Chapter 7 - The Story Within the Story
It was early the next morning, but not oddly early, when Booth left his apartment, on his way to the Jeffersonian. He was carefully not to be overly cleaned up, overly dressed, or overly anything as he readied himself. It was difficult to try to regain the pall of grief he'd shed last night, but from the nearly panicked way Bones had implored him last night, he was realizing the need for it. As he drove, he considered what had happened last night yet again, having convinced himself it wasn't really a dream.
"Bones? What happened?" he'd asked her, finally clearing his mind enough to think at least partly rationally.
She'd flinched and started to turn away from him, glancing at the clock as she did so. Whatever she saw made her jump up from the bed, pulling herself from his grasp and backing away from the bed. "Booth, oh, no, I'm sorry, but I have to go."
He blinked at her, sitting up on his knees on the bed, reaching for her, grabbing her hand desperately. "Wait, no, Bones, not yet, I haven't..." he stopped as she shook her head, trying to pull her hand away. The thought of letting her go now, when he'd only had her in his arms for what seemed like seconds was physically painful. He was just getting used to the idea that she was alive and she wanted to leave?
Apparently he must have said what he was thinking out loud, because she responded, "I don't want to leave, Booth. I honestly don't, but I've been gone too long already and I have to get back." She dropped her eyes to their hands, squeezing his gently. "I put us in danger by coming here in the first place and the longer I stay, the worse it is. It'll be light soon and I'll be at risk of being seen. I'm sorry, Booth, for everything." Her eyes were filled with tears again, her voice high and slightly desperate.
Booth found he couldn't resist whatever note he heard in her voice. Whatever was going on was clearly serious, given it had caused her to fake her own death, and she was still clearly frightened by whatever the situation was. He too looked at their hands, pulled hers to his lips and kissed her palm gently. Then, in a moment that seemed to happen far too often between them, he allowed her to slip from his grasp as she moved toward the door. She faced him again when she reached the doorway, her eyes still wet, but her face composed again.
"It's Lockton, Booth. He's watching you, so please, you need to continue the charade. He can't suspect there's anything unusual about my "death," or I'm afraid..." she paused and swallowed hard. "I'm afraid he'll come after you as well," she whispered. She turned back to the door, swiping hurriedly at the tears on her cheeks. "Talk to Cam tomorrow, she can tell you everything," she said as she slipped through the door and was gone.
Booth rocked back on his heels and ran a hand over his face. Lockton? That's was this was all about? And she was worried about him? He shook his head and flopped down on his back. Yeah, Cam would definitely be his first stop in the morning.
Pulling into the parking lot at the museum, Booth sighed and tried to gather his thoughts together again. Cam, he thought, had better have an awful lot of really good answers.
~~BB~~
Cam was sitting at her desk, running through emails, when the door to her office burst open and Booth appeared in the doorway. Surprised to see him here, she simply stared at him as he strode purposefully across the room, stopping only when he'd reached the very edge of her chair. Now wary, she looked up at him with carefully blank face as he leaned into her personal space.
"Camille," he hissed, leaning even closer still, "you knew she was alive and you didn't tell me? What the hell is going on? Why is she in danger? Why does she think I'm in danger? I want to know everything and I want to know now!"
Oh no, Cam thought, as she looked carefully back at her monitor and continued to nonchalantly skim through her emails. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Seeley."
Booth took her arm, a little more roughly than he'd intended, and turned her back to face him. "She came to my apartment last night, Cam. She told me Lockton was after her, after me, and that you could explain everything to me. I know it wasn't a dream and I need for you to tell me what you know." He paused, relaxing his hold on her arm. "Please Cam, I have to know what's going on," he whispered huskily.
Cam closed her eyes briefly. Ah, so that explained it. Brennan had broken and gone to see him. Perfect. She wondered if Cullen and the FBI team knew what she'd been up to and that they were about to have an angry, hurt, desperate, protective Booth on their hands.
"Alright, Booth, yeah, I knew," Cam began, standing up and leading them both to her office couch. Booth flinched slightly when he remembered the last time he'd been on that couch, bawling his eyes out. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that," she said, catching the flinch, "but it was felt it was the only way." She explained the meeting she'd been to in Cullen's office with Dr. Brennan and the plan they'd hatched to lure in Lockton. "We still haven't had any luck in tracking him down. He's always one step ahead of us somehow."
Booth stood and began pacing the office. "So you all decided that I couldn't be trusted to go along with the charade? That I couldn't protect my partner from the nutjob that was stalking her?" He ran his hand through his already ruffled hair, trying to modulate his voice down from the near shout it was escalating to with each word. "Is that what I'm hearing, Cam? Seriously?"
Cam stood and faced him, placing her hands on his arms, waiting for his eyes to meet hers. She could understand his anger, his fear, his confusion, all of it, but if they were going to get through this, she needed him to be focused. "No, you know damn well that's not what anyone was thinking, Seeley. I know this is a lot to take in and it's tough to understand, but you're going to have to put all that aside for now and focus. This is all coming to a head and if you want to get her back all in one piece and keep her safe, you're going to have to get it together and get in the game," she said sternly.
Booth sighed heavily and nodded. "You're right, Cam, I'm sorry. This isn't your fault and it wasn't your choice." He smiled slightly and squeezed her shoulder. "Thanks for being there for me, as always."
Cam returned the smile and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "My pleasure. But you come in this office and get in my face like that again, Seeley Booth, and you might not walk away."
Booth laughed loudly, for what seemed like the first time in years. Cam laughed with him, taking in the change since she'd seen him last. He looked complete again, as if the hole caused by Brennan's loss had been neatly refilled, with little evidence it had ever been there. But she had known Booth a long time and she saw the cracks and uncertainty left behind that would likely never fully heal. Pausing in her review of Booth for a moment, she said, "Booth, there's something else."
Booth sobered instantly, slipping easily back into his FBI agent persona. "What else do you know, Cam?"
"It's not anything I know, just a suspicion," she replied, "a gut feeling, if you will." She stepped away from him and turned back to the computer, clicking a few times to pull up the files on the Lockton investigaton. "I think there's a mole. Someone at the FBI who's keeping Lockton up to date on the investigation."
Booth sucked in a surprised breath, turning his attention to the files she was referencing. "What? You've got to be kidding? Doesn't Cullen have this locked down to just a small team?"
Cam nodded. "Yes, it's a pretty small group that knows about Dr. Brennan's death, but there's a larger pool of agents that's been working all the leads. He's still wanted for the murder of those two young girls; Dr. Brennan's death didn't stop anything on that part of the investigation." She motioned to the timeline she'd fashioned based on all the reports filed over the last week. "Look, you can see it on this timeline. Every time, he manages to disappear just as the agent's are closing in. We've been about six hours behind him at each location. How could he possibly know every single time unless someone was tipping him off?"
Booth read through the information she'd put together, a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Damn it, Cam, I think you're right." He stood, placing his hands on his hips as he tried to get his thoughts in order. Years of training and instinct told him something was rotten about this whole affair. "Alright, Cam, I need print outs of everything you have on this, all the information on file." She nodded, handing him a file from under a stack on her desk.
He took the file and took another deep breath. "I need to know where she is, Cam. If there's really someone in the FBI keeping Lockton informed, she's in more danger then we thought and I'm not leaving her alone." He dropped his eyes to the floor, then raised them again to meet Cam's concerned gaze. His voice was husky and his eyes haunted when he spoke again. "I can't lose her again, Cam, I won't."
A/N: First, I'd just like to thank everyone again for all the reviews and alerts and hits to this story! I'm overwhelmed at the response it's gotten and I appreciate everyone who's taken the time to read! Ok, there wasn't a ton of fireworks here, I needed to talk to Cam first, so she got some of the brunt of the anger. But we're not done yet...we've still got a stalker to catch, a possible mole to route out, and Booth and Brennan have to talk.
