I apologize for not updating. Hopefully I should be updating more frequently now. And for those that have wondered, Brennan is in witness protection, and is Amanda.
Two hours of driving later, Amanda found herself in front of her house in Barton, Maryland. The town seemed quiet and peaceful, but then again, it was late evening. Knowing her life, anything was possible, even in such a small town as Barton. The neighbor's door opened and a young woman, maybe a few years younger than Amanda, stepped out.
"You the new neighbor?" the woman asked.
Amanda nodded and the woman smiled, "Welcome to Barton. If you'd like, tomorrow, I'll help you move in, and maybe show you around town and introduce you to some of the other gals here."
She was about to politely refuse, but then she thought about it. If she knew more people here, she might be able to find out easier if a member of the mob lived here or moved here, instead of possibly going blindly through town without knowing who anyone was or who she could trust. So instead she said, "I'd like that; thanks! I'm Amanda."
"Stephanie." She turned to go back inside, but stopped for a second and threw Amanda a warning, "Tomorrow maybe Saturday but some of the kids in this town don't watch the cartoons and tend to be a little rowdy. Thought, I'd give you a fair warning."
Both women laughed, and Amanda thanked her again before walking inside her new house. It was mostly empty minus a few pieces of furniture that Cullen had gotten dropped off earlier. She opened the window in her new room and plopped down on her new bed, worn out from the day's activities. With the late summer, evening breeze, Amanda found herself asleep within minutes.
Cullen had found Booth in his office the next morning. He noted mentally that the agent looked like hell, but the man believed his partner was dead. It was understandable. His heart panged as he knew that if Booth and the rest of the squints found out that Temperance Brennan was actually alive, they would be as good as dead as well.
"Booth, I got you a case."
The agent looked up and asked tiredly, "What is it?"
"It's you're partner's case." The younger agent looked shocked but quickly turned to confusion. Cullen continued, knowing what Booth would say, "I know this is too close, but you and your team have the best success rate and this is bigger than what you thought it was."
"What do you mean, Sir?"
"In your previous case, the victim was killed by a member of a mob, but you didn't know he was a member. Dr. Brennan had found out and gathered some very important information on the leader and the inner workings. I managed to get most of the information, but as she was leaving to get me the rest of the information, she was pushed off the bridge by another member of the mob. You and you're team are going to find out who these leaders are and get rid of them, before they kill anyone else."
Booth's anger began to rise as he heard why Brennan died. She died because she knew too much. Something made his way to the front of Booth's mind. How did the mob know she knew too much? It should be impossible. Unless…
"Is there spies for the mob working here?" he asked.
Cullen nodded, "I believe so and your partner did too, which is why I'm entrusting you with this case. No one but your squints and I are to know anything about this case. To the rest of the world you aren't even on this case."
"I understand, sir."
"Good. In about an hour, I'll personally deliver all the files of information to the Jeffersonian. We can't let it go into the wrong hands."
At Booth's final nod, Cullen left him to go over what just happened. He hoped Cullen knew that once he found the bastard behind murdering his partner, he most likely would not be able to hold back from either killing him or coming close. Booth wasn't going to force the squints to work this case with him, but knowing them, they would all jump at the chance to catch the leader of the mob, and hell, every single member.
"I'm in!"
"Me too!"
"I'll help, if you let me help beat the bastards to a pulp!"
Everyone had immediately volunteered to help, which was no big surprise to either Booth, or Cullen. Cullen was shocked by one thing. They didn't know there wasn't a body. All they had was a car and a bunch of files. Cullen knew that these squints were good with bodies and they would easily be able to tell if the body was Dr. Brennan's or not so he made Brennan's car able to be controlled by a remote and made the windshield come off shortly after hitting the water. He made the press believe Dr. Brennan had managed to get out of the car but couldn't make it back up to the surface and that her 'body' still hadn't been found. The fact that Dr. Brennan had drowned was in the full report the night before, so if they didn't know that, they didn't watch it, and that was what shocked him.
"You didn't watch the report last night?" he asked.
Hodgins responded, "Dude, we just found out that our close friend had died. That was the only thing that registered in our minds yesterday. None of us even thought about watching it."
'I guess that does make sense,' Cullen thought to himself. "We will give you all you need, but there is no body yet so you will have to do the best you can."