Disclaimer: My fingers just do the typing. My mind does the plotting. But my money (that doesn't exist) has yet to do the buying. Bones isn't mine, I make no profit (just some wacky fun).
AN: Well, here you are. Some of you have been asking for this since chapter 1. I hope it makes sense.
The entire middle section is what wasn't written in chapter 1. If you go back, you'll see that the dialogue matches. So, most of this chapter happened the day Booth found out Parker was missing.
Enjoy.
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Without You – Chapter 7
Booth closed the door behind them. Brennan took a seat behind her desk, and Booth sat opposite of her. There was a moment of silence.
"Why are you here?" Brennan asked, her voice a tinge more hostile than she meant it to be.
"I already told you: Routine questions. Phone call."
"No, Booth, that wasn't what I meant." Her tone was softer now. "I mean, why are you here, in the lab, when you should be out looking for Parker yourself?"
Booth looked down, then back up at his former partner. "I know that I can do this right. Parker is too important to me to let someone else do the job, and there are people looking through other aspects of the case. This one is mine." He paused, looking her in the eyes, long and hard. "It's the best lead we've got." With that look, he was wordlessly expressing the thanks that had never been said initially for her help.
But Temperance couldn't bring herself to smile. Booth was so much different than before Parker went missing. And she couldn't help but feel guilty that she might be part of the cause of his grief.
"Now," he said, getting back to business. "I went to the address of the phone number that you gave me, but it's crucial to the investigation that we know what that phone call was about." Booth looked at her expectantly.
Temperance took a deep breath. She was ready.
She talked. He listened.
- - - - -
One Week Earlier:
Temperance walked back into her office after talking with Angela, a smile spread across her face. On her way over, she decided that she was going to call Booth, just to see what kinds of things he had been up to. Angela was right. Two months was a while.
But just as she reached out for her desk phone, she jumped as it began to ring.
555-0706, Mattia. She didn't recognize the number. Or the name.
"Jeffersonian Institute, Doctor Temperance Brennan," she answered.
"Hello, Temperance."
"Hello…Who is this?"
"I need to ask you a favor."
"Who is this?" she repeated.
"Shut up and do what I tell you."
Brennan wasn't so much scared as she was offended and insanely intrigued. "What do you want?"
"It really isn't so much what I want you to do as much it is what I don't want you to do."
"What is it?" Temperance was getting impatient.
"I know everything about you. I know where you live, where you keep your spare key, which car is yours, and believe me when I tell you that I will know if you change any of it." The voice – she couldn't tell if it was male or female, it seemed somewhere in between – paused for a moment before continuing. "But more importantly, I know who your friends are, and I know everything about them, too."
"Is this a threat?" Brennan asked the receiver. She had gotten them before. She wasn't scared, she was offended.
"My dear Tempe, you are so very, very smart," the voice said, loaded with sarcasm. Then it got serious again. "Temperance, I'm not going to hurt you. Know that. I would never hurt you. But if you don't do what I tell you to, I swear on your partner's life that I will make you regret it."
Brennan felt an icy hand grab her heart and twist. "…Booth?" she whispered. Stupid moron, probably just making it all up.
"That's right, Tempe. I know more about him than you do. I know he calls you 'Bones'. I know he has a son named Parker who's four years old, and I know Parker gets to see his dad one weekend a month. I know that Booth hasn't been into the Jeffersonian for two months, and I know why. I know that this morning, he had two cups of coffee before his meeting with his boss."
Bullshit, Temperance thought.
The voice spoke again. "And I know that he's coming by to see you without a case within the next ten minutes."
Part of Temperance told her to hang up the phone and call Booth. The other part wanted to know what the voice was getting at, and what they wanted her to do. So she stayed on the line.
"And you know what else I know, Tempe?" The fact that the voice was using her first name, and the shortened version at that, was beginning to make her angry. "I know that when he comes by, you're going to talk to him. But, my dear, when he leaves your office, he's going to hate you."
"Why?" she asked coolly.
"Because you don't want to be partners with him anymore."
"What? Yes I do. I – "
"Ah, ah, ah, Tempe. Are we forgetting our manners? I believe I was talking." The voice continued to tell her Booth's address, followed by Rebecca's, followed by Angela's, then hers. "Don't think for a minute that I won't make you regret something. So just do what I say."
Uh-huh. Sure, you little prick. I'm not afraid of you. "What do you want me to say to him?"
"Make something up. You're a writer. Think of something creative. And…make it good, because I'll know."
Temperance cleared her throat, trying to feign surrender and fear. "…okay, fine, I'll do it."
"Good girl." The voice disconnected.
Setting the receiver down and picking it back up, Temperance dialed Booth's office number. As it rang, she glanced at the clock. 4:30. She hoped he wasn't gone already.
-
As Booth grabbed his suit jacket and headed towards the door, the phone on his desk rang. He looked at his watch. 4:30. Who ever it was could leave a message.
-
When a mechanical voice gave her options for leaving a message, she hung up, deciding to call his cell. But again, the phone rang just as she reached for it. Thinking it was Booth who had just gotten the missed call, she picked it up without a second thought. Bad move.
"I am not a moron, Temperance," the voice said. "Do you really think I wouldn't plan on you trying to tell Booth my plan? Well, I did, Tempe, and now you are forcing me to do this the hard way."
How the hell had they known? And what was the hard way?
"Look out into the lab, Tempe. Through the glass."
She did.
"See Zack, standing there?"
He was.
"On the middle platform. He's looking at that Native American you told Angela you were paranoid about. Oh, and see, now he's setting it back down on the table and going to talk to Jack."
He did.
"How…" she managed at a loss for words.
"I'm in a very secret place, Tempe. I can see everything that's going on."
He was in the security room. It made sense. But that meant that he had access to the Jeffersonian. Bastard.
"But you see, that's not the point," the voice continued. "The point is that I know that you didn't eat breakfast this morning. I know that you woke up at 6. I know that you slept in blue pajama bottoms and a bra. I know that you took 10 minutes in the shower."
Holy crap.
"I know that you saved conditioning your hair for last."
The tone of the voice sent a chill through her, but Temperance couldn't think of anything to reply.
"Booth just walked into the lab. Remember what I told you, cupcake. And remember that I'm watching."
Brennan grabbed a file off her desk and walked out to the main area. She stared at the file folder, trying to keep her emotions in check. Don't do something stupid, Brennan, she told herself. She had almost reached where Booth and Angela were talking when she realized a single tear was about to escape.
She kept walking, past her two best friends, so that she might have time to calm herself down. But Booth called out her name.
No! She couldn't do this.
He called her first name. She loved the way he made it sound.
Yes. She had to.
She wiped the tear away, and put on her emotionally detached face. The one she used for corpses. She turned, and he was right in front of her.
Distance. She needed distance.
"Agent Booth." She hoped she sounded angrier than she felt.
"Happy to see me?" he asked her.
Yes. God, yes. I've missed you.
Distance, Brennan. Be cold. Be detached. "Let's talk in my office."
-
And when he stormed out of her office, he hated her.
Just like the voice said he would.
- - - - -
Temperance had meant to just tell him about the phone call. But instead she told him everything. When she finished, she looked to Booth for a reaction. He looked confused. But she had to add one last thing. "I know that I'm a part, somehow, of your son's disappearance."
"I know."
"And I want to help." There was a moment of silence. "As your partner."
Booth looked her in the eyes. Temperance knew that he could read her like a book. But his eyes, the ones that were usually so open, were now bolted shut. "Come on," he said, standing up.
"What? Where are we going?" she asked, standing up as well.
"For a drive." His voice was flat as he led to way out of her office. But Brennan followed, unsure of what was going on.
The last time he left her office, she knew that he hated her.
This time, she couldn't tell.
And she couldn't decide which was worse.
-
AN: Alright, there you go. I think that should clear a few things up. If you have any other questions, you can ask me in a review and I'll try to reply to them.
IMPORTANT: I really need to know how much you guys would hate me if I harmed Parker in any way. Nothing's set in stone yet, or even on paper, but it would be nice to know.
