A Bride for Booth

By LizD

Written May 2010 - July 2010

Chapter 8

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Early September

The team from the Jeffersonian, the FBI and the local authorities were working the crime scene. An SUV had exploded after ramming a city bus. It was unclear if it was a bomb or just a car fire. Brennan and Hodgins were working the SUV. Cam and the rest of the crews were working the bus. Perotta was already on scene when Booth rolled up. If Booth had a reaction to the damage it didn't show, but he had to have felt something. It was too similar to his experience in Afghanistan.

"This one is pretty bad Booth," she said looking a little green.

"I can see that." He turned to face her. "Shall I take lead?" She nodded. Booth had been working cases but mostly were old cases that still need to be cleared. This was his first active crime scene. He walked over to the SUV pulling out his notebook. Cam saw him and looked over at Brennan who was completely focused on her work. Hodgins made eye contact with Cam. "What have you got?" Booth asked matter-of-factly to no one in specific as if wasn't the first time in more than a year that he met them at a crime scene.

"Two bodies," Brennan stated. "The driver was male, mid to late thirties, Caucasian. The passenger was female, 20-25, also Caucasian."

"That's it?" he asked gruffly.

"Injuries consistent with a vehicle accident, explosion and burns." A chill went down Booth's spine. Brennan of course spoke dispassionately. Presumably the similarities to Booth's incident were lost on her. They weren't. "There are no indicators that either victim braced for impact. The driver drove purposefully into the bus."

"How do you know that?"

"No skid marks," Hodgins stated.

"That's it?"

"The driver is in the military. He appears to be in the uniform."

Booth stepped closer and looked at the driver. The ribbons and metals were all charred, but the insignias were clear enough. The guy was a SEAL. "Navy. Great NCIS will be crawling all over this one looking to take jurisdiction. We need to move fast on this case. What else do you have?"

"Nothing." Brennan stood up, kept her eyes off Booth and snapped off her gloves. "Until we can get them back to the lab, anything more would be conjecture." She turned to Hodgins. "Make sure you get everything you need before you transport, Ok Jack?"

"Sure," he said.

Brennan walked toward the truck. Booth was about to demand to know where she was going when he just told them that they had to work fast. He turned his attention to Hodgins. "What can you tell me about the explosion? Was it a bomb?" He glanced after Brennan quickly. "Hodgins?" As Hodgins described what he had found but Booth was keeping his periphery on Brennan. He saw her remove her jumpsuit while giving instructions to some kid that looked terrified. Her car pulled up with Geoffrey Winthrop Pearce driving. He was urgently waving her into the car. She comfortably slid into the passenger seat and they sped off. Booth asked Hodgins to repeat a couple of things and asked when he would get more definitive results.

Cam came over and informed him about the situation in the bus: four fatalities - kids from a college basketball team, the rest (seven other passengers and the driver) were in the hospital. Booth kept taking notes and asking questions that she had already answered. "She wasn't supposed to be here at all," Cam stated out of the blue. "That is why she left. She was supposed to be on a plane an hour ago."

"Who?" Booth was a very bad actor.

"Tempe," Cam said.

"Brennan and I are fine, Cam," he stated.

"She was on her way to a banquet in her honor in Boston, but pushed her flight a few hours so she could be the first on the scene."

"I am sure you and the rest of the squints can handle this on your own."

"Dr. Pearce is just a colleague," she said. "I'm sure he would like to be more."

"Yeah, know how that goes," he said under his breath but to Cam he said, "Can we just stick with the case?"

"Listen Booth, I have known you a lot of years and I know you have been through some stuff recently that I can't begin to appreciate. We used to be friends so I am going to give you some unsolicited advice: shutting people who care about you out of your life is no way to live."

"What are you talking about, Camille?"

"Jared tells me that you haven't seen him since you came home. You are letting Rebecca take Parker to Montreal. You refuse to take my phone calls. You are back in major crimes, but this is the first case you have worked in the field?"

"Not that it is any of your business, but I have been doing clean up on several cases that remained unsolved and I have a fiancée who takes a great deal of my time."

"Don't lie to me Booth, it is so … not you. Elizabeth is in San Diego and has been for more than three weeks."

"How do you think you know that?"

"Probably didn't know this, but Michelle sometimes babysits for Parker - she has for the past year or so. They have become quite close."

"I don't need you spying on me through my son, Camille."

"You need something, Seeley, 'cause what you are doing now ain't working." She waited for him to reply which he had no intention of doing. Then she decided to go all in. "And what you did to Tempe is unforgivable."

He was frustrated and angry; he wasn't the villain and Tempe was no innocent victim. "When did 'Dr. Brennan' become 'Tempe'?" he asked.

"She has changed Booth, not that you gave her a minute to show you, but she has changed. Still exacting, dedicated and focused - a bit peculiar, socially awkward - but she has changed. You would probably not recognize her - on the other hand, I wonder if you ever really knew her at all. I told you. I tried to warn you. If you cracked that shell and changed your mind you'd crush her."

"I didn't," he protested.

"Elizabeth?" With that Cam strode away.

Booth felt scolded. They didn't understand. No one understood. He hated that people had information about him that he didn't want them to have.

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Hours later Booth and Perotta walked into the lab. All the squints were up on the platform working. Perotta never warmed up to them or they her. Brennan was on a Web Conference call with them discussing the findings so far. He couldn't see her, but he heard her voice. Booth approached the platform but couldn't go up; he no longer had a badge. There were six bodies laid out on gurneys. That stopped Booth in his tracks. Six bodies. Six sets of remains. Six people who were burned beyond the point of recognition and needed to be identified by dental records, jewelry, dog tags. His heart started to pound, his breathing got shallow, he felt light headed. "Intercept! GO! GO! GO!" There was a ringing in his ears, a sharp pain in his back and his skin was hot - burning hot.

"Booth" Angela called his name loud enough to bring him back to present. She was standing next to him. "Booth, are you OK?"

He turned to look at her and it took him a minute to focus. "Yeah, Yeah I am fine."

"Booth," Hodgins called. "We got something for you. Not a bomb, at least not in the traditional sense."

He followed Angela up the steps and saw Brennan on the monitor. He almost didn't recognize her; her hair was different - softer. Everything about her was softer. She still was the most beautiful woman he had ever known in real life.

"Good work, Jack. That is really, really good work, everyone," she said. "I will be back late tonight and we can start on the reconstructions in the morning." It was hard to tell, but there was a brief moment when she was looking at Booth and he was looking at her. It wasn't really eye contact as there were too many web cams and monitors to consider. "Thank you. I'll see you in the morning." She clicked off her webcam.

All eyes turned to Booth who was looking at the monitor that had just switched off. He quickly recovered and looked back down at his notepad. "So, if not a bomb, what?" he asked as if there weren't a 600 pound gorilla in the room.

"Propane," Hodgins stated. The back of the SUV has six five-gallon tanks in the back. One of them had a bullet hole."

"So what do you think, he blew up one of the tanks when he drove into the bus. So someone one the bus was a target "

"That is your area Booth," Hodgins reminded him. "We don't do the whys, just the whos, whats and hows. There is something else. There was also some camping gear, tent, sleeping bags, cooler of food and cook stove. They could have just been on their way out of town."

"So an accident."

"Just the facts, man. Just the facts."

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Brennan left the banquet early and flew back by herself. Luckily Geoffrey Windsor Pearce was more than happy to stay and accept all the accolades on her behalf. Frankly, she was hoping he would stay in Boston until it was time for him to go back to Oxford. He was becoming tedious and unnecessary. The paper was written. His constant cloying at her made her mean; she didn't like to be mean. He wouldn't take 'no' for 'NO.' She was regretting that one night in the jungle, the night she got the phone call from Booth. A night that had regrets on several fronts.

She was compelled to go because they were honoring Brennan and the team for their findings in Maluku. Brennan didn't understand why. What they learned did not have the overarching ramifications that were expected. Over the course of the first six to eight months, it was discovered that the remains discovered were not as a result of evolution of the species (as was posited in the first month by other researchers in the group), but was what she suspected: a first generation product of two disparate primates. It was a tangent, not a link in the chain. Eventually they did find the parents and two other siblings. The offspring were not viable. The died as significantly younger ages than their parents. It was determined that the parents remained together and died together long after their children were gone.

As Brennan's hypothesis was confirmed she found herself pondering the parents – the two disparate primates – who had created a new family unit. As an anthropologist her focus had always been on societies – how groups of people acted as a group and as individuals within the group: societal norms, customs, mores and their sway over the individual's actions. A strictly anthropological approach would not be useful; she had to expand her thinking. She had to expand it to include the psychology of each of the parents. She drew on all she had gleaned from Booth and Sweets to speculate on the motives. Two creatures had gone against the norms of each of their societies and built a new society – albeit a family unit – it was a new society. She questioned what would have prompted that action. Was it out of necessity? Where each of these individuals cast out of their respective groups and forced to bond for safety? She found nothing in the remains of the parents to suggest that they were not fine specimens of their respective species. How did they meet? Did one attempt to bring the other into his or her group and the couple was cast out? Or did they choose to be together, to mate and rear their offspring together? What would have motivated each to abandon everything they were taught to believe? What kind of impact did that have on the new unit? Were they an object of hate for the origin groups – since all known research had suggested that the origin groups were not friendly? Did the couple go off to this remote island by choice or out of necessity? How did they communicate? How did they relate? It was a fascinating to ponder the possibilities. Could these two beings have left everything and built a new life for love?

With so much down time, Brennan turned all this positing inward and the choices she made in life. She found she envied the couple as she envied her parents who also turned away from society to form a solitary group. She envied their tenacity, and their commitment to go on in the face of what must have been very real challenges. She found that she was very disappointed in herself for being so afraid. Brennan would never do that – she would never walk away from everything she believed. In the end she had to think that she was more alone than these creatures were.

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Booth woke with a start. He had only fallen asleep a short while ago. He was doing everything that Sweets was telling him to do: no caffeine, lots of physical activity, no heavy food or alcohol after 8PM. Since Elizabeth left he had been getting close to four to five hours of sleep a night, but only if he slept in the living room on the couch. Being back on major crimes and having several cases open to work on helped. His routine was to get up when he woke up and start his day. The good news about that was that he got the gym to himself typically at that hour of the morning, and he was at work before everyone else. Looked good to the boss. That morning he decided to go to the lab to see if any squints were working late or had come in early. He fully expected Brennan to be there.

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Brennan was back at the lab before 4AM. She was alerted to some anomalies that she wanted to look into before the others arrived. Around 6AM, she was in the bone room studying the female passenger of the SUV. The skull had been badly damaged from the collision with the bus and the subsequent explosion but there was more damage. Brennan was still not convinced that it was anything more than an accident, but there was something about the female passenger that stood out to her. The damage to her skull was not consistent with either a head injury from a vehicle accident, from the explosion or fire. She had been shot.

"Temperance?" Booth called from the doorway.

It took her a moment to refocus her eyes and realize who it was. It has been a while since she really looked at him. He looked like hell. "Booth, what are you doing here? Still not sleeping?"

"Some, more than I had been." Normally he would take offense to her stating so mater-of-factly an intimate embarrassing detail in such a cold and seemingly unaffected manner. That morning however it was nice to know that she had any intimate details about him at all. "Big case; thought I would get a jump on it."

"Agent Perotta?" Brennan asked about his partner.

"Sleeping probably ... didn't call her." Booth didn't consider Perotta a partner and if he had his way, he would keep her running down leads without him.

"I'm not sure we have anything more for you in terms of identification, but it looks like the passenger of the car had been shot. She was probably dead at the time of the explosion."

"Probably?"

"I can't be sure until we run some more tests. It could have only been moments before the explosion not more than an hour." She dropped into some scientific explanation that left Booth holding on to every other word. "We should have the results for you by late morning."

"Great." He hesitated; he hadn't come for news on the case. "Thanks," he said casually.

"What for?" She was focusing on the skull.

"For working this case, for being at the crime scene, for coming back from Boston early."

"Do you imagine that I am doing this for you?" she asked calmly still focusing on her work.

"For the past three weeks you haven't spoken to me at all. I walk into a room and you leave. I ask a question and you have one of your people answer it." She didn't respond. "Does it really need to be like that Temperance?"

"I suspect in a few weeks it won't."

"What does that mean?"

"Stanford has re-extended their offer and the Jeffersonian is willing to release me from my contract after the publication of the Maluku findings."

"Is that really what you want?"

She looked up at him. "It is probably what is best."

"Best for you?" he asked. She turned back to her work. "Temperance," he called to her gently. "I'm sorry."

"I understand."

"Well I wish you would explain it to me," he said only half joking. He reached out to touch her arm but she stepped back before he could. She did look up at him. "Really ... I'm sorry."

"Accepted," she said flatly.

"Thank you," Booth knew that that was all he was going to get from her. When they got back a little more of their relationship - which he had faith they would in time - he could apologize a little more specifically.

"Hey guys, what are you doing up so early." Angela stepped into the room and was sorry she did as both Booth and Brennan looked like they had been or were about to be in a very deep discussion. "We have IDd the driver." She produced a picture of a 40ish white male in a Navy Commanders uniform with a 25ish blonde female in a wedding dress. "Meet Commander Norman Barr and his lovely wife Charlotte Edwards Barr."

"Navy, I knew it." Booth shook his head and sighed. He took the picture from Angela. "Great, and a JAG Lawyer as well as a SEAL."

"Why should that matter?"

"There is no way to keep NCIS out of this now. I wonder why they aren't here already."

"Well," Angela went on. "If it means anything he retired three months ago just after he got married."

"Nope, NCIS will still fight for this." He pulled out his phone.

"There is one more thing. One of the kids from the bus who has been listed as missing is named Jacob Edwards."

"Charlotte's brother?"

"I don't think so," Angela said. "I did a little checking, and Jacob Edwards and Charlotte Edwards were married two years ago."

"Ex-husband? Well at least now we have motive." Booth dialed.

"Well that is more than a coincidence," Brennan said. "But we shouldn't make intuitive leaps. We do not know for sure that the passenger is Charlotte Barr and we are not sure that any one of those other bodies is Jacob Edwards. But very good work Angela."

Booth snapped the phone shut. "Too early. I have to go."

"Where?"

"To see if NCIS has gotten wind of this yet and how many strings I am going to have to pull to keep this case." He stormed off. "Good job, Ange," he called back over his shoulder. "I need confirmation on the ID on the passenger and anything you can get on those kids on the bus."

Angela stepped up to Brennan. "Love it when he gets possessive." Brennan just looked away. "So, what were you two talking about when I came up? It looked pretty intense."

"Then I wonder why you interrupted in," she snapped.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," she backed off. "Next time put a sock on the door."

Brennan didn't know what that meant. "No, Ange ... I'm sorry." It surprised Brennan how relieved she really was that they had been interrupted but she still wasn't prepared to discuss her relationship (whatever it was) with anyone including Angela.

"What does Elizabeth think of Booth working with us again?"

"Elizabeth has called off their engagement."

"Just the engagement or the whole relationship?"

"Just the engagement."

"Ya think? You know she has been in San Diego for three weeks."

"Is this considered gossip?"

Angela shrugged. "Sure."

"Then I don't like it. Booth has been through a lot; he deserves to have his privacy respected. He won't find that if he discovers that his personal life is subject to office gossip."

"Ok, sure." Angela was more interested in what she was not saying. Clearly Brennan and Booth were talking about more than just his broken engagement. "Is he OK?" she asked earnestly.

Brennan looked toward the exit where Booth had just been. "I think he is starting to get back to where he was."

"And you two?"

Brennan had some things to think about on that score, but wasn't ready to disclose anything. "We need to get back to work. Find out what you can about Charlotte and Jacob Edwards and let's see if we can confirm an ID."

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Brennan should have been working the case, but she had the start of her next chapter. It should have been the final chapter, but there was a plot development that she wanted to follow.

Kathy woke in the ambulance with a young EMT working on her. The siren was blaring and they were driving very fast through traffic - weaving back and forth.

"Dead?" she said hoarsely.

"Not if I can help it," he smiled down at her. "She's awake," he called to the driver. "You have lost a lot of blood." She nodded. "We are on the way to the hospital." She nodded again. "Dr. Reichs, do you know what happened?" Kathy nodded slightly. "Who was there with you?"

The name had escaped her - the name of the killer. She couldn't remember his name. "Lister," she croaked out.

"Lister?" the EMT repeated.

"Agent Andy Lister, FBI." The name felt right but something was wrong. What had the EMT asked her?

The EMT called up to the driver. "There was an FBI Agent on scene," he shouted. "Call the police and tell them to look for FBI."

"No," Kathy shook her head. "Salt, Jackson Salt ... I shot him. I killed him. Serial Killer."

"There was no other body there, Dr. Reichs." He leaned over to check on of the IVs. "It was just you, but there was a lot of blood from someone else."

They pulled into the Emergency entrance and the EMT jumped out shouting out her vitals to the doctors who met them. Kathy couldn't focus on anything except that there was no other body found. Could Salt have survived? She knew she hit him with three rounds in the chest. Dead Center. The Ten Ring. Could he have had a vest on? There was blood, a lot of it. Where was the body? Her last thought before passing out was that it was not over. Salt was still alive.