A/N: Just a reminder that this was written BEFORE season 8 aired. So anything we have learned during the past season will not be included. It is my version of how things should have happened during the time jump between season 7 and season 8!
The news hit him like a slap in the face.
He'd received the call thinking there would be something new in the Helena Moscovitch. He hadn't expected to hear inform him that Agatha's body had been found in the bathroom of a metro station. Booth leaned against the back of his chair and sighed. This case was getting more and more confusing. First a mother and now a daughter had been killed and they had no leads. Letting out a long sigh, Booth got to his feet and grabbed his jacket. Cam was already waiting for him at the crime scene.
For the second time in a week, Niklavs and Janis sat in front of them. The pair of them looked confused and Booth wondered exactly how he was supposed to inform them that Agatha had been murdered. The strangulation marks were fairly obvious, even an untrained eye would have recognized them.
"Why are we here, Agent Booth? Is this about Agatha? She hasn't come home last night and I was worried. Did something happen to her?"
Booth glanced over at Sweets and sighed. Turning back to Niklavs, he nodded.
"We found her body in a metro station not too far from the Bureau."
"What?"
Niklavs looked at them, despair evident in his eyes.
"No, it can't be! Are you sure that it was my Agatha?"
Sweets nodded.
"We're positive. We did the ID ourselves."
"We will need you to identify her at the morgue, but yes, it was her."
Niklavs roughly rubbed his face with both his hands. Booth and Sweets exchanged an uncomfortable look. Janis, sitting beside his father, still hadn't said anything. He was looking past them, at something invisible on the wall.
"What was she even doing in Washington?" Niklavs asked, looking up at them. "She told me she was going to her friend's house."
"She came to us with new information," Sweets replied, his eyes turning to Janis. "Information that your son didn't want us to have."
Niklavs turned to his son.
"Is this true, Janis?"
The young boy still looked at the wall, his expression neutral.
"Janis, answer me! Is this true? Did you keep important information from the FBI?"
Janis turned to his father and nodded slowly.
"Es negribēju, lai ievainots jums."
"Speak English, Janis! This is the FBI, they need to know everything."
Janis let out a sigh of frustration. If only Agatha had kept her mouth shut, she would still be alive today. For Janis was convinced that it was the same person: the man that her mother was meeting had somehow learned that Agatha had spoken and had killed her too. If only he knew who he was, he could tell them.
"I said I didn't want to hurt you."
"Why would you hurt me?"
Silence followed his question. Growing uncomfortable, heart racing inside his chest, Niklavs looked from his son to the FBI agents.
"What did Agatha tell you?"
"It seems that your wife was seeing a man," Sweets replied.
Seeing the shocked and hurt expression on the Latvian man's face, Sweets immediately went on.
"Agatha has assured me that Helena wasn't having an affair. It would seem that the man was showing her how to build Web pages. Is that what it is, Janis?"
The young teenager nodded.
"It's true, Father. That is what she was doing. Every other weekend, when you had to work, she would come to Washington to meet this man. Sometimes, she would take a bus. Most of the time, the man would come to our house to pick her up and would drive her back in the late afternoon, just before she came home."
"Do you know the name of the man?"
Janis shook his head. Fear still held a firm grip on his stomach but being able to talk about it relieved a burden he had been carrying since his mother's death. It dawned on him that, if they had spoken sooner, if he hadn't tried to protect his father, Agatha might still have been alive.
"She never told us. We saw the man one day when he came to pick her up and we asked her who he was. She only told us that he was teaching her computer stuff, like how to build Web pages, and not to worry, she wasn't planning on leaving Father for him. After that, she refused to talk about it."
"Thank you for your honesty, Janis," Sweets told the young boy.
Niklavs sat dumbfounded beside his son. He couldn't understand why his wife hadn't told him about her computer lessons, why she had felt the need to keep it a secret. Sure, he hadn't always been supportive of her interests. Learning how build Web pages would have been a project he could have been on board with.
"Was it that man who killed Agatha?" Niklavs asked, after a few minutes of silence.
"We have no way of knowing at the moment," Booth replied.
"I don't want to die, Agent Booth!"
The three men turned to the teenage boy.
"What makes you think you're going to die?" Booth asked, surprised by the boy's outburst.
"There's something else I didn't tell you."
"I'm listening."
It was obvious by Janis's posture that he was stressed.
"The last time Mother came home, she seemed… nervous."
"Nervous?" Booth asked, his interest heightened.
"Not nervous, but… I don't know the right word. She came home and there was something different about her. Something in her eyes that seemed different. Agatha was playing video games in the basement, but I was in the kitchen. She didn't see me. When I spoke to her, she jumped. She told me never to sneak up on her like that or I would be grounded. Then she apologized and said that she'd had a long day."
"It is possible that she did in fact have a long day, Janis. What makes you think otherwise?" Sweets asked.
"The man had picked her up that morning. She came back by bus. It was unusual. She spent the rest of the evening in her bedroom, reading. She told us to eat whatever we wanted for dinner. Father came home at his usual time, around 6 pm. She didn't even come greet him."
Niklavs suddenly seemed to remember that day. He spoke up.
"It's true. I remember now. I went to our room but the door was locked. I knocked. Helena said that she wasn't feeling well and that she needed to rest. I slept on the couch that night. She only unlocked the door in the morning. She looked like she hadn't slept at all. It was a Monday and she took a day off. And the next day. She went back to work on the Wednesday. After that, she seemed fine."
"And when was that exactly?"
Janis and Niklavs pondered the question for a moment.
"About two weeks before she disappeared," Janis replied. "The next time she was supposed to see the man was the weekend she disappeared."
"Agatha told us the man had been standing in front of your school."
Janis nodded. Booth and Sweets exchanged a glance.
"Now do you see why I asked you if I was going to die too? We see the man and my mother disappears. Agatha comes here to talk to you about that man, she's found dead."
Booth nodded. Some of his questions had been answered, leaving only new ones in their wake. One thing was sure, if Janis's logic was correct, father and son were in danger.
"I'll arrange a safe house for the two of you. For now, just stay here. I'll come back and see you when things have been arranged. Is there anything you would like to drink or eat while you wait?"
Both of them declined. Booth and Sweets got to their feet. Outside the interrogation room, they paused.
"What do you really think?" Sweets whispered.
"I think Helena saw or heard something at that man's house that she wasn't to know and I think that's what got her killed."
"Maybe the killer somehow learned about Agatha's visit, maybe he thought she knew something and killed her too."
"No clue. But I intend to find out."
Sitting on her couch, Angela's thoughts turned once more to her friend. She wondered how she was doing, how Christine was doing, and where they were. How Brennan could be escaping the law for so long seemed unconceivable. She was well-known throughout the country. She knew she had probably changed her appearance and her name. Max had the connections, after all.
Then her thoughts turned to the file found on her computer. She had a hard time believing that Brennan had truly written it, yet the accuracy of the information was uncanny. Finn and Wendell had determined that the murder weapon had in fact been the sword from an exhibit at the museum. Only a few people had access to it, including Brennan.
The sound of her cellphone startled her. Getting to her feet, she walked over to her desk and grabbed her phone. She was surprised to find Penelope's face staring back at her.
"Already?" she said as a greeting.
She heard her friend chuckle on her side of the line.
"What can I say, I'm the best!"
"I have to agree! What have you got?"
"I think I found something that will interest you. The file was in fact transferred to Dr. Brennan's computer. Whoever put it there used a multitude of servers across the world to access it so unfortunately I cannot tell you which computer it came from. I can tell you, however, that it was written by a man."
"Excuse me?" Angela asked, wondering if she had heard correctly.
"You see, after your call, I decided to pull the file from Dr. Brennan's computer and I showed it to a colleague of mine here at the BAU. Based on the details provided in the chapter and on the nature of the crime, he was able to determine the gender of the author. To confirm, we took a sample of Brennan's new book on her computer and the styles completely differ."
"Wow!" Angela replied, a large smile stretching on her lips. "Thank you, Penelope! You're great!"
"No problem, my dear. If you ever want to come up to Virginia and speak to him yourself, you're very welcome."
"Umm, yeah, maybe. Let me talk it over with Agent Booth first. I'll call you back."
"No problem."
When Angela hung up, she sat down at her desk. For the first time in months, they had a breakthrough. They could at least prove that Brennan hadn't murdered Helena Moscovitch as the chapter would have leaded someone to believe. She couldn't wait to tell Booth.
"I'm sorry to just barge in like that."
Booth stepped aside to let his former girlfriend inside. It felt weird to see her in this setting, the house that he shared with his partner, especially since he had told Hannah, back then, that there was nothing between Bones and him. So much had changed in that year, things he hadn't expected.
"Do you want something to drink?" Booth asked as he led the way to the kitchen.
"No thank you, I can't stay long. Nice place!"
"Thanks. Bones had a decorator the first week we moved in. She wanted everything to be perfect. Have you found anything on Flynn?"
The two of them sat down on opposite couches.
"Not much. He's pretty clean or he knows how to keep his files clean. I'm still digging though. Your guy is normally right; I won't stop until I find something."
A thought instantly crossed Booth's mind.
"Check if he has any interests in computers."
"Computers?"
Booth nodded. He wasn't sure exactly where the thought had come from. Somewhere in his subconscious, something was taking shape. Flynn did have a similar appearance to the man Agatha had described and he did seem to know more than he should have about Helena's murder. He had bumped into him at the elevator, soon after Angela's call informing her of what her friend had learned about the file on Bones's computer. He had apologized for the little girl's death and asked if there was anything he could be of assistance for. Booth hadn't told anyone about Agatha's body but it was possible that Flynn had heard about it through the grapevines. Things had a way of not staying secret at the Bureau.
"Just try to find out if he has any subscriptions to computer magazines or even if he owns one at home."
"Okay, sure. Anything else?"
Booth shook his head.
"I will get right on it. But before I leave, there's something I want to give you. It's the actual reason why I came by tonight."
Booth frowned and watched as she rummaged through her purse. He became even more confused when Hannah handed what seemed to be a picture. He took it gently from her hands and flipped the white paper over. Christine's face beamed at him. He could tell the picture was recent. She hadn't been so big the last time he'd seen her.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, his heart racing inside his chest.
"She wants you to know that they are safe. This was taken three days ago."
Hannah got to her feet.
"Where are they?" Booth demanded.
"I can't tell you that. All you need to know for now is that they are both safe and they are both happy."
Booth sighed. He knew Hannah was right. If she told him, it would make both of them an accomplice. Yet, it didn't make sense that she would know where his girlfriend was and he didn't.
"How did you find them?"
"Coincidence."
Booth nodded.
"I'll let you know if I find anything on Flynn. I'll let myself out."
After his ex-girlfriend has closed the door behind her, Booth let himself sink into the couch, his daughter's picture clutched in his hands. Her bright blue eyes reminded him of Bones. For a long moment, he let himself miss them. The house was empty without them. His life was empty without them. It didn't matter if Bones had somehow betrayed him by running away without him. He knew why she had needed to do it. Now, things were much clearer. He'd always known, but now he was sure. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and he would do everything in his power to make sure it would happen that way.
