Disclaimer: I do not own Bones or its characters. But they are a complete joy to work with!
Chapter 9
I looked out at the sea of blue and yellow coats. There had to be fifty agents scouring the meadow looking for any sign that something was buried. The dogs barked in frustration, noses to the ground guiding their handlers this way and that. Still nothing had been found. I could feel, literally feel the seconds passing. Jack was pacing back and forth behind me. I stood perfectly still beside my father watching, waiting, hoping against everything that someone would find them. Booth was a few yards away from us walking beside one of the dog handlers. We all felt helpless, all we could do was wait, and pray. Then I heard something. It was small, almost like I had imagined it. Then a memory slapped me right in the face.
Jackson, probably six at the time, had somehow decided that playing in the small laundry elevator was a good idea. I'd come home to a completely silent house, and I had immediately knew something was wrong. His babysitter, some older woman that Jack had hired from the Nana-R-Us was sitting in the living room reading. I hadn't even bothered to ask her where my son was. I was too busy trying to find the small sound I could barely hear. It had been Jackson's little voice echoing up and down the laundry chute.
I don't remember starting to run, but run I did. I knew that sound. I knew it. The farther into the meadow I got the more distinct the words became and my heart shattered.
"MOM! DAD! ANY BODY! HELP! HELP! HEEELLLLP!"
"JACK! BOOTH! HE'S HERE I CAN HEAR HIM!" I screamed. "JACKSON I'M COMING SWEETIE! JUST KEEP YELLING BABY! MOMMA CAN HEAR YOU!"
OoOoO
"ANGE!" Hodgins yelled. "ANGE WHAT?"
I turned around to see Angela bolting across the Meadow to an area the agents had not reached yet; Hodgins hot on her heels. Then I heard her yelling my name, and then something about being able to hear him. My feet moved on their own, most of the agents running after me. By the time I reached Angela and Jack they were trying to move mounds of dirt out of the way, reaching frantically into a gaping hole in the ground. My heart raced, and I realized I could barely breathe.
"Don't worry about me!" Jackson yelled. "She's right there. Next to me to the right. SHE'S DROWNING GET HER OUT. STOP PULLING ON ME MOM! GET RJ. OH MY GOD THE WATERS NEARLY TO THE TOP OF THE WINDOW! GET HER OUT! PLEEEASSE LISTEN TO ME!"
I fell to my knees digging furiously at the loose dirt. My mind flew back to the rock quarry; the panic I felt then was nothing to the panic I felt now. It was like my hands couldn't move fast enough and then I hit something, something smooth. All the sudden there were twenty sets of hands helping me displace the dirt and debris. Glass. I had hit glass. Without thinking I grabbed a flash light off one of the agents' belts beside me and started swinging. One. Two. Three. It cracked. Four. Five. Six. It was starting to shatter. Seven. Eight. Nine. The glass completely gave way. Water surging up through the whole.
"RJ!" I screamed taking my jacket off as another agent busted out the rest of the glass. Without another thought I dropped into the freezing water, flashlight in hand. I whirled around in every direction as fast as I could. It didn't take me long to find her floating lifelessly near the bottom. I grabbed her and pulled her back to the surface. Two sets of hands grabbing her from me. Another hand helped me back out. I scrambled over to her, checking for a pulse. There was none. I started pounding on her chest, pushing air into her lungs, over and over and over.
"No baby. Come on." I gasped. "Come on, RJ. BREATHE."
The seconds beat passed, my rhythm never slowing. I knew no one had the heart to stop me. I wasn't going to give up. My baby was not going to die like this. Not before me. Not in a dark place like that with no one to hold her.
"RUTH JOSEPHINE BOOTH BREATHE!" I yelled pushing air into her mouth again, and then suddenly I choked. I choked and she coughed, instinctively rolling over riding her lungs of the deadly water. For a moment I sat there stunned, her voice hitting me like a ton of bricks.
"Daddy?" she asked pulling on my shirt. It was like everything in the last sixteen hours hit me then. Everything from my race home the night before, to finding her mother beaten, to her being gone. I crumbled, pulling her to my chest rocking her back and forth like I had when she was a baby.
"Ssshhhh. It's ok princess." I comforted, tears spilling uncontrollably down my face. No more game face, it was over, and it was time to feel again. "Daddy's here. Everything's ok. You're safe now."
"Where's mom?" RJ whispered.
"At the hospital, she's ok Princess, just some broken bones. She put up a good fight when that creep took you." I answered, squeezing her tighter, and kissing her forehead. I smiled into her hair, even after sixteen hours of hell and nearly dying she was more worried about someone else.
"Broken Bo…Where's Jackie! He's…" she started whipping her head around.
"I'm right here." Jackie replied tiredly. I looked up to see an EMT wrapping his leg as best she could to stop the bleeding. Angela and Jack hugging the boy tighter than a choke hold. I watched as RJ reached out and Jackie returned the gesture, their hands gripping the other firmly.
"I told you we'd make it." Jackie slurred. I bit my lip to keep from chuckling. The EMT had probably given him a shot to dull the pain.
"Yea…I guess this means I should start listening to you…even though you are a boy." RJ laughed, and my heart beat again for the first time in sixteen hours.
