Thanks to the people who have reviewed. Sorry it took so long to update. I was out all Friday and Saturday. Anyway, here is Chapter 10.

I don't own Bones.

Chapter 10

Wednesday Morning -

The normal lab staff was just arriving when Bones exited Limbo. She had dozed off for a while and woke to another terrible headache. After waiting for the headache to die down, Bones had finished her work and was going to find Angela and Booth. When she saw the man sitting on the couch, Bones resolved to tell him everything tomorrow night if nothing was found in the next 36 hours.

The slump in his shoulders and the far off look in Booth's eyes broke her heart.

She had never seen him like this. There were dark bags under his eyes and all his movements seemed to be painful. His eyes were dead. The light that had always been her guide and her strength, the light which had defined him, the light that made him so much different form everyone else was gone. He was so lost and it was her fault.

Bones stood outside Angela's office, she couldn't bring herself to go in and face them. She could tell Booth and Angela what she found out after he had left, that way she wouldn't have to see his eyes up close. She ran back towards Limbo.

Running was something she was good at, so until the time came to tell Booth everything, she would run. It was her defense mechanism for when her world began to fall apart. She was sick, the Booth she needed was gone and in pain because of her, and her son was kidnapped. She knew she couldn't run as far as she might have liked. There was no way she would be able to get away from the lab. Not without Booth noticing or sending out a search for her. She would have to be content to just hide in Limbo. If she wanted to, Bones could hide from anyone down there. It was big and she was one of only a few people who knew every corner of the room.

***

When the morning finally came, Booth was still in Angela's office. After the nightmare he had just sat on the couch unable to move. When he realized that the lab staff was arriving, Booth began to read over the victim's file. He would have to go tell the boy's parents first thing. He wasn't sure what exactly he was going to tell the family about what was happening. Booth knew that he would have to say something because there was a good chance their son's remains would have to be given up. Even though it wasn't an official case, Booth wanted to have the consent of the family.

Sighing, Booth stood to leave the office. He called to Angela as he left, "Ange, I'm going to talk to Mr. And Mrs. Green. Keep an eye on Bones and make sure she doesn't leave the lab." He was out of the office and exiting the lab before Angela even got the chance to respond.

It had been years since Booth had driven to alert a family without Bones coming with him. Everything was just so wrong.

On his way to the Green's home, Booth received a text from Bones. He rarely ever got texts from Bones during a case. Mostly because she was always with him and the few times she wasn't she would always call. All it said was: The victim was alive for about a month after the time the x-rays were taken. Booth was almost less interested in the information the text gave compared to what it meant. A text meant that she didn't want to speak to him.

The silent car ride was just another reminder of his loneliness. Normally the drives would be filled with constant, amusing bickering. That trait of theirs had always made the rides seem so much shorter. The drive to the Green's house seemed to take an eternity. He had called ahead and told the parents that they should stay at home and that an agent would be arriving within the hour. When he finally arrived at the house he realized he wasn't sure how to act. Before Bones had become his full-time partner he had always broken the news alone. She hardly ever said anything, but when she did it was always helpful and her presence alone was comforting. Now, he would have to do it alone and he would have to tell the family about Parker and his kidnapping. He would have to tell them how it had happened and what the situation was. Booth was afraid that he might break down, but he continued to the door anyway. No matter what was going on in his life this family deserved to know about the fate of their son. Gathering up all his courage, Booth knocked on the door.

Booth estimated the couple who opened the door to be in their late 30s. The woman had kind brown eyes and dark brown hair. She was just barely taller than her husband. Mr. Green was stocky and his dark eyes were full of despair because he knew why Booth was there. Booth cleared his throat and introduced himself, "Hello, I am Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI." os voice softened before continuing, "Mr. and Mrs. Green, I would lick to talk to you about your son, Brandon." He found that people were always more appreciative when the person telling them about a dead child at least knew the child's name.

Mr. Green nodded slowly, "Of course, come in."

"Thank you," Booth followed the man into the house's living room.

"Would you like anything? Coffee? Tea?" Mrs. Green asked politely.

"No. Thank You."

Mr. Green motioned towards the one of the seats in the room, and Booth gave a small, thankful smile before sitting. As soon as the couple was seated on the couch opposite, Booth began. "I'm so sorry to have to tell you this, but your son is dead."

Mrs. Green's eyes were wet and she turned and buried her face into her husband's shoulder. Mr. Green's eyes darkened even more and grew extremely distant. The man held onto his wife, but turned his face back towards Booth. Barely whispering Mr. Green murmured, "It has been so long. I knew he couldn't still be alive."

Booth just nodded and waited to see if Mr. Green would continue.

He did, "What happened to him?"

"He was killed eleven months ago. He was shot. Brandon wouldn't have felt any pain," Booth replied gently. He wasn't sure if the last part was entirely true, but he hoped it would help.

A weak gasp escaped from Mrs. Green and she lifted her head, slowly, from her husband's shoulder. "Why?"

"I'm sorry, but we don't know. We haven't been able to identify the killer yet, but we have people working on it. There is something else you should know," Booth paused.

"What? All you need to do is catch the person who murdered my son. He never did anything wrong and neither have we!" Mrs. Green's voice was desperate and angry.

"I'm sorry," Booth said and turned his face towards his hands.

"Katherine, it's not Agent Booth's fault," Mr. Green whispered to his wife.

"I know. I'm sorry. What was it that we needed to know?" she inquired quietly.

"Last night, my son was kidnapped. We believe that he was kidnapped by the same people that took your son. A fake skeleton was on his bed and it had marks corresponding to the marks on Brandon's body. My wife received a call telling her not to notify the police or get any other FBI agents involved. We believe that the kidnappers are going to request your son's body as part of the ransom."

"Oh, my god."

"If they kidnappers so request your son's skeleton, I am inclined to give it to them. It's the only way to get my son back. I would appreciate your cooperation in this."

"You are going to give away my son! No! I won't allow it!" Mr. Green screamed at Booth.

"Once the exchange is made, we can take down the man who murdered your son and kidnapped mine. We will be able to get Brandon's body back and catch the man who killed him, but we have no leads right now. There may not be any other way to catch him, and we won't be able to trick these men with a fake body. Please," Booth was begging with them now.

"He is our son. I will not let what is left of him be taken away. I will not let you hand him over to the people that murdered him."

"Katherine, the only way for them to catch his killer is by letting the exchange happen. Brandon's body may never have to really even get back into the hands of his killers. What it it were the other way around? Wouldn't you want Agent Booth to let us exchange his son's body for our son's life if it were the other way around?" He turned towards Booth, "I will let you give Brandon's body in exchange for the life of your son. Please, catch Brandon's killers. Kill them if you have to, but no matter what make them suffer."

Booth nodded, "Thank you. I will do everything in my power to stop this from happening ever again."

Katherine stood, "If you fail, if you lose my son again, and if his killer gets away, I will hold you solely responsible."

"I understand," Booth replied softly.

"Please, leave us alone until you have something better to tell us," Mr. Green said as he walked towards the door. Mrs. Green stayed on the couch while Booth followed Mr. Green to the door.

At the door, Mr. Green grabbed Booth's arm, "I'm sorry about Katherine, this has been so hard for her, especially after the death of our other child, but if you do fail-"

Booth didn't let him finish, "I won't. If I do there won't be anything left in me and my wife would never speak to me again." Mr. Green nodded and Booth walked to his car.

The car ride back to the Jeffersonian seemed like an eternity. When he finally arrived at the Jeffersonian, Booth sat in his car, reluctant to go inside.

Once inside, Booth went straight to Angela's office. "Anything new?"

"Hello, to you. There were no hits on my sketch. The men who were outside of your apartment aren't people looking for revenge," Angela sighed remorsefully.

"Do we have anything to go on besides the electronics?" Booth ran his hands through his hair and collapsed on the couch.

"Hodgins handed the blood over to another tech to be analyzed. He hasn't determined what was in the fake skull yet." Angela said.

"You have the list of stores that sell the devices?" Booth inquired.

"Yeah, here you go. Are you going to take Brennan with you?" She handed him the file and he began to walk out of the office.

Booth stopped and slowly replied, "I don't think so. I'm just going and requesting the video tapes and lists. It's not really worth dragging her there with me."

"Are you sure that you're not just making excuses?"

"Ange, please not now. Bones wouldn't want to come, okay," his voice rose at the end of the statement.

"Oh, come on Booth. It's not like she's busy. She already gone over those skeletons with a fine tooth comb," Angela was getting fed up now.

"Angela, I know Bones. She just needs some time and space. She will tell me when she is ready. For now, I'm going to let her come to me when she wants to," Booth declared adamantly so that the issue would be dropped.

"Whatever Booth, but I still think you should at least ask her if she wants to come," Angela shrugged and turned back to her computer.

Booth bit his lip. Shaking his head slightly, Booth left the room and turned toward bone storage. He strode into the room and headed straight for Bones. She was sitting at a table just staring at the remains in front of her. He snuck up and grabbed her by the waist, gently. "Come on Bones, you need to get of here for a little."

She jumped when Booth touched her, but then turned around at his voice. "Booth," she complained.

"You've been down here too long and we need to eat. Arguing isn't going to work, come on," Booth said and pulled on her hand.

Bones grumbled to herself, but allowed Booth to lead her out of Limbo. She protested lightly, "Booth, I have work to do. Where are you taking me?"

"The Diner. Then we are going to those electronic stores on Angela's list," he answered.

"Fine," Bones replied with a slight pout.

At the Diner they each ate their usual meals. They didn't talk quite as much as normal and their talking wasn't as light, but it was better than the night before. Booth ordered pie and like always, Bones never ate it. When they were finished Booth once again led her to the car. Then, they drove to the first store.

Booth hooked his arm around Bones' shoulders as they entered the store. They were approached by a young man in uniform with a name tag that read Alex. Alex wore a big smile and inquired brightly, "Hello, how may I help?"

Booth smiled and reached to his belt, "You can help me by pointing us in the direction of the manager." Booth flashed his badge at the young man.

"Oh, um, sure. Follow me," he stammered and turned to lead them to the back of the store.

Booth smiled at Bones as they followed the man into an office. Alex turned and said, "Um, wait here. The manager is out in the store. I'll go find him."

A couple minutes later an older man arrived with Alex in tow. The man turned to his employee and stated, "Alex, you should probably get back to work now." Alex turned to leave and the older man reached out a hand, "My name is Josh Parsen, I heard you were FBI. What can I do for you?"

Booth took Josh's hand, "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan. We will be needing a list of all the people who have bought these devices from your store in the past two months," he handed Mr. Parsen a sheet with the device information. "Also, we would like any security tapes you may have."

"May I ask why?" Mr. Parsen questioned as he moved behind his desk.

"Those items were found at a crime scene that is related to a kidnapping case we are working on," Booth said as evenly as he could.

"I'll get a list and the tapes for you," Mr. Parsen said as he began typing furiously at his keyboard. After a couple minutes the printer came to life and he inserted a disk into his computer. Mr. Parsen stood and handed them the disk and the printed sheets and said, "I hope this helps in your investigation."

"Me too. Thank you," Booth replied and took the information.

Booth and Bones continued on to eleven other stores and in each one things played out almost exactly the same. By the time they were done and back at the Jeffersonian it was almost three.

Booth tried to pull Bones into Angela's office with him, but she pulled away, saying, "Booth, you've already kept me from my job for the past couple hours."

Grudgingly, Booth let go of her hand and let her go to bones storage. Booth sighed and continued on his way to Angela's office. "Here's the security tapes and lists."

"Great," Angela turned and reached for the disks. "I noticed you took Brennan with you."

Booth ignored the comment. "Check if any of the people on the list have had criminal records. We will start there."

Angela turned, "Right, this shouldn't take to long."

Angela went down the list and typed every male name into the computer. After the search was complete, Angela stood and brought up the info on the screen. "Okay, there are six men with criminal records. None for kidnapping or assault. Most are for DUI's or parking tickets."

"So essentially we have nothing. I'll bring them in for questioning, but if nothing sticks out I'll move on to the other people on the list. Just because they haven't been in trouble before doesn't mean they aren't causing trouble now. Will you search the tapes and see if you see anyone who looks at all like what Mr. Dodd described."

"Sure," Angela replied.

They both began their separate tasks. None of them could know what was happening to Parker as they did.

Ok, so I realized the other day that only like 1% of my readers reviewed : (. My spring break is coming up and I think I will be more inclined to write if I get some more. Please review and tell me what you think.