Chapter 10

"How're you feeling, cher?"

"Just peachy, Caroline. I could run a marathon, win a boxing match, and bust out a hockey game." Booth answered cheekily. Caroline just gave him an acknowledging "mm-hmm" and demanded to the others that she needed time alone to confer with her client.

"Caroline," Hacker placated, "Booth's not under arrest."

Caroline simply rolled her eyes and replied, "Two Assistant Directors from the FBI and the Metro PD with their chief surely breathing down their necks tell me otherwise. Now scoot, y'all." She gestured them away. "We won't be long. Shoo." Reluctantly, the four men did as they were told.

"I need an abbreviated account of what all mess you've gotten yourself into Seeley Booth. What have you been up to that ends with a dead police officer?"

Booth summarized the details of Hannah's investigation and his cause to be involved. "I don't know, yet, what actually went down between Hannah and Alonso; all I could see was that she was terrified and he was holding her too closely. Turned out he had a knife at her side. And Bones . . . I don't know where she came from, either, but suddenly Karnick's got her in a vice grip with a gun to her head."

"There was no negotiating with Karnick? Come clean, cher, I need to know all of it if I'm gonna help you out of all this." She eyed him closely.

"This guy had Bones at gunpoint. Protocol says I can take him down however I see fit in order to secure the hostage's safety." Booth returned firmly.

"And there was really no way out?" Caroline prodded. The silence following her question was brief, but the weight of tension that traversed it was palpable.

Booth's expression hardened as he answered flatly, "I saw it in his eyes, Caroline." She held his gaze and assessed what she saw in his eyes, heard in his story, and combined it with what she knew of him and locked her decision. Without breaking eye contact, she put a hand on his arm and nodded.

"Okay. Let's get this over with, but keep your answers short and sweet, got me cheri?" Let's not give them cause to believe that there was anything about this situation to warrant any undue attention."

She went to call the men back in. Hacker reiterated that no arrest was being made, however, it was his prerogative to have legal counsel. "Booth, I know you understand that this is regulation."

"Yeah, yeah, of course I get it. Let's just get on with it, okay?" Booth tried to mask the irritation he was beginning to feel. Acting antagonistic would not work well right now. He tried to get a read on everyone. The detectives were wary of him and seemed to be mistrustful of the whole situation. He couldn't blame them. He could imagine how hard it would be to find out another law enforcement officer – a federal agent, no less – killed a colleague and simultaneously find out that same colleague was a crooked cop. There was no satisfaction in the end result for that. Hacker – well, he was pretty sure he didn't need to worry about Hacker and felt that he might even be in his corner. It was Cane that mildly worried him. Cane had a reputation for being a hard-core, by-the-book agent. Booth didn't really take issue with that, but knew he was going to have to be clear about his role regarding his use of time and resources and even clearer about the hostage situation.

"Sweetie, how are you holding up? How's Booth doing? What happened?" Angela rushed over to Brennan followed closely by Hodgins and Cam. Angela's expression was full of worry and compassion as she put her hands on Brennan's arms and gave her a gentle squeeze. They were in the guest lounge down the hall

"Ange, I'm fine, Booth is going to be all right, and I told you, he was shot." Brennan answered her questions in quick succession.

Angela gave a doubtful chuckle. "Bren, honey, you are not fine and I meant what happened as in how did he get shot? Cam said you took her car to go meet Booth with our findings?"

Brennan told them about how she saw her own car parked near a corner and that helped her determine which direction Booth probably headed. "I saw Booth pushing Hannah away while hearing a gunshot."

"Where is Hannah? Is she okay?" Angela asked.

"She's fine – she's with Booth right now." Brennan did not elaborate and opted to simply continue with her story. "When Booth had turned around I saw that he was bleeding and tried to get to him," her voice gave the slightest of catches as she went on, "but Karnick pulled me to him and held me at gunpoint."

"Oh my God, Bren, is that how you got that bruise on your face?" Angela questioned.

Brennan instinctively brought her hand up to her face at the mention. She had almost forgotten what had caused the expression to change so ominously on Booth's face when he and Karnick were gun to gun. Though not the expert on reading people, even she could not mistake the transformation from controlled gravity of the situation to a tempered rage that she had rarely seen on him before. "Yes, I guess so. Booth had to kill him and by then he had lost so much blood . . . " her voice trailed off. Angela pulled her into a hug while Cam and Hodgins came forward and offered their support as well.

Hannah left Seeley's room trying to sort out her feelings. She was not a highly emotional woman, but being with Seeley always seemed to raise everything to the surface. At first, in Afghanistan, it had been just passion and joy. Upon following him to D.C. there was tenderness, confidence, and hope added in, but rapidly fear, jealousy, pain, and worry threw themselves into the mix as well. She had never felt such a broad range of emotions with someone before and it almost frightened her, which was a further blow since she rarely felt afraid of anything. Experiencing the force and strength of Seeley so rapidly followed by a vulnerability put her into a slight tailspin, but she felt like she was starting to right herself again.

In truth, she felt thrown by her own need to flee and hoped that she would not have done so if Temperance had not been there. As it was, however, she trusted Temperance to stay while she herself re-grouped in the way she knew best: to get her story out, to do her work. In spite of what she may or may not have been feeling about Temperance, she felt that she had understood Hannah's anxiety and solution. That in and of itself initiated the return to equilibrium. In the process she was able to siphon away some of the stress while making sure Seeley's sacrifice was not in vain. And now, an official investigation. Was it her fault? Is this why she should have re-buffed Seeley's plans to work together in the first place? She sighed. No, she did not really need to remind herself that this result was not really the reason she had wanted to keep his involvement at arm's length.

Hannah came upon Temperance, Angela, Cam, and Hodgins in the waiting area with her eyebrows still knit together in worry. Angela, with her kind, sympathetic eyes, noticed Hannah right away and came to embrace her. Back at the crime scene she might have cried at the crushing kindness that this gesture exuded, but with her emotions a bit more in check she managed to simply accept Angela in relief and gratitude.

The two women separated but clasped hands. "Thank you for that," Hannah told her.

"How are you doing?" Angela asked.

"I'm okay," she responded truthfully. "I mean, I wasn't, but I think I'm okay now." She looked around warmly at these people who so obviously cared about Seeley and had welcomed her as a part of his life. She didn't know them well, but felt that she could. She liked that.

"Who is with Booth?" Temperance wanted to know. "He doesn't like to be alone in hospitals."

Hannah brushed away the twinge of jealousy over the ownership that Temperance's tone conveyed and reminded herself of a five year partnership that she and Seeley had which allowed for that tone. Hannah answered with unease, though, given the circumstances of Seeley's current "companionship" in his room. "He's not alone, but his company is not good. Two assistant directors from the FBI are there as well as two detectives from the Metro PD. They wouldn't let me stay while they questioned Seeley."

Hodgins spoke out first with a scoff. "Yeah, that figures. We expose a cop neck-deep in crap and they'll try to figure out how to cover it all up. Booth's no liar, though, I don't know how they would convince him to stay quiet."

"Hodgins, I don't think that's it," Cam squelched him. She turned to Hannah again. "This is because Booth killed a cop, isn't it? And that he was unofficially investigating him?" Hannah nodded. "We've got to call Caroline; Booth shouldn't be in there alone with them in this situation."

Hannah held up her hand to calm them. "She's already here. She assured me that she would look after him."

Cam gave a sigh of measured relief, but Brennan felt edgy and flustered. "But Booth didn't break any rules. He used vacation time and non-FBI resources to uncover his information. I told the detectives all of this information before coming here."

"And then all of this lead to Booth killing a cop." Cam said flatly.

"To protect a hostage! He followed protocol!" Brennan tried to regain control of her breathing. What she was saying was rational, she knew, but for some reason it was coming out panicked. She didn't like the overly sympathetic gazes directed at her.

"Sweetie," Angela tried to calm her. "You're absolutely right. I'm sure it's all just a formality. You know how the government is with all the paperwork. I've seen how much time you and Booth have had to put in finishing up all the paperwork for the murders you solve."

"I'm sorry, Ange, but you can't know that. And Booth shouldn't have to pay the price for putting his life on the line yet again." Tears were forming and she battled against them.

Hannah put a gentle hand on her arm. "Temperance." Brennan looked up to see that Hannah did not look sympathetic, but rather understanding. She could also see that Hannah was worried, too and as much as it hurt to truly accept Hannah, it also seemed appropriate that she should understand her fear and pain for a man they both loved.