AN- Thanks to those who are still hanging in there with this one… especially those who review! *hugs*
And special thanks to Ceeray… for all the help, guidance, hand-holding LOL, support and friendship!
Chapter Ten
"Let's go, Booths!" Booth called out to his family.
Parker was the first to make his way downstairs.
"What's up, Dad? Why the rush?"
"Big day today, Parks," his dad replied. "Bones and I need to get to work early, but I want us to have time to sit down for breakfast. Did you happen to see if the girls were almost ready?"
Parker shook his head.
"Keep an eye on the pancakes," Booth said, nodding toward the griddle. "I'm gonna run up and check on them."
He left Parker tending to their breakfast and made his way upstairs to check on Brennan and Mia. He had to strain to hear his wife's voice as he approached their little girl's room and stopped to stand quietly, watching them from the doorway.
His wife was sitting on the bed, with Mia in front of her. She was brushing the little girl's hair and talking softly in her ear. She was telling Mia her favorite story; the story of her birth. He smiled as he heard Mia giggle. He knew just what part of the story they'd come to.
"You two get too much enjoyment from me falling on my face," he said, walking in to the room and sitting next to them.
"It's funny, Daddy," Mia said.
"I know, Sunshine," he replied, smiling. "I know."
Brennan shared a loving glance with her husband over their daughter's head as she thought back to that August night.
Brennan glanced at the clock. It was nearly four a.m. She wasn't sleeping. She was miserable. It was a week past her due date and the baby had shown no signs of making an appearance. She climbed out of bed for her nightly ritual of pacing the house. This warm summer night, she'd ended up sitting in a lounge chair on the deck and looking up at the stars. It was at times like this that she felt closer to her own mother.
Her days weren't any better than her nights. She was going stir crazy. Cam had banned her from the lab and Booth had taken time off work to dote on her. Thankfully it was Parker's week with Rebecca, or she would have two overprotective Booth boys to deal with.
She had truly enjoyed her pregnancy, but she was more than ready to get it over with. She had planned to give the baby two more days and if she didn't make her appearance, Brennan planned to have her doctor induce labor.
As it turned out, that wasn't necessary.
"Booth," she said, whispering as she calmly walked back into their bedroom. She reached out to touch his shoulder and whispered again, "Booth, wake up." She realized that Parker wasn't there, so they were alone and there was then no need to whisper…
"Booth," she spoke out loud. "It's time."
"I'm up! I'm up!" Booth said, sitting up. He jumped up out of the bed and reached for his pants at the foot of the bed. As he stood to pull up his pants, he stepped on the cuff. Before he realized what was happening, he found himself tripping over his jeans and tumbling toward the floor. He landed face first as his amused and eerily calm wife looked on.
Now fully awake, he looked over at her.
"It's time?" he asked.
She nodded.
"My water broke when I was downstairs on the deck," she answered as she changed into clean clothes.
"You're freaking me out," he said. "You're way too calm about all this." He was trying not to show it, but inside, he was quaking in his boots.
"We have some time to get to the hospital before I really begin active labor," she said. "Can you get my bag from the closet?"
He got the bag and walked her out to his SUV, thankful that though he was no longer in the field, the Bureau still provided him with a vehicle… complete with lights and sirens, which were put to good use on the way to Georgetown. As Booth drove, Brennan phoned Cam and Paul. Paul, who was Brennan's doctor, let her know that he would call the hospital and that he would meet them there.
She was preparing to phone Angela when the first contraction hit.
None of the books she'd read or the research that she'd done could have truly prepared her for this moment.
She cried out and gripped the armrest as the pain overtook her.
"Hold on, Baby," Booth said, panicked to see his wife in such pain. "We're almost there."
"Shut the hell up and get me to the damned hospital," Brennan ground out through gritted teeth.
Although he was in panic mode and focused on getting them to the hospital, Booth had to smile at the thought that there was at least one normal cliché about giving birth that they would fall into.
oOoOoOo
Seven hours, twenty-seven minutes and no small amount of cursing later… Amelia Caroline Booth was introduced to the world.
Rebecca had brought Parker, because Booth and Brennan both wanted him to be the first person to meet his little sister.
Their squint "family" had been next. They'd all been waiting there for hours thanks to early wake up calls from Cam.
Max, Jared and Padme rounded out the group of well-wishers, and Brennan wiped tears from her eyes when she realized just how many people already loved her little girl. Barely two hours old, and already her mother knew that Amelia would never have reason to feel alone in this often scary world that they lived in.
BnBnBnBnB
Brennan was sitting at her desk looking over the information they'd received from NCIS related to the Morgan Hill gang, as her phone rang.
"Brennan," she answered.
"Bren," Angela said from the other end of the line. "I think we've been focusing on the wrong Daddy Dearest."
"What are you talking about, Angela?" Brennan replied.
"I've been looking into the backgrounds of all the players in our case… and I wonder if maybe this isn't about Michaela's father at all. Abbi Kleinman's father is Joel Kleinman."
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
Angela sighed.
"Do you ever pick up a newspaper?" she asked. "Or watch the news? Ask Booth… I'm sure he's heard of him. Joel Kleinman is the CEO of Whittier Technologies. Whittier has been all over the news lately…" Angela paused, waiting for a hint of recognition from her friend. "Seriously, Sweetie? Whittier Technologies is developing a new military assault rifle. They have like, a multi-billion-dollar contract with the Department of Defense. Jack is always complaining about it."
There was a long pause on the line before Angela finally spoke again.
"Bren?" she asked. "Sweetie, are you still with me?"
"What?" Brennan replied, obviously distracted. "I'm sorry Angela. Yes, I'm here. I was just reading the file from NCIS on the Morgan Hill gang. I think you may be right. We have been trying to determine what the possible connection could be between Morgan Hill and Michaela Austin and her friends…"
"And you think that Whittier might be the connection?"
"Indirectly, yes," Brennan replied. "It seems that drugs aren't the gang's only enterprise. They are also involved in arms dealing," she paused, reading further on the report. "So far, it's been what Booth might call 'small time' in that they have been concentrating only on other gangs in a limited area, but according to NCIS, they have been watching the gang for connections to both the military and organized crime."
"Wow," Angela said.
"Thanks, Ang. This might be just the break we needed. I need to get this information to Booth."
"Is he there at the lab?"
"No," she replied. "He's gone to the Hoover to interview Abbi Kleinman."
BnBnBnBnB
Booth was a man on a mission as he made his way into the Hoover Building. He would stop by his office and check in with the Jeffersonian before he went down to see Abbi Kleinman in interrogation. He also wanted to make a few calls to find out if he could get any information on Hannah's Morgan Hill source.
Hannah Burley, that was someone he'd never expected to see again. According to Cullen, she had been sniffing around the story from day one. She had to know more than she was saying, and her showing up at the warehouse the same time as he and Tony seemed to prove it.
As he made his way to his office, he was stopped by a familiar Southern drawl.
"Seeley Booth, you had better find that Austin girl alive and get me a conviction of the slimy perp. You wouldn't believe who I've got breathin' down my neck."
"I'm on it, Caroline," he answered.
"Good," she replied. "I want this case behind us so I can spend some time with that little angel of yours. Grandmama needs a Mia fix."
Booth smiled. Caroline had become a big part of his life a long time ago, but her place in their makeshift family had been solidified with the birth of his daughter. He thought back to that day nearly four years ago when Caroline met Mia for the first time.
"This had better be important," Caroline called out to the knock on her office door.
"We think so," Booth answered, smiling as he poked his head in the door.
"Seeley Booth," she said. "Get your cute butt in here, and you better have brought me pictures of that sweet baby girl of yours."
"I can do you one better than that," Booth replied. He stepped aside, allowing his wife to enter the office with a tiny pink bundle in her arms.
"We wanted you to meet her in person," Brennan said.
The tough-as-nails prosecutor turned to mush as she made over the baby girl.
"Now, why all the secrecy as to this precious child's name?" she asked.
"Something else we wanted to do in person," Booth replied.
"Caroline," Brennan said. "Meet Amelia."
"Amelia," Caroline repeated. "I like that. That's a nice, strong name."
"It is," Booth agreed.
"I've always loved the name," Brennan told her. "It's not overly common and it denotes a sense of strength and independence."
"Her middle name was the one that we struggled with," Booth said.
"We thought about naming her after one of our mothers," Brennan jumped in.
"But then we'd have to choose between them," Booth picked up the story.
"We decided we wanted her to have a namesake that she would know," Brennan said. "Someone she could look up to."
"Someone WE look up to," Booth said.
Tears welled up in the older woman's eyes as she realized what the couple was telling her. She watched as Booth took the baby from his wife. Handing the baby to her, he looked in her eyes.
"We'd like you to meet Amelia Caroline Booth," he said, placing the baby in her arms.
"Seeley Booth, are you listening to me?"
Booth was brought out of his reverie by the less than dulcet tones of Caroline's voice.
"I told you, Caroline," he replied. "I'm on it. I've got the Missing Persons team following up on leads from the last time anyone saw Michaela. NCIS is tracking down the Morgan Hill connection, the squints are handling the evidence… We're going to find her."
"I know you are, cher," Caroline told him. "But I would prefer you do it sooner rather than later."
BnBnBnBnB
Booth stood in the observation room watching the young woman who sat alone in the interrogation room. It was obvious that there was more to Abbi Kleinman's story than she let on, but at this point Booth was hard-pressed to figure out what that 'more' actually was.
He was just about to leave to go in and conduct his interrogation when the door opened behind him.
"Booth."
"Bones," he said, turning around. "What are you doing here?"
"Hoping to catch you before you talked to Miss Kleinman. You didn't answer your phone," Brennan answered.
Booth reached down into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
"Damn," he muttered. "The ringer's turned off. I'm sorry."
"It's all right," she answered. "I needed to get out of the lab for a little while anyway."
"What have you got?"
"Does the name Joel Kleinman ring any bells for you?" she asked.
"The guy from Whittier Tech?" Booth replied.
"That's the one," his wife answered. "He's Abbi's father."
"Okay," Booth said, waiting for her to fill him in.
"Since you recognized his name, I'm assuming you are aware of Whittier's Defense contract."
Booth nodded.
"It appears that the Morgan Hill gang has been branching out from drugs into illegal weapons…"
"And that's the connection between Morgan Hill and the players in this case. We've been looking at the wrong Dad… Keiran Austin has nothing to do with this. But why snatch Michaela? It still doesn't make sense."
"I have a feeling your answers lie within that young woman in there," Brennan said, nodding toward the glass.
"I have a feeling you're right."