Chapter 14

She felt nothing. Not pain. Not fear. Not hope. She was numb to everything. She knew he was there. She was waiting for another blow. She was waiting for another violation of her body. She was just waiting, wondering if she could hold on, wondering if she wanted to hold on.

Friday

2:02 PM

Casey found Booth sitting alone on the steps of the Lincoln memorial. Even from several yards away, she could tell that he looked like hell. If it wasn't for the fact that he was wearing a rather expensive suit, Casey easily could have passed him and thought he was homeless. His clothes were wrinkled, his face drained of color. He had dark circles under his eyes and he simply looked defeated. Casey shook her head, as she watched him put his head in his hands. Dozens of people swarmed nearby, going up and down the steps to look at the monument of the great president. Booth was ignoring the throngs of people. It's as if they didn't exist and he was in his own world.

Casey simply watched him. She barely knew him, but she understood him and the pain he was in. Sighing, she crossed the street and stopped at the bottom of the steps. She looked at him and shook her head again. She had always been good at separating her job from her emotions, but that was proving to be difficult. It was impossible to look at him and not feel emotional.

"Are you going to stand there and stare at me all afternoon or are you going to tell me what you found?" Booth asked.

Casey was surprised that Booth had even seen her. He looked as if he weren't really seeing anything at all. She had learned, though, in the short time she had known him, that he was a surprising man.

"How did you know I was here?" She asked as she climbed the steps to join him.

"I'm an FBI agent, remember?"

She sat down next to him. "Right."

They sat beside each other in silence. Booth desperately wanted to know if she had found anything from the tape, but he didn't ask. He was too afraid the answer would be no and they would be back to having nothing. He picked up a coffee cup that was on the step beside him and sipped it. He was running on pure caffeine, but it didn't seem to be working anymore. He felt completely and utterly exhausted in every sense of the word.

"How did you find me?" Booth asked.

"I'm an FBI agent, remember?" Normally, Booth would have laughed, but he didn't. "Actually I've been spending a lot of time with your…squints? Isn't that what you call them?" Booth nodded. "Angela said you might be there."

"Angela doesn't constitute as a squint. She's the only normal person there."

"Yeah, I did notice that. She doesn't exactly fit in with the others."

"She keeps them sane. She keeps us all sane."

"I think you all keep each other sane." She paused. "So why here? Why did you choose to come here?"

Booth shrugged. "It's peaceful here."

"Peaceful? Have you noticed all the people here? They're not even people. They're tourists. They're so much worse than normal people."

Booth didn't even smile even though he usually enjoyed tourist jokes.

"There are a lot of people, but…it's still peaceful. It's my favorite place in the whole city. Being here reminds me of why I do what I do. Why I fight for justice in the first place. And…" He didn't finish.

"And?"

"Bones always liked it here."

"Then she's got good taste because so do I."

They fell into silence once again. Finally, Booth just had to know.

"Did you find anything?" He asked.

Casey took a deep breath as she thought about how she was going to answer that question. She knew he wanted to know about the tapes, but she wasn't sure if he was ready to hear about them. She couldn't imagine how difficult it must have been for him to watch them. Watching it was difficult enough for her.

"I know this isn't exactly what you want to hear, but we're still going over some of the same evidence. Dr. Hodgins has been looking at the second envelope you were sent, but he hasn't found anything significant. The envelope is generic and, according to his handwriting expert friend, the mailing label was written by a different person than the first, which fits in with our theory that Brown has someone else writing the labels for him. Dr. Sweets thinks it's all a way for him to remain anonymous even though he knows that we know it's him. Dr. Hodgins has also been going over the fibers taken from the car, but we're still waiting for some results. Dr. Saroyan has been reviewing the autopsies if the coroners' bodies, but it looks like they were just victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She has some of Dr. Brennan's students going over the burned exhumed victim, but…"

"Still nothing," Booth finished.

"Still nothing," Casey agreed.

"But you know that's not what I was asking about."

"I know."

"What about the tape? Did they find anything on the tape?"

"I had some of my guys at the FBI crime lab analyze them. They didn't find anything."

"Of course they didn't. Because Collin Brown is smart and he's had years to plan this. He's toying with me and he's winning."

"He hasn't won yet. Dr. Brennan is still alive. That's all that matters."

"She was alive when that tape was made. We don't know if she's still alive now." He choked back a sob. "I'm going to find her, Casey. No matter what. I'm going to bring her home."

"I know and we're all going to help you. Angela is taking a look at the tapes as we speak. You said your team is the best. Now is their chance to prove it. Maybe she can find something that my team couldn't."

"Angela's looking at the tapes? She shouldn't be looking at them. Bones is her friend and…Angela's too…human to look at those tapes."

"She offered."

"Angela offered to look at something disturbing? That doesn't sound like her."

"Maybe not, but she's loyal. Those people in that lab love you and Dr. Brennan. I've never seen people work together the way you do."

"We make a good team." Booth took another sip of his coffee. "I'm sorry about…earlier. About yelling at you in the lab…about the computer and…walking out."

"You don't need to apologize."

"Usually I'm more…put together than this."

"Considering the circumstances, I think you're very put together," Casey said, smiling. She reached over and put her hand on his arm, patting it softly. "Can I ask you a question?" She removed her hand from his arm.

"Sure."

"How long have you been in love with your partner?"

Booth looked over at her sharply. He had never quite been asked that question in such a point blank manor and it shocked him.

"Excuse me?"

"How long have you been in love with Dr. Brennan?" Casey asked.

"Bones and I are just partners."

"That's not what I asked." Booth didn't respond. He concentrated on his coffee cup. "I'm not asking whether or not you have a physical relationship."

"We don't," he said quickly.

"Maybe not, but I saw your face when you watched that tape. I watched you throw a computer monitor across the room."

"That's nothing. I once shot a clown because the music was annoying me," Booth replied.

"A clown?"

"Not a real clown."

"Ok, so maybe you have an anger management problem, but you still haven't answered my question."

Booth took a deep breath. He could have lied. He could have told her that he had no idea what she was talking about, but he was tired of denying it.

"From the beginning," Booth answered. "I've loved her from the beginning." It felt good to say it out loud.

"And you haven't told her?" Booth shook his head. "Why?"

Booth smiled as he thought about Bones.

"You don't know Bones. She doesn't believe in love. If I told her, she'd run."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Yes I do."

"Nobody can really know what a person will do when we profess our feelings for them. Maybe she'd surprise you."

"Maybe, but telling her how I really feel…wasn't worth the risk."

"You're speaking in the past tense. Does that mean you think it's worth the risk now?"

Booth looked back down at his coffee. Tears were threatening to spill from his eyes once again. He couldn't let them. He needed to be strong.

"I don't even know if I'll ever have the chance to take that risk," Booth said.

"We'll find her," Casey replied.

"Everyone keeps seeing that, but they don't know. You don't know that she's still alive."

"You're right, but I have faith. In this line of work, Agent Booth, you need faith."

"I have faith."

"Then have faith that she won't run. Have faith to tell her how you feel."

"You're a very interesting person, Agent Temple."

"Casey. Please call me Casey. My father was Agent Temple. I'm just Casey."

Booth nodded. "Ok Casey."

"What do you love about her?"

"Excuse me?"

"What do you love about her?" She repeated.

"Are you always this up front with people?"

"When I want to be. I have a master in psychology, Agent Booth. Just like your Dr. Sweets, I'm pretty good at reading people. So, what do you love about her?"

Booth shook his head, almost laughing. He didn't know Casey at all. As matter of fact, he had done everything he could not to get to know her. He was determined from the start not to like her, but he wasn't so sure how he felt anymore. She was able to read him like an open book and she surprisingly felt like someone he could talk to.

"Everything," he answered. "I love everything about her. She's incredibly smart…almost annoyingly so." They both smiled. "She's not afraid to let you know that she's smarter than you and she doesn't understand social cues. She hasn't seen a TV show in ten years. Hell, she doesn't even own a TV. Not to mention that she's way too open about certain topics and she doesn't believe in love or religion or marriage or any of the things the rest of us just accept as parts of our lives and she loves to argue about the stupidest things, but…" He paused, feeling another set of tears threatening to fall.

"But?"

"But as annoying and argumentative as she can be, she's also beautiful and she has the most amazing laugh and…I love when her eyes sparkle when she's looking at a set of bones like it's the most beautiful diamond in the world. She's a constant surprise in every sense of the word. And the two of us we…we argue, we clash, we can't make it through a day without jumping down each other's throats, but we click. We click more than I've ever clicked with anyone in my entire life. I need her. I love her with every ounce of my being."

Booth finally stopped, realizing that he had said out loud what he had been thinking in his head for so long. It was a relief getting it all out in the open, but it was scary at the same time. It scared him just how much ne needed her.

"She sounds like an amazing woman."

"She's more than amazing," Booth replied.

"You should tell her. Tell her what you told me. Except you might want to leave out the annoying part. Women don't like to hear that they're annoying."

He smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

"You should go home. Get some sleep..."

"I already slept today."

"Then eat something. Shower. Watch TV. Do something other than think about this case." She stood up. "You look like hell."

Booth couldn't help but smile as Casey made her way down the steps. He downed the rest of his coffee as his cell phone rang. He was almost tired of hearing his phone. Somehow every time his phone rang, nothing good happened.

"Booth," he said answering his phone.

"It's Angela. We've got something."

Booth immediately hung up his phone and began sprinting down the steps.

"Casey!" He shouted. She stopped and turned to look at him. "We're going to the lab."

"You need to go home…"

"They found something."

Casey nodded. "Let's go."

Author's Note: I apologize for leaving this at sort of a cliffhanger (well, I'm not really that sorry because I do love building suspense). A lot of people commented that they didn't like Casey. I hope maybe you're beginning to warm up to her. Thanks for reading! Please review!