She felt the pain first, spreading across the back of her neck and down her spine. It wasn't the first time she'd been hit by a stun gun and the symptoms were the same; pain, and memory loss. She remembered saying goodbye to Booth and picking up another x-ray. She thought she might have answered the phone but she wasn't sure who had been on the other end.
"Tempe?" That voice was familiar, at least. She wondered if she was in hospital. But how had Booth called Russ?
"Russ?" She dragged her eyes open, feeling like she was swimming to the top of a murky, icy pool.
"How are you feeling?" He sounded sympathetic and she saw he was sitting beside her on the chair in her bedroom. She was lying on her bed, propped up with pillows.
"What happened?" She rubbed her eyes and put a cautious hand to the back of her neck, feeling two tender spots.
"We had to, Tempe. Dad'll explain everything. You just have to lie down."
"Dad's here? Booth's looking for him…" She swung her legs over the side of the bed but was stopped by the wave of dizziness that spun the room as well as Russ' hand on her shoulder.
"We didn't want to do it but we had to." Russ' voice was pleading, but his hands were still on her shoulders, holding her down as she tried to sit up again.
"Do what? You stun-gunned me? Russ what are you talking about?" She brought a knee up to his stomach and managed to wriggle out of his grasp. Running to the doorway she saw her father, surprised, turn towards her, a phone to his ear before, for the second time, the world darkened.
xXx xXx xXx
In a dark room blocks away, Booth awoke suddenly. He couldn't remember the dream he'd been having but he knew it would be something from his sniper days. He usually dreamt of long, cramped moments before he had to pull a trigger. Only problem was, his target would turn and it would be Bones' face looking at him from five hundred feet away, eyes sad but resigned to her fate. He always woke at the same moment; when he would inevitably, as trained, pull the trigger.
He rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock; it was coming up to midnight. Sighing, he turned away from the glowing red numbers and tried to get back to sleep.
xXx xXx xXx
"Temperance." When she awoke this time, she couldn't move as freely. The soft rattle made her look to the side. Each arm was pinned around to the legs of the bed by chains. Her feet were tied together. She could feel the second shock of electricity still making its way down her spine.
"Temperance, I need you to look at me." She did. He looked the same as he had before; almost unrecognisable. She'd talked to him, faced him, shaken his hand and never once realised that he had been her father.
"I'm going to tell you why you're here and what's going on and I need you to trust that what I'm telling you is the truth."
"Great way to build trust." She softly rattled the chains.
"We couldn't let you get away. It's for your own safety. I'm going to take these off…" He took a moment to undo her feet before moving to her arms. Brennan rubbed her wrists with her fingertips. She'd obviously moved about while she was chained; raw ringlets circled her pale skin.
"So talk." Brennan said. Her father ran a hand through his hair and sighed, pulling the chair a little closer. She drew her legs up so she was sitting cross legged and was hit with a memory; her father sitting next to her bed reading a story to her while she softly fell asleep. She thought it had been Picnic at Hanging Rock.
"Russ didn't want to come with me."
"It seemed like he did when you both left me chained to the bench." She wasn't trying to accuse him, she was stating a fact. Russ had left without so much as a goodbye.
"He was doing what he knew was best. For Hayley and Emma. And Amy."
"His girlfriend?"
"And her children. Booth found the pictures of Russ, but he never found the ones of Amy and the girls."
"So they were hunting them as well?"
"Yes. Would probably have killed them first. Unless Russ disappeared, and everything he remembered disappeared along with him."
"You told him all this?"
"In your apartment, that night. He decided straight away that their safety was the most important thing to him even if it meant never seeing them again."
"But…" Brennan trailed off.
"These people we're dealing with… Booth thinks he knows how deep they go, but he doesn't. It isn't just the group from the '70s. It's been reborn in higher circles, Tempe. And slowly, they're getting rid of the traitors. But there aren't any morals any more."
"Morals for killing people?"
"Yes. That's why we left you and Russ all those years ago. It started to dissolve when they were coming after our children. Then it became everyone we'd ever known. Your mother wanted to take you with us… You don't know how hard it was for her, those two years. Never getting to see you. Scouring the news every day making sure you weren't in there."
"Then why didn't she come back?"
"Because that would have meant your death. We did the best we could, Temperance, to keep you alive. And I've succeeded so far, despite the fact that you put yourself in harms way every day with your job."
"You're criticising the way I live my life?"
"I'm just saying it hasn't been easy. You have to know I didn't want to kill those men, put them on the building. But I had no choice. It was a warning to them. But it was only a bandaid cure. I've known this day has been coming."
"What day? What are you talking about?"
"You've been Temperance Brennan for too long. They know where to look, and they know how to get to you. It won't be you they kill first; it'll be the people you work with; Booth. Past and current boyfriends."
"What?" Brennan felt her stomach constrict. Not her friends. Not Booth.
"Why do you think you have no family other than your grandfather? They got them all."
"Who's they?"
"They're the conspiracy keepers. The cleaners who make sure the public are ignorant in their knowledge of everything. It sounds like more than the truth, but it's not. You have to understand these people are dangerous, and they'll stop at nothing before they wrap up all the loose ends. You're a loose end. So am I, so is your brother. And anyone else from the old days who decided to fight against it, although we're becoming very few."
"So what are you telling me? I stop being myself?"
"You disappear." Brennan looked at him incredulously for a second before she shook her head.
"I can't just disappear. Besides, I have Booth-."
"You don't think his focus will waver a little after his little boy is killed."
"They'd kill Parker?" Brennan's hand went to her mouth.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. No one you know is safe as long as you're still near them."
"So if I don't do… What you're asking…"
"It's best if you do." Her father said softly. Brennan leant back against the head of her bed.
"Can't I just move… Work in a different country?"
"They'll start killing those you're closest to until you come back. You need to be dead in their eyes. If there was any other way, I'd offer it to you. I left you as long as I could because you seemed happy there."
"I was." Brennan said simply.
"What's to stop them killing… the people I love… if I do just disappear?" Her father looked grim.
"You'll learn how to be dead. You'll effectively neutralise yourself against them. In this case your job is working for you; they'll assume it was a pissed off criminal getting back at you. That's why I need you to fill these." Her father put two blood collecting bags and a pressure cuff on the bed between them. Temperance looked at them before slowly reaching out to take the sterile needle he handed over. She'd donated blood before, and she was sure she could find a lateral vein but the amount of blood he wanted would make her weak.
"I know it's a lot. We need it to be convincing." He shrugged helplessly and they both turned as Russ came in.
"He's here." He said. Her father stood, reached out a hand to Brennan's shoulder. She moved away and he paused, dropping his hand, passing Russ on the way out.
"You believe him?" She asked her brother. He ignored the chair and sat next to her on the bed.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I'd be back with Amy…" There was a wistful note in his voice and Brennan realised he'd had to give up his life as well, because of who their parents were, what they did. To keep those he loved safe. History was repeating, it seemed.
"Who's here?" Brennan asked, motioning towards the door.
"It's some guy Dad knows. He called him earlier. We're getting new passports. New lives. Again. You're lucky you can't remember the last time we changed."
"How far does this group go? Can't we just research them, tell the FBI, get them taken off the streets?" Russ shook his head.
"They're in the FBI. Dad got Kirby, but there'll be more."
"So, what? We just stop our lives?"
"We've got no choice, Temperance!" Russ' voice came out louder than she'd expected and Brennan flinched.
"Do you want them to kill Booth or Angela? Or Booth's son? Do you think you'll be able to live with yourself? I know you feel helpless." He reached for her hand. "I don't like it either. But this is our father. He's been trying to protect us our whole lives. He's just doing what he thinks is best. I think we've got to trust him on this." Brennan gave his hand a squeeze back.
"New passports. From now on I'm James Parker." Their father appeared with two passports in his hand and a paper bag. Brennan opened her passport and found a driver's licence and a social security card tucked inside.
"Rowan Smythe." She read, then shifted her eyes to the picture. "I'm not blonde."
"The bag." Her father said. She dug around and pulled out a packet of bleach, sighing. Digging a little further she found clippers to cut Russ' (now Joseph's) hair and dark grey contacts.
"You'll have to wear them at all times."
"Where are we going to go?" Russ asked, putting his passport down on his lap.
"Different places."
"You're splitting us up again? We only just found each other again."
"I'm sorry, Rowan. Sorry for more than you realise. But this is the only way it can be done. You'll have to do your hair, then get the blood."
"Can't we use our names around each other?" Brennan asked. Her father shook his head.
"First rule of con; believe your own lie. You've got a flight at twelve, but we've got to get out of here before that." She looked at the clock; it was barely four AM. She'd been unconscious for most of the night.
"Where am I going?"
"There's a man meeting you at the airport. He needs to run as well; it's not just us we're after, which is why they will be pleased you've been taken off the agenda. It's much harder to hide the murder of an international bestselling author than a nobody."
"Murder victims are never nobodies, Dad." He paused at her words and shook his head.
"I know. I'm sorry." It was turning into a morning of apologies for him.
"There're notes in your bag. You should read them on your flight."
"Can I... say goodbye to anyone?"
"No. There's no nice way to say this, but you need to be dead to them. Or it's them who will die." Brennan felt tears threatening as she looked over at the man who had already changed her name once in her lifetime.
"I'll let you make one call before you go. Just to say goodbye." Brennan looked across at the pictures of her with her friends that were around her bureau. The one that caught her eye was taken at a Christmas party photo. One of Booth's arms was around her waist and she was smiling at him. Angela, Zack and Hodgins looked giggly; they'd somehow managed to spike the punch again. Suddenly, she needed a guy- hug from Booth.
