He was falling apart when she came in.
Hodgens had stopped working a long time ago, and had been staring off at the shelves of soil samples, bugs, and various other containers. What he was thinking about was clear: the Gravedigger case. Brennan had given Caroline, the prosecutor for the case, permission to drop the charges on Booth's case, as well as Hodgins and Brennan's case, which would allow them to work on a different case involving the Gravedigger.
The case would be all or nothing.
Hodgins was more than a little ticked off that she had done that. Yeah, they'd probably have a better chance of winning this case than the other two. Still, it hurt.
He still remembers being buried alive in that car. He still remembers the fear of never being able to see his friends again, of never seeing Angie, his dear wife, again. All of it was burned into his mind.
And naturally, that's when Cam comes in with two cups of coffee.
"Hey, Dr. Hodgins. It's kind of late."
"And yet you're bringing coffee to my office," he muttered.
"I get that you're upset, but I'm going to remind you that I am your boss, and I did bring you coffee," Cam said as a warning. Hodgins looked at the coffee, then at Cam.
"Mind sitting down? There's no reason not to drink the coffee together," Hodgins said, looking away again.
Cam sat down, and handed Hodgins a coffee. He said a "thanks", then downed a third of it before Cam can warn him it's hot.
"Sorry. I'm not in the best mood right now."
Cam raised her eyebrows. "No kidding. Everyone in the Jeffersonian is on edge because of this case." She sighs, and takes a small sip of her coffee.
"Right. I guess we still have several hours before we work on the boy's case, since ours haven't been dropped yet."
Cam looked over at him. "You're upset that your cases have to be dropped, aren't you?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's like we're letting her get away with what she did to us. I don't know about the others, but I still have nightmares about it."
"We're not letting her get away with it. We will find evidence that she kidnapped and killed that boy, then Caroline will use that evidence to prove her guilty and get her put behind bars so she'll never walk the streets ever again."
"What if we can't, though?"
"We will. I know you're worried, Hodgins, and so am I. I wish I could do more to help, honestly. But I promise, we will make sure that Heather Taffet goes behind bars no matter what," Cam said.
The room was silent except for the sipping and gulping of coffee. Soon, Hodgins put his down.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Your coffee's going to get cold, Cam."
"I know."
Yes! TSOS is back and better than ever! Hope you enjoyed this first story of the summer, and the first Bones one shot I wrote! - Element
