Oh my gosh! I need to beg for reviews all of the time! =D Thanks for your wonderful comments. They were very encouraging. I'm open to any suggestions, so if you have any, leave a comment. So, in honor of tonight's all-new Bones (YAY!), here's the next chapter early. Enjoy—
Booth continued counting the moments until she opened her eyes. Would they never end? Wouldn't God have mercy on his soul?
Angela noticed the fierce agitation, written all over his features. She gently laid a hand on his hands, hands that had been in balled fists for the past hour. He glanced at her, offered a pathetic smile, and turned back to the pale woman lying on the discolored sheets of the hospital bed.
"Hey," she quietly murmured as she attempted to comfort her friend again. "You heard what the doctor said; Brennan will wake up any time now. It was just the shock." She offered him a tentative smile, but he was unable to decrease the tension in his muscles.
"I know," he agreed in a sigh. "I just wish she'd open her eyes." Booth's eyes strayed to his Bones's sleeping figure, continuing to wait for a flicker of activity.
The next few moments of silence were interrupted when the vibrations of Booth's phone buzzed from his pocket. He reached into his dust-covered pants, still dirty from cradling Brennan in the field, preparing to turn the nuisance off. But when the screen identified the caller as Hacker, he sighed and put the phone to his ear.
"Booth," he declared solemnly.
"Booth, how's she doing?" his boss answered with sympathy and worry in his voice.
"Not yet conscious." He glanced at Bones before clearing his throat and continuing his conversation. "Did you get Broadsky?"
"We're not positive that it's actually him, Booth," Hacker reminded him.
Booth snorted. "It's him. He did this to send a message." Booth's expression darkened as the guilt washed over him. The guilt chanted that he'd caused this, as well as let this happen. With it came a silent promise of vengeance to capture the ex-sniper once and for all. He'd let Broadsky break into his house, threaten his son, and now attempt to take the life away from his partner. If the F.B.I. was incapable of taking him down, Booth had no doubts that he would.
"We all agree with you, Booth," Hack responded with sympathy lining his voice. "There's just no viable evidence to support that theory at the present time. We'll get him next time."
Booth stood and turned away from Angela's anxious stares, along with Bones's empty ones. He wiped a hand over his drained face as he heard the real news there—they didn't have Broadsky. Not only that, but they'd be waiting until he attacked again.
Booth took a shaky breath to clear his head before responding to his boss. "Did we get anything? Anything at all?"
"Well. . . We got a kid. He's seventeen, named Tim Polsch. He's claiming to be the one to have shot Temperance." Hacker's tone became bitter at restating the boy's obvious lie.
"To hell with that," Booth scoffed. "There's no way some seventeen year old kid goes off shooting at the police without some kind of escape route."
"I know," Hacker agreed warily.
"So no evidence tying this to Broadsky?" Booth summed in a dissatisfied tone. "What about the bullet? Wasn't there a handmade bullet left at the scene? Brennan's doctor said the shot was through and through."
Hacker hesitated before answering. Although Hacker was the superior and both parties knew it, Booth's steely reaction to the news caused him to become a little wary. "There was a bullet, but it's not handmade. It was a store-bought, standard .308. Anyone could have gotten it.
"But there was a fingerprint recovered off the bullet. Maybe Broadsky left it when it was being loaded."
Booth sighed for what felt like the millionth time that hour. Who knows; maybe it was. "Broadksy's not going to be that careless. He's framing the kid."
"As soon as possible, come down to the interrogation room. You might be able to make the kid confess for taking the fall," Hacker suggested.
"Yeah, I'll try." Booth shut the phone and squeezed his eyes shut. The entire crime scene was a bust. Broadsky was able to nearly kill Brennan in broad daylight, surrounded by nothing but cops, yet he didn't have a scrap of evidence to hold him accountable for any of the wrongs that he'd done.
"Booth," Angela called him back to the present as she stared at Brennan's now stirring figure.
Booth flew to her side and captured Bones's hand, Angela taking the other.
"Come on, sweetie," Angela murmured to her best friend. "Come back to us."
"Bones?" he attempted to carry her to consciousness. "Can you hear me? Bones?"
Brennan's eyes flickered open before squinting away from the harsh lights. She had throbbing aches in her shot, broken, and now covered-in-plaster arm. Her head pulsed painfully from the drugs the hospital staff had pumped her up with.
"Hey." Booth breathed all of his anxiety out of his body in that one word. "Thank God, Bones. We were so worried."
Brennan then squinted against his smile; it seemed to be brighter than the light fixtures. "What happened?" she wondered groggily.
Angela felt the love radiating between the two. With a knowing smile, she announced, "I'll go tell everyone you're awake." She gently hugged her friend's damaged frame and murmured, "Glad you're O.K., sweetie."
Brennan weakly watched her friend walk out of the room before turning back to Booth. The way he was adorning her. . . It was so foreign. He acted as if every freckle she had was a miracle from God Himself.
His smile never stopped as he took in every aspect of her. He was trying to remind himself that she was alive and soon-to-be well. She couldn't fight the small, content smile that emerged in return.
"I'm so happy that you're O.K.," he murmured as he hugged her.
How different she had become from the woman she once was. Seven years ago, if this man had approached her with his warm and loving embrace, she would have pinned him to the ground before he could have offered an explanation. But now… now, she gratefully accepted it and hugged him back, happy to be loved.
He pulled back after a few moments, but only to allow his lips to smolder against hers. After they parted, he looked at her and sighed. Not because he was worried about catching a dangerous criminal, about her safety, or about any worries in the world. He sighed in contentment that the one he cherished and loved was here, breathing in his arms. For this, he was eternally grateful.
"I love you, Bones," he murmured softly as he gently laid his forehead against hers, kissing the tip of her nose.
She was able to wrap the arm not cocooned in plaster around his neck and pull him closer to her. The love she felt, another novel experience for her, was equal in every measure, whether she knew it or not. "I love you, too."
I know, this accomplished few things in the storyline, but I promise that there is more action is to come. B&B were due for a romantic break, anyhow. Hope you enjoyed! If you did, didn't, or have anything to comment, let me know.