A/N: Well it's fastly coming to an end... Next monday will be 'epilogue A', followed on wednesday (which was supposed to coincide with the return of new episodes...) by 'epilogue B', and then the story is over. However, be on the lookout in coming weeks for the sequel to this story, called DICHOTOMY.

CHAPTER 10 - Come Together

When Hodgins and Angela arrived near the old building there was already a number of vehicles present. Among all of this, they found Booth and Brennan. From what they could tell, Booth had already explained his course of action to the others.

"Are you sure about this?" Booth asked Hodgins when she saw the two of them approaching.

"Definitely," he nodded. "And I'll gladly return to my own field afterward, no worries."

"Good," Booth nodded back.

"So how do we do this?"

"Go in, locate, retrieve, apprehend, get out..."

"Sounds simple."

"Isn't always..." Booth told him. "Alright, let's go." Before he could walk away, Booth felt a hand on his arm. He turned back to find it was Brennan. She looked just a little frightened, and he knew why.

"Be careful," she spoke, looking into his eyes.

"I'm coming out that door walking this time. Take my word for it," he told her with a nod. After a moment, she allowed her hand to let him go. "I'll be back before you know it." He turned and he and Hodgins headed for the office building.

He didn't want to say anything to her about it, attract more concern, but he had some fears of his own going in. The nightmares... of feeling everything fall apart and on to him... All of it had thankfully remained part of the non-waking world. What he worried about now was this new yet all too reminiscent situation, making it through without falling apart.

"You ready?" Booth focused on Hodgins.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Won't make a sound."

Booth and Hodgins entered the lobby. "Let's start at the bottom, work our way up floor by floor," Booth whispered. Hodgins nodded.

Outside the building, everyone remained in a sort of holding pattern. Brennan and Angela sat against one of the many parked cars.

"Hodgins is taking me to dinner," Angela spoke up, looking over to Brennan.

"He is?" she asked, peacefully surprised. Angela nodded. "I didn't even know you two were..."

"It's... complicated," Angela shrugged. "Things just kind of changed on us with all that's happened. There's just something about him that I can't explain. But I want to try..."

"Yeah..." Brennan looked up toward the building.

"What's on your mind?" Angela asked, noticing another occurrence of strange and new behavior. Brennan hesitated to speak.

"This morning, before you and Hodgins showed up... Booth and I were talking."

"About what?"

"I told him about... that day, losing him..."

"Well what'd he say?" she asked, careful not to sound too curious, sensing how the whole subject was still confusing to her.

"Nothing, didn't get to. But... since then, things have been different, good different. Still don't quite know what it all means."

xx

"Second floor is clear," Booth spoke into his radio. He and Hodgins took to the stairs toward the third floor. "This place has twelve floors..." he commented, looking up at the staircase that wouldn't end. He wouldn't blink. He could do this.

"You alright?" Hodgins asked, noticing his pause.

"Yeah," he finally answered, opening the door to the third floor.

They started their round of the floor. The whole thing was about keeping it together, knowing what was on the line, knowing there was the other side waiting...

"Does Pierce own any guns?" Hodgins found himself asking as they made another go up the staircase, taking to the fourth floor.

"None registered, but who knows?"

"Great... Good thing you're there."

"Yeah..." Booth pulled the fourth floor door.

They made the round, climbed to the fifth floor. Around they went, and up to sixth, then seventh.

"Please let this be lucky seven," Hodgins muttered under his breath.

The moment Booth opened the door, they began to hear a continuing resonance, metal clicking at metal. "What's that?" Booth whispered under his breath.

"That's my girl," Hodgins' lips spread into a small smile. Booth looked back at him. "It's a code. Ellie and Meg would knock it against my gate, to draw my attention. There are only two people alive today who know that. And I'm one."

"Confirmed presence of Montrose on the seventh floor. No visual on either the girl or Pierce yet," Booth spoke into his radio. "Stay behind me unless I say otherwise. Got it?"

"Got it," Hodgins nodded.

They made their way down the darkened hall, taking to the wall. Ahead of them was the first closed office, which lead to more offices around the corner. Booth and Hodgins stopped just short of the corner. Booth carefully moved so he could see what was ahead. The sound had grown louder as they moved, and it was loud enough now that they knew they were close.

When Booth pulled back, he guided Hodgins to take a few steps back to talk.

"Two doors down, with the broken glass," Booth whispered. "No rushing," he spoke before signalling they were about to start. "Going in," Booth spoke into the radio.

They turned the corner, approaching the door. As they neared, Booth took hold of his gun, aiming forward. Hodgins did as he'd been told. Just the fact Booth had given him a vote of confidence when he'd given him every reason not to... it meant a lot. And to know that Meg's life was on the line... it was another factor that meant he needed to be extremely careful.

As they got up next to the door, they could hear mumblings, and Booth quickly recognized Pierce's voice. Booth strained to hear.

"... you were just a tiny thing of an infant, I could tell you were special. And your mother, she... she never said anything, not to me, o-or to you. I think she was scared of what Stanley might do. But I knew, deep down, I know I did. And... maybe a part of you did too."

Slowly, Booth pushed the door open, his aim quickly finding Pierce. When the man saw Booth, he went to reach for a hunting rifle sitting nearby. "Don't..." Booth instructed him. Pierce froze. "That's better." He looked to Meg, who'd stopped her tapping the moment she saw Booth. "It's okay, everything's fine," he spoke to her gently. He picked up his radio. "I'm with them now. The girl's alright." At the moment, she was also tied to a chair.

As Booth had gotten to his message, Hodgins remained in the hall though he'd finally made eye contact with Meg. He gave her a smile and a nod, letting her know she'd be alright. She nodded back.

Also at the same time though, while Booth was momentarily busy, Pierce moved to stand behind Meg's chair, pulling a small knife they had not seen, whipping it around to point at Meg's neck. At once, Booth dropped the radio and levelled his gun.

"Get out!" Pierce yelled. "Go or I'll kill her!" Meg kept looking at Hodgins, though her resolve wasn't as strong anymore.

"You won't do that," Booth told Pierce.

"You don't know."

"I do. You believe she's your daughter. You won't hurt her."

"If that's the case, then why are you pointing a gun at me?"

"Well there's the small matter that you have a knife aimed at this girl's neck. You let off with that knife, we'll see about the gun." Pierce didn't budge. "Suit yourself."

"She's my only guarantee," Pierce pointed out.

"If you knew me at all you'd know my word's pretty trustworthy."

"Sorry, no time to chat over coffee."

"Mr. Pierce. We need to tell you something. And we need you to hear us out, alright?"

"Alright?" he replied.

"Meg here, she's not your daughter."

"She is," Pierce shook his head.

"Did Louise Montrose tell you upfront?"

"She did... She told me..." He looked to be replaying the memory.

"She never used Meg's name, did she?" Pierce didn't reply. "Mr. Pierce... Meg isn't your daughter. Ellie was." Pierce shook his head.

"No... she can't... she..." he spoke in a daze, the knife clattering to the ground as he took a few steps back, falling into a sitting position on the ground. Booth holstered his weapon, turning to nod at Hodgins to tend to Meg. He came up to the chair, looking at Meg's restraints. From what he saw, he could lift her from the chair and she'd be free from it though with her hands still behind her. Once he had her in his arms, he went to stand out in the hall.

Booth crouched in front of Pierce. "What happened?" He was still hung up on the revelation.

"Are you sure?" he mumbled. He shut his eyes. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this... none of it, I..."

"What happened two years ago?" Booth asked.

"I thought she... Meg... was my daughter. Stanley was supposed to be someone I trusted with my life, who could do no wrong... But I saw the way he treated Louise, and the girls... I was going to teach him a lesson. I hired my brother-in-law, he'd get Ellie from her room, bring her to my cabin. I'd keep her a few days, let them see what was happening as they missed her. But Stanley, he didn't change. I thought another few days would help. Then another few days turned into weeks, months..."

"Did you kill Ellie Montrose?" Booth asked slowly.

"I started to realize... maybe I could help her. I could give her what Stanley wouldn't. I'd show her what she'd been missing. She kept resisting me. No matter what I tried, it wouldn't do a thing. Then one night, while I'd come to check on her... while she slept so she wouldn't kick o-or bite... I opened the door to the basement, I went downstairs... Except she wasn't asleep. She got free... reached the phone." He paused, a sort of silent rage in his eyes. "It wasn't good enough for her, never was... and I lost it. I was just going to knock her out, to get her tied again, make sure she wouldn't get away again. I grabbed the first thing I found... I'd been digging the day before..."

"And she bled out..." Booth spoke, looking at Pierce.

"He was getting worse with Meg. I needed to do something, give them another scare... And Lillian got the idea." He paused. "My daughter... My daughter..." he spoke to himself in disbelief.

"Get up," Booth instructed him, standing himself. Pierce looked up at him a moment before slowly doing as told. "Turn and face the wall, put your hands behind your back." Pierce did so and Booth cuffed him before guiding him out in the hall, where Hodgins was standing with Meg. From the look on her face, he knew she'd heard everything.

"Media's been alerted..." Hodgins told Booth. "There's some vans outside." Booth understood.

"You sure?"

"I'll get out the back. Do me a favor though? Just let Angela know so she doesn't get the wrong idea?"

"Okay," Booth nodded.

"See you on the outside, Miss Margaret?" he turned to her. She nodded and went with Booth as they headed for the stairs.

Hodgins watched them go, letting out a sigh of some relief at seeing Meg safe again.

He was about to head for the other staircase, which he knew from briefly seeing a floor plan each time they entered a new floor, when something caught his eye. There was a small box on the ground of the room Pierce had been holding Meg in. He walked toward it, stopping and bending over to pick it up. When he opened it, he felt a chill run up his spine.

Ellie's foot bones.

Hodgins closed the box and headed toward the stairs.

xx

As soon as they'd gotten word that it was over, that they were coming out, Brennan and Angela stood together. If Brennan closed her eyes, block out or ignore the rest... she still saw it, heard it, felt it... She felt like if she saw him now, maybe she could make it stop.

A few seconds later, there came a handcuffed Patrick Pierce, led forward by Booth. With his other hand, he guided Meg Montrose with her hands still shackled behind her.

Brennan saw him, saw her terrors fade, felt her heart do leaps and her eyes well up. Angela had a different reaction, seeing that Booth was alone... Hodgins wasn't with him.

Pierce was handed off to other agents as Booth hurried Meg into an ambulance, knowing the cameras would jump at her for the best shot. Once the doors were closed, he turned around and walked to Brennan and Angela.

"Where is he?" Angela asked Booth.

"He said he was coming out the back." Angela looked to Brennan before running out along the side of the building. Booth and Brennan turned back to each other, smiles creeping up over their faces.

"You came out the door..."

"Told you I would."

"Yeah, you did." Before they could go further, they heard the approaching reporters.

"All these disruptions are really starting to piss me off," he told her before they'd reached him.

"Yeah..." she laughed.

xx

Angela walked as fast as she could, jogging near the end. Getting to the door, she stopped short as it opened and she found herself face to face with Hodgins. He stopped as well when he saw her.

"You had me worried for a minute," she tried to scold him but was nowhere near that kind of mind.

"I owe you a dinner, remember? Wasn't going to skip out on that." She smiled and nodded.

"What's that?" she asked, noticing the box in his hands. He tapped the top.

"Ellie's feet... Guess he figured it'd hurt Stanley and Louise even more... Hey, the man's crazy."

"You got Meg back, everyone came out in one piece... I'd say that was a job well done. What do you say we hand that box in and then you can cash in your... debt," she smirked.

"Like that plan," he smiled back.

"Thought you might."

xx

Brennan took the newly returned feet, returned them to where they rightly belonged so Ellie Montrose could finally rest in peace. It was dark now, the lab relatively quiet.

She heard the steps and knew without needing to look up that Booth was just a few feet away. "How is it that we keep meeting in this darkened and quiet lab here? You think someone's trying to tell us something?"

"And who might this someone be?" she asked, still working to place the last of the bones.

"I don't know, but hey... I'm not complaining." Finally finished, she looked up at him.

"Did you apprehend Travis Gilbert?"

"It'll be quite a while before that guy sees the outside of a cell."

"That's good," she spoke, removing her gloves and jacket before turning to Booth.

"Are you hungry?" he asked her slowly.

"Starved," she nodded with a tilt.

"How about we do that thing where you order too much?" She laughed.

TBC