Best Laid Plans of Agents and Anthropologists

by LizD

What if Maluku was a bust? What if Tempe had to change whether she knew how or not? What if Booth's experience was less than he had hoped for as well? What if something forced them back together before they were ready? - COMPLETE!

10. Chapter 10

The Best Laid Plans of Agents and Anthropologists

By LizD

Chapter 10

A/N: Wow … definitely thought I would get a bigger reaction to the last chapter than that. Oh well.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Booth paced in the waiting room of the emergency clinic, the one closest to the warehouse in Leesburg, VA. Brennan had been with the doctor for a long time. She had regained consciousness in the ambulance and the EMTs had diagnosed the gunshot as a graze, a pretty bad graze, but a graze. The bigger concern was that she had hit her head very hard on a rock when she fell to the ground. They were worried about a concussion or worse a subdural hematoma.

The doctor finally came out. "Are you Agent Booth, the partner?" Booth nodded too afraid to use his voice. "We are moving her to George Washington. She needs a CT Scan or an MRI; we don't have that proper equipment here and no one here really specializes in head injuries. She will be airlifted." Booth's eyes widened. It was serious if she was going to be airlifted. "It's just a precaution Agent Booth but with head injuries we don't want to take any chances. She did lose consciousness for more than five minutes."

It felt like longer to Booth. It felt like forever. And there was so much blood. "I'm going with her."

"I'm sorry sir, but there won't be room. We are sending the other patient …" He looked at another chart in his hand. "A Wick, Daisy Wick as well. She will need to spend a few days in the hospital and can be treated better there."

Booth wanted to protest, but he knew that the doctor was doing what he thought was best. "May I see her?"

"Briefly … AirEvac will be here shortly." The doctor stepped back. "Please don't upset her."

Booth nodded. Upset her? Why the hell would he upset her? He wasn't going to upset her. He loved her. He entered the area where they were treating Brennan. Her head was back and her eyes were closed. There was still a lot of blood in her hair and a huge gash that the nurse was tending to on the side of her head. Two centimeters to the left and she would have been dead. "Bones?" he called gently to her. The nurse smiled at his pet name.

Her eyes opened but it took a moment to focus and then focus on Booth. "Hey … they are overreacting," she protested groggily seeing the worry in his eyes. "I'll be fine."

He took her hand and pressed it between both of his. "They are just doing their jobs, Bones." He smiled tentatively at her. "They won't let me fly with you," he said sadly. "Guess Daisy got the last ticket." He tried to joke, but it was just not funny. "But I will only be an hour behind you. OK? I'll call Angela and Hodgins. They will meet you there."

"Not necessary ... and they won't let them ..."

"Angela can talk her way by a hungry pit bull; she can handle a couple of night nurses at GW."

"Pregnant ... shouldn't be ..." She lost her train of thought.

"Pregnant?" All kinds of thoughts flooded Booth mind, none of them made any sense. "You? You're pregnant? Did you tell the doctor?" Booth and the nurse exchanged a quick look. The nurse shook her head 'no.'

"Angela ... shouldn't come to ... pregnant." Her head throbbed.

"Sir, please don't upset her," the nurse said.

"Ok, Bones ... Ok ... don't worry."

"My Dad?"

"Flirting with the nurses," he said but she wanted real information. "Dislocated shoulder. He should be fine. I'll keep him with me."

"Agent Walker?" Brennan was finding it harder to form full sentences. The headache was becoming unbearable.

"Fine … she's fine."

"Her leg?"

"Scratch … she's cut herself worse shaving." Brennan's eyes darkened a bit. "So she says," he tried to cover. "She will be fine."

"Taffet?"

"Don't worry about Taffet." He didn't bother to tell her that they had a body. That some were convinced was Taffet; he was not. That they would need Bones to prove that it was or wasn't. In the mean time he intensified the BOLO in the Leesburg and surrounding area and was having the remains shipped back to the Jeffersonian.

"Agent Booth?" the orderly called from the door. "We need to go."

Booth nodded and gestured for another moment. He leaned down close to Brennan's ear. "Give your brain a rest, OK Bones? I've got it from here. You did great." She shook her head. He kissed her forehead and looked down into her eyes. "This is all going to be over soon … tonight. Then we have a conversation to finish, right?"

"Conversation?"

"Agent Booth?" the orderly called again.

He kissed her lightly on the forehead and again on the lips. "I'll see you in an hour." He flashed his best charmed smile but his heart wasn't into it. He was scared; scared for her, scared for them. They were so close but too much could still happen.

"Be careful."

"Nothing will happen to me."

"Be careful," she repeated.

"I promise."

He watched as they moved her from the table to the gurney that would take her to the chopper. He couldn't bring himself to leave her side until they wheeled her out, through the doors and she was gone. He sunk down on to the nearest flat surface he could find. He didn't have the strength to stand anymore. He came so close to losing her.

"Very touching," Walker said caustically. "And if you are thinking that this is your fault, you're absolutely right."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Sully was the lucky one who got to call the lab and report the good news and the not so good news. Sweets was beside himself when he heard about Daisy. He wanted to get to the hospital immediately. Sully had to remind him that Taffet was possibly still out there, and that even though they had apparently foiled her plan to kill six members of their group, she was still dangerous if indeed she were still alive.

Angela was the only one who felt the gravity of Brennan's injury. Everyone else heard that she was alive, but Angela heard 'gunshot,' 'head wound' and 'subdural hematoma.' She would live (probably), but would there be any lasting damage. How would Brennan cope in life if she didn't have full use of her enormous intellect? Taffet be damned; Angela was going to the hospital if she had to walk. Hodgins of course – in tune with every emotion his wife had (and there were a number of them) – made sure that they would be there to meet the AirEvac. He really wanted her to rest. She had been working pretty hard for the past 24 hours with only very short rest breaks. She was young and health – very healthy – but she was also pregnant.

Caroline joined the group. She had heard what happened through official channels. "So you've heard?"

"Yes," Cam told her. "Is there something we haven't heard?"

"Somehow Rachel Dawes made bail … and now no one can locate her. Or Agent Robert Hendricks."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Booth collected Sully, Max and Maggie and were about to head back to DC. He needed to keep his promise to Bones to be only an hour behind her – it would more likely be an hour and a half or two hours. Maggie's wasn't through her berating of him for taking Brennan to the Warehouse. Booth listened to it for as long as he could.

"Back off, Special Agent Walker," he finally snapped. "You don't know me and you don't know Bones. You think you do because you have one small piece of information, but you have no idea what you're talking about. She has saved my life more than once. Temperance Brennan is a strong, capable woman who can handle herself in very stressful situations, better than I have seen you do. She can shoot. She can fight. And she pays attention to all that is going on around her. She was the one who noticed Taffet, no one else. Six highly trained FBI SWAT agents, three fully trained special agents, and a cop all missed what the forensic anthropologist did not. Ten Agents - no one watching the perimeter? While I would have personally preferred she stay out of the line of fire, I know – professionally – that she can handle herself. Need I remind you that Taffet got the drop on you too and if it weren't for Brennan and her team of squints – you would have died in there. So back the hell off of me. You are no longer in charge of this investigation." He stormed off to get the SUV.

"Think you touched a nerve," Max said on the way to the SUV. He smiled to himself. He wondered how it would be having an FBI agent as a son-in-law. Nothing would change. If he had to, Booth would arrest him at Christmas dinner and Tempe would back him up. Good thing Max was treading the straight and narrow - well straighter and narrower but what they didn't know, wouldn't hurt them.

Sully kept pace with Maggie. "He's right you know." She turned to look at him about to rip into him. "About Brennan being able to take care of herself."

"She is not trained in -."

"Again, you don't know her." He stopped so she would stop too. "They are a hell of a pair those two. I pity the fool that tries to get between them … professionally or personally."

"I'm not trying to get between them … personally ... or professionally, but there is protocol for a reason."

He smiled and shrugged. "Been there, done that."

"Weren't you and the Amazing Doctor Brennan shacking up on that island of yours?"

"She is pretty amazing." He smiled thinking back to their time together. "But things are not always as they appear particularly when Tempe is involved."

"Does Booth know this?"

"I think he is figuring it out." He gently touched her shoulder in a more condescending than comforting way. "Booth is a bright boy. A little slow on the uptake sometimes, but he gets it eventually."

She shook her head and checked her watch. 3:16AM. Damn, she needed sleep.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Agent Robert Hendricks, 26, was a graduate of UConn with a degree in criminal justice and political science. He was from a large family, three brothers and three sisters. His mother and father were still married and teachers at the high school in Norwich, Connecticut. The extended family was close and all lived in New England, primarily in Connecticut. Bobby had just returned from a two week vacation visiting his family because he missed Christmas with them. He was low man on the totem pole, so he had picked up the holiday duty. His family didn't understand why he moved to Washington. What possible draw could the FBI have for him?

Bobby had met Rachel very close to the first day on the job. She was a bright young paralegal who liked her coffee exactly as he liked his. She was clerking for a judge. There was an instant connection. He really wanted to consider her his girlfriend, but they dated so sporadically. She was busy with her job. She would call out of the blue and they would have dinner or go to a movie and maybe he would get to kiss her good night. They did spend New Year's Eve together and she allowed him to stay the whole night. Bobby really thought it was leading somewhere. He was ready to take her home to meet his family.

Agent Robert Hendricks' body was found in the trunk of the FBI issue vehicle parked at Rock Creek Park just before dawn by a park official. Cause of death would be determined to be blunt force trauma to the occipital and parietal bones probably caused by the nine iron found in the trunk with him.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Sweets was waiting impatiently when the helicopter arrived. Angela and Hodgins had taken a place in the corner to wait calmly. Daisy was rushed through admissions and put in a semiprivate room, before Sweets even knew the AirEvac had landed.

He entered her room just as the last nurse was leaving. "Sir, no visitors."

"I'm with the FBI," he told her and flashed his ID. "I need to speak with Ms. Wick about her ordeal and the investigation."

"Keep it brief," the nurse scolded him.

"How is she?" he asked.

"Dehydrated, hypothermic … we are pumping her with fluid and bringing up her body temp … she will be fine in a day or so. She is a very lucky girl."

He walked slowly toward the bed and saw the monitors and IVs hooked up to her. She looked so small. She appeared to be sleeping so he let her rest. He brushed a light kiss on her forehead and sat down in the chair next to the bed. She woke with a start. Sweets was on his feet instantly. "You are OK," he told her taking her hand.

"Lance?" she squeaked out.

"You're OK … You're going to be OK."

Daisy finally let herself breakdown. Tears streamed from her eyes and her free hand went to cover her face taking the IVs with it. Sweets let her cry trying to comfort her as best he could.

"I have never been so scared in my whole life," she sobbed. "I thought I was going to die … I afraid to sleep … I thought I would never wake up." Sweets let her talk and kept a tight old of her hand. When she finally settled herself down she began to appreciate that Sweets was there. "How long?"

"I don't know … close to 48 hours … maybe more." He sighed. "Do you remember when you were taken?" She shook her head. She didn't remember anything but that jail cell and being so alone and cold. She started to cry again. "It's OK, you are safe now. Nothing like that will ever happen again. OK? I'll take care of you."

Daisy nodded weakly. "Tired."

"Sleep honey," he told her. "I will be right here when you wake up. Just sleep now." Sweets said a silent prayer and made a promise to get back in her life be it Washington, New York or Timbuktu.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Angela was with Brennan waiting to go into the examining room. "Sweetie, how you doing?" she asked. Brennan looked like hell. Most of the blood had been cleaned from her hair, but the lump on her head was noticeable. He eyes were fully dilated, bloodshot and she kept opening and closing her eye lids hoping to focus. Her skin was pale.

"Have a headache," she said softly.

"I can imagine." She brushed some hair off Brennan's face. "They say that the scan is just precaution, and that it won't hurt."

"I know, Angela."

"I don't want you to worry, OK? You won't be alone. Both Hodgins and I are here."

"Angela, you should go home. I'm fine."

"I know you think you are, but I am not going anywhere."

"You have been up for almost 24 hours, Angela. Where is Hodgins? He should take you home."

"Don't try to talk, sweetie."

"Angela!" She started to get frustrated but her head was throbbing.

"Sweetie … calm down."

She exhaled forcefully. "How is Daisy?"

"Fine, Sweets is with her. Booth is bringing your dad back with him. He should be here any minute. Booth is very worried about you."

Brennan shook her head. "It's too late, Angela."

"Too late?"

Brennan looked to be sure that Hodgins was out of ear shot. "I told him Angela."

"Told who what?"

"I told Booth … I told him I loved him."

"That is great, sweetie." Brennan closed her eyes and shook her head. "Not great? He didn't say it back?" Brennan shook her head. "Where were you?" Angela continued her prompting.

"Poolesville, Maryland."

"No, I mean what were you doing?"

"We were about to enter the Storage Facility."

"Well that was a mistake."

"I know; we found that out before we got the lead on the warehouse."

"No, I meant telling him with people around - particularly agents. What did he say?"

"Nothing … told me to be careful, to stay behind him."

"He didn't respond at all?"

"He kissed me."

"Where?"

"Behind the SUV."

"Where did he kiss you, sweetie?"

Brennan didn't answer but rubbed her fingers across her lips trying to remember. What kind of kiss was it? How many kinds were there? Had he ever kissed her before? Yes, but it wasn't like any of those. Maybe it was more like the one in the kitchen or maybe … maybe it was nothing. Just a way to get her to stop talking. "I'm too late, Angela," she said. "He has moved on."

"Not to that Agent Walker."

"I just don't think he cares any more. Not like he did. It's my own fault. I don't blame him."

"Sweetie, you have had a long day and a very long night … let's not worry about what Booth said or didn't say. But I will tell you if he didn't have feelings - really deep feelings - he never would have tracked you down to that island and he wouldn't have kissed you when you told him you loved him. That is just not Booth's way."

The techs came to take Brennan in for the CT Scan. Angela wanted to go with but was convinced by the technicians, Brennan and Hodgins that it was not necessary and too big a risk. Brennan had insisted they go home.

When the door closed behind her, Angela turned to Hodgins and buried her face in his neck. "Did you see that gash? Did you see her eyes … I have never seen them like that."

"She'll be OK, honey," he said reassuringly.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It had been a quiet thirty minutes in the SUV. Booth was stone-faced and driving with determination. Maggie was behind him looking out the window. Sully was shotgun mentally working up his report. He thought about trying to talk to Booth about Tempe, but thought better of it. The last think Booth would want to hear is Sully trying to convince him that she was going to be OK. Max had his eyes closed with his head against the window. He wanted more drugs for his shoulder, but hadn't had time to fill the prescription before Booth demanded their departure. Jacobson and his team had remained at the warehouse while they were at the hospital securing the site and waiting for the FBI forensic team to come and collect all the evidence.

Several calls came in over the radio. A vehicle was stolen from a home near Martinsburg, Maryland - Honda Civic Hatchback, silver with the right tale light out. The description was of a woman, mid-forties, with red hair. The vehicle was last seen headed east on Whites Ferry. It was determined that she was headed back to Washington. Booth and crew were on the wrong side of the river and had to cut over when they came to the 495. Jacobsen and his men were about 10 minutes outside Martinsville. They would push her from the west and Booth would cut her off on the east. Local PD were contacted and asked for their assistance. They caught her merging on to SR28 from Whites Ferry Road and then turning south on to SR112. Booth did an illegal U-Turn on RT495 to exit heading west on SR190. If she were continuing to head east, he would cut her off. Jacobson et al were closing in from the west, about 8 minutes behind. Booth coming up 190, Jacobson coming down, Taffet was trapped in the Blockhouse Point Conservation Park.

She came to a full stop in the middle of the road. Booth stopped about 40 yards in front of her. He, Sully and Walker got out of the car; Max hunched down in the back seat. Jacobson stopped about 50 yards behind her. Booth and Taffet paused staring at each other; Booth's weapon aimed at her head (as were everyone else's weapons). Jacobson's men had taken positions with rifles at the ready if she tried to make a run for it. They were waiting for Booth to instruct her to get out of the vehicle and give up. He said nothing. The silence was deafening. Booth took a step toward her and another. Sully and Walker exchanged a look. Taffet grinned at Booth. The car was still in gear. All she had to do was pop the clutch & hit the gas. He may get her, but the car would more than likely get him. He kept advancing on her. One more step, two more steps, three more steps. She was sure that the SWAT behind her would not fire for fear of hitting Booth. The people behind Booth would not fire for the same reason. He was completely exposed. It was just the two of them ... head to head ... no games, no riddles, no clock ticking. Booth saw her hands tighten on the wheel. He saw her grin narrow and set her jaw. He heard the engine rev as she popped the clutch and the car lurched forward. Three shots, Booth fired in quick succession. He only needed one, but each one hit his mark. Taffet slumped to the left but the car was still moving forward but in an altered direction. It was veering off to the side of the road. The SWAT took out the tires and the car all but stopped about three feet from Booth. Two men from Jacobson's team secured the car and pronounced her dead. Booth lowered his weapon and exhaled. Walker was just about to approach Booth, but Sully held her back with a look.

"I'll call it in," Sully said to Booth. Booth didn't move or respond in anyway. "They will want your report." Booth nodded. "First thing." He looked like the car had hit him anyway. "Booth?" Sully asked again hoping to be informed what Booth would put in his report.

Booth knew what he wanted. This was not the proper protocol for the take down of a criminal. Booth knew – in his gut – that Taffet would not have surrendered to him. But he didn't know what he would have done if she had gotten out of the car. If she had tried to 'go peacefully.' He might have shot her anyway. Booth had killed people before. He had killed in war. He had killed by order. He had killed in the line of duty to protect his partner or civilians. He had killed in self-defense. But not until Taffet had he hated a person he killed – hated from deep down in his bones. He hated Heather Taffet for what she did to her victims, for what she did to him, for what she did to his partner. Maybe Walker was right. Maybe he was too close to the case, had too much riding on the outcome. Would another agent been able to bring her in? Maybe. Would she have escaped again? Maybe. Was it his right to force her hand like that?

"Booth?" Sully prodded again.

"Tell the truth," Booth said. He holstered his weapon and returned to the vehicle. He chose the passenger seat rather than the driver's.

Sully talked to Jacobson who would remain at the scene until the ME and the rest of the forensic team could arrive to clean it up. Sully took the driver's seat and Walker her position in the back. The remainder of the trip home was uneventful and continued in silence.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A/N: One more chapter … should be all Booth and Brennan all the time. Time to wrap this puppy up so we can prep for Season 6.