H-O-T-H

Continues...

{Scene Eleven}

Hospital ER Waiting room...

Just as Brennan and Angela were finishing their initial conversation, Angela again brought the conversation back to Booth's condition. "Okay Bren, now please tell me Booth is fine and that this is just a precaution, bringing him straight here!" - just as Brennan was about to answer her and tell her what happened, the door opened again as Cam walked in, then to the pleasant surprise of Angela and Temperance, Hodgins entered a few paces behind Cam.

Cam immediately went over to hug Brennan and the first question out of her mouth was of course, "What happened & how is he?!".

Before Brennan answered her, having now been asked that same question twice, She looked awkwardly towards Jack Hodgins, not knowing quite how to address him, nor what to say to greet him. She knew that if she had been allowed more time to digest the facts, there was some logic behind what he had done, behind his theft of Gravedigger evidence.

She knew that some of his motives were right - that the Gravedigger case had gone cold and that they would most likely never have found out who was behind these unspeakable "burials" - until who knows how many more innocent people, perhaps more of her own family or friends, would fall prey to the evil ways of this criminal.

Also, right now, she also knew that didn't want anything jeopardizing Booth's recovery - both physically and emotionally – so she didn't want anyone to tell him of Hodgins rather criminal involvement. She knew if anything were to raise his blood pressure to an unhealthy level, it would be receiving news like that!

She wasn't going to let the situation with Hodgins, or any other negative circumstances, to take her focus off of her partner right now. Therefore, she had opted to reach out the proverbial olive bush as they say. . . or did they say branch? Booth would be laughing at her, she could see his bright smile and hear his hearty laughter.

She never did understand some of those cliche's that he loved to spout – there was no apparent logic to some of them, but due tot he vast amt of time the two partners spent together, she had found herself starting to repeat some of the phrases - albeit not always correctly.

She pushed those thoughts away to get back into the present moment. "Hodgins, thank you for coming - I know it was hard for you to decide whether or not to come, but I'm glad that you did." she said, much to Jack's surprise.

"Oh. . . um yeah, I mean sure, yeah. . .you are welcome." he stammered.

Obviously he had been nervous coming here, as he wasn't sure if he would be welcome by Dr. Brennan or not. He had to admit her reaction shocked him a bit – but he suspected she had either had some time to find a logical reason for him to do what he did, and/or she was doing it for Booth because she wanted everyone's focus and support to be on him getting through this, and on nothing else.

Cam spoke up in order to break the still awkward silence, as well as to get to the information they were all desperate to find out - "Okay Dr. Brennan, now that we got that out of the way - spill. What happened out on the Ocean & how is Booth?!"

"Well, the most important things is, he's alive!" Brennan began, "But. . . if we had been ANY later, or if he. . . if he had been any more injured than. . . her voice starting to crack and falter. . . he was. . ."

Jack hastily grabbed one of the nearby vacant chairs, pulling it along side her. Then without saying a word he lightly guided her to sit down since they could all see that she looked as though she may just fall down instead. It was crystal clear that the past 24 hours of intense fear, unbelievable worry and practically no sleep (other than the 20 minute cat naps they each took turns having every few hours, just to keep their minds fresh & avoid any errors). Extreme fatigue can be like a sedative, slowly clouding the brain's ability to function and the mind's comprehension of even the smallest task.

Brennan sat down without even thinking about it, she was so focused on composing herself and finishing her explanation of the last hour's sequence of events. While she was taking her seat, the looks that were passing between the other 3 of her teammates, were humorous to say the least. They could ALL tell that their friend's intense reaction to what had just happened to Booth, was obviously coming from a much deeper place in her heart than just on a friendship level.

It was the reaction. . .

. . . of someone in LOVE. 3

Still in the ER Waiting Room...

As Brennan took a deep breath after sitting in the rather uncomfortable waiting room chair that Hodgins had guided her to, she looked back up at her caring team of friend's, she just missed seeing the smirks that each of them were wearing on their own tired looking faces.

"Sorry," she started to pick up where she left off, "okay, well instead of focusing on what could have happened, I will try to stick to what DID happen and that is, we DID make it there in time, and Booth WAS close enough for us to get to him in the short amount of time that we had."

"Although," she continued, - "I still don't know why Jared was not on the Helicopter with me as was the original plan..." to which Cam spoke up and stopped her. "Dr. Brennan, I think I can explain what happened to uh... well, to deter Jared. Yeah I guess that would be a good word to describe it she thought, but never said aloud.

"But," Cam continued, "that my friend is a bit of a story in and of itself, so I think that part can wait, given the circumstances. I am sure we all want to hear the rest of your story and get back to how Booth is."

As they all silently concurred, Brennan finished her explanation of the rescue.

"Well, I won't go into too much detail right now, we can talk about it all at length after we know Booth is okay, so I will give you a high level view for now. We got there with only 9 minutes to spare..."

She stopped to finally remove her heavy, and expensive earrings from her delicate ears. They almost felt as though they were glued on at this point, having been pinned into her earlobes, so to speak, for longer than she ever recalled having worn an item of jewelry. When she first bought those earrings to go with her dress, she recalled thinking they were the most beautiful and shiny "baubles", she had ever seen.

Angela reached out to take the gorgeous Black Onyx & Diamond trinkets, placing them gently in her purse after wrapping them in a tissue from a nearby Kleenex box.

With that Brennan continued, " The chopper Pilot was amazing and he was able to lower the helicopter to where it was almost touching the upper deck! I had already spotted Booth as we had flown around the front part of the ship and he seemed almost disoriented to me. He looked almost as though he were talking to himself but I could be wrong, we weren't that close yet."

"Then once we got as close as we could, the rescue operations officers, jumped out and ran to help get him into the chopper since we were quickly running out of time. But Booth had, for some reason, gone a few feet in the opposite direction - which again made me worry about his state of mind and physical injuries, and it looked like he was somewhat leaning down towards a huge hole that had been blasted in the side of the wall on part of the upper landing."

Hodgins could not help but interrupt her after that last comment, "Wait, did you just say... blasted?!"

"Yes," Brennan answered, "I said BLASTED. But don't ask, she said - with her voice getting a tiny bit louder - because I don't know yet how it got there, or if is had already been there, in fact, I don't know anything yet about that confusing detail or any of the other awful things that Booth seems to have gone through on that ship - okay!"

She said as her voice began to get a little louder and more shrill.

With this outburst, the others realized that their close friend was just now starting to absorb the severity of the whole situation and combining that with emotional and physical exhaustion – they knew Brennan was now barely hanging on with her last frayed nerve.

Cam shot Hodgins a "warning look" with her large, expressive eyes, telling him to refrain from asking any more questions. He understood perfectly without her having to utter a single syllable.

Angela knelt next to Brennan's chair and grasped one of Brennans's cold hands into the comfort of her own warmer hand. "Sorry Bren, you doing okay sweetie? Can I get you some water or how about some hot coffee or tea? They have all of that in the back of the waiting room – or, would you like another blanket? I am sure I can go dig one up."

The Rescue Officers had provided Brennan with a blanket shortly after she removed her coat to place it under Booth's head. She didn't even know what had become of that coat, but that was the last thing on her frazzled mind.

"Thanks Ang, no I don't need another blanket, thank you. But, I actually could do with some hot tea, and not the decaffeinated kind - if they have any with caffeine."

As her best friend disappeared to get her the soothing liquid energy, Brennan suddenly sprang up from her chair, almost knocking it over in the process.

"Okay, enough waiting!" she barked, as she started to walk toward the waiting room exit - her comforting blanket quickly discarded behind her onto the carpeted floor below, "I need to know what is going on!! I need to know how Booth is and I also need to know what they are doing to him!!"

Then she stopped for a second, turning back toward her friends, "sorry you guys, but I promise to tell you everything - AFTER I know Booth is being taken care of properly and..." Just as she was about to finish her speech, the waiting room door swung open and the Lead Trauma Specialist, Dr. Nicholas, walked in - still holding Booth's medical chart in her now, un-gloved hands.

"Mrs. Temperance Brennan-Booth" she announced, "I can let you see your Husband for a few minutes now..."

TBC...

Next Scene - Once again our fave pair of heroes are re-united after what seemed like days apart to each of them!!

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