A/N: Wow! Fourteen reviews in lesst than 24 hours? Definitely better than I had expected! Thank you so much to my reviewers, I hope you are happy with this chapter. Oh and by the way, bookwormlady, you are officially exempt from having to review this chapter, lol.

Special thanks to BnBfanatic for your advice, let me know if I still need some work.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own anyone or anything in this story.


The man started towards Brennan, however, because of the location of the moon, she had the advantage of being able to see him while he couldn't see her. She didn't have a gun, so she looked for something she could use as a weapon. She grabbed a large tree branch off the ground, and swung hard at Bryant's legs. He fell to the ground, and she kicked him on the side of his head. When she saw that he was unconscious, she hurried over to Booth. After looking at him, Brennan's expression grew worrisome.

"What? What's wrong?"

"You've lost a significant amount of blood and it doesn't seem to be slowing down."

She could tell Booth was having a hard time breathing. "Well, what do we do Bones?"

"I-I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? You're a genius."

"I'm an anthropologist! I deal with bones, dead people's bones!"

"Okay, just calm down, breathe." She was smart. Booth knew that if she calmed down, she would be able to figure it out. " Tell me what you know."

"Okay. I know that the more you move, the more you'll bleed."

"Okay, so walking doesn't seem like the best idea right about now."

"I also know that if we don't get you to a hospital within a few hours, you'll die anyway."

Booth winced at a sharp stab of pain in his side. "Well that's comforting. Anything else?"

"Judging by the placement of the wounds, the bullets could have penetrated your organs. Looking at the placement of the lower one and the amount of pain you're in, there's a chance it hit your liver."

"How great of a chance?"

Brennan sighed. "I would say fairly good chance."

Booth shut his eyes tightly. When he opened them, he looked to see if their assailant had aroused. "Hey, where'd Bryant go?"

Brennan glanced over to the spot where she had last scene the man. It was vacant.

"I-I don't know. I thought he was unconscious."

"Well, this is just great. You should probably get going."

"What do you mean?"

"You should go find help."

"I'm not leaving you here."

"Bones, you have to. You just said I'll bleed more if I walk."

"There is a serial killer somewhere out here that wants you dead and you don't even have enough strength to pull a trigger. Not to mention that, without me applying pressure to your wound-"

"Bones."

"Analyzing the pros and cons of bringing you with me, I would say that the pros outweigh the cons substantially." She knelt down beside him. "I am not leaving you, Booth."

"Okay." Booth tried to force a smile. "Okay."

Brennan slowly helped him up. She put her right arm around his back while applying pressure to his lower wound that more than likely penetrated his liver with her left hand. She felt his thick blood running through her fingers. The blood was a dark red, another sign of liver damage. But he didn't need to know that. He had enough to worry about.

They moved slowly and as steadily as they could. Brennan felt guilty. They didn't know where they were, where they were going, and it was her fault.

"I'm sorry."

"For what? You didn't shoot me. At least, not tonight."

"It's Christmas Eve, Booth. You're supposed to be with Parker tonight. But I made you come."

"Look, you couldn't have known any of this was going to happen, alright? It isn't your fault."

Brennan looked at him. He had come because she asked him to. And she knew he wouldn't say no to her. Thus, it was her fault. But now was not the time to argue.

"We shouldn't talk, you need to conserve your energy."

They walked for about a half hour before Booth interrupted the silence.

"I need a break," he said, wheezing. Brennan had noticed his breaths getting shorter and sharper as they walked, but she didn't want to stop until they absolutely had to.

"Okay. Just for a minute."

She gently sat him down on a large rock. She soothingly rubbed his back, noticing that there were no exit wounds, something she definitely should have remembered to check for earlier. It appeared that the wound in his chest had stopped bleeding, however the wound near his abdomen had slowed but was still seeping blood. She pushed a little harder on it and he cringed.

"I'm sorry, but I need to stop this bleeding."

"I know," he whispered, his eyes closed.

They sat there for about 3 minutes until Brennan stood up. They were running out of time. If the bullet had infiltrated his liver, in a best case scenario, he could make it up to six hours without medical attention. But judging by Booth's breathing and the amount of blood he had lost, factoring in both gunshot wounds, this was not the best case scenario.

"You ready to-" she started, but was cut short by Booth leaning over and vomiting on the side of the rock. Brennan opened his eye lids and examined his pupils. "Booth? Did you hit your head?"

He didn't respond. She carefully ran her fingers through his hair, and felt a large bump on the back of his head. "Booth, you have a concussion. You need to stay conscious. Are you ready to go?"

Booth barely moved his head, signaling he was ready.

They started walking again, hoping they were going in the right direction.

After about ten minutes, they heard a noise.


I always appreciate reviews! I'm not updating until I get 100.

Kidding, just kidding.