Z, great to have you back buddy. Thanks to my friends who've helped out alot with your ideas. cdphan, thank you for the intriguing idea that brought Red into this story, as i said, i got your request in here but it's a couple of weeks away. hope the next chapter is a good one for you folks. Happy Holidays. Oh, the timing on a few shows is a little off, great example, Bones is just starting her pregnancy with her son. but it is an AU so i'm going to let it roll. Imhotep display is a tip of the hat to the Mummy.
Chapter 2
Jeffersonian Museum of History,
Washington D.C.
Abbie leaned against a support pillar in front of the display of Imhotep patiently awaiting the dark FBI guy's arrival. She had been staring at both entrances to the room for almost fifteen minutes when she heard a tap next to her. She looked at the glass display case to see Booth standing next to the ancient mummy, inside the display! He smiled and pointed a finger towards the side of the display and she shoved down her surprise, picked up her briefcase and walked to the side he indicated as he ducked behind the ancient sarcophagus.
She rounded the case just in time for the security door against the wall to open. Booth held the door for her as she stepped through. She found herself staring at a storage room filled with boxes labeled for each item of the Egyptian display.
"Well, this doesn't feel like cloak and dagger." She said sarcastically.
He smiled, "It gets better. C'mon." He led her through the maze of crates to another door that led to the Jeffersonian's artifact storage.
"Just try not to touch anything." He cautioned, "The squints get all twisted up inside when someone leaves a fingerprint in here."
She snorted loudly as he led her through the warehouse. "The squints? What's a squint?"
"Scientists," he beamed at her, "They squint at things."
With a confused countenance, she followed him through the warehouse but as they came across a guy in a lab coat squinting through a magnifying glass, she got the joke and started chuckling.
After a few more minutes and a little self-control Abbie finally asked Booth the question that was on her mind since seeing him next to the mummy. "So why the tour of the back ends of the museum and where exactly are we going?"
"We're going to the safest office in town to talk in and the back way is the best way to make sure you weren't followed." He said confidently, as if this was a normal thing for him.
She looked pointedly at him, "Paranoid much?"
Booth stopped short and turned to face her, a grim expression on his face, "You've been in D.C. long enough to hear about the scandals and conspiracies. I'm going to show you some things that very important people do not want known. This is dangerous stuff, Counselor. It's already taken the lives of good people and I don't want you, me or those detectives added to that list. The only reason I can't walk away from this is because I can't live with the knowledge that this guy might one day sit behind the big desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and I could have done something to stop it."
Shocked at his words, Abbie was taken aback at his statement, "Are you serious?"
He nodded severely, "If I don't stop this guy, this country could be sold out to the cartels for the price of a few votes."
She shuddered as he directed her to a small man door that emptied out into a hallway. At the end were glass doors and the logo of the Medico Legal department.
Booth pulled a card out of his pocket and slid it through the card reader on the wall. The glass doors parted from each other and he lead her inside. Within seconds after the doors closed again, Abbie felt the air being exchanged and after a short period of time a light beep sounded before the second pair of doors opened.
She looked out onto the floor of a laboratory the likes of which she had never seen before. As big as a warehouse with a huge raised dais in the center where people were working over skeletons and heavily decayed bodies. Surrounding the dais were workstations for various sciences. The edges held offices and people scurried about carrying equipment and detached body parts that appeared to be ancient.
On one side of the dais was a tall thin woman in a white lab coat directing a handful of others. She spoke clearly and was apparently in charge but somehow Abbie thought she was familiar. As they walked closer and Abbie got a better look, she realized who she was seeing.
"Oh my god!" She said in awe. "That's Dr. Temperance Brennan!"
"Yes it is." There was something in Booth's voice that Abbie missed.
"They say that she's the best." her voice resonating the admiration she felt. "That there's no body she can't identify."
"She is the best." Booth said with pride.
Dr. Brennan was something of a legend in DC. Everyone wished that she had worked the forensics on their cases because they were usually irrefutable. But there was one thing Abbie simply had to know. "How good is she?"
He turned to look at her and smiled, "Cup your hands behind your back, play along, and I'll show you."
He started across the floor and she stepped quickly behind him. As he bypassed the stairs and the two guards standing there, he looked up at Brennan.
"Bones." He said with a happy note.
Dr. Brennan raised her head up to look at the Fed, "I'm waiting on Hodgins to bring the skull back on the Virginia case. Dr. Saroyan has the body from South Carolina for a tox screen and autopsy." She turned back to the rest of the skeleton on the table.
"Okay." He said and passed Abbie a glance. "Jane and I are going to use your office for a while, okay?"
"Jane is here?" She looked up and her sky blue eyes focused solely on Abbie for only a second before she frowned. "Booth, that's not Jane."
Abbie had to clench her jaw to keep it from falling open. Brennan had called her out from more than fifty feet away and on a raised work area, with safety glasses on, and at barely a glance.
"Sure it is," Booth said and raised an indicating hand to the AUSA, "Look at her."
Bones set her tool down and stood up straight. "Jane Rizzoli is an Italian woman with some distant Greek ancestry. That woman's facial structure indicates a more northern European genealogy. Her zygomatic arches indicate Scottish descent, not Italian, but with a distant Norse lineage. Whoever you brought into this lab, she is not Jane Rizzoli, though her appearance is beyond striking and I can see how you'd be confused."
Abbie couldn't contain her surprise anymore, "How could you see that? I couldn't tell the difference when she was standing in front of me."
Bones smirked slightly at the surprised woman, "You were probably in a heightened state of awareness brought on by shock and you were more focused on the similarities then differences." She looked at Booth, "Should I be calling for security?"
"No thanks. I just wanted to show you off a little." Booth smiled proudly, "Thanks, Bones."
She rolled her eyes and picked up her tool, "I need my office in approximately twenty five minutes." Without a single word otherwise she went back to doing… whatever it was she was doing when they walked in, like she'd never been interrupted.
Abbie waited until Booth had closed the door in the office before she spoke, "She had me pegged as a fraud from over fifty feet away! At a glance!"
He smiled as he pulled a pair of baby socks out of a diaper bag under the desk and stuffed one over the lens of a camera hanging from the ceiling. He stuck another one on her desktop camera.
"I told you, she's the best anywhere." He said with that proud smile, "Smartest person I know and I've run into all kinds."
"She's impressive."
He nodded as he sat down in the doctor's chair. "She can't know anything about this case."
Abbie looked straight at him, "The best forensic anthropologist in the country and you don't want her working on your case? Why not?"
He plucked a picture frame off the desk and handed it to her.
Recognition rocked her as she saw Booth holding Brennan gently with a baby girl in her arms and a late teen boy under one of his.
"Because if something happened to my wife or my kids, I'd lose it." He said harshly.
Griffin Residence,
Alexandria, VA.
Abbie felt a little shellshocked after her meeting with Booth. What he had on the suspect was solid in most courts. However, how the detectives had gained the evidence was something of suspect. Booth had said that he could use their findings as a road map to retrace the money. The other evidence provided by the late Captain Roy Montgomery was compelling, as was his signed confession. Even so it would take a hell of an argument to avoid getting it discluded, which is exactly what the opposing counsel would try to do. Abbie had her assistant move the remainder of the day's appointments and had gone home.
Still, her mind was in overdrive at the implications of what she was staring at. Needing the comforts of home, Abbie started cooking a small variety of foods that reminded her of her home in Dallas. Though she didn't have time to smoke longhorn briskets, she instead opted for things a little less time consuming. Her sons loved it whenever she made real Texas Cuisine the way that her folks used to make it. Her boys still had a hard time imagining their mother growing up in Texas since all they'd ever seen is their mother, the conservative lawyer who's lived in Washington DC their entire lives. Except for when she had flown them to Dallas for her Aunt Mae's funeral. Of course John had been out of the country. Her boys had fallen in love with Texas food. So when they came home to the smell of pecan pie and cornbread, they knew that tonight was different.
She made them chicken fried steak, fried okra, Texas caviar, and cornbread. The pecan pie was passed out for desert. Her middle son Justin and her youngest, Jason, started cleaning up from dinner and washing the dishes while her oldest, Jeremy, pulled her aside.
"Whats going on, Mom?" he asked in concern.
She looked at her thirteen year old son, "Nothing, why?"
"Come on, Mom." He waved a hand towards the table, "This is your version of comfort food. So what's up?"
Inwardly cursing Jeremy's keen observations, she tipped her head toward him, "Nothing, I was just feelin' kinda home sick."
"It's a good thing you're a better lawyer than a fibber." He groused and before she could check her son he asked the question, "Are you and dad getting divorced?"
Her voice slipped slightly, revealing her drawl, "Look here, what in Sam Hill gave you that idea?"
He shrugged, "You and dad fight a lot more and he doesn't come home as much. Not that he was home a lot, but I've been keeping a calendar. He's gone an extra seven days a month now."
Abbie leveled a look at him, "Look here, buckaroo. Your father's job is important, he keeps things like 9-11 from happening all over again. I think making sure that never happens again is worth the extra seven days a month."
He sighed as he concluded that he wouldn't get anywhere with this but he wasn't about to let his mother think she'd snowballed him. "Like I said, it's a good thing you're a better lawyer than a fibber." He turned and walked back towards the table to help his brothers clean up.
Abbie stared at them in shock at her son's words. Jeremy was the smart responsible one, and he was surprisingly perceptive when it came to things like people who were hiding things. Honestly she thought he'd make a great detective one day.
Like on any other night, she ran the boys through their routine of showers, brushing teeth, and running them into bed. It always started with Justin, her nine year old and as he was climbing into bed, Jason started the cycle, then Jeremy was the last one through. Just after Jeremy finished dressing for bed, Abbie sat him down to talk.
"Look, I know things seem bad right now, but I love your dad." she said soothingly. "And sure, we don't always get along like we used to but..."
"Please, don't do the whole job thing again." he groaned. "I know he's important, but we're important too."
She nodded, "I know and it's not fair."
"Life seldom is, Mom." he said, "That's what you always told us, but maybe you should remind Dad of that too."
"Just so you know, that's not why I made fresh okra." She said as she tugged at the shoulder of his t-shirt to make sure it sat right on his shoulder.
Jeremy stared at her, waiting for the explanation.
"I was working on a really big, really important case today that a very old friend asked me to help with." She sat down on the edge of his bed and cupped her hands together. "No one's said it yet but I know they want me to prosecute it."
"How big a case?" He asked.
"Big." She replied and turned her head away from him, "And there's a lot of people who would depend on me to put this guy away. I gotta decide if I want to take it or give it to someone else."
Jeremy straightened slightly, "Does the bad guy hurt people?"
Turning to face him again she nodded, "Yeah, he's hurt a lot of really good people."
His brown eyes stared into hers, "Then you should do it. Don't let this guy get away with what he's doing."
She sucked her lip in slightly, "Even if that means I have to send you and your brothers away for a while?"
He jerked slightly in surprise, "Why would you have to send us away?"
Abbie sighed and ran her hand through his short curly dark brown hair, "Because he's really dangerous and you and your brothers could get hurt. I couldn't do that to you guys."
Jeremy looked off in the distance for a second in thought and then back to his mother, "Would Dad come with us?"
"I doubt it." she shook her head slightly, "Maybe I could send you guys off to your grandparents or my Uncle Earl's farm in Texas."
Frowning, Jeremy creased his brow, "If you don't take the case, could someone like Mr. Bellamy do it?"
She thought about her boss trying the case but Booth was right, whoever did prosecute the Senator, it was almost certainly a career death sentence and Charles Bellamy was at the cusp of becoming the Attorney General. But she wasn't about to tell that to her son so she settled on a lesser answer. "I'm the only one the victims trust."
Jeremy sat quietly in contemplation for a moment. Finally he looked up at her again, "You should take it, Mom. And if we do have to leave for a while, I'll watch over Jason and Justin."
His words filled her with pride and Abbie wondered how she had been blessed with such an amazing kid. Jeremy had never once failed to step up for her and it was her pure maternal pride that had her smiling at him.
"Well, fortunately I don't have to make that call yet, but I'll think about what you said."
Jeremy leaned over and hugged her gently, "Okay, but I need to get some sleep."
She kissed him on the head and let him go. "Good night, Jeremy."
"Night Mom." He replied as he pulled his blanket back, "Could you get the light for me?"
She nodded and flipped the switch on her way out of the bedroom.
Booth/Brennan Residence,
Fairfax, VA.
"So, who was that woman you brought into the lab today?"
Kneeling on the floor, Booth smiled as Christine tried to kick the bright pink ball that lay on the living room floor. She swung her foot at it and promptly fell on her bottom. The shock on her face caused booth to laugh as Bones picked up the little girl and planted her back on her feet.
the baby looked up at her mother who smiled brightly.
"Lab!" called out the toddler.
"Come on sweety." Booth said, "kick the ball."
Christine got her mother's determined look and swung her foot straight at it. The ball bounced across the floor and Booth caught it.
"Way to go, Christine!" He jubilantly shouted to his little girl, who was again sitting where she'd fallen.
"Booth." Brennan said in that insistent tone. "Who was she?"
Sighing he looked up at her, "Her name is Abbie Griffin and she's with the US Attorney's office."
"Her resemblance to Jane is very striking." Brennan said.
"I was surprised too." He hedged and to keep his very intelligent wife from digging into it he redirected the conversation, "it kind of makes me wonder if they are related in some way?"
Brennan picked up her daughter and cooed at her, "We don't think so do we, Christine. They look alike but they have very different anthropological origins."
He smiled at his cleverness.
"I'm not familiar with Abbie Griffin." Bones said as she cradled her child and looked up at him, "She hasn't worked on any of our cases before. Did something happen to Caroline? Is she new?"
"No." He said realizing that Bones was just warming up. "She's been in Washington for about thirteen years."
Brennan nodded and her look turned thoughtful, "She brought you a case."
"No." Booth said quickly, just a little too quickly.
Brennan caught it immediately and she scowled at him. "Booth, you're hiding something from me. Are you having an affair?"
His eyes widened in shock, "What?! No! Bones, come on."
"Then why are you being so secretive?"
He sighed. Knowing that she'd never let it go until she came up with the answer.
"I'm working with her on a case. It's not our kind of case and I can't talk about it right now."
She pinched her brow together. "I do have a higher security clearance than you."
She said it as a statement. Not a point of argument. Still Booth tried to defend.
"But this is compartmentalized." He said. "Bones, we work all of the cases together but this one... there's nothing for the Squint Squad to do on this one and right now, it just needs to stay quiet."
She wasn't buying it but knowing her husband, she was beginning to surmise what he was hiding.
"It's dangerous." She said. "You only try to keep things from me when you're worried someone will come after us."
Booth looked up at her. "Yeah. It's a bad one."
Brennan leaned back against the back of the couch. "And you won't tell me because if I know anything, it will endanger us. Despite knowing that I can take care of myself."
"Bones, you're pregnant." He said firmly. "I know you can take care of yourself but in this case, not knowing is safer than hiding. I promise that I'll explain it but I need you to let it go for now because if you don't, it's not just us. There's three other families like ours in the crosshairs. One wiff of this gets out before its time and we're all under fire."
Brennan looked at him in surprise. "Abbie Griffin makes three."
He nodded. "And they need this, Bones, if they're ever going to be safe again."
Crossing her arms she glared at him. "If there is anything I can do to help my-"
"I'll tell you." He interrupted.
She nodded back and smiled down at her daughter. Who didn't understand how the air became so serious. But as her mother beamed at her, the heavy air was forgotten.
