Without You Chapter 11, a bones fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones. Plain and simple.

AN: YAY! Over 200 reviews! Thank you all so much for reading, and an extra thanks to those of you who review. I forgot to thank you last chapter. Please forgive me.

This chapter's mostly on the mystery of Angela…I think.

Enjoy.

Without You – Chapter 11

After finding nothing useful in Angela's office, Booth and Brennan proceeded to take the path she might've out to her car, looking for anything that might help them on their way. They found nothing until they reached her car.

The two of them searched the area around Angela's deep red Spyder, and found nothing to help them. Checking the door handle with a gloved hand, Brennan found it unlocked, and Angela's purse flung haphazardly across the passenger seat. She almost began to gather the things that had fallen out of it, but realized they needed pictures and evidence bags and the whole nine yards.

"Booth?" she asked, turning around to face him. "We don't have the right equipment to do this ourselves, not right now. And we need to do this correctly."

Booth agreed, and told her he'd call in a team the next morning, and give it to them as a top priority. Brennan thanked him, and they went their separate ways.

When Temperance arrived at the lab early the next morning, the section of parking lot that held Angela's car was already taped off and there were people already working on it, Booth watching over them all.

She got out of her car and walked over, lifting up and going under the crime scene tape, and headed for Booth, but watching the others at work.

She greeted him and they exchanged pleasantries. "When did you start this morning?" she asked him.

Booth glanced down at his watch. "About an hour ago, maybe an hour and a half," he answered before hastily walking away to do something else, something away from her.

Brennan realized in shame that she had gone home and gotten a night's worth of rest, while Booth had probably gone home to change his clothes and got right back onto the case. Angela's case. A case she had done very little to help out with so far.

Guilt-ridden, she made her way into the lab to see if there was anything in there that she could work on from the scene outside. Finding nothing, she went to check her phone messages and e-mails – just incase her guy sent or left her anything that might help them out. She was only half way through it when there was a knock on her doorframe.

Temperance looked up, expecting to see Booth, disappointed to see someone else. "Can I help you?" she asked, standing up.

A man who was about her height with ear-length blond hair and a suit advanced to her desk and held out his hand. He wasn't necessarily attractive, and Temperance could smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes and breath. "Special Agent Sean Terrence," he said.

"Doctor Temperance Brennan," she replied, taking his hand for a beat shorter than what would have been polite.

He didn't seem to notice. "I've heard all about you, Doctor Brennan," he said with a bleached smile. He gestured to her desk. "May we?"

"Of course," she said, reseating herself behind her desk. "Can I ask why you're here, Agent Terrence?"

"I'm with the FBI. Deputy Director Cullen – he heads the department I work in – sent me," he said, explaining who Cullen was like she was a child who didn't know. "He said that I might become a liaison to this lab."

"Why?" Brennan asked a little too harshly.

"The FBI would like an agent assigned specifically to these facilities incase these resources are needed. I would bring cases to you that required your expertise, and I guess we would sort of be partners. Of course, you wouldn't come into the field or anything like that, but here in the lab, I'd be your connection to the cases," he explained…again.

Brennan tried to smile. "Agent Terrence, I am perfectly aware of the FBI's need for this facility's resources, and I also know what exactly a liaison is, and what that role includes. We've had one here for quite some time. Where you informed that you would be replacing him?"

Terrence looked confused. "It was my understanding that there has never been an Agent linked to this place. Cullen didn't mention it either way, if that's what you're asking. Are you sure he was FBI?"

"Positive. We…were pretty close."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Close?"

"Professionally."

"Uh-huh. Well, I'll have to find him and talk to him then. What did you say his name was?"

"I didn't. It's Special Agent Seeley Booth."

Realization dawned on Terrence's face. "Oh."

"What? Is that bad?"

"Well, I haven't been officially informed, but I've heard his son's been kidnapped…and the talk of the Bureau is that he's resigning."

The simplicity of his tone was infuriating, but Brennan was too stunned to speak.

"Now I don't now if that's from the FBI as a whole or just his position, but people seem pretty confident. So I guess I am replacing him."

Brennan stood up and walked towards the door. "I'm sorry, Agent Terrence, but I have some business to take care of." She didn't look back to see his reaction to her hasty departure. She didn't care.

Temperance stood in the back corner of the parking lot, the back corner of the crime scene tape where no one would notice she was there. She watched as Booth directed the others with so much assurance and authority, making sure everything went as smoothly as he wanted it to. But he was about to give that authority up, give it to some cigarette-smoking unattractive holier-than-thou Agent who didn't know crap about the lab. Or Bones.

God, she missed that nickname.

But why hadn't he told her? Why did she have to find out from someone else that he was resigning? Was it true? Or just a rumor?

Booth saw Brennan standing at the edge of the tape and averted his eyes. If she wanted to help, she'd come and offer it. No use in extending a special invitation.

He went over the evidence again in his head. Angela's keys had been found under the car. Fingerprints were all over the door handle and edge of the window, probably all Angela's. They were getting analyzed anyway. The contents of Angela's purse were gathered and packaged. The purse was inside and the door unlocked, so whoever it was snatched her after she had been to her car.

Booth left the team to get the rest of the evidence, and he went inside the lab to request the security tapes from the night before. As he walked by Brennan, he gave in. He knew she wanted to help and just didn't know how.

She still watched the scene around Angela's car, but when Booth spoke to her, she looked at him. "Brennan? I'm gonna go and watch the security videos. Would you like to come?"

She nodded and they walked in silence. Booth was a little thrown by the expression she wore when she looked at him, confused by what it could mean. Brennan wasn't naturally an open book, but over time Booth had learned to read her particular way to show emotions.

And now he was reading that something was wrong…when she looked at him.

Booth moved the thought to the back of his mind as they approached the security desk and he requested the tapes he needed. They went into Brennan's office to watch them, and set them to before the recorded time for the message from Angela on his cell. They hadn't gotten through the first five minutes when a knock came on her door.

Brennan paused the tape and stood to face her visitor, but her heart sank when she saw who it was.

Zack and Hodgins stood in her doorway, obviously waiting for the answer to an obvious question. She brought them in, got them to sit down, and took a deep breath.

"No doubt you two are wondering about the whole ordeal in the parking lot." They nodded. "Well…Angela's been…" she fished for the right word. "Kidnapped" just didn't seem right. "Abducted" sounded too permanent. "Snatched" wasn't serious enough.

"Taken," Booth finished for her. She gave him a thankful glance.

"Taken," Jack repeated. "As in…kidnapped?"

"Yes," Brennan said, almost a whisper.

"Why?" Zack pitched in.

Booth looked at Brennan, questioning if she wanted him to tell them. She nodded.

"We think it's probably for the same reason that Parker was taken. Except this time it's aimed towards Brennan, instead of me."

"Why do you think any of this is happening in the first place?" Jack asked.

"We're working on it."

"We're here if there's anything for us to do," Hodgins said, standing up. Noticing that there was nothing else to be said, he clapped a hand onto Booth's shoulder.

"I'm sorry about your son, man, I really am. It sucks, and I know how completely pissed off you must be about the whole thing. But I want to find Angela. I'm going to help find her, do it myself if I have to." Hodgins turned abruptly and left Brennan's office without as much as a look back. His movements were jerky and agitated, so Brennan could tell without seeing his ace that he was really pissed. But she understood.

Zack quietly got up and left the office. He didn't seem so much pissed as confused. Then again, nobody even knew if Zack capable of showing his irritable side.

Once they had both gone, Brennan turned to Booth and sighed. He gave her a sympathetic smile, and they returned to the tapes.

After a while of uneventful watching, a dark green sedan pulled up in the drop off area in front of the Anthropology lab. Both Brennan and Booth leaned forward and watched closely as a small figure got out of the car and walked into the lab, and the car drove away. They switched their attention to the cameras by the security desk, where he looked for a guard. When he found one, he talked to him and was let into the lab. Inside the lab, they switched to different angles as the small figure wandered through the hallways.

"He's only been here a few times," Booth said. "He doesn't know his way around."

They watched as he walked to Brennan's office, checking inside the dark abyss. "Well, at least he knows where to find you…" Booth said with a small smile.

A few seconds after that, Angela came out and found Parker, and took his hand. They watched the entire exchange without sound, and if possible, Booth leaned forward a bit more, as if that would make him hear it. The pair on the screen walked to Angela's office, and she tried calling several different numbers. When she was seemingly unsuccessful, Angela began packing up her things, and Parker's attention found the drawing Booth and Brennan had found in Angela's office. At that, they smiled a bit.

They switched cameras again, to the parking lot where they watched Angela reach her car, spin, and turn back around. And then like in some cheesy horror flick, a strong figure slowly approached from behind her. Temperance drew a sharp intake of breath without realizing it when he knocked Angela out, but Parker in the car, and slug Angela over his shoulder and put her in the passenger's seat to look like she was sleeping.

As the car drove off, Booth was able to see the license plate number very fuzzily. Once he wrote it down, he clicked off the screen and turned to Brennan. "Did you see what I saw?" he asked her.

"Parker went with our mystery guy willingly," she said. She had noticed it right off the bat.

Booth nodded and leaned back in his seat. "So my son trusts whoever this is," he analyzed in an agitated voice.

"They used him as bait."

"Do you think he knew he was supposed to get her out into the parking lot?" he asked in a softer voice, as if worried that his four year old son was assisting in all this and not as innocent as they thought.

Temperance saw the pain on Booth's face, and decided to take the safe route. "What do your instincts tell you?" she inquired gently.

"He's four years old, Brennan. Either he's oblivious, and whoever had him predicted what might happen, or he does what he's told. Someone he trusts tells him to make sure Miss Angela gets out into the parking lot, he might do it."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't think he knows. That's what my gut tells me. But that's also what I want to believe…so…I don't know."

Temperance shifted closer to Booth, looking him in the eyes. "Since when don't you trust your instincts?"

Booth looked away.

"I'm gonna go give this plate number to Don's boys. We should have all the information in a few hours." He got up and grabbed his jacket. "You can come with me if you want."

"No, I've got some work I've got to do here. But, thanks."

"Sure," he said. "I'll take you along once I've got the info, okay?"

"Great."

Booth left Brennan's office, and she expected his retreat to be like all the others: Hasty, never looking back. His was hurried, obviously, because he wanted the information as soon as possible. But Temperance was surprised as she watched him walk away when he turned around and walked backwards, giving her and open-armed palms-up gesture, to say that his offer was still open.

She smiled and shook her head. She couldn't believe he would resign. She didn't want him to resign. Then and there, Temperance made a vow to herself to make sure that didn't happen. He was way too much a part of their team to leave. He'd take some convincing if he had made up his mind, but she felt partly responsible, so she'd do all she could to prevent him from leaving them.

"Miss Angela?"

Angela turned to the source of the sound. Not that it did much good, considering the fact that she couldn't see. "Parker."

"What are you doing?"

"Someone tied me up. Can you help me?"

Angela thought she heard him shake his head. "I'm not supposed to." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm not supposed to be in here."

"Can you at least take this off of my eyes so I can see?" Angela breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the child inch forward. She heard and felt his reach up to her face to pull the blindfold down.

A loud crash made Parker withdraw his hands before Angela could see anything. She tried to talk him into finishing taking it off of her, but he had already retreated.

"Parker!" a loud, angry shout came from behind her. She heard Parker gasp in fear as the voice got closer. Then it was in the same room as them. "Parker! What did I tell you about coming in here?"

Parker sounded on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry," he practically squeaked and shuffled off.

Once he was gone, Angela felt and smelled the man's face directly in front of hers. She tried not to grimace at the stench. "Now, why would you manipulate a small boy into betrayal?" he asked her.

"What?"

The back of his hand collided with her face again. "Don't make a child betray the people he trusts." He left her at that, leaving her utterly confused.

Parker wasn't a captive? He trusted these people? Well, things were definitely not getting any less complicated, she knew that for sure. She hated the fact that she couldn't see. Still.

"Agent Booth?"

Booth looked up from his desk to see the girl from fingerprint analysis. "Did you find anything?"

She nodded, handed him the file. "Three different prints. One was Miss Montenegro's, one was a child's, and then we have our mystery print."

"Did you match it up to the prime suspect I gave you? There should have been a print in the file."

"Yeah, the report's in here," she said, and left.

Booth opened the file. The results floored him.

"Yes!" he said aloud, reaching for his phone. Things were definitely getting less complicated. Finally.

AN: Please Review! I'm trying to keep track of who I've still got with me hanging in there. And if you could, tell me if this is moving too slow for you. I'm thinking about speeding things up. Or not, depending on what you guys think. Should they be faster than this? Are they jumping to conclusions to fast? I must know! Thank you so much!