Chapter 14

Bogotá, Colombia, Sunday at 11:45 am

Booth knew that he wasn't as good a shot with his left arm but with his right out of commission he didn't have a choice. He continued to give Perez directions toward where Eduardo had told him to go.

"You really think that you can handle me by yourself?" Perez smirked.

"Oh, I don't know, I think I'm doing pretty well so far." Booth pressed the muzzle of his Glock into the side of the dirty detective's head.

"Turn here." The FBI Agent continued.

"An alley? I'm surprised I would have thought you would have had more imagination than that, Special Agent Booth." Perez told him.

"Turn the car off and put both your hands on the steering wheel." Booth ignored his comments. It was then that he heard a familiar voice.

"Open the door using the outside latch and step out of the car!" Perez did as he was told.

"Put your hands behind you head!" Again the dirty detective followed the order.

"Eduardo Santana, you bastard. How are you still alive?" Perez asked.

"Lucky for me your men aren't very good shots." Santana smirked as he approached their captive. Booth and Brennan looked at each other.

"Why don't you tell them that to their faces?" Perez asked and as if on cue, Booth could hear the sounds of multiple guns cocking. Looking around he could see men behind the cars at the entrance to the alley. They were trapped.

"You really think I wouldn't have a few of my men follow me?" He continued, putting his hands down. Booth immediately moved to get Brennan out of the way; she was his main concern.

"Get behind those…" he didn't get to finish. Brennan pulled out the Smith and Wesson and said,

"No. You can't fight and I'm not going to lose you again." She said. There was no time to argue and Booth knew that it wasn't about getting hurt but more about being killed. However, before either one could react, Eduardo whistled.

Immediately windows opened on both sides of the buildings and weapons were pointed toward the people in the alley. Perez watched in shock as the men who had followed them hopped back into their cars and drove away. Squealing of tires could be heard; Booth noted that there must have been some of Santana's men waiting out in the street.

"Detective Perez, by the authority invested in me by Internal Affairs, you are under arrest." Eduardo grabbed the man's hands from his sides and pulled them behind his back. Once Perez was cuffed, Santana walked over toward the confused FBI Agent and forensic anthropologist.

"I'd like to thank you for your help." Eduardo said.

"You work for Internal Affairs?" Brennan and Booth answered at the same time.

"Sorry about keeping that from you but it was necessary to make sure I didn't involve you any more than needed. Besides it's not really discussed down here." He said.

"I take it that we weren't part of the original equation." Booth wondered.

"No, in fact without you I probably wouldn't have been able to get what I needed. The firearms I found in the vent back at the crime scene were the last straw. I have enough evidence to put Perez and his boys away for a long time." Eduardo told them.

"Well, we were glad to help." Brennan smiled as she took Booth hand in hers.

"Let's get back to the station and call the FBI/DEA teams looking for you. Also I'll need a statement from you so we can put the icing on the cake." Santana said.

Brennan's Hotel Room 7:00 pm

Dr. Brennan lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling. The next available flight to D.C. wasn't until Monday at nine a.m. so she let her thoughts wonder back to what had happened this afternoon. They were lucky that Eduardo's connections were in fact the fellow officers he worked with. A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Quickly, she got up and answered it.

"Seeley, come in." A slight smile crossed her face. He smiled and nimbly moved with the cane.

"I see you're getting good with that thing." She said.

"Yeah, well don't get used to it. I'm going to get rid of it as soon as I can." Booth told her, as he sat down on the end of the bed.

"So how did Cullen take the news of your return?" Brennan asked, as she sat down next to him on the left hand side.

"Well, he took it as I would have expected him to. He told me to never pull that stunt again or he'd have my ass. Lucky for me, Eduardo talked to him first." Booth smiled. She looked at him skeptically.

"So you didn't get fired or anything?" Brennan asked.

"No, my career is still intact. As far as anyone in D.C. knows, I came down to help with the capture of Carlos Santiago." He smiled.

"I take it Eduardo made sure that nothing was changed in the initial reports and no one will go digging because he was a drug lord." She said but didn't return his smile. Booth could tell that she wasn't happy.

"Tell me what's wrong." He said.

"What isn't wrong, Seeley? This whole affair has been full of lies and deceit. I thought it was our job to find the truth and tell everyone that truth. I've lied to people and you've lied to people. How can you just be ok with that?" Brennan wondered.

"I'm not ok with it. I don't like to lie and have to cover things up but as a Ranger I had to. As bad as it sounds, I've gotten used to it. I'm not proud of what I did but if someone had killed me, wouldn't you want the person who did it to pay?" Booth asked.

"Of course I would but I'd want the justice system to handle it." She argued.

"Down here their justice isn't like ours. There was a good chance that Santiago would have gotten away with killing Marcus and that I can't live with." He told her. Brennan sighed she just didn't know what to do.

"Listen, I know this is hard and I know you don't like it but think about what has happened. A drug lord and his right hand man have been taken down. A lot of innocent people were saved because of it and that's what you have to look at. That's the only thing that keeps me going, knowing that even though I've killed someone, I've stopped them from killing anymore innocent people. Every time I get behind that scope and see my target I imagine my family are the ones I'm avenging and it makes me feel better." Booth explained. He moved his left arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. His touch felt good and Brennan leaned against him.

"Temperance, maybe you'll never be able to accept that part of me but no matter what I will always love you."

"Seeley, I love you too and I want this to work. I have to come to terms with what you used to do and have done because I want to be with you and I know you'd do anything for me. You checked yourself out of the hospital to save me from Kenton and you rushed to my rescue when I was being stalked. None of that has anything to do with you being a sniper." She turned to him and placed her lips on his cheek. The two sat there holding each other for a little while until the FBI Agent asked,

"By the way, who gave you my gun?"

To Be Continued…