breath, "Okay. You know that this isn't about me trusting you, it's about me worrying about me, about our family."

Angela shook her head, "you have to trust yourself and me, we have faced a lot of challenges, and yet here we are. Brennan will be working on this, Booth is on this, and then with us as well, we will catch the person responsible."

BONES AND BOOTH

Booth was clearing the table after dinner and Bones was reading with Hank and keeping on eye on Christine and her homework when Booth's phone rang.

"Michaels, you know it's Sunday and I'm home with my family….No shit? Tell them to take it their now and I'm sorry for giving you grief, you're the man, or woman, sorry. I'll be right there."

Bones walked over to Booth, "it must be a big lead if you're leaving on a Sunday evening."

Booth ushered her quickly out of the room and out of range of their children, "a security guard at a bank a mile from the facility where Jeffrey lived reported a man matching Jeffrey's appearance fighting against three men. Two Caucasians and a Black man, all big, all armed. He called it in, but when the police came out they didn't find anything and the van that was reported being used was found last night abandoned at the airport, it's being brought in to your lab tonight."

"Do you want me to go there now? I have a feeling Hodgins might show up wanting to investigate, he does run the lab now."

Booth grinned, "you have a feeling? Where's your evidence Bones?"

Bones poked him playfully, "my evidence, Booth, is in my years of knowing and interacting with Hodgins."

"If you want to go in, that's fine, but can we find someone to watch the kids?"

Bones grinned and picked up her phone, "Aubrey, Temprance, would you mind doing Booth and I a favor? Hodgins' brother Jeffrey was murdered, and we need someone to watch Christine and Hank so we can solve this. Thank you so much, Booth has a reserve of frozen stakes in the garage freezer, help yourself to as many as you like, and his German Beer."

"Bones! I'm glad Aubrey's watching them, but giving him my steaks and beer?"

BONES AND HODGINS

Bones swiped her card as she walked up on the platform lab, Hodgins was seated in his wheelchair facing his brother's corpse with headphones on and loud angry music emanating from them. Bones tapped him gently on the shoulder as he slightly jumped.

"Dr. B, I didn't see you. Thanks for coming in, it means a lot to me that you're on the case so quickly."

Bones leaned down and hugged him quickly, and awkwardly, "Hodgins, you and your family are Booth's and my family. Of course I'm here. How are you? I hope that's not too invasive a question to ask at this moment."

"No, you're fine. I'm pretty messed up. I have so many conflicting feelings about Jeffrey. I loved him as much as I could, but I only knew him for a few years and was never allowed to truly bond with him when we were kids. My parents didn't spare me, they robbed me of a chance to help him, to be part of his life."

"Anthropologically speaking, that was quite normal behavior up until the late seventies early eighties throughout the world and even here. Mentally ill children were often hidden away and kept out of sight, especially in families where such things might blemish a reputation or cause a scandal."

Hodgins nodded, trying his best to hold back the anger he felt at the situation, "yeah, right now, I feel anger towards whoever is responsible, but I also have a lot of anger towards my parents."

"That is understandable, you are a kind, loving individual who values family and forthrightness."

"I guess you're right. I loved my parents because they were my parents, but who they were as people, I've struggle with that my entire adult life."

Bones stared awkwardly for a second, unsure how to proceed, "I've never heard you speak about your parents much, only to say they were wealthy."

Hodgins delved back into his work, "yeah, see. I feel bad criticizing them a lot because they set me up for life, I could study the things I loved and get three doctorates because they had money and then I had money, but they were the type of wealthy people that Booth hates, hell, that I hate. I just understand the world better because I came from that world."

Bones stood still momentarily, "Is it possible someone from that world is striking back at you?"

Hodgins shook his head as he continued to work, "no. I wish it was that easy. The wealthy families I knew wouldn't bother with someone like Jeffrey except as blackmail, but this, this is someone who has observed me and knew it would anger me and get me into action."

Bones considered his statement, then began her inspection of the body. "We'll need Dr. Ibarra to finish her examination before I can do a full examination myself."

"She already called, I don't even know who told her about it, but she's on her way. Her wife was out of town for a conference, so she had to find a sitter for David."

Hodgins' wheeled his chair to the lift, the machine whirred as he was lowered to the floor, he exited and entered his office. On his lap was a fiber from the corpse of his brother, he stared at it, there was something familiar about it. He carefully lifted it out of the glass container and placed it in the mass spectrometer, the machine made the sounds that normally made Hodgins happy, but this was all wrong. The machine would give him clues to who murdered his brother, to the person or people that wanted to do him harm.

He was deep in thought about the few interactions he had with his brother during the few years he knew he existed when he heard the familiar sound from the machine telling him it was finished. He read the report and snapped his fingers as he picked up his phone.

"Booth. No, ,man, no worries. Listen, I ran a fiber from the body, it was out of place and looked familiar. It was polyester blend and had a blue dye used by only carpet manufacturer, the same one that makes the carpet for your building. It looked familiar because I ran a sample twelve years ago in a case where an agent was killed by another agent, the only building in the D.C. area with the same carpet is yours. No, I'm positive. You're right, it doesn't mean it was an agent, but it does mean they were there and in contact with them. Thanks, let me know when you hear back."

"What did you discover?" Hodgins jumped a bit when Bones spoke as he had not seen her enter his office, "damn Dr. B, you made me jump. The fiber on Jeffrey's body was carpet fiber from Booth's building."

"What did Booth say? I would imagine he was defensive."

"Oh yeah, but then he quickly got over it and is having Michaels look for footage to see if three agents left the building together the night of Jeffrey's abduction."

Bones left soon and Hodgins was looking at the soil samples he had taken when his phone rang, "what do you have Booth? No fucking way. Yeah, she's on the platform, I'll let her know. You're positive? It can't be coincidence? I don't think so either, you're sure it was Aubrey?"

"What was Aubrey?"

Hodgins jumped again in his wheelchair, "Dr. B, you're killing me tonight. Booth says the night that Jeffrey was abducted and witnessed in a struggle, Aubrey left the Hoover building with two men, another Caucasian and Black agent. He showed the footage to the security guard, the other two men were definitely the ones who were there, he was unsure about Aubrey because of the angle at which he saw him."

"It can't be Aubrey, he's proven himself…"

Hodgins interrupted, "I know, but Booth said that trust means nothing, especially with all we've experienced in the past few years."

Bones sat down, still shocked, "Aubrey's watching Christine and Hank right now."

Hodgins wheeled himself so he was next to her, "I don't think it's him, it has to be coincidence, it has to be."

Bones shook her head, "in our experience and through our data, coincidence normally doesn't exist." Hodgins could only nod, his face fearful of what might be uncovered.