Chapter 4

Hayden is being picked up and placed on a hook in a slaughterhouse with thick steel handcuffs. A man walks slowly from the shadows.

"Hey baby" he whispers in her ear, tracing his finger around her face. "I gonna make this as painless for you as possible, sweetie. Here". He beckons for another man to come. This man was the one who had taken her. He was tapping a syringe against his hand. Hayden knows what it is she wants it. The man hands over the syringe. "Be for I do this let me introduce myself" the first man says "I'm Brad Epps""Be for I do this let me introduce myself, I'm Brad Epps" The man says tracing Hayden's face again. Booth gasps. The Team is sitting around Angela's screens that have a constant run to where Hayden is and what's happening. Epps injects something into her arm. Hayden doesn't move or fight, just takes it. She doesn't move as Epps pulls out a silver dagger as the other man removes her shirt. Epps slides it down her back. "Why isn't she fighting back, her legs are free" Angela says. Hayden just hung there. She couldn't fight even if she wanted too. Her back burned. She doesn't notice Epps move to a camera in front of her. "How'd you kill my half-brother Booth? Oh yea dropped him from 6 stories up. I'm not that cruel and I don't wanna kill this pretty 'un but call the FBI and I'll make sure she dies painfully make sure you have to watch and go crazy knowing that you caused it." He says. He turns off the camera and takes Hayden off the hook. "Sorry 'bout this" he says injecting her again She woke up 3 hours later in pain. Opening her eyes Hayden saw she was in a bathtub covered in blood. She stood up and sank back down her head pounding. She grabs a towel and tried to rub most of it off. She slipped and found where the cuts were. Epps had reopened her whip scars. Hayden wanders to her clothes sitting on the floor and walks to the hook she'd been on and lays down tired. She imagines herself back when her mother was alive and she had never been thrown to the ground, kicked, spat at, or called a worthless piece of shit. She drifts off. What feels like a minute later she is being hauled to her feet.

"Shh this is all gonna be talk Hun" Epps says holding a knife to her throat. Booth comes down the stairs with a man Hayden has never seen and a group of guards.

'Come any closer and I'll kill her" Epps yells. His hand slips and cuts Hayden's neck slightly It isn't deep. "Sorry baby girl." He whispers in her ear. Tears start to slip from Hayden's eyes. She didn't normally cry but she was scared and pretty sure he broke a rib or two. Epps lays Hayden down keeping his hand on the cut.

"Run" Hayden whispers. Epps nods and runs through a backdoor. Booth runs up and presses his Hayden's throat. Too hard, Hayden gasps.

"Doctors are coming they'll fix your neck and make the pain stop." Booth says

'No' Hayden thinks. She hears running footfalls. Medics come in and put Hayden on a stretcher and try to sedate her. Hayden moves away. Booth holds her to the stretcher as medics strap her down. It's what she needs she pulls up her arm and the needle comes out. Unfortunately it saps the last of her energy and a black fog covers her eyes.