A/N: So I know I said I wouldn't be able to post for a week and I still have two midterms next week, but this chapter wouldn't leave me alone. Thanks for all the reviews so far. I was only one short of 10 for the last chapter! They really do make my day and inspire me to type faster. Thanks again and enjoy!

Chapter 7

April 24, 2010

Location Unknown

8:18 pm EST

They had been searching for the speaker for hours with no luck. Well, Booth thought, if he were to say that more accurately, Bones and Hodgins had been searching for hours while he sat against the wall and offered what support he could. He was so relieved when he was Bones able to get up and start walking around, even if she needed the wall's support every once and awhile to stay up right. And even though it was much darker in the room since they had to unscrew the light bulb to send the text message, it seemed to help Bones' concussion, the lack of light lessening the severity of her headache. If they didn't find the speaker in the next 15 minutes or so though he was going to have to insist that they take a break. While his primary concern was for Bones, he also knew that Hodgins was about to collapse as well. He had been going non-stop for about 4 hours now and Booth knew that they couldn't handle any more injuries. They needed all three of them in order to get out of this mess and Booth was going to make sure that they were all in the best shape possible.

He, on the other hand, was definitely not in the best shape possible. He wasn't going to tell Bones this, but ever since he had woken up, he felt numbness and tingling all along his leg from his injury down to his toes. And while he knew that this couldn't be a good sign, he also knew that there was nothing they could do about it now so there was no use in just making Bones worried. He was equally worried about her and her concussion so he figured that they were even in the worry department. After watching her stumble for the fourth time in as many minutes, Booth decided to make them take a break ahead of schedule.

"Okay, guys, enough for now. Let's take a break," Booth told them. The fact that Bones just nodded and sat back down next to him made him realize that he had made the right decision. Hodgins, however, wasn't going down without a fight.

"Booth, we need to find this speaker. It is the only chance we have of getting out of here," Hodgins said, still not sitting down. Bones had rested her head on Booth's shoulder, exhausted from her stint standing up and looking for the speaker. Booth scooted as close to her as possible, trying to support her.

"There is nobody even up there right now, Hodgins, it's almost 8:30. Take a seat for a little bit. We all need to rest," Booth told him, his tone leaving no room for argument. Booth knew he succeeded when he saw Hodgins' shoulders slump a little bit and then he finally nodded. So they could all see, Hodgins put the pen light down in the center of the room with the light bulb facing toward the ceiling. This made the room glow in a soft light and if Booth didn't know the about the bad situation they were in, he could have sworn it was romantic.

Booth felt Bones shift against his shoulder, nestling closer into him and closing her eyes. Booth knew that he needed to keep her awake but also knew that even before she got the concussion, she had to have been exhausted. She was not sleeping well in the last couple of weeks because of the anxiety surrounding the trial. They would frequently stay late at each other's apartments under the guise of doing paperwork but they each knew that the real reason was that they didn't want to be alone. Neither of them ever brought up the real reason why they were spending so much time together. It just sat between them, both of them agreeing on an unspoken rule to not bring it up. Just like another thing that had happened between them that was probably keeping her up at night as well.

About two months ago, he had read a very interesting book. He loved to read but normally stuck to either Bones' books or something by Tom Clancy, but his motivation for reading this book was different. This book was by Sweets and it was about him and Bones. Even though the book was an easy read because he already knew the content, the conclusion was something that he knew but couldn't confront yet. The night after he finished, he couldn't sleep knowing that Bones had read the same book. He was so afraid that she was going to run away from him that he shut down before even knowing her reaction to the ending, too afraid that it was going to hurt too much for him to survive. So when he showed up to the therapy session the next morning, he was shocked to see her sitting in Sweets' office waiting for him to show up. She wanted to talk about the book but it was too late. He had already shut down on the topic. He didn't want to hear what Bones had to say because he was terrified that her response was going to be that she didn't love him back. He would rather have the status quo than her not in his life at all. So that's where they were stuck, in this awkward area between partners and lovers. And while this trial had brought them closer together physically and emotionally, they still hadn't discussed anything related to Sweets' book. They still hadn't discussed the fact that they were in love with each other.

"Booth," Bones said softly.

Booth shook himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah, Bones."

"I'm unsure if this is just my concussed mind misinterpreting visual stimuli, but I think I see something where the light bulb used to be," Bones told him. Booth looked over at her, seeing her eyes fixed very intently on one spot. Following her line of vision, he gazed up at the hole in the ceiling where he had unscrewed the light bulb. At first, he couldn't see anything and thought that maybe Bones was losing it. But after a moment, he saw it too. When Hodgins had placed the penlight in the center of the room and shined it at the ceiling, part of the beam hit a spot inside the hole that the light bulb was in where Booth now saw a glint of something metal. A smile spread across Booth's face as he realized that this is what they were looking for.

"Bones, you're amazing."

"Why is Dr. B amazing?" Hodgins asked, looking up to where Booth and Bones were looking.

"She found the speaker," Booth said. "Well, actually Hodgins, you're placement of the penlight found the speaker but Bones was the first one who saw it."

Hodgins scrambled to his feet and looked to where the light beam was shining. Booth, still smiling, looked down to where Bones was still laying her head on his shoulder. He was surprised when he met her eyes and not the crown of her head. She had a soft smile on her face that he liked to think was reserved only for him. And while her blue eyes were somewhat muddled by her concussion, he could still read the message in them loud and clear. Temporarily forgetting his surroundings, he leaned toward her, waiting for her to back away if she didn't want this. When he saw her quickly lick her lips, he was done for and started to lean in all the way.

"I see it! Oh, Dr. B, you ARE amazing! Booth do you think you could stand for reach it?" Hodgins said. Booth silently cursed his weakness and focusing on the situation at hand. He thought he saw a brief flash of disappointment in her eyes as he looked to Hodgins, who just raised his eyebrows at both of them.

"Yeah, I can try," Booth said, not completely confident that his leg would support him. Bones, sensing his internal debate, put her arm around his waist and began to help him up. He gave her a brief nod of thanks and threw an arm around her shoulder to take some of his weight off of her. With her assistance, he managed to hobble over to the bucket, alarmed that he still hadn't regained full sensation in his leg. Once he was back up on the bucket again, he felt Bones' hands on his waist, anchoring him but at the same time, distracting him as well.

"Hodgins, can you hand me the penlight?" Booth asked, reaching out his left hand for the light. He felt the weight in his palm and brought the light source up to the hole in the ceiling without ever taking his eyes off the goal. Reaching in, he grasped the end of the speaker, gently trying to pry the object loose from its position. He felt it dislodge and began pulling it out, bit-by-bit, afraid to pull hard and break or damage their only hope at freedom.

April 24, 2010

J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building

9:52 pm EST

It was late and the Hoover building was empty, save for the people currently huddled around a desk in Caroline Julian's office. They had scoured every document, trying to find out where their suspect could be. They had tried his work but he had already gone home for the night so they were currently working on a residence for him but the more they looked, the more they knew that something was suspicious about him. Caroline had never had such a problem locating one person's address before. This was the Federal Bureau of Investigations for crying out loud and they couldn't locate one address for a former FBI Agent. And she was getting pretty damn frustrated at how good he was at covering his tracks.

"Anyone find anything, yet?" Angela asked the group. Cam didn't even acknowledge that she spoke, Perotta nodded in the negative, and Caroline just sighed. It was time for some more coffee.

Walking toward the break room, coffee cup in hand, Caroline thought back to the day's events. She so thought that they were going to get to the trial intact. She saw the strain that the trial had put on Brennan, Booth, and Hodgins and felt guilty for pushing as hard as she did but she had no choice. She would do whatever possible to make sure that Heather Taffet spent the rest of her life in prison. And a horrible, federal, maximum-security prison at that.

On her way to the break room, she saw a conference room light on down the hallway. Wondering whom else could be here that late, and wanting to satisfy her curiosity, she set down the hallway. She guessed she shouldn't have been surprised that the young psychologist was occupying the space, files spread out all over the table and a pin board filled pictures and maps his only company. She was surprised when she heard that Dr. Sweets was not going to be at the trial this morning but she also knew that he did have other clients and other responsibilities to the FBI and he said that he had a full calendar today. When she left the courthouse this morning after setting the game plan with Angela and Cam, she called Sweets to let him know what happened but couldn't reach him and ended up leaving a voicemail. Still, though, it made her curious to his presence here tonight.

"Dr. Sweets?" Caroline said as she knocked on the glass door of the conference room. She saw the young man jump at her entrance, obviously not expecting anyone to be in the building. As he turned, she noticed that his toe was undone and his jacket was on the back of one of the chairs.

"Ms. Julian, I didn't hear you. How is everything going?" Sweets asked her.

"Not good, Cherie. We have our suspect but we can't figure out where he lives currently. He is very good at covering his tracks," Caroline told him, a scowl on her face.

Sweets gave her a small smirk that made her confused and quite frankly, a little pissed off. If the boy genius didn't come up with something to back up that smirk, she was tempted to smack it right off of his face.

"I may be able to help out with that, Ms. Julian," Sweets said, hurrying over to the pin board that was at the end of the room. Frowning, Caroline followed him but without the youthful enthusiasm that Sweets displayed. After all, she still hadn't gotten her coffee yet.

"I ran into Agent Perotta earlier and she filled me in on your progress, or lack thereof, I should say. So I started looking at any similarities between Ms. Taffet and Mr. Sanders, seeing if somehow, they were linked. Both not married, worked for government agencies but I was curious to how they could have kept in contact and worked together even after Mr. Sanders left the FBI. Now, they worked a string of cases together in the early 90's and started working together exclusively on the Grave Digger cases in '95. Now, even though they both had good close records outside the Grave Digger case, Mr. Sanders suddenly left the FBI in 1998, claiming that the stress of the job was too much for him, went into general contracting, and besides developing a drinking habit, has lead a fairly boring life. Pays his taxes on time, volunteers at a retirement community, and hasn't even had a parking ticket," Sweets said, gesturing wildly at all the documents on the board.

"Sweets, if you don't tell me something soon, I am leaving. I am not properly caffeinated for this conversation," Caroline warned him.

"Okay, okay," Sweets said. "Now, the only time I can't account for in all this history is exactly one month in 1998, a few weeks after he left the FBI."

"One month?" Caroline asked, now intrigued.

"One month. Now, right before he left the FBI, Mr. Sanders requested a new Social Security card for his maternal grandfather who apparently misplaced the card in a move to a retirement home. Because of his status as an FBI Agent, the application was granted without any investigation. But when I typed in the name of the man he requested the card for, I discovered that that person died in 1985 in a house fire in Seattle, Washington. This person's same was William Burton."

"William Burton?" Caroline asked, the name sounding vaguely familiar but she couldn't place it.

"The same William Burton that Heather Taffet married for exactly one month in 1998 before the marriage was annulled. The same William Burton that Heather Taffet married in order to create the entire false identity to rent the storage container in Spring Hill," Sweets finished as Caroline hurried to the phone on the conference table, dialing her office phone number.

"Dr. Saroyan, it's me. Start looking up any housing records in Washington D.C. since 1998 under the name of William Burton. Sanders and Taffet created their false identities together. If we find where William Burton is living, we will find Harrison Sanders."

A/N 2: So it's all beginning to come together. What did you think? I'd love to know!