Once he'd left, she put her plan in motion. She conned a gun out of Andy, changed into black, grabbed a dark grey blanket from her bed and snuck quickly down to their rental car in the parking garage. She'd left a door unlocked when they got out earlier, so she was able to get into the small SUV without any trouble. Heart pounding, she contorted her body until it was obscured by piles of FBI standard issue gear. Then she covered her body with the blanket, hoping she'd be invisable in the dark.

Booth may not think he needed her, but she knew that he did. Two heads were always better than one, and two guns wouldn't hurt either. Her heartbeat slowed to normal as one hour passed and then another. She began to wonder if he was really planning something for tonight. Or if he was perhaps planning to use another vehicle. Or maybe he didn't even need a vehicle. Maybe he planned to take a train or a bus, or to walk.

Just as she'd begun to give up hope, she heard the door open and Booth entered the vehicle. A little thrill went through her at the idea that she would be putting one over on her partner. The car started and Booth made a call as he drove.

"Carter, you ready?" Then a pause, "Give me an hour….. yeah an hour is plenty." Another pause, longer this time. "I got this Andy, no worries." He slapped the phone shut. An indeterminate amount of time passed before the car stopped and then another indeterminate amount of time before Booth actually got out of the car. She was pretty sure that her cheek had been resting on the enormous gun Booth had used to kill someone yesterday. The contact with such a vicious weapon gave her chills and reminded her once more that the man she was following was not her Booth. He was the deadly, Army Ranger version of Booth.

She only waited a split second before she came out of hiding. It was a good thing too, because she couldn't see her partner anywhere on the long deserted road in front of her. She quietly left the vehicle and strained her eyes looking for him. He was running, fast and quiet in the dark. He was off the side of the road, running low, next to the trees. Only visible if you knew exactly what you were looking for.

Bones was grateful that she was in excellent shape, her martial arts training made her confident that could do anything that Booth could do. Aside from effectively interrogate a witness of course. She took off running, but he was so far ahead of her and he was running so much faster that she quickly lost track of him. She was surprised to find that she made much more noise than Booth did. She'd never thought about how difficult it was to move with that kind of silence.

He was being followed. He was sure of it, and his gut never lied. But he didn't have the time or the inclination to deal with his pursuer just yet. He was on a timeline. He needed to get Maria out within the hour. Booth entered the tunnel system through an abandoned factory building on the edge of the city. He'd used this entrance once before and found it to be the fastest route with the fewest number of guards.

He snuck past the guards in the dark, but there were more of them to avoid the closer he got to the compound. At the entrance, he had to knock two of them out and use their keys to get in. He took the time to hide their unconscious bodies to avoid arousing suspicion too early.

Once inside, Booth spent some time eavesdropping, searching for some indication of where Maria was being held. His Spanish was rusty, but he was able to here numerous references to "la chica Americana" and someone named Miguel. From what he gathered, this Miguel person was guarding her somewhere nearby. After a few minutes of aimless wandering, he caught a break.

"Hola Miguel." He heard the words as he crouched in a corner, watching two men exchange pleasantries in the hallway outside a thick metal door. When the second guard left, Booth snuck up behind Miguel, disarmed him and shoved a gun in his mouth to keep him quiet. He forced the guard to let him into the room, but found it empty. His heart sunk, Maria wasn't here. Spanish came back to him all in a rush and he threatened the man in his own language.

"Where the fuck is she Miguel? You tell me where she is and I won't kill you." He pulled the gun out of his mouth long enough for the man to proclaim no knowledge of her whereabouts. He broke his pinky easily, ignoring the sickening crunch and smothering the man's howl of pain with his forearm. "I know she was here. Who took her?" He demanded in Spanish.

"No se senor, no se por favor. Por favor!" He snapped his other pinky and moved the gun to the man's temple.

"You've got five seconds to give me something or I shoot you in the face."

"Booth?!" A familiar voice pleaded with him from the doorway. So Bones was the one following him. He should've known she couldn't stay put.

"Godamnit Bones, didn't I tell you to stay in the lab?" He said through clenched teeth, his gun still pressed against Miguel's face. His stomach knotted for the first time since he'd entered the compound. Now he was nervous. Now he had something to loose. His stupid, arrogant partner had just squashed any hope he had of finding Maria without killing anyone.

"Drop the gun" a third voice came from behind him in stilted English.

Shit

She'd been extremely proud of her covert techniques up until that guard caught her. She'd found the entrance to the tunnels after only a few minutes of following a trail in the dark. She'd avoided two guards in the tunnel and was surprised to find the door to the compound unguarded and unlocked.

Once she was inside she'd run into trouble. The place was crawling with armed men. She'd been discovered within moments, as she huddled in a corner, waiting for an opening to make her move. The dirty, sweaty, angry man grabbed her roughly by the arm and shoved a large automatic weapon into her side. She was going to die. She'd never been so sure of it in her life. The man said nothing, he just dragged her quickly down a dimly lit corridor and through a thick metal door. Through the red haze of fear, she saw a familiar set of broad shoulders... And then a familiar neck…. And then a familiar head. Booth was here. Relief swept through her.

"Godamnit Bones, didn't I tell you to stay in the lab?" His voice was rough and mean and all at once she realized what she had done. He was about to be caught. And it was entirely her fault. All she'd wanted to do was help and now here he was, on the floor, her captor's gun pointed at his back and there was no way out. She was so stupid. So arrogant to think that Booth actually needed her help.

"Drop the gun" the man tightened his grip on her arm as he said the words in stilted, heavily accented English. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to focus her mind enough to come up with a way to disarm him. But his grip was so tight and his gun was pointed right at Booth. There was simply no way out.

While her eyes were still shut, she heard the gunshots. The man beside her let her arm go and crumpled to the ground. When she opened her eyes, Booth had rolled to one side of the room and another man was revealed, laying helplessly on the floor. This one stared, terror-stricken at her partner hands limp on the ground and a gunshot wound bleeding from his thigh. Booth jumped up and stood over him, his gun pointed at the man's face. He started counting backwards in Spanish "Cinco, quatro, tres, dos…"

"She's upstairs, with Guarez, in his bedroom." He spat the words out in rapid fire Spanish.

"Gracias." Booth smacked him on the head with his gun, rendering the man unconscious and then he finally turned to look at her. His face was covered in dark paint, a bandana covered his hair and his clothing was dark blue and army issue. His eyes raked over her once before he leaned down and ripped a gun from his ankle.

"I'm so sorry Booth." She said meekly, knowing it wasn't enough. She'd really screwed up this time. It was enough for her to finally realizethat she was out of her league with this man. Her martial arts training was a joke compared to Booth's ruthless attitude, and remarkable physical strength.

"We'll talk about this later." He said gruffly. "All twelve of the guards on this level are heading this way by now. Those gun shots were not quiet. So here's the deal Bones and do not argue with me. I go out first, you follow…" He ripped the bullet proof vest from his chest and shoved it at her. "Put this on." He demanded and for once she did what she was told. "You shoot everyone you see who isn't me okay? And you stay close."

He didn't stop to make sure she understood, he just pulled a third gun from his waste band, kicked open the door, and started shooting, guns in both hands. She followed soon after and took out two guards on her own before she realized that there was no one left to shoot. How was it possible that her partner had just killed ten men in under a minute? For that matter, how had he killed the guy who'd captured her? And how had he knocked the guy on the floor out like that without killing him? She couldn't take it all in right now. She was surrounded by dead bodies and their lives hung in the balance.

He ran and she followed, staying in the shadows, climbing two sets of stairs, creeping through hallways and completely avoiding detection. Booth was incredible. It was like nothing she'd ever seen before. He sensed danger long before it ever presented itself. He somehow blended into the walls and into the floor and he was absolutely, astoundingly, perfectly silent. She, on the other hand, required constant protection. He was continually pushing and pulling her, smashing her into corners, covering her exposed white flesh with his completely camouflaged body. His eyes were sharp and his jaw set and he seemed to know exactly where they were going.

Now she understood those mission reports in a way that she couldn't have possibly understood them before. She understood Colonel Carter's irritation at Booth's new profession, she understood Jared's certainty of Booth's ability to survive, and most of all she finally understood Booth. He was not simply a man who was capable of great violence as she had previously assumed. He was a dangerous predator, whose capacity for self control was so great that it was not even comprehensible by a mind like hers. The laughing façade, the insatiable drive to do the right thing, his overly protective nature… it was all a carefully constructed persona, his way of controlling and containing this aspect of his nature. For the first time, she wished she had Sweet's knack for psychoanalysis. She wanted to dig deeper into this darker version of Booth. To learn what truly made this man tick. She'd never been so fascinated by another living human being before.

What seemed like hours passed in barely twenty minutes. Booth must have memorized a map of the building because he easily found the bedroom in question, flanked by two enormous armed guards, both much taller and more muscular than her partner.

"I'd like to do this without killing anyone else Bones so hang back and don't shoot unless someone is shooting at you okay." He whispered and she nodded. She watched in cold fear and admiration as he disarmed two men and knocked them unconscious before they even saw him coming. She followed him into the room where a beautiful young woman in army fatigues was tied to a bed post while a half dressed young man eyed her resentfully icing a fat lip.

"Bout time you showed up." The girl said sourly. Her thick black hair spilled in silky waves over her shoulder and her full sensual mouth was set in an irresistible pout.

"I figured you'd be free by now Vasquez. You're slipping." Booth teased, his gun pointed at the man with the fat lip while Bones untied her hands. When she was free, she rubbed her wrists and looked up into Booth's face with such blind adoration that Bones was completely unnerved. Booth clocked the guy in the face with the business end of his pistol before he finally dropped the gun to grab Maria's face in his hands.

"You okay kid?" His hands stroked her hair and her dark eyes turned to molten fire as she leaned into his touch. Bones wanted to cry for no apparent reason. Booth was not hers. He was welcome to sleep with whomever he chose. But when he kissed Maria softly on the forehead, her heart constricted and she couldn't help but turn away. She stared blankly at the still form of the man on the bed until she heard Booth radio for backup. She suddenly wished that they'd left Maria to rot in this hell hole.

Unfortunately, she ran into Maria at the hotel restaurant the following day at lunch. She'd spent the morning avoiding any thought of the young Ranger. The girl was far too beautiful and her partner was obviously involved with her. Her body responded violently every time she thought about Booth's mouth on her smooth forehead. She didn't notice that forehead until she walked right by it on her way to her table.

"I'm sorry, we were never really introduced." Maria smiled up at her warmly and extended a hand. Despite the almost irresistible urge to spit on the proffered hand, Bones took it graciously and gave the girl her warmest possible smile. Of course Booth would be interested in someone like her. They had so much in common and she was so young and perky and unscientific. Resentment was slowly building in her chest and she couldn't wait for her flight out of Madrid. She had to get away from this woman who was everything that she was not.

"Booth had wonderful things to say about you." She said honestly. "I've been anxious to meet you."

"Really? What did he say about me?" The question was so childish, Bones was completely taken aback. The girl literally glowed at the compliment.

"Well… he um….he said that you were beautiful and idealistic and that you were easy to get to know." She repeated his words and Maria blushed profusely.

"Booth thinks I'm beautiful?"

"I believe so. I don't know why else he would say that." It killed her to encourage this girl.

"He is so…" The girl's face flushed meaningfully and Bones became distinctly uncomfortable with the direction of their conversation.

"Well I mean, you know…I guess I don't have to tell you." Maria winked conspiratorially at her.

"Know what?" This woman was very odd.

"You know, what a catch Booth is. I mean God he is so sexy!" she fanned her face with one hand.

"He does seem to be an ideal mate." She agreed and Maria eyed her curiously. This woman was so fortunate to have Booth's heart, why did she have to rub it in her face. Her heart ached and throbbed. This had to be what jealousy felt like. Barely suppressed rage mixed with deep, soul wrenching despair. She'd never felt anything like it in her life.

"He's crazy about you ya know." Why would Booth's new girlfriend insinuate that he had feelings for another woman?

"I don't understand."

"And he's afraid you'll think less of him now that you know more about his past." She continued with no additional explanation. "I wish I could hate you for hogging him, but you're both so clueless I can't seem to feel anything for you but pity."