Okay, so this is the first actual chapter of this story! I'm actually looking forward to this - which I figure is a good thing considering how depressed I was after the season finale. Right now it's sort of a "Post 1 chapter=get rid of 1% of my anguish" thing, so don't expect this story to be short.

Don't expect it to be a hundred chapters, though. I don't think I can do that.

This chapter mainly focuses on Booth and the Squint Squad. And yes, I know I said I'd stay out of the science-y stuff, but I do have a little bit of it in this chapter.

I was asked by Lipush to have lyrics from "Full of Grace" in this story, and I'm happy to oblige! It really is an amazing song - look it up if you're not familiar with it - and I'm quite happy to add it to my story. Also, Lipush referenced it to Angel/Buffy, and this song is also part of the Buffy Season 2 finale. Can I mention that Angel is played by David Boreanaz, and he's separated from Buffy at the end of season 2 as well?

Coincidence? I think not. He must just be a magnet for tortured love.

P.S - I actually ship Buffy/Spike. I love Angel, but...Spike.

So let's get on with this!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones (unfortunately) or Sarah McLachlan's "Full Of Grace."

She left.

That was all Booth could think about as he sat on the church steps, forehead pressed against the heels of his hands, Christine's things beside him. She had left, and she had taken with him the only other person he could feel so much love for.

It had been hours, hours since she had left him; hours since Max had walked away, leaving him alone on the street.

I'm pulled down by the undertow

I never thought I could feel so low

There were a million things he could do. There were a million things he should do. But he didn't want to move; he didn't want to breathe. He wanted to fall asleep on the steps and wake up in her arms, wake up to his daughter's cries.

Booth stood up, his muscles rippling in pain. He felt the need to run. To her.

It's just that we stayed, too long

In the same old sickly skin

He sat down again, the sun seeming to bake every inch of his skin. He thought of his family in that car. His family, in that car, driving away.

His family, in that car, driving away...gone forever.

No, no, NO! Booth shook his head fiercely, once again wanting to run away. No matter how much Brennan's feminism had gotten to him – no matter how much she had rubbed off on him – he still felt like an alpha male. He still felt like he should be protecting her. He still thought she had felt threatened here in D.C, and that was why she had left. Because he wasn't good enough.

His mood swung again, leaving him slightly dizzy. Why would it be his fault? He had done everything for her, and she had left him. She had left him.

Oh, darkness, I feel like letting go

That thought left almost as soon as it began. He couldn't bear to blame her. He had spent so much time chasing after her, and she had been his. She had not run from him like he'd expected; instead, after years of proving to her that he really, truly loved her, she had come to him.

Booth leaned his head back, closing his eyes and letting the heat stroke his cheeks, the light blinding him from behind his eyelids. And to his surprise, his thoughts turned to Max.

Somehow, Booth had no doubt that Max wasn't planning on letting his daughter go alone. He had the feeling that it would be quite a while before he saw Max again, and he wasn't entirely sad about that.

But he thought of Max's words, and he thought of the way Max had simply walked away. Because the truth was, Brennan didn't have to wait for Max. She could disappear off the face of the earth with Christine, and she had been taught well – not even Max would be able to find her. And yet, he had let her go.

Booth stood up, determined this time. He could not go after Brennan. He could not go after his family. But he knew, without a doubt, that there was another way he could save them.

Watch out, Pelant, Booth thought dangerously, almost snarling as he began to pace in the direction of the Jeffersonian. There's going to be hell to pay.

"Now what?"

Hodgins' question pretty much summed up everyone's mood. After Booth had gathered the Squint Squad, delivering his message quickly – Brennan gone, Christine gone, himself left to pick up the pieces – he had leaned back and waited for them to sort themselves out. As impatient as he was, he had learned something from Brennan: you couldn't rush brilliance. You had to wait for it.

Booth's eyes searched the group, watching and cataloguing each reaction. Angela had been nothing short of pure shock, her eyes wide and tearful, a hand shaking as it covered her mouth. Hodgins had been only little less: he had sat, staring at the corner of the table, looking almost blank. Sweets had leaned back in defeat, dropping his chin as he acknowledged the consequences Brennan's action would have on the case.

Wendell and Cam had exchanged grim glances before looking back at Booth.

"What?" Booth growled, ignoring Hodgins' question as he stood up, eyes burning into Cam's and Wendell's. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Wendell dropped his eyes quickly, knowing better than to anger Booth further. Cam, however, was not in the least bit intimidated. She had known Seeley Booth in what, for her, felt like forever. She had been a cop and dealt with criminals with tempers much, much worse than his. And she really, really knew him.

"You have to understand how this is going to look for the case," Cam began, her voice strong in her convictions. " was already the number one suspect. After this-"

"After this, nothing!" Booth roared, shaking in rage. "After this we clear her name and we save her, that's what the hell we do! Don't stand there and blame her, don't look at me like you've got this all figured out because you sure as hell don't!"

"After this everyone's going to really believe she did this," Cam continued smoothly, not allowing her speech to be disrupted. "They're going to give up looking for Pelant. They're going to go after her."

Cam smoothed her hands down her skirt, gathering herself up. "You should go find her, Booth. Go find her and bring her back before she makes things infinitely worse."

Booth latched on to the edge of the table, fingers digging harshly into the rough wood. "You think I haven't thought of that? If I could go after her I sure as hell would. But we all know that if she doesn't want to be found, she's not going to be found. Period."

Cam sat back down, placing her hands on her lap and watching Booth. He was right, of course. It didn't matter if the best thing would be for Brennan to hand herself in. It didn't matter if the best thing was for her to come back and stay here. It didn't matter, because if she went to jail she would be separated from Booth, and from Christine, and wasn't her motive her dedication to them?

They stared each other down, neither backing away from their convictions. Cam knew he was right but knew she was right as well. Booth wouldn't even go as far as to admit that: all he could see was Brennan, all he could feel was a primal need to protect his family.

So it surprised all of them when Cam echoed Hodgins: "Now what?"

The entire Squint Squad turned to Cam in surprise. No one fully understood what she was asking – hadn't she just given her opinion?

"Cam's right," Angela said, surprising even herself. "We need a plan." She stood up, looking around at the group. She, who had been here since almost the beginning, knew who was in and who wasn't. She knew Booth, like her, would go to the ends of the earth to save Brennan (and he, unlike her, would keep going past it). She knew Hodgins would be on board with anything, both because he felt a need to help Brennan after their ordeal with the Gravedigger, and because she'd kill him if he didn't. She knew Wendell would be drawn to the case, but not to save Brennan. He would find evidence and he would catalogue it and if it pointed to Brennan, well, that sucked, but he was looking for the truth.

She also knew Cam.

At that moment, Angela hated Cam. She hated that Cam hadn't kept evidence to herself. She hated that Cam hadn't faked problems with the computer, with the evidence, with anything in order to save Brennan. But she also knew Caroline was right. They had all done what they were supposed to do in Pelant's eyes – except for Cam. She had searched for the truth, not for evidence to convict Pelant. She, surprisingly, was the one who had kept them searching.

"Cam's in charge," Angela announced regally, her voice failing to betray the doubt she felt about her own decision. "She did what was right."

"And I," Cam announced, her own voice filled with authority, "am putting you in charge, Seeley. I know you'll do anything to save her. With one condition," she added. "Work as much within the law as you can. No disposal of evidence or you're officially not in charge."

Booth nodded, immediately stepping into the shoes as leader. "First things first: we go against what we've been doing." Noticing the confused faces, he clarified. "Pelant thinks he knows exactly what we're going to do. So we do the exact opposite. We do exactly what Cam did." Taking in a deep breath and hoping that Bones wouldn't hate him for this, he continued. "We stop looking for evidence against Pelant, because it's not going to be there. First we find the evidence against Brennan. Catalogue everything. However," he turned to Cam and prayed for at least a little bit of her mercy, "don't hand it in to the FBI. Everything goes to me. Any evidence against Pelant goes to me as well. We don't want the FBI thinking we're hiding everything, so if you find small bits of evidence that can go either way, those go to them."

He turned to each person individually. "Angela, you keep doing your computer thing. Ethan's clues are the only ones that haven't been tainted by Pelant, so we should assume that they're the only ones we can look at with a bias. Wendell, you keep doing your bone thing. Remember what I said about the evidence. Cam, you call up the rest of the squinterns – we're going to need as much help as we can. Again with the evidence."

He turned. "Sweets, you're off the case, so you're with me. We find out how to turn the evidence against Pelant. I'll call Caroline and fill her in."

"She's off the case too," Angela said softly, trying not to break Booth's flow.

Booth sighed, pressing his fingers against his closed eyes. "You know what that means, Cam."

Cam nodded curtly. "I'm the only one inside the law."

"Exactly." Booth leaned back again, thinking over everything. "All of us are going to working illegally here. Cam, you're the only one who's going to be completely inside the law. I hate to ask this of you, but... "

"I know," Cam said, standing up and walking away. "Good luck!" she tossed over her shoulders, her voice not conveying as much hope as she thought it would.

"The rest of us," Booth started, "We're left to our own devices. Sweets, Caroline, and I have no jurisdiction, so those of you still on the case are going to have to pass on information." He sighed. "The most likely scenario is that eventually we're all going to be kicked off the case, which is why Wendell," he said sternly, "you're in charge of keeping the FBI off our back. No inventing evidence, no destroying evidence, but no making them believe Bones is guilty, either."

Finally, he sent them off, watching as each person mulled over their own thoughts and doubts and questions. Angela was the last to leave, her eyes lingering on Booth.

"One last thing," she said softly.

Booth looked up, his calm exterior breaking down. "Yes?"

Angela gave a sweetly vicious smile. "I have no doubt that she's innocent. After all, it's Brennan," she said, and with a very quiet voice, she explained: "If she was the killer, there wouldn't be evidence at all."

If there was one thing about the day that did not surprise Booth, it was that the FBI was waiting at his doorstep.

He'd been expecting this, of course. How could he not? Flinn had already told him he'd be back with a warrant, so he'd begun to prepare himself the moment he'd left the Jeffersonian. Leaving all his worries about the case behind, he'd swung his mood and his thoughts towards the ordeal still to come.

Swinging the car he'd borrowed from Angela into his driveway, he watched as Flinn tore away from the group of agents and other forensic workers gathered by his door and strode towards his car. Flinn walked with confidence, as if he'd already figured everything out about this case...and Booth couldn't help but feel guilt, knowing that once upon a time he'd had that same walk when he walked up to a suspect. It was meant to make them scared, make them confess.

But it won't work on me, Booth thought. Because she's not guilty.

Booth took his sweet time getting out of the car, getting a sick sense of pleasure from watching Flinn's impatience. Once out, he didn't say a word, simply waiting for Flinn to begin.

"Well, Mr. Booth," Flinn began, pointedly 'forgetting' that Booth was an FBI agent as well, "I brought you a warrant. We've been kind enough to wait for you to arrive but we won't be left waiting any longer."

"Of course not," Booth said, his voice monotone as he pulled his keys out of his pocket and headed towards the door. That did not, of course, stop Flinn from continuing to pester him.

"Mr. Booth, I brought with me an arrest warrant for Doctor Brennan as well. Would you mind telling me where she is?"

"If only," Booth muttered, unlocking the door and swinging it wide open.

"Excuse me, Mr. Booth?" Flinn asked, eyebrows raised. "Keeping this information from us is obstruction of justice."

"Sorry, pal," Booth said harshly, stepping into his house and flinching slightly when the rest of the agents followed. He felt as if this house – this house where he had only just begun to raise his daughter, where he could always find safety in Bones' arms – was being violated simply by their presence, and he did not like it. At all. "I can't tell you because I don't know."

Flinn stepped closer, again taking a stab at being intimidating. "You can understand why I find that hard to believe, right?"

Booth raised his eyebrows, unflinching. "She's gone. She drove away."

"Maybe she went to the supermarket."

"She took our daughter." Booth swallowed at the sudden block in his throat, blinking back threatening tears and trying to remain calm. "If she was doing something as simple as going to the supermarket, she would've left Christine with me."

Flinn looked Booth up and down, his eyes scraping into Booth's, capturing the slightly red tint of Booth's eyes: the evidence of his pain hidden there. He crossed his arms and looked pensive for a moment before continuing. "Any further evidence you have that she isn't coming back?"

Booth thought over it. He had Max's words, of course. But would that make a difference? And he felt an unbearable pain at the thought of turning his father-in-law (or not-in-law, technically, but since when did technicalities matter?) in, especially because he was the one connection Booth still had to Brennan. So he shook his head – deciding that obstruction of justice was something he could get away with right now – and prayed that Max, wherever he was, knew how much he was giving up for them.

And that, with any luck, he'd return the favor.

Booth leaned back against the couch, the pillows soft against his back. He couldn't bear to go into his room, ransacked by the FBI. He couldn't bear to go into Christine's, where all of her security footage had been stolen from him, all those precious videos of his daughter in his arms, gone. It had taken him an hour to force himself to run into their room blindly, only to grab extra covers and bed sheets from their closet, his heart breaking with every silent moment.

Lying down slowly, he stared at the ceiling and thought of all the love he felt for her, for their daughter. He thought of all the painful, dark moments Bones must have gone through to come to her conclusion. He thought of his hands on her belly, feeling their daughter move; the light heaviness of Christine in his arms, the way his heart burst with pride whenever he saw the two of them.

I will find you, he thought softly, tenderly. I will save you.

I will never stop looking for you.

I will never stop loving you.

If all of the strength and

All of the courage

Come and lift me from this place

I know I can love you much better than this

Full of grace

I don't hate Cam, I really don't. With the exception of this episode. I know she was actually the best character, but...no.

Reviews?