A/N: Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! Sorry for posting this on Tuesday I had computer issues so don't be too angry with me!
Brennan was aware of a dull ache in her chest as she fought through the fogginess that clouded her brain. She could vaguely hear the steady drip, drip, drip of water and wondered if her tap was leaking again. She made a note to give Booth a call a get him in to fix her plumbing. He had regained his plumbing skills after briefly forgetting them after his coma.
Fixing things is what makes us men Bones.
That's what he'd told her. She of course had told him that it was in fact the Y chromosome that made him a male but he had remained adamant that fixing things was the key.
Her head felt heavy and her stomach lurched almost like she had drunk a little bit too much the night before. Brennan was sure Angela was to blame. Her best friend's glug glug woo hoo attitude had gotten her into trouble before. She grimaced as she opened her eyes, expecting the harsh morning light to send pain shooting through her head and gasped out loud when she was met with an overwhelming darkness.
There was no light. No windows. Nothing. Complete darkness.
Her heart beat wildly in her chest and Brennan could feel herself starting to hyperventilate as fear took a hold of her. Ever since she had been buried alive by the Gravedigger she had become terrified of the dark. Irrational as she thought it was she simply couldn't handle being completely in the dark. The digital clock radio on her night stand always cast a soft blue glow through her bedroom so when she woke in the night there was some light filtering through the room and it was easier to quell the panic that always welled up inside of her at the thought of being trapped again.
She could almost feel the dirt falling in on her as she opened the car window, naively believing she could get out. She had stayed strong for Hodgins, but after he had passed out she had allowed herself time to panic. She had cried, and sucked in air even though logically her brain was telling her to try and keep calm; that panicking would only diminish the oxygen quicker. Eventually she had managed to get herself under control by wracking her brain and recounting all the facts she could think of until she had worked out a plan of how they could get a text message out to Booth.
Brennan was sure Sweets would have some psychological reason for her reactions to darkness but all she knew was that she was afraid. She was always afraid that she was going to open her eyes and be in that car again.
"Dr. Brennan?" a soft feminine voice asked.
That was wrong. She and Hodgins were the only ones in the car.
"Who's there?" she called back, her voice raspy.
"It's me Daisy, Miss Wick. Dr. Brennan are you alright?" Daisy asked. The younger woman's voice trembled with what sounded like relief.
"What happened?" Brennan asked squeezing her eyes shut. If she closed her eyes then she could pretend that everything was dark because she wished it to be. Somehow it was less frightening that way.
"After you passed out we got the ropes untied," Daisy started, "I used my phone and called Cam and told her what was going on. We were worried about your ribs so we tried to wrap them using Jackson's shirt and I guess we sort of lost ourselves and forgot to keep watch. They came in and saw us. I thought they were going to shoot us then on the spot but he just started screaming at us in Indonesian. They took Jackson and Dr. Andrews somewhere else, I don't know what's happened to them or if they're even still..." Daisy trailed off taking a gulping breath, "They took us into this room, I tried to stop them but you were still unconscious and I knew I wouldn't be able to fight them and make sure you were okay so I went with them. They've tied us up like you were tied up in the other room and h-he made me watch as he hit you."
"I-I don't remember," Brennan rasped.
"You woke up a couple of times but I don't think you were ever fully aware of what was going on around you. Y-You just sounded like you were in pain," Daisy said quietly, sniffling softly.
It was as if Daisy's words awoke something inside of her and her whole body seemed to ache at once. She could feel blood, sticky on the side of her face from a head wound that hadn't been there before. Her shoulders screamed with the effort of supporting her body weight and the fire in her chest from her broken ribs seemed to have intensified, made worse by her panicked breathing.
"You got through to Cam?" Brennan ground out, pushing down the fear that threatened to swallow her whole.
"I told her what had happened and told her to try and track the phone's signal to get a location on us," Daisy said, "I didn't really give her much time to talk because I didn't know how long my battery was going to last."
"Did they get your phone?" Brennan asked.
"No," Daisy said, "So they don't know that someone's coming for us."
"Someone's coming," Brennan said into the darkened room, trying to reiterate it to herself.
"Someone's coming," Daisy said and even though she couldn't see the other woman Brennan could hear the fierce determination in her voice.
The two women lapsed into silence, the only sound the steady dripping of water somewhere in the room. To Brennan who still had her eyes clenched shut it sounded like a clock ticking. Daisy had said that someone was coming to get them but the steady sound of the water hitting the floor boomed through her head like a counter, counting down to their deaths.
"You need to talk to me," Brennan gasped, shifting in her restraints to try in vain to take some weight off of her aching shoulders.
"What?" Daisy asked, her question bouncing off the walls.
"You need to keep talking to me. I'm finding myself having an intense physiological reaction to being in this room. My heart rate is significantly faster than usual and I'm having a little trouble breathing," Brennan said, trying desperately to ground herself in the science that usually kept her calm.
"Okay, okay," Daisy said, "Don't worry the dark really started to freak me out at first as well but I've kept myself busy by singing TV theme songs out loud. Did you ever watch Full House? It was my favourite show when I was growing up. Uncle Jesse was so dreamy you know and I always was kind of jealous of DJ."
She let Daisy's voice wash over her, not so much concentrating on what the younger woman was saying but using it to anchor herself in the her and now and not get lost in the traumatic memories that tried to suck her under.
"Daisy," Brennan said suddenly interrupting the other woman as she rambled on about various television shows that Brennan herself had never seen.
"You called me Daisy," the younger woman said, surprise colouring her tone.
"It seemed fitting considering the circumstances," Brennan said, "Did...I...did they hurt you in any way?"
"Not really," Daisy said after a minute, "I think they wanted to hurt me by making me watch them hurt you."
"I'm sorry," Brennan said.
"It's not your fault," Daisy said shifting in her restraints, "I'll be happy not to have my arms hung up over my head though. Dr. Saroyan can't get here fast enough."
"How long was I unconscious for?" Brennan asked after a minute.
"I can't say for sure but I'm going to guess it's been over twenty-four hours when you were out on and off," Daisy surmised, "They fed me some stale bread and some water and I tried to get them to leave some for you but he didn't seem so happy about doing that."
"I would imagine not," Brennan nodded into the darkness, "It seems making me suffer is giving him some sense of perverse pleasure."
"How are your ribs?" Daisy asked seriously.
"Quite painful," Brennan sighed, there was really no sense in lying at this point, "But I'm confident that any added trauma hasn't perforated any organs."
"Small joys then huh," Daisy chuckled, "Dr. Brennan, would you mind if I asked you a personal question?"
"I guess not, given our current situation and what you have done to try and keep me safe I think that would warrant me giving what Booth would call 'a bit of myself'."
"Okay, good. Stop me if I'm being too presumptuous or anything. Lance says I have a tendency to pry without meaning to so if I make you uncomfortable you can tell me to shut up but you and Agent Booth, is...did something happen between you two? It's just you-you said his name the other day and you thought it was him when-well you thought it was him when that pig was shoving his tongue down your throat so I thought that maybe...," Daisy trailed off.
For a few minutes only the sounds of the steady dripping of water filled the room. Brennan felt her throat constricting as the smiling face of her partner appeared behind her closed eyes. If she concentrated hard enough she could almost feel his hand in the small of her back where it habitually resided.
"I made a mistake," she said finally, taking so long that Daisy was sure she wasn't going to get an answer.
"What do you mean?" the younger anthropologist prodded.
"Before we left Booth and I had a conversation," Brennan said her voice taking on a faraway quality as she was transported back to that night, "We discussed, well Booth he...Angela informs me that Booth and I have long been denying certain feelings we have towards one another. As I'm sure you're aware Booth has quite a conventional view on love, one which I myself do not really share. He proposed that we give a relationship a try and he kissed me. I must admit I have on the odd occasion thought about what a relationship with Booth might be like but in the end I realised that with our differing views on love I couldn't give him what he wanted, or needed."
"Oh Dr. Brennan," Daisy said sadly.
"I have however been doing some thinking since we have been here and I've come to realise that I am quite sad that I was too frightened to give it a try," Brennan said, "I think perhaps the possibility of never seeing him again has made me come to the conclusion that I do in fact share the same sentiments he expressed to me."
"You will see him again," Daisy asserted, "And you'll get to tell him everything you never got to say."
"You can't possibly know that," Brennan said shaking her head and wincing as her ribs twinged painfully.
"Like you I believe in facts and science but sometimes Dr. Brennan I've learnt you have to have a little faith," Daisy said, "Lance taught me that. Oh Lance!"
"What about him?"
"He is going to be so mad that I got to hear what you said about Agent Booth and the feelings before he did," Daisy exclaimed.
"I trust you would be able to recount it accurately to him," Brennan said grimacing as her stomach seemed to turn in on itself. She realised it had been a couple of days since she had anything to eat or drink and it was starting to make her feel weak. She had ignored it earlier as she had been more focused on the gnawing panic of being enclosed by darkness but now her head felt light and she was sure if she had been standing on her feet she would have sunk to her knees.
"Daisy," she said, "I am beginning to feel the effects of having little sustenance in my body so I am going to try and conserve energy by not speaking. I would of course appreciate it if you kept talking as the dripping water and lack of light is still making me nervous and I need to keep my heart rate and breathing as normal as possible."
"Of course," Daisy said, trying to keep her own panic from showing. She only hoped their rescuers got there soon.
After spending the better part of two days travelling, Cam was relieved when they finally rendezvoused with the local Indonesian police who had located the facility in which Brennan and her team had been held.
Hacker's team were every bit as impressive as he had promised and she watched in awe as they prepared themselves to begin the rescue. The local police had passed on what intel they had gathered on the facility's layout and the men who held her colleagues inside and while it wasn't much to go on the team leader assured her that they would get them out safely.
Cam itched to go in with them, the cop inside of her missing the thrill of the chase but she knew it wasn't in the best interests of anyone involved for her to distract the men from their mission.
She grabbed the arm of the team leader's arm as he braced himself to lead his men into battle.
"Those are my people in there," she told him seriously, "I don't think I have to tell you that I expect them out safely."
"Don't worry Dr. Saroyan," he nodded at her, "If they're in there we'll get them out."
"You better," she said, "They'll be hell to pay if you don't, and I don't mean just from me."
He nodded at her again before signalling his men. They were entering under the cover of darkness and Cam watched as they melted into the night. She scrubbed a hand over her eyes as she walked back over to the military issued jeep they had travelled across the island in.
She had no idea what shape her people would be in when they got out and she hated to think that they may not make it out alive. She busied herself checking over the medical supplies that rested on the floor of the vehicle and nodded at a local policeman who walked past her, vigilantly keeping the perimeter they had set up surrounding the FBI vehicles. She was restless and the humid jungle air was doing nothing to ease her worries. Sighing again she walked around to the front of the jeep and hopped up to sit on the bonnet, looking out into the dark jungle, looking for anything that would signal the team's return.
Her hands strung worriedly in her lap she fidgeted worriedly. Cam wasn't a very patient person, she always needed to be doing something or working towards a goal so this was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do.
Because now all she could do was wait.
A/N: I'm tossing up whether or not I want to write the whole rescue or if I want to keep it in Cam's perspective for awhile and go from there. What do you guys think? What would you rather?
