"Noooo!"
The cry tore through the gathering of friends waiting anxiously in the surgery waiting room. No matter how deep their grief, Temperance Brennen's was infinitely deeper still.
They all knew she and Seeley Booth were close, but no one there understood just how far inside her walls he had slipped in the past three years...until now.
The thud as her knees hit the waiting room floor drew them all to her side in a flash. Angela and Jack each took an arm to help her to her feet and back to one of the hard plastic chairs.
Angela wrapped her arm around her shoulders as Brennen desperately tried to regain control of her emotions. But, oh, how she hurt! If only the reality of the doctor's words were a horrible mistake she might be able to draw a breath. Right now she felt as though she was not drawing in enough oxygen, that she might black out at any second.
Far down the hall, behind the double doors marked "Authorized Personnel Only", Deputy Director Cullen stood with Seeley Booth's contact list in his hand. The plan was to let everyone, except his closest family, believe he was dead in order to draw out a criminal Booth had chased for several years only to have the man disappear. Word had reached the Bureau that he would make an exception for Booth's funeral. This was a most opportune time to put the plan into action and see if the man would put in an appearance. Cullen looked at the list in his hand. "Thank goodness Dr. Brennen's name is at the top of the list!" he thought. The anguish in her cry was unmistakable. "Just partners, my eye!" he snorted to himself. The sound of the staff elevators opening caught his attention and Dr. Lance Sweets exited, coming down the hall at a fast walk.
Cullen quickly brought Sweets up to speed on the plan and handed him the list of names Booth had recited a few minutes previously. It had taken a while to get him awake enough after the surgery to remove the bullet, bone splinters, and repair the torn muscle to get him to understand Cullen's plan. He would only agree on the condition that the people most important to him were told, namely Brennen, his son Parker and Parker's mother Rebecca, his brother Jared, and his grandfather. Booth had grabbed Cullen's wrist and made him promise they would be told. Cullen passed the list to the psychologist with instructions to notify each one.
As Cullen turned away to answer his phone he missed the calculating look in Dr. Lance Sweet's eyes.