Chapter Ten

Booth noticed first that her car was not parked in front of the apartment. He wondered about it, but didn't worry. She had probably parked around the corner. When he entered the darkened flat, he became aware that she hadn't been home since she left the diner, he worried a little. When he called her cell phone, and a man answered with the words,

"Too late Agent Booth. We got her," and immediately hung up,

He was officially worried.

He stood in their kitchen, snapped his phone shut, and tried to control his temper.

"Shit." Was all he said.

He had no idea who this guy was, but to find out, he had to stay in control. He had to figure this out. Who could help? He thought instantaneously of her co-workers. He called Cam. She answered the phone with a sleepy voice, and he filled her in on what had just transpired. She said she would call everyone else and they would meet him at the Jeffersonian as soon as they could.

He called her cell phone again, and again and again, but there was no more answer. He ran to his vehicle and flicked his siren as he made his way to his wife's work place. He called the Bureau and talked to a few higher officials and told them what had happened. What he knew of it anyway. They assured him a unit was being mobilized.

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Temperance had not seen what had knocked her unconscious. She was trying to put her key in the car door when she heard footsteps running towards her. She turned slightly, but the shock of the blow caught her by surprise, and she slumped to the ground. The man who had hit her quickly picked her up and put her in the back seat of her own car. He got in the driver's seat, and sped off down the street. He stopped a few blocks away and picked up another man, who had been waiting for this car. He smirked as he looked into the backseat at the unconscious forensic anthropologist. He looked at his partner in crime and said,

"Wow, she doesn't look so tough..." The older man with the white, white hair just looked at his younger brother. His eyes were filled with annoyance.

"Don't underestimate her; just make sure she stays unconscious. We only need her until we have the baby. Shouldn't be more than a few days by the looks of her." The older man looked at her in the rear view mirror and relished in the thought that he was finally so close to her.

He had watched her for months. Her and her FBI agent. Ever since the first meeting, the first time he had seen them outside of that upstart punk doctor's office, he knew that her baby would be perfect for him. He deserved it more than they did. He had done some research on the two by accessing restricted FBI files. He had paid a mint for that hacking program, and it had been worth every penny, they hadn't even planned for this baby, and now, they weren't going to have it. He was so close.

He continued to drive towards his destination, rambling in his head the whole way. His brother, in the passenger seat, ignored the occasional thought spoken aloud by his lunatic brother. He had seen that look in his eye before. He knew it was better to not attract attention to himself, and let the man ramble. He kept an eye on the woman in the back seat, just to make sure she was still breathing. She was.

Her phone rang in her pocket and the passenger reached back and took the phone. The caller ID flashed 'Booth', and he handed the phone to the driver. He clicked the phone open and put it to his mouth.

"Too late Agent Booth. We got her!" He closed the phone, and threw it out the window. She wouldn't need it again. He laughed at his brother, who looked at him with big eyes, but eventually, he too, joined in the laughter. The white haired man stopped laughing suddenly and looked at his brother.

"We have to ditch this car, and fast. When we get to the warehouse, I'll take the Doctor in with our other guest, and you take the car to the river and dump it." The man smiled. Everything was falling into place.

Temperance awoke hours later and had no idea where she was. She sensed she was lying on a blanket on a hard floor. Maybe she was sitting. She was still groggy. Her head hurt. She felt arms wrapped around her and instantly thought of her husband.

"Booth?" She spoke it out loud.

"Tempe, thank god, you're awake." She knew the voice didn't belong to her partner, but she recognized it. A hand brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, honey, I'm right here. I've got you."

"Where are we?" Her voice was very hoarse, and she seemed disoriented, but her father tried to reassure her with murmured comforts, as he had when she was a child. Her brain remembered the comfort from a long time ago, and she leaned back into the man that held her.

"Where are we?" She asked again, she seemed more alert with every word that she spoke.

"I don't know...I was hoping you could tell me." He tried to laugh, but it was very obviously forced, "I just hope that husband of yours is as good as I think he is."

"He is a very good agent. He'll find us." She leaned back into her father's chest and tried to keep herself calm, and try to establish where they were exactly. She didn't know how they were going to get out of this one. Her thoughts went back to the weeks preceding this moment, and she turned to her father in shock:

"Where have you been? What happened at my apartment?"

"I've been here, Tempe, locked in this basement for weeks now. The sonovabitch got the upper hand on me and knocked me out. I've never been had like that before. He really hurt my pride..."

"I really think that your pride being hurt is the least of our worries right now." Brennan sat up slightly, and turned to look fully at her father, "Tell me. What happened that night, the FBI thinks that you killed three people and burned the building down."

In the dim light, she could see that his face flinched. He looked pale, and he had lost weight. She took a second to glance around the small room, it was square and concrete and a door was the only fixture not made of concrete. There was no window, and the only light came from a hanging bulb in the middle of the ceiling. It flickered occasionally.

He spent the next while telling her his version of the events of that night.

He had come back to her apartment after having dinner with Booth's grandfather. The two had really hit it off at the wedding, and had become fast friends. Brennan could understand. She was quite smitten with the Grandfather herself. When he arrived back at her place, he found the door was open and when he entered the apartment, he discovered a dead man on the couch. Just lying there. He went further into the flat and found the dead couple posed in the bed. She interrupted his story at that point.

"So, you didn't kill anybody? They were already dead?" She seemed relieved.

"Yes, I found them there, already dead. I noticed the couple had an obvious similarity to you and Booth, and I started to panic. This was clearly a set up to make it look like you guys were dead; I didn't know what the hell was going on. I thought I should find a way to find you guys and warn you. There was a gas can on the counter, I grabbed it, and in the heat of the moment, and fearing for your lives, I thought it would be a good idea to fake your deaths. You know, so you guys could hide out somewhere until whoever did this could be found. I sprinkled gas all over your living room."

Brennan followed the story so far, but only some of her questions had been answered. Who was trying to fake their deaths? And why? Her father continued,

"I was about to light a match, when this guy bursts in through the front door, sees me and takes off running. I chased him for awhile, but he gave me the slip in an alley behind the building, He must have doubled back and went back up to your place, because the building was on fire a minute later, and in the commotion I went back outside, and Boom, thunk on the head, and I wake up here."

"How did the FBI find the gas can with your fingerprints on it in a garbage bin outside?" His daughter looked calm, he was surprised. His heart was racing just telling the story.

"I don't know... I left it in the living room when I chased the guy."

"What did this man look like, did you get a description?

The door to the room opened and Brennan, for the first time, looked into the eyes of the man who had her captive. Max looked from the man to his daughter and said,

"Yeah, he looks a lot like this guy."

The man who had entered the room, flicked his eyes quickly at Max, and then focused all of his attention on Temperance. His eyes were demented.

"You can call me Gus. It's a pleasure to finally meet you Doctor Brennan..."

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Booth and the squints spent the entire night trying to find out anything about what had happened to Brennan. There wasn't much to work with. Booth had been the last one to see her, about ten feet from her car, and then she seemingly vanished.

Booth and Hodgins went back to the scene and tried to find anything useful, but there was nothing to be found. Her car was gone, and there was no sign of a struggle. Booth didn't know if he was relieved by that or not. The ride back to the Jeffersonian was awkward. Hodgins knew that the man driving beside him was on the edge. His anger was brewing with each moment that passed, and the bug guy was afraid of what would happen when it was released. He tried words of comfort.

"We'll find her Booth, they'll both be okay." His words were encompassed by the silence, and he made no more effort to speak.

Back at the lab, the squints and Booth had gathered in Brennan's office to see if there was anything that they hadn't thought of. The FBI had sent additional Special Agents to help. Booth was grateful. The entire lab had been set up as home base for the search for the missing Doctor Brennan. He sat in her chair, behind her desk, and turned over a small figurine of a smurf in his hands. His eyes were far away, but they snapped to attention when an Agent came to the door and asked to speak to Booth in private. He left the office with the other man, and all the remaining squints looked at each other in worry.

Booth poked his head back in the office a minute later and told them he had to go; they had found her cell phone. He would call if they discovered any new information, and that they should call if the same applied.

Angela, Cam, Hodgins and Wendell started to brainstorm if any of them had seen anything suspicious lately. One by one, they all remembered seeing a man with white hair at some point in the last months, since the fire at Brennan's apartment. Angela pulled out a sketch pad and a pencil, and before long they had a composite sketch of the man, who had been seen in various locations. She placed it on the desk, and they all stood around and looked at it. The man in the sketch was definitely the one they had seen. Hodgins recognized him from somewhere else, but couldn't quite place from where. Angela said out loud,

"What a creepy guy." The other squints agreed.

At that moment, Doctor Sweets entered the room and joined the crowd gathered around the desk. He had just been updated on the situation by an FBI agent in the hall. He looked at the drawing for about fifteen seconds and then gasped. He recognized the man.

"Oh crap." Those were the words that came out of his mouth, and he had the attention of everyone in the room.

"I know this guy. Doctor Brennan is in serious danger."

Everyone looked at him and saw how serious he was. Cam reached for the phone to call Booth back to the lab.