Sorry the last chapter was so short, I've been trying to get my bearings back on this story. It came to me, guns blazing, and now has cooled off a bit. I'm more interested now in the emotional aspects of this than I am of the outcome of the Gravedigger trial. So there will probably only be a few more chapters of this one, then maybe a Gravedigger trial story. But not anytime soon. J

Anyway, same disclaimer. You know the drill.


Chapter Eight~Confessional: Part II

Booth had read the FBI reports of Brennan's and Hodgins' time underground in that car. Just seeing the account in print had been enough to give him nightmares, and he wasn't sure how ready he was to hear about it live and in person.

"Bones, give me a minute. Please?" Booth stood and headed down the hallway to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. He sat on the edge of the tub, trying to get his breathing under control. He knew that he was being a jackass, but it couldn't be helped. Between his own imagination and the written reports, he had a pretty good idea about what went on inside that metal coffin. He still got a sickly, dark feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever he thought about how close he had come to losing her…and it had been over 3 years since the ordeal.

Brennan watched as Booth staggered down the hall and ran into the bathroom. She knew that he wasn't looking forward to hearing what she had to say, but she also knew that he would sit on that couch and listen to every word, giving her the moral support she needed. Deep down she felt horrible for putting him through it, especially since he had his own Gravedigger demons to deal with, but she needed him to know what she was thinking while she breathed what she thought were her last breaths on Earth. Thoughts she hadn't even shared with Hodgins, although he knew quite a bit more than Booth at that point. She looked up expectantly when he opened the bathroom door and waited as he settled himself back onto the sofa.

"Sorry, Bones. Go ahead. I'm listening." He sat back and tried to look relaxed, even as he felt anything but.

"Thanks, Booth." She sat on the coffee table, directly across from him. "I know how hard this is for you, believe me I do. But I need to get this out. It's like…like a sickness I need to purge before I can move on and get myself ready to handle this trial."

"I know, Temperance. Just go ahead. I'm ready." Booth reached over and took her hand, rubbing the knuckles with his thumb. "It's okay."

Nodding, Brennan took a deep breath and began.

"When I first woke up in the car, I was totally disoriented and confused. The radio was playing and I didn't have any idea how I had gotten there. I felt the spot on my neck where she had tazed me, but I had a hard time putting it all together. I opened the window, and dirt poured into my lap. That's when I knew. And before I could even begin to come up with a plan, I heard Hodgins groan from the backseat. When I got back there and was able to check out his injuries, I knew that he had been hit by a car like Ryan Kent had been. From that point on, it was a matter of not only trying to find a way to get out of there, but staying alive long enough for you to find us if we couldn't do it ourselves." She took a breather, letting him sit back and rest for a moment himself. She wanted to make sure that he was still with her and that he understood she didn't hold him responsible for anything that happened, even though he almost always took it upon himself to carry those burdens. In fact, if he hadn't seen that puff of smoke from the explosion they set off, they probably wouldn't have survived long enough to be found in that vast quarry. So it was desperately important to her that he understand all of that before she even began to explain the feelings that her note brought out into the open.

"Okay. So, as you know I had to do a little surgery on the fly to ease Hodgins' compartment syndrome. To be honest, that was the scariest part of the whole thing. It took him a long time to wake up and I was afraid I had killed him. But he woke up and that's when he was able to figure out what kind of dirt we were in and what that told us about our location."

Booth listened intently as Brennan went into explicit detail about rigging the cell phone into the horn and finding different ways to extend their air supply. The worst of it was when she described their fear right before they set off the air bag explosion…how they had hugged and essentially said goodbye before crossing the wires. His heart hammered in his chest as he remembered the feeling of running down that gravel-covered pit, eyes completely centered on the place where that life-affirming puff of smoke had come from, not wanting to lose sight of it…the desperate digging, praying for a miracle and finding it when her cold, thin fingers wrapped around his wrist and he was able to yank her out of that hell hole. He shuddered, and Brennan could see that he had had enough of her recap for the time being.

"Anyway, I know that you need to take a break, Booth. So why don't we order some pizza in and take some time." Brennan stood and picked up her cell to order in their dinner.

"Bones, pizza is fine. But I'm a little confused."

"About what?"

"What else do you need to tell me? Is there something else about what happened in the car that you need to tell me, because I thought that you covered the whole ordeal pretty amazingly." He was truly exhausted from the discussion, but he was willing to talk all night if that was what she needed.

"No, nothing else happened in the car like that, Booth. This last part is about the note and what it meant…or means. I just want to gather my thoughts before we get into that. Okay?" Booth nodded his assent.

Brennan dialed the pizzeria around the corner and ordered their usual as Booth sat on the sofa, both dreading and looking forward to the coming revelations. He only hoped that she would tell him what she really was feeling, and not try to break it all down scientifically, until it was nothing resembling human emotion.