She slept. And while she slept, she dreamed.
"This is odd," Temperance thought, "I never dream."
But there she was, standing alone in a park. But somehow, it seemed larger than a park. She could see the blue sky above. The brilliant blue broken only by wisps of clouds here and there. She stood on the most vibrant green grass she had ever seen. All around her was a blanket of damp grass extending far off into the distance, past rolling hills. She could hear children at play. Temperance moved towards the playful shouts, laughter and squeals. As she walked, occasionally, she could hear the buzzing of insects. Low and indistinct. As she reached the crest of a grass-covered hill, she saw the children. Not wanting to intrude in their play, she sat down, removed her shoes and watched. The cool dampness of the grass sent gentle thrills up her legs.
She watched as boys played tag, girls jumped rope and other children amused themselves as only the very young are able. She could see, scattered about, boys and girls walking hand-in-hand.
Temperance noticed water puddles scattered throughout the green carpet. Were they always there, or had her dream magically made them appear? She couldn't remember the last time she had been this relaxed. A feeling of joy began filling her. The buzzing was much louder now.
Some of the children were jumping into the puddles; sending water spraying onto their playmates. She stood, and began walking towards the children. Her foot slipped into a puddle. The water was cool, and sent shivers up her spine. But it was a good kind of shiver. The kind you get when you stand in a gentle summer rain. She looked at the children again. A small boy jumped into one of the puddles. Shrieks of joy echoed from the children. A mischievous smile came to Temperance's face. She jumped! And landed in the middle of a puddle. The water seemed to leap at her joy. She heard the splash of water behind her, and then felt the coolness fall onto her bare shoulders. She sucked in air involuntarily. Turning to see who it was, her smile broadened. "Booth!" she cried with obvious false anger. There he stood, smiling. She jammed her foot into another puddle sending spray all over him. His eyes took on a playful glint while his foot found another puddle. Laughing, she closed her eyes and accepted the shower. One after another they danced from puddle to puddle; drenching the other. Until finally, he took her into his arms. They stood there a moment, slowly swaying in the embrace, gazing into each other's eyes. The buzzing returned, louder. She separated from him, edging closer to the sound. His hand closed upon her shoulder...
She jerked awake, Angela's hand upon her shoulder. "I'm awake," Temperance said groggily.
"Sorry to disturb you sweetie," Angela said, "But it's close to 9:00 AM. How is he?
Shaking the thoughts of the dream from her consciousness, Temperance quickly scanned the monitors. "No change since earlier this morning." She smiled at Angela. "Thank you for waking me. I've got to call Cam, Cullen and the others to let them know what's going on."
Angela said, "Well, you probably need to go home and get some real rest. There's nothing more you can do here. At least not until later on," Angela offered. "You don't have to worry about calling Jack and the others. I did that earlier."
"Thanks." Temperance took another look at Booth tied into all the machinery. She couldn't help but remember her dream, and smiled inwardly. She sighed and said, "Okay. I want to stop at the nurse's station before we go."
After finding out Booth's status, 'No change,' Temperance gave the nurses her cell and home numbers and let them know she would be home for a bit. Angela took Temperance's arm and the two friends made their way out of the hospital.
Walking to the parking lot, Angela said, "Mmm…you sure were out. I had to shake you a couple of times to wake you."
"I was dreaming."
"Anything yummy?" Angela giggled.
"It's odd…because I normally don't dream. I was in a park…blue skies, like after a summer storm…green grass, with puddles. There were children playing…and Booth was there. But there was some type of insect buzzing getting closer and closer."
"Booth, huh?" Angela grinned, "Children playing…was Parker there?"
Temperance froze. A look of horror spread across her face. She looked at Angela, "Parker!" She pieced it together, "That's what the buzzing was! His cell phone…on vibrate!" She began running back to the hospital.
"What about Parker?" Angela shouted.
"Nobody's told Rebecca or Parker yet!" Temperance yelled. "I've got to get to them before they find out some other way!"
"What 'other way'?!"
"Like the media?!" Temperance looked genuinely fearful. Angela gulped and set out after Brennan at a dead run.
Riding the elevator up to the fifth floor, Angela asked, "Why, again, are we rushing back into the hospital?"
"I don't have Rebecca's telephone number!" Temperance said, slightly winded.
"Can't you just call Directory Assistance? You know, 411?"
"That would work…if I could remember what her last name was!" Temperance said.
"Arg…okay!"
With an annoying 'Ding' the elevator doors opened. The two women sprinted towards the nurse's station. The three ward nurses looked up in surprise as the two women slid to a stop in front of them. "Where are the personal effects for Agent Booth?" Temperance asked breathlessly.
"You ladies are going to have to keep it down…" the charge nurse started, "this is the Intensive Care Unit."
"I know where we are…I have to find his cell phone," Temperance voiced in a whisper barely below her normal voice. The nurse looked at her coolly. Temperance took a breath and whispered more calmly, "I'm sorry. I need that cell phone so I can make a family notification before they hear about it on the news."
No reaction from the nurse. "Please?" both women whispered in unison. Seemingly mollified, the nurse explained, "All of Agent Booth's personal items, minus his weapon, are in the cabinet by his bed."
"Thank you," Angela offered as she and Temperance quickly walked to Booth's room.
Once there, Temperance hurriedly rifled through the drawers until she came up with his cell phone. She held it up triumphantly. She quickly opened it and began the process of searching his Address Book. A look of panic spread across her face. "Noooo!" she whispered.
"What now?"
Temperance held up the phone's display to Angela.
'PLEASE INPUT PASSWORD'
"Ohhh…you've got to be kidding me!" Angela breathed.
Temperance looked into her eyes, "We need help." They hurried out to the nurse's station. "Is there someplace where we can make a call?" Temperance asked.
"Where we can speak normally?" Angela added in a loud whisper.
"There's a coffee shop on the first floor," the nurse suggested.
"Anything closer? More private?" Temperance asked, almost begging.
"I'm afraid not. Cell phones aren't even supposed to be on this floor."
"Thanks, anyway…" Temperance shouted in her whisper voice as the two women raced to the elevators. Once there, Angela pushed the 'DOWN' button. Temperance said hurriedly, "Booth once told me it's good to have at least six characters in passwords. I'm going to try 'Parker'. What do you think?"
"Be my guest…I don't know!"
Temperance frantically worked the keypad. "No good," she said when the result came back 'INCORRECT PASSWORD'.
Angela, attempting to will the elevators to go faster, was staring at the lights above the elevator doors. "Come on…come on…"
"What else?"
"Try his name."
"Booth won't work…that's only five letters!"
"Try his first name!"
"S-E-E-L-E-Y…no!" Temperance cried when it read, 'INCORRECT PASSWORD'.
"Where are these damn elevators?" Angela groaned.
"The stairs!" Temperance almost shouted.
Both women hit the stairwell door and started half running / half stumbling down the stairs. Halfway to the next landing, they heard the 'Ding' of the elevator arrival and they stopped. They looked at each other, looked at the stairs leading up to the floor they just left, looked at each other again and then continued down the steps. A couple of times one or the other almost lost her balance. But after a seeming eternity, they finally made it to the ground floor. They burst out of the stairwell amidst shocked stares from passersby's, and headed out the door. "We definitely need some help on this!" Temperance gulped and on her own cell phone's speakerphone hit the speed dial for the Jeffersonian.
A light-hearted, sing-song voice came through the speaker, "Zach Addy. How may I be of service?"
"Zach! What are the most common choices for passwords?" Temperance shouted.
"Hello Dr. Brennan. Are you having trouble coming up with a new password for your system?"
"No! We're trying to figure out the password for Booth's phone!"
"Did Agent Booth forget his password?"
Like an evil mime, Brennan's fingers crooked into witch's claws and her face contorted with frustration looking towards the sky. "No Zach! He's in a coma and can't tell us his password!"
Hodgins, upon hearing the commotion on the speaker phone, came over to Zack's station to hear better. "What's going on?"
Angela said, "Hodgins! What are the most common choices people make for passwords?"
"Usually something personal and easy to remember," Hodgins stated, "some form of the user's name, their child's or spouse's name…"
"No good, we tried those," Angela said.
Zach added, "A lot of people use the word 'password' or 'monkey'. I don't know why."
Angela and Temperance looked at each other. They shook their heads, "What else do you have?" asked Temperance.
Hodgins continued, "Sometimes people will use sequential numbers like '123456', their birth date, pet's name…"
Temperance started, "Booth doesn't have any pets…" and then trailed off; her face draining of all tension. Replaced, to her surprise, by affection.
"Bren?" Angela said.
"Is it possible?" Temperance said softly. She started entering the letters of the pig figurine Booth had given to her, 'J-A-S-P-E-R' She almost sobbed when the main menu screen popped up, but she caught herself.
"Thanks, guys! We got it!" Temperance said into her phone and hung up.
Upon hearing the disconnection on the speakerphone, Hodgins spread his arms wide and said simply, "King of the Lab." Zack began following him, arguing that Brennan and Angela had not said which clue had worked, so Hodgins couldn't be 'King of the Lab'.
Temperance quickly worked the keypad scanning through Booth's address book. Angela was watching the names flash by avidly. "Hey, there's Tessa's number." She reached towards the keypad. "We should just delete that one."
Temperance slapped at Angela's hand. "We're looking for Rebecca's or Parker's entry."
"We can do it later," Angela murmured.
"I don't see either of them," Temperance said, shaking her head. "And I've been through this twice."
"What's this 'ICE' stuff he's got listed?" Angela asked. "Is that Immigration stuff?"
"I don't know," Temperance said shaking her head. "He's got 'ICE1,' 'ICE2,' 'ICE3,' 'ICE4'…"
"Ice, Ice baby," Angela intoned.
Temperance highlighted 'ICE1' and hit Enter. "That's my number," she said, surprised. "I…C…E" she said thoughtfully. And then it hit her, she smiled "In Case of Emergency!"
"Smart guy," Angela noted.
Temperance looked at her, still smiling, and nodded. Though not a PhD like most of the people around her, Booth could be very elegant in his solutions to problems. She worked the keypad and said, "Well, ICE1 is me, and ICE3 is the FBI. I'm guessing ICE2 is Rebecca." She punched the send button.
"A guess?" Angela said, "From Dr. Temperance Brennan? Let me call Hell to see if it's frozen over."
The phone rang once….twice….three times and then a woman answered. "Seeley you Son of a Bitch…" Temperance closed her eyes and nodded her head to Angela when she recognized Rebecca's voice. "I've left you four messages! You were supposed to take Parker to school today! I don't know what you've been doing, but if it was so important you should have called to let me know you weren't gonna make it. I could have made other arrangements! Instead, I had to keep Parker home with me, and I had to cancel the meetings I had…"
Temperance interrupted, "Rebecca….it's not Booth! It's Temperance Brennan."
Silence on the line. Then, shakily, "Dr. Brennan?"
"Yes, Rebecca. Something has happened."
"Oh God…tell me."
"Is Parker watching television?
"Yes, he's watching cartoons."
"Go turn the TV off…now…go do it now."
"Okay." Temperance could hear Rebecca turn the television off and ask Parker to go play video games for awhile. After a couple of moments, Rebecca said dully, "Okay."
Temperance related the "short version" of what had happened to Rebecca. Booth was still alive, what hospital he was in, he was still unconscious, Temperance had put her on the visitor list, but it might be better for Parker if he waited until Booth was at least off the ventilator before seeing his father. She gave Rebecca both her cell and home phone numbers and told her to call if she needed something, whether it dealt with Parker or otherwise. Temperance hit the 'END CALL' button and exhaled slowly. She wondered to herself, "Am I really up to this?"
As if in response, Angela gave her a hug and said, "You did good, Sweetie."
