Chapter 1
Two Days Ago
Temperance Brennan was scared. It was a new sensation for her. Fear wasn't something she felt very often. Wrap yourself in a suit of logic and it feels like armor. Be practical. Don't be emotional. Be rational. Always. Take karate. Learn to fight for yourself. Speak your mind.
No. Fear was not a friend of Brennan's.
Right now? She was surrounded by dirt. And blood. Hodgins' blood. He hadn't woken up yet. That scared her too. She had performed surgery on him. And he was still out cold. She felt alone. Buried.
And very scared.
She did not like to depend on anyone but herself. But... right now, she was thinking a lot about her partner. She had seen him countless times come through for her. At the final countdown, he always came through.
Hodgins jumped. He was awake. Brennan released a breath she didn't even know she was holding.
She had one less thing to be afraid of for the moment.
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Booth drove over to see the Cantilever Group, his mind reeling. He gripped the steering wheel, because every time he took his hands off of it, he realized they were shaking.
He was a sniper, trained in combat, and an FBI Special Agent. He'd seen a lot of action. He'd lost friends, lost colleagues, lost cases, faced heartbreak.
But he didn't remember his hands ever shaking in fear before. He wasn't used to being afraid. He cared about all his cases. This... this was different. Fear shook him to the core because if he didn't solve this one in time....
Bones... Bones was going to die. In a matter of hours, she could be dead. At that thought, his foot pushed down harder on the gas.
That partner of his... boy she could get on his nerves sometimes. Get right under the skin. With her observations, her unscreened flow of thoughts, her blunt honesty... he'd never worked with anyone like her before.
And it was all the more special because of that. He wouldn't change a thing about her. Not one thing. Truth be told, his job got more enjoyable since they'd become partners. He could admit that in this moment. Probably because the thought of going to work tomorrow without his partner devastated him. He enjoyed the challenges she threw his way. The banter. The differences that made each one equal parts partner in their unique partnership.
He'd get assigned an actual FBI agent probably. Someone who already had a gun. Who agreed with his methods and shared many of them. Someone with similar training to his own. Or they'd team him with another scientist. But... while the squints were a special breed, he knew Temperance Brennan truly was different. Her quirks were so uniquely Bones... he'd never find a partner like her again.
This whole thing was some kind of nightmare. If he ever got his hands on the Gravedigger, he would kill him. Snap his neck, beat him senseless, shoot him until his face was no longer recognizable by anyone other than his squint squad. Because they could always put everyone back together. They could give everyone back their identity.
He pulled up to the Cantilever Group building. If they gave him the ransom money, his career would be over.
And she would live. He couldn't get out of his car fast enough.