Sorry for not updating sooner, I started Sixth Form last Tuesday, it was my brothers birthday on Friday and my Grans on Saturday so last week was pretty hectic! I don't have a set date for when I'll next update but I'm writing parts of the chapter when I get a bit of spare time so hopefully I can get it done soon (: Also, I should be getting my own laptop back finally! I'm going to buy a new cable for my old one at the end of the month so YAY! Thankfully, my mum leant me hers while I didn't have one but it's not the same, I prefer my old one :(.
Thanks to everyone who read my last chapter, much appreciated =D
Disclaimer: Don't own Bones :(
***Chapter Eleven***
Brennan awoke to silence in the middle of the afternoon, they had slept throughout the morning so that they could catch up on the rest they wouldn't get in the upcoming days. Charlie, Tommy and Zach were still asleep and Max was nowhere to be found. She had heard him get up earlier in the morning but she had been too tired to wake up properly and ask him what he was doing before he left. Carefully, she got out of bed so that none of the others awoke – they needed their rest.
During the day, Max had managed to set up a TV, with a few channels, in the corner of the already crowded room. How or where he had gotten it from was a mystery to her but she didn't feel like looking into it. There was a high probability that she wouldn't like the answers she would receive. Quietly, she turned on the TV, keeping the volume down low. She skipped through the few channels that they had until she came across a news station. Nothing caught her attention until fifteen minutes into the programme; a woman was being escorted out of the Jeffersonian's main entrance by two FBI agents. The woman was silent as reporters yelled a million questions at her.
"News just in, a womanhasbeen taken into the FBI's custody, suspected of knowing crucial information to an ongoing federal investigation. The link between the woman and the case is still unknown however insiders say she caused a scene in the Jeffersonian lab, demanding to see a Dr. Temperance Brennan..."one reporter for the station began as a voice over to live footage. Panic over took Brennan as she watched the agents load Jennifer Waters into the back of a marked car.
She had been to the Jeffersonian and then taken to the Hoover building, which meant that they had found something out. They found out that she knew. She knew the big secret that they desperately needed to find out. They would try every method to get her to talk but that was something she wouldn't do. Even though she was unable to look after Maddie herself, her daughter was still the most important thing in the world to her. Now that she was dead, she had nothing else to worry about.
Still in a state of shock, she woke up both Tommy and Charlie to tell them the news. As they slowly awoke, she told them to stay quiet so that Zach wouldn't awake.
"Jennifer Waters was arrested," she told them, and they both knew who she was without any further explanation. "Both the Jeffersonian and the FBI know that she knows something but she's not saying anything. They're now transferring her to the Hoover Building," she explained.
"She will be fine," Charlie said, rubbing his eyes as he wasn't quite awake yet.
"From what I've heard she is a strong woman, as Charlie said she will be fine. She will keep the truth safe," Tommy added.
"I know," Brennan admitted, sighing into her hands. "What happened to Booth's car?" she asked, looking back up at them again.
"We left the car unharmed in the Jeffersonian parking lot in the middle of the night. You were still asleep when we got back," Tommy told her. "We decided to let you sleep."
"Thank you. Where is my father?" asked Brennan, looking at her son's sleeping form.
"He said, last night, that he was going to pick up some food and stuff this morning, but he was gone before we awoke," Charlie said.
"He'll be back soon," Tommy added. "Pete's also stopping by later, once the kids have gone to school, so that we can discuss what we need to do."
Booth walked through the parking lot to where Cam, Hodgins and some other squints were looking at his car. They had been looking all morning but so far nothing had been found. There were no prints – not even his own – and no fibres had been left behind. Currently, Hodgins was taking particulates from the wheels in the means to estimate where the car had been.
"Found anything?" Booth asked hopefully, already knowing the answer.
"Nothing," Cam answered, just as he had predicted. Booth sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "Whoever dropped your car off was a pro Booth; they knew what they were doing."
"Well that's an understatement," Hodgins announced appearing from the other side of the car. "It seems he or she cleaned the inside and outside of the car and then used every precaution necessary to prevent evidence from being left behind. Hopefully I'll get something from the wheels, but these guys were pro's!"
"It's what we expected though Booth," Cam said as he ran a hand through his hair. "Did you get anything from Miss Waters? She definitely knew something."
"She's been taken to the Hoover Building by FBI Agents Fletcher and Fisher, they've been helping us at the FBI; backgrounds, medical records etcetera. They've just took her but I doubt she'll talk, she's just like Bones – stubborn. No wonder they're friends."
"I found something," Angela announce excitedly as Booth walked into her office twenty minutes later. Booth walked in a little bit faster as he heard the news. "I've been looking at the parking lot security tapes like you asked," she began.
"You know who did it?" he asked, his hope growing once again.
"No but whoever did it didn't even try effecting or damaging the cameras. There were two men involved both wearing black ski-masks so I've not been able to get an ID. One man drove your car," she began but was cut off by Booth once again.
"Did you run the plates? Do you know who owns the car?" he asked.
"Booth! I'm getting to that part, give me a minute. As I was saying, the first man got into the silver car but then he got out again and showed this," she said, freezing the video.
Booth looked at the screen where the man stood, holding a white piece of what looked like cardboard. On it read, 'DON'T BLAME HER' in bold black lettering.
"You think it's about Bren?"
"Probably," admitted Booth, sighing once again. They had no idea where Brennan was, who she was with or why she had run. And from what they had found out she was with or in contact with pro's. If they were on her side, she was safe. If not, Booth didn't dare think about it. "What about the other car?" he asked again.
"I ran the car and it was reported stolen late last night by a Karl Collinson. And yes, before you ask, I've already ran his name. He's just a 23 year old in med school; no criminal record just a lot of debts."
"Address?"
"Right here for you to check out later," she said, handing him a scrap of paper. She laughed at his confused face. "Hodgins and Cam are on their way back," she said, to resolve his confusion.
Just as Angela had said, Hodgins entered the room with Cam and an evidence bag two minutes later.
"We found nothing," Hodgins sighed. "I've got the particulates from the wheels but I doubt they'll give us anything. I'll start the tests now though, just so that we have it in writing that these guys have beaten us," he sulked as he left the room, handing the only evidence bag to Cam.
"All we found was one of Parker's toys," explained Cam. "It was on the floor under the driver's seat."
"What?" asked Booth, confused once again, "I cleaned out the car the day before we took the case; there should be nothing in there, not even my duffel bag! What did you find?" he asked.
"This," Cam said as she passed him the evidence bag so that he could see for himself.
"Brainy Smurf," Booth whispered. "It was... I mean, I gave it to Bones a while ago... It's a long story," he said once he saw their confused faces. "I don't know how it got in the car though. Last time I saw it, it was sat on one of Bones' many selves," he admitted.
"As soon as I've ran it for prints you can have it back," Cam promised as she saw his unwillingness to give it back.
"Thanks," he murmured, finally handing it back over to her.
Max had returned later in the day with a fridge and an assortment of food. Pete had arrived a few hours later; he had had to stay at home during the day with Dylan as he was off ill from school. Jess and James had agreed to look after him while he came to meet them, both vaguely aware of what was happening.
It had been a long day for them all but it was far from over yet, they still had to plan what they were going to do, how they were going to keep the FBI from finding them and also finding the person behind it all. They had stayed in all day, trying to keep an undercover profile; Brennan had spent time reading with Zach, although he couldn't go to his regular school she insisted that he learnt something while Tommy and Charlie had used their contacts to try and find some more information. Unfortunately, they had found nothing – to them they had wasted a day and now they were both in a bad mood despite Brennan constantly telling them that they had tried.
"Well our contacts have both come up dry," complained Tommy, speaking on behalf of Charlie as well. That was until he walked back into the room with a smile on his face that told everyone that he had something. "Well mine have," he said once he saw Charlie. "What ya got?"
"I have a... friendwho just so happens to work for the FBI, not that big of a deal but he's the one who gets all the phone calls – he knows when we have a body. This friend just so happens to owe me a favour and has promised to let us know when the next body appears," he said, looking happier than he had all day.
"Won't the FBI get curious though? If they found out he withheld the evidence, he could tell them?"
"He won't, trust me," he said, an evil smirk appearing on his face – Brennan didn't want to know what he help again their FBI informant or what he would do if he talked but for now she didn't care. She wanted it to be over as soon as possible and if this helped, then she would gladly take the offer. "And he'll come up with something good as a cover story he's used to this sort of thing."
"Fine," Brennan muttered under her breath as she left her son reading a book with her iPod in so that he wouldn't or couldn't listen to any of the conversation.
"Well then, talking about informants, I just so happen to have one stationed in the Jeffersonian," Tommy bragged trying to out-do Charlie.
"Really?" asked Charlie suspiciously.
"My other son, Freddie, just so happened to get a job at the Jeffersonian as one of the security guards and he just so happens to guard the entrance to the Jeffersonian lab. Of course, he had to use a fake name and background but he's there. And he's able to obtain any evidence or photo's that we just so happen to need," he said, mocking Charlie every time he used the phrase 'just so happened'. Charlie glared at him.
"Now now ladies," Max joked, as he sat and counted the amount of money they had left. After buying the food this morning they were running low and in a few days they would most likely need to buy more. "Looks like we're gonna be on scraps for a while," he said as he laid out the rest of the money for them to see. From what she could count, it looked like there was only $150 left on the table.
"I have money," Brennan admitted. "I'm going to be here too, I think it's fair that I should pay for the food and the other necessities," she explained.
"And the minute you decide to take some money out of the bank, or you pay for food by credit card the FBI will be there in minutes. It's too dangerous, they'll know where you are," Max said.
"No, think about," defended Tommy. "It's actually brilliant, one of us could drive out somewhere – far away – and then we could take some of the money from an ATM. That way they know that she's still alive and that she's just disappearing for a while. Booth won't be able to get there in time before we're gone."
"Fine," agreed Max, still not happy with the idea. "But you're not going anywhere," he said, pointing to Brennan.
"I'll go," offered Tommy. "I need to get out of here for a while, it should be fun." They agreed with him and decided that he should set off early in the morning, when less people would be about on the roads but by the time he got there, there would be enough people about to blend into the crowd.
Tomorrow, they also decided that they should go through all of the Kent's records and photo albums to see if anyone stood out from the rest as it was obviously someone that they knew. Brennan would also try to get in contact to the rest of the other parents – they had a right to know what was happening with their children.
"Booth!" Cam yelled stopping him in the entrance just as he was leaving for the night. They had finally convinced him that he should go home to get some rest, he had agreed with them even though he was still reluctant. He wanted to be here if they heard anything about Brennan, he wanted to be the first to know. He needed to know. They were right, as always, he was not helping anything in the state he was in at the moment.
Booth turned around to face the woman who was running towards him.
"Ran all the tests and there were no prints so here you go," she said handing him back Brainy Smurf – this time it was in no evidence bag so he could hold it properly.
"Thanks Cam," he said as he put it in his jacket pocket so that it'd be always close to him wherever he went. Brennan would be close to him.
"No problem Booth, go home and get some rest. We'll still be here in the morning." He nodded and she watched as he walked out of the Jeffersonian.
Booth walked up to the familiar house, he had been here twice, but both times now felt like a lifetime ago. As he walked up the path he started to wonder why he was actually here, what was he going to get from coming here? Was he really going to find the answers he was looking for? Probably not, but it wasn't going to stop him from knocking on the white PVC door.
He was about to walk away two minute later when he heard someone run down the stairs and the lock click open in the door. The door swung open and he was surprised to see James standing in the doorway, still in his school uniform.
"What?" he asked impatiently.
"Your dad in?" he asked.
"Nope," he answered simply. James had nothing against Booth himself; in fact, he thought that he was a nice guy – especially towards his aunt Tempe and Zach. It was the fact that he worked for the FBI; an organisation that he could never forgive.
"Would you... Actually, do you know where Temperance is?"
"Nope," he answered simply once again. It wasn't exactly a lie, he didn't know where she was but he did know that his father knew where she was. However, he had sworn to his father to keep that a secret and he never went again his father, not anymore. He heard his sister walk half way down the stairs before stopping and sitting where she was so that she could listen into the conversation.
"Do you think that you could..." he began but he was cut off by footsteps coming up from behind him.
"Booth?" the man questioned. "What are you doing here?" Booth turned as Pete walked up the steps and stood in the doorway next to his son. Now it was two against one, he was never going to get any answers.
"I just came to see if you knew where Temperance was, that's all," he sighed. Pete could see the hurt in the man's eyes but he knew, right now, that the best thing would be for them to stay apart – for both of their safeties.
"Sorry man, I've not heard from her since you both came over for dinner. I thought she was with you," he lied.
"I wish," Booth murmured, just loud enough for them all to hear. "So you've heard nothing for her?" he asked to clarify once again even though he already knew his answer before he actually heard it.
"Sorry," he said. This time Booth could tell he was hiding something, but he was too exhausted to figure out what right now. For the first time in his lifetime, he gave up.
"If she calls you or if you really do know where she is, please tell her that I need to talk to her," he begged. He couldn't bare to listen to the answer he would receive so instead he walked away from the house, tears brimming in his eyes ready to fall down his face the moment he was alone.
James walked back inside the house and walked up the stairs, past his sister who was close to tears herself, to check up on Dylan.
"You can't just let him leave; you have to tell him the truth!" Jess yelled as she stormed down the stairs to where her father was shutting the door. "It's not fair to him, you know that Auntie Tempe wants to be with him, why won't you let them!"
"It's not a simple..." Pete began to explain but he was cut off at his daughter's sobs.
"Please daddy, it's not fair!"
"Life's not fair Jessica," he said using her full name, pulling her into a hug to try to calm her sobs.
"What if... What if someone tried to keep you and mum apart? What would you do?" she asked, still trying to convince him.
"It's different. Jessica, there is nothing you can do about it, it's safer this way. Promise me that you won't tell him anything," he asked seriously, looking her straight in the eye.
"I promise," she whispered.
*Two Days Later*
Booth had still not heard anything from Brennan and he was beginning to worry. He had issued a missing person's report the previous morning but there had been no hits yet. He had hit the refresh button every two minutes and even though nothing had changed since he issued it he wouldn't stop as he had nothing better to do other than worry and panic; everyone else was busy doing the jobs that he could've done.
Cam and Angela watched him carefully as they continued to look for any clues to where Brennan was. Over the past few days Booth hadn't slept properly (even though he pretended to sleep on the couch they knew he was just laying there), he wasn't eating properly and he refused to go home. Just in case they found something and he wasn't there. After hearing him refresh the page for the hundredth time Angela snapped, "Booth! I swear to God if you click that thing one more time..." she yelled, not actually knowing what she'd do but it was annoying her. She took a deep calming breath and continued, "Sorry, it'll tell you if there's been a hit, you don't need to keep refreshing every five minutes," she explained more calmly.
"You look exhausted Booth," noted Cam, hoping that if they both her and Angela told him together that he would finally listen to what they'd been saying. "Go home, have a shower, get some sleep," she said, demanding rather than asking him.
"I want... I need to be here, just in case anything happens," he murmured, not in the mood to argue with them once again. "I can't leave."
"You need sleep Booth," Cam repeated once again.
"Booth, go and sleep. On Bren's couch if you have to, just get some sleep. You'll be no use to her if you're tired," Angela said softly, weakly smiling at him to show that he had support behind him. "I promise that we'll wake you up the minute we find something."
"Fine," he mumbled, standing from the chair he'd been sat in all day and making his way over to Brennan's office.
"And get some real sleep Booth, don't just lay down and close your eyes," Cam shouted after him, subtly letting him know that they knew he wasn't actually sleeping. Booth murmured something under his breath as he walked away which neither of them could hear but they suspected that it was something along the lines of 'whatever'.
Once he had taken the children to school – Dylan had just had a 24 hour bug that was gone by the next morning – and checking up on Freddie, Pete rejoined the others back at the warehouse to tell them what he had heard. Charlie had found something out while looking through the old records and Brennan had found all of the contact details for the parents.
"Freddie stopped by on his way to work this morning just before I dropped the kids off a school," Pete began to explain. "At the Jeffersonian they're about as stuck as we are, they've found nothing but they've not given up yet. Apparently, they're now focused on finding you at the moment," he said, talking directly to Brennan who looked down at her feet to prevent them from seeing the tears brim in her eyes. "They've issued a missing person's report and then they're looking at bank records, places you frequently visit, things like that – they're not getting very far."
"They'll hopefully be going away all together as soon as Tommy takes out the money. He rang a few minutes ago to say he was almost there, he just needs to find a place to park where there aren't any cameras," revealed Max. Brennan nodded her head and smiled weakly, too afraid to trust her voice just yet especially with the news that they were looking for her. She had known it all along but now it showed just how much they loved her, like they said they did.
"Freddie says he'll either call us or stop by as soon as he's got some more information."
"I don't know how relevant this is right now or if you knew it or not but while I was looking through the old records I found that Rachel and Andy had custody of five children who aren't with them now," began Charlie as he looked through the notes he had made earlier.
"I knew about two kids they had but not five, it must have been before I met them," admitted Brennan.
"Probably was," he murmured checking over his notes to see the dates. "Yeah, I haven't been able to get surnames as on the records they're just listed as a Kent. There was a Kyle who came to them for a year but then he went back to his parents, a Marie also stayed with them for a while – three years I think – before going back to live with her father once he came out of the army. Six months before Zach was born they had custody of a Charlotte Rose but she died three months later from complications from birth."
"They never told me about any of these past children, I just knew about Sam and Emma."
"Right, okay, Sam was with them for four months while his mother went into hospital but she took him back as soon as she came out. She was a friend of the family I think." Brennan nodded. "And then Emma was with them since birth but still had contact with her biological parents. They were taking her out for the day when they were involved in a car accident last year – Emma and her father died at the scene of the accident and her mother died three days later in hospital." Brennan nodded once again.
"Yeah, Rachel and Andy paid for all the funeral arrangements for them, they were close to the family. I don't really see any of them having motive for murder – they all got their children back and Charlotte died from complications, it was nobodies fault," Brennan pointed out.
"Which means we have nothing," Charlie sighed, looking at all his hard work. It had taken him days to look through all the official records and now it turned out they had nothing. At least now, they could cross some more names off from the virtual suspect list.
"Did you get all of the parents' numbers you were looking for?" Pete asked a few minutes later as the information he had just been told sunk in.
"I've got the contact numbers that were on the papers but some of them aren't working or are disconnected so I'm still in the process of contacting them all. Georgia's, Maddie's and Ellie's parents all know, I've contacted them – Ellie's mother basically said that she doesn't care, she gave up custody and that's it," she explained, tears in her eyes as she retold them what she had said on the phone. Brennan didn't know how a mother couldn't care that her own child was kidnapped and would most likely be killed or tortured at least. "I'm trying to contact the others at the moment but without access to the databases that I normally use, it's going to be hard," she explained.
"That's fine, you've done the best you can and knowing you you're going to keep trying," Pete laughed, trying to lighten the mood of the room. Brennan nodded and smiled, wiping away some stray tears. They sat in a comfortable silence and watched as Charlie answered his phone.
A few moments later, he walked back to where they were sitting, he closed his eyes then looked at them; his face shattering the good mood they were in.
"Another body has been found."
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~Littlemiss (:
