Ok I lied... this isn't the last chapter.

After what seemed like an eternity the women pulled up to the Craven house and scrambled out of the car.

"Why didn't we bring Booth along?"

"He's bound by the law," Brennan pulled out a gun from her glove compartment, checked it and shoved it in her jacket pocket. "I'm not."

"Jesus Brennan!"

"Stay in the car Angela."

"I can't help much in a fight Bren but I can sweet talk like a professional. So maybe you won't need the gun okay? Either way, you're not leaving me in this car."

"I'm not planning for a fight Angela, just expecting one. There's a difference." The women reached the front door and Angela made a move to knock and froze.

"We are planning on knocking right? Or did you just want to bust in?" Her attempt to lighten to mood fell flat and earned a glare from Brennan. They restrained themselves from pounding on the door and knocked the socially acceptable three times. Nothing happened.

"It is pretty late, maybe everyone's asleep."

"Well then they're going to have to wake up." Brennan reached in front of Angela and held the doorbell down obnoxiously.

"Yeah well that's sure to put them in a great mood!" The girls tensed as almost immediately they heard a male's voice yelling commands inside the house. He made his way downstairs toward the door, not bothering to dampen his anger at their late visit. He flung the door open, causing Angela to take a step back, as if making room for the man's anger. Brennan stood her ground and looked up at Craven, directly into his eyes.

"Where's Sam?" Confusion ratcheted his irritation up a few notches.

"Elizabeth. We're here to see Elizabeth." Not one to leave her friend standing alone, Angela resumed her place by her side.

Recognition flashed and he sneered at Angela, "You're the girl that dropped her off. You aren't government, which means you've got no right asking to see her."

"We're going to see her Mr. Craven." Brennan's voice was flat and cold, so sure of herself that for a second Craven hesitated.

"You're not from the government either, else you woulda flashed your badge around by now. I'm in charge of that…" A righteous confidence filled his face and he stepped closer to the women, towering over them and spitting his words in their faces like venom. "precious girl and I decide who she does and does not speak to."

Brennan stayed perfectly, unflinchingly still. "I suggest you step back Mr. Craven." He looked them both up and down, smirking, obviously unafraid of any threat they might pose him. This was really not going to end well. Surprisingly, Craven stepped back and out of their way, though his expression was far from welcoming, in fact it made Angela's skin crawl.

"No need to argue out in the cold, why don't you ladies just come join me in here?" Angela wasn't sure if Brennan's lack of hesitation meant she'd missed the psycho-stare or if she just planned to deal with it later. Angela followed a second later, wishing they'd thought to tell someone where they'd gone. Later she hoped she'd look back and think she had been overdramatic, but her gut told her that this was not a good man and this was not a good situation. She'd learned to rely on her gut and so she slipped her hand in her pocket unobtrusively and hit speed dial number one.

Brennan felt his eyes on her like he was an animal stalking his prey, but she wasn't any crippled gazelle. She prepared herself but didn't act; as long as he was being outwardly civil, she would do the same. She could feel Angela nervous but steady at her back. In some small part of her brain she was impressed with her friend, she was more courageous than anyone gave her credit for.

Angela spoke firmly, "We drove all the way out here to North Ridge. We just want to see Elizabeth."

He feigned surprise, "Oh! You're more than welcome to go upstairs. Follow me." Without a glance back he climbed the stairs, sure that they'd follow. And they did.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Confusion gave way to comprehension and moved quickly on to panic as Jack listened to the conversation on the other end of the phone. Switching his phone to mute Jack ran across the lab towards Cam's office.

"Shit shit shit shit! Not good not good!" It wasn't the words he was hearing that were alarming him, it was the way they were spoken. As soon as he heard Angela tell him where she was he knew this wasn't just another 'pocket dialing' mishap. He knew her well enough to know that tone of voice. Whatever was happening, this wasn't a game. He skidded into Cam's office, not bothering to knock or apologize for the interruption.

"Cam! Call Booth! Tell him Ange and Dr. Brennan went to see Sam. Something's wrong. Get him over there!" He didn't leave her time for questions before he ran back out of her office and to his work station. He slipped his ear piece in and grabbed his keys, not bothering with a coat despite the freezing weather. Thank god they took Dr. Brennan's car. He'd programmed Sam's new address in Angie's GPS himself, it should still be in the system. They'd long ago exchanged spare keys for convenience and safety, so all he had to do was push her panic button in random directions until he found her car. He was concentrating so hard on getting to her that the soft sounds in his ear became white noise. As soon as he started her car that white noise tripled in volume and the blood in his veins turned to ice.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Craven stopped abruptly at the top of the stairs, expertly herding the women into the hall corner before they'd even realized it. He was well practiced in controlling people.

Angela tried to sound impatient, even snotty, but it came off as thin and breathless. "We're still waiting to see Elizabeth here."

He laughed low in his throat, "Who said you could see her? I said you were welcome to come upstairs, the wife's outta town and I could use some company." She was definitely going to need a shower after this.

Brennan had finally had enough, there was nothing she hated more than someone who thought they had the right to terrorize those who were weaker than they. Craven was in his element, she could see that clearly, but he'd underestimated her. She was no child cowering under his gaze. All of the men who'd made her life hell in the system, every one of them morphed into this one man. They'd all thought they were better than her, that they'd had the right to control her every move. She'd been young and helpless then but she wasn't anymore. She'd promised herself that she'd wait until Craven became physical first, she hadn't wanted to provoke any unnecessary violence. But as all the old faces and memories came flooding back, circling around this one man, she knew she'd have to break first. She was done taking their shit.

The only warning she gave him was the pain she inflicted. She threw all her weight into a good solid punch to his orbital area. He bent, cursing and roaring and she took advantage of his position, driving her knee into his solar plexus. It didn't wind him as she'd intended and he threw his shoulders into her like a linebacker, throwing her and pinning her against the wall. She was the one without air now and she slid down the wall gasping for oxygen.

He stumbled over her, rage clear in his eyes as he regained his bearings. He focused the intensity of that rage on her, pulling her off the floor and onto her feet. She could see her face reflected in his eyes, black with hate. He backhanded her, striking across her cheekbone and stunning her momentarily. Only his grip on her shoulders kept her on her feet. He wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed. Immediately the little air she had was cut off, she tried to think through her panic and desperately brought her feet against the wall behind her, about to push off, hoping to throw him into the opposite wall. Before she could act she heard a dull thunk and suddenly the pressure on her throat was gone and Craven lay crumpled on the floor.

She sunk low again, trying to breathe deeply and stared wide eyed at Angela, who was standing over Craven, chest heaving and wielding a purse.

"Angela….What is in…. your purse!?" Ange's attention snapped back to her friend and helped her up from the floor, checking her over for injuries. When she was satisfied she stepped back and grinned triumphantly.

"It's a brick. Every girl should have one."

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

"Dammit!" Booth hung up on Cam and threw his phone onto the passenger seat of his SUV. He barely checked the traffic before he flipped on his lights and pulled a highly illegal, yet practically trademark screeching U-turn and raced toward the Craven house. What the hell were they thinking!? He'd been right next to them, right freaking next to them when they decided to go off half cocked and play Thelma and Louise. How about a little heads up? All he wanted to do when he saw her he wanted to shake some freaking sense into her. Didn't she know how dangerous this could be? Didn't she know he would've gone with her? Protected her? God he loved her strength and her fearlessness but right now, right now he wished she was the kind of woman that stayed at home and let the men handle the scary stuff.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

They'd heard no noises coming from any other part of the house the entire time they'd been there, which wasn't reassuring in the slightest. Brennan and Angela began calling for Sam and cautiously searching the four rooms on the second floor. The door closest to them was the master bedroom, though from a cursory glance around it was apparent that Craven was the only one using the room. While the rest of the house was well kept, if bare, the master bedroom was a chaos of clothes, beer cans, magazines, and dirty clothes. It smelled like a frat house.

They searched quickly through the next room, which appeared to be the catch-all room, everything from fishing poles to broken chairs were thrown in piles throughout the room. It seemed like someone was trying to organize everything into piles of broken, worthless, and usable but the task was a long way from being complete. One of the rooms turned out to be a bathroom and so, with only one room left the girls paused and glanced at each other outside the door, preparing themselves for what may be on the other side.

As soon as they opened the door cold air crept up their arms, the temperature difference was so radical it was almost as if they'd stepped outside. The room was dark enough that the light from the hallway did little to illuminate its depths. Brennan began groping for a light switch on walls as Angela went further into the room, feeling as she went and waiting for her eyes to adjust. Brennan called out a warning when she found the light switch, both shutting their eyes against the now glaringly bright room.

The room was as bare as it was cold so it took them about a half a second to find what they were searching for, though it took a little longer for their minds to let them process what they were seeing. Angela gasped and stood rooted to the floor in the middle of the room while Brennan jumped into action. If they hadn't known it was Sam she would've been unrecognizable to them. Her face was grotesquely misshapen and her hair lay in limp greasy strands across her pillow. She was curled as tightly as possible into a fetal position, with only her clothes for warmth. The rope binding her hands together and to the headboard stretched painfully because she was lying on her side. After making sure she was breathing Brennan quickly undid the ropes but didn't move her arms, knowing first hand how painful it would be to move them for the first time. She knelt down to look into her face and check the nature of her injuries. Her left eye was completely swollen shut but her right eye stared listlessly out passed her, she wasn't seeing either of them. Brennan tried not to think about anything but Sam's physical trauma. That's what she could work with, that's what she could do. There was so much blood on her face that it was difficult to see where it originated from, though her nose was obviously broken.

"Is she…?"

"She's breathing. She's alive but we need to get her to a hospital."

Angela came up and knelt beside Brennan. "Oh god." She reached up to touch Sam, to offer comfort, but let her hand drop helplessly, afraid to hurt her.

"We need to call an ambulance and get her out of here."

"Jack!" She stood and dug her phone out of her pocket, "I called Hodgins while we were still downstairs. Jack? Thank god. Did you call the police?... Jack I'll see you soon okay? I need to go." Brennan only heard one side of the conversation but she was pretty sure she and Angela were going to hear about this later. "He's pretty upset, but after what he heard I'm surprised the he didn't call in the National Guard." Now that they were sure help was on the way they turned their attention back to Sam, who still hadn't acknowledged their presence. Brennan went to work examining the rest of Sam's body for injuries to see if it would be safe to move her.

"Sam? It's Angela and Dr. Brennan. You're all right now. Everything's going to be fine. Sweetie can you look at me?" Sam's eye slowly began to drag in Angela's direction, which proved she at least had the presence of mind to follow directions, but when her gaze stopped on Ange, there was no sign of recognition, she was still staring into nothingness.

"Ange help me get her up." Angela gingerly supported Sam's weight, sitting on the bed next to her as Brennan moved her legs. Sam's face turned a sickly shade of green as they moved her but nothing more than moans escaped her. Finally they arranged it so Sam was sitting up and leaning against Angela. Brennan pulled Sam's head between her knees, afraid the girl was going to pass out before they could get her out of there, but her face contorted in pain and she grabbed her ribs moaning.

"Your ribs are probably broken, breathe shallow breaths."

"What are you doing here?" Her face regained some of its color but she was slick with sweat even in the cold room. Whether she came around because of the pain or she had just needed time Brennan couldn't guess, but the sound of her voice sent relief thrumming through her body.

"What's it look like? We're getting you out of here." Sam managed to look confused even though she was still trying not to throw up while also breathing shallowly. She muttered something quietly that neither woman heard but before they could Sam tried to get off the bed by herself. Alarmed they grabbed a hold of her arms and tried to support her weight without hurting her more than necessary.

"Sam slow down okay? You're going to pass out and fall down the stairs if you push it."

"Easy for you to say, I haven't peed in a really really long time. We've gotta move people." Whatever they'd expected her to say it hadn't been that and it shocked a laugh out of them both. "I appreciate the help, but I've been up and doing chores all week. Getting up is a process but once I'm standing I'm pretty much good to go." Neither woman took her at her word or relaxed their grips on her arms. "Seriously. I'm good to go, you can relax your death grips." They complied but hovered close enough to catch her if she even looked like she couldn't make it. True to her word she made it to the bathroom, walking stiffly and slow, but walking all the same. As soon as she closed the door Ange glanced anxiously down the hallway at the massive lump that was Mr. Craven.

"I dropped my purse on the other side of him… I in no way want him to wake up and figure out where I live." She did not want any late night visits from this asshole.

"I'll get it." Angela started to protest, afraid he was faking but Brennan interrupted her. "I can hear sirens, they'll be here any second, I'll be fine." Sure enough now that she was paying attention she heard the familiar wailing of the police cars. Even so Brennan walked guardedly around Craven, giving his arms as wide a berth as the hallway allowed. When she leaned down to pick up the purse Ange couldn't help but hold her breath. This was always the part in the movie where the killer wakes up and attacks. Brennan straightened up again unharmed and moved to step back over him when she paused, staring at his face. Disgust radiated from her and her foot seemed to move of its own volition, her snow boots connecting solidly with his groin. Ange's eyebrows climbed high when Brennan looked at her defensively.

"I thought he was regaining consciousness."

"Did I say anything?" Brennan was still stepping around Craven when Booth exploded through the front door, gun drawn.

"Bones!"

Brennan's eyes went wide and she blurted, "He was waking up!" Ange snorted laughter and Booth obviously had no idea what she was talking about. He took the stairs two at a time, radioing in the situation and beginning what was sure to be an extremely long lecture.

Ange quietly knocked on the bathroom door, opening it slowly when she got no response. The water was running in the sink and Sam was clutching a washcloth but she was just standing there staring into the mirror, oblivious to Angela's presence. Moving slowly so she wouldn't startle her, Ange took the washcloth out of her hands and began pressing it to her face. The blood from her nose was easily cleaned but a lot it was drying and beginning to crust, which was going to need a good scrubbing to come off. She stuck the cloth in the sink and watched the blood mingle with the water and turn pink before it swirled down the drain. She looked up, their eyes connecting briefly in the mirror and Sam nodded.

"Let's get out of here."