Hey all, heres chapter 6!

btw, id like to thank everyone who reviewed...there were so many! thankyou thankyou thankyou times infinity plus one, it makes my day!

as always, i dont own anything to do with bones :S

happy reading!

Angela walked into Booth's office to find him slumped over his desk, his head resting on his arms and sound asleep. She gave a rueful sigh, pausing in the doorway. The clock on the wall read 6pm, and Booth had been working all day with little to no success. Angela guessed that he hadn't slept properly in over 36 hours, and wasn't surprised to see him in such an exhausted state.

She slipped quietly into the room, hoping to leave the drawing that she had constructed on the table beside him, when he suddenly jolted awake. His head shot up, a look of disorientation on his features for a moment before he realised where he was. Angela felt her heart ache as she saw the confusion on his face give way to one of sorrow-filled grief, which quickly gave way to one of self-blame. She heard him mutter something viciously under his breath, but couldn't catch every word.

'…pathetic…weak…your fault…Brennan…hurt…just…you…sleep…'

'Booth?' the man jumped at the sound of his name, and looked up, searching for the source of the disturbance.

'Oh, Angela, it's you…'

'Sweetie, you can't blame yourself for what's happening here…' Angela moved around and knelt beside Booth's chair.

'Once you start to think this is all your fault you are going to only become less and less useful to Brennan.'

'But Ange, it is my fault. She called me, asked me for help. She could have called the police, the security people in the building, anyone, but she chose me. And I let her down. She was gone by the time that I got there, taken by some vengeful nutter that we know basically nothing about. So I promised myself that I'd devote my time to finding out where she was. And what do I do? I fall asleep at my desk! What kind of a partner am I, Ange? What kind of a friend…' Booth cut off, his head dropping to his hands.

Angela stayed still, stunned at the outbreak of emotion from the man before her. She quickly snapped out of it, though, and pulled Booth into a hug.

'Its okay, sweetie, we're gonna find her…'

'But what if…what if this man has done something horrible to her? What if he's killed her already? What would I do…?'

'You can't think like that, Booth. Once you give up hope like that you're not going to be able to work properly. You need to keep your hopes up. Wherever Brennan is, I'm sure she's trying to keep optimistic, believing that we are coming to rescue her. You don't want to let her down, now, do you?'

Booth shook his head, before sitting up straight in his chair and stretching his back. He drew in a deep sigh, before vigorously rubbing his face and turning back to Angela.

'Okay…So, have you got anything for me?'

'Not too much. I constructed the basic shape of the man's face, but anything about the features is pretty much guesswork. It won't be much use in finding the guy, but once we have a suspect we'll be able to use this to confirm whether it's the same guy as in our footage.'

'Right, thanks.'

'What about you?'

'I've got a long list of potential candidates, from various places across the country. I've had to call around to each of the foster families Brennan stayed with during her childhood, and try and get any information I could out of them…'

'Anyone stand out?'

'Two different families gave me something that sounded promising, but one more so than the other. The first looked after Brennan when she was first put into the system; they mentioned a guy who fits our very broad description, who was Brennan's psychology teacher at her school. Apparently they got into more than a few arguments over the validity of the science.'

'Sounds like the Brennan we know and love.'

'Mmm, well, apparently one of these arguments escalated to an assault, during which the teacher slapped Brennan across the face…'

'No way!'

'I know. Needless to say, he was fired immediately after the incident, and my research into him indicates he's had a tough time finding work since then…'

'…which gives him a pretty strong motive.'

'Yeah, but this second family's thrown me off him a bit. They were one of Brennan's last foster families before she outgrew the system; they mentioned a neighbouring family that got into a scuffle with Brennan. She came home from school one day, saying that one of the boys from the family had been saying some weird stuff to her, asking her to join them in some form of club. She was okay with that, until they started to bring drugs into the equation. She got in contact with the police, who started an investigation. When the family found out they began sending some very sinister threats to Brennan, which is what caused her to eventually leave that foster family.'

'That sounds promising…'

'Yeah, and get this. The youngest son of the family was put in jail not long after Brennan left, and he only just got out a couple of months ago.'

'Wow, that sounds like our guy…'

'I'm hoping so. But, you never know. The real guy could know about Brennan's history with the family, and have purposely sent a hit man that fits the description of this suspect in to throw us off course…'

'Well, we should probably check this guy out first. We can't go second-guessing ourselves because of the possibility we're wrong…'

'Yeah, you're right. We have to start somewhere, right?'

'That's some great work you've done there, Booth.' Angela gave Booth a reassuring smile.

'Yeah, well, I just hope that it's enough.'

Angela got to her feet, gave Booth's shoulder a reassuring rub, before leaving him to get back to his work. Booth turned back to his computer and pulled up the profile that he had found on the family. It had turned out that Brennan had accidentally stumbled across a prominent family in the area's local drug ring. The two sons had been recorded as stating that they had been sent on numerous occasions to recruit friends to join the family, offering positions to school friends as traffickers or producers of the drugs. That was where Brennan had come into the picture, when she was offered a position in their 'club' as a trafficker, who the family had hoped would attract more female clientele.

Delving deeper into the profile, Booth came across the information he had been searching for: the address that the son was supposed to be living at. He printed off the information as well as the man's photo, and was about to leave when he turned back to the computer. Although he wasn't going to investigate the man, his gut was telling him he should probably print off a photo of the teacher, too. He ran the image off, collected his printing, grabbed his badge and gun, and made for the exit. He was nearly at the door when he walked past the door to Angela's office, and immediately stopped in his tracks.

Angela was sitting at her desk, leaning forward on the wooden surface. Her shoulders shuddered with small sobs, but her face was hidden in her hands. Booth's heart went out to her, he fully understood what she was going through, but inside he also felt a bit of the hope he had for finding Brennan fade away. Angela had remained strong throughout the entire ordeal, refusing to be pessimistic and always being there as someone to talk to. Seeing her, the one that had refused to give up hope, crying at her desk made Booth feel as though it was even less likely that they were going to succeed.

Pushing the thought aside for the time being, Booth slowly walked into the office and rounded the desk, mirroring Angela's own previous actions when he dropped to the floor beside her. Angela had lifted her head for a moment when she heard him walk across the office floor, but had immediately dropped it back down when she decided that he wasn't a threat.

'Hey Ange, you okay?' Without lifting her head from her hands she gave a small nod.

'You're sure?' Angela paused a moment, before slowly shaking her head. She lifted her head to make eye contact with Booth, but after only a moment he pulled her into a hug.

'Hey, it'll be okay, Ange, you saw the new leads I found. I was just about to head out to find the guy's house and question anyone who happens to be home…'

'It's not that.'

'Then what?'

'I know you're gonna find the guy, its just…well, I guess some of the things you were saying kinda got to me. What if Brennan's already dead? What'll we do? What will I do? She's my best friend, Booth…'

'Look, I won't lie to you, Ange. There's a chance that when we find her Brennan is going to be dead, but it's not likely. As horrible as this sounds, the guy is going to want revenge, right? So he's probably going to spend time messing her around, scaring her, maybe even torturing her…but he wouldn't want to just kill her straight away, right?'

'But that's almost as bad! What if he's doing something horrible to her, Booth? We can't let him…'

'Exactly. That's why we need to find this guy as soon as we can. Hey, actually, do you want to join me on this one?'

'What, go with you?'

'Yeah, if you aren't busy, I could really use a second person…'

'Yeah, sure Booth, that'd be great.'

Moment's later there was a gentle knock at the door. Booth and Angela looked up to see Hodgins standing in the doorway, gazing down at his girlfriend with concern.

'Hey Ange, you okay?' Angela nodded and gave Hodgins a watery smile, before getting up and walking into his open arms. Pulling her close, Hodgins pressed a kiss to the top of Angela's head, murmuring comforting words quietly into her hair. Angela pulled back a moment later and gently kissed Hodgins' cheek.

'Where you headed now, Booth?' Hodgins asked, noticing the gun strapped to Booth's belt.

'I was just about to head out with Angela to our main suspect's house…'

'How come Ange gets to go?'

'Coz I thought I could use a companion for this one…'

'Can I come too?'

Booth paused a moment. If it were any other day, or any other case, he would have immediately dismissed the idea. But seeing as it was Brennan they were talking about, and it was such a personal case to all the squints at the Jeffersonian, Booth gave a nod.

'I can't see why not. Hey, how about you go find Zach too? If I'm gonna take they squints, I may as well take all of you…' Hodgins nodded, and with Angela still at his side he left to find Zach.

Booth let out a wobbly sigh, and sank down into Angela's vacated seat. Is heart was in a stage of emotional turmoil, and it wasn't helping him concentrate. Mere minutes before, he had been the vulnerable one, the one being comforted and reassured. Then he had walked past Angela's office, and seen the comforter was now the one in need of reassurance. The sudden jump from helplessness to the responsibility of being the one in control had sent his mind reeling. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it up to make it look a little less like he'd fallen asleep, and got to his feet once more.

He hovered in the empty office, trying to collect himself mentally. He cracked his back and neck, and readjusted his tie. Finding himself able to bury the emotions he was feeling, at least for the time being, he walked to the door, and had just stepped out when Zach, Angela and Hodgins rounded the corner into the hallway.

'You squints ready to go?'

'Sure thing, Booth.'

Booth nodded and began to lead the way out to the car park, trying to push away the sudden thought that this was a bad idea. Squints had notoriously bad luck on FBI missions, and he knew that by taking this many he was asking for trouble. But seeing the flicker of excitement, and the relief that actually doing something brought to Brennan's colleagues was more than enough reason for him to not turn them away. As they approached the car Booth drew out his keys and unlocked the doors. He slid into the driver's seat and started the ignition.

'Everyone ready?' For a moment, he was reminded of one of the many field trips that he'd taken Parker on with friends, and a small smile toyed with his lips when he saw almost as much anticipation on the faces of the fully grown adults behind him. After various responses in the affirmative he turned back to the wheel and put the car in reverse.

'Let's go.'

Hmmm, i hope i got the emotional dynamic kinda right there... and that the suspects kinda gave you some insight into who might be behind it all :P

Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? id love to hear from you, even if its just to hear your theories on whats gonna happen next (you never know, if you say something really good it might end up in here :P)

so yeah...please review, and thanks a billion for reading!